Getting through to normal

Our 3 Acres

Tiny House Farm, along with the rest of the world, is still coming to terms with our new reality. Hardest part is, that none of us know what that reality will end up being. It is going to take a lot more time before things shake themselves out.

Nature being what it is, Ron started our normal shiitake process in June. Shifting around the logs and getting them soaking again. Some of our restaurant customers had reopened for either take out or outdoor dining only. This was fabulous news for all of us. Pandemic or no; folks still have to eat, and our Amish farming partner, Rudy had moved forward with planting all the specialty veggies. Ron had ordering bronze and Artesian mix tomatoes, and Blue Viking potatoes, along with Haricot Vert and dragon tongue beans. Chioggia and Avalanche beets and cowpeas were also grown.

On June 11 we had our first orders for shiitakes and Ron did his happy dance. Things were looking up and we started with our micro greens again. Dusted off the trays, soaked the growing pads, opened up the bags of seeds and got growing again. These were familiar things to us and life might be getting a bit back to normal.

We still had our regular life to deal with. I was working from home while Jo was still pulling her nightshift at Walmart. Turns out it was a very good thing that Ron retired last year. He is not a fan of working from home. Which some might find strange as he does a HUGE amount of farm work on his laptop at home. But all of us know, it is just not the same thing. What Ron is doing he considers fun not work.

I was able to use my creative side by sewing masks for all three of us. And this project was an adventure itself. I researched DIY masks for days online and made four different types before I settled on the one I thought best. The elastic was another issue. I had to use what I had in my stash first. And while it was elastic and did the job, I did not like it. It hurt my ears. The thinner stuff I was looking for was sold out everywhere. Once stores opened up again, Ron and I headed out to find material. I had used my fabric stash for our first masks. What a good and useful thing it can be, saving a bin (or two) of material for future use. You never know when it will come in handy.

I decided to jazz them up a bit with mushroom patches. And let me tell you, that was a pain. I ordered a couple and waited for them to come in. Of course Ron spotted my order and had to get in on the action. He ordered 5 different ones without thinking about their size in relationship to the actual mask. And getting them on, that was the worst part. Of course the “iron on” part did not work. So I tried a different iron on work around. Finally had to sew it. And that was not fun. But it does look great and Ron really likes it.

And then suddenly it was September and our Juneberry plants would soon be here. Last fall Ron laid our the landscape cloth in lovely neat rows. Now we just have to drill holes in the ground, 4 feet apart for each new plant. We have done this before; for our lavender, paw paws, elderberries and pussy willows. Ron has added a new twist. He could not bear the thought of seeing the remnants of orange marking paint on the black landscape cloth. So a template was needed. He bought himself a 12 foot board, which turned out to be not quite long enough for his plan to cut four holes in it, each 4 feet apart. There needed to be an actual hole so he could direct the flame through it and onto the cloth. /.So it was time for some brainstorming. And this is where I come in to play. I look at things in the most basic way; so what if we add a foot to beginning of board. These kind of ideas from me tend to make Ron freak out with their straight simplicity. Which can charge up his brain and make him see a workable solution. So he took another board and cut it in half and added to each end of the board. Only needed one trip to Lowes to get drywall screws and a hand held blow torch. He needed a more efficient way to keep the flamer thrower lit. Especially as it was a bit windy outside. We have a clicker for the flame thrower but it is not the easiest thing to use.

He did a better job than he planned on the template. In order to make sure the added pieces stayed attached he ended up making a trough that kept the flame off the landscape cloth. Because of this most of the holes were just the right size this time. The three of us made pretty quick work of it. Jo pulled the template down each row, while I manhandled the propane tank and Ron worked the flame thrower. All in all, it was one of the easiest projects we worked on. Building the template was the hardest part and Ron did most of that.

We just needed to drill the holes in the rocks, I mean ground and wait for the plants to come in. Ron ordered them from a company in Alberta Canada. It was just too expensive to get them from a US supplier. We did take a major hit with the shipping. I nearly choked when I saw the charges for that. But the cost for 240 plants, even with the shipping was less than half of what we would have paid at a more local nursery. On Sept 16, our plants were delivered. Unfortunately, things did not go well. I heard the familiar beeping of a UPS truck and alerted Ron to keep an eye on them. I am so thankful that he was home for this.

Yeah. First off the plants had just been put into the bottom of a large box and then sealed. Without any filler material to keep them stable safe. And even though FRAGILE and THIS END UP was all over the boxes, you can see just how carefully they had been handled.

Ron simply refused the delivery. Then he sent an email to his friend in Alberta with photos, telling him this was unacceptable. Long and short of it, a second batch of plants would be sent but this time on a pallet, and Ron would pick them up in Syracuse.

So there was another week to wait which gave us time to get the needed holes drilled. Ron handled this himself and I don’t have any photos of that. Jo and I were busy working on one of my projects and there will be more about that later. Any way, if you want to see how much fun it is to drill holes at Tiny House Farm, you can take a look at my previous posts about planting the lavender.

The new ones look much nicer, don’t they? We loaded them up in the wagon along with a few bags of dirt and headed out to get these suckers planted. You know what? It turns out that taking things in stages really is the best way. Got the landscape cloth laid out last year so it killed off what was growing underneath it, then the holes burned into cloth and finally the holes drilled. Even the actual planting was easier. The three of us have a lot of practice at this, so we whipped right through it.

So here we are. 240 juneberry plants in the ground. The varieties Ron chose are Smoky, Honeywood and Thiessen. Next shipment with be another variety. And now that we have planted these berries, we will have to take serious steps to protect them from the birds. Lots of netting I am thinking.

Boy, Ron does really need to get the brush hog out, doesn’t he? How does he expect the juneberries to thrive when the weeds are taller and will be trash talking all time?

Feeling a lot like Charlie Brown

Thoughts

When Lucy yanked the football out from under him. 2020 was set to be a wonderful year. The first full year of Ron’s retirement and he had lots of plans floating around in his head. Take it from me, it is better when they are just floaters. I break out in a sweat only when I hear him say, “Ginny, sit down and lets talk”. We had one small hiccup in 2019 when our favorite resturaunt and one of our first customers had a kitchen fire. They had to close down for repairs and would not be reopened until sometime in the spring. But that should be just in time for 2020 shiitake season.


Ron found a deal for wheeled metal shelves on the Costco website and ordered 5 of them. He has spent a good deal of time in the internet watching other micro green growers. Everyone of them has a slightly different shelf set up. But most swear by the metal shelves. We are still trying to find the just right set up that works best for us. The metal shelves were only the first step in his planned upgrade.

As with any project we get involved with, setting up the shelves was, shall we say, an adventure. The instructions were straight forward and pretty simple. Four two piece posts, plastic clips and five shelves; assemble accordingly. It took three tries to get it right. Jo, Ron and I set it up the first time. Ron wanted to have six shelves on each set, so we cannibalized one set to feed the others. He wanted to maximize the shelf space in our floor space.

Our first attempt did work but not as easily as they claimed. Each pole has grooves cut into it at equal distances apart. You are supposed to use them to keep the shelves level, counting so that you have the same number of grooves between each shelf. We were done by 8 pm and happy with a job well done.

Ron pondered on it all the next day and that night he and I took it apart again. Definitely a two person job. Halfway to getting it set back up, we stopped and took it apart again. The third time it was done to his satisfaction. Now it should have been easy enough to get the others done. All we had to do was copy what we already did. One or two false starts and we got it done. Then Ron had to run the lights which were another change as we would be going from two lights per shelf to three. Will be interesting to see if our micro greens grow better with the extra light. So that was that. First big change for the year was in process.

Our pink pussy willows are still a struggle for us. We have yet to discover or develop the knack for getting the darn things to stay pink. The expect swears to Ron that all you have to do is pick them, set into water until the turn pink, pull them out and they should stay that way. Well that is not what happens to ours. They promptly return to their grey color. And while still lovely, they are not what we hoping to get. Another thing we have more learning to do on.

Ron decided he needed to add one more item to his list of projects for 2020. Last year he became a procurer of vegetables for our restaurant customers. He is a big advocate of buying local and pushes this when he can to our customers. This year he wants to have his Amish farmers grow more specialized veggies. Potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, beets, radishes and a few others thrown in. As soon as he got in his 2020 seed catalogs, he took them to the chefs for their veggie wish list. Then he was out meeting with the Amish to see what they thought about said list. Once the list was finalized, he placed the seed orders and checked that off his to do list.

Me, I was working on perfecting a recipe for calendula infused shampoo bars. I like the idea of using a shampoo with no chemicals seeping into your scalp or pouring down the drain. You can make your own liquid shampoo, but I am making bars. No risk of spillage involved and much easier to carry with you. I made two different one bar batches last fall and gave them out to friends as Christmas gifts. Do you know a better way of getting happy test subjects? Didn’t work so well for me though. I haven’t heard a single comment back from any of them. Some friends I have. I was not deterred though and did a lot of reading about what oils work best in shampoo bars. A few more attempts and I should have a shampoo bar good enough for Tiny House Farm to add to their product list.

I had some comfrey infused olive oil ready to use so I made a batch of shampoo bars with that. Those were just to play with as we don’t plan to grow comfrey for our use. And then tried non goat’s milk calendula soap. Experimenting with different oils in a variety of amounts is kind of addicting. I also made calendula soap without the goats milk. Just looking for something else that I can contribute to our product line.

We got through February but continued to be distracted and worried about the news of the virus making its way around the world. Like everyone else, we were so hoping that it would not hit us here. We were hopefully planning for our upcoming shiitake inoculation. We were wanted to make changes this year, looking to upgrade in a few ways. So much for all those plans. Mother Nature smacked us and the rest of the world a good one. But we did have other projects that needed our thoughts and plans.

By March 8 we knew our hopes about the virus were in vain as NY Governor Cuomo called for all that could; to work from home . One by one our customers advised that they were not going to be ordering any mirco greens from us. On March 14 I started working from home. This was to last until further notice. As I have never been a huge fan of working from home, I was not happy. I really, really need the interaction with people during work. It is so much harder to ask a question or get someone’s opinion on an issue by email of IM. But I am so grateful that my job can be done at home. Losing my income was not something we had to worry about. That is a blessing that too many Americans did not have over the past two months.

Such a odd thing this is. Getting up everyday and going to work at a table in my house. It is all so wrong. No dashing out of house in the nick of time for work. No driving and no worry about the roads or weather outside. Also no annoyance that someone had parked in my parking spot. I have used the same spot for the past 15 years. I think should entitle me to squatter’s rights. don’t you? The only worry I have to deal with is whether my internet connection will stay up for the entire 8 hours. It feels as though I am on vacation but am not. All sorts of stories out there of people baking up a storm, buying up all the yeast in the world, or learning a new skill, but I feel kinda of stuck. We have been holdup in the house most of the time since mid-March. Rain and cold here in upstate NY prevented us from making even small work trips out to the farm. Because neither Ron nor I are spring chickens and we have both have pre-existing conditions; the rule of the day is stay home. Stay away from everyone. We don’t want to get this virus, but also don’t want to give it to anyone else. Jo is our major concern. She works overnights at our local Walmart. And I have never been happier that she works that shift. Her customer contacts are very limited which makes her safer.

All this “down time” has resulted in thoughts of how we can improve our processes. And, sadly revealed more things that need to be done. We have already spent hours and hours picking rocks from our field and dumping them onto a few sections of the path to our southern end.

It is clear that we have a lot more rock moving in our future. Two additional years of 4 wheeler trips there and back have taken a toll. It is even hard to walk through this. As we have two lovely and large piles of already picked rocks sitting along side our field, all we have to do is toss them into our wagon and haul them across the steam. I foresee a road building party in our future. Adhering to social distancing guidelines of course. Along with a house painting party and a juneberry planting one. Yes, Ron has actually ordered juneberries for us to plant this fall. And we still need to have a garbage picking party on THF. Every rain we have reveals more junk left behind by previous owners.

Ron and I went out to the farm in early April to work on our elderberries and lavender. We had to trim back the elderberries to keep them healthy and strong. We brought home some “sticks” for me to plant in hopes that we would get new bushes from them.

They seem to be doing well and should be better once the snow finally ends for the year. We are going to use three of these to replace bushes that we have lost, but the others; we hope to sell. We are keeping them here at the house so I can watch over them. I will have to find a safer place though. At least one squirrel did some digging at them. I assume the critter was looking for stashed but forgotten nuts.

We also cut planting “sticks” from our pink pussy willows (insert giggle here). Those are still in our frig waiting for us to make a decision on. Do we plant them so we can sell them as already established or sell them as bare root? Though you can root them in water, from the research I have done it seems best to start them directly in dirt. Supposedly they will be stronger if started this way. BUT if you do root them in water, you really need to save the water. There is a natural growth hormone in pussy willows and it will infuse the water they sit in. You can then use this water to root other plants. No need for any rooting powder. Ron is a huge fan of being able to use the one thing in two different ways. A twofer he calls it.

I am keeping myself busy and involved with THF by working on product and supply inventory. Finding out what we have in stock and what we need to buy. Or in my case, need to make. I have Ron pondering labels for my shampoo bars and watching for a sale on the size he wants to use. He wants those bars to stand out from our calendula soap. Right now, that means a different looking label.

When our area does begin the process of opening back up we will need to be ready for our customers. But we are fully aware that this will be a long and difficult process. It will take some time before things are back to being anything like normal. We are going to have to roll with the punches making sure we are able to duck when we can. The uncertainty of it all is going to be the hardest to deal with. There is so much that will be beyond our control. But we are going to get through it; all of us will. We just have to take care of ourselves, our families and each other.

THF 2020 inoculation event – Covid-19 style

Mushrooms

I have to admit that when the news first broke in mid January about this new and scary virus, my immediate reaction was worry about getting our new series of logs inoculated. Ron had ordered 600 logs again this year so we had a lot of work to get done. I tried telling myself that, surely this would all be over with by the end of April. Or that it wouldn’t be as bad as predicted. Obviously I should not quit my day job to become a psychic.

After looking at the calendar and checking previous dates, we had settled on Saturday, May 2nd and had started putting out feelers on Facebook. I had plans to change up our event this year. We were even thinking about having a two day event. Either Saturday and Sunday or two Saturdays. I had ready taken both the April 30th and May 1st off so we would have lots of time to get organized for the hoped for swarm of workers. Friend and seriously good worker, Josi recommended that we try pre-drilling a good supply of logs so we could jump right into the inoculation process. There was also thoughts of making sure every volunteer would be committed to working at least 4-5 hours. Having done this event many times over this years, and being comfortable with the process; watching the weather forecast was going to be my only major stress factor. We always warn folks; only blizzard or flood will stop Tiny House Farm from getting the inoculation done. And it was nerve-wracking. The May 2nd forecasting icon went from sun hiding behind cloud, to only a cloud to a large snow flake, back to cloud and sun, again and again and again. I finally had to stop looking at it every day.

We had never considered what a pandemic and stay at home orders would do to us and our plans for Tiny House Farm.

Saturday April 25th was a bright and sunny day so we decided to gather our supplies and make a stab at getting some of logs done. Ron had already been out to THF and pulled his oyster mushroom shelf out of the tent, but it was still full of things that we had moved from down the shed last fall. We just haven’t gotten around to moving it all back up. I have dreams of a set of shelves in the shed to hold all the small stuff. But that will have to wait until we get the logs done.

Keeping social distancing in mind, after all Jo is still pulling her overnight shift at Walmart, we got ourselves set up and starting working. Ron did the drilling, I was stuck with the inoculation and Jo was waxer and wagon loader. We had two tables in use, one at each end of our work tent. And we each had our own masks to put on when we had to work closer together. When loading 25 logs into the wagon for example. Those who talk about muscle memory have it right. None of us had done this work for a year, but we jumped right into each task. By the time we decided to call it quits, we had a respectable load of 30 plus logs across the stream and stacked up on south end of our property. Not a bad first time effort. But this was going to be a long month of May.

Sunday, Ron and I headed back out. This time it was cooler and raining, but the work needed to get done. We were still tweaking our work space trying to get it right for us. I was safely inside while Ron, in order to use his drilling rig-up, was outside in the rain. He insisted he was fine with his rain jacket and cap. He didn’t pull the hood as because that tends to make one hotter and less able to breath.

Monday morning, I was back to work at my in home office setup and Ron was on his own with the logs. He began his new routine. Loading up with water, spawn and supplies and heading out to THF. I was done with work at 330 pm and Ron would get home shortly after that. His goal was to get 25 a day done. The pile of undrilled logs is his elephant, and all he can do is take one bite at a time.

He was a faithful log inoculator, heading out morning after morning. I joined him on Thursday and Jo came, too on Friday. Saturday, May 2th was a bright and beautiful day. After our rainy Friday, it would have been a perfect day for our full fledged event. The work had been going nicely for just over an hour or so when we hit our first stumbling block. Trouble with the grinder. One of the blasted set screws that hold the bit in place unexpectedly fell out. Ron lost it in his pile of wood chips. This was not the first time flying set screws have caused issues. We really need to get one of those big magnets that is used to collect roofing nails. After a general search of the immediate area, he gave up and swapped bits so he could get back to work. Luckily one of his, slightly less than annoying habits, is to buy multiples of just about everything. He is one who always wants to have, not just plan B or C, but plan H, T and Z if needed.

It really was a good day for working. The sun was shining, birds were singing and the stream was babbling. Can a stream babble the same way as brook does? We had a goal of 75 logs to get done. If Ron, as one person could get 25 done in a day, then 3 people should be able to triple that number. Ron had also come up a change in our process that made the work day much easier. He left our generator at the top of hill and ran extension cords down to the tent. I think he was just tired of hauling it down and then back up the hill. But what a difference that made. The noise level dropped to almost nothing. Especially when the drilling stopped. We could actually carry on a conversation without yelling.

With the three of us working, we easily met our goal for the day. It was a long day of hard work, but we kept at it. Because Ron was once again standing outside the tent, the sun was taking a toll on him. He ended up wearing my big floppy hat to give him some protection. I think it looks better on him, doesn’t it?

With the weather channel saying that rain coming our way again, I insisted we couldn’t leave until we got a tarp over at lease some of the remaining stacked logs. On Friday, Jo had worked with wet logs and hated it. The wax she covered each drilled hole with, tended to stick to everything but the log it was supposed to. We needed to make sure we didn’t run into that again. It is bizarre, the little things that can cause such aggravation. The list of things we need to get done before any project can be started seems to grow every year.

Ron worked all the next week; every day getting 25 more logs inoculated and stacked up on the southern end of THF. He decided not to try getting more of the plastic pallets to use for stacking. They were a hard thing to find and haul. He ordered 4 x 4 x 12 beams made of larch wood. They will hold 3 stacks of logs on each set of 2. On my last day out there with him, I took needed action to greatly improve his work environment. He is not one who enjoys working in the sun as it tends to wear him down quickly. For the last few years we had attempted to use the end flap of our tent to provide shade from sun or protection from the rain. As this involved trying the ends of the flap to a rope strung between two trees, it was happenstance at best. My brilliant idea, which Ron insisted was not necessary, was to use our old canopy frame as support for the tent flap.

It doesn’t look pretty, but it makes such a difference for Ron. We will need to figure out a way to attach the flap to the frame. Otherwise a good wind gust will send it flying. But that is for another day and for Ron to take care of.

On Friday Ron got 25 logs done again and came home to order more spawn. Once again his log to spawn ratio was off and he had to call Field & Forest with another order. This time we had about 125 logs still to inoculate and needed 5 more bags. The plan was for him to out again today and use the remaining spawn to get about 15 logs done. Waking up to winter once again today, changed his plans. The snow itself isn’t too bad, just a couple of inches, but the stinking wind is the worst part. Ron hates working in the wind just as much, if not more than in the sun.

The additional spawn will be in next Thursday and we will be able get back to work. Might even get all the logs done before June comes around. But it will be such a relief to have them all done. Then we can get started on the next project.

I do have to send kudos to Field & Forest for the quality of their spawn. We had some left off last year and planned to toss it in the woods just for the heck of it. But of course, we forgot all about it. While digging something else out of the shed, Ron found it and tossed it into the open field.

A few days later, he spotted these shiitakes. Slightly overgrown to be sure, but there they were. Nature is amazing and it almost always finds a way.

Once again, my plans are out of whack

Learning Adventures

We shall not even discuss the fact that I am never, and I mean never on time with my Christmas gifts for my sisters, Mary and Patty.  Not for lack of trying of course, but I simply cannot get my timing right. It is even worse when I have decided I am going to make them something. This year was going to be different. After the garlic fest, we had no major doings scheduled for Tiny House Farm. Just the normal weekly dealings with our microgreens. Ron was actively planning to meet with other restaurants  in his efforts to bring more of them into the fold.  And of course we have to normal getting ready for winter projects. So all I had to do is getting started with my great idea for their gifts.

Ron was going to be busy with his own doings.  He found a few classes he was going to attend.  I happily encourage him in finding more.  Now that he is retired, he is, to put it bluntly, under foot.  For year before, he would leave for work an hour before I did, so I had that time to myself.  If I took a day off, I tried to plan it when he would be safely at work.  Now, if I take a day off or work from home, he is there.  Ugh.

I know he is all about meeting people at these classes but I did not expect he would meet someone who would throw my holiday schedule totally out of whack.  But he did, of course.  at a tarping class held by Cornell University. Tricia Park, who is an Air force vet was in attendance and she talked to Ron about her work organizing the Cazenovia farmer’s market. They are held every third Saturday of the month and she thought we would be a good fit.

End result is that we signed up to attend our first farmer’s market.  Again we had no real idea of what to expect or how to plan for it.  No shiitakes in the winter months, of course which made our planning much easier.  We just had to grow microgreens to sell.   We chose our standby greats – peas, leeks, radishes and a new fave, sunflowers.  I will admit that I was skeptical about the sunflowers.  Not something that most people would think grow as food.  But they are really yummy.  But we now have another fiddly thing to grow.  And another seed you have to soak before starting on the pads. While the peas also expand when soaked, sunflower seeds expand much more.  So you have to make judgement call about how many to start with.  Too many seeds on a pad and you will not have good and even growth.  Overcrowding is not good.

Then you have to weigh the seeds down for the first 3 or 4 days.  Ron first tried one of our cutting boards covered in plastic wrap.  That was a no go as too many of the seeds stuck to the wrap.  So he bought a brand new cutting board, cut it down to size and then sanded the cut edge smooth.  We have 4 of them now and they work a treat.   The next issue with them is the seeds hulls.  When you are growing outside as flowers, the hulls are not a issue.  They simply fall off as the plant gets bigger.  We really want most of them off before we make delivery at one of the restaurants we sell to. That will require a bit more research to find a method that will work for us.

I had more than enough soap, lotion bars and lip balm on hand to sell. Just had to make fresh body cream and a few more of my stuffed mushrooms. I will be suggesting them as tree ornaments this time. Our instructions for this market was to be festive and Christmas.  So we had to change up our normal display.  New ribbon for the logs and a bit of decoration on each bow. And Ron was being a pain about the bow. Decided he wanted red, green and white raffia for the decoration bit. That meant a trip out to the store to find those colors only to have him decide the white would not work after all. So back to my original raffia colors .

Graphic designer or not; sometimes Ginny does know best. I had to change my basket of skin care products display too. The basket I have used since our first event was not working out. If I took even one thing out of it, the basket went wobbly.

Next I had to come up with way to display my stuffed mushrooms and our magnets and bumper stickers. A small Christmas tree was perfect for the mushrooms and I repurposed a framed cat picture of my Mom’s for the magnets and stickers. Always makes me happy to find a way to use what we already have instead of buying more stuff.

December 21st and we were up before dawn as usual. This would be an easier event as no shiitakes, no tent and just 3 tables to set up. But that still a lot of other things to pack up and load into our vehicles. As usual we had plastic bins all over the place that had to go. They do take up a lot of space, but are the best and safest way we have of hauling things around. All 3 of us were going but Jo was just there to help unload. We hit our first hiccup with Ron’s Transit. The blower has been not working for sometime now and that morning, he was greeted with a frozen over windshield. Inside the vehicle. Scraping was not going to cut it. So my hair dryer and a long extension cord were put into use to melt the iciness. Ron rigged it together and we left it running until we were ready to leave. Then we started loading everything up. Again our microgreens were the trickiest as they could not be stacked on top of each other and had to be where things could not fall on top of them either. We were loaded and ready to go right on time, which set a good mood with Ron.

We arrived at the American Legion Post 88 in Cazenovia NY at 815 am and were delighted to see we could jump right into unloading. Tricia took us inside and identified our spot which was, per Ron’s request, on the lower level. It was a huge change being inside a building for an event. There were a few tables to move and some chairs to shove out of the way. Tricia had lots of help on hand to get this stuff done. Once everything was out of all the vehicles, Jo headed home and we got started with our set up. This was going to be tweak as we go because it was all new to us. We got the tables set up, shoved all that we could under the tables and then started working on our displays. Move this or that and then step back to take a look, over and over until we were both satisfied. Tricia stopped by a few times, checking to make sure we didn’t need anything. The doors would open at 10 am and we were ready long before that. As usual, I was restless with nothing to do. Ron loved being ready so early and spent his time walking around talking to the other vendors. He is always on the lookout for new contacts.

The new signs he had made focused on the holiday season and made sure the people walking by could tell who we were and what we had to sell. We had a slow start to the day and for the first 30 minutes, were worried that our day was going to be a bust. Then Ron sold the first log and both took a relieved breath. Being freed from shiitake sautéing left Ron with more ability to grab people’s attention and hawk our goods. His technique might seem a bit, shall we say, brusk, but it is who he is. A wannba carnival barker. But it worked. We sold all 15 of the logs with most of them being that unique gift you are always looking for. I did a little dance every time someone bought one of my stuffed mushrooms and ended up selling more than at any other event.

We had a good day at our first farmer’s market and we will be looking into attending more of them in the future. This was a good first market for us to start with. Tricia did a great job organizing and promoting it. It will be interesting to find out how well our shiitakes will do at one of these markets. The microgreens drew a lot of interest with most being happy to give them a try. We sold a respectable amount, but we are always hopeful that we will start selling more of them at the events we attend. It is all about getting the word out there and then getting people to try them. That surprising burst of flavor is what tends to hook them.

And these ladies really enjoy our microgreens. Being one who hates waste, I found a co-worker who has chickens at her house. So every week or so, I bring a bin full of our leftovers to her and the family has fun feeding them to the girls. Works out well for us as Anna shares with us the odd dozen eggs. And Ron got a great and fun video to post on THF facebook page.

You will be glad to know that I finally finished my sister’s gifts and they will be mailed out this week. Just don’t tell them. I want it to be a surprise.

That which we left behind

Ginny Projects, ,

The year is almost over and we are now looking back to see how we did in 2019. What did we do right and what missed the mark. There is a lot to talk over. We made quite a few changes and additions to Tiny House Farm, but there were more than a few things that got left behind.

My calendula was ignored this year and we paid the price. It started with the huge mistake we made by sowing our seeds and then covering them with straw for protection.

This was what we had in fall 2018, more straw than calendula. It was a sad and sorry site. But I really did not have time to fret about it, or even worse, time to weed the rows. The shiitakes had to come first. And of course, Ron and I spent a good deal of time working on our micro greens. They are a very “hands on” crop to grow.

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This is June 2019 and you can barely make out our garlic growing next to my bed of weeds. The bright yellow blossoms of the calendula cannot be seen at all.

In August I forced myself to find time to harvest what I could of the flowers. I had actually started gathering the seeds and ended up with a good supply of those. The flowers beckoned me and this is what I collected. I thought I would have time to get more over the next few days, but I did not advise Ron of my future plans.

He, knowing we needed to knock the weeds down before winter hit, mowed everything down. Now that he is retired, he has more time to spend on the farm. We are definitely going to work on our communication. I cannot have him slaughtering my flowers again next year.

Our elderberries were also ignored for the most part this year.

I hope the birds and deer on Tiny House Farm enjoyed the bounty this year. Next year, shiitakes be damned, I will get my share first. I managed to harvest about 10 pounds. A sad amount compared to last year when I was struggling to find space in my freezer to stash bags and bags of berries. I think I will have to set a reminder in my calendar so I don’t let the time get away from me. Though we do not yet have a plan to make and sell yummy elderberry jelly; letting the birds get all the berries is not a good thing. I can foresee a netting system in the near future. It will be a good trial run for our future rows of juneberries.

I was particularly annoyed at the deer as I noticed more and more of the brackens missing. I was thinking that Ron’s cousins needed to get busy getting rid of them. Then it dawned on me. Those apparently chewed off branches; I had been harvesting our elderberries.

Our lavender also was forgotten for most of the season. The three of us had worked hard getting it pruned in early spring and filling in new plants were the older ones had died. Then one Saturday we noticed some missing plants. And I found

a dozen plants pulled out of the ground. I set them into a plastic lid and poured in water. Getting them back in the ground would have to wait a bit. The shiitakes again were most important. But we did want to know just what had pulled them out. We set up a game camera on the edge of the field. The lousy weather prevented us from getting a good shot, but we got the proof needed. We have a foggy video of the actual crime. The blasted crows just walked around and yanked the lavender plants out. I don’t know why, but maybe they were hoping for fresh bugs from our digging? We replanted and this time put one of our marking flags with each plant. Hoping that it would keep the crows away. It seemed to have done the trick as no more plants were yanked out.

In mid-August I went out and harvested some of the lavender. I know, I know. I should be doing this earlier in the year. By the time I got out there most of the flowers had opened and you are supposed to get them before that happens. We hate to cut them too soon though. The bees really love the flowers and we enjoy watching them move through our field. Ron especially likes seeing the bumblebees. This even after he discovered that these bees do actually sting.

I laid it all on a drying rack and waited for Mother Nature to do it her thing. We bought this rack system a few years ago just for this purpose. It was very easy to set up and didn’t take up too much room. It is longer than I thought it would be so we will have to hang it up on a higher beam next year. We just slapped it up this time and the bottom rack was just inches off the floor. It did the trick though. I ended up with a quart jar full of dried lavender. And a small bowl of dried calendula. I took this with me to the MV Garlic Fest so folks could see, touch and smell it. Most people enjoy having the chance to actually see or hold the special ingredients in your products.

Obviously things have to change if we are going to see any benefit from our “other than shiitakes” products. This might include my gathering a few friends for a weeding (great fun) party and then later for harvesting events. If I promise there will be no rock picking, I am sure I can count on at least one friend. And she knows who she is.

Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, , ,

It is Tuesday morning; I have the day off and we are still slowly working our way through packing up the event supplies. Things have to be washed, sorted and organized. This has been an event saving policy for me. Nothing was forgotten this time, though I must admit supplies were not always found where they should have been. There was a scramble to find the hand soap and I thought I forgot to bring my camera.

We did adhere to Ron’s time line and were out of the house by 5:30 am and pulling into our spot just before 6:30, We were so early we beat the spot markers and had to wait for them to measure and draw the needed lines. But we weren’t the first vendors there. We made the “brilliant” decision to unload everything and get the vehicles parked. Ron’s favorite word used to describe both good and bad moves on someone’s part. Once our chalk lines were in place we jumped into down loading our stuff. We needed to get both vehicles emptied so we could get them parked and out of the way. Brother-in-law Don arrived early too. And his help was greatly appreciated as we struggled to get the tent up. It is a beast to maneuver and the fourth set of hands was a blessing. The forecast called for a rainy day and we needed the tent up fast. I thought we would then be able to take a breath and take our time getting the setup just right. I had forgotten who I was married to. I guess because we had not been the first vendor to arrive, the goal now was to be the first one ready to go.

This was easier said that done. We were able to get the cooking and samples section up and ready to go quickly, but we had to deal with how to set up our new T shirt display and a changed mushroom bolt set up. Ron’s shop class skills came into play again. He had a new sign printed and laminated but they would not able to give him the rigidity he wanted. So he needed to come up with a plan.

And he did. The wire hanger was strong but light and the sign did not flop over. Getting it secured to the middle tent post was another matter. That took some wire and the rubber bands I found.

Only a few hiccups in the process but soon everything in its place and ready to go. We have to tweak the T shirt display. The sign describing it was up too high and most people did not read it. The shirt itself, was a big hit and got a laugh out of everyone. I will be keeping my new location in the future. I liked having my skin care products on the front row as it was easier to catch attendees’ attention and make my pitch.

So there we were, set up and ready to go by 9 am. Just waiting for potential customers. One problem. They would not be arriving until 10 am. The vendor paper work clearly stated opening time. We just did not register that. Well, at least that gave me time to run over and get breakfast sandwiches for us. We were going to need the fuel in order to get through the day.

After a slow start, we had a steady stream of customers all day. The hook was Ron cooking shiitakes for samples and his constant stream of chatter. They listened and bought. Jo once again manned the sample prep table, handing them off to me for sharing with crowd. Don sold all our logs again. People who came asking about them told us again and again they had seen someone carrying one again. They wanted to know what they were for. I ran the register again. We had 11 credit card transactions this time. Ones we probably would not have made without using the Square, but cash was used for the bulk of all purchases. This is why I don’t understand why some keep pushing the idea we will and should be a cashless society.


We learned again that people can be odd. More than one person wanted to eat the shiitakes we had on display. Ron had to be vigilant in making sure they did not follow through on this process. We will have a sign at the next event stating for display only. Do Not Eat. I brought a jar of dehydrated shiitakes with us to show folks what they could do with an extra bag or two. I pulled one out to show a customer. She caught me off guard when she took it from me and bit off a piece to try it.

The rainy day did not materialize and this made the day better for all of us. The bread lady was next to us again and the garlic guy across the aisle. We had been shifted down the row a bit this year. The pickle man was on the end of the row across from us and he always has a line around his booth. The organizers wanted to make sure the aisle did not get jammed up. The crowds started thinning out after 4:45 and I was able to send Jo off to get something to eat. None of us had left the tent since the first customer stopped to watch Ron. Promptly at 5 pm everyone started breaking down their site. We pulled everything out of the tent so we could collapse it. Being so large, it would have blocked others from getting their vehicles close enough to load up their stuff. We dumped what we could back into bins and then sat down to wait for a break in the traffic congestion. I was able to get the Outback moved in and we loaded that up. Ron was finally able to bring in the trailer and we were soon heading home.

Once there we unload only what was most important, and collapsed on the couch. Jo had to work the next day so she was soon off to sleep. Ron and I talked shop while we each had a drink and decompressed. There are things we will change for our next event and others that worked out just the way we hoped. One of those was my idea to bring our “staff” Tiny House Farm T shirts and offer them for sale. And I sold one to a young lady who loved the mushroom house.

Sunday morning was unload day for Ron and me. Jo missed all the fun by being at work. We also had to head out to THF to check on the shiitakes and drop off the supplies. We took a chance and drove the Transit onto the property. It made it so much easier to unload the trailer. One trip in and out. Neither one of us was up for a lot of work. We picked what shiitakes we could and headed home. The plan was to dehydrate them for later use. Over the next few days we will get the rest of the supplies stored away. Lists have already been started with the things we need to replace and ideas for what we need or can change. One big take away is my taking time off before and after is a huge benefit. I was able to help Ron bring in the mushrooms and supplies. And now I am able to get the stuff all put away.

It was another good day for Tiny House Farm. And we are looking forward to attending again in 2020. It is anyone’s guess what Ron will come up with for us to add into our product line.