Independence Days Update: Tracking the Weather
Sharon October 19th, 2009
Like everyone else in the middle and east of the country, we’ve had a cold week or so – days in the 40s, nights in the 20s – it is November come early. But the temps are supposed to begin moderating today, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get a little October yet.
When you grow food, weather fascinates you – it matters a lot. One of the things I do is gently engage in weather prediction exercises with myself and my kids – we look at the clouds and the wind direction, the barometer and the rest of the indicators, and we consider – what do we expect to happen? We aren’t good at doing it for more than a day or two ahead, but even that is helpful – we keep records of temperature and rainfall, to try and track what our climate is becoming.
Busy week here – Asher’s birthday party is Sunday, and I’m leaving for Georgia next Tuesday, so much has to be done this week on both domestic and professional fronts. We’re coordinating several things that week – my Mom is coming out to help Eric out with the boys when he’s teaching, then Eric and the boys are heading to NYC for Halloween with Grandma, I’m meeting them there on my way back from GA, and then I’m going back home by train to tend the goats (Btw, it is almost impossible to get a cab to drive out to my farm – anyone in Albany want to barter for a ride from the Albany/Ren train station to my place in Knox on the afternoon of Sunday, November 1? Email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com if you want to!
I’m really hoping to get some more raised beds built this fall, but so far, no luck – I just haven’t had time, and I don’t anticipate it appearing next week, or the week after, in which I’m running an event at my synagogue, so I’m hoping that the fall weather holds out into November to give me time to do much needed infrastructure work before winter.
The sheep are gone, and one of the big projects is to get the old, falling down wooden fencing taken down and the fields mowed – I’m going to frost seed them as well, to improve the pasture. We also need to do a major barn clean and reorganization, as we shift over towards winter mode – the bunny set up needs to be put in order, and we need to clean out and organize better.
I’m trying to decide when to butcher the turkeys – do to a hatchery problem, we got ours a month later than we wanted, and I don’t think they’ll be Thanksgiving sized by November. Do I offer only smaller turkeys this year, or wait until December and hope that some people want a Christmas or Chanukah turkey? Still deciding.
Yesterday we all took a long walk in the woods, back to where the old orchard, going back to the days when this was a dairy farm, was. I haven’t had time to do much rehab on the old trees, but I’d like to do better – the apples are small and wormy, but they still taste great – there are summer russets, a summer yellow and other wonderful things. Add that to my giant list of to-do projects 
.
Ok, onwards:
Planted: Garlic, daffodils, potato onions
Harvested: beets, chard, kale, turnips, cabbage, brussels sprouts, burdock, comfrey, pineapple sage, pea shoots, fava beans, mustard greens, milk, eggs.
Preserved: Green tomato pickles, green tomato chutney, eggplant as baba ganoush, dehydrated sweet peppers, pickled hot peppers, made applesauce, dried herbs.
Waste Not: Fed a lot of garden scraps to the goats, picked up 8 bags of leaves from the roadside to mulch my garden, stopped rotating ice packs in the fridge and switched to the sun porch with coolers for emergency cooling if it ever actually really warms up .
Want Not: Picked up sweaters for Eric at Goodwill, bought bulk yeast and olive oil, repaired the flannel sheets that I had decided were beyond repair out of guilt .
Build community food systems: Began promoting Independence Days seriously, offered to give two local talks on preservation.
Eat the food – Revelling in the very last tomatoes, eggplant and sweet peppers – lots of grilled eggplant and pepper sandwiches with goat cheese or yogurt cheese, lots of baba ganoush, eggplant sate with peanut sauce, and marinated sweet red peppers. Yum…gone all too soon. Wondering if it would be cheating to try and get some tomatoes, eggplant and pepers in GA to take back with me and extend the season just a tiny bit longer?
So how about you?
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
- Comments(19)
About the cheating….no absolutely not!!! You are there anyway so load up, you might as well make full use of your all ready spent travel points and make them do double duty
Planted: moved some white onions and some walking onions, kale, chard, bok choi and spinach into the hoop house.
Harvested: apples, grapes, tomatoes, tomatillos, pumpkin, potatoes, garlic, leek, onion, chard, kale, bok choi, spinach, lettuce, mustard, basil (the last bit!), cilantro, chives, rosemary, curly parsley, beets, turnips, beans, runner beans, peas (dried on the vine early in the summer), sunchokes, rose hips, crabapples
Preserved: pickled tomatillos, dried beans, froze beans. Did I mention bottling five gallons of wine?
Waste Not: Threw any fruit and greens we didn’t use over the fence to the poultry, brought all other garden detritus to the beds, chopped everything up, and began covering with cardboard and straw for the winter. Adding leaves and clippings as they become available.
Want Not: Am now regularly checking Craigslist for cardboard, wood, and wood-framed windows, got a truckload of each so far.
Build community food systems: sold eggs, gave away vegs and grapes.
Eat the food – Reveling! And began using the sun dried tomatoes, apples, pears, zukes, and greens.
Hmmm … has anyone noticed how very little built-in spell checkers know about food and agriculture?
Plant—Nothing in the ground this week. It was rainy most of the week. I was in Memphis over the weekend helping with my grandmother’s care. Most of what was accomplished this week is thanks to my sweet husband and daughter.
Harvest—Green Beans, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes from our garden. It looks like they might have collected some more walnuts too. Hubby and daughter harvested eggs while caring for a friend’s chickens while she was away. I brought persimmons back from Memphis. My aunts and uncles had visited from Texas and brought the larger variety of persimmons from the trees on the homestead there.
Preserve—Chicken broth and butternut squash soup
Reduce Waste—We continue our energy reduction, recycling, and composting efforts. I brought back the recycling from my trip to Memphis. I packed my food for the trip to reduce the need to pick up something on the way. Hubby and daughter picked up sticks and small limbs from the yard to use to make fires. We haven’t turned on the heater yet even though it is a lot colder this year than it was last year at this time.
Prep/Storage—Hubby brought the split firewood up from what we call the “lower 40” to dry under shelter of the back porch. I’ll ask him to make the first of the fires tonight. I didn’t shop this week for anything other than a few necessities so nothing was added to the stockpile.
Building Community Food Systems—I made up some boxes for the food pantry before I left for Memphis. We have a tamale making day planned for our church on October 31st. I brought some butternut squash from our garden to share with family in Memphis.
Eat the Food—I made some yummy chicken and rice soup this weekend in Memphis. My dad has been going full force in taking care of my grandmother and hasn’t had anyone taking care of him. I sat him down to a simple meal of tuna fish sandwiches, chicken and rice soup, and dressed salad greens and he said, “This is real food.” It did my heart good to see how much he appreciated the meal. I tend to believe that soup heals the heart.
Looking back at the list there isn’t much to it this week. Oh well, I guess some are just going to be like that.
It was November here last week also.
Plant: No
Harvest: Bee balm, cinnamon basil, nasturium leaves, parsley
Preserve: Dried bee balm, cinnamon basil
Waste Not: Continued year end clean up/re-organize the house project and found good stuff gone missing; protected sensitive plants nightly and started transitioning in/organizing winter plant area; re-organized inside compost collection area; didn’t turn on the heat though the weather might have justified it; living without garlic this week rather than making another shopping trip (perhaps a little risky this close to Halloween?).
Want Not: Our yearly pilgrimage to Lancaster County for potatoes, giant cabbages and cauliflower, a basket of green peppers, Amish cheese, and smoked meat (and our ice cream reward – my partner has sworn off all other ice cream except homemade).
Community: Shopped the farmer’s market at home and abroad; garden talking with friends and family
Eat: Pasta with really good Lancaster County spinach and homedried tomatoes; homemade pizza with the last of our fresh tomatoes; broccoli rabe stirfry; smoked pork chop on a bed of spinach and sweet red pepper with parsley potatoes; eggs scrambled with spinach and leftover potatoes; tossed salad with f.m. and h.g greens, one of my assistant’s cucumbers, our penultimate (I love this word) tomatoes, and homemade tarragon vinegar.
It snowed here! Ack! On the other hand, much as I grumbled about having to work on Shabbat this week, it meant that I didn’t have to leave the house yesterday and go out in the freezing slushy mess.
Eat the Food: I remembered how much I like baked potatoes, and baked up some delicious delicata squashes. Also made popcorn for the first time in a while.
Definitely not cheating to load up while you’re on vacation! Bring back some summer! My update is here:
http://inthepurplehouse.blogspot.com/2009/10/independence-days-challenge-week-25.html
Just posted my update on my blog. Not much IDC-related this week … dealing with a sick kid instead. C’est la vie, I guess. I’ll say this, though … I sure have been glad of our food storage the last couple of weeks. It’s SO nice to be able to throw together a quick, wholesome meal at the drop of a hat.
Plant something: I am experimenting with moon planting, so there plenty of weeding, spraying & feedingin the dark moon.
Harvest something: a couple of strawberries, lettuce thinnings, mint, parsley, basil, oregano, lemon thyme, a lemon.
Preserve Something: not this week.
Prep & Storage: ordered a reference book on nutrition, urban farming & Brad Kessler’s book on keeping goats (I can dream!). Stocked up on quinoa, walnuts & nutritional yeast at the health food shop 25% off sale.
Reduce Waste: usual composting & recycling. Took a ‘hankies not tissues’ vow, & have stuck to it well so far. Have started carrying a ‘spork’ in my bag, so I don’t use disposable cutlery while we’re out & about.
Build Community Food systems: had a backyard gardening love-in with some friends (ie talked gardening like women possessed)
Eat the Food: hummus with homegrown lemon juice, falafel wraps with homegrown salad; spinach wraps with homegrown herbs & lemon zest.
Hi Sharon – I have a quick question for you , if you don’t mind.
What kind of lumber do you use for your raised beds? I’m planning some for next year’s garden (as well as a compost bin), and I have 3 choices:
1. pine/spruce – cheap, but not long lasting
2. cedar – $$$$, but probably cheaper in the long term
3. pressure treated, which I really don’t like the thought of
Thanks, Kelly
Planted: Last of the brassica seedlings. Transplanted spring onion seedlings, and perpetual spinach. Sowed carrots, parsnips, leeks and kohl rabi. All of which were dug up by the neighbours cat as soon as I turned my back. Resowed and built fortifications around the seed bed……..
As there’d been no frosts for weeks I took a gamble and put out some more tomato seedlings, with a makeshift cover. Of course we got a frost that night…..I think they survived but they won’t be happy. I don’t know why people bother to gamble with money, when you can play Russian roulette with tomato plants
To get the biggest tomato crop I need to have them out early even if that means losing a few…….waiting until it is totally safe means they may not fruit until too late in summer when the weather cools again.
Harvesting: Last of the parsnips, kale, leeks, chard, lettuce, parsley, asparagus, green garlic, orach, eggs.
Prep and storage: I have broken a rule we set ourselves with buying furniture, which is to only buy sturdy long lasting furniture. We desperately needed a pantry, and don’t have the money to put in built-in cupboards in the kitchen. And nobody makes freestanding wooden pantries, at least not for under a thousand bucks. I got fed up with food being stored in random piles on the floor, all over the kitchen table, and in our stuffed to bursting cupboard, so I caved and bought a big fugly MDF pantry cupboard. I’ve painted it cream which helps with some of the ugliness but we already managed to chip a chunk off it just getting it into the house. At least now I can build up some food storage, tell what we’re running out of at a glance, and not have to move 10 other things every time I want something.
And since we can’t seem to get a new roomate due to the over supply of rental housing at the moment, the spare room is going to be the jar storage area, so I’m not piling up little jar pyramids everywhere too.
Waste not: After the pantry clean out the chickens are feasting on old sunflower seeds and lentils.
Eat the food: Used up the egg surplus with quiche, home made ice cream, and soggy lemon cake.
I’ve got an update posted. We had temps in the mid 20s here a week ago. Definitely an early November. But then today, it was 65. Go figure.
Updated at the blog finally. Busy week this past one, but not necessarily in the IDC area. This week ought to be more productive (fingers crossed).
Mine, such as it is, is here
http://kirbanita.typepad.com/take_joy/2009/10/in-1.html
We have both had the fall thing-that’s-going-around, so not a lot has been accomplished other than sitting by the fire and sniffling. (And feeding the cats. Of course.)
Kelly, it is really a mix – we have some old cedar from fences we took down, some pine, cinder blocks (my favorites, actually), some recycled plastic we recycled from someone else’s deck… whatever is cheap or scavengable, but *not* pressure treated wood.
Sharon
The wonderful thing about cinder block raised beds is that it is so easy to add the framework for extending (or starting) the harvest.
I grew 2 plants of huckleberry (solanacaea) as an experiment this year. Numerous purple berrries that held tight to their vine all summer long. I harvested the plants (just before frost warnings), but did not have time to pick the berries off and preserve them before going on the road for 2 days. I laid them on a box – upstairs in the barn. This morning I went to collect them to make preserves (or cook with applesauce). They were gone! someone had removed all but 4 of the berries and left the scraggly vines. I felt like a thief in an empty house. DH thinks a squirrel came and hid them. So, I cooked up a handful with sugar and apples – very very purple.
Plant— yikes.. I still want to plant cover crops.
Harvest—last of green tomatoes, lots of asian greens.
Preserve—making applesauce today
Reduce Waste—
Prep/Storage— popcorn (red and blue). stocked up on honey, salt and cane sugar.
Building Community Food Systems—
Eat the Food—delicious african groundnut stew using homegrown sweet potatoes, peanut butter, peppers, onions , tomatoes (from freezer) – all blended with tofu. (I think I got the inspiration from someone here – thank you! this is a very satisfying cold weather meal). rice and hulled barley with rehydrated okra and sweet peppers. Pintos with tomatoes (from freezer) and anjo chilis (from neighbor)
1. Plant something: Transplanted a honeysuckle vine in my yard that had out grown a pot at my mom’s
2. Harvest something: Tomatoes and onions for the food bank.
3. Preserve something: Apple Cider Jelly- thanks to Abbie for the recipe
4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Made some poop bag holders out of prescription medicine bottles. Maybe sell them if I get a booth at next season’s Farmer’s Market.
5. Preparation and Storage: Bought Romeo a Dog Pack. He’s a working dog now! He can help carry some groceries and such.
6. Build Community Food Systems: Getting ready for to say goodbye to the community gardens at the BIAS by joining in on the Night of 1000 pumpkins/Day of the dead celebration on November 1st. Bought ½ gallon of Local Apple Cider at Eat Local store to make Cider Cinnamon Jelly
7. Eat the Food (cook or eat something new): Apple Cider Cinnamon Jelly, Roasted pumpkin seeds
First good frost here in St. Louis, MO last Sunday morning. The usual suspects (sweet potato vines, yard-long beans) died. Pepper plants set back but are still alive. It was November in the Midwest too last week and so far St. Louis is having the sixth coldest October on record. Finally had a couple highs in the 70s this week, but will get colder than normal again by Friday. Take an already weather-obsessed gal, turn her into a gardener, and then give her an Internet connection … and you get what I just wrote.
Planted: nothing again for the umpteenth week in a row. Next week for sure!
Harvested: beets, kale, bok choy, storage radishes and their greens, yard-long beans, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mustard greens, raspberries, persimmons, rose hips, jujubes
Preserved: some of the rose hips were already dried on the plant. I removed the husks from the popcorn so it will dry.
Waste Not: using the radish greens in tonight’s stir-fry. Used the flesh from the hull-less pumpkins in pumpkin bread (it’s not supposed to be good for much else, but my DH is going to give it a try in a pumpkin custard recipe he likes).
Want Not: Bought a year’s supply of olive and canola oils. Ordered 25 pounds of wheat berries to store and grind for flour for bread-making.
Build community food systems: Mentioned the excellent raspberries I’m still harvesting on my Facebook page – trying to seduce my friends and relatives into growing some food plants!
Eat the food: the raspberries. Food of the goods all by themselves; they don’t need a thing added. The pumpkin bread I mentioned above was delicious. Tonight’s stir-fry (radish greens, bok choy thinnings, the small kale leaves I couldn’t sell, a few mustard leaves from the plant in the cold frame, plus the pole beans and yard-long beans harvested over the past couple of weeks) is being cooked as I type … too bad all of you can’t smell it.
I forgot to mention all the food work my DH did in the last week. He’s the household fungus farmer.
Plant: he packed shiitake mushroom sawdust spawn into various cuts he made in pin oak logs. The logs came from a large branch that fell off the next door neighbor’s tree. This took him several hours of work over two days. Yesterday evening he set up a propagation system to use the remaining sawdust spawn to make more spawn on cardboard.
Harvest: he harvested some nice shiitake off the logs he started in 2007.
Eat: he incorporated the shiitake mushrooms into scrambled eggs and also into the stir-fries he’s made over the past week. (He’s also the primary cook in our household.)