Sun - March 29, 2009

Germination Nation

I always get anxious this time of year - yes, I know that it always works out - but when it's so cold, and wet...I can be a pessimistic farmer. I counteract that tendency by checking a few seeds for germination after we plant... tonight in between the rain showers I poked around and saw that the peas, radishes, and onion sets are all starting to grow...it'll be nice to see the market gardens filling up with green. We put the russet and red pontiac potatoes in today too. We'll till again (we love our new mini tiller! - so nice not having to rent the big monster one when all we need to do is till up an established bed) once it dries out a bit and then I need to put in carrots, kale, swiss chard, and the first mesclun. We have another 1/2 lb of onion sets that need to fins a home too...

This year we are getting a bagger attachment for our ride on and hope to keep the weeds down by using grass clippings heavily in the paths - we'll see how it goes. We don't use the ride on to mow the whole farm, but we certainly mow enough to collect quite a bit of mulch. Things are getting busy around here...

Posted at 09:33 PM     Read More  

Mon - July 28, 2008

Bearing Fruit

We moved to our farm in December of 2004 before Georgia was born and that spring we went a little crazy with the perennial fruits and vegetables, eager to get everything and anything started. As you can see, our efforts paid off with a nice peach harvest this year, with two of our trees bearing fruit... Here's how all those perennials fared....

Asparagus: Neglected and transplanted twice, our asparagus keeps soldiering on though we haven't harvested any as of yet - it seems like adding insult to injury! I'm hoping that next year, baby-less, we'll be able to treat it right, harvest the first few weeks of spears, and then keep it weeded and mulched so it can grow even stronger.

Grapes: Again, transplanted and transplanted again, the two surviving grape vines (I think we started with three or four) are thriving in their new location by the goat pasture. They both flowered this year and are loaded with grapes - from the appearance of them, I *think* one is a Concord and one is a green seedless variety. Aside from a little pruning to keep air flowing when they started getting powdery mildew, they've been very low maintenance. Next spring we're going to build a new arbor and plant more of the Concords, for sale at market (which is sorely lacking in organic fruit) and to make enough jelly to get us through the year.

Pears: Our pear trees grow wonderfully here, without too much insect damage. They are going on two years here, and no blossoms yet, but I think once they do start bearing they will do very well. We don't have pear orchards around here, so no big sources of disease or pests.

Apples: Hah! Oh, our poor apple trees. I've mentioned it on the blog before, but we live surrounded by several very large commercial apple orchards and the pests and disease just come flowing in from the conventional orchards and decimate our poor non-sprayed trees. I may pull them next year and plant something else - I don't ever see them doing well...

Raspberries: I have a sentimental attachment to these, growing up with a huge established planting, but they struggled their first year and didn't come back the next...

Blueberries: Again, I grew up surrounded by established blueberry bushes and would love to have the same here, but the wee little bushes were mowed over a few times and were goners. The large area we cleared when our pool was being demolished would be perfect for a new large planting of twenty or thirty bushes, but for now we are lucky to have a large organic u-pick blueberry farm within driving distance.

Rhubarb: I threw one of these in as an experiment last year and it's doing very well...we'll add more next spring for market.

Future plans include fig trees (they need some protection in the winter but I think they'll be worth the trouble) and some red currant bushes - I grew up with those too, and I think they'll appeal to our European customers.

Posted at 10:03 AM     Read More  

Fri - May 16, 2008

To market, to market

We were thrilled to see this rain will end by tomorrow and the sun will come out in time for the farmer's market. Hopefully the forecasters are right!

Independence days update:

1) Plant Something: I planted about half of our tomatoes yesterday in preparation for the rain, planted the first hills of cucumbers where we harvested scallions last week, and put down more grass seed in the backyard (we're still working on getting a nice lawn back there after (halleluiah!) taking out the pool last fall.

2) Harvest Something: We'll harvest scallions, salad mix, a ton of radishes - cherry belle and d'avignon, and cut siberian irises for market tomorrow, as well as eggs. The new pullets have finally started laying! 2 eggs yesterday, and 2 today, so we're hoping all the girls kick into gear within the week.

4) Store Something: Steadily working through the pantry, and need to cook some of last year's greens from the freezer as the garden fills up with spring greens this year.

5) Prep Something: Landscape fabric is down over about half of the total area I plan to use for tomatoes in polymulch. Vaccines for the goats are all safely tucked away in the fridge, and I need to give them their CDT vaccines tomorrow. E cleaned out the garage too. I finished my favorite quilt yet, with a matching pillow to bring to market tomorrow.

6) Manage Something: Weeded and thinned more beets and radishes.

8) Add to local food system: Prepping for second market as we speak. :)

9) Reduce Waste: Composted everything as usual, recycled all our paper, plastic and glass.

10) Learn Something: I *think* after quite a bit of trial and error I have my quilt binding down the way I would like it. I did a bit of needle felting too.

As for the rest of the week... We did end up getting a new car on Monday, a used Forrester which so far feels really good - so much safer and more reliable then my old vehicle. Learning how to drive it is going faster then expected - I even made it all the way to Pennington, NJ to get some fabric to finish my flutterby quilt, and start my eric carle and cake rock beach seaweed quilts.

I still feel like we're behind out in the gardens, but my MIL is planning on coming out one night a week to watch the girls so E and I can get out there and work on things together, which will help immensely. I keep reminding myself that we are still two weeks earlier then we ever have been in the season, and so we can't expect to have as much ready for sale, especially since the cold and rain have slowed the season down on top of everything else. We'll be harvesting tomorrow morning for market since it's still pouring outside tonight, and I need to get price tags on the quilts I'm bringing. Off to work on a little needlefelted robot before we go and grab some dinner!

Posted at 08:36 PM     Read More  

Fri - May 2, 2008

Cool Challenge

As Tansy said on her blog, it can feel like nothing is getting done when you're farming with little ones around, and she is participating in the Independendence Days challenge to keep track of what DOES get done amid the crazy, joyful everyday of family life. This challenge is from Sharon at Causabon's Book and is all about doing something each day in the name of local food. The mainstay of the challenge comes from Carla Emery's routine of planting something every day till mid summer, and then harvesting/preserving something every day till the end of the harvest season. She suggests updating weekly, so here is our first update!

Planted: So, let's see...from last Friday? I planted the rest of the scallion sets - none will sprout, forgotten in the corner of the barn, this year! I also put in anouther sucession planting of lettuce for salad mix - a purple looseleaf and a nice green oakleaf type. Today I'll plant anouther round of radishes and get one more bed ready to go. We really need to move the pigs ASAP so I can get into that garden bed too.

Harvested: Eggs :) I definitely could harvest some dandelions, just need to remember!

Preserved: Nothing in this area this week.

Storing: We're starting on the second egg fridge and I've been collecting, cleaning and packing eggs for market every day.

Prepped: We are wrapping up our pullet preparations today - E called off of work and is out gathering supplies to finish the second chicken coop for the pastured pullets. Once he has put the fin. We have a new waterer and range feeder, and will put another solar light in the second coop just like we have in the first. My goal is to see equal production between our chickens on pasture and in the barn, or very nearly so.

Managed: I plan on cleaning out the pantry this week, so that we can do another round of use what you have cooking over the next few weeks. :)

Cook Something New: I already make homemade mayo whenever we need it, but since E has been eating a low carb diet lately, I learned how to make hollandaise sauce to put over fish and broccoli.

Work on Local Food Systems: Paperwork was sent out for the farmer's market, and I just received a copy of our liability insurance so that will be sent out today. We need to buy a new cooler and tent, and then we should be good to go for next Saturday!

Compost something: All our scraps went to the pigs, as usual.

Learned a skill: See the hollandaise sauce above :) and I did some free-motion quilting on my latest Etsy quilt.

Posted at 01:08 PM     Read More  

Thu - April 17, 2008

April Farm Report

- First farmer's market is in less then four weeks - hooray! We should have plenty of eggs from our over-wintered hens for opening day, but hopefully we'll also have our new pullets here and laying by then.

- The usual start up costs are overwhelming this season - feed costs have nearly doubled! - but we'll cross our fingers, lose a little sleep and forge ahead...

- E's first bees came last week, a package from Georgia, brought up the coast by a local guy who owns a pollination service. Mary will have a nuc ready for us in May, and hopefully we'll be able to catch a swarm or two as well this season. E already had to put a honey super on our strong hive - it's looking good for our spring harvest! He went out this afternoon and opened the new hive for the first time - the queen was released, accepted, and has started laying eggs.
* the difference between a package and a nuc of bees is that a package is a few pounds of bees and a queen that they haven't "met" yet - they slowly release her from her cage, and in that time you hope they come to accept her. A nuc is a few pounds of bees and a queen, as well as a few frames of eggs and developing bee babies - you don't have to worry about the workers rejecting the queen and the hive gets established more quickly. .

- I haven't mentioned it here - didn't want to jinx ourselves! - but I think pig move number 2 can be officially declared a success. Roko and Lola have settled in nicely to their pasture digs, so now we have to see how they take to being moved to a new section of the garden in a week or two. We've been bribing them into a large dog crate with food and moving them that way, so until they get too big, we will probably stick with that method.

- Scallions, peas, carrots, beets, mizuna, mesclun, arugala, and dino kale are all up and running. I stripped one of last year's tomato beds of landscape fabric tonight, so will turn that and plant it with more spring crops tomorrow. I'm anxious to get summer crops in, but we'll probably plant those as the spring veggies are harvested, since the scallions and radishes will be up and out very soon. Only one bed of peas is trellised, so that's another chore for the to-do list.

- I'm debating getting into mushroom production this year...still thinking it over.

Posted at 03:19 PM     Read More  

Mon - March 24, 2008

Tue - March 4, 2008

More Spring Planning

We're not used to winter babies - whoa! the layers! Little sister sleeps too much for Gi's taste, but luckily cousin Alex is always ready to play


Everyone is settling in around here - there has been much playing, much big sister helping, and a whole lotta recovery. Last night I finally started to feel human again - the spinal headache is finally letting go of its grip - so I'm hoping today is even better. Who knew a headache could take longer to get over then a surgical incision and a bunch of stiches!

E and I are getting excited about spring prep here on the farm. The dogs have been exiled from our pool-turned-backyard into their side yard, and we are going to be pampering that area with some organic fertilizer and regular watering in between rainstorms. Hopefully in a few weeks, we'll have a gorgeous little kid paradise back there! We may have to patch a few places where the sod didn't make it through the winter, but I think we'll be pleasantly surprised if we just give it a few weeks. Next on the agenda... turning the dog's path into a "real" one with some old flagstones and maybe, just maybe, a swing set this summer!

Roko and Lola will move out onto pasture in the next few weeks - if the weather is nice today E and I are going to stake out their first pasture in electro-tape today. Our first plan of attack is to get the pigs into harnesses, so that we can move them with leads to unconnected pasture areas, but our back up plan is to herd them into two dog crates and just use the truck to re-locate them out there, then try again with the harnesses in a few months. This "late" in the year the piggers won't be able to turn over our gardens completely before spring planting begins, but a few weeks in each area and they should be able to root out the perennial weeds, especially the tuberous roots, and mix in some aged manure, even in the beds we'll till and plant early on. Another addition out there are some movable 2 by 8 raised bed frames - not too high, but enough that we can drag them onto a tilled level bed and use the frame to keep the row covers nice and lifted over the leaves, while being able to tuck in all the sides under the wood - it is so, so windy out in our fields that the wind often tears the row covers right out of the metal landscape staples. I'm thinking we should be all right building 4 frames (one for arugala, one for mizuna, one for looseleaf, one for baby lacinato kale)- we'll see though, I think we may need double that since we have so much in mesclun production right now.

To set into motion my plan of growing all the perennial herbs in containers this year I'll start moving my rosemary, sage, oregano, mints, and chives into pots while they are still dormant. I still plan on growing our annual herb crops - the basil, cilantro, etc. - in with the rest of the veggies, but I think I can better mimic the perennial herbs' preferred climate in terra cotta pots and window boxes. The ideal situation would be to not lose any to winter kill in our iffy climate zone, move them to the hottest parts of the farm as the season progresses, and confine those wonderful mints so they don't become weeds in other crops. If it works, I plan on doubling our perennial herbs for 08-09, as well as adding some that I've avoided since they almost never survive our winters, like lavender. Herbs de Provence anyone?

We're still conflicted about indoor seed starting, but I'll suck it up and at least start peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes in here this month - E is going to move our grow lights back upstairs, as the basement is just too damp, not to mention a haul I'm not supposed to make while in recovery. We were all about the soil blocks a few years ago, and were disappointed in how fiddly the process was (getting the potting mix just right so the blocks held together long enough for the roots to start holding their own, moving the trays with completed blocks around to diff. parts of the house and barn without the whole darn thing disintegrating, etc.). We moved back to flats, but maybe this whole new surge in popularity due to Martha will result in some tips and techniques we didn't know to use back then. I'll be anxiously awaiting all of your notes on your progress, fellow gardeners.

I'm excited to head over to school today to see everyone and show off the new kid, but it's nice to be able to devote my mental energy to spring planting and planning this year.

Posted at 06:51 AM     Read More  

Sun - January 13, 2008

2008 Growing Season Seed List

Old Seeds (2007 season)

Spring Crops:
Snow peas – 1/2 lb
Shell peas – 1/2 lb
Beets – Early wonder, about 1/2 pound, opened. Buy golden beet seed.
Broccoli rabe – enough to try again this year, not going to buy any more.
Cabbage – 1 minipack each early and late season green, some red seed left – start in coldframes OUTSIDE. Don’t use row cover plus landscape fabric – just one or the other
Broccoli – 1 minipack, enough to try it again, start in coldframe
Cauliflower - 1 minipack, enough to try it again, start in coldframe
Brussel Sprouts – 1 mini-pack, enough to grow for family. (mature too late for market)
Kale – 1 oz. Lacinato kale seed – plenty, but order another variety – redbor and curly, make sure to dust with bT every two weeks, baby kale was a hit too.
Spinach – 3 packs – start very early and cover! (maybe as part of mesclun mix)
Arugala – plant by itself for mesclun mix and let grow a bit larger to bundle separately.
Mizuna - plant by itself for mesclun mix
Mild Mesclun Mix – 1/2 oz. Use, but make sure to pull out mizuna so it doesn’t crowd out anything else.
Purple Looseleaf – 3 packs. Need green looseleaf
Leeks – grow for us, keep weeded! Direct seed!
Scallions – put in EVERY week from agway sets and establish perennial bunching onion bed(s) this year.
Radishes – cherry belle and d’avignon or french breakfast – don’t bother with seed tape – make sure to buy enough for the whole season Try forcing in boxes.
Carrots - three color varieties, till well, keep weeded. Try forcing in boxes.
Nasturtiums – start early so they can go in first bags of mesclun mix! Grow in front garden, don’t fertilize, set out April 25^th
Violas – liberally sow in March so they can self seed in front garden for mesclun mix!
Potato sets – three colors, agway, even more mulch this year, make sure to plant fall crop.
Make sure oyster mushrooms are ready to go for mid-May!

Summer Crops:
Cukes – need them – good slicers.
Tomatoes – order a heavily ribbed variety, red zebra, start in cold frame.
- Sweet Million
- Dave’s grape tomatoes
- Beefsteak
- Brandywine
- Wisconsin 55
- Rutgers
- Barbeque Hybrid
- Large orange/red striped
Charentais Melon
Mini watermelon – plant melons once winter squash comes up and goes into storage
Sweet Thai basil – 1 pack
Sweet Basil – 1 pack
Bell Peppers – set out in landscape fabric
Sweet Basil – Red Rubin
Dill – 1 pack
Cilantro – 1 pack (lots will self seed next year – watch for it!)
Parsley – 2 pack
Snap beans – royal purple burgundy 1/2 lb
- yellow wax 1/2 lb
- need jade

Fall Crops
Acorn squash – a few seeds (table ace)
Sweet Dumpling – 1 pack
Snack Jack – pumpkins
Order more varieties winter squash, figure out storage issues.

Posted at 08:58 PM     Read More  

Sun - November 18, 2007

Thu - June 14, 2007

Counting Our Blessings

Self-portrait with collard greens

An awful tragedy in our circle of friends and family has us counting our blessings here. Life on the farm proceeds apace - last week we brought beets, swiss chard, collard greens, baby lacinato kale, scallions, and lots of herbs to market. I'm going to let one of the four broody hens set on some eggs - we'll see what Americauna/Black Sumatran mix chicks look like if everything goes well. Our lone surviving guinea hen is determined to hatch out her own brood - we may get some fertilized guinea eggs from a friend and let her try her luck with those.

This week's market stand had snow peas, shell peas, collards again, the first of the carrots, the last of the current scallion beds, swiss chard, and the second harvest of beets. We turned over the last mesclun bed and will plant that with beans or cukes today. The tomatoes, squash, and peppers are doing well, they all love the black landscape fabric. I'm trying to balance out our summer crops so that we have more variety then the tomatoes/peppers/squash that flood our market come July - we'll have potatoes, beans....maybe carrots and beets too. Back with more pics in a few days.

Posted at 06:35 AM     Read More  

Tue - May 22, 2007

Sprung!

Newly mulched potato beds - Yukon Golds, Pontiac, and a few blues.

Every April I get discouraged looking out at the fields, losing hope that any of the seeds will germinate at all - but every year the gardens prove me wrong.

Our first farmer's market was a great success thanks to all of our great customers - we had a wonderful time and it feels great to be back in the swing of things. We brought eggs, broccoli rabe, mesclun with chive blossoms, collards, scallions and radishes this past week, and will probably have the same variety this coming week. Peas are on their way and the carrots are starting to do their thing. I may pack arugala in separate bags - we'll see how it looks on Friday. Kale, beets, cilantro, and swiss chard are all on deck.

The chicks are growing like weeds and we split them up a few days ago - half stayed in the stock tank and half went into the rabbit hutch. The gardens are shaping up - I'm really trying to stay on top of the weeding, mulching, and mowing as much as possible this year, and I think it's paying off. The new garden is a problem, as the newly tilled areas always are, but I bought some more landscape fabric and we'll run that down this weekend between the hills of squash, tomatoes, and beans in that area. I'm glad to spend 50 dollars on that if it means that we can have a fighting chance against the sod.

A few more pictures....

Thinned beets (we add the colorful baby leaves to our salad mixes)


A bed of cabbage - we're trying this one on landscape fabric, but I think the floating row covers will win out once the bugs show up. Row covers plus landscape fabric, we quickly learned this spring, = fried cabbage.


The peas (snow and shell) are clambering up their supports - we used a interwoven hedge of twigs this year since the dead magnolias provided us tons of supple branches.

Posted at 10:46 PM     Read More  

Thu - April 5, 2007

April Showers

Gi and I have been enjoying our spring break, but since it also falls in the busiest planting season, we've been out in the gardens every day that we're able. The rain gave us an excuse to relax yesterday, and the snow! gave us another reprieve today, but there are several flats of cabbage, cauliflower, and leeks that need to get in the ground before Easter, as well as the first round of snow peas, mizuna, arugala, and broccoli rabe. We're hoping the ground has dried out enough by tomorrow to get that done. Earlier this week E and I planted the potatoes (Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold, and a purple variety), the first bed of mesclun (we'll do one a week for the next month or so), all the carrots (yellowstone, purple haze, danver's half long), and about half of the brassica transplants. I wish the weather had cooperated a bit more, but everything will get in over the next few days - I have off Monday and Tuesday as well, for the end of Passover, so even if the soil hasn't dried out till then, we'll be fine. I'd like to pick up a pear tree and get that in the ground tomorrow to replace a young one that died last year too.

E is using plans he found on the new farm website to make an eggmobile for our existing flock. It uses a bunch of 2 by 4's, 2 standard cattle panels, a tarp with grommets, and a roll of chicken wire - materials ran us about 200 dollars. He's almost done, and we should be able to set that up tomorrow. We're going to try to figure out food ad water solutions BEFORE we move 50 birds out there - we'll see how it goes. That will clear up the barn for brooding chicks and/or another 25 or so laying hens so that we can produce all the eggs we'll need for market (about 30 dozen a week last year). I was hoping to put some feed store chicks under the broody buff orps out in the coop, but I think they may all have been sold for Easter. We went by yesterday- I buy animal feed once a week since we don't have much storage space here - and Georgia was in heaven. Even by the usual standards, it was a zoo. There were the usual two cats, several rabbits, the silkie chickens that have been strutting around the place for months now, the usual Easter chicks and ducklings, and yesterday, for some reason, there was a baby boer goat inside by the register. (This is the same place that had the emus last month, lol)

Our faucet broke a few days ago, and after a couple of attempts to fix it, E finally called a plumber, who ended up replacing the whole thing. Everything seems to be working fine, though we're bummed about the warped floorboards that resulted from the whole fiasco. We'll have to order a few boxes of laminate boards and then E and J will replace them - luckily the damage is all in one corner, so not too much of the floor will have to come up. As a side effect of all our water woes, egg washing was put to the side for a few days....the result?

That was exactly a dozen dozen, and my poor chapped hands washed every last one the minute the plumber left! *grin* Since we are drowning in eggs right now - we only bring eggs that are 30 days old or less to the farmer's market - I tried my hand at making egg wreaths for my mom and MIL - they turned out nice, though the pic I managed to take washed all the colors out a bit. I just blew them out and strung them on aluminum fencing wire. Have a wonderful Easter and Passover everyone!

Posted at 07:11 PM     Read More  

Tue - September 19, 2006

Sun - July 23, 2006

Out In the Garden

It was wonderfully cool this am, so while E mowed, Georgia and I headed out to the gardens. I finished cleaning up the bed of potatoes we harvested for market Saturday, cleaned out two of the strawberry beds, consolidating the big, healthy plants into one bed. I just headed out again, and planted the potato bed with carrots and beets, and half the strawberry bed with arugala, the other half mesclun mix. I also threw in some newer pumpkin seeds in the hills that seemed to fail (I think the seed was bad), and a few rows of radishes. I've never tried growing them when it's this hot, but I have the seed to spare for an experiment. Harvested side shoots of broccoli for dinner tonight, and used the shears to trim between the tomatoes and cukes to give them better air flow as the fruit matures. It's tempting to pick the ripe tomatoes every time I go out, but I'm holding out - they do better staying on the vine till at least Wednesday if we're taking them to market.

A mama robin has a new clutch of eggs on a low, low branch by our faucet, so I've been checking in on her every morning when I water the animals. Two of her eggs have hatched so far.

In other natural history news :) Georgia and I found an amazing caterpillar while out picking blueberries this week...even bigger then a tobacco hornworm, and covered in red, yellow, and blue spikes. A little research showed it to be a immature cecropia larva - they turn into the largest moth in the US with a six inch wingspan. Apparently the red horns on the front of the body turn yellow as the caterpillar nears maturity - I can't imagine how big they are then, this one was already at least four or five inches long!

Posted at 06:48 PM     Read More  

Mon - July 10, 2006

Slow Down Now...

Y'all give me too much credit. *grin* I didn't GROW all those blueberries. We do have a few baby bushes, but they're at least a year or two away from production - as far as advice, keep the soil acidic and sandy, and mulch with plenty of pine needles. We were blessed to be able to buy a farm with wonderful soil (even though much of that is still in permanent pasture) but about three miles down our county road the soil transitions to sand as you enter the beginning of the NJ Pine Barrens. We pick our berries down there, at an organic blueberry/raspberry farm. The environment and soil there are perfect conditions for cranberries and blueberries, and it shows in the grape size berries we picked by the pound. I'm going out picking again Thursday, and if sales are still strong and the blueberries still ripening, may go a third time before the month is up. I'm going to make sure to put some in the freezer this time.

We had a great day at market on Saturday, though we didn't have many eggs to sell. On the table were blueberries, our spring honey, summer squash, sweet banana peppers, squash blossoms, baby chiogga beets, snow peas, snap beans (green, dragon langerie and french filet), kale, swiss chard, cut and potted herbs, mini red cabbage, and mesclun mix with nasturtiums. Next week we'll have the same, minus the honey (we're sold out), plus more eggs, royal burgundy snap beans, cukes, and maybe cherry tomatoes. I need to weed, pull cabbage, and fill that space with some more beans, squash, maybe another round of cukes. We'll see how I feel. Also need to buy some boiling onions as stand ins for onion sets for fall scallions. My market bags didn't sell last week, but we moved them to the front of the tent mid-day where they were getting a lot more attention - I'm hoping to sell a few next week.

The picture above is the new nest box E built for the hens - they seem to be getting used to it, and it's nice having higher nest boxes. I think the ones on the bottom are too small for our larger hens, so we may double the size of those by cutting out the divisions between them. I also have plans to start putting leg-bands on the hens as I see them laying so I have a record of who is the most productive (we'll be thinning out the flock in the fall), but I need to order leg-bands first.

Posted at 06:28 PM     Read More