pictures

A few flower pictures which are blurry due to the very windy conditions:

lilac flowers starting to open

west apple tree

east apple tree

ornamental flowering crab

 a few greenhouse pictures:

Kohlrabi

peppers (three kinds)

asparagus

tomatoes (five kinds)

marigolds

East end of the greenhouse

eggplant

sage

west end of the greenhouse

butternut squash

and half done with the raspberries

the row of raspberry canes

the unfinished half, old canes and long grass

the finished half, canes tied to wire and weeded

I have been working on the raspberries.  A couple years ago I dug up some black raspberry canes that grow wild on the edges of our grove.  I was hoping that by moving them to a dedicated space of their own that I could get bigger, easier to pick fruit.  Usually by the time the fruit is ripening the weeds have made it difficult to get to the berries to pick them.  These raspberries fruit on the second year canes.  So each season there are three types of canes, the new ones, the one year canes from last year that will fruit this year and the two year old or older canes that have fruited.  The growth habit of these canes is that they grow tall and are arching.  When the tip of the cane touches the ground they develop roots and will start another plant.  This habit will eventually create a thicket or bramble if not managed.  This is what happens on the edge of my grove.  Last year was the first year that we have gotten much of a crop off of these plants and so this spring I am cutting back the spent canes and tying the year old canes to the top wire to keep them from arching all over the yard.  Last year it got to be impossible to weed or even mow close.  This year I am determined to do a better job of keeping the canes fastened.  I have been pruning the old canes and pulling the grass that is growing around the plants.  Then I am using long twist ties to fasten the prickly canes to the wire.  I have a low wire that is not helpful at all and I will remove that once I get the rest of the row done.  I am using the stirrup hoe to weed out any remaining grass or weeds and when the row is finished I will mow close, cutting the long grass on the edge of the bed that has been growing under the arching canes.  Once the new canes start to grow they will need to be tied up as well but getting these done will make it so much easier.

I am transplanting more raspberries into the big garden.  They will be planted between the posts alternating with rows of asparagus, four sections of each.  I started last year and hope to finish this year.  It will be a couple of years before we are able to harvest a crop.  Last year I made a jalapeno onion black raspberry chutney (recipe here) and I have been pinning raspberry recipes on pinterest and keeping my fingers crossed that we get a big crop.  

It tried to snow today...

I have been trying to take advantage of our brief hint of spring to get a little work done outside.  The first snow last fall was not our usual pattern of a couple of teasers that drop a little layer of snow that lasts for a day and then is gone allowing for more time to put the garden to bed before the real thing (winter) happens.  Last fall the snow kind of caught me unawares.  They predicted it, we knew it was coming but not in time to get all the fall garden chores done.  I got caught with potatoes that never got dug and cornstalks and weeds and all manner of garden trash still in the garden.  I have been kind of hoping for an opportunity to get some preparation work done while it was still too early to plant so that I am not trying to do prep and planting at the same time.  The soil is still to wet to turn it over but I am working on raking the dead weeds and other plant material off the top.  This is the big garden.  There are lots of weeds still on the ground, but you can kind of see the weeds that have been raked off in piles here and there.  There is a pile of shredded leaves on the end of the garden that were supposed to be  spread between the rows.  The trash bags contain more leaves that have been hanging out all winter since they didn't get spread before the snow came either. 

Here are a few pictures of garden seedlings that are under lights in the house.  Not everything has been started yet,  as it is still too early for our zone 4 garden for much of the tender crops.  We are starting a bunch of herbs.  The plan is to use them in the summer of 2016 for a special event and we are hoping to get them started this year and overwinter them in the greenhouse.  Some are perennials a zone or two south of us and we are hoping that our greenhouse will be similar to those zones.   

thyme

sage

lavender

impatiens

 Kim, these are shallots but this is what the onions and leeks looked like before their haircuts.

shallots. 

three kinds of peppers

I have also been rearranging in the greenhouse hoping to make room for the seedlings that are in the house under the lights.  Last winter with the record colds that we had, we ended up moving all the tables to the center of the room away from the glazing since the plants nearest the windows were not growing.  They did better once moved so this year we started with the tables in the center of the room which kept them a bit farther from the windows but left a space along the whole front edge that was unusable.  Now that we are hopefully past below zero temps I am trying to use that space.  The two feet in front of the windows now holds plants.  I made little walkways in the row of tables to be able to get to all of the areas with the watering can.  These pictures show both winter salad greens and summer garden transplants.  The transplants will eventually find their way to the gardens at the farm and the gardens of friends and family.  Some will be offered for sale in the farmstand. 

we tried radishes this year

lemon basil from the house

these sage plants are older than the ones in the house

Amara, a new green for us this year.

onions and lettuces

Kale

more onions, after their haircuts

greens.

Our forecast is for a bit cooler and some clouds which will be nice for the plants in the greenhouse.  There is still lots to do in the big garden but I am pleased to have gotten a start. 

a little progress on the to-do list

Back on January 19 I created a list of goals for the garden.  You can see the list here.  I am pleased to report a little progress on a couple of the items on the list. 

On the weekend we had a bit of sun and some warmth so it was a good day to work outside.  I always like to reuse items if I can and last year Nikole and Brad shared some fencing that they had purchased for their yard hoping to deter their large number of bunny visitors to their garden.  They did not feel that the wire was successful and brought their excess to the farm.  There was a lot of fencing and last year I cut a bunch of it to make a trellis for the pole beans and a second one for the peas.  I used some of it to make a few tomato cages from this plan.  I wanted to see if I liked them and if they worked as well as advertized (they did) I would make more.  I also had spotted a couple of wooden rectangles constructed of 2z4s in the machine shed that at one time had belonged to my dad and he was willing to share so I topped each of the frames with fencing to make racks for curing/drying vegetables after harvest.  This was not on the to-do list and would not be needed until harvest but since they required a bigger section of the fencing it made since to cut those bigger pieces first and then the smaller pieces for the tomatoes from what was left.  I was able to get fencing cut and attached to the 2x2 posts to make six tomato stakes.  I have a bunch more to do but was glad to have gotten a start.  The next warm day I hope to knock out a few more. 

Also on the list were several items in the greenhouse. I am always looking to make better use of the limited growing space in the greenhouse.  Note to anyone thinking of building a winter growing space: if you can, build it bigger than you think you want!  Back in December I added a shelf for germinating seeds.  I was able to find a coated wire shelf at Menards that fit my seedling heat mat and mounted it on the wall.  This freed up table space for another couple of tubs of lettuces.  Not long after that Caitlin and I were back at Menards and bought 10 metal L shaped shelf brackets to put on the East and West end walls for more shelving.  This shelving would hold flats of seedlings that come off the heat mat and trays of shoots and cresses that are grown right in the black trays.  I put up four of the brackets and scrounged up two 48 inch long pieces of plywood for two four foot long shelves on the west wall.  For a few days the boards rested on top of the shelf brackets without being fastened as I wanted to make sure that I had it right before committing to it permanently.  I was kind of glad that I waited to fasten as I decided that I would put longer boards and more brackets onthe west wall and move the shorter boards to the east wall. I left that arrangement for a couple of days to make sure that it was right and then fastened it all down.  Number of square feet of growing space added: east wall 8, west wall 16.

east wall

west wall

I did something similar to create suspended shelves over the row of tables in the center of the room.  I wanted a way to use the space above the tables without too much shading of the plants on the tables.  I picked up a couple of coated wire shelves and temporarily hung them with bale twine to see if I liked it.  Once I determined that it would work we purchased more shelving and used hardware and chain that dad had to permanently hang the shelves.  Number of square feet of growing space added above tables: 20.

temporary suspended shelves

new chain supports replace the twine

I am thinking that those spaces will become vital once we get started with growing the summer transplants.

Right now I start my winter greens seeds in the greenhouse but I am starting my tender summer plants in the house where the temperature is consistently warm.  When I have guessed that we are done with below zero temps I will move the seed starting out to the greenhouse but for now, when it drops to way below zero even with supplemental heat it still may drop down to 25° in the greenhouse overnight.  25° degrees is tolerated by the greens but most of the others would be goners.  It is kind of early yet for starting most things but the asparagus seedlings are up and flourishing.  On my to-do list is an item to plant the remaining asparagus.  I am planning four 16 foot long rows of asparagus in my big garden. One went in two years ago and another two went in last year and the last will go in this spring.  We have started all of our asparagus from seed and had good success. 

asparagus seedlings

 Because the asparagus seed packet did not fill my tray I planted some herbs thinking that even though it was too early to start seeds for transplant to the outdoor garden these could be potted up as houseplants until spring.  So I planted some of two kinds of basil, some sage and some thyme.  Below is a basil seedling.  It is so darn cute but also pretty amazing.  It is less than two inches tall and has four leaves but even when it was only two leaves it already had that wonderful basil aroma.  One little whiff has me dreaming of caprese with homemade mozzarella and ripened-on-the-vine-and-warm-from-the-garden tomatoes.

baby basil plant

Think spring!




   

fun stuff going on at the farm

With the holiday season in full swing there is lots of stuff going on and I have gotten behind on sharing farm news.  Here are some of the happenings...

The farm has a new dog.  For about ten years we have had two big dogs, a white one (Sadie) and a black one (Codie).  Both of these dogs are one-half Great Pyrenees and they have been guardians for our herd and farm.   About the time that Caitlin started mentioning we should get another dog while our aging dogs are able to train it I got a phone call from a friend about a dog that they had that they were looking for a home for.  When they got new Pyrenees puppies for their farm they brought an extra one home for a relative and it turns out the relative was not able to take it after all and the dog was available.  So she came to live at the farm with Sadie and Codie and the herd and me.  Her name is Elke and she she is an absolute joy.  She came to us at five months of age.  She has brought a new youthfulness to Codie and they run and wrestle and roll in the snow every day.  Even yesterday Sadie looked like she briefly wanted to get in on the fun. 

Elke

This year we held a first annual Norsk Baking Day on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  We got together three generations of bakers at my mom's home and spent the day making the traditional family favorites that were originally made by my paternal grandmother.  Every Christmas season she would make donuts, rosettes, krumkake, lefse, kringla and popcorn balls.  Some years she would make peppernuts.  We made all but the popcorn balls.  We had a great time, put some of the goodies in the freezer for Christmas and sent some home with the bakers.  We enjoyed meeting the newest member of the family.  My niece, Steph, and her mom, my sister-in-law Patty, visited at the beginning of our day with Steph's children including her brand new baby girl. it was great to do a little new baby cuddling. We also enjoyed having Bobbie, Brad's mom, join us and we had a quick toast to celebrate Nikole and Brad's engagement.  It was a fun day. There were pictures taken but not by me so once I have them I will share them.  I also have a couple of recipes to collect and then I will share those as well. 

The greenhouse is up and running.  I have spent a little time on projects there.  I put up a shelf to hold the heat mat for seed starting.  I have been using the mat on my tables and moving it to the wall shelf will allow for a few more tubs of greens. 

new shelf holding the heat mat

Caitlin has taken some greens to sell to her coworkers at the architecture firm where she works and we are hoping to get a CSA started.  November is a slow month for growing as it is generally more cloudy but once we start getting more sun I am hoping the volume of greens that we can grow in our small space will take off. We have ordered new seed varieties so it will be exciting to try some new things in our salad mix.  We have grown greens for our personal use the past couple winters but having survived (and learned from) last winter I am more confident we are now ready to take on members.

some greens

greens growing in tubs

8 ounce bag of salad mix

our salad mix on a platter

This generally is not a craft blog but I have been doing a little crafting.  My sister, Lisa, and her friend Judy and I attended a class that Lisa signed us up for at a nearby Home Depot.  The project was to learn how to make a marque sign. 

The sample of the finished project

Lisa drilling and my mom, Jan, holding the board

We do not have ours done yet but we completed the class and are able to finish the project at home.  It needs a second coat of paint on the letters and to attach the lights and build the optional frame.  


I have also been doing some paper crafting. My mom is a snowman fan and her tree is decorated in mostly snowman themed ornaments.  This year I have been seeing a lot of buntings used as decorations and a lot of crafts made from sheet music.  I used Caitlin's cricut to make a bunting.  It was made with small enough triangles so that it could go on a Christmas tree or on the wall.  Mom's tree was already decorated so she hung it on a tall, glass fronted cabinet. I made some paper snowflakes to use as gift tags or hang on the tree.  I also cut apart some greeting cards and made them into ornaments.  I am also doing some paper lanterns.

The bunting says "let it snow!"

ornament from a box of Christmas cards.

snowflakes for mom in white and blue

I made some for Lisa in kraft paper and white

paper lantern