Farmer Friday

I skipped market last Saturday because of the weather. I really didn’t want to drive over the mountains in this mess.  

It’s been a fun and exciting week with the twins. 

Poor Giotto wants to go in with the babies so bad. He lies by the pen a lot, but I’ll afraid Posie might hurt him so we are taking things very slowly. 

Egg production is better than ever. 

It’s hard to focus on work with this much cuteness around. 

I discovered some Romanesco broccoli was ready in the garden so we had broccoli cheddar soup for dinner. 

What a face. This baby girl needs a name. 

Goat kids aren’t the only babies around tho. 

I do think they are the cutest things on the planet. 

Today has been a super busy day. Salad mix. 

Abundance 

Arugula 

Flowers 

More broccoli 

I also picked some spinach and baby kale. I started working on the milk stand 

I delivered eggs and veg to Globe then stopped by AutoZone. The check engine light was on and they have a gadget you can use to read the codes. They’ll even give you a print out, all for free. Love these guys, they are always really nice and helpful. The codes seem to have to do with some minor stuff. I’ll run it by my mechanical guy and see what he thinks. 

Got home just in time to water some seedlings, collect eggs, milk Posie, (the kids have been mostly nursing one side so the other side is too full), take out trash, wash dishes....

Give the twins their first vaccines, cook dinner, medicate the sick cat (I think he’s has a gut blockage), feed the dog, bag the broccoli....

What the second fridge looks like on Friday night. 

#appreciation

Today I’m appreciating the abundance in my life. 

Throw Back Thursday

Eggs Dec 2016

Last year at this time I was getting a few eggs from new pullets but not many others. The same is true this year. A lot of hens but not many eggs. The days are short and a lot of them are molting. But today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Beginning tomorrow the days will begin to be  a few seconds longer each day. By March I'll be swimming in eggs.

Broccoli Dec 2016

cauliflower Dec 2016

Last year I had lots of broccoli and cauliflower. This year it was so very hot and dry in July, August and September with so many birds and grasshoppers that my seedlings did not survive. So no broccoli or cauliflower now. 

Snow Dec 2016

Last year we had a little snow. this year I've had .1" of rain since the 10th of September. No snow on the radar at all.

Farmer Friday

carrots and radishes

Today was getting ready for market day. Pulled some rainbow carrots, although most of the ones that were ready were white, there were a few orange, red and purple ones, along with a few radishes.

Red Russian Kale

Got the first picking of kale from the hoop house. This is Red Russian, also known as Siberian and Ragged Jack.

Red Mizuna Mustard

Picked a couple bunches of Red Mizuna Mustard. There is some left, but it's going pretty quick.

Cilantro

Picked some lovely cilantro. I love this stuff. I even munch on it as I work in the garden. It's like addicting.

DiCiccio Broccoli

I picked a couple last bunches of broccoli. The side shoots are getting really tiny. If I was just picking to eat myself I would leave the plants a little longer. But most people was something bigger than your thumb nail. So next week out it will come and something new will be planted. Lettuce mix, perhaps.

Rainbow Chard

The Rainbow chard is still doing well. Some of these plants were planted a year ago and still going strong.

Planting in the New Garden

adding purlins to the low tunnel hoops

Well my supplier didn't get my EMT conduit in yet but I remember seeing some laying around somewhere.... So a check of the junk piles yielded just enough to finish the first bed in the new garden. Mmmmmm looks like a couple of issues. Partly these aren't connecting because the ground slopes a lot from one end to the other and partly because under the compost the ground is as hard as concrete.

my trusty 8' iron bar

So off to find my trusty iron bar. The pointed end is just right to make the holes deeper for a couple of the hoops so they go into the ground a  little further.

purlin on, ends taped to protect cover from rubbing

You can buy special connectors to attach the purlins to the hoops and I probably will get some; they will help make the framework more rigid. In the meantime some baling wire (aka tie wire) did fine. Along with some Gorilla tape on the ends to prevent abrasion of the row cover on the end of the purlin.

wind.... grrr

It was a beautiful sunny morning, so calm and so still..... UNTIL I rolled out the row cover! Of course the wind started up the instant I went to put the cover on the hoops.

with 2 pieces of row cover

So I found some clamps and got it fastened down. Only to discover that either I should have pushed the hoops farther into the ground or I should have ordered wider row cover. What I have is not wide enough to cover the hoops with enough slack on the ground to weight it down. So for now there are 2 pieces of cover on these hoops.

planted!

Once all of that was settled, I got busy planting. Some baby pak choi, collard greens and broccoli. I'm thinking the pak choi and collards will be ready to pick in about a month. The broccoli will probably be about 8-12 weeks.

Farmer Friday

left 4 eggs from the bantams and a olive egg from a compost chicken

After taking a couple weeks off for the holidays tomorrow we'll be back at the little market in Superior, Arizona. So today was mostly about getting things picked, washed and packed for that. The little bantam hens I was given have been laying about 4-5 eggs a day. They are small eggs and go in my 18 count cartons. Most of the compost chickens, being older hens have taken the winter off so I was surprised to find this pretty olive egg in their nest box this morning.

Rainbow carrots

I finished cleaning out a bed of rainbow carrots. I'll probably plant lettuce there as soon as it's ready to replant. Only one more bed of carrots are left.

Baby Mizuna Mustard

I picked a couple bunches of baby Mizuna Mustard. Its frilly cut leaves are really pretty with the red and green color.

cilantro

Cilantro, also known as Chinese parsley, is a multi-purpose plant. While the flavor is not to everyone's taste, once you get used to it, it's addictive. It's chock full of vitamins and minerals so it's good for you too. It grows very well in cool weather, but won't even sprout once the heat sets in. I like to grow patches of it all over the yard and let them bloom. In the spring they feed the ladybugs and butterflies. Then they make tons of seed. That seed is another herb known as coriander! I love to add a few to my pepper grinder for a different taste. The entire plant is edible, roots, leaves, stems, flowers and seeds.

Lancinato Kale

Lancinato Kale is also called Dinosaur Kale or Palm Tree Kale. It grows up a fat stem and since you pick the leaves starting from the bottom, you end up with something that does resemble a palm tree. 

DiCicco broccoli shoots

The DiCicco broccoli is still putting out little side shoots. These are so tender and yummy even raw. You have to be careful not to overcook them and make them mushy. As soon as they turn bright green they are done!

I also picked some Giant Red Mustard and some Georgia Collard greens, just forgot to take a picture! Besides the veggies I'll have some eggs and my daughter and grand daughter will bring their Peace &  Harmony brand all natural face scrubs and chap sticks.

Happy New Year

Sleeping Beauty Mountain Jan 7, 2016

Happy New Year. I thought I'd do a little review of 2016. A lot of things went wrong but some things went right and there were a few surprises along the way.

We had some snow in January.

hawk Jan 9, 2016

snow on the Pinal Mts. Jan 10, 2016

A hawk was hanging around but didn't get any chickens.













and more snow.

Sunset Feb 2016

February brought longer days and pretty sunsets.

apple blossom March 15, 2016

Cecile Brunner rose March 15, 2016

Creek side garden March 15, 2016

By March the apple trees and roses were blooming. In the creekside garden the garlic was trying to grow and the peas were coming along. This year should be a much better harvest as I've worked on digging the beds deeper, replacing rocks, caliche, ashes and junk with compost.

AZ pistache tree

Iris blooming March 24, 2016

The old purple and white bearded irises are dependable spring bloomers. This patch is along the driveway where they don't get any water but the rain. I planted quite a few young trees too.

tomato seedlings April 10, 2016

tomato seedlings April 10, 2016

By April the tomato seedlings, started under lights in the house were ready to come outside into bigger pots.

Sweet Magnolia snap peas April 10, 2016

back garden April 10, 2016

Also by April I was picking green and purple snap peas. The back garden, which became the main tomato garden was still full of weeds and junk.

Salad May 4, 2016

Iris May 4, 2016

compost material 

back garden May 2016

By May I was hauling compost material and working on the main tomato garden. The late iris were blooming and we were eating lovely salads.

new potatoes June 2016

yellow zucchini June 2016

By June I was digging new potatoes and picking zucchini. Our local farmer's market had started up too.

erosion control July 2016

rainbow carrots July 2016

rainbow beets July 2016

peppers and tomatoes July 2016

In July I was up on top of the hill doing some erosion control, The garden was doing fairly well, carrots, beets, bell peppers, tomatoes and other things coming in.

Trombonccino Aug 2016

deep digging a bed Aug 2016

compost chickens

carrot with root knot nematodes

By August the squash vines were almost to the roof of the house and the Trombonccino were really going to town. I ripped out a bed of beans that never grew well and dug it out 18 inches deep. I discovered the problem. Besides the caliche and rocks there were ashes and junk buried under there. I put the caliche and rocks into the pathways and filled the bed with compost. August also saw the beginnings of the compost chicken project along with the discovery of root knot nematodes in a couple of beds.

Pregnant Tinkerbell Sep 2016

Swiss Chard Sep 2016

squash 2016

Tithonia Sep 2016

In September Tinkerbell had kittens. The garden was doing fairly well, with greens and squash coming in along with some flowers.

cole crops 2016

Also in September I finished up the old bean bed and planted kale, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings.

They have done amazingly well and there are still a couple of heads of cauliflower and some broccoli shoots to pick.

Superior Farmer's Market

Superior Farmer's Market

end of tomato season

Time to pick squash!

Apparently there are no pictures for October or the computer has hidden them somewhere I can't find them. In November I started going to a little market in the next town over, Superior, Arizona. While small it has been fun and the people there have been very nice. When a hard freeze finally threatened (a month later than normal) I picked all the Trombonccino, 259 pounds worth, not counting what I had picked before.

eggs Dec 2016

cleaning up the greenhouse Dec 2016

homegrown broccoli Dec 2016

Homegrown cauliflower Dec 2016

seed order, ready for spring!

seedlings, I plant something almost every week

In December I've been picking beets, carrots, greens, broccoli and cauliflower. I've been planting lots of greens, hauling manure and making compost.

The compost chickens have done a good job and the new garden space is ready. The chickens will move to a new area this coming week.

I'm working on getting more organized with seed starting and have a big calendar already marked with starting dates for the whole year.




A great thing about starting seedlings in the house under lights is that it gets them off to a good start before they have to contend with birds and bugs outdoors. It also helps me get more from the garden as the last crop can be finishing up while the seedlings are sprouting and growing. I can gain up to a month that way.