More seeds and blogs

Wow, something must be wrong with me, I'm posting another entry less then a week since my last. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this blog stuff.

As my title suggests, I placed another order for seeds from Baker Creek. Since I'm determined to learn seed saving and starting, I choose to deal with heirloom companies only, Baker fits the bill. This order consisted of:
Tall Telephone garden peas
Crookneck Early Golden summer squash
Zucchino Rampicante squash ----- THE FLAT, BEST zucchini I have ever eaten!!!!!!!!!
Blue Hubbard squash
Butternut Waltham squash
Vegetable Spaghetti squash

I only have a few more seed varities to order for 2010, so I'm in good shape there. I also have found a seed potato supplier I am anxious to try: The Maine Potato Lady https://www.mainepotatolady.com/productcart/pc/home.asp . They look to have a gardening philosophy close to my own, I like to support companies that stay away from GMO seeds and bad farming practices (more on that subject in a future post).

My final thought for this post is regarding another blog project I have started that may be more important to me then this one. It is Simple Faith and can be found at: http://simplepilgrim.wordpress.com/ . I have felt a burden to move back to a simpler faith and simpler lifestyle. This blog is my record at documenting how my walk is changing. Take a look if you're interested and let me know your thoughts.

First seed order placed!

What a great time of year! The holiday spirit is in the air, the smell of fresh pine and cookies baking. The tree is trimmed, presents are being wrapped, shopping is done (thankfully!). That, however, is not the most exciting thing for me, rather, this is the time of year that the new seed catalogs start hitting the mailbox!!

The catalog we've most anticipated is the Baker Creek Heirloom seed catalog. I have an earlier blog that's all about this great company. I highly recommend them as a source for heirloom seeds. They are also anti-genetically modified seeds of any kind.

My company gave each of it's employees a $50 dollar gift card for Christmas and mine went right to Baker Creek! We just place the first order with them, it included:

Hutterite Soup beans
Berlicum 2 carrots
Edmondson pickling cukes
Early Russian pickling cukes
Ground cherry
Amish Deer Tongue lettuce
Blonde Du Cazard lettuce
Lollo Rosso lettuce
Arugula
Wrinkled Crinkled Cress
Sugar Snap peas
German Giant radish
Champion A Collet Rouge rutabaga
Striata D'Italia zucchini
Five Color Silverbeet swiss chard
Moon and Stars watermelon

We've got a lot more to order. From Baker Creek we have to order Hubbard squash, spinach, turnips, the fantastic Rampicanti zucchini, Butternut squash, Acorn squash, regular peas, and perhaps a few other odds and ends. We also need to find a good company for seed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and perhaps onion sets.

Boyert's greenhouse will supply us with our live plants, my goal is to do all my own seed starting for 2011. Boyert's is a great family, owned business at the end of our road. We've done lots of business with them over the years.

This year's garden is shaping up to be the biggest and best ever! We are concentrating on storage foods, whether we freeze, can, or dry. We are keeping our eye on the goal of self-sufficiency.

We will still use our local produce auction for corn, beets, and a few other items. It's a fun, local auction with lots of Amish growers in attendance. Their web-site is a great resource for crop yields in the area; Homerville Produce Auction. I encourage anyone in this part of Ohio to give it a try some summer evening.

I'm going to wrap this up for today, Shell and I are enjoying a fire. She's quilting and I intend to get into my book I'm currently reading.

Winter is a comin'

Not much to report in the garden. We're just hunkerin' down for a long winter. Shelley did process our Red Kuri squash yesterday. That was a very pleasant surprise. We grew the squash on a whim, I'm always on hunt for new garden ideas.

The squash is from Japan and grows very well here in Zone 7. The vines produce a nice crop of reddish/orange fruit. Shell processed the Kuri as she would pumpkin, although the internet has tons of recipes for this delicious variety. The flavor was fantastic, easily my new favorite, with a slight nutty flavor. The coolest part is that the skin is edible as well as the flesh, packing this squash full of vitamin goodness.

I started seed saving this year and am excited to add Red Kuri to the pile of packets we have saved. In addition to the Kuri, I have Rattlesnake pole beans, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, Amish Pie pumpkin, New England Sugar Pie pumpkin, Amish Paste tomato, Petit Des Gris Rennes melon, and Tiffin Mennonite tomatoes saved.

Sorry forthe short post. Over the next few posts, I intend share the plan for this spring's garden.

Big doings in the garden

Over the past few weekends we've not only put the garden to bed, we've also begun a major expansion. The garden has gone from approx 1500 square feet to it's present size of 3000 square feet!

The expansion includes a new 21' x 10' blueberry patch seen in the pictures above. We will be planting at least 8 blueberry bushes of 2 varieties in this patch. I turned pine needles into the soil to help move the pH to a more soil like blueberries love. This spring I'll be amending further with sulphur and organic material to get the right blend.

We ordered our bushes from Raintree Nursery http://www.raintreenursery.com/ . We've ordered from this company before, however, we're anxious to give them try. Normally, we would order from Henry Fields Nursery, however, they did not have much to offer this time around.

Blueberries have been part of the larger plan for a few years, however, the situation was never quite right for adding them. Now that we have a spot just for them it will be much easier to maintain their individual soil needs that differ so much from the rest of the garden.

The new additional space added to the garden will greatly increase our yield and diversity of crops. We will still maintain large numbers of tomoatoes (this past season we had 118 plants in the garden), however, we can now increase the squash/pumpkin yields, not to mention peppers and melons.

We intend on adding regular potatoes and sweet potatoes, as well as more turnips, beets, and other storage friendly veggies. Broccoli may not be on the list this year, it is such a space hog for a low yielding vegetable.

Chickens are also in the plans this spring. We hope to keep 6-7 laying hens, as well as 12-15 meat birds at all times. The addition of chickens would be a nice preparation if we decide to add additional livestock in the future. We are considering dairy goats or perhaps sheep for wool.

It might be helpful to discuss the lot size I am dealing with on our microfarm. We live in a semi-rural area of North Eastern Ohio approx 50 miles south of Cleveland. Our lot is approx 9500 square feet, which includes the house and driveway.

The lot may seem small when first considered, however, we are trying to make use of every inch of usable space. That means, in short, not much lawn! Lawn is the single greatest waste of space in our modern world. If more people spent as much time on the weekend growing food on their lots instead of mowing lawns, there would be no hunger problem.

Eventually, we intend to fence the front yard with a nice picket, allowing us to turn the front yard into orchard space for apples.

That's enough vision statement for this blog. At the current rate my next post probably will be mid-summer 2010 (I'm kidding). Actually, I truely am trying to publish these at a faster rate, life just keeps getting in the way.

Todd

P.S. We harvested turnips yesterday (December 5)!! It's great to be able to say you picked fresh veggies from yur garden in December in Ohio. Our lettuce bed is still in production as well.

Back in the saddle

I apologize for not keeping up with this blog. I used to write it at work during my lunch breaks, however, our IT department has blocked any web-hosting sites such as blogspot, and I'm usually to beat to do it in the evenings.

Lots of changes have transpired since my last entry. The garden is winding down, although I do have turnips, fall snap peas, cukes, and beets planted. I put them in at the beginning of September to see if I can extend the season.

We have been very busy canning and freezing since about the first week of August. Our pantry is packed with 2 types of pickled beets (spicy and regular), lots of quarts of Tomatoes, salsa, pizza sauce, pickled hot peppers, strawberry jam, tons of pickles, and tomorrow grape jelly!! We harvested a ton of grapes from our arbor and juiced them yesterday. Tomorrow I have the day off so Shelley and I are going to be hard at it.

Speaking of my wife Shelley, that is perhaps the biggest news of all, and the most important to our homestead. Since we married, we have been hoping to find a way for Shelley to be a stay at home mom. Obviously, it would be a wonderful blessing to our kids, but it would also make some of our micro farming dreams possible.

We prayed constantly, asking God to make it possible for her to take this step, the problem was that we didn't listen for His reply. Over and over, we felt "now was the time", then something would happen to cause us to reconsider whether it was an unexpected bill, a needed repair, etc... God is faithful, and His will was for Shell to stay home, we just had to learn to depend on His provision.

Long story short... Friday, September 11 (hopefully not a bad omen) was Shelley's last day at her work. The adjustment has been great so far, although we still have lots of planning to do. As to the farm, we have purchased a chicken coup from my neighbor who is getting out of chickens, and fence posts for the goats we hope to add this spring.

We intend on raising two dairy goats to provide us with our milk and cheese, along with the laying chickens for eggs, and meat chickens for the pot. All these animals need lots of attention, the goats alone must be milked twice a day. It would've been impossible to do with both of us working.

We are taking steps every day to carve the simple life we crave out of the worlds busy schedules and hectic paces. We are not interested with keeping up with the Jones, the Smiths, or anyone. As a society we have lost so much in our quest for progress and leisure, we are paying for it in the general decline of our society. You can see it reflected in the attitudes of our children and the lack of civility in public discourse, and most importantly in the over-all mood of the people.

As a people, we need to step back and reexamine our priorities, and more importantly turn our faces back to God. That is what Shelley and I are trying to do on our little plot of ground. It is our form of revolution, a revolution of the soul, and a rehabilitation of the spirit.

Where's the summer going?

Holy smokes! It's been a while since my last posting, but I've been very busy in the garden the past few weeks. The garden is booming like a rain forest and keeping on top of it is nearly a full time job.


The squash are going to be a lot of fun this year. Each one is a new selection for us this year. We have Red Kuri, Long Island Cheese, New England Sugar Pie, Amish Pie (the last two being pumpkins), Waltham Butternut, and a cool White acorn.

The zucchini's are really pushing out blossoms and fruit. We planted Zucchini Rampicante, Longo Bianco, Straita d'Italia, and Horn of Plenty summer squash.

We've already harvested 16 lbs. of pickling cukes which we promptly canned as 13 quarts of bread and butter pickles. One bed of cabbage is done and being enjoyed. We intend on making and freezing a bunch of stuffed cabbage rolls this weekend. The broccoli is done as well. Broccoli is always a disappointment to me. Don't get me wrong, we got a nice yield, however, not a very large yield from the space needed. The garden salsa peppers have been wonderful.

The pickles were done using our new outdoor 2 burner propane stove. Lest year we killed our indoor stove with the heavy water canners, so this year we trekked down to Lehman's Hardware and picked up this stove. It was a wonderful addition. The house doesn't get so hot, the mess is easily managed, and man! does it go fast!

I mentioned our kitchen, lettuce, garden in the past. That has been the superstar this year. We ate huge salads for dinner last night, the total cost $3.00 for 3 people! The budget is definitely helped by that.

The kitchen garden has been such a success, that we're expanding on the idea next year, adding another bed of similar size for different greens and radishes.

Spinach was the big loser this year. The area we had them in turned out to be an oven, even on mild days. It suffered badly and didn't produce.

Our Amish paste tomato experiment is paying big dividends. We planted nearly 100 plants in a very small area. Tomatoes don't mind company and work to keep the weeds down. This method will provide us huge yields, but we need to organically feed them as tomatoes are heavy feeders and will quickly use up this patch.

Organic methods are preferred by us, and we're learning as we go. One of our best discoveries is Liquid fence http://www.liquidfence.com/. We were having problems with deer and rabbits stopping in for free lunches. This product works to repel them very effectively. I will warn everyone, this stuff smells like the gates of Hell when you're using it, but works like a charm. The smell is only noticeable the first few hours. The best thing is this is a totally natural product!

Shelley and I are really praying about our future. We have gone over the budget and Shell could stay home to raise our kids and help as the farm expands. We were over-joyed at the prospect, however, God sometimes works in odd ways. Just today, Shell got a call from a local denstist and it looks like she may have a great opportunity to work for him. Either way, we are blessed. Our desire is to follow God's will.

We are very excited about how things are going and how the future is looking in regards to our little microfarm. Hopefully we'll continue experiencing God's blessings on our simple life.

Baker Creek Seeds

I'm always on the hunt for a good seed company for my garden. I've tried just about everybody including the big guys like Burpee and Stokes, down to more of the specialty, smaller companies like Pinetree. This year I tried someone new.

January and February are always looked forward to as the time when the seed catalogs arrive. It's a lot of fun, during an otherwise miserable time of year, paging through each offering deciding on what and how much to buy. Planning the garden and re-planning the garden fills many a chilly winter evening.

This year was no exception, except that I received a catalog from Baker Creek http://www.rareseeds.com/ , a new source (new to me, they've been in business since 1998. Jere Gettle started the company originally as a place to save and preserve rare heirloom seeds. Eventually, the company sprouted like the seeds they sell into a company that now offers 1275 varieties of rare seeds through there catalog sales and at there in the Ozark hills near Mansfield, Missouri.

The catalog (pictured above) was a stunner. Magazine size, with big glossy photos it served as part catalog, part coffee table book. I eagerly poured over the many pages, selecting a nice variety of seeds to order and placed my order at their online store.

My order arrived in one week. Included was a cash refund for an item they were out of stock on, and a gift packet of lettuce seeds. I was nicely impressed. The other companies I ordered from had not yet shipped my seeds, with one company delaying for over one month due to "excessive business" causing a strain on their system.

The first seeds in the ground were the six lettuce varieties, a variety of arugula, and two varieties of swiss chard that I purchased for my kitchen garden. We sowed them in line in 1/2" trenches and have been rewarded with nearly 100% germination and fantastic harvests. The quality of the lettuce, arugula, and chard is amazing, pictures don't do it justice.

We've been enjoying fresh salads for the past month and look to continue to enjoy them for weeks to come. The varieties of lettuce and cress planted make for a wonderful taste and texture to the salads, the arugula has an especially good flavor.

Tonight we intend to harvest some of the beautiful swiss chard to add to the dinner salads.

Baker Creek Seeds is my new #1 source of seeds. I see no reason to use anyone else. Since Baker Creek only sells heirloom varieties, Shelley and I also intend to save quite a few seeds this year in anticipation of next years garden. It will be our first foray into seed saving, however, the quality of the plants grown from Baker Creek indicate that we should be very successful.

Getting started

The path to a microfarm has been long and varied as described in my first blog. I didn't even know what a microfarm was until I watched a video by The Dervaes Family called Homegrown Revolution. The Dervaes' manage to grown 6,000 lbs. of food every year on 1/10th of an acre. They use traditional organic gardening, no funny business, or super fertilizers, only hard work and lots of planning.

That video inspired me and Shelley to approach our garden with a similar goal in mind. We developed a plan where over the next four years we intend to "liberate" our yard, turning it from grass to food growing gardens.

The plan will develop across four distinct stages and goals requiring lots of labor and funds. The cost is why we are spreading it over 4 years. Some of the intended additions, like peach trees and apples, will be an initial large expenses. We both have vowed to not incur any new debt in the creation of our farm so the credit cards stay put.

Last year our garden consisted of two seperate areas comprising twelve to thirteen 4' x 8' raised beds. These we refer to as the lower gardens, they exist at the farthest point from our house in the backyard. Additionally, we have four grape vines on an arbor/fence, 12 gooseberries in a patch along the east side of our house, and a small kitchen/herb garden right outside the back door in two small patches.

This year we began the project. We added 200+ square feet of garden above the old gardens. These are in an area that was a perennial garden. We removed the perennials and added more raised beds. We also removed a 10' x 10' slate patio, converting the area to squash beds and recycling the patio material as a garden walk-way.

This year also saw some permaculture additions. We added two more grapes to the arbor, and two kiwi bushes.

We currently are growing 118 tomatos (paste, cherry, and slicing), eleven different varities of summer and winter squash, two different melon varities, pickling cukes, three varities of cabbage, two varities of pole beans, fava beans, eggplants, six varities of lettuce, two varities of swiss chard, three varities of sweet peppers, and two varities of hot peppers.

This year we hope to produce and harvest 50% of our families food needs for the year. We will increase this target goal each year.

At the end of this season we will start the next phase of the farm. We need to remove a maple tree and an ash to make room for a 6 dwarf apple trees that we intend to train onto a fence. We need to finish removing the remaining perennila bed to make room for a blue berry patch, and we are tilling up the next garden section of 40' x 40', so we can hit the ground running next spring with already amended soil.

The final two phases include a peach orchard in the front yard, a more formalized herb garden, and a shed.

Origins - June 17,2009

Well, this being my first attempt at blogging, and actually my first attempt at writing anything of note, I ask for a bit of patience. Hopefully, you'll find something of value from what I write that will spur you on to your own endeavor at microfarming, or even just a simple garden.

My path to microfarming has evolved over the past 10-12 years. I began gardening at my old house in Lodi, Medina County, in the usual way, some tomatoes, a zucchini or two, beans, broccoli, etc... Gradually, however, the size and scope of my gardens have changed, as has my motivation for doing it.

I started gardening for the same reason most people do, to have some fresh veggies, enjoy the outdoors, relaxation, etc..., also I owned a large Victorian style house and gardens seemed to be a requirement. We spent endless hours planting perennials, ferns, and other flowers before jumping into vegetables. Working with the perennials began to build in me a great love of gardening, awakening a skill that I didn't know I possessed.

The Lodi garden consisted of about six raised beds 4' x 8' in size. I used raised beds after reading The Victory Garden: The Essential Companion by James Wilson, Bob Thompson, and Thomas Wirth. It was, and still is, an invaluable resource on all things vegetable gardening.


Sue and I moved from the Lodi house in 1997, settling in a small ranch style home in the Chippewa Lake area (still Medina County). The yard was all grass with some maples, a pine, and a gum tree. I saw potential in the far backyard for a really nice, large garden, even though my entire lot was on less then one acre.. I set about building a 50' x 50' garden of raised beds surrounded by a split rail fence. Garden style is very important to me, I simply can't have a square plot of dirt, a garden needs form and beauty in my mind. A garden must inspire and charm those who work or visit it, feeding the mind and soul as well as the body.

The garden flourished and the harvests were huge. The wonderful harvest got me thinking that perhaps a garden, even, on a small lot could provide a large part of my families diet if done correctly. As a matter of necessity we began to store the food we grew, canning and freezing most of the harvest. What we weren't able to grow we purchased in bulk for a local Amish produce auction in nearby Homerville.

Sadly, my garden only existed for one season. The realtor had mislead us on the size of our property. When we moved in, there was only soybean fields behind us. The grass was mowed and maintained up to the fields and the former residents even erected a light post at the very edge of the lawn. We came to find out that the light post (the spot we were told our property ended at) was actually 75' off our property line. My entire garden was located off our property, the land on which it existed had been sold to developers for a new sub-division (apparently there were not enough sub-divisions in Medina County, we needed one more), which meant my garden had to go.

When our vegetable garden was lost, we decided to focus on a smaller perennial garden we had started in an area where an old willow had recently fallen. We also installed a four grape, grape arbor on the true back line of our property as a screen to the new development.

We were happy planting and tending the new flower garden and raising our three children. We spent time adding perennials, learning the tricks of a partial shade garden bed (although to be truthful, I never quite got that one right), building a patio, and planning more gardens. All that came to an end when Sue was diagnosed with leukemia. I buried Sue in July of 2009 near the beautiful rhododendron's in Lodi cemetery, where we loved to walk when we lived in Lodi.

Sue's death also destroyed any desire for gardening in me. It was like something died in me when she passed away. I no longer spent time in the garden, choosing to spend time indoors watching movies and trying to forget. The gardens faded, their former glory now only dimly seen amidst ever encroaching weeds and grass. That was fine with me, I existed in much the same way as my old gardens.

They say "time heals all wounds", even though I'd like to strangle the person who coined that idiotic statement, there is a kernel of truth. As time passed I was able to forget some of the pain, and like Spring brings renewal, new life came to me in the summer of 2007. I had decided I had enough of the spiritual weeds that choked my soul and began to rebuild my life. That rebuilding began with a new vegetable garden, started near the ruins of the old garden, and leaped to life with my finding Shelley.

Shelley also came from a bruised past. We met online in the fall of 2007 and were married in the early winter of 2008. She loves gardens and the outdoors, her strength and enthusiasm were a tonic for me and all the old dreams I had for my gardens were brought back to life. She is the love of my life and my best friend. She has inspired so much in me and made me a much better person. My mind races at the thoughts of all we can do together (you should see our to-do list). I am truly alive when next to her, whether working in the garden, a project in the house, or simply enjoying a quiet evening out back with a glass of wine.

Shelley and I started the garden rebuild, together, in 2008. It was a tough year, both with the weather and the transition from single to married. It was especially a challenge for Shell coming from and empty nest to a house with three children, the youngest being 7. We persevered, although the garden work suffered a bit, and have begun to thrive.

That takes us to today and the beginnings of a microfarm. As I stated at the beginning, hopefully you, the reader, will find some wisdom in my journey, perhaps a spark of inspiration that will push you out the door and into the garden.

Todd