My Latest Experiment

I have a long history of things not turning out like I'd planned.

I remember one incident where I'd purchased a sewing pattern and several yards of a lovely crepe de chine, with the intention of making myself a dress. Which was unusual in itself- I sew- I just don't wear dresses. At any rate, the dress was a soft, floaty thing, and I could have easily done it, but my friend Liz wanted to make it for me, so I let her.  The day it was finished, she brought it over for me to try on. I was a bit dubious; there seemed to be an awful lot of material in it. She helped me get into it, and my fears were realized.

"Jesus- this thing looks like a parachute," I muttered. It really did.  It was a pile of dress with me somewhere in the middle of it.

She tried a couple of times to adjust it but nothing ever worked out and we finally and collectively gave up on the project.

My latest fiasco: remember those cherries I took a picture of for you last week? Well, they're brown and shriveling on one side, and I'm going to have to go through my books to look for a picture to see if I can figure out what's wrong with them.  I hope it's something stupid, like I shouldn't have watered them (it's been hot lately), and not something hard to control, like some insect.

So it's with some trepidation that I announce my latest project: I'm going to try to select out a new strain of kale.

We eat a lot of kale, so I grow a lot of kale, and I noticed this spring when the clustered stuff in the long bed started growing again, there was one each of the white russian and red russian kale that had flatter, less curly and less indented leaves, which would make them easier to handle in the kitchen.  In fact, the white russian is so curly, I'd decided not to grow it again, until I saw this one plant with the different leaves.

Instead of this:

Original Red Kale

Original White Kale

I'm hoping to select for this:

New Red Kale

New White Kale

This is going to take several seasons, but for starters, I left each special plant in the bed, and they'll stay there until their seeds are ready for harvesting.  I'll have to figure out a spot where I can grow their offspring to seed and keep doing it until I get seed that I can count on.  I don't even know if I'm doing it right, but I think so.  If I remember correctly what little about it Carol Deppe mentioned in The Resilient Gardener, I should be good.

And yeah, I know. There are probably varieties out there similar to what I'm selecting for.  But I want to try anyway.

I just know better than to try to name my creations at this point.

May Is Busy

While some of the country is still reeling under the weight of freakish snow or rising waters, the Pacific Northwest has been drying out in summer temperatures and sunshine.  Weirdly hot.  Where last year, we didn't get summer until the third week of July, and it was strangely mild and spring-like, this year summer has come in the middle of spring.  This coming Sunday is forecast for 87F (or 30.5C). Last Sunday it was eighty-five.

And while I can't tell you I've been busy making hay while the sun shines, because I don't make hay (not yet anyway), I have been pretty busy.  We're only seven days in, but May is busy.

I finished transplanting all those free strawberries into the blueberry bed, so now it's just the berry bed.  And I weeded it. I'm still weeding it.  I'll probably weed it all summer.  However, it is pretty well covered in strawberries, so I won't be pulling as many weeds.  I'll also be pulling strawberries.

I finished moving my herbs into the hops bed, so now it's the herb and hops bed.  This bed still has a lot of weeds at the far end, but I bought some tea herbs that I've been wanting and they'll go in once I have it all cleared.  It also has a few perennial flowers in it (bachelor's buttons, columbine and my favorite, peonies), so it should be really pretty eventually.  The hard part will be staying on top of the neighbor's grass that comes from under the fence.

This is the compost pile for this summer, with the garlic and leek bed behind it.  This will be the last year for these beds here, because I want to move them for the oven/cistern/permanent compost pile (I'm really tired of moving it) area.  This is still a fuzzy picture in my mind, because I want to house all this under a single roof.  But that comes later.

Cherries!  This is the new Lapins cherry, which I put in a year ago right after Christmas.  It came from the Dave Wilson Nursery, which is a large grower of fruit, nut, and shade trees.  It has far more cherries on it in its first year, than my first tree still does, which is going on three years old now. It's a great little tree.   I need to keep an eye on it though.  I would sure like to have some of my own cherries this year.

This is exciting!  Remember that plum tree I told you was blooming for the first time?  It has fruit for the first time!  My little plum is growing up!

I am really enjoying having chickens. This one's Tommie, and is the only decent picture of any of the chickens that I have so far, because it's really hard to get chickens to hold still for the camera.  They're somewhat obstreperous as well.  It's really hard to get chickens to just. shut. up.  However, they make up for all that with delicious eggs.  I've read that there is no difference in the taste of store bought eggs and eggs from the backyard, and that may be true if all you feed them is commercial feed, and we both think our girls lay supremely delicious eggs, but that might be because they get a lot of greens.  Steve feeds them dandelion greens during the day, and I give them more when I get home.  It might also be because they are super fresh- can't beat that.  The chickens are also entertaining. I've enjoyed watching them and figuring out the pecking order: Buffy is the Grand Dame, and rules the roost; her buff sister Blondie is her lady in waiting; I thought the black sex link Becky was at the bottom, but I've figured out that she and Tommie are constantly vying for the middle, but Big Red is way down there in last position, which is odd, because she's nearly as big as the buffs.   I particularly love bringing them a slug (just one) to see who's going to get it.  Usually it's Red, because she may be last in the pecking order, but she makes up for it by being fast.  If I knew how much fun chicken are to keep, I would have done this sooner. Oh wait.  I did do it sooner.  That version of chickens wasn't so good.  I think it missed beta testing.  Chickens 2.0 is much better.

One of our beautiful days, last Saturday, when after coming home from the annual Canby Master Gardeners show, I got right to work and got those tomatoes into the ground.  I was rueing not getting my Oregon Spring and Siletz seeds started on time, but made up for it by buying starts of the same varieties.  I also put in San Marzano (two of each variety) because I'm still looking for the ultimate tomato for my backyard.  I also bought a Mortgage Lifter just to try it out, but haven't figured out where to put it.  I was interested to overhear the grower telling someone that his favorite out the forty-eight varieties he grows is Siletz.

By the end of the weekend, I finished weeding the middle bed (all it has in it now are peas on the far end and some radishes, and self-sown parsley starts, which will get moved to the herb and hops bed), and I got the original strawberry cleared of strawberries, fertilized with COF (complete organic fertilizer- recipe by Steve Solomon), and tilled in. This bed is now ready for the cucurbits I'll sow this coming weekend: cucumbers and zucchini.  I fertilize because I still don't have good soil, but that's my fault.  I really need to sow cover crops this autumn.

This is the wheat.  I sowed spring wheat this first time, but I am having second thoughts about spring wheat versus winter wheat and here's why:

This is wheat that sowed itself from the straw I put in the long bed.  It's already making heads, so I'll be saving this for seed, depending on how well it does.  But sowing at the end of the summer sounds like the way to go.

So this little homesteading/householding experiment putters along.  And I'm always learning something.

How to Build a Bee Skep

Modern Farmer has instructions on how to build a bee skep.

Cool.

Garden Notes: 15 April 2013

This is more for me than for you: it occurred to me that a great place to note what got planted today is my...wait for it....blog!

Planted Mayfair shelling peas (Fedco Seed) and Cherry Belle radishes (saved seed) in Bed C.

* I'm saying prayers for the victims of today's bombings in Boston....just don't feel like I can post about anything without acknowledging the loss and mayhem....

The Story of My Spring

I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again: I am a lousy housekeeper.  So getting the house ready for entertaining guests has always been and probably always will be a Big Deal that takes a very long time to accomplish.

Which is why I haven't posted in awhile; I've been busy.  But so has Spring.

This is one of the only two out of eleven apple trees that is blooming.

In addition to the lovely, pale spears that we are getting out of the asparagus bed, there are numerous new plants in there (so much for buying what were supposed to be guaranteed male plants), so once the spears are done and the plants have been left to grow for the season, I'll dig up the babies and bury them deeper.  I'd do it now, but I don't want to dig up a sprouting asparagus crown by accident!

Over-wintered root vegetables that are now finally growing at a proper rate and are too woody or small to bother with.  They are also going to seed in a big way.  These are beets, carrots and onions.  I really struggled with that bed last year.

My experimental wheat is up.  This is a huge mystery, because for most of the seed I used hard red spring wheat bought in bulk at Bob's Red Mill store.  I think it set me back like, $1.65.  I took this picture Friday night after work.  Saturday morning it was riddled with mole hills.  So we'll see whether or not I get wheat.  There are also potatoes growing in this bed.  Not that I planted them; they are leftovers from last year.  I've been told once you plant potatoes, you'll always have potatoes.

This is my special Italian plum.  What makes it special is this is the first time since planting it four years ago that it has bloomed.  The littler Italian plum next to it still does not have flowers, so I am not really expecting fruit this year.  But I am still happy to see blossoms!

This is one of the tulip beds out front.  I think it needs some heavy dosing with bright red, orange, and purple tulips and have already warned Steve that next fall I am ordering said tulip bulbs.

And now, because it's sunny, instead of the predicted rain and gloom that was forecast, I'm going to go get some more weeding done instead of doing the shopping and gassing up the car like I'd planned.

Stupid weather.

The Ready Store

Hi all-

A friend at work turned me on to this homesteading/preparedness e-store that just happens to have a very useful, information-packed blog.

Check it out.

Chickens!

My buddy Rae and her husband LJ were here Saturday and brought my chickens, who lay me three eggs yesterday.  They only lay me one today, but I think that is more a testament to their stress over the ride over here.  Thanks to LJ and Rae for finishing up the watering valves while I made dinner, and to running over to the hardware store and getting bigger pipe and fittings while I made dessert.  Thanks also to both Rae and LJ for the girls. I'm stoked- I have chickens!!

Buff Orpington and a Black Sex Link

Scratch!

This is some sort of mix- I can't remember what. Rae is going to have to chime in here.  This one's really pretty. I also don't remember what the other mix was but the rust and gray one is a pretty bird as well. Somebody is laying olive eggs, due to a breeding experiment of Rae's. Pretty cool.

The Black Sex Link

I think this rust and gray one is my favorite.  She was first up the ramp and into the coop to check it out.  She found the feeders first, and she found the waterer first.

See ya!

The Silver Lining

Back on the ninth I told you that I ordered my wine grapes and wondered if they would ship them or if some state agricultural edict would keep them from me.  Turns out I suspected right.

I tried to email them for a ship date and they wouldn't return my message.  So I finally called them and they said they couldn't ship to Washington, Oregon or California. So as sweetly as I could, I asked them to please refund my money (since the first thing they did was charge my credit card).  They said they would and send me an invoice as well.  I was not too pleased with Northeaster Vine Supply.  We'll see how long the refund takes or whether or not I have to write to the Office of the Vermont Attorney General.  I think they're probably pretty small and overwhelmed by their large vineyard orders, but they could at least put that information out there, or be better about responding to me. Not responding to me is one thing, but mess with my money and now you have a problem.

Now for the good news: they did recommend me to a grower here in Oregon who sells the variety that I wanted, which is Marechal Foch.  Marechal Foch is a red wine grape that does well in heavy soil, which is exactly what I have.

I spoke with Sandra at Broadacres Nursery- she'll have to root them for me, which will take a couple of months, and I need to give her half the money up front.  But instead of $7.50 each at NE Vine, these are $2.75 each, so instead  of $82.50, my grapes will cost me $30.25, which is a savings of $52.25!  And they are in Hubbard, Oregon, which is 20 miles down a country road from here.

So sometime in May I get to go get my grape vines.

I think I'll pack a picnic.

It's All in the Name

We don't normally pay for newspapers but there was a free portion of one down at the end of the driveway, which Steve retrieved when he got the mail.  As suspected, it was largely circulars for the local food purveyors.

I sat on one side of the living room with my computer and he sat on the other.

"When are we going to go attack that ham?" he asked.

"When I'm done with this round of solitaire," I answered, dreading the chore we have ahead of us, inertia thoroughly cementing me to the seat of my comfy chair.

He picked up one of the food ads and started perusing it.

"Speaking of hams, Albertson's has 'Amish Pride' boneless spiral sliced hams," he remarked.

That struck me as a ridiculous name for a ham brand.

"Amish Pride," I said derisively. "I wonder what moved them to choose that name." Honestly, marketing is so dumb sometimes. Amish Pride.  Two words you would not expect to see paired together in any other setting.

Steve didn't miss a beat.

 "Because it sounded better than 'Rabbi Select'," he replied, and turned the page.

Ham Smoking Sunday

We've been putting it off long enough, so today we are smoking the ham.

It is part of the half pig we bought last year that has been languishing in the freezer for, oh, probably over a year.

Steve mixed up the brining solution and dumped it and the frozen pork leg in a five gallon bucket. It was such a monster that it didn't completely submerge.  Once it was defrosted, though, Steve was able to shove the whole thing under the brine's surface and it kept just fine out there out in the garage for a week and a half.

This morning he started the fire and it spent about four hours out in the kettle.  Now it's in a 250 degree oven until the thermometer reads 150 degrees.  That's Fahrenheit, for those of you in other countries.

This pork leg probably should have been cut in half- it was all I could do to carry it into the house.  However, it will feed us well, and for awhile.  I'm already thinking of all the things that I can make with it, especially the bone.

I'm not one for slices of ham for dinner or even in a sandwich so much as I like bits of ham in things, making them taste good.

Used in bits and pieces, this ham is going to feed us for a very long time.