This year's garden

I just spent an hour (I don't really have an hour for such things) compiling pictures of gardens past.  I want to show it to Kim.  He keeps telling me that we will get past this year of disasters in the garden, and all will be well next year.  I want him to see what beautiful gardens I had in the past.  And for the most part, Androo, Clay and I did them alone!

This year we had a lot of people working the garden, but it was only because we were playing catch-up, after finally realizing that my former farming partner was not going to provide the labor for anything that he didn't feel like doing.  He's an idea man, a dreamer.  The winter greenhouse turned out to be a good thing, but everything else he started was half finished when he finally left.  And that meant the spring greenhouse was a disaster - about 5% to 10% germination - and by mid-April the garden wasn't even cleared yet of last year's debris, much less prepped and planted for this year's early crops.

So we have been digging out of a hole for months.  I called to see if Androo could spare any time, and lo and behold he could.  He singlehandedly resurrected the garden, and I managed to eke out enough product to take care of my one restaurant account plus 10 members in the CSA.  We had 17 last year, and I wanted to increase to 25 this year.  But there is no way that could have happened given the poor garden and greenhouse this year.  Besides, by the time I had enough produce to start selling my Market Basket packages, most people who want to be in a CSA had signed up somewhere else!

I know Androo was upset by the state of the garden, but he had no reason to be.  Given what he started with, I am so very thankful for everything he did.  I retained my restaurant account, I have made most (it's never ALL) of my CSA members happy and have been doing a booming business at Purple Porch each week.  I have sold or used for myself at least 90% of what I get out of the garden, and the chickens happily take care of the rest.

So why am I messing with a collage of gardens past?  Because I want to be reminded that we can do it - next year's garden will be the best ever!

Blessed rain!!!

Since June 30, my farm has gotten only 4.75" of rain, until last night, that is.

In July, rainfall totalled two inches, in August 2.75", and in September a big fat zero!  Pitiful!  Thank goodness we have 30 paddocks for the cows to graze on, so we made it through July and August with little affect on our milk production.  However, by September, every paddock had been grazed at least twice, and what grass was left was brown and crunchy. 

We got a shipment of hay yesterday - $875, that is what this drought is costing us.  But last night, the clouds opened.  I am about to head out to the rain gage in my pj's, since the TV report said rainfall is spotty, ranging from 0.16" in South Bend to nearly 2" in Valparaiso.  My farm falls between those two, so I am hoping for something closer to the higher number.  I'm off to the rain gage!

So just got back in the house - 7/8" of rain, and more to come.  The garden will love it, the grass will love it, the shareholders will love it.  Rain means more milk.  And the cows munched on fresh hay all day yesterday.  Life is good.

Goldie has retired from the mama job

Late yesterday afternoon, Goldie ran frantically back and forth in front of the chicken run.  I finally broke down and let her in.  Chicks were not with her.

At dusk, I went to the barn to see if by any chance the chicks went back there on their own.  Yup, they did.  They seemed quite settled in, no crying for mama.  And there were two eggs in there!!  Goldie is laying again, and she has definitely retired from her mama job.

It has been so fascinating to watch this process.  Listening to her talk to them made me even more aware of how many different sounds a hen can make when tending to her family.  I watched Goldie break up a piece of cheese I gave her into three pretty equal parts and lay them in front of the chicks.  I saw her take after both of my dogs when they got too close, and I had no worries that they would harm those chicks!  Goldie would take care of them!!!  She is such a good mom.  But she also knew when it was time to cut the ties.

I am looking forward to moving to my river house in town - meeting with the kitchen contractor this afternoon, and I'm excited about that.  However, I am not excited about leaving the chickens when the farm sells.  They have taught me so much, and it will be a sad day when I tell them good-bye.

My heart is breaking.

My heart is breaking.  Goldie is done with the chicks.  She is trying to get back with the flock, and the chicks are still just a little too small to put with them.  She has abandoned them today, and they are all peeping and looking for her.  I can't find her.  If I do, I will lock her in the barn with them, at least for today.

Kim and Clay were working on the chicken run, cleaning out trees and brush to put up new deer netting over the top.  Kim is in the hospital now, won't be out for days, and he will not be in any shape to work on the chicken run for a while.  He pushed himself too hard, and I feel guilty about it.  There is always too much do around here, and Kim is so conscientious!  But now he is paying the price.  Kim, get well soon!  Hope you are feeling better today.

I have hired a new person to fill in at least for a bit, until Kim is back on his feet, but I don't really have time to explain what needs to be done before I leave for market today.  Maybe tomorrow.  Then I can put Goldie AND her chicks into the big chicken run, and hopefully the hawks will leave them alone.

I just checked again, and I cannot find Goldie anywhere.  Of course, I always worry that the worst happened.  I hope no wild critter got her!

Looking for mama.

Looking for mama.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to the other side.

 

Little Susie and the Twins are one month old today!!

Pot of gold in a pepper

A few years ago, my meter reader stopped to talk to me while I was working in the greenhouse.  He told me about this wonderful pepper that his family had grown for years, called a Melrose.  He gave me some seeds the next time he was at the farm and told me the history of these peppers.  When many Italian farmers migrated to Melrose Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, they brought with them seeds for these wonderful sweet red peppers.  Those farmers brought bushels of them to the farmers' market in Melrose Park, and the peppers came to be known simply as Melrose peppers.

I gratefully took the seeds and have been growing them for years.  I looked on line from time to time to see if I could find the seeds, just in case.  Nice to have a backup, you know.  Well, lo and behold, I found the seeds a couple of years ago, and with it the same story my meter reader had told me.  Truly, that is their origin in the US. 

One of my greenhouse plant customers grows nothing but Melrose peppers and usually gets a dozen plants a year.  Alas, this year it was not to be!  Steve had some problems with germination in the greenhouse, and by the time I discovered what was going on out there, I found that he had used every last Melrose seed, and his germination rate was about 5%, as opposed to the 90% to 95% germination rate I always got.  Only nine plants total!  I sold six to my regular Melrose customer and kept three for myself, planting one in a bed well away from the main garden.  There can be some cross pollination with peppers and I grow a lot of others that might mix up the results, so I wanted the "mother plant" to be isolated.

My customer had promised to save me some seeds.  But then he stopped by my booth to tell me that the rabbits got all but one of his plants.

I am so relieved that my lone plant sitting in the middle of a bunch of tomatoes in a small caged area behind my garage had three beautiful red peppers on it.  Two of them were very ripe.  I picked them a few days ago, pulled the seeds out and spread them on a plate.  I let them dry a couple more days, packaged them and can now rest assured that I will have Melrose peppers galore next year! 

Here are some pictures of the peppers and the seeds.  Back in business!  Melrose peppers will live on at Ceres & Co.!

Melrose peppers in the garden

   

Two extra ripe ones harvested for seed

Chock full of seeds

Big ripe bundles of seeds

Too many to count!

Melrose pepper seeds in their origami packet

Goldie and the chicks immortalized

Yesterday Kim saw Goldie trying to lure the chicks out of their water tank home in the barn.  He took pity on her and lifted the three chicks out.  They spent the day outside, and they roamed far and wide!  Goldie wanted to be back with the flock, but the chicks are far too little, and they would have just become fodder for the hawks and other wildlife.

I had one heck of a time rounding them up to put them away last night!  I got the two adoptees, but Little Susie was far too crafty.  She dodged into a thicket while I carried the other two chicks and Goldie back to the barn.  I went back for her, chasing her through the thicket (I am a mass of raspberry and nettle scratches!) following her plaintive peeps.  But then she got quiet.  That is how crafty she was.  She knew if she was quiet, I wouldn't be able to find her.  So I went back to the barn and got Goldie.  I carried Goldie, squawking loudly, to the edge of the thicket.  Susie ran out to her mama, and I finally got her when she got tangled in some weeds.

Amy was able to get a great watercolor of the three of them.  She did several pictures and let me take my pick.  I feel honored that I now have another watercolor by Amy Babinec, this time of Goldie and the chicks.

Goldie and the chicks.  Little Susie is on the right.

Hiding in the weeds