{UPDATE} look here for the finished product! Like I said in an earlier post, I would not recommend our present hoop house design to anyone who has gust of wind and lots of snow. It has served the purpose of getting us going, of experimentation, and we are still hoping for a Winter Harvest (I’ll …
Category Archives: food (growing, cooking, preserving)
Tree, Bush, Vine, Mushroom
last of the frozen blueberries (rinse out baggie, reuse) Today was fabulous. Almost 60F, sunny, a mild breeze. Amie and I went outside and worked – well, she sat and drew, I worked. I made a new 4’x16′ bed near the fence, for peas and lettuce (it will be shaded by the summer hoop house). …
What’s Growing in my Garden
In the hoop house: Outside: garlic And this is where the bee hive will stand:
A Phenological Ambition, More Mice, Naps
One of my ambitions is to make a phenology of this place. I’d love to use many media. Words foremost, then drawings, paintings and photographs, and occasionally audio recordings and videos (but those I wouldn’t be able to stick in my favorite “container”, the book). To make a little drawing every day, of the newly …
Eat Real Food Challenge
I stopped reckoning our food consumption for the Riot a long time ago: the Riot way of calculating our food consumption and production was never clear to me. And so, though the growing and storing and preparing of food are almost constantly on my mind, I haven’t kept track, which made me feel at a …
Humongous Planting
Over five hours of fairly uninterrupted work I planted: Anise Hyssop (mint!) Aster: September Ruby NE Broccoli Blend 09 Broccoli: Waltham Brussels Sprouts: Roodnerf Cabbage: Charming Snow Cabbage: Earliana cabbage: red express Catnip Chard: Bright Lights Chard: Fordhook Giant Charming snow cauliflower chives: Purlie Collards: Evenstar Cornflower: Bachelot Button eggplant: Applegreen eggplant: diamond Hyssop kale: …
Hoophouse Trouble
Well, the hoophouse almost kicked the bucket, again. Yesterday night we experienced 50 miles per hour gusts of wind that got through every crack and gap in the hoop house and almost lifted it up off the ground. Almost. When I woke up this morning after a pretty fitful sleep it was still there, but …
Of Calcium in the Soil and Plants – Part 8
You guessed it: it’s time for another episode in the Calcium in the Soil and Plant series! Take heart: we’re getting close to the end (maybe only one more part to go?). Actually, it took me so long to post on this again because this one took me a long time to figure out. If …
Continue reading “Of Calcium in the Soil and Plants – Part 8”
Of Mice and Bees
Yesterday evening we had our second beekeeping class, after a two week hiatus due to bad weather predictions (you can parse that either way) and school vacation. Rick brought in a full hive and guided us through the components, discussing their uses, alternatives, advantages and disadvantages, and some beginners’ pitfalls. The magical moment, for me, …
A Gardener’s Spring
This time of year I get that lump in my throat. I see my seedlings come up in the basement. I do the rounds of blogs – mostly gardeners, homesteaders – and see their seedlings come up as well. It touches me deeply. It is a reawakening of a childlike feeling of wonder, that, with …