Ducks

I have ducks that need new homes.  And I need electronet to stop them from wandering off to hide nests in places I never see.  Scooter was hunting rodents in tall grass the other day and came upon a nest.  From the sounds of them, both Scoot and duck were startled.  Simone and Garfunkle’s parents [...]

Fresh From GH1

Broccoli.  The heads we picked this evening are 8″ across.  The broc and cucumbers shown here were grown in the unheated greenhouse.  They were planted in April.

Still a baby at 4″.

The phone is ringing off the hook…

….with people asking, “Is it true?”
Yes, it’s true.  Domtar is reopening the Woodland mill on June 22.  Steve is going back to work tomorrow.  Some are already back.  He’s in the middle of a project at his interim job and doesn’t want to leave it unfinished.  Let the chaos begin – the man thrives on [...]

Summer Planting

Summer planting starts today.  This is where I start asking myself what I was thinking.  I’ve never had the greenhouse open for seedling sales and summer planting fall at the same time.  One ends when the weather warms up and the other begins.  The last of the late spring crops go in today. When that’s [...]

Soil Blocks

I haven’t had a great desire to use soil blocks. Steve saw the makers, the soil and the clincher – got a lesson from Eliot Coleman. Using them will cut back on the amount of plastic I use, always a good thing, and supposedly save me time. I need to drop in at Lucy’s blog [...]

Visiting Eliot

Eliot explained the new six-move rotation he’s worked out for his new movable green houses.  One 1,000 sq ft greenhouse covers 6,000 sq ft of ground a year. We paid close attention.

New Plans

I’m settling in to Steve’s pending unemployment. It hit me hard even though I knew it was likely to happen.  Rather than let it sink in and catch my breath I jumped into action.  Then I sat back and wondered what I’ve done and a whole list of “holy crap!” worries.  It’s ok now. [...]

Fedco Order

There are approx. 20 vegetables ordered from Johnny’s that aren’t on this list.  If you see something “missing” it either came from Johnny’s, I already have it and maybe don’t grow that veggie.  Some of the greens will be seeded into the soil in a four season unheated greenhouse, others will be transplanted and the [...]

Butchering Day

We put up 46 chickens and three turkeys yesterday.  I’ve always “put up” vegetables and fruit but until yesterday hadn’t used that term for birds or animals.  I picked it up from Jj and I like it.  So – we put up the birds yesterday.  I’m pleased with the outcome.  One chicken was fat.  I’m [...]

New Math

One Hose + One Dandruff Shampoo bottle + Three dogs = One wet woman.  I didn’t wake up planning to scrub the mutts but they’re sort of clean now.  I took mercy on them and did a half-assed job.  The water from the well is 54* right now so I didn’t wash between toes and [...]

Food To Do’s

Thanks to WordPress giving us a “stickie” for posts I can keep this on the front page and keep updating.
Pick today before frost tomorrow:

tomatoes
peppers
tomatillos
eggplant
zucchini
summer squash
cucumbers
corn

make and can stewed tomatoes (8 pints)
can tomatoes (picked Monday.  I can’t get the damned pressure canner open to get the first batch out.  I hate pressure canning.) I got [...]

I should write something

I should write something.  I know I haven’t written in a while when friends email to ask if I’m ok.  I am ok.  Last week was crazy.  The work week started late because of Labor Day.  Tuesday got away from me.  Wednesday and Thursday were busy but I don’t remember why now.  Friday took me [...]

Putting Food By

I’ve cleaned a bushel of beans, blanched and frozen them.  When I started, this bushel basket was level with the top.  It’s now about half full.  I snap off the stem ends and feed the beans with bad spots to the dogs.  The rest of empty space is thanks to Reynolds Handi-Vac.  It vacuums air [...]

Rain, Harvest, Chefs and Rain

It’s raining again.  1.5″ so far this afternoon.  Most of it fell in less than an hour.  I picked a bushel of beans and Steve did some rototilling when the thunder started to roll in.  Twenty minutes later the sky opened.  I struggled with irrigation for a month but for most of the growing season [...]

Yes You Can!

Another column, co-written with Paula Farrar.  Paula owns Done Roving Farm.
Yes You Can!
Robin Follette and Paula Farrar
A lot of our feedback from this column starts with “I can’t.” I can’t grow vegetables; I don’t have room. You can, and we’ll tell you how. Food can’t be any more local and fresh than when [...]

Eggs!

This is one of the articles written for my newspaper column, You Are What You Eat. Some of this is specific to Eastport, Maine, because I write for an Eastport newspaper.
Have you heard of cage free eggs, free range chickens and pastured eggs? These new buzz words are important. We need to understand the [...]

Pic Day

A very nice man who knew what he was doing repaired wifi reception and explained what he’ll do if he has to come back.  Bless his heart, hec of a nice guy.

Future pickle.

Grocery Store Vegetables

I needed to pick up tea bags so I made a quick trip to the grocery store after a meeting this afternoon.  Good Lord who can afford to eat from the grocery??

Carrots – bagged, not fresh, from California.  .99/lb
Broccoli – $1.99/lb.  Starting to flower, soft.
Tomatoes – Not ripe, hard, $1.79/lb.  That’s less than I’ll be [...]

Patience

At 4:20 am Steve got up for the day and sent T and two of her sleepover friends to bed. I remember when T used to grumble about how stupid it was when her sister stayed up all night and how she wasn’t going to do stupid stuff like that.
Patience is not planting the [...]

April 17, 08

It’s hard to believe the month is half over already.
I screwed up and didn’t turn the heat on in the greenhouse two nights ago. Most of the cauliflower seedlings are dead. I’ll reseed today. The only good thing about this is that cauliflower isn’t one of my biggest sellers. Tammaro’s will [...]