Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, spinach, salad and braising greens, beet thins, onions, radishes, potatoes, sun chokes, herbs – cilantro, oregano and marjoram, and asparagus Field Notes. Spring is a busy time on the farm. The rain was welcome; it meant crops that had been standing still were able to pop! It also meant new weeds could germinate and Ken vigilantly got out once it got dry enough and started …
Ken works to keep soil covered. He often says, “Naked soil is dying soil.” He means that either mulch or green manures will maintain moderate soil temperatures to promote microbial life, prevent erosion, add nutrients, – so many things! Ken often mulches. He also likes to plant green manures. What are green manures? It is a crop intended to promote soil health rather than a crop to be harvested. Green manures are often …
Ken encourages broody hens. A broody hen is one who wants to sit on a clutch of eggs and hatch out chicks. Many modern breeds of egg layers have this trait bred out of them. Most egg producers think of production of eggs, and a broody hen sits for three weeks and cares for chicks a couple more after they hatch. She isn’t laying eggs while she does that. We like broody hens that hatch …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has greens – lettuce, spinach, salad and braising greens, beet thins, potatoes, parsnips, sun chokes, onions and potato onions, cilantro, dill, and asparagus Field Notes. Ken has been busy on several fronts – mowing rye in the field, cultivating established beds, planting in field, transplanting by the mobile high tunnel and garden. Spring is a busy time Often I am in the house preparing meals or helping …
When I met Ken over two decades ago, friends told me it was obviously serious – I was moving my perennial flowers to Turtle Lake. Ken tilled an area, and I planted. It was not the same as my established beds in the city. I battled poison ivy, weeds creeping from under a rock pile, etc. Ken moved the rocks, and really helped over the years. But first an old knee injury and then sciatica …
Pigs here are sequentially grazed. Once they dig up one space they are either moved to a new space or their area is expanded to include new space. Ken plans each season so that pigs get new space and are not back in an area for at least three years. This year the piglets started east of the garden. About a week ago it was time for what I call the big pig rodeo – …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has greens – lettuce, spinach, salad and braising greens, parsnips, sun chokes, potatoes, cilantro, and asparagus. Field Notes. Whew! We had 80+ degrees one day and under freezing a couple nights later. It was a bit shocking. Some pepper and tomato plants got nipped inside the green house, and Ken will replace them. we are watching the fruit – last year we lost several apples and most …
Spring on the farm is… BUSY. Ken left after mid day meal to go do field work in preparation for planting over the next couple days. He had no idea when he would be in for supper. I have been doing spring cleaning and wrapping up weaving, and then I realized he might be in any time so I made three salads for suppers. First is a radish salad. I scrub, slice and salt the …
Although I have been weaving over a series of years, weaving takes a back seat to most things – selling pottery, picking beans, making lunch, etc. So I don’t really have much experience. Years ago I got a rug loom at an auction. the bid was going just a bit higher than I was willing to spend when Ken stepped in, bid, and the other fellow quit. It had a sectional warp – the ability …
Tonight there are frost warnings. Once asparagus grows above soil level it is vulnerable to frost. And once frozen, it is inedible. So, today Ken picked everything above soil level, and we have some short pieces. They are weighed out the same as the usual bunches of spears. Advantage of shorties? MORE TIPS!
