Renewal

    This last weekend Jess and I took a break from the farm for a few days and went down to Seed Savers Exchange just outside Decorah Iowa. If you are not familiar with Seed Savers Exchange it is first and foremost an organization dedicated to allowing gardeners and farmers to preserve heritage varieties of plants. The do this first by establishing an exchange where members can exchange seeds of heirloom varieties of plants. They also offer catalog sales of some of these varieties as well. I encourage you to get to know them and become a member.

    They have an annual camp out and conference at the amazing farm in Decorah. They have a number of speakers every year as well as seminars relating to many aspects of small farming and homesteading. This year I attended sessions on cider making,garlic types,isolation structures and perennial plant propagation.I plan to talk more in depth about these in future posts.
Jess was particularly impressed with her lectures on preserving food via fermentation and solar drying as well as a talk about Mohawk native food traditions.
We both came home excited to put our new knowledge into action.

   First thing to do when we got back to the farm was to see how well the plants and animals had done while we were away. I first went into the corn field as I knew it was going to have grown quite a bit in the heat. I wasn't ready for it to be quite so tall. I am 6ft tall in boots and i can not touch many of the tassels if I stand in the garden. Some plants appear to be pushing 10ft!

I then checked on the orchard to see if we had any damage from the storms over the weekend. I did see that many of the apricots were ripe and that some had fallen from the wind. I gathered the fallen fruits up and brought them to the pigs.

The pigs have grown so quickly this summer that it can be a bit overwhelming even if you just don't see them for a few days. They loved the apricots and apples. And I am sure it will improve their flavor. They really are starting to get to a size where you can envision how the meat is shaping up and look forward to meat on the table and yet also feel the slight sadness that their last day on the farm will bring.

In the garden everything has gone a bit wild. July heat and plentiful rain has lead to things running each other over. The big dogs of the garden have taken to pushing the little ens about. Cucumbers have begun to colonize ground in earnest. The climbing beans have reached the top of their trellis and are attempting to take to the sky. Sadly the weeds are likewise making a play for domination.

So back to the weeding and the tending.
I still have a fair amount of wood to split and stack in the pole barn as well as everything else as well. But for now at least I am refreshed and inspired again.

Rick

Peas and pork.

We are getting off to an amazing start this Spring. We finally have to geese sitting on ests and hope to see goslings soon. Our pigs continue to grow at an amazing rate. We are making arrangements to purchase a woodstove and cut down some of our older trees for firewood. Things are going really well for us but the garden has been the real showstopper this Spring.
 We have head enough moisture as well as enough heat and sun to really get the plants off to a running start. We planted a bunch of potatoes back in april and they seem just about ready to flower already. We have had to hill them twice. The great asparagus glut has come and just about gone.The newest thing to come online has been strawberries. There really is nothing like a strawberry straight from the garden and still a little warm from the summer sun.
   After that it looks like peas will be coming in and we can't wait. Peas are favorite for us. I grew up in a time of tight budgets and limited access to fresh produce. When I was younger I liked peas but I had only had canned or boiled peas. The sort of peas that were ready for war in Vietnam, olive drab and reliable if not exactly enthralling. It wasn't until I had frozen peas that I really fell in love with them. They were so sweet and had a bit of pop when you chewed them. They also had a flavor that spoke of Spring time and lush and growing plants. Then I had garden fresh peas and it happened again. I fell deeper in love with the humble pea. What frozen peas had garden fresh peas had even more of. Jess and I usually "compete" for the first few spoonfuls of peas and I look forward to it every year. 

Piggels

This year is off to a great start. We have been able to get a lot of things going this Spring already. We have planted most of the garden already. We have already been able to have some modest harvests from our polytunnel greenhouse and our perennials in the garden.
    Another of this year pleasures is working with some friends that have recently moved to the area and are on a similar path as us. Our new friends moved to the area last Fall and it has been great getting to know them. They are younger and have an almost unlimited amount of energy for homesteading projects and seem to really shine where animal husbandry is concerned. This has been a great help to me this Spring because while I may be one of the least competitive people out there I am still easily motivated to keep up with others most days. And our new friends have gone in big! They have already started bees,goats,geese and rabbits and recently pigs. They have already planted a garden an orchard as well and are doing quite well at all of them!
      In order to keep up with the Joneses as it were we have a larger garden this year with a small 1/25th of an acre corn field set aside for the growing of heirloom dent corn . We have increased our plantings of potatoes this year. We also have planted four new elderflower bushes and five new gooseberry bushes. Lastly we fenced off a half acre of shaded pasture on the North of the property and converted part of our bunker in order to keep pigs.
     I am in love with the pigs already. It may seem odd to say that I am in love with an animal that I intend on eating but I don't have another word for it. I feel a real sense of duty to these animals. It is my duty to watch over thee animals and see to it that they are free from want and suffering as much as possible. To see that they have the best if environment, food and water that I can provide. It is my obligation to them to do this. I am asking that they give their lives at the end of our time together and it is the least I can do. But it is part of a bargain we make with animals. Those that we expect much of are cared for well and those that can do little for us are mostly ignored by us and left to the natural state of wilderness. I look forward to all the wonderful food our pigs will provide and the sense of balance that eating that food will bring.