Burns Best Farm

Back in the Saddle

I got a text box for the first time since Saturday morning.  Great to see.  Haven't had any time to surf around to see what everyone else is up to; it's been busy here.  We've gotten rain twice, yesterday and today, and both times the rain was plentiful but not too hard.  We need it so bad and it's a joy to see and hear it fall.

We also attended the Marietta Market on Saturday for the first time this summer.  The beans and squash have been prolific and I had some blackberries to sell as well, so we set up our booth and got to visit with some of last year's customers and vendors while making a few new friends.

The rain has stopped and I need to gather some beans for supper tonight.  I'll check back later to see what's happening in the world.

Blessed, Glorious, Wonderful Rain

For those of you following our farm/garden situation, I wanted to let you know we received about 1 1/2 inches of the most beautiful liquid heaven yesterday afternoon.  This is the first measurable rainfall we've had on our property since April 14 and we praised the Lord for it.

There was actually mud outside the door this morning and I have a reprieve from watering for a day or two, depending on how hot it gets. 

We've been irrigating for weeks, but there is nothing like God-given moisture from the sky to nourish the earth. It is so much more complete than anything man can put on a plant to help it grow and produce food.

As for harvesting, I did manage to get all my potatoes dug up before the rain came.  I will plant more in late summer to take us into the fall, but I learned a lot with this maiden crop and I will do a couple of things differently next time.  All three varieties produced but with the hard freeze in April killing back the plants, I didn't have a big harvest at all. 

The yellow crookneck and pattypan squash continue to flourish and I actually sold four pounds yesterday to mark my first sale of the season.  That was encouraging.  I love to sell food!

The beans have bloomed and I see little pods on the bushy plants, so probably by the weekend my hamstrings will be singing the blues.  I may not post again til September, we have so many beans planted!  If we make it to the market this summer it will be because the beans come in big and we need to sell them somewhere.

Blackberries are starting to ripen.  If I can get to them before the boys do, I might get enough to make a pie. Otherwise, little hands are helping themselves.

Thanks for checking in and we'll be needing more rain by the weekend, so if we come to mind, please pray for us.

Awash in Squash

I mentioned to FarmWife that I would post a banner on my blog when we had some rain here, as we have been and are still in extreme drought conditions.  We have had a little liquid heaven in the last 10 days or so, and while I am thankful for it, the total accumulation is not even an inch.   A couple of times the dirt has actually changed to a darker color, but there is nothing that could remotely resemble mud going on here.

Our first crop to arrive in any quanitity is summer squash.  Mike started transplants of yellow crookneck and a lovely scalloped pattypan squash; he also direct seeded both of those plus an Italian zucchini.  The tranplants have been bearing now for a couple of weeks.  (Those plants direct seeded look good but are still a few weeks away from production.)  The squash tastes great and I have roasted and stuffed the pattypan a couple of times.  It has a nice sweetness that comes out when it's roasted. 

The lettuce, which we can't eat quickly enough to keep up with, has begun to bolt, or so have the largest heads.  The tomato plants look good and we completed the trellis this week for all nine rows.  Yes, we have close to 300 tomato plants in the ground.  The cherry tomato plants have begun to set fruit and I am anxiously awaiting the first hint of color.  How else do you know it's summer? 

In the tomato bed we have 7 or 8 volunteer watermelon and/or canteloupe plants that have situated themselves close to a drip irrigation source.  This same field last year was given over to the johnson grass weeds that popped up instead of the corn we actually planted (this was the second corn planting that we lost to last summer's drought....are you catching a theme here?)  The summer before that, in '05, for those still hanging with me, we planted watermelon and canteloupe in that field. 

We knew there were a few volunteer melon plants of unknown varieties that grew in with the johnson grass, but the weeds got so high and thick we gave up on trying to find any actual melons.  These little volunteers that are showing themselves now are third generation to the last melon seeds we bought in '05.  Don't you love heirloom, open-pollinated plants?  I am fairly certain I have at least two different varieties this summer by looking at the leaves.  And since we have drip irrigation around the tomatoes and we keep that area weeded well (ok, weeded), we should be able to harvest something.  I'll keep you posted on what they turn out to be!

I have harvested a few potatoes from my potato bed (please read through my spring archives to follow my potato drama....I'm too lazy to enter a link) and while I'll do things differently this fall when I plant more, I am generally pleased with the outcome. 

There's more going on and I'll just have to check back in by early next week to post those details.  The chickens are growing and the roosters are crowing and the beans are blooming, and life is good.  I hope yours is.

Which Came First?

The chicken or the European?  This is a neat article on Yahoo! that tells about an archaelogical dig in Chile that has unearthed chicken bones that precede European settlement of the Americas.  The Araucana chicken is apparently very close in DNA structure to Polynesian chickens and nowhere near the DNA structure of chickens that were introduced by European settlers.

Isn't that cool?  That scientists can isolate the DNA structure of a chicken I have in my backyard and tell me where in the world it orginated?

I think I'll go outside right now and speak a little teriyaki to my Araucanas......hmm....teriyaki chicken.  No wonder they go so well together.......

Smoke in the Air

We are about 12 miles from the Georgia/Tennessee state line as the crow flies, and our air is hazy and smoky today because of the wildfires in south Georgia and north Florida.  Well over 300 miles away.  I am keeping the children inside today because the air quality just stinks and I don't want to trigger anything that might require a breathing treatment.  I've only been outside to move the sprinkler around.

Because have I mentioned, we haven't had rain to speak of in six weeks?

Sightings on the Homestead

Today, at lunchtime, I spotted two coyotes in our backyard.  Our dog and my mom's dog happened to be close by and they sparred with the coyotes and forced them back into the woods.  I'm not too terribly fond of our dog under normal circumstances, but I was proud of her today and she probably bought herself some time and treats for her heroism.

On Saturday we found a big ol' turtle under the fence surrounding the berries.  She had dug a hole and was busy laying eggs. We saw a couple underneath as she worked her way forward to fill her hole.  We have the site marked so we can monitor the hatch.  Very exciting.

Tonight the bard owl was calling to us as we sat on the porch.  I love that sound.

Our peach tree served as a nesting spot for a pair of bluebirds earlier in the spring.  Three out of five eggs hatched and all three birdlings made their way successfully out of the nest.  We recovered the two eggs that didn't hatch and have them in a safe place.  Then, all weekend and then again today I saw another pair (or maybe the same pair) of bluebirds flitting around the same nesting spot.  I hope we have a second family to hatch.  I love bluebirds.

How Bad is Our Drought?

It is So Bad that the Drudge Report has a headline linked to a My Way News article reporting that in the metro Atlanta and Augusta areas, neighbors are calling law enforcement to report other neighbors of watering violations.

I mean, people, it's just a green lawn.  Grass.  Not edible by humans.  Unless you are grazing livestock on it, it does not need to be watered during a severe, multi-year drought!  You can replant in the fall and maybe next summer, if we have some rain, your lawn can once again look like the Miracle Grow commercial.  But let's all agree to give up the dream for the summer of '07, OK?

Meanwhile, the farmers up this way have all baled hay this week after cutting it last week and the week before.  I'm glad to see them getting it up and stored because there may not be a fall hay crop to speak of.  My dreams of buying the milk cow have been put on hold for awhile longer.  May have to settle for goats instead.  I need the help with some overgrown brush.

Another Chinese Food Recall

A California company is recalling frozen monkfish imported from China after two people in the Chicago area have become sick after eating it.

Can you believe that the the fish might in fact be Pufferfish?  The toxic, poisonous pufferfish?  And it was "mislabled" monkfish? 

I gave up Chinese seafood years ago, when shopping at Costco all I could find was "Product of China" on all the frozen mahi-mahi. I reasoned that American mahi-mahi was fine for my family and we weren't buying any other.

Let me just say that I am all for country of origin labeling in food ingredients.  Even if the product is "made in America", if some trace ingredients come from China, I want to know that as an informed consumer.  I try not to buy clothes and other products from China....I would prefer not to buy my food from there, either.

Will it Ever Rain Again?

Yes, again it's been almost two weeks since my last post.  I have had legitimate computer problems, however, so there's a much better excuse this posting than the month before. 

My other distraction from the computer has been the constant need to water the garden.  Some of our beds are irrigated with tea tape and drip hoses, and those are pretty easy to accomplish.  Other areas are not accessed with set hoses and so I spend time each day dragging water hoses around.  It has not rained in a measurable amount here in over two weeks. 

It is hot (mid-80's) each day and even the dog kicks up a dust cloud when it walks across the field.  The grass crunches underfoot and the nice breeze we have felt the last three days, while cooling, is also drying out the surface moisture even more.

Last June, we went almost 30 days without any rain.  It was tough, but most of the plants had gotten off to a good start with a seasonable April and a good early May.  This year, we are watering daily (almost hourly) just to get germination in the first place.  Not a great way to get the summer started.

Praying for rain here.  Please join me if you are so inclined.

What's Been Going On

I did not mean to take a month long break from blogging.  Really.  I didn't fast from the Internet, and all of our technology equipment has been working well.  No, I didn't intend to stay away this long.  But I'll try to explain what's been going on the last 31 days (in 500 words or less!)

Some of you know (but most don't) that my family moved in late February.  We lived in a suburb of Atlanta and we sold our home and moved to our farm property 90 miles away.  Last year, during the growing season, we lived at the farm most of the week and commuted back into the city to sell our produce on the weekends at a farmers market.

So this year, we started our seedlings in our farm house basement and ordered our first ever baby chicks and grew them up in the basement as well.  We suffered through the deep Easter freeze, got sidetracked and waylaid a bit with getting seeds into the ground after such wacky weather, and got three mobile chicken pens built to house our flock.

We moved the chickens outside and almost immediately started to suffer mortality.  Some from predators reaching their mean little raccoon paws through the wire pen and other losses due to my lack of understanding of how much (or how little) to feed pastured hens.  I can't tell you how frustrating the chicken experience has been for me; it is tough to be on such a sharply trending learning and experience curve, especially with animals/money at risk. 

But I am hopeful our numbers have stablized and we are getting crafty and sneaky  creative in order to outwit the predators.  Meanwhile, most of the chickens have hit the ten week mark and we are ten weeks closer to farm fresh eggs.  I'm trying to keep focused on the positives here.

And the garden is beginning to come along.  Beets, broccoli, chard, lettuce, a few carrots and the beloved haricot vert beans are all sprouted and growing nicely.  Mike started a large number of squash, yellow crookneck and patty pan, indoors and transferred them a couple of weeks ago.  I thought he was nuts for trying them inside first; I grew up in the "direct seeding" family when it came to squash.  But he has been rewarded nicely for his efforts and with about 50 blooms on the plants and two of the most adorable little squashes already showing, I definitely think he beat the system this year and we are two-three weeks ahead of our past performance with squash.

Meanwhile, my potatoes have (mostly) recovered from the extreme cold.  I think I lost a total of four plants, all of one variety, but I have three plants of that kind that did come back, so all is not lost.  The onions survived and the blackberry root stock is showing signs of growth, too.

So, in addition to making up for lost school instruction time during the move, we have been busy trying to get this place looking more like a real farm.  Real life impacting my blogging career.  Now there's a new one.

Whew!

Blessedmama thinks my potatoes will repair themselves and come back fine without any extra work on my part.  I am so relieved!

I never thought I'd be this emotionally invested in a vegetable!

Help Please, with Potatoes

I examined my potato plants earlier today for signs of freeze damage and I think they were hit pretty hard.  Shriveled, blackish leaves and the stem seemed to be soft.  I had mulched them heavily with wheat straw prior to our freeze this weekend.

Is there any way I can salvage the plants now that their leaves have been damaged?  Can I cut them back?  Is there any action I can take to keep them alive and redirect their energy to producing tubers?

Help me! Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

Effects of the Weekend Freeze

Despite our efforts at covering a few of the blueberry plants, it appears that our plants were severely impacted by the deep freeze that hit much of the country this past weekend.  All of the plants were in bloom late last week and now all of the petals that remain are withered and brittle.

It looks like my potato plants were killed, too.  I had mulched them up high with wheat straw, but in retrospect, I should have covered them with plastic.  Most all the leaves are brown now, and the stems are soft.  Not good.

Thankfully the blackberries had not bloomed yet, so we might have some berries to eat and to sell.  And I'm hopeful that some of the blueberries will produce a little bit, just enough for me to freeze for next year.

But I'm really crushed to see that even the bushes that were wearing cotton tablecloth coats were hit hard.  This is not our livelihood; we don't earn the bulk of our family income from farming, and we have so much to learn before we can approach supporting ourselves in agriculture.  It's just so disappointing to have such a setback that is so completely out of our control.

Sorry to be so down in the mouth.  It might take me a day or two to bounce back.  I'm seriously bummed.

Raspberries and Blueberries

This article was in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press on Sunday, although they didn't have it available online today so I linked to a newspaper in Monterey.  I was fascinated by a good bit of what I read, especially about the blueberries.

One of the selling points I make about our blueberries when I'm  at the farmers market is that they are never more than 72 hours off the bush, and that is the max.  They have so much more flavor to me than the berries available in the grocery store, even upscale stores like Whole Foods. 

Now I know why; the blueberries in stores right now come from Chile (which I knew), but they travel by cargo ship!  They are chilled immediately upon picking to 32F which creates a dormancy that lengthens the life of the berry.  They are shipped over the ocean, still chilled, and can be between 20 and 30 days old by the time you buy them in the produce section.

A month old!  No wonder my 72 hour old berries taste better! 

Raspberries are also covered in the article; they are much more perishable so they are shipped via air cargo, and allegedly the shipping costs are only 25 cents per package (4 oz. pkg.)  To fly berries in the cargo hold of an airplane, then put them on a truck to a warehouse, to a grocery store....only a quarter.  Somehow I find that totally unbelievable.  Completely unable to believe it. 

The whole idea of buying fresh produce from the southern hemisphere removes the "fresh" from the descriptive, don't you think?  I'm sticking with "Buy Local" and "Support Your Local Farmer".  I would encourage you to do the same.

Dogwood Winter

When the dogwoods are in bloom, prepare for the arrival of a blast of cold air.  They are, and it is here.  All the vegetable seedlings are inside, tucked into a warm radiant window but shielded from the cold air.  The rain earlier this week gave us a break from the pollen "snow" we've experienced in the last 10 days and moistened our beet/chard/carrot/bean seeds into their rows and beds.

On the experimental front, 14 of the 24 eggplants have sprouted and the tray remains on the heat mat in order to encourage the others to shoot up.  A few paste tomatoes have sprouted (the last ones I got started) and I have 15 little celery seedlings that are three weeks old.  They are still small but from what I read, they are slow growing.  I am really interested to see if I can grow these outside with any success. I have a couple of celery eaters in the family, and since it is one of the top chemical-residue crops when grown conventionally, I would love to be able to do it here and know that it's clean.

On the to-do list today:  call the market manager of the Marietta Square Farmers Market and get his mailing address so I can send our booth fee in to reserve our spot.  And cover up the haricot vert beans that have sprouted in the raised beds!  It's going to be 29 degrees here tonight! 

Meanwhile, I think my chickens have turned into teenagers.  They eat a lot, sleep late, and their downy fuzz is making way for feathers, but in a way that makes them look quite awkward.   Plus, they can be loud! They are so fun to watch. What did I ever do without them.

Opening Line in the Mind of a 7yo Boy

For today's creative writing exercise, my second grader opened with this sentence:

"Last night, the Mona Lisa got pinched from the Louvre."

I can't wait to read the following paragraphs.......

DeniseB

Funny Chicken Insights

This entry is courtesy of my dad, who forwarded this email to me today.  Thanks Dad!

All I Need To Know In Life I Learned From My Chickens:

Wake up early, stay busy
Rest when you need to, but always stay alert
Visit your favorite places every day
Scratch out a living
Routine is good
Plump is good
Don't ponder your purpose in life - your brain is too small
Accept the pecking order and know your enemies
Weed your garden
Look after your children
- Sit on them if necessary
- Take them for walks, show them the little things and talk constantly
Make a nice nest - share it with friends
Brag on your accomplishments
Protect your nest egg
Test your wings once in a while
Squawk when necessary
As you age, demand respect
Leave a little something for those who care about you
Chase butterflies

On a personal chicken note, one of my Rhode Island Reds flew up to the top of the brooder box and roosted on the plywood edge tonight while I was changing the watering jars.  I've been keeping mesh netting over the top for a couple of days now, thinking it was about time for them to get some air under their wings.  Just in time!

DeniseB

Potato Success!

For those of you who have been following the trials and tribulations of our farming endeavors, I have the most wonderful update tonight:  I have 17 potato plants up and growing tall!  Can you believe it?  Not one month ago, I thought every last seed potato I planted had rotted or was eaten by the deer (or the dog!)  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I did find one that appeared to be putting out shoots.  But then, nothing again for several days.

Today marked 8 days straight of high 70's/low 80's temperatures and I guess that was enough to motivate the spud stems to shoot north and spread out.  There are 15 plants that are tall and need to be strawed again, and then there are at least 2 more ( and possibly four more) that appear to be poking through.  SO exciting!

Part of my problem is that I practice what I call ADD Farming.  I apologize if I've offended you, b/c I know ADD is tough to handle and I don't want to minimize it.  And I don't have ADD, except when I garden.  If the package says 48 days, I'm counting on it to be right and if those seeds haven't germinated within 48 hours, I'm already giving up hope.  It's the silliest thing and I keep thinking I'll get over it.  But so far, it's stuck with me.

So rejoice with me over the potatoes and pray that my patience and understanding will increase. 

Blogiversary

Today is my one year blogging anniversary.  The homesteading highlight of the day was the discovery that my 10 day old chicks can now roost on top of the watering containers in the brooder box.  I have to sneak up on them to see it, because if I spook them with any noise, they all scatter.  But if I'm sneaky......then I catch them hanging out, enjoying the view.

Have I mentioned that I love watching these chickens?

I have enjoyed getting to know you all this last year and reading about your adventures in homesteading.  Thanks for dropping by my little corner and I'll try to be more diligent to post more often.  This farming thing in the spring is pretty time consuming!  It's one thing to write about it in the winter and something all together different to try and keep up when there's outside work to be done and the weather dictates it be done NOW! Thanks for understanding.

DeniseB

Bees

This post is probably better suited to Harriette's beekeeping blog, but bees are on my mind this week. We got a lunchtime visit yesterday from the two retired gentlemen who own the hives on our farm, and the news was not good.  Of the 13 hives located here, only six are alive and working.  Seven hives either contain a dead colony or the bees are just absent. Gone.  Nowhere to be found.

What started out last fall as a cause for concern about "rental hives" that move up and down the east coast following crop pollenation needs has turned into a full-blown crisis, with a name to match:  Bee Colony Collapse Disorder.

The experts don't know what's going on:  is it a new class of pesticide that confuses the bees, preventing them from finding their way home?  Or is it a virus that attacks the hive and deforms the larvae, causing death to the colony?  Combination of these two factors?  Or one of several other options? 

No one knows and the mystery is widening.  But what we do know that is some crops, like apple, almonds and blueberries, are almost totally dependent on honeybee pollenation for fruit to set.  And the cost of new queen bees to repopulate a hive has tripled in the last year.  For bee hobbyists, that quickly translates into costs high enough to make one think twice before repopulating a hive.  Especially when there are no guarantees that the colony collapse won't hit again.

Gloom and doom, I know, but I've started to think  that researching this honeybee problem might be worth taking some money out of the national defense budget for.......just my opinion.  That, and $1.75 will get you a cup of gourmet coffee.......

DeniseB