Salmonella

Poor poor Shermen......evil wife undercooks chicken, husband suffers.

Corn = Heat

Today we wrote a check for 360$ for about 2 tons of corn. The goal is to make this last thru the winter. Sherm built a large bin in the cellar to hold all the corn, which was delivered today. Up until now, we were buying our corn by the 100 pound bag at the Co-op. The price literally doubled last season from Sept/Oct to May. Also, the 100 lb bag factor meant at the very most I could stop and pick up corn, but was dependent upon Sherm to lug it down the icy steps into the cellar.

Had our first major snow storm last nite, around 8-10 inches, snow day for both of us today, which was awesome. We both got a lot done. The chickens are now happily housed up with the sheep, and we have been collecting about 3 eggs per day. The cats are happy in their new home down in the cellar, guarding our corn from the mice.

Anticipation & Fighting Blight

The first seed catalogue for the 2009 growing season has arrived! Now it's time to start a file, compare prices and options, and create the wish list.

We have a few somewhat "theme" oriented garden beds scattered around the property. The original garden was a rectangular shaped combination of a flower and herb garden laid out in a fleur-de-lys design in front; and parallel rows or raised vegetable beds in back. This year, the original- or Fleur- garden is to be devoted almost entirely to flowers, herbs, garlic and strawberries. It will be expanded to wrap around our old, unused silo, which will be a great place for storing the tools I use every day in the garden. The silo will also make a great trellis for climbing beans and flowers.

At the end of fall, I rebuilt the raised beds, and broke down one row in the center, leaving it an open space. On summer mornings we like to host little breakfast parties outside. For a couple years, we would set up a table next to the garden; last year Shermen built the wonderful paved, patio area where we can sit and enjoy a great view of the gardens, waterfall, fields of blowing grasses and the hills in the distance. However, we always think it would be nice to be able to sit and relax right in the garden, that's what I will be creating in the empty space next year. On a more practical note, last year's attack of insects, blight, rust, and powdery mildew made me think maybe my rows were a little too cramped. Some www research informed me that the too-close-rows probably didn't allow the plants to shed moisture quickly enough after rains, which can lead to disease. I have visions of a little bistro table and chairs, maybe a small couple of shelves, an area to sit and enjoy a break while working in the beds. The herbs and flowers seemed the least susceptible to disease; they will be taking over those beds, creating a lovely, hopefully healthy and fragrant environment to relax in.

Last year was an extremely wet season. We "lost" the front flower beds full of seedlings twice to dammed up water that submerged and drowned the seedlings. This fall I built a mulch dam at the rear of the garden to stop the water from pouring in, we also tore down the earth a bit at the front to allow any excess water to be released more quickly. We are also thinking of lining the paths with stones this year, rather than bark mulch, which floats.

Veggies such as tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers will be moving to areas where they can have more room, and easier access to water. The other thing I learned from the web is that those wonderful "freebie" tomato plants sometimes called "volunteer" tomatoes….the ones that just pop up from last year's fallen seeds….they are bad, vulnerable to disease such as blight, which then spreads like crazy. We have a couple of those big old metal livestock watering troughs with holes rusted in the bottom- lousy for holding water- but great for drainage. I'm thinking those will be our tomato planters, kind of cool looking, easier to maintain and control. The tomatoes were my biggest problem last year due to blight. Next were the cucumbers. Two years in a row now of failed cukes. Year one, they were awesome, tasty and sweet, we'd slice them and salt them and people would just rave. The next year, some sort of chemical disease inside so they looked just lovely, but were too bitter to eat. This year, bugs, nasty endless bugs and weird bulb shaped fruits. Not enough regular water was part of the problem….so they cukes will be closer to the water supply this year. We already have a nice little wooden structure next to one of the water pumps; we will probably just expand upon that. My eggplant did okay, we did have some aphids or something that were pretty aggressive, but all the plants still produced fruit. Only problem was not enough. I also discovered that those Thai eggplants, the long tubular ones, are really great for sautéing because you don't have to dice just slice. Found a great tip on cooking eggplant in one of my favorite cooking magazines "Cooks Illustrated," which suggested you dice, salt and sweat the cubes for about 10-15 minutes in the microwave prior to cooking with them to avoid excessive oil absorption. Worked great!

Obama!

Is it crazy that I feel this sense of Hope??? It's 24 degrees outside; we had actual snow this weekend. Some of my new garlic is growing, which is bad, not supposed to do that till spring. I'm sick as hell with a chest cold and today we simply MUST get into the cellar and install all the ductwork, really starting to need heat. The chickens need relocating to their winter abode, we've 2 pregnant sheep and for some reason Eric (the male sheep) has taken to attacking me when I try to refill their water. Yesterday he had me trapped against the silo screaming for Shermen to come chase him away. We are praying the ewes are able to lamb without any problems…we don't know nothin' bout birthin no babies!

Snow

It snowed yesterday.

Garlic & Log Cabin

Planted about 10 different varieties of garlic this weekend. Sherm tore the entire front face off the house to prepare for the 4-Seasons room installation. We are now living in a real log cabin. The new roof is tight and dry, lovely, lovely, lovely. Our duct work in the cellar hasn't been reinstalled yet, and we haven't tested the corn furnace to see if the replacement parts have brought it back to life after the flood; but we are still toasty warm inside with the wood burner and new little corn burner. First hard frost was a couple weeks ago now, oct 2^nd and 3^rd I believe. All the tom's are off the plants, either stewed up in a jar in the cellar, or rotting on the compost pile. The only produce I managed to save/process this year were beets and toms and a few eggplants. My cuke's had some horrid disease, all the squash were planted too late, and had squash beetle infestation.

Planning already for next year….for sure we'll find a spot for some pumpkins, and other "Autumnal" themed plants….decorative corn, straw flowers for drying, decorative gourds. Beans for drying, mid-season crop of onions. Etc.

New Kitty, New Heat, New Roof, New Room

Lena is now a Grandmother! Maude Lebowski had one little kitty approx 3 weeks ago in Sherm's dirty laundry hamper. A little girl kitty we named Julie. Sherm has been working his butt off tearing off the old roof and working with a friend to get the new roof on. So far we've only had one day of rain inside the house. The guys found a major bee's nest in the attic which put everything on hold for a while. Our "four seasons" room has been delivered and is out in the pole shed awaiting installation. The supplemental heat for the new room is a wood pellet / corn burning stove that Sherm picked up yesterday and is right now just flaming away in the living room. Works damned well.....our only heat right now, and nites are getting down into the 30's. Ordered about 40$ worth of mixed garlic bulbs from http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/, a place here in WI.

Garlic

I am adding a variety of garlic bulbs to my fall planting repertoire. I've noticed the local grocery store garlic, while inexpensive, seems to be losing it's "oomph," growing more and more bland. I like the idea of braided garlic hanging next to the onions in the cellar.

My research sources have primarily been www.gardenweb.com and the Sept 2008 issue of Herb Companion.

Here's my pre-planting info…

The braiding kind is the soft-neck, what you usually find at the store….not ideal for super cold winters. Hard-neck has a flower stalk which needs to be removed or the bulbs get smaller.

Plant in fall, pointy end up, 2-3 inches deep, 6 in apart in rows 10 in apart, in loose "loamy" soil w/near neutral PH. Cold winters need a loose mulch, but remove in spring to prevent slugs/mold.

Water well but let dry out about a week before harvest. On the hard-necks, cut off the "scapes" (flower stalks) after they curl down and before they uncurl. You can eat these in soups, salads etc.

Harvest when about 5-6 leaves remain green, cure in well-ventilated area out of the sun in bundles of 6-12 for several weeks. Store in netted bags.

Severe winter tolerant garlic = Purple Stripe, Porcelain, Marbled Purple Stripe, Rocambole.

Creole varieties have good flavor and store well.

Silverskin is best for long storing. Long storing varieties do not have the flavor complexities you find in other garlics.

Sources for info/ordering

www.GarlicFarm.com
www.FilareeFarm.com
www.TheGarlicStore.com
www.HoodRiverGarlic.com

The Godmother, Canning, New Kitties

I am officially a Godmother as of this weekend, very cool. Looking at my beautiful neice Madeline in all her snowy white satin and tulle, pretty much exploding with love, i remembered the little sketchbook/scrapbook i'd started for her when she was born... and my plans to add a page here and there....and all the pages i havent added. Best laid plans...Every time i see her, i think "ohhh, this would be a cute little drawing to put in her book..." but then the rest of my life crashes in and it never gets done. Last nite i lay in bed thinking about Maddie kissing her reflection in the mirror at church, what a great page that would make, how would i do all that white...i really need to start making art again. i miss it.

meanwhile....there's wax beans and tomatos to be canned. and more beets. found a great recipe for eggplant in my "cooks illustrated" mag i'll be trying for maddie's b-day party next weekend. still havent got out the thank you's for the wedding gifts...etc etc etc.

we now have 3 generations of kitties....maude, daughter of lena, had one little kitten last week.

finally!

Finally! After years of wrangling, Fern Dell Farm now belongs to us, Shermen and Kaaren, and the bank. Up until this point, not knowing what may happen, we have tried to keep our out-of-pocket investments in the farm and farm-house minimal. We have done what we could to make the old 1850's log-cabin farm-house more livable by tiling the bathroom and kitchen floors, painting and putting up temporary walls. We added a much needed corn burning furnace and ductwork to supplement the wood-stove heat. We threw tarp on the roof and weighed in down with cinder blocks and prayed during major storm action. We bought a new fridge when the one that was here started leaking inches deep puddles every day. We've lined the bathroom ceiling with pink styrofoam insulation, and squeezed "GreatStuff" into every nook and cranny to stop the arctic winter winds. Winter meant not seeing out the windows due to the heavy duty plastic wrap, and the base of the farm-house was lined hip high with hay bales. For the first couple years, we cooked AND canned on a camp stove and electric burner. Getting the old gas farm stove running this past spring was heavenly! Being able to boil water in under 1/2 an hour, yay!
We put in a nice veggie and flower garden, and had success (in spite of the stove situation) with canning pickles and beets. We've enjoyed the fruits of our labors during the cold winter months by pulling yummy eggplant pasta sauces out of the freezer and marvelled at the difference between home-grown and store-bought. We raised meat chickens...processed them ourselves the first year, letting them go too long so the only way you could eat the tough old birds was by cooking them all day in a crock pot. Year two, 2008, we processed them sooner (and paid to have it done,) resulting in delectable and tender chemical free, humanely raised chicken. We had a pair of turkeys, lovely Royal Palms, but they were immune to the electric fence, at the heads off all they beautiful tiger lilies, and were a nuisance in general...so they went the way of the meat chickens. We still have 3 of the original 6 lovely layer hens....Polla, Odette and Tyrina. 6 additional layers purchased in April of this year, 2008- not yet laying- and 3 little bantams. We also have 3 sheep- Eric the ram, and Hilda and Matilda, the ewes. The current flock is skittish to be petted, we are looking forward to bottle raising some lambs for pets.
In preparation for the wedding, Shermen put in a gorgeous patio area and waterfall, which Kaaren then prettified with flowers and plants.
We are learning about leaf rust, japanese beetles, excess nitrogen, why some cukes are so bitter they cannot be eaten, not to plant 100's of sunflowers under building eaves or the rain will knock them all down right when they are blooming....we have learned this year to just suck it up and start again when all your lovely flower seedlings are under water for days on end. We have learned that for some reason, Kaaren cannot grow lavender from seed. We have learned that while free tomato plants are great....(self-seeded romas) for some reason they dont taste all that great, and too many just rot on the ground. Little round cherry tomatos are not only the most flavorful, they dont split and they are easiest to freeze. Decorative gourds and pumpkins are cool, but take up a ton of room and pretty much just wound up rotting on the ground....so we skipped those this year. We have a ton of dried out birdhouse gourds ready to be turned into beautiful bird houses....but all these projects take time.
That, I believe, has been our greatest lesson thus far...time is pretty much the most precious commodity of all. Together, Shermen and I can do pretty much anything....we have a ton of wonderful ideas...ways to make life easier, ways to make life more beautiful, yummy things to grow and eat, fun things to build and create...fun ways to share our love of this farm with others...all of it takes time, (and money.) Now it's all about prioritizing. Which dreams can we make a reality? Which need to go on the backburner for a few years? Which for a few decades? We are having a big, beautiful wedding out here on Fern Dell Farm in a little over 3 weeks. At the same time, the farm house is going to be under major construction...once we finally decide which of the renovation projects we can afford, we've already decided which are necessity...roof, foundation, electric, windows....now which of our little dream projects can we have?
Up until now, we have been dipping our toes in the water of this major commitment...now we are ready to jump in...a wedding, a mortgage, a renovation...it's all becoming reality!!!

Winter blah

This winter crap has gone on long enough. Just when you can almost see the ground without any ugly blobs of dingy snow, apparently, we have another big puke of it on the way. The hens were so happy, back to getting about an egg a day, because they were able to get outside and scratch.
Shermen and Mike checked out the new sheep barn and Mike said all looked good. We get our new sheep on Monday, I'm so excited!

Costly Cat Cremation Etc

3/24/2008 We lost "Old Kitty" aka Fleetwood, to old age. His ashes are in a cardboard box in the cupboard, waiting for the ground to thaw so we may properly lay him to rest (260$.) Daisy is newest addition to farm family, lovely chocolate lab - catahoula mix. 3 of the original chicken brood are still with us....many more to arrive soon.
Shermen's spring break was last week, Kaaren's is this week. Good Friday, March 21st, 2nd day of Spring, we got about 6-10 inches of snow. We are pretty much ready to go insane at this point with the snow. At least today it is sunny, supposed to get into the high 40s, so hopefully some of the damned snow will melt.
We have 3 sheep to be delivered soon. Shermen has fixed up the old pig-barn and they now have a lovely, large hay covered bedding area with nice windows for ventilation. We are getting one ram and two ewes, supposedly the ewes will get pregnant and birth around late summer - early fall. They are California Reds....Mom already has someone interested in the wool. They are supposed to be good meat animals, but I think these are just going to be pets. We arent set up yet for cattle, but really want to get there soon. We may get a pig this year tho, need to look into processing cost, but that would be great to have fresh pork all year.
We are considering a peacock.
We also ordered about 70$ worth of chicks on March 14th. I ordered 30 of the Cornish Cross meat-birds that we raised last year. (We "processed" (beheaded, plucked, eviscerated etc here at the farm last year, with the assistance of Kaaren's Mom, Dad and Uncle Ricky- who had NO idea what he was getting into. This year we will pay whatever it costs to have them processed professionally. Way too gross and time consuming, plus, kind of hard to enjoy as food when you've had your hand up it's ass.) We are going to have a few whole, but the rest cut into breasts and pieces.....cooking a whole chicken is kind of a hassle. Also ordered a dozen or so mixed up exotics:
2 Cherry Egger, 1 Cockerel and 2 straight run Black Australorp, 2 Hatchery Choice Heavy Breed, 1 cockerel Araucana, 2 pullet 1 cockerel Dominique, 2 pullet 1 cockerel Light Brahma, 2 Colombian Wyandotte, 2 Salmon Faverolle, 2 Delaware, and 1 cockerel Partridge Rock....not that we'll have any idea what's what. Should be interesting introducing them to existing hens. The 3 original hens quit laying for the winter. Apparently if provided with artificial lite source they would lay in winter. They started again this month (March.)
We have created a poster for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to hang at school, Kaaren has done a bunch of research about it, and based upon past 2 years of garden production and Mom's input as experienced CSA facilitator, we should have no problem filling 2 market baskets. It's still somewhat unnerving to take someone's money with the guarantee to deliver a certain amount each week. We may decide to do a bi-weekly market basket for the first year.
Shermen is in process of registering farm with the State as a 100 and 150 year farm. That is cool as hell. We will get a certificate to frame, and another source of justification to continue what we have started when others say just burn and build new.
Produce wise.....the sautéed eggplant, onion, garlic, herb, tomato mixture FROZEN in zip-lock bags stores wonderfully...retains gorgeous flavor all winter. the canned beets were great, but frozen the texture gets gross. it made me SICK to shell out $$$ for dried herbs at the store this winter, definitely must find good drying system and then do it, don't just talk about it. We didn't eat any of the banana peppers or summer squash I grilled and froze, and only a fraction of the cherry toms i halved and froze. A friend told us that she makes meat spaghetti sauce, which she then cans. I think I'll try that this year. Our cucumbers this year had some weird disease or something, they were all bitter, inedible. Cantaloupes just don't work for us....they take up a ton of space in the garden, with a yield of only about 3 edible fruit. NO summer squash this year! Wayyyy too prolific, and we didn't really like them. 2 tries at brussell sprouts have not resulted in edible harvest. Skip those this year. Grow then freeze spinach this year. We buy a lot of frozen spinach.
We are going to try fruit bushes this year. Haven't ordered any yet.
5 cats = major vet bills or many kittens.

Bulbs Ordered

2.18.2008 Today I ordered bulbs from the Michigan Bulb company. Even though I am going to try to switch our "format" over to 100% Heirloom eventually, they have some nice stuff at a really good price. (Got 20$ off order of 40$ or more.)I ordered: Ghost Fern, 10$, Candy Stripe Rose, 13$ + 1 free, Irish Moss, 6 for 10$, and Climbing Peace Rose, 10$.
Stuff wont ship until April, should arrive April-May.
The rest of the plants I order this year should be from Heirloom catalogs. I bought about 50$ worth of seeds at Wal-Mart earlier this year. I may try to return those.