A Rare Friday In The Patch

Here in the ex-burbs of Ground Zero, if you have the leave time and no essential meetings, definitely take off the Friday before a major weekend holiday like Independence Day. There is just too much uncertainty with the westward commute and nothing is worse than spending hours on the bus in traffic when you could be doing something much more constructive than sleeping or listening to moronic ring tones and street urchin cell phone conversations.

 The beets are in! Pound-for-pound these are the most nutritious root crop known to modern man. This bunch is going into the pot for dinner tonight but the majority of the row is destined for the dryer. Beet chips are easy to make and a great snack especially on the trail. Perfectly fine by themselves I like to dust mine with a little onion powder before they go into the dryer.

 Split rail fences are nice but after about ten years they need constant upkeep as they slowly disintegrate. I would prefer 12 ft chain-link topped with razor wire with an occasional Claymore/proximity fuse for good measure. But that probably wouldn't go over too good with the family and neighbors and I would probably end up killing someone's kid. So its quarterly replacement time this weekend for the ones that are broken or sagging.

 I can think of nothing more patriotic than to throw some locally grown beef on the grill this weekend. Stonewall Black Angus is just across the road and so close I can almost hear the moos from my front porch.  Its a bit pricey for every day consumption but I can't wait to throw on a filet and a T-bone grown right here next to The Patch.

Happy Independence Day to all! Get out there and plant something!!!!!

A Fine June Day in The Patch

It was one of those summer days when if for no other reason you just have to break out the camera and take some shots. We don't get many days like this where the temperature, humidity, breeze and air quality provide a near perfect day.

 The Food Patch looking northwest under the morning sun.

 The herb and butterfly bush bed.

Southeast view of The Food Patch with the heirloom lima beans from Emily. They just got a much needed support installed today and every one of them came up!

 Another view of the herb bed.

The raspberry bed. Yields were down this year mainly because I failed to take good care of them last year. Berries form on second year wood meaning how well you foster good wood development affects next year's crop. I made sure the soaker hose went in this season and they got all of the chicken tractor bedding collected over the winter as an early spring mulch. The tall vines here are new wood so I'm hoping that things will get back to normal next year.

The grape tomatoes caged up and waiting for that first ripe orb. I don't think I'm going to make my grandfather's July 4th deadline this year due to the long, cold and wet spring. But we do have a lot of green ones just waiting to ripen.

And the second planting of lettuce under 50% shade cloth. I've found that once we pass Memorial Day its best to go ahead and keep the majority of the lettuce under shade cloth. The other option is to plant in the shadow of taller crops like the tomatoes or the bean and cucumber walls once they form up. Using this approach I've been able to keep leaf lettuce all summer long with no bitterness. The tough part is remembering to start new seeds every other week. Its been hard this season due to the weird weather and being especially busy training and getting ready for the Blue Ridge Ramble.

The Arrival of Summer

This spring has been one of the oddest weather-wise that we've had in our thirteen years of growing at the Food Patch Nanofarm. We had a brief dry spell in the early spring where I was able to do some initial tilling of the main garden plot and the long bed but then we had over a month of Seattle-like weather; consistent rain and low temps that made getting out to do even basic chores almost impossible. To make matters worse, this looks like one of those particularly bad rabbit years (they seem to be cyclical). Luckily, this weekend, I was able to get in and do the last spring till so I could put up the electric perimeter fence.

The chickens didn't seem to complain much about the odd weather as it assured abundant grass to forage on in their own separate pasture area.

They've also got the last of the early spring greens until the new crops start coming in.

And we're hoping not to have a repeat of last year when some varmint got in and slaughtered our whole flock. Since then we covered the remaining holes with wire, taken care to close the pop door tight every night, and I even put out an electronic predator-guard that my daughter gave me for Christmas. I haven't been able to find much info on their effectiveness but it can't hurt.

So far we've been lucky with health issues. In either of our flocks we've not seen any of the diseases normally found in large flocks or chickens raised under factory farming condition. I attribute this to being pastured in the fresh air and sunshine, feed a varied diet, providing a regular dirt bath and getting an occasional head rub. The only preventative I do is to include a dusting of diatomaceous earth in their hutch bedding to ward off fleas. From the chicken keeping literature the hall marks of health are bright eyes and combs, consistent foraging behavior and fluffy butts. So far I think we've got that covered.

Mid-winter February Chores

We took advantage of the good weather this morning to add a bit of fenced-in extension to the chicken tractor. This has given the girls some much needed access to the garden plot and the patch of winter rye we planted last fall, You could almost hear the chicken equivalent of a "sigh-of-relief" as they ran around a bit and snacked on something green. Probably best to get this straight now as they are calling for another round of snow later in the week. We temporarily covered the top of this new area with old chicken wire and zip ties so there would be no chance of escape even though they will only be let out into this section on the weekends when we can keep a close eye on them.

Fall Greens

With at least two hard frosts under our belts, the brassicas and romaine lettuces have continued to hold on. Right now we've got collards, kale, chard, beets, brocolli, cauliflower and cabbage. But unfortunately these won't last for long. Luckily they can take lite to moderate frost without special protection and I hope to continue harvesting up to Christmas.

I'm keeping the lettuces under a low poly tunnel for heavy frost protection and a separate spun fiber tunnel full of kale that I intend to overwinter (separate post to follow). Once we get into mid-December and the chance of snow increases I'll overlay the spun fiber with poly to give more thermal and snow load protection.

First Frost 2015

We had our first frost of the season last night so yesterday afternoon was spent harvesting the last of the peppers, squash, tomatoes and strawberries along with a couple of bok choy for dinner. I put the half tunnel over the lettuce while the the rest of the fall crops are frost proof. I guess summer is finally over.........where did it go so fast?

My son and I were down on the canal last weekend to harvest some American spice bush berries (Lindera benzoin) as they really like the damp under story down there by the edge of the water. Although they do not have official GRAS status, they do seem to be safe and have a long history of use as a spice substitute. They aslso were used to reduce fever, relieve colds and dysentery, and to destroy intestinal parasites up through the Civil War era. I've got them drying in the basement and I'm thinking of doing an alcohol extract as part of an aftershave concoction. It will be interesting to see if the scent is alcohol extractable. Tea was often made from the leaves, bark and twigs.


Chicken Update: All four hens are laying now; FINALLY. It was a bit touch-and-go there as one of the girls waited almost a full month before joining her sisters. It got to the point where we were about to send her back to our supplier. And so far the early training with the nest box blocker at night appears to have worked. We haven't used it in about two weeks and they have yet to sleep in them and make a mess of the nest pads.

With a chill in the air and some new firewood it was time for the annual chimney decon to kill off overwintering stink bugs. They weren't so bad this year so only a few fell down into the flames.

News From Around The Patch (week of 9/20)

Well, as you've probably noted, my promise of doing weekly updates from the patch this season didn't work out too well. There have just been too many things going on and life got in the way. In the long run that's a good thing as all of the "in the way" things have involved other outdoor activities or adventures.

It's been a dry time around the patch for the last month giving us a break from grass mowing and being able to concentrate on the edible landscape. But we've also noted some weird activity in the wild fauna department such as this mother mouse who decided to set up shop inside our gas grill for a very late genetic experiment. I had been removing her nest on a weekly basis for nearly a month not knowing whether it was bird or rodent. This last weekend I found her on there with a full liter of  pups. The gecko would have enjoyed one of those "pinkys" and maybe even the chickens. But that would be mean so they were relocated to the wooded area to fend for themselves. I also had a few flash-backs to all of those long hours in the rodent rooms back in the 1980s!

The other big news is that the pullets have begun to lay; FINALLY! First there were two eggs per day and just this week we've been getting three so hopefully that last girl will not be too far behind. Pullet eggs are a bit small at first but soon gain size. That's a standard large-grade egg on top from one of our fellow backyard keepers. The two on the bottom are from our pullets. Unlike our first batch of chickens, we're hoping that these girls will be a bit more uniform. One of our last flock would lay a huge dinosaur egg while another would occasionally lay albumin blobs without shells. We're also training this group from the very beginning to not roost in the laying boxes at night (using the blocker panel). This means we get pristine eggs right out of the box just like in the movies.

The strawberry bed renovation also did well this season. We took care to pinch off all of the blooms on the Sparkle plants (true June berry) so that the plants would put all of their energy into root and side-shoot development. Same for the Seascape (day neutral) as they began to bloom in late summer. But now that the Seascape have established themselves, we've let them begin to fruit out. The quality and flavor is excellent and we're getting about a quart box every other day. Hopefully that will continue until the first hard frosts.

Next up we'll be reporting on our experiment with a low tunnel for overwintering and winter harvest. We're a bit behind calculating our local Persephone period but with some indoor kale starts I'm hoping to be able to catch up a bit. Eat well and eat local!