Snow

It snowed yesterday.

Garlic & Log Cabin

Planted about 10 different varieties of garlic this weekend. Sherm tore the entire front face off the house to prepare for the 4-Seasons room installation. We are now living in a real log cabin. The new roof is tight and dry, lovely, lovely, lovely. Our duct work in the cellar hasn't been reinstalled yet, and we haven't tested the corn furnace to see if the replacement parts have brought it back to life after the flood; but we are still toasty warm inside with the wood burner and new little corn burner. First hard frost was a couple weeks ago now, oct 2^nd and 3^rd I believe. All the tom's are off the plants, either stewed up in a jar in the cellar, or rotting on the compost pile. The only produce I managed to save/process this year were beets and toms and a few eggplants. My cuke's had some horrid disease, all the squash were planted too late, and had squash beetle infestation.

Planning already for next year….for sure we'll find a spot for some pumpkins, and other "Autumnal" themed plants….decorative corn, straw flowers for drying, decorative gourds. Beans for drying, mid-season crop of onions. Etc.

New Kitty, New Heat, New Roof, New Room

Lena is now a Grandmother! Maude Lebowski had one little kitty approx 3 weeks ago in Sherm's dirty laundry hamper. A little girl kitty we named Julie. Sherm has been working his butt off tearing off the old roof and working with a friend to get the new roof on. So far we've only had one day of rain inside the house. The guys found a major bee's nest in the attic which put everything on hold for a while. Our "four seasons" room has been delivered and is out in the pole shed awaiting installation. The supplemental heat for the new room is a wood pellet / corn burning stove that Sherm picked up yesterday and is right now just flaming away in the living room. Works damned well.....our only heat right now, and nites are getting down into the 30's. Ordered about 40$ worth of mixed garlic bulbs from http://www.wegrowgarlic.com/, a place here in WI.

Garlic

I am adding a variety of garlic bulbs to my fall planting repertoire. I've noticed the local grocery store garlic, while inexpensive, seems to be losing it's "oomph," growing more and more bland. I like the idea of braided garlic hanging next to the onions in the cellar.

My research sources have primarily been www.gardenweb.com and the Sept 2008 issue of Herb Companion.

Here's my pre-planting info…

The braiding kind is the soft-neck, what you usually find at the store….not ideal for super cold winters. Hard-neck has a flower stalk which needs to be removed or the bulbs get smaller.

Plant in fall, pointy end up, 2-3 inches deep, 6 in apart in rows 10 in apart, in loose "loamy" soil w/near neutral PH. Cold winters need a loose mulch, but remove in spring to prevent slugs/mold.

Water well but let dry out about a week before harvest. On the hard-necks, cut off the "scapes" (flower stalks) after they curl down and before they uncurl. You can eat these in soups, salads etc.

Harvest when about 5-6 leaves remain green, cure in well-ventilated area out of the sun in bundles of 6-12 for several weeks. Store in netted bags.

Severe winter tolerant garlic = Purple Stripe, Porcelain, Marbled Purple Stripe, Rocambole.

Creole varieties have good flavor and store well.

Silverskin is best for long storing. Long storing varieties do not have the flavor complexities you find in other garlics.

Sources for info/ordering

www.GarlicFarm.com
www.FilareeFarm.com
www.TheGarlicStore.com
www.HoodRiverGarlic.com

The Godmother, Canning, New Kitties

I am officially a Godmother as of this weekend, very cool. Looking at my beautiful neice Madeline in all her snowy white satin and tulle, pretty much exploding with love, i remembered the little sketchbook/scrapbook i'd started for her when she was born... and my plans to add a page here and there....and all the pages i havent added. Best laid plans...Every time i see her, i think "ohhh, this would be a cute little drawing to put in her book..." but then the rest of my life crashes in and it never gets done. Last nite i lay in bed thinking about Maddie kissing her reflection in the mirror at church, what a great page that would make, how would i do all that white...i really need to start making art again. i miss it.

meanwhile....there's wax beans and tomatos to be canned. and more beets. found a great recipe for eggplant in my "cooks illustrated" mag i'll be trying for maddie's b-day party next weekend. still havent got out the thank you's for the wedding gifts...etc etc etc.

we now have 3 generations of kitties....maude, daughter of lena, had one little kitten last week.

finally!

Finally! After years of wrangling, Fern Dell Farm now belongs to us, Shermen and Kaaren, and the bank. Up until this point, not knowing what may happen, we have tried to keep our out-of-pocket investments in the farm and farm-house minimal. We have done what we could to make the old 1850's log-cabin farm-house more livable by tiling the bathroom and kitchen floors, painting and putting up temporary walls. We added a much needed corn burning furnace and ductwork to supplement the wood-stove heat. We threw tarp on the roof and weighed in down with cinder blocks and prayed during major storm action. We bought a new fridge when the one that was here started leaking inches deep puddles every day. We've lined the bathroom ceiling with pink styrofoam insulation, and squeezed "GreatStuff" into every nook and cranny to stop the arctic winter winds. Winter meant not seeing out the windows due to the heavy duty plastic wrap, and the base of the farm-house was lined hip high with hay bales. For the first couple years, we cooked AND canned on a camp stove and electric burner. Getting the old gas farm stove running this past spring was heavenly! Being able to boil water in under 1/2 an hour, yay!
We put in a nice veggie and flower garden, and had success (in spite of the stove situation) with canning pickles and beets. We've enjoyed the fruits of our labors during the cold winter months by pulling yummy eggplant pasta sauces out of the freezer and marvelled at the difference between home-grown and store-bought. We raised meat chickens...processed them ourselves the first year, letting them go too long so the only way you could eat the tough old birds was by cooking them all day in a crock pot. Year two, 2008, we processed them sooner (and paid to have it done,) resulting in delectable and tender chemical free, humanely raised chicken. We had a pair of turkeys, lovely Royal Palms, but they were immune to the electric fence, at the heads off all they beautiful tiger lilies, and were a nuisance in general...so they went the way of the meat chickens. We still have 3 of the original 6 lovely layer hens....Polla, Odette and Tyrina. 6 additional layers purchased in April of this year, 2008- not yet laying- and 3 little bantams. We also have 3 sheep- Eric the ram, and Hilda and Matilda, the ewes. The current flock is skittish to be petted, we are looking forward to bottle raising some lambs for pets.
In preparation for the wedding, Shermen put in a gorgeous patio area and waterfall, which Kaaren then prettified with flowers and plants.
We are learning about leaf rust, japanese beetles, excess nitrogen, why some cukes are so bitter they cannot be eaten, not to plant 100's of sunflowers under building eaves or the rain will knock them all down right when they are blooming....we have learned this year to just suck it up and start again when all your lovely flower seedlings are under water for days on end. We have learned that for some reason, Kaaren cannot grow lavender from seed. We have learned that while free tomato plants are great....(self-seeded romas) for some reason they dont taste all that great, and too many just rot on the ground. Little round cherry tomatos are not only the most flavorful, they dont split and they are easiest to freeze. Decorative gourds and pumpkins are cool, but take up a ton of room and pretty much just wound up rotting on the ground....so we skipped those this year. We have a ton of dried out birdhouse gourds ready to be turned into beautiful bird houses....but all these projects take time.
That, I believe, has been our greatest lesson thus far...time is pretty much the most precious commodity of all. Together, Shermen and I can do pretty much anything....we have a ton of wonderful ideas...ways to make life easier, ways to make life more beautiful, yummy things to grow and eat, fun things to build and create...fun ways to share our love of this farm with others...all of it takes time, (and money.) Now it's all about prioritizing. Which dreams can we make a reality? Which need to go on the backburner for a few years? Which for a few decades? We are having a big, beautiful wedding out here on Fern Dell Farm in a little over 3 weeks. At the same time, the farm house is going to be under major construction...once we finally decide which of the renovation projects we can afford, we've already decided which are necessity...roof, foundation, electric, windows....now which of our little dream projects can we have?
Up until now, we have been dipping our toes in the water of this major commitment...now we are ready to jump in...a wedding, a mortgage, a renovation...it's all becoming reality!!!

Winter blah

This winter crap has gone on long enough. Just when you can almost see the ground without any ugly blobs of dingy snow, apparently, we have another big puke of it on the way. The hens were so happy, back to getting about an egg a day, because they were able to get outside and scratch.
Shermen and Mike checked out the new sheep barn and Mike said all looked good. We get our new sheep on Monday, I'm so excited!