Manny helps in the greenhouse

My youngest daughter has two cats that live with me at the farm.  One of them is Manny, a cat from the Human Society that came to live here shortly before she graduated from college.  She  saw his picture on their website and sent Mom and I to rescue him.  He is a Maine Coon, a wonderful, big cat.  This summer he has gotten used to being outside during the day and loves to be wherever there is something going on at the farm. 

I have been getting the greenhouse ready for winter plants and doing some sowing of seeds and Manny followed me out there one evening and was busy snooping around.  All of a sudden he was on the potting counter and then on top of the door eying the exposed rafters. 

I quickly grabbed a picture to send to Caitlin, glad that I happened to have my phone handy.  I worried that he wouldn't be able to get down and didn't want him to fall or jump but he was able to jump back to the potting counter without incident.  What a cat.

apples

I have two young apple trees and last year was the first year for them to bear fruit and we had a couple dozen small apples on each of the two trees.  This year the east tree only had a handful of apples but the west tree was loaded with big crisp apples.  Most of them we a half pound by weight.  We have not sprayed and we had a little superficial damage to the skin on some of the apples but really none to the flesh. 

Although we planted the trees straight they both are growing at a steep angle toward the north.  Dad came out and we staked the apple trees.  I had purchased a tree stake that used a rubber tube to apply tension on the tree but it was not strong enough to straighten the tree or even keep it from getting worse..  We changed it to a fence post at an angle with a wire on a high tensile fence ratchet.  We used some pieces of garden hose to protect the tree from the wire and every few days we tighten the ratchet a little more so that the trees are gradually straightening up.  Here is the west tree loaded with fruit and leaning to the north.  In the background to the right in the picture you can see the east tree which is not as dramatic but still leaning. 

 Here the tree has gentle pressure to straighten up the tree gradually.  All of those apples have since been harvested and enjoyed. 

This year I made a small batch of crock pot apple butter with some of the apples and shared some and sold some in the farm stand.  I am not worried about the other tree yet.  I was reading that some trees have an every other year habit of fruiting so I will be anxious to see what happens next year.  I am trying to add new fruit each year to the farm so this years apple harvest was really fun. 

fall already?

I am not sure when it happened but the summer is gone and we are smack dab in fall.  This summer was disappointing in many ways so I would not wish it back.  The weather did not cooperate, the harvests were meager and the blogging just did not happen.  I was thinking that it had been at least a month since I had last sat down to put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard?).  But it was nearly three months ago since I have written here and my recipe blogs have not fared much better.  I have been trying a few new recipes and taking pictures now and then so that I would have them when I was able to get back to it, so now it is time to get it all on the page and hit 'publish'. 

Where are things at with the garden?  After a couple of overnight frosts that took out the tomatoes we are predicted to have some nice weather over the next 10 days.  I am hoping that will allow me to get the remaining vegetables out of the garden and the garden put to bed for the winter. Moisture seems to be a feast or famine situation this year.  Right now we are in the famine stage and I fear that i will need to water just to be able to harvest some root crops, pull up the old plants and work in some compost.  What a change from our very wet spring and heavy rains of the summer. 

 I am also seeding for the winter greenhouse.  I began planting for the winter on September 30, seeding lettuces, mustards and Asian greens into cell trays.  Those first trays have sprouted and some are developing their second set of leaves.  Soon they will be ready for transplanting into the gutter planters and the tubs.  I have seeded a few more trays which are on the heat mat and there will be more to come once those have sprouted and are moved off the mat.  It is great to be back in the greenhouse.  On sunny days it is warm enough to need to run the fan for a few hours.  After a discouraging summer garden I am optimistic about the winter.  Each year we learn more about the greenhouse environment.  Last year was colder than normal and I ended up moving the tables away from the glazing so this year we are starting with the tables in the center of the room.  Also this year we will try hanging the gutter planters in an east-west direction instead of the north-south direction that we have used since the greenhouse was built.  It should make for easier traffic patterns with the tables in the space where I used to walk.   

baby greens

finally a garden update

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted and even longer since I posted pictures.  To be honest my battle with the weeds is not yet won and who wants to see pictures of weeds.  I have had some help with the weeding.  Caitlin was home last weekend and pulled some weeds and my sister, Lisa has been over several times to help.  It is great to have company in the garden.  First a little update and then some pictures.

Mother Nature has made gardening challenging this year to say the least.  We had a harsh winter, cold wet spring, rain, bugs and now no rain.  The garden has some successes, some disappointments and some things that are still to be determined.  Most of the plants that I started from seed that got into the garden earliest seem to be doing well.  There were plants in cups waiting for the weather to cooperate to allow for planting that quit growing and probably should have been transplanted into bigger cups while we waited that eventually died.  Some of those same small plants got planted in the garden late and it will be interesting to see how they do.

Only about 3/5 of the sweet corn seed got planted.  We did get a decent stand even though it went in late.  My plan was to do a three sisters experiment.  In the three sisters corn is planted and once up pole beans are planted next to it and the beans use the cornstalk as a pole to climb up.  The third sister is a vine crop that is planted amongst the corn.  The vine crop, winds its way through the corn providing shade for the root zone of the corn and beans and weed suppression.  In our case the vine crops were started in the greenhouse in the spring and they went in when we could.  Some of them are doing well.  The pole beans have just been planted.  They may not amount to anything and there might not be enough of a season left for them to mature into a crop but I had the seed and thought I would give it a shot.

I only got about half of the tomatoes planted but there are some of each variety.  Just not all of each variety.  We are getting tomatoes.  And a few are getting red.  The new version of tomato cage is working well.  I have more to make but I am liking them.

I planted leeks and Brussels sprouts for the first time this year.  Lisa is growing half of the leeks at her house in her raised beds and there is a row here at the farm.  The Brussels sprouts are doing okay. A few holes in the leaves and no sprouts yet but I think they need a long season.  I have never had much success with carrots but this year they seem to be doing better.  They are hard to weed and I really appreciate that Cait ended up with that row to weed and she did a great job with them.

The zucchini and yellow squash are starting to produce and so far that is the only crop in the farmstand.  A few have sold.  Last year they were planted in a patch with the other vine crops.  This year I put them in rows and they are a lot easier to harvest.  I do have some fruit with blossom end rot.  I am doing research but wonder if our week where we had 6 inches of rain is the culprit.  There are lots of fruit that are not affected so I am glad for that.

The new cranberry plants are looking good.  The blueberries that I transplanted are a mixed bag.  They have been struggling in their original location and my attempts to acidify their soil did not seem to be working.  This spring I moved them.  I had three varieties with two plants of each variety.  Two of the varieties are leafed out and appear to be doing okay.  Both plants of the third variety are doing nothing.  I have not had the heart to give up on them yet but it isn't looking good. The sand cherries are coming along.  The ones that were nibbled off have new leaves and the tomato cages wrapped in chicken wire seem to be keeping them safe.  The elderflower plants are doing well and the gooseberry, which was also nibbled off looks like it may make it.

The nut trees are part of the to be determined list.  They were bare root and did not get in the ground as soon as they should have and then water has been an issue.  I am not sure if they are getting enough.  I guess we will wait and see.

Last year we had apples for the first time.  This year one tree has a bunch of small apples but the other has only a couple.  I have heard that some trees only bear every other year so a little more research is indicated.  The plum tree that had a few small fruit a couple weeks ago now has bigger fruit.  We got a nice crop of raspberries.  Cait and I picked some when she was home and I will share a couple of pictures that she took of our haul.  I have been picking more as they ripen and I found an interesting jam recipe that I am going to try making after a trip to the store.

We also had some volunteer plants.  Last year the cilantro went to seed and somewhere in the part of the garden still overcome with weeds I can smell its fresh scent.  There are a few small vine crops and some tomato plants that are coming up so it will be interesting  to see what they turn out to be.  We have one big plant that appears to be a sunflower that we left growing.  Now for a few pictures.

Does this look like a sunflower?

plums

Apples

Three sisters, corn and pumpkins, no beans yet.

Brussels sprouts

potatoes are flowering

Lisa's two rows of filet beans. 

some of the sweetcorn.

yellow squash

sweet potatoes

zucchini

A couple of red paste tomatoes

Some green tomatoes

Leeks

 Thanks Caitlin and Lisa for helping with the weeding and thanks Mom for doing the trimming with the weed eater. 

I don't have a picture of it but I think the neighbor's deer came to visit.  Yesterday I was walking back out to the garden to battle more weeds and I saw a movement near the edge of the grove and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the backside of a deer darting into the tall corn in the field next to the garden.  I had mentioned to the neighbor earlier this year that I had seen a deer on the edge of his grove and he commented that he thought it had been eating hay with his horses all winter.  I did not see any new plant damage.  Our edamame had been really badly eaten earlier and I had blamed the rabbits, but maybe it was the deer.  We have two big dogs which I would have thought would have discouraged deer visitors.  Sigh.

the fifth of July

Yesterday, Saturday, the day after the big holiday, my sister and I made a trip to the lake where our folks have a cabin.  We picked Saturday because that was the day that our brother was also making the trip so we would all be there at the same time.  It worked out nice.  The weather was beautiful, we had time to do a little shopping in town and had some great food.

For lunch we had pretty typical summer party food.  I have no pictures but my mom makes a mean taco salad and it is something that I don't make so it is always a treat.  My dad was manning the grill and we had brats, along with potato salad and a couple other salads and fresh melon, strawberries and grapes and Lisa's macaroni and cheese. (recipe Sweet corn mac and cheese) 

For supper we had a chance to use a hamburger gadget that Jack brought along to make stuffed hamburgers.  A patty is placed in this mold and there is a top that when pressed into the patty makes a depression that can then be filled with a fun stuffing.  A second patty is placed on top of the stuffing and then pressure is applied again to make a thick patty which completely encloses the filling.  The patty is popped out of the mold and Jack, with help from Lisa, took a moment to go around each burger pinching the seams to discourage leaking of the filling and then they went on the grill.

This patty is getting stuffed with mac and cheese and chili

Stuffed and plain patties on the grill.

We stuffed ours with Lisa's mac and cheese and we added some chili to one.  They turned out great.  Jack did a great job on the grill.  The hamburgers were cooked perfectly.  The filling was the right temperature and even though they ended up shrinking a little during the cooking they still hung over the edge of the bun.  All in all a  very satisfying sandwich and fun to do. 

My sandwich.

A few more food pictures.

 

 

Lisa's boozy watermelon appetizer (melon, run and mint)

my contribution, cupcakes in patriotic wrappers

steamed zucchini topped with crab salad

first harvest of 2014

we are starting to get some snow peas on the trellis and I picked a few of them. 

There were a few more that never made it to the bowl as they were eaten during the harvest.

And here is the first zucchini that was harvested.

 This was taken on the way to my sisters where I traded it for a steak.  Just kidding, she invited me for supper and made steaks on the grill and grilled potatoes and onions.  I took along the zucchini to share. 

Within a couple days we will have yellow summer squashes big enough to harvest as well.  It is a start. 

the wheelbarrow is planted

We keep getting rain, 5 1/2 inches this week.  It could be worse so I am counting my blessings.  A half hour away they had over 5 inches in one storm where we got 1 1/2. 

There is not much getting planted so I had an opportunity to spend a little time on the wheelbarrow.   Here is the before picture.  It is an old wheelbarrow that was left at Nikole and Brad's house and they were not planning to use it.  It is not very functional as it is low to the ground and has a hard rubber tire so it is difficult to wheel and stuff falls out the front if you stand up straight.

I debated about painting it but like the chippy look.  I did paint the part that will hold the soil with some black rustoleum paint hoping to forestall any additional rusting.

Here it is with a few plants.  I am hoping that they will get bigger and it will have a full, lush look with plants draping over the edges.  It does not have a final location yet.  I am planning to put it in the garden with a section of picket fence behind it and maybe a scarecrow but that part of the garden is not ready yet, needing badly to be weeded and then planted.

Next I am thinking about planting my old weber grill.