Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has onions, garlic, winter squash, sweet potatoes, cabbage, celery root, carrots, black radishes, rutabagas, winter tomatoes, and greens Field Notes. We have some greens in hoopettes in the garden, and we will see just how they do! This has been a season of extremes – 80 in October and a low of 5 in early November and this week may see the 60’s! Ken has moved poultry …
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here
Our pork is slaughtered on farm. We find it means less stress for the animals, and the waste stays on the farm lungs and stomach to be fed to dog, lungs to the cat, and guts are composted. Ken eats heart and tongue; I eat liver. So, although we are not quite nose to tail, we work to respect the animal and use as much as we can and waste as little as we can. …
Ken has been moving portable shelters and coops to the garden. Why? Well, it is not only easier to feed everyone in one location fairly close to the house all winter, but also each of the poultry breeds by their nature will help us grow vegetables more easily next season! Geese will take out weeds. Chicken also take out weeds and weed seeds and any remaining insects. Turkeys will scratch the soil and …
Greetings from the Garden! This CSA box has pie pumpkins, garlic, onions, peppers – some hot, sweet potatoes, winter kohlrabi, Napa cabbage, greens and parsley. Field Notes. As the prior blog entry indicates we have had a 70 degree temperature shift in three weeks. October was unseasonably warm and last week was unseasonably cold. We are working with and around the weather. We need temperatures above freezing to harvest greens or they simply turn to …
This fall has presented challenges. We had some unseasonably warm weather – 73 degrees in October. This meant it was tough to keep the root cellar cool enough for the roots. Too warm and vegetables will either rot or start growing. Neither helps flavor of nutrition! Once it cooled off, temperatures plummeted. this made harvest tough. The weather needs to be cool but above freezing or the vegetables thaw and turn to mush. This week …
I keep all my receipts and invoices in a box. Today I sorted all the paper and organized it. Now I know what we spent on feed for the pork report. Soon I will get all the figures compiled for the tax lady, Jeanne. After that and the seed orders are finished, I start weaving!
Yesterday while Ken was at a bee workshop, I moved the squash and onions inside to the north east corner of the main floor. The forecast of low temperatures below twenty degrees provided incentive! The squash had been on racks covered with a tarp and with a light inside the racks for heat. I packed bulb crates and got them inside. Then I opened the hay enclosure Ken had made for the onions and garlic …
