Beginning the fall cleanup

Since it was so gorgeous out last weekend, Mike was inspired to begin the fall garden cleanup, and I was inspired to pick lima beans.  While Mike pulled out the cucumber, green bean, zucchini, summer squash, snap pea, and cabbage plants, I harvested the lima beans.  One of us is clearly a more industrious farmer than the other - I'm lucky I have a productive teammate.

Below is the lima bean/asparagus bed pre-harvest.  As I started picking lima beans, I realized that the majority of the pods were at the base of the plants, and that the lima beans were really crowding the poor asparagus.  I also realized that the odds that I was going to go back for a second lima bean harvest this late in the season were not good, so I decided to pull out the lima bean plants and harvest the pods that way.  It was much easier to harvest the lima beans, and I think it made the asparagus happy.  As I was yanking, I promised the asparagus that I wouldn't plant anything else in their bed next year, and I apologized for doubting their growth potential.  We got a pretty good yield of lima beans, and I think the asparagus is much happier now that it has breathing room.



Asparagus and lima beans pre-harvest

Asparagus after the lima bean harvest

Lima bean harvest

Shelled lima beans!

We had a spaghetti squash from our neighborhood squash lady that we needed to use, so we came up with a fantastic dinner.  We roasted the spaghetti squash, and cooked up some angel hair pasta and lima beans.  Then we made a white sauce and tossed everything together, finishing the dish with some crumbled soy bacon.  It was creamy and delicious, and we were very proud of ourselves for coming up with the recipe.

My parents were over, and so I took the opportunity to unload as much produce as I could on them.  Our tomatoes are still going strong, as are the eggplants, chard, leeks and bell peppers.

Tomatoes

Gourds, chard and tomatoes

Hansel eggplants

Mom's haul of bell peppers, eggplant, chard, summer squash, and lima beans

The red peppers look great - I guess when you ignore your pepper plants, that really allows them to fully ripen into their colored glory.  Our orange and yellow pepper plants were duds, but the greens, purples, and reds have produced very well.  The hansel eggplant has been by far the most productive eggplant variety.  I must have sent my mom home with about ten small eggplants, which are the perfect size for roasting.

We've harvested almost all of the squash, and now it's out curing in the barn.  Because our squash yield was so much lower than what I'd hoped for, and because I think I'm addicted to squash, we've supplemented our crop heavily with squash from the squash lady down the street.  She grew a huge range of varieties, so in addition to my own squash I have quite a few of her more rare types to try out, including a marina di chioggia, which is supposed to be great in ravioli and gnocchi, and two Australian blue squashes.  Yum!

My candy roasters and rouge vif d'etampes squash

Giant pumpkin!

We haven't picked the giant pumpkin yet, and I think we'll be leaving it on the vine for at least another week given the mild weather forecast.  My guess is that it's around 95 pounds, Mike thinks it's closer to 150.  I'm not sure how we'll weigh it (or move it) yet, but I will somehow have a final giant pumpkin update in a few weeks.  It's starting to turn a deeper orange - I'm not sure if that means that it's not going to get bigger or what.  We went to the Cumberland Fair last weekend and ogled the truly giant pumpkins, and I was inspired to be a more diligent giant pumpkin grower next year.  Some of the pumpkins were over 1,000 pounds, and two had really nice shapes.  Of course, if we did have a 1,000 pound pumpkin, then Mike would argue that we needed a tractor, so maybe I don't want to go down that road yet.

Still no eggs, but Mike has started giving motivational speeches to the girls.  Some of you have told me your guesses for the first egg day, but I have to confess that if you didn't post a comment, I don't remember what your day was (that includes my own guess).  So, if you want in on the egg laying contest, leave a comment here with your guess on the first day, or send me an email and I'll put a comment in for you.  The guesses that we have so far are:

Mamie:  September 15
Mike:  September 28

Clearly, Mike and Mamie have lost, so the field is wide open.  I'm calling October 15, although I'm also hoping that I'm wrong because I'd like them to lay sooner than that.

How to make happy chickens

I'm still feeling guilty about the chicken slaying of last Friday, so Mike and I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon making amends to the girls.  It was such a gorgeous day that Mike decided to start tackling our fall garden cleanup, and he cleaned out the snowpea, zucchini/green bean, lettuce, cucumber, and summer beet beds.  All of the weeds and plants went into the wheelbarrow, and then were promptly dumped in the chicken yard.  He also gave the girls several baby giant pumpkins that have no shot at maturing before the first frost, so it was a chicken feast out there today.  To make it even better, earlier this morning Taperman gave the girls a bunch of grass clippings and rotten apples - for a chicken, I don't think life could get any better.

Soon, I hope we'll be seeing the first egg!  The girls are looking more mature every day, so my fingers are crossed that we'll have an egg in the next 2-3 weeks.

Alice leading the charge to pile 1

Alice in action

Aracauna

Barred rock is the queen of the pile

Chickens in heaven

Taperman and one of his girls

PTSD chicken (the girl that I rescued last week) exploring beet greens

Rhode Island red

As the farming season winds down

First, I have now forgiven bad dogs Bullet and Lily.  We found all of the missing chickens hiding under the coop, and Mike has put up electric netting around the sides of the coop.  Bullet and Lily have both been zapped, and are now steering clear of the coop.  I did have to scoop a barred rock out of the giant pumpkin plant earlier today as she had flown out of the yard, so we still have to deal with the issue of chicken stupidity.  Maybe adding some type of roof to the yard?  I'm not sure.  Bad dogs, predators, and stupid chickens are not a good combination.

Repentant bad dogs

Anyway, before the chicken incident I was set to provide an update on how the farm is doing now that we're nearing the end of the season.  We went to a wedding last weekend out of town, and my parents had dog sitting duty.  Before handing the dogs over, I did a big garden harvest to pawn off as many veggies as possible on my mother.  The chard is still going strong - I am definitely going to continue to grow chard over spinach in the future - the fact that it is still so abundant and hasn't bolted is a huge plus.  Next year I may grow less, but still, chard was a good choice.

Our tomatoes are still producing heavily, too.  It's been fun this year to grow the heirloom mix, but I think next year I'll be a bit more picky about the types of tomatoes that I plant.  I'd like more sauce-type tomatoes, and maybe fewer confusing novelty tomatoes (I just never know when to pick the green striped heirlooms that don't ever change color).

Our eggplants have been a nice surprise.  Most of my gardening books talk about how difficult it is to grow eggplant in northern climates, but my eggplants have been pretty productive and low-maintenance.  I haven't had a tremendous harvest of eggplants, but more than I can use myself.  Growing so many different types was fun, and I love the mix of purples, whites and greens in my eggplants.  For this picking, I had a white eggplant and a dark purple eggplant, both of which went to my mom.

I haven't talked much about leeks since my post admitting my errors in planting them, but I'm happy to say that they've grown up well.  The white parts are still a bit short, so next year I'll have to plant them deeper.  I have to say that I don't really notice much of a flavor difference between leeks and onions, but I think the leeks are pretty so I think I'll grow them again next year.  They were also easier to grow than the onions, which are supposed to be incredibly easy, yet mine mostly just died.

We're getting a nice crop of fall carrots, and the last group that I picked was just gorgeous.  The deep purple carrots are beautiful, and I'm very impressed that most of my carrots ended up growing so straight given the number of clumps of sod in my beds.  These were hardworking carrots, for sure.  The stubby carrots in the bottom photo are supposed to look like that, they're an heirloom variety.  I have to admit that my carrots don't really seem to taste any better than regular carrots, but at least they're prettier.

Chard

Harvest for mom

Lovely carrots

My mom used the veggies to make a hearty soup, so I was glad that they were enjoyed.  I am still completely overwhelmed by the bounty that the garden has yielded, and so I haven't been using the vegetables nearly as much as I'd hoped that I would. 

The giant pumpkin continues to get bigger and bigger, although it hasn't turned color to a deeper orange yet.  I hope this means that it's going to continue to grow, but for all I know, it's just going to be a pale pumpkin.  I really ought to have included something in the below picture for scale - so you can get a better idea of the size, the giant pumpkin is about as long as Lily - so, big.  I'm not sure how we're going to move and weigh it yet, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

We've had our first light frost, and several of the plants in the garden, most notably the cucumbers, have folded.  Mike and I harvested most of the remaining squash a few days ago just in case, and we now have the squashes curing in the barn.  The Rouge Vif D'Etampes pumpkins are really lovely.  The last two that we picked aren't as deeply red as the first, but they are nearly perfectly shaped, and I'm quite proud.  My two dinky spaghetti squashes never got much bigger, but we had a good harvest of sweet dumplings, and two very big candy roaster squashes.  My white pumpkin is still on the vine, as I'm hoping it will get a bit bigger and whiter in the next week.  We've left the giant pumpkin on the vine too, to see if it will grow more, and we watch the forecast each night.  I'm not sure when the first real hard frost will come, but based on the chill in the air, it feels like it will be soon.

The girls haven't laid their first egg yet and cobwebs are gathering in the nest boxes.  They are now thoroughly accustomed to me bringing them treats, and they all storm the gate of the fence when I walk up to the yard.  If I show up empty handed, I have a lot of angry chickens to confront.  Below, they attack an overripe tomato.  In the last week, they've expanded their pallets to include mashed potatoes and hummus, both of which are quite funny to watch them eat. 

We've also identified the mystery squash growing out of the compost. It's actually an extremely productive gourd plant!  Our neighbor grew gourds in our back yard last year, so some of the old gourds must have ended up on the compost pile.  They're very pretty, and the plant has produced a ton of them, so we'll have some nice seasonal decorations.  Even though I was hoping that the plant would be another winter squash, I'll happily take bonus gourds.

Gourd 9-16-2011

Farming isn't all sunshine and produce

I had a nice upbeat blog post planned for today, with some nice pictures and updates.  This morning, though, we experienced a farm tragedy.  Bullet and Lily got into the chicken yard, and killed at least one of the girls - one of the lovely barred rocks.  Three more girls are MIA, and I was able to save one.  I know that Bullet and Lily are (young) dogs, and they were only acting like dogs do, but I'm a heartbroken chicken mom right now. 

We'll be beefing up security on the chicken yard this week, since if our sometimes simple minded dogs can get in, the girls are vulnerable to other predators.  We're going to start by adding electric chicken netting to the outside of the fence, and try to think of anything else we can do.  Poor girls.

First squash harvest

We woke up this morning to a gorgeous early fall day.  The air is crisp, but it's still fine to be outside without a jacket.  We took Bullet and Lily to their favorite nearby trails, and then got down to farming.  Last week when we were at a farmer's market, and several of the vendors had winter squash.  Until then, I don't think I had quite realized how late we are into the farming season.  We walked through the squash field today, and sure enough, we had quite a few squash ready for harvest!  Before we started picking, I took several photos of the different squash.  Most aren't ready yet, but in a few weeks, we should have a nice crop.

Candy Roaster Squash 9-10-2011 (Remember my confusion recently about the possible white pumpkin?  That was a candy roaster.  Mystery solved)

Immature Rouge Vif D'Etampes 9-10-2011

Actual white pumpkin 9-10-2011

Mature Rouge Vif D'Etampes 9-10-2011

Spaghetti squash 9-10-2011

Sweet dumpling 9-10-2011

Bullet 9-10-2011

Lily 9-10-2011, eating a pine branch.  It appeared to be quite pitchy.

Most of the sweet dumpling squash looked mature, and one of the sweet dumpling plants was looking a little sad, so we decided to harvest quite a few of them.  Bullet and Lily supervised, and narrowly avoided trampling the squash plants.  Farming with dogs is an adventure.

We also picked the mature Rouge V'if D'Etampes pumpkin, which is just gorgeous.  The squashes are now laid out on a table in the barn to cure.  Staci and Pam were very suspicious of the entire process.  (We think Ricky Bobby has abandoned the farm).

Mike with the harvested Rouge Vif D'Etampes 9-10-2011

Pam 9-10-2011

Staci 9-10-2011

Our first squash harvest!  9-10-2011

In surveying the squash field, I've learned that squash plants, or at least my squash plants, aren't terribly prolific.  Most of the plants have only one or two fruits, which is a little disapointing for me.  We'll still have quite a bit of squash, but I was hoping for more than two spaghetti squashes.  There is a great squash farm a few miles down the road, though, so I think I'll be making a few trips over there this fall to get some of the kinds that I didn't grow enough of, or didn't grow at all.

No egg news to report yet, but the girls are looking more mature every day.  Below is Alice, the bravest and funniest of the group.  She's also by far the most developed, with a gorgeous comb, and I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up being the first layer.  This week, we discovered that the girls absolutely love avocadoes.  I had a few that were overripe, and when I tossed them into the yard, we had a chicken feeding frenzy.  They eat the flesh and peels, and look a bit ridiculous with green covering their beaks.  I have to say that one of my favorite things about the chickens is that they make me feel much better about wasting food.  Now, instead of throwing away food that we didn't get around to eating, we can toss it to the girls and make them very happy chickens. 

Alice 9-10-2011

Giant pumpkin 9-10-2011

Our biggest giant pumpkin has been growing quite a bit over the last two weeks.  Mike supported it with styrofoam a few days ago to protect it from rot.  I hope that helps - we lost two of the smaller giant pumpkins earlier this week to rot.  The chickens were thrilled about that, but I'd like to keep at least one giant pumpkin!

We are ready and waiting for eggs

This weekend, my parents came over, and helped us get a tremendous amount done around the house and on the farm.  Mike is predicting an early first egg date of sometime in the next two weeks, so he wanted to make sure that we got nest boxes installed in the coop.  On Saturday morning, he put the boxes together, and Taperman arrived just in time to help hang them.

Mike and Taperman install the nest boxes

The girls were very curious

Completed nest boxes! 

Lily was also very curious.  She loves the chickens.

 We have a total of eight nests for the twenty girls, which should be plenty.  Mike made the pitch of the top of the boxes very steep, so that the girls won't roost on top of the boxes at night (that gets very messy, very quickly).  Mike also ran electricity out to the coop from the barn, so the girls now have a light and we'll be able to hook up a water heater for the winter.  Topping off their day, we cleaned out the fridge so they got leftover melon, veggies, and various other leftovers.  It was a good weekend to be a chicken.

Our tomatoes are now ripening very quickly, so Mike decided to make a tomato sauce with the harvest that we had this week.  The tomatoes are gorgeous - I love the heirloom mix for asthetics alone, even if it is a little confusing to try to harvest the tomatoes when you aren't sure what they're supposed to look like, or what they are supposed to be used for. 

Tomato harvest 9-3-2011

Mike blanching tomatoes 9-3-2011

Mike peeling tomatoes 9-3-2011

Lily helped.  She was not in the way.

Finished sauce!

Mike made a huge pot of sauce, so we bagged it and froze it.  I haven't had a taste yet, but it looked and smelled amazing.  I still haven't learned how to can, but from the looks of our tomato plants I need to make that a priority.

Chicken socialization time 9-3-2011



Hurricane - before and after

I started this post the day before Irene, but in our hurry to make sure that tomatoes were supported, I never published!  So now, here is the original before post, with updates about where we are now.

August 27:  We're concerned about the tomatoes, I just need to put that out there.  My tomato plants have trouble standing upright in normal weather.  I think tropical storm winds and heavy rain are going to be a serious problem for my poor plants.  Mike tried to reinforce their (already reinforced) cages and stakes today.  I also went through the garden and tried to pick all of the ripe tomatoes and eggplants, and sent them home with my parents.  I'm also worried about my cucumber plant, just given how much trouble I've had getting the vines to stay on their trellis.  I told them to hang on.  Hopefully that should do it.

The garden 8-27-2011

Peppers and tomatoes 8-27-2011

We aren't supposed to get hit with the storm until late tomorrow night, so tomorrow during the day we'll probably do one last check to see if there is anything else that we can shore up.

Eggplants and tomatoes 8-27-2011



I've been lax about blogging lately, and sadly, that is reflective of the amount of time that I've been able to spend out in the garden.  Most recently, we had Lily spayed on Thursday, and I'm now spending an inordinant amount of time trying to keep her and Bullet from playing too roughly.  She seems to feel perfectly fine, and does not understand why I keep sucking the fun out of puppy playtime.

Despite the recent neglect, the giant pumpkin plant is doing very well.  The plant is enormous, and we have several fruits, one of which I think is going to be the pumpkin, because it's the biggest so far (and I still haven't read my giant pumpkin book which outlines to more scientific way to pick and develop your chosen pumpkin).

Me with the giant pumpkin plant 8-27-2011

Our biggest giant pumpkin as of 8-27-2011

We were pretty lucky with the hurricane.  We got about 2.5 inches of rain, and lots of wind - but nearly everything in the garden stayed relatively upright, and the only trees that we lost were at the back of our property, far away from the house, barn and chicken coop.  I was nervous beforehand, because we have three very dead, very large pine trees directly behind the barn and chicken coop, but we (and the girls) dodged a bullet there this time.

Brussels sprouts after the storm 8-30-2011

Mike taking care of a downed tree 8-30-2011

Tilted cosmos 8-30-2011

The chickens did not seem to be terribly bothered by the weather.  We went outside several times during the storm, and at least some of the girls were always out in their yard.  I don't think I have very smart chickens.  After the hurricane, they enjoyed some quality dirt bathing.  We have very, very happy chickens.

The giant pumpkin plant's leaves were thrown around quite a bit in the wind, but the plant itself doesn't appear to be irreparably damaged.  The squash plants in the squash field fared the best.  They are on a slope, and I think they were protected from the wind.  After all of the bugs and farmer neglect they've endured, I think they deserved a free pass during the storm.

Giant pumpkin post-Irene 8-30-2011

Girls enjoying a dirt bath 8-30-2011

White pumpkin (?) 8-30-2011.  I think it looks like a hubbard, but I didn't plant any hubbards.  I'm a little confused.