crossing a couple of things off the to do list

Between a crazy busy schedule and uncooperative Mother Nature the stuff on the to do list has been stubbornly stuck there for most of what was supposed to be spring.  I think that we are past the frost warnings and we are supposed to have a couple of warm, sunny days coming up so maybe the garden will get in.  The 4/10ths of rain that we had day before yesterday has left the ground pretty moist but I am hoping that tomorrow it will be dry enough to plant.

The lawn has been loving the cool, wet weather and I have finally gotten the entire lawn mowed.  It was long enough to almost bale it.  The last of it required raising the deck and taking a half swath in order to make it through.  One good thing is that all of that long grass on the lawn was picked up and used to mulch the walking rows in the garden.  I was able to mulch 4 1/2 rows with a nice thick layer of the cut grass clippings.

The other thing to cross off the list was the farmstand awning.  Nathan and Michelle were at the farm this weekend and Nathan put in some time helping to stabilize the awning's front edge.  A couple more screws and a little paint and it was ready to move down to the end of the driveway.  I put a few tomato seedlings down there for sale and tomorrow hope to add some leeks and lettuces and Brussels sprouts seedlings.

And then since I was taking pictures I took these pictures of the orchard:

plum

plum

pear

pear

ornamental ready to bloom

  The apples are getting leaves but no flowers yet.  The grapes are still dormant.  The blueberries that I transplanted are starting to show early signs of life.

And a teaser

Blog posts have been pretty infrequent lately but I have lots of material to post about.  Soon.  I recently served several appetizers to a group that I belong to when it was my turn to serve lunch. I helped my sister with her daughter's graduation party and she has promised her recipes which were all very good and easy to prepare.  And this weekend, my daughter Nikole will be celebrating a milestone birthday and there will be food.  And recipes.  And pictures.  Plus I vow to get caught up on the cookbook reviews and recipes.

quick and easy appetizer--three ingredients and no cooking

 

a little help with the farmstand

Last year was the first year that we had a farmstand.  We repurposed an old wooden trailer, painted it red and Caitlin painted the lettering on the sides.  Dad and I put on a roof, using some plywood along with some rafters from a dog kennel built by my brother.  This is what it looked like last summer:

My plan over the winter was to cover the rafters and add an awning.  My sister had donated to the cause a sheet of red rubber-like corrugated roofing that I backed with a lightweight wood frame and today was the day to add it to the farmstand.  

This photo is from today.  It was taken in the machine shed where the lighting is poor so the picture is pretty dark.

The rafters are covered on both ends and the awning has been attached.  It is hinged to the uprights that hold up the roof and all that is left is to devise a way to support the awning at the correct angle.  Right now the front edge is propped up by a dark green ladder which is barely visible in the above picture.  I would like to find a way to support it so it is secure in the wind but can be lowered if necessary and fastened to the posts on really windy days.  I am hoping that it will provide a little shade to the vegetable bins as this end of the farmstand faces the south.

I did have a little help on this project.  Below is Caitlin's cat Manny who was my assistant today.

Manny standing on the awning.  He crawled up the rolling stairs in order to get on top.

From the awning it was a short hop to the roof

I have a little touch up painting to do and am considering a little red trim along the edges of the peak.  Caitlin suggested a cute wood filigree to add to the top but we would need to customize one and that might end up being a next winter project as I am hoping to have the farmstand out at the end of the driveway  soon with a few of our extra plant starts for sale.

asparagus update

I am wanting to expand our asparagus plantings.  Two years ago we started some plants from seed and put in one row of asparagus near the potager between the transplanted black raspberries and the blueberry plants.  Last year we let them grow but did not harvest them.  This year we should be able to eat some of our asparagus.  Now I have been eying the cornfield. I have a row of posts that I am in the processing of installing to divide the north half from the south half.  My plan for the posts is to have them hold sprinklers so that I can irrigate the cornfield without having to drag hoses between the plants possibly damaging the plants in the process.  I am also planning to place house numbers on the posts to help with record keeping.  The posts are installed every five raised rows.  Last fall I dug up a few more raspberry canes that grow along the grove and planted them between two of the posts.  I plant to do more this spring using every other section.  I will plant asparagus in the alternating sections.   The pictures are kind of dark but you can see the raised rows in the front, the row of poles and the corn stalks behind.  I still have a few rows to build and posts to install at the far end but hopefully an early spring will allow those to be finished as one of the first spring projects. 

 On January 23 I planted a 9 cell pack of asparagus plants and put them on the heat mat.  On the 31st I planted another 9 cell pack.  Between planting the first set and the planting the second set I did a little reading and found that some people were suggesting soaking the seeds just prior to planting so I did that with the second batch.  So far three seedlings have popped thru in the first batch with none yet on the second batch.  I have quite a few more seeds to plant and was reading today that the asparagus seeds can take up to ten weeks to germinate.  So today I soaked and planted the remaining of my seeds so I have just over 100 more seeds in cells and on the heat mat.  If we get a good rate of germination in a couple years we should have plenty of  asparagus for our family needs with some to sell at the end of the driveway in the farmstand. 

I have been working on the awning for the farmstand and have it built and just need to install it on the farmstand.  I am thinking it is going to take a second pair of hands to put it on.  It will be hinged so that it can be moveable if needed.  I still have the end cap for the roof to put up but I wanted to have Cait put some writing on it before we install it.  The background is painted white but I think it would be cute with some writing on it.

I am also building a little table that will hold a cooler and I am planning to have bags of mixed greens for sale from the cooler on warmer days this winter.  Some of the greens are ready and more are close.  It will give me a chance to use my cute antique scale as I think I will price the bags of lettuce by weight.  

digging potatoes in the snow

Potato update

The title of this post is a little misleading.  We did get a little bit of snow and it was flurrying when I finished digging the last of the potatoes and now--a couple hours later--the ground has a light covering of the white stuff on it.  The last of the potatoes are dug from the cornfield garden.  There are a few in the potager and those will be retrieved tomorrow when the replacement box is installed and the potato towers dismantled.  Once that is done the only produce left will be the kale which is not minding the cool nights and continues to do well. 

Cornfield update

Tomorrow I have one potato trench left to fill in and then there will be 25 raised rows completed and ready for next season.  They have been seeded with oats for a cover crop and the earliest planted are about five inches tall.  There are a few more rows that have just sprouted and a few more that have not germinated yet.  I am hopeful that all will grow this fall but feel that those rows that haven't will germinate in the spring which works too. 

I am working to spread shredded leaves in the walking spaces between the rows.  We had a big wind from the south a few days ago and it plastered every leaf in the orchard up against the pasture fence.  Since there were so many collected there it was easy to mow over them and blow them into windrows to be picked up and spread in the garden.  It was a trick I learned from my dad who did the same with his yard and those leaves were  collected and hauled to the farm.  Lisa has also been generous with her bagged leaves.  Her newest additions are yet to be spread but that should happen tomorrow.

There is room for more eight or ten more raised rows at the west end of the garden where the vine crops were and if weather permits I will be trying to get that area made into raised rows yet this fall as well.  The north half of the garden where the corn grew has not received much attention and that will be on the fall list if the weather cooperates.  I hope to remove the corn stalks and stack them for eventual composting or feed them to the herd.  We will see if they are interested. 

Farmstand update

The farmstand made its way to the machine shed pulled by Dad's pickup.  Right now it is tucked inside the doors in the alleyway.  I plan to cap the ends of the roof and try to add an awning before it is tucked into a final spot for the winter.  Right now the tables in the trailer are ones from the greenhouse and those will go back.  I hope over the winter to get more tables ready that will stay in the farmstand and add display space along the two sides that can hold baskets or perhaps a cooler.   

The farmstand has been a lot of fun and it was sad to put it away for the winter.  It will be fun to tweak it over the winter.