Test Kiln

We finally have our small gas test kiln ready to go. If the weather is nice today, we'll fire it up!

Chickens and Charley in the Drizzle

Why does this poodle look so sad?? Because he is standing in the rain! If the camera was pointed in my direction, you would see a very happy person.
Something is finally falling from the sky!

Ladies and Leftovers

Yum...Frosting...

Sleeping Under the Stars

Look Out, Grasshoppers!

Autumn Greens

I am getting very buff from dragging hoses around to water my autumn veggies!

It's Official!

The Most Handsome Dog at the Wedding

Hot Hot Hot

I read this morning that this month is poised to be the hottest and driest August on record. Ever.

The Not-So-Little-Anymore Chicks

Our little chicks are almost grown! Now that they are too big to slip through the fence, I have given them a little more room to roam. Our meat birds will go to the processor in three weeks--it's a short life, but, if you love catching insects and munching on clover, not a bad one.

Tomato Time

New Digs for the Ladies

The new super-duper chicken house is done!

Chicks on Grass

Now that they have plenty of feathers, the chicks have moved from our porch to pasture. Note to the Japanese Beetles in our garden: these little chickies are hungry!

New Potatoes

Chicks

Our little chicks are getting settled into the swimming pool that they will call home until their feathers grow in. Most of them are healthy and chirpy. At night, I keep a heat light on for them, and it's chickie madness in there as they try to catch moths! The light yellow chicks are broilers, the black ones are Black Sex-Links, and the light reddish ones are Red and Golden Sex-Links.

(Lots) More Garlic

I harvested about 250 heads of garlic last night. Here they are, resting in the shade on the chairs that my dad made, probably socializing in garlic whispers and wishing for a cup of iced tea :)

Summer is on the Way!

Garlic Harvest

I harvested the first round of garlic last night! If I could find the camera, I would post a photo of the lovely bundles now hanging to dry in our hot-water heater closet. I have been saving garlic cloves for planting for several years, and have six varieties this year. Only about 50 heads were ready to harvest last night; the majority of the garlic will be mature over the next month. After harvest, it needs to cure for two or three weeks to fully dry. The flavor also mellows during this time.

Potatoes on the Way

The potato plants are beginning to flower. This is good because flowering coincides with...tuber formation! The tubers are probably about marble-sized under the ground now. We still have a month or so before they are ready for harvest.

Read and Get Smarter!

Tom Philpott is a farmer from western North Carolina, and a blogger for the environmental website Grist.org. His postings on the intersection of local food, industrial farms, and governmental influences on what we eat are always thoughtful and interesting. Here is a link to one of them.

http://grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/22/philpott/

Mid-Spring Loveliness

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Earthly Mirth Garlic

Crimson Clover, beloved by the soil and the bees

Fennel


Here are a few photos to make up for my lack of postings as of late. I have been outside planting summer things, and will snap some photos of newly transplanted peppers, basil, tomatoes, tomatillos, parsley, and eggplant when the light is a little better. I have quite a few seeded summer crops (such as beans, melons, squash, edamame) in the ground, patiently awaiting some rain.

Nice Work, Ladies!

Rainy Days

Finally, some rain! Charley and I did some work in the greenhouse this morning, and as you can see, he loved every minute of it. I pulled the row cover off of the strawberries today to check the damage. Unfortunately, many of the flowers and berries have been destroyed by these past few nights of hard freeze. While this diminishes our early harvest, I still have hope for a later crop if the weather doesn't get too hot too fast. Most of the plants that spent the past few days and nights under row covers are still kickin', although they are a little crispy around the edges. The plants that were not under row covers, however, are looking mortally wounded. Fortunately, I use lots of row cover! What remains to be seen, though, is the effect the ups and downs in temperature will have on the plants in the coming weeks. They may bolt to seed because of the stress...We'd better eat fast!

The Construction Project Continues

Although he is carefully avoiding making any promises, Joe says he may be done with the new layer house next weekend, provided we can find some used tin for the roof. This means I can get a batch of meat chickens in just a few weeks. We ate our last chicken from the fall batch of broilers this week, and I think having a freezer with no tasty chicken inside is spurring Joe on, through wind and cold, to finish this project! This time I am planning to try broilers from a hatchery 90 minutes north of Greensboro called Pure Quackery. They are working to build a regional food system by providing chicks to farms within driving range of their hatchery, and I would like to support them instead of purchasing chicks from a national hatchery. Check them out at Purequackery.com.

The Mercury Drops

Our farm once again looks like a strange research plot, with everything swaddled in layers of row cover and piles of straw. I have done all I can do to protect the plants from the upcoming record cold temps. Everything in the field now is technically cold hardy, but plants lose their hardiness in extended hot spells like the one we have had for the past two weeks. I am also concerned about plants bolting prematurely to seed in this erratic weather. We'll see how everything fares in the dry ground, 20 degree nights, and scathing wind...

Potato Planting

All of the seed potatoes are finally in the ground! Hurray! This year, I planted a variety of potatoes supplied from Wood Prairie Organic Farm. Read all about Carola, Caribe, Reddale, and Rose Gold at woodprairie.com. We should be eating new potatoes by early July.

Strawberry Blossoms

Honey in the Making

While we won't get to dine on these salad greens that have gone to seed, the honeybees are certainly relishing them. A neighbor has a hive of bees in the woods just down the hill from our house, and I love watching them gather pollen from whatever happens to be blossoming. On warm spring days like today, there is a bee super-highway straight from the hive to the garden!

Sad Day to be a Pea

I am sorry to report that the past two 20 degree nights have knocked off (or "rubbed out," as they would say in Some Like it Hot, which we watched last night) most of the sugar snap peas. However, the shelling peas, as you can see, made it through with flying colors (mostly green). I was able to protect the strawberries somewhat with a thick layer of straw, but they definitely lost a few blossoms.

Joe at Work

Joe is building a new chicken house for our ladies. Right now, they are living in the broiler house, and I want them to have their own quarters soon so that we can raise another batch of meat birds this spring.

Early Season Lettuce

Good Neighbors

Our neighbor Dean bought a tiller for his tractor this spring. He has saved me days and days of work with my ancient walk-behind tiller by preparing a place for me to plant potatoes. Gotta have good neighbors in the country!

What to do with your Veggies

I hope all of you enjoy your early spring veggies. If you are a less-than-extraordinary cook (like me) or just looking for new ways to cook seasonal produce, I highly recommend getting a copy of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. It is a thick, comprehensive, and completely usable guide to cooking with fresh vegetables. Unlike lots of vegetarian cookbooks, this one doesn't focus on funky, hard to find ingredients or complicated meal preparation. Bon Appetit!

Winfield Farm

Our good friends Rich and Kristy Church raise pastured pork at Winfield Farm in Cole Ridge. They are working on a website, and in the meantime, you can see where your sausage comes from by checking out their Local Harvest listing at

http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M15479

Eating Local vs. Eating Imported Organic

A friend emailed this article to me this morning; it is an interesting investigation of the debate between eating locally and eating organic foods that have been transported long distances.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1595245,00.html

Bed Prep

I took advantage of this beautiful day to prepare a few beds for spring planting. The crop in the foreground is rapini, known to discerning chefs as broccoli rabe. It is a cleansing winter cover crop for the soil, and tastes great, too.

Charley

It's a rough life, guarding all of these vegetables...

The Ladies

Our new chickens are just beginning to lay. We put up an electric fence to keep the garden safe from the chickens, and to keep the chickens safe from foxes, coyotes, opossums, weasels, and stray dogs. They are loving the free-range life!

Springtime

I have been busy preparing beds and planting seeds. Although we have had some very cold nights, everything seems to be coming up well! Right now, I am hoping to have vegetables for our customers by the beginning of April.

Welcome to the Farm

Welcome to my new farm blog! I'll do my best to keep it updated with pictures of what is going on around here. You are always welcome to visit in person, as well!