Archive for the ‘Crops – Vegetables’ Category
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!
August 15, 2010 – Fruits of the Season
The garden is in full production now.
This is an heirloom cantaloupe. It’s the first year we’ve nursed them to juicy completion!
one year ago…”Atlantic Whale Watching”
August 9, 2010 – Squash Tunnel Grown Over
The squash tunnel planted on the bent-over cattle panels has finally been completely covered with vines.
Actually, the far side is pole beans, the part by Martin is squash.
July 29, 2010 – Buckwheat Cover Crop
A great way to rescue a garden from late-season weeds is to plant buckwheat.
It establishes quickly and does a great job of smothering weeds. It also adds some nice bee forage.
July 23, 2010 – Carrot Experiment Harvest
The carrots in 55 gallon drum experiment is over for this year.
Although the carrots weren’t as plentiful and large as I expected, I take the blame for that since I had poor germination and didn’t replant, and probably pulled them too early as some were strangely flowering (carrots are biannual). They were frozen for chicken soup. I followed them with some kohlrabi. We’ll try again next year!
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #171″
July 6, 2010 – Hauling Garlic
Today’s news flash is that all the garlic is curing up in the barn. I didn’t get photos of the entire process, just the getting it up in the hayloft portion. With a rare break in the weather, it was time to get it out before the next rains waterlogged the soil even more.
Looks good!
Here’s a bit less than 1/3 of the crop freshly pulled out of the ground.
One of the loads was picked right in the tractor loader and the bucket lifted up to the 2nd story loft door of the barn.
Unloading the loader bucket and ready to haul to the drying screens.
Martin, the ever-cheerful worker!
Here he is again, about to lay down a big load on the drying racks. It’s a good feeling and even better smell to get all the garlic up in the loft, harvested, and ready to cure.
June 4, 2010 – First Celery
We had some electrical problems in the barn (like the lights don’t work and the box keeps blowing fuses). At any rate, it was out of my league, so I called an electrician who hadn’t worked here for a couple of years – actually since the wind turbine was installed. But he’s got a great memory and I was slow on the pick-up when he started talking gardening and asked how the celery was growing? I told him we never grew it since it took such a long time.
Well, lo and behold, he drags out a bunch of celery starts for us to try! They look great and Linda already has them tucked away in the soil.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #165″
May 29, 2010 – Garlic Off To Great Start
The garlic is exceptionally early this year. We’ve already had to pull off the first few scapes – can’t ever remember dong that in May.
Here’s some of the garlic fairly close up.
We were able to institute the new four foot alternating beds in some gardens where garlic wasn’t planted. These two new strips of clover and perennial rye are starting to come along.
one year ago…”Workin’ on the Barn”
May 25, 2010 – Getting Tomatoes In
Finally getting around to some gardening. Getting the tomatoes and peppers in the ground.
Slightly new system this year. We’re out of end rolls from the cardboard factory, so I picked up some giant tarps from the lumber yard to use instead. Cut them to four foot widths, then cut holes in to plant, poked some holes in the tarp with a potato fork to allow water to seep through, put in the stakes, slid the tomato cages recycled from old woven wire fences over the posts, covered with some straw. The sections between are the new alleys of clover and perennial rye.
May 24, 2010 – Spring Radishes
One of the first garden-planted crops of the year is radishes.
We even had enough for the veggie tray for the party from the garden! Now it’s time to get the rest of the garden in the ground.
one year ago…”Visiting TaTonka”
