1. The probability is very high that you will get something rather disgusting on your face. The likelihood increases with the “grossness” factor. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT lick your lips no matter how sorely tempted.
2. Closely related – do not expect your husband to tell you if you have dirt, manure, blood, placenta or anything equally unpleasant upon your face. That’s what mirrors are for – use one before leaving the house. Husbands are untrustworthy and tend to have an unfortunate sense of humor.
3. Never expect to just quickly “run out to the barn” in your favorite sandals and dress clothes. Inevitably there will be some sort of emergency that requires your immediate attention. You will ruin your shoes, stain your dress and possibly even break a toe.
4. I do not care if you have brand new screen on every window and door. Flies are magical beings that spring to life within your house. Fly tapes are unsightly and a little icky, but they work. Be very careful when you handle them that you do not accidentally drop one on the cat. It will be weeks before he forgives you.
5. No matter how short you trim your nails, even if you always wear gloves, “stuff” accumulates beneath them. It is impossible to scrub out. Instead, wash your hair. You’ll be amazed.
6. Chickens, rabbits, lambs, goat kids and piglets are all very small creatures. You have much longer legs. Do not let this fool you – they are faster than you. By a lot. The goats and pigs may even be smarter. The one trick you have up your sleeve is opposable thumbs – use them to your advantage.
7. Keep one jacket, one pair of jeans and one set of shoes that never, ever go into the barn or pastures. There will come a time when you are no longer able to smell eau d’manure anymore. It does not mean it is gone.
8. Your mechanic will know without asking that you live on a farm based on the amount of hay chaff you have in your vehicle. Accept it and move on.
9. Customers will be completely ignorant of things that you think are the most basic, trivial concepts. Do not mock them for not knowing that roosters don’t lay eggs and potatoes have a “green, leafy part.”
10. The cat will poop in your garden. He’ll bring in mice from outdoors and let the ones inside the house eat out of his food dish. He may even graduate to bringing snakes in the house. They will always be alive. He’s still the king of the farm.

The cat’s newest obsession

Weeds are the undisputed bane of every gardener. Everyone has a battle plan. Our tactics are organic and rely heavily on mulching and removing weeds by hand. While in order to successfully cultivate it’s necessary to discourage/remove weeds, I can’t help but admire their tenacity. As it was once put to me – weeds are native – they’re specifically adapted to thrive in the soils and microclimate of your garden.

Looking even closer, many weeds are edible and tasty. Most of our garden scraps and weeds go the livestock, but there are plenty of people treats available too if we can simply look past the negative connotation of the word “weed.” Here are a few common ones that we see all the time:

Creeping Charlie

Glechoma hederacea is an aromatic, perennial, evergreen creeper of the mint family. It is commonly known as Ground-ivy, gill-over-the-ground or Creeping Charlie. It has numerous medicinal uses, and is commonly used as a salad green in many countries.

Catchweed Bedstraw

Galium aparine called cleavers or catchweed bedstraw are herbaceous annual plants that creep along the ground and over the tops of other plants, attaching themselves with the small hooked hairs which grow out of the stems and leaves. The stems can reach up to three feet or longer, and are angular or square shaped. The leaves and stems of the plant can be cooked as a leaf vegetable, if gathered before the fruits appear. However, the numerous small hooks which cover the plant and give it its clinging nature, can make it less palatable if eaten raw.

Common Mallow

Malva neglecta is also known as Common mallow in the United States and also buttonweed, cheeseplant, cheeseweed, dwarf mallow and roundleaf mallow. Its leaves and flowers are edible, and an extract of the roots have been used to make a meringue substitute. The plant also has uses in traditional medicine.

Pineappleweed

Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as pineappleweed, wild chamomile, and disc mayweed is an annual plant native to North America. The flowers exude a chamomile/pineapple aroma when crushed. They are edible and have been used in salads (although they may become bitter by the time the plant blooms) and to make herbal tea. Pineapple weed has been used for medicinal purposes, including for relief of gastrointestinal upset, infected sores, fevers, and postpartum anemia.

Purslane

Portulaca oleracea is frequently called Common Purslane, but is also known as Verdolaga, Pigweed, Little Hogweed, or Pursley, and Moss rose and is an annual succulent. Although purslane is considered a weed in the United States, it may be eaten as a leaf vegetable. It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, the middle-east, Asia, and Mexico. The stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible. Purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews.

Shepherd’s Purse

Capsella bursa-pastoris, known by its common name shepherd’s-purse because of its triangular, purse-like pods, is a small annual and a member of the mustard family. Shepherd’s purse is gathered from the wild or grown for food, to supplement animal feed, for cosmetics, and for medicinal purposes. It is commonly used as food in Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangnan region, where they are stir-fried with rice cakes and other ingredients or as part of the filling in wontons.

Motherwort

Leonurus cardiac, most often called Motherwort, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the mint family. Other common names include Throw-wort, Lion’s Ear, and Lion’s Tail. Motherwort has a long history of use as an herb in traditional medicine in Central Europe, Asia and North America. Midwives use it for a variety of purposes, including uterine tonic and prevention of uterine infection in women, hence the name Motherwort.

Lamb’s Quarters

Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant with diamond shaped leaves. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb’s quarters, melde, goosefoot and fat-hen, though the latter two are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot. Lamb’s Quarters are edible – use it any way you would normally use spinach – cooked or raw.

Here at MMF we have them all – but we probably have enough Lamb’s Quarters and Purslane to feed Napoleon’s army. I bet if you look in your yard you’ll find a wild salad bowl as well – don’t be shy – eat some weeds!

According to the USDA Plant Hardiness zone we are in zone 5A and our “last” frost date is between May 20^th and the 30^th. The average gardener figures they’re safe by waiting until Memorial Day weekend – the long weekend is full of gardening and BBQ here in NH! There’s an old adage that says you can plant after the full moon in May, but knowing that the cycle of moons fluctuates, I don’t trust that. (For example, in 2010 the full moon was 5/27, probably safe. However, in 2012 the full moon was 5/6 – a wee bit early for planting around here!) Those who plant by natural signs, say that once the blooms are off the apple trees, you should be safe. There are probably many other rules and sayings as well.

The reality is that it is all about history, probability and a wee bit of luck. The full moon is past, as is Memorial Day, and the apple blossoms have been off the trees for at least a week or more. Yesterday morning I decided to yank a few weeds before going to work, and found there was a frost. A few days ago, friends less than 30 miles away had snow. Sheesh! I was glad we hadn’t put anything out yet that can’t handle a little frost…

BUT the tide is turning and summery weather is here. It’s now or never! We’ve started putting out flats of seedlings to start hardening them off. What exactly does that mean and why is it important? In the simplest of terms – you’re toughening up your plants, getting them ready for life in the “real” world. In the real world – the light is stronger, there’s wind, temperatures are less constant and usually watering is less frequent. It’s best to expose your plants to these changes slowly – start a few hours at a time, building up to a whole day over the course of a week (bringing them in at night). Plants that are not hardened off can become sunburned or can bolt quickly, confused and stressed into setting flowers before the plant is full mature.

By this weekend we should have a lot of plants ready to be transplanted into the garden. It’s going to be hot and muggy of course, but that’s Murphy’s Law, I suppose. The plants will be happy though, likely growing by leaps and bounds… and, I’m afraid, so will the weeds!

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We started planting onions in the middle of April, as soon as we could work the soil. Many people plant onion “sets” which are small bulbs with no greenery. We plant seedlings – live, dormant plants that are shipped to us bare root and with a 4-6 inch green top. We’ve never had much luck with starting onions from seed and the live plants are less expensive than sets, if a little more finicky to work with. We’re pretty happy with them – the plants take off quickly once planted and can be set out 4-6 weeks before the last frost.

We’ve also planted six varieties of potatoes. We’ve planted potatoes in an assortment of different ways. What we’ve found we like the best is lying the seed potato directly on the soil in a borderless raised bed and then mulch over with straw. The potatoes work their way slightly down into the loose soil and the straw mulch keeps the sun off (no green ‘taters here!) We like this method because once the potatoes are planted, there’s very little work – no hilling or weeding and there’s far less digging at harvest time.

There are lots of things that can be direct seeded this time of year – lettuce, spinach, beets, kohlrabi, rutabaga, parsnips, peas, radishes, oriental greens and more! We’re also setting out the hardier seedlings – cabbages, kale, broccoli and cauliflower can all take some frost no worse for wear.

Of course we have lots of tender things growing in the greenhouse too – tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, summer squashes, melons and others. They all need attention too – watering, up potting, even weeding! As we made our own potting mix from farm soil, peat, and a bit of rabbit poo, we had some weed seeds competing with our seedlings.

Once the threat of frost is past, we’ll direct sow the remaining seeds as well – corn and beans in particular will wait until at least the last week in May. And then of course the weeding starts – ack. Essentially I’m digging in the soil from mid-April to the end of the season…So please forgive me if I show up somewhere with stained thumbs and dirty fingernails!

Most growers recognize the value in getting their soils tested. The traditional testing focuses on chemical make-up to determine the levels of the “Big Three” nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, & Potassium aka – N-P-K) and pH (the level of acidity). Sometimes these tests also include micronutrients.

But that’s only part of the story. Often ignored are the physical characteristics of the soil (such as compaction, water retention capacity, etc.) and the biological functioning. Combined these factors tell a story and will help us choose management techniques that sustains profitable yields without degrading the future productivity and reducing any environmental risks.

Cornell has developed an extensive Soil Health Assessment program that takes into account all these things. The test includes: particle size distribution and texture, wet aggregate stability, available water capacity, surface and subsurface hardness (compaction), organic matter, active carbon, standard fertility test (pH, Buffer pH (lime requirement), organic matter and modified Morgan extractable phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, iron, zinc, and manganese, potentially mineralizable nitrogen and a root health bioassay.

Wow! That’s a lot of good stuff! We’re having the samples taken today. The very clever folks at RCCD wrote a grant funding the testing, so we’re having it done for free and then will work with RCCD and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to interpret the results and develop management plans to address any deficiencies. Can’t wait to get the results back!

The lamb is a nice little ewe that we’ll be adding to our breeding flock. One of the things I do to track bloodlines is have a “themed” naming convention. This new lamb is from the Parsley bloodline (hence her mother’s name is Tansy.) Her name will also be an herb name – any suggestions?

Instead I want to show you something.

This is a tiny little “island”, on a pond, in the woods, on the four hundred acres of conservation land where we live and farm. If you look closely, you can see the Canada goose who has built a nest on that tiny outcropping and is patiently sitting on eggs. In a month or so there will be a batch of adorable, fuzzy little goslings to admire.

Happy Earth Day my friends!

Gardening is cheaper than therapy.

It’s grounding; meditative. It’s a time for quiet introspection. Even more often I find myself escaping from the hamster wheel in my mind, letting go of thoughts, and simply being.

Repetitive motions – raking, digging, counting seeds, nestling tender young plants into sun warmed soils, pulling weeds – become soothingly methodical.

I abandoned the garden gloves long ago. Dirty fingernails and work roughened hands are a small price to pay for the feeling of life at my fingertips. I don’t notice a sore back, sunburn and blisters until long after the sun slips beyond the horizon. And yet the feeling of a peaceful soul lingers longer than the aches of an abused body.

Gardening is cheaper than therapy.

We have not paid Big Brother for that little green circle. And yet there are no petrochemicals on our fields, no pesticides or herbicides.

But no little green circle.

Our livestock are on pasture, antibiotic and hormone free. Their natural manures nourish our gardens and fertilize the pastures.

But no little green circle.

We practice rotational grazing, crop rotation, companion planting, integrated pest management. All things designed to mimic the way Mother Nature already does things (quite brilliantly, I might add.)

There will never be a little green circle and that’s ok with us. We hope it is with you too! Don’t simply trust the labels – better yet – talk to your food providers. Learn about where your food comes from! You’ll learn so much and be able to make truly informed decisions about your food!