Can’t believe it’s already the middle of June! Summer crops continue to grow as our last beets and radishes have been harvested (photos of beet jam coming soon!) We’ve had fun treasure-hunting in the potato rows, and as Katie wrote in her last post, our tomato beds are works of agricultural art (or at least we think so).

The farm team is busy as usual managing the summer season, but we found some time to hop over to Prodigal Farm last week to hang out with goats (and Prodigal’s super friendly and knowledgeable staff)! Goats are simply great — they have unique personalities, and I find their size to be nicely manageable (as compared to, say, a cow or pig). Emily S. and Katie spent the morning vaccinating baby goats while Lee and I tattooed the yearlings. The baby goats’ names all begin with F (how couldn’t you love a little goat named fruitloop?), and the yearlings’ names began with E (Ewok and Elvis were personal favorites). Prodigal’s owners, Kat and Dave, operate both the farm and an on-site dairy where they make a wide array of tasty cheeses.

The baby goats love their new friend from the Duke Campus Farm!

Our crew really appreciated how the Prodigal folks took time to show us the ropes (I can’t say I’ve tattooed goats before…) — by the end of the morning, we all felt quite comfortable handling our new animal friends, and I learned so much about everything from goat health to cheese-making. We definitely hope to help out at Prodigal again!

We also hopped back over to Frog Pond Farm this week for some quality time in the blueberry field. Frog Pond is open for public picking on Wednesday evenings 4-8pm, and if you don’t make it out in the next few weeks you are missing a delicious summer treat!