The other side of our pest problems:

Last week, looking around in the parsley we planted by the greenhouse, Brandon pointed out these caterpillars that were destroying the plants:  Fat, juicy things that somehow managed to blend in, despite its neon green coloring and bright yellow specks.  Our reaction?  Get them out of there.  Caterpillars and other soft bodied larva are what seem to enjoy fresh produce about as much as we do.  We have spent a lot of time respectively cutting up (in the tomatoes) and squishing.  But eventually these creatures transform into something else:  egg à larva à pupa à adult beetle or butterfly or moth.  This last step I'd forgotten about since stepping into vegetable production mode.   

If those beautiful creatures that form wings and fly away would just do that and not create more larva, then they would be fine.  The butterflies and moths themselves don't eat our parsley.  Butterflies and moths have a proboscis which acts as a straw, sucking up nectar.  I learned this from the movie appropriately entitled La Lengua de las Mariposas. The tongue is tightly coiled up in their mouths, like a watch.  In saying this, the science teacher opens the minds of his children and nature takes on new life.  That's a plug for the movie, I recommend it.  Some moths don't even have mouths!  It's the beetles and the larva that cause the problems.  They just try to mate as fast as possible before they get hungry.  
The name for our parsley lover is the black swallowtail caterpillar - a butterfly in the making.   
 
As caterpillars grow, they grow out of their skins and shed them like snakes.  The time between sheddings is called an "instar".  Caterpillars can have between 5 and 10 "instars".  As they change into their larger outfits, they can change colors and/or add or accessorize - they can add or take away various appendages (such as the red horn on the tomato horn worm). 

Talking to biologist and CSA member Valerie, I learned that folks plant vegetables as bait, in order to attract and encourage various butterfly and moth populations!   She is not concerned about any vegetables in the end.  What a different way to look at things.  Volunteer Stephanie who is on the road to being a master naturalist and also an avid gardener, stumped me by saying she too plants things for the butterflies.  So there is some compatibility.  Talking to Paige about the bronze fennel (another favorite of the swallowtail), it turns out that we too compromise.  Because the bronze fennel did not do very well in the spring, we are going to donate them to the encourage-the-butterfly cause.  They get to stay!        

This week at the farm:

Green beans are back!  Watermelon are as strong as ever.  Okra is growing taller than ever - over 7 ft tall, and I can't talk about okra, without saying that our friends Gumbo and Shrimp (the ducks) are doing great.