My Room with a View

moving

2009-04-21T09:15:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not moving from Little Creek. It will take more than lost jobs and living like a grad student once again to get me off this mountain! I have decided to start a new blog - fresh outlook and all. So, come visit me here:

http://viewfromlittlecreek.wordpress.com/

and we'll see what happens.

I like change. Change is good.

Opening your eyes

2009-01-22T08:08:00.003-05:00

crow art, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I saw the crows out in the chicken yard yesterday before I went to let the poultry out. They like to visit and search for morsels the domestic birds, in their spoiled condition, leave behind. They left a record of their passing in the snow. For a brief time it was there - a perfect pattern of searching. Soon the tame birds would obliterate their mark.

One thing I am relearning is to see things around me. Not just look, but see. We all have the ability to see beyond looking. Sometimes it takes effort. Sometimes it is a moment of grace. My painting project is helping me. Looking for a moment, I'm seeing many. Choosing a moment is a little harder. And there are successes and failures. That is fine. The successes make it all worth while.

What did you see today?

Isabella Rose Gigglefoot

2009-01-08T12:09:00.002-05:00

Isabella Rose Gigglefoot, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Rose has been a member of our clan since this fall. We received her from Monkey's old preschool class, where she was getting a bad rap for attacking 3 year olds. I personally don't hold it against her. What would you do if small children kept grabbing you and poking their cute, chubby little cheeks in your cage? I think bad classroom management was the cause of Rose going rogue...

I believe the phrase that greeted me that fateful day from the Head of School was, "Maggie, this rabbit needs you!"

She now only attacks Charlie. She does not like him. Seriously. It's like a scene from Monty Python - Holy Hand Grenade, anyone? He is afraid. Keep in mind that he also thinks the goats start each day with plans to manipulate him... With me, she's quite the snuggler. And while from time to time, she puts on a bunny show of fierceness to the Monkey; she has learned that all children aren't evil. Everynight when Monkey and I read, Rose hops quietly around the room. She'll sit on our laps or bounce around the room to her own tune. And boy, can she bounce!

I never thought I'd own a bunny. But she's actually rather sweet and easy to care for. I don't think her personality was meant for a busy class full of small children. And she's oh, so soft. Just look at that nose!

Watching clouds go by

2009-01-07T08:36:00.004-05:00

For the last couple of days I've been sitting on my porch, painting. The temperature has been mild and I've taken full advantage of it to paint plein-aire. I have always prefered painting in the studio with the climate fully under control and the bugs out of my paint. From time to time I would venture forth with my materials and paint outside. I usually was unsatisfied with my work, and the bugs and dirt in my paint. I'd retreat to the studio to start something "serious".

It's hard to explain the feelings I'm feeling with my painting a day project. Not only is the structure of one painting a day helping me to get my mind and hand back in artistic shape, but it's letting me see things differently. While I love to take photos of "the view" and compare them day to day, month to month; it's an entirely different experience to paint it. The photographic image catches one precise moment. Painting takes time and light changes, colors shift, clouds move. I become much more aware. Even in the studio, painting from life, I am drawn in to those moments of observing, of becoming hyper aware.

Each little painting is finished quickly and set aside. It has taken away the percieved seriousness of what I am doing. It does not have to be perfect. There is always tomorrow. And tomorrow the subject will change, the light will be different and the clouds will move.

The last view of 2008

2008-12-31T12:27:00.003-05:00

31 December, 2008, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Today is blustery. No, today is gusty. Wind gusts of 50 miles an hour, or so, are keeping the wind chimes clanging and the trees roaring. Every now and again something odd blows across the front yard and into the edge of the woods. Frequently something ominously bangs or creaks. Still, it's absolutely gorgeous outside.

Yesterday was so mild. I was hoping to paint outside today. I think I'll head out to the studio after lunch and work from a relatively draft-free environment.

The daily paintings are going well. I'm painting more naturally/realistically than I anticipated. And I'm thinking a lot about how I like to make my art. Once I have some sound theories, I'll write them down, or maybe not. Maybe I'm thinking too hard.

The more things change...

2008-12-28T09:04:00.007-05:00

From this....

... to this in 9 months.
What a year.

For the last year I have said that 2007 sucked. It did - my mother died, friends died. It was not a happy time. I thought it was the worst year ever. I now revise my earlier thoughts and crown 2008 the worst year ever. Worst. Year. Ever. (Don't worry, this post gets better I promise)

Let's recap, shall we? Back pain, lots of it. Add hip pain as well. No obvious cause. I spend months and thousands on physical therapy. Little relief. I can at least move again. Collapse of economy led to collapse of Charlie's company. I get laid off by my husband. Hmm... Another summer of drought conditions means gardening is hard. Gardening at our level with back pain is hard. Chickens won't lay eggs. Promised money from past clients refuses to arrive in our coffers. Internal restructuring of budget at Little Creek Farm means the Monkey must leave sweet Montessori school and start public education. Two days before Christmas Charlie is laid off from his job.

Now the positive. I can move again and have started my own physical therapy - walking. The Monkey and I are taking daily walks, talking and watching the world go slowly by. Collapse of the company gave me more time to paint and spend with the Monkey. Garden did surprisingly well during drought. We built a root cellar and it is stocked with loads of potatoes, beets, and jars of canned produce. Chickens who don't lay eggs make wonderful stock. They also make us laugh as living yard ornaments. Ducks do lay eggs and are even funnier to watch. Coffers are empty - I'm trying to think of something positive, really I am. Oh! At least we've been able to pay our mortgage. And my anger at the clients who just didn't pay us is subsiding, they are probably worse off than us. Maybe.

And while I love Montessori education methods, Monkey was not really happy this year in a much smaller class. Enrollment was down to the lovely economy and her class was really just too small (there were only 3 first graders). Her best friend left and she felt all alone. It's not good to see your child so lonely. Her new class in public school seems much more suited to her personality. There are lots of kids, a giant playground, the cafeteria, music class, art class, computer lab, LIBRARY, gym and more activities. She is very excited to start.

And Charlie... He's a smart, talented guy. He's been stressing. This was not the plan. He should be able to find another job. I've also accepted the fact that I probably won't find the "perfect" job anytime soon. I'm now looking at anything that will help pay the bills. From my point of view, this is the perfect time for some reinvention. Perhaps I'll find the perfect job. Who knows? And all the drama has actually brought us closer together. We spend more time together. We talk more. And we still have hope. Which is good. Very good.

Perhaps 2008 isn't the worst year ever. Let's call it a year of change. And change is good, right?

Growing with the season

2008-12-23T14:45:00.002-05:00

cold frames, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Gardening is understandibly slow right now. Under these little portable greenhouses/cold frames lettuce and greens are thriving. Beets are flourishing. These little plants have been easy to fool, even with the below freezing temperatures we've had the last couple of days. There's no need to pull weeds and nature has been providing the moisture. I could get into winter gardening, if it weren't for the cold.

I happen to think Charlie's design is rather ingenious. The only flaw seems to be their ability to catch the wind and go flying. Far. Far Away. These houses are securely anchored to posts after a couple of blustery days set them sailing. We had high winds the night before last and the one frame that was not covering a thing, thus not anchored, ended up about an acre away in the woods. Remarkably, it held together.

They are neat and tidy, efficient and multi-purpose. I'm planning on removing the plastic in the spring and replacing it with wire. Then the little greenhouses can become little chick and duckling nurseries. They will also allow us to get the tomato plants out and protected earlier. And think how pretty they'll be covered in row cloth. Sometimes Charlie amazes me with the things he comes up with. He couldn't stand the look of my natty row covers and had to come up with something that met his high aesthetic standards. I have to admit they are much prettier than my hoops and cloth coverings. I'm pretty lucky to have him.

Purple States

2008-12-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

Today is "my" day at Purple States. Check it out.

Little lights

2008-12-18T08:11:00.002-05:00

little light, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

It's the season of waiting and watching. It's the time of lighting candles against the darkness. I have been in such a dark hole, and am slowly climbing out following the little lights of Advent. Monkey is counting down each day of Advent in anticipation of Christmas - more for the hope of presents than for the coming of longer days or the messiah (whichever you prefer).

Me, I'm watching and waiting for many things. I'm watching the ground and the rain in anticipation of spring, still months away. Seed catalogs have started to arrive and I'm dreaming and hoping, plotting and planning. I'm patiently (although patience is wearing thin as a virture) waiting for promised funds to arrive. I don't as well with debt as I do with the cycle of seasons. In the mean time I'm trying to hold all the little pieces together.

Our Christmas may not be extravagant this season, but we have each other. The days will get longer soon and the light will begin to return.

In an effort to keep my thoughts positive and engaged, I've started a new project. I'm doing a painting (or drawing, or something) everyday. You can view them at Little Visions. For my birthday, Charlie winterized my drafty studio and now I can work! We may not be romantic here at Little Creek Farm, but we are practical sometimes...

I'm not a fan of cold...

2008-12-12T08:23:00.003-05:00

11 December, 2008, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

We had two days of warm weather and rain. Four inches of rain. There is finally water in the creek again. Now we're back to cold. The goats are not happy. At least the sun is shining. That always helps my spirits pick up a bit.

We got the release from Monkey's school district yesterday and today are meeting the principal of what will hopefully be her new school. She doesn't seem to be sad at all to leave the Montessori school. I think this has to do with the fact that one of her friends told her all about the school cafeteria. There's nothing like the promise of nachos for lunch to lure a first grader.

What can I say? It's been awhile.

2008-12-10T11:04:00.006-05:00

Life has been throwing me lots of punches lately. So, I just put certain things on the back burner for awhile. I have missed my blog, but the need to focus on family, finances, and sanity were a stronger pull. My friend Cinnamon has pulled me back. She and her husband have a project - Purple States and invited me to be their blogger from North Carolina. So, I'm thinking and planning and will be posting soon. North Carolina is coming up awfully fast!

Life on the farm keeps chugging along with the seasons. As long as we can make that mortgage payment we should be ok. I'm getting used to not really working and not finding a job. It really sucks to have to close a small business. Being laid off by your spouse is the worst. (I'm not bitter at all...) Charlie is loving his new job, although he did take a 10% pay cut along with everyone else this fall. Times are tough when you are even remotely connected to real estate. We have been making lots of cuts here at Little Creek Farm. Monkey will be leaving her private Montessori school at Christmas Break and will start the second semester of first grade in the world of public education. Right now we are working on getting her into the elementary school of our choice. You see, we sit right on the wrong side of a district dividing line. We are closer to one school (the one we want) than the other one, but such are the vagaries of the county system. Keep your fingers crossed for the Monkey.

We finished our root cellar earlier this fall and it is stocked with potatoes,sweet potatoes, beets, cans of tomatoes, tomato sauce, apple sauce, apple jam, apple butter, strawberry jam and way too many green beans. Who needs money for groceries??? It's not that bad, yet. Really.

We managed to put together some great row cover/cold frames and have a huge crop of greens, lettuce and beets thriving under cover. Gardening is easy this time of year... And the seed catalogs have started to arrive and make us a little more optimistic about things. The thought of new things growing in the spring, even though it is far off, can't help but make us happy.

The animals are all hunkered down for the winter. I'm saving up for a new batch of hens this spring. My old girls are not laying. I haven't seen an egg in weeks. For the last couple of years we kept the henhouse lighted. That meant by fooling the hens we got more eggs. They didn't really get to rest though. So this year no artificial light means no eggs.

O.K. Everyone caught up? Charlie has a job. Maggie doesn't. Maggie needs one (or will accept winning the lottery in place of gainful employment...). The farm is ok. The bears are hibernating. The goats are fat and wooly and the chickens are lazy. Monkey will learn about standarized testing this year. And everyone is receiving jars of jam and barbeque sauce for Christmas.

I'm back, I promise.

Living in the Wild

2008-08-18T13:38:00.002-05:00

hey, it's empty!, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I love living with nature, but sometimes it can be a little too close. We had ursine visitors today - A mamma and THREE cubs. I now know how Monkey's pool got broken. They all had a swim, pulled down the bird feeders and headed off into the woods. I banged a few pots together to send them on their way.

Now I have to keep an eye out for Monkey and the dogs, not to mention the chicken house and goats. This particular bear and cubs wander all over the valley, although this is the first visit to our house that I've witnessed.

Some bears destroyed our friend's orchard across the valley this weekend. There's not a lot of food for them out there right now because of the drought. They better leave my berry bushes alone, or else...

Three Ducklings

2008-08-16T05:26:00.002-05:00

three ducklings, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

This week three little ducklings joined our menagerie. We've had horrible luck in hatching this year. Of course, I haven't been very attentive to the situation and have left it all up to nature and the whims of broody hens.

Most of this hatch didn't make it. There were a lot of fully formed chicks that just didn't hatch properly. I'm not sure why. The crested duckling may be a clue as the crested gene has a fatal gene connection somehow. (I just skimmed over most of the crested information in my reading). I do have one duck with a very tiny bump of a crest and she must be this one's mother.

The three are very happy in the brooder. We are playing with them in hopes that they'll be a little more people friendly than their parents. They're just so cute and fluffy!

Say hello to my little friend

2008-08-04T12:31:00.002-05:00

boo boo chicken, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

The Monkey named her Boo Boo Chicken. She's a Polish bantam and like to ride on my shoulder. I don't think she can see too well, but she's awfully cute in a goofy sort of way.

A friend gave her to me along with two Ameracaunas and a Silver-Pencilled Rock bantam. I helped him out this spring by giving him a couple of laying hens. When his chick order came, he raised them up to a decent size and passed on four to me.

Funny looking creature.

Back from the brink

2008-07-30T12:20:00.002-05:00

I took a much needed break from everything for most of June and July. I seriously have ignored almost everything except the garden - it helped mentally, physically and spiritually. It always does. I'm feeling much better now, enough said. Now let's move on.

The garden is literally buzzing. Bees (honey, mason, bumble and all) are everywhere. I've yet to be stung. I move slowly and no one seems to mind my plodding and poking. Did you know that different bees have different sounds? Really. Each type buzzes a little differently. I told you I've been spending a lot of time in the garden.

In the spring we started building walls for our raised beds out of rock. We have a lot of rock. I should be honest and say Charlie started building walls. I haven't been able to move too many rocks in a while. They look nice and have become home to many little garden predators. I'm getting over my arachniphobia. Spiders are good... Also, we have tons of toads. O.K., not tons, but more than ever. Monkey and I have made several toad homes for them. I don't think they actually use them, but they look cute in the garden.

My tomato plants are looking spectacular and a few of the fruits are ripening. I've been hand-watering them lavishly. The lack of rain and an heavy mulch of pine straw has kept them mostly disease free. Next week I may start selling them at market, but right now we are hording the first of the crop as our own. Stupice has again this year taken first place in early ripening. Charlie wolfed down the first Black Prince that I plucked. Greedy man. But he has done most of the heavy work this year, so I'll forgive him.

Enlightenment - one second too late

2008-06-15T21:38:00.003-05:00

Have you ever had that flash of insight that tells you "I really shouldn't be right here, right now"?

I had one of those today when facing a 1200 pound beastie who was thinking about bolting and I was standing smack dab in the middle of her only escape route. I noticed her decision to "spook" in the tensing of muscles, the flick of a nostril and the roll of her eye. (Never mind that she was escaping from a big block of dock styrofoam that had somehow ended up in the middle of the riding path. And that she had stood quietly while I dismounted and removed it from the path. And it was styrofoam and she is a big horse... The equine mind is one vast vacuum.)

I now have a slightly swollen, bruised foot with very little skin left on the top. It's not too bad. I can move all toes and walk with only a slight limp. I only have three more days at camp. But I am rather angry with myself for standing in that particular spot at that particular moment. In her defense, once she stepped on my foot she did a rather agile twist (thus the removal of skin...) to avoid taking me completely out.

Monkey has had a rather positive time with the horses. Today she had a private lesson with me as the campers all left for the weekend. She says she wants to gallop, but for the moment we are staying at a walk. I did let her trot today. She's my girl. I'm thinking Charlie and I better start saving for a pony...

Oh, and I saw the fox kits again. I think I'll go out early tomorrow morning with my camera (if I can walk...).

Living in the woods

2008-06-12T21:58:00.002-05:00

One of the things I love most about summer camp is that it allows children to experience the world at a different pace. There is a schedule, of course; but within that framework there is time to see the world in a different light.

This morning I was on a trailride with 10 girls. As one child decided not to ride, Monkey rode along with us. As we came into the cover of trees from an open field, we had an issue with one of the horses (they've been out to pasture all winter and the first week or so they can be rather "frisky"). While I helped the one girl, the rest of the group stayed still around us. A camper heard something in the woods, just off the trail, and then three of them saw a grey fox kit in the shadows. Then they saw another and the mother. Amazing. We were all able to see them (twice, as we had to pass by the spot again). A grey fox is a rare sight. Her den must be right there off of the field and near the trail to the lake. I guess living that close to camp has made her a little braver than most and we were graced to see her little brood in the shaded underbrush.

One of the girls commented that if the horse hadn't acted up, we may never have seen the foxes. Quite true. If we hadn't stopped in just that spot, we wouldn't have noticed the rather well camouflaged kits. Today we were thankful for a difficult situation that allowed us to glimpse the magic all around us.

Take time to look in the shady spots and to the sides of the path you are on. No telling what you will see.

Monkey Hood

2008-06-09T15:23:00.001-05:00

Monkey Hood, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Monkey is taking to the summer camp lifestyle swimmingly. We've canoed, swam, and shot arrows. We are working on a bird house in arts and crafts. We are here to mainly be training the horseback staff. Monkey is turning into quite the little equestrian. Hmmm, should we make Charlie buy a pony? It could live with the goats...

It is hot as Hades here in Georgia. The Monkey trotted on a trail ride yesterday - a big deal. I've been sweating my butt off in the barn on a daily basis. Hot, hot, hot. I was much more resilient in my 20's. So, this afternoon we are heading to the pool.

Charlie sent news from Little Creek Farm. There was a hidden nest of eggs with one little hen on it. So, that's where all my eggs were going. Good thing to know, I suppose. Let's keep our fingers crossed for a few new chicks. The first carrots are coming in. Oh and it's hot. Hot, hot, hot.

Yes, we are alive...

2008-06-06T06:50:00.005-05:00

Has it really been since April 10 since I last posted anything? Well, apparently so. Sorry.

I needed a little "me" time. I basically shut down all non-essential things in my life for awhile - it was the stress of closing a business. If you haven't figured out by now, the economy is taking a big down-turn. We laid off employees, circled the wagons and hunkered down for a month or so.

Things are looking much better. Charlie was offered a rather high-paying job from a client, and accepted. The garden is rocking. Monkey just started summer vacation. And you wouldn't believe how big the puppy has gotten. He's a monster. A golden-eyed, shoe-stealing, monster.

The Monkey and I are taking off for summer camp today, but will be back to the farm in a week. I promise to post more frequently and am thinking of wonderful things to write. (I actually had several fantastic posts that never were written in May...)

I'm excessively happy with the results of the Democratic primary and the winner of American Idol by the way....

the future holds cherries and geese

2008-04-10T13:02:00.004-05:00

"Starkrimson" sweet cherry, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Cherry blossoms hold such hope! The wild ones are blooming as well in the woods. There are clothes drying on the line. It feels like spring.

And, one of the geese has started to lay (which is good). She built a beautiful nest and layed a lovely egg - right in the goat stall (which is bad). Now what am I supposed to do??? Hmmm, must think...

Puppy Tuesday on Wednesday

2008-04-09T11:32:00.002-05:00

what?, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Today's work - process invoices then take a puppy break. Life is hard.

We took a walk in the woods after a morning of boring. There are new things to discover each day. I found a vast amount of crested iris just coming out of the ground and wild geraniums are carpeting the forest floor. Blooms should follow soon. It will be a year ago this weekend when we had our second nasty freeze and lost the greenhouse to gale force winds. The blueberries have started to bloom, so are the strawberries. The sweet cherry has a few blossoms open and the apples and pie cherries aren't far behind. It's easy to see why the freeze was so damaging last year.

I'm keeping all fingers crossed that the weather remains mild and spring-like.

It's spring and I'm busy as a...

2008-04-02T09:17:00.002-05:00

little helper, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I'm busy as a you-know-what. This time of year there is so much to do around the farm. For the last two weeks we've been planting - peas, lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes. Radish seedlings and peas are starting to pop out of the ground. Inside we've started tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and cauliflower. There are onions and more onions (scallions and keepers) to put in the ground. There is also a flat of lettuce starts waiting on me. I'm waiting impatiently on the arrival of our potato order which was shipped last week. Charlie will have to plant those. I have a letter from my doctor excusing me from heavy work...

The hens are upping their egg production and I've started a collection to put in the incubator. Normally I store them in the cool garage until I have enough, but yesterday's temperatures were around 80 degrees so the eggs are in the house where it's a tiny bit cooler. The ducks have been moulting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of them will go broody. I'm hoping that the geese will do the same. If not, I'll load up the incubator after the chicks hatch. We didn't order any chicks this year. The money situation is rather tight at the moment and my eggs are free.

Ah, and money - it is tight. We have a company to run. And if you haven't heard, there is a recession going on. And we are an area that some consider a luxury. Thank god, not everyone considers their landscape and natural resources a luxury, but still... Our expansion funding didn't come through (at least not yet...) and we had four expected clients (that would be loads of money...) decide to not sign contracts at this time (so really, no need to expand, really). One client has cut back so much that it is basically non-existent. It's not good to be tied to the real estate market at the moment. We had to make some really tough decisions in the last couple of weeks. We stopped our expansion and had to lay off a few employees. Hopefully, we will be able to hire them back soon. We've decided to use one as a contract employee. And after talking to our accountant Charlie decided to not move into the new office space in downtown Asheville, but convert space here at home to office space.

It does make more sense. The garage is big enough for office space down and a studio/loft up top. And money spent on it only increases the value of property we already own. Most of our work is done on-site and on-line. There really is no need for expensive rental property. I'm also excited because we are going to go back to doing some residential work - just design, no installation. That's easy, creative and enjoyable. You draw what fits in someone's budget and meets their needs; they pay you (half up front, of course) and you're done. I'm hopeful that we'll be back to turning a profit soon. Oh, and the dogs are excited that they get to go to work everyday. Anyone for a frisbee break? I'm going to go plant lettuce.

Puppy Tuesday!

2008-04-01T20:40:00.002-05:00

why he's tired, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

It was almost 80 degrees today. I really have a bunch of things I want to write about, but I'm over the top busy. So enjoy Moonpie and Tank as they enjoy spring.

coq au vin

2008-03-29T19:40:00.003-05:00

coq au vin, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

There's really only one way to take care of an extremely unpleasant rooster.

Puppy Tuesday

2008-03-25T13:02:00.003-05:00

puppy tuesday, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I could seriously take pictures of him all day long. I'll try to show some restraint. We are trying out the names "Goose" and "Tank", but we most often end up calling him "Little Man".

We had a wonderful weekend. It was a great start to spring break. Saturday's weather was the best so far this year. It was around 70 degrees and sunny. We all were sporting lightly sunburned cheeks.

The garden called. I planted shallots and a lettuce. Charlie butchered one rooster, two guinea fowl and a turkey hen. We spent the afternoon clearing vines out of the woods and cleaning up the streambed.

The turkey was close to 40 pounds. We roasted one side of the breast for Easter dinner. Oh, it was so good! The rooster is ready to become coq au vin. Tonight I'll cut it up and put it in marinade. Monkey has been begging to eat him for months. He attacked her and has since been in solitary confinement. And to think, at one time I worried about how she would react to eating the animals...

We planted more lettuce on Sunday afternoon. It's that time. Yesterday we set up shelving in the living room (we must garden when and where we can), and started flats of peppers, cauliflower and some lemon grass. Tomatoes are next. I need to get some peat plugs. We've had the best luck with them for tomatoes. It makes it really easy to pot them up as they grow. I am missing the greenhouse, but some day we will rebuild. We have the plans, it's just that money is oh so tight at the moment. Some days owning your own business is not so pleasant (but that's a whole other blog entry...)

Today just enjoy those bright blue eyes and soft, soft fur. That's my plan for the rest of the afternoon.

Happy Spring to you!

2008-03-20T11:47:00.002-05:00

happy spring!, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

My mother presented me with a box of daffodil bulbs from her yard the first summer we moved here. After almost 4 years they are well established. When she died, I searched for something to keep her memory alive. I miss her, (I didn't know such sadness could exist until she died), however these a lovely and gentle sign of her continued presence in our hearts. I didn't need to search so hard. They were here all along.

Puppy Breath

2008-03-19T20:15:00.002-05:00

puppy love, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

This is the last thing we need at the moment. But how could we refuse? Who would dump such a creature?

I said we would foster him and I'd start training, but I'm in love. He needs a name...

My favorite little pixie

2008-03-18T13:13:00.003-05:00

my favorite little pixie, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

We've been spending a lot of time playing in the woods lately, especially on the warmer days. Today isn't that warm and I'm stuck inside cataloguing photos and working.

This afternoon we'll be planting peas and some lettuce. It's also time to set up the growing shelves and string up the lights to start all the tomatoes, peppers and other goodies that will go out when the soil and air are warm enough.

I'm being cautious this year. Last spring taught us what mother nature is capable of tossing our way. Here's to keeping fingers crossed and row covers ready at a moment's notice. There is already a stack of fleece blankets ready to cover the young fruit trees.

For now we'll enjoy the last brisk days of winter and look forward to spring.

Peach Blossoms

2008-03-17T07:38:00.002-05:00

peach blossom, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

The first of the fruit trees has burst forth. Our little Saturn peach opened up some of its blooms yesterday. Saturn peaches are supposed to be frost hardy. Let's hope so. They bloom very early (earlier than the cherries). I planted it last spring. It survived the terrible hard freeze and drought of last year. The plum was not so lucky... If all goes well, we may be rewarded with some lovely flat, white peaches this summer.

The blossoms are beautiful.

Fiddle head

2008-03-16T08:58:00.002-05:00

fiddle head, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I've had questions from agaless, liz and others about starting the violin as an adult. In all truth, I didn't plan on starting it. The Monkey wanted to play the violin and I signed her up for a Suzuki class. A friend of mine teaches children. With Suzuki, it's very important for the parent to participate, so I rented myself a violin and practiced along with Monkey. Monkey amazed us with her ear. She can recognize notes and scales and rhythm with amazing accuracy. After about three months she lost interest. It was difficult for her four year old hands and she's an impatient sort (I have no idea where that comes from...). My friend thought that the violin wasn't the instrument for her - the piano might be better. And I didn't want to push a four year old, no matter how musically inclined, to play the vioin. So Monkey became a Suzuki drop-out. We plan on starting some sort of musical lessons next year when she's six.

I, however, really loved playing and continued with my friend for awhile. I bought my violin and committed myself to learning. I later switched to another teacher, mainly because of scheduling conflicts. I love my new teacher. She's young and passionate about music and playing. She's an accomplished classical player and a fiddler, who has worked on various recordings and plays in an orchestra. She challenges and encourages me - which is what I need. We sort of combine classical, Suzuki and fiddling to learn and that works great for me. I'm not her only adult student. However, most of the others played much more as children than I did . I played for about a year, and really remembered nothing. I do remember how to read music, which is a big plus. I don't remember that from violin lessons, but from my music classes in public school - when the arts were still taught and considered important...

There's a quote that has been stuck in my head lately. I have no idea who said it. I saw it on a refrigerator magnet. Profound, I know. It says, "It is never to late to become the person you want to be", or something like that. While I will never be a concert violinist or world renowned fiddler, I can enjoy making music. My goal is to be able to humbly play along with my musical friends.

I practice almost every day. Practice is easy when I'm working from home. I take a break from my work and pick up my violin. I do that several times a day. It's particularly good when I need a break from the chaos in the house. I go into the office and close the door and run through scales and bow exercises. It has taken a while, several months, to sound decent (at least to teh rest of the family). But my fingers have developed some muscle memory and know where to fall on the strings most of the time. I'm still working on my bow hand. I have arthritis in my right hand and wrist, so it's not as fluid as I would like. But the movements are helping my hand become more limber. It's good for me. Now that the weather is getting warm, I've been going outside on the porch and playing for the birds. I'm not sure how the new neighbors feel, but it has to be better than the noise created by the guinea hens.

What's up duck?

2008-03-13T19:07:00.002-05:00

what's up duck?, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

The rather inquisitive look turned out to be for a red-tailed hawk flying overhead.

trout lily

2008-03-09T19:27:00.002-05:00

trout lily, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I took a walk in the woods today with Gigi and Bill the Cat. Bill the Cat loves to go on walks in the woods. Gigi has taken to leaving her balls and frisbees along the trails. I told her I'm not carrying them home, but she pays little attention to me. She's sort of a rock star right now. She and I were on the news last night and today because we gave an agility demonstration at the Nature Center yesterday afternoon.

Anyway...
We found the first bloom of spring over by the upper spring. Later we found more down below the waterfall on the creek. I say "we", but of course I mean "me". Gigi was too busy loosing her toys and Bill was too busy climbing trees and leaping over logs.

After the storm - the view 4 March, 2008

2008-03-07T15:24:00.001-05:00

after the storm - the view 4 March, 2008, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I'm coming back from my self-enforced hiatus. I've been hibernating for most of February. I needed it. February is the worst month. But now it's March. We've had rain, the grass is greening, the tree buds are swelling (red maples are blooming), daffodils are starting to bloom, and green is starting to peek out of the leaf litter on the forest floor. It will probably snow again, but spring is coming.

I'm itching to work in the garden, but still must take it easy because of my back/hip. I'm down to one physical therapy appointment a week from three, so that's an improvement.

We've had a half an inch of rain today. That makes 2 inches for the week. There's a carolina wren singing outside my window and the bluebirds have moved back into their house on the garden fence. Bring on the longer days!

Seven Things

2008-02-15T10:07:00.003-05:00

Lissa tagged me with a meme. I've been so busy for the last week that I just let it slip by. I also had to think of 7 random things, so here you go -

Seven Random Things You May Not (or maybe you do!) Know About Me

1. My first paying job (one with tax forms and a paycheck and such) was the Easter Bunny at the local mall. I dressed up in a giant bunny suit in a storage room near Dillard's, then walked to an Easter-themed throne near the food court. Somebody had to hold my hand and guide me because I could only see out of a tiny screened hole in the bunny head's mouth. I was 15. And then, I was the first female usher at the movie theater in my home town. Yeah, I was fighting the fight for equality in Mid-Missouri as early as 1980...

2. I left the movie theater gig (it was hard, because I was quickly becoming addicted to popcorn and the hip polyester vest) to become an exchange student it Iceland. This is before it was the ultra cool spot it is now. I spent a summer riding horses almost every day (heaven), working in a fish factory (not so heavenly) and seeing a part of the world that is extraordinary.

3. I have a Master of Fine Arts in painting. I don't paint as much as I want to. That is a major frustration in my life.

4. I spent close to 3 years as an agroforestry/environmental protection Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. Togo is a tiny country in West Africa with something close to 45 different languages and ethnic groups. I lived in a village in a mud hut with a thatch roof. I had no running water or electricity. I did have chickens, a couple of goats and a dog. I rode a bike everywhere. I have never been more happy. I have been to Niger twice. I played in a softball tournament in the Nigerian National Stadium against the Japanese Embassy team from Nigeria (I think it was Nigeria). I never saw weapons grade uranium. I swear.

5. During my time in Africa, I visited a rainforest in Ghana where I walked an a tiny little rope bridge through the canopy. I am afraid of heights and get vertigo when I look down. How did I do it? I pretended I was Indiana Jones. True.

6. I never learned to play a musical instrument. This was somewhat intolerable to me, so last year I started violin lessons. I play a mean Suzuki repetoire and have moved on to Celtic fiddle tunes. I recently discovered my teacher (who is much younger than me) is the niece of one of my best friends. Small world.

7. I did not own a car until I was 31. I walked, rode my bike, used public transportation or borrowed a car until that point.

Now at this point, I'm supposed to tag 7 more people. I think I will let you tag yourself. I'll post the rules here. Leave a comment if you give us 7 insights, please.

Here are the rules from Lissa:

Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.That would be Pattie, with the link to her original post above.
Post these rules on your blog.
Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 people and link to them.Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged for the ring.

Water!

2008-02-09T17:25:00.001-05:00

little creek, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

With the recent rains and snows, there is water again in our little creek. It has been almost dry since the beginning of August. I wish it were warm enough to throw open the windows and listen to the sound of it at night.

Somebody needs to check their campaign strategy

2008-02-03T07:45:00.000-05:00

Last night as we were making dinner, the phone rang. It was a pollster asking which Republican candidate we would be voting for on Tuesday. Charlie, ever the pranskster, says Huckabee with Romney a close second, then he hangs up. Fifteen minutes later as we were sitting down to dinner, the phone rings again - John McCain would appreciate our vote on Tuesday...

The kicker (besides being registered democrats?) - we live in NORTH CAROLINA. We don't vote on Tuesday.

Hmm.

The View in January

2008-01-31T10:16:00.001-05:00

January Views, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I try for daily photos, but somedays the opportunity seems to slip right by. Almost a month of photos.

And now for something completely different

2008-01-30T19:54:00.001-05:00

ruby crowned kinglet, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

This post has nothing to do with seeds! (Unless you count bird seed.)
This little tiny bird has been visiting the feeder for about a week. I couldn't get a good view of her to identify her. She's pretty cute.

Do you know they make hanging nests out of moss, lichen and spider webs? It's true. I bet she's ready for spring too.

I'm being buried in seeds

2008-01-30T08:20:00.000-05:00

Really. Another order arrived from Burpee yesterday. It was sitting by the back door where our friend, UPS Man, always leaves packages. Monkey was very excited thinking a grandparent had sent her something (which they tend to do) until she shook the box. "I think it's seeds," she said, rather deflated as she handed me the box. I had the same feeling. We got over it with an ice cream sandwich.

It must be the general winter doldrums that settle on me every time this year. I feel like spring will never actually arrive. February just takes forever, doesn't it? And with a hurt back, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that all is well be the time I need to plant. There are a million (ok, slight exaggeration) things I want to be doing right now involving pitchforks, compost, animal bedding, brush piles and chainsaw, but I have to wait on someone else to do it. Frustrating.

I did notice there were a heck of a lot of peas in this order. I'm not that fond of them. However, Charlie, Monkey and tailgate customers are.)...

Mammoth Melting Sugar Pea
Super Sugar Snap Pea
Oregon Sugar Pod II Pea
Wando Pea
Cherry Belle Radish
French Breakfast Radish
Watermelon Radish
Habenero Pepper
Red Delicious Pepper
Hot Jalapeno M Pepper
Detroit Dark Red Beet
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach

That may be close to the end. I know there is still a small order from Pinetree Gardens (Which I love because while the seed packages tend to be small, they are inexpensive. I can try new things without too much financial burden.) and the potato order will arrive in the not too distant future. I'm most excited (truly!) about the mushroom order. We will be starting some oyster mushroom logs over in the woods. I will be marching over every inch of that forest hunting for morel mushrooms this spring. We do have one spot where we found them before, but I'm sure there are many more in the new woods. I was tempted to order spore, but it was very expensive and from the northwest. And I'm such a local nut, I'm wary of introducing an outside source for what nature can provide right here. Although I doubt morels from Washington would be classified as exotic invasive in the southeast...

I do miss my greenhouse. This time last year there were lettuces, spinach, radishes, peas and new potatoes growing. Charlie promises that construction will start soon on the new one. But I'm not holding my breath for it to be ready for any early plantings this year. We are way too busy (or rather he is) at work. The site is ready and I'm planning an elaborate herb garden (culinary, medicinal and heirloomy) all around it. Keep fingers crossed.

Seeds, seeds, seeds

2008-01-28T08:08:00.000-05:00

I was excited by the first seed order arrivals. Now I have decided to never give Charlie that responsibility again. You see, he has been itching to order seeds for some time. And this year, I let him. Never again. I tend to practice the art of purchasing seed with some restraint, taking into consideration cost, labor and return on my investment. Charlie saw it as an opportunity to sample everything. Luckily we have the extra garden plot to plant this year. Unluckily most of the labor will fall upon me and my newly slipped disc. Hopefully back pain will be under control before spring planting commences. Keep all fingers crossed, please. Here's what arrived over the weekend...

From Baker Creek Seeds
Golden Wax Bean
Roma II Bean
Jacob's Cattle Bean (I saved some of these for seed, but we went through them so fast)
Dragon Tongue Bean
Greasy Grits Bean (got to grow greasy beans if you live in Appalachia!)
Albino Beet
Flat of Egypt Beet
Tonda di Parigi Carrot
Atomic Red Carrot
Cosmic Purple Carrot
Lunar White Carrot
Amarillo Carrot
Mexican Sour Gherkin
Suyo Long Cucumber
Penny Rile Cowpea (I saved some of these for seed...I guess we'll have more)
Cayenne Long Thin Pepper
Rouge d'Hiver Lettuce
Golden Marconi Pepper
China Rose Radish
Japanese Minowase Daikon
Chinese Red Meat Radish
White Icicle Radish
Helios Radish
Green Zebra Tomato
Spear's Tennessee Green Tomato (love this!)
Principe Borghese Tomato
Flame (Hillbilly) Tomato
Marina di Chiogga Pumpkin (I had wanted to try this one)

From Earl May (Charlie worked for this company when he was young and just had to order seeds)
Ruby Lettuce
Forest Green Parsley
Cool Breeze Cucumber
Mrs. Pickler Cucumber
Sweeter Yet Cucumber

And if that wasn't enough, these arrived from the Cook's Garden
Vit Mache
Trionfo Violetto Pole Beans

I'm worried. Perhaps it will all seem much better when the days get a little longer and a little warmer... For now, I'm waiting on the Burpee order. There's no telling what will be arriving. Oh the trepidation!

Oh and I still haven't ordered any chicks! I have to get on that this week. It's time to replace some of the older hens and I have a few friends that want to get in on the order. Charlie wants to raise some meat birds this year. It looks like I'm going to be one busy farm girl.

Blogger ate my post...

2008-01-24T13:51:00.000-05:00

So here I go again, only condensed (I really do need to work...).

The mailman just dropped off a small packet stuffed with seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

Stupice Tomato
Hungarian Italian Paste Tomato
Eva Purple Ball Tomato
Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry

Thoughts of Spring

2008-01-21T12:06:00.000-05:00

The weather here has been, to say the least, miserable. We've had a couple of nights in the single digits. On nights like that I worry about the chickens' combs. The Sussex and a few others have single combs that seem quite susceptible to frost bite. Last night Charlie had to shoo the ducks and geese out of the goat shed and into the chicken house. He said goats and waterfowl were all huddled together in a disturbing way. Everyone made it through the night o.k. and with temperatures climbing into the high 30s, we may even be able to get water running to them this afternoon. We've carried buckets down to them several times a day the last several days.

While Winter has been reminding us of its existence, the promise of gentler weather has arrived in the form of seed packets. The first of our giganormous seed orders have arrived. We will be not only gardening our rather generous garden, but another 40' by 80' plot donated by a neighbor this year to meet market and our own needs. So we have room to experiment and continue on with old favorites.

From Appalachian Seeds we received Black Prince and Akers West Virginia tomatoes. There is a six packet minimum in the seed order that Charlie somehow got around. I've been thoroughly happy with the seeds and plants I've gotten from them in the past. This was also the original source for Black Prince that I loved so much. I'm looking forward to it again and have plans to save seeds this time.

From Johnny's came:
Maxibel French Filet Beans
Jade Bush Green Beans
Alibi Hybrid Pickler Cucumber
Green Bibb Buttercrunch Lettuce
Graffiti Purple Cauliflower
Cheddar Orange Cauliflower
Purple Haze Carrot
Chioggia Beet
Full Moon Pumpkin

The Touchstone Gold Beet is expected to arrive at the end of February and Russian Red Garlic will arrive for planting in the fall.

For now the garden sleeps under mounds of goat and chicken bedding and rows of matted oats.
But soon, it will be time to play!

What I do on Snow Days

2008-01-19T16:11:00.001-05:00

moebius scarf, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I just finished this little scarf. You see, I received several skeins of handspun yarn for Christmas. The only problem was that no two skeins have anything (color, weight, animal source) in common. So I have to come up with projects for one skein. It's soft merino, comfy and toasty and it took no time to knit up on US13 needles.

So I'm ready for the second winter storm warning in 3 days (although the 1/2 inch that's fallen in the last hour or so might be all there is).

Oh, and next time I try to take a picture of myself remind me to put on some makeup or something, jeez.

Be Prepared

2008-01-18T15:52:00.000-05:00

In the unlikely event this should ever happen, I think we should be prepared.

Oh, and the first seed order has arrived at the office. I'll post all about it soon!

Another snow day and time to take pictures

2008-01-17T15:27:00.001-05:00

female cardinal, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

I don't think the weather was as bad as forecasted, but we did have a snow day today. There is still snow on the ground, it's just not very fun to play in. We've had rain and sleet on and off for a large chunk of the day.

What do we do on snow days when the snow is there, but not "sleddable"? Well, let's see. Monkey has built a fort out of blankets, couch cushions and several chairs. Apparently she plans to sleep in it and never let boys enter.

Snow Days are also Pajama Days. Around noon, Charlie looked up from his laptop and said to me, "Hey! Take off your jeans. We only wear pajamas here!" Silly me. He even went to the barn in his pajamas this morning.

I've been outside and played with the goats, threw a frisbee for Gigi and took some photos. I should be working (like Charlie did all day), but it's a snow day! Oh, it's also a good day to watch birds at the birdfeeder. Enjoy Mrs. Cardinal. She doesn't attack my car like her mate does.

My favorite view from the weekend

2008-01-16T08:17:00.001-05:00

12 January, 2008, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Freezing fog is an interesting phenomenon.

Onto other thoughts -

Dear Republican Candidates advertising for the South Carolina Primary,

Will you please stop telling us what good christians you are and talk about where you stand on some of the issues. There is really a snow ball's chance in hell that I would vote for any of you, but it's annoying to think that you believe the only thing Southerners care about is your faith and your belief that life begins at conception. Economy? War? Health Care? Come on! I think it is truly time for a revolution...

Maggie

O.K. I've had my rant and now I'm off to shower and go to work. Back later with my general avoidance of politics.

Pretty Boy

2008-01-08T18:41:00.001-05:00

pretty boy, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

If only I could figure out who his parents are. He could be almost anything, although as a chick he looked like a pale speckled sussex. He looks nothing like one now. He does have a single comb.

Pretty Boy is from the surprise hatch at the end of summer. That's him on the right of the photo. I still can't seem to get a photo that does justice to the colors.

He's turned into a rather fine natured, and somewhat shy rooster. He has the deepest crow. I think we may just keep him out of the stew pot and in the barnyard.

I figured it was time for a farm animal to get a post. It's been a while.

snow bunny

2008-01-02T16:34:00.001-05:00

snow bunny, originally uploaded by maggies farm.

Monkey finally gets some real snow - her first in two years! Generally snow days mean icy roads in the morning and slush by noon.

Snow Day Pizza

2008-01-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

My aunt sent the Monkey a pizza making kit for Christmas. Today was a snow day (we've got about 6 inches and it's still coming down), so we made pizza for lunch. I know she visits the blog regularly, so I thought we'd share some pizza pictures. Monkey is a regular pizza queen. She did almost all the work. Somehow I ended up doing the washing up. Typical.

Mixing the dough

Starting the yeast

Kneading the dough

A little while later... pizza! Which would you like - Pepperoni or Mushroom?

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T17:31:00.001-05:00

cardinal, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

I was out taking photos with the new camera in the woods today. A half an hour later, I was inside with a nasty episode of Raynaud's. So, Charlie removed the screen to the back window and I played with the new telephoto lens while the birdies visited the feeders. This guy likes to hang out and look cool. He also likes to attack the mirrors of my car and has been known to sit inside when the sunroof is open. Weirdo.

We've stuffed ourselves on black-eyed peas (Penny Rile - an heirloom variety we grew in the garden this, I mean last year), corned beef, greens and cabbage. Charlie swears there'e a corned beef New Year's tradition... I ate mostly peas. It's back to work and school tomorrow, unless of course, our weatherman is actually correct and we get several inches of snow. I'm beginning to doubt it. At least the temperature dropped today and it felt a little like winter.

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm overwhelmed by seed catalogs

2007-12-31T10:49:00.001-05:00

Really. There are just too many choices. I've gone through the last several years of garden journals and have the basics listed, but we have to think about the tailgate market and our own consumption. One thing I do know, we need more potatoes and onions. It was hard to keep up with demand at the market.

I have room for at least one new red slicing tomato. I'm still in search of the perfect paste type. Amish Paste succumbed to about every blight and fungus as soon as it was in the ground. The old stand-by Roma is pretty resisitant, but just so-so in flavor. Any suggestions? I will be ordering Spear's Tennessee Green, Flame, Kentucky Beefsteak, Principe Borghese, and Stupice.

What are your favorite varieties of bell pepper, pumpkin and squash? Lettuces? I have my favorites, but am always willing to experiment. Any other additions you've tried and loved? And you southern gardeners, any luck in a good keeper onion?

Back to looking and dreaming. It supposed to be rather warm today, so I may get out and finish preparing the new no-till beds before the snow flies tomorrow (and I'll believe that when I see it).

Random thoughts of the holidays

2007-12-30T07:35:00.000-05:00

We decided when we moved to the mountains of Western North Carolina to take it easy during the holidays. Charlie, the child of divorce, wanted the Monkey to wake up in her own house on Christmas morning and not be shuffled from relative to relative. I just really hate driving this time of year and also dislike jumping from place to place. It is really much nicer to visit relatives without the odd stress of the holidays with all it's ill-placed expectations. It's nicer to visit the midwest in the summer anyway. Also, it is difficult to find someone to watch 3 dogs, a cat, 2 goats, 2 turkeys, 3 geese (a laying, mind you), 4 ducks, 6 guineas, and 20-some chickens.

So, we stayed home and enjoyed a quiet, yet festive family dinner on Christmas Eve. We woke up at our leisure (o.k., Monkey's leisure) and lazily drank coffee by the tree while opening up our presents. While things stayed pretty low key in the gift department, there were a few stand outs. If you happen to look at my flickr page, you will notice a different camera listed under the photo stats. It was totally unexpected, and somehow tied to the company, but I just hug myself and giggle when I use it (which means some shaky pictures. I've got to stop that). I received skeins of local handspun yarn to play with. Our family has come a long way on the sustainability front in the last couple of years.

That leads me to mention other changes as well. I think we are wearing off on some family members. While Monkey did get the Barbie doll she craved, she also found a peg loom, wooden hand-crafted games, books and art supplies under the tree. I had said no to plastic toys this year. Grandma bought the Barbie, although we had asked her to. And Monkey was happy. It was the year of the shopping bag. Not only were presents wrapped in reusable cloth bags, but one aunt sent us a set of these. What hip patterns and colors! And they roll up so small that there's no excuse not to have them with you on any shopping expedition. We also received gifts from women's co-ops and organizations that help others. It was nice to feel good about what was under the tree. I do have to mention though, that it took more searching than usual to find stocking stuffers that were not plastic and not made in China (I have concerns...). Luckily, there's a Ten Thousand Villages in downtown Asheville - it was almost one-stop shopping during lunch one day.

And one more thought - you know you are surrounded by great people when you here someone pipe up at a holiday party, "Wow, it's raining and the Burpee seed catalog arrived on the same day - it's a sign!" And with more seed catalogs arriving every day, I need to sit down and make the list and start ordering.

28 December, 2007

2007-12-28T17:07:00.001-05:00

28 December, 2007, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

Rain. Rain all day long. I'm happy. The ducks are happy. The chicken and goats are not so elated.

A little holiday spirit

2007-12-24T09:09:00.000-05:00

While a certain english type has been waxing poetic about mulled wine and mince meat, I've been thinking of a different sort of Christmas cheer. It was in Gourmet a few years ago and now happens to be Santa's favorite. He would have enjoyed it with delicious little gingerbread men, but the dogs managed to eat all of those off the kitchen counter yesterday (I'm blaming the beagle, because a border collie would never do something so heinous and Biscuit is still recuperating from surgery).

Aztec Sluggers
makes two drinks
(the name does not denote Christmas at all, I know, but the flavor!)

1 cup fresh strong coffee
1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 oz. Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
2 oz finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon sugar

Heat coffee, bourbon, Kahlua, chocolate, and 2 tablespoons cream in a heavy saucepan over low heat, whisking away, untlit the chocolate melts (Do not let boil - as that would be a waste of bourbon!)

Whisk remaining cream with sugar until it holds soft peaks.

Divide coffee mixture between two large mugs, then top with whipped cream.

Repeat as necessary.

Back from a break

2007-12-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

I figure I needed a little break. This time of year always sends me into a spiral of too many commitments and not enough time. For the last couple of years, Christmas has been a dreaded season. Last year I spent most of the month of December working on school budgets, contracts and other drudgery. This year I've been taking it much easier and have managed to accomplish much more. I even sent out Christmas cards this year. And I've been scouring seed catalogs, contemplating flock additions and traipsing through every square inch of our new tract of woods.

I've also been busy with several projects...

There were the scarves for Monkey's teachers (a mohair/wool blend knitted in a moss stitch, a mohair pocket scarf, and an extra long stretchy hand-dyed wool),

Monkey's dance recital (her first - and she's a total ham),

a cheery red hat with little ear flaps for the Monkey (in a chunky hand-dyed wool) and a mohair throw (which was originally meant for my mother...but has turned into Monkey's favorite - it matches her eyes),

and now I'm busy knitting up a chunky ribbed hat with yarn spun by a neighbor from another neighbor's flock of shetland sheep. How's that for local living? My ears will be warm whenever winter finally decides to arrive. It's 50 degrees today and raining. I won't complain about the rain - we need it, but I would like a little chillier weather.

Here's to the days getting longer!

Poor Biscuit

2007-12-12T13:14:00.001-05:00

Poor Biscuit, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

Biscuit the Wonder Dog had to have a tumor removed from her leg. Luckily, the tests came back benign. The cone torture ends on Saturday and life should return to normal.

She's milking the sympathy for all she can.

To lawn or not to lawn...

2007-11-27T08:23:00.001-05:00

grass, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

Driving to my hometown took us across the vast wasteland of monoculture that I'll refer to simply as Illinois. I could add Missouri and Kentucky to this as well, but in my experience, Illinois seems to take the cake in the world of vast swaths of single crops. Just take a drive on Interstates 70 or 64 and see what I mean. This made me think again of a topic I thought to write about, the lawn - America's favorite monocrop.

The concept of lawn didn't really exist for most Americans until the industrial age. Before then very few could afford the upkeep of a lawn cut by hand. The mowed lawn has it's origin in France and England. Before the invention of the lawnmower, it was mowed by hand or kept short by grazing sheep, cattle and even rabbits. In our time, 58 million Americans spend over $30 billion every year to maintain 23 million acres of lawn. 30 to 60 percent of urban water is used for lawn care. 67 million pounds of synthetic fertilizer are used to keep that turf happy. You see, our modern turf grasses come from other climates. They are basically exotics in the wrong environment, so we spend lots of energy and water trying to keep them green and happy.

As many of us have faced drought this year and most likely next year as well, it would be a good thing to reconsider the lawn (if you haven't already done so). It would be a good thing to consider it even if there wasn't a drought. In full disclosure, we have a rather large lawn. We didn't plant it. We don't water it. What we basically do is mow it. With the drought this year, we mowed rarely and it went dormant for a long period of time. Grass will do that, you don't need to water so much. I promise.

The lawn is slowly shrinking as we increase garden space and beds and fence it in for pasture. It is used as pasture - the geese and ducks are out on it almost every day one of us is home. How much lawn space do you need? Turf grass does make an excellent surface for play. However, beds for flowers and ornamental shrubs are much more interesting than grass. They conserve water, create attractive space for wildlife (especially our little feathered friends), and can easily require less care than turf grass.

Lawns don't have to be grass! Depending on your climate, a lawn can be composed of various ground covers (some are invasive, so check before you plant), moss, and a mixture of plants. Ours is a mixture of pasture grasses, clover, and various other things that pop up. I can't say enough about clover. Bees love it. We love bees. After the horrible late freeze and storms that wiped out our apples, blueberries and greenhouse this spring, beekeepers were asking people not to mow their lawns so that the honey bees could find sustenance in clover. We were more than happy to oblige.

So that's the introduction. Next up - Water Conservation.

I need to get back to the work I get paid for. And, the first of the seed catalogs has arrived - Pinetree Garden Seeds. I've got to start perusing.

Home again

2007-11-26T18:23:00.001-05:00

26 November, 2007, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

Let's see. Being away from home for almost an entire week is just too long. Going home for the first time after the death of my mother was not easy. It was downright devastating. However, we survivied. We all managed to catch a stomach bug that had ravaged my brother's family earlier in the week. Lukily, or unluckily, as you see it, it hit me and Monkey overnight on our way home. Charlie held out until last night when we got home. We lost one guinea hen last night to a predator (she was out and we were to ravaged by illness to notice).

On the upside, we've had rain! The new dog was renamed Moon Pie at a Tennessee rest stop somewhere along Interstate 40. It's great to be home again.

Unexpected views

2007-11-20T20:27:00.001-05:00

20 November, 2007, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

We woke up early and saw the sunrise, along with the morning star.

A new dog at Little Creek Farm

2007-11-19T23:26:00.001-05:00

new dog, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

As if 2 new acres weren't enough to our lives, Charlie had to go and adopt a dog. He's been wanting another dog for some time (ever since Chelsea passed away almost a year ago). After months of talking to breeders and being placed on waiting lists for various breeds, he wised up and went and got a dog that needs us and has lots of love to give. That's how we arrived at becoming the new family for an "almost" Beagle. She's actually Beagle/Jack Russell Terrier (who would allow that to happen??? really.).

We adopted her this weekend from the Animal Compassion Network and she came home today. Speaking of the Animal Compassion Network, if you feel so inclined to check out the link, look for a dog named "Rounder". I was in love with him. He is a gorgeous dog (older now than the photo - big and uniquely handsome, and oh, so wonderful. However, this dog was not going to be mine, but Charlie's.

Ha! He's already lost her. She and the Monkey were instant soulmates (the pink collar covered in butterflies helped, I'm sure). In fact, they are currently sleeping together in the Monkey's bed, curled up like, well two little puppies. Biscuit the Wonder Dog is not so enamoured and is rather put out. Gigi is just clueless ( the new dog is not human, nor does she produce wool, so she is just under the Border Collie radar).

We are off to my father's house for Thanksgiving with New Dog in tow. She was given the name "Sadie Blue Girl" by her foster home. We are thinking of "Daisy McBoing Boing". Well, that's Monkey's suggestion. We'll most likely just go with "Daisy". It was either "Daisy McBoing Boing" or "Angel Cakes". Look for young Daisy's journey across the country for the next couple days.

riding tigers

2007-11-16T13:45:00.001-05:00

riding tigers, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

In case you need help reading kindergarten English, it reads:
I like to walk in the woods. I like to ride tigers. I took a walk with my mommy.

We are planning another girl hike tomorrow. Let's hope we don't see any tigers.

Change in the weather

2007-11-15T12:09:00.001-05:00

November 15, 2007, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

I spent the morning in a meeting and decided to come on home at lunch time. All the work I need to do today I can do from home. It's getting awfully windy and cold outside. It's the kind of weather that makes me want to hunker down and cook. I'm planning something warming for dinner.

We had some rain overnight. I don't think it really made a great difference, but I'll take any preciptation I can get. Our "exceptional" drought has me worried about a lot of things. How long will it go on? While our well is fine now, will our self-imposed water conservation help (we do after all share the aquifer...)? How will the drought affect our gardening next year? It seems many people are thinking about water these days. Let's hope they realize that it's going to take a lot more than prayer to get out of this situation...

There's discussion in other parts of this state to raise the water fees. If I paid for municipal water I'd be a little cranky to pay more because someone else wanted a green lawn in a time of drought. And on that point - why have a lawn? I have seen idiotic waste of space to have a tiny strip of lawn when other plantings would be more appropriate. Perhaps the answer could be a higher fee for those who use a lot of water... Or a tax on lawns! That said, I do have quite a lot of "lawn". We could call it pasture. It is made up of more than grass and it's never watered. It spent a lot of the summer in a very dormant state.

I think I need to eat some lunch, and maybe work on some suggestions for lawn replacements.

11 November, 2007

2007-11-11T18:13:00.001-05:00

11 November, 2007, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

I once did daily photos of the "view". I think I'll try again, but store them on the flickr site.

It's a big happy birthday to Charlie today. He spent the day playing with his new techno toy. Thank God it didn't come from that particular website... wheh! Well, there will only be socks and underwear for Christmas.

Gigi and I went for a long walk in the woods. We almost literally ran into a barred owl (or rather, it almost flew into us). Things that large should not fly silently. Gigi is now completely exhausted and passed out on the kitchen floor. She is one of those dogs who picks up sticks the entire time you are walking through the woods. Sometimes they are more like logs. No matter what they tell you, border collies are not always that smart, particularly when the branch is wider than the opening between two trees. I chuckle heartily at my pet's ineptitudes...

Biscuit didn't go with us, as she as been rather mopey and under the weather. She would not eat yesterday, and only ate a miniscule amount of food today. I had to coax her with a duck egg cracked on top of her kibble. I'm calling the vet first thing in the morning to get her in and see what is wrong. It's not like her to be this way and I'm a little worried.

10 November, 2007

2007-11-10T07:55:00.001-05:00

10 November, 2007, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

This morning is the first time in a week when I've felt I've been able to sit down and catch my breath. I spent an hour or so gazing out the window with a cup of coffee in my hand watching the sun rise.

This week I managed to finally get the garlic in the ground. It's now sleeping peacefully under a bed of goat bedding (that's my root crop secret...). The garden is all neat and tidy, if you ignore the dead plants finally wiped out by a couple of hard frosts. I'm contemplating getting out and laying down more mulch on the aisles because it's my least favorite spring chore.

I spent a morning raking leaves, grinding them up and setting them aside for leaf mulch. It's been so windy that we don't have many leaves in the yard. Most just seem to fall and blow into the woods before we get a chance to rake them.

Oh, and speaking of woods... We are signing a contract for several acres of woods to our north. I'm so excited. I haven't wanted to talk about it because I didn't want to jinx it. I've been coveting the woods to our north since we moved in. We'll be preserving it as woodland. It gives us a great plot to test our forest restoration and test products. We have talked about putting a small rather primitive cabin on the property for vacation rentals and personal retreats (mine). I'm planning some mushroom growing. The land does include the Morel Patch and an incredible spring. Future pasture purchases are in the scheming stages. And they'll have to be in the future. I'm feeling slightly stressed with rapid growth of both business and home.

In case you've been wondering, the discussion of local food last Sunday went extremely well and I don't think is was just due to my incredible PowerPoint creation skills. There was a great audience. I've been asked to come talk to other groups because of it. One woman told a story of a friend of hers who always asked the Hostess or Maitre d' of a restaurant if they know who the owner is. If they can't answer, she won't eat there. Interesting. I think I like that approach.

And one last story from the week - Charlie took his car in for a tune up and tire change. The mechanic came out to him and asked if a chicken had been nesting in the car. Odd. There were five eggs in a small cubby spot in the back. Charlie was a little dumbfounded and then he remembered that after he had unloaded feed this week, Miss Monkey had been climbing around in the back of the car. He had the eggs from the chicken coop in the back and she must have stashed some in the side panel. I like the idea that the mechanic thought we would have let chickens nest in the car.

What to do when you should be doing something else

2007-11-02T13:55:00.000-05:00

I'm supposed to be preparing for a talk on Sunday about the importance of sustainability and making wise food choices (and somehow how it relates to my being an Episcopalian... I think).* Anyway, I've been doing anything but that. Monkey is home today due to parent-teacher conferences and we took a walk this morning... for an hour and a half.

We then came home and went outside to plant garlic and enjoy the incredible weather. I can now check the garlic off my list and move on to finishing the cold frame around the cabbage. I'm also in the middle of processing these.

I never would have guessed I would still be picking tomatoes in November. There's around five pounds and more to pick from the plants on the south side of my studio. These are destined to be dried and ground into tomato powder. I'm finished with canning, really.

*Actually, I just talked to the Dean and the discussion I'm leading is really focusing on sustainability as outlined in the Millennium Development Goals as viewed by the Episcopal Church, at least that's where the discussion started last week... ...but we're going to talk about it from an individual's experience (that is how I view "sustainability"). Because really, have you seen those goals? Overwhelming, to the individual I mean. Tell me, how do I get roped in to these things.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T21:31:00.001-05:00

jack o' lantern, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

Hope your's has been full of treats and short on tricks.

frost

2007-10-31T08:09:00.001-05:00

frost, originally uploaded by maggiesfarm.

Fall has arrived. There has even been ice on the water troughs for the last three mornings. I guess I can finally safely plant the garlic.

Rain

2007-10-24T07:09:00.000-05:00

We've had rain the last couple of days - most of it has been light and sporadic, but it's rain. There's a little over an inch in the rain gauge and perhaps more to come. The good news is that it seemed to rain heavier a little to the south of us - which could be good news for the Georgia lakes, which are so low.

If you haven't heard, Atlanta (a rather large city) has only 90 days of water left. There has finally been lots of discussion about water management processes. My only hope is that water management and city planners and citizens will take a good long look at long standing practices and change. My fear is that those planners and citizens will get over this crisis and go back to living like they always have. On a recent trip down to Georgia, I heard one person complain that they hadn't been able to go boating this summer. That was their biggest concern. How about drinking? Hmm.

But on to the topic I planned to start with - rain barrels. I love our rain barrel and we are adding more (the plan is one to every corner, for all the beds surrounding the house). We don't have a huge problem with water runoff waste out here in the middle of nowhere. Generally it all comes from the roof, but there is a lot off the roof that we could use on our plants. The best way to gather that water is with rain barrels. If I had the budget to retrofit our house right now, I'd add a large cistern under the porch to gather all the rain water off of our roof. For now the barrel is doing well. We bought ours through a local non-profit and paid a little less than retail. Looking at the barrel, it would be easy to make your own - I've seen many versions. Here's one with directions for a rain garden as well! Rain gardens are a whole other topic. I'll just say I love them and they are a great spot to grow incredible plants.

Our rain barrel will fill with about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of rain - that's 65 gallons of water off of one small side of our roof. We've used ours to water the vegetable garden in the past, but this year I concentrated on using it to keep a bunch of young hydrangeas alive. And it worked. I placed a soaker hose on the spigot and let gravity force the water to slowly and conservatively water them. All are doing well. I don't think they would have survived without it. I put a pretty tight restriction on watering ornamentals over the summer, prefering to limit watering to the things we eat.

If you don't have a rain barrel or two, I encourage you to build or buy your own. Make it a project for the winter. You'll be able to use it in the spring to water all those seedlings.

No water

2007-10-15T14:50:00.000-05:00

The well pump died yesterday. No water, not a trickle to be had. We've been waiting all day for the well men to squeeze us in and hooray! the cavalry has arrived! There's a lot of pipe running down our driveway and some rewiring going on. Hopefully soon we will have water again. The good news is that there is water in the well*. I was a little worried as Little Creek is just a faint trickle and the three springs on the property are mere mud pits at the moment. But the water is there and the machinery that brings it to us will be repaired (keeping fingers firmly crossed) and we'll be bathing, watering the animals and making ice soon.

*The well men say there are a lot of wells going dry. I couldn't imagine. What would we do with all the animals? I mean I can drink bottled water and shower at the YMCA, but I think they would frown on a gaggle of geese and a couple of feisty goats. Keep rainy thoughts in your hearts for us, please.

Jesus ate local...

2007-10-09T06:05:00.000-05:00

I mean that in a very tongue in cheek way, so don't get offended (but, it's true). As part of another program at the Cathedral, we organized a 'meal of conscience' for our monthly family dinner. Out with the spaghetti, in with the brats and a little local beer. It's time for Octoberfest! Almost all the food served last Wednesday came from local sources. The bratwurst came from Spring House Meats at Hickory Nut Gap Farm . A big thank you to Jamie Ager of said farm for helping us with the vast quantity of sausage. Everyone thought they were the best bratwurst ever eaten. And there are quite a few Northerners in the mix, so that is a complement. Charlie and I made roasted potatoes and peppers, coleslaw (both with produc grown in the area) and baked beans (not quite local, but baked to perfection). Beer came from several local breweries, depending on personal taste. We have lots of local breweries in Asheville, so if you can't find a beer you like, well you must not like beer...

The crowd for this particular dinner was double the normal spaghetti supper crowd - around 150 people. We fed them all and had a few leftovers. The amazing thing was that it cost less per person to feed locally grown, organic, and humanely-raised food than it normally does to feed everyone spaghetti made with processed products bought at Sam's. It was a simple lesson to all present.

The most gratifying thing is that from this simple meal a whole discussion began. We Episcopalians are good at discussing. It's a particular talent of ours. It was decided that there should be a whole series of lessons on what it means to live in a conscience way - how as Christians, can we respect and protect the world around us. So, now there will be Sunday formation classes devoted to a whole range of topics (even food and farming!).

And wonder of wonder, a promise came to me, through Charlie, that the flowers will be fair trade, organic, and maybe even local. It's been my pet peeve for a while. I'm sure there will be some resistance, there always is, but hopefully things will change up there at the altar. Don't get me started on the floral industry and the amount of pollutants, chemicals, fuels and unfair labor used to create the perfect cut flower.. Or perhaps you should get me started. Look at what one local meal of sausage can do.

The new girls

2007-10-07T19:51:00.001-05:00

We've inherited three new hens from our friend, Starr. He asked if I wanted three of his older hens who were being bullied by his younger hens and rooster. We have a lot more room than he does, and who could say no to these three lovelies?

I fell in love with the Light Brahma (the big girl in front) this afternoon. The Buff Orpington and the molting Rhode Island Red are a little shy, but the Brahma is quite friendly and her size may just intimidate any would-be-bullies in my flock. I don't think I have any bullies, unless you count the young guineas (and most of them will be holiday dinners...). The girls should be alright here.

They are three years old just like my oldest hens. They may be slowing down a little in the laying department, but should be o.k. for another year or two. I haven't had to yet cull the hens, but that is something we will have to face in the future. Right now though everyone is laying fine (even these girls, according to Starr) so we won't think about that at this moment.

A little rain

2007-10-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

It has rained about a half an inch of rain since yesterday. That's good news for us. We seeded the pasture before the last rain and then there has been nothing for a couple of weeks. Hopefully, this should help.. It's been enough to fill the rain barrels and there is a little more water in the creek. And the ducks are happy, if no one else in the barnyard is. I've posted more photos on my flickr page.

Some of the natives

2007-10-02T07:33:00.000-05:00

With all these walks in the woods, I'm back to identifying plants. Some are easy...

Smooth Sumac

Some are hard. This one in particular is giving me a headache. I'm thinking a Helianthus, but it could be an aster. It's in an open field on top of a mountain at around 3800 feet. The top is an abandoned Christmas tree farm. Perhaps if the flowers were in full bloom it would be easier...

Any guesses?

Where exactly does the time go?

2007-09-30T06:47:00.000-05:00

I haven't been a very good blogger over the last month. I've actually had several incredible entries about local food and dining, but they've all stayed in my head. So while I took part whole heartedly in the Eat Local Challenge, I didn't write very much about it. I can use the general excuse of work. I have been rather busy as my role gets more defined in our new business (which is growing faster than we ever expected). And that has been the exciting part of my day to day existence. Meeting more and more like-minded people and educating the not-so-like-minded has made me feel somewhat better about some of the development that is happening here in Western North Carolina.

I can't, however, blame my interest in work for my total lack of writing this past month. I had grand ideas for the Eat Local Challenge, but I realized I was rather tired of writing about food; having done so all summer. And frankly, when for the second time in two months Gourmet has arrived in my mailbox full of articles about locally and ethically produced food, I think there's not a lot of need for my continued prattle on how good it is to eat with a conscience. Hmm...

So this week involved a lot of this:

and seeing one of these for the first time, quite a bit of planting and weeding, a couple of hours of dog training, cleaning out the fish pond, and sleeping. Oh and I promise to write more, it just probably won't be about food.

Work is hard

2007-09-24T07:24:00.000-05:00

I realized over the weekend, when I had no access to a signal, much less my laptop, that I had not posted in over two weeks. I've been so busy with work, that I had little time to form complete thoughts for a blog. There still aren't many complete thoughts, but I'm trying...

I've been off inspecting trails and consulting. "Consulting", I believe, means "to make up a bunch of stuff for other people to do". Yep, that's it. Anyway, here's the basic view of the world I've been having for the last two weeks.

Then I go home and pick vegetables, clean the chicken house, feed the animals and dry, can, or freeze vegetables. When I'm not doing that I'm busy learning all the new software I need to use for work. As you can see, not much time or inclination for writing. Sorry.

I can, however, answer a few questions that have come up! Bezzie, as far as drying okra - I believe it does cut down on the slime. I also know that the more you chop up okra, the slimier it gets. Mmmm.

Tasterspoon, I didn't do much research before I bought my dehydrator. Doing lots of research tends to overwhelm and then depress me when I can't afford the 'best' thing... Ha! Like a crazy food saver I dove in and bought the first dehydrator I saw at our local kitchen store. It's the Nesco American Harvest Food Dehydrator and Jerky Maker. I haven't made any jerky yet.

Kitchen Witch - the thought of dried mushrooms was a key factor in buying the dehydrator! Mmmm. (I really mean the 'mmmm' this time.) If you haven't had morels, you haven't lived.

More later, I'm off to finish a couple hand renderings of designs for a client then tackle every imaginable program Adobe has to offer. I mean really, I'm the girl who knows how to make rabbit skin glue and grind my own oil paints... Technology be damned! I guess that is really not the right attitude to have, I'll improve, I promise.

The dehydrator

2007-09-11T07:19:00.000-05:00

I've had an aversion to the food dehydrator. I'm not sure why. I had a friend growing up. Her mother used to dry and can everything. I think I associated it with the stay at home mom thing (or perhaps the fact that their house seemed to always smell of stewed tomatoes...). My mother was a professional working woman, and the thought of canning probably never entered her head except to remind her of her own hard childhood. All that preserving of food just seemed a little too much work and a little old-fashioned to us, especially the basement room off the rather stylish 70's rec room filled floor to ceiling with shelves of canned peaches, apples, tomatoes, beans, and pickles. Truth be told, that room kind of fascinated me. Our pantry was filled with modern things in bright boxes and wrappers, not ball jars.

So let's skip over all those years of being art student, grad student, starving artist, traveler,development worker, teacher, stay at home mom, administrator, environmentalist, and gentlewoman farmer. I'm raising a lot of my own food and preserving it. My friend's mom doesn't seem so backward, in fact, she seems down right progressive.

This year as I stared at the sprawling, loaded tomato plants, I realized I couldn't possibly can all of them. The cost of buying new jars, not to mention the time involved was intimidating. I really wanted some sun-dried tomatoes, but our mountain climate is not the best for sun-drying. I bought a food dehydrator. I figure I've already made back the cost in the drying of tomatoes alone. And how easy is it to slice up tomatoes in the evening, put them in the dehydrator and have dried tomatoes in the morning? Simple. There were several bags of strawberries in the freezer that needed to be used. So, in a dehydrator frenzy, I threw them in the blender, added a touch of local honey, poured them on to special little sheets and viola!, I had fruit leather for the Monkey. The Monkey eats a lot of fruit roll-ups. At almost a dollar a pop for organic fruit leather bars, I figure the economic benefits could be quite great. Right now there are fresh and local apple slices drying. Next, I'll be drying okra. I'll have plenty of 'gombo sec' for my favorite african recipes, gumbo and soups over the winter. I think I may even try a few peppers, although I generally freeze them. There are bumper crops of all varieties and dried peppers might offer a nice change of pace in cooking.

I think what I like best about drying food is that I can start it and leave it. I'm quite busy right now with work and life in general. I'm seeing more drying in the future.

Saving the harvest

2007-09-10T07:49:00.000-05:00

Food preservation has kicked into high gear around Little Creek Farm. I had thought that selling produce at the local tailgate market would cut down on our saved produce, but it doesn't seem to have affected it all that much. We are still up to our armpits in beans and tomatoes.

The dry beans are done - I experimented again this year with a small row of Jacob's Cattle Beans. Last year Charlie picked them all, thinking they were overgrown green beans... They didn't produce as much as I had hoped (but more than last year!). A third of a row - about 10-12 feet, produced just a pound of beans. The artist in me loves these beans and the flavor is good. I might try them again in a larger row, perhaps under something taller, but I can probably use the space for something else. Drying beans is relatively easy. I just leave them on the plant until the pod (in this case the 'green bean') dries and then I pick and shell. As it can be quite damp here, I like to pick them a little early and finish the drying off the plant. Spreading the beans out in the sun on a big sheet layed on the driveway that I can easily pick up at night, or if it rains (like that ever happens...), is the simplest way to dry them. It's a trick I picked up in the Peace Corps. There's less rotting that way. Shelling can be a little time consuming, but it's a nice way to relax on a shady porch on a hot afternoon. Or, if your child is in a Montessori school, you just take in a big bag of beans and those little preschoolers will spend hours picking them out of pods, all the while developing fine motor skills the good ol' fashioned way. We don't consider it child labor, it's character development. Monkey's teachers loved it.

Canning has been an almost nightly occurence for Charlie. He loves to can. There's tomato sauce (I make it, he cans it), green beans, pickles and salsa. Canning is not so difficult (I just get bored easily, and Charlie likes it so much). I would suggest the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Your local Cooperative Extension is also a good source for information. Tomatoes and pickles are so easy, it's almost a sin not to do it. Green beans and other low acid foods require a pressure canner that may seem intimidating, but truly isn't.

Tomorrow, I think I'll talk about my new food dehydrator. Now there's a fun garden/kitchen toy!

One Local Summer - Week 10

2007-09-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

I can't believe Liz's One Local Summer has come to an end. This summer has been fantastic as we've searched out new sources for locally produced food. To remind you, I've set my limits on the Carolinas - both of them, and any other place we travel to. What has amazed me is that it has taken little effort to find produce, meat and dairy all within a short distance from home. Having one local meal a week has not been a challenge, choosing which meal to post about has. Summer, of course, is a much easier time to search out local produce, but with a little ingenuity and food preserving skills, I think we'll make it through fall, winter and early spring. Having land and a large garden makes it all easier, but I think anyone can garden on a postage stamp-size piece of land, and do it year long. All it takes is a little persistence.

Tonight's meal came all from the Asheville area. Our own community tailgate market ended last weekend, so we headed to the North Asheville Tailgate Market on the campus of UNCA to find a few special items. Produce-wise, there wasn't much that we weren't growing ourselves, but meat and dairy-wise, we hit a jackpot!

Dinner centered around fresh lamb ribs from Springhouse Meats/Hickory Nut Gap Farm - Mustard and Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb. The mustard was not local, but the herbs were from the garden and the bread crumbs were from a loaf of red wheat bread baked by our neighbor.

To accompany the lamb we had steamed Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes from the garden (a gardening disappointment, but tasty non-the-less) and Roma green beans. We also served kamut rolls made by our neighbor (our plan after the end of our market is to exchange eggs for bread). Nothing except the salt, pepper, olive oil, mustard and the wine came from farther than 17 miles away. Local can be so good!

Now we are faced with the start of the Eat Local Challenge. I've participated each year and this year there are plenty of suggestions to help participants approach the challenge. We generally have local food everyday - almost something at every meal. I'm going to think about the challenge and approach it a little differently -looking for new local sources, writing about restaurants supporting local growers and farmers, and continuing to write about the garden. I'll also share a little bit of what we are doing to preserve our food and how we are continuing to grow as one season winds down and another begins.

I guess it's a little bit like my post yesterday. Just because one season is ending, you don't have to stop the momentum gained over the summer. This time of year harvest is in full swing. I guess this is the month to party!

Gardening Friday on Saturday

2007-09-01T18:54:00.000-05:00

I spent most of my week tied to the computer cataloguing plants and their characteristics for a new database. Interesting, but draining. I felt I would never get out of the maples (acer, to be more exact). The Japanese Maples took damn near forever. Who knew such variety could be had? Well, I knew, I just never had to sit down and type out the details of so many before. Thanks to the lovely and diverse acers, it took me two days to get out of the letter 'a'. I'm now on the letter 'd'. Life is that exciting...

So as I was writing about so many ornamental plants and their care, I'd glance out my window and notice how neglected my own gardens were. August is a draining month. It ranks second behind February in my vote for worst month ever. The heat tends to leave everything in the garden a little worse for wear. And as crops begin to ripen, it's easy to spend all your time out in the sun picking tomatoes, greenbeans, and way too many squash and cucumbers. With all the processing and saving of produce, there's little time to take care of the plants. My garden turns into a wild thing. The ornamental gardens tend to suffer the same fate and everything looks like it needs a makeover (much like me, who had to cancel my hair appointment TWICE this summer and am anxiously waiting Wednesday when I finally get to have my hair cut...).

Needless to say, I've spent all free time yesterday and today in the gardens weeding, pruning and tidying. Charlie joined in this morning and we tore through one perennial bed and half the vegetable garden. The Fuji apple tree was staked. Roses were pruned. Daylilies were divided. One peony was moved and another marked for moving tomorrow. Tomatoes were picked and diseased leaves removed. The compost bins were filled with cuttings and weed pullings. The last of the potatoes were dug and rows were weeded and prepped for planting. Planting?, you ask. Why, yes! Just because summer is almost at an end doesn't mean the gardening season has to be. There are plenty of cool weather crops to plant and a few warm season crops that can go a second round before frost.

We've begun fall planting. We started about two weeks ago. Already, there are new crops of kale, lettuce, beets and radishes popping up in the garden. I'm even experimenting with a row of leeks. Here, in the somewhat south, there is still time for another row of greenbeans. If they don't produce much, they will make an excellent cover crop until the first hard freeze. Tomorrow we will be planting peas, kohlrabi, more lettuce, and whatever else looks good in the leftover seed stash. Several rows will be getting a green manure cover crop of oats. I'm trying them this year for the first time. They won't survive the first hard freeze, but should make a nice layer of plant material to hold the soil over the winter.

If you've never tried fall gardening, I highly recommend it. The season can be extended even longer with row covers and some things, especially cole crops taste sweeter after a nip of cold weather. We'll be setting a few things in a cold frame made from leftover pieces of the old greenhouse (I'm thinking the new one won't be up until late fall/early winter).

And tomorrow after all that planting we will be sitting down to our last One Local Summer meal.
We found the centerpiece today at the tailgate market and it's so fresh and so delicious looking that I almost made it tonight. I stopped myself when I realized there was about 30 pounds of tomatoes in the kitchen sink that needed turning into tomato sauce and another ten or so that need to be dried. So the meal will just have to wait until tomorrow. Now go use your Labor Day Weekend for gardening good and plant a cool weather crop or two.

Beware of what you say to a four year old...

2007-08-30T07:52:00.000-05:00

...because when she's five it will come back to bite you in the, eh hum, rear.

About three weeks ago Monkey and I walked through PetsMart to buy frisbees for Gigi (they're a dollar and she loves her frisbees...), we made our normal detour (yes, we buy frisbees and balls on a rope quite frequently...) to the kittens and cats up for adoption. Monkey understands that we will not be adopting a kitten, but we still like to window shop (the same goes for the hamsters, gerbils, parakeets and lizards). The pet adoption area is adjacent to the tropical fish area.

As we passed the rows of fish tanks, Monkey said to me, "Momma, remember when we bought Rainbow Prince (A lovely, little, deep blue Betta, who swims in a small tank on her desk)?" "Uh, uh, " I replied cautiously because something in the tone of her voice suggested she had just let one shoe drop. "Momma (the repetive use of 'Momma' normally means something is going to be requested...), you said if I took care of Rainbow Prince for a year, I could have an aquarium." I waited. "Momma, it's been one year." Bam! The the other shoe dropped. It had indeed been almost one year to the day since we brought Rainbow Prince home and placed him in one of the most lavish set ups for a Betta ever devised - filtration, live plants, color coordinated gravel...

"Momma, you said," she added to emphasis the fact that she had held up her end of the bargain and now it was my time to pay up. And pay up, I did. We now have a 40 gallon aquarium in the house, with fish and all. I won't go into the cost of setting up an aquarium. I did promise, and I have this thing about sticking to my end of the bargain. And I'm sticking to my end of the bargain with a vengeance. Because, when you buy fish from PetsMart, they of course are going to have something - like a fungus, that shows up right after the warranty ends and you have to go out and buy lots of things to treat them with and then a few die and you'll have to replace them (or not) when the tank is all clean of any illness. My pocket book is aching. I hope Monkey's elephantine memory is working at Christmas when she only receives new socks and underwear.

And each fish has a name, although the neon tetras are just Rainbow Stripe #1 - #5. Here's Speckle Bucket (the kid has a flare for names, what can I say) the self-proclaimed king of the tank. He and his wife, Lola George, are expecting. One of the Wag Tail Platys has already given birth and one of her offspring is hiding in the foliage and growing daily. Please take my advice and beware of what you say to a four year old.

One Local Summer - Week 9

2007-08-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

Week nine of One Local Summer has been extremely hectic, what with the start of school, work deadlines and a two-day dog training clinic in the opressive heat of South Carolina. We did manage to squeeze in at least two meals that were almost local. In both instances it was the grains that threw us. Unfortunately, I was too busy eating to take pictures. This pleased Monkey, who thinks that taking photographs of one's food is terribly rude. eh hmm.

Monday night we had a shitake mushroom and wild rice soup. The mushrooms came from a fellow tailgate vendor who lives in Black Mountain - 10 miles. The beef broth came from our freezer. I do believe that the beef which originally contributed to said broth was local from our Virginia source. The wild rice was not local, but it was good... The soup was incredible. As an accompaniment we had kamut rolls made by our neighbor - source of production 1 mile (the grain came from Montana...).

The second meal was spaghetti and marinara sauce. We seem to be eating a lot of tomato-based sauces right now, but we might as well eat while the tomato picking is good! The spaghetti was not local (but was organic). The sauce was made completely from our garden - tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil and oregano.

Now that the food posting is done, I'm going to turn off the computer for a while. The sky is dark, the wind is picking up and I hear thunder. We supposibly are awaiting a huge storm, which around here means loss of power. At least I think that's what normally happens. It's been so long since we've had a thunderstorm or precipitation in any form, that I've forgotten what actually happens.

Gardening Friday

2007-08-24T06:43:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about organic gardening is that residents move into your garden. Lots of residents. Granted some of them are uninvited and require a little deligence to remove - like slugs. But what I've found is that now after three years of gardening here, good houseguests are arriving to help keep the freeloaders at bay.

A garden should be a microcosm of the larger environment. A healthy environment has a variety of inhabitants. Some, like potato beetles, flea beatles, hornworms, and crows want to eat what you want to eat. Others want to eat the beetles, hornworms and at least chase the crows. The predators in my garden make my job as gardener much easier. The key to attracting and keeping the predators is creating an attractive environment for them.

There are several ways to make your garden enticing to the "good" residents. In the simplest terms, provide them shelter (and food) and they will come. (Isn't that why the "bad" bugs come as well?) I plant plenty of annual flowers and herbs - marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, basil, parsley, and borage scattered throughout the garden. These attract bees and other polinators. They provide shelter to spiders, lady bugs, praying mantids and a host of predators. There are also several spots dedicated to perennial herbs. I leave a grass border around the garden within the fence to offer protection as well. Clematis and annual vines are allowed to climb on sections of the fence where they won't block sun. Outside the fence and near the garden are wood piles, rock piles and more flowers, many native that again provide protection for my little helpers.

It's comforting while picking potato beetle larvae off of the leaves to see a predatory wasp hunting for the nasty little critters as well. I don't feel so alone in my little battle to bring in a harvest. The lovely garden spider has taken up residence in the leaves of a tomato plant. Tiny spiders and some larger, more intimidating Wolf Spiders crawl about in the mulch. There is a toad living under a broken flower pot surrounded by cucumber vines. In the morning while I'm picking tomatoes, the garden is filled with the chattering of goldfinches hanging from giant sunflower seed heads (I plant them just for those birds...). I even think the crows have taken care of most of the hornworms while they help themselves to my tomatoes (good, or bad, you decide). Bill, the Cat likes to hide under the black-eyed peas and leap out at the crows.

So look for the "good" in the creatures that enter your garden. While the garden spider that shows up in August may be a surprise when you reach for a tomato, know that she's helping you keep pest free. And she won't bite, I promise (this is coming from an avowed arachniphobe). Toads love slugs and I love toads! Even the chickens and guineas help by eating bugs outside the fence and feasting on those I pick from plants. Why not do a little nature hunt in your garden and see who's set up home in the environment you've created? You might be surprised.

Stopping the energy hogs

2007-08-23T06:57:00.000-05:00

Our switch to clothesline over electric dryer has saved us a bundle this summer in electrical bills. Changing many of our bulbs to florescent has helped as well (although I'm tentative about the whole mercury thing and there is the color of the light thing that bugs the artist in me...) Here's something for those in this area - I found on a shelf at Greenlife on Merrimon free bulbs! You have to look a little. I think they were in the cosmetic/supplement section maybe near the fish oil, if memory serves. Imagine. There are so many ways to cut back a little, save some cash and reduce energy consumption. e4 has given some really helpful hints on cutting our computers' energy gobbling habits. Soon, I will be brave and tackle that "octopus" behind my desk, I promise.

Chickens as nature intended

2007-08-22T16:51:00.000-05:00

Nature has a plan and I've decided that this is the way to raise chickens. It's much easier than picking them up at the post office, checking on them hourly, cleaning up after them and fearing the brooder lamp will go out sometime during a cold snap on an early spring night. There are drawbacks - predators, disease, uncertaintity, but the chickens seem especially happy being, well, chickens. And Broody #1 and Broody #2 are showing some good mothering genes. Today as I was trying to pick up the surprise chicks I was attacked by Broody #1 (that's a drawback, for sure). She's left a rather hefty mark on my hand for trying to make contact with her babies. I have no idea if she is the biological mother of any of the four chicks, but they belong to her.

Here are three of the four chicks. The other was being naughty and hanging out in the other pen. Another few days and they won't be able to fit through the 2 inch wire. The shy one in the middle is my favorite. I think it is another Speckled Sussex. My money is on the yellow-legged one on the right being a boy. The one on the left is a funny looking kid. There are partridge patterns, laced patterns and speckling. Number Two (who I inherited from Jaime) is most likely the father of these three. Although Lefty could be a Speckled Sussex hen and Rufus, the Golden Laced Wyandotte. The AWOL Chick is black, like its mother.

There are only 3 more days until hatch. Broody #2 has been at it through all this heat. We are keeping fingers crossed for more chicks and maybe another Speckled Sussex or two. I know there is one Ameracuana egg (I've only one hen left), so maybe a green egg layer will hatch.

While I do like this method, I am still planning on a big order this coming spring. I skipped it this year. With an eye on the egg market, I'm thinking more Ameracaunas, a few more Black Australorps and some Barnevelders for variety in egg color. The Australorps just lay like crazy and both of the broody hens are offspring of my two Australorp hens and Rufus. Come to think of it, maybe I'll add a few more Wyandottes to the flock. Stop me now, please.

Another reason to eat local vegetables

2007-08-21T20:05:00.000-05:00

At the Monkey's annual checkup I got into an interesting discussion with her pediatrician. She asked me what I knew of hepatitis A. I said I thought I had been vaccinated for it (like a gazillion other things) while in the Peace Corps and that it was generally transmitted through feces and (ew!) therefore through food and water. Close personal contact, food and water... There are a few high risk groups, people traveling to certain areas of the globe included. hmm. So where was this conversation going?

Well it seems that it is now recommended children receive immunization for hepatitis A and the State of North Carolina pays for it. The pediatrician explained that with the increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables from Central and South America there has been an increase in incidents of hepatitis A. She's not an alarmist type. And she suggested that Monkey get vaccinated (even though we rarely eat imported fruits and vegetables at our home). Perhaps eating local is even better for our health than we thought.

Gardening Friday

2007-08-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

Fridays are generally my day to stay home and garden, then write about it. Lately though, I've had very little time to write. I've been spending most of my time in the garden trying to stay ahead of the weeds, disease, and pests (not to mention the overabundance the garden produces even in a drought). This afternoon with the heat climbing into the 90's and the humidity hovering around the same, I decided to pour myself an iced tea, kick back, and write about what I've been doing.

We always experiment in the garden, and this year has been no exception. A couple new (to us, that is) tomato varieties are wowing us. One, Stupice (which is new to us, but a favorite of many), has proven that big is not always better. It's sweet, zesty, red - everything "tomatoey" in a 2 ounce nugget of goodness. Principe Borghese is another favorite. It's small fruits are great in sauce and candied, as in a previous post. It's meant for sun-drying, but the humidity is way too high and we don't have a dehydrator. I'm not so happy with Black Prince, a favorite from last year. The fruits are much different than the plant we grew before and instead of being incredibly blight resisitant, this year's plants succumbed well before the start of August. I think it may be the down-side of heirlooms - plants with the same name can vary by location and supplier. In this case, we ordered from a different supplier this year. Next year, I'll look for the old variety and give it one more try on a limited scale. I'm going to try to save seeds from Kentucky Beefsteak and Spear's Tennessee Green and see how they do in comparison to ordered seeds.

Crows have been a problem this year. I think it has to do with the drought as much as anything else. Last Friday I hung old cds throughout the garden, especially around the tomatoes and from the scarecrow's arms. They flash in the sunlight. The ones on the scarecrow bang into his trashcan lid body, especially on windy days like today. It seems to be working. And best of all, I'm giving old, ruined cds new life. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

I've also been fighting powdery mildew with milk. Yes, milk. Mix 1/2 cup milk to 2 cups water and spray the leaves of cucumbers, squash, or whatever else seems to be succumbing (powdery mildew thrives in dry weather, oddly enough). So far, it's working. I had always been a little doubtful of this particular home remedy. Apparently for a brief time after application the milk, in combination with sunlight, turns into a natural fungicide. I've been applying it about every three days, always when it's sunny. Just remember to wash out the spray container when you're done - please don't forget and leave it in the sun. Trust me, doing it just once will keep you from doing it again!

Next I plan to attack the slugs, testing a variety of home remedies. This year has been worse than any other year. I think because the heavily mulched garden is the only place they find hospitable at the moment. Not for long slugs! You're going down...

One Local Summer - Week 8

2007-08-16T19:23:00.001-05:00

We came home today from a day of work down on the Tuckasegee River. I realized with a slight sense of panic that we had not yet had and "official" local meal and with the way the weekend is planned, I needed to make it tonight. So, I quickly scoured the freezer, pantry, fridge and countertop and came up with this:

Monkey's Favorite Spaghetti and Meatballs

The meatballs are ground beef from Hickory Nut Gap Farm/Springhouse Meats, Fairview, NC - 17 miles; bread crumbs from City Bakery whole wheat bread, Asheville, NC - 8 miles; duck egg - 0 miles (that's right - duck egg, they're laying!); and herbs - 0 miles.

The sauce is made with tomatoes, garlic, onion, zucchini (ground up fine, so the Monkey will never know), and herbs from the garden - 0 miles.

The pasta is not local, but I think the topping more than makes up for the fact.

Now I'm off to turn more tomatoes into sauce. I need the counter space.

Tomatoes a-go-go

2007-08-13T07:33:00.000-05:00

The tomatoes are coming in here at Little Creek Farm. I have been battling our local murder of crows (I love that collective name, by the way) for the rights to the fruits of my labor. This particular family had been marauding all over the cove. They hit one neighbor's garden everytime he planted corn or beans. Another has been losing tomatoes left and right. They finally hit our garden about 10 days ago. They wait until the tomato is perfect to strike. Then they take a bite or two and move on to the next red nugget. Bastards. Anyway, I've set up a little system to see if I can annoy them enough to keep them at bay (Lord knows the scarecrow's not doing his job...). It, along with a few other experimental things will be going into this week's garden post. Let's just say that I'm experimenting so you don't have to!

In spite of the crows, I'm hauling in quite a few tomatoes. I'm making the sauce up in batches and sticking it in the freezer until I have enough for one big canning operation. I love my new food mill. Tomato paste has never been easier. I can't wait until apple season, as slim as it will be here, to make apple sauce. We've also been getting loads of Principe Borghese tomatoes. I now see while everyone raves about them. I want to make sun-dried tomatoes, but the humidity is just too high here (and after buying the food mill, it will be a while before I can purchase a food dehydrater). So, I thought they just might be perfect for one of our favorite things to do tomatoes - here's the recipe taken from The Italian Country Table, by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (I highly recommend the book, if just for this recipe and her very simple, lovely pizza dough!). I enjoy the stories of the farmers and artisans who raise and create the ingredients as much as the recipes.

OVEN-CANDIED SUMMER TOMATOES

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Take around 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of medium-sized tomatoes. In this case, I used the smaller Principe Borgheses. Core and cut them in half. Larger tomatoes can be cut into smaller sizes. In a half-sheet pan, or shallow metal baking pan (must be metal), arrange the slices cut side up about 1/2 inch apart. Coat with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F. Bake another 30 minutes and lower the temperature to 300 F. Bake another 30 minutes (you see where this is going) or a little longer until the edges of the tomatoes start to darken. If they haven't yet colored you can lower the temperature to 250 F and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and cool 20 minutes. Transfer them to a shallow glass or china dish and pour their oil over them. Let them mellow, uncovered, at room temperature for 4-6 hours.

You can layer them in a covered container with the oil and store in the refrigerator up to 6 days, or freeze (as we do). They are a great taste of summer in the middle of winter.

Cooking them this way intensifies the natural sugars and mimic what Sicilian farm women did with the tomatoes by placing them in the cooling bread ovens after the loaves came out. Just think you can heat up the oven to make a nice crusty loaf or two and make these tomatoes to go along! Enjoy.

One Local Summer - Week 7

2007-08-12T20:17:00.000-05:00

Mmm - Sunday night dinner.
In the middle of all the chaos that is our household; we slowed down, sat down, and had ourselves a slow, pleasant dinner. We managed to clear tomatoes out of the way and cook ourselves another fantastic meal.

Roast Chicken, cooked on the grill - from Foothill Family Farms, Old Fort, NC - 20 miles. It was butchered Friday, and we picked it up at the tailgate market on Saturday.

Roasted Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes, dug minutes before - the Garden - 0 miles.

Roma II and Golden Wax beans - the Garden - 0 miles.

And cornbread made with corn meal from about 25 miles away; milk from Harmony Dairy, Westminster, SC - 100 miles; eggs from our hens, and flour from NC as well.

After my walk with Gigi, we are now sitting in front of the television watching Iron Chef America where the "secret ingredient" is FARMER'S MARKET. Go figure.

Oh, and for all of you hanging on for the Garden entry (I know you're dying out there without it), I'll have it up tomorrow. I promise.

Surprise!

2007-08-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

Just when we thought things were getting back to normal around here, one of the black hens shows up with four little chicks. Mother and brood are quite happy in one of the little coops - scratching and pecking, scratching and pecking with a whole lot of clucking going on.

One Local Summer - Week 6

2007-08-05T08:07:00.000-05:00

After almost 2 weeks of eating take-out and chain restaurant and midwestern comfort food, it was nice to get home to fresh home-cooked meals. We nourished ourselves daily with food from the garden. Our lunches (and at least one dinner) consisted of baked potatoes and green beans, with a few tomatoes thrown in. It was hard to choose a meal this week to label our OLS meal. Last night's meal won out.

We grilled hamburgers made with beef from Hickory Nut Gap Farm/Spring House Meats, Fairview, NC - 17 miles. The buns are from Annie's Naturally Bakery, Sylva, NC - 48 miles.

We served it with corn from Old Fort, NC - 20 miles; slaw made with cabbage and onions from the garden - 0 miles; and tomatoes from the garden - 0 miles.

Oh, and dessert - french vanilla ice cream made with whole raw milk from Harmony Dairy, Westminster, SC - 100 miles and eggs from our hens - 0 miles.

Seasonings and condiments, except for the Duke's Mayonnaise, where all non-local.

Gardening 101

2007-08-03T08:54:00.000-05:00

Any gardener that has left her garden alone for a period of time returns to face work. Weeds don't refuse to germinate just because of a vacation (or in my case, a funeral). Pests don't seem to be sympathetic to grief. However, working in the garden until my back aches and sticks in a bent position, my hands cramp in unnatural claws and my shoulders are sunburned does help assauge some of the aching in my heart. A gardener knows the healing properties of the earth.

Good things happened in the garden during my unplanned two week absence. The beans flourished; even surviving an attack of rampaging goats (the grape was not so lucky, but will recover). I picked close to five pounds of Roma II, Maxibel Haricot Verts, and Golden Wax beans yesterday. There were enough Roma and Principe Borghese tomatoes to make a delicious pasta sauce last night. I dug out weeds and prepared beds for a second round of planting. I slept throughout the night for the first time in a long while.

But like I said, pests don't care that I'm grieving. They thrive in my absence. I saw signs of insect damage throughout the garden yesterday and picked many a slug and a tomato hornworm or two to toss to the chickens as I weeded yesterday.

This morning I tackled this week's gardening topic - Squash Vine Borers (or as they are known around here - gross little bastards...). They end up in even the best gardens and I'm sure they have their purpose, but I want my squash. They had to go. Armed only with a sharp paring knife and garden trowel, I was able to remove them and save my plants.

The Squash Vine Borer (Melittia curcurbitae, for those of you who like to know these things) is a moth larva that feeds on the stems of members of the squash family (squash, pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers) for up to 6 weeks. It then pupates in the soil. This is what the damage looks like. You can avoid it by keeping young plants covered with row covers or treating the base with a nice organic insect repellent - both I skipped...). If your plant gets to this state, you can do a little operation to remove the larva and hopefully keep the plant.

Make a slit in the stem of the plant. Generally I find the larva above the damaged portion - so cut higher up than the mushy part. In this particular zucchini I found four borers. Remove the larva and gently scrape away any mushy parts. Cut off damaged leaves and stems.

Here's the litte bastard, er, borer. Everyone say "Ewickk!" I get great satisfaction in feeding these to the hens. The hens enjoy it too. I don't think the borers feel quite the same about the arrangement.

Finally, mound dirt up around the squash vine. It should root in the soil and continue to lead a happy life. I like to spread a little diatomaceous earth around the base to discourage insect pests and slugs. Members of the curcurbit family are kind of resilient, so hopefully they will continue to produce way too much zucchini for a long time.

I miss my mom...

2007-08-01T20:34:00.000-05:00

May 31, 1938 - July 25, 2007

Must take a hiatus

2007-07-22T13:24:00.000-05:00

I need to take a short hiatus to deal with some family issues. Don't worry, I hope to be back by the end of the week. I've got a great topic for Gardening 101. I'm not so sure I'll have an OLS meal this week, but never say never.

One Local Summer - Week Four

2007-07-17T11:48:00.000-05:00

My time at home this week is very short. I had to hop down to Georgia for a board meeting on Sunday. Tomorrow I leave for Missouri to visit my mother, who is ill. I spent yesterday running around and doing everything that needed to be done in the week in one day.

I fretted over what I could make in a short time and what I could find local at the grocery store. We generally do our local meal on the weekend - when there's time to prepare and savor it all. We are all scattered this week. Charlie had a meeting last night. Monkey wasn't finished with camp until 5:00. I was settling on hamburgers when out of the corner of my eye I saw, on the the refrigerated shelf next to the smoked trout (local), pasta! I've been wanting to make pasta, but let's face it, it takes time to prepare. I found it fresh and made in Charlotte. While I can't verify that the ingredients are all from the Carolinas, I can say that it's made here. So here was our meal. And it was fast to prepare - about 45 minutes from the first chop of garlic to the plate. Active time was closer to 15 minutes. Monkey and I dined like queens.

Linguine Bolognese

Linguine - from Pasta & Provisions, Charlotte, NC - 131 miles

Ground Beef - Spring House Meats, Fairview, NC - 17 miles

Tomatoes - the garden - o miles

Garlic - the garden - 0 miles

Carrots - the garden - 0 miles

Basil, Bay, Oregano - the garden - 0 miles

not local - salt, pepper, milk

Let's not forget dessert!

We don't generally do dessert around here, but it was Monkey's first day of Art Camp and I'm going to be gone for awhile, so we stopped at our favorite local ice cream shop, Ultimate Ice Cream (5 miles from our front door), and picked up a pint of Lemon-Lime Sorbet and Black Mocha Stout Ice Cream. I'm glad that we've instilled in the Monkey an appreciation for small local businesses, where things are crafted with care and are better for it. She even requests the sorbet over Oreo or Bubble Gum. The Black Mocha Stout Ice Cream is made with Black Mocha Stout (duh...) from Highland Brewery. I have to say, that it is one of the best mocha ice creams I have ever tasted.

Dinner was fresh and local and fast.

Weekly Gardening 101

2007-07-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

There are many ways to prepare a bed for planting vegetables. Some, like double digging, are incredibly labor intensive. I've spent many a spring soaking a sore lower back and repairing my winter-tender hands after a day in the garden. I've discovered that preparing a garden doesn't have to cause back problems or aggravate my arthritic hands.

Usually preparing a new garden involves three things - removing whatever is already growing there (usually grass or weeds), loosening the soil underneath, and improving the soil. In the past, I've used a shovel, hoe, pick, a rototiller, and my own bare hands to accomplish the first two steps. In the past year I've been using a much easier method. Starting now (or preferably, later in the cooler weather of autumn), you can prepare a bed for planting next spring with minimal physical exertion.

Once you've determined where you want your garden (I'll leave the size and shape up to you, just think that wide beds with narrow aisles allow more planting and less weeding), you can start to get it ready for spring planting. What you will do is leave most of the green stuff growing there to help add organic material (food for your veggies) to the soil. Nature's little helpers - worms and other organisms in the soil, will help loosen the soil. Mulch that you add will also help improve the soil. You'll be able to plant in the spring with minimal effort. I promise. Starting in the fall means that your soil will be improved over the winter with the help of worms and other critters in the soil. Worms are your friends. They will help break down organic material, and aerate and loosen the soil with their little tunnels all through the cooler months.

Here are the steps:

Cut down any tall vegetation and woody weeds in your new garden location. Remove any woody material or things that have gone to seed. Lay a base layer of cardboard or newspapers at full thickness over the area. Make sure to overlap the edges. This is biodegradable and keeps the light from reaching the stuff underneath.

Next add a layer up to 4 inches deep of soil improvers - compost, grass clippings, leaf mold or fallen leaves, composted manure, mushroom compost, or animal bedding (old straw or hay). A mixture of these materials is good. You can buy many of these at a garden center, if you don't have them laying around, but leaves and grass clippings are free (so is animal bedding and manure, if you a lucky enough to have animals! No dog or cat poo though, these can contain icky things that can infect us as well).

Then add a top layer of straw or hay. This will retain moisture and look good. Wood mulch looks good, but a caveat - wood actually takes nitrogen out of the soil as it breaks down. Shredded bark mulch is a better choice, but expensive. I'd stick to straw.

Water this all to settle the layers and keep it all from blowing away.

In the first year, it's best to grow transplants. Small seeds and root crops are suitable for the first year. If time has done the work for you, the light blocking layer will start to break down and the organic materials layer will start to mix with the soil. If you have a problem with bigger perennial weeds, just dig down through the layers of mulch and dig out. You can always add a second layer to help block these out.

I've found that a crop of potatoes is excellent at helping to break up the soil. These can easily grown using thick layers of straw as mulch. But a warning! Once you have homegrown potatoes, like their cousin tomatoes, store-bought will never do. I promise.

This method can also be used with existing beds to cut down the weeds and improve the soil. I did it over the winter with several rows in our garden (I need to see things to believe them, you know) and the difference is amazing. I'm finally winning the battle with mustard garlic and creeping buttercup. This fall all rows get this method.

That's it for this week. Send any questions, and I'll try to answer them. It may help me come up with a topic for next week!

I want to be in pictures

2007-07-10T22:31:00.001-05:00

I'm a Simpsons character. My life is now complete. And I've just taken part in a shameless advertising ploy for a movie. Oh well.

One Local Summer - Week Three

2007-07-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

We went southern this week with the local menu. There we no leftovers tonight. The Monkey had two helpings of everything. Some days nothing satisfies like fried catfish. I grew up on the banks of the Missouri River. With the uncharacteristic heat and humidity we've had, I almost feel like I'm back home. The recipe for the catfish was in this month's Gourmet, which is full of local food articles. It was quick and easy without the mess of frying. Don't think that oven-fried means low-fat; there's 4 tablespoons of oil for 4 catfish filets. I toyed with the idea of making some hushpuppies, but thought it safer for the arteries to pass this time.

Oven-Fried Catfish - NC farm-raised, from exactly where I'm not sure. It's soaked in eggs from the garden and dredged in cornmeal from Blue Hill Farm - around 25 miles away.

Green Beans, Yellow Wax Beans from our neighbors' - 2 miles, and Potatoes from the garden - 0 miles, seasoned with Bacon from Spring House Meats/Hickory Nut Gap Farm - 10 miles.

Sweet Corn from a farm in Old Fort, NC - 20 miles

We washed it down with iced tea. Mmmm...

Market Day 7.7.07

2007-07-07T19:45:00.000-05:00

It was another great market day. We had plenty of fresh flowers, carrots, potatoes and beets to sell. We picked up a fat chicken for later in the week, as well as green and yellow wax beans.

Hydrate locally

2007-07-07T07:24:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday I listened to a discussion on Public Radio regarding this article and it really got me thinking. I thought I'd share. Where does your water come from?