Seasonal Highlights – November Week 3

 

• The Northern Saw-Whet Owl is a miniature owl native to North America. Some will remain the winter and others will take the opportunity to migrate south.
• Monarch butterflies are now gone – soon to settle on central Mexico
• Porcupines are back to eating tree bark and pine needles now that all the leaves have fallen.
• This year’s bullfrogs will spend the winter as tadpoles, nestled “warmly” in muddy bandy and pond bottoms.

Seasonal Highlights – November Week 2

 

• Deer are mating – watch out on the roads, combined with rutting and daylight savings there are more deer related accidents than any other time of the year. Fawns will be born at the end of May.
• Late migrations include red throated loons, common loons and ring billed gulls
• Brook trout are spawning
• Mourning dove are creating winter flocks with clear hierarchy
• Cedar waxwings are also creating winter flocks; they’ll rove in search of crabapple and other fruit trees to feed on through winter

On My Plate

We both work full time. We run the farm – 103 living things and counting! (That’s excluding people and plants.) We’re heavily involved in our spiritual group. We are also involved in our region’s “eat local” movement. There really isn’t a lot of “leisure” time, as the average American defines it. There’s time for relaxation and quiet contemplation, but it sometimes coincides with weeding or some other chore that allows for the simplicity of just being…

Despite our schedules, we decided long ago there has to be time for family and friends, for relationships maintain the quality of our life. A few weeks ago, we made that time and had a little get-together, inviting some dear friends over for a boiled ham dinner. Nothing unduly fancy, but tasty nonetheless.

There is something profound about looking down at your plate and realizing that you had intimate involvement in everything you see. A plate can hold so many memories – hours of tilling the soil, tiny seeds, smaller than grains of sand, whispered hopes and prayers that eventually these seeds would through the miracle of growth someday become cabbages, rutabagas, onion, carrots and kohlrabies. Perfect red and gold spheres remind us that even written off (as I did the potatoes this year) Nature prevails and offers gifts back to her children. Our uncertainty does not influence what the Earth provides.

A forkful of ham brings laughter as I remember the day the pigs got out – four porkers, nearly 250 pounds each, running up and down the runway of the barn, playfully determined to knock down everything. I remember how they learned to take treats gently out of my hand or turn up their snouts if the proffered “delicacy” was not to their liking. My back remembers every forkful of soiled bedding and my nose the clean scent of fresh shavings that the pigs rolled in with evident and immense satisfaction. There is nothing macabre about it, just happy memories and simple food that tastes better than anything I could have purchased smothered in shrink wrap, coated with invisible diesel fuel.

These are the simple pleasures that we live for, every day. There is satisfaction in a job well done, in hard work, lots of laughter and knowing what you eat was raised humanely and grown sustainably.

I think I’ll go have seconds…

Seasonal Highlights – November Week 1

 

• All yellow jacket males and workers have died and the queens are hibernating. A new nest will be created in the spring and a whole new batch of stinger menaces will emerge.
• Now is the time to find the endangered Canada or Meadow Lily.  It’s 3 part capsules on tall stalks are easy to recognize in moist meadows and the edges of woods.
• Keep your eyes peeled for a passing snow goose, resting and feeding in area wetlands
• Kingfishers stick around until ponds and streams freeze over

Homesteader News

It’s that time again – the November edition of Homsteader News is online. Take a minute to peruse this month’s articles.

On the front page is an article I wrote about our “neighbors” at Lizzy Lane Farm. Thanks Karyn for helping out!

Seasonal Highlights – October Week 4

 

• Woodland jumping mice are beginning a 6 month long hibernation
• chipmunks are scrambling to put away enough sugar maple seeds, pinecones and acorns for winter stores
• An adult racoon has ballooned up to a hefty 30 pounds in anticipation of upcoming lean time (probably gorging on your neighbor’s corn!)
• Canadian geese are flying south
• Cluster flies, also known as attic flies, are sneaking into your home right now, seeking a dry place to hibernate for the winter. (The good news is that they do not present a health hazard because they do not lay eggs in human food.

“Goat Song”

Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler 

I just finished reading “Goat Song” by Brad Kessler. I found it an interesting story of a couple who moves to Vermont and begins raising a few dairy goats and their adventures along the way. The story of their experiences as new shepherds is generously peppered with historical, cultural and spiritual information relating to goat herding and cheese making. While this adds quite a bit of interesting background to the subject, the discussion of Christian spirituality gets a little heavy handed towards that latter half of the book moving somewhat beyond the scope of the theme of herding.

Kessler shares charming anecdotes and simple revelations, despite the fact that his over keen interest in the specifics of goat copulation was somewhat disturbing. I particularly enjoyed his explanations on goat hierarchy and personalities.

All in all, “Goat Song” was a fairly interesting read, however it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I got a lot more of “A Short History on Herding” and less of the “Seasonal Life” that I was looking for. In all honesty, while I’m glad to have read it, I am also pleased that I borrowed it from a friend instead of buying it myself…

The Potato Experiment

This time of year seems to be a frenzy of activity, desperately trying to get chores done in swiftly diminishing daylight and dropping temperatures. Every fall day in NH is a race against the inevitable blanket of frozen white that looms in the not so distant future.

That being said, more time has been spent buttoning up the barn, harvesting the last of the veggies, and winterizing everything in sight and the blogging gets a bit neglected. Case in point – I had intended to write about the potato experiment for weeks now and am just getting around to it.

So without further ado – The Potato Experiment

Conventionally grown potatoes are planted in the ground and then soil is hilled up around the growing greenery. The “hilling” prevents potatoes from sun damage which turns the tubers an unappetizing shade of green. Aside from watering and occasional hilling, it is considered good form to simply ignore potatoes until late summer or early fall when the plant dies off signifying that the tubers are ready for harvesting.

Of course harvesting is a bit trickier than it sounds. I’ve read several gardening books that say to use a garden fork to “gently lift” the spuds from the soil being careful not to spear the potatoes. Perhaps these gardening gurus have developed x-ray vision, but I cannot see through the soil and predictably some potatoes get skewered. In addition, the potatoes come out … well… dirty. There I said it. (Although you may ask how someone who gardens barefoot can find dirty spuds objectionable, but digging for muddy, grimy potatoes is just a turn off for me.)

We knew that there just had to be a better way. A few years ago we had a friend that showed us the merits of growing potatoes in straw or mulch hay instead of dirt, but it didn’t resolve the problem of having to fork through wet, heavy hay and impaling perfectly good tubers in the process. So we decided to use the hay method in barrels and see what happened.

We were able to score some free 55 gallon drums. Glenn split them in half, lengthwise to give me a good sized container to work with. They had previously contained biodegradable oils, but I gave them a very scrupulous scrubbing and let them dry in the sun before he drilled some drainage holes in the bottoms.

Next we placed the halves on pallets to raise them up off the ground a little and filled them with hay. Each barrel was exactly the right size to lay an entire square hay bale in on its side. (Remember, “square” bales are actually rectangular so the fit was perfect!) The hay was oriented so that the flakes stood up and down. To plant potatoes, all I had to do was separate the flakes, drop in approximately a half of a cup of compost, snuggle the seed potatoes down in and press the flakes together again.

I planted late, due to a phenomenally rainy and cold June, so for a while we thought there were out of luck. However, I periodically watered the hay bales and eventually the green plants pushed their way out and into the sun. Because I never took the twine off the bales, I did not have to “hill” the plants at all.

Despite the desire to poke around and see how the progress was going, I mostly ignored the potatoes all summer long. Finally the plants died back and we decided it was time to see what was waiting for us under all that hay. Glenn spread out a tarp and flipped the first drum out onto it. The mass slid out with a thump and retained the shape of the barrel.

We found that it was extremely easy to break apart the old hay and find nice, shiny clean potatoes. We also found two or three mouse nests snuggled into the hay as well. Apparently the drainage holes gave perfect access to the prime real estate – comfy hay with an immediate food source. Several on the ‘taters in those containers had been gnawed upon. Lesson learned – next year we’ll glue screens on the holes to keep the mice out! Once all the potatoes were discovered, we dragged the tarp over to the garden and tossed in the partially decomposed mulch hay. It will add excellent nutrients and organic matter to next year’s garden.

All in all we were very pleased with the process. Despite the fact that we planted late and the weather was cold we got a decent crop of smallish potatoes. If the weather had cooperated, we would have had a great crop of good sized tubers.  In addition, by using the barrels I was able utilize over 84 square feet of garden space for other crops. Which was a huge deal for me this year, as prepared space was at a premium and I ran out of gardens beds long before I had planted everything I intended!

We will definitely use this method again next year.

 

Barrels

Plants

Flip

Out of the Barrel

Where are you?

Whites

Reds

Compost

Seasonal Highlights – October Week 3

 

• Migrating fox sparrows arrive.  These birds are ground foragers and are especially vulnerable to hunting cats.
• Oak and beech trees evolved in the tropic; imperfect deciduous trees they’ll have withered brown leaves clinging to their branches and less vibrant foliage.
• Broad winged hawks are now crossing the Rio Grande, aiming to reach South America by mid November
• The last of the wood thrushes are winging off to central and northern South America

Seasonal Highlights – October Week 2

 

• As brush and grasses die off  it is a great time to look for the long, shiny evergreen leaves of pipsissewa. Known as Bitter Wintergreen, this herb grows in sandy forests and was used by native peoples to treat urinary tract infections.
• The eastern comma butterfly has emerged from its chrysalis. It is easily identified by the white comma shape on its underwing.
• Beavers are creating stockpiles of branches for winter snacks
• Bears are especially active, fattening up before going into hibernation