the tiny little farm at Tulip Tree Hill

my new hero

2012-01-23T07:33:00.000-05:00

Favorite quote: "I don't do anything I don't want to do unless I have to... and I don't have to. So there we are."

From her father: "Ruth it's good to think for yourself, but just once in a long time couldn't you think like other people?" Her response: "Like who?" He changed the subject.

"What I feel I know for sure is, do what you want to do and don't tell other people how to behave."

peep

2011-10-31T12:59:00.000-04:00

The new batch of silky peeps arrived a little over a week ago and are now ensconced in a pen in a corner of the greenhouse, a heat lamp keeping them warm. If all goes well, they ought to be old enough to start laying eggs in March or April. In the meantime, they're awfully cute!

quack

2011-10-23T15:42:00.000-04:00

the merry band of crazy ducks

The ducks are eight weeks old, but I'd be surprised if their brains were bigger than a pea. Crazy is what they are - nuts. The more I'm into farming and raising animals, the more I realize there are very good reasons for many common terms. In this instance, ducks are daffy. Living cartoons. Looney-tunes, as a matter of fact.

On the upside, they are maturing rapidly and in another two to three months should start laying eggs for market. Duck eggs are excellent for baking and custard-making. And since (like my chickens) these girls will be living on pasture, they're more nutritious than any you could ever find in a store. Not that you're likely to ever see duck eggs in a store, but that's not the point. The point is, they're good for you. And just plain good. Rich and thick, with deep orange yolks.

soon there will be more

2011-10-09T15:02:00.002-04:00

Today I placed an order for twenty-five blue silky peeps.

i'm back

2011-10-05T15:57:00.000-04:00

I guess I pretty much took the summer off from blogging, but now that fall is here in full swing and things are happening at a much more manageable pace, you can expect to see more of me.

For the first time in my life, I took a two week vacation and went to a little cabin in the adirondacks. It was a much-needed time for relaxation and serious reflection. Decisions were made, soon to be acted upon.

When I left my hill for the mountains there were forty silky chickens in residence. There are now seven. Apparently there was a nearly wholesale massacre in broad daylight. Chicken carcasses scattered all over the pasture. Neighbor dogs are suspected. Nothing will be said to the neighbors, however, because there is no proof and I'd like to keep up good relations. And anyway, it could have been any dogs, not necessarily theirs. What is odd is that neither the sheep nor the geese were harmed. Perplexed is what I am. Well, that and very, very sad.

Thankfully the ducks were ensconced in the greenhouse on grasshopper patrol and so were spared. Yes, ducks. As in twenty-one Khaki Campbells. Just six weeks ago they were adorable little balls of fluff with shoe-button eyes, black bills and webbed feet - now they are a nearly grown, quacking mob of insect predators. While I've said I wouldn't get ducks again, these girls are for egg production and so should earn their keep. They'll be moved to their winter pen in the next couple of days so that the greenhouse can be seeded for fall/winter greens.

That's it for now. There's more going on here but I'll save that for another day.

pea shoots, crisped pancetta, and mint vinagrette

2011-05-26T20:25:00.000-04:00

I have to try this one. I have the pea shoots, the mesclun, and the mint. All I need to do is get some pancetta from market tomorrow.
http://www.marthastewart.com/print/316305

my week

2011-05-01T09:52:00.000-04:00

It's been quite awhile since my last post. First, allow me to begin by saying, absolutely, that I am not complaining! However, I've been a little, shall we say, stretched lately...

Monday: Left for Tractor's Supply at 6:45 a.m. to get there when they opened. I desperately needed tetanus anti-toxin so the tails of the newest lambs could be banded. The meat chickens also needed food as did a freshly hatched bunch of silky peeps. Also made a stop at the bank. Arriving home, all the animals had to be fed and watered and then I needed to return a tractor borrowed from my sister who lives two miles away. Next, I planted 120 seed potatoes before harvesting for Tuesday's market. The workday ended at 8:20 p.m.

Tuesday: Loaded up the truck and headed off to market at 6:15 a.m. Left there at 3:00 and went to Home Depot for materials to make a hanging basket display at market. When I got home, I checked the soil and found it still a little too wet, but with more rain on the way, decided to roto-till anyway. Quit when it became too dark to see, about 9:00.

Wednesday: Planted an additional 240 seed potatoes along with 60 feet of sunflowers and put in 180 lettuce, 1,000 onion, and 200 swiss chard transplants. Quit about 8:00.

Thursday: Trellised and suckered a row of tomatoes and began pulling up a used-up bed of baby lettuce mix in the greenhouse in preparation for planting cucumbers. Harvested for Friday and Saturday's markets. Got back in the house early, around 6:00.

Friday: Left for market at 5:45. Market ended at 4:00, but I hung around to put up the hanging basket display until 5:00 when the market was holding a party. Stayed until 6:30, then came home and spent an hour harvesting some additional items for the next day.

Saturday: Left for market at 6:00 and stayed until 2:00. Back to Home Depot for more display materials. Came home, took care of the animals, poked around a little bit and then crashed until 7:00, when my sister called to see if I wanted to go out for ice cream with their family. Yes, please. Got back home and went to bed.

Today: I still have an awful lot to get accomplished, but believe I'll just ignore most, if not all of it until tomorrow morning, when it will all start again. *

*I really should get my asparagus patch put in since more rain is expected for the next three days. And those cucumbers are still calling my name - they need to be planted too. But first, I need to tighten the belt on the tiller. Sigh.

ready to garden yet?

2011-04-06T09:51:00.000-04:00

I finally sat down and updated the 2011 plant offering! Seedlings will be available at the Landis Valley Herb Faire, May 6-7. If you can't make it to the fair but would like some seedlings, you can contact me to make arrangements to pick them up here at the farm or at Central Market in Lancaster.

farm city

2011-03-25T11:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, I just finished reading this book and must say that it was wonderful! If you love small-time farming, urban farming, or farm animals (especially raising them), then I think you'll love it too. It's nearly enough to make me want to move to the city to start farming there. Nearly, but not really. I love the countryside too much for that, but if for some reason I found myself in the city, I also might find myself following a similar path.

Check it out...

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

bees

2011-03-19T07:59:00.000-04:00

I lost my bees this winter. My first hive. From the looks of things, it seems to me they might have starved. There was maybe a cup of honey left at the very top. There also weren't many bees there. It's a mystery. This was in the top bar hive that I built last year. Perhaps they didn't store enough honey, perhaps the queen died and they lost their purpose? Who knows. All I know is I'll wait at least until next year to try again. I have to get my nerve back up. I'm still and probably always will be a recovering be-phobe. But a bee-phobe who is looking for all the pollination help she can get and who wants to eat her own honey. So give me a year and we'll have another go at it.

Now, about the top bar hive...
The idea is to allow the bees to build their own comb, hoping that they don't attach it to the sides, so the bars with comb attached can be lifted out. This is supposedly healthier for the bees. BUT - when I checked on the hive and found everybody dead, I took all the comb out and the girls had attached it everywhere. Had I wanted to harvest any honey while the hive was active, it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible. So in addition to getting my nerve back up, I also have to re-think the hive situation and come up with a plan.

interesting...

2011-03-02T07:01:00.000-05:00

farm products

2011-02-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

From time to time, I'll be posting about Tulip Tree Hill farm products that are available direct from me (the farmer) to you. This time it's lamb. The next time it might be machine-washable lambskins, wool roving for hand spinning, yarn, eggs (chicken or goose), live animals, or an assortment of fresh produce. For now it will need to be picked up here at the farm. Once I'm at market, we can make arrangements for pick-up there (except for live animals, never them there, if you know what I mean).

At any rate, I now have grass-fed lamb available for your freezer or dinner plate. Raised naturally on mother's milk, pasture, hay, free-choice sheep minerals, water, and sunshine. Weaned in their own time. That's it, no extra feed additives, hormones, grains, etc. If you buy an entire lamb (as burger, chops, and foreshanks), the cost is $8.66 per pound. If you'd like to buy individual cuts, the ground lamb burger is $8.00/pound and chops (shoulder, loin, and leg) are $12.00/pound. Processing was done at a USDA certified butcher shop and all meat is shrink-wrapped and quick-frozen for maximum freshness.

Now, I must say, here is something I wasn't anticipating...

That's right.

Eeewww.

I was told they're a delicacy.

Seriously.

I think I'll pass, thank you very much.

Now you just let me know if you'd like some nice grass-fed southern Lancaster County, PA lamb.

You can even have the boy bits if that would make you happy.

to market, to market... and a farm update

2011-02-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

Good news - this week I was given the nod of approval from the Board of Directors of Lancaster's Central Market, and barring any unforeseen incidents will be a standholder starting April first! I feel both excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I love going to market with beautiful produce, talking with customers, and all that it entails. Trepidation, because this is a big commitment. Market is open three days a week (all year around) which allows just four days to do all the growing and harvesting. I anticipate that during the height of the season I'll be working seven days a week. Hopefully that will be offset by a much lower workload during the winter when growing slows down and it is mostly about harvesting what was sown in the fall.

What's been started so far...
Planting for the spring season started in late January with a couple of flats of lettuce. Not too much to start with since I still didn't know if or when I'd be able to start at market. Now that a decision has been made, it's full steam ahead!

In the first week of February, rosemary, lavender, and alpine strawberries were started, some to be sold as seedlings, some to be planted here on the farm. Greenhouse tomatoes and peppers were also started in soil blocks - seven varieties of sweet peppers, four of hot peppers, and three types of tomatoes. The tomatoes are growing like gangbusters and will probably need to be moved from my kitchen to be planted in the greenhouse within the next two weeks. If they grow like last year, they should hit the market stand at the end of May!

In the second week of February additional lettuce was started. This year, I'm growing eight varieties - a red and green type each of butterhead, leaf, summercrisp, and romaine, which makes for a very pretty display and an even more delicious salad!

This week, bee balm, thyme, oregano, hanging basket tomatoes, and rhubarb (all mostly for seedling sales) was started in soil blocks, as was more lettuce. Beets, turnips, swiss chard, mustard greens, pak choi, tatsoi, and spinach, was seeded directly into the greenhouse beds to be grown for market.

Seedling sales...
We will once again be attending the Landis Valley Herb Faire May 6-7 as vendors. We'll have over 25 species of herbs, including lemon grass and stevia along with many culinary favorites; luscious alpine strawberries; rhubarb; celery; artichokes; red roselle; cotton; 6 varieties of eggplants; 12 varieties of sweet peppers; 6 varieties of hot peppers; 16 varieties of tomatoes; 11 varieties of melons; 3 varieties of cucumbers; 4 varieties of summer squash; and hanging baskets of tumbling tom tomatoes and everbearing strawberries. With the exception of the hanging baskets, all of the seedlings are heirloom open pollinated varieties which offer superior flavor, promote genetic diversity, and allow for home seed saving.

Other news...
The silky bantam peeps that hatched on new years are doing great. They, along with the adults have been moved out of the greenhouse and back into the barn since the greenhouse is now back in production. Hopefully with the lengthening of days, the adult hens will start laying again - their eggs have surely been missed around here.

Speaking of eggs, the geese have started nesting and Griselda has laid her first egg of the year.

The sheep are also doing well, eating their fair share of hay and growing wool like nobody's business. I need to make an appointment for the shearer to come pretty soon. The remainder of last year's lambs finally went to "freezer camp". Certainly it was a tough decision, but a necessary one. On the plus side, this means that we have lamb for sale, both chops and burger; and in a couple weeks, lambskins - nothing goes to waste.

2011-01-14T07:41:00.000-05:00

"Before the seed

there comes the thought

of bloom."

E. B. White

Today I am placing this year's seed order. There has been much thought of bloom and growth for the past week in preparation.

new arrivals for the new year...

2011-01-03T16:34:00.000-05:00

peeps in the winter greenhouse

The silky hen did her job and hatched ten of the twelve eggs she was sitting on. She's now showing them the ways of the world, escorting them around the greenhouse, looking for bugs and other tender morsels. Another hen has decided she would like to start her own family, and after giving her a few eggs she immediately settled down into that oddly determined, glassy-eyed, nearly hypnotic state they get when brooding. Good times.

why, hello there

2010-12-09T13:13:00.000-05:00

Once again it's been awhile since my last post, but here we go...

New spinach beds, protected by row cover and plastic. At the far end will be the hoophouse.

Winter is officially here and I am. not. ready. Shocking, right? The used hoophouse purchased in September is still not up. Good grief. I don't think I know anyone who can procrastinate like me. However, on Saturday my brother-in-law and my sweetie will be here to help and we intend to get that puppy up. I'm hoping my fall-planted spinach survives until then. It's been cold.

Happy silkies in the greenhouse.

broody hen

The greenhouse still needs to have the last of the summer plants cleaned out. Hard to imagine, but I was still harvesting tomatoes last week - in an unheated greenhouse! This recent onset of cold weather however, has done them in. A couple of weeks ago I moved the silky chickens out there until I got around to planting for early spring production. As a side bonus to procrastination, they have had a blast pecking around, finding weed seeds and bugs to eat while scratching up the dirt. They will be able to have free run of the place while I get the beds ready for planting, but once seeds start going in they'll have their own pen - still in the greenhouse, but contained so they don't kill the new seedlings. They love the sun and the warmth, and I love hearing their contented clucking while I work. One of the hens has decided she'd like to sit on eggs and so I gave her a dozen to take care of. They should hatch right before New Years and be ready to start laying by June. The chicken's pen in the barn has been converted to accommodate the geese. Their food and water bucket are in there and a corner has been set aside, ready for next year's brood of goslings.

The great wall of leaves.

In other news, sweetie has been collecting bags of leaves for me. I'll use them next year as mulch around garden transplants. The battle against weeds starts now.

DIY mixer repair

2010-09-21T09:27:00.000-04:00

That's my KitchenAid mixer. Scary looking, isn't it? Don't be frightened though, it's not as bad as it might seem. Although I will admit that at first I thought this puppy was a goner. You see, my sweetie tried to use my mixer with the food grinder attachment to grind ginger root. (For future reference and to save all of your mixers from a similar fate, this was not a plan. Ginger root should be grated by hand.) In the midst of grinding, the part that holds attachments and spins around suddenly stopped spinning. The motor ran just fine, but no more mixing, grinding, or anything else was going to happen any time soon. So I googled it and found out that it was probably a relatively simple and cheap fix. There is a sacrificial plastic gear inside the mixer so that if the going gets too tough, it fails in order to save the motor. Pretty cool, right? You can find directions here for doing this repair yourself.

Now that it's all apart and the new gear and food-grade replacement grease is ordered, it will be a matter of seeing if I can remember how to get it all back together again. Could be interesting.

By the way - the head of the mixer is packed with grease. What I found was that the grease had degraded pretty significantly, so it might be a good idea to take it all apart every several years and remove and repack the grease. One of those "can't hurt, might help" kinds of things.

But I'll tell you, it feels kind of good to have a quality piece of equipment that can actually be repaired (by me, no less) rather than having to throw it away like so many things today. I like that. Hopefully with good maintenance and no more ginger grinding, this mixer will last me for the rest of my life.

a wonderful little book

2010-09-15T07:27:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. And while it has absolutely nothing at all to do with farming, I feel the need to share it with you. A gem of a book, it has many little pearls of wisdom in it that are quite thought provoking. At least for me. Have you read it? What did you think?

and now applesauce

2010-09-14T19:19:00.000-04:00

This week my friend wanted to make and can applesauce. This time I seriously put my foot down and said I'm not helping and you need to use your own kitchen to do it.

Two minutes later I gave permission to use my kitchen as long as he cleaned up afterwards. But I held firm on not helping.

An hour after he started with the apples on day one, I insisted on not helping, but would keep him company.

By the end of the day, I was helping. I made him do all the cleanup though.

On day two, I helped from the beginning and at the end of the day also helped clean up.

There are now nearly a hundred quarts of applesauce residing on my kitchen table.

Today, he overheard me telling someone I like pickled red beets...

auction items

2010-09-08T16:52:00.000-04:00

Today I went to an auction at a greenhouse/farm market that went out of business. Sad to see them go as I've enjoyed shopping there for many years. But at the same time, they had a lot of good stuff for anyone involved in greenhouses, market gardening, farm stores, and the like. I spent what is to me, quite a lot of money, but it was all for things I'd planned on buying anyway. This way I spent about half of what I would have if purchased new.

I bought what I hope to be all the 4.5" pots I'll need for next year, some shade fabric, a hoophouse, some produce tubs, and two seedling carts. All told I spent nearly $900, and the biggest ticket item was, surprisingly, the carts at $300 each. The hoophouse I got for very nearly nothing since the only truly useable part of it is the rafters. Even so, I paid a small fraction of what I otherwise would have.

I am now exhausted, but it was a very, very good day.

morning song

2010-09-08T06:53:00.000-04:00

I awoke this morning to the sound of a fox calling, a screech owl trilling, and a bullfrog croaking. A most beautiful chorus that I never tire of.

canning continues

2010-09-03T08:45:00.000-04:00

Peaches.

We put up 100 quarts.

Three bushels, when I specifically asked to do just (?) two.

At least there were four of us this time. My sister and her husband helped and we did it at their house.

Still took all day.

Now there's talk of applesauce.

God help us all.

a battalion of soup

2010-09-01T18:53:00.000-04:00

Do you know how much soup three bushels of tomatoes makes? Ninety two quarts. Yup, 92. Nearly a hundred. I know this from recent, first-hand experience. And it will take me a long time to recover mentally, emotionally, and physically. If I ever do, that is.

How did this happen, you ask? I'm still wondering the same thing. Just the week before, a friend and I bought, prepared, and froze twenty dozen ears of sweet corn. You'd think I'd learn from that, but apparently that's not the case. So when he calls and says he knows where we can get all the roma tomatoes we want, free for the picking, and do I want to help make tomato soup, my good sense deserted me and I said yes. The field of tomatoes at the bottom of my road was being mechanically harvested and so mister gregarious that he is, he stops and asks if they'd mind us picking up what the harvester left behind. They happily agreed, and so in less than an hour, we collected our three bushels. That, my friends was the easy part. We then spent the better part of two days making and canning his mother's tomato soup recipe. By the end of the second day, I was alternating between whining, being snippy, and begging to please just throw the rest away. So then when he went out at eight o'clock at night to get "just a few more" canning lids, I officially quit. Cracked open a beer and a bag of tortilla chips and sat down with a book to read. That's how he found me when he got back and that's where I stayed until he was done. It was either that, or hurt him. Bad.

Oh yes, the soup is good. Outstanding, in fact. And everyone we know is getting tomato soup for Christmas. Just saying.

Now somehow, against my strenuous protests, I find myself going along with plans to can peaches tomorrow. I seem to have lost my capacity to say no and mean it.

an overturned (cast) sheep

2010-08-25T06:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Mayapple's two lambs kept calling and calling. After about five minutes of that, I went out to see why they couldn't find their mother. Seeing her in the pasture, I thought she was laying down, but then realized that she was on her back, legs sticking up in the air, looking quite dead. A sheep can die fairly quickly if they roll onto their back and are unable to right themselves. Their rumen (stomach) compresses their lungs and unable to breathe, they suffocate. As I got closer, I realized she was still breathing, just very shallowly, and so quickly helped her onto her stomach. After trying to get up and failing, she laid there panting heavily for about 15 minutes. Finally, she tried again to get up, this time succeeding. A bit wobbly, she walked away from me to her now-relieved lambs. She can thank them for saving her life.

Mayapple is the same ewe that nearly died this spring from a bad case of pregnancy toxemia. Poor sweet girl, she's having such a bad year, I just wanted to give her a hug. But while friendly enough, she's not a hugger.

farm update

2010-08-20T06:30:00.002-04:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted anything! I blame it on spending time with friends, both new and old; weeds and their desperate and evil desire to get the best of me; and lack of anything that seemed important enough to warrant a post on its own.

On the bee front:
As you may know, with a hive of bumbles in the greenhouse for pollination and a hive of honeybees for honey and field pollination, I am a recovering bee-phobe. Not quite there yet, but making headway. Or, at least I was, until a few weeks ago. Deciding to clean up some old wood, I disturbed a nest of yellow jackets. After much swearing, running, arm flailing, and finally jumping into the shower to get them off me, I was stung five times. Not that bad you say? I beg to differ. I am still jumping at the sound of buzzing. That little incident probably set me back a year in my relationship with bees. At least. As a result, last week a friend volunteered to inspect my hive for me. He borrowed my jacket and hood, but the tyvek suit was too small. "Not a problem", said he, "I'm not afraid of bees". Long story short, the bees were in a foul mood and he was stung at least ten times. Never having been allergic, he didn't worry until he started having trouble breathing. I gave him three Benedryl and after about an hour, he started getting better. Come to find out later, after hearing his symptoms, his doctor said he nearly died. We can just consider this another year of set-back with bees, okay? However, my friend's not a quitter and so asked me to order him a tyvek suit. Now, armed with an epi pen he is ready to tackle hive inspection once again. Maybe this afternoon. God help me.

Sheep:
The flock is doing great. Everyone is healthy and thriving. Due to a reduced pasture size, heat and drought, I've found it necessary to feed hay. No lambs have been sold yet, so it looks like they may be going to the butcher at the end of October. If you like lamb and are interested in some for your freezer, let me know.

Poultry:

There are now seven remaining silky chickens here. Out of 25. Twice, I forgot to close their door at night. The first night, twelve chickens disappeared. The second time, another six were taken. I blame foxes. And of course, myself. I've been way too distracted lately.

The geese are doing well. Several goslings were sold and just one remains. Unless sold by the end of October, he'll be butchered.

To round out the year's supply of meat, my plan is to get some broiler chicks in the next week or so and have them ready for processing at about the same time as the gosling and lambs.

Market garden:
I've officially lost the battle with weeds in most of my new plot. Probably the best course of action at this time is to mow it and start prepping for next year while vowing to do better. The greenhouse is chugging along and producing well. Fall and winter seeds were ordered and have arrived. Planting will start up for those crops next week. A little late, but still okay.

So that's what has been going on here on the hill. I've been distracted in the best possible way, but as a result, things have run a bit amuck. Time to buckle down and get back to business.

eggplant caviar

2010-07-31T06:12:00.000-04:00

This is a wonderfully quick and easy recipe. Serve on a hearty, crusty bread.

1 large or two small eggplants
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon dried)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to broiler setting.

Wash eggplant and pierce the skin several times with a fork. Place on a baking sheet and broil on center rack of oven for 10 minutes. Turn and broil an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly.

Split eggplant in half and with a spoon, scoop pulp into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse briefly, just until smooth. Add onion, olive oil, dill, salt and pepper. Pulse only until mixed. You don't want to puree or further chop the ingredients, just blend them.

That's it! You can serve this warm or chilled. Another variation would be to roast some garlic on the bottom rack of the oven while the eggplant is broiling and add it to the mixture.

busy day last week

2010-07-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

First, I took myself off to the Kirkwood hay auction and bought a load of grass/alfalfa mix hay. I would have preferred straight grass, but the sheep have eaten the pasture down to a nub and so I took what I could get. Very nice stuff, but the problem with the added alfalfa is that it's more expensive and it has stems. My sheep don't eat stems, you see, so there's a lot of waste. Once they have selected all the soft and tender bits, all that's left in the manger are stems. Then they scream at me to bring them more of the good stuff and of course I comply. Have you ever been in a barn full of angry screaming sheep glaring balefully at you? (Try it sometime and get back to me.) Heading home from the auction I was followed by the very nice gentleman whose load of hay I bought. He then backed his truck up to the barn and threw the bales in to me while I stacked them six high. Over 3,000 pounds of hay, 82 bales, 90 degree heat and high humidity, with hungry sheep screaming for lunch and three cages of roosters and a hen voicing their displeasure. I never thought I'd make it.

happy, hungry sheep

I came in the house covered with sweat and hay chaff and immediately got in the shower. Then loaded up the three cages of roosters in my Bug and headed off to Roots small animal auction, feeling like a traitor the whole way. You see, I've had two of those roosters for several years and we've always gotten along quite well. They didn't have a mean bone in their bodies and always took good care of their hens. But, they wouldn't stay out of the greenhouse and market garden. They've eaten tomatoes and scratched up seedlings. Instead of roosting in their own pen, they chose the rafters of the barn, defecating on anything below. And they refused to stay out of the dog's yard. So although it hurt my heart to do it, I took them to be sold. Tough decision and I'd like to say the right one, but I'm still not clear on that. Things are certainly more peaceful here without the constant (and I do mean constant) crowing of four roosters, each trying to assert their aural dominance. What's left are only the silkies that came as peeps this spring. They can't fly over fences and barn stall barriers, or up into the rafters, making it much easier to keep them contained. There are 25 of them, several are roosters, a few of which will make that same car ride to the auction. What I hope to end up with by autumn is a nice-sized flock of silky hens with two roosters. A flock that stays in the pasture and their designated pen in the barn.

young silky chickens (please ignore the fact that my barn needs to be painted)

'tis the season

2010-07-14T19:45:00.000-04:00

For my all-time favorite sandwich in the whole world...

The BLT.

The combination of flavors and textures adds up to something that I look forward to from the time that vine-ripened tomatoes are over in the fall until they return again the next summer. Now, let me just say for the record - I do not and will not eat BLTs made from grocery store tomatoes. Period. Amen. They may look similar, but they have none of the complex flavor or juicy goodness of a tomato with the good fortune to fully ripen on a vine whose roots have sunk themselves deep into the earth. And that's all I have to say about that.

Back to the most delicious of all sandwiches ever...

Start with your favorite bread, preferably toasted, and spread a liberal amount of mayonnaise all over it. Please don't be stingy. And don't worry whether this will be messy - it will be. Go with it.

At this point you'd normally add the lettuce part of the BLT. I'm using sunflower shoots instead. Because I can. But more importantly, because they're tasty. They have the green crunchiness of lettuce, but with an added nuttiness to the flavor. You should seriously try them.

Okay, so now add slices of those luscious orbs,

And top it with bacon.

My goodness I love this sandwich.

Heaven on a plate.

With a side of home-brewed mint iced tea.

vermicomposting, continued

2010-07-11T15:11:00.000-04:00

I've been adding shredded paper and kitchen scraps to the worm bin and although materials kept being added, volume did not seem to be increasing. Taking this as a potentially good sign, I decided to take a look at things this morning. Much to my dismay, there seemed to be fly larvae in the bin along with some gnats. Ugh! The last thing on my agenda is to contribute to the population increase of flies in the world. Googling this issue, it appears that what is co-existing in the bin alongside the worms are actually "black soldier fly" larvae. A very good thing, if that is indeed what they are. From what I've gathered, black soldier flies are increasingly being used to compost kitchen waste and - bonus! - their mature larvae can be used very effectively as fish or chicken food. Check out Black Soldier Fly Blog if you're curious or want to learn more. Another bonus to having these guys in the worm bin is that they seem to repel house and other pest species of flies. As adults, the black soldier flies live only long enough to breed and reproduce (a few days) do not eat, buzz, or try to get in the house. They don't even really look much like flies. From what I can tell, there is no downside.

But back to my original question this morning - how are the worms doing? In a word, great! They are making their way through the bin, munching as they go, and the bin gives off a mild, moist, slightly earthy smell. Perfect. Now, next on my agenda will be to build a larger, moveable wooden bin that can be kept in the greenhouse in the winter. Looking through YouTube videos, I came upon a pretty good one here. Not sure when I'll get it done, but now I have a plan of action.

summer harvest bolognese

2010-07-09T06:36:00.052-04:00

Some of the best fresh vegetables of summer are brought together in this one dish. If you like pasta, you'll love this.

ingredients:
8 tablespoons olive oil
1 large eggplant (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into half inch pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 sweet pepper (ribs and seeds removed), finely chopped
1 zucchini (about 8 ounces), quartered lengthwise, then sliced 1 inch thick
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 pound lean ground beef
1 quart fresh tomatoes (about 2 pounds), peeled and torn or cut into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 pound penne pasta (or your favorite shape, after all, they all taste the same)
parmesan cheese, shaved or grated

directions:

In a five quart saucepan with a lid, heat six tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat, add eggplant and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the pan and reduce heat to medium. Add onion, sweet pepper, zucchini, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables have softened, about 7-10 minutes.

Add ground beef. Stirring to break up the meat, cook until no longer pink.

Add tomatoes, oregano, and reserved eggplant and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 25 minutes until sauce is thick and eggplant is tender.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta, and cook until al dente according to package directions. Drain and serve topped with sauce and parmesan cheese. Some crusty bread would be perfect alongside this dish.

Enjoy!

Note: This recipe makes enough for eight people. When I made it, I cut it in half and saved the extra veggies for another day.

rumtopf, part 2

2010-07-08T12:16:00.001-04:00

Just added sweet cherries to the ~~rumtopf~~ brandy pot!

cucumber mint sorbet

2010-07-08T06:35:00.001-04:00

I have quite a lot of cucumbers, and my mint patch is no slouch either. Pondering how best to use some of the excess, I wondered if there were any recipes online for cucumber sorbet. Lo and behold, there were many! Of course, I fiddled around with them and what follows is the result...

You'll need an ice cream maker, cucumbers, mint leaves, sugar, and water. That's it.

Make a mint-infused simple syrup by combining one cup water, 2 cups sugar, and a large fistful of fresh mint leaves in a saucepan. Bring it to a slow boil on medium to medium-high heat and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not walk away from your pan as it can boil over pretty quickly if you're not paying attention. (Don't ask me how I know, just trust me on this one.) Using a slotted spoon, remove the leaves from the syrup and allow it to come to room temperature. Peel and roughly cut up three cucumbers, removing the ends, because sometimes they're bitter. Put them in a blender along with one cup* of the cooled syrup and blend until smooth. Strain into a bowl and refrigerate until cold. Pour this green goodness into your ice cream freezer and process according to the manufacturer's directions. That's it! Serve in a pretty dish and garnish with a mint sprig if you're feeling fancy.

It's an icy-cold, refreshing essence of summer on a spoon.

* You'll have some mint syrup left over. Feel free to use it any way you like, but it's a nice way to sweeten ice tea. Keep it refrigerated and use within a week.

the bucolic plague

2010-07-07T15:07:00.000-04:00

Don't you just love that title?

So do I, which is why I bought this book...

This week, I read said book. And enjoyed it very much.

It's not really about farming so much as it is about two guys that fall in love with a mansion/farm, buy it, and get in over their heads. It's light entertainment and a quick and easy read.

rumtopf

2010-07-05T05:47:00.002-04:00

I recently learned about rumtopf and thought it sounded like a fun project. Rumtopf literally means rum pot and is a method of preserving fresh, ripe seasonal fruits and berries. I don't like rum and so am using brandy instead. So I guess what we've got here is actually a brandy pot. This is a long-term project, with fruit, brandy and sugar being added all summer, then allowing the whole thing to steep until the holidays. I started with strawberries and then added blueberries, red raspberries, and black raspberries. Somehow I missed out on sour cherries, which is too bad, since they'd probably make a very nice addition, plus, I really like them. And see all that sugar at the bottom of the jar? I don't think it's supposed to settle like that without melting. Hopefully I didn't mess it up.
If you are curious to learn more, check out this page which goes into detail about how to make your own rumtopf. Or brandy pot. Whatever.

roasted squash

2010-07-02T06:38:00.002-04:00

Roasting is quite possibly the very best way to bring out the nutty flavor of young squash. And then served over a bed of linguine tossed with garlic pesto is just good eating.

First, cut some squash into half inch slices. Any nice young squash will work. I used Costata Romanesco zucchini, Yellow Zephyr squash, and patty pan squash. If the patty pans are small enough, you can roast them whole. Keep in mind that everything will shrink down while roasting, so don't make your pieces too thin.

Next, toss the squash in a bowl with some olive oil and coarse salt. Don't be afraid to be generous with the olive oil, after all it's good for you, right?

Now, arrange the squash on a roasting pan and bake in a pre-heated 350° oven for about 15 minutes or so. Check on them frequently to make sure they aren't getting too brown. To make things easier for yourself, use either parchment paper, quick release foil, or a silpat sheet to line your roasting pan so these guys don't stick.

Remove from the oven and enjoy! They are a nice side dish to a good steak or, as I had them here, with linguine and garlic pesto. Yum!

the latest arrivals to the farm

2010-06-30T17:09:00.000-04:00

Why, now, what could possibly be in this box?

Too small for lambs, not enough ventilation for chicks, I already have every kind of bee I need or want.

How about...

Worms!

A pound of red wigglers, to be exact.

These guys are used in something called vermicomposting, where you have worms, bedding such as shredded newspaper or dead leaves, and kitchen waste. Add a little water and some time, and you get beautiful compost for your garden. Some folks keep them in a ventilated plastic rubbermaid tote bin under their kitchen sink. Mine are temporarily in a bin, but in the garage. Long-term, I'd like to build them a wooden box that could be kept outside in the summer and either in the garage or the greenhouse in the winter, but more research is needed before box construction can begin. I'd like to design it in such a way that it's easy to remove the finished compost without disturbing the whole works.

How did I happen upon vermicomposting? In a slightly convoluted way as things often are. I was surfing around he net, looking at what some other market gardeners are doing and growing and became intrigued by the possibility of growing fraises des bois, gourmet alpine strawberries. Searching further brought me to The Strawberry Store. And there I learned about the worms.

From what I understand, a "tea" can be made from the vermicompost which is then sprayed on plants. Multiple benefits are touted from this concoction. It should be an interesting process, from worms and waste to improved plant health and vigor.

I'll keep you posted.

(and yes, I also ordered fraises des bois seeds)

garlic pesto

2010-06-27T16:33:00.000-04:00

There is an overabundance of garlic scapes hereabouts. I've roasted them with potatoes, sauteed them with vegetables and taken them to market, but still I'm inundated. Then, I came across this recipe. Or more accurately, a recipe very similar to this one but with a couple of changes.

Anyway, if you like garlic, give this recipe a whirl. This stuff is good on crackers as well as linguine.

And by the way, the season for scapes is almost over. If you'd like to try this before next year, you gotta hurry!

Garlic Pesto
This pesto keeps very well, covered and chilled up to 3 days or frozen up to 2 months.
Ingredients:
1/2 pound garlic scapes (about
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly shredded pecorino cheese or other hard sheep's milk cheese
Preparation:
Trim and discard garlic bud. Finely chop garlic scapes, rinse thoroughly and pat or spin dry.
In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, cook vegetable oil, garlic scapes, and 1/2 tsp. salt until soft, about 3 minutes. Let cool to warm room temperature.
In a blender or food processor, pulse pine nuts to chop. Set aside. Add garlic scapes and process, scraping down sides as necessary, until bright green and smooth. With motor running, drizzle in olive oil. Pulse in reserved pine nuts and cheese. Taste and add more salt if you like.
Makes enough Garlic Pesto to coat 1 pound linguine.

making a tough choice

2010-06-21T23:48:00.000-04:00

After giving it serious thought, I've decided to bail on the Willow Street Growers Market. I feel bad about it, I really do, but there simply aren't enough customers. I would harvest in the morning, and then spend the better part of the day at market, only to see so few customers and correspondingly few sales, then bring most of the produce home to throw on the compost pile. Sadly, it's been a waste of time and resources. However, an upside to quitting Willow Street is that it frees up almost an entire day. A day that can be spent getting the garden into better shape - weeding, planting, mulching and trellising. A day that can be spent making art. So it's all good. And of course, I'll still be at Lancaster's Eastern Market on Saturdays from 9-2. If you're in the neighborhood, stop in and say hello!

this week's market offerings

2010-06-11T20:40:00.000-04:00

peppers

salad greens

eggplants

broccoli

white, red, and golden beets

braising mix

cut flowers

diva cucumbers

rose gold potatoes

garlic scapes

romaine, leaf, and buttercrunch lettuces

summer squash

pac choi

potted herbs

sungold tomatoes

spinach

kale

fresh roasted vegetables

2010-06-08T06:23:00.002-04:00

golden beets, rose gold potatoes, garlic scapes, patty pan squash, rosemary, sungold tomatoes, and zephyr squash.

What started as a desire to try some of the fresh garlic scapes from the garden turned into a full-blown meal of fresh roasted vegetables. Scapes are seriously seasonal and available only for a short time in late spring/early summer - now, so if you want to try some, you gotta find them soon. Wanting to allow the flavor of each vegetable to come through while still working together as a whole, I decided to roast them. Or, at least finish by roasting them. Here's how...

Take a small handful of scapes and some young beets, cut them all into bite-sized pieces and toss in a bowl with some sea salt, a pinch of pepper, and enough olive oil to coat. Spread out on a shallow pan and put them in a 350° oven to roast for about a half hour (I like golden or albino beets for this since they won't turn everything red). As they're roasting, cut up some new potatoes into one inch chunks and boil them until barely done. (Or better yet, use baby potatoes and boil them whole.) As that's happening, heat olive oil in a skillet, slice up some young summer squash about a quarter inch thick, and saute them with a little salt for about 4 minutes until golden brown but also barely done. You don't want to overcook either the potatoes or the squash since they are both now going to be added to the roasting pan along with a handful of cherry tomatoes and a couple teaspoons of minced rosemary. Toss everyone together in the pan, making sure to get everybody coated with olive oil. Roast for just a few minutes more to meld the flavors and finish cooking. Whatever you do, don't overcook the veggies because that's just disgusting.

Yes, several of these things are early, but with the greenhouse, I'm able to get a jump on the season. Of course, other fresh vegetables would also work. Use what's available to you. For instance, I think scapes and asparagus would be great roasted together, maybe served warm on a bed of spinach with a little vinaigrette.

please allow me to clarify... acceptance

2010-06-06T09:11:00.001-04:00

I never meant to sound complaining in that last post. Perhaps rather than "resigned", the word I should have used was "acceptance". It's a bit like giving myself permission to relax a little about self-imposed schedules and expectations. Okay, so the new plot looks like a golf course with it's lovely inch-high cover of crab grass, interspersed with orderly rows of crops. On the upside, when the kale was harvested yesterday, it was very clean due to it's crab grass carpet. And while the mulching and weeding will all get done eventually, things may look a little rough in the meantime. The farm might not look picture-perfect, weedless, and pristine this week, month, or even year, but that is my eventual goal. It's the image I keep in my head and the filter through which I see things when looking around. A place of production and beauty. Rich, healthy soil brimming with nutrients, teeming with life, bringing forth healthy food, while being lovely to look at. That's where I want this to go. Eventually. In the meantime, I'm accepting that not everything will get done and it won't always look nice. But - the food is healthy, the work is good, and this is where I want to be.

resigned

2010-06-03T19:50:00.000-04:00

Planting, weeding, mulching, pruning, trellising, harvesting, marketing. Repeat endlessly.

I. will. never. be caught up.

Resigning myself to that, I now feel better.

market season begins!

2010-05-29T20:45:00.000-04:00

This week was the start of the market season for 2010 and also, for me. The verdict? I had a blast! While the Willow Street Growers Market was a bit slow, Eastern Market was hopping. I love the energy of that place and it's people.

Taking my cue from one of today's customers, I decided to make a salad for dinner tonight. Buttercrunch lettuce, chopped cucumbers, strawberries, Sungold tomatoes, and basil, all tossed with balsamic vinegar.

wow.

It just doesn't get much better than this. At least for now. Until the next great salad comes along, that is.

checking on the bees

2010-05-26T16:45:00.000-04:00

View of the hive after opening the bottom vent board. Please note the ginormous cluster of bees. (Oh, and also the cork that is still in the third entrance hole.)

The hive was installed over five weeks ago. According to the barefoot beekeeper, I should have checked on them and moved the dividers out to give them more space about four weeks ago. Did I? No. It was one excuse after another: too busy, too scared, too rainy, too scared, too cold, too scared, didn't have my tyvek suit yet, too scared, etc. In my defense, however, I have been peeking at their hive (from a safe distance) quite often. Lots of bees going in and out, seemingly normal activity, and so it was easy to put off. Then last week while doing my peeking, I saw hundreds of bees clinging to the outside of the hive near the entrance holes - like they might be running out of room. So after four more days of excuses, today was the day - warm and sunny, just the type of day that makes bees happy and content, with most of them out foraging for honey. Looking at what now seemed to be a couple thousand bees clustered on the outside of the hive, all I could think was "Most of them gone? How could this be the minority?" If the thousands of bees still in and on the hive are any indication, then clearly the queen lived and is laying eggs like gangbusters. She is one fertile mama.

So I made up a batch of liquid bee smoke, donned veil, jacket, gloves, rubber boots, and the new tyvek suit and walked that long, lonely walk to the end of the driveway where the bees live. Wow, was I hot. And a little claustrophobic. Even without the tiniest bit of skin showing, it was still unnerving. So first thing, I sprayed the liquid smoke on the cluster at the front of the hive as well as every bee flying anywhere nearby, then I released the bottom vent door and sprayed the bees that somehow managed to get in there. Kept spraying as I removed the roof. As a matter of fact, let me save time and just say that I really didn't stop spraying. Did I overdo the spray? Quite possibly. Most probably. Almost definitely. But it did seem to work.

So how were the girls, you ask? Well they've been busy. Busy building and filling comb. They even built comb on the dividers which wasn't a good thing since I was going to remove them. Since they were in use and full of bees, any one of which could be the queen, I moved them to the ends of the hive so that they at least have more room in there. Hopefully that won't mess them up too bad.

In retrospect, I quit too soon. I should have taken the opportunity to see if they have brood comb and honey comb built on different bars. I should also have removed the cork from the third entrance hole to give them more room to come and go. But quite honestly, when ninety percent of your brain is occupied with thoughts of an imminent bee attack, little details are easy to forget.

In conclusion, there are a couple things I'd like to say:
First - so far the bees seem to be thriving all by themselves without any help from me, thank goodness.
Second - if I can do this then nearly anyone can. So if keeping bees is an idea you've toyed around with, go for it!
Finally - that cork is staying right where it is and the bees will just have to deal with it.

By the way, is it just me or does that bottom vent board seem like a bit of a ramp for rodents and ants?

planting frenzy

2010-05-22T08:06:00.000-04:00

I have been in a planting frenzy this week and I'm not done yet. Most of the new garden plot has been planted with cut flowers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, cucumbers, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, swiss chard, and raddichio. Today I plan to put in corn. Next on the agenda is getting everything mulched in an effort to keep down weeds. I need to go visit my neighbor to see if he still has straw for sale.

Both the Willow Street and Lancaster's Eastern Market start up next week which is pretty exciting. Oddly enough, with the exception of lettuce and perhaps radishes, most of the harvest will be warm weather (greenhouse) produce. It looks like I'll have tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. Oh, and maybe sunflowers and peppers, too. Weird, but so much time was spent in the greenhouse that many of the typical spring crops just never got in the ground or were put in late. Seems as though it's been a constant game of catch-up, but this latest round of planting should bring things back up-to-date.

325 square feet of cut flowers

spring sunshine!

2010-05-13T10:39:00.002-04:00

Is it just me, or do others feel a bit giddy when the sun comes out the morning after several days of rain?

Landis Valley Herb and Garden Faire

2010-05-10T13:07:00.000-04:00

I spent Friday and Saturday in a most enjoyable way - in the company of a new but good friend while we sold heirloom herb and vegetable seedlings to possibly the nicest people in the world. The mood was relaxed and happy, everyone was smiling, and I had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful folks. In all my various endeavors, I have never felt as comfortable as with people who garden. We come from all walks of life, from college students, to urban professionals, country dwellers, and retired folks, but we share one thing in common - the love of growing food. Egos and agendas are left elsewhere while ideas, information, recipes, and growing tips are freely shared.

So thank you to everyone who stopped by. It was a pleasure.

back on schedule? one can only hope.

2010-05-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

So I bit the bullet and rented a riding rototiller. They delivered it early this morning and by eight a.m., I was out there tearing up sod with this baby. For four hours. Non-stop. First, I went back over and completed what was started with the walk-behind version. Next came the potato and bean plots. Last, I prepped a plot that won't see any actual use until 2011. In the meantime, it will be planted to a cover crop of mow-down alfalfa which is supposed to help break up compacted soil while also adding nitrogen to the soil. A win-win.

With the major tilling completed, planting should get back on schedule. Flower, tomato, cabbage family, melon, and cucumber seedlings can now all go in along with potatoes, beans, and soon, corn. With the exception of shoots for salads, I've given up on peas this year, it's just too late to start them any more. Ah well, moving on.

Later today I'll mark out beds and add amendments. Then tomorrow morning will be dedicated to planting. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be loading up seedlings for the Landis Valley Herb and Garden Fair on Friday and Saturday. Looking forward to it.

for your viewing pleasure...

2010-05-02T11:51:00.000-04:00

Mayapple and her lambs

lamb races

Rosebud's little boy

Aster's little girl

chickens

the goose family

sad, sad

2010-04-30T12:13:00.000-04:00

This morning I found Apricot's baby dead in the barn. Last night she was nursing and getting around nicely, Apricot was taking good care of her, and all seemed well. The only answer I have is that perhaps she got too close to Aster and her baby and got butted up against the wall. Not something I expected since I spent quite a bit of time observing and Aster who is normally the most gentle and mild of all my sheep didn't seem to mind sharing quarters. But then this morning I witnessed her giving Mayapple's white ram lamb quite the shove into a fence when he got too close outside. So now Aster and her daughter are alone in a paddock just to be safe. And no, I'm not angry with her, but I am disappointed in myself and saddened by the needless loss.

Apricot is calling for her baby almost non-stop and there's nothing I can do for her.

Another hard lesson learned.

lambing is over. gardening, not so much

2010-04-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Rosebud gave birth to twin babydoll lambs, a white ram lamb and a black ewe lamb. And today, Apricot (Aster's bff) had a black babydoll/shetland mix ewe lamb. So the count this year is six lambs - three boys and three girls. I'll probably take pictures tomorrow or Saturday, because just between you and me, newborn lambs are a bit homely for the first day or so. Sort of like a scrawny little kid wearing a sweater three sizes too large that just fell in the pool and had to be hauled out. (And not a clean pool, either.) After they've dried off, warmed up, and had a bit of mother's milk in them, they are ever so much more appealing. Sorry, but it's true.

In between watching and waiting for Apricot to have her lamb, I was able to plant most of the new herb garden today. I'll finish it in the morning and then I'll tackle some of the main garden beds. I hope to get potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, peas, radish, carrots, turnips, and salad greens planted. I might even get some corn in, but that's fairly doubtful. Some of these things are so incredibly late getting in the ground, but if I work hard the planting schedule will be back on track.

Greenhouse veggies are coming along nicely. Tomatoes are setting fruit and the potatoes are blooming. I'm hoping to have both of these on my market stand in early June. I might not have anything else, but by golly I'll have tomatoes and potatoes!

right on schedule

2010-04-27T09:14:00.000-04:00

rainy days and blessings

2010-04-26T19:42:00.000-04:00

It rained all day today and so I spent it in the greenhouse in a desperate attempt to get caught up on seeding. Part of the reason I'm so far behind is the seemingly constant rain. Just about every time the ground is nearly dry enough to work, it rains again. And so you know what's going to happen, don't you? I'll finally get things planted and then we'll have a drought. I just know it. Or it'll keep raining and drown everything. Or, or, something else bad. Sorry, dreary days kind of get to me, especially when I want to be outside.

So let's look at this, shall we?

This is Aster's new baby girl. Does your heart good to see something so precious, right? This pretty young thing is a result of Sweet William, my babydoll ram, breaking down a fence and having his way with my shetland ewes.

Oops.

But look at the result.

How could I be mad at William for that?

I don't have it in me.

have you found a mind? I seem to have lost mine...

2010-04-25T06:16:00.002-04:00

Midway through prepping this new garden plot, I gave serious consideration to the possibility that I may have lost my mind. This space is 48' x 108' and after two hours of wielding a behemoth rototiller, it is still not complete (please note that lovely green strip of grass that remains). I had to stop because I thought my arms might fall off. Next time I get the one that comes attached to a riding mower. And there will be a next time because there are at least two more plots to prep for next year. As for this year, I am so seriously far behind in my spring planting that the idea of getting caught up seems like an unbelievable piece of fiction in a bad novel.

So what made me question my sanity you ask? Walking behind that monstrous piece of machinery as it belched smoke while emitting an ear-splitting racket, I wondered, not for the first time, if all this is just so much fantasy on my part. Can I really earn a living on this tiny little farm? Will I be able to do all the work that needs to be done myself? And what if the answer is no? Am I burning bridges that would best be left intact? Have I, in fact, lost my mind? It's a distinct possibility.

spring = new life

2010-04-24T09:11:00.001-04:00

Especially on a farm (no matter how small).

lambs...

Mayapple and her twin boys

chicks...

a mix of blue silkie peeps

seedlings...

in late summer this will provide sweet and luscious watermelons

and soon to come,

goslings

and more lambs

and more seedlings.

happy earth day!

2010-04-22T07:02:00.001-04:00

"To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves."

Gandhi

they're coming...

2010-04-21T13:30:00.000-04:00

shipped yesterday, arriving tomorrow

Funny how much I'm looking forward to their fuzzy little selves.

after the festival

2010-04-18T22:39:00.000-04:00

I had a great time at the Pennsylvania Herb Festival! But there are two things - first, although I took my camera along, I also completely and totally forgot to take any photos to share with you! (Bad blogger! Bad!) Second, I am simply exhausted. It was non-stop activity all last week, starting with dealing with all the little details preparing for the event, loading up Thursday night, unloading and setting up then manning the booth on Friday, loading up additional plants Friday night, unloading on Saturday, manning the booth, and finally tearing the booth down, driving home and unloading one more time. Not complaining at all, but whew!

I met the most wonderful people at the festival, had some very interesting conversations, and sold many seedlings. All in all, it was well worth my time to be there. Oh, and bonus - I bought a nice little bay leaf tree which I'll pot up and grow in the greenhouse along with my meyer lemon and persian lime trees.

The next event will be at Lancaster's Eastern Market for the May Day celebration. A much smaller event to be sure, but looking forward to it since the emphasis is on gardening and, of course, local produce. After that it will be the Landis Valley Herb and Garden Faire, Friday, May 7th and Saturday May 8th. Then we settle into market season starting Thursday May 27 at the Willow Street growers market and Saturday, May 29 at Eastern Market. Both of these run all summer through the end of October.

I'm looking forward to it all!

PA Herb Festival

2010-04-16T05:30:00.000-04:00

a table of seedlings in the early morning haze of the greenhouse

Today is the first event that Tulip Tree Hill farm will be attending as a vendor - the Pennsylvania Herb Festival. It runs from noon until 7 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow. We'll have a booth full of heirloom herb and vegetable seedlings. Some unusual stuff, too, like artichokes, licorice, and cotton as well as more "normal" offerings. More normal would be 23 different varieties of tomatoes in all sizes and colors, many sweet and hot peppers, eggplants, cabbages, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, lettuces, broccoli, and numerous herbs. And how about Thai Red Roselle? It's flower buds are a key ingredient in Red Zinger tea. Fun stuff, folks!

Be sure to stop by and say hello!

the buzz

2010-04-15T09:24:00.000-04:00

The bumbles have arrived!

Inside this cardboard box is a sealed plastic insert that contains the bees. Upon arrival, all I had to do was lift out the insert, remove the lid from their sugar water feeder, replace the insert, and slide open that little blue door to let them out. Easy, do-able, and not very nervous-making. No special bee suit or equipment needed.

The bumbles are here in the greenhouse to pollinate the tomatoes, peppers, summer squash and lima beans. They aren't absolutely necessary, but supposedly the vegetables will be larger and more prolific because of them. However, since this is my first year growing in a greenhouse and I'm adding bees right away, there will be nothing to compare it to at the end of the season and I won't really know if they helped or not. But, they came highly recommended and so here we are. Coexisting. Hopefully peaceably.

I think that probably only my sister is able to comprehend how huge this is. Because you should have seen us as kids, hearts racing, adrenaline pumping, running for the house, flailing our arms and screaming whenever a bee chanced our way.

the making of the hive

2010-04-11T08:35:00.000-04:00

If interested, you can download plans for building your own top bar beehive at the Barefoot Beekeeper web site or go directly to their download page for their free e-book. Although I found the plans to be a bit confusing, that could just be me. However, after I read their book, it became much clearer. I would definitely recommend reading the book before attempting to build your hive.

Certainly recycled lumber could be put to good use in making this hive but I didn't have any and besides, not two miles from here is the most wonderful lumber mill with friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable folks. Groff & Groff lumber is the type of place you want to go if you enjoy working with wood, especially beautiful or unusual wood. I went there hoping to get fir, but that's one species they don't carry. After a brief discussion about my project, they suggested going with cypress as an easy-to-work, slow to decay wood, good for outdoor use.

sending the cypress through the planer

While the plans make it clear you can successfully build the hive using hand tools, I love power tools. With that said, I am at best somewhat ambivalent about the table saw and the chop saw. Since these are tools that could cause serious bodily injury, I'm always very careful and slightly nervous when using them. But if that keeps me from loosing a finger by becoming complacent and sloppy with safety measures, then I'm okey-dokey with that.

ready to send a board through the table saw

I actually don't have any sort of step-by-step instructions or photos of the hive making process, but mostly just wanted to share where the plans came from. As construction was underway, I did modify a couple of things which added some time to the process. Most notably, the roof. In the plans it was just a flat roof covered with rigid plastic or roofing material. I decided to go with a peak style and made it out of cypress, covering the center seam with aluminum flashing. Function combined with beauty, you know?

There is one thing I would change if I had it to do over, or if I had allowed myself more time, and that is adding an observation window. It would be great to be able to observe what's going on in there without having to actually open it up and upset everyone.

One more thing... check out top bar bee hives on YouTube. There are some very interesting and helpful videos there.

If you do decide to keep bees and build your own hive, good luck and have fun. Oh, and you might not want to wait until the bees are about to ship before starting construction. Just saying.

The finished hive the morning after installing bees - you can see some of the girls at the entrance holes. I haven't yet cleaned up the package debris, but will most likely do that tonight after dark so I don't have to don the bee suit.

sunbeams and stingers

2010-04-10T13:56:00.001-04:00

"The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams."

Henry David Thoreau

the new hive

This week, in between potting up seedlings, meetings, bottle feeding lambs, and repairing winter-damaged fencing, I finally made my top bar beehive. I first heard about this non-traditional type of hive in a Mother Earth News article last year and then learned more from the book The Barefoot Beekeeper. I put the final touches on it on Thursday evening, moved into location on Friday morning, and got a call from the post office late Friday afternoon that my bees had arrived, and would I like to come pick them up? Of course, I promptly jumped in the car and went to get the latest livestock for the tiny little farm.

Oh dear.

One thought... was it too late to change my mind? Yes? Oh. Okay. So I brought them in the house, put the package on my office desk and closed the door. Then I went into the kitchen and made a batch of fondant as well as some sugar syrup for them to eat in case there aren't enough flowers blooming just yet.

So this morning as soon as it warmed up a bit, I decided to buckle down and install the girls in their new home.

But first I took the syrup and fondant out, then decided the bottom ventilation board needed a hinge after all and so added that, thought that the roof/lid should have eye hooks to secure it, painted one one more coat of beeswax/linseed oil sealant on the roof, brushed my hair, and gave the dogs a fresh bowl of water. Pretty much doing everything I could to delay the moment when I would intentionally open up a box with, oh, about 4,500 bees in it and not run for my life, screaming and flailing my arms. Seriously.

After giving myself a stern talking to about bucking up, I suited up and donned my bee jacket and veil, rubber boots, long pants secured with rubber bands at the bottom, and leather gloves. All the while wondering why on earth I hadn't bought the Tyvek suit.

still safely in their package

that's right

Carrying them out to the hive brought me to the moment of truth. I sprayed them with sugar water, sprayed inside he hive, sprayed the bees again, and began prying off the lid. Lid off, the bees still couldn't come out until after either the queen cage or their sugar can was removed. I carefully removed the queen cage and slammed the lid back in place. All the YouTube videos I watched said to check to make sure the queen is alive. Looking into the cage, I was surprised to see several bees in there. But it did seem as though one was a bit bigger and longer. After prying off her lid and placing her cage in the hive (Where it shall remain until the end of time. Amen.), I once again sprayed the bees, then knocked the box against the hive to make the bees drop to the bottom. Moving quickly now, I removed the sugar can, turned the box upside down and began dumping bees into the hive.

They were mad.

Really, really mad.

About to panic, I walked calmly away until we could all calm down a little bit. And got stung on my leg.

What's surprising is that I walked back. And finished up by gently brushing bees out of the way so the top bars could be put back on. Then I quit. I'll wait and go back out tonight after dark to put the roof on because the girls and I had about as much togetherness as any of us could handle for a little while.

here they are - if you look closely, you can see many of them still in their package, crawling all over the top bars, and at the entrance holes

So I did it. I opened up that box of fear and shook out a couple thousand bees. On purpose. And lived.

I feel good about that.

Now I need to go rest.

Then I need to order that Tyvek suit.

how was my day, you ask?

2010-04-02T07:52:00.000-04:00

I am in the midst of potting up over 1,000 tomato seedlings - taking all the teeny, tiny, little soil blocks and transplanting them into four inch pots. It all looks good on paper, then reality kicks you in the ankle in the form of thousands of seedlings that all want to be planted now. I'm doing it as fast as I can because they're not waiting for me to catch up. I asked nicely if they could pause a bit in their rampant surge of growth, but without even deigning to answer, the little buggers just keep growing. And waiting not so patiently behind them are all the other little sprouts eager to move up in the world. Add to that everything else that desperately needs to get done around here now that spring has moved in, and let's just say I'm a tad frazzled. But in a good way, if that's possible.

So after an early morning spent potting, the plan was to head out to a gallery to deliver a couple pieces of art. To add to the frazzle factor, when making my way through the barn, I realized Mayapple had delivered a little black lamb and was in the process of delivering a white one. This was a tough pregnancy for May and so I jumped in to see if the little squirts were alright. They're tiny, much smaller and thinner than they probably should be and so I spent quite a bit of time making sure they dried off and got something in their bellies. Unfortunately, May is exhausted and has little care for her newborns. None of the three of them, mother and sons, are out of the woods yet. So unless she quickly recovers her strength, I may end up supplementing the boys with bottles.

In between checking lambs, I also managed to get more tomatoes potted before having to clean up and go to an evening meeting at another gallery.

Today was a perfect example of the trichotomy of my life these days - plants, animals, and art. I love it. I am where I want to be, I think. Even if frazzled.

P.S.

Griselda the goose has gotten down to the business of sitting on her clutch of ten eggs. They ought to hatch about April 27th.

farm update

2010-03-26T21:43:00.001-04:00

flora...
An awful lot of seeds are being sown into soil blocks and many, many seedlings are being potted up right now. This is the big push to get everything seeded in order to be ready for herb fairs and spring planting. Since the garden soil is still too wet and too cold to do any planting outside, all the work is in the greenhouse, which is a really nice place to be this time of year.

and fauna...
Once again the sheep are naked, having been set-upon by the shearer last week. Two of the ewes are confined to the barn where I can keep a better eye on them as they both had a bout with pregnancy toxemia. I think they'll be alright, but I won't be able to relax until the lambs arrive.
Griselda the goose is still laying eggs but shows no inclination to start sitting on them yet. Seems like she should by now, but it also seems I think that every year about this time.
Chickens - what can I say? With six roosters and just three hens, things are seriously out of balance. One of these fine Tuesdays I need to take three of those roosters for a ride to Roots farmers market where they have a small animal auction. It's something that should have been done last fall but I put it off and then winter hit. Hopefully a more reasonable hen-to-rooster balance will be restored once the silky peeps get here.
Of course we musn't forget the bees. Honeys will be arriving in early April and bumbles will be ordered as soon as the greenhouse tomatoes start taking blooming seriously.

It seems almost as though the tiny little farm is holding it's breath, waiting, in anticipation of all of the new life soon to burst forth... seeds, lambs, goslings, peeps... bees.

Soon, soon.

an ordinary, decent egg

2010-03-22T20:10:00.001-04:00

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
C.S. Lewis

kiss the ground

2010-03-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

"Let the beauty you love

be what you do.

There are hundreds

of ways to kneel

and kiss the ground."

rumi

new boots

2010-03-18T07:05:00.001-04:00

Got a new pair of green sloggers boots. Cute, right? And perfect for spring mud gardening. Wild and crazy as I am, I also bought a new pair of their garden clogs. My old pair was too small. They didn't used to be. I think my feet are growing. Widening out. Perhaps for better stability?

my favorite meatloaf

2010-03-17T07:30:00.000-04:00

Never having liked meatloaf much as a kid, I enjoy the heck out of this recipe. It has some of my favorite things - rosemary, for one; and carmelized onions for another. If you enjoy these as much as I do, hold onto your hats because you're going to love this loaf.

Get started by preheating your oven to 400°. While that's happening, peal and thickly slice one large sweet onion and saute it until it's golden brown in a little olive oil on medium high heat. Add a couple tablespoons of water and continue to saute until the water evaporates. Take the pan off the heat and set it aside.

Next, remove the crusts from three slices of bread, tear them up into cubes, put them in your food processor and process until turned into fine crumbs. Pour into a large bowl.

Now, roughly chop up a stalk of celery, half an onion, and a carrot and put them in your food processor along with a half cup of fresh parsley leaves, and 2 peeled and smashed cloves of garlic. Pulse the processor until the vegetables are minced, but be sure to stop well short of making a puree. Add to the bowl of bread crumbs.

Into your bowl, add a half cup of ketchup, two teaspoons dry mustard, two eggs, two teaspoons salt, one teaspoon ground pepper, one teaspoon hot pepper sauce, a half teaspoon chopped rosemary, and a half pound each of ground veal, pork, and beef. Mix with your hands just until everything is combined, but be careful to not over-mix. You don't want a dense and heavy loaf.

Get a piece of baking parchment or tin foil about the size of a loaf pan and put it on a rack in a roasting pan. This will keep the meat loaf from falling through the cracks, so to speak, while allowing the fat to drain away. No greasy meat loaf here! Place your mixture on the parchment and form it into a loaf. If it hangs over the edge a bit, that's fine.

Here comes the good part...
Mix together three tablespoons of ketchup, one tablespoon dry mustard, and two tablespoons brown sugar. Smear this all over your loaf. Now, take those beautifully carmelized onions and put them on top of everything.

Bake for a half hour and then sprinkle rosemary needles on top. How many? Depends on how much you like rosemary. I like it a lot. Return the meat loaf to the oven and continue baking for another half hour or until a thermometer reads 160° when stuck into the center. Allow to rest for fifteen minutes before serving.

Some thoughts and suggestions:

The quality of this delectable meat loaf is dependent on the quality of the ingredients. Do try not to skimp. Fresh parsley is crucial, and fresh rosemary makes a big difference. Making your own bread crumbs is also important. I've made this loaf using dried ingredients and it's still pretty good, but can't hold a candle to one made with fresh ingredients.
I simply can't get enough of the carmelized onions on the top, and so use the largest onion I can find.

soil blocks

2010-03-12T07:05:00.019-05:00

I'd like to introduce you to my new favorite product - soil block makers. I never thought I'd like them as much as I do, but they're simply a wonderful way to start seedlings.

Here is the smallest soil block maker. It makes twenty, teeny tiny little 3/4" blocks, with a small divot on top to drop your seed into. since the blocks are so miniscule, quite a lot of potential new plants will fit onto a tray.

See? On this one tray, 200 herb seedlings have begun their lives. Look at those giant ones - that's borage. Now, once the seedlings are big enough, they can be "potted up" to a larger soil block. What I've found works for me is to wait until the first set of true leaves has just begun to show. That way, the little guys will have some roots, but not so many as to be a problem.

When making your blocks, start out with a peat-based potting soil, then add enough water to make it good and wet. It should be somewhere between peanut butter and cake batter. Since you're adding all that water, use a flat-bottomed tray or tub or pan of some sort. I have found it easier to use more water rather than less. The blocks seem to hold together better.

This is the two inch block maker. It makes divots the right size to drop the 3/4" blocks into. So now that you have a big mound of wet soil, push the tool into the soil firmly and pack as much in as it will take, pushing on the handle to firm everything up.

When you lift it out, it should be tightly packed with soil.

Now, place it on the tray, squeeze the handle and lift up. You should have a nice row of four blocks. Repeat until you have as many as you need.

Lifting the little seedling either by its leaves or its block, drop it into the square hole.

That's it! Here is the same borage from above, but now residing in two inch square blocks with more room to grow.

before and after

Seedlings that are going to be sold will be transplanted into four inch pots so they can have a really strong root system before going to their new homes. Also, putting them in pots makes them more transportable. But the ones that will be planted here will go from the two inch blocks right into the ground. This will keep my garbage can from filling up with disposable plastic pots.

goose egg custard

2010-03-10T06:47:00.001-05:00

Teague and Griselda, my American Buff Geese, are once again earning their keep. They've started filling their nest with beautiful eggs, some soon to become custard and others, eventually, goslings.

My all time favorite recipe for these beauties is goose egg custard. With the higher fat and protein content, what is usually considered a delicate recipe is a breeze. It's quick, easy and most delicious! I first posted this recipe a year ago, on my studio blog, but it's definitely worth repeating here.

Baked Goose Egg Custard

2 goose eggs

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups milk, scalded and cooled to room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

nutmeg

- preheat oven to 325°

- beat eggs slightly

- whisk in sugar and vanilla

- add milk slowly while whisking

- pour into a lightly greased casserole

- sprinkle with nutmeg

- set in larger pan with 1" hot water

- bake 50 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden

Enjoy!

planting peppers

2010-03-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the day I decided to transplant pepper seedlings into their bed in the greenhouse. I had six each of seventeen varieties, and having planned it out well in advance, knew I had exactly enough to plant a double row in an 82 foot bed. NOT having written it down anywhere, I seemed to recall that the spacing between plants was one foot. As I was planting, I thought "my, they look terribly close", but happily kept right on going. When over half of them were in their new homes, I looked up and realized that I was not yet halfway down the row. Ooops. Quickly doing the math in my head, I realized the spacing should have been 18 inches between plants. Thinking how lucky it was that I had not yet watered them in, I started over. When I was done, I had maybe about four feet of empty row left. Clearly this was not my day for math. Too bad, because planting something twice is my limit. And besides, I'm sure I'll be able to find a way to put that extra row space to good use.

Lesson for the day: When planning in advance, write it down for future reference. And use the flippin' calculator.

I want to see this movie

2010-03-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

more good news

2010-03-05T07:06:00.002-05:00

I found out yesterday that Tulip Tree Hill has also been accepted into the Landis Valley Herb Faire as a vendor. Whew! Happy day! What a load off my mind. Of course, there are still details that need attending to, but at least I know that there are now actual outlets for all these seedlings I've been starting.

The herb faire is May 7-8 at the Landis Valley Museum, just outside Lancaster, PA. It's a big deal and folks come from all over to buy not just herbs, but also heirloom veggies, flowers, and all sorts of related whatsits. Oh, come on, take a little spring vacation and make a long weekend of visiting Lancaster County. I know you'd like it if you came.

Aunt Ruth's bread recipe

2010-03-04T10:36:00.000-05:00

I'm starting a recipe section, but so as to not leave behind some of my favorites, I'll be pulling them from my studio blog where they originally appeared. Apologies to those who've read them before.

"Without Bread all is misery." —William Cobbett, British Journalist (1763-1835)

My Aunt Ruth makes the best bread ever. Amongst all my aunts, uncles, and cousins, no one else can touch her. Several years ago she gave me her recipe and I've been making bread off and on ever since. It still doesn't quite match her level of deliciousness, but it's pretty good. It's your basic soft white bread, good with just butter or some home made jam - especially when it is still a bit warm from the oven. And since this recipe was freely given to me, I thought I'd pass on the love.

I use my KitchenAide mixer with the dough hook, but Aunt Ruth sure never did. So feel free to mix and knead the traditional way.

Aunt Ruth's Bread Recipe

Into a large mixing bowl, add 2 cups warm water (about 110°F).

Start the mixer on low speed and add the following:

1 3/4 tablespoon shortening (butter, lard, or crisco [ick])

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon yeast that's been dissolved into 1/2 cup warm (110°F) water

6 cups flour, adding just one cup at a time.

Add only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking excessively to the bowl. I'll usually add 5 cups and as it's kneading only use as much of the last cup as needed. The dough should be soft and shiny and elastic. It's probably better to add too little flour than too much. Too little just means it will be a bit harder to handle. Too much and you'll ruin the texture of your bread.

When finished kneading, place in greased bowl and turn over to oil the other side. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double. Punch down and let rise until double. Using oiled hands, divide into two, shape into loaves and place in greased pans. Let rise again until double.

Bake at 375°F for 10 minutes, then 325°F for 15 minutes.

Remove from pans and allow to cool on racks.

If you're feeling feisty, you can exchange honey for the sugar. Also consider adding some crunchy wonderfulness to the mix. You'll want to add this stuff right before the flour. I've used as many as four or five of these at once. It turns a simple white loaf into something rich and hearty. But take note: these are my own additions, if you don't like them, don't blame Aunt Ruth. It's not her fault.

Here are some ideas:

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup red and/or golden flax seed

1/4 cup white and/or black sesame seed

1/4 cup poppy seed

1/3 cup wheat berries (soak overnight first)

we're in the big time now

2010-03-03T20:10:00.001-05:00

So this is the big announcement... drum roll please...
Tulip Tree Hill is the featured seller at doleaf for the first two weeks of March. What is doleaf you ask? Well, in their own words, doleaf is "A place to connect with and buy from specialty nurseries and independent garden centers." That's right, now you can buy all the plants you want without ever leaving the comfort of your own home and garden. Great news for those of you who are hermits, or even those who live halfway across the country (or all the way, for that matter). Because if you've been drooling over thoughts of sun-warmed Bloody Butcher tomatoes sprinkled with Lime Basil, or icy cold Missouri Yellow Flesh watermelons, then you're in luck - no matter where you live.*

Of course if you're close enough, it would still be fun to meet you at one of the herb fairs if you can make it, and if not, you're always welcome to make arrangements to visit the farm. But if that's just not possible, then mail order is the next best thing!

Be sure to check out the really nice article that doleaf wrote about the farm.

*Unless of course it's in one of those states that has severe restrictions on plant importations, then sorry.

looking forward to spring

2010-03-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

Also looking forward to gardening. I'm hoping a lot of folks are because I got very good news today: it's official - Tulip Tree Hill has been accepted as a vendor at the Pennsylvania Herb Festival, April 16-17, in York, PA! The farm's first big event. Just six weeks away. Oh my. On one hand I can hardly wait, but on the other hand, the logistics make me more than a little bit nervous. My biggest issue will be the transportation of all those plants, I mean a VW Bug just isn't going to cut it no matter how cute it is. My plan is to rent a van, but even so, I'll need to figure out some sort of shelving or some such thing. If anyone has ideas, I'd be more than open to hearing them! But you know, somehow I do believe it'll all work out. That the many flats of seedlings will safely make their way to the festival and a good time will be had by all. And by all means, if you attend the festival, be sure to stop by and say hello!

thoughts of spring salads

2010-02-28T09:57:00.000-05:00

Here's something I found and wanted to share with you. Yugoslavian Red Lettuce from The Cook's Garden. Isn't it beautiful? After seeing the picture and reading the description, I just had to order a pack of seeds to try it out even though I already had all the lettuce seeds needed for this season. Here's what the Cooks Garden has to say about it...

Saved by a peasant family in Marburg, Yugoslavia, this beautiful butterhead is as decorative as it is tasty. Large, full heads grow to a foot across, with deeply puckered, apple green leaves tinged with pomegranate red. The buttery, succulent flavor pairs well with apples or strawberries for a sweet summer salad.

How can you resist that? Makes the mouth water, is what it does. Especially in the dead of winter when thoughts of fresh greens are dancing in your head.

If you haven't gotten The Cook's Garden catalog, check it out. Perhaps they don't have as big of a selection as some seed companies, but what they have is certainly appealing. And if you try this lettuce, let me know what you think of it.

you saw it here first

2010-02-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

The worldwide unveiling of the Tulip Tree Hill farm logo! (as though you care.)

I've been wanting to work on the logo and for months have had this idea floating around in my head and also on little scraps of paper littering my desk. Finally, this week I buckled down and got it done. It's very close to my sketches and so it must be good to let an idea percolate before proceeding. Or at least that's what I'll tell myself from now on as I agitate about personal tendencies towards procrastination.

At any rate, I'm pretty happy with the end result, however it came about, and am excited about using it on business cards, flyers, signage, you name it.

The new logo has been added to the 2010 plant list so if you haven't downloaded it yet, now's a good time. It's also the farm's new facebook image.

There's another big announcement coming up in the next couple of days. I don't want to spoil the surprise by saying more, but do check back to see what's going on.

early potatoes go in

2010-02-23T15:23:00.000-05:00

A cold and rainy day here today – such a contrast to the sunny weekend, part of which was spent in a t-shirt in the greenhouse, prepping and planting the first bed of the year with early Rose Gold potatoes. I started out by tilling the bed twice, before adding a bale of peat moss, some organic rock phosphate, greensand, blood meal, and bone meal. I then tilled it one more time, made a furrow, dropped in the seed potatoes at one foot spacing, and covered them up. Now we wait. Hopefully, this planting was timed so that new potatoes will be on the market stand by early June.

Next on the planting agenda are the tomato seedlings. A little early to put them in, maybe, but they are growing like nobody's business and need to get in the ground.

Also, in the next couple of weeks many of the seeds will be planted for seedling sales at the herb and plant fairs in York, Lancaster, and Quarryville. More details on those events later.

future residents

2010-02-16T15:07:00.000-05:00

I got busy this morning and made arrangements for some additional residents here on the hill.

First, chickens. Specifically, Blue Silkies. When you have truly free-ranging chickens, things happen to them. Often unpleasant things. Becoming dinner for hawks, drowning in the sheep's water tank, or falling behind a stack of hay and getting stuck there. Like that. It's sad to find the evidence of a mishap, and thankfully, so far I haven't become immune to it. After all, it should touch us when a creature in our care comes to a bad end. This past year was tougher than most for the chickens and just a remnant remains. And so thirty peeps will be arriving in early May. Silkies, because they can't fly over the fence and make trouble in the market garden. Plus, they're cute as heck. And hey, I need my animals to be aesthetically pleasing.

Next, something I've been pondering for the past year and a half - honey bees. These girls are at least as big a step for me as the bumbles. Although I won't have to work near their home on a daily basis like the bumbles, I will need to actually get into their hive every once in a while. At least once a year if I want any honey. I can see it now - I'll be bundled up like that little kid in "A Christmas Story", except in white. Should be a hoot.

oops, too soon

2010-02-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

I received a package today that wasn't expected until early April. Potatoes. Specifically, Russian Banana fingerling seed potatoes. When I placed my order, I accidentally selected early delivery on these puppies. I'll definitely be keeping what I need for planting here, but there are twenty extra pounds that were meant to be sold at the herb and plant fairs in the spring. Perhaps they will still look nice by then, but perhaps not (although, even if they don't look nice and are all sprouty, they'll still be good to plant). Sooooo, my mistake can be your gain! If anyone wants some Russian Bananas at a really good price, make arrangements to stop by the farm to pick them up. I'll be selling them for $2.50 a pound, and a pound of fingerlings will plant about twenty feet of row. Not a bad deal, really.

spring preparations

2010-02-10T11:18:00.003-05:00

Anxious to get started planting, but needing to wait for the proper timing, I finished three projects inside the greenhouse. All using salvaged lumber from old fencing here on the hill. Even though they are "new" pieces, they're pretty rough-looking due to the age of the wood. But since the only cost was some nails and my time they were a pretty good deal, really.

First, a potting/work table...

A heated transplant bed...

Wondering what those two pipes sticking up are? They hold up the heating unit in the southeast corner. There's a matching unit in the opposite corner. While these areas are awkward, square footage is at a premium so every nook and cranny needs to be used. Since the opposite corner is the shadiest and also the coolest (due to the attached barn), I've been pondering what to do with it. Now, with the likelihood of bumbles being part of the equation, that'll probably be their home since they need some shade in the summer heat.

And an unheated seedling bed...

The seedling bed will be used for starting leeks and onions, later to be transplanted outdoors. According to my self-imposed schedule, this seeding needs to start next week.

The main planting beds are marked out and ready to be prepared for planting - just as soon as the replacement belt arrives for the tiller. Maybe by the weekend, which is good since early potatoes are also scheduled for next week.

Seriously, all this talk of planting in the ground seems so very wrong when we are in the midst of our second blizzard within a week. This morning I re-shoveled a path to the barn so the sheep, geese, and chickens could be fed and watered. Looking out the window, it's as though the path was never there. Completely filled in. I'll be shoveling again for the evening feeding. If it weren't for the animals I wouldn't step foot outside in this kind of weather. I hate winter. Is hate too strong a word? Doesn't matter, it's true. Hate it.

hello, spring... are you there? hello?

2010-02-06T14:20:00.000-05:00

There is something like two feet of fresh snow out there and although slowing, it's still coming down. Not my idea of a good time at all. The sheep and chickens are huddled in the barn, not wanting to go out and risk getting stuck in a drift. The geese are seemingly happily sitting outside even though they can get in if they want. Weirdos. The dogs went out and played for awhile, bouncing around, enjoying the novelty of snow above their backs, but then came in shivering and covered in snowballs. As for me, after going out early this morning to make sure everyone had food and water, I came back in to quietly go crazy. Happens every year about this time, mid-January through February. A pressure from within starts building, the place deep inside of me that craves dewey mornings and balmy evenings, the scent of freshly mown grass, warm soil, and the feeling of sunshine on bare arms. Winter is to be endured. Spring, celebrated. I'm ready to celebrate. Past ready, really.

vegetables and the bees that love them

2010-02-03T12:20:00.000-05:00

I attended the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Growers Convention this week. So much information! There were educational lectures all day long as well as a trade show which was useful for learning about new products (and I also bought a very nice harvest knife and sharpener for about half what it sells for in catalogs). I'll tell you, since starting on this path of market gardening, there has been almost an information overload. So much to learn and know in so little time. And of course for once in my life I'm not starting out slowly, but instead am jumping in whole hog - so to speak. Of course, this is like heaven to me - I love to read, learn, and keep my mind busy. And busy it has been. For instance: just last week, I learned that a lot of folks use bumble bees in their green/hoop houses for pollination of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and squash. Exactly the summer vegetables I'll be growing in mine. Apparently it's better than hand pollination in increasing the number and size of the vegetables. But, I thought, how could a semi-recovering bee-phobe like me intentionally bring bumbles into my greenhouse? No Way, nope, not going to happen. Then yesterday at the convention trade show, was an exhibitor with a display of the little monsters... in a clear plexiglass box to better see them in all their gruesome glory. ick. ugh. eeeeeew. But as a recovering anything, sometimes you have to face your fears. And so I spent some time talking with the very nice bee woman and learning about her "product". Sigh. There could well be bumbles in this farm's future. We'll see.

life

2010-01-27T06:56:00.001-05:00

tomatoes

the roving band of hoodlums

2010-01-26T11:37:00.003-05:00

This morning, the dogs alerted me to the fact that we had visitors. Going to the door to see who was here, I found the local roving band of hoodlums in the driveway. Looking for trouble. As I went out to greet them, they laughed at me. I laughed right back. We stood there chuckling together for a few minutes before they decided to move along.

These guys have been seen hanging around the area for the past couple of weeks and I'm so happy they decided to stop in for a brief visit today. It's so nice to get company, don't you think?

I offered them a little corn and some chicken food, but they didn't seem all that interested.

'Bye guys, see you around!

got dirt?

2010-01-26T08:55:00.000-05:00

This is what my garage looks like right now.

planting for the future

2010-01-24T14:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the first of this year's seeds were planted. Each plug tray has 288 cells, and two of them are full of seeds now, so there are 576 future plants germinating on my kitchen counter.

Is it normal to love running your fingers through dirt? To love the smell of fresh, moist soil? It's almost as good as puppy-breath. And you dog lovers, you know what I'm talking about here. Smells that make you close your eyes, breathe deeply and sigh. Because for just that one moment, all is well with the world*. How could it be otherwise when innocent puppies and freshly sown earth both exist? So much potential, so much life waiting inside these tiny packages.

I started with the strawberry seeds. Ordered one hundred and was surprised at how small the packet was. And inside that packet was an even smaller glassine envelope. That's when I knew I was in trouble. Strawberry seeds are incredibly miniscule, and nearly impossible to pick up. And whatever you do, don't drop one - you'll never in a million years find it again. You know how the seeds in strawberry jam are so tiny you barely notice them? Until one gets stuck in your teeth? Like that. I poured them out onto a saucer and thought "there's no way there are a hundred seeds here." (There were 108.) And by the way, who's job is it to count and package seeds that are smaller than a pinhead?

Trees were also sown. Yup, trees. Planting for the future. With trees, you are often planting for the next generation. It's a different sort of feeling. First I seeded a couple dozen tulip poplars, or "tulip trees" as they're known hereabouts. Also going in were nearly a hundred apple trees. Un-named, open-pollinated seeds from trees grown from seed that came from Kazakhstan, which is believed to be the original source of all apple trees. After reading The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, I contacted the person at Cornell University who is in charge of the apple genetics program or some such thing. As the book says, he'll send seeds to anyone that asks. It must be true because he sent some to me. Now apparently open pollinated apple seeds do not breed true. In Kazakhstan, they grow as shrubs and big tall trees and everything in between. Bitter, sour, sweet, you never know what sort of apple you're going to get. So these seeds I got? They're a mystery. I'll be planting a bunch of seedlings here on fence rows and along the edges of the woods. The rest I'll offer up for sale along with all the other plants. But if you'd like to grow your own, read the book, contact the guy at Cornell and have fun!

*And no, I'm not making light of the terrible tragedies that happen every day all over the world, but sometimes, just for a moment, all is well.

mid-atlantic fruit & vegetable convention

2010-01-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

The Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention is being held February 2-4 in Hershey, PA. Just like this is my first year to grow commercially, it will also be the first time I attend this event. There are some good speakers and workshops, but what I'm most looking forward to is the trade show. I have my heart set on getting a small hoop house before November of this year, and hopefully the show will have some good vendors. That's right, the big greenhouse project was just completed, nothing is even growing in it yet, and already I'm looking to expand. See, here's the thing - by January of 2011 I'd like to be in year-around production. Which means having enough square footage under cover to make that feasible. So what I'm looking for is a down and dirty, simple, unheated cold house in order to over-winter and winter-harvest carrots and leeks. That will allow the main greenhouse to be reserved mostly for winter salad greens. If I keep it small enough to be moveable, clearly unattached to anything, and totally non-permanent, then dealing with the (no, you're not a farm) zoning officer won't have to be a part of my life this year. And that's a good great thing!

2010 plant list

2010-01-17T15:10:00.001-05:00

The 2010 plant list is now official, and starting in mid-April, plants will be available for purchase. All different colors and varieties of tomatoes and potatoes and eggplants, oh my! Seriously though, if you're into growing things, it's pretty exciting.

Now for some facts and figures...

With the exception of potatoes, all items offered are well-grown seedlings in 4" pots and are priced at $2.50/pot. Potatoes are sold by the pound at $2.50/pound. Onions are planted 4 to a pot and can be planted as a bunch of four, straight from the pot into your garden.

To purchase seedlings...

You can find us at three different plant shows this spring*. (I'll post about these shows again as their dates draw nearer.):

Pennsylvania Herb Festival in York, PA, April 16-17

Landis Valley Herb Fair in Lancaster, PA, May 7-8

SECA Plant Sale in Quarryville, PA

If you cannot make it to one of these shows and will simply perish if you can't find a Listada de Gandia eggplant, a Petite Gris de Rennes melon, or a Bloody Butcher tomato, then by all means send an email or give a call to make arrangements for farm pick-up. We'll also be at Eastern Market in Lancaster, but that doesn't start until the end of May, which is pretty late for planting anything other than the true heat loving plants.

*Tulip Tree Hill participation in these events is not yet official, so check back to make sure we'll be there.

already!

2010-01-13T13:53:00.000-05:00

Wow. Let's here it for Johnny's Seeds! I placed my order the day before yesterday, with normal (cheapest) shipping, and today the box of potentialities arrived! My goodness, what great service.

One of the things I'd like to try is making hanging baskets of strawberries. There were plants available specifically for that purpose, but were rather expensive. So instead, I ordered seeds. That will keep costs down for me as well as my customers. If it works, everyone's a winner. Ideally, these puppies will at least be blooming, if not already setting fruit by the middle of May - just in time for Mother's day. What a nice gift, right? One that tastes good, looks good, and keeps on giving.

making lists, and ordering everything on them...

2010-01-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

So far, about half of this year's seeds have been ordered - everything I plan to get from Johnny's seeds. The next order to go in will be to Baker Creek. Then just a few odds and ends that neither of these places provide such as sweet potatoes and weird stuff like cotton and licorice. I have to admit to loving the oddball species and varieties - just wait until you see my seedling list! Can you even stand the suspense? Speaking of which, it should soon be available here for anyone who's interested in starting their own plant-buying list.

It's all coming together and starting to happen, folks! Before you know it, spring will be here and all the preparations will begin paying off.

greetings from the gang

2010-01-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

Aster (on the far right) seems to be on the mend and doing well.

rosemary buttermilk potato bread

2010-01-03T14:48:00.000-05:00

Today just felt like a bread-making sort of day. So while looking through "The Joy of Cooking", which is my favorite cookbook ever (I mean it's good enough to just sit and read like a novel), I found a recipe for buttermilk potato bread. So I made some. But with a couple minor changes, because that's how I am. I added crushed rosemary to the dough and then topped it with more rosemary and some sea salt before baking it.

The book says that after you take it out of the oven, you're supposed to let it cool for a half hour before slicing and eating. Who are they kidding? My whole house smelled like warm bread and it was hours since breakfast! I only held out about 15 minutes before caving in and slicing a piece off, slathered it with butter and orange marmalade.

It was so good,

I had another.

And that was lunch.

yum.

lesson learned

2009-12-21T17:04:00.001-05:00

This is Aster. One of the two shetland ewes I brought home in the back of my VW Bug this summer. And of all the sheep here, she's my favorite. Sweet, friendly, gentle, innocent. And as most sheep are, also fairly helpless when confronted by predators. Their only defense, really, is to bunch up and run. So far around here, the only sheep-type predators I have to worry about are dogs. My dogs. aka "the destroyers". And so I have a good fence. However, when thoughtlessness is added to the mix, the innocent pay. This fall, I stacked some spoiled hay next to the fence, planning to use it as mulch next summer in the cut flower garden. On Saturday, two of the dogs climbed up on top of the hay and used it as a platform to jump into the pasture. When I found them, Aster was lying on the ground with the dogs lying next to her, pulling out wool. Like a live stuffed toy. They were so happy and then so surprised when I went berserk. Quickly removing said canines from the pasture, I examined Aster and found she had a rather large tear on the inside of her upper thigh. Of course, this was on a weekend. During a blizzard. Unable to come, the vet talked me through what I needed to do for her, and my brother-in-law (owner of a big 4WD pick-up) kindly went to the local farm store for the supplies.

On the upside, the vet came out today to stitch her up. In the meantime, I became pretty comfortable giving intramuscular injections of penicillin. Funny what you can do when you have to. But it also brings home the fact that veterinary supplies need to be on hand, that you can't always count on outside help. Another lesson learned.

And Aster? She's looking pretty good, so far no infection. I'm cautiously optimistic about her recovery.

The dogs are also still alive.

in the nick of time

2009-12-19T13:09:00.018-05:00

Thankfully, the last of the work was completed (wiring and heating) on Thursday in the greenhouse. Just in time, too, because Friday night the snow arrived. Knowing it was coming and that we'd see significant accumulation, I set the heaters to 35°F, just enough to help the snow to slide off. Why? Because allowing a heavy snow load could cause the whole structure to collapse. Unlikely perhaps, but a possibility.

If any of you are considering a greenhouse in the future and want to know how and why I chose what I did, feel free to contact me. I'd be happy to help.

guilty (or is it innocent?) pleasure

2009-12-11T13:43:00.004-05:00

Construction on the greenhouse is complete! The only things left are for the electrician to run wire to the heaters, fans, and roof vent; and for the fuel company to deliver propane tanks and hook them up.

I've been going out to check on the temperature the last couple of days and I must say that when the sun is shining, it is just delicious in there, even without supplemental heat. Today it was just to much for me - it was 26° outside with a bitter wind, while in the greenhouse, it was balmy and extremely humid. As the moisture from the soil evaporated, it condensed on the roof before dripping back down - my own personal rain forest. What can I say? I caved. Brought a lawn chair and a book and sat for an hour, basking in the sunshine and warm mist, reading. Heaven on earth.

first snow

2009-12-05T14:10:00.002-05:00

The woodland path, decked out in the season's first snow.

greenhouse construction

2009-12-03T06:57:00.004-05:00

Construction is underway! However, it's been slow-going due to the weather - one day of sun, then two to four days of rain. They started at the beginning of last week, but have only gotten in three days of work so far. Frustrating for everyone involved. I'm concerned about being in December and not having this thing built. Hopefully the cold and snow will hold off a little while longer.

in December?

2009-12-01T11:10:00.003-05:00

Look, fresh flowers in December! In zone 6! They are growing in a protected spot at the front yard gate and must have been fooled by the warmer-than-usual fall weather into thinking it's time to bloom. Their exuberance makes me smile every time I pass by.

Not to be out done are these wonderful irises. Since they are a re-blooming variety their season of enjoyment is longer than you might think, but it doesn't normally last this late in the year. They smell heavenly, so a couple just might find their way inside to brighten the house a bit.

Admittedly, I am a sucker for fresh flowers. If I'm tense, burying my face deep in a bouquet and breathing in their fragrance can make my chest unclench. And in the depths of winter, visiting a conservatory to feel the warm and humid air, and enjoy the smell of living, growing things is hard to beat. It's elemental, and in some way, nearly essential. I highly recommend it.