Tag: gardening

Olio – June 18, 2014
Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

Pet peeves of the day;
- the trend of semi fast food restaurants to shout out across the dining area “Welcome to …” each time a patron enters any door of the establishment. Do they really think that is appealing and welcoming?
- also in a semi fast food restaurant or even a real restaurant for an employee to walk up to your table and grab the tray/plate before asking if you are finished with it and say, “May I take your …” One literally tried to take the tray with my husband’s fries on it today while he was still eating them.
- along the same vein, to be in an establishment and have not only your own server ask how your meal is, but anyone else that works there. We have been asked at one steak place we patronize as many as 4 or 5 times by that many different people about how our meal/visit was while we are still seated and eating. Let us enjoy our food in peace.
Today was resupply all the critters feed. We managed to run out of dog food, cat food, chicken layer and chick starter grower all at the same time. That was a car full.

On our way home, we stopped at a local greenhouse and bought 4 new Day-lily plants, different from the two that I have and also bought 3 more pepper plants as some of my heirloom starts didn’t grow once put in the garden. Of course that mean garden work when we got home and it is HOT, HOT, and humid out there today. Two of the Day-lily plants went in the perennial bed in the front of the house. The garage wall bed had gotten grossly overgrown with grape iris, the purple ones that smell like grape Kool-aid.

That is one of 4 huge clusters when they were blooming. They haven’t been thinned in a few years, they were overrunning the English Daisies, and the bed had gotten weedy as well. I dug them all out! I hate to throw them away, but there are too many to replant. I am going to load them in the tractor bucket and dump them where we don’t mow. I bet some of them will come up next year and bloom there. A few of them were moved to a bed by the deck. The rest of the bed now has the other two Day-lily plants, two lavender plants, some English Daisies, a yellow poppy, three clusters of Dutch Iris plants that I divided from the deck area and on the opposite side of the walkway out of the garage side door, the Bronze fennel. The bed is weeded, watered, and mulched with spoiled hay until I can get some more shredded mulch to apply to the bed.

It looks sparse now, but will fill in quickly and have more variety.

The haying is not going as quickly as we had hoped. Jeff is trying to do too much at the same time. They tettered the upper fields yesterday then came back and raked it into rows for baling, but the first bale was too green so they left it to mow the lower field and ran out of fuel. This afternoon the have turned the hay and

hopefully will get it baled this evening as we are due for rain for a few days.

The first batch of mustard is so good, there are 3 batches fermenting now to share. Two are Bavarian style and one is a repeat of the horseradish recipe.

I think I am going to have to buy some sausages to grill soon.

Raspberries are ripening. Tonight I harvested about a cup of them and resisted eating them as I picked. They went into the freezer. As soon as I have a quart, there will be a raspberry jam making session.

Life is good on our mountain farm.
June 18, 2014
A Week on and off the Farm – June 14, 2014

This week, two of our grandchildren celebrated birthdays. Our eldest, son of our eldest turned 9, our first granddaughter, daughter of our youngest, turned 3. Though we didn’t actually get to spend their birthday with either of them, they are special.

The garden is growing. The garlic looks like it is ready to harvest and cure. Agree?

I never did make garlic scape pesto. Oh well, there is always next year as it is a crop we plant annually in quantity to share with our kids. The peas are or so close to being ready for the first batch of lightly steamed or sauteed fresh peas. My mouth is watering at the thought. The raspberry patch is starting to ripen. It is really going to be a challenge to bring enough in to make jam or smoothies with as I graze as I am in the garden, they are so delicious fresh.

A few weeks ago, while in Lowes, I purchased two new garden implements, a hoe with a two tine rake on the other end and a loop hoe. The loop hoe is an okay tool in bare soil. The other implement bent the very first time I used it and it will be returned to Lowes along with a wire brush they sold us for our new grill that has coated cast iron grates and specifically says DO NOT USE A WIRE BRUSH ON THE GRILL PLATES. A few days after I purchased them, I received a copy of one of the only two magazines to which I subscribe and they had an article on must have garden tools, one of which is a new Rogue Tool Hoe that has a tapered, sharpened end, flat at the end and a 3 tine rake on the other end. It is American made, forged and solid. I ordered one and was notified that they were backordered and it would be several weeks. I okayed that and two days later, was notified that it shipped. It is a great tool, well worth the money and the wait. Used on its side, it cuts right through the weeds. The end cuts deeper for heavier rooted weeds and the rake grabs even young tap rooted plants and pulls them right up. The wooden handle is thick and well balanced. They aren’t paying me or giving me anything, but I highly endorse their products.

This is the first week of the summer that we have had house guests. Jim’s cousin and his wife spend Thursday night with us on the way to Pennsylvania to pick up his youngest son from college and will spend tonight with us on their way home to Georgia. They brought us two bags of Georgia peaches to enjoy along with pecans and a lovely loaf of bread. Some of the peaches were very ripe and after they left yesterday morning to finish their trip north, I prepared about half of them for peach jam.

In 25 or more years of making jam and jelly, this was my first experience with peaches and it didn’t set up properly. Last evening, we went to town to purchase more fresh pectic, new lids and while there, I bought another case of 1 cup jelly jars and reprocessed it last night with a bit more lemon juice and a new package of pectin. It turned out perfectly and they will get to take a jar home with them tomorrow along with a couple of jars of berry jams from last season, some of the cured garlic still left from last year and a dozen of my fresh eggs to enjoy once they are home.

I subscribe to a delightful magazine called taproot. It comes out 4 times a year, contains no advertisements, often contains a gift, such as a small notebook or some notecards with artwork from one of their many artist contributors. It always has wonderful recipes, craft ideas and generally a knit, crochet or sewing pattern in it. This issue has infused vinegars and three fermented mustard recipes that I want to try. Today while making a vinaigrette from it for our salad tonight, since I already had the small blender out, I made the Horseradish mustard to sit and ferment for three days before adding in the last two ingredients. Once it is completed, I will divide it into 4 oz jars and share the finished product with our kids that want to try it. (It tasted delicious even without the fermentation and last two ingredients, so I bet it is going to be great.)

There are two more recipes for other mustards in the magazine, but I bet it will be hard to beat this one.

I must have been born in the wrong century. I love preserving, growing a garden, spinning yarn, knitting, and cooking from fresh ingredients. As we await their return for the night, I am preparing a meal of roasted radishes, turnips, yellow squash, garlic, spring onions, rosemary from our garden and the Farmers’ Market. Local grass finished beef kabobs with Monterey seasoning that I make. Shrimp with mustard basil marinade. Salad with local vegetables added and the vinaigrette from taproot magazine with fresh from my garden thyme.

Life is good here on our mountain farm.

June 14, 2014
Sew Pretty

My baby girl (well, she a big girl now with two kids of her own, but she will always be my baby girl) and I text back and forth often. Short little conversations, just keeping up. Oh course we talk on the phone too, but not daily.

A couple of weeks ago while shopping at one of our two natural food stores, I found the blue market bag on the left in the top picture. It is a One Mango Tree bag, made in Northern Uganda. One Mango Tree provides sewing training, steady jobs, a daily meal, school fees stipends for children, bicycles, etc. and the bags are eco-friendly and fair trade. I texted a picture of it to my daughter. She at some point had purchased one off of their website to use as a purse and decided it was too large for that purpose. She asked me how big mine was as it was sitting on the back seat of my car full of groceries and I measured it when I got home. It is about the same size as hers, but has a matching fabric strap where hers has a braided handle which she says hurts her shoulder when it is full of market goodies. I asked her what she was looking for size-wise to use as a purse and she gave me the dimensions she was seeking and told her the style of bag would be so easy to make, that I would make her one.

Last Wednesday on my way to knit night, I stopped at the fabric store and selected fabrics in the colors that she likes, taking photos and texting them to her (we live 850 miles apart). Once the outside fabric was selected via text message, we started on the lining and the questions about whether she wanted it stiffened with Pellon. She didn’t know what Pellon was but did want it stiffened to use as a purse. On my way to get bias tape, which I didn’t use, I found a card of buttons that matched perfectly. The sewing supplies sat in my spinning chair for a week. I haven’t spun or sewed all week, though I did start a knitting project and read two books, worked in the garden and yard.

Yesterday, I did make a pattern out of butcher paper and added it to the pile. Today after lunch, Jim went out to do a bit more with the weed wacker and I set about to make the purse. About an hours worth of cutting, ironing and sewing and my baby girl has a new purse. A few texts back and forth for her to see it compared in size to the other bag and to decide whether she wanted the button and if so as a decoration or functional and she is happy. I have plenty of the fabric left and think I will make her a matching market bag them mail them off to her instead of her having to wait for us to visit much later in the summer.

June 11, 2014
The Good, The Bad and I’ll spare you the Ugly

THE BAD

Last night we went on a date night, that should be good, right? The dinner was fine. The movie we went to see had started 40 minutes earlier than the time we had noted, which must have been from the previous day and it had been playing for 20 minutes when we got there, so we picked a different movie that started at 8 p.m. We have only walked out of two movies in our 36 years of marriage, one because it was longer than we thought and we had to pick eldest son up at a concert when he was too young to drive himself there and the second one was last night. Think “Animal House” with more vulgarity and no humor. We made it only half way through the movie and got up and walked out.

It was late and I was a bad chicken keeper and I didn’t go over to close the pop door to the coop or the door to the chicken tractor and my gamble was an epic fail. An O’possum got in the coop, killed one 12 week old pullet and seriously injured another. I found a pile of feathers at the coop entrance, another at the run gate, and what was left of the pullets in the cull pen. I feel like a heel. I brought the injured pullet in, cleaned her wounds and put her in a large dog crate in the garage with food and water to watch her and see if she is going to heal or if we are going to have to euthanize her. I know predators happen, but this was preventable.

She is eating a little and drinking water, and she moves around a bit in the crate, but she is so pitiful.

THE GOOD

This morning, after dealing with the mayhem, we drove into town for breakfast at our favorite local diner, then on to The Farmers’ Market. Today was customer appreciation day, so some vendors had give away goodies for their regular customers. For the past couple of years, Jim has given me a Flower CSA from our favorite local organic farmers, Stonecrop Farm. We have had to miss a couple of bouquets each summer due to travel, so this year, we decided to just buy a weekly bouquet on the weeks we are home and flowers are available from them. We purchased a bouquet, a few veggies that I’m not growing and got a bonus baggie of micro greens as a gift.

Yellow poppies, pink peonies (mine won’t bloom) and two different dianthus colors with mint and wheat stalks. Quite a stunning bouquet to put on the dining table.

After our return, we took turns wearing ourselves out trying to start the big commercial Stihl weedeater for the first time this season, always a challenge. I finally gave up and went back to weeding and spreading the mulch we bought a few days ago, when with sweat and swearing, Jim finally succeeded. When we were both were hot and worn, we took a break and made a Lowe’s trip. I was short 4 bags of mulch.

A decade or so ago, my Dad made me a little wooden decorative wheelbarrow. It has lived at a couple of houses now and is usually filled with flowers in the summer and pumpkins and gourds in the fall with a mum. It had fallen into disrepair, so before we left for Lowes, I repaired it and decided that a couple of flower baskets needed to be purchased to fill it as well. At the Farmers’ Market, I added a few more herbs to my collection and they needed pretty pots for the deck as that is where the bulk of my herbs live.

The front of the house, the perennial bed in the breezeway alcove are weeded and mulched, the herb collection is potted up except for the fennel and one lavender that will go in the garden tomorrow when I have the energy to move again. Jim has weed wacked the culverts, the well head, around the house and around the trees and shrubs on the driveway hill. I pushed the gas powered mower and cut the front and back yards. When I thought I was done, I decided that the last flower bed, a small one that started out as a nursery bed by the side of the deck also got weeded. We are spent.

Dinner is “Mustgo,” ever had it? It is the leftovers in the fridge that must go. Tonight’s Mustgo is left over pot roast, pork tenderloin and a huge new salad with micro greens and green onions.

The house and gardens look great. Now we rest.

May 31, 2014
Olio May 29, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

Today’s harvest, a bowl of fresh eggs and a basket of chard for our dinner.

The beautiful Merino roving became this lovely 125 yards of Navajo plied yarn. I can’t decide whether to make a scarf out of it or put it up for sale. It has been soaked is currently drying. It seemed appropriate to Navajo ply it as the book that I am currently reading is

Navajo Autumn, R. Allen Chappell

The morning was humid, but not too hot, so some more of the breezeway flower bed was weeded and more mulch applied. A few more mornings and that task will be complete. The afternoon turned stormy, thunder, lightening and heavy rain showers, so the garden is getting a good soaking, but no work in it.

May 29, 2014
Payback Day

Yesterday I played, all day. After the spin in and potluck, I came home and finished the last few yards of the Finn X Jacob roving and started plying it with the Red Tunis. I ended up with 230 yards of lovely yarn to add to the 202 that I had previously spun.

Today Jim took off on his motorcycle around 10:30 a.m. and I started on some house cleaning, trying to rid the house of a few pounds of dog hair. I took a break for lunch and then tackled outdoor chores. Mowing first on the tractor around the house and between the house and barn, then with the lawnmower to get closer to the house, around the garden and chicken pens and also around the fruit trees. The tractor will do most of the orchard, but not close to the trees.

Yesterday at the spin in, one of my friends gave me a handful of sweet potato slips, both white and orange and I put them in water overnight to perk them back up.

I wasn’t sure where I still had space in the garden and I still hadn’t planted the Seminole Pumpkins and the winter squash and while I was working I had a flash of inspiration. Last year when I started raising chickens and bought straight run chicks from Tractor Supply, I ended up with more than my share of cockrells and needed to do something about them until our eldest son could come build the chicken tractor. I lined one of my 4 compost bins with chicken wire, put a tarp over the top and fenced in pen in front of it. I was delighted that they cleared all of the weeds out of it. This year when I got the 10 Buff Orpington chicks and divided the coop into keepers and culls, I again employed the compost bin idea, but put the chicken tractor in front of two of the bins then used two sides of the coop run as two sides of the cull pen and added some more fencing to give them a run too. Again, they cleared all the weeds for me. There is still more than a foot of good composed horse manure mixed with chicken manure. I moved the chicken tractor parallel to the coop, changed the fence arrangement, taking away some of their space, but still giving them a good grass area and two compost bins to scratch in.

This opens up the two compost bins that they have so kindly cleared for me, leaving me only two young pokeberry and one burdock to dig out. The bins were forked deeply to blend the chicken manure into the compost and to turn any seedling in and planted 14 sweet potato slips in one bin and the pumpkins and winter squash in the other.

Two more 5 X 5 foot beds instantly with nice rich soil. Now hopefully, the flea beetles will leave the sweet potatoes alone and the squash borers will leave the pumpkins and winter squash alone. They will all be nice additions to the fall harvest. The chickens are doing a nice job of breaking up some large stalks in the other two bins and dispatching the weeds. I do need to dig out some pokeberry and burdock in them.

Tomorrow, I am finally going to put the tomato starts and most of the pepper starts in their beds.

For now, I’m tired. Tomorrow is another day I can work the garden while Jim rides his motorcycle to meet our youngest son and maybe his family for lunch a couple of hours from here.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

May 25, 2014
Fiddle-dee knit

My crafting has been slow of late. The knit project that gets the most of my time is Lola Shawl by Carrie Bostick Hoge published in the most recent issue of Taproot magazine, issue 9::Breathe. The shawl as published is a triangular shawl knit from either fingering or worsted. I wanted a heavier, larger shawl than I generally make and selected Quince Lark a worsted weight yarn to make it. After about 1 skein of knitting and looking again at the photos in the magazine, I decided that I didn’t like the way the edge on the shawl lay and feeling adventurous, frogged what I had knit and started over, making the shawl a mitered square shawl instead, using the border that was on the Lola pattern. Yesterday while we were on our road trip, I decided that the stockinette part was sufficiently large and I wanted to save two skeins for the leaf pattern border. The lace pattern is an 18 stitch by 18 row pattern and to keep it a mitered square, I needed to keep my increase pattern going, breaking up the border into 3 sections instead of one continuous border. Row 1 was a piece of cake. Row 2, the wrong side row is purled and has a P2tbl stitch. No matter what I did, it didn’t work out right. Instead of looking it up, I plodded along and realized at the end of the row that it couldn’t be. This morning, I tinked the entire row of about 300 purled lace stitches and after a well doggie vet visit for our 210 pound baby, I watched a You Tube on how to do the stitch and started again. This is the most fiddlely lace pattern, but I am determined to make it work.

At night I have been spinning. I finished a little more than 2 ounces of Tunis singles in a color called Sebastian.

This is going to be plyed with a Finn/Jacob that is being spun.

I’m hoping it is going to make a tweedy yarn. There is enough of the Tunis that I hope to make enough yarn to knit a rib warmer.

The other task of the day was transplanting the tomato seedlings deeper into larger pots. They are getting a few hours of filtered sunlight each day and spending the rest of the time under the grow light. Another couple of weeks and the peppers and tomatoes will go in the garden.

May 5, 2014
May Day – ooops, almost

The past two days have been beautiful after the heavy rains of the prior days. Jim has gone off on his Harley for short rides that turned into long rides, but he is enjoying it and getting more comfortable on the big bike.

Me, I just enjoy the farm and the beautiful weather. It was still wet outside yesterday to do any playing in the dirt, but today, since the garden is still pretty soggy, I worked on the porch and deck pots. This winter was hard on the shrubs in front of the house and we lost everything except for the Barberry. It looks lonely amongst the dead Nandinas and the other shrub, I can never remember, that we should never have been sold for our climate. I have to decide whether to move the Barberry or replace the other shrubs. The front bed is under an overhang and has to be watered, it is also on the north side of the house so it receives no direct sunlight. The shade plants that I am most familiar with all are deer magnets, so I don’t want to replace the shrubs with them. Before the shrubs were put in, I had a perennial bed of English Daisies, grape Iris, and a few daylilies. After the regrading was finished a couple of years ago, I moved them to the east side of the garage and put in the shrub bed. I should have left well enough alone. I think I will just put several half barrels along the front rail and plant annual flowers in them for spring and summer color.

Today was just flower pots.

A quick trip to Lowes to fill up the back of the CRV with plants.

Petunias and trailing petunias in the front.

Geraniums with Verbena on the south deck, they match the cushions and umbrella and the hummingbirds love them. I still have a large pot that goes between the garage doors that needs something tall and spiky and a hanging pot for the shepherds crook. Last summer I never had to water, but also could never eat outside. I would rather have to water and be able to enjoy dinners on the deck this summer.

Now to go run the chicks out of the coop for some sunshine.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

May 2, 2014
I LOVE SPRING!

Even high in the mountains, we are beginning to see the squirrel ear leaves. Because of our very cold winter and spring, everything is blooming at once, all of the trees that normally stagger their blossoms and pollen are exploding at once. Fortunately, neither Jim nor I seem to be seriously bothered by it.

The chicks have been in the coop for almost two weeks separated from the 4 adults by a frame and net wall. Yesterday, I pulled back one edge of the net which would allow the chicks to move to the outside of the coop and into the run, but the hole was too small for the adult birds to pass into the secure part of the coop. It seemed like it was going to work. The chicks moved about within the coop and the adults left them alone. I suppose I should have waited a week to see how that worked out, but I didn’t and this morning, I removed the partition and netting, opening the entire coop including the blocked off nesting boxes, added fresh hay and the chicks seemed to enjoy the additional space. I removed their food to the run, hoping that they would venture outdoors on their own. Only one was bold enough to do so and she was promptly attacked by Cogburn and one Buff hen who merciless attacked as I ran from the garden in through the run to rescue her. One of them had pecked her head to the point it was bleeding and she was desperately trying to squeeze through the fence wire to escape. She was cuddled and soothed, brought in to have her wound cleaned and treated and taken back to the coop. One of the hens was inside the coop intimidating the chicks. I know they have to establish a pecking order, but the pecking was a bit too severe, so I went back to the garage, brought the frame back out and modified it to allow the chicks to move throughout the coop, but making the access too small for the adults.

By adding another vertical I was able to attach two boards so they can move through the narrow “door” and pulled the partition a few inches away from the pop door so they can squeeze around the edges. Hopefully no one will be injured again. I also gave them back their food inside for now. I guess they need a few more weeks of growing so their size is more similar before I try again.

Today is cooler than the past few days and it is windy, but still a nice day to be in the garden. The peas are growing nicely, the garlic looks healthy and today I added 8 cabbage plants, 8 curly kale plants and 8 rainbow chard plants for some greens.

After planting and watering them, I attempted to put a row cover over them to keep the cabbage moths from laying their eggs on the leaves. It is up, but not well. Once the wind dies down, I will have to go out and try again. The laying hens benefited from my efforts by getting a box full of weeds and grubs to enjoy.

It is so nice to be out in the garden, digging with my bare hands in the warm rich soil. Nope, I don’t bother with manicures.

Now I am off to fight with a cellular phone company over my Samsung galaxy 3 that gets so hot I can’t carry it in my pocket and only holds a charge for 4 to 5 hours even with the data use turned off. This is not acceptable as we only have cell phones, no landline. Then on to knit night with my friends.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

April 23, 2014
Planting Day, Spring at Last

My first seed start of this year was an epic fail. First, I got anxious and started them way too early, knowing that I can’t plant any tender plants until at least Mother’s Day, and as usual, I gave them at least 8 weeks head start, knowing from past experience that they would get pale and leggy before planting time. Second, I planted them and put the grow light and heat mat in a back bedroom, not out where I would see them and remember them. Third, I planted them just as my 91 year old Dad came to visit, we took a day trip to meet some friends, and I spent a week in Northern Virginia babysitting the eldest grand. Sure enough, I monitored them until just about the time they sprouted, then promptly forgot they were there, so no grow light, no removal of the moisture cap, no watering. I remembered them while I was in away and by then it was too late to salvage anything. The tray had dried out planting cubes and 4 to 6 inch long dry threads of plant stems. My decision was to just go to the nursery and buy pepper and tomato plants this year. Today as I was running other errands, I looked at the plants. They wanted more than $3.50 each for them. The selection was terrible. Instead, figuring I still have about 4 weeks before they can go out, I started over at home.

Started are 8 Jalapeno, 4 Habanero, 4 Anaheim, 4 Cayenne, 4 Bull nose Bell peppers. Also 8 Hungarian paste, 4 Brandywine, and 4 Heinz canning tomatoes. In pots, I started ginger, tall basil, and spicy globe basil.

When the basil sprouts and gets a few inches of size on it, I will transplant some of the seedlings to peat pots and once warm enough, I will put them in the garden, the pots will contain a plant or two and stay on the deck for a quick cutting when I am cooking or making a salad. The ginger looks pretty in a pot on the deck and it does enlarge the root, so that you can dig part of it for household use. Unfortunately, the one I started last year stayed outside a bit too long before I brought it in and it didn’t survive.

All of these efforts were set up in spaces where I will see them and remember them this time.

The grow warmer and light are on the kitchen counter below my daily dishes. The pots are in the south facing window in the laundry room where we feed the dogs and through which I pass each time I go to deal with chickens or to put garbage or recycling in the containers in the garage.

Also on this beautiful day, I enjoyed lunch with a special friend to celebrate her birthday which was yesterday and then once home, I mowed about a half acre around the house and over to the chickens so that I don’t have to wade through nearly knee high grass that seems to have grown almost overnight.

In checking out my garden, the peas that I planted a few weeks ago are about 2″ tall, but the paths are quickly getting overtaken by weeds. I think within the next couple of days, I will attack the paths with thick layers of newspaper and a thicker layer of hay. Most of the beds were heavily mulched with hay over the winter and except for the berry beds, they look pretty good.

The spring and summer garden season is beginning, I love it.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

April 21, 2014