“eat my shiitakes”

Learning Adventures, , ,

Though Ron would love to find a few more events for THF to sell our wares at, Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest is the last one we are doing this year. He has looked into a few others in our area; but we are not ready for two day events and others are too far away or just cost too much. Sometimes you are just not a good fit for the event too. That is something a vendor always has to factor in when deciding which events to sign up for. It can be very disheartening to run your tally at day’s end and discover you have just barely covered your costs. You also have to factor in the expected clientele at each event. That will change the items that you bring to sell.

We have made a few changes this year to our set up. The biggest (pun indeed) was purchase of a larger tent. Most event sites are ten feet wide but you can pay for a double space. We have done that for the past few years as ten feet is really not that much. At the CCE Herb & Flower Fest we had great wings on each side that gave us more covered space to work with. Turns out Ron thinks it does not look “professional” and he pushed for a different tent. That way we won’t have to worry about getting enough protection from the elements. Because we liked the brand we had, we went with their larger model.

We had a beautiful Saturday morning to work with so we loaded up the new tent; along with the tables, coolers and stove and headed out to Tiny House Farm for a practice set up. There was no way this testing could be done in our yard; the tent was just too big. A practice run was necessary as we did not want to be struggling to get the darn thing up at the Garlic fest on September 14th. We had set up and taken down the smaller tent numerous times over the past few year. It should have been easy enough, but the new one was a totally difference beast. The thing is twice the size of our other tent, obviously. But it took more than twice the effort to get it set up. You have to put the canopy on before you raise the tent frame up. Unless you are someone who can float in midair, you are not going to get it on after the fact. The problem is that once it is on the frame it adds to much weight that Jo and I struggled to get the legs we were working with up high enough to set the pegs.

This is going to be such a change for us. There is so much space inside the tent now that it feels a bit empty. But the biggest difference I will have to deal with is being inside, not outside. My table has always been outside and that left me free to move around, bagging the shiitakes, handling sales, and hawking my products. Now most of my time will be inside and I will have some figuring out to do. We will no longer have our logs outside on right side either. Which will change the way our salesman, Don is going to manage. Right now Ron is planning on having the logs front and center (literally) and Don working his magic from there. Ron will be cooking on the right side of the tent with Jo behind him getting the samples ready.

Once again our mushroom bolts will be sold un-soaked as we are offering them as Christmas presents. I am making special bows for them too. Ones with a more Christmassy feel. But not going over the top.

Ron will be hawking our bolts as the perfect gift when you are looking for something unusual. My skin care products will also be included in the Christmas push. They will make great stocking stuffers. They just need to right signage to catch the attention of those walking by.

A big attention getter we will have at this event and one we hope will sell well, is our new Tiny House Farm T shirts. We had THF shirts made three years ago but they were planned for staff wearing and giving to our returning shitake inoculation volunteers. This shirt was specifically designed for us to see. Ron went all out with it. The shirt itself is a combination of hemp and organic cotton, all sourced from the US. Did you know that New York states is new one of the sources for hemp? And before anyone asks, suggests or even thinks about it… NO we will not be growing hemp on Tiny House Farm. Turns out that crop is even more fiddley than shiitakes are.

The process of getting these shirts made was more than a struggle. To start with we had to decide if the large investment would be worth it. Once we all agreed it was, Ron tweaked his design until he was happy with it. Finding the right company to work with is made much easier by the internet. He was able to contact multiple companies at the same time. The price point was a huge factor in choosing the printing company. But then we had to deal with additional expenses as they advised we needed to use 6 different ink colors in order to get Ron’s desired result. We even took a hit from Labor Day as our shipping was delayed until the day after. BUT, the boxes arrived on Friday. Ron sent me a picture and my response was… Are you happy? It was a stressful couple of minutes before he replied with a strong yes. Both of us took huge deep breaths of relief. The whole process had been nerve racking. Until we had shirts in hand we had no way of knowing if they were going to be right. We also had no idea what the heck we would have done if they were terribly wrong.

But they are fabulous. I had pushed Ron into getting 4 sizes; small, medium, large and extra large. That was really all we could afford to go with as we had to get 50 of each size. So that ending up being a total of 200 shirts. We are going to be selling them for $30, tax included. I know that seems a bit high for a t shirt, but these are 60% hemp and 40% organic cotton. We had them printed by a company in North Carolina so we can state, truthfully this is a completely American made product. We did have one last battle over the shirts. Ron is determined that people will notice the shirts so just stacking them neatly on our tables was not going to do. I do believe that if he had his way, a female model wearing the shirt with the full sales pitch memorized would be a new addition to our event set up. He went through the gambit of possibilities from a simple carboard shirt form to a set of 2 human sized standing forms that would cost us $200. I put the kibosh on that plan. He settled to two flat torso forms that we can hang from the tent frame.

Ron’s immediate thought for advertising our new product was to go back to his friend Jennifer and have her do a make over of her previous shiitake shot. The two of us headed to Rome with cell phones and camera in hand. I tend to get better results with my trusty camera and those shots are easier to upload into my blog. Jen was happy to sign off on his model release with payment of the t shirt, some shiitakes and the promise of lifelong friendship. What she doesn’t realize is that her continued participation in our shiitake inoculation events is assumed.

He has already posted the final result on THF Facebook and our Instagram pages. But I got a couple good shots of him tweaking the scene. He really does love to tweak.

And you can bet Ron will be doing some serious tweaking on to our event planning right up to opening time.

Garlic is good for your heart

Our 3 Acres

But growing it really stress us out.

On November 17, 2018 we  had our first significant snowfall here in Upstate NY. This is much too early and THF is simply not ready for this.  Once again Mother Nature is reminding us that she is in charge and we had scramble to get caught up with our prewinter chores.  It is always a  matter of getting things picked up, stored away and prepped for the cold weather and snow.  We had so many plans that fell by the wayside.  Getting the lavender pruned was one of the bigger ones.  The wet and nasty weather we had in October prevented us from getting out to THF for more than the absolute necessities.

At the last possible minute we made a mad dash to get just one row of garlic planted.   We lucked into a  Saturday when Jo was not working and amazingly, it was not raining.  What it was; cold and very muddy. 

I offered up the unused but already tilled row that I had planned to test some medicinal herbs in.  We just had to pull off the landscape cloth and till it up a bit more.  Sounds a lot  easier than it actually was.  The ground was so wet from the constant rain that it stuck to everything. Our boots, hands and tools.  And the tiller, making it a major bear to work with.  Ron had to do some serious manhandling to get the blasted thing up and down the row.  And of course we had to deal with the rocks. Lots and lots of rocks.   

There was no way we were going to make the same lazy mistake we did last year.  We made sure we took the needed extra time to run the straw through the chipper shredder.  It is the only way to get rid of most of the seeds.  I cannot be sure but am pretty convinced that it was the massive amount of straw growing along side our garlic that caused the majority of our losses.  It was a long day with hours of hard work and exhausting, but such a relief when we were finally finished.  One important thing checked off our must get done list.   

In the midst of all the things we really needed to get done, Ron was busy working on his next project.  Finally getting what will actually look like a “Tiny House” on the farm.  He went back to his Amish farmer/builder to have him get started on another shed.  This one would be taller with a loft on each end.  These will be used for storage and other future projects.  We have already learned that up is best when it comes to protection of our stuff.   Vivid memories of the flooding in July 2017 still make us worry when a flash flood warning pops up on the TV or cell phone. And I want to use it to store all the props needed for our selling events.  The purpose of our house shaped shed will really be preparation for our many products, especially the shiitake cleaning.  It is time to move more of the operations out of our home and out to the actual farm.  Our first shed will be for storage of our equipment and the drying processes.   In the coming years we will have our lavender and calendula air drying there.  As well as our garlic.

Of course Ron (being Ron) he just had to complicate the issue by deciding that we needed to move the first shed from it’s original site.  It was getting too much of a full day’s sun which left the interior too hot for our purposes.  Even with the solar fans running full speed, the temps were going to be just too high to safely dry our herbs.  In the new location, the afternoon sun should heat it just enough.

And then in April 2019, we knew we had done good again. The lovely reward of our hard, wet work. Yeah, we ran out of our chopped straw for the row, but the ones on the end still grew nicely. Always so nice to see the garlic sprouts, but there was no time to revel in it. We were so busy getting ready for the new year that we walked by our rows without much thought most days. We always grow the hard neck varieties of garlic as we really like the scapes. I make a fabulous garlic scape pesto from them. It can be frozen too, so we can enjoy it all year long. This year I decided to try pickling the scapes. They won’t be ready for months, so they are sitting out of the way in our frig. I will let you know how they turn out.

We had some seriously hot days in July which made all of us think twice about working on out on Tiny House Farm, but the garlic had to be harvested. I was not going to lose it again. Armed with pitchfork and my trusty hat, I tackled the job. We didn’t have the yield that we had back in 2015 and 2016, but it was respectable and I was happy with it. For the first time since we first got the 4 wheeler, I actually drove it around the field. Ron was busy with him own project so it was up to me to get the garlic from field into drying shed.

And there it is. The fruits of our labor that we can now enjoy for many months. For all you garlic lovers out there, whether you grow it yourself or buy from another grower; do some research about fermenting it. I did that in 2017 using the directions on the internet for what they call lacto-fermented garlic and we used the delicious results until they ran out in June of this year. My first attempt was only two pint sized jars. I will be setting up many more jars this year. I just have to make sure I have enough room in our frig for what I ferment. I froze several bags of the really small cloves we salvaged but they don’t work as well as the fermented garlic does.

Yesterday was another lovely morning and it was finally time to get our garlic out of the shed and safely into our cellar. There would be no leaving it as not so important and waiting until we find time on another day. That is what we did last year and what garlic we did have froze and thawed several times over the course of late October and November last year. We ended up tossing out all of it out. That was a very sad day.

This is our end result. This picture doesn’t do our haul justice as we have just over 12 pounds of garlic. Not enough to sell to anyone, but more than enough for our needs. And more set aside that we will be planting again come fall. We will stick with growing just for ourselves from now on. Our original plans were to grow enough to sell. But there are so many growers in our area, including many home gardeners that we could not find consistent buyers for THF garlic. We made the decision last year when we did just one row. Before we knew that our local restaurant customers would be looking for good quality garlic in quantity. At the Syracuse Regional Farmers Market, Ron struck up a conversation with one of local farmers. That resulted in a north country garlic contact who will sell their certified organic garlic to us in multiple pound increments. They also have organic shallots that Ron buys. He then re-sells these products to our customers. And we will make it available to family and friends who are looking for the good stuff, one pound at a time. Ron is all about making good and solid local connections. He tends to find a lot of same minded folks who are happy to work with him. This has expanded his access to variety of local products. As our growing list of customers has found out. They ask him if he has or knows where they can find this or that and he proceeds to find a way to get it for them. Ron thrives in his new role as facilitator. He does love a challenge. As anyone who knows him will attest.

CCE Herb & Flower Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, ,

There are 4 stages to being a vendor at any event. Prep is one of the longest as that entails getting everything ready for sale. This means growing or making your products. Which can mean actual months of work depending on what you are selling. And you have to get your booth set up ready and pray for good weather. The final prep, of course is getting yourself and stock to the site and then getting set up there. Which is a task in and of itself.

This is the third year that Tiny House Farm was a vendor at the Herb & Flower Fest so we knew the routine going in. It should have been smooth sailing for us, but Ron just had to throw in a curve ball with the addition of microgreens being offered for sale. We had no idea if they would sell at all, but we had hopes and of course all the needed supplies. At the last minute and after much discussion, we decided to buy the Square. Now we can give our customers the option to use their credit card.

As always we were up at the crack of dawn so we could repackage our shiitakes into one quart bags. It works out great that way as all we have to do is grab one of the bags out of the cooler and slip it into our stamped bags. We had gobs of shiitakes and I carefully stuffed as many as I could into each cooler. Then it was a quick breakfast, then showers and we started loading up the trailer. By 630 am we were on our way to the Fest.

We took all three vehicles with us this time and somehow, we ended up needed all of that space. Of course the microgreens in their trays took up all of the rear space in my Outback and nothing could be stacked on top of them. When we arrived on site, we discovered that we had been very smart to lower our tent and set out the heavy weights. The wind had kicked up overnight and blown a few other tents over. But the wind had also helped dry the place out. The grass was still soggy but at least the puddles on the roadway were gone. Jo, Ron and I raised the tent and started unloading and setting up. This again was familiar routine. Don arrived and helped us with the finishing touches. Ron’s idea to prop up my shade cloth was a good one. He had attached a PVC pipe T to a six foot long piece of the pipe. Then he drilled a hole into the side bar holding up the shade cloth and through a PVC cap. The cap was affixed to the shade cloth bar and the pole went into the cap. And viola, no more bumping of the head.

Start time was 9 am and by 830 Ron was getting his station set up. He just needed to know where the thermometers were. They are required by the health department. Oh boy, I had forgotten to bring them. Guess what is going to be added to the show stopper list? Jo grabbed her keys and headed home to get them. As she would not be back before we got started, I would be in charges of getting the samples put together. I slipped on Jo’s apron (remember this) washed my hands using our hot water dispenser and pulled on rubber gloves. In the midst of all this, Josi arrived and we were ready to go.

The second stage is the actual event. The gates opened, folks were walking by and Ron was hawking his wares. A mushroom bolt was our first sale. Customer told Don that they wanted to buy a log at our last event but we were sold out by the time they came back around. Jo came back with every kitchen thermometer we had in the house and I gave her back the apron and her spot at the sample table.

Don was kept busy with our logs. He always had a crowd around him and he never stopped his sales pitch. Some logs were taken right away, while others sprouted sold labels. Then we got our first credit card purchase. Now to use the Square you have to plug it into your cell phone or a tablet. My phone was nowhere to be found. I knew it was in the tent area because I had used it to send text to Jo while she was dashing back to Sherrill. She tried calling my phone and we could hear it ring, but still couldn’t find it. Thank goodness the customer pulled out cash so we did not lose the sale. I was supposed to be working the microgreens and my skin care products, but I really needed to find the phone. Jo kept calling it and we kept hearing the ring but no phone. It was 15 minutes later and we had our second request to use a credit card when Jo came to the rescue. My phone had been in the apron pocket all this time. Which explained why when Jo and I were searching the same area we both clearly heard the thing. Good grief. We do have our crisis’s, don’t we?

It was lovely day with a good crowd of people and lots of sunshine. The wind did cause a few issues with our tablecloths, but fix is in the works. Don sold all of our logs included the display. And we did sell some of our greens. Everyone who tried them thought they were delicious. The sticking point seems to be how to use them. I think we will need to a few actual dish ideas to toss out. Maybe even print up a few recipes to hand out.

The third stage of an event is packing up to go home. Everyone is tired, hungry and a bit cranky but it we have to get it done. With so many vendors all wanting to get out, there was little hope Ron could our trailer into play. We packed up everything and waited for the traffic to clear. Our left over greens were given to one of the CCE staffers for her chickens and some were just tossed into their compost bin. Sadly some of our shiitakes ended up in there too. We were luckier than other vendors. Our open trailer allowed us to basically toss stuff onto. As long as we covered it with a strapped down tarp, they would be safe. Other things were shoved into one of the vehicles, hugs for Josi and Don and we were off.

Well, Jo and I left. Ron hung around a bit longer as we were waiting for one of our log buyers to come back and get her log. As of today, Silvia hasn’t made herself known. At home finally, the cars were emptied out and we were done. Well, for that day we were.

The fourth stage is the clean up. This is the most boring, time consuming and annoying stage. We have to unload everything and clean it all before putting it back in the bins. Making note of anything that needs to be replaced too. It poured rain most of Sunday, and we waited until late afternoon to empty the trailer. Now the living room is once again crammed full of stuff. Rainy days all week kept us from getting it all back to the farm. Our next event is the MV Garlic Fest on September 17 and we cannot function with all of this underfoot for the next three months.

There is actually a fifth stage. The after action report. This involves counting the money made, getting said money into the bank account and lots of discussion of how the day went. Every time we do an event we learn something new. Josi recommended I do a better job of hanging up my milkweed stuffed mushrooms. She believes most people thought they were a decoration and not for sale. Ron thinks we need to buy a bigger tent for us to use. My budget is shuddering as I type this. We need to buy another thermometer that I then leave in the cooking supplies bin. We made eight sales using the Square so that was a good addition. I spent some time getting our account organized with prices plus the service charge and photos. And I made sure Ron had the app set up on his phone too. I need a nice sign for my skin care products as people don’t always see what other items we have for sale. Ron and the shiitakes samples are center stage so I need to step up my game a bit.

June 15, 2019 was another good day for Tiny House Farm. We are definitely getting more comfortable in our own skin. But that is the trouble. Jo and I are giddy with happiness when we know what we are doing and what to expect. Ron, on the other hand, to put it plainly, gets bored. And that is when he finds a monkey wrench to throw into our lives. Just to shake things up a bit. And to see what more we can do. One day he just might find out what his two girls can do, when we toss him in the compost pile.

Prepping at THF

Learning Adventures

Not end of the world planning, though being able to grow our own mushrooms, lavender and elderberries might come in handy. No, we are prepping for our first 2019 sales event. June 15 is the Cornell Cooperative Extension Herb & Flower Fest. And we have a lot of work to get done.

It was just two weeks ago when Ron, Jo and I finished the last of our logs for 2019. We went home, drew a breath and jumped right into planning for the CCE. We have all the equipment we need, thank goodness. We just have to buy the a few supplies. But we still have to replace our business cards and signage. Now that we will be selling the microgreens we will need to include them on cards and signage. I am sure you all know what that means. More costs and more work.

Ron created a new area for the process of soaking and dusting the logs. He calls it over the bridge to nowhere. The area we have been using for years gets so water logged that we struggle to get through the mud at times. Not only does the rain cause muddy conditions, but so do we went fill and then empty our soaking tanks. We also had to set up protection for our producing logs. Once the mushrooms are pinning, they have to be kept dry. One stray rain storm and we will lose them all.

So a flat, open area needs to be found and there have to be enough trees close by enough. We use them for necessary shade and to tie tarps to so we have one set up over each A frame set in our efforts to keep the rain away.

Minor setback on this post. I did a update last weekend and believe it or not, something went kerflooey. I couldn’t log in and no one else could get in either. The nice people at HostGater got me back in on Wednesday, but they couldn’t figure what caused the issue. No matter, I am up and running again.

And just in time. Ron and Jo have been zipping out the Tiny House Farm everyday and coming back with pounds and pounds of shiitakes. We moved the air compressor out there so the cleaning can now be done on site. Makes the process much easier but it still a lot of work. Ron had been nervous about our mushrooms, really when isn’t he, as other growers reported flushes much earlier than we did. So he did what he always does, soaked gobs of logs. Now we are close to drowning in shiitakes.

We are also keeping a nervous eye on our mirco greens. These are not just toss the seeds in and water every so often. You have to check them every night to see how they are doing and keep the water lever just right. And worry that they are growing too slowly or too fast. Either one is not good. So hoping people will buy them on Saturday.

All three of us took today off so we have today to get final things done. A wise move on our parts. There is always something that gets forgotten until the last minute. Four days ago I taped our “show stopper” list to the front door. Front and center is the cash box. I will not forget that again. We have pulled all of the equipment from the widespread storage spots and it is collected in our living room.

And hallway.

We learned over the past two years that we need to pull everything out well before the event day. Going through each bin to make sure we have all the supplies and equipment we need is so important. That is when the lists come into play. Each item gets checked off and I put it into correct bin.

The CCE Herb & Flower Fest is the first event we went to as a vendor and, we have to say it remains our favorite. Being just 30 minutes away is a big plus and they let vendors set up the night before. We were out there at 3 pm and got our tent set up. Ron had a plan in mind to fix my shade cover. It works a treat for keeping the sun off me and my products, but it hangs down too low and everyone had to duck to get under it. I banged my head once every five minutes on it. We took the all the heavy things we could. That will make things a bit easier tomorrow. Now all we have to do is get a last batch of my cream made, labels on the jars and some more of our soap labelled. Ron had to get the instructions for the logs to get put together. I am sure there a few more things we need to get done tonight, but it they don’t spring to mind, they are going to wait until tomorrow.

One last thing. Ron pondered most of the winter on a new bag design for our shiitakes. He ordered five different rubber stamps. At the last minute he decided that he wanted the mushroom name to be in red. I had a couple of ink pads left over from my (very brief) rubber stamping days and he really liked the one called cherry red. It was in sad shape from sitting in the box for the last five years. And of course, the company discontinued that color. Poor Ron had to settle for another shade of red. But it turned out great. Now he just has to make sure he gets enough stamped and ready to go.

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Don and Josi will be out there again with us. There is no way the three of us can handle events like these by ourselves. Maybe we could if we stopped offering the samples. But Ron will not hear of that. He wants to have that hook to get folks to stop and taste what he is cooking. After all, we cannot sell them anything if they don’t stop to look, taste and listen.

We have HOW many logs to inoculate?

Mushrooms

Six hundred as a number does not sound that bad. It could be a reasonable enough mortgage or car payment, a nice windfall if it is dollar bills but not so great an amount if you are talking about pennies.  Picking up and moving six hundred of anything can be work, but add to that moving, drilling, then moving again, inoculating and moving again, waxing and moving again. Two last moves into the wagon and then into their waiting stacks. All of this makes 600 almost an insermountable number. Especially when the big event is over and you are back to being just three working together to get the rest done.

Saturday, May 4 was really a nice day. We got a break in the rain and the sun was actually going to shine a bit. Ron and Jo were out on Tiny House Farm early getting final set up completed. I was doing the usual last minute coffee and donut run before I headed out. Learning from last year and having our sheds on site, we were able to haul some of our supplies out the day before. And I was not going to repeat the charcoaled sausage biscuits. This time each piece was heated up separately and it worked a treat. We pre-grilled the hotdogs and hamburgers too. I stuffed them all into a cooler lined with towels and then used Sterno fuel to keep them piping hot until lunch time. That really worked too. Made it much easier to bring the food out and have everyone eat and then jump right back into work.

Our crew this year was again a combination of seasoned and newbie workers. We had Josi, Lynne, Jenn, Don and John back again as the backbone of our day. Lynne did us a solid by bringing two others with her; Pam and her son, Tom. Lynne’s son Karl and his friend Max came too and spent their time taking pictures and video of the process.

Ron was in his glory as he truly loves sharing knowledge with others. But he was even happier to find out that one of our new workers, Terri has been growing microgreens and was more than happy to talk with him about it. If it wasn’t for the work we had to get done, he would have spent the entire time talking with her about his new favorite subject. He soaks up knowledge every chance he can from any source he can find. People with experience are his favorite source.

Once the safety briefing was over and everyone had themselves a sausage biscuit, we jumped into the work process. There were a lot of logs to get done. I know I have said that before, but it was so true. Rich and Mike Davis took to the drilling right away and that freed Ron up to do the log runs across the steam and down to our south end. Jo, Don Josi and I showed the newbies how the other jobs needed to be done and we got started. We made sure that everyone took a turn at each job and the logs worked their way through the work tent and into the trailer.

We broke for a quick lunch of hotdogs or burgers and got back to work. Over the course of the day, we slowly lost our workers. By 5 pm it was just Ron, Jo and me and we were totally beat. A serious dent had been made in our log stacks, but we still had more than half of them left to get done. The three of us slowly made our way up to the road for the trip home. Me, I was walking very slowly. I had made a huge mistake by wearing my rubber boots for the entire day. They have no support in them and I paid the price.

Ron and I headed back to THF on Sunday. Jo, lucky girl was at work so she missed out on this second day. I made sure to bring my old sneakers with us. No more wearing those boots all day for me. We were just going to get done what we could between the two of us. Ron thought it would be a great idea to show me how to do the drilling. Turns out I am not good at that job. It was easier on my nerves to have Ron do that part of the job. Once he had a stack done, we both inoculated and then waxed logs. We stayed again until about 5 pm and then dragged ourselves back to the road and drove home. Thank goodness we still had hotdogs in the frig that we just needed to reheat.


With more logs still to get done, we made the decision try and get some done after work during the week. Those shifts were really hard. I was the last one home from work at 4 pm and we didn’t get out to the farm until 4:30. We could only work until 7:30 or so and we had to get home and get some sleep. The weather got in our way too. As did other farm projects. We still had our lavender to get planted. That is another story.

The weather was warming up and it probably was a good thing that it was usually only the three of us working in the tent. As the day went along, it got warmer and warmer. We were lucky with the breeze that blew through every so often. The heat made the work harder and we seemed to move slowly through the work. But we kept at it, slogging our way through the stacks of logs.

We learned a few new tricks to get the logs inoculated. Getting the blasted things to stop rolling around was always the hardest part of this process. Ron was good enough at the drilling to hold each log with one hand and drill with the other. While waxing you could also hold the log still and dab the wax with the other. But inoculating; you needed both hands on the plunger. Most of us don’t have a third hand to hold the log still. Jo started bracing one end actually against the wheels and that work pretty well for the most difficult logs.

It was long, tiring job but finally, finally on May 25th we were done with the last log.

An lovely empty space is all that remains now that all the logs safely across the stream and busy getting ready to give us shiitakes next year.

We have learned more this year. No more batches of 600 logs for sure. That really is too much. Especially if we have only one day for our shiitake event. Next year we are either going to plan for two days of volunteers, all in one weekend or over two weekends. Or we will have do some serious prep work before hand. It might end up being a combination of the two. We cannot really have a lot more workers on site at the same time. Our tent isn’t that big and we don’t want to have them off doing something just for the sake of keeping busy. They are coming to learn how this process works, not pick up rocks or to do some weeding in our three acre field. Those might make other really fun work events though. Something to keep in mind I think.

Spring time at THF

Our 3 Acres

This is really the busiest time of the year overall. There is so much we have to get done just so we can get started for the year. As usual, there are a number of things that we did not get handled last fall and we are paying the price now.

Ron and I had been out to Tiny House Farm a few times in January and February, to check on things and pick pussy willows. It wasn’t until mid April that we got out there to actually get some work done. First thing on the list was our lavender. Time had gotten away from us (again) last fall and we did not get the pruning done. We had it planned for, I swear we did. I even researched and ordered three special knives for us to use.

This is what we needed to take care of. Nine plants per row and 17 rows makes for quite a lot of lavender. Thank goodness Jo had the entire weekend off so we were three strong. Saturday the 13th of April was a nice day and perfect for getting work done. We loaded up with water, food, gloves and kneepads. And my knives, cannot forget those. Small problem. I could not find them. I was sure I left them in the shed at THF so they would be handy. Jo and I searched thoroughly but they were simply not there. So we knocked off the branches from last year with our handy clippers. Hours and hours later, our hands were sore and we were ready to stop. We were just over halfway done.

Ron’s best work is done while sitting down.

Jo and I left Ron behind and headed home. He was going to get one more row done and then be home himself. I looked again for my knives to no avail. So frustrating. But par for the course. I do tend to have the habit of putting something away so it was safe only to discover it is so safe that I cannot find it.

We already have some green showing on our plants so are hopeful for this year. Ron had mentioned buying some more plants to fill in where we lost previous ones, but here we are at planting time with nothing to plant. Last weekend he came across the last email he had from Harris Seeds (he never delates anything) and shot them a note asking if they still had lavender to sell. I guess they do as we received a box of those plants labels from them a few days later.

We really have some serious weeding and mowing to get done. Maybe we need to have a weeding party in 2019?? This mess is where my calendula will soon be growing but we have to get our fabulous brush hog fixed first. Our first repair of the year. Fingers crossed that we won’t have many of them. This one way relatively easy as it was just flat tires.

Part of getting ready for spring is also getting ready for our shiitake mushroom inoculation event. Every year we add more logs to our laying yard. Strange as it is, laying yard is the actual name Cornell gives for the stash of mushrooms bolts. Stash sounds better in my mind. That word implies something of value. Like a stash of yarn or material. And this is something we always need help with. We are still trying to recover from the flood of 2016 when we lost a good number of logs. Sadly those we did find and bring back are not going to be viable after all. Based on the other mushrooms growing on some logs, the long soak in the stream prevented the shiitake spawn from taking solid hold. They will be added to our stash of fire wood. (you see what I did there, right?)

It is now May 3rd and we are in final stretch of prep for our shiitake event. We pushed it back this year based on previous years. The weather has always been the decided factor and we are hoping that the first weekend of May would prove to be a wise choice. At least we will have less chance of sudden snow storms. Pouring rain outside now but tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy and 62 degrees. No matter, rain or shine, the bolts have to be inoculated.

And we have a lot of bolts to get done this year. A few last minute things to get done today including stops for tomorrow’s food and anything we might have forgotten. That is why we live with lists in this house and check off as we go. This is only way to be sure everything is on hand and ready to go. I have even put a sticky note of front door to remind us not to leave the house without our spawn. Something we have done before. To use one of Ron’s favorite phrases – forgotten spawn would be a “show stopper.”

We, and by we, I mean Ron is trying to keep things low key this year. (Don’t laugh, Josi) This is our fifth year of doing inoculation and we know what we are doing. More than a few of our workers tomorrow are repeat helpers and we will get done what we get done. Of course, we will be more than happy to have a few more people show up. There will be lots of food, good conversation and laughs to be had. You will learn something and work off more than a few calories. What better way to spend a day in May?