Year End Shutdown 2024

 

It was an uneventful season in the patch. And as in recent years, life just got too busy for more detailed postings on a regular basis. Time was better spent just keeping the crops rotated and in production.

But one highlight was experimenting with some open pollinated varieties of tomatoes and beans. The trials were interesting and I'll be posting more detail in 2025 on the ones I've selected for regular production.

Here's a view of the patch after our first dusting of snow for the season. The winter rye has sprouted and all that's left is a little kale, collards and the obligatory carrots for Christmas dinner next week.

Mid-summer Goings On in The Patch

 

It's been a fairly uneventful spring and early summer around the patch. It was a wet spring so we were about two weeks late getting in and working things up. Even then it still was almost too damp to do a proper workup of our heavy clay soil. So there's lots of mini bricks that formed and will take a while to break down.

New this year is a trial of open pollenated beans and tomatoes. Those will be the topic of another post later on.

The big chore this year was renovating the strawberry patch. To maintain healthy plants and keep yields high, the patch needs to be completely replaced about every three to four years. In early April we planted 30 Sparkle plants from Johnny's. The key with a new bed is to watch closely and pinch off any flowers in May, and runners in mid-summer. this is so the mother plants can put all of their energy into establishing themselves. By mid-June, they are putting out three to four runners per plant per week. These need to be cut off, but you also can take the largest and healthiest and plant them between the mother plants to help fill in the row. These root quickly and once established the runner (umbilical) to the mother plant is cut away.

Once that's done, the only chore is to keep clipping additional runners and keep the bed watered, weeded and fertilized. In late fall it will be strawed in and ready for winter.

Year End Shutdown 2023

 

Overall, it was a good and productive year. All that remains are a few carrots and beets. The rest of the patch received a light till to knock down the late season weeds, and a top dressing of shredded leaves. No winter rye this year as we needed a place to park the leaves over the winter. In other news, the strawberry patch was tilled in preparation for a renovation next spring.

Stalag XIII

 

While we've been very lucky over the years with only small varmints attacking the patch (rabbits and ground hogs), the last couple of years has seen our first deer damage. It used to be primarily in the fall as the local herds churned due to the rut and hunting. But now it's all seasons. 

Time had finally come for a proper ag quality perimeter fence. It was a three day operation with corner posts installed and a QFE entrance gate constructed. But glad it's done. In retrospect we should have done this twenty years ago.

A Slight Change of Pace

 

We haven't bothered with a natural Christmas tree since the kids were babies. Back then it was a big deal to load everyone up and head to a local tree farm to slay that perfect specimen. But after a nearly twenty year hiatus with an artificial tree, the time has come to venture out to Smithsburg and bring back a local fir for the homestead. It also gave the Number One Daughter a chance to dirty up her tires and haul an actual agricultural load in her new pick up truck.

While modern LED light strings are both energy efficient and much safer to use on live trees, I pulled out my old tree juice recipe. It was from a newspaper clipping from way back in the early 1990s.

First, cut a live tree so you know exactly how old it is and where it came from. Go ahead and have it bailed, and as soon as you get home, stick it in a five gallon bucket with a solution containing the following ingredients (mixed well):

2 gallons of hot water

1 pint of clear corn syrup (any brand will do)

4 oz of liquid bleach

2 oz of apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp of borax powder

2 oz of liquid Woolite laundry soap

Store your tree in a protected spot out of direct sun (back patio, un-heated garage, etc.) for four to five days. It's best not to allow the bucket to freeze tight, but an overnight glaze of ice on the surface is fine. As long as the stump remains submerged in the solution.

On the day you plan to bring it inside, first cut off an inch or so of the stump to expose a fresh surface that hasn't sealed over with pitch. Then un-bail the tree and do whatever lower branch trimming is needed to fit it in your tree stand. This is also a good time to trim away rough areas and give the tree one last shake to remove loose needles and dormant critters. If you plan to keep the tree inside for more than two weeks, you also may want to spray it with an anti-desiccant like Bonide Wilt Stop. But you'll need to allow it to dry completely before moving inside. And the anti-desiccant will decrease that wonderful Christmas tree smell that is the main reason for going with a natural tree in the first place.

Once inside and in its final location, be sure to add fresh tree juice to the stand. And never let the juice level drop below the surface of the cut. If all goes to plan, the original two gallon batch should provide enough juice to get you through a two week celebration. But be ready to whip up another smaller batch (decreasing the ingredients proportionally). Or if you find yourself running out of juice with only a few days left until New Years Day, plain water is fine. Just never let the stand dry out to the point where the stump is not immersed in some kind of fluid.

Growing up in Virginia in the 1960s-70s we always put our live tree up on Christmas Eve and took it down on New Year's Day. But today people put up trees way too early. We can only hope they are using artificial trees or otherwise being very careful against fire.

Over the years we've struggled with all sorts of plastic tree stands, but this steel model is the best by far. It's beefy, and has a spike in the bottom to keep the stump from lateral movements once the four screw pins are tight. It also holds about a half gallon of tree juice.

And the final product!!! Merry Christmas!

Season Wrap Up 2022

 

Last of the fall crops amongst the winter rye cover 

2022 was a typical season. We had two short dry periods that required a couple of days of irrigation but no major droughts to contend with. All and all it was a good year.

However, we did have a few more visitors this season. A rabbit that required relocation and some migrating deer. If you click on this picture to enlarge and look very closely, you will see two youngsters who happened by one August morning. I was only able to grab this one pic before they bolted never to be seen again.

Beets destined for the pickle jar. And some mid summer flowers elsewhere in the yard.

 

We got your pickled beets right here!

 

It's pickle beet time! Since the half row was doing so well and we just couldn't eat beets every night of the week, I figured it was time to make pickle. Using my mom's (and her mom's before her) recipe.

Topped.

Washed.

All the cooking and canning are done in the garage. But the pickle syrup was made in the house. Man it smelled just like grandma's house.

And there you go; four quarts and 12 pints.