Sketches of spring

I got a new sketchbook. It's a small investment for the world of possibilities it holds. The first few pages are quickly getting filled with line drawings of bunnies and different logo letterings. I'm working on a label for the goat milk lotion my sister has been perfecting. And I like drawing bunnies as they are an expressive yet playful subject matter. I try to draw my dog, but if it's even slightly off it looks terribly wrong as my companions face is so familiar to me that anything else seems bizzare.

Today I am going shopping with my friend B. She's picking me up for what will surely be a very girlie day driving through Amish country to buy dirt and pots and veggie baskets and oil for lotions. My list today is a bit long, but I'm excited to work through it and work you enjoy never really seems like a chore. 

I would like to put another Csa bed in today. The early season always starts out slow so I try to get as much in the ground as possible in hopes of filling the baskets with deliciousness early. The late season tomatoes and squash always fill the baskets easily but the early greens and roots always seem to start so slow. So today should put more onions in the ground and some broccoli romanesco as I'm always trying to get those beautiful fractals to grow. 

I also have some carrots in the ground from last year in a rainbow of colors. While I don't imagine they are still tender enough to eat, I am going to process them to put their nutritional value to use in a lotion by shredding, dehydrating, and infusing them into an oil. Waste not want not. 

And the mushroom logs we cut last week are ready to be innoculated, all 100 of them, which is not an easy or quick task. 

So perhaps my list might be a little long, but I figure if I start with the carrots, I'll at least cross one thing off my list that shouldn't take too long. (Oh how I love the food processor!)

The marginal night weather has the florecent lights back on their timer with the tender tomatoes in the house again. But they are looking very good from their short time in the seed starting greenhouse and we should have quite a nice selection for the plant sale this year. 

Alright, enough if my lounging around. It's Saturday and spring. Time to get something done! 

The cold cuts straight to the bone

The smell of fresh garlic fills the house as my dad whips up some eggs straight out of the chicken house. The size and shapes of all the different eggs reminds me of smooth gemstones before they are cut and polished.

Today is a sick day. The rain outside has covered the peacock and his iridescent feathers turn the blue to a different angle so he looks green, like he might be having a sick day too. Rain in December is a mixed blessing. While it's nice that it's not super cold, there's nothing that really chills down to the bone and cuts straight through my immune system like a bitter cold rain.
And I have been out in it every chance I can get with my latest project.

I guess rewind a few months to pictures like this....

The gardens were full, tomatoes were plentiful, love lies bleeding was doing what it does best among the cosmos and everything was growing.  First frost hits and knocks some things out. And then slowly us Ohio gardeners have to watch as each week the bitter cold nights knocks out the tender ones as it marches on towards eventually the demise of the winter stubborn kale.

 It's depressing.

So I started researching and thought about indoor gardening in unheated greenhouses and ended up with some tomatoes in the seed starting greenhouse for about a month after the outside ones had long gone.

These tomatoes held on for quite awhile after their outside counterparts had long since gave up. The tomato fruits were large and green and we brought them inside to finish ripening in the windows.

The other greenhouse held the hopes of little lettuce starts and salvaged plants from the garden we were hoping to hold on for a bit longer, but the single layer of plastic was not very effective at staving off the cold.

In my trips to other farms, I focused on their season extending cold frames and greenhouses, seeing what other people were doing to supplement their outdoor growing season. Seems like cold frames are the way to go. With just a small investment, you can cover quite a bit of ground and with passive solar heat and protection from the wind, you could do quite a bit

So the plan was set into place to get a nice sized cold frame that would extend our season for both homestead sustainability and for bringing more produce to market during a longer season. So far so good, but the process we are working through is for another blog, another time. 

In other news, RIP our High Mill sign. That last terrible wind storm ripped the 4x4s in half. But this picture was taken just a few weeks ago when the hollyhock decided it was their time to bloom in spite of terrible weather.

So Pepper is inside watching the Browns bumble around and we are happy to feed the sheep some great long grass on the hill that we only mowed one time this past year. The chickens have eaten the fall pumpkins and all the sunflower heads have been consumed already (got to save more next year) and the goats have put on their fuzzy winter coats. 

It's not seed ordering time yet, but we are optimistically battening down the hatches for another Ohio winter.

cucumber trellis and hopsyard

The garden hose is set in the middle of a freshly weeded bed of Thai basil and purple kohlrabi as the arc of the water creates a small rainbow with veggies as the pot of gold. As I plucked the few rogue weeds from around the base of the plants, a fledgling came to a confused rest beside me, contemplating if she should hop on one leg or two as she stretched her wings, feeling out the new freedom that she didn't have before. The summer sun is high but the temperature is not. And my dog found something dead to roll in again...

There are quite a few projects in the works. Here's what's going on.

Corina in the cucumber arbor with nasturtium

First, the cucumber arbor is taking off.

Did you know that in order for cucumbers to actually climb instead of bush out, you need to prune them. Shocking for me as well, but Corina and I gathered 'round the Youtube and watched as a Johnny's Seeds employee showed the growing pattern of a cucumber with it's flowers, nodes, and leaves and showed which ones to pinch off as she got hers to grow up single pieces of twine in a high tunnel greenhouse.

Armed with this knowledge, we headed out to the cucumber arbor and started pinching, while scoping out what squash bugs lie under the leaves as well.

When properly pruned, cucumbers can and will indeed climb a trellis, and much to our satisfaction, underneath the pruned layer of leaves, we are harvesting tons of Suyo long cucumbers and miniature whites. The nasturtiums offer more in beauty than they do protection against  the bests that bother the cucumber, but their peppery additions to our salads make them well worth the time in the greenhouse.

Another fun project we have been working on has been the hops.
Jason and I went to a hops growing workshop during the winter workshop season and found out that hops can grow up 25 foot trellises. Hopsyards are usually many of these expensive telephone poles put together into a checkerboard pattern with wires between them. Hops are planted at the bottom and thick twine are run up to the wires 25 foot up.
The initial cost for 1/2 acre of the trellis materials alone would be over $10,000

I do not have $10,000 but I do want to grow hops.

So armed with my new knowledge, I stopped by High Mill on the way back from Wooster and as my dad and I walked the grounds, we found old light posts from days gone by that have outlived their original use.  We also found an old trampoline frame that hadn't been loved in years.

So we put the two together, planting the hops around the base of the circular trampoline frame. We then staked the hops up to the trampoline and then tied twine from the frame up to the top of the telephone pole, labeling the hops varieties as we went. To add to the trellis, we put sunflowers at the base of the hops to provide something additional for them to climb and to restrict the free nutrients to the hungry hops.

It works! Most of the hops made the initial planting shock, preferring the sunflower stalks to the artificial stakes. The sunflowers are now tied to the trampoline frame and the hops are clamoring up the twine.


There's quite a few more project in the works, but I've got to get back out there and start before the heat of the July day kicks in. We are debating what farmer's market to go to as we have more in the ground than we have in a long time. Where would you like to see us?

As the snow flies

It's the early part of March and Ohio has that beautiful tendency to promise spring and then rip the hope away all within 24 hours.

The chicken house has a few fat American style hens in it now and one very flamboyant rooster with a now frozen comb. I saw the weasel bounding around the electric fencing on the perimeter and he must have found a hole as I no longer get a 3 eggs a day, which is most disappointing. I sent my faithful hound after it, but she was a bit confused and put the ducks back into the creek instead. She sniffed around for the weasel's home after it got away and I emphatically tried to get her on the right trail. A herding dog she is, but a scent hound she is not, in spite of her best efforts. My foster pit bull seemed happy to sniff around in the wake of the foul creature but to no avail either.

My sister has moved into the house at High Mill in order to try to finish the renovations I started almost a decade ago. The goats are tethered outside clearing brush around the strawberry patch that will be replanted this year, although perhaps with something new and we will rotate the strawberries somewhere else. They are much more productive when you treat them like an annual crop you replant every couple of years. The brutal winter cold will show with a shudder through the perennial fruit crops this year as I got lucky for quite a few years growing marginal crops but this will be the test of my cultural practices. I plant them. I tend them. I hope for the best and when the weather throws things at me, I just have to smile and see how it goes.

My mother's house has turned into a tea testing laboratory. I got a lot better at saving and drying the herbs from the garden last year and so the mason jars and coffee cans are filled with different dried green leaves along with quite a few bulk herbs and tea leaves I found online.
We put them all on the table and start mixing, starting with a base of black, green or herbal and building a flavor that we are going for from there. Cup after cup has hot water poured over the leaves for a taste test and then a slight modification until the desired effect is reached.
I have developed a deeper appreciation for a well blended tea. I am digging into books about the benefits of herbs to make infusions that are delicious and beneficial for different ailments. And the seed ordering process reflects the blends we are putting together.
In fact, the seed ordering process this year directly reflects the activities of the kitchen in the winter months. It's almost a formula based on how many onions, sauce tomatoes, and broccoli romanesco go into one dish as to how many plants I would need in the garden to supply me with this meal this time next year. Granted, the pasta and cheese needed to complete the dish do not have a spot in the garden, but it's something nice to strive for.

My tiny apartment is a fermentation workshop, with hard cider mead bubbling in the corner, a finished rye I.P.A that just got bottled, edamame and flour on it's slow fermenting journey to soy sauce, and authentic lactic fermenting cabbage burping it's way into different flavors of kraut on my table. The dehydrator is filled to the gills with meyer lemons with some keylimes waiting in the wings for the next round and both of them will hopefully find their way into teas next summer when the herbs are green and full.

So this year is filled with hope, in spite of the snowy slap in the face. This year is going to start in a fury of apple blossoms, giant rhubarb leaves unfurling, grass flushing green for the goats to graze, seeds fighting out of their hard shells into tiny whisps of green, and the epic battle between weasel and hen and guard dog will wage on. Hopefully through all this I will come out wiser and we all will be well fed and happy.

First Week of CSA!

Sunlight bathes the green, lush grass as the trees sway in the warm summer breeze. I collect water for the baby turkeys from the creek, which is warm and crystal clear, flowing over thousands of smoothed over pebbles with tiny snails affixed to them. I snap on the lid on  and walk to the turkeys and dump the box of birds into the new turkey tractor as they dizzily adjust their eyes to the sunlight and the green grass.

The garden is getting soaked today. It's looking amazing and we have staggered the plantings with the experience of quite a few CSA seasons. The radishes are heaving, the kale is lush, and Pepper flushed out that rabbit that likes to hang out in my herb patch and eat all my lettuce. She looks very happy and accomplished for the day and will indeed be rewarded with many frisbee throws and a couple self induced swims in the creek.

The heat of the day has sufficiently absorbed into the ground and now I'm off to pull some weeds in the zinnias and put some cucumber seedlings in the ground.

First CSA pickup is tomorrow and I'm excited to see everyone back! Email me if you have any questions or just stop out and chat. It's going to be a beautiful season. I can just feel it.

A good day for dingo dog.

Walking around the park today just gives me a minute to sigh, fall back and regroup. That last frost really disoriented me and threw me off my super planting trajectory and reminded me that I am actually indeed not in control. I just adapt to what is thrown at me and hope for the best.

So today after a killer week at work, I enjoyed re-centering myself with my new companion, my new foster puppy dog.

He came with the name "Dingo," which I'm not keen on, but if I rename him, I might want to keep him. I say might because we had an awesome day together and I already kinda might want to keep him. He's awesome.

He watched me get supplies for setting up these little guys in the old chicken house. Any guess as to what type of deliciousness (and mild annoyingness) these little guys are?

Then we checked on the small fruits. Looks like the grapes are in blossom and didn't get hit by that end of the month frost like the ones at my work vineyard did.

Here's a couple currants that are coming on for the first time ever. Not sure what CSA members will do with a couple currants per basket, but hey, they grew. Wohoo!

My dad was trimming around the gooseberries, which each have about 2 berries per plant but I am going to net them this year. Darn birds won't get my two berries! I've actually never tasted a gooseberry despite attempting to grow them pretty much since I heard about them. One thing I do know, they make excellent goat feed. Darn goats.

We checked out Corina and Travis's beautiful garden and weeded the onions. One of us might have peed all around the perimeter of the fence to keep the groundhogs out, which also counts as helping.

Then while fixing the sheep fence my hat finally lost the rest of it's stuffing. Oh Marcs. How I love you and your ability to trick me into thinking a paper hat actually can function as a real hat.

After finding a real light bulb for a source of heat, the birds were set up and Dingo made it his job to keep going in there to make sure they are ok. He'd check on the turkeys then check on my car to make sure I hadn't left him and then sweep back to my dad mowing and then the sheep then back to my car. It's like he knows that somewhere in his bloodlines he was made for work like this and he was happy to invent new jobs for himself.

The mowing then progressed into my slightly overgrown part of my garden while my mom weeded the planted part. We are trying to plant in weed fabric and mulch everything early. So far so good.

My mom's pomeranian sneaks into my herb patch and nestles down in the lemon balm. That should make him smell slightly better than normal.

With the bunny on the corner working through the thistles, my mom spreads the grass clippings around the potatoes while my dad's pomeranian suns himself in my beet patch.

While walking up the hill, I might have been texting, head down and got thwaped in the head with a branch covered in mulberries. I really should put the phone away when I'm outside. I am continually amazed at the little things that I miss while I'm focused on something else.

The hops climbing up the barn are in flower, which look like little space ships or burrs. The green leaves are brilliantly colored against the old barn wood.

So I'd say Dingo had a pretty good day. He's curled up around my feet taking a nap with one eye open. Must be an odd feeling to go from jail to this. I sure hope he finds a home soon or else I just might keep him. He's pretty and sweet. 

CSA planting is well underway and we are excited about another great season. We've got a couple turkeys for thanksgiving meals. The lambs are growing like weeds. The weeds are growing like weeds. I am working through the large catalog of seeds that were purchased in the cold dead of winter as each of them finds a spot in the garden and gets loving encouragement to flourish. 

Thankful

Settling down for a post Thanksgiving lazing around and I'm trying to think of how to use up all the cranberry pear chutney I made. Whole cinnamon sticks are waaaay better than ground cinnamon. I am now thinking about how to bake an apple pie with whole cinnamon sticks. Maybe I could put a little trap door opening in the top where I could extract the cinnamon sticks post baking. Or maybe I could just make some cinnamon extract. The powder stuff just seems too bitter for my taste.

Anyway, my sister and I have been crafting like crazy. We sewed our own tea bags out of coffee filters and mixed up our own tea blends with lavender, black tea, oolong, green, chamomile... the works. We got three different flavors together and put color coded strings and handmade tags in each of them. With all the hand labor that went into each tea bag, we ended up putting enough in each bag that they can be reused about 3 times. Or maybe I should just say that one bag makes a quart mason jar full of tea. Either way, they're pretty delicious.

This week we worked on handmade evergreen wreaths. We pilfered evergreens from friend's houses with only a few purchased pieces to really stand out. With just some wire, wreath forms, time, and some pricked fingers, we made 7 pretty darn good looking wreaths. They were really fun to put together. I think I might put them up at the vineyard to see if they sell. They are very unique and just as pretty, if not moreso, than the ones that are at every home improvement store now.

Next up, I'm not sure. Soap? Slippers made from the sheepskins? Winter is much less boring when there's something to do. This weather sure does help too. :)