And the work goes on, and on, and on

Our 3 Acres

We are now well into December and are again scrambling to get things done before the snow flies and ground freezes.  Our to do list keeps getting longer, not shorter.  I cross off one item only to find that Ron has added two or three more.   We not only have the water hoses and equipment to store away,  but last minute planting to get done.

Last weekend we finally got the last of our garlic into the ground and covered with straw.    We had run into not only issues with rainy weather, but with the ground itself.  The first row we did was ideal.   Every row after that was just a degree harder to get our dibblers into the ground.  For the fourth row Ron had to pull the tiller out and dig it up again.  By this time everything was really wet which made it even more fun for Ron working in his heavy boots. 

This year we are growing Italian music, German white and new for 2018, Italian red.  Come early summer I am going to try pickled garlic scapes.    In case you didn’t know;  I have my own list going.  This is a list of experiments for me to try.  And let me tell you, pinterest is not my friend in this regard.  So many ideas out there right now.   I keep adding to my “ideas for THF” board.  Not sure how many I will actually try.  But, man it is so exciting to think about all the things I can try making with the products we grow or plan to grow out on THF.  That is another list that continues to grow.  Not only more types of mushrooms but other herbs, flowers and fruits.

But I am not the only one who has experiments to be tried.  This year Ron used our new shed to try and expand our shiitake growing season.  This involved hauling our logs across the stream from the forest area and setting them up in the shed.  Ron had his builder include a support beam just for this purpose included in the plan.  It runs almost the full length of the shed and we can have at least 50 logs there at one time.  He did get a few more runs of shiitakes with the added bonus of fewer bug issues.  He plans to try and get the season started early next year.   All of this involves more hauling back and forth.  Wonderful.

On Sunday, while I worked on getting protective layer of straw down on the garlic,

Ron and Jo got the logs back where they belong.  Then they brought the hoses back over so we can get them put away and out of the soon to be deep cold.

Ron and I had broken down his dam the day before.  A lot of silt collects in the pond during the year and it needs to be flushed out.  

The more nature washes out over the winter, the less we have to dig out come spring.  A deeper pond works better when you are pulling water out to use for soaking your mushroom logs.  Ron took the opportunity to have the water tested again.  The results were fabulous with the E-coli levels very low.  This is just what we needed for our Certified Naturally Grown standards.

And Ron and I finally got our wild flower seeds sewed.  We mixed the seeds with sand and then walked the length of our planned bed, scattering as we went.  We did seriously underestimate how many seeds we needed to cover the area.  Could have easily doubled the amount.  Luckily we still had a huge amount of cone flower seeds at home.  When we got home, Ron went out and cut dozens of the heads off and busted them down.   The birds we have at our house will not be happy to lose so many of the seeds they eat each winter.   We are just hoping that the birds out at THF don’t eat the seeds before we actually get flowers from them.   So looking forward to an explosion of color next summer.   But Ron will have to be patient with this project.  It might take a few years before the butterflies discover THF.

One of the things we , well actually Ron has discovered over the past two years is that there is a group on Facebook or Yahoo or Google for just about everything.  He has connected with so many people through these social media groups.  For mushrooms in general, shiitakes in particular, butterflies, pawpaws, elderberries;  the list goes on and on.  And they are more willing to share advice, information and contacts.  One contact from the Monarch Butterfly group sent him butterfly weed seeds.  They are another variety of milk weed and have orange flowers.  They will make a nice contrast to the common milk weed, which to be honest, is not the prettiest flower out there.

Our garlic bed is now ready for winter, we have about half of the pre winter chores done and I am ready for a break.  Too bad I won’t get one.

 

Once again, fall on THF means lots of work

Our 3 Acres

We have our fields to get ready for our 2018 garlic, for the calendula and other herbs we will plant next spring, for the planned juneberry bushes and now for Ron’s wildflower swath. I am actually looking forward to that. Lots of lovely flowers that will hopefully attract bees and butterflies to THF. And our friend Dick bringing some of his bee hives out so he can take advantage of all those soon to be blossoms. Jo is not as excited about this part of the plan as she simply does not like bees.

Which is why I bought her a this great t-shirt. I am such a good mom.

First thing we had to do is cut more landscape cloth for our calendula rows.  More weed control.  Come next spring we will move the strips off the planting areas and onto the walkways between them.  Getting a double benefit from the work.  We headed back to our favorite large parking lot to get the cutting done and then out to the farm.

Ron had already drilled holes into his wood blocks and Jo and I had picked up the stacks we needed to hold the cloth down.  It is very windy out at THF (thinking windmill?)and it is struggle to keep the cloth in position.  We tried using mulch on top of it around the fruit trees, but that just appears to lead to more weeds.

We cut enough cloth to put between the rows of garlic too.  The straw had helped keep weeds down in the actual garlic patch, but the weeds were crazy everywhere else.  Got to do some serious research about the best ground covers to use.   Keeping in mind Ron’s future plan to have chickens on the farm.   Everything we do out there has to be done factoring in our future plans or added benefit.

This is going to look so pretty next year with the yellow and orange calendula, the lavender, and then our fabulous elderberries.

Getting the rows set for planting was pretty easy.   We had left the strings used for our tilling guide in place and just laid it out.  Then we tacked it down with the wood blocks and spikes.  That did not go so well.  Even with the holes drilled, the wood tended to split when we hammered it down.   Ron is already busy trying to find a rubber washer that he can used instead.  I am sure he come up with something.   When we got to the garlic rows, we hit a stumbling block.  Last year we had to scramble to get a fourth row ready for planting.  Already exhausted by the time we started, we made what turned out to be a major mistake.  Instead of hauling the rocks to our rock pile and out of our way, we just tossed them in a row a few feet from where we were working.  Lesson learned.  Don’t leave a job half done.  The weeds had grown over the rocks so Ron had to weed whack just to uncover them.  Then Jo and I had to dig them out, toss into the wheelbarrow and move them.

Lucky for us, Ron had just bought us the perfect tool for the job.  We each got our own rock rake.  What a guy.

Our garlic really needed to be planted, but mother nature had our plans on hold.  Rain, rain and more rain.  On Saturday, Nov 4  the weather finally cleared and we spent a few hours breaking apart each garlic head.   FYI, use a butter knife to help with this by inserting in between the cloves and giving a gently twist.  Makes the job much easier on your hands.  Now that it is fall, we have to wait for daylight and slightly warmer temps before we can get going on our work day.  The first row we planted went just like you would want it to.   Using Ron’s template we plunged the dibbles into the ground and then dropped a clove into each hole.  From start to finish it took us just over an hour.  Even with our late start we were home by lunch time with plans to head back to get the second row done.  That is when things went wrong.  In the few hours we were gone, there had been a major change in the soil at THF.  This time we struggled to get the dibble down far enough and it took more effort to pull it back out.  It felt like someone had poured glue everywhere.  Took the three of us a bit longer, but we got the second row done and gave up for the day.

Sunday morning was bright and beautiful but windy.  Two more rows to get done.  Again we struggled with the dibble.  Most annoying but we got through the third row.

While Jo and I covered each clove up with dirt, Ron tried one hole in the fourth row and said no way.  We need to till this up at least one more time.  Another delay in getting this task done.

So next weekend we have to finish garlic, give the planned wildflower patch another quick tilling so we can scatter the seeds and try to get a few more rows of landscape cloth down for our juneberries.  With record low temps forecast, not sure just how much we will get done.  But we have to make an effort.  That is the first lesson we learned on this adventure, some things just have to get done.

Normally I would be really looking forward to winter so I can have a break from all this farm work.  Not this year.  Ron has been nagging me about elderberry jelly, lavender sachets and lip balms.  He wants ME to come up with non perishable things THF can sell based on the products we grow.   It is going to be a busy winter.   Anybody got ideas for me?  Or even better, an idea of how to make Ron’s brain stop coming with more work for me?

 

Ron’s next plan

Our 3 Acres
 I have mentioned before that Ron can and will spend hours on the internet looking at just about anything. Any odd word or story and he is off researching.  The latest result of this persistent habit;  he now has us collecting milkweed seeds.
With all of his plans for our 3 acre field, there is a good swath of it that is just not going to work for a crop. It is too wet and too close to the road. Ron has talked about planting purple cone flowers there. They would attract bees and other pollinators. And we could always use more of those.
Of course his original plan has morphed. It always does. Now he wants to plant a wide variety of wild flowers, designed to attract lots of bees. This fits right into our need to have a social / environmental component to our Certified Natural Grown recertification process.
While looking into that, he stumbled across a story about Vermont farmers growing milkweed so they could sell the fluff to companies that make parkas. Yes, he got me into the researching too. I found a story about the fluff being used during World War II for the servicemen’s life jackets . School kids all across the country collected the pods and they were shipped to a central location for processing.  Apparently milkweed fluff is very buoyant.
Almost everyone now knows that the Monarch butterfly depends on the milkweed for their very survival, which is why we have over a dozen of these plants growing in our own yard at home. Some butterflies have visited us over the years, but Ron now has bigger aspirations.  Which brings me back to our collecting milkweed seeds.
The three of us have been on alert for the last few weeks, keeping our eyes peeled for milkweed plants  growing on the side of the road. They are easy to spot, having distinct leaves and, well to be honest, being pretty ugly.
If you take the drive from our house to THF and watch carefully, you will see numerous pods along the route, each wrapped with a rubber band.  Though these are the ones in our front yard.  
I read a few articles about collecting the seeds and this suggestion was given several times. Unless you have the plants growing in your yard and can check on them daily, there is a good chance you will miss the day the pod opens and the seeds fly. Now we wait.
Once the pods turn brown and open we will pick them. Then they go into a brown paper bag with a few coins and get shaken until most of the seeds and fluff separate. Another suggestion from the online milkweed seed collectors. I gave it a try already and it worked pretty well. Did discover that you need to work with just a few at a time. Trying to get them all done at once just doesn’t work.
And you are left with just the seeds.  Lots of them.   Most of them are probably the common milkweed that is native to our area.  But all the seeds are not the same.  It will be lovely if we end up with at least one other variety.  The one I would really like to have is the purple milkweed.  That is also native but much harder to find.
Ron then placed an order with American Meadows , buying their bee and hummingbird and honey bee wildflower mixtures.
And we are gathering lots of seeds from the mass of Echinacea plants we have growing in our front yard.  I really do need to thin them out a bit.
Last Saturday Jo and I got busy with the brush hog and cut down the wheat and weeds that were growing in Ron’s chosen 12′ by 200′ patch.  And mowed down an area for the calendula flowers we plan to plant next spring.  Ron and Don spent the same hours working on our garlic patch for next year.  We had rented a large tiller again to use on our garlic and soon to be calendula areas, but it would have taken us a whole day and more to dig up the wildflower spot.  Not something we really wanted to tackle.  Especially as it was afternoon when we finished and it was hot.   Ron had a lovely idea. And he gave our framer friend Dick a call, telling him the plan. He was hoping Dick would come out with his big machines and till up the spot for us.  Dick’s machine would make quick work of it.
He was very interested in Ron’s plan and he had the job done the next day.  He has bees on his farm and had already talked about getting a few hives out to THF. Now we will have the perfect spot for them. And with the wildflowers, elderberries, lavender and soon to be juneberries, they will have more than enough food sources. We will be planting the seeds right after the first killing frost and once  more, we wait.  To see what spring brings.  Or what Ron comes up with next.

Big upgrade at THF

Our 3 Acres

After our grand adventure with garlic this year, Ron decided a change was needed.  There were just so many steps involved in our version of the process.  Out at THF, we pulled the garlic, sorted by size, loaded it onto trailer and then drove it back to our house.  There we sorted again, tied into bundles and hung each onto our drying rack.  Once it was dry, we took them all down, sorted again and stored in boxes.

Ron wanted to be able to do all of this out on THF.  Which meant a building of some sort.  In addition to his planned tiny house.   We had spent some time looking at the variety of sheds that were available.  You really can get a bit crazy with the design.  And the prices are all over the places.

Being Ron, he wanted a local builder who someone he could sit down with and talk to.  He is all about sharing his vision.  During one of his many drives out to the farm, he spotted a sign on telephone pole advertising shed building.  One day he followed the directions and met with a Amish family who already have experience in putting together buildings.  Bonus was they were just a few miles down the road from Route 26.   The family was a good match for Ron, they were polite enough to listen to him as he babbled on.  He already had a list of what we needed for the building.  This include a way to have solar fans on each end of the building to keep the inside cooler and air circulating.   He left the list and went back a few days later to talk possibility and price.  This was my kind of THF project.  It was all on Ron.   All I had to do was pay the bills when they came due.   (Shudder)

The size they settled on is  12 x 30.  This would give us enough room to dry all of our garlic, and then our lavender and other herbs that are in our future. Ron has some thoughts about the type of drying racks he wants us to use.  Guess who gets to help build them?   Maybe I should have taken shop while I was in school.  One worry we won’t have is that our new building will get swept away in a storm.

It was going to be done and delivered well before the cold weather hits.  And Ron had arranged to have the painting done by the family too.  We just needed to pick out and leave on site the paint we wanted used.  After our efforts in painting the outhouse, we really did not want to tackle something this big.

The funniest thing that happened during this process was a phone call from our builder.  He had a friend call so he could talk to Ron to find out when he would be given the louvers that needed to be set on each end of the shed.   Once he had them, it was just a few days later when he called again to set delivery date.

That was Wednesday Oct 4 and Ron and I were both in site waiting for the truck.  It didn’t come when planned and Ron drove to the house to find out what was going on.  He called me and said it was off and that I should head home.

I had been home for about 45 minutes when he called again to say it was back on and they were headed to THF.   The truck driver had gotten behind, but after a call from Ron, he was ready to go.  Jo and I changed into work clothes and zipped back out there.  The shed was already on site when we got there, but the men were trying to decide the best route for the truck to take in order to get to the planned site.  Turns out all the mowing I had down the week before was  a very good thing.  Made it much easier for all of us to walk  back and forth.

A big truck and trailer needed to deliver our big shed.  It was quicker and easier for him to drive right across the field.  This way he would not have to back the shed into position.  I was a big fan of that move.

A nifty trailer he had.   Amazing technology.  Jo and I had never seen this done before and it was very cool.   It gently lowered one end to the ground and he slowly drove out from under the shed.

Boom.  Right down where they needed it to be.  Ron used the compass of his iphone (he really does love playing with that thing) to make sure it was at the right angle for best sunshine, for the solar fans and the truck driver’s job was done.

Now they had to tweet the levelness.  Getting the door right was  the hardest part.  Turned out the middle section of the shed was too high and that was causing a gap in the door frame which was not letting it close properly.

The next step is getting it painted.  As I said before, that is a task we are outsourcing.   We just need to have a few dry days.  After weeks of no rain we finally have rain in the forecast, just in time to interfere with my vacation and our schedule.  One more of the joys of being a farmer. Even when you are a tiny one.

 

Mother Earth News Fair 2017

Learning Adventures,

Our trip this year started out with a 2 am wake up call Friday morning. By 3 am we were on the road with a 7 hour drive ahead of us. It was a familiar drive but it seems to get just a bit longer each year. Didn’t help that we hit serious fog a few hours in.

We dealt with this for hours.  It would clear for a few miles and then we would be back in it.  We were just over an hour away from our destination of Seven Springs, PA when it finally cleared for good.

We arrived early this year.  Which meant we got to park in the lower lot and avoid the long hoof up the hill to the secondary lots.  We parked and organized our lunch.  I forgot to bring plates for us to use.  It is always something.  You would think after going to so many of these events, there is nothing I would not remember.

They weren’t letting anyone in even to walk around until noon so we had an hour to kill.  But that was easy enough.  Ron found a way around the staff and we wandered around looking at the vendors doing finally prep. We headed back to the main entrance just before 9 am and watched the swarm of people come in.

Once the workshops started, the afternoon went fast. We split up, each heading to our own workshops. There will be a few that we both go to, but we learned long ago that it is better to go our separate ways. Not only do we get a break from each other, but we learn more that way.  Friday was a short day, from 12:30 to 6 pm. I went to workshops on salve making, fermenting and backyard foraging. And did some visiting at vendor booths. Ron and I met up after the last workshop and headed back to our hotel. Once again we were staying at the Comfort Inn in Somerset. This year I brought dinner with us. Chicken salad, watermelon, cucumber and beer.  Made it so much easier than trying to find a place to eat. Both of us were exhausted so we had an early night.

Next morning Ron realized he forgot to bring underwear.  Thank goodness for stores that are open 24 hours.  A quick trip and he was set for the rest of our trip.   We also picked up a few more snacks.   Saturday workshops started at 10 am. Still cannot understand why such a late start to the day. So many people who come to this type of events are early risers. Maybe they are trying to give us all a break?  We arrived early enough to once again get into the lower parking lot. This year they were trying something different. Hands on classes.  Things like butter churning, making a mead or sourdough starter, fermenting mustard and a  kombucha demo. They were hugely popular. But they really need to come up with a better plan.   In order to attend the class, you had to pick up a special ticket. This meant waiting in line for over an hour.  You can imagine how annoyed some people were.  I wanted to get into the lavender sea salt body scrub class and while I waited in line, I missed one of the workshops I had down on my list. That was disappointing.  But I had a good time talking with the people in line with me.  As I was first in line, I had no trouble getting the ticket I wanted.  Have to say the class was worth the wait too.  Hoping they will continue with hands on classes next year, but figure out a better way to run them.

Dinner on Saturday was at the Rey Azteca Mexican Restaurant.  We make sure we have at least one dinner there every trip.  They have great food and we usually run into at least one other couple who is also attending The Fair.

Sunday morning was a bit sad as it was the last day.   I had a bit of a scare when I hit the soap dish with my elbow and it fell down and shattered in the tub.  We cleared it up as best we could, stopped at front desk to tell them and headed out.  We had an early start as there was a mushroom identification session at 8 am.   Again we ended being able to park in the lower lot.  And even closer to the doors this time.  Getting to the fair site early enough really does pay off.

Tradd Cotter, the mycology expert who gave a couple of workshops, had also taken a group out at 7:30 am on Saturday and they collected all the mushrooms they could find.  Now he was going to tell them what they all were.   I was surprised, but shouldn’t have been at the number of people who showed up.  There are so many people interested in mushrooms these days.

The last workshop ended at 4:30 and we headed back to the hotel for one more night there.  There was no way we were going to start on a 7 hour drive home at that time of night.   We had a meatloaf dinner at a local diner and called it a night.   We packed up most of our stuff and settled in to watch the Ken Burns show on the Vietnam War.  I didn’t make it through the show and fell asleep pretty quickly.

No need to get up early on Monday but we were still up and about by 5 am.  We had a good breakfast, packed up the Transit and set off up the road.  Less than a hour into our trip and we hit fog again. Worse than the drive down.  Ron was disappointed that so many things were closed on Monday.  We couldn’t find a single place to stop.  He would have been happy with the largest ball of string or a house with 27 cats in it.

We got home about 4 pm and it was a welcome sight.  It had been a long weekend and we were both glad to be home.  Of course Ron insisted on the three of us making a trip out to THF.  He wanted to check on his shiitakes. It had been a full four days since he was out there last.  He was suffering from withdrawal.

I always enjoy going to the Mother Earth News Fair and come home with lots of enthusiasm for finally tackling all those projects I have brewing in the back of my mind.  Wonder how long it will last this time?

 

 

 

 

 

Mohawk Valley Garlic & Herb Fest 2017

Learning Adventures

Our second vendor event is now in the books and the experience has only served to cement our 2018 plans to be there again. But it was a long and tiring day with all four of us on our feet the entire time. Before we even left the house, Jo saved the day.  We had preloaded what we could the night before and finished up with the perishables at o’dark 30.  Last look around and we were ready to go when Jo asked about our display log.  It was still sitting in the garage.  Ron had hammered nails in each end and came up with a rig to hang it from a bar in the Transit.  All his plans would have been for naught except for Jo.

Being Ron, his plan was to arrive on site at least 30 minutes before the official 7 am start time for vendors.  That worked out great as they let us get started right away. We were done before a good chunk of the other vendors even arrived. And that gave me the time to correct a goof. I hadn’t forgotten our seed money again, just the SD card from my camera. I have a bad habit of forgetting to pull it from my laptop once the download is complete. But a quick trip to a local store and that was taken care of.

THF had been given a great spot, on the end of one row and in direct line from gate number one.  That meant we could be one of the first booths people saw as they walked in.  This was one highly organized event.  Not only did they have coffee and donuts for the vendors, but there was a special bathroom, a real one, just for the vendors.  We were all set and ready to go when we had to scramble to deal with a major shift in our layout.

We originally had our garlic set up on a side table.  See the blue bottles we are using to hold our signs?  They are part of my Mom’s blue glass collection.   I do so love being able to reuse something that has strong memories in this way.  We had to do some fast reshuffling once other vendors got set up.  There was just no space for anyone to walk between the two booths.

This is what we ended up with and Ron liked it so much that he decided we would do the same at our next event.  We will need matching table covers, of course.  He really likes the green tablecloth on the right that we bought 18 years ago.  Now he has the task of seeing if he can find another one or two others that are close enough to replace this one.  That will keep him busy and hopefully out of trouble for a bit.  I need to do something about our little trash can.  That plastic bag does nothing for the look we are going for.

Ron was in charge of the stove work, while Jo set up the actual sample.  I was the go between, getting extra supplies for them, talking with customers and making the actual sales.  And offering our samples.   Made for a hectic day with lots of dashing from one side of the tent to another.  Shifting the side table to the front really helped me.  I suddenly had much more space to work with.  But  I really needed to have a clone or two.  One to handle just the samples, another to give the sales pitch and a third to be on hand to help Ron and Jo.  We did have brother in law Don on hand again.  He was strictly sales, working his spiel on our “grow your own shiitakes” logs.  Based on the success we had in June, we brought more logs with us this time.  While we didn’t sell all of them,  more than a few people left carrying one of our bow tie festooned logs.

If only I had been able to get a nickel everything someone commented on our little serving boats.  Ron found them online and they are made from banana leaves.   Once again they were a huge hit, though everyone loved our combo of sautéed shiitakes, pesto sauce and a dab of sriracha sauce.  Ron and Jo were barely able to keep up with the demand.  In fact by 1:50 we had not only sold our of all of shiitakes but had used all of our boats.  Over 500 gone in just about 4 hours.
 
Once again, I got him a shot of him not working.  Though he will say he was talking with a potential customer and that this was most important job of all.
Even though our samples and shiitakes were gone, people continued to stop by to talk mushrooms.  Kids especially were fascinated by the ones we had for display.  By the end of the day, the sun had dried them out and they were firm to the touch.  You could have mistaken them for wooden mushrooms.
For years we have attended all sorts of craft shows and festivals.  Being there as a vendor is a major difference.  We had a ton of fun but there was no time for us to get out and check out the other stalls.  One more clone is needed to cover that part of the day.  Once the samples were done, we did release Jo to go explore and she came back with an alpaca wool knit hat.
We were home safe and sound and exhausted by just after 7 pm.  I had to yell at Ron though.  He added to our day by needing to stop and get gas.  What a dork.  Full tank of gas in both cars will be added to our planning list for any future events.

Glass of wine for me and beer for Ron and Jo.  Leftover pizza and some aspirin for all and we headed to bed.  Planned to sleep till noon.  Of course I was awake at 330 am.  Ron followed shortly after that and we slowly got into the day.  Just after 6 am we headed our to our favorite diner in Sherrill for breakfast.  My goal for the rest of the day is to get everything cleaned up, packed up and out of my living room.

We did have to make a trip out to THF.  There were shiitakes to check on and elderberries to pick.

Timing really is every thing.  We came home with 14 pounds of good looking mushrooms.  We really could have used them yesterday.    It is stressful dealing with Mother Nature.  She doesn’t always play fair.  Stuffed mushrooms sewn by two of us.  Jo’s idea really does sound better and better.