Tag: Garden

Coop Progress and baby onions

 This photo here shows you the proximity of the chicken coop to the rest of the homestead.  You’ll see the garden shed way over to the right… and my coop behind the barn/garage on the left.  Mr. Chicken Heart can’t get past the fact that someone told him rats like chicken feed.  Why he never thought of this in the twenty years we’ve had horses and their barn in very close proximity to our other house  is beyond me.  Horse feed rats are more horrifying than chicken feed rats, apparently.

 Have a great weekend – let’s all think SPRING.

Greenhouse Project

   Our rising Son is at that age where he knows everything, and everything you think you know is stupid.   (enter my mother, chuckling at the irony…paybacks, apples not falling far from the tree, surely you remember when..….)   The problem is, I remember all too clearly!…

We forced him to tag along with us on errands yesterday and I noticed while having lunch at Chilis, I think rather than be seen with his parents he would have evaporated into the upholstery of the booth if he could have found a way.

  So this morning when he said  “Dad, remember we talked about the greenhouse, want to build it together today?”… you know… my heart kinda skipped a beat or two.  The moon will surely be blue tonight, I’ll have to remember to look. 

Louie

 Mike and I come from Italian stock (I’m a half-breed to be honest) , and as is typical of our history, our grandparents were avid gardeners. It was a means to feed their family, not just the hobby we nurture today.  Mikes grandfather had a fruit and vegetable stand in West Haven.  He remembers rows and rows of plants in the garage and out in the yard behind the store, and the scolding he’d get if he put too many potatoes in what was supposed to be a 5 lb. bag to be sold in the store.

 Grandpa Al in his shop

  My grandfather grew roses and tomatoes and peppers and there were fig,  cherry and loganberry trees in his back yard on Staten Island. I remember harvest days when we would climb ladders and drop fruits onto tarps from the trees.  I also remember being scared beyond  silly in my grandparents presence. They were a stern lot, speaking broken English and  always, in my eight year old point of view, so serious.   Occasionally  they’d take a giant Hershey Bar out of a drawer in the kitchen and give each of us a big chunk of chocolate.

      Mike decided about five years ago he wanted to learn the art of gardening with the traditions and methods our ancestors used.  Our grandparents are long since gone… however LOUIE… Louie Louie.. is still alive and kicking it up in his magnificent garden in Middleltown.  Louie was a sheetrocker in the building business for many years. This is how Mike came to know him.   He is also an italian immigrant and fantastical gardener. That man works wonders in the soil of the small plot of land next to his house.  He also raises and kills rabbits for food, the reason I sometimes despise him… but in fairness he has let me buy two in recent years so that I could save them from his dinner table.   One of those rescue rabbits died at the paws of my barn cat… ask me how awful I felt that day. No don’t.  It’s still awful.  (I’m sorry, Sonny.. I failed you.)

  ANYWAY… Louie is tight-lipped with his gardening secrets. You cannot ask him direct questions, he will not give a direct answer. In a heavy italian accent you can imagine this line …”  Oooooh, you wanna know, huh?…..eeee hee heee…. well, I notta gonna tell ya”.     Mike has learned that he needs to just walk with him in the garden as he does his thing, and  it is there that Louie starts to talk.  In the talking, he gives away little bits of information, especially when he scolds.  (What is it with the scolding?).    “You putta da seeds in That size seed cup?  Oooh, too big, too big.  You gotta starta small, so the plant gets a little root bound. Then a they grow strong, you see?  Then a you move them to the bigger seed cup.  You young a people want things too quick, that’s a you problem.”

   This weekend while Mike paid a visit and gathered some tips, Louie gave him a big bunch of dried oregano from last years crop. This Old House smells delicous with the scent of rich oregano.

Count on Martha…

..for those fabulous ideas that no human can possibly pull off full time in the style that is Martha – even she has an army to do the dirty work. She does make it look easy, though, doesn’t she?

 And just in case you notice… Yes, this post was written at 2am.  Because at 45-gonna-be-46, my sleep is not as restful or as dependable as it once was. Not that I’m complaining…. I don’t have tsunamis rolling over my house and driving my car down to the ocean today, so I am filled with gratitude at this moment and sorrow for those people.

I found this soap recipe on another blog that is relatively new. She gave an excellent tutorial with photos and used lavender and lavender oil.  I grow lavender out in the “Newport Real Estate” lamp post garden and I plan to dry it for sachets…and soap! This recipe looks pretty do-able and I’m gonna give it a go. You might see it on the farm stand this summer if I get it right.

 photo from Loxley Abbey’s soaps and sundrys –

Martha says….

We used plain, unscented glycerin soap base for these projects (available at most crafts stores). Soap bases with natural additions, such as aloe vera, goat’s milk, or olive oil, are great too.

Tools and Materials

•Assorted citrus peels, berries, and herbs
•Paper coffee filters, if using herbs
•Clean, dry containers, such as milk cartons, drink boxes, juice-concentrate cans, or yogurt cups
•Heat-resistant glass measuring cup or bowl
•Vegetable oil cooking spray or petroleum jelly
•Dough scraper
•Glycerin soap base
•Spray bottle
•Rubbing alcohol
•Paring knife

Fruit and Herb Soaps How-To:

1. Make Purees

Wash and dry all fruits and herbs; use whole berries, herb leaves, or citrus rinds with pith removed. Puree separately in a food processor. To make the herb purees, you may need to add 1 to 2 tablespoons water; place pureed herbs on a coffee filter, and wring out excess liquid before mixing into soap. Set purees aside.

2. Prepare Molds

To determine how much glycerin soap base you need, fill mold with water, then pour the water into measuring cup or bowl. Note the amount, pour out the water, then dry mold completely. Evenly coat interior of mold with cooking spray or petroleum jelly; wipe out excess.

3. Melt Soap

Use dough scraper to chop soap base into 1/2-inch pieces. Microwave soap in a glass measuring cup or bowl covered with a paper towel on medium in 30-second intervals until melted but not boiling. (A double boiler can be used instead.) Add more soap pieces as needed, and continue melting. Remove from microwave, and stir until smooth.

4. Mix In Purees

Start with 1 teaspoon puree per cup of soap. Add more as desired. The color will intensify as the purees steep in the warm soap; stir frequently to keep soap from setting. Heavy additives may settle at the bottom, while light ones float to the top. For consistent distribution, let the soap cool (but not solidify); then stir in puree, and pour into mold.

5. Pour Soap into Molds

Fill small containers 3/4 inch full with soap; for cartons, fill partially to form 1 bar at the bottom, or completely to make a block for slicing into bars. Spray surface with alcohol to eliminate bubbles. Let soaps set, 20 to 60 minutes, depending on size. Transfer molds to freezer for about 2 hours (this will help the soaps release from the molds).

6. Release Soap From Molds

Tear away cartons to unmold bars. For hard containers, pry soap away from the sides, and press bottom of container to release. Neaten soap edges with paring knife. Slice large bars into smaller ones. Use soaps within 3 to 4 months.

Moving Right Along….

 Thank you all for your kind words regarding our book project.  What the book represents to me is an acknowledgement of  just how far my relationship with my mother has come since the days of my rebel teen existence and her school-teacher/careful-as-you-go way of living life.  A bull and a china shop, Mount St. Helen and a tiki hut, Niagra Falls and a folded newspaper boat. You get the picture, I’m sure. 

 Anyway… to answer a question I get frequently, yes, my GIANT dog Ben and my smallest dog Rudi get along very well.  Ben is an amazing animal, his size does not give him the impression that he should dominate. As a matter of fact, he still believes he can fit on your lap, and demonstrates this regularly.  Ben now weighs approx. 195. lbs.   Rudi weights 9 lbs.  I do love my boyz, although Rudi still marks his territory, pissing on various things if I don’t catch him, the little sh*t. Ben has NEVER done this in the house.  Ever.  That would create a floodplain.

   Big plans for the garden. BIG. Besides tripling the vegetable garden, we have ordered 10 blueberry bushes and 10 raspberry.  My back porch has been transformed into a mini greenhouse, complete with heater.  These are his babies, you see.  I was given the task of watering the other day, and you’de think there were human embryos in there with the set of instructions I got.   We are also going to build a roadside stand, so by mid summer we should have a nice selection of produce and cut flowers for passers by.  We just filled out paperwork for the farm bureau, hoping to be accepted.  

   I’m excited for This Old House to become a working farm once again…

  This is not my photo… but I love this farmstand, would like to have something like it…
  See the heater on the floor?  He’s nutz.

What’s sprouting this spring at This Old House

Mike has proved himself in his middle age to be quite the gardener. On our previous farm he grew a  plot with our occasional assistance.  Hey, I had the barn to contend with, you know?   Here’s a photo of our garden a few years back –

 Since I am currently unemployed, I’ve decided to take gardening more seriously this year.  We’ve got 43 farmable acres and Mike already has a corn field plan as well as the two smaller garden plots we installed last year right outside the back doors.  I’m also planting blueberry and  raspberry bushes – of which we had a profuse thicket at our previous home. 

The first garden here….

  And so…I am going to teach myself the art of canning (jarring?) because I love eating it and we grow it, so why not make it last?  This winter has been  brutal and it would have been nice to be able to go into the pantry and bring out jars of produce from last summer’s crops.  Our garden was sparce last year, having been thrown together as we were moving in…   However.. yesterday, the man brought home $300 worth of seeds, yup – $300.   Three-Hundred.  Three zero zero.    In seeds.    
   So. …There’ll be alot of this going on in the coming months…
 

And come summer, with a little elbow grease and some new-found knowledge –
This too…..
These photos are from the Durham Fair last year – I drool over this section.

For those of you with experience here – feel free to give me any pointers, recipes, tips or tricks –

Forcing the Issue

    Unrelated to post title… Did you know?… No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes….Just Sayin… in case someone in particular is reading.

   I drove up to our old house today and cut some Forsythia and Quince… I can do that because we still own the place. *heavy sigh*    

Have you ever done this?  Force spring bloomers in a vase?  More beautiful than a spring bouquet you’d buy at the grocery store.