Wild Things Farm

Quick update on the artichoke saga:  Part 1 was the selection and planting, Part 2 was the death of the first batch of seedlings (mice) and replanting. 

Every year I like to experiment with a vegetable that I haven't grown before, and this year the lucky veggie was the artichoke.  A variety called "Imperial Star" was selected that reportedly tends to behave like an annual and make a "choke" in one season rather than two seasons.  The artichokes were planted and grew very well in the garden, but after a full summer in the garden, "no chokes"! 

Plan B will be implemented, carrying this experiment into yet another season.  I've read to let the plants go through the first hard killing frost, which is predicted for this weekend, then the tops are cut back to about a foot tall and a heavy mulch is applied.  I'm going to use a thick mulch of leaves then cover with hoops and a frost blanket, then a piece of plastic to keep everything dry.  Artichokes are hardy to 20 degrees and around here it gets below that many times during the winter, so if they don't make it, there will be one more part to this series, to be called "How to Kill 30 Artichoke plants"----OR there will be several more parts with recipes for how to prepare artichokes.  Let's hope for the latter!

I've always been interested in saving seeds of vegetables that aren't hybrids.  Tomatoes have got to be one of the favorite crops grown in any garden. General instructions on saving tomato seeds include the words "ferment" which is a little scary to me--that's the last step before "rot"!

A friend of mine eased my fears from saving tomato seeds last year.  All you do is get a clean paper towel, cut the tomato, and SMEAR the seeds onto the paper towel.  If you can space them out a little bit, that works great because when you're ready to germinate the seeds, all you do is "plant" the paper towel and voila!  Tomato plants :)

I remember hearing about the fall gardens going in at the White House and it kind of drew my interest so I watched the online video of the project, but being easily distracted as I am, I didn't pay too much attention to the video because I noticed a popup ad from the USDA NRCS about a program for high tunnels, so that's where I went.

Fast forward through all the phone calls, and stacks of paperwork,  and Wild Things Farm was approved for a 20'x96' square foot high tunnel---whoohooo!

Progress on the high tunnel has been minimal throughout the summer because its priority fell behind the CSA produce, so it's been slow, but steady.  Lo and behold yesterday the project was completed. 

The frame is from Grower's Solution in Cookeville, TN.  It's a great frame, met all the specs, and the price was reasonable.  Oh, and they delivered it for free (cute college guy in a pickup truck!)

The local NRCS person came out to the farm and helped me lay out the rectangle--he had surveying equipment that made it much easier. 

After that, I pulled strings, drove in the ground stakes (as straight as I could) then started assembling the bows and placing them in the stakes.  Attached to that is the 2x6 baseboard.   My friend Kim helped with some of the stake and bow project, but most of the job was just a minute or two here and there all season,  by yours truly. 

Once the bows were up, the purlin was to go on.  I looked at the diagram on the net on how to install the cross connectors, and I interpreted the purlin to be on top, right?  I get the whole purlin installed and I keep looking at it thinking that something just didn't look right.  I've been in hundreds of greenhouses and never paid any attention. 

Okay, so I'm looking at the video and "uh-oh", the purlin goes on the bottom.  Oh yeah, I was wondering how that big hump was going to work out with the plastic.  Under is much better :)  So, I get the ladder out again, go all the way through the greenhouse and move the purlin from on top to under. Lots of up and down and twisting with a rachet.   Lesson learned.

Several trips to the local Lowe's  punctuated with spurts of carpentry work ended up being the ends of the house.  The doors are 6' wide x 8' tall, just inches larger than my tractor. 

The plastic goes on the ends first because the big plastic on the house is supposed to go on last, and they share the same wiggle wire channel along the end purlin.  I used clamps to hold the plastic in place while I adjusted and attached the plastic to the ends. 

Once the ends were on, it was time for the big  plastic.  The plastic made me nervous for some reason--I don't know why, maybe because it's SO BIG!  Several people offered to help, but when I got outside yesterday morning, it was like, really still, and I thought "oh what the heck; I've got 2 ladders and 4 clamps, let's go for it!"

Lots of trips up and down the ladder, dragging it from end to end several times, twisting clamps, and 2-1/2 hours later, the plastic was on!  A slight breeze began to blow just as I was attaching the last side of the plastic--perfect timing!

The wiggle wire system is fun to use but makes my hands sore from so much gripping and pulling.  It tightens up the plastic very nicely.

The roll-up sides were another story.  I had a time getting the poles to roll up evenly from one end to the other.  I redid the first side 4 times before I was satisfied with the results.  The second side took only 1 try--thank goodness for small favors!  The black webbing holds the side in place while it is rolled up and down, and the webbing plus the weight of the pole holds it all in place during cold weather.  The roll up side sure cools off the inside of the house--it's almost the same temp as the outside with the sides up--good decision to add that option.

It has changed the landscape of the farm, for the better, I think.  There's already a pile of leaves outside ready to be placed around the crops and in the pathways, and 2 scoops of chicken manure inside ready to be tilled in--yeah!

Being a CSA farmer means very long hours for several months of the year, and a welcome break at the end of the season.

So WHAT WAS I THINKING?  High tunnel, extended season?

Why certainly!  After a full summer of intensively gardening  just over 4 acres, this little garden should be fun!  (Once I figure it out).

I'm not sure of the "proper" name of this salad, but it is delicious!  One of the farm members gave me the recipe and even brought a sample of it the next week, and oh my, it's worth sharing.  It would be great with beans and cornbread or on a polish sausage on a bun, or just as a side dish.  It's sweet and I think would be great with some hot peppers in it too.  Here's the recipe:

1 can sauerkraut, drained

1/2 c chopped green pepper

1/2 c chopped onion

1/8 tsp curry

1/3 c sugar

1/8 t cumin

1/8 t paprika

3/8 t dill weed

Mix all the ingredients together and let it marinade in the fridge overnight. 

Thanks, Dale!

One potato, two potatoes, sweet potatoes, MORE!

Sun

Has anyone else noticed that the angle of the sun is really changing?  After several days of cloud cover the sun came out bright and cheery yesterday afternoon, but the angle is definitely changing. The shadows around the gardens are getting longer, and fall is my very favorite time of year so this is exciting to me!   The glass prisms in the south gable-end windows of the house are making rainbows in the livingroom again.  This only happens when the sun is at it's "not-the-middle-of-the-summer" angle.

Moon

I've read all my life about planting "by the moon", in a nutshell that would be above ground crops when the moon is getting full and below ground crops as the moon is going back down.  I've tried planting by the moon, but it's just too darn dark!

Stars

So you're thinking okay sun, moon, what about the stars?  This year a friend shared seed for an okra called "Star of David".  Around here, folks are accustomed to "Clemson Spineless" okra which is harvested around 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches long, and it's about 1/2 to 3/4 inches in diameter.  Any bigger than that and it's tough.  Star of David is about the same length, but gets much larger around, about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. 

A trip to the farmer's market revealed that people just don't believe you when you tell them that okra that big is still tender!  It's amazing how people get trapped in their little vegetable worlds and are afraid to try new things.   It's one of those vegetables that was kind of fun to try, but I won't waste my time on it again. 

Another twist on a traditional veggie that is being grown on the farm this year is "Fooled You" jalapenos.  I love jalapenos and the heat, but I know a lot of folks don't like or can't take the heat, so I just knew these would be a big hit.  Well, a trip to the farmer's market showed me that the folks who like jalapeno peppers like the heat so they didn't want any jalapenos that weren't hot, and the folks who don't like the heat don't know how delicious a jalapeno pepper really is, and they didn't want any, and frankly, they are afraid to eat something that looks just like its fiery cousin.  I will say that the CSA members were brave though, because they've given good reviews on the fooled you peppers--they make great salsa, are wonderful stuffed with cheese and baked, or just chopped up in a salad or stir fry.  It's one of those vegetables that I will probably grow again next year, just not as many plants. 

One more twist on a traditional crop is a single serving watermelon.  I always hate to cut a huge watermelon because it takes up an entire shelf in the fridge and by the time it's all gone I'm sick of it.  While perusing seed catalogs in the dead of winter (like going to the grocery store when you're hungry) I came across seeds for a single serve watermelon.  Well, they grew pretty good, but the drought held most of them back to softball size and they were full of seeds, so that's not something that will get space in the veggie gardens next year.  It's sure fun trying new things though!

I'm not exactly sure how much of a gardener's time is spent weeding, but I think it's a large percentage of the time spent in the garden.  This year, in the veggie gardens, I used leaves as mulch and it is working wonders!  Sure, there are places where the crabgrass is attempting to take over and I have to pull a weed or three now and then, but percentage of time in the garden spent weeding?---I'd say less than 10%.  Another big perk is that as the leaves rot away they are feeding the soil, which has a large percentage of clay in it anyway. 

The flower beds around the house are another story.  Last fall and winter were spent working on house things--cabinets, floors, and a couple of landscape beds around the house.  The one in the front got more attention than the side garden, and I was able to get most of the plants in that I wanted to, and spread a layer of leaves before growing season hit.  I've enjoyed watching the bed come alive with hummingbirds on the coral honeysuckle, columbine,  and bee balm, hummingbird moths and a myriad of butterflies and goldfinches on the anise hyssop, and butterflies galore on the purple coneflower, black-eyed susans and coreopsis.  Also, it's one of those beds that has gotten so full, that weeds don't take over and aren't really so noticeable.   As a matter of fact, a HUGE clump of millet came up on its own on the corner and the goldfinches and Indigo Buntings have been wearing it out!

The side garden is another story.  It's a sort of a rock garden in that I used a bunch of big flagstones to cover areas and left cracks and spaces between them for plants.  I did get a few Black Eyed Susans and a few native shrubs in before garden season hit, but no mulch.   The weeds stayed pretty low as long as it was hot and dry out,

 but we got a few showers, and today, after a few days of regular showers, I noticed the beginnings of a forest--a ragweed forest!   Ragweed can get REALLY tall, like 8 feet plus.  Crab grass nicely covers the rest of the ground in this ragweed forest.  I've always heard that "Mother Nature" abhors bare ground.   Being a CSA farmer consumes all daylight hours during the summer, so when garden season hit, the "pretty beds" were "pretty much" on their own. 

Today I couldn't stand it any more.  It's too wet to work in the veggie gardens, so I went to the shop, picked up my trusty loppers and cut all the ragweed to ground level.  Hey, at least it isn't hampering my vision any more, and I did catch it before it set seed.   One can actually see across the bed now. 

I won't say that using loppers is the most efficient way to weed, but it will at least keep the bed down to a "dull roar" until it reaches a higher priority on my list.

It's been exceptionally hot and dry here this summer.  I've been able to irrigate most all the gardens except for the corn, sweet potatoes and assorted winter squash and melons, but even with regular irrigation, it "ain't like Mother Nature" did it. 

Yesterday, last night, and this morning we were fortunate enough to have showers in Crab Orchard.  The rain gauge this morning measured 2.1" of rain--Yippee!  Summer showers are welcome!!

There's another kind of summer shower that's welcome.  You know, when you've been out all day long, gotten drenched with sweat a few times and dried, then sprayed insect repellant, smeared sunscreen on at least 2 times, then sweated some more?  When I finally decide that I can't stand myself any longer, I head for the shower, and I use that as my excuse to "clock out" for the day :)

Even though it's been sweltering here for the last several weeks, it just doesn't seem like summer until the first big batch of gazpacho is chilling in the fridge.

Gazpacho, or cold soup, is a very loose recipe; you can add to or alter the ingredients pretty much as you like.  I wouldn't advise adding okra to it though.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE okra, but it does not work in gazpacho.   It turns the otherwise yummy tomato soupey base into a tomato slimey base. 

Here's my recipe for a manageable size batch:

Gazpacho

2 cups tomato or v-8 type juice

1 beef boullion cube dissolved in 1/2 cup water or 1/2 c beef broth

4 cups chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 to 1 cup chopped and seeded cucumber (this is a good recipe to use some of those kind of big ones that hid from the last picking

1/2 to 1 cup chopped green and or red bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno, it doesn't matter what kind as long as you don't make it too hot to eat

1-2 TBS fresh basil, chopped

2 or 7 cloves of garlic :)

generous dash of worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Add the boullion cube to the water and tomato juice (I use a big tupperware bowl that has a lid) and set aside.  Chop all your vegetables and add those and everything else to the tomato juice.  Stir well and let it set in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours so the flavors will blend.  It will keep in the fridge for several days but it won't last that long!

The farmhouse has big wide wrap-around porches which are great for sleeping dogs, porch swings, and the occasional break from gardening. 

To hide the empty space between the ground and the bottom of the porch, last year I planted native coral honeysuckle and am training it to climb up a wire fence that has been nailed in place.  The honeysuckle is doing great, is climbing up the wire fence and the porch rails, and there is an almost constant showing of hummers and butterflies visiting the everblooming honeysuckle.

Yesterday I noticed little black specks on the porch underneath the railing--technically speaking, I think it's called "frass", but to me, it's just bug poop.  I got to looking around and sure enough, there were telltale signs of leafless twigs and bites out of leaves, and I found the culprit.......(actually about 4 of them)

Being the inquisitive person that I am, I came in and "Googled" what I saw.  It's the caterpillar for a really cool bug called a Hummingbird Moth or a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth.  The first time I ever saw one I wondered if it was a bee, bird, or what.  They are really cool, and I'll let these guys munch on the honeysuckle until, well, they sprout wings and fly, of course!

This time of year squash is really "doin' its thang", so another yummy squash recipe should be welcome.  The original recipe calls for zucchini, but I can't tell much difference in the summer squashes, so I call it "Squash Fritters".  This is also a good recipe to use up some of those squash that were hiding the day before and got kind of big to greet you the next picking day!  I still haven't perfected the art of picking every single squash or cucumber--has anyone? :)

Squash Fritters

2 small summer squash (yellow, pattypan, zucchini) OR 1 larger one, with most of the seeds removed

4 minced scallions (or green onions, or onions)

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup dill (can use dried dill, sparingly)

1 beaten egg

¾ cup parmesan cheese

¼ cup flour (I used panko)

Grate squash into a colander and toss w/ 2 tsp salt, let sit 10 minutes.  Squeeze out liquid.

Then mix squash with other ingredients and pan-fry spoonfuls of the mixture in olive oil, flattening with a spatula, 3-4 minutes per side, until golden.  Drain on paper towels & season with salt.

This morning on the way to the garden I heard an unusual amount of tiny chirping noises that seemed like they were coming from all around.  I looked down and almost stepped on this:

It startled me because a couple of weeks ago Oliver the cat found a copperhead in that same area, and yesterday I stepped on some sort of snake that I never could see but it still gave me the willies. 

I looked around for mama bird and there she was up in the tree fussing away at me.  Too bad she doesn't have arms to carry her baby away to safety.

Whit and Buckshot (the 2 horses on the farm) are sporting a "shimmer weave" fly mask.......these masks are supposed to blend in and reflect the horse's natural color instead of looking like a Halloween mask.  I didn't choose them for that reason, I chose them because they were $1.00 cheaper. 

Whitt posed for a Hollywood moment to let me take a picture of his mask. 

The flies still get around the lower edges of the mask but at least they aren't crawling around in their eyes!

Buckshot refused to have his picture made and I figured everyone knows what a horse's butt looks like!

Happy weekend!

Well, they look like flying saucers anyway.  Once summer squash starts coming in boy howdy, you better keep your windows rolled up when you park your car around here.  Not that it might get stolen or anything like that, but somebody might throw some squash in there (it's a local joke) (well, maybe not too local.....)

Anyway, I really haven't taken the time to enjoy any summer squash so far this season, so the other night I got in early, around 8:30, so I thought "wow, I have time to cook".  I decided to attack one of the cool squashes I had been harvesting for a couple of weeks.  This is a rendition of a recipe I found on veggie ventures kitchen parade blogspot.  It's a stuffed ufo. 

First, I selected which one of the aliens would be invited to my oven.  I chose a pretty yellow one.  Next I retrieved my favorite paring knife and proceeded with the evening's main course. 

 I bet you're looking at that and thinking "what kind of countertop is that?"  It's an awesome slab of Crab Orchard stone, courtesy of my handy-dandy friend, Shane. 

Back to the squash.  Cut a circle out of the squash.  I pretty much followed the green circle.  Then take a spoon and scoop out the insides and put them aside for chopping.

 That little chopper is a great tool.  It's a Black and Decker and it sits on top of the cup and you press down on it and push one of the buttons on the front to make it go--easy to use, easy to clean up.

Put the squash and some onion, I used a green onion, in a pan with a drizzle of evoo.  Saute until tender, remove from heat, then mix it in with 1 T flour, egg, and about 1 oz of feta cheese. 

 The recipe makes 4 squashes and I was too tired to split one egg into 1/4's, so a whole egg went in the one squash.  The feta cheese I used had basil and tomatoes in it (courtesy of a friend who didn't like it). 

Stuff all this into the hollowed hole of the squash.  Pop into a 350 oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the squash is tender.  I sauteed a chicken breast with sun dried tomatoes and added sour cream to make a sauce and browned a piece of polenta to accompany the flying saucer to my belly.  I felt like a queen eating something besides cereal for supper!