Getting Ready for the CSA

We pulled quite a few radishes today, we planted the radish seeds thick and close together with the intention to thin them for the radish greens.  Radish greens can be very tender and are an excellent hearty green used in stir-frys and soups. Unfortunately, the million other things going on at the farm made thinning radishes less of a priority. Radishes do not like to be near each other, there needs to be at least an inch between each radish, if they are planted to thick they will bolt.  Bolting is when a plant goes straight to seed, so you end up with tall tough greens and no radishes.  While I was pulling radishes out of the hoop house a hummingbird flew in and got trapped.  The hummingbird eventually got out but not before I got a few pictures with my camera.

I also checked the compost thermometer and in just a few short days it has heated up another 20 degrees.  With some more warm weather on the way it won't be long till it is up another 20 degrees.  We covered the compost pile with hay which will act as a natural "biofilter" which prevents odor and traps air in the compost pile.  Adding the hay makes it unnecessary to physically turn the pile, which is awesome cause that sounds like a gross job the intern would have to do.

I woke up early this morning to plant the eggplants, they were started about a month ago and are very anxious to get in the ground.  We were waiting for some space in the first hoop house, I planted about 4 varities and a total of 80 eggplants. 

Everything is planted, veggies are growing, and the first CSA delivery is just around the corner.  John and Lissa have built an extra room off of their garage, it is a kitchen that Lissa uses for her catering jobs as well as the staging area for the CSA.  When the vegetables are planted they will all be taken to the staging area to be divided into bins and the bins will be loaded into cars where they will be taken to the appropriate drop off points in Longville, Walker, Remer, and Hackensack.

The staging area

There is only one problem...the catering kitchen/CSA staging area has been used for storage all winter.  It has been filled to the brim with odds and ends from around the farm.  It is like the junk drawer in your kitchen, you know the drawer with pens, rubber bands, a deck of cards, takeout menus, etc but on a much bigger scale.  It has been holding lawn chairs and boxes of jars for canning and about a billion other things.  John and I set up 8 tables and started hauling everything out; I mean everything.  John then scrubbed the floors, I would have done it but I had to go up to Grand Rapids for another class at the radio station.  When I got back the floor was sparkling so I did what I do best, organize.  I did a good chunk of it but we had a dinner date a Joan's house to get to.  Joan is a friend and 91.7 KAXE programmer, she invited us over for some Indian food which she learned to make in India and it was delicious.

John built a rack for all of our Minnesota Grown stickers

Everything is Growing

It rained all day yesterday, and last night we got our first thunderstorm of the year (I love thunderstorms).  With the last few days being sunny and warm and then lots of rain yesterday I had a sneaking suspicion there would be some stuff poking through the ground so I took a walk around the farm to see what was moving.  So many thing are coming up, it is so incredible to see what a little sunshine and a little rain can do for a farm.  I saw lots of potatoes coming up, there were a few onions up, the radish rows have all germinated, the three rows of turnips I planted have all surfaced, there are even some beans poking out of the ground.

Turnips

Potatoes

Radishes

Collards

Peas just poking through

Dragons Tongue Beans

Broccoli and Cauliflower

We moved the cucumbers out into the hoop house,  they are really moving now.  The shade garden is even seeing some new growth, the hostas are all coming up. I am excited to see the shade garden in full bloom.

 Some of the apple tree's blossoms are just about ready to burst open, it shouldn't be more than a couple of days now.  There is one tree that is ahead of the game, it will be so cool when all of the trees are blossoming. I also checked on the trees that we grafted and am proud to announce that the grafts have taken, they are a little bit behind the other trees but the buds have swollen and you can see just a little bit of a leaf getting ready to open.

Fully blossomed tree

Just about to open

Leaves on the grafts

This is my front yard...you can imagine how pretty it will be when  all those apple trees are in bloom.

The lilac bush in front of my cabin is also ready to start flowering (I love lilacs).  I am very excited to wake up to that smell every morning. The asparagus is doing really well, we have been harvesting a handful of spears all week long.  We will have to stop harvesting by the first week of July, so asparagus may be a part of our CSA produce this year.  The rhubarb is in full swing, we harvested the first crop a few days ago and last night Lissa made a delicious Rhubarb crisp (I love when Lissa bakes).

Yesterday I saw a duck in the lake with ten little ducklings behind her, a sure sign that spring is really here (I love baby ducks).
Lissa is heading to England for a week to check out Chelsea gardens, then she will spend a couple days eating in Paris and then back home to the farm.  Before she left, she wanted to get some annuals planted in her gardens.  We planted a few lilies, and lots of filler flowers like marigolds and lobelia.  The gardens are going to look great when she gets back.

Odds and Ends

We have a bumper crop of mizuna, for those who don't know, it is a delicious asian green. It is hearty enough to add to soups but delicate enough to use in a salad.  It has a peppery, slightly spicy flavor similar to arugula.  It was doing well two weeks ago but after the week of sunshine it went crazy.  I filled an entire trash bag full to the top of mizuna, and still there is an unbelievable amount left.  I took the bag over to Christy's she is going to rinse it and blanch it, this will preserve the color.  We are going to make a pesto with it, check for the recipe in the "Recipes" tab at the top of the page.  (It will be posted soon)
I planted a row of sunflowers and a row of cosmos in the small garden near my cabin.  I planted about 7 kinds of sunflowers and at least 9 kinds of cosmos, so it will be nice to watch them bloom throughout the summer.  While I weeded in the first hoops house, John was weeding the second hoop house mainly the tomato plants.  Each plant has a small plastic label that tells the kind and variety of that particular plant 
eg: "Sweet Chelsea" - Cherry Tomato or "Opalka" - Paste Tomato
The label is very important however it is difficult to read under the foliage of the plants and it usually gets covered in dirt.  In order to run a hoe around the plant to weed it, you have to first pick up the label which is frustrating to do 350 times. John had this great idea to use laminated cards and attach them to the string holding the tomato plants up. GENIUS!  I realize this may be less exciting to you all in the blogosphere but this is the coolest thing to me, it will make life easier for me...and farming is hard work so any thing to make it easier is cool.

The old

The new

Back to Weeding

We planted a couple rows of carrots a while ago and now that they have poked through the ground we need to weed the rows...badly.  We also have 5 more rows of carrots in one of the outside gardens; the two rows planted in the hoop house will be early carrots.  One row is Cosmic Purple and the other is Scarlet Nantes

Before

After

I spent 35 minutes sitting in my doorway to get a shot of an Oriole.  They have been hanging around my deck all week so I put out some oranges to tempt them even more.  Every time one would land, I would grab my camera and as soon as I got near the door they would fly away.  This morning I just propped my door open and waited...it paid off, I got some great shots.

 

I also caught a red breasted grosbeak

Wild Ginger is coming up in the shade garden, it is unfortunately not edible but it was cool to see. The root and rhizome can be slowly boiled in a small quantity of water for a long time and the resulting liquid taken as a contraceptive by the women of many American Indian tribes. The dried root of the wild ginger plant is burned as incense and is said to repel insects. I could have really used some insect repellant today, the mosquitoes are out and they love me.  I went to bed with 20 bites, needless to say I hate mosquitoes. I spent some time looking on the internet for ways to make them stop itching.  I tried nail polish which worked for a while, then I tried the old baking soda and water which worked for a while, then I took a hot shower mainly to wash all the nail polish and baking soda off of me but that also helped for a little while.  I finally dabbed tea tree oil on each of the bites and went to bed. 

I had to take some more picture of flowers, there are so many coming up around the farm and they are all so beautiful I can't help myself.  

Yellow Daffodil

Planting Outside

This is what is planted in the main garden

It is finally here.  We spent all day planting outside, there are 5 outdoor gardens and I have been anxious to plant them since I got here a month ago.  It was a little overcast today but it was kind of nice not having to do all the planting in the heat.  The main outdoor garden already has potatoes in it but the rest was filled with beans, onions, parsnips, turnips, collards, peas, summer squash, broccoli and cauliflower. In the other gardens we have beets, turnips cucumber, peppers, gourds, and more potatoes and carrots.  Check out the plans I drew, these will help next year when John and Lissa prepare to plant the outside gardens again. They rotate their crops to ensure minimal soil nutrient depletion; not only does it prevent nutrient depletion but it can drastically improve the soil if you do it right.  For example if you plant something that soaks up a lot of nitrogen one year you should plant something that leaves a lot of nitrogen the next year.  Creating this natural balance is far better than any chemical you can add to the soil.  Crop rotation also does a great job at deterring pests; if you plant something in the same spot year after year, pests will make a home there.  It makes sense to move things around.  Author Eric Coleman is a master at crop rotation and John and Lissa will plan their rotation from his recommendations.  Eric Coleman has written some excellent books on sustainable agriculture, if you are at all interested in the topic check out his books.

The orchard garden and my front yard

There are a few things that have not yet been planted in the ground.  The cucumbers have been started and will be under the grow lights for the next couple of days.  The pepper plants were started about a month ago but it has been too cold to put them outside. Both the cucumbers and peppers will be put in next week at the latest.  With most of the gardens planted we turn our attention to watering. we will use a sprinkler to water the gardens for the first few weeks, once everything starts to come up we will run drip tape through the main large garden which will supply that garden with a more steady and efficient flow of water. 

I watched an excellent documentary the other night called "To Market, To Market To Buy A Fat Pig".  It was produced by PBS and it is about the importance of farmers markets in America. They provide great food and build community.  I found it interesting, maybe you will too.  If you live or are near Walker, MN this summer, come to the Green Scenes farmers market.  I will be down there every Thursday selling fruits and veggies.  There will be local artisans and lots of food, something for everyone.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

It will get up to 140 degrees.

Now that we have a had a few nice days in a row, the compost pile is starting to heat up again.  A healthy compost pile will never fully stop but in the winter it will slow down, especially in northern Minnesota, and then it takes a while in the spring for it to get started again.  The pile on this farm is huge so it takes a lot longer than a small household compost pile.  John and Lissa collect food scrapes from some local restaurants and the farm supplies weeds, grass, and plant stalks; friends and neighbors bring over leaves that are slowly integrated into the pile.  The microbes in the compost pile are no different than any other living creature...they need water. They will function best when the compost material is about as moist as a wrung out sponge and are provided with many air passages for aerobic breakdown; which is why adding water and turning the pile maintains efficient decomposition. Knowing that, John drenched the pile today and will turn it in a few weeks. 

 I learned an important lesson in farming today...you win some and you lose some.  I had to pick and compost an entire row of radishes.  We planted a row of icicle radishes which are a tasty white radish that apparently don't grow very well here.  This is the second year they have tried to grow this particular variety of radish and this is the second year they have done badly.  It was a bummer to pull them all out but it does allow more air, sun and space to the crops around it, plus we will be able to plant something else there. 

These are the only white icicles that grew

These are all the radishes that failed to grow

We planted 35 herb baskets, some will go to our CSA members, some will be sold on our vegetable stand, and some will be sold to the Green Scene in Walker, MN.  They have two kinds of basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, cilantro, and dill.  The dill and cilantro were planted as seed in these baskets and will take about a week to germinate, which is why you cannot see them in the picture.

Lissa found part of a Robins egg, they are such a beautiful blue color.and it is always nice to that the
With no more threat of overnight frost it is time to start planting outside, which we will start doing tomorrow. 

Spring is Finally Here...Kind of.

Apple tree

Woke up this morning the sun was shining, birds were chirping, and I put on SHORTS!  Walking through the orchard I noticed that the buds on the apple trees have burst open, even the raspberry bushes have green leaves out.  It reached 75 degrees today and I got my first sunburn of the year.

Row of Gladiolas

We started the day planting two rows of gladiolas, this is going to be awesome in the middle of summer when they all start to bloom.  We have two rows of gladiolas in the hoop house that were planted about two weeks ago, there are a few just poking through the ground so we will have an early crop as well. We also spent some time planting some of the flowers we got at Bergens last week.  Lissa spent some time over the weekend putting flowers in planters around the house, but there were still tons of flowers to be planted.  Lissa has an eye for planters; every one she puts together is incredible.

Lissa's creations

The radishes are HUGE.  We will be harvesting them for the first time tomorrow; we will also harvest mizuna (asian green), spinach, and kale.  This crop will be heading to the Green Scene in Walker, MN.  We will be providing vegetables to them all season, so if you are in the area stop by and check it out.

radishes for dinner

A lot of kale

A bucket of spinach

spinach the size of my hand

We made compost tea, which is a great way to fertilize any plants organically and cheaply.  Take a few good shovel loads of compost to cover the bottom of a bucket then fill it with water.  We used the compost tea to water all the things we had harvested.  Whatever is left behind after harvesting can get a little limp because there roots were disturbed by the poking and prodding, so it helps to give it the extra boost.
There are lots of flowers blooming.  It is so exciting to see this, as we have had such a long cold spring. 

Tulip

Daffodil

Daffodil

Bloodroot

Bloodroot has been used by Native Americans for many medicinal uses, such as treating migraines, a diuretic, and it even has anti-fungal properties.  Native Americans also used the dark red liquid that comes from the stem as dyes and paint.  Seems like a pretty nice flower to have growing in the backyard.  

Living on a farm has perks.  Lissa gave me a bouquet of daffodils, pickles, peach jam, apple butter, and tomato chutney.  These came from last years crop, I am looking forward to learning a lot more about canning this fall.

Last week we tilled the asparagus patch up and then I raked all the weeds and roots out of it.  It helped, we now have quite a few shoots poking through including this one that is huge.  I ate it...it was delicious.