Lettuce Begin

We have grown this lettuce several years now and have been only moderately impressed. However, this year it has outdone itself. Where other years it has been rather pale and bland in flavor, this year it is a gorgeous color and has a robust flavor and delightful texture. It is called Beleah Rose and comes from Pinetree garden seeds.

What Not to Do

Got out the shorts the day before yesterday. (Such a fashion statement when worn with high rubber boots and heavy sweatshirts). Washed and put away my ancient Brown's Feed winter hat and the fleece vest I won at the Midvale Vet Clinic picnic several years ago.... Which I wear between the several-many turtle necks and sweatshirts of winter and the once-blue, but now sort of slatey-dun over shirt to keep off the snow.

It has been in the upper fifties with sun, light breezes, sometimes a little nippy, but nicely invigorating. There be spring peepers and some new kind of sparrow, which calleth from the mulberry tree when I was working in the yard yesterday. Somebody with a thick, buzzy, guttural call I have never heard before.

Liz's boy friend even rototilled the garden last night. (Thanks, Jade.) Man, that dirt looks like crumbly chocolate cake, all fluffy and black and begging for seed.

Garlic is up and doing great. Becky and I planted FIVE ROWS last fall. (I normally plant about twenty cloves.) I don't know what got into us, but a good third of the upper garden is in garlic.

It is easy to see why the one farm implement I have never driven is the corn planter. I have chopped, I have baled, I have raked and raked and raked. I have cultipacked, and disked a little and driven the tedder for hours. But never the planter...or the grain drill for that matter. Not without reason.

My garlic rows are nice and straight.

Parallel, not so much. Looks like I was writing my initials in garlic, a sort of a smelly tribute to my homemade spaghetti sauce or something.

Alas as I sit here shivering at the computer with that freshly laundered vest on INDOORS plus long johns, and a heavy sweater and a turtleneck and a sweatshirt, I am figuring that it may be just a tad too early for planting anything but lettuce.

And I plant that in barrels.

Ah, well, spring is a firm believer in courtship, and makes us all dance attendance on her.

One step forward and two steps back. It'll get here, don't you worry.

Did it Freeze Last Night?

It matters. Sudan Grass/sorghum develops a poisonous acid after stress like frost. We are feeding and ensiling it right now. First step-stick head out the door (pet the dog for a minute too) and listen for crickets. They usually get it right.

Nope, not a one chirping. Still doesn't either feel or smell that cold ...and yes, you can smell cold, although I can't exactly explain how.

Second step, swipe a hand across the stuff on the car. Nope, not hard and crispy,just wet.

Finally, get high tech. Turn to the computer and check out weather stations. 41 at Albany airport. Probably didn't freeze here either. Okay, another day of bringing in plants, cleaning up garden and turning grapes into jelly. Why oh, why, did the boss's late father plant the grape vine right next to the standard apple tree? Most of them are up about thirty feet on teeny, tiny little branches. We won't be getting them, alas.

Not Early Yet

In the dark before early, the moon poured like water over nighttime scenery; the heifer yard became the bottom of the ocean. The sea of burr cucumber mantling Wally's kennel like kudzu (he guards the barn now) into folded coral, bending into itself all convoluted dark and shining.

A shoal of heifer sharks slept on the barn ramp, full of haylage and sweet corn leaves from garden clean up. The ink and water color of sunrise was just a hint on the other horizon, pointing out the east to anyone awake to watch it.

I was.

Getting the house chores done so the day can be dedicated to finishing up the garden. The beans rendered up an incredible fourth picking yesterday. This has surely been the summer of the green bean. Onions and shallots are dug, potatoes awaiting that service (how can the ground be so darned hard after all the rain we've had?) There is a chill in the air that is suggesting that first frost may come early this year.

I am not ready....but I need to get that way. Brought the first house plants in already....

Grinning in the Garden

Do click for comparative largeness

My garden is small and crowded, but I have a lot of fun with it. These giant sunflowers are volunteers that I let go among the beans and sweet corn. As you can see my model was more than a trifle reluctant to participate in this particular comparison (Coulda been the nettles).


BTW the model is six feet tall under normal circumstances and six one with those big boots.

Not My Own

My time that is. Farm days have become a hotbed of activity. Visits from milk company officials, an electrician, the steel guy, and on and on, with the phone ringing constantly until long after night chores are done. None of these are exactly bad things and I may even have some very interesting news for you in the next few weeks. However the down side is the days fly by with no pauses or stops and at the end I look back at what I accomplished and sigh. So much activity...so little to show for it. But even that has its upside. I usually have trouble sleeping during full moon weeks. I drop into bed now and sleep like the dead and wake up ready for more. (Sleep, not insanity.)

The guys finished one ag bag yesterday and went to buy another bag which they will put on the bagger today. Imagine an incredibly thick, heavy, white trash bag that measures 9'X200'....not easy to manhandle that around! Imagine stuffing that with chopped crop products, in this case green, freshly chopped hay, and fermenting it for a month or so and then feeding it out all sweet and tasty. Good stuff. They are going to try to get some baling done too if the rains hold off.

Finally got the tomatoes planted, late I know, but there hasn't been much time for playing in the dirt. If the blight doesn't kill them they will be fine even planted this late. If they are going to grow they grow fast.

When I finish hilling the potatoes (yeah, still at that job) and plant a few more squash it will be time to dig the garlic. It looks great this year and I can't wait. I simply can't school myself to save enough to plant enough to get ahead each year. It is so good that I want to cook with it, not store it away to plant next year. I bought some for planting last year, from a kid over in Cobleskill and we ate half of that before it got planted too. Have I mentioned that we love garlic?

Anyhow, it is time for chores. have a good one.

Wild Hearts

No Frost Yet

I am amazed by this. There have been threats all around us and a little ice on the cars a couple of times, but still no freeze. I am in no rush...personally... Fall colors so far are subdued, with a few brilliant reds and oranges here and there like flags at a rally. Mostly the hills are a dark, dark green rarely seen around here. I wonder what the 'Dacks look like. If anybody can get away to get Beck, maybe we will find out.

We are having a dilemma about the sago palms, of which I am quite fond. A small animal vet we use in dire situations sent around an email telling us that ingesting the leaves is fatal and incurable for pets. Therefore they aren't something we want to have accessible.
Meanwhile I like them.

No pets visit our bedroom...the door is always closed and only the cat can get upstairs anyhow. Gael is too lame to climb them. I want to bring them in and put them up there until they can go back on the sitting porch in the spring. No pets there either.

Alan wants to let them freeze and throw them away.

So they are still out there still, awaiting a decision or a hard frost, whichever comes first.....

Away...Wednesday

A Photo a Day

While the farmer's away

Knot Knotty Pine

But rather knotted honey locust.

Last year when I was weeding the asparagus that grows right next to the house (a volunteer) I discovered yet another of what seems like millions of honey locust seedlings. The other end of the tap root on every single one of them has a Hong Kong address. When I couldn't pull it out I tied a knot in it in frustration.

And forgot about it. The big asparagus plant doesn't get weeded all that often, but I finally got at it again the other day. Rather than the little baling wire sized stem of honey locust there was a big robust yearling as thick as my thumb and as tall as my head growing out of it. As I chopped it down with my loppers I found a surprise...the knot I tied and forgot last year. Who would expect that a tree would grow with a knot in the trunk?

So of course when I found another little seedling in the other flower bed, I chopped off its head and tied a knot in the stem.

Sunday Stills...Wild Flowers

For more Sunday Stills....

Saturday Morning Special

Fox Tail Fern

When I met the boss, his mom had a massive, fine leaved fern kind of thing growing in one of the big windows in the living room. She didn't remember its name, but had bought the seed from which it grew by mail order long before I met the family...well over twenty years ago. It has at this point got to be over thirty years old.

She treasured that plant and pampered it more than any other, and she had an amazing green thumb. When she passed away I inherited its nameless, one of a kind, self.

I had no idea how to care for it and wasn't on the Internet at that time...so I muddled along for years, slowly figuring out that it loves water and will be pot bound no matter what I put it in, as it expands to fill available space seemingly overnight. Finally after years of looking at assorted house ferns on the net, I discovered what it was.

It has made seeds for years, but nobody ever did anything with them, until spring before last I stuck two in with tomatoes I was starting for the garden.




To my total amazement in late summer there were two little baby fern plants in with the tomatoes. I planted more last fall, but finally gave up on ever seeing them germinate. I put baby Christmas cacti in the pot I had put them in.

Last week they popped up as if out of nowhere, so now I have five of them.

And the big one is in bloom again.

PS, the Eagle nest cam is back online and the chick has gotten really big. Today it was jumping up and down and practicing flapping its wings. Go see...

Corn

A Teri chicken...isn't he a cutie? And tame as a kitten (thanks Teri)

The sweet corn is finally ripe...... and there is a lot of it. Thousands of fat, golden, ears, row on row, as uniform as peas in a pod. It is tasty too.( I know because we ate a LOT of it yesterday.) Posting may be a little on the light side as Liz and I endeavor to freeze enough for winter......we like corn....we really like corn. This may take a while.

We started yesterday afternoon and got a few packages done. I even did some after milking last night. I am happy to report, (while still somehow maintaining a certain level of tastefulness), that a time-honored method of raccoon prevention seems to be working. Every day, all summer, while we were milking or the guys were working on our assorted broken down tractors and machinery, when nature called they were called to duty by the evil motherperson.

Make like a dog I told them. Mark the boundaries of the corn as our territory. Tell the thrice-damned varmints where to get off. I repeated the story of Farley Mowat and the wolves and the tea pot in Never Cry Wolf.....And like the yeomen they are, they rallied despite certain misgivings on their part (they are after all guys and although the corn field isn't exactly a porch, it is an outdoor venue). I am sure they got tired of hiking up to the corn patch but there was little complaining.

Nothing else has ever kept the coons away and they got most of our corn nearly every other year. It was like a desperate race trying to beat them to our crop. This year there are a few bird ripped ears, but no coon damage so far so I am real thankful for the menfolk. It was kind of above and beyond the call of duty. Wish us luck today.......

Hyssop

We added hyssop to the herb garden for the first time last summer. It wintered over well and in the contained area by the honey locust it doesn't seem invasive. It has produced a few seedlings though, which I will pot up when I get a chance.....it is too nice not to share. We don't really use it for anything, but it is attractive and we love the scent.
A crushed leaf smells just like licorice.
We give each other leaves sometimes.

Gardening instead of blogging

More Sunflowers

Stuff is growing, getting ripe and needing to be picked or dug or weeded and cooked at an amazing and gratifying pace. The cupboards, however, are sadly in need of an infusion of store groceries.Somebody has got to go shopping soon!

Therefore, last night I browned up some maple bacon, sprinkled it over fresh-dug potatoes, whole, just-picked green beans, a bunch of skinny little new greyzinis and regular zucchinis, with a couple of small white onions thrown in for flavor. Then I seasoned the whole affair with Italian seasoning and garlic....no photo however. It was eaten up in somewhat less than a trice.
I was apologizing for serving such a meager concoction, but I guess they liked it.
Or perhaps appetite is the best sauce.
We got done late last night due to a new calf, the tire guy changing all four tires on the Case 4490 and assorted other interesting and character building events. (Don't ask...the rule of a crisis a day whether we need one or not is holding true as ever)

Indian corn, just starting to tassel.

The laundry oasis

***Update: It's not my birthday (it is Nita's..she is 8 in dogs years as am I)
However, I got a present today just the same and a mighty fancy one. My favorite, bestest, dearest cow, Beausoleil, (mother of last year's Bama Breeze) gave me a heifer calf by Straight Pine Elevation Pete this morning. Liz just found it! I will be open to names that go with the letter and theme if you have any ideas.....FC, you came up with Bama's name? Any suggestions?

Homegrown Dinner

This is last night's supper just before it went into the oven before milking. It was done when we came in and, alas, eaten before I thought to take the "after" photo.

Everything involved was homegrown except the celery, vinegar, some garlic powder (didn't plant any last fall) and a dash of Italian seasoning. It was so much fun to assemble that I can scarcely call it work. The first potatoes of the year, two plants worth, were dug fresh from the bed behind the house and the big sheep pen garden the guys made me this year. One plant was started from some leftover sprouting potatoes that we bought to eat from the supermarket. The other was from seed potatoes we bought to plant. Oddly enough the supermarket hill yielded perfect orbs of potato goodness. The ones from certified seed potatoes were covered with potato scab.
Go figure. Didn't matter anyhow; they were all delicious, but I will dig the scabby ones first before they get too nasty.
Digging potatoes is kind of like treasure hunting to me. You never know what will come out of each hill and the anticipation is worth the sweat.

The carrots are rainbow carrots from Pinetree Garden Seeds. They are simply the best variety we have ever tried and I don't bother with anything else now. I grow them in half 15-gallon acid barrels from the milk house, in a mixture of sand, plain old dirt and compost. They thrive. I love the wet paint scent of a carrot fresh out of the ground....kind of fond of the taste too and not all the ones I pulled made it into the dinner. We are speculating about bringing a clean half barrel indoors this winter and trying to grow some like we do the indoor lettuce. Seems like we can never get enough of them.

The stew beef (I bake stew beef this way when I run out of chuck roast...turns out real tasty and tender) is from that Calbret HH Champion bull I bought the boss for Father's Day a couple of years ago....the one who didn't pass his blood test from the Holstein Association because somebody goofed on his dam's sire. Hated to eat such a well bred animal, but we couldn't use him as intended because the maternal grandsire was Ocean View Extra Special, a bull we used very heavily ourselves. (Right now in my first ten cows there are five by him, Bariole, Bubbles, Camry, Junie and Lemonade.) When we draw a bull of our own to use AI, it needs to be at least somewhat unrelated to most of the animals in the herd. This was just too close bred for comfort.

Anyhow, homegrown is kind of a favorite brand around here and the leftovers were pretty sparse. Now I can't wait for an excuse to dig more potatoes.

The nicest part of the season

And a few flowers that are blooming now.







And...what do you suppose Liz has been doing?
(Clue, it has nothing to do with the calf above)

Strawberry rhubarb 3.14159

Another good thing about June...
(It's Dairy Month, but it is also berry month)

And....does anyone have any idea what this flower is? Alan's best friend's mom gave me one years ago and I shared with my folks. Mine died a long time ago but I liberated this one from their lawn last fall. It is finally in bloom and I am hoping you can help me with an identification. Otherwise I am going to have to keep calling it **their last name** flower...which confuses folks mightily.
Thanks in advance.