Funny carrots and precious sawdust

The weird shape of the carrot is no reflection of its taste.  The reason why they have more than one root is because there was too much nitrogen in the soil. Unlike last year, this year's crop of carrots was existent since I double dug the soil.  This tedious procedure allowed the roots to grow freely in every direction. Next year I just have to get the nitrogen right for the carrots.

The squash and pumpkins are so beautiful.  This year's crop was donated by The Mountain School. In the spring, I did not start any of these guys from scratch and I kept forgetting to get them from the farmers market.  Destiny united me and the plant bearers of these in a cow barn among manure.  I was very happy and curious about the type of squash and/or pumpkin that I was getting.  They are all very similar to the pure bred buttercup, acorn and spaghetti squash and pie pumpkins.  I brought these inside this week before a frost.

Definitely a hybrid

Potatoes are now in the root cellar among sawdust. I was keeping them in the basement, but we have started to heat the house with the wood stove. I felt them to make sure they were still hard and smooth.  If they were soft and wrinkled then they were already loosing water. Not good.  I organized them by size in different bags.  I happened to discovered old potatoes in the root cellar.  They were sprouting and some had new potatoes attached to them. I kept those and I baked them with dehydrated herbs from our garden and salt. 

Chioggia beets

We grew a 1 and 3/4 pound beet.  The were other big ones, but this one was the monster beet.  We roasted it with thyme, olive oil and sea salt.

Carrots and beets are now in the root cellar in bags with sawdust as well. It is wise to note that I did not wash any of the root crops before storing them.  If you wash them before you store them, the roots will start loosing water and not keep well.
I also dug up the Dahlia's bulbs.  Hopefully I can plant them next year as soon as the soil can be worked. 

Recap of summer happenings at the garden

Frank the Toad is hanging out the strawberry plants around the stone wall in front of the cabin

Pansies from the garden ready to be placed in ice cubes for the party 

I also used borage flowers, chamomile flowers and mint leaves shaped as hearts 

Asa taking a nap in the middle of the morning 

This week I set out to move their fenced space to enclose a raspberry area near the garden

Asa and Che Che enjoy going on walks with us up the driveway 

and nibble on leaves that they find in their way 

Cauliflower that I forgot to cover up with leaves so that the head would be white 

It still tasted delicious and I blanched and froze two pounds of Broccoli and Cauliflower for the winter

Everything is doing well except for the onions that I tried to start from seed

Onions need a lot of compost, water and sunlight 

I will leave them in the ground in hopes that they will sprout next year 

Cabbage, small but pretty

Broccoli, Kale and Cauliflower do much better in our garden 

One of our lovely chickens cruising thru our garden 

Recently, they have discovered the tomatoes and they like them 

Which means that they are now hanging out with the goats in their pen 

All the them have names 

Blanquita, Negra, Dina and KG 

Our beets are doing great!

I don't think I can wrap one hand around them

I will leave them a little bit longer in the ground in hopes of keeping them in the root cellar 

One apple tree bear fruit this year 

They are getting big and getting some red on them 

I lost the tag of what the trees were, my guess is that they are eating apples 

Red Zebra or Green Zebra tomatoes on the vine 

This morning we had scrambled eggs from our neighbors, tomatoes and eggplant from the garden 

and onions from the farm I work at

Swiss Chard 

My favorite green to grow 

To tell the truth we haven't eaten any yet 

But we will plan to do that soon !

Broccoli, cut and blanched and ready to be bagged!

Time to harvest 

I have been weeding so much that I have forgotten the great feeling of harvesting 

Today I decided to pick, wash and dehydrate herbs from the garden 

Last year was a bad year for herbs, but not this year !!!

I am very excited to dehydrate: 

Rosemary !

Sage 

Thyme and others 

like lemon and Thai basil 

The coolest thing is that last fall I transplanted a thai basil plant to a pot and had it in my classroom

It was the saddest plant you have ever seen

But after being in the garden for a couple of months 

It came back to live

I think I will do that with most of the herbs from this year!

Beds and bulbs

Busy school vacation !  Even though we still have snow outside the two major projects were accomplished.

The first one was to turn a bed for tomatoes.  I did this with shovel in hand and patience in taking the 20 + rocks that came out after trying the turn the soil over.  I had some rye grass growing in Vinnie's garden, I pulled it and dumped in this new tomato plot. Also, I added bark mulch from a dead tree that its at the edge of the plot.  I covered the whole plot with the soil that I was turning and later I scattered a half a bail of hay all over the bed, so that it will suppress any weeds that would like to grow in the new fresh soil.

The second project was to make a new bed for peas, away from the rest of the garden so that it doesn't shade other plants. Last year the peas covered most of the afternoon sun from tomatoes, carrots and other  plants. This year the bed is set back and it is a U-shaped plot in which you can enter from one side and collect fruit from the inside as well as the outside.

Started carrots and beets indoors last weekend. In the seed packets you will read that it is NOT recommended to transplant carrots, but I figured out a way to successfully transplanted and that is that you have to wait until the seedlings have 2 or more true leaves to move them to the garden. As for beets, I usually do the same thing. Make sure that the beds are turned and loose for these two veggies.

Trimmed the branches of the 3 apple trees growing by our house.  Every year you are supposed to cut the leading branch which forces the tree to focus on lateral branch growth.  I cut the old canes of the raspberries all the way to the base of the plant, make sure you don't cut the old-new growth canes, since those are the ones setting fruit this year. You can tell the canes that are dead from the ones that are still going to come out of dormancy by the color and flexibility of the canes.

Cut the dead kale plants at the base and left the beds undisturbed.  That way the roots decompose with the help of worms. This winter was too harsh and long and the kale plants did not make it back.

Wild ramps are starting to come out. Also called wild onions, they are used just like scallions in cooking.  Last year I moved some of the plants to different locations thru out the garden and they are growing beautifully.

The goats are also enjoying their new location by the garden.  We are keeping them in with a flexible solar powered fence.  They get twice as much sun as they did at their old home and they have plenty of space to lay down and eat all kinds of vegetation.

February Check In

This past week I walked in and saw at our local food Coop, the Upper Valley Food Coop, the wire tall stand that has the seeds for the upcoming season from High mowing seeds.  I got so excited just thinking of the food I will grow this year. 


I will definitely make the following adjustments while dreaming about spring:


1. I will not be lazy about double digging the soil before planting carrots. The way you do is that you take a shovel and remove (blade's length) one layer of soil and then you remove a second layer after that. Then you put the soil back in the row, but now it is loose so that the carrots have a place to grow down, otherwise you end up with short, stocky carrots, which still taste good but not big enough sometimes for winter storage. 


2. I will not plant tomatoes too close to each other.  I found out that after 5 years of our garden being worked on, the soil is very rich and the spread of each tomato plant was very wide, this had an effect on the leaves, which resulted in my plants getting the blight. Also, I will have to say that "caging" the tomatoes is the easiest way to trellis the plants if you are not a farmer.


3. I will not germinate a whole packet of kale seeds.  Our whole garden was taken up by these guys, it looked as though I had trufulla trees societies in the garden. However, I did dry a lot of it (which is excellent in rice) and has provided some winter snack for the goats as well. In addition, the kale was host of the cabbage moth, which makes me hesitant to grow Brocolli, Brussel Sprouts and Cabagge this year. Regardless, I think I will give it a try. 


4. I will remove more of the raspberry plants that are growing at the edge of the garden.  I think the garden needs more aeration since our garden is in the middle of the forest. So that certain fungus doesn't have the moisture it needs to live in some plants like tomatoes, potatoes and squashes. It all depends on the weather too. Last summer had sunny and damp days.


5. Plant the onion sets in the sunniest spots of the garden. 


6. Plant leafy greens in rows not in a scatter way.  That makes it easier to pick and more desirable to eat.  Last year I randomly scatter the seeds of arugula and other mustards and just enjoyed their presence in that plot rather than picking the leaves to eat. 


7. Protect the raspberry canes, blueberry bushes and apple trees from deer and goats. Last year, I was so excited after I pruned the raspberry canes. Later that week, we had deer come in and give the canes a second cut.  I was upset, but it also got me thinking that maybe the deer know that if they prune the canes then the plants will grow more in the season.  It was just a thought since they didn't eat the canes. Now, this winter, we might have a dead apple tree in the spring...Our goats ate the bark off one of the apples trees in the front of the cabin. They didn't make a ring all around the trees' trunk, which I hope gives the apple tree a chance to heal and grow this year. Otherwise, we have to get another young sampling for that spot. 


8. More beds in the garden. There are a lot of potential spots for new beds this year, which I am sure will involve tree removal, rock removal and compost addition.


9. Designate a better area for the herb garden.  A pleasing and ornamentally organized array of herbs and flowers. It has to be closer to the cabin and I have to be better at collecting and preserving these essential plants. 


10. Don't wait too long to pick the last of the root crops.  I kept procrastinating about digging the last planting of beets.  Winter came in swiftly and frost made it impossible to dig them out.  Eventually, I dug them out one night when the temperatures were above 32 F. I had to dig them with my bare fingers and it was very painful.  I brought them in the basement, took the leaves out and let them acclimate to room temperature. After a couple of days, the beets were moldy and soft.  I estimated, it lost probably 5-7 pounds.


So, there is a lot to think about the garden these days.  It is never too early to plan for your food and my suggestion is that you start with a simple list of veggies that you would like to grow and definitely plan your beds ahead. I am a visual person, so I like to draw the garden and label plants.


More soon...

Canning beets

Last weekend we harvested 8 pounds of beets

 we took the tops off and left the roots tips and washed them

 then we boiled them until the beets were soft 

 the recipe that we were following required onions and we had our own !
After taking the beets out of the boiling water, then we took the skins off and quartered them.  We then poured vinegar and spices over the beets and brought to a boil.  Finally, we canned the beets and ...
we canned a total of 4 quarts + 1 pint