SWEEEET!!!!

Winter carrots

Now that the cold has set in and the ground is getting cold enough to freeze, occasionally, we are pulling all of the carrots that are under ground clothes, but not in the low tunnel.  This time of year they seem to get sweeter.  Maybe it is the cold that makes them sweeter, I don't know but it is something I look forward to now in the winter.
We will harvest the remaining carrots, as needed, from the low tunnel where the ground doesn't quite freeze.  Last year we had carrots right thru February.

Farm, Garden, Homestead, home.

No matter what it is called, what it actually does and what it gives should be the same, comfort, security, and sustenance.

If we are going to be spending most of the money we earn during our lifetimes on attaining it, then shouldn't it be one of our most treasured possession, I mean, that is, as far as treasuring possessions goes?  Yet it seems that people often spend little time at their home and when given a break from the routine, leave it as quickly as possible on vacations.  It seems to me to be a bit odd.

We are trying to coax this little plot of rocky, slopped and heavily wooded area, that we call our home, into sustaining us as best it can.  The trick is in finding out how it will best do this.

The recent weather that brought down a lot of trees and limbs has given us a boon toward next year's heating.  I will go on cutting and splitting and getting my exercise out doors and providing fuel for warmth against the coming cold.

This year we found that the Sunchokes, and the wineberries, the ground cherries, and the collards and the kale and carrots, all thrived and resisted the pests and the very rainy season just fine.  I have to file that in my memory banks and play that to our advantage as we plan for next Springs plantings, which we can start doing now as we look thru the seed catalogs and think about what seeds we have saved from this season past.

Let there be colored light

A dark corner of the kitchen gets a little help.

Old dark corner of kitchen

 An antique stained glass window that was a gift from a friend now finds some application.

New window in the kitchen

Greens, late fall harvest

The collards and kale are looking really nice right now and we are enjoying eating them.  We also started taking some of the carrots that aren't under the low tunnel, those are for later.  The carrots are very sweet.  I had forgotten how good they taste.  The tomatoes are all done.  But we got the last one a few days ago.

Limiting inputs and recycling

In an effort to limit what comes into the garden and what goes out of it I took some downed limbs from the property and fashioned handles for what was going thrown out.  the rake was found and that handle was put on a few years ago.  The shovel was going into a friends trash and I grabbed it.  A few days ago I fashioned a handle from a Maple limb that came down in the last storm.  They both have a nice feel to them and I like the way they look, knots and all.

local handles

I have also put handles on an axe head and a pick head, both of which I found buried in the ground.  the really great thing about these tools aside from my personal investment in them is that I have been able to make them fit my hands and use just so.  My rake is even ergonomically curved!

A year's wait

A year and 2 months ago I ordered a small porcelain finished cast iron wood stove.  I received it about a month ago and just finished the installation.

New wood burning stove with temporary copper heat deflector and new stained glass window

The idea is that this stove is small enough to burn small stuff that would normally just be a nuisance here in the woods, stuff to small for the large stove.  It is small enough to be able to use year round, should we need to.  It is just big enough to take the edge off a cold kitchen in the winter.  The kitchen is cold because it has a tile floor that is on a concrete slab, directly on the ground, not a good choice for this part of the world unless your building a large frig or freezer.
While I was having to dirty up the corner of the kitchen anyway I decided to put in a stained glass window that was a gift from years ago.  The tile work and the table top for the stove was from material that we already had, so was the window but for the outer piece of glass that I got for a few bucks from the local hardware store.
This is just another part of the garden/farm, and an important one as it is refining the kitchen where we prepare and eat the food we grow.
Hopefully the winter will be a little less long and cold this time around.

The approaching change

The butterflies and moths seemed strange.  They were all flying this same and different pattern.  When I looked directly I realized that what I thought were my companions from the summer were actually newcomers, bringers of the Autumn, falling leaves as the trees that surround us here start their seasonal metamorphosis.

It is September and the cool air is coming.  Now just at night, but in a few days during the day as well.  I have started to tie up the fig tree, pulling the branches in tighter so as to slowly get it used to it's overwinter shape, when it will be bundled up in swaddling to keep it until spring.

I work the downed trees, taking what the season has given.  These trees whose lives are over will heat our little home over the winter. (during the life of a tree it not only gives off oxygen, but also traps CO2.  When it dies, it immediately starts releasing that CO2 and stops giving off oxygen)

The tomatoes have finally started to blush so daily I snack on them.  The long squash are coming ready more frequently now.  The carrot tops are tall.

The winter storage squash are looking pretty good now too.

Soon I will recover the low tunnel for the coming season and so, we will be able to harvest thru the winter.

Chanterelles from the woods. 2011.

I ate the last of the Chanterelle mushrooms that we collected yesterday in some very tasty burritos.  We look forward to next seasons gifts from the woods

Barrel Hoop #6

Finally we are food shopping in our front yard again.  Cucumbers, skinned, diced, tossed with white wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a few diced tomatoes and onion, Viola!

Apple tree, 3rd year and finally some fruit!

Things are growing.  Actually while I was away the deer and woodchucks had a good time topping most of the plants.  A lot of energy has been spent getting their leaves back.  Even so we are eating cucumbers, peppers, some beans, beautiful turnips, and a wealth of wineberries.  

Cucumber salad to be!

Tomatoes are on the vine but green still.  Potatoes are underground but small yet.  We will be even farther behind the other local gardens than we normally are.  Usually it is about 2 or 3 weeks behind due to shading from the trees, but this year the hungry critters will also be a factor.  I will try to get some pics of the gardens soon.

Just for smiles, sunflower.

We share the wineberry bushes with the birds and the chipmunks and still we have more than we can eat.

very sweet wineberries, like rasberries, but different!

We have our garlic drying out and it seems as though we should have a good supply for the fall/winter.

One of a few bunches of Garlic, Vampires beware!

Barrel Hoop #1-5 revisited

Barrel Hoop #1

Barrel Hoop MicroFarm

Barrel Hoop Micro-Farm or Macro-Garden

This entry and others with the Barrel Hoop title will be a bit of a separate blog running parallel and within "reasonable Path".  "Barrel Hoop Micro Farm" is what I call the place we live.  When clearing the land we found a set of old rusty barrel hoops.  I put them on each of the gates as decor, and then realized that they were our 'logo'.  We are working to make it into as much of a farm as you can have on 8/10ths of an acre of sloped, rocky, clayey, land crawling with deer, chipmunk, squirrels, woodchucks, snakes, black bears and coyotes, to mention some of the wild life that want to share our harvest.
I'd like to use these entries to keep track of the practices and events that occur for us on the "farm". 

Right now the farm is just a plant based experiment, but we are trying to get some chickens going here for eggs.  I am in the process of building a coop from reclaimed wood and trying to decide the best place to situate them.

(78'f, passing clouds, humid)
Today, we finished putting in borders on the downhill side of two long garden beds, in the main plot.  Each bed is about 50 feet long and about 3 feet wide.  They are terraced and have walking paths between them of about 20 inches.  The wood for the borders is cedar decking reclaimed from my neighbors deck.  It has paint on one side and I put that side to the dirt facing uphill so that it might last a little longer.  the stakes that support the cedar are scrap from wooden pallets I get for free from a local lumber yard.

main plot 2010

The borders are to help reduce erosion from the steep slope.  After those were complete I was able to turn over the cover crop  of  Hairy Vetch, yellow peas, and alfalfa, (green manure from Johnny's Seeds Johnny's Selected Seeds – Superior Seeds & Gardening Tools  ) that has been growing there for about a month.  I mixed that in with buckets of compost.  Our soil is full of rocks (Rockland County, NY) and it also has a lot of clay.  It has been a will be a multiple year process to get the soil into really good condition. In a few weeks we can plant in those beds.

This planting will be later that it could have been by about 3 weeks.  I just didn't get it all together when I would like to have.  Other beds are already seeded and have a good amount of growth already.  A pepper plant already has blossoms


Downhill of the to beds I turned over today are about 10 "finger" beds that run uphill and down.  They are smaller, each about 3 by 5 feet.  Today, in the last finger bed, we put in the a few squash seedlings.  that completed the bed for this year.  It is the "3 sisters bed" with corn, pinto beans, and squash.

We also got squash put in a few other places on the farm.  We have to give a lot of thought to where we put all the plants but especially the ones that will vine out over the ground long distances.  Our space is challenging in many respects.

We have already gone thru our Asparagus crop for the season.  We enjoyed about 5 meals with them as appetizer or as a part of the main meal.  They are so sweet that we don't even season them, just steam for about 3 minutes and then eat!  The ones we get from the local farms I prefer to season with a little sea salt, cracked black pepper, and a hit of lemon juice.  Toss the ingredients and then eat!  Now we have the beautiful asparagus ferns to look at while waiting for the strawberries to come in.  They share two terraces with some lettuce and lemon sorrel,  and a few left over garlics and one chard.

I didn't get the rest of the corn put in.  The seedling sit in their trays in the low tunnel and will eventually be transplanted to the southern most beds, we call the "terraces", to grow next to some sunchokes, and probably some more beans.

Kitchen plot 2010, with low tunnel frames 

I will try to get some more pics up soon.

Barrel hoop #2

Barrel Hoop MicroFarm

5/25/11

82 degrees f, sunny

Today I got some corn seedlings in the ground in the uppermost terrace bed.  They are in amongst the returning sunchokes.  The soil is has some small stones in it but the top 12 inches is a very nice mix.  This corn was started from seed on May 12th, and has grown to be about 4 inch seedlings in those 13 days.  I made a stew of water and dehydrated cow manure to put on each seedling and then watered them.

This is the low tunnel that I made last fall.  Today it got up to 120f before I got the doors open to ventilate it.  I don't think any plants got cooked.  This low tunnel is made from some scrap wood, on the ends and the middle framing is a steel tube from an instant garage that belonged to my neighbor.  A tree came down on it when his truck was in it and I helped him get it out.  The truck was protected by the frame and did not suffer.  I got to keep the tree for fire wood and the frame for this purpose.  The plastic is light weight and last about a season and a half before it starts to fall apart from UV rays.  I will take the plastic off after Memorial day and leave the frame in place for next winter.  I will consider buying covering plastic that is available for this purpose.  I think it would last longer.  Less waste.  Next to the low tunnel is a ground row cover with squash and potatoes underneath.  Behind that, above the rock wall is the asparagus/strawberry rows.

5/26/11

85f sunny with passing clouds, HUMID!

Today only got a few plants in.  In the terraces I put in about 7 Dondo squash amongst the sweet potato plants.  They are all under a ground cover which I hope will help to prevent the root borers from putting their young in the dirt.

The Terrace garden

Last year I put a chicken wire fence around the main plot.  It not only helped to keep the critters at bay but kind of made it look a bit nicer to us.  In the picture below two firewood cribs can be seen and behind the truck is the 30x12x 15h boat barn built from recycled materials.

Main Plot 50x15 fenced

Wineberry grows wild here and could take over everywhere.  We do have a blueberry and a rasberry on this hill as well.  Now that they are leafed they hide the low tunnel that is behind them.

Wineberry Hill

I think this weekend will be the right time to get the chiminea out and next to the bench for some evening cooking!

Barrel Hoop #3

Barrel Hoop MicroFarm

"All things are connected: the context of everything is everything else."-- Wendell Berry, "Bringing it to the table"

71'f (85f high) sunny

This farm is a work in progress, and will hopefully stay a work in progress for the entire time it exists.  It is the hope that we will be able to get almost all of our food from it.  The goal is to bring as little, of anything, onto the place, and to take out less than that.  Energy will hopefully all be from renewable, sustainable, reasonable, and clean sources.  The goal is to live in and of this local environment, and to be a benefit to it, while benefiting from it.

I am thinking of creating a stock pond, for fish.  In keeping with the scale of the place, it will really be a macro, outdoor aquarium.  The neighbors down the road actually have a pond, complete with turtles, fish, ducks and more.  They also have many times more land.  Their pond, as will be ours if fed naturally from the rain and run off.  I need to learn more about aeration, and avoidance of mosquitoes.  I wonder if they would become raccoon food? 

It seems that somewhere in the middle of the 20th century in this country, and subsequently in others, we left behind our understanding of our binding relationship to the rest of creation.  A view that had seen us thru all of time before that time was given up in exchange for an exploitation of and an attempt to subjugate that which we are connected to.  Some have never forgotten this connection and still live by methods and philosophies that support and celebrate it.  The Amish farmers are an example.  Small mixed use farms still survive.

A blood donor can only take so much from his body before the money gained from the sale of the blood is of less benefit to his over all health than the blood itself.

Current Industrial Agricultural practices are extractive and over all, and with time, have shown to be costly to the health of our land.  No nation can remain strong without healthy land that can grow food.

Barrel hoop #4

Barrel Hoop MicroFarm

85f, sunny

The book  

"Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening" by Louise Riotte",

 is a source we are really appreciating right now.  We checked it out from the library, but, we will be buying a copy for ourselves.  It is one that we will refer back to often.  Learning what plants like to grow with others and which help to prevent pest for others can remove a lot of frustration.

Here is a thought:

Every step removed from the "hunter-gatherer" life style is a step further toward asking something of the rest of the natural world that it does not do easily, or without protest.  Agriculture can be practiced in a manner that works with the larger systems of nature, instead of against it, but it is still largely not in balance with the other life forms on the planet.  Agriculture is, in a way, the great gift, that allows us to live these very distinctly human lives.  It gives us power to be mobile and at the top of the food chain.  It has been oft said that with power comes responsibility.

Logic would show us that there is no real separation of man from the natural world.  We are a part of the natural world.  Everyone of us is invested in ecology, environmentalism, preserving nature.  Preserving nature is in fact preserving ourselves. 


I am currently finishing up the book "Brining it to the Table" by Wendell Berry.  The book has 4 sections, Farming, Farmers, Farms and Food.  The really nice thing that one can notice within the section on food is that present in all of the essays is the theme of appreciation, thanks.  In so many of the writings of late there is much said of reasons for what we should by and eat and methods for growing food, but little is said about the attitude with which we might harvest and eat our food.

"An Attitude of Gratitude!"

Barrel Hoop #5

Barrel Hoop MicroFarm

For the past week the Chipmunks have been sharing their crops of strawberries with us.

Chipmunk food, also known as our strawberry patch!

Actually they are our strawberries and each morning we get a hand full or so.  We eat them fresh or have them with some local yogurt and almonds or walnut, with a dash of maple syrup!  YUM!
The thing about getting from our garden is that they are completely free of any nasty chemicals, but they do have some Chipmunk spit on them.  On the more challenging side, most of them are just a day before really being perfect for eating, so they are a little bit tart.  Kind of like some candy's, sweet and tart.  If we wait the one more day then we just listen to the Chipper's sitting on the rock saying how sweet and perfect they are while we get none.  Every once in a while we get a really sweet one and we get so happy we could dance.


I guess that we are OK with a tax imposed by the locals.  I think my goal is to get a large enough patch and crop that we all get a good amount to eat.  My dog seems to be selectively blind to chipmunks when they are eating our strawberries.  Other times she chases them all over.

I got the plastic covering off of the low tunnel for the season.  It seems warm enough, and enough of the seedlings have been started that it was time.  The low tunnel really works great for us.  We harvested carrots until late February, and fresh greens year round because of it.  Not bad for being up here in NY state.  Elliot Coleman, a writer and market gardener up in Maine, has written about harvesting year round using low tunnels.  I Highly recommend reading his books if you want to grow, and eat year round from your own garden.

Low Tunnel frame with cover removed for summer

The down side of the Low tunnel use for me has been the covering.  I used very inexpensive and thin plastic that I already had and it worked great, held up to the weight of 18 inches of snow, stood up to high wind, and let in allot of light.  After one season the UV rays degrade it so much that is just starts to shatter.  I end up with this:

 Low tunnel cover, cheap plastic sheeting
after a season and a half it is basically trash.

I HATE THROWING THIS MUCH PLASTIC IN THE TRASH!   But I guess it is not so stable that it won't degrade eventually if left in the sun.

I think that this year I will spend a little more money and buy the kind of plastic covering that is made for this application.  I'd rather not use plastic at all, but I really can't do the whole thing in glass, but I have considered using fiberglass siding/roofing that I cover my woodpiles with.

The hope is that the stuff made for this, like the stuff the farms & nurseries use, will hold up longer to the UV rays of the sun.

After a week of no rain and some warm temps we watered everything yesterday.  We used all 250 gallons (aprox.) of rain water from the rain barrels, and a bit from the well.  All the plants should enjoy a good sunny day today with nice moist roots.

The yellow peas that were planted earlier in the Spring are starting to put out pods.  I turned over much of them to help enrich the soil, but kept a few patches to gather seed from and possibly to use as ingredients for soup or some part of a meal.