Ken has been making mixing bowls. He started with the smaller bowls and then made some larger ones. Making bowls, like all pottery, includes several steps from mixing and wedging the clay to throwing the pot. Then, after it has dried some to a leather hard consistency, Ken trims the bottom of the pot – in this case large mixing or bread bowls. He shapes the bowl, and trims the …
Greetings from the Garden! This CSA box has greens, onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, and parsley. Field Notes. Ken did get into the green house and started cleaning, clearing and getting ready to plant The weather has been unseasonably warm. Rather than celebrating we are wary. for the past two years Ken has lost his grape crop. Warm nights above freezing often sets plants in gear and if they are flowering or setting …
Most years in August someone starts a “local food challenge.” My challenge is more like Barbara Kingsolver’s in her book Animal, Vegetable Miracle or Joan Dye Gussow in This Organic Life. How much of our diet year round can be local? Ken and I store many crops available for sale this time of year. Onions, squash, garlic, potatoes, beets, carrots, black or daikon radishes, giant kohlrabi. Until last week we had winter tomatoes, cabbage, rutabagas. …
Eggs have a season. It starts as the days lengthen – usually early February. Think lent and Easter; there is a reason that Easter bunny has a basket of eggs! Eggs are a versatile, great source of protein. Our hens have a nutritious diet of sprouted grains, organic ground feed, kitchen culls and pasture. Everyone tells us they can taste the difference. Here is their portable coop in spring, summer, …
Greetings from the Garden! This box has pie pumpkins, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, beets, celery root, parsley, and salad mix Field Notes. Happy Ground Hog’s Day, Imbolc, St Brigid’s Day, St. Blaze, Candlemas – or whatever you may call it. This midway point between solstice and equinox is when the days lengthen dramatically, the cold doesn’t last, and Ken starts monitoring temperatures in greenhouses. We are in transition and can feel spring’s approach. The …
Greetings from the Garden! The box this week has salad mix, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic, carrots, and cabbage Field Notes. Ken continues planting for the salad mixes, and has been making pottery. Soon he will start full season crops like onions and celery and parsley. Then it will be one planting after the next. Soon after that Ken will be seeding and transplanting in green houses. This time of year …
Winter includes many necessary tasks. Now the following are done: seeds ordered, taxes prepped, sales tax filed and paid, etc. Now I clean and weave between harvest dates. I am finishing off a test warp. I thought it would make two rugs, but I have enough warp for a smaller third rug with the remaining balls from three worn out wool blankets I am trying out something new – I had read about this …
Ken is in the studio making pots. I like to sneak down with a camera and snap some photos. He centers the clay He pulls up the pot’s sides He cleans the top with a chamois He trims excess off the bottom With a wire Ken cuts the pot from the …
Greetings from the Garden! This CSA box has salad mix, cabbage, potatoes, winter tomatoes, onions, garlic, winter squash, carrots, and beets Field Notes. Ken’s winter routine is to ski out to the greenhouses and check for deer and rodent damage. Soon he will be checking the inside temperatures in for planting! Ken continues planting in winter – he is planting greens for salad mix. People ask why we don’t do shoots and micro greens year …
Ken taught the first pottery class of 2017 yesterday morning. Today he started making pottery. He said he was “warming up” by making some larger coil pots. As I headed down the stairs he was busy on a banding wheel. He had decided to smooth out some texture. Then he finished that pot. When I went down to announce supper was ready, he was making a second …
