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Independence Days Update: The Cusp of Autumn

admin September 17th, 2010

It won’t officially be fall for a few days,  but we had a night low of 37 degrees, the kids are wearing two layers early in the day and we shut the windows at night.  That’s fall, even if the dates are wrong.  Sometime between our departure and our return, autumn moved in to stay.  We’ll have warm days again, of course, but the change has come.

You never know when it will come these days – sometimes it is warm all fall, other times it gets cold early.  Our first frost has happened anywhere between September 19 and October 30 over the nine years we’ve been here, so you never know what to expect.  And that doesn’t count the basil frosts – you know, those light ones that just toast the basil.  We had one of those the last week in August once.

It is time to try and pull in all I can of summer, and the process keeps us busy – besides the five day diversion during which we ate all kinds of unsustainable things, increased our waste production and otherwise used resources in ways we don’t ordinarily, now we’ve got to come back and get into the groove again.  I’ve got literally piles of produce to attend to right now

I did come back with some wonderful plants that went into the ground yesterday – I took a workshop on propagating woodland medicinal plants.  While our medicinal herb production has mostly focused on wetland herbs, our 19 acres of woods already are home to a small amount of goldenseal and blue cohosh (but not enough that I’d ever harvest any for sale), but clearly can produce the conditions suitable to growing them.  The class, taught by an extension expert from North Carolina was brilliant, and she gave us all plant divisions to take home of Black Cohosh, goldenseal, bloodroot, mayapple and wild ginger. I have small amounts of black cohosh and wild ginger already, but I was excited to get some new planting stock.  It’ll be years before we attempt any serious harvest of these plants, and I’m not counting any chickens before they hatch, but it seems a good use of our land.

Before we left there was an unholy rush to get all the tomatoes processed – bazillions of them, roughly speaking.  They are ripening more slowly in the cooler temperatures now, but I’ll need to do some more.  Today I’m gathering in the pumpkins and bottle gourds as well, and clearing a bed to be made into a low hoophouse for lettuces, spinach and kale.   I’ve got zucchini to dry and cukes to pickle – the final rush.

We’ve been so comatose the last few days after the chronic sleep deprivation of the trip that things have been slow getting started – yesterday we dealt with the last of the sweet corn, and picked the raspberries that we waiting for us so patiently.  Today there’s jam to deal with, and peppers and…

This time of year is my favorite – it feels so lush and rich and the wealth of the harvest makes me happy.  At the same time, with school started up again for Eli and Eric and the busy season hitting before winter, and the wave of holidays, it feels like we go two months at a dead run – and long for the quiet of winter.  I guess it makes the transition easier!

Plant something: Black cohosh, goldenseal, mayapple, bloodroot, wild ginger, winter wheat, lettuce, arugula.

Harvest something: Pumpkins, gourds, squash, broccoli, kale, collards, dried beans, peppers, hot peppers, apples, carrots, beets, daikon, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, pea shoots, many herbs.

Preserve something: Made raspberry jam, made peach jam, dried zucchini, dried pumkin, dried apples, pickled green tomatoes, froze corn, froze lima beans.

Waste Not: We wasted a lot on our trip – there just wasn’t a good way to avoid it.  Sucked.

Want Not: Nothing special

Build community food systems: Gave a talk about why grow food in front of Thomas Jefferson’s Vegetable Garden!!!!

Eat the Food: Lots of corn chowder.

How about you?

Sharon

Redefining Terminally Cute

Sharon August 11th, 2010

I’m short on time today so could only wait to upload pix on one site – so if you want to see the most adorable things in the universe, you’ll have to go here.

If I’m Not Going to Sell My House, Maybe I Can Sell My Neighbors’?

Sharon August 3rd, 2010

I’m really sorry to see my neighbors go, even though they’ve been busy and we haven’t seen much of them for the last couple of years.  They have been excellent neighbors and good friends, and I wish they wouldn’t move.  But since they have their reasons, the best I can do is maybe help sell their house, and get some new, but equally excellent neighbors living next door to me!

So, wanna buy the house next door?  It has small acreage at the top of the hill, in a nice, rural setting, across the street from lovely people, and (IMHO of course) next door to some nice folks ;-) .  Duanesburg (the school district) is a good school district for those looking for those things, and we have tons of local food resources. 

The house is large and has a nice in-law apartment and is ideally set up for an extended family.  They’ve done a lot of work on the house, and it has definite good adapting-in-place possibilities. 

The community is well out of a flood plain, in easy commuting distance of Albany and Schenectady, pretty and rural and friendly.  The only thing I ask is that if you move in next door, you have to promise not to start an expose blog about how Sharon really doesn’t have it all together ;-) .

There’s more info here - see you around the neighborhood?

Independence Days Update: The First Tomato

Sharon July 4th, 2010

I ate the first ripe tomato today on the fourth of July.  I just feel that statement should be preserved in amber, because it is the dream I always begin with in February.  When the first tomato seeds go into the ground in winter, the fourth of July is the dream date.  Most years, we don’t make it – too cold, too wet, too something.  But in winter, when summer seems infinitely far away, I dream of a hot day Independence Day in summer, popping a sweet cherry tomato into my mouth.

And today I got to do it – it was from a variety I’ve never grown before “Venus” designed for container culture.  These are the smallest tomatoes I’ve ever grown – true dwarfs.  But they have a surprisingly heavy yield for their size and the two that I ate today were sweet – not as good as sungold, but better than my usual first tomato, Glacier. 

I’m in between trips right now – I was in New York City for a few days earlier this week with the boys and Eric and my mother in law, back for a bit, and then headed to Boston to celebrate my great-aunt’s 90th birthday.  After that we dive into the meat of July – Eli attends summer school and the other boys are attending a wonderful skills-oriented camp program for three weeks.  Meanwhile, Eric and I plan to use most of the time with no obligations and several uninterrupted hours every morning (this is very unusual for us) to build buck pens, put up fencing and continue expanding the garden beds. 

That last couple of days have been more about getting what we already have in order – weeding, sorting, planting a few things still lingering.  I started the fall broccoli and cabbage crop, got two of the production herb beds planted, finished up the peas and planted late cucumbers and have been generally trying to get ready to go away again.  Phil the awesome housemate did a terrific job on his first soloing with the creatures, but this time he may have to do some garden work as well, so I’m in the process of figuring out how to get him up to speed – and also minimize his time spent on this, since his orals are rapidly approaching.

We’re t-three weeks from first goat babies, and that’ll be the other priority – getting a second kidding pen built, getting my supplies in order and preparing for the babies.  We did the first round of vaccinations for the girls due early, and will do the second one on Tuesday.  I’m not sure if Tekky’s pregnant or not – she’s a *lot* thinner than the other girls, and I can’t tell by palpating.  It is possible that she didn’t settle on the first go round and is due a month after the other girls.

I’m enjoying the fact that chores take so little time without milking, but I admit, I’m also looking forward to milking again – and I hate buying milk.  Although my kids think it is a huge treat – everyone was so excited to have cow’s milk again – Asher said “Mommy, I love cow’s milk!”  He likes the goat stuff fine too, so presumably that will also have the pleasure of novelty when it comes back into our lives.

We are done with the cherries, but it was quite an orgy while it lasted.  I have a few cherry trees, just coming into production, but our local pick-your-own has them, and we picked a lot – I think picking cherries is my favorite kind of fruit harvesting.  You are reaching up rather than bending down, you get to be in the shade, and well, then there’s all these cherries.  We ate them and ate them, dried them and jammed them (although it didn’t set up very well), and I had the last few this morning.  I fantasize that there will be a few left on the trees next week, but I know that the season is short and its time is past – soon it will be blueberries.  But I have trouble letting go of cherries for some reason. 

I’ve been harvesting and drying herbs quite steadily, and I’m starting to figure out what it will take in terms of existing plants to grow a given weight of dried herbs. I spent part of yesterday experimenting with tea blends – my favorite is a headache blend that combines Betony, Skullcap, Lemon Verbena and Lemon Balm – it tastes almost exactly like a black tea with lemon.  Betony is a superb black tea substitute, as well as being a lovely medicinal.

Another success was the greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts combo I pulled together for respiratory conditions – Elecampane, Yarrow, Anise Hyssop and Peppermint.  Neither elecampane root nor yarrow is a particularly yummy tasting herb – both are strong, and elecampane has an odd spiciness, not unpleasant, but a little strange, while yarrow is fairly bitter.  Oddly, the four together create a really surprisingly pleasant synthesis – I might add some cinnamon as well, but I liked it more than I expected. 

We have set up our mudroom as an herb drying room, but it remains to be seen whether this will be wholly successful or not – I really don’t yet have an optimal way of drying herbs quickly and effectively.  The problem is that my solar dryer on a sunny day gets far too hot to effectively preserve herbs, while on an overcast day often doesn’t dry them fast enough.  Since it is important to dry herbs very quickly but at low temperatures and out of direct sunlight to best preserve their medicinal qualities, I’ve been trying to figure out something that works as well as my electric dehydrator, which is extremely effective, but which obviously uses electricity.  My solar dryer is great for fruit and vegetables, but not ideal for herbs.  Hanging in my house usually takes too long – the herbs lose color and fragrance.  I’ve tried the attic, and that’s ok – but cleaning out the attic to be able to really use it will be something of a production, and not something I want to do in July, when it is 100 degrees in there.  Thus, the mudroom, which heats up well.

What I’ve found is that it doesn’t hold heat well over night, though, and in the cool stretch we had last week, the herbs took too long to dry and weren’t of the quality I want.  I may have to break down and do what other growers I know have – reserve space in a hoophouse to get appropriate temps, but I don’t have one yet, so that won’t be this year.  I’m watching to see how we do in this hot, dry stretch.

The sour cherries are just about ready to be picked, and the peaches and plums are coloring up.  The wild raspberries are producing, and the blueberries will be along next week.  My black currants would be ready, but the goats got at them – I won’t have many black currants this year.  I’m going to move the bushes in behind the fence – I was lazy, because the goats had ignored them.

Otherwise, not too much going on here – quiet and peaceful and hot.  With all the young plants going in, I’m having to water more than I like, but our well is good and the year hasn’t been so terribly dry.  It would have been smarter to put everything in earlier, but then we’d have had to have the beds built.  As always, reality and the ideal come banging firmly against one another. 

Plant something: Cucumbers, bush beans, broccoli, cabbage, kale, mesclun, chard, echinacea (3 varieties), skullcap, yarrow, horehound, vervain, blue vervain, marshmallow, valerian, feverfew, blue cohosh, spilanthes, dill, sage, pennyroyal, betony, elecampane, angelica

Harvest something: Tomatoes, zucchini, snap peas, shelling peas, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, eggs,  motherwort, yarrow, meadowsweet, yellow bedstraw, chamomile, calendula, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, kale, mesclun, lettuce

Preserve something: Made cherry jam, dried cherries, canned rhubarb sauce, dried herbs, froze snap peas

Waste Not: Because we’ve been travelling, we’re trying not to build up food that won’t get eaten, so mostly just trying to cook in correct quantities.  Otherwise, the usual composting, not throwing stuff out, etc..

Want Not: Picked up the pasta I ordered way back when.

Eat the food:  Cherries, cherries and more cherries.  And snap peas.  This time of year, I find it hard to do creative cooking – everything tastes so delicious just as it is!

Build community food systems: Nothing new.

How about you?

Sharon

Independence Days Update: Getting Ready to Party

Sharon June 17th, 2010

I was away three days last weekend, and I came back to the preparations for Eric’s 40th birthday party, so not as much has been accomplished this week on larger farm projects as I’d like.   On the other hand, the grass is scythed, the flowers are blooming and the barn will be cleaned out tomorrow, so that’s good – sometimes the trade offs are aesthetics vs. infrastructure, otherwise, we sometimes fall too far into “infrastructure and ignore the aesthetics.”

I’ve already frozen several lasagnas and 100 shortcake biscuits for the party – got to make one more lasagn and a big batch of tomato sauce.  It is nice, the first basil harvest is ready just in time, and there’s plenty of oregano and thyme and it makes for amazing tomato sauce with all that fragrance imbued.  The menu is lasagna (with some pasta and tomato sauce for the vegans), pesto bread, asparagus with lemon-caper dressing, a big green salad, and for dessert, a huge quantity of strawberry shortcake.  There will also be chips, salsa and snap peas for nibbles beforehand. 

I’ve done a bunch of prettification stuff (I did a bunch before Memorial Day weekend as well, so the place is looking pretty decent) – I finally bought a dark purple clematis to twine up the porch (wanted one for years, keep forgetting about it), and got the front path weeded (bleah!). 

Meanwhile, I’ve also been working on the usual planting, both the herb infrastructure for the new medicinal project (what do y’all think of “the homegrown apothecary” for a name for the medicinal line – I haven’t googled yet to see if it is already taken, though), and all the normal perennial and annual things.  I’m getting the wetland medicinals in over the next week or two – Viburnum opulus (crampbark), blue vervain, marshmallow, valerian, angelica, eclipta, betony…  I’m enjoying putting these beds together and making them look nice.

It is time for the first major herb harvest as well here – but I haven’t done much of it.  The chamomile is blossoming, as is the motherwort, betony, yarrow, catnip, lemon balm, red clover and other herbs that need to be cut for aerial parts.  But they will have to wait a week, other than a few bunches to make the house smell good.  I’m still trying to figure out whether I can make tinctures for sale in my kitchen, or if I have to actually rent a commercial kitchen for the process, which would suck, but I could do it.  I’m planning on doing the commercial kitchen thing anyway for a few of my crops, notably black currant and elderberry syrups and juices, but I’d really like to avoid having to do that every time I want to pour Everclear over plant matter ;-) . 

We had a bit of a setback this week when the goats learned to open the gate to the side yard – the goats got in and had a field day.  I don’t mind the strawberry losses (they’ll grow back, and they were past their time anyway) or the geraniums (which are just for pretty), but I do resent that every single broccoli plant was eaten down to the nub – no brocc here for another month yet, I fear.  I had plenty of transplants yet to replant, but oh, what a pain!

The goats are almost dry now – due dates begin the last week of July and run through the third week of August, and everyone looks pregnant, except Tekky, who may just be carrying thin, or may not be.  If she hasn’t taken in four months with a buck, though, we’ll have to sell her.    I’m looking forward to a run of babies.  I’m also kind of enjoying the end of milking for a short while – and when we come back, we’ll have enough does in milk that we will be milking only once a day.  I’m looking forward to the end of long evening chores – I never really minded them, but it frees up a bit of time.

Our shared sheep arrangement doesn’t seem to have happened so far this year – my friend with the sheep has had a series of troubles and they’ve never come, which means my pastures are growing up, which means I need sheep!  I really want icelandics – so if anyone knows of a local herd of icelandics with ewes for sale, I’d be interested.  Also, bonus if they do disease testing, since some of the things sheep can get are more serious in goats.  Please drop me an email if you know of a good herd near me!

Otherwise, all party prep and prettification this week – next week will be the last serious hurrah of getting in the very last of the garden, and then I move on to the fall garden.  The work never ends, but I like it, and that’s the reality of the farm. 

Plant something: More broccoli, chard, calendula, marigolds, clematis, viburnum, gingko, mulberries, corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, flax, lettuce

Harvest something: lettuce, chard, kale, bok choy, chinese cabbage, snap peas, asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, motherwort, lemon balm, lemon verbena, mint, catnip, yarrow, milk (pretty much the last of it) and eggs.

Preserve something: 18 pints of strawberry jam – half strawberry rhubarb, half strawberry-masala chai.  A good year for strawberries.  Some dried strawberries, and a few dried herbs.

Waste Not: Gave our battered baker’s choice stove, in wild need of radical reconditioning away to someone who will love it and give it a good home.  Otherwise, the usual.

Want Not: Nothing in particular.

Eat the Food: Eating up last year’s pickles in anticipation of lots of cukes, snap peas at every meal.

Build community food systems: Was asked to consult by a municipality on local food design – am hoping to do more of this kind of work.

How about you?

Sharon

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