fall seeds

We planted the garlic today, this beautiful November fall day, in short-sleeves. About 200 cloves of our own seed (music and german red). Also planted a couple rows of daikon radish as an experiment. The new garden is starting to shape up... the soil is lovely and I'm already anxious for 2010 seed catalogues to arrive!

Also spent a bit of the day cleaning up and organising boxes of seed and the potting table in the basement. At the end of it all, I was inspired to start some herbs to grow indoors over the winter. Any extras I can unload onto friends and family (right Mom?). Started: savory, parsley, cumin, chamomile, basil, lemongrass, rosemary, thyme, and... sensitive plants, for fun. That should tide me over for awhile.

Kale chips are tasty! Cut washed leaves off stems, rub with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and nutritional yeast, and dehydrate for 4hrs. Good way to get your greens in.

Also, D is cool. He needs a table, he builds a table. Now I hear him downstairs organising screws and nails.

garlic '09

Got all the garlic in finally. It's pretty awesome! In total, harvested about 175 bulbs - 125 organic music (planted 5 pounds) and 50 organic german red (planted 2 pounds), with seed ordered from August's Harvest. Weird, the math is solid with 1 pound = 25 bulbs. Huh.

The bulbs are all different sizes so we'll keep the big ones for replanting and the rest we'll store/eat/share with fam & friends. After it cures, we'll be hummus'ing, guacamole'ing, and garlic bread'ing all over this place. Was nice and easy to grow... wondering about ordering a different kind to plant this fall - suggestions?

Apparently chicken manure gives the bulbs a good boost in size. Another reason, besides eggs, to get some hens happening here. Starting to enjoy all the little connections that inevitably happen on a farm.

Might try planting the bulbils. Not really sure how that works, but google will tell me when the time comes (so handy to be an internet-generation gardener). I think they take several years to become full-size, but then you have fresh stock.

In other news, got my love a cheese-making kit for his birthday. My family were like 'really?' but he dug it. Tomorrow I'll meet him in the city for his actual birthday... a day of museums, watching his band play (@ sneaky dee's for wavelength), and a shmancy stay at a hotel. When we get home he'll try making basic chevre I think. It's sort of the research stop on the fork between dairy goats and some other type of husbandry. I've been enjoying reading Twwly as she's rocking the goat/cheese world. We'll see what happens.

grey sky week

Up at 6. Black tea and apple loaf, a warm alpaca sweater of D's, a toweled-dry dawg, CBC classical radio. It's a grey old day - dark and wet, chilly and windy. Feelin' bad for my love who's out working in it. He'll come home soaked to the bone and cold. Perhaps I should have the bath ready. And maybe some soup. Supposed to rain all week. So, opposite yesterday's post, I feel a little miffed at July!... a hot sunny day that much more missed on days like this one.

We've left scapes on several of the garlic plants, as an experiment. After the rains, we'll wait for the ground to dry out a bit, then pull 'em.

fields and roads

Could be one of our coldest Julys, but I don't mind. Less swimming and shorts-wearing, but comfortable days and nights, happy kale. The summer is flying by! Our weekends are often busy - one of us in the city or we're visiting with friends and family. Next week, after a night in Toronto, I'll be driving north to my folks and then driving with mom to Massachusetts for a family reunion. Then Toronto again after that to record in the studio with the band. A total of almost 2 weeks away... great things, but wew!

These frequent stints away make me wonder about the possibility of having more animals on the farm. Chickens and goats being the current fascination/topics of research. Let myself splurge a little on books: "Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide", Rick Luttmann; "You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farm Enterprise", Joel Salatin; "Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats: Breeds, Care, Dairying." I'll just be hanging on the beaches of Gloucester reading about milking goats. Sounds about right.

The earwigs have been bad this year. They are everywhere and totally freaky looking. Getting tired of squishing them! NAST.

What else? Ah yes, we've got horseshoe pits going finally. Think we'll have a round with the neighbours on Friday. Garlic soon ready to pull. It's smallish, but surely tasty. We'll prob be saving a large part of it for replanting this fall, keeping a lot for ourselves, and selling the rest cheaply to friends. It's been so easy to grow - perhaps we'll try planting even more this year. D talks about how it'll keep the vampires away - he's on a 'True Blood' (HBO show) kick lately.

winter prep

Beautiful days this last week. We had rushed to put the garlic in after the last dump of snow (Oct 21), and now it's like spring out there. Still, good to have it in and happy in these nice temperatures. Nice to get something in the ground as we missed this summer's garden season (moved here in July). Planted 6 pounds of music and german red... around 250 cloves! Anyone want garlic next summer?
Four cord of wood coming today - we'll be piling all weekend, with the help of my wonderful brother who's back from Alberta. Most of it on the porch and the rest along the fence facing the porch. That will be above our septic bed but I figure since it will be used up by the end of the winter, we won't have to worry about moisture/weight too much. Our spring order should probably go elsewhere. La la la.

a new mindset

a very slow gear is starting to move inside: to think like a farmer!

d and i hit the lindsay farmer's market last saturday where i had the pleasure of meeting two of my internet blog buddies in sort of a strange cosmic fashion. tiny farm mike (who i've been reading for a couple of years!) and cameron ryan were discussing farm tours in the area, perhaps including a visit here, just as i was loading up on tiny farm produce before saying hi. animated garlic and tractor talk on top of lynn handing over big bags of green beans, lettuce, and basil sort of sparked a more 'real' realisation that i can, should, and will be a farmer too one day... one day... soon! from dreaming about such stuff while police sirens zipped by my bathurst street window to gazing over a field of singing crickets... it makes me feel like one of the luckiest girls alive.

it's late summer and house-fixin' has been our priority (gotta get ready for winter - is it really almost september?!), but the garlic possibilities are calling, best seeded in the fall. all of sudden, things on my list include: walk/photograph the fields, check the pile of boards for raised-bed construction use, read up on garlic planting tips, order seed (how much? what kind? what for?), get a pile of chicken manure from the neighbours (the rooster crows are a dead giveaway - must introduce myself!), till, draw up plans, figure out irrigation, and so on. farmer stuff! how strange and great.