Cleaning Day

April 25th

It was 70 and sunny today!  It was exactly what I needed, I went running this morning, worked outside all day, and then went for a walk in the evening; you couldn't keep me inside.  I miss the sun so much!  I had to take full advantage as the weather will be back to cloudy and possible rain tomorrow.
We spent the day getting the farm ready for 21 garden club members.  Lissa has been a part of the Longville garden club since it started, she will give members a tour of the farm which will hopefully peak some interest in the CSA.  We weeded and watered everything in the first hoop house, raked the lawns, organized the greenhouse; it looks awesome and the garden club is sure to be impressed.
Lissa found a radish poking out of the ground, it was still pretty small but definitely big enough to eat.  She gave me the honor of eating the first thing to come out of the garden. It really was an honor.

Minnesota Grown

We also cut some of the greens for dinner, some spicy asian greens, some spinach leaves, and a little bit of kale. Lissa mixed that with some leftover ham and hard boiled eggs from Easter and made a delicious salad for dinner.

I also wanted to post some picture of things happening around the garden...

The water garden; we will be adding the fish soon as well as filling the top pond

Crocus and Snowdrops

I love natures little imperfections; just one tiny red leaf

Purple Tulip

I also love natures perfections

I freaking love tulips

Shade Garden

April 22nd

It is still cold and rainy but the shade garden needs some attention.  The shade garden has tripled in size since it was first planted so every year they split their hosta plants and fill in the empty spaces.  Hostas are big, beautiful, and very hearty plants.  Hostas generally have large green leaves but some exotic varieties will be red, blue, and dark purple. We started by marking the places to put the new hostas and then dug up the old ones; we dug up about 6 plants split them and replanted them, we would have done more but the ground was still frozen in some areas. We will split more hostas when the ground warms up more, hopefully soon!  We found a cluster of puffball mushrooms, it was pretty exciting for me as I considered becoming a mycologist early in my college career (I also wanted to become a bush pilot in Alaska for a while).  Puffballs are basidiomycota which is a big word that means it's a mushroom that reproduces using spores.

Billions of spores

covered in spores

The holes in the top of these puffballs means they are mature and have already released quite a few spores, I would assume there will be more puffballs in the shade garden next year. 

John started raking up some of the leaf litter and pine needles and cutting back some of the vines while I followed him with shovel loads of wood chips.  I sprinkled the wood chips around the shade garden to act as fertilizer.  The wood chips do an excellent job of holding moisture and as the wood decomposes it fertilizes the ground.  Think of a tree falling over in the forest, it slowly decomposes and makes new soil, the wood chips are like hundreds of tiny trees.  Wood chips soak up a lot of nitrogen as they decompose which is why you would not use it to fertilize vegetables, but since the wood chips are just sitting on top of the dirt in the shade garden it will be okay plus the wood chips provide a nice accent to the garden.

I Want a Rockabilly Funeral

April 21st
Today was very exciting, we finished putting up Grant and Christy's new hoop house!  It did not take long and now I know how to put plastic on a hoop house.  We first put on a sheet of a special plastic that traps in heat, the second layer was just standard plastic sheeting.  It is only a matter of time before it is full of delicious organic vegetables.

John and Lissa have a lot of bird houses and this one is the coolest birdhouse I have ever seen!  If I was a bird I would live here

Made by a Seattle artisan

And this would be my vacation home...

Lissa, Jen, Bill, Me, Derek, and John

Everyday we listen to 91.7 KAXE (an awesome local radio station in northern Minnesot) while we work in the hoop houses and everyday we look forward to the Bill Kirchen show they are promoting. Today is the day, a night off to see some music.  The show was at Davies Hall on a college campus in Grand Rapids, it was a small venue but the volume was big!  Bill Kirchen is an incredible musician playing rockabilly or as he lovingly calls it dieselbilly on his telecaster guitar. We left a little early so we could stop and get something to eat, we chose a place called Brewed Awakenings which was not only delicious but also serves local organic food! YAY!  As we were walking in...so was Bill Kirchen and Jack O'Dell (the drummer).  We struck up a great conversation about organic food, the separation of church and state, and finally discussed the possibility of an all girl Bill Kirchen cover band...it could happen. Bill and Jack were incredibly gracious, kind and we all had a great time getting to know them.  Then they put on an awesome show, they played some old stuff, some new stuff, and an awesome cover of "Working On a Building".

 

And he plays the trombone

Tomorrow it's back to work...

Sometimes Life Gives You Lemons, Somtimes Life Gives you ROCKS!

April 19th
We have been getting the new hoop house (Michelle) ready for planting for three weeks now.  The trellis posts are in, the soil has been tilled, the rows are designated and raked, the drip tape is in; now it is just the rocks that need to be removed.  The soil in Longville, MN is a sandy loam, some areas more coarse sandy loam and some more of a fine sandy loam, but the soil on this farm is a rocky loam.  You can check out the soil survey where you live (if you're interested).  4 HOURS! 4 hours of picking rocks, the first couple hours went by pretty quick, Lissa and I chatted the hours away and picked rocks, the last hour on the other hand it was much quieter as we slaved away.  John has spent 50 years picking rocks out of this dirt, he has payed his dues. We are still getting pretty cold at night so we will put off planting the tomatoes until it warms up.

Last week we saw two grouse dancing in the yard, it was pretty cool watching them size each other up. I guess we will find out if it worked when we see little grouse babies.  Here is a video John shot of it, not the best quality but you get the idea.

It's Cold Outside, But it is Warm in the Hoop House

April 16th

There is still snow on the ground but the sun is out!  It was about 43 degrees outside but inside the hoop house it was 90 degrees, needless to say that is where we spent the day.  Lissa and I tackled some more weeding, both of us on our hands and knees pulling weeds out and tilling up the soil.  Weeding with Lissa is such a treat, it combines two of my favorite things, getting dirty and talking.

This is a row of peas just one week ago

I cant believe how quickly the peas are coming up, we have sugar snap peas and snow peas this season and we should start picking in the late spring.  You can see the peas tendrils are starting to grow out searching for the trellis.

Peas!

It is not just the peas that are growing quickly, everything is.  It has been really exciting watching the progress, you can really see a difference everyday.  Here are some more pictures of the crops in the first hoop house.

Spicy Asian greens

Spinach and radishes

Cauliflower

Tulips in the hoop house

The tomato plants are looking good after we pruned and fertilized yesterday.  The plants are getting very tall and are clearly eager to get in the ground.  Some of them are even starting to grow buds!

Budding tomato plant

Tomato plant nodes

The nodes at the bottom of the plant are the beginning of the dense root system that tomatoes form.  Once this tomato is planted in the ground those nodes will spread out and help stabilize the plant as well as soak up lots of water for it.

Damage Control

April 15th

Seriously April, Seriously??  It was freezing cold and cloudy today and then around 4:00 in the afternoon it started snowing.  I think it bothers me more now that I depend on the sun and its warm rays to grow all these delicious vegetables that I so carefully planted in the ground.  We spent most of our work day moving plants around and making sure they are protected from the cold.  The forecast says it will be cloudy and cold for the next few days so we moved the coleus and basil into the heated small greenhouse, they are very sensitive to the cold and need the extra heat.  We also brought quite a few of the flowers we started into John and Lissa's house.  

Coleus are on the bottom shelf

Some of the basil and more coleus

While we were in the small greenhouse we pruned all the tomato plants, and fertilized them with fish emulsion.  Lissa and I also spent some time in the first hoop house weeding and watering, the weeding will be an endless project through the summer but watering will be easier once we hook up the irrigation.  Each row in the hoop house has drip tape under it, the drip tape slowly distributes water into the soil when it is needed. Brilliant.  

We found a cut worm near the cauliflower, we have not seen any new damage but decided to spray again for good measure.  It is amazing to see results from the organic alternative pesticide after just one spray, when the standard pesticides are toxic and have to be sprayed multiple times to be effective. 



*We ended up with a total of 4 inches of snow, John, Lissa, and I have a bet going on how long it will take to melt.  The bet is for a dollar and these are the guesses. I intend to be $2 richer by Wednesday but I will let you know who wins.
John - Wednesday @ 4:00pn
Lissa - Tuesday @ 8:00pm
Trisha - Wednesday @ 1:00 pm 

Grafting Apple Trees

April 13^th

Pruned crab apple tree

I spent a good chunk of the day learning about apple trees.  I remember grafting apple trees in High school but today's lesson was much more involved and educational.  We started with a grown crab apple tree and pruned it, we literally cut most of the branches off.

Then we split the ends of the branches right down the middle, exposing the cambium layer. we used a screwdriver to hold the slit open.

Matching the cambium layers

Next you take the branches of the types of apples you want to grow; we chose Honeycrisp and State Fair.  We carved the bottoms of the new branches into a point, exposing the cambium layer on the new branch.  It is very important to match the cambium layers from the tree to the new branches, this ensures they grow together.  There may be some that fail but I think we did such a good job that all the grafts will take.  The last thing you need to do is tape the split together with lightweight paper tape and then use grafting wax to seal the hole.  The wax protects the tree and ensures that it won’t have to spend its energy healing the wound.

Tape and wax

After grafting trees in the orchard here, we headed over to Grant and Christy’s to graft some of their apple trees.  We have 6 kinds of apples in the orchard including the most recent addition, three Honeycrisp trees. 

This morning I noticed some flowers blooming, some snow drops and crocuses.

Working Smart, Not Hard...

April 12^th

 

Now that most of the stuff in the first hoop house has poked through the ground it is time to feed the plants.  We use a mixture of these soy and alfalfa, they are great organic fertilizers.  I liberally sprinkled the rows with the soy pellets and then went back over the rows with alfalfa pellets. 

it will be really interesting to see how quickly the crops in the hoop house grow with the extra boost from the fertilizer.  It has been very sunny the last few days, so we should see some big growth spurts in the next week. After fertilizing I used my organizational skills to clean up all the empty pots.  They have been stacked here since last summer and buried under feet of snow, we will be using them a lot through out the spring and summer and it is much easier when you can see what you have got.

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

This project took me a little longer because I had to inspect a lot of the empty pots for ticks...there is some tall grass behind those pallets of pots and you all know how much I hate ticks.  Once I had finished organizing the pots and checking my legs for ticks I helped John clean out the water garden.  The water garden is gorgeous, partly because it is a water garden but also because John does such a nice job cleaning it every spring.  Cleaning fish poop out of the ponds sounds gross but it inspired an experiment. We use a fish emulsion on a lot of the crops we grow here, it is an excellent organic fertilizer.  I was thinking we could use the nutrient dense water the we pump out as fertilizer.  We saved a five gallon bucket and have chosen a small section of the hoop house to pour the water on.  This would be a great way to recycle some of that water.  We definitely do not value fresh water enough here, and it is going to be interesting to see if it pays off. I will keep you all posted. I will also post more pictures once we have filled the ponds, the plants around the ponds will perk up pretty quick.

Making Jam

April  11

Last night the weather man said it would be rainy and cold so we made plans to make jam today...the weather man was wrong, but we still spent the morning making jam.  We made two batches of blueberry lime, two batches of mixed berry, a batch of raspberry, and triple batch of tomato ginger chutney! The tomato ginger chutney is amazing and I highly recommend that you try it sometime.  Here is the recipe.

1 head of garlic

1 inch chopped ginger

1 1/2 cups of red wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 quart of tomatoes

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp hot pepper (or as much as you like)

2 Tbl raisins

2 Tbl slivered almond

Mix all ingredients except last two.  Cook a long time, until a spoon comes out coated.  It should be pretty thick.  Lastly, add the raisins and the slivered almonds.  stir well then store in a jar and seal the top.  

With the sun shining we headed outside to do some more planting.  We planted three more kinds of lilies, dahlias, and a bunch of different colors of nasturtiums.  We also planted some tulip bulbs from last year. Once tulips reach several years old, the stage in their life in which they produce the biggest flowers, they split into many smaller bulbs.  If you dig up the tulips bulbs after the leaves start dying you can replant the baby bulbs.  This is their means of multiplying naturally. Some will bloom and some wont but we planted about 100 so we will inevitably get some tulips.

We had an awesome dinner of Jalfrezi Chicken over cauliflower florets, salad, and cornbread with the jam that we made.

Bruises and Splinters

April 9^th 

Well I survived the first week!  No serious injuries but lots and lots of bruises and splinters.  I could read a thousand books but still not learn as much as I have in the last few days.  This morning we sprayed the broccoli and cauliflower with the bacillus thuringiensis. The best thing about alternative natural pesticides is they are very mild; it will wash off the plants with a good rain or even a very humid day.  We will keep our eyes on the broccoli and cauliflower, and spray again if needed.

 

The peas have poked through about an inch so we put up trellises for the peas vines to grow up.  I cant believe how quickly the peas are coming up.

 

The last few days have been sunny and the hoop houses are nice and warm, it feels like the middle of June in there. Saw my first tick of the season, I am terrified of ticks!  I mean seriously terrified!  

A Little of This, and a Little of That

April 8^th

Another day of planting...Cosmic purple and Scarlett Nantes carrots went in the ground.  We are hoping for a good early crop of carrots and will be planting again for a late crop of carrots.  Eight more kinds of lettuce including Bibb, Oak Leaf Royal, Red Salad Bowl, Butter Crunch, Salad Bowl, Tango, Prizehead, Gourmet Salad Blend, French Mix and Italian Mix.  We also started more flowers in the greenhouse like Lobelia, Amaranthus, Alyssum, and Marigolds in all different colors. 

  

Lissa noticed the broccoli is being nibbled on by something so she put a call into their good friends and partners in crime Grant and Christy for a good solution.  It was determined to be a kind of caterpillar called the Cabbage Looper (Trichoplusia ni) and they came up with a solution... 

A company called Green Step makes organic "Caterpillar Control" the active ingredient is Bacillicus Thuringiensis which is a bacterium that lives in soil and is commonly used as an alternative to pesticides. It disables the caterpillars digestive tract, which stops them from eating the plants pretty quickly.  John has been teaching me a lot about organic pest control and it seems like there is a large emphasis on prevention.  Things like crop rotation and proper watering practices will take you a long way in protecting your plants. 

Tonight Lissa made some carrots with ginger and orange juice, they were delicious but even better they inspired us to grow ginger this year.  After dinner we all stood around the computer reading about how and when to plant it; we all decided that it is feasible and this fall we are hoping for a small ginger crop…very exciting!

Back to Planting!

April 7^th

Woke up to another beautiful sunrise out my window; you just have to be thankful that you get to see a sunrise!   I walked into the first hoop house to a bunch of green…the radishes, swiss chard, sugar beans, pak choi, were all poking through. 

Today we planted 4 different kinds of lettuce, Oak Leaf, Lalla Rosa, Ruby Red, and a Mesclun mix.  We will be planting a bunch more lettuce in the next few days.  The farm will be growing about 15 kinds of lettuce this year.  This means I will be eating quite a few salads this summer! We also spent some time planting flowers that will be re-planted outside when the weather is right.  We planted three kinds of lillies, Casablanca, Medusa, and Muscadet.  

Lissa has quite a few flower gardens around the farm; she sells the flowers for weddings or other events as well as offers them to the members of the C.S.A.  If you buy a flower share you get fresh cut flowers with your produce once a week.  The gardens also play host to many events throughout the summer, a few weddings and the Arts off '84 art crawl (you will here a lot more about the art crawl as it gets closer) are already on the books for this summer.   

I also wanted to mention all the other things that are in the ground but I have not talked about:
Arugula
Spicy Asian greens
Spinach
Sugar snap peas
Swiss Chard
Cabbage
Kale - Dwarf Blue, Starbor, Redbor, Red Russian, Dinosaur
Radishes - French Breakfast, Champion, Easter Egg, Cherry Belle, White Globe, and Crimson Giant

AND...Tulips are coming up! A good sign spring is coming!

Waiting!

April 6^th

I went for a run this morning to Three Island Lake; a bald eagle came from behind me, circled around me a few times then took off across the lake.  It was pretty cool! The lake is small but beautiful with no homes on it; a rarity for this part of Minnesota.  I look forward to watching it change as the summer progresses, I will make sure to bring my camera next time I visit.

 

Back at the cabin I sat down to do some writing, the sound of sizzling bacon and Nina Simone singing the blues relieved my aches and pains.  Today I got to experience the other side of farming….WAITING.  Waiting for the spring to come, waiting for the crop to ripen, there is always something to wait for.  Lissa and I are headed to Blue Sky Beads in Akeley, MN. The owner, Sandy Fynboh, is a good friend of Lissas.  Sandy is an incredibly talented glass blower and an expert in all things jewelry.  She helped me re-vamp some old pieces of jewelry as well as create some brand new pieces.  It was a borderline dangerous to go in her store, I kept having to reel myself in. It is a shame I couldn’t buy everything!  If you are ever near Akeley, MN her shop is a must see.  We spent the day around a table enjoying each others company and making pretty things. Lissa brought some homemade and homegrown raspberry jalapeño jam which she put over cream cheese and served with crackers…DELICIOUS!  The break from hard labor and dirty hands was nice.