Archive for the ‘Crops – Vegetables’ Category
May 9, 2012 – Big Gardening Day on the Farm
It was a great “getting things done on the farm day.” It was the first day that Linda and Claire were home all day, so the garden and other things were transformed.
First, Claire volunteered to clean out winter from the hen house. About five overflowing loader buckets (liberally soaked with water to aid the composting process) and the hen house was ready for fresh bedding, and next year’s compost is on the way.
Many plants and seeds and mulch found their way into the garden as well. We got the recycled lumber tarps out of the barn, Linda planted a bunch of peppers and tomatoes. I went to the neighbors via the bumpy dirt trail between the crop fields and retrieved two loads of loose straw from the loft of their barn and put the tomato cages on, pounded the stakes in, spread the mulch and wet it all down.
This photo shows some hearty garlic on the right, a cattle panel trellis that we put up this weekend. It has pole beans on the outside and lettuce and spinach underneath, hopefully to last a bit longer into the summer with the shade of the beans. To the left of the trellis is some space reserved for viney plants before a row of tomatoes. It’s nice to have that mulched portion of the garden already weeded for the whole season!
At the end of the day, I took some time to pull thistles from the pasture. It appears that last year’s pulling them out by had greatly reduced the population in the paddock we tested last year. We’ll continue that on the other paddocks this year.
April 27, 2012 – Beautiful Lettuce
It’s prime lettuce season.
Doesn’t this look yummy?
March 21, 2012 – Spinach and Garlic Appear
We continue to be weeks ahead.
The garlic has poked its way up through the mulch.
Even the spinach we kept covered until January and then gave up on has rejuvenated itself for another early harvest. Yes, this overwintered from last summer!
March 18, 2012 – Rhubarb!
Spring is coming way too fast.
Won’t be long before the first rhubarb crisp is thrown in the oven!
February 20, 2012 – Ground’s Unfrozen, It’s Warm, Let’s Plant!
With the non-winter we’ve had, it’s hard to ignore the calendar. Nevertheless, the ground is unfrozen, it’s warm with no subzero cold blasts in the forecast, so it’s time to gamble with a few cents worth of seeds for the reward of some early season produce.
We found some space with a southern slope and the barn to the north to block any strong north winds, worked up the soil a bit and put some stiff wires in the ground. I put some wires on the ends straight across and put the rest at an angle. Then we planted and watered.
Put the plastic across, stick another round of stiff wire crossing the first wires now inside the plastic, secure the edges, and wait. I’ll have to come out and open up a side on warm, sunny days so the plants don’t wither in the heat.
January 4, 2012 – January Garden Harvest
OK, the streak continues, now 12 consecutive months with a harvest!
On pizza earlier this week, springtime favorite spinach from the garden made it on the homemade pizza.
November 30, 2011 – December Lettuce!
How’s this for wonderful – we’ll be eating fresh lettuce out of the garden into December!
We’ve picked a bunch for the fridge, to guarantee December lettuce. Any day we could get that first day it’s in the low teens at night and not above freezing during the day to finally kill it off.
November 2, 2011 – The World’s Most Hated Vegetable?
Could this be the world’s most hated vegetable? The lowly brussels sprouts?
Brussels sprouts are a great crop because they aren’t much good until after a hard frost, and are one of the last fresh crops out of the garden. Many people can’t stand them, in part, to the chemical that get released after overcooking in boiling water.
October 17, 2011 – Tomatoes Won’t Stop
OK, this is it. The final tomato harvest of the year – frost is forecast in the next few days.
The plants loved the dry late summer and fall. It was an epic tomato canning year – our final tally ended up to be 97 quarts and 37 pints canned – even for us, a lot! So, we are ready in case there is a crop failure next year – we’re good for a couple of years for chili, minestrone soup, red hot dish and whatever else we can use our summer canned in a jar.
October 12, 2011 – Potato Yield from 50 foot Row
We had one more row of potatoes to dig up in the garden
It was a great row – here’s the yield from one 50 foot row! A rinse, dry and storage in the basement will give us potatoes well into winter.
one year ago…”Francis Thicke for Secretary of Agriculture”
October 10, 2011 – Seeds
One benefit of not getting around to pick beans before the pods get too big is that later in the season, you’ve got some seeds for next year’s gardens. These are Rattlesnake Master pole beans, a non-hybrid, so the seeds grow true.
It’s still amazing all the information stored in each of these – instructions about when to sprout, what to do, what parts to make, how to respond to weather, and how to make more beans!
one year ago…”Lovin the 48 inch Tiller”
October 7, 2011 – Tomatoes for Salsa Project
The Marshalltown School District has a sizable minority population (not to be the minority much later since over half the births in the local hospital are of Hispanic origin.) The school has started a local foods project to make salsa using local ingredients.
These tomatoes are destined to become salsa in the lunch room.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #228″
September 28, 2011 – “Hot”
Here’s Linda chopping up some hot peppers to warm up winter days.
Peppers like this are easy to preserve – they don’t need to be canned or blanched – just cut up.
Ready to spice up winter dishes!
one year ago…”Updates from U of MN”
September 26, 2011 – Fall Garden Goodies
Some of the veggies we planted in the middle of the parched August for a fall garden are now coming to the table.
Nice to have fresh spinach. lettuce, and radishes out the door.
one year ago…”Garden Cleanup Begins”
