Wild Things Farm

Okay, so I'm a magazine junkie.  My mom, two of my sisters, and one of my best friends share the same addiction.  While perusing the March 2009 issue of Southern Living (courtesy of Mom), I ran across an article for great recipes that had tasty Gulf Shrimp in them.  That statement, sadly, doesn't mean the same thing today. 

I did make an awesome find in the magazine though.  Southern Living is famous for their amazing recipes, and their recipe website is http://www.myrecipes.com/.  It looks very easy to use,and  has over 46,000 recipes and everyone knows you can't have too many recipes!

Just yesterday one of the "on-farm pickups" came to pick up her box and she told me about a great blogsite called A Veggie Venture and that address is:  http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/.  It's an upbeat site with yummy-sounding different vegetable recipes.  Today the author posted a recipe for "Toad in the Pattypan Hole" for breakfast.  After looking at more pattypan squash recipes, I'm going to try the stuffed pattypan squash tonight.  The squash are doing great in spite of the drought we're deep into around here.

Some of my favorite, well, memorable memories from childhood and motherhood involve blackberries.  It was a tradition during my childhood to gather up crisco cans, buckets, and whatever would hold a bunch of berries and head up the holler at my nanny's farm. 

We kids had no choice--we had to pick blackberries.  I don't remember any insect spray and I don't remember ticks.  I do, however, remember chiggers!  I started wearing fingernail polish at an early age (on the chigger bites that is).  

Fast forward to motherhood:  My youngest son and I made it a yearly ritual to go along the roadways where we lived to pick blackberries.  We lived way out in the country and all the roads were dead ends and gravel and we could pick gallons of berries within a stone's throw of the house.  We'd be sweating and itching and fighting bugs and I would always say "think about having a great blackberry pie in December".  He'd laugh and say that he could go right there with me!

Now, there are thornless blackberries on the farm.  I still can't get near them without being careful of the thorns even though they are thornless!  I found an awesome recipe for not a pie, but a crunch.  I love "crunches" with fresh berries whether cherries, blueberries, or blackberries.  Here's the recipe:

Fresh Fruit Crisp

2 cups fresh fruit, 3/4 cups sugar, 2T all purpose flour, 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (I use quick cooking), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

In a large bowl combine fruit, 3/4 cup sugar and 2 T flour.  Pour into a square baking pan (8x8 or so).  In a medium bowl combine 3/4 cup flour, oats, and brown sugar.  Cut in the butter until crumbly.  Sprinkle over the top.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

It's great with ICE CREAM!  It's also good nuked in the microwave the next day; it stays crispy!

This year has got to be the year of the invisible helpers.  Bt (baccillus thurengiensis) has been in my arsenal of organic weapons for many years.  I use it on all the brassica family to control cabbage loopers.  There is another product I began using this year called "Serenade", which is another bacteria that fights blights and fungus.  It's being used on tomatoes every week to hopefully avoid the dreadful late blight that many tomatoes were plagued with last year. 

Another microorganism that I haven't tried yet but have plans to this week is Spinosad.  It's supposed to combat several kinds of beetles, including the Colorado Potato Beetle and flea beetles, two of my worst enemies. 

Several months ago I was contacted by a representative of TeraGanix, Inc.  She wanted to know if I would trial one of their products called EM-1.  This product is microorganisms that you apply to the soil and they feed on organic matter and in return nourish the crops.  I started the trial with the tomatoes.  There are about 13 different varieties of heirlooms and traditional tomatoes and I thought that would be a good way to see if this stuff really worked.  I planted three beds of tomatoes, two rows in each bed, approximately 320 plants total, and applied EM-1 to the bed on the left.  This photo was taken only 2 weeks after transplanting the tomatoes; everything was exactly the same except for the application of EM-1 on the left bed.

Pretty amazing, huh?  As you can see, the tomatoes on the left are much larger and greener than the other two beds.  I was amazed, to say the least.  I felt guilty for not giving the rest of the gardens the same boost so I ordered a gallon to give everybody a boost of micro-organisms.  I spent several hours today giving the other gardens a drink.  I used a hose-end sprayer for application.  It's a really fascinating facet of the chain of life and if you would like to know the specifics of it, click on the link below to get it "from the horse's mouth" (where did that stupid saying come from anyway, everyone knows horses can't talk---oh I forgot, Mr. Ed).

http://www.teraganix.com/?Click=1891

About 15 years ago my oldest son joined 4H.  He wanted to have chickens for his project, so a chicken house was constructed and 30 chicks arrived; 25 girls and 5 boys.  The chickens roamed around the yard for the first several months but they poop wherever they get the urge, so a pen was constructed, one wing clipped, and the girls and boys were confined to their own corner. 

The chickens grew up, laid eggs, and were auctioned off at the end of the season to raise money for the future chick-chain projects. 

Last year I decided I would like to have chickens again.  With so many gardens to tend I though they might be a useful addition to the farm menagerie.  I bought 6 Red Star chicks last summer, built them a tractor that's way to heavy for me to move without the tractor, and they started laying big beautiful brown eggs in November. 

They do a wonderful job cleaning up a garden bed once a crop is finished.  The spring crops are starting to fade out and the chickens have been very busy eating lettuce and spinach to make way for more crops.  A more user-friendly portable pen was constructed a few months ago so the chicken mom can move her small flock around easier.

The contraption on the left is the first tractor which has their roost and nest boxes upstairs and open pen downstairs.  The pen on the right is just pvc pipe covered with chicken wire and a tarp so they have some shade.  They love to go for walks in the mornings.  Chickens have a surprisingly large vocabulary.  When I go to greet them in the mornings they say "wok, wok, wok" which I know in chicken is "walk, walk, walk" (they don't do "L's" too well).  When one lays an egg their joyful screams echo from the mountain behind the pen "Buck, buck, buck-et".  Right before they do the bucket scream though they sit and almost hum while they're actually laying the egg.  It sounds painful to me.  I think the bucket song is a song of happiness that the egg-laying thing is over for the day. The other day when I was working in the gardens near the pen I heard one of the chickens making a noise I'd never heard before; sort of a growling-chirping noise.  I looked up and one of the other hens was pecking her on the back.  There were 2 roosters with them for a while until they wore the feathers off the girls' backs so the roosters are "cock-a-doodle-gone".  Now I see why the feathers haven't grown back on that one hen. 

The biggest problem with a portable pen is you have to remember to move them ever so often and you have to remember to put them up at night.  One night I was getting ready to go to bed and something reminded me that the chickens were still out.  I found a flashlight, traipsed down to their pen, woke them up and took them back to their pen.  I actually think they were fussing at me.

In April, 21 chicks arrived on the farm.  There were 5 Cherry-Eggers, 5 Barred Rock, 5 Buff Orpington, and 6 Amerecauna.  All were chosen for their disposition and eggs.  I built a chicken house for them and recently got their chicken yard fenced in so they can run around and catch bugs.  They're really fun to watch.  It's kind of like watching a lava lamp or an aquarium; you have to make yourself get back to work!

Inside the coop they fight for the top roost pole at night.

I guess I'll have to extend the top pole the length of the house so everyone can have "pole position".

The Amerecaunas are kind of like calico cats.  They all look different but they've all got a thick neck and no comb on their heads. 

The CSA members are eagerly awaiting fresh eggs sometime in the middle of the summer.  The 3 Red Star chickens will eventually be integrated into the new flock, but for now they are my garden slaves.......

Does this insect not have any natural enemies besides humans?  The decision was made that this year the potatoes on the farm would be grown totally organically.   In years past I've always used a little conventional insecticide on the potatoes just so I would have some.  This year I'm experimenting.

Have you ever seen organic potatoes in the store?  I mean think about it....ever?  I haven't.  These potatoes were fertilized with organic manure and hundreds of bugs hand picked and squashed.  I'm able to squash a potato bug larvae with my bare fingers now.....I think that means something in the gardening community.  Well, maybe not an official title, but my nanny used to squash bugs with her fingers and I thought it was gross.  It's really not....it's just handy sometimes. 

In one of the patches I walked through yesterday there were literally HUNDREDS of potato bugs on the plants.  I knocked them off with the magic bug smacking wand (sprayer nozzle) into the pathway, sprayed them with rotenone/pyrethrum, them stomped them.  I realized that in my fit I was killing them twice.  Okay, stop panicking--the potatoes in the rear bluff garden are doing okay--if I keep diligently spraying them. 

I think the price of organic potatoes should be based on the price of gold.  There's probably just as much work goes into producing a bushel of potatoes in spite of this evil beetle as there is to mine more than an ounce of gold. 

Tomorrow the potatoes are getting sprayed with neem oil then dusted with diatomaceous earth.  We'll see how the beetles like that congloberation.

So far, this has been a pretty buggy year.  At least it isn't raining every day like it did last year!

Everyone knows what traditions are.  Families have traditions at holidays, and there are certain ways that you're just supposed to do things. 

Well, this year I broke a tradition that I've had for I can't remember how many years--I think as long as I've been gardening.  Every year since I can remember, I've waited until the tomato plants were really too large to stake or cage.  I know there are others out there who are guilty, and you know too :).  It's not a really bad crime, it just breaks a few stems and plants and in the really bad years, really small tomatoes fall off....but anyway, this year I got ahead.  The fence posts got driven, the wires pulled, and this year I'm trying out some handy-dandy velcro ties to hold the plants upright on the wires.  They are reusuable and if they work, very economical.  Easy to use, that's for sure.  I just cut them into about 6 inch strips, loop around the stem and the wire, and voila, upright tomato. 

There are about 320 tomato plants in the garden this year, thanks to absolutely NO decent tomatoes last year due to the late blight (which hit early in the season, I might add).  I guess it's kind of a withdrawal symptom to plant so many, but a friend provided seeds for about 13 different heirloom tomatoes plus the ones normally grown on the farm.  I learned how to make sun-dried tomatoes too, so lots of Romas were planted for that adventure. 

Today was really hot and on the way back from planting the second crop of corn,

the dogs took a dip in the creek.

It looked and sounded so refreshing it was really hard not to jump in there with them!

After we got back to the house, peas had to be picked and chickens fed and put to bed.  The three big hens are still in the portable "tractor" so they can finish up the lettuce and spinach and other spring crops that are past harvest condition, and the 6 week old chicks are enjoying their new house and back yard.....

 I took pictures while the chicken house was being constructed.  That's another story when there's time to put it together!  Now, the sun is down so I can rest.

I've always had a fascination for moss.  I remember my grandmother had a root cellar that we always called the "dairy" that was a really scary concrete building dug back into the hill behind their house.  It was scary because I was a little girl and there were great humongous katydids all over the ceiling and saggy wooden shelves with all the canned vegetables and fruits that my nanny would preserve in the summer. 

Well, on the top of the dairy was my favorite place.  Moss would grow so well up there--I would collect all different kinds from the woods around the house then carry it up there and make different "rooms" in my imaginary house on the roof of the dairy.  I had to sneak up there though because she was afraid I would make ruts in the hillside climbing up there and cause it to wash out.  But I was always real careful (and sneaky). 

That fascination with moss has carried into my adulthood.   I've owned two books on moss, still don't know the names of any of them, but still love it.  When I found this plant at the nursery I was really excited.  It's called "Scotch Moss" and it's not really a moss at all, but a plant that looks like moss.  I don't have gutters on the house so I placed flat stones at the drip line to carry the water away from the house.  On the front of the house I saw the perfect scenario for a Scotch Moss garden. 

The Scotch Moss is blooming right now, with teeny tiny white blooms. 

The stones at the top of the picture (on the left side of the bed) are actually grinding stones (mortars) with grinding rocks (pestles) that were used by the Indians to grind up acorns, roots, berries, and whatever else they ground up to eat--they make a pretty cool border at the front entrance to the house. 

If you don't have a spot where you can grow moss in the shade then try Scotch Moss, or the other one which is a darker green color, called Irish Moss.

Scotch in the rocks----it's really cool!

After the extremely wet season we had last year, I was a little reluctant to install the drip tapes in the garden--seems like when they were installed last year is when the clouds wouldn't quit watering the gardens.  With a year-round creek, small pond, pump, and drip lines, this farm is better equipped for drought than deluge. 

The ground started drying out, new plants needed watering in, so one day last week was devoted to the drip tape project.  All the drip tape has served one life in a nursery before, so the tapes are all lengths and in all kinds of condition, but you can't really tell if it leaks or not until it's all hooked up to the water supply.  It's a pretty tedious, muddy, and frustrating job, to say the least.  I just keep thinking through the whole installation ordeal of how easy it is to turn the valve to water a garden and then go do something else while the plants are quietly being watered right at the soil--oh, and I have one of those handy-dandy fertilizer injectors so the plants can be fed manure tea while they are being watered!

Anyway, I dug through the big basket of "footballs and watermelons" to pick out what looked like good candidates for the tomato patch.  The project started out like this:

 The propane bottle is for a heat source to heat up the 3/4" plastic pipe (the "trunk line", so to speak), ever so slightly, so the fittings will slip in easier.  The big pruners are for cutting the 3/4" pipe, and the handy-dandy aluminun tool box has all the fittings and pieces and parts (well, most of them) to do the irrigation stuff. 

The tomato patch went fairly well.  All three beds got "drip taped" with no major leaks or problems.  Okay, we're on a roll, so I go to another garden, I call it the Pond Garden because it's next to the pond, and I installed tape on 2 beds of peppers and one bed of eggplant then turned on the water.

I thought to myself "It's supposed to be drip tape, not a sprinkler system".  After messing around with the leaks, getting really wet and sort of frustrated, I was able to turn it back into drip tape.

Now for the mulch of leaves--the plants will be set for the season!  Drip tape....it's a great way to water :)

I've seen lots of scarecrows in my gardening life, and sometimes I think the scarecrows are more for us humans than they are to actually scare crows away.  The coolest scarecrow I've seen was named Esmerelda and she had a really neat hand painted gourd head, mardi-gras beads, boobs, cool dress, and I don't know if she scared any crows away but she was way cool.  She lived in a blueberry patch.

 I've just planted the first planting of sweet corn, and as soon as those kernels sprout and head skyward the crows start plucking.  Today I was working in the tomato patch (installing drip tape, yet another blog story) and I heard the crows squawking.  I know the corn hasn't come up yet, but that was my signal to install the scarecrows.

When I first started growing corn here, it was the first time I had actually grown corn (about 3 years ago).  I never really had enough land to grow corn, since it takes quite a bit of space to do well. 

When the corn started sprouting that first year, my neighbor told me he had seen crows eating the sprouts.  I panicked, and immediately thought "oh my gosh, I don't have clothes for a scarecrow, or a hat, and what kind of head do I put on it?" (lol)  He told me the best scarecrow was to simply tie a black garbage bag on a pole and stick it in the ground in the corn patch.  The crows think it's a dead crow on a stick so they don't come near.

I've got these neat plastic fence posts that I've used for everything from flower bed surrounds, chicken lots, dog lots, flower bed protection to tomato supports.....blah, blah, but every spring, several of them don garbage bags and keep the crows away until the corn gets too big for the crows to be interested in messing with it.  Trust me, it works here!   I put them about 30' on center around the corn patch.  Cheap and reliable.

Happy Mother's Day!  I went to visit my mom and dad, sisters, brother in laws, nephews, etc., today and we had a wonderful picnic on an absolutely gorgeous spring day. 

There is a bumper crop of bibb lettuce at the farm this year, so I picked a bag for each sister and my parents.  I don't listen to the news, don't have tv, so when I handed them the lettuce and they laughed and jokingly said "does it have e-coli on it", I said "of course not, I grew it and I know how it was grown and picked".   Then they told me about the e-coli recall from several major grocery stores involving fresh green veggies. 

It's getting to be a scary place out there, depending on folks we don't know to provide our food.  I don't grow everything I eat, but if I could, I would.

Yesterday I planted the tomato plants; around 320 of them, assorted heirloom varieties, and several "mainstream" varieties that produce well, taste good, or have good qualities to them.  The garden prep went well, manure spreading, post installation, wire stringing, planting.....then came the watering in of the plants.  I think the initial watering in of a freshly planted plant is as important as colostrum is to a human or animal when it's first born.

Anyway, the garden I planted the tomatoes in is in an area where there is irrigation pipe to the general area for drip tape, but to do the first watering I have to drag water hoses around. 

I don't think there's anyone around who hates water hoses as badly as I do.  I bought 2 that are supposed to be "kink free" but they still kink, although it's easier to get the kink out than a regular water hose.  I had them hooked together and couldn't quite reach the last 1/4 of the beds (you know the story).

A few years ago my son (college, okay) gave me a waterhose during one of his moves.  He said he didn't need it anymore.  It looked like a college kid water hose (cheap), but I took it anyway, being the great mom that I am :)

I haven't used the hose much but I do remember looking at it oddly as it doesn't hang in nice round loops, but rather in a strange accordian fashion. 

Back to the tomatoes.  I needed just a little bit more water hose to get to the end of the beds I had planted so I got the college kid water hose out.  Oh my gosh----it is the water hose from hell.....kink is not the word.  AFTER I had convinced it to straighten out straight (about 15 minutes of messing with it),  I had to hold it gently in my arms to keep it from kinking just from holding the nozzle at the end to spray the plants.  It was worse than worst!  I honestly think I could have carried water in 5-gallon buckets faster than I got that hose to work, but it became a challenge, know what I mean? 

It did not get thrown away though.  I'm somewhat of a packrat of things that might be useful in another life.  I left it laying in the garden, so I know where it is, and it will serve another useful purpose, but I promise it will never have water running through it again!

Today was one of those days when you wake up, know that you've got at least a million things to do, and the weather is cooperating.  I started out by grabbing the weedeater and the mixed gas can, which had only about 1/2 cup in it, and I headed for the blackberry patch.  For some reason, the distance between the three rows of thornless blackberries I have ended up being less than 5 feet, which is how wide the mower is that I pull behind my tractor.  Trying to squeeze as many plants in as I could, I guess. 

Anyway, this is the first time the weedeater has been started this year and I did empty the tank last year and run all the fuel out of the carburetor like a good girl, but when I primed, flipped switches, and pulled the rope, nothing happened----over and over-----you know the sound.  Not even a hit. 

Well, being the non-mechanically-oriented person that I am, I immediately started looking for stuff I thought could be wrong.  I took one cover off and there was a filter, so I put that back on.  The other cover took a really weird looking screwdriver to open it, so I abandoned that option.  Then I saw a really obvious looking rubber plug thingee on the front of the cover and I started picking at that with my pocket knife and voila'---it came off and there was the spark plug.  Well, it looked like a spark plug but I didn't have the appropriate socket to remove it, so I blessed it, put the rubber thingee back on, pulled the rope, and it started!  I don't know why, but I did a happy dance.

While weedeating (before I had to stop and go to the local store to buy more gas) I saw a really big toad flop out on it's back right in front of me.  I felt so bad that I had injured the little guy (this is where I thought I might be losing it).  I stopped the weedeater, stooped down and flipped it over.  The toad was still breathing and I kind of nudged it and it kind of moved, so I felt better and thought maybe I had just addled it.  I noticed on the next pass nearby that it was gone so I felt better about the whole situation. 

Anyway, the thought crossed my mind to kiss it to see if I would get my handsome prince, but I wasn't sure if it was of the "princitonian" type so I didn't want to chance getting a wart on my lip for nothing :)

That's the song I'm listening to as I relax after the first delivery of the season.  Who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all? 

All went well; there were several cool weather crops ready for harvest; spinach, bibb lettuce, gourmet salad mix, radishes, beet greens, some swiss chard, and a little arugula. 

The critter singing the song is a Barred Owl.  I don't hear them often where I live, but this one was singing his way around the mountain behind me.  I love music, but I love hearing wildlife sing it best and its a perfect way to end a very busy day :)

Wild Things Farm was approved for a grant from the USDA for a high tunnel this year.  Since I've never owned or operated a high tunnel, I started researching both on the Internet and in books.  One book I purchased is written by Eliot Coleman and it's titled "The Four Season Harvest". 

I've learned a lot about gardening with high tunnels from this book, and one thing that has really stuck in my mind from that book (that has nothing to do with high tunnels) is "One year's seeding is 7 years of weeding".  This means that if you let a weed in your garden go to seed, you'll be weeding its offspring for 7 years.  That is my motto for this gardening year.  If I can't pull the weed up, I'll at least chop off its head to keep it from seeding.

That is good advice for all gardeners.

Ok, so I'm a kitchen tool junkie.  I love anything to do with cooking and kitchen, whether old or new.  I've owned a wide assortment of kitchen tools from my favorite Kitchen Aid stand mixer to a Mr. Bacon Cooker (which I hated). 

One gadget that I had not procured until recently was a salad spinner.  I used to laugh at them and think they were frivolous until I began CSA farming.  A big majority of the crops that are delivered early in the season consist of lettuce, spinach, and other salad greens.  One of the most important parts of making a good salad is having dry greens to comprise the salad mixture so the dressing will stick to the greens.  Enter salad spinner!

My sisters and I went on a "sisters day out" a couple of months ago and one of the main attractions of our shopping was to secure the very best deal in a salad spinner.  I had tried paper towels, dish towels, letting it drain in a colander, but nothing works as great as a salad spinner.  Trust me, it's not a frivolous purchase if you like good salads. 

Anyway, we went to TJ Maxx and checked out the salad spinners.  They ranged in price from $7.99 to over $20.  I decided on a model that cost $9.99.

You simply wash your greens, place them in the colander part of the spinner, put the lid on, and push the red knob like spinning a top (I keep waiting for the whirring noise like a really cool top I had growing up).  After a few spins, check the greens, and oh my, are they fluffy and dry!  It's a miracle.....go get one now.  It's the basic ingredient for a great salad.

 Yes, I said over the "rainbows".  Saturday was a very unsettled day around here as far as the weather was concerned.  The weather folks were predicting strong storms, lots of rain, thunder, lightning, hail....so we were all "on our toes" so to speak, and spent most of the afternoon battening down the hatches. 

The rain came, the wind blew, but we missed the bullet on that one, thank goodness.  I know that counties west of us were hit by tornadoes and strong storms, but we just got some rain and a little wind, and about 7:00 that evening the sky began to look a lot lighter so I went out to see what was going on, and I saw not one, but two rainbows!  That's the first time I've ever seen a double header, so I grabbed the camera to share the view.  It was much better in person, though :)