Big Dreams

Now that the weather has turned cool and the garden is tucked away for the winter. It's time to start thinking about next year's plantings and make a game plan. Invariably this is the time of year when all the "what-ifs" start to rear their heads and my mind wanders off into a dreamy world of things that aren't likely to happen any time soon.

I don't dream of kitchen remodels or new cars, although those would be nice. I dream of acreage. Not big, commercial farming acreage like the farmers around here have. I honestly don't know what I'd do with a thousand acres. No, I dream of farm houses that sit on ten to forty acres, with a year round creek and a small stand of hardwood trees, some open spaces for growing and some native fruit and nut trees.

It's the sort of place my grandfather grew up on. His family was largely self-sufficient. They kept a dairy cow, a few goats and sheep, chickens, turkeys and guineas, and they grew almost all of their own produce.

This dream state is always brought on by an exercise in planning the garden spaces for next year. I sketch out the beds and take note of what I grew in which ones to make sure I'm properly rotating my crops. I take a look at my inventory of seed which I keep on a spreadsheet (nerdy, I know). I map out what I will plant where. Then I reach the point where I feel I'll need a shoehorn to fit in one more plot and my head wanders off into if-I-just-had-more-land mode.

More land is like more storage space. You know that extra room will fill up with stuff within a few months of building it. I'm sure my crops and livestock expectations would expand to fill any space I had.

Right now my efforts are like a scale model of the farm I dream of. I raise just a few turkeys and just a few chickens, I allocate plots to crops, trying to balance yield with variety. The day will come when I'll be able to scale up what I do.

For the moment I just keep learning. This year I learned about blue corn and raising turkeys.

What did you learn this year?

Back in the Saddle

I've been silent for a long time. I apologize.
It seems my run in with the city left me with little to say. I received lots of messages about it, some in support while others thought I was out of line. I think the worst part of it was that I let it silence my voice. It shook my confidence and caused me to wonder if my priorities were off.

So I've spent the fall quietly going about my business. We raised a couple turkeys, just to see how hard it is (not at all), and grew some blue corn to see how well it did here (very well, indeed).

And I spent some time thinking about what I do and why I do it. If you've seen Food Inc. feel free to skip the explanation.

I am convinced the food I grow organically is healthier for my family and myself. I know the poultry I raise is spoiled rotten humanely treated and I know they meet a swift and respectful end. When I produce my own food I feel I am not contributing to some of the biggest problems our country faces. When I teach my daughter these skills I'm giving her some control over her life and her future health.

This Thanksgiving our entire meal has been produced here on my little third of an acre. The turkey is already plucked and cleaned and in the freezer. Green beans were pressure canned, sweet potatoes dug and stored in the spare bedroom. The cranberries came from elsewhere, but I chopped them and made them into sauce that was then canned in pint jars. Apples for pie were sliced and canned a month ago. I can't describe to you how good this feels. 

The pantry is full of jars. We enjoy an abundance that has nothing to do with our income (low) or social status(also low). Some produce came to us through the generosity of friends (3 feed sacks of pears. Yippie). The rest of it we grew here.

So I'll just keep plugging away. The yard is enclosed, although it isn't very pretty. Privacy fence on the east and west sides, green wire fence across the back, cattle panels and green metal posts across the south side. By summertime I should have privacy fence around all of it. I'm still hoping to get bees in the spring. mmmm honey.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I have new growing techniques I'm looking forward to sharing with you.
Take care.

Lotsa Love

Well, after my last rant I had to take some time and some deep breaths. Getting all worked up over silly people is a waste of time but I do it anyway. Here's a photo of Otis reminding me of what's really important.

Cleo did some reminding, too.
They both love to get between me and the keyboard for some serious cuddling.

This year has been a big learning experience. I suppose I was cranky partly because the Farmer's Market just isn't cutting it anymore. Most of the vendors are folks who grew a few extra tomatoes and don't need to earn much for them. This is not a business for them. Many are retired and this is their hobby. It makes our produce seem overpriced when it really isn't. A couple of the other vendors buy their produce at the wholesale markets and pass it off as their own. Grrr.

So I'll be spending some time this winter reevaluating the business. I am eternally grateful for our CSA clients. These are the folks who pony up for the whole season and they enjoy what we grow for them without reservation. I have yet to hear anyone say, "What? Tomatoes again?"

There has to be a way to make an honest living at what we do. Perhaps expanding the CSA is the answer. I don't know but I do know the Farmer's Market is not a solution.

Early fall is a busy time around here. The chicken run has to be moved, compost screened and stored, coops cleaned out and prepared for the winter. Our chickens condition the soil in the growing beds. Throughout the fall and winter they'll be moved around to thoroughly fertilize the beds and tidy up any remaining plant material.

There are also chickens to cull. It is a sad thing but not every hen has desirable traits. Some are just too small while others have very narrow breasts. It's a balancing act keeping the ones that will produce good table birds and lay plenty of eggs as well. So some of the girls will end up in the stew pot. If the day comes when culling hens becomes easy I'll stop doing it because there will be something broken in me. It always hurts because taking a life is supposed to hurt. There, I'll get down off my soap box.

There is still more canning and dehydrating to do and then we can settle down to the time of year when the earth rests and so do we. Take care.

Back Among the Living

This was a rough summer. Let's just get that fact out of the way.
I am naturally introverted and when I feel stressed I withdraw until I feel safe enough to come back out from under my rock.

"Hi" *waves*. I feel safe now. Relatively.

This summer I attracted the attention of my town's new Mayor and the City Council's Code Enforcement efforts. It seems someone doesn't like big gardens or backyard chickens. There are no specific ordinances prohibiting these things so I was scrutinized for the length of grass along the edges of my growing beds. Many visits from our town cop. Many threats of fines and liens on my home. I fired up the weed eater. I mowed, I edged.

Then the complaint changed. My yard was found to be full of  refuse and waste. I still don't know what that means but looking at the yard I have to assume they meant the compost bins I'd carefully constructed of white lattice so as to make them attractive enough to placate the neighbors. So I built two vertical compost tumblers so my compost could not be seen.

Then I was told I would be fined if I did not cut down the weeds. I don't have weeds, I have a garden. I have to admit, the tomatoes got a little large. Maybe I'm getting good at this garden thing.

So my summer was spent trying to comply with what I felt were unreasonable demands instead of enjoying my hands in the dirt and green growing things. I'm in the process of building a 6' privacy fence. I've wanted one for a long time but I felt I couldn't justify the expense. Now I simply must have one if I'm going to continue.

A few things did go well this summer. We tried a new/old variety of corn that, so far, has met the needs we have. We grew a blue corn that is tasty, if a little chewy, as a sweet corn. It can be left on the plant to fully mature into a beautiful blue flour corn. I'll be sending it off to have it tested for protein content so I'll know how to use it in chicken feed.

The CSA grew a little. We served 12 member families with weekly deliveries of fresh eggs, whole grain bread, and fresh fruits and veggies.

The figs produced a little crop and the Asian pears bore fruit for the first time. The chickens are happy, the garden area is twice the size it was last year.

I was awarded three scholarships to help out with school costs, which makes me very happy. It feels good to have a good GPA and to be recognized for it in a way that relieves some of the pressure of being the only parent in the house.

Fall is here. The temperature has not realized it yet, but the sunlight has definitely changed. Time to harvest, tidy up the growing areas and take stock. I learned a lot this year, not all of it positive. Fall always feels like the completion of the cycle. The old Celtic New Year was Halloween, which I completely understand.

On the verge

You know that feeling of anticipation, like being at the top of a hill on a rollercoaster about to plunge down and around, screaming with delight?

That's how I feel right now. We've been in this house nearly 5 years now. I've cleaned and scrubbed and demolished and built. I've scrubbed some more and dug up useless landscpaping that was plopped in inappropriate places. It seemed like a never ending project. While I'm sure there will always be things that need done around here I believe I've begun to see some results.

Grape cuttings waiting for the rain to stop

                             Container-grown strawberries. I am soooo looking forward to these.

                                     Asian pear trees are producing for the first time. Woo Hoo!

                                                                 Happy Rooster

                              Happy chickens. The grass is always greener on the other side, right?

           White broiler chicks. They're almost 4 weeks old and they are little white eating machines.

                   Elephant garlic and egyptian walking onions (they are related to shallots. mild and tasty).

  Black raspberry vines are covered in buds and blossoms. Last year there were just enough for a full batch of jam. This year there will be plenty to share the the CSA subscribers.

 We've hatched our own peeps this year. The yellow ones are purebred White Plymouth Rock.

 The colored ones are White Rock crossed with my best Ameraucana hens. The cross chicks are larger, more active and are developing much faster than the purebred chicks. This is an extension of the epiphany I had a while back. As we become more self sufficient we eliminate the need for external inputs. So long as I have hens and a rooster I need never buy chicken or eggs in a store again. What freedom!

Now we can call ourselves a proper CSA, with 20 shares available and deliveries starting next month. After all the hard work this is the exciting part.

I didn't get photos of the potatoes just beginning to bloom or the newly grafted apple trees. I didn't get a photo of how the front yard is being converted to edible landscape. Nope, the rain cut my celebration short.

I'm coming to the end of the initial garden creation/landscape renovation part. There will be plenty more refining and adjusting to come as I learn from my mistakes.

Take a deep breath. Here we gooooooooooooo.

L'Chaim!

To Life! I love that toast.
Here on the Not-So-Urban farm life is exploding in all its springtime glory.

The Asian pears have bloomed for the first time. Various pollinators have bellied up to the bar so we're hoping to taste sweet fruit this fall.
Mr. Man (I know, not very imaginative) has been growing bigger and bigger. He's now 8 months old and he's well aware of how beautiful he is.

Everything in the garden is growing like crazy. I planted potatoes back in February. The early planting forced me to wait patiently for green sprouts but now they are full and leafy. There's two beds each of lettuce and cabbage and a full bed of spinach. Onions, shallots, garlic, and peas are all growing well. 

New life is everywhere.

We'll start delivering for this year's CSA in Mid May with twice the variety we had last year. I'm so looking forward to seeing our friends and clients on a weekly basis again.
We have a Facebook page now. Mamas Garden on Facebook, come on over and say HI. I've been collecting some of the best Local Food/Slow Food/Urban Homesteading pages so check the left sidebar for some great pages, awesome people and latest news about good, healthy food and the people who produce it.
While you are there, post your favorite pages and links.

Now that a few warm days have brought us all back to life, what have you been doing outdoors lately? Post your links so we can cheer you on.

Unexpected but welcome

It seems most folks are either cat people or dog people. I've thought of myself as a cat person, not willing to get a dog for fear the cats would eat it.

I'm not sure which one of these characters would do the deed but I was convinced they would never tolerate a D-O-G in their house.
Then one day, about three weeks ago we spied something that made me pull off the two lane highway and stop. A dog was running frantically from one lane to the other, confused and unable to get off the road. It was pouring down rain and the little guy was not going to last long unless someone did something. My daughter and I got out of the car, convinced the traffic to stop and gathered up Mr. Cold Wet and Shaky. We checked the neighborhood to see if anyone recognized him. We placed an ad on Craigslist. We refused to give him a name because we were not keeping him.
No one claimed him. We waited.
Then...

This happened

Who knew?

So now he has a name. Meet Hamish, the mystery terrier.

We have a dog.