One Share Of Produce

We've had two days filled with rain which made harvesting really difficult today. Fortunately, we're taking this weekend off from the Farmer's Market, so we only had to harvest for our CSA shares. The shares looked so pretty and colorful that I decided to post a picture on the blog. The only things missing in the picture are fresh corn and a few bags filled with fresh herbs. Everything was so wet and the air was so cool, we didn't have to put any of the harvest into the giant coolers we usually fill every Friday. We ended the day slogging through the mud, wrestling beautiful red potatoes from the sloppy mud. We think our "eaters" (CSA members) are getting great value for their dollar - average share size is 20 to 25 lbs. per week of extremly fresh, naturally grown (can't say 'organic' since we're not certified!) produce. The cool, rainy weather makes harvesting really pleasant....the deep, sticky mud, not so much!

Great Help In The Garden

Friday's get a little hectic around here with all the harvesting that needs to get done. It's so nice to have help in the garden this year. We start picking veggies very early in the morning and try to be done before noon when it gets hot. If there are other things that need to be harvested, we're back at it in the evening when it begins to cool off. We're at the point now when we'll actually start harvesting on Thursday. There's just so much produce coming on that it's impossible to pick everything in just one day. Those 626 tomato plants and 1224 pepper plants are really starting to produce! This picture was actually taken on July 10th. Mark and Robin are doing a great job getting swiss chard and carrots ready to process.

Wish You Could Smell The Blossoms On This Tree!

Summer has finally arrived.....after a very rainy, cool, long spring.....and the Catalpa trees have burst into bloom. They have the heaviest bloom this year that we've ever seen and the smell is heady, especially in the evening. It makes working in the garden in the evenings even more pleasureable.

Our Family Has Grown

Our beautiful Great Pyranese dog, Max, died a year ago and we didn't think we'd ever get another dog. However, things don't always work out the way you thought they would! A friend who volunteers at the local animal shelter told us about a beautiful Anatolian Shepherd at the shelter and really encouraged us to go see her. She thought the dog would be perfect for us. We like large breed dogs and still have a very large outdoor kennel (which we'd taken down last year!) and two buried cable runs.It took us about two weeks of discussions before we went to see her. This breed has a reputation for being head strong and somewhat difficult as a family pet. My hope was that she would snarl at me or have a bad attitude and we could walk away feeling like we'd at least checked her out. I didn't really want to get another dog!

She turned out to be so sweet and gentle and good tempered! We visited her twice and then thought it over for a full 24 hours before calling the shelter and telling them we'd take her. They were so relieved! She was going to have to be euthanized because she'd been there so long - since 4/23/09 - and no one had been interested in her. They were running out of room. Turns out she was a favorite of the staff there because of her sweet temperment.

We've had her now for 3 days and discovered right away she'd been a house dog....NOT an outside dog! She's leash trained, obeys commands, is very well mannered in the house and house trained. She's been good with all our animals....sheep, alpacas and cats. She sleeps in her crate in the living room at night and isn't a "barker". She's got us wrapped around her paw now! We're all crazy about her and can't believe our good fortune in finding such a great dog! She seems grateful, too, at finding a loving home! So, welcome to our home Brandy! Hope we get to share many, many wonderful years with you!

Nearly Perfect Planting Weather!

Today's weather couldn't have been better for getting the last of the tomato seedlings out into the field. The corrugates were all in and some of the trellising system was installed, too. We use steel T-posts and rigid 16' fencing panels to trellis the tomato vines. We've found this system to be sturdy (even in high winds) and easy to harvest from. It's also very easy to fertilize and weed around the plants. As soon as they reach 10" in height, the suckers will be removed and the vine will be tied to the fence. That process will continue until they reach the top of the fence when the top of the vine will be removed preventing it from growing any taller. This will force the vine to ripen the fruit that's already set on the plant. Our growing season isn't long enough for the fruit above the top of the fence to ripen. So, with a cool, overcast day and a light, misting rain off and on, we were able to finish transplanting the last of the tom's to the field.....626 plants in all! We had 800+/- seedlings growing, but we discarded the weak ones as we went and repotted some of the extra cherry tomato plants to sell at the market. Our experience with cherry tomatoes has been that they can produce more than we can sell at times. The large tomatoes are always in demand especially for home canning and we've had no problem selling big quantities of them.

These three tomato rows have the steel T-posts in place and the rigid fencing hung on them. All the tomatoes have been planted, fertilized, mulched with grass clippings and watered. What a wonderful sight!

The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage was thirsty, too! Everyone needed a drink today. We've had really hot weather for this time of the year....that is up until today anyway!

The potato patch (or weed patch as we refer to it now!) got a much needed drink, too. After the soil dries out a little, we'll head into this area with our hoes, clearing out the weeds and mulching around the plants. We've been so busy with the expansion this year that this area has just gotten ahead of us. Such is the life of the small, organic farm!

What a great sight the empty table in the greenhouse is! Next, we'll be planting out all the squash plants that are ready. You can see in this picture that they're already blooming in the greenhouse! What a crazy busy time of year this is! We're late getting most of this stuff in the ground, but there were other pressing things that had to be done first. Next year will be better....

Unexpected Mushrooms

We use a commercial cactus mix that doesn't contain peat moss to start all of our hot pepper seedlings. There's only one place locally where we can get this special mix and we've used it for two years now. This year we had unexpected mushrooms sprouting in all the pepper trays. They're easily removed and the pepper seedlings appear to be very healthy. Just part of the small farming experience!

Update On The Fence Problem

We were given a few hundred feet of 6' tall high tensile woven wire fencing, complete with several very long posts and gates....all free if we'd go out and remove them from the property where they were used to keep deer in a pen on a hillside. This wire is very tough and used to contain deer, elk and buffalo. We spent a great weekend with a couple of friends and a picnic lunch taking the wire and poles down. Let 'em try and cut through this fence with their little side-cutters!

The wire was rolled up tightly and all the posts, gates, barbed wire and fencing were loaded into this greated borrowed dump trailer and hauled back to our place. The next step is to get it all put back up on our property. That will have to wait a while since we're really busy right now transplanting seedlings out into the new field.

Not only was the weather perfect for this little excursion, we had some great friends along to share the workload. Mark and Carolyn have been good friends for many years and their help was invaluable. Thanks guys!

A Discouraging Discovery....

After spending several days and hundreds of dollars to fence one of our pastures, we returned the next morning to find someone had come through during the night and cut the new fence into 5' pieces! The section that hadn't been attached yet to the T-posts had been rolled up and taken. Several neighbors heard a suspicious vehicle at about 11:30 that night, but none of them looked out to see what was going on. The crime was very malicious and felt personal. We will be re-fencing this pasture with high tensile, 6' woven deer wire.....let them try to cut their way through that!

These Babies Are Just Bursting With Life!

Squash and pumpkins are amazing to watch. The seedlings literally burst from the soil, sometimes throwing it onto the table. If you look closely, you can see tiny, white roots poking out of the soil. We put the seeds in peat pots that we can plant directly in the garden when they're ready since their roots really hate to be disturbed. As we plant each seedling into the garden soil, we'll plant a few seeds just down the row from each little plant. As the first plants mature and their production slows down, the seeds will have sprouted and grown and they'll be ready to replace their older siblings.

Seedlings On The Move!

At last, the weather has warmed and settled enough that we can move the tender annuals out to the greenhouse. The sunporch has been filled to capacity in recent weeks with lots of trays of little plants. Since we don't heat our greenhouse, we've had to wait until the night temperatures were warm enough for them. It's just a short ride in the harvest wagon....protected from the wind....to their new digs in the greenhouse.

We're setting up large tables in the greenhouse to hold all the new trays of tender seedlings. They'll spend a little time here until they're finally ready to be planted out in the growing field.

As soon as each table is set up and covered with plastic to protect it from watering, it's filled with trays of happy, little plants!

Spring Has Arrived!

This bush bursts into bloom early every spring. Don't know what it is....I'm sure with a little research we could figure that out, but it really doesn't matter! We just enjoy its pretty little flowers and the warmer weather that always comes with them.....and the noisy, fat robins, too! It's tucked in next to our old wood pile and we're careful not to injure it when wood is being split and stacked. It's been here longer than we have and will probably be here long after we're gone for the next family to enjoy.

Spring Bed Preparation

Last year's planting beds were composted and tilled last fall. Now it's time to clean out the weeds that have sprouted over the last few weeks and reform the sides of the beds so we can get the early spring seeds planted. This has to be done by hand. We use a hoe to remove some of the weeds, but there's nothing better than our fingers to get every last weed removed from the paths and beds.

With a little effort, the beds are completely weed free, the sides formed, the tops of the beds leveled and prepared for planting. If we get a handle on the weeds early in the spring it means there will be much less weeding throughout the growing season. Doesn't it look great?

Tomatoes Everywhere!

Small, Medium and Large tomatoes are shooting up! They're anxious for warmer weather, too. The small tomato plants on the left really surprised us....the seed was from 1995 and we didn't think they'd even germinate. They are Brandywine tomatoes and hopefully, if they all survive (there's only a few that sprouted), we'll get some delicious tomatoes off these vines. The large tomatoes on the right were planted about 6 weeks ago and are ready to plant in the greenhouse in the hopes we'll have very early tomatoes at the farmer's market. The medium size tomatoes are about 4 weeks old and the small ones are about 2 weeks old. We're growing a large variety of tomatoes this year with several hundred seedlings started and just waiting to go into the soil! Bring on the warm, sunny weather!

Planting Potatoes

At last it's time to plant the spuds! We had a small window of good weather Saturday which allowed us to quickly plant the four varieties of potatoes we're growing this year. We had just gotten the last furrow covered when the rain began - Whew! There was one small glitch in the potato order this year....we thought we had ordered an "All Red" potato, but ordered "Mountain Rose" instead! Had really been looking forward to a red, white and blue potato salad on the 4th of July! Oh well, maybe next year! Didn't discover our mistake until we opened the shipping box and began planting the spuds.

First Day Of Spring

It's here at last.....the FIRST DAY OF SPRING! The winter has seemed so long and cold this year. Even our little iris reticulata are late this spring. We normally see them peeking out of the soil in February, but this year they didn't show up until March. This is one of my favorite flowers not only for how beautiful they are, but because they are the harbingers of spring and are always such a welcome sight to our winter weary eyes.

These little beauties are natives of the Caucasus (Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Georgia). They bloom in different shades of blue and purple in late winter or very early spring. The flowers are said to have a sweet violet-like scent, but you have to poke your nose nearly inside the bloom to detect anything. Each flower has six petals, three "falls" and three upright petals called "standards" that are usually smaller than the falls.

They return each year and will sometimes naturalize and spread. We've had some of the clumps die after blooming for several years. They need a dry dormant period of time in the summer and since ours are in a large flower garden bed on the West side of our house, they occasionally get too much water. They require a well-drained soil and do well in raised beds or in rock gardens. Be sure and keep them at the front of your plantings since they only grow four to six inches tall and can easily be covered by larger plants.

The garlic came through the winter just fine even though we didn't get around to putting a thick mulch over the bed in the fall.

Ready For Spring Planting

Our new Market Garden field is all ready for spring planting! This former pasture has been plowed, disced and harrowed to prepare it for its first veggie growing season! Next come the corrugates and then the plantings. All the seed potatoes will be planted tomorrow.....we're growing four different varieties of potato this year....an all blue, an all red, Yukon Gold and a German yellow potato. Yummy! Can't wait to sneak a few small potatoes out of the dirt in a few weeks!

Crazy Idaho Weather!

The morning started out sunny and cold, but well above freezing, so all the little seedlings growing on the sunporch were moved out onto the deck to catch the sun's rays. We'd decided to move them out of the unheated greenhouse since the temperatures have been dropping pretty low at night and we were afraid they would freeze. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the first flakes of snow started falling.....where did this snow come from.....? We rushed the trays of seedlings back indoors and under the grow lights just as the snow really began to come down hard. The temperature is still relatively warm, so the snow won't stay around long, but it sure caught us by surprise!

What used to be just bare ground once again has a white blanket covering it! Seems like spring weather is still a long ways off.....We're getting really anxious to get the market garden up and running! Hope it warms up soon and stays warm!

Moving Day

Another winter project completed....the completion of this "dual purpose" table will allow us to begin moving seedlings into the greenhouse. We wanted a portable table we could use in the greenhouse to hold seedling trays, but that could be used to wash veggies fresh out of the market garden. This table is covered with hardward cloth which will allow the water and mud to drain off any vegetables washed on its surface.....invaluable for washing root crops - carrots, radishes, etc. We'll evaluate this table over the next few months and may make a couple more if it works well for us. So far it's met our initial requirements: inexpensive and easy to make, light enough for one person to handle/move, small enough to be able to reach across the width but large enough to hold several trays/harvested crops, and strong enough to support whatever is placed on it. So far, so good!

And finally.....moving day for the little seedlings! These have been growing under lights in the sun porch - with the dual purpose table set up in the greenhouse, it's time to begin moving them to their new home. The greenhouse will be getting very crowded over the next week or two....filling up with all the seedlings that will eventually be transplanted out to the market garden. Watching these little plants grow healthy and strong is one of the best parts of what we do! Bring on the warm, summer weather!

Rebuilding Gus's Engine

This is another winter project that is nearing completion. We had a local machine shop bore out the cylinder head and turn the crankshaft on the engine from one of our Cub Cadet tractors. Now comes the job of replacing the seals and putting the whole thing back together. Hopefully, this will provide many more years of service out of this little work-beast! We will use this particular tractor for tilling, mowing, and a wide variety of tasks during the growing season.

Trays Of Onions Bursting With New Life!

The onions have begun sprouting in profusion! After seeding up a few thousand seeds in several trays filled with soiless mix, they're now growing under fluorescent lights in the house. It's still too cold at night to put them in the unheated greenhouse. As soon as the nighttime temperatures come up just a few degrees, they'll be shuttled out to continue growing until it's time to plant them in their permanent garden beds. We're growing four different varieties of onions this year - some mild white onions, a variety of long-storage red onions and two other varieties of yellow onions. Along with these, we have trays of leeks and scallions growing as well.

It's Getting Busy.....!

Days are now spent sterilizing trays and pots, filling them with soilless potting mix and then planting the seeds for the early spring crops. These trays contain onion seeds. The brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) have already been planted, as well as a few very early tomato and pepper plants that will go into the greenhouse as soon as they're ready in an effort to have early tomatoes and peppers at the Farmer's Market. This is the beginning of the very busy time of year for us, but this year we're better prepared. We've spent several weeks planning every phase of the garden this year.....first, what varieties we will grow, inventorying the seeds we have from last year, where we will order the new seeds, when we will begin planting the seeds that will need to be transplanted later, and a succession planting calendar for this growing season. This detailed planning has helped us relax since we feel like we have a pretty good handle on the work to come. One quick look at the daily calendar and we know what needs to be completed each day.

Spring Is On Its Way!

The first daffodils are finally poking their noses out of the soil - a sure sign that spring is finally on its way! These bulbs were planted in pots and stored in an unheated shop. We will move them to the greenhouse very soon in order to have pots of beautiful blooming bulbs at the Farmer's Market in April. The iris reticulata haven't begun to emerge from the frozen soil yet. They're the earliest bulbs we have and are planted in a flower bed on the West side of the house. They usually begin to emerge in February, if given a few days of warm weather. This flowerbed is scheduled for a makeover this spring. We removed several of the plantings last fall to allow us to get an early start on the renovation this spring.

Becoming Self-Sufficient

Check out this book from the 1940's detailing one family's move to the country and the things they learned about becoming self-sufficient along the way. There's a lot of information in this book showing everything from how to set up a homestead correctly, designing the ideal home, to the different roles that each family member is expected to play in making this successful. This book and the one I've linked to below, even though they were both written decades ago, have some very good ideas for those who are interested in learning how to be more self sufficient.

War Vegetable Garden

This interesting book, published in 1918, has a lot of good information about home gardening. It's fascinating to see how some things never change....they were advocating using compost and rotating crops to prevent insect and disease problems even in 1918. However, some of the chemicals they recommend to control insects and diseases are very toxic and are thankfully no longer available. Some of the ideas for ways to store vegetables are still useful today. Apparently there were severe seed shortages and everyone was being urged to use their seed carefully and not waste any. This is an interesting window into a difficult time in our country. Maybe we can all learn useful things from old documents like this, especially as we face the possibility of difficult days ahead for us.

Feels Like Summer Inside Greenhouse

With the sunlight we've been experiencing, the interior of the greenhouse feels like a summer day. The plants are doing well....especially the weeds. When the temperatures get too high in here, we have to open the doors and vents to allow some of the heat to escape. The automatic ventilation system isn't wired in yet, so this has to be done manually. We will plant some tomato and pepper plants in here very soon in an effort to have really early veggies at the market and for our CSA.

Sunshine At Last!

The inversion has disappeared.....for a while anyway... and we are enjoying the glorious winter sunlight. The snow has melted and even though the temperatures are still very cold, the hope of spring feels even closer! It's hard to believe that this greenhouse had a snowdrift halfway up one side just a few weeks ago.

Seeds Are Starting To Arrive

Finally, the seeds are starting to arrive. All the hours spent searching the catalogs for just the right varieties, figuring out how much seed to order, and then placing the orders, are now starting to pay off. As each order arrives, they are inventoried to make sure we've received the correct seeds and amounts ordered. Next, we'll begin the process of putting the seeding dates for each veggie on the calendar....to be started under lights inside or seeded directly to the market garden field.

A Little Cheer During The Winter Months

All the Christmas decorations have come down and been put away in storage except for the two big pots of evergreens and branches by the front door. These pots add a bit of color and interest to our front porch during the bleak, winter months. As spring arrives, they will be planted with beautiful flowers.

Beautiful Winter Sunset

We've been blessed with some really spectacular sunsets this winter. We really appreciate them after we've had several days of inversion where the only thing you see is gray sky and no sunlight. The days are gradually getting longer and spring will soon be here. We've even had a few robins visiting us lately. The crabapple tree just outside the kitchen window has become a favorite hangout for many different varieties of birds. We keep a watch out for the early spring bulbs - they usually bloom in February and are soon followed by warmer days.

Snow Removal

Just a few days ago, we were trying to keep the snow cleared off the driveway with the help of our little garden tractor, Hank. Now, with a few days of warmer weather, most of the snow is gone and we're dealing with an inversion (lots of fog). The temperatures don't fluctuate a lot from the highs in the daytime to the lows at night. It's just a cold, dreary time of year. It does provide an opportunity to get those seed orders sent in, work on equipment and get it running well before spring arrives, and prepare for the new CSA.

Drying Peppers

These beautiful Hungarian Wax Peppers were allowed to ripen naturally on the plant in the fall. Here they've been placed on a round pizza pan and are going into a very low oven to dry. Our food dehydrator was completely full at this point with drying peppers, and we were loading the remaining peppers on cookie sheets and pizza pans to dry in the oven. This takes several hours (up to two days!) depending on the size of the pepper.

When the peppers are completely dry and crackle when you push on them, they're ready to either store or grind into the best Hungarian paprika you've ever had! We store ours in gallon size zip lock bags until we're ready to grind them.

Using a coffee mill or spice grinder, remove the stems and the seeds if you prefer a mild paprika. If you like more heat in your spices, add some or all of the seeds when grinding the pepper. That's the beauty of making your own....you get to choose exactly how hot you like it! After you've ground everything into a fine powder, store it in a canning jar with a tightly closed lid, in a cool, dark place. Don't store this on a shelf near your stove. The light and heat will negatively affect the quality of your stored spices.

The uses for this type of spice are endless. Keep in mind that these are pure spices without any added fillers, so go easy at first until you find out how much you should use when cooking with them. You will probably find that you use much less of this spice than you would spices purchased in the supermarket.

In addition to the Hungarian wax peppers, we dried both green and red jalapeno peppers, negro peppers, mulato peppers, and chimayo peppers. We spent one day grinding all of the dried peppers and storing them in glass jars. If you prefer a smokier flavor, you can put the peppers in a smoker before drying them. What a great way to extend the flavors of summer all through the winter months!

Remembering Past Success

This picture, taken in June 2008, shows part of our first year's market garden. We deliberately started with a small area, 50'x120'. It was our goal to figure out if we liked growing veggies on this scale and if we could make any money doing it. This small garden proved to be very successful and that success has encouraged us to dramatically increase our growing area to 1.5 acres this year. We've also expanded the number of varieties that will be planted this year. We want to provide lots of variety to our customers including the veggies that are so delicate they can't be shipped long distances as well as varieties that aren't being grown commercially. There is something so satisfying about selling that beautiful, freshly harvested tomato or bunch of lettuce to a grateful customer. They know that what they're buying from us was growing in the fresh air and sunshine just hours before they take it home to eat it. They know it's safe to feed to their children....no pesticides or chemicals were used to grow it. We love educating them about the importance of buying locally - not only are they getting a superior product, but they're also helping small farms remain sustainable.

Growing A Healthy Soil

One of the elements of small-scale, sustainable farming is trying to reduce the amount of compost you have to purchase to improve the fertility of your soil. We have a small flock of fine wool sheep and alpacas that we keep for this purpose. They provide us with top quality wool for spinning and felting, but also with lots of wonderful manure. Alpacas are unique....they prefer to pick a spot in the pasture to use as a latrine. At some point (only they know why!), they decide that spot is filled to capacity and they choose another area to begin using. This makes the collection process pretty simple! We've heard of other alpaca owners who routinely use a shop vacuum every weekend to collect the pellets to use in their compost piles. We find a shovel and wheelbarrow suit our needs.

Another way we try to improve the health and fertility of our soil is by growing green manure cover crops. Green manures are often a mix of two or more types of seed - oats, buckwheat, winter rye, sudangrass, hairy vetch, etc. These are allowed to grow and then are either cut and tilled into the soil or just tilled in without removing the top growth of the plant. Nutrients are released into the topsoil as the green manure decomposes. Each type of plant adds something unique to the soil. The legumes (vetch, peas, alfalfa, etc.) add nitrogen to the soil.

Having a healthy, vital soil is our top priority. Healthy soil means healthy plants and healthy plants don't have as many disease and insect problems. That's critically important when growing produce without using pesticides!

Seed Catalogs Are Pouring In

During the month of January the seed catalogs have been pouring in. While it's cold and snowy outside, it's great fun to sit by a warm fire with a cup of tea dreaming about this year's market garden and planning what to plant. Being very conscious of what our customers WANT is our first priority. We keep a list of their requests during the summer months of what they'd like to see us grow next year and we make every effort to bring those products to them at the market.

As with any small business, we must be very careful how we spend each dollar. Comparing shipping costs, keeping track of germination rates and where the best seeds were purchased, and each year trying to improve our knowledge and skill as growers. Sometimes we've had great success, bringing a product to the market that sells exceptionally well and other times we've brought in products that we thought would be good sellers, only to have very little interest in them. Last year we planted some very extraordinary hot peppers (12 varieties of them!), and while they were beautiful and delicious, we found it difficult to sell them because our customers were unfamiliar with them. Providing them with free weekly recipes and sending them home with free samples helped to build a market for these peppers. We will continue to teach people about these wonderful peppers at this year's market.

More Winter Projects

Another winter project....repairing our two Cub Cadet garden tractors in preparation for spring planting. The engine on our Model 169 Cub Cadet needs to be rebuilt along with some other minor repairs. The Model 169 will be our main tractor, used for tilling, cultivating and mowing. Our other tractor, a Model 105, is used mainly for snow removal and some mowing.

The Beauty Of Winter

Yes, I'm anxious for the snows to melt, the weather to warm, and the soil to dry out enough to be able to plant this springs seeds, but winter has a quiet, serene beauty that I sometimes forget to enjoy. We've been experimenting this winter in our unheated greenhouse to see what will grow in our 6a zone during the winter months. Even with a snow drift piled against one wall of this greenhouse, the spinach, radishes, mache, and claytonia are snug and happy. The carrots even sprouted, although they haven't put on any growth to speak of. We planted the seeds a month later than we'd have liked because we hadn't finished putting up the greenhouse until October. Walking through the piles of snow into this greenhouse is like walking into spring, and I breathe in deeply the smell of damp earth. For now, I remind myself to enjoy this quiet, restful part of the farming experience because VERY SOON it will get really busy and I'll remember these days wistfully.