Rhubarb

Some friends gave us some more rhubarb plants the other day. I have taken a video to show you what the roots look like. My boys think they look like giant sweet potatoes, I think they look like alien appendages.

A couple notes about our rhubarb bed; some of our plants are too close together, I know this, we are establishing a larger bed for the rhubarb to take care of this, they should be planted about three feet apart for maximum production.

I am posting a video on our Facebook page, as I don’t have an upgraded site, I can’t post a video

here.https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2056642704583300&id=1967258146855090

 

 

Spring!

Friday was a glorious day here in Maine! We spent the entire day outside resulting in me having my first sunburn of the season as I forgot to put sun hats on everyone.

We were cleaning up the flower/blueberry bed in the center of our driveway. In October we were hit with a big nor easter that blew down many trees and took out power to many people in the North East. We had cleaned up the two huge pines that blew down (one of which totaled our truck, the other one missing our other vehicle by about a foot, a branch putting a slight dent in the tailgate and taking of the H), but all the debris was still in the flower garden and needed to be raked out and disposed of. I usually spread leaves etc. in our garden field to raise the height of the field over time as it floods every spring, but i didn’t think i wanted all the pine debris down there due to acidity. I ended up burning much of it, slowly, during the day in our fire pit.

Any time I am in this particular garden I think of my Aunt Willow. She was  a flower and nature lover, garden designer, farmer and very kind and generous. Many of my daffodil bulbs came from her as did some of my blueberry bushes. A couple of weeks from now this garden will be filled with yellow against a stone, lichen and moss backdrop. Willow drove by our house everyday and I would either see her in passing or she would call to say how much she enjoyed driving by our garden as it was so lovely this time of year.

The little boys and I planted many flower seeds on Friday as a tribute to Willow and I hope many of them come to fruition, she loved color and the beauty of flowers. She was magic in the garden and anyone that knew her or had a garden designed or planted by her, knows her magic still lives on.

Hens a Villanelle Poem By TEM

T recently wrote this poem for school, it pertains to farming so I thought I would share it…

Hens

Ten Brown hens

Two layers of blue

Eight chickens white as snow in pens

 

They all fly, but not as high as wrens,

Watch out on the steps…eeeewwww

Ten Brown hens

 

The white as fast as benz

As they speed along they coo

Eight chickens white as snow in pens

 

Chased by all of those mens

They all wake up to the dew

Ten Brown hens

 

They are out of there pens!

Maybe they flew!

Eight chickens white as snow

 

All of them try to find dens instead of pens

Poo on your shoe, boohoo

Ten Brown hens

Eight chickens white as snow.

Voles vs LA

I am at war with the voles that have been eating everything growing in our greenhouse.

I tried to deter them with castor oil pellets, a lot of them, to no avail. I finally (several months late) made some vole traps Elliot Coleman style. See this link for a photo of his traps. https://goo.gl/images/bojXR2

After waiting a few months for River to make the traps, (not like he was busy making syrup or anything!) The little boys and I finally made 3 on Sunday using scrap wood. We had managed to dispose of a couple voles without traps (don’t ask, you don’t want to know what happened) we knew that they had been eating really well and were quite chubby, so I decided to get some rat traps similar to what Elliot uses. I also got two of the mouse traps he used on the off chance they would work.

I did not put bottoms on my traps, so I put them directly over some of the entrance holes in the greenhouse. I got two in the first 24 hours with no bait in the same rat trap, over what looked like a well used entrance.

The trap that had the mouse traps in it was missing a trap, completely gone. I looked around the greenhouse and did not find it anywhere. I had accidentally made the doors on this one a little larger then I meant to, so the vole must have pulled the trap out through the hole when it was stuck on its little foot or something and managed to get into a hole with it.

Tally:

LA 2

Voles 1 (and all the greens and bean seeds in the greenhouse)

Yesterday I rearranged the traps and added some apple and orange bait to change it up a bit and success! One more Vole down!

Tally:

LA 3

Voles 1 (and all the greens we should be eating right now except the kale, apparently they don’t like kale)

I have been reading This Organic Life Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow, she brings up the point that even if we are vegetarian, it does not mean that no death is involved in growing the plants we eat. She talks about the true cost of the food we eat.

“Whatever you choose to eat, and wherever you get it, the true cost of your food will, almost inevitably, include death.”

This Organic Life Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader page 161 Joan Dye Gussow

I tried alternatives to no avail. Unfortunately in this situation, to successfully grow food to eat I have to get rid of these little creatures.

What’s Left in the Root Cellar

April 11, 2018

 

We finished the last of our potatoes over the past week, they were still yummy and delicious! Our biggest challenge has been storing carrots and beets so they remain delicious and pretty. We still have carrots and beets in the root cellar, but they are not pretty. I mostly shread them after I peel them and add them to stir fries and soups.

For the past two years, we have stored them in bushel baskets, separated and covered with sawdust, in our root cellar. This method has not been highly successful. We are trying to figure out a better plan for this winter.

In the pantry, we still have peaches, tomato sauce, salsa, apple butter, quince butter, applesauce, peach chutney, some pickles and dried mushrooms.

In our bedroom closet, the perfect storage area for winter squash we still have two butternuts and a delicata waiting to be eaten.

The freezers contain sausage, bacon, soup bones and chops, stew chicken a couple roasting chickens as well as strawberries, blueberries, shredded zucchini, green beans, peppers, gooseberries, fiddle heads, beet greens and some other odds and ends.

We also have eggs from our lovely chickens.

The one thing the voles have not eaten in the greenhouse are some kale plants that are growing again since it has been toasty in there.

So we will not starve between now and the first tomato, but I may have to buy some potatoes and sweet potatoes to supplement our breakfasts.

Enjoy the return of spring!