Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Picking


Johnny picking
Last week when we were all taking pictures of the snapping turtles I suddenly realized I was supposed to be running a wagon to Johnny. He was picking a load of sweet corn from the Bender South field on Akron-Peninsula Road. I got there before he was done and since I still had my camera on me I shot a few photos. He's using a Pixall Big Jack with a four row sweet corn picking head.
We will be getting into our last planting of the season tomorrow - we'll be picking corn for about another week or so. So stop on down to Szalay's and get some of the last of the season and a pumpkin or three....

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Baby Snappers


Snapping Turtle
In early June John Szalay(owner of Szalay's Farm) saw a snapping turtle lay its eggs in one of the fields. Since the field was going to be planted he dug up the eggs and placed them in a bushel basket. The basket sat all summer by the dumpster - we kind of forgot about it as it seemed to be getting late for any action - last week Johnny Szalay said he was going to throw it out. Today my friend Dave(pictured below) was cleaning up and noticed that the turtles had hatched and were climbing out of a hole in the dirt. They were so cute we all grabbed our cameras and snapped a few of the snappers. We counted at least 10 that hatched (a few escaped and we freed a few in Furnace Run).
Snapping the SnappersTrying to escapeDave holding the snappers
Farming leaves very little time for photo-taking but I do keep my camera in my car with my 50mm lens in case I have the chance to use it. Today was a day that made me glad it was there.