Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Do you want to grow organic vegetables and herbs, but lack the warm spacious environment of a greenhouse in which to start your seeds?  Is the basement window too small to kick start your soil temp and germinate your peppers?  Are you looking for organic transplants for your kitchen garden, but the local nursery features only hybrids, grown with chemicals?

I found a new nursery a couple of weeks ago while attending the Georgia Organics Annual Conference, held this year in lovely Douglas, GA.  Youngs Mill Farm is located in Kingston, GA, northwest of Atlanta, and they are a new operation specializing in seed-starting for organic farmers/market gardeners.  You can order seed from your desired source and have it direct-shipped to Youngs Mill.  They will start it for you and then send you the plug trays with your seeds, already grown to healthy seedlings and ready for you to set out.

They also have a few "off the shelf" varieties of heirlooms that are tried and true favorites.  Since the link I've tried to embed won't work, you can look them up on the Web at www.youngsmillfarm.com and see if their seedlings and services might work for you.

Mike and I have also ordered organic transplants from a great company in eastern Alabama called The Tasteful Garden (www.tastefulgarden.com).  Strong healthy plants ready to set outside, and the varieties they offer are some of the same ones you've read in the seed catalogs and wanted to try yourself.

Whether you are doing it all yourself this spring or in need of some help, I hope you are enjoying the arrival of spring and the anticipation of growing vegetables at home for those you love.  Don't be afraid (or too proud!) to ask for help, or look to these professionals to add variety to your garden.

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm dot com and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  Her tomato plants look good, and the lettuce and spinach are plugging right along.  Verdict is still out on the potatoes, though.

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Lots of our bloggers here at Homestead Bloggers have been writing about their garden plans and listing what varieties of seed they have on order, whether old favorites or brand new hybrids that have an irresistable catalog description.

This news article appeared over the weekend and I was encouraged by reading about the ethnic vegetables these farmers have been growing to meet the needs of their communities, while at the same time increasing their own profit margins.  The story about the switch from growing parsley to growing cilantro is pretty interesting; cilantro is so mainstream nowadays that it's hard to remember when it wasn't.  That example is a good reminder to look around for what else is coming down the pike.

On that note, I placed an order last week at Fedco Seeds for a broccoli  (my husband had read a great review on it.)  Of course, it's virtually impossible for me to order one pack of seed. I mean, I'm paying a handling fee for the small order anyway, so what's another couple of dollars to try something new, right?  You can read last week's column to see what kind of trouble that approach has gotten me into in years past!

So, not being one to learn from past mistakes, I ordered a small pack of Pingtung Long Eggplant.  Sweetness, stress tolerant, uniform slices and a cool name.  How can I lose?  I can't wait to see how they grow and yield.  I'll let you know how they turn out.

Let me know if you have ordered or already planted a new variety of an old favorite, or if  you are trying something totally new, like I'm doing with the eggplant.  If you're willing to share the details of your experiment, let us in on your plans.  We can rejoice and learn together.

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  The "eggplant experiment" will be one of several going on in her garden this spring. 

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

How many "old" seed packets have you found in the last two weeks? You organize your seed box, graph out your spring garden plan, and highlight the seed catalogs that arrive in the mail, all the while harboring guilt over those stray packets from last year (or the year before) that didn't get planted. 

I am right there with you.  In fact, I have seeds with little "2003" stickers on them.  Does that make you feel better? 

Ok, enough group therapy.  This is serious business.  I noticed today a great little piece of info that came in our first seed order delivery (kitchen dance inserted here.)  The order is from Victory Seed Company and it gives a handy list of how long seeds can be stored and still stay viable.

Short-lived seeds (1-2 years):  corn, onion, parsley, parsnip, and peppers.

Intermediate seeds (3-4 years):  asparagus, bean, broccoli, carrot, celery, leek, pea, and spinach.

Long-lived seeds (4-5 years): beet, chard, cabbage family (brussels sprouts, cauliflower), turnip, radish, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, muskmelon, pumpkin-squash group, tomato, and watermelon.

The source of this information is listed as an excerpt from OSU Document FS-220.  I think that might be mean Oregon State, as Victory Seed is located in Molalla, OR.

So I am safe with all those carrot seeds I didn't plant in August!  I can still use the beets and I might be ok with some leftover corn from last summer, too.  And the bonus is the lettuce seed from 2003......I'll let you know how they germinate!

(And for those garden papparazi out there, the shipment today was all tomatoes:  Pineapple, Yellow Plum, Green Zebra, Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Kellogg's Breakfast.)

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  She is plotting an early entry to the raised beds this spring with the help of a couple of poly tunnels.  Stay tuned.

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Do you know your gardening zone?  If you are ready and itching to get your garden started,  pull out your calendar and check out this map of the Northern Hemisphere (further down the page, our UK and Australian friends can find your maps).  All the way at the bottom is a zip code finder, narrowing your search even more exactly.

The reason you need to know your zone is so you can determine your "last frost date".  Circle that day in red Sharpie and start planning your attack!

After you have the last frost date marked, start counting backwards: two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, eight.  This information is key because you want to start your indoor seeds at just the right time so the transplants are ready to move outdoors on the last frost date. For instance, we love to grow peppers.  Sweet and hot, peppers are little gems that add a lot of satisfaction to our gardening.  I start pepper plants from seed and according to the seed chart, I need to plant those seeds eight weeks before my last frost date, which for my zone is April 21.  So I take my red Sharpie out and circle February 24 as my pepper seed starting day.

This kind of calendaring is fun to do; the anticipation of a fun planting day can tide you over on those drizzly cold winter afternoons when it seems spring will never arrive.  You know it's coming...you see the red Sharpie on the calendar! 

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Denise Burns is the wife of  Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  She's planting her first potatoes ever this week. 

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Happy New Year!  Like a lot of you, I spent part of today with a warm beverage and a highlighter looking over the multitude of seed catalogs that have arrived at our house in the last two weeks.  So much to look at and think about, and my imagination is anything but dormant during this winter season when I consider the "what if's" of garden planning for 2007.

Before I opened my catalogs, however, I read a great article in the January/February 2007 edition of Countryside Magazine entitled "The Art of Ordering Garden Seeds" by Gail Reynolds.  The article is not available yet online, but Mrs. Reynolds has some great advice for those of us who haven't been gardening for decades.  The main point is:  establish a goal for what you want to achieve with your garden.

It is very easy to get carried away when ordering seeds.  First, the packages are pretty inexpensive, compared to some impulse purchases we make.  Second, we rationalize that if we plant the extra seeds we buy, there will be a place to either sell the harvest (market stand) or give it away (family and friends) so nothing will go to waste.  But as Mrs. Reynolds points out, if your goal is to feed your own immediate family and put away the bounty by freezing and canning your produce, the extra time you spend tending to your larger garden and then selling/giving away your extra produce cuts into the time you have to can and freeze.  I know this from personal experience: last summer I was so busy harvesting, weeding, and selling our extras at the market, I had no time to put much of anything away (except for some yellow squash and several large bags of blueberries, which I am guarding judiciously and eating very slowly!)

Mrs. Reynolds covers several other drawbacks to letting your garden imagination run away with you when you are placing your seed order and the whole piece is worthy of reading in it's entirety.  She also includes a very helpful chart of common garden vegetables, the average yield she's planted and harvested over the years, and how much prepared food she's put away based on her harvest.  The chart is good information for those of us (like me) with limited preservation experience.

As for me, I'm looking at my garden goals and at how best we can go about meeting those goals before I place any orders.  But I will confess.....my fingers are pretty itchy on this keyboard!  I will promise that I'll plant some of everything I order.  That's more responsible a goal than I achieved last year! 

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  The family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  Her garden will probably be bigger than last summer's, because the call of the farmer's market is too strong to resist.

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Random Thoughts in the mind of a frustrated suburbanite who wants to "be free to farm":

*Did you know we are just 15 days into the shipping period for Ison's Nursery and Vineyards?  This is the nursery from which the Burns family bought the first blueberry plants we planted.  Good plants and service, and there is time yet to plant blueberries if you can still dig a hole in your non-frozen ground.  Dig two holes for two plants of different varieties because blueberries need cross-pollination with another variety in order to set fruit.

*Did you see that my seed potato order from Wood Prairie Farm in Maine came in?  From a Monday order to delivery the following Monday, I am thrilled with what I got and how they treated me as a first time (small time) customer.  The catalog included in my shipment was educational and fun to read, and best of all, they use fruit crate art in their product illustrations.

*Have I ever mentioned that I love Fruit Crate Art?  Seed packets, fruits and vegetables, all beautifully illustrated in a way that brings a smile to my face no matter the season or weather.  All these labels are original and quite expensive, but I do love to look at them and admire the craftsmanship of both the art and the produce grown in a time when people were proud to put the name of their farm on the box.  I haven't noticed any cute labels with ADM or Cargill on them, have you?

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William, and Eston.  Their family farm website can be found at Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  She spent a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend amending the soil in the raised garden beds and the itch to plant is strong. 

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Are you as busy as we are this week?  Just how much baking can a woman do in a kitchen with one 40 year old wall oven and three boys who want to help with Every.Single.Recipe?  When I think I'm at my wit's end and no one else has as busy a life as mine, I tune into The Kansas Milkmaid for a refresher course in contentment and patience.

Today, Christina Fuller, aka "The Milkmaid", shares her secrets for making butter and buttermilk.  I was riveted to the blog post as she describes the tips and techniques discovered while making butter from the raw milk available on her dairy farm in Kansas.  And she does this while attending to three more children than I have in my house! 

She has much more in her archives on cheesemaking, and if you get really hooked on her site (like I am), take time to read the archives, where commenters are treated to her specific expertise related to pointed questions posed by readers.

I'll let ya'll get back to the cranberry relish making and baking all that cornbread you'll need Thursday for the dressing (you DO make cornbread dressing, don't you?  Isn't that in the Thanksgiving handbook as Rule Two, behind the bird?) but when the kitchen cools off and the family is helping themselves to leftovers this weekend, do stop by and read the wisdom of Christina.

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William, and Eston.  Her family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  She's contributing homemade pumpkin pie to the extended family meal in addition to brining the turkey bird in a salt brine for maximum moistness.  She's a certified turkey roaster from way back.  Seriously.

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

The "dirt" at Burns Best Farm is getting a bit colder, but not before Farmer Mike got a couple of cover crops planted this weekend.  His research led him to plant Winter Rye and Austrian Winter Pea this fall, and he sowed all the garden areas, both previously planted and newly plowed.  Our farm plan has us adding new ground to what we cultivated this year and since everything we turn up is brand new to any type of crop, the green manures will add much in the way of nutrition this winter for better results next season.

For the first time, I am growing potatoes, and I'm very late in the season ordering my seed potatoes. I'm also late in planting, but that's a story for my own blog.  Most of the more prominent (to me, at least) seed potato sources are already sold out of every variety I wanted to grow.  My luck changed when I ran across Wood Prairie Farm in northern Maine. The Gerritsen family, children included, have what looks like a neat family business operating off their farm.  The commitment to organic potatoes is strong, and I placed my order today for three early-yielding varieties:  Yukon Gold, Caribe, and Onaway.  I'll let you know how the shipment arrives. Excitement is abundant here this morning as we anticipate the delivery!

I am committed to buying from other families who are already successfully doing what our own family is aiming to do:  work a piece of land and make a living from our hard work by growing and making foods that are nutritious and of value to those people who cannot grow their own.  While we do buy some seed from the prominent organic seed suppliers, I am actively searching out those businesses where my order helps a family sustain themselves on their land.  If you know of such a business, send me the link.  It's important for those of us who think family farming is valuable and something to be encouraged to "put our money where our mouth is."

Wish me luck on these late potatoes.  I hope this is not an exercise in futility.......but I'm sure the seeds will be great!

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William, and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at blog by the same name.  She is praying for sprouted potatoes in the new church homeschool garden, and if this project happens to pop into your head at a random time, she's asking you to pray for successful growth as well.

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Dining out at anything other than the local pizza joint is kind of a luxury around our house.  I have appreciated reading the frugal menu tips offered here at Homestead Blogger, along with other ideas to stretch all portions of the household budget.  That said, dining out at a fancy restaurant is one of my favorite things to do!  I am sorry; I am weak and I cannot flee from the temptation of a four-course meal on beautiful plates, with a luscious dessert at the end of a spectacular dinner.  What makes those meals even more irresistable is the commitment of the chef to using locally grown produce and meats and preparing them seasonally in a manner that reflects the heritage of the South (which is where I have always lived.)

One of those restaurants in Atlanta is Five Seasons Brewing. They feature 12 local farms, source everything they can from organic growers, and they also have a compost program where spent grain and leftover food products go to their suppliers to be put back into the gardens that are growing their menu items.

Another Atlanta restaurant that has it's own farm is Bacchanalia/Star Provisions.  Follow the link to read the history of how the family farm, owned by the chef's family for more than 150 years, has been restored to vibrant health with organic farming techniques and a lot of love.

It is one of our family farm goals to eventually grow a specialty crop or two and sell them to a local chef who loves the community approach to growing great food.  I'll let you know when we meet our goal!  Meanwhile, ask around in your town at the locally owned restaurants to find out which chefs/owners would be interested in buying the freshest of the fresh from you.  I know of a woman who loves to garden and she grows much more than she can either eat or preserve; she has an arrangement with a couple of local eateries where she donates her fresh produce and they let her dine free of charge!  That could be YOU! 

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  She loves to eat out with her husband, but also loves to make good food at home for cheap. 

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Can I tell you about the best surprise to happen to our farm in the last year?  It came about solely as a result of networking (albeit, at a family reunion!) and the addition of this surprise has added tremendous value to our plant production and my happiness in the kitchen.  And, in our situation, this value has been achieved largely free of charge.

Bees.  Simple honey bees, loved by blossoms everywhere. 

Now, I know that bees and their hives, supers, and other equipment aren't free.  But when a farming cousin of mine overheard my husband discussing our need for a few hives (to pollinate our blueberries), she remembered us when a neighbor asked her if she knew of a place where he could winter a few boxes.  A couple of phone calls and a site visit later, and these two retired hobby beekeepers pulled up with ten hives.

Beekeepers in most parts of the country need to move their hives around in order to take advantage of the different trees and flowers that bloom at various times of the year.  Here in north Georgia, the sourwood trees in the Chattahoochee National Forest begin to bloom out in mid-June and need the bees' help throughout the summer.  Of course, beekeepers don't own property everywhere the bees can harvest, so they often "borrow" space from landowners with access to wildflowers or certain trees.  You might be the landowner that someone is looking for in a particular area.

"Our" bees spent the fall, winter and spring on our farm, and then most of them were moved 80 miles east to take advantage of the sourwood honey harvest.  They came back this fall, close to the homes of the men who own them, so that they can be fed and watered properly during the cold months when natural pollen is in short supply.

"Our" beekeepers have gifted us with a few pints of fresh honey and we bought more to use ourselves and to give as gifts.  I find I am using more honey in the kitchen than ever before; it tastes wonderful, I know it's local and fresh, and I know the men who have been watching it all season.

It is our goal to eventually be able to manage hives of our own, but in the realistic scheme of all that needs to be done on our homestead,  being able to rely on good neighbors to handle this part of the plan is a great relief! 

I would encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open as you talk about your plans and dreams for your homestead with family and friends.  Sometimes, it's not what you know but who you know, or more acurately in our case, who my cousin knew!  And connecting with a like-minded community can help everyone out. 

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

The organic food movement has a mantra:  eat local.  Our family has been eating Georgia all year long, because that's how long it's been since we've been anywhere but Georgia!  Thankfully, Mike and I had a getaway last weekend to neighboring South Carolina and let's just say, local eating in SC is a beautiful thing to behold.

On Saturday, we took in the Charleston Farmer's Market in Marion Square.  While there were lots of local artisans, bakers and weavers, we were, of course, most interested in the farmers.  We were not disappointed:  even in mid-October, with weather in the 50's and 60's, local farmers were featuring beautiful produce and fresh seafood.

I spoke with Celeste Albers of The Green Grocer at her booth, which had sold out of the eggs for which she is famous.  Her farm is featured in the spring edition of The Edible Lowcountry and I could identify with her close association to her chickens and specialty crops.  Those are her hands and her onions on the front cover.  I left her booth with a little heartache, wishing for my own flock of hens.

Each of the farm booths had signs affixed to the tents clearly stating whether the farm was "certified organic" or "certified naturally grown".  The market at which we sold this summer did not require those types of signs but I like the idea of stating our affiliation. We will do that ourselves at our next market opportunity.

One other feature of local marketing I liked about South Carolina was the state-sponsored signage advertising a weekly local market in a small community.  "Official Roadside Farmers Market" signs can be seen in the main square of several small towns in-between the major interstates (which we tried to avoid).

During this quiet garden-cleaning season, our family is dreaming big for next year. Taking a little road trip into a state with different soil and local growing options is sparking lively converstation.  If you have the opportunity to take such an adventure, I would advise you to do so, and squeeze in a local market while you're at it.  There is much to be learned.

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mom of Cooper, William and Eston.  Her family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  Her last-gasp cherry tomatoes suffered a fall freeze last week and there is officially no more summer tomato love to be had.  Please pause in a moment of silence as she wipes a tear..........

Posted in Hitting Paydirt

Oh No!  First is was fresh spinach, now it's lettuce greens on the nationwide recall list!   It has recently become pretty clear that our food supply is not as safe as we believe it to be, and like most things in life, if we want it done well, we have to do it ourselves.

I read Catherine's post below on season extenders for your garden.....great information and easy to do, both from a cost perspective and from a space requirement.  Now, if you want ready access to lettuce and spinach for several weeks to come, it might be time for you to "do it yourself" and plant a few rows or even containers of salad greens.

Our family grew a great lettuce last spring that performed well and tasted great:  Green Grand Rapids Waldmann's Dark Green.  We got the seed from Johnny's Selected Seeds.  I sold it at market and my customers really liked it for the two weeks I had it in early summer (we ate most of it ourselves in late spring.)  The heads grew to be quite large, but as with all leaf lettuces, you can harvest individual leaves all along the growing period to make fresh salad.  The head doesn't need to be big to be cut.   You'll notice in the product description that it only takes 28 days of growth to yield "baby leaves", with the full head ready in only 49 days.

The spinach we grew was Space.  39 days to maturity, 385 seeds for under $2.50/pack.  We got this in the ground late and then had some hot weather that caused it to bolt, so we didn't eat as much of it as we did the lettuce.  But this is a great time of year to plant it, with cooler nights upon us.

(Just a note:  I do not receive any rewards or freebies from Johnny's Selected Seeds for recommending their varieties; I'm just telling you what worked well for us personally.)

When you next strike up a conversation with your friends about the availability of safe, fresh salad greens and you humbly (it must be said humbly) comment you are growing your own, I bet you a cup of coffee that someone will ask to buy some.  When they do, come back to my blog and share with me your excitement!

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Denise Burns is the wife of Mike and the mother of Cooper, William and Eston.  Their family farm website is Burns Best Farm and she blogs here at Homestead Blogger at a blog by the same name.  For her mother's sake, she's hoping collard greens aren't on the next recall list!