Monday, February 28, 2011

Weather in Ohio- what fun!

Thursday night it began to snow, by Friday morning at 5:00 a.m. it was falling at the rate of 2 inches an hour!  My drive into the the daily grind was a white knuckle prayer fest.  Schools all over the area were closed, roads were a nightmare at best.  My boys spent 2 solid hours shoveling before enjoying another snow day at home.

By the time I left work, around 4:00p.m., the snow melt had already begun.  I arrived home to a driveway that looked as if it never saw a flake.  The weekend was more of the same, mild to cool temps and lots of melt.

Last night, as if in competition, the rains came.  The rain brought the misery of flooding and mud to add to the already melting snow pack.  I arrived at my office to find 2 inches of water that I spent the better part of an hour trying to squeegee from the floor.

I suppose that the bright side to this is that the water table is rising, but I just have to say that Spring can't here to soon.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A peak at the end

After the nutso weather of the past two days, I finally received something that gives my frozen body hope.  My first batch of spring seeds arrived today!!  Baker Creek Heirloom seeds does not waste anytime in getting an order out.  I placed this order just this past Thursday.  Now if I can get Stokes to deliver as quickly.

It's hard to believe (especially looking at the snow this morning) that in a couple weeks we'll be starting our tomatoe and ground cherry seeds.  We had real success last year in starting seeds indoor, especially as they were seeds we saved.  Just added a portable, outdoor, mini-greenhouse that was given to us by my buddy so this year our seed trials should even be better.

I mentioned ground cherries, they were a new experiment in the garden and a pleasant one at that!  We ended up planting about 15 bushes and were soon engulfed in the fruit.  Each bush must have produced 300 ground cherries!  The fruit is in the tomatillo family and produces it fruit in a husk.  When they fall from the bush they are ready to harvest.  The flavor is like pineapples when fresh, and more apricot when made into jam.  The other thing about this fruit is how long it lasts off the bush.  From everything I've read, they can last
weeks on the ground.  I know they were good in the fridge for at least a week or longer.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Springs coming!

It's 60 degrees outside, I just placed my seed orders and figured I might as well update my poor, long neglected blog. My efforts last season were less then spectacular. Due to major renovations to our homestead, we let the garden slip into a poor state. This season will be different.

Some of the projects completed last year included; fencing in the our
newest, garden area,










adding a new grape trellis section on the east side of the house,










and enough rain collectors to gather and store 430 gallons of rain water.











I also sold my dependable Troybilt tiller and will be ordering a broadfork from Gulland Forge. The decision to move to a broadfrok vs. the tiller was surprisingly easy for me. After doing some research into older farming methods and coming to understand what damage a tiller can do to the soil, especially to the beneficial micro-organisms that live in it, it was a no-brainer.

We are definitely scaling back the large projects this season to focus on the garden and yields. Our pantry was slim this year because of our drop in production.