Pssst…

Pssst….

 

Hey! You!

 

Ya! You.

 

Hi!

 

Over here.

 

I’m over here.

Time Saving Tips for Food Preservation

Ien van Houten (go to her blog as soon as you finish reading this!) commented on an entry where I said putting up food for four takes no time. I started to reply in the comments section but thought more people would see it if I added a new entry. I haven’t written anything here in months so I’m long overdue.

Posted by Ien in the Kootenays

“It takes next to no time to grow and put up food for a family of four. ”

Are you kidding? You must be one of those hyper-organized superwomen. More power to you, but I don’t find it easy at all…

When I started to reply I said my organizational skills are lacking. Then I realized that when it comes to food preservation, I am fairly well organized.

Freezing Veggies:

My mother gardened and canned vegetables, made jam and jelly, etc. when I was a kid so I’ve been doing this for 40 years. My kitchen has 100 year old drawers that are very wide, very deep and very tall. All of my canning lids and rings, the grabber, funnels, etc. fit in one drawer. They’re always handy.

I’ll use beans as an example. I pick the beans that are ready, up to a bushel at a time.The water goes on to boil. I usually blanch things in the pressure canner because it’s heavy and holds heat well. While the water heats I snap the beans, filling the tall colander first so that it’s ready to go into the water.  One side of the sink gets scrubbed and filled with ice water. The other side is scrubbed and empty so that cooled veggies can drain. The beans go into the colander, then into the water, then get pulled out all at once, dumped into a colander that fits the sink (I have only one that fits the canner and have to keep reusing it) and taken to the ice water in the sink. Not scooping beans out a few at a time saves a lot of time.

When the beans have drained well they go into freezer bags, the air is pulled out, the bag sealed and it’s tossed into the bushel basket I picked the beans in. When I’m done the basket goes to the freezers in the basement. I stay in constant motions and get it done from start to finish before moving on to something else.

Making Jam:

I pick all of the strawberries, blackberries, blueberries or whatever is in season at the time, all at once if possible. Picking a year’s worth of blackberries saves me a trip back to the canes. I have cultivated raspberries so picking those at once isn’t possible.

If I’m going to make jelly I usually freeze the berries I’ll use and make it during slower times. It’s nice to have the smell of fruit in the house in January and nice to have a little extra warmth in the kitchen from the stove. Frozen berries will release a lot of the juice while they thaw and save you time. I don’t like little tiny seeds of raspberries and blackberries so I make jelly. Family members like strawberry jelly better than jam so I freeze some of the strawberries, drain the juice for jelly and use the berries for a thicker jam than fresh berries make.

Wash the jars ahead of time. I use the dishwasher and keep them hot in there until I’m ready for them. Put the water on to boil for the hot water bath. Measure out each batch of berries into pots. Measure out the sugar into separate containers. If you’re using pectin, open/measure it and have it ready to go. Get out your funnel, spoons, spatulas, clean and wet cloth to wipe spills off jar rims and anything else you’ll need out and in reach. Make one batch, jar it, wipe the rims clean, put the lids and rings on and get them into the hot water bath. While they’re in the bath, clean up the mess. Repeat repeat repeat until done.

Months before the beans are ready to pick, I’m organized in the garden. I plant pounds of beans using a seeder. They’re properly spaced, it takes 5 minutes to plant a pound of beans and have them covered, and I’m done til it’s time to start weeding. Corn, beets and almost every other seed I plant is done with the seeder.

Chickens take 10 minutes a day to raise. We no longer gut chickens unless we’ve raised a few roasters. We don’t eat the organs so there’s no need to gut. We kill, pull the skin back from the breast, remove each half of the breast individually. Peel the skin back from the legs, remove. I take the skin off chicken before I cook it so we eliminated plucking, saving us hours during processing. We do the same thing with the turkeys. If it’s my turn to host Thanksgiving we pluck and gut one bird. Steve splits the birds into pieces to conserve freezer space.

I do very little canning now. It takes a lot of time and propane and adds a lot of heat to an already hot kitchen in the summer to can seven quarts of beans. It’s very inefficient. The freezers use very little energy because they’re always full and are in an always-cool basement. They run twice a day for a few minutes. As I empty space using food I refill it with containers of water for ice. If the power goes out they won’t start thawing for at least 24 hours if you keep them closed. There’s minimal thawing after 48 hours. If necessary we can run a generator once a day to keep everything frozen.

I store a lot in the cellar. The old part of the house sits on a cellar (dirt floor, field stone walls). The edition is on a full basement. There’s very little time tied up in wiping dirt off winter squash, pumpkins, garlic, onions, leeks, etc. Carrots are stored in dry sand. We didn’t grow potatoes this year but when we do, they’re in the cellar too.

I make one trip a week to the basement to bring up meats, fruit and veggies for the small freezer over the fridge.

This freezers are storing 25 chickens, three turkeys, moose, a small pig, shrimp (Steve’s brother is a lobsterman who shrimps and scallops), scallops, trout, partridge, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, tomatoes, green peppers and things I’ve forgotten. I have wild mushrooms, peppers, summer squash and grape tomatoes dehydrated and in jars. We eat very little beef, usually only if we’re out. Neither of us got a deer this year so there’s a only bit of venison we were given by a very generous friend. The same friend gave us the moose meat. In return, he gets shrimp and scallops in season.

Forty years of food preservation has given me plenty of time to create habits, work out routines and make the most of my time.

Taylor’s Graduating!

Taylor is graduating high school next month. She’s third in her class. The announcement was in this week’s local paper. The week after graduation she’ll be leaving for Bowdoin College for UB for six weeks, home a couple of weeks with a canoeing/camping trip in between, and move onto campus at Unity College on August 21. She’s leaving a week early to start volleyball practice. Two of the scariest words ever spoken: empty nest.

We’ve been busy sprucing up the farm (which has made it look worse temporarily), tending the fallen apple tree that needs to be split for firewood, cut into boards and burned in the branch pile, building a new garden shed and a deck for the gazebo down by the pond.

The weather is pitiful. Wet and cold. Damp and chilly. We’re at least a month behind and we all feel like it’s an early start to a repeat of 2009. I promise not to whine about it as much as I did in 2009.

I’ve been writing for Lancaster Farming and recently taped a radio show as a guest with Kate Copsey. The show was fun and even though I caught myself rambling a few times, I’d do it again.

The bantam chicks are doing well. They’ve been moved to the greenhouse (in a cage on the floor) for a short time. I need to catch the mink or weasel that is eating duck eggs in the barn before I turn the young chickens loose. They’ll be in their own pen with a small house under the cherry and lilac trees outside the barn. The dogs have been trying to find it but haven’t had success yet.

Peas x3 varieties, beets, spinach, onions x3, leeks, lettuce, garlic, turnip x2, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, radishes, carrots, strawberries and probably a couple of things I’ve forgotten are growing outside. I think we’re past frost danger, unless the weather changes drastically. I’ll be planting outside under tunnels as soon as the weather clears. Inside, tomatillos, peppers and eggplant are growing in tunnels.

Vermicomposting Workshop

Time	Sunday, September 18 · 10:00am – 2:00pm
Location	@Seasons Eatings Farm, Talmadge
Created By	Seasons Eatings Farm
More Info	Winter can make composting your kitchen scraps inconvenient, even impossible. Learn how to set up a worm bin for red wigglers, how to feed your worms and manage your bin. Worm bins are odorless and can be kept in the kitchen discreetly. You’ll leave with a completed worm bin containing bedding, food and worms, and know how to start a new bin when this bin is finished. Written instructions to take home with you will be provided. 10 am to 12 pm Limited to 10 participants $40

Christmas Wreath Workshop

Time	Sunday, November 20 · 10:00am – 2:00pm
Location	At the farm
Created By	Seasons Eatings Farm
More Info	Learn how to make a large, full, beautiful Christmas wreath from start to finish. The morning starts with picking your own balsam (called tipping) on our property, includes a break for lunch (I’ll make soup and bread) and ends with a finished wreath ready to hang on your door. I’ll supply the ring and wire. BYOD – bring your own decorations. 10 am to 2 pm Dress for the weather and wear boots to keep your feet dry. Limited to 10 participants $40

Low Tunnel & Cold Frame Workshop

Time	Saturday, August 27 · 8:00am – 11:00am
Location	At the farm
Created By	Seasons Eatings Farm
More Info	Learn how to use low tunnels and cold frames to extend your growing season. We’ll set up low tunnels, learn about planting and how to use the tunnels. We’ll fill a cold frame, talk about planting, when to open and close the top and how to use one for seed starting. Three six packs of seedlings are included in the price of the workshop. You’ll be able to buy low tunnel ribs. We’re starting early in the morning to beat the heat. Dress appropriately. No open toed shoes or flip flops please. Limit of 10 participants. $35.00

Farm To School Season Extension Tour

Time	Wednesday, May 25 · 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Location	At the farm
Created By	Seasons Eatings Farm
More Info	School cooks, teachers, administrators and others involved in local food for local schools. Dress as though you’re visiting a farm during black fly season – boots if we’ve had recent rain or sneakers. No flip flops or open toed shoes please. Bring bug spray for black flies. We’ll tour three high tunnels, learn about low tunnels and the garden. Q&A as we go and at the end.

A Morning Walk

I don’t know if it’s late winter or early spring. I’m leaning toward spring but we still have more snow than open ground.

Steve isn’t here very often (only to eat and sleep during the week) so there isn’t a lot of time to talk about what’s going on with my business (the farm). We took a walk around the farm this morning. I pointed out where deer have been eating the tips off branches on an apple tree at the pond. That lead to us walking the tree line and discovering tips over most of the apple trees. I knew I’d be putting cages around the apricot and peach trees when I plant them this spring. It reinforced my plan and made me start thinking about paying better attention when Ava barks at 4:45 am and wants to go. She must be sensing the deers’ presence like Maggie did. Steve flagged four wild apple trees that we’ll keep and pointed out what he’s going to cut down and brush hog. If we don’t keep up with brush hogging the forest creeps into the open space.

We talked about my plans for Christmas trees and how I’ll acquire them. I was going to pull them from a certain spot in the forest to thin out the seedlings. I’ll still do that because otherwise they’ll be in worthless clumps but the trees I’ll plant will come from a spot that is more gravely so that the roots let go easier. I’m going to plant a dozen this year and six a year plus whatever needs to be replaced each year after.

I pointed out how much more space I’ll be using for the raspberry patch. We have Heritage, Latham and Kilarney. I’m going to dig up and plant Heritage suckers first. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll start a new row of Latham or not. I won’t be replanting Kilarney.

I showed him damage to roofs on two small buildings. Actually, it’s a lack of roof on both buildings because of the last heavy snow. One building is coming down, the other will be repaired. If money fell from the sky I’d replace the barn.

We talked about where the apricot and peach trees will be planted. We discussed a change in my business plans. More about that later.

Steve surprised me with plans to buy a bed shaper for me. Nice!

The strawberry plants were just delivered. I have 75 Fort Laramie plants that have runners. If I like them I’ll snip the runners to make new rows. They’re supposed to be good the first year, great for two years then decline. I’ll till them under at the end of the third year. I don’t have much to lose. I’ve never grown them before but they were only $15 for 75 plants with a sale and coupon. I’m disappointed to read on the receipt that my apricot trees are not available. It doesn’t say if they’re not available at all or just right now. I’ll email to ask.

I’m put out by the garlic. I’ll write about that next.

Steve isn’t here very often (only to eat and sleep during the week). We took a walk around the farm this morning. I pointed out where deer have been eating the tips off branches on the apple trees, how much more space I’ll be using for the raspberry patch, which wild apple trees have been flagged to save and to cut down. I showed him damage to roofs on two small buildings.

11 minutes ago · Friends Only · LikeUnlike ·

To Do List

I’ve created the To Do List.

We’re in the early part of a nor’easter today. I’m not happy! The garden was only 50% covered with snow. The rhubarb, horseradish, comfrey and spring bulbs were up, but now they’re covered with snow again. It’s snowing hard. When I finish this I’m going to fill containers with water so that we can flush the toilet, make hot drinks and do a little cleaning up if we lose electricity. No electricity = no well pump.

I have seedlings to transplant into larger containers (mostly six packs) and more seeds to start this weekend. I’ve done about all the work I’m going to do today and in observance of April Fool’s Day, I’m taking the rest of the day off to read and watch movies. I’ll make up for it over the weekend. What? Really? Don’t take April Fool’s Day off? Really?  You should! It’s hard to fill the day with pranks and fun if you’re working!

Let the season begin!

Let the season begin! The growing season – not spring. Spring refuses to begin. Just when the ground was alllllllllmost bare, it snowed. The snow won’t go away. That’s ok though (I keep telling myself this). There are greens growing in the high tunnel and seedlings under lights in the house. Something’s growing!

In trays, six packs and 5 x 5′s:

• Tomatillos
• Peppers – Jalepeno and Revolution
• Broccoli – Arcadia (using old seed to experiment with early planting times under Agribon and 6 ml poly low tunnels)
• Tomatoes – something similar to Big Beef whose name I can’t remember and am too lazy to look for, Juliette, Sun Gold, Jet Star, Super Bush (container)
• Herbs – German thyme, Greek oregano, lemon balm, sage
• Flowers for the new gardens – Veronica, Bee Balm, Victorian Posy, Bergamot, French lavender, Pixie Sunshine Zinnia (container)
• Greens – tatsoi, boc choi, Swiss chard
• Little Prince Eggplant (container)

Some of the plants I’ve chosen for flowers are herbs.

The peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos are going to be planted in the two larger high tunnels. The greens will be under low tunnels. The flowers and herbs will be moved into bigger pots as necessary until they’re planted outside. It’s a pretty good start. The rest of the seeds that are started indoor will be seeded around the first of April.

The lettuce in the high tunnel is tough. I’m going to pull it on my next tunnel work day. The tatsoi looks like it might bolt soon. The boc choi, kale and lettuces are doing well.

If you have spring, please share!

Four Feet & Drool

Four feet and drool. That’s what my evenings have become. Ava and Scooter have a lot of pent up energy from not being outside enough. Ava brings me the tennis balls and we play. We play until Scooter is bored and Ava is tired and drooling.

Ava’s doing well. She’s still timid with new people. She knows who likes her and who doesn’t almost immediately. In a previous life she had to have been a mountain goat. I caught her on the verge of climbing the long tunnel while I was pulling snow down Saturday. She was doing her fox hop thing (the way a fox hops/pounces on mice in a field) up the snow bank against the tunnel. I turned to see what she was doing just before she got to the top of the bank. She doesn’t do it when the tunnels are clear, only when they’re snowy. I wish I knew what she’s thinking.

We had Ava spayed two weeks ago. Surgery went well but healing has been delayed because she’s such a busy body. She was supposed to stay on a leash but Steve forgot to put the leash in the Jeep. I didn’t know it until I was at the vet’s office. I hoped she would go from the Jeep to the house (hahahaha) but of course, that didn’t happen. She went to the barn to see her ducks. Another morning she howled at the door because I left her in. When Steve opened the door she slipped by him and dashed to the barn to see her ducks. I was on my way to the henhouse by then so she left the barn and ran down the path to me. She’s not going to stay put unless she’s sleeping or watching tv. She’s done a few things since then that make me kind of sad that she’s not passing her great genes on to pups, but it’s for the best. We’ve had two litters totaling 18 puppies and had a great time with them, but I don’t want the responsibility again. Spaying was the right choice.

The fence around the duck pen has two low points from me leaning over to get their pool. We have enough snow now to cover the low points. The ducks take advantage of the opportunity to roam the snow-covered garden and check out the edge of the woods. The exercise is good for them and the dogs are out to keep them safe. A few days ago I wanted the ducks in the barn. I took Ava out back, told her to bring the ducks in and left her to figure it out on her own. I know a lot of herding dogs are trained to specific commands but I just don’t have the patience for formal training. “Bring the ducks in” works for me. She went over the fence, to the ducks, gathered them into a small group, circled behind them and tried to lead them back to the barn. When she looked behind her she realized they hadn’t followed her. She went over the fence, to the ducks, gathered them into a small group, circled behind them and tried to lead them back to the barn. Again, they didn’t follow her. She went over the fence, to the ducks, gathered them into a small group, circled them until she was behind them again, and herded them to the fence. They missed the low spot and waddled off into the woods.

On the fourth try, Ava gathered the ducks, stayed behind them and herded them into the pen and the barn. Once the door was closed I praised her and made a big fuss about her. She’s a seven month old high-energy pup that doesn’t have great recall yet. It took a lot of faith to stay out of sight, be quiet and let her do her own thing. Like every other working dog I’ve had, we’re learning together. Dogs are individuals, not cookie cut or molded. As long as they do a job well I don’t care how they do it.

Scooter is the dominant dog for now. He pushed ahead of Maggie. Ava has started asserting herself with Scooter and Seb. She snapped and growled at Seb when she thought he was getting a mouse she wanted. (There wasn’t a mouse.) He couldn’t care less about being the boss. She growled a slight warning at Scooter and pushed him out of the way over the weekend. A week ago she wouldn’t have gone after the tennis ball if it landed between Scooter and the wall. She pays attention to his growl and goes for the ball now. I won’t let them fight but I am letting them work this out on their own. Their encounters last a second or two, nothing serious. Bo was tested by Maggie, Maggie by Scooter and now Scooter by Ava. It’s the way it goes in the canine world…and my living room.

Front Page

An article I wrote about MOOMilk appeared on the front page of this weekend’s edition of Lancaster Farming. It’s the first time I’ve made the front page since my first article appeared September 4. I’ve struggled with reporting because I didn’t like calling people at home out of the blue. Advice from members of a writers group helped immensely. I think I’m over that hurdle.

MOOMilk pg 1

MOOMilk pg 2

Also in this weekend’s edition, a story about Jana Markow’s Calais Farmers Marketplace. Jana’s provided a great service for farmers, producers and consumers in the Calais area by starting up a buying club.

CFM pg 1

CFM pg 2

I need to write my column, submit my February invoice and start some cinnamon raisin bread. When I get done I’ll come back to tell you about the dogs.

Urban Homesteader has been Trademarked

The Derveas family in California have pissed off a lot of people. They’ve trademarked the term urban homesteader and several other terms. They didn’t invent urban homesteading, people have been doing it for decades, even before this family. We used to call it “bloom where you’re planted.” Stuck in the city and wanting to homestead, bloom where you’re planted. MANY people have been homesteading in urban areas for a long time, before the Derveas became anyone of importance. Even before they moved to California. The Derveas have been making a nice profit off this and have now claimed it as their own. I would expect this from Monsanto but not them.

What used to be a way of life is now owned by four people.

I’m working under a deadline so I can’t go into my opinion right now but I will say this – shame of them.  They’ve closed their information about the trademarks to comments. Don’t they care about what people think?

There’s a lot of talk going on about this on the internet today.

In The Garden Online

My Rubber Boots

EFF

The Start of the 2011 Season

When I said I hadn’t posted much because there’s only so much to say and repeating it would be boring (or something like that), many of you messaged to say you’re not bored. So, here we go again. It’s the start of 2011. Things are different here this year. The only thing I’m going to do on the borrowed acre of land up the road is find out what the owners would like planted for a cover crop. I’m one woman. I can’t do it all.I don’t want to do it all. I’m over it.

Everything will be grown here on one acre. I have three main goals this year:

1. Get as early a start outside as possible in order to have a bit to sell to locals. The freezes in Florida and Mexico are causing fruit and vegetable prices to soar. I wasn’t going to do this but I feel like it’s something I need to do.
2. Put up enough fruits and vegetables to last my family 18-24 months. I’m at the mercy of the weather, as always. The weather is so bizarre now that I want extra put away in case 2012 is as  unpredictable. My sister won’t be having a garden this year so I’ll be growing for her too.
3. Grow enough extra for one school for the Farm To School program in the fall.

If I have extra in the summer I’ll sell it. I’ll be selling seedlings but not nearly as many as in previous years.

In between all of this I have a bi-weekly column and occasional report to write for Lancaster Farming.

It’s supposed to be 30*+ on Wednesday and Thursday this week. I’ll be in the tall tunnel Wednesday and the long tunnel Thursday. I’m waiting a few days to decide what I’ll be doing on Friday.I hope the potential snow turns out to be sunny and warm.

Coming up – a 2011 To Do list, info on a couple of workshops I’ll be teaching and an update on Ava.

 

 

 

Surprisingly…

Surprisingly, I made money last year. Officially. Taxes done, Schedule F done, showed a profit. I’m not going to retire on last year’s income but hey, who has time for that anyway. I’m not going to buy a shiny new tractor (I’m never breaking up with Cranky!) but that’s ok. I’m set for this year. The farm turned a profit so there’s money in the account for everything I need this year. Seven weeks without rain and irrigation be damned, I had a good income, and turned a profit, and I didn’t do it by getting a commodity check from the gov’t.

The Fedco order has gone out. I’ve never sent such a small order. The total was only $106.18. I didn’t fill the first page of the order form. I have a lot of seeds left from last year. Some are left over because I ordered large quantities and haven’t used them up. Others are left because I missed succession sowing because of the lack of water. I’ll place a small order with Johnny’s for I don’t know what. There must be something new I need to try. I still need to write the supplies order. That will be small too.

What’s that? How’s Ava you ask? Well let me tell you about Monkey Dog. Tammy came to visit a few days ago. We watched Fresh and ate gumbo that Tammy made for lunch. Before she left we went to a tunnel to cut tatsoi. I let Ava and Seb in to nose around for voles but they wouldn’t stay off the plants so I kicked the out. Ava was not at all happy about this and became determined to get back inside. She discovered the loose poly in the bottom corner of the door and poked her head through. I made her stop. I should have known she’d given up too easily. Ava is not a quitter. We cut tatsoi and chatted and heard crunching on the snow. I looked up to see Seb walking on top of the snow in front of the tunnel and assumed it was him. Thirty seconds later I heard more crunching snow.

Ava was on the peak of the 16′ tall tunnel. The first crunching steps were from Monkey Dog trotting her 35 pound self up the crusty snow I hadn’t yet cleared off the tunnel. She left a fanny print where she sat at the peak, squarely on top of the second rib in. The second set of crunching steps was Ava coming back down. I don’t know what possessed her to do this. There isn’t a secret magic door at the top that lets misbehaving pups in. She pushed some snow down but for the most part, her feet stayed on the crusty snow and didn’t poke any holes in the poly. She’s going to be spayed Wednesday. I’m counting on a peaceful day with her Thursday! Keeping her quiet after that is going to be a challenge.

And I shall have some peace there… Margaret Roach

I’m waiting impatiently for my copy to come in the mail! (Leslie, have you seen this? She reminds me a bit of you because of your shared gift of gardening.)

Fruit

I had Steve as my captive audience today. He can’t get away from a talkative wife while driving 70 mph on the interstate. I’ve wanted to pin him down on an orchard and today was the perfect day to do it.

“If I order apple trees, while you clear the land for them?”  I’m going to order pears, peaches, plums and maybe apricots too but apples are his weak spot. He checks on the wild apples often from mid summer through fall. We pick and preserve the apples we need. The rest are left for the wildlife – deer, bear, partridge.

“Where?”  He knows where. I’ve talked about this for years.

“Same place as always.”

He was ready to plan with me. We’ve been waiting for three very big widow makers in my chosen area to finish falling. The heavy wind has finally done the job and the trees are down.Turns out he walked out there before the ground froze and discovered it’s a lot wetter than we realized. It won’t work. Instead, we’ll plant the saplings along the edge of the grass. There were more than two dozen apple trees growing in sight of the house when we moved here. Goats and browsing cattle killed a lot of them. I let them strip the bark because the apples on those trees were of no value to us.

I don’t know yet what varieties I’ll choose. I’m looking forward to an afternoon with the Fedco Tree catalog and a pot of tea.

I’m going to expand the raspberry patch this year. I have those plants already. I’ll dig up suckers and move them into rows. We have Heritage, Latham and Kilarney.

I’ll post more about the trees when I make decisions on varieties.

UNCLE!

UNCLE!

I surrender.

I am only one woman.

One.

Just one.

I work alone.

Mother Nature is kicking my ass. She has an army. She has insects like flea beetles and striped cucumber beetles. She has diseases like late blight that flies in on the wind before early blight arrives. That, Mother Nature, was just plain bitchy and I haven’t forgiven you for that one. Mother Nature has rain and she’s bi-polar (sorry, I don’t do PC) about it. One year she tried to drown me and the next she withheld rain so that me and my garden would dry out. Mother Nature has snow. Three winters ago she threw 10′ of snow at me and I fought back. I shoveled every bit of that damned snow. I cleaned out around two high tunnels and cleared the greenhouse. “Take that!” I yelled. Two winters ago we bought a big snow blower. “Bring it on!” I yelled. She withheld. This winter I said, “Whatever, but please be kind to the wildlife.” She’s mean. She dumped 16.5″ of snow on us on December 6 then 4″ of rain on December 13 (which was not a Friday). Roads washed out, people lost their homes and I offered fly fishing in the garden. Climate Change should have brought Midol for Mother Nature.

Last year DH said “You plant an acre in pumpkins and I’ll run the tiller over the top to take care of the weeds til the vines start to fill in.” He turned over the acre+ and I planted. And he didn’t go back up there for two months. By then it was too late. Weeds and lack of rain were too much. It’s hard enough keeping up with one acre of intensively grown vegetables by myself is enough. I need to plant a cover crop on the second acre this spring so that it’s in good shape if someone uses it.

I’m working out my plan for this year. I’m thinking about strip tilling. I see it in blogs I read. If I use this method this year I won’t be doing it quite the same way. Rather than tilling a strip in the grass I’ll be filling the strip with white clover.

I’m going to plant the acre and spend more time writing. I’m having a great time writing for Lancaster Farming. I’d like to spend some of my writing time with fiction. We’ll see.

I should get the poultry taken care of for the day. It’s going to snow soon. They need fresh food, water and straw. The rooster needs to be done away with (bastard attacked me Sunday night, off with his head!) but that probably won’t happen today, unless he comes after me again. After chores, I’ll switch laundry around, start the dishwasher, bake a few potatoes for fish chowder and settle in to sort through the notes and literature from yesterday’s trip to the Maine Ag Trades show. I have a lot of writing thanks to the show. Maine’s new commissioner of agriculture will be announced today. He seems like a good person for the job but it’s a shame Seth Bradstreet is being replaced. Seth did a great job. He listened to the small farmers and he had a plan in place to deal with Jack DeCoster when problems started coming up. Gov LePage didn’t ask me for an opinion but I wish he had!

College

WARNING: THIS ENTRY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FARM. IT IS A BLATANT MOM BRAG.

Taylor has toured eight college campuses and had several interviews. Visit by visit, she knocked her list of 10-12 colleges down to one. A few hours after she arrived for a weekend stay at Unity College she sent a text to me. “I feel at home here.”  I silently cheered and did a little happy dance. She set up an interview and turned in her application. Taylor interviews well. She learned all of her interview skills at Upward Bound. Jeannie, the woman who interviewed her, told her before she left that she was unofficially accepted. Ping! Boink! Thud! The remaining colleges dropped off her list.

The phone rang on the afternoon of December 14. Mrs. C, one of Taylor’s all-time favorite teachers, was calling to tell me that Taylor had been accepted into National Honor Society and would be inducted on December 17. WHS keeps acceptance a secret. Anyone who meets Honors grades is eligible to apply for NHS. You have to have gone above and beyond to be accepted. Taylor didn’t ask if I’d gotten a phone call from Mrs. C until the night of December 16. I couldn’t say “no, sorry, you didn’t make it.” I also couldn’t say “yes I did!” I don’t lie well. I do something stupid to give myself away so if I’d lied to her she’d have known. It’s 99% assumed that she’d be in. She’s going to graduate third in her class. Her GPA is 3.9 and she has activities flying out her ears. This year she’s on the math team (my kid is a self-admitted nerd and proud of it), Academic Decathalon, is a cheerleader, exec committee for prom, tutors Algebra II and is in the art club. Still…she wasn’t positive about NHS. She’s weak in community service. When she asked me if I’d gotten the call the best I could do was give her a blank stare. She wasn’t certain until her name was called. Thankfully, she was chosen first so she was called first and didn’t have to wait long.

Getting back to college – the application deadline for Unity was December 15. Jeannie begged the dean to let her make a few phone calls to the most accomplished students. She called December 16 to tell Taylor she has been officially accepted! Taylor has enough academic scholarships to pay for most if not all of her tuition. A cash scholarship would go toward her books. We’ve been telling her that it pays to work hard in school since we transferred her to an excellent elementary school in sixth grade. Her hard work has paid off in scholarships and a full semester of college credits under her belt before she graduates high school. She’ll be able to apply for December graduation from college if she chooses.

Taylor will be an ecology major. The college is two hours and 20 minutes from home. Just far enough to not be too close to home and just close enough to come home whenever she wants. I looked in on her facebook wall last night. She has a friend who is a sustainable ag major at Unity. He keeps telling her to “change your major!” She’s a farm kid. She worked here long enough to know how to do everything and why it’s done the way it is. Her friend leaves notes on her wall. “Where does your mom order her seeds?”  She told him. “Does your mom plant potatoes?”  “Dad and I do it. It’s our project,” and she explained how it’s done starting with seed potatoes. She’ll stick with ecology to get started and see how it goes. She thinks she’d like to teach at the college level so she’s already considering her masters and doctorate.

END OF BLATANT MOM BRAG. THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME!

2010 in review

I don’t write here very often anymore. There are only so many times you can say “I started seeds today” or “a moose walked through the garden.” There is going to be a change in what happens on the farm. I’ll fill you in on the details in another entry.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 14 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 544 posts. There were 24 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 24th with 400 views. The most popular post that day was Meat Eating Cows and Vegetarian Chickens.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were tinyfarmblog.com, homesteadingtoday.com, seasonseatingsfarm.com, Google Reader, and blogcatalog.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for sweet dumpling squash, hoop house, endive, farm blogs, and how to cook sweet dumpling squash.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Meat Eating Cows and Vegetarian Chickens August 2007
14 comments

2

Sweet Dumpling Squash January 2008
8 comments

3

Low Tunnel / Hoop House Photos November 2007
5 comments

4

Planting Peas in Zone 5 March 2008
20 comments

5

Raising Turkeys May 2008
35 comments