Melanie’s Back Online

Our 2024 year has been busy and full of blessings. Our daughter Mahala graduated from high school and has ventured out on her own and is thriving. Josephine (our youngest) is starting sophomore year and is ready for another fall season of crew and a winter of dirt bike riding. Craig and I are celebrating our 20 year wedding anniversary this August (24 years together!) and our 22nd year of cannabis cultivation on the homestead.

The gardens are full of my favorite herbs; rosemary, lemon balm, lemon verbena, sages, fennel, thyme, curry, oregano, and what’s left of the chamomile after our 110 degree week of heat. We harvested two rounds of strawberries, blueberries, beets and radishes, though those carrots just never came up.

A few tomatoes are popping, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, zucchini, and corn are on the way. Our few fruit trees have been such a delight to watch flowering and now fruiting. The cherry trees have come and gone (the crows got their share as always and the resident bluejay alerts me to when they are ripe), but the pears are dropping and the apple and plum trees are doing what they do.

Our thornless blackberries are so close, but today as I did the rounds I noticed yellow jackets covering the unripe fruit; a sight I haven’t yet seen with that bush. Anyone else seeing the huckleberries ready and bringing much needed sustanance to the animals during this dry time of year? July dep season has the cultivars Jack Herer and Blue Dream ready to hit retailers in the coming weeks, and what can I say; those two are beautiful and smell like Humboldt County! We are so excited to be communicating through this medium again and we look forward to our connection with each of you.