Spring Has Sprung

It has been a cold, wet spring, but we've had a few nice breaks and spring seems to be progressing. Our bees were buzzing yesterday.


These guys have been slower to produce than we had hoped, but they too became very active after this was taken.


We have half the garden in. My, it has been a feat. 2200 square feet is a LOT. We still have peppers, basil, squash, melons, pickling cucumbers and sweet potatoes to put in. Almost there!


Of all the things we planted in huge numbers - the tomatoes are what worry me the most. We planted 25 (Cherokee Purple, Black Cherry, Pineapple, Green Zebra, Marvel Stripe, San Marzano, Principe Borghese, Roma Paste, Black Trifele, Brandywine, and Silvery Fir). Tomatoes don't wait for you like potatoes, onions and squash do. The goal is to can, can, can! We'll see how that meshes with wedding works.
We went to a new trellising method - we don't have 25 tomato cages, and cages aren't that great anyway. We put T posts on the ends, then stakes between each plant (made from pallets, free is good!) and twine supporting each plant. We've already lost one tomato to wind, it happened before we got supports up, but hopefully this will work well.


Onions are going like crazy.


Potatoes too - one of my favorite things to grow. I love that you bury them and they just rise from the dead into this instant healthy plant.



Today was the first time in a few weeks we got 5 eggs! Camilla is laying again and back to her happy chirpy self. How weird that the middle egg looks brown, not green, I just noticed that...must be the background.


We also got lots of beans in this weekend, I'd like to can those too. I love canned green beans! As for wedding planning, it is moving along. I haven't blogged about it because honestly, I don't really enjoy it. The small projects are fun, but I'm finding the whole experience very stressful. I'm hoping I will do some posts after, but for now I don't want to ruin any surprises!

Broody and Molty

There have been some learning experiences going on over here at the farm. Camilla and Buffy hadn't been themselves lately and I was worried they were sick. Camilla stopped laying over a week ago and has been walking around looking depressed with her tail down. I noticed piles of white feathers around, like a bird had been killed in our yard and realized she's going through a molt.


This isn't the typical time of year for molting, but sometimes they go through a partial molt - I think this may be what's going on because there aren't any bald patches, she just looks a little rough. Molting is hard on them, she's been going to bed an hour before the others and not eating as well. So I've been giving her cooked egg and sunflower seeds to make sure she gets enough protein for the feathers to grow back in nicely.

Then there's Buffy who began pecking me while I collected eggs last week. She does not normally pick. She's also been very unfriendly and walking around puffed up. I was worried she wasn't feeling well too, but it turns out she is broody. That means she wants babies and she will do anything to get them. It can be hard to break a broody hen, especially buff orpingtons - they really want to be mamas. Their hormone level is tied in with the temperature of their breasts, so the goal is to cool that breast down to trigger a change in the hormones so she'll go back to normal. You are supposed to put them in a wire bottomed cage for a day or so, but we don't have one. So I booted her from the nest area and locked her out. I'm hoping the cool wind will be cool enough. If that doesn't work you can put ice cubes under them while they sit in the nest box. If she's still like this in a few days I'll try that. She is all puffed up and makes these horrible noises. In the morning when Aaron leaves she has been squawking at him. I heard it this morning and it was alarming!

I took some videos of her so you could get the full experience. It's pretty funny, but I hope she goes back to her nice (egg laying) self soon!

In nest box

A few minutes after I removed her:

Trying to get back

You can see why a broody hen is also called a clucky hen. Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck...

Tom McCall Preserve

Two Sundays ago we went to the Tom McCall Preserve in Rowena. It was a beautiful day, sunny and lots of flowers out. The wind was pretty intense, but normal for that area. Julie's post reminded me that I had meant to share our trip too.




Poison oak bushes!

Parsnip vs. Daikon

Aaron and I made a quick late night (well maybe we are getting old it was after 9) grocery run Sunday. On our grocery list was a new vegetable out of our normal rut. We grabbed a parsnip and a few other things. The checker boy was very confused as to what we were buying - a parsnip of course! Well I peeled that parsnip tonight and it had a very radishy smell to it. After doing a google image search for parsnips and daikons I felt a little less stupid for making the mistake, but it did put a new spin on dinner. So I am making these: Daikon Cakes. At least the goal of trying a new vegetable was accomplished :/

Planting up a storm

Rain was in the forecast for today, but the sun was shining when we got up, so we got to work.


Aaron and I complement each other well, he does all the things I don't like to do, I do all the things he doesn't like to do. He is very particular about rows being straight and evenly spaced, something I am careless about. So he prepared the area and I just planted the plants or the seeds - my favorite part!



Our neighbor stopped by to drop off a tomato plant he got at the farmer's market for us (don't you just love great neighbors?) and asked how the soil was. Aaron admitted it wasn't tilled very deeply. So he ran home, grabbed his tractor and gave it another sweep. It's much better now.


Which is good, because you see that tiny red thing in the background? That was what another neighbor had lent us. It barely scratched the surface with this hard clay.


We got the onions in.


The broccoli (Purple peacock, Arcadia, and Waltham) and the cabbages (Ruby perfection and Red acre). Also Swiss chard in many colors, carrots (Purple haze, Bolero hybrid and some that I got a seed swap in White Salmon) and lettuce (New red fire).


We stopped a bit early to work with the bees because a thunder storm was supposed to roll in. We hauled everything back to the house as the wind was howling. There is thunder and lighting now and lots of rain to help everything settle in!

Potatoes!

I really tried to exhibit restraint. But our garden store had over 20 kinds of potatoes. I went in early in the season before I had gotten a hold of myself. So I got 11 different kinds - all good keepers. I'm notoriously bad about keeping track of varieties of things. I just want to pop them into the ground and eat them later, but sometimes, most times, it comes in handy to know which variety is which for the next year. What to plant again, what to skip. So I am trying to be better about this. So I took pictures of every variety and also charted out what is planted where.


Figuring out how we were going to till this year was becoming an issue. We recently met our neighbor who has goats, chickens, geese and ducks. He is building from scratch a 44 foot catamaran to sail the world. It's very impressive. I quickly scanned his blog, the pictures do not do justice to its enormity. Anyway I asked him yesterday if he had a tiller we could borrow. He offered to bring his tractor over and till for us! It took him 10 minutes what would have taken Aaron hours.


The potatoes. Oops there are 42 of them. I haven't decided if I am really crazy, or just really planning ahead. I'd like to grow more food to get us through the winter. Last year the potatoes were gone before fall.


The only problem. Our neighbor only went over the garden once. So only the top 2-3 inches are tilled. I'm not sure what we are going to do about this yet. Today though, Aaron dug me 44 holes (2 for the strawberry plants I salvaged from the garden before the tractor went through).


The chickens were thrilled to go on a field trip.


The cute sign our neighbor left for us.


Potato graves


These girls were more than happy to go through the previously dug areas - lots of worms!


Aaron leading the ladies home for the night.


It's supposed to rain this weekend, but hopefully it will be light so we can keep getting plants in the ground.

Answer

The answer is: Sweet Potato! Good job Chris, who guessed correctly. I went to a seed starting class at our local nursery a few months ago and learned that we can grow sweet potatoes here! I'm very excited and chose two vardaman variety plants. They are the brightest colored variety and to me that means beauty and extra nutrition - a win win! I'm hoping spring comes one of these days, I'm getting antsy to get this garden planted.

Pop Quiz

Okay everyone today is a gardening pop quiz. Does anyone know what this plant is?

Some hints:
I've never grown them before.
They don't grow in the valley.
It's a vegetable.
I've been told they are so much better home grown than from the store (what isn't?).



They are typically grown in the south.
They are delicious fresh, but can also be cured and stored through the winter.
In this form it is called a "slip". No Google cheating!!

Any guesses?

Friend Makers

I have decided it's time to put down a few roots here and make some friends. An opportunity presented itself to me, so I am off to a potluck where I know one person (who I met for the first time yesterday) by myself. Wish me luck...I'm bringing these cupcakes as an offering. I hope I click with someone!


Recipe here:
Pioneer Woman
I used real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip (yuck) and added waay less sugar...maybe a tablespoon or two. They are delicious, but would be better with cake from scratch of course. After not eating much processed anything, this cake tastes salty to me. Lo and behold, there's a ton of salt in the cake mix and the pudding mix. Weird what people have gotten used to eating.

I have been working on the stamps for the invitations. I've been clustering like stamps. It's like a puzzle, trying to match subject matter with the correct postage amounts. I think it's fun.



Okay, I'm late!