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Published On: Sep 08, 2007 11:33 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Sep 08, 2007 11:33 PM
Changes are afoot!
Luckily, all of the good variety. Lots of rain
this past week, but everything is coming along nicely out in the gardens. For
market this week, we harvested carrots, the last of the spring potatoes, snow
peas, the first of the peppers and patty-pan squash, swiss chard and herbs. With
the potato and carrot beds gone, there is a ton of earth begging to be filled
in, which will happen this week. There's a few more rows of winter squash to get
in, some more plantings of beans, more cukes if I can find where I put those
seeds!, and the second rounds of beets and carrots, which should germinate fine
if we keep them well watered. Currently, I'm happiest about our success with
peppers, a crop that I almost gave up on for good last year. Putting the
seedlings in as early as possible helped, but I think the landscape fabric made
a HUGE difference. I also think the frost-inflicted pruning they received early
in the season may have led them to branch out more and set more fruit. We're
harvesting 10-15 peppers, at least, from each monster plant. We're selling them
as green bells, since our weather in the fall is so unpredictable you never know
how many you'll actually get to red-ripe stage.
Tonight I put up some veggies - blanched and froze a few servings of swiss chard and collards, dehydrated more herbs ( I love my "new" dehydrator!), and canned five pints of carrots. Going into my second season of canning low-acid foods, I'm much more comfortable with my pressure canner, and don't mind "firing it up" for small batches of veggies. I've started plotting and planning my entries for the county fair - E may be able to enter his honey if we harvest soon, and I'm planning on entering some canned goods, a decorated cake, bread, rolls, maybe cookies too.
Tomorrow I head over to town hall to wrangle some info out of them - we made the decision to get rid of our pool, easier said then done! A pool was never on our list of things we wanted in a house (safety issues, cost, maintenance, environmental impact of all those chemicals!) but it came along with this wonderful farm so we tried to get the hang of it these past two years. As of today, we've done nothing but work on it - neither of us has been swimming yet! It's an inground vinyl pool, which is easier to remove then a concrete one, but it may still be pricey. Our next door neighbor owns an excavation and grading company, so hopefully he'll take on the job after-hours/weekends. The amount of work really depends on how much of the pool - sides, rebar, etc. the town requires be removed. We shall see. I'm excited to see the transformation though - we're going to make that area all grass, and Gi will have a great time. With six acres, you'd think we'd have plenty of room for her to run and play, but the lay of our land and the busy county road make our fenced in backyard area the only really safe play space she has when she's not by our side - and as of now, she can't use it since it's all pool. I'll be posting plenty of before and after pics!
Tonight I put up some veggies - blanched and froze a few servings of swiss chard and collards, dehydrated more herbs ( I love my "new" dehydrator!), and canned five pints of carrots. Going into my second season of canning low-acid foods, I'm much more comfortable with my pressure canner, and don't mind "firing it up" for small batches of veggies. I've started plotting and planning my entries for the county fair - E may be able to enter his honey if we harvest soon, and I'm planning on entering some canned goods, a decorated cake, bread, rolls, maybe cookies too.
Tomorrow I head over to town hall to wrangle some info out of them - we made the decision to get rid of our pool, easier said then done! A pool was never on our list of things we wanted in a house (safety issues, cost, maintenance, environmental impact of all those chemicals!) but it came along with this wonderful farm so we tried to get the hang of it these past two years. As of today, we've done nothing but work on it - neither of us has been swimming yet! It's an inground vinyl pool, which is easier to remove then a concrete one, but it may still be pricey. Our next door neighbor owns an excavation and grading company, so hopefully he'll take on the job after-hours/weekends. The amount of work really depends on how much of the pool - sides, rebar, etc. the town requires be removed. We shall see. I'm excited to see the transformation though - we're going to make that area all grass, and Gi will have a great time. With six acres, you'd think we'd have plenty of room for her to run and play, but the lay of our land and the busy county road make our fenced in backyard area the only really safe play space she has when she's not by our side - and as of now, she can't use it since it's all pool. I'll be posting plenty of before and after pics!
.
Posted: Sun - July 8, 2007 at 11:36 PM