Planting Time

This year we are putting in a large plot of corn, similar to but not quite as big as the plots we used to put in decades ago, for mass quantities of roadside sales. I know people love grilling, steaming, and roasting fresh corn on the cob in the summer, and we will be able to provide for that or for the canners/freezers this year.

Our friend Claire Hanley sent us some blueberry and raspberry bushes and some rhubarb crowns. These plants came from Nourse Farms, which we had good luck with last year (gooseberries/currants, all survived and some are already flowering). We put the raspberries out in our row in our field, a couple replacing a few that did not make it over the winter (though almost all of them did and I’m thrilled to see that). The blueberries are potted up into larger pots to grow out a bit before being moved. This makes 33 brambles and 11 blueberry bushes for us. Rhubarb’s been put by one of our old compost sites – they also sent us an extra crown, so there’s 4 rather than 3. Here’s to their success and to offering more stuff in the future! We will not have any bramble fruits this year, as the plants are still establishing, but I do expect to have some gooseberry/currant fruits. They’ll probably only be in enough quantity for me to eat and hoard for myself though. 🙂 All things in their time.

All my ‘new’ fruit trees survived the winter, except for the 2 apples which were girdled by rodents. We replaced those 2 with trees of the same varieties, and also put in a second Golden Delicious. All of the trees from last year are flowering, too, as are the ‘baby’ peaches I started from seed approx. 5 years ago. I hope they come out anything like their mother… perhaps we will see. My serviceberries are so loaded with blossoms that you can’t even tell they have leaves.

We are also planting more varieties of vegetables than ever, as we have added a second garden plot around the same size as the first, attached over by the corn plot. We are adding things like unusual melons, ‘Wonderberries’, a third type of potato, 2 more types of onions, different greens (Bull’s Blood beet greens, Purslane, etc.), and an expansion of our planting of our peas and our sunflower landrace. The chickens oh-so-love the seedheads in the winter.

Speaking of chickens … when introducing the new birds to the old, we had a bad incident with the mature hens ripping one of the new ones open! Our Commercial Black, ‘Tux’, was the victim. I didn’t know if she would survive at first – the wound was huge and hideous. However, determined to try, I grabbed some regular old cotton thread and a sewing needle and stitched her up (it’s all we had). I used some flour to stop her bleeding. We kept her inside and applied Neosporin cream. Long story short, she took out her own stitches and now you can barely tell where the wound even was as feathers have coated the area again. I think she’ll have a slightly crooked tail for life, but that’s fine as long as she seems happy. We penned them up apart from the old birds for a while, and yesterday was their first time back ‘together’ again. The youngsters are significantly bigger now, and there were no incidents, so here’s to hoping for a harmonious coop.

We will be selling wild leeks/ramps for the next few weeks. $3 for a bunch of 8-10 plants. I realize this is on the costly side, but each plant patch has to be traveled to, and each plant harvested and cleaned by hand/individually, using selective methods to ensure sustainability… and that’s what we have put to consideration.

There is a good chance of frost for the weekend according to the weather guys, though there is disagreement as to how cold/how hard the frost will be. I am hoping that it somehow avoids us, because I really do not want to lose all the fruit the millions of blossoms herald, although we have lost all our fruit for the past 2 years so it wouldn’t be unheard of unfortunately. We will definitely be covering our tomato plants, and have suspended new planting until the weekend passes. 🙁

Quick Update

Just decided to post a quick update to show that I’m still thinking about this place. 🙂

Over the summer and fall, I was getting 10-13 eggs per day from my 14 hens! Now, though, the winter’s low light has dropped them back down to 2-6 per day. Still, I’ll take it. They’re a joy to have and provide endless entertainment value. The roosters have become a bit more crotchety and protective, but they’re still not bad boys on the whole. You just have to keep an eye on them if you’re really close to them and wearing big, scary boots.

Our little kitten is no longer so little, although she’s small for an adult cat. She still enjoys rampaging throughout the house, mixed with periods of extreme cuteness.

This year’s deer hunt resulted in a nice doe. Prior to that, I bought a trail camera for getting wildlife photos on my property. We got a lot of nice ones, but it was also pretty promptly stolen by someone trespassing in our fields. People seem to continually disappoint me in such matters. A police report yielded nothing so far.

Somewhat happily, though, the winter has been mild thus far, which makes it easier on the animals and me. Lower bills, less worrying about the chickens, more greenery to lighten my mood… I’m sure ski resorts and snowmobilers hate it, though. It remains to be seen whether we’ll have the same (nonexistent) winter of last year, or if it will get more gnarly as the season progresses.

The growing season mostly ended a bit early this year. Many crops were done in mid-September, either succumbing to disease or falling victim to a light, early frost that came on Sept. 16th. Most of the rest finished in early October, when a killing freeze claimed them. For now, I still have plenty of eggs and maple syrup for sale. I’ll be making new syrup in another month or two, though last year’s has been stored cool, sealed, and dark, and is just as good as it was when I made it. I also have red and white potatoes still, as well as some onions.

The kale is still going strong out in the garden, shrugging off temps in the high teens and low 20s as it always does. I highly encourage growing this plant. It’s so tough, and so nutritious besides!

I no longer have beets, because rodents got into them and apparently ate around 2 bushels worth of them.

There are always little troubles, but oh well – we keep on. Such is life.