In The Garden :: July 9, 2016

As we have had a tremendous amount on our plates so far this summer, I have been remiss in posting.  I hope that as we move through the height of the garden season, that I can keep up! :)  The promise of mid-summer abounds with the garden in full swing and beginning to deliver.  The above elderflowers are about to make their way into mead.  B has not done a batch in a few years and instead of foraging for the flowers, the ones we planted long ago are starting to produce in spades.

The sugar snap peas (foreground) and the sunchokes (back) are beautiful.  The sunchokes, our first year with this perineal, are almost as tall as B right now.  The peas, as quite typical for us are so robust we cannot keep up with them.  Shaded in between the two at ground level is a patch of endive.

The summer squash are well on their way and we should be harvesting our first full size napa cabbages this weekend.  Brussel sprouts, broccoli and storage cabbages are also well on their way.  We will have plenty of horseradish and garlic to share, as we watch them take over their various beds.

We have five different kinds of beans this year.  Four green beans and a row of soybeans.  The large squash to the left is a volunteer coming back on it's own from last year.  We also have a volunteer cucumber.  Both plants have given us small early yields to whet our appetite as the smaller plants mature.

We have done primarily roma tomatoes for canning and salsa, but have plenty of cherry tomatoes for snacking.  Peppers and eggplant are also just beginning to flower.

We have a bed of storage onions which are coming along nicely.  We will think them during the summer as we need them and should still have a number to add to the root cellar.

This morning we did our initial harvest of red currants.  It looks like we may get another batch in the next week or so.  As I write, they are simmering on the stove so that we can extract the juice for jelly.  It may not look like it but the garden is smaller this year as we focus on just sustaining ourselves and our storage needs for the off season.  It will be fun to see what we can accomplish.

U is for Up #atozchallenge

U is for up...as in...In the Garden the week of April 25th.  Our weather as always is up and down.  But what is pushing up through the soft earth is amazing.  Cutting back our mammoth rhubarb severely last seems to have worked.  It is throwing up more shoots that we can imagine.  Since the stalks off of this plant have traditionally been young and tender at the size of B's arm, I suspect we will have surplus up for grabs!

The garlic is growing literally before our eyes, and this weekend the storage onion starts went into the ground.

We also cut the lavender back to the ground, no small task with 25 mature plants, but this years harvest promises to be as large as ever!  Though the sun-chokes have not emerged yet, we prepped the area in front of them for spring sugar snap peas.

Oh, and B got the potatoes in.  Though they are not up yet, we have had tremendous luck with the layering technique.  Simply plop them on the ground and cover with a layer of straw.  As they come up we will layer compost and more straw to continue to bury them as they grow.  This allows for very loose soil and a simple harvest!

Though our plan was to move asparagus this past weekend, with everything else on the to do list coupled with a full soccer schedule it did not happen.  Now with these crazy on again and off again temperatures, it has grown like crazy over the last few days.  So this year we will remain upbeat and eat a final batch from this patch :)
I got this post in just under the wire!  Do you have anything coming up in your garden yet?

Signs of Early Fall

With the equinox in just a few days, the feeling of Fall is palpable.  Though today promises to be a warm one, the early morning crispness and rustling wind are beginning to dislodge the first early leaves from their branches.

As we clear and re-work the garden methodically bed by bed, B harvested over 100 lbs of potatoes yesterday.  The beans are drying and we have already harvested our first batch for shelling.

The squash are hardening off and turning the beautiful deep colors that butternut and spaghetti squash do.

Little fall rituals commence; the house is clean, smudged, and windows flung open.  Yet most endearing, two of our six young 23 week old hens have begun to lay their first eggs, and we have one who is laying green ones!  This is especially exciting because our only other green layer is getting up there in years and only laying periodically.  I am so looking forward to this, my favorite season as it continues to transform the world around us.  What early signs of Fall are you seeing?

Pollinator

Our week is looking springlike.  Increasing to seasonal temperatures, a storm here and there, we are heading into Memorial Day weekend with a much needed taste of summer.  Our bees are robust so far this season, one of our hives may need to be split sooner than later.  Interestingly,  the sheer numbers of bumble bees around seems much increased over previous years.  Maybe it is because of the harsh winter, or maybe they have just decided to make our abode their home and help us with the work of the garden.  Love our built in pollinators.

Thursday Thoughts

The chickens are out for their evening romp and have created quite the little routine.  They head out of their run area straight across the yard to bask in the shade under a big maple tree.  Alex, the rooster, stands tall and alert as his harem dusts and scratches.  Then they meander to the asparagus patch to pick around.  Their migration next takes them to the raspberry beds until they circle back to the barn to roost for the evening.  


With all of the busyness that seems to consume us every day, the next two nights we have no commitments!  Thankfully, that will give us a little down time to prepare for the next eight grueling days of ultimate activity.  We are on a downhill sprint to the end of the school year, the last few weeks of the soccer season and the upward tick of 4H activities and prepping for the county fair.  This just happens to be the no mans land when everything overlaps.


The signs of summer abound and the berry plants are all beginning to flower.  Our first round should be strawberries and we are so excited to see the volume of little berries to be.  We have been actively planting in the garden and hopefully the promise of all of the emerging mini plants will be fulfilled. 


As we head toward the weekend, I leave you with my Charlie-ism of the week.  He got into the car after school yesterday singing.   "I've got the moves like Fisher, I've got the moves like Fisher, I've got the mooooooves like Fisher."  Sung to the Jagger tune.  Very proud of his recent chess acquisitions!


My Sidney, sheesh when did my kids get so smart moment, when it came to adding fractions with unlike denominators for homework: Me: "Sidney I need to see your text book to refresh myself on this." Sidney: "the teacher never uses the text book.". Me: "well I haven't seen this stuff in like 28 years.". Sidney: "then what's the point of learning it of I'm not going to use it?" hmmmm

What are your thoughts on this Thursday night?

Milestones

The last couple of weeks have flown by. Days have been filled with cherished moments and subtle milestones.

 ** After six years of being Sidney's girl scout leader, we had our last formal meeting. It was a great experience, and I'm so glad to have worked with our 23 girls and watched them grow. I can say with the exception of our final farewell camping trip this summer, that I have retired.

 ** my little bloggy space turned four, it's so hard to believe!  The time has flown and I have found so many wonderful souls!

 ** I'm awed by our bees even just one week in. B removed the queen cage, and temporary feeding bag from their transition time. They are well into making comb and even had some started on the feeding bag. It is fascinating to watch them work and their social order. Just like when I learned about all of the sayings regarding chickens and how true they are, I'm seeing that 'busy as a bee' is an understatement!

 ** Charles' meat rabbit for fair has doubled in size in as many weeks!

** We are enjoying loads of salads with spinach that is amazingly sweet and radish thinnings. You know it's spring when you can forage for ramps and enjoy them in an omelet made from your own eggs, a 100% farm meal.

 ** B's mom and sister are visiting and we're having a great time, so I'm headed back to family time... As a closing thought I'll leave you with my Charles-ism of the week "my dance moves are so awesome, they speak!"

Happy Weekend!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful:

:: that we made it through our first fair, and enjoyed every exhausting minute of it.

:: that the garden, despite a very cool June, has allowed us to have farm bags every week (week 5 going home now)!

:: for zyrtec~ truly saved my life yesterday!

:: for thunderstorms (tho' I may have to curse the one we had this week by the end of today, we'll see what the equipment repair man says at work today).

:: that the boy lights up at the words soccer practice

:: that Sid, walks the garden and can name everything, even pulled the word perennial out appropriately last night.

:: that even during the tough times, there is always something to be thankful for!

What are you thankful for this week?? If you don't blog, leave a comment here or on my facebook page. Thanks to MissBuckle for inspiring this exercise :)

Silent Sunday

A Full Sunday

We had a warm, yet foggy start to our day.  Charles helped us get some garden work done while Sidney worked with her show Silkie.   We then made an ambitious plan for what we would do until mid afternoon when the storms descended upon us.  B went to the farm supply store to get a few things we needed to put our ideas into action.  I went about chicken duties and some weeding all while listening to the thunder slowly roll toward me, first as a very distant low growl, then as a much more present threat as the sky darkened to evening (at noon). 

So now, inside the house watching the steady rain that seems to have dominated our week,  we are doing our first processing of the season.  Our mutant rhubarb plant supplied the perfect muse to spend our afternoon.  I would be surprised if farm box families didn't see a little jar of Rhubarb Ginger Jam.

We had such great surprise this afternoon as we were ladling the jam into hot jars.  A friend of ours came bearing 2 week old chicks to share.  We split the hens between us and now have six new babies!  Since we only netted two hens out of our egg hatching experiment, this was great news.  We now have two additional Rhode Island Reds, two Wyondottes, a Burr Orphington, and a Barred Rock.  So exciting!

If you would like to see hear a little bit about this weeks planting I talked about it here and if you would like some food for thought on honeybees and the colony collapse syndrome, I talked about it here.  Now I'm off to have some of B's wonderful Asparagus soup!
 

Rhubarb Ginger Jam

20 C Rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
6 C Sugar
3 pkgs. 8 oz Strawberry Jello
1 12.6 oz Jar Candied Ginger, chopped into fine dice

Place sugar and rhubarb in a stockpot over medium heat and cook until softened.  Using an immersion blender, process rhubarb until desired consistency.  Stir in jello packages and diced ginger and cook until dissolved and smooth (the jello adds the color to the otherwise dull cooked rhubarb).  Process into jars and/or refrigerate.

This yielded 23~ 4 oz.  jars & 6~ 8oz.  jars

***I sifted through tons of recipes and this was one we made up of several.  The original proportion was 10 C of Rhubarb to 6 C of sugar which was WAY too sweet & before the jello.  So we cooked up additional rhubarb without sweetening and it came out the perfect balance of sweet and tart.  Unless you too have a mutant rhubarb (this recipe barely made a dent in this plant~yes a single plant), please reduce the ingredients proportionally.

If You Can't Beat It...

What? More rain?  Go figure!  If you can't beat it, join it.  That's the motto for the rest of this week.  We have a couple of days off and have every intention of getting some major work done around the homestead.  Rain, rain and more rain.  Ugh!  So, this morning, we joined it.  We completed the first length on the new garden fence installation and B began the construction of a rock wall to enclose the strawberry patch.  We were dripping wet, but loved every minute of it.... well mostly :).  Later in the day, when it was just grey and a little less was falling from the sky, we transplanted all of the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and leeks to the garden.  We placed them carefully in their nests within the landscape fabric and then covered them with a gauzy row cover to prevent the dreaded root maggots. 

On taps for tomorrow...some more fence work and the strawberry patch.  Rain, rain, go away!

As The Garden Begins To Grow

I seem to have been struck with a bronchial infection of some kind that leaves me getting winded doing menial tasks.  As a result of spending the entirety of yesterday on the couch, I am a little more restless today.  So as the kids are enjoying 50 degrees running and exploring outside, I took a little stroll to check the progress of the garden.

The cold frames are humming along.  This first one has a few of the greens that over-wintered ready to make another small salad and the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels appear to be hardening off nicely.  

The salad greens and rows and rows of radishes are sprouting.  I see a radish green salad in my very near future!

B has utilized every bit of the completed compost to top dress most of the garden beds, and the garlic, shallots and potato onions are beginning to put on a show.

My mouth began to water seeing the alien ruffles of the rhubarb emerging.

Last, but not, least...the chives are beginning to flourish.  Charles hasn't discovered them yet, but I'm sure he'll be coming in the house any time after grazing on his favorite snack!  Crazy Kid!

It seems we are well on our way!

Propagating Strawberries

In each of the last three years we have accomplished a large project for the garden that was permanent.  The asparagus beds were made and planted in 2009, the berry beds and twelve six foot by 18 foot raised beds were completed in 2010 and this year we must replace the decrepit garden fence and take the opportunity to enclose the current and future expansions we plan for the garden space.  The West side of the garden had an out of control strawberry patch which was sacrificed to raised beds last year.  When we added all of the berries last season to the new area, it was shy strawberries. When out and strolling the garden on Sunday and planning for the new fence, we saw the first (of I am sure many to emerge) small strawberry plants pushing through adjacent to where they once lived.  So may I introduce another, smaller yet no less important legacy project for 2011.... propagating strawberries.

Limbo

This time of year is really bi-polar.  We have a beautiful day or two where the mild sunshine and exposure to Vitamin D invigorate us, then it is back to grey, cold, windy (we really must get a wind turbine put in), and rainy.  This weekend was a perfect example.  We knew rain would be predominant, but the mid afternoon bliss of Saturday spurred renewed enthusiasm for farm work and planning.  We managed to install most of the cover to the chicken yard that we had fenced last fall.  It went fairly smoothly with only one frustrating hiccup which hopefully we will be able to get solved this week as we dodge rain showers.  Not too bad for a big farm project!  If you check out the Back to the Garden section, you can see we have gotten a number of planting jobs completed too.  

Our sunny evening walk on Saturday had us listening to birds and planning the layout of the new garden fence and much needed tree pruning.  We then began to discuss whether we wanted to move the old orchard to new soil and where to plant our nut tree grove.  Sitting on the front porch, warmed by the evening sun, we ended the day renewed and ready to get going.  Sunday, we woke up to rain, grey and wind.  Back to indoor tasks like garden bag making, running kids to birthday parties and play dates, and once again feeling a bit like we are in limbo, waiting impatiently for sustained time out doors.

Garden Stamp Trial

The stamps finally came and we learned a good lesson. Stainless works a-ok, but I think sterling would be way better.  The softer metal would ensure a good imprint, but this is not too bad for a first shot.  We did our first official label as onion in honor of the 200 onion sets that we planted today.  Yes, we planted and in the ground, not just the mass seeds we have started in the basement!  They will weather a cold snap, but the earth felt warm and ready, so we tucked them in.  Garden....game on! 

Now I'm off to get my game on with the ladies and trivia nite :)

Creating Dreams

As we turn our attentions indoors, we have gone from garden planting, nurturing, harvesting and preserving to planning, and dreaming.  I'm only thinking of this now because last night I caught a glimpse of one of our kitchen chalk boards.  We had it loaded with goals early this spring and had crossed them all off!  So a month or so ago, I began to refill it.  When I saw it last night I excitedly realized that I could cross two of the items off already.  Never fear, I added two more, and since I began writing this post, can add another two.  

We will enjoy Christmas and the New Year with loads of traditions and love.  Our planning/dreaming process will not start in earnest until mid January.   It is at this time that the cold and snow will have truly set in and we will be antsy to be productive.  What is so amazingly fun about this time of year is that I can look back on all of the crazy things we planned last year and see just how much of it we accomplished.  This type of reinforcement further bolsters our ambitions.  I so look forward to many years of this as we create our dream~ our homestead.

Gifts

 Yesterday was such a beautiful day and the start to a wonderful weekend to go slowly and enjoy.  

We accomplished masses of canning yesterday, well at least put up masses of tomatoes. As the smells of garlic and spice wafted through the open windows, I filled the house once again with the smell of baking bread.  B planted the fall lettuces and we ordered the shallots and garlic that will be planted late next month to over-winter in the garden.  They will be our spring jewels.

I had a great excitement when the lovely Christina posted that she had a surprise for me!  I won a photography e-course on her blog presented by Shelagh, I can hardly wait...thank you, thank you!  A beautiful gift.

I've basted my second quilt top and am eager to quilt today between soccer games and birthday party drop offs.  I was introduced to this new batting product and jumped at the chance to use it.  It is made completely from recycled plastic bottles.  There's something so warming, thinking about this being incorporated into a quilt that I hope will last generations on it's own. Sigh...little gifts.

Speaking of gifts, today is Enkutatash, the Ithiopian new year and the date of Se'lah's gift of jewels project.  I am eagerly waiting for my little jewel and can't wait to see who it's from ;)  It seems so fitting that participants from all over the world are exchanging little cards of love and friendship, especially when it coincides with this day of remembrance. 

Wishing all a wonderful, slow weekend full of life's little gifts!

To Pasture

 As I've mentioned before, I love to mow.  I find it almost a meditation and the smell of fresh cut grass is intoxicating.  Still when the better part of 6 acres is grass, why have all of it manicured?  Mowing for 4+ hours every weekend takes a lot away from both precious family time and the garden.  So, we've mapped out an area all around the house to keep nicely mowed, a large play area on the fire pit side and the laundry line/berry patch area to be kept neat.  For the rest, we hope the native grasses will turn to pasture without too much coaxing.  Someday we may have some animals who will relish the lush grasses to munch on.  Until then, we will enjoy watching the wind make waves of green ripple and the kids frolic in states of pure play.

august break

Garden Brainstorm

The first few tomatoes from last Summers harvest

A light snow, hot coffee, quite morning, the new Mother Earth News magazine, and my thoughts turn toward spring. Thinking about the garden and how to organize for this year. I loved the dehydrator last year and am inspired to plant loads of lavender so that I can continue to make sachets. We plan to increase our chickens this year for a few apparent reasons. Though we won't have much this year, installing our berry patch will bode well for the future. And the area where the old berry patch was has opened up several more rows in the main garden. Through all of these considerations I've have begun to formulate and idea. I was reading this article the other day from Domestic Sensualist and I realized that a farm box can be much more versatile than I'd first thought.

So here's my idea. This year we find a few families to receive a weekly/bi-monthly farm box from us. We'd provide the best of what's ripe, or what we've created from our farm. I'd say at the beginning of the season that we'd be looking at bi-monthly, then from Jul/August through October we'd be looking more weekly and in the fall we should also be ready to put some eggs in the boxes.

I know this is not a new idea, but why not start small and see if people we know are interested. We've considered setting up shop at the farmers market, but I like this idea better. Maybe $10 a box? Anyone interested in being a farm Guinea pig?

As I Look Out The Window

As I look out of the window this is what I see. But today is the day we begin to envision much more. Yes, it's only January 11 and we've just caught a glimpse of our first seed catalog. When we were in the car this morning, I prompted: "you know we really need to start thinking about this berry patch if we're going to put a big one in this year" to which Brian said "oh, did you see what I was looking at online this morning?" No in fact I did not, but I can see we're both on the same wave length and ready to jump in with both feet.

The garden is truly a labor of love, but I think that the most satisfying are the things that we put in that become a sort of infrastructure. I talked here a bit about the history that we contribute for future generations. When we pulled the diseased raspberries out at the end of last season, our commitment was made. Now we're researching sod removing equipment and different trellising techniques so that we may plant and/or transplant our raspberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, black and red currents, lingonberries and we're looking at the very non berry hardy kiwi. Yum!

So this afternoon we will turn some of these wonderful peaches, that have been waiting for months for the perfect time to make an appearance, into a sweet peach crisp. We will then get a taste of the sunshine that will inspire our future berry garden.

**I think I will turn my 'garden harvest' area into the 2010 garden plan for now so we can chronicle this years plans as we make them.