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Greetings from the Garden! This week's CSA box has greens and more greens - lettuce, spinach, beet thins, braising greens like brassica tops and mustard, sorrel, claytonia, herbs - either cilantro or dill, chives, salad turnips, parsnips and potatoes.
Field Notes. The forecast for Monday (tonight) is 32 degrees. Even though we see people anxious to set out tender and heat loving plants, we vividly remember eighteen degrees on May 18th - twice. There are several crops in the ground - Ken got the onions planted, but tender crops are under plastic in warmed soil.
Piglets arrived last Friday. They are an integral part of our growing produce. They dig out spots each year and they eat garden items people don't eat - broccoli plants, for example.
Ken has been planting - the onions was a big job. Here they are after the first cultivation. This is the most onions he remembers planting. He has also been experimenting with early potatoes.
In addition to the regular spring push, Ken added a new project - mushrooms! He has oak logs, and he took a few workshops, and now he has a spot in the woods with water. It could be pretty exciting!
From the Kitchen. With this cold weather we have gone back to lighting the cook stove in the morning. And I have been serving either meat and eggs or soups with eggs poached in them and added to a bowl of chopped greens for a warming soup.
And I have been doing more cooked greens - I like to dip spinach in boiling water, remove and top with either cream or an Asian dressing of sesame and toasted sesame oil, a mild vinegar, a little sweet like honey and either tamari or miso topped with toasted sesame seeds.
And I have been braising greens with sliced ginger root as ginger is warming. I add the above Asian dressing or a light vinegar and oil.
'Til Next Week, Judith
Sometimes things just come together. For years Ken has thought about growing mushrooms. He has taken classes, talked to people and gathered information.
As our woods grow up around us there are some mature oaks shading our growing areas - garden, orchard, field by mobile high tunnel. As Ken needs to cut trees he is saving the size wood that is best for growing mushrooms. He hosted a crew who wanted to learn, and then he and I inoculated some logs. Now he is going to try a couple more types of mushrooms.
It will be interesting to see how they grow!
When I first met Ken one of the things he mentioned that I found odd was that each fall he felt a gladness when the trees lost their leaves and the woods opened up for a longer view. And each spring he felt a bit of sadness when the trees leafed out and the woods closed up in their green.
And now I feel it, too. Each spring the trees leaf out, and although I love the curtain of green, I do miss the openness of fall and winter
Ken plants many green manures. These are crops that add organic matter to the soil, some add nitrogen, some have roots that break up hard soil. Out in the field he has peas and oats planted where he will plant crops in a few weeks. These peas add nitrogen.
And by the mobile high tunnel he also has oats and peas. The roots will remain in the soil and add organic matter.
He will probably pasture the hens here later and they will eat the oats and peas.
We live in the woods. And as we walk through the woods to garden, mailbox or field we see the seasons unfolding. the wild flowers continue to bloom and plants grow. Some I recognize and know the names like trillium
and geranium
and yellow violets.
and ferns
Then there are some I see every year but I do not know their names - this one
and these spiky flowers
and these lovely pendulous flowers
I feel odd as I walk listening and looking and enjoying. But often I cannot tell people names of the birds singing or plants.
Each year for nearly two decades we have raised pigs. We get small, weaned piglets from a local man, and raise them on sprouted, organic feed and vegetable culls like the broccoli plants people do not eat, but pigs enjoy.
Ken also grazes them sequentially. He decides on places and areas he wants tilled as pigs love to dig and eat weeds and their roots. We do a three year rotation so they have new ground to dig - some years they expand the garden or clear a fence line. Ken makes sure they have some shade - they love the woods.
We only get as many piglets as we have orders. People order a half or whole pork and have it cut and packed as they want it.
I just heard an interview on Splendid Table on Public Radio. The interviewee had written a book - Pig Tales. He had done research and reported that 97% of the pigs in this country never get to see the light of day. I have ordered the book through our inter library loan system.
These pigs are part of the team here on the farm. They dig and cycle garden culls. They add to the farm's fertility. They are content here and we feel gratitude for all they do.
Ken has many house plants. They clean the air. they bring green in with us all winter.
Each spring he moves them out until fall. they do well outside and our windows open up.
