Updates from (and about) the Farm

Well folks, there's been some news. Aside from the fact that the farm is growing (like) weeds faster than anyone can imagine, it turns out the Farm is actually for sale. More specifically, the consumers' house is for sale, and along with it, the farmland. The blog may focus more on my plans to release small rodents into the consumers' house and undo the work of Jim the Critter-Gitter, just at the moment they try to show the house... Okay, seriously. I'll still update the blog until the farm is sold, and I'm still going to do some planting. But the big stuff (tomatoes especially) will find other homes. As you can imagine, I have many Feelings about this situation, but mostly I'm excited for the consumers to get central heat so I can visit them in the winter.

And without further ado, because I have got to get some work done today, here's a whole host of updated photos, including (!!) the salad stuff for my dinner tonight. Last year at this time, we hadn't even had the idea for the Farm yet, and this year dinner is already grown. Amazing.

Peas

Dinner

Broccoli

Chard

The Oak Leaf Head Lettuce, and a few carrots I thought hadn't germinated. Really? I couldn't get those things to grow last year no matter what I tried, and now, NOW, they want to grow in the lettuce. Nice.

Spinach

Strawberry with first blush

More berries

Green beans in one row and a row of surprise seeds for H.


And now for the awesome green onion flowers...

A Gourmet Farm

So, you know those "wild garlic onions" I've mentioned here and there... Yeah. At the shwank Mill City farmers' market yesterday, someone was selling them (for a hefty price, I might add). Turns out, they're ramps. One of the first harvest-able things on any farm (or forest). A really fancy food. Used as a key ingredient in more than one episode of Top Chef. The object of desire for chefs that write for Gourmet magazine. Yep, those ramps. Luckily, I found out just in time for a harvest. Cooking them tonight with the freshly picked Minnesota asparagus available at the St. Paul farmers' market from today (yes, I go to multiple farmers' markets...).

And so as not to be misleading... Here are pictures from the first official spring harvest: a green onion. First, still a little dirty, with the farm dog moving at what appears to be her Standard Spring Speed.

Second, all cleaned up, with the farm dog in a rare pause...

Green Thumb Sunday: Farming is a Tough Business Edition

Green Thumb Sunday: Farming is a Tough Business Edition

As you regular readers of the blog know well by now, Farming involves a regular helping of Tough Decisions. Specifically, Tough Decisions that have to be made with few concrete facts on which to base them, which, in the grand scheme of things, is probably why they're called tough decisions in the first place. In any event, today this farmer had to be The Decider about a number of things, which are illustrated here since it is, after all, a Green Thumb Sunday.

1.) The tomatoes.
As you may have noticed by the tree leaves starting to turn, fall is rapidly approaching. Unfortunately, many of the tomatoes are green green green, thanks especially to cool nights that have slowed the ripening process to a crawl. The days have been hot lately, which is what made this decision so tough, but an honest, unemotional look at the calendar (late September already?!), made this decision the easiest one to make. All of the new flowers and branches about to grow new flowers (that I could find in that jumble of tomato plants) had to be unceremoniously chopped off so that the plants' resources could be directed to ripening all those green tomatoes. Behold what would have been enough cherry tomatoes to last H for a whole summer, if only they would have had time to ripen:


2.) The watermelons.
Those miniMelons have been a Trial since the beginning, and just the other day, the birds started pecking them to death. I covered them with plastic pots, which for the record looked ridiculous, and they've been growing like that for a while. But today, I gave them a thump, which to my best guess seemed to sound hollow-ish, so I picked them. I have no idea if they're ripe or not, but I'm sure H & N will report on the quality. Here they are with some of the tomatoes that managed to get ripe.

So with the zucchini plant completely succumbing to the squash vine borers (with 4 miniZucchini growing on it still!), and now the watermelon plants gone, the only thing left on the Farm are the tomato plants. I think that means MiniChuck's Eye View will be going on hiatus until the next time I have a Farm...

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Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 77F
Yesterday's low: 55F
Warnings: Farmer on the Farm with Pruning Shears Alert
Mood of the farm: Fearful of pruning shears
Reason to consider a new career: I probably had more distress about that tomato pruning than any real Farmer should...

Hello There, Strangers!

Hi, folks. Seems like it has been 6.4 years since I last updated you on the progress of the Farm. Many important Milestones have occurred since then in my other life as a grad student, but if you know me in person, I've already bored you with all the details. And if you don't know me in real life, now would be a good time to be glad about that.

But! Even while I've been busy with school, many many things have happened on the farm. I think we'll need a list here, there are so many...
1.) The only things still growing on the farm are tomatoes, watermelon, and a few mini zucchinis on one sad, sorry plant. That's it, folks!
2.) I harvested the bounty (or what I thought would be the bounty) of the carrots. The big plan, as I think I mentioned before, was to freeze the carrots so that I could enjoy the exciting flavors of the farm in the winter, instead of boring old grocery store carrots. Well look what the whole, entire harvest entailed:

Here, dirty, with the basil (see #3)

Here, cleaned up, but not any more bounty.

Sad. Very very sad. And an amazing waste of farm space, it turns out. Luckily, I had a million farm box carrots, and I grabbed a bunch for $1 at the farmers' market. Also luckily, during the wash/peel/cut/blanche marathon Farmer Sis entertained me with stories of school and her farm (pictures may be coming soon!) so the time flew by. Anyway, the carrots are in the freezer and ready for a taste of summer in the middle of the winter. But lesson learned: next time I have a farm, I will not be planting carrots!

3.) As you can see in the picture above, I also harvested two of our five basil plants. Those got processed with some olive oil (and an extra bunch of farmers' market basil) and then put in a ziploc bag for freezing. I usually use ice cube trays to freeze that stuff in small portions, but Farmer Sand suggested that if you spread it as thin as possible in a freezer bag, you can just break off pieces when you're ready. Genius. Thanks!

4.) All the beans have been pulled, I've finally given up hope on the "fall lettuce," and two, count them two, of the nine tomato plants have moved on to greener pastures. Look for a post soon about the science-in-action learning project that resulted from those plants...

5.) Here's what the harvests look like these days. The yellow tomatoes are a bit cracked from our drought and my attempts at compensating with the hose. But they still taste pretty good; that's the good news.



Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 61F
Yesterday's low: 51F
Warnings: weather.com is misleading. I could see my breath this morning. Also, there's a heat wave coming.
Mood of the farm: It better have something to do with ripening as fast as possible during the heat wave this week.
Reason to consider a new career: Still happy with what I have going on over here...

Long Awaited Day

Folks. Before I get on with the bragging and self-congratulatory business, I'll start with the normal business. Have a look at what I dropped off (sort of dirt-covered) for H & N today. Not a bad haul, I think.

Okay, now on to the prize.
FINALLY. Really, I thought it might never happen, but it did. The first lemon boy is officially ripe, and ready for eating. Here it is showing its muscles on the farm:


And here it is taking advantage of the natural light in the living room. I think it looks just as lovely indoors as out, I'm not going to lie. And versatility is a good thing in a model--have you seen what they make those contestants do on America's Next Top Model? You really have to be versatile to model wearing raw meat.


All in all, I'd say the Lemon Boy has a lot of modeling potential. Flavor potential will be discussed when I return from another wedding.

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 85F
Yesterday's low: 67F
Warnings: Thunderstorm warning while I'm gone tomorrow. Hopefully the farm won't be too scared without me.
Mood of the farm: Hoping to get some attention now that the yellow tomato is gone.
Reason to consider a new career: I'm kind of liking my current career at the moment, to tell you the truth.

Tomatoes!

I'm not the only one excited about the tomatoes on the farm. N and I tried a couple of red ones. They were full of flavor, but not quite as sweet as they should have been. I think a couple more days on the vine would have helped. We're circling in on how to do things on the farm, slowly but surely.


























The Farm is fending for itself for a few days while I'm in CA. And believe it or not, I'm not even taking my computer with me. Copious updates, of course, when I get back. Hopefully involving news of bright yellow tomatoes!

Yellow Striped Cucumber Beetles Relive the 70s

Well, yesterday I was on the farm to check on the yellow striped cucumber beetles. I haven't really worried about them much because we're certainly not short on cucumbers or zucchini (since N is the only one that eats a lot of zucchini, and she can't keep up with what we're growing as it is). But I was curious. The collective wisdom of the internets say it's time to do something about these guys once you get five on a single plant. So imagine my surprise when I look into the following flower. What's that you say? There's only five in there? Nope. Look closer. Those are all *ahem* pairs of yellow striped cucumber beetles, apparently making more friends to hang out with. Great. Maybe it's good that the first average frost around here is September 15th...



















In entertaining news, here's a little trick of nature that resulted from all the feeding the cucumber beetles have done on the zucchini leaves. A flower grew right through one of the holes!


















And finally, the carrots are basically spaced out, and as you can see from the ones that I thinned, growing if not with gusto, then at least slowly but surely.

























Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon for a very first and extremely anticipated harvest! And of course, MiniChuck's Eye View of the Farm in the morning.


Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 83F
Yesterday's low: 68F
Warnings: Excited farmer coming to the farmer tomorrow!
Mood of the farm: Working up its patience for the farmer's undoubted exuberance tomorrow.
Reason to consider a new career: all this exuberance...

Anticstravaganza

Folks. There were antics on the farm last night. In a matter of roughly 20 minutes, the following things happened:

1) Maisy tried to run away, and not only that, but entice Rosa to come along with her.
2) Maisy and Rosa sniffed out a seriously dead rodent and had their faces covered in rotting animal smell. I'm not going to lie. Maisy led this charge as well.
3) The "naughty dogs" from down the street, so named because they claw at the windows in an attempt to bust out of their house whenever anyone walks by, escaped from their yard and appeared at the back of the farm, strongly considering catapulting over the fence.
4) I went to get the naughty dogs to take them back home.
5) In response, Maisy impersonated SuperDog and flew through the air OVER THE FARM FENCE with such force that she popped the safety latch of her gentle leader.
6) Then, she ran through the zucchini, through the lettuce, through the carrots, and through the watermelon to give the naughty dogs a piece of her mind regarding their presence on her farm.
7) Finally, I had to drag Maisy back through the entire farm, launch her over the fence, reattach her to her tie out, and make it clear that she would be finding herself in time out for the rest of life.

All in 20 minutes, folks. Why am I telling you this, oh lovers of Farming and not necessarily of dogs? Well I'll tell you. All the Romaine had to be pulled because it was torn (luckily much of it was still edible), one of the zucchini plants may be gone for good, and the watermelon plants were kind of torn up. All in all, not too much was lost, but some harvesting was done unexpectedly last night... You won't believe what the farm looks like when you see it next MiniChuck Eye View Wednesday.

And a few things were harvested today, mostly for Suburban Gardener, who won the volunteer contest. Note: it's a tiny carrot because I was thinning them, and the cukes clearly need to be fertilized...


Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 87F
Yesterday's low: 65F
Warnings: Apparently Flying Dog Alerts need to be issued
Mood of the farm: In need of first aid
Reason to consider a new career: Did you read those antics? No answer necessary here...

It Ain't Heavy, Ma. It's My Neighbor

Prosocial acts on the farm: Wando peas trellis themselves

And by the farmer... Farmer Gower farm box delivery for H & N (plus some beans and peas I didn't take pictures of). Everyone eats cukes this week!

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 81F
Yesterday's low: 62F
Warnings: There might be a slight threat of hail on the way...
Mood of the farm: I'm sorry to report a bout of stubbornness on the part of the tomatoes. As in, stubbornly growing many tiny tomatoes that aren't getting very big (though they are many)...
Reason to consider a new career: Powerless in the face of tomato defiance

Somehow I Thought Peas Only Grew Frozen or Canned

I've been avoiding the urge to post pictures of every last harvest because really, who wants to see a million colanders of lettuce? But since this is a Harvest involving the very first cuke and the very first Wando peas, I couldn't hold back. Farmer confession: not only have I never grown my own peas, I have never ever eaten a fresh, never-frozen pea in my Whole Entire Life.

I've read a lot about growing Wando peas the last few weeks, and I can tell you one thing. The fact that I even have a few to eat is one gigantic miracle. Peas like to be planted when it's cold, they can withstand frost (not only threat of but actual), and their growth slows to a crawl in the July heat. So here we are on July 21st, a full two weeks before these peas are even supposed to be ready, temps in the 80s and occasional 90s, and lo and behold, the peas are delicious, if few in number!





Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 85F
Yesterday's low: 63F
Warnings: Hungry Farmer On the Loose (no really, that's an official weather system warning)
Mood of the farm: growing, quickly and surely
Reason to consider a new career: None, at the moment. Suburban Gardener dropped by the Farm this weekend, and she has pronounced it Officially Not Wrecked. At least for now.

More Harvesting

Hey look. Chef H, assisted by Chef N, used farm lettuce (a whole ton of it) for taco salad dinner. Note: picture taken on new phone.



Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 89F
Yesterday's low: 68F
Warnings: Cucumber beetle attacks in progress
Mood of the farm: happy for rain
Recent Question: Suburban Gardner asks: "What's the 'farm box?'" Well, the farm box is my term for the community supported agriculture (CSA) share Dr. J and I share from Rock Spring Farm (see link on right). It's a weekly delivery of veggies and herbs from their organic farm.

Harvest Day 7/16

After a full morning of farm work, today was a Harvest Day. There were so many green beans the plants were starting to fall over. Between the Farm Harvest and the Farm box, my whole dinner was covered!




On the menu: salad greens (my farm) and spinach (my farm) with lemon-olive oil-garlic dressing, sun gold tomatoes (farm box), shaved raw beets (farm box), green beans (my farm), cucumbers (farm box), and baby shallots (farm box).

I'll get y'all an update of the Farm soon (some of the tomatoes are up to my shoulder!?).

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 92F
Yesterday's low: 69F
Warnings: thunderstorms. maybe.
Mood of the farm: trying to perk up

Full Circle

I think it's only fitting that on the day my grandfather, the person who taught me everything I know about farming, died, a storm of serious proportions hit the farm. And after carefully following his many directions over the last two months that resulted from phone calls that usually went something like this: "Papa, I'm going to have a farm! What do I do?" or "So Papa, I heard people sometimes make rows on their farms. What's the deal with that?" the farm survived last night's storm like a champ. Which seems ironic, but fitting all at the same time.

Just like a real farmer, the man really knew how to rock a straw hat after a hard day of fishing for sunnies with dough.














And he had a great little hop at the end of his bowling stride. Strike every time, practically.



















So in his honor, I give you a few bits of good news from the farm, because that's the kind of thing he would appreciate.

The first Wando pea pod:























One of the mini Romaine heads:


















The Great State of the Green Beans:























The first delicious green bean:


















And a MiniCuke after a hard rain for good measure:


















Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 81F
Yesterday's low: 61F
Warnings: Severe storm alert
Mood of the farm: Appreciating its good start in life