my week

It's been quite awhile since my last post. First, allow me to begin by saying, absolutely, that I am not complaining! However, I've been a little, shall we say, stretched lately...

Monday: Left for Tractor's Supply at 6:45 a.m. to get there when they opened. I desperately needed tetanus anti-toxin so the tails of the newest lambs could be banded. The meat chickens also needed food as did a freshly hatched bunch of silky peeps. Also made a stop at the bank. Arriving home, all the animals had to be fed and watered and then I needed to return a tractor borrowed from my sister who lives two miles away. Next, I planted 120 seed potatoes before harvesting for Tuesday's market. The workday ended at 8:20 p.m.

Tuesday: Loaded up the truck and headed off to market at 6:15 a.m. Left there at 3:00 and went to Home Depot for materials to make a hanging basket display at market. When I got home, I checked the soil and found it still a little too wet, but with more rain on the way, decided to roto-till anyway. Quit when it became too dark to see, about 9:00.

Wednesday: Planted an additional 240 seed potatoes along with 60 feet of sunflowers and put in 180 lettuce, 1,000 onion, and 200 swiss chard transplants. Quit about 8:00.

Thursday: Trellised and suckered a row of tomatoes and began pulling up a used-up bed of baby lettuce mix in the greenhouse in preparation for planting cucumbers. Harvested for Friday and Saturday's markets. Got back in the house early, around 6:00.

Friday: Left for market at 5:45. Market ended at 4:00, but I hung around to put up the hanging basket display until 5:00 when the market was holding a party. Stayed until 6:30, then came home and spent an hour harvesting some additional items for the next day.

Saturday: Left for market at 6:00 and stayed until 2:00. Back to Home Depot for more display materials. Came home, took care of the animals, poked around a little bit and then crashed until 7:00, when my sister called to see if I wanted to go out for ice cream with their family. Yes, please. Got back home and went to bed.

Today: I still have an awful lot to get accomplished, but believe I'll just ignore most, if not all of it until tomorrow morning, when it will all start again. *

*I really should get my asparagus patch put in since more rain is expected for the next three days. And those cucumbers are still calling my name - they need to be planted too. But first, I need to tighten the belt on the tiller. Sigh.

to market, to market... and a farm update

Good news - this week I was given the nod of approval from the Board of Directors of Lancaster's Central Market, and barring any unforeseen incidents will be a standholder starting April first! I feel both excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I love going to market with beautiful produce, talking with customers, and all that it entails. Trepidation, because this is a big commitment. Market is open three days a week (all year around) which allows just four days to do all the growing and harvesting. I anticipate that during the height of the season I'll be working seven days a week. Hopefully that will be offset by a much lower workload during the winter when growing slows down and it is mostly about harvesting what was sown in the fall.

What's been started so far...
Planting for the spring season started in late January with a couple of flats of lettuce. Not too much to start with since I still didn't know if or when I'd be able to start at market. Now that a decision has been made, it's full steam ahead!

In the first week of February, rosemary, lavender, and alpine strawberries were started, some to be sold as seedlings, some to be planted here on the farm. Greenhouse tomatoes and peppers were also started in soil blocks - seven varieties of sweet peppers, four of hot peppers, and three types of tomatoes. The tomatoes are growing like gangbusters and will probably need to be moved from my kitchen to be planted in the greenhouse within the next two weeks. If they grow like last year, they should hit the market stand at the end of May!

In the second week of February additional lettuce was started. This year, I'm growing eight varieties - a red and green type each of butterhead, leaf, summercrisp, and romaine, which makes for a very pretty display and an even more delicious salad!

This week, bee balm, thyme, oregano, hanging basket tomatoes, and rhubarb (all mostly for seedling sales) was started in soil blocks, as was more lettuce. Beets, turnips, swiss chard, mustard greens, pak choi, tatsoi, and spinach, was seeded directly into the greenhouse beds to be grown for market.

Seedling sales...
We will once again be attending the Landis Valley Herb Faire May 6-7 as vendors. We'll have over 25 species of herbs, including lemon grass and stevia along with many culinary favorites; luscious alpine strawberries; rhubarb; celery; artichokes; red roselle; cotton; 6 varieties of eggplants; 12 varieties of sweet peppers; 6 varieties of hot peppers; 16 varieties of tomatoes; 11 varieties of melons; 3 varieties of cucumbers; 4 varieties of summer squash; and hanging baskets of tumbling tom tomatoes and everbearing strawberries. With the exception of the hanging baskets, all of the seedlings are heirloom open pollinated varieties which offer superior flavor, promote genetic diversity, and allow for home seed saving.

Other news...
The silky bantam peeps that hatched on new years are doing great. They, along with the adults have been moved out of the greenhouse and back into the barn since the greenhouse is now back in production. Hopefully with the lengthening of days, the adult hens will start laying again - their eggs have surely been missed around here.

Speaking of eggs, the geese have started nesting and Griselda has laid her first egg of the year.

The sheep are also doing well, eating their fair share of hay and growing wool like nobody's business. I need to make an appointment for the shearer to come pretty soon. The remainder of last year's lambs finally went to "freezer camp". Certainly it was a tough decision, but a necessary one. On the plus side, this means that we have lamb for sale, both chops and burger; and in a couple weeks, lambskins - nothing goes to waste.

"Before the seed 

there comes the thought 

of bloom."

E. B. White

Today I am placing this year's seed order. There has been much thought of bloom and growth for the past week in preparation.

farm update

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted anything! I blame it on spending time with friends, both new and old; weeds and their desperate and evil desire to get the best of me; and lack of anything that seemed important enough to warrant a post on its own.


On the bee front:  
As you may know, with a hive of bumbles in the greenhouse for pollination and a hive of honeybees for honey and field pollination, I am a recovering bee-phobe. Not quite there yet, but making headway. Or, at least I was, until a few weeks ago. Deciding to clean up some old wood, I disturbed a nest of yellow jackets. After much swearing, running, arm flailing, and finally jumping into the shower to get them off me, I was stung five times. Not that bad you say? I beg to differ. I am still jumping at the sound of buzzing. That little incident probably set me back a year in my relationship with bees. At least. As a result, last week a friend volunteered to inspect my hive for me. He borrowed my jacket and hood, but the tyvek suit was too small. "Not a problem", said he, "I'm not afraid of bees". Long story short, the bees were in a foul mood and he was stung at least ten times. Never having been allergic, he didn't worry until he started having trouble breathing. I gave him three Benedryl and after about an hour, he started getting better. Come to find out later, after hearing his symptoms, his doctor said he nearly died. We can just consider this another year of set-back with bees, okay? However, my friend's not a quitter and so asked me to order him a tyvek suit. Now, armed with an epi pen he is ready to tackle hive inspection once again. Maybe this afternoon. God help me.


Sheep:
The flock is doing great. Everyone is healthy and thriving. Due to a reduced pasture size, heat and drought, I've found it necessary to feed hay. No lambs have been sold yet, so it looks like they may be going to the butcher at the end of October. If you like lamb and are interested in some for your freezer, let me know.

Poultry:

There are now seven remaining silky chickens here. Out of 25. Twice, I forgot to close their door at night. The first night, twelve chickens disappeared. The second time, another six were taken. I blame foxes. And of course, myself. I've been way too distracted lately.

The geese are doing well. Several goslings were sold and just one remains. Unless sold by the end of October, he'll be butchered.

To round out the year's supply of meat, my plan is to get some broiler chicks in the next week or so and have them ready for processing at about the same time as the gosling and lambs.

Market garden:
I've officially lost the battle with weeds in most of my new plot. Probably the best course of action at this time is to mow it and start prepping for next year while vowing to do better. The greenhouse is chugging along and producing well. Fall and winter seeds were ordered and have arrived. Planting will start up for those crops next week. A little late, but still okay.

So that's what has been going on here on the hill. I've been distracted in the best possible way, but as a result, things have run a bit amuck. Time to buckle down and get back to business.

planting frenzy

I have been in a planting frenzy this week and I'm not done yet. Most of the new garden plot has been planted with cut flowers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, cucumbers, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, swiss chard, and raddichio. Today I plan to put in corn. Next on the agenda is getting everything mulched in an effort to keep down weeds. I need to go visit my neighbor to see if he still has straw for sale.

Both the Willow Street and Lancaster's Eastern Market start up next week which is pretty exciting. Oddly enough, with the exception of lettuce and perhaps radishes, most of the harvest will be warm weather (greenhouse) produce. It looks like I'll have tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. Oh, and maybe sunflowers and peppers, too. Weird, but so much time was spent in the greenhouse that many of the typical spring crops just never got in the ground or were put in late. Seems as though it's been a constant game of catch-up, but this latest round of planting should bring things back up-to-date.

325 square feet of cut flowers

back on schedule? one can only hope.

So I bit the bullet and rented a riding rototiller. They delivered it early this morning and by eight a.m., I was out there tearing up sod with this baby. For four hours. Non-stop. First, I went back over and completed what was started with the walk-behind version. Next came the potato and bean plots. Last, I prepped a plot that won't see any actual use until 2011. In the meantime, it will be planted to a cover crop of mow-down alfalfa which is supposed to help break up compacted soil while also adding nitrogen to the soil. A win-win.

With the major tilling completed, planting should get back on schedule. Flower, tomato, cabbage family, melon, and cucumber seedlings can now all go in along with potatoes, beans, and soon, corn. With the exception of shoots for salads, I've given up on peas this year, it's just too late to start them any more. Ah well, moving on.

Later today I'll mark out beds and add amendments. Then tomorrow morning will be dedicated to planting. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be loading up seedlings for the Landis Valley Herb and Garden Fair on Friday and Saturday. Looking forward to it.

lambing is over. gardening, not so much

Yesterday Rosebud gave birth to twin babydoll lambs, a white ram lamb and a black ewe lamb. And today, Apricot (Aster's bff) had a black babydoll/shetland mix ewe lamb. So the count this year is six lambs - three boys and three girls. I'll probably take pictures tomorrow or Saturday, because just between you and me, newborn lambs are a bit homely for the first day or so. Sort of like a scrawny little kid wearing a sweater three sizes too large that just fell in the pool and had to be hauled out. (And not a clean pool, either.) After they've dried off, warmed up, and had a bit of mother's milk in them, they are ever so much more appealing. Sorry, but it's true.

In between watching and waiting for Apricot to have her lamb, I was able to plant most of the new herb garden today. I'll finish it in the morning and then I'll tackle some of the main garden beds. I hope to get potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, peas, radish, carrots, turnips, and salad greens planted. I might even get some corn in, but that's fairly doubtful. Some of these things are so incredibly late getting in the ground, but if I work hard the planting schedule will be back on track.

Greenhouse veggies are coming along nicely. Tomatoes are setting fruit and the potatoes are blooming. I'm hoping to have both of these on my market stand in early June. I might not have anything else, but by golly I'll have tomatoes and potatoes!

rainy days and blessings

It rained all day today and so I spent it in the greenhouse in a desperate attempt to get caught up on seeding. Part of the reason I'm so far behind is the seemingly constant rain. Just about every time the ground is nearly dry enough to work, it rains again. And so you know what's going to happen, don't you? I'll finally get things planted and then we'll have a drought. I just know it. Or it'll keep raining and drown everything. Or, or, something else bad. Sorry, dreary days kind of get to me, especially when I want to be outside.

So let's look at this, shall we?

This is Aster's new baby girl. Does your heart good to see something so precious, right? This pretty young thing is a result of Sweet William, my babydoll ram, breaking down a fence and having his way with my shetland ewes.

Oops.

But look at the result.

How could I be mad at William for that?

I don't have it in me.

farm update

flora...
An awful lot of seeds are being sown into soil blocks and many, many seedlings are being potted up right now. This is the big push to get everything seeded in order to be ready for herb fairs and spring planting. Since the garden soil is still too wet and too cold to do any planting outside, all the work is in the greenhouse, which is a really nice place to be this time of year.

and fauna...
Once again the sheep are naked, having been set-upon by the shearer last week. Two of the ewes are confined to the barn where I can keep a better eye on them as they both had a bout with pregnancy toxemia. I think they'll be alright, but I won't be able to relax until the lambs arrive.
Griselda the goose is still laying eggs but shows no inclination to start sitting on them yet. Seems like she should by now, but it also seems I think that every year about this time.
Chickens - what can I say? With six roosters and just three hens, things are seriously out of balance. One of these fine Tuesdays I need to take three of those roosters for a ride to Roots farmers market where they have a small animal auction. It's something that should have been done last fall but I put it off and then winter hit. Hopefully a more reasonable hen-to-rooster balance will be restored once the silky peeps get here.
Of course we musn't forget the bees. Honeys will be arriving in early April and bumbles will be ordered as soon as the greenhouse tomatoes start taking blooming seriously.

It seems almost as though the tiny little farm is holding it's breath, waiting, in anticipation of all of the new life soon to burst forth... seeds, lambs, goslings, peeps... bees.

Soon, soon.

thoughts of spring salads

Here's something I found and wanted to share with you. Yugoslavian Red Lettuce from The Cook's Garden. Isn't it beautiful? After seeing the picture and reading the description, I just had to order a pack of seeds to try it out even though I already had all the lettuce seeds needed for this season. Here's what the Cooks Garden has to say about it...

Saved by a peasant family in Marburg, Yugoslavia, this beautiful butterhead is as decorative as it is tasty. Large, full heads grow to a foot across, with deeply puckered, apple green leaves tinged with pomegranate red. The buttery, succulent flavor pairs well with apples or strawberries for a sweet summer salad.

How can you resist that? Makes the mouth water, is what it does. Especially in the dead of winter when thoughts of fresh greens are dancing in your head. 

If you haven't gotten The Cook's Garden catalog, check it out. Perhaps they don't have as big of a selection as some seed companies, but what they have is certainly appealing. And if you try this lettuce, let me know what you think of it.

early potatoes go in

A cold and rainy day here today – such a contrast to the sunny weekend, part of which was spent in a t-shirt in the greenhouse, prepping and planting the first bed of the year with early Rose Gold potatoes. I started out by tilling the bed twice, before adding a bale of peat moss, some organic rock phosphate, greensand, blood meal, and bone meal. I then tilled it one more time, made a furrow, dropped in the seed potatoes at one foot spacing, and covered them up. Now we wait. Hopefully, this planting was timed so that new potatoes will be on the market stand by early June.

Next on the planting agenda are the tomato seedlings. A little early to put them in, maybe, but they are growing like nobody's business and need to get in the ground.

Also, in the next couple of weeks many of the seeds will be planted for seedling sales at the herb and plant fairs in York, Lancaster, and Quarryville. More details on those events later.

vegetables and the bees that love them

I attended the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Growers Convention this week. So much information! There were educational lectures all day long as well as a trade show which was useful for learning about new products (and I also bought a very nice harvest knife and sharpener for about half what it sells for in catalogs). I'll tell you, since starting on this path of market gardening, there has been almost an information overload. So much to learn and know in so little time. And of course for once in my life I'm not starting out slowly, but instead am jumping in whole hog - so to speak. Of course, this is like heaven to me - I love to read, learn, and keep my mind busy. And busy it has been. For instance: just last week, I learned that a lot of folks use bumble bees in their green/hoop houses for pollination of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and squash. Exactly the summer vegetables I'll be growing in mine. Apparently it's better than hand pollination in increasing the number and size of the vegetables. But, I thought, how could a semi-recovering bee-phobe like me intentionally bring bumbles into my greenhouse? No Way, nope, not going to happen. Then yesterday at the convention trade show, was an exhibitor with a display of the little monsters... in a clear plexiglass box to better see them in all their gruesome glory. ick. ugh. eeeeeew. But as a recovering anything, sometimes you have to face your fears. And so I spent some time talking with the very nice bee woman and learning about her "product". Sigh. There could well be bumbles in this farm's future. We'll see.

lasagna gardening

No, it's not about raising vegetables for lasagna. It's about a method of gardening that utilizes a layering system (basically sheet composting on steroids) to reduce the work it takes to make and maintain a garden.

Rather than digging or tilling the soil, the author encourages us to build it up by layering organic materials on top of the soil before planting and then keeping it mulched once the plants are growing and throughout the season.

I'm giving it a whirl on two new gardens this fall in preparation for spring planting. For the herb/perennial bed a thick layer of spoiled hay has been laid down already and more will be added on top of that as fall progresses. By spring the soil underneath should be soft and loose from the work of microbes and earthworms, and then I'll plant the herb seedlings right into it without any tilling at all. For the new cut flower garden, it will be a modified version of this method. the beds were spread with manure, tilled and planted in spring oats as a cover crop with the paths left untilled and covered with wood chips. Once the spring oats have been winter-killed, the beds will get layered with various mulches. Next spring, flower seeds and seedlings will be planted directly without further tilling.

Eventually, I want to do all of the gardens in permanent beds with walkways in between and hopefully do away with tilling altogether. As with all of this, a little bit at a time and we'll see how it goes.

starting the 2010 market garden

The start of the 2010 season is officially underway today with the ordering of garlic bulbs for planting! I selected a red russian garlic from Wood Prairie Farm, an organic farm in Maine that also offers a wonderful selection of seed potatoes. I got my potatoes from them last spring and had great results.

The Red Russian is a Rocambole garlic, a hard neck variety and suited to cold winters, so should do well here. Unlike most hard necks, it is supposed to be a good keeper with large cloves. Most of the garlic you'll find in grocery stores is the soft neck variety, usually grown in California. In researching garlic, it's my understanding that soft necks generally keep better and have a mild flavor, while the hard necks have a stronger, more complex flavor. And while it will be interesting to compare flavors, really my selection of a hard neck boils down to what will grow well here in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

And so, with the simple act of ordering some garlic cloves, my new venture has officially begun. I am excited and nervous. Time seems to be both screaming by and yet crawling along. Winter will be here before I'm ready, I'm sure, and spring seems so far off.