growing grain
Posted: September 29, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »This year we grew some small grains: wheat, oats and barley. After planting in early spring, we pretty much neglected them. There were times that I wondered if there was anything growing in the fields other than grass, but then the seeds stalks finally started emerging. Despite my worries that some calamity would be sure to ruin the crop, we managed to harvest almost all of it. (Those of you who have read the Little House books will remember that any time Pa came whistling in from the fields announcing that the wheat was perfectly ready to cut, a hailstorm or a plague of locusts or a flock of starlings was certain to immediately follow.) We’ve experimented with various methods of threshing the grain to separate out the seed, but basically it’s just a lot of slow, if pleasant, work. A few nights ago night we cooked up some of our wheatberries, tossed them with some kale and tomatoes, sprinkled with parmesan and toasted walnuts…yum!
no vampires
Posted: August 6, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »No vampires will be found on Sweet Birch Farm this year! We’ve harvested two varieties of beautiful bulbs, Russian Red and Music. Both are stiff-neck types that will be good for storage. Both are available for your cooking enjoyment at the Douglas Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings, 9 – 1.
busy days
Posted: July 6, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Well, life has continued to be extremely hectic on many fronts, but things are carrying on at the farmstead. The first few weeks at the Douglas farmers market have gone very well. It’s been great to meet new and returning customers! Come see us Saturdays from 9 to 1 at the Douglas Historical Society/E.N. Jenckes Store Museum at 283 Main Street in the center of Douglas. Here’s a few photos from the last few months.
the season is underway
Posted: April 6, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Although life has gotten in the way of writing posts lately, a lot has been happening in the last couple months. The hoophouses are exploding with spring greens, spinach, chard, kale, some which was planted last summer and some transplanted or direct seeded in late winter. The leeks overwintered beautifully and have made for great potato-leek soup with the dwindling root cellar spuds. We’ve started the first of the outdoor plantings, with the help of our new four row seeder to speed up the planting of the many successions we plant of tiny seeds like carrots, lettuce, radishes and greens. Another new tool is our soil block maker, which allows us to start transplants without using plastic containers.
our own january salad
Posted: January 28, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: high tunnel, hoop house, low tunnel, winter greens Leave a comment »
Just picked this salad yesterday from our low tunnel! Just one layer of plastic over hoops and the lettuce looks great. It hasn’t grown much since we covered the beds in late fall, but we sure don’t have to worry about it bolting. The tunnel acts like a big winter storage unit, keeping the greens ready whenever we need them. The amazing thing is that the lettuce freezes under there, looking completely inedible, but when the temperature warms up it bounces right back. The trick is to harvest only when the leaves are not frozen or else you end up with an unappetizing pile of mush!
This has been a good learning year for the hoophouse crops. Some things I planted way too late, and they didn’t make enough growth before the cold set in, like carrots and radishes. Other crops, like spinach, just keep on growing. And I’ve already started some plants inside that will be transplanted out in a few weeks for early spring, including lettuce, kale and chard.
greenhouse chervil
Posted: December 10, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: chervil, greenhouse, high tunnel, hoophouse, spinach Leave a comment »
Last weekend we worked like mad to get the end walls on the two hoop houses before the snow. We were finishing the last one with snow coming down on us! But everything is snug inside now. Walking inside now feels like spring and smells like chervil! Chervil is an herb with a fresh and anise like flavor, very popular in French cooking. Chervil is the lacy stuff growing in with the spinach in the photo. I planted it last spring with our salad mix, and it’s decided that conditions are perfect to seed itself throughout the greenhouse. It’s nice in salads, but since we have such an abundance of it, I thought I’d try to do something else with it. I made the chervil relish recipe from Mariquita Farm (I added salt) and ate it spread on homemade bread with sliced radishes. Yum! The flavor is kind of a mix of anise and cilantro. Odd but good. I also added a big handful to potato celeriac soup and the fresh flavor added a nice light touch. It’s a lot of work getting the houses ready, but so worth it for the intensely green mini spring inside when the ground is covered with snow.
new greenhouse
Posted: November 23, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: high tunnel, low tunnel, unheated greenhouse, winter greens production 1 Comment »We built our new greenhouse this weekend! This one is made with plastic electrical conduit and duct tape, unlike our first house which has metal hoops. It cost a lot less than the first and was much easier to assemble, so hopefully it will hold up to the snow. We put it up over two of our beds which were already planted with fall and winter crops, spinach, leeks, kale, chard. There are a few empty spaces where transplanted lettuce will go, and as we harvest stuff over the winter, we’ll seed in more crops that should start growing in early spring. The houses are heated only by the sun, but once we put on the end walls and add layers of row cover inside, everything should stay pretty happy all winter—including us!
We also built a low tunnel to extend the harvest of some baby lettuce and salad greens. This one is too low to walk in, so we’ll either have to crawl—which might raise the price of our salad mix to cover the chiropractic bill—or remove the hoops successively as we harvest.
freeze
Posted: October 19, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »A few nights of freezing temperatures have definitely changed the landscape around here. The chickens have been busy scratching through the wreckage of the squash patch. They’re doing a great job of breaking everything down and eating bugs, and the deer have been munching on the remains of the pole beans. This area will become our small orchard we’ll put in in the spring. If all goes well, in a few years we’ll have apples, peaches, pears, and pie cherries!
The cool weather crops are looking great. It’s amazing to see the lettuces covered with frost in the morning, and then be able to harvest them later in the day. We had some gorgeous radishes, carrots and celeriac for our last day of farmers market. The CSA season is over, too, but we still have a lot of work to do. We have one more hoop house to put up over the winter crops already planted in the beds. There’s still garlic to plant, and new gardens to get ready for spring… and hopefully we’ll get it done before more snow falls!
fall and winter crops
Posted: September 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: high tunnel, hoop house, winter harvest Leave a comment »We’ve been planting fall crops over the past few weeks—spinach, radishes, lettuce, asian greens, arugula. It’s actually a relief to say goodbye to the tomatoes and cukes that gave up the ghost, and hope for some better harvests this fall. The hoop house is planted with crops that we will harvest over the winter—more of the above, plus turnips, carrots, kale, chard and claytonia. We put up the tunnel last year but got a late start, so this year will be our first true test of the winter harvest potential. Can’t wait for spinach in December!
beautiful beans
Posted: September 8, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »The beans are our happiest crop right now, especially the pole varieties—rattlesnake, kentucky wonder, gold of bacau, purple podded pole—great names and yummy, too.
We dug the rest of the russet potatoes this week, and they look great, too. I love russets and this variety Rio Grande was a new one for us and it performed really well. Baked potatoes this winter! The tomatoes, though, have finally given over to late blight. It’s very sad to see them go.
I’m very excited about the bean and grain CSA that we joined this year. We don’t have the space or equipment—or knowledge!—to grow grains here at this point, and I’m happy to be able to get grain grown in the Pioneer Valley. Check them out!
