Happy Birthday, Farm Dog!

Anybody who doesn't love scrambled eggs, cheese, and bacon for their birthday breakfast probably can't be friends with the newly4 year old Farm Dog.

Happy Frost 2008

Happy Frost Day, fellow farmers and friends of farmers! Luckily, this farmer pulled all the tomato plants this weekend, which may be the first time in which me being a step ahead of Mother Nature worked in my favor. Pictures of the Last Harvest soon...

In the meantime, you'll probably enjoy this. And if you don't, I have no idea how you survived reading this blog so long.

Farmer Almost Froze Her Fingers Off

Had to pick some tomatoes today. WOW was it cold on the Farm after rain all day! Here's a look. Something about yellow tree leaves falling on the rows and tomato plants just doesn't sit right...


I'll be harvesting all those green tomatoes this weekend and pulling the tomato plants. Winter is on its way to Minnesota, and the squirrels are eating anything they can get their grubby paws on in an attempt to look like they've swallowed a baseball. With a little help from my tomatoes, it's working...

Farming Should Probably Stay on the Farm

FYI: farming exuberance does not fit during dramatic play in a preschool classroom.

4-year old kid: "come on horsey"
me: "am i the horse?"
kid: "yep. i have to put this rope on your arm."
me: "um, why?"
kid: "because i need to take you to the farm"
me (excitedly): "the farm?!"
kid: "yeah. because the farmer grew some food for you to eat."
me: "oh great. i do feel like a very hungry horse."
kid: "yeah, you are. eat the farmer's food 'cause we have to take a long trip."
me (while presented with a basket of fake food including zucchini and cukes): "yum! i grew these in my garden this summer!"
kid (with a really confused look): "what?"
me: "oh, horses don't grow vegetables, do they?"
kid: "no. we're playing horse. got it?"
me: "yep. got it. neighhhhh"

Fall Days, Sunshine

Rosa: "Hey--watch this."

I'm just going to walk up, quietly...

Give her a little smooch...

...and then pounce!

...and pounce!

and get in her face. :)

Oh yeah. The tomatoes just barely survived the threat of frost (note the low...).

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 63F
Yesterday's low: 32F
Warnings: This is looking like the last week for growing...
Mood of the farm: Frigid.
Reason to consider a new career: farmer has to have something to do in the winter besides wait for spring...

Fall Has Arrived

Man down! The sunflower was sawed off at the base, just when all the little nubs were about to bloom.

[H suspects squirrel involvement]

Well it's fall around here. The squirrels are starting to get pudgy (which Maisy translates as "more delicious"), the leaves are turning, and this Farmer wakes up freezing and wondering about frost. Sadly, I'm only wondering, not Worrying and Scurrying to the Farm to check on the state of things. Whether that's because fall has a different pace or because I'm swamped with work, I couldn't say. But I only go to the Farm at most once a day now, and even then only for a few minutes; I've even been known to skip a day. Shocking, I know.

In the meantime, look at this delicious thing I made. It turns out that since the farm is still producing tomatoes to harvest, a person needs to find fall-ish things to make with them. Farm box onions and garlic, sauteed with the tomatoes and gift-mushrooms from H&N turned out to be just the thing. AND! At the very end, I added a bit of the basil-and-olive-oil paste I made and froze a few weeks ago to see how I might be able to use it. Delicious! (Sorry about the messy bowl--I didn't know it was going to be so delicious I'd have to photograph it immediately)

Science in Action

I spent a lot of time on this blog chronicling the perils of growing tomatoes in pots. Like when I was sure they had wilt, even though I knew I planted a wilt-resistant variety. Or when I was sure the curled leaves were evidence of early life stress, even though I babied those seeds . And while I've known that other people successfully grow tomatoes in pots, I've generally preferred to chalk it up to "Mother Nature Does It Better."

Well those crappy tomato plants finally stopped making small, crappy tasting tomatoes, and I dumped them rather happily. There's nothing like having pots at the entrance to the Farm mocking your budding Farming Skillz. Well imagine my surprise when I found the following inside the pots:


The red and yellow circles are the two tomatoes plants, and for context, let me tell you it had rained for three days straight.
Curious scientific observation #1: The soil was bone dry.
Curious scientific observation #2: The pots were basically solid roots at the bottom, which suggests that Observation #1 was not a fluke.

The blue circle shows the soil from the cilantro/coriander pot, which has been sitting empty since I cut the plant for the coriander drying project.
Curious scientific observation #3: That soils was DRIPPING wet. As in, water poured out with soil, even though the bottom of the pot of course had holes.
Curious scientific observation #4: The soil was way darker and more dense in this pot than the other two.

Taking these Curious Scientific Observations and using my powers of deduction and formal operations, I have drawn the following Scientific Conclusions:
Scientific Conclusion #1: Soils are different, and when you accidentally buy top soil instead of potting soil you should get your rear back in the car and return it. Should you think to yourself, "well, I'll just pot the seedlings in the top soil and fix it when I transplant rather than get the car dirty again," then you better REMEMBER that detail before planting cilantro in it.

Scientific Conclusion #2: Potting soil dries out REALLY quickly, especially when the pot is FULL of roots. I can only conclude that starting about a month after those tomato plants moved to the Farm, I was already under-watering them. Amazingly, that was about the time I started Worrying about wilt and other tomato diseases...

Scientific Conclusion #2a: Watering requirements are different for farms vs. pots with potting soil vs. pots with top soil (Don't Do It!). It's almost like you have to find the right match between the plants, their soil, the growing context, the weather, and the amount of water you add. Whoever heard of such a thing?!

Scientific Conclusion #3: I gave growing things in pots short shrift. LUCKILY, Guatemala K (who has been back in the frozen tundra for a while now, but will forever be known on the blog as Guatemala K) gave me the coolest present ever last week! It's a tomato growing kit! In a bag!


This winter, I'm going to try to tip science on its head by: a) growing tomatoes b) in a bag c) in my apartment d) in the winter. Guess that means the blog will not completely hibernate this winter! Intrigued? Go here to get one for yourself and we can have a winter farming version of a book club--you know, all try to grow them and compare results! I already know Dr. Corncobb and her green thumb want to participate. ;)

(Actually, that just links to the Amazon site--you can google it to buy it from a smaller, more independent kind of place. Or if you live in the Twin Cities, get it at Twin Cities Green.)

Farm Vitals
Yesterday's high: 82F
Yesterday's low: 52F
Warnings: Real rain arriving soon.
Mood of the farm: Hopefully primping itself for the arrival of the Farmer's mother this weekend. The Farm is not exempt from the pre-parental cleaning spree.
Reason to consider a new career: Still happy with real career.