Ice and Snow finally gone

 The Ice and Snow have finally retreated - and all the roads are passable.  The last ''great snow storm" was 2016 (although there have been more since then) but it only lasted three days because it was so much warmer right afterward.  It took so long this time, a week to eleven days!

Knitting and crocheting, working on getting supplies again after all that being trapped in : working on washing clothes and towels and dog blankets after all that having to have the laundry taps shut off because of the freezing temps...

But, the chickens are happy.  They are out in the muddy yard enjoying sunshine and warmer temperatures and eating their food.  During several of these days they would leave their food in the bowl - a lot of them were just holing up against the cold and only coming out if they needed to (smart chicks)

This was their water first thing this morning after sunrise - still half a block of ice after being above freezing for more than a day - but it has melted by now.

Going to go out there and change it all over, wash down their platform with the hose, and show Esme some of the things that are already coming up in the yard and the garden - I saw kale out there volunteer from last year already, alive even after these zero degree temps!  It blows me away.  She said she didn't really know much about our heirloom garden project / property of Shepard Lane Garden, but then I asked her what this was, what that picture in a gallery was, where things are growing - and she knows.  She just doesn't realize how much she knows and that the knowledge is part of the heritage project, as well.  We've been identifying the different plants that grow on our prairie areas as well, and she knew a few of those or at least where that plant was and what time of year.

March 15th Square One Garden

 

5 eggs today, and some daffodils from a few days ago

The garden doesn't look like much right now.  I haven't tilled - I've barely cleared last year's dead grass and leaves and started to uncover the things that are there.  So, this is Square One.

In case you're wondering - the garden gets beautiful come May and June.  But it always has to start somewhere.  I love to look at the difference the months make.  It reminds me what is possible when I get out there and it looks like it does today.  Take a look at this 2014 garden post or the bounty in this 2012 produce post.  I'm looking at some more of that two-tone Zephyr squash.  It always did so well.

It is 43 degrees outside, and I am really feeling the itch to get away from this Coronavirus news and work in my garden.  I've been planting in my indoor greenhouse, but at some point I know the cold crops have to go OUT, and the garden needs to be cleared and tilled.  It is planning to rain all next week, too - which means it will be too wet to do anything.  It is a tough call between not getting sick with a normal cold and getting the garden out....

Although it is cold, I thought - I have these thermal clothes for riding in the post office route, so let's put them to work.  I took out the cabbage seedlings and pea seedlings to get some real sunlight for about 15 minutes.  Then I went out and cleared a few little bricked-in sections with the hoe.  I dug up a bit of soil from the base of some trees behind the garden and mixed it into the second pea area.  I did that last year as well, and ended up with some beautiful results.  I've planted peas already along the pole garden fence, just a few days ago before the rain.

 I did a very very minimal corn and beans garden last year, and a few tomatoes.  I put up this fence to keep the deer out of it.  It was a bad time last year - the deer and rabbits were eating almost anything they could find because the weather was just so fluctuating.  It is doing the same this Spring, as well, and I might have to makeshift measures again to keep them out.

I was looking through the garden the other morning and I scared two large deer nosing around the back fence.  They barked and ran away looking back at me like 'you're not supposed to be here yet!'

I also heard Canada Geese down at the lake, a mile down the road.  They were very noisy and I could hear them flying back and forth across the swamp to the dam and back again.  I will have to make some time to get down there and see what is going on soon.

 the goat and our chickens.  The chickens have really been enjoying all of the little bits of green I bring to them out of the garden.

 This is apparently kale that overwintered in my flower bed.  I have read that the flowers are edible, and it might also reseed itself if left to its own devices.  I'll just plant more kale around it.

 Hard to tell but this is the same beautiful area as in one of the posts above.  There is asparagus coming up in there, and lemon balm, and a stray daffodil that helps me know where the gladiolus is going to come up later.  I need to clear all of the bricks so they are visible and dig in the three beds that will be radishes and kale and cabbage, carrots and herbs.  I had a pepper plant and two tomato plants in here last year, as well.  It will look so much better after it is cleared and truly started on.

 the raised bed we planted with the Jones and Irene a few years ago.  I cleared out a lot of weeds out of the foreground one, and I know that lemon basil and purslane will grow in there as the weather gets warmer.  I usually put some cold crops in as well and a few carrots.  Last year I put six jalapeno plants and radishes in the very front area and had jalapenos all summer.

The back section also has strawberries and an Amish dianthus plant that Esme bought.  It has kept coming back as a perennial and has beautiful two-toned flowers.  I also had arugula and kale in there.

 the white daffodils with peach centers, and a bed I am digging to put Good King Henry and Sorrel in.

 the viburnum (snowball) bush.  The goat was munching on it the other day when she broke her string - but we got her repositioned away from it now.

pole garden where I have planted peas against the fence.

Almanac work today 

conditions: 43 degrees, light rain expected

----------------------------------------------------------

dug out round brick with fence in main garden (old snow pea fence), added forest soil

weeded one half of the raised bed

dug out and prepared new brick bed by white daffodils for sorrel

planted sorrel seed in six rows, 3 inches apart

transplanted cucumber seedlings in house, planted more seed

seed started lemon basil (1 pot) and red marrow squash (1 pot) and blue hubbard squash (1 pot)

tried to save garlic bulbs in indoor greenhouse, will see if they grow

aired cabbage seedlings outside for 15 minutes

planted clover seed over area outside chicken yard and in all walkways in the main garden

bits of January (dry beans)

 This is my produce of dry beans from 2014.

I'm still keeping some of the varieties alive..still surprised by others.

We used all the string beans we needed out of the Shackamaxons and Providers while they grew, and I saved the rest of them for dry seed.

The ones I know for certain:

Kenearly Yellow Eye (Steuben yellow Eye) --bush - supposed good for soup beans, still working on growing out enough that survives our land.

Ireland Creek Annie --bush -- new grow out last year, got a half-pint jar grown out from a short row.. very nice.  Will grow them again if we have room.

Jackson Wonder Lima Bean --bush  Mainly grow these for pretty.. didn't eat any.

Provider bush beans - our best provider for green beans.. we always have too many!

Blue Black Shackamaxon beans -- backup longer provider for beans, didn't eat as many last year as usually, made less soups because of less zucchini to go with it.. but they did not fail to produce lots of dry beans.

Tongues of Fire (Lingua de Fuoco beans or Taylor Dwarf Horticultural?) --bush -- these look like a cranberry bean to me, will continue to grow out.

Florida Speckled Butter Peas --climber -- decorative, grew out very well, will continue

Rattlesnake beans --climber -- didn't eat many, they grew okay, didn't save many dry

Bosnian beans -- climber  Nice string bean, green pod with white flowers.   Even as a dry bean the shape, color and the white spot that stays white as the rest of the bean gets orange and black is a telling sign of which is this breed and which are not among the other 'speckles'.

Hyacinth beans (decorative climber) in the cup below, not edible, but pretty purple flowers

Brown speckled Whipporwill cowpeas  climber : I did cook some of the older beans last year, not bad.. very unlike the canned 'field peas' in taste.. very much like them in look, though.  I would prefer the from dry to the canned ones anyday. 

Cherokee wax beans --bush

and three I'm not so sure of:

White climbers - they stay pure white long after they dry...I didn't plant any last year and I still got some...not sure.  They tend to be small and flat, and very confusing which thing they are popping up out of.

White speckled climbers :  These are roundish beans -and have been consistent to form when I plant them (except see above).  They develop a golden yellow to dull brown 'coat' around the back opposite the helium.  I need to plant these again in a place by themselves so I can really see the differences and if there is anything else popping up when I plant these.

Tennessee greasy variant - black and white speckled large beans similar to the Bosnian, but without the white spot or the same shape..they are more flat like the Rattlesnake beans.  They turn dark orange the longer they dry..keeping their speckles under the orange.  They are purple and mottled as string beans - very waxy, with a thick string.  They are fairly good as small string beans, but they are very very late to produce and get thick quickly.  I did not like them as shelly beans (but maybe didn't cook them long enough) and have not tried the dried beans in anything.

I tried to keep the Providers, the black-seeded waxes and the decorative one separate just to make sure...

Jewels from the Garden - beans and corn drying for the year

 Esme helping sort the corn and break out dry pods of beans onto a plate.  She was so bouncey, and wiggly, and overexcited - she wanted to wash everything and dance and jump and splash water everywhere... finally calmed down some.  I told her a joke because she was scowling at me - and said I had tricked her into looking happy... well.. after that she continued to smile, because she actually was having a little bit of fun.

 Breaking out the whipporwill cowpea pods - which are very long, narrow and crispy. 

A lot of the corn seen here was 'volunteer.'  It came up without my knowing what was there or how... we had ornamental corn there last year but grew all of our other corn elsewhere in the garden this year.  I planted a few seeds of Smoke Signals and Peaches and Cream corn in between each of the volunteers to make a full row that we would not step on - as they were naturally scattered a bit here and there and not quite in a straight line.

Upon examining the outcome - I think it was a cob of Hopi Pink and one of Glass Gems that got mixed in, or some cache of seeds some animal had buried from last year we hit with the tiller.    I have them drying out to shell into containers and label for the year.  The pictures don't do any justice to the blues and greens that are present in real life.. .a whole range of color - which is where I say they are our jewels from the garden.

 

And this is the bean crop so far.

The large buff colored beans are Ireland Creek Annie - which did very well.  I started with nine of those seeds and have 30+ and have more to break out in the coming weeks.  The Black Shackamaxon has a showing already and there are gallons of that coming later.  The red and white speckled ones are Taylor Dwarf Horticultural - something I didn't have room for last year.  

The Ireland Creek Annie and the Taylor are both my first 'major' expeditions into full rows of "reserved to dry" bush beans - as most of my harvests have come from pole beans up until now.  There are also some tiny white climber beans, whipporwill cowpeas and black eyed peas.  I planted some unlabelled Pinto beans (which I thought the white climbers were when I gathered them...odd...always have some odd ones out, right?)   Kenearly Yellow Eye (a semi-climber that says it is a bush), black seeded wax (one of those seeds is one, but I've lost it in the mix!), Bosnian and Provider seeds all drying out in the cabinet.

I've also got a decent collection of Mammoth Striped and Lemon Sunflower seeds this year... partly for the chickens, partly for next year.

Heirloom beans at KnitOwl

We just got back from the flea market and talking to lots of people about our seeds.  You can find out more about the seeds we have available this year by going to the KnitOwl shop  I hope we will have a few more days this summer we can take the seeds out and about without rain!  I've posted about seven varieties of beans and some of our corn experiments as well.

I'll be out in the garden checking on things later and might post a few pictures of how things are coming along. 

Went out and planted all but the reserved seeds on the Mayflower beans - in among the corn as I was planning to.  Saw that the Ireland Creek Annies and the Cherokee Wax beans are both getting tiny beans on them - ready to start producing soon.  The Taylor Horticultural are just about there, as well  as the Kenearly Yellow Eye.  I did go and look up the Ireland Creek Annies again and they are dry beans only - but the Cherokee and Pencil Pod wax (in two separate areas) are both useful for fresh beans and for dry beans afterwards.  I noticed the purple Shackamaxons are starting to flower on the fence, as are the 'random' Pintos I put in by the sweet peas.  A few of the black shackamxon 'star' sports are coming up in the corn but not many - that was just not a great time after the rain to plant those?

I looked at the Mandan corn and it is putting on ears and the ears are filling up and putting out brown silks.  It is going to come in long before the sweet corn.  I pulled a yellow summer squash and saw that the Zephyr squash, the pattypan squashes and the yellow cucumbers are all starting to put on fruit, as well.

Heirloom beans for sale at KnitOwl shop

I have put two varieties up for the public sale, again.  KnitOwl farm and craft shop

The first one is speckled whipporwill peas.  I am weighing out an ounce of these at a time.

 These are a semi-vining cowpea that improves the soil and produces lots of tasty peas!

 Tennessee Greasy beans - 25 seeds each, these are huge and prolific - but they start a bit late compared to others planted at the same time.  Well worth waiting for.  The pods are purple and the beans dry out white and black speckles at first, then darken to this color over the winter.

And an Esme flower - she says she grew from seeds, too *ha*

Experimental corn crossings... August third

 This is the first third of the ornamental corn crossing.  This is the Smoke Signals, Pink Hopi and Mandan Bride mixed with last year's corn.  I think the Glass Gem had a hand in the one with the blue kernels, it was in the next plot and because I WANTED mixing, I did not shield any of them from each other.

notes: Pink Hopi and Mandan Bride were flour corns.  The corn from last year was a flint corn with some flour components.  The Smoke Signals, Glass Gem and Japonica were all flinty popcorns.  Most of this crop shows the flint or 'glass' kernel type.  There is one cob not pictured that was pulled a week or so ago that had more of the flour type kernel, larger, flatter and not as shiny.

Pink Hopi is showing through on this set.

 The Smoke Signals was the dark black vs. yellow and it shows up in several of the cobs.
The second cob from the left is nearly ideal, and will be passed through, as well as some of the more pink and purple kernels and some from the flour cob.  The Glass Gem is still to come. we will see how that turns out!

Esme had to show off that she helped me find the corn and shuck it in the field.

2013 garden documentation beans, cowpeas, sunflowers and tomatoes

Here is how the garden is doing this year... the sweet corn was a success and went in the freezer a few weeks ago. We've had enough tomatoes already to make about four quarts of good sauce, and the sweet peas and beans have been producing a good amount as well up until now.

Bosnian bean (with one dried pod from the sweet peas).  I planted one plant at the base of the sweet peas and it is now starting to really take off climbing the old vines and the wires.  I have saved about four pods and am waiting for them to dry and see if the beans are like they should be.

 Connecticut field pumpkin growing well

 Glass gem popcorn has been hit by something... wondering if we'll get an ear for seed out of it this year.

 Dark red cosmo flowers

 Lady peas - another heirloom given to me by a local.  The seeds were small and white, oblong, but about the general size of a black eyed pea.  I'm curious to see what the pods look like filled out.

 Another shot of the pods starting out.

 Black  Prince tomatoes, I think...

Japonica popcorn growing.. it is VERY short... hmm..

 Principe Borghese tomatoes from the seedlings we started indoors.

There are TONS and tons of these coming in now.. glad we bought the variety.

 Blue black Shackamaxon bean flowers

I have planted these in several places in the garden and they are doing well.

 Heirloom brown speckled cowpeas (whipporwill, as they were given to me) - is this the third or fourth year we've grown them?  It looks like there will be a good crop this year.  And the purple flowers are so showy..

 Whole line of plants at the end of where the sweet corn was up until a few weeks ago.

 Speckled cowpea pods starting out...

Autumn Beauty sunflowers - this was a seed packet from Azure Dandelion
I have two heads drying from the other seeds I had saved last year - they are growing much smaller than these.. but that happens.  The birds have favored the smaller sunflowers - goldfinches have flown away every time I've been out there.

The Box of Corn and other seeds

It was warm today, but not warm enough - and not for long enough.  I am staring at my seeds - a box of corn all separated out into little containers.  And at the six bottles plus other containers of beans in so many different varieties.  It is like an archaeological expedition for the future - what of these specimens will we continue, what will happen?  How much can one year change the outcome of this seed - it's progeny... Will I find the item useful or only interesting, or both?

The strawberry popcorn is finally popping.. so much work for so little return, but it is pretty.  Should I plant it again or just leave it as an experiment done?  I have the brown popcorn that was ordered - if I want to try something new - and a black small kernel corn that came from the main garden the first year in the Indian mix... it might actually have been a popcorn.  I want to plant more of the Indian corn - the colors draw me in and peak my curiosities - but have little actual use for it at the moment.  We do want to have chickens some day..maybe, and they would enjoy it.  The 'Mandan Bride' smaller picture center top is the corn that I ordered for that purpose... and to mix with others that have grown here in years previous.  The last small cobs of last years failed west field crop are also shown here - tiny nubs with striped and colored corn kernels on them.  I can't say it was entirely a failure - as about that much seed went into the ground and the goat ate all of the other failed ears that did not make even this good of seed.  Are these cobs hardier for that year?  Will their seeds produce something even better suited to this ground?  

:Last year was a very hard year - with the drought, and that being a new plot of ground never planted with corn before.  Even our main garden had a hard time plugging along, but it did - and we did benefit from it.  The blue aleurone seed (towards the right, two containers) are from the crossing made in the small garden.  I need to decide which beans to plant as well... the black shackamaxon and the cowpeas are givens, but the others I am wondering which others - pintos again?  I like the triple use beans.  I grew Kenearly yellow eyes last year but they were purely decorative because they have to wait until dried stage to use and there were so few but very pretty -  it wasn't worth cooking them. Pictures of the beans in bottles from December.

NAMED corn varieties:
strawberry popcorn
painted mountain flour corn
mandan bride flour corn
japonica striped maize (ornamental sweet)
brown sugar popcorn

other combos pictured:
a flinty peach colored bag
a yellow/white flinty colored bag
red with striped pericarp floury mix corn (2 different, one has more flint)
greenish purple flint corn
bluish purple flint/flour mix type
tiny pastel popcorn
small black popcorn
larger black floury type corn
blue aleurone with striped pericarp - 2 mixes from cross
a few small ears of the hardier ears from last year's attempts

Mayflower Beans and more in October

Went out into the garden this afternoon to pull in handfuls of dry and fresh shelling whipporwill peas and came back with much more.  I had forgotten about planting another round of Mayflower pole beans - and they were not being pole beans at all, so it took me all the way to the house and opening up pod after pod of these pink dappled beans to realize : 'Hey, I know what these are!'.  *facepalm*.  It is like realizing that funny sounding dog with the group is really a cat.  There were also purple 'Blue Shackamaxon' beans that were ready to hang up to dry, some more Tennessee greasy beans and a few other assorted beans.  The pimento peppers and banana peppers gave up another bag each to the freezer.  I saved a set of pimentos to dry but hung them up - when they really should be cored, cut and laid out to dry on a dehydrator.

The first plants I had put out this year were killed in the drought.  I planted more beans in August?  I have only a faint memory of grabbing a few of the saddest smallest beans out of the collection to throw in the ground to 'see'... and they definitely decided to take.

This became dinner tonight and a packet for lunch tomorrow, with peppers, onions and broccoli 

and some of Mark's barbeque pork.

These beans are wrapped and tied on cotton string to hang in the drying room.  They have developed to 'nearly bursting' but do not have any insect damage or breaks in the outer pod.  This is the perfect time to tie them for drying - if the humidity where they will dry is low enough they will dry and not mold.  Otherwise, you might better take your chances outside in the garden to let them dry,although mold and insects can get them there, too.  The Shackamaxons (purple tones shown) will not develop their deep blue-black colored outer shells unless they stay in their pod until dry.  They keep better with that hard shell, as well.  In a few weeks I should have small bowls of pretty 'pink' Mayflower beans and 'blue' Shackamaxons for seed for next year.  There are already two Starbucks coffee bottles full of black eyed peas and Whipporwills, and mixed Florida Speckled Limas and Dixie Butterpea Limas in with those.  Slowly, I am finding what 'likes' my soil here and is hardy enough to withstand the weather.

Clearing out and making new garden space

Spent hours out in the garden pulling up cornstalks and breaking the soil again for new plantings. I pulled out over ten rotten tomato vines that had nothing more to do and tomatoes that were long since done for weeks ago. The smell was atrocious - but it is all outside the garden in the compost areas now. Esme tried to help a bit more this time - mostly by claiming hills of dirt and sand that were 'hers' and also she chose a handful of kidney beans (of all things out of my pile that I showed her) to plant in two little rows, tuck in 'for the night' and water down. I doubt we will be in need of any fresh kidney beans but with the loving care, we will see what comes of them.

I found two types of beans out there in pods still clinging to cornstalks - I had overlooked them before. There were three pods of Jeminez, which I thought had died completely, and three more pods of Kenearly yellow eye beans hidden underneath a tomato vine and winding around a sunflower stalk. I had to be careful not to pull the cornstalks that the Tennessee Greasy Beans have a hold of - they are late and not very well positioned but going strong towards producing something.

Also planted: brown Mississippi silver crowder peas, Kenearly beans (second round), Jeminez beans from the one moldy pod I found out there, in hopes that it will grow. I planted more Mayflower beans and a few Dragons Tongue found in the same condition as the Jeminez. I planted some blue field corn in a few hills only as an experiment to see if that would help the lodging at all. It is probably too late to get anything out of it at all.

I have fence line area cleared to plant more of my Shackamaxon beans. The two (two!) times I have planted them this year from seed they have come up and died not too long after crawling up and looking like they would start to flower.


Positives this year: Bosnian beans, King of the Early Bean, Mayflower bean, Kenearly, Pinto, Florida Speckled Lima Bean, Lemon Boy Tomato, Black Krim tomato, German Queen tomato, Zephyr zucchini, Dark Green Zucchini, Strawberry Popcorn, Sunflowers (all), Zinnias (all), Red French marigolds

Mediocres: Lina Sisco bean, Jeminez, Roma tomatoes, Pumpkins (all), Peaches and Cream corn, volunteer yellow grape tomatoes, Dragon's Lingerie and Dragon's Tongue beans, Hutterite beans

Failures: Maria Amazilitei's Pole Bean (lost all), Shackamaxon, Sweet Dumpling squash, field corn trials :(

will need to rebuy seed for :King of the Early Bean, Jeminez - neither of them produced enough saveable seed to rely upon for next year.

popcorn harvest, canning tomatoes, Esme games

With the threat of a small amount of rain in the air (which we did get some later) I pulled in the strawberry popcorn and the rest of what looked like keepable for seed in the beans. Esme saw me tying bean pods on string and requested a piece - she had some interesting games tying her little figurines to it and there are pictures to follow of those.


the entire popcorn harvest





sunflower seeds
There are a lot of heads to process out in the garden still...


some random beans
Bosnian pole, pinto, Mayflower, Kenearly yellow eye and maybe a few others



Esme was trying very hard to do something with these figures tied to string on the fridge. She kept crying it was too hard, but not telling me what the goal was.



This was the goal. She said the boy and the girl are at a party and they have balloons and they go flying. I would not have thought that - but yes, it makes perfect sense *ha*


This one ended in disaster later...
She said she was tying them into the bike so she could take
them to the gorcery store. But riding the bike in this condition proved difficult and scissors were then involved...

We have about two gallons worth of tomatoes canned up downtairs, mostly Mark's effort on the processing end. I need to look at making another thin fabric dress for Esme like the one in the pictures - it has been her favorite lately (read hard to get off her and wash).