Friday Farmstand Funny

A classmate of mine spent last week driving through New England.  He shot this photo in New Hampshire.

Apple Orchard Aftermath or Applemath

Sometimes you just need to start fresh.  Last weekend Tim, and I and my uncle removed the old barb wire fence from the orchard frontage.  The wire was still good, as were most of the posts, but there were rose bushes and other brush growing in it and we decided to make a clean sweep.  If we decide to put livestock in there (goats would be useful for eating the roses) then we can put in a new, sturdy fence.

My stepfather Richard brush hogged the fence lines.  It looks so wide open I keep thinking the trees are going to wander into the road!

And were are to expect some harvest this year.  This is the Greening tree next to the gate.  Well, where the gate was.

 And it looks like we will have a fair amount of plums again this year.

We will have apples at the house too.  The three older trees are full and need selective pruning.  My little sapling has held on to 3 of its 6 apples which is about the right amount for it to support.

I am working on shaping my second sapling using limb spreaders.   These get the limbs spaced properly when they are young and flexible providing a nice shape and eliminating cross branching and crowding.  You can make the same sort of tool with scrap wood if you are handy.

The First Tomatoes Are Set

I was watching closely to see which variety would be the first to set fruit..... and it's the teeny, tiny, cold frame Barlow Jap by a nose!

I noticed these little guys two days ago and by today they had tripled in size.

This is the "store bought" Absynthe plant that was 10 times bigger on Memorial Day.

So I guess that settles it.  No need to start a grow op on the dining room table in April.  

Life's Just a Bowl of Cherries

I couldn't resist these wonderful white Washington cherries today at the store.  And they taste even better than they look.  They are large and glossy and crunch when you bite into them.  Sweet as the summertime.

When I was a child, every summer my Grandmother would take us cherry picking.  We would drive up to fruit country, perhaps treating ourselves to a ferry ride across the lake instead of going the long way around.

My mother would usually come along.  My sister and I were good cheap child labor.  I don't ever remember complaining about going cherry picking.  Grandma always made it fun.  We would go to our favorite orchard, Walker's, and check in at the house to get directions to where the ripest picking was.  We would park next to the old red barn.  Up near the barn were the strawberry fields and the berries.  Red raspberries would probably be ripe as well and we would pick a few pints of them as a treat.  We had the best black raspberries at home (to be eaten at breakfast with cream and sugar) so no need to get those.

Then we would take our baskets and drive out into the cherry orchards.  On a good year the trees would be heavy laden with huge, black, sweet cherries.  There were ladders to put in the trees and we would shimmy up, our 4 quart baskets hung over our forearms.  To deter the birds, there were gas cannons going off intermittently in the distance.  "Crack" the cannon would peal like thunder and the birds would whir off in a flock over our heads.

The sour cherries fascinated me.  They were almost iridescent.  I was always disappointed that they were not as tasty as they looked.  We would pick some for pies, but mostly we picked the sweet black cherries.  There was always a tree or two of the beautiful white cherries.

Another memory I have of my Grandmother is a story she used to tell about picking peas with my little sister.  My sister would have been about Kindergarten age at the time.  She said as they picked along the rows she would say "Holly, look at all the peas you're missing."  And my sister replied "They are growing behind me!"

I can certainly relate to that this year.  As I pick along I look back over my shoulder and see some I missed.  Then I'll look from the other side...more.  I back track, seeing it all from the opposite direction... how could I have missed those?  And with all the rain we've had, the peas swell so fast as they reach the final stage of maturity.  What may have been a well picked row this morning now needs to be picked again.

My favorite garden activity is shelling peas.  Tim and I sit on the front porch, or back under the maple tree, and shell.  Its leisurely and shady, much nicer than making pickles or canning tomatoes.  This morning we shelled and froze two quarts which will make eight generous meals for two.  Then this evening we shelled and froze another quart.  I now have 31 meals put up and we can eat the remaining row fresh.  A banner year.

The good news is the first bed with it's three varieties is done.  And I need the space for later crops.  I pulled the plants and prepared the bed.  I had just set out a dozen cucumber transplants... when it began to pour rain.  Again.

The Blue Tail Fly

I was sitting on the front porch in a rocker, watching it rain, shelling peas with my husband (life is good) and a big blue fly was after my wine (Mike and Shelly's Riesling vintage 2012).  It put me in mind of this.



I was really looking for the version he did in 1964 for the movie Smoky (Yes, the Will James story for you horse folks but you wouldn't recognize anything but the name).  It's here, if you would like that version, along with all his songs from that soundtrack  (Please excuse the makeup commercial)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr40lRHDaCo

If you like horses and/or folk songs it is well worth it.

It Stopped Raining... Quick! Weed and Photograph!

We've now topped 7.5" of rainfall in June.  I haven't had to water much, that's for sure.  Actually just once in order to fertilize.  And I've done very little weeding because of the lasagna gardening method.  In the fall I put down a layer of chopped leaves under a layer of compost.  In the spring I only rake the rubbish off the top with a bow rake and plant disturbing the soil as little as possible.  This avoids disrupting my earth worms and seals the weed seeds under the mulch.  The success of this is easy to gauge against Mike and Shelly's half of the garden.  They mulch like I do in the fall but then hand till their soil each spring.  I can watch their weed growth as compared to mine and see how much time they spend weeding.  Lasagna is the way to go!

Everything is looking wonderful.  We are eating peas, some new potatoes, lettuce, garlic, onions and I've had one zucchini.

The Garden June 30th 2013

Left to Right: Onions, Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Carrots

Two tall beds of peas and lettuce in the middle

For the cost of 5 bagged salad mixes you can buy enough lettuce transplants to eat lettuce for about two months

Mike and Shelly's end looks nice too.  Peas and then two beds of tomatoes and peppers

Mike and Shelly's end Left to right: Bush Beans, Onions and Cucumbers, Cucumbers and Summer Squash

Beautiful Spanish Roja garlic drying in the sun

the Eggplants have outlived the flea beetles!  This one is a Swallow.

A second planting of cucumbers and herbs waits in the wings

 I am looking forward to pulling the peas out and getting some bush beans planted.  The peas need to be picked daily now and the earliest variety is done and beginning to die off.  I've only had one lettuce plant bolt.  I put in a lot of head lettuce and I am now cutting whole plants of romaine and leaf lettuce instead of trimming the outside leaves.  I estimate if we eat salads everyday we will come to the end of it at just about the time it would be bolting.

My Cold Frame tomatoes are a success again this year.  You just have to get past the part where you are planting midgets instead of giants in gallon pots.  Planting the tiny is a lot less stressful on the plant.  It is too easy to damage a large plant.  I've even broken them right off.

Above is Memorial Day Weekend.  The Dr. Whyche's on the left was sporting it's first set of true leaves.  The one on the right is the nice Absynthe I bought at my friend Mickey's greenhouse.

This weekend the Dr. Wyche's is lagging behind by one rung on the tomato ladder or about 6".  Neither plant has bloomed but they are both budding.

But the most interesting race is between two Barlow Jap plants.  The one on the right was late to germinate.  I kept it back two weeks in the cold frame reluctant to transplant it or even give it away.  It is now only inches behind the nice plant I transplanted at 4". They are both blooming and I'll bet they set fruit at the same time.  Among the late to germinate seedlings that were held back is the one Absynthe that was the last seed to germinate and the single Absynthe.  I had completely given up hope which is why I bought a transplant.  It was about 3 weeks behind my other cold frame babies. It is now only inches behind the "store bought" plant and has buds on it.  It will be interesting to see if it sets fruit at the same time.

Tim has been busy too.  He added another "patio" to the garden complex.  This gets the cold frame off the side walk and when the lid is opened up all the way we will no longer have to go the long way around to get to the garden shed door.  I think there is also enough room for a couple of chairs, or a bench or some other non-sense that I can think up.

Our previous arrangement was a bit crowded.

 My Alaska Nasturtium is looking quite stunning in the laundry basin.  There are also a few Fordhook's Favorites volunteered from last year which are trying to ramble all over.  June is the prettiest time of year in the garden.

Bluebirds

The Bluebird house at the corner of the garden

This year we put a Bluebird house on the corner post of the garden.  We enjoyed watching the birds all spring, and for the past few weeks, after the eggs hatched, each evening we could sit and watch them feeding.

Female Bluebird

The male and female took turns catching bugs and finding small worms in the lawn.  They would perch at the top of the Linden trees 50 feet away and regard us seriously.

Male Bluebird
"Hey, you takin' my picture?"

female feeding the fledglings

When they would land at the door to the house we could hear the babies raising a ruckus.

Dad takes his turn

Where's dessert?

Last Thursday evening I noticed that the fledglings were looking out and I expected they were about ready to leave the nest.  Sure enough, when we got home last Friday after our day in the orchard the nest was empty and quiet.  We still see them on the edge of the woods, but I miss my Bluebirds.