The days are lengthening; summer approaches. Ken has been excited that we have been getting rain; the same rain has kept him busy keeping his crops ahead of the weeds. Once the soil is no longer wet and gummy, Ken cultivates; it is easiest when the weeds are small, not once they are large enough to require bending and pulling!. Most sunny days, he announces, “It’s a fine day for slaying weeds!” He continues to …
The spinach season varies each year with weather. Spinach, like most greens, does best in cool damp weather. With the sharp weather changes in spring, there is a time when the plant leaves get thinner and smaller as the plant starts to shift energy from making leaves to producing seed. When growers say bolt, this is what they mean. The plant has shifted its energy, and it is only a matter of time until the …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, spinach, salad and braising greens, Napa cabbage, green onions, radishes, herbs, and asparagus. Field Notes. Ken has been juggling tasks around rain. After a couple days of dry weather he gets out and cultivates the garden, field, and around the mobile high tunnel. Once we got the last of the perennial flowers out of the loop on the drive, Ken moved the hens down near …
The denim rugs are finished! Ken got this rug loom at an auction – a story in itself. It has a sectional warp beam so I can do long warps easily. this reduces time spent setting up the warp. This was my first sectional warp, and I have learned a lot. The sections need to be the same number of revolutions. I discovered near the end that I was at the …
Each year about this time I start freezing green vegetables for winter. This week I froze some asparagus. Asparagus is a great boost to kidney function – like a cleanse. I like to make cream of asparagus soup in the winter when we start to feel sluggish. When friends come who do not eat dairy, I use oats as a creamy thickener instead – an old trick of Ken’s I blanch most vegetables …
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 …
