Archive for the ‘Crops – Vegetables’ Category
July 27, 2011 – Garlic!
The first garlic of the year has been cleaned for personal use!
Garlic crop was mighty fine this year!
June 19, 2011 – Chinese Cabbage
This spring’s rugged growing season has not been kind to all the crops, but the Chinese Cabbage seems to think it’s ok.
Not much longer before we start munching on this crop.
one year ago…”Same Story; Different Day”
June 14, 2011 – Early Spring Crops
The pea tendrils reach out to grab the cattle panel provided as a trellis.
It won’t be long before we’re stir-frying fresh pea pods!
one year ago…”Putting Martin to Work”
May 25, 2011 – Plugging Away on Getting Garden Planted
It’s been a slow start to the gardening season – mainly due to weather, but also due to Linda’s trip to DC and now her trip with Claire to the BWCA wilderness.
So Martin and Emma are enlisted to set some starts out in one of the beds.
one year ago…”Getting Tomatoes In”
May 17, 2011 – First Tomatoes in the Ground
It’s rather a long job, but one that only needs to be done once a season. The first couple of rows of tomatoes are in. It requires laying the weed barrier down, hauling the stakes and cages from storage, cutting out the milk cartons, spreading the straw, planting, and putting the stakes and cages up.
But it leads to practically no weeding this bed the rest of the summer and offering the tomatoes a more constant supply of moisture. These are the best-looking beds on the farm at the moment – the rest still need some work, but this photo shows tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, fall raspberries, and blackberries in the distance.
one year ago…”Garage as Test Case”
May 15, 2011 – First Annual Edibles
The first annual edibles came out of the garden (asparagus is a perennial) today – a bit later than usual.
Radishes, lettuce, and spinach are ready for consumption. Scratch expensive organic salad mix off the grocery list for a while!
one year ago…”Eight Year Old Boy ‘Records’”
April 22, 2010 – Spring in Suspended Animation
Despite a couple of 85 degree plus Sundays in April, the rest of the month is just short of miserable. We should be in the mid-60′s by now, but it seems many days it struggles to reach 50.
Most everything seems to be in suspended animation. This asparagus is purple because of the cold and hasn’t shown appreciable growth in a week since it poked out.
Fruit tree buds, like these plums, are likewise, just holding steady and not advancing like they usually do. Last year the plum trees were in full bloom on April 14 – looks like this year could be two weeks or more behind last year’s blooming time.
Despite being the 8th warmest March on record on a global scale, we did not contribute to that warmth. There’s blue dots over us. April will likely be even much colder from average than March.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #205″
November 27, 2010 – Putting Garlic to Bed
We finally had a calm day to get the garlic mulch over the garlic.
It’s been a windy month, and I had an afternoon to get it on, so that was #1 on the list for the day..
one year ago…”Thanksgiving Meal”
October 22, 2010 – Getting Garlic in the Ground
Well, it’s that time of year again – time to get garlic in the ground. The last time I used the tractor, it was running really rough, almost to the point of conking out. The first check was the inline fuel filter, so today I went to get a replacement, put it in and it ran better, but still not very well – at any rate, I hustled to take of the tiller and put on the potato digger to make trenches for the garlic.
Then it was time to enlist help of the children to plant. First, they are “de-cloving” the garlic.
Then, drop it in the ground. We usually put a couple of rows in one trench. Today we got about 500 feet of row in the ground. Wet weather was bearing down upon us, thus the urgency to get them in the ground. Now, I need to become more familiar with the fuel system of the tractor before snow flies!
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #181″
October 11, 2010 – Lovin’ the Garden Chickens!
In addition to the mechanically-managed garden spaces, an even better method is the chickens! These chickens are in the garden that contained early season crops and was planted to buckwheat that was allowed to go to seed. Now, the chickens forage over the buckwheat and leave their trail of fertilization.
The left side of the photo shows ground the chickens have already passed over and the chicken tractor will now be moved downhill towards the camera. I like this because it cleans up the buckwheat and some other seeds but yet leaves some plant material that decomposes easily on the gardens over winter to protect the soil.
“one year ago…”Front Page News: Part 2″
October 5, 2010 – Time to Pick Squash
It’s time to bring in the winter’s worth of baked, cubed and roasted, cooked and mashed for pancakes, and many more winter-time recipes that use squash.
It was time to gather them all up – despite the wet weather and chance for wilt and fungus, the vines held up beautifully and the squash came through as a good producer this year.
one year ago…”More Front Page News”
September 13, 2010 – Winter Squash
It’s going to be another good season for winter squash – two years in a row.
The vines are finally starting to give up the ghost, revealing many squash left for winter dinners (and Saturday morning pancakes as well!).
one year ago…”Catch Sunday’s Des Moines Register”
September 6, 2010 – Garlic Cleaning
One of the early fall tasks is to clean garlic – by now it has cured up in the hayloft, now it is time to get it ready for sale. Most of this is destined for seed stock and Wheatsfield Grocery in Ames.
Cleaning garlic is greatly enjoyed by some members of the family. It involves cutting off the stem and roots and peeling back a few of the papers to make it look clean and white.
one year ago…”Heirloom Tomato Tasting at Grinnell Heritage Farm”
August 23, 2010 – Moon and Stars Watermelon
It has been a good year for watermelon. It’s the first year we’ve successfully raised a bumper crop of these guys!
This is an heirloom variety that we bought from Seed Savers. Now we can indulge in watermelon!
