Garlic and Greens

These images are from late October, planting garlic Melissa sent from New York and nestling the tiny kale into the straw bedding. Only a small section of the garlic sent greens up, so I'm hopeful for the rest of the crop. I think I'm most excited about three cloves of elephant garlic as big as my hand that my friend in Tennessee grew. This is the first time I've devoted so much of the garden to garlic and I can't wait until early summer, when we get to harvest.

In the meantime, the mostly uncovered cabbage, kale, and broccoli at the Dannys' is getting ravaged by the cold. I did collect some beautiful red mustard and old-fashioned curly mustard yesterday from under the row cover at Penland...so tender and tasty!!

Pig n' Chicken Nickin'

Here are some images of the pig butchering. The coolers and buckets have bones for stock, fat for lard, scraps for sausage. brined bacon for curing, and brined ham and shoulder for smoking. The bottom images are for scrapple. I wound up with about 40 lbs. of split pea soup, a gallon of lard, 50 lbs. of sausage, five different types of bacon, and 45 lbs. of scrapple. Not too shabby!

Winter 2011-2012

Well, the growing season's over. 40 lbs. of onions this year and the garlic is in the ground. Some of the turnips and beets left over from the summer are the size of volleyballs! The kale and lettuce are nestled into the straw and under the row cover. The harvest was abundant this year with about 200 lbs. of potatoes, 100 lbs. of sweet potatoes, and over 100 lbs. of winter squash. These are all stored safely in the Dannys' basement. Firewood is stacked and both of our freezers are filled with pork...all set for winter. Just made a couple of gallons of spicy kraut...Welcome home Melissa!

The New Ewe(s)

Welcome Home Laverne and Shirley!

And Happy Birthday Danny!

Here's some sweet pics of the brand new pregnant sheep that Danny took. They're Tunis sheep from Al and Yvonne Bessin. They both should have twins in September. They're super nice; Laverne is a little more outgoing than Shirley, meaning that she's more dominant. They're both getting a little pushy when they know you have corn. We feed them cracked corn almost every morning and evening and we have a little red bell that we ring. We also say "Hey sheep...Hey sheep." They have the pasture to roam as well as the electric netting section of the front yard that Danny and I just set up. They look so blissful out on the front yard munching on the lush lawn.

We also just set up the pig pen. We'll get two castrated male piglets within the next couple of weeks from Lance and Valerie Graves. The pigs are descendents from Warren Wilson stock. They were raised completely organically. Now they'll get compost from Penland as well as corn.

Sheep Shed

Cold and Rainy...Finally!

Well, I'm glad I posted in March because I almost missed 3 whole months on the blog. I know you guys were desperately awaiting my next post (haha).

Let's see...since March, I've seeded virtually all of the flowers and veggies for the summer, potted a lot of them up, planted a dye garden, Lupine, Hollyhock, and Monarda, planted green onions, leeks, lettuce, cilantro, dill, kale and chard, harvested parsley, spinach, mustards, turnips, and collards, weeded a ton of vetch, got chicks, bees, and sheep, went hunting for ramps twice, had a huge party and found out our band is playing on the main stage with Doc Watson and the Carolina Chocolate Drops in July!

Whew...so its raining and cold for what feels like the first time since February so I'm finally back inside writing this. It has been SO warm here! We've only had about 1 frost in the last 2 months. We've had plenty of rain in the form of thunderstorms just like summer, mostly in the afternoon. We just had a pretty crazy storm that took down about 7 trees in the main center of the Penland campus. Stuff is so far ahead! I've seen fireflies, potato beetles, and even some bugs I've never seen before. There's a Red Hot Poker in one of the gardens at Penland that is about 3 feet high and getting ready to bloom, something that normally happens here in Julyish!! It feels like jungle here already and I'm conscious of it in a way that I have not been before. After the sparseness of winter, all this green and lush vegetation seems to be closing in on me. Summer!

At Penland, the compost went pretty well this Spring, filling up my pallet bins faster because I have been adding so much more yard waste. The greenhouse is full of flowers and veggies waiting to go outside. Marigolds, Scabiosa, Geraniums, Petunias, Tithonia, and Zinnias are waiting and I'm planting Snapdragons, Cosmos, Nicotiana, Delphinium today. Green Onions, Lettuce, Dill, Parsley, Peppers, Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Squashes and Cukes, Okra, Lemongrass, Rosemary, Lovage and Lavender are all waiting as well. The Tulips, Daffodils, Alliums and Hyacinths were incredible this year, so were the Dogwoods, Redbuds, Serviceberries, Lilacs, Azaleas, and Rhododendrons. The Peonies, Iris, Fringetree, Poppies, Snapdragons, Foxglove, Roses, Spiderwort, Sedums, and Candytufts are all going off right now, along with a ton of other stuff. Its pretty beautiful!

Marie and I went and picked up 3 lbs. or 9 thousand bees and I carried them to Penland on my lap from Wilkesboro...that was exciting!

At home, I got two lovely pregnant Tunis ewes from Al and Yvonne Bessin. I can't wait to tell that crazy story (thanks Ray!). Anyway Danny and Heather have been helping me a lot with them and we built a sheep shed so that I can keep them away from the chickens this year. I also just fortified the garden fence to keep the sheep out this year.

I also got 12 Aracauna chicks that are Clapton's offspring and they're doin great.

Gotta run...maybe I can write the next time it rains~

PEACE

Still Nice!...and (R)evolutionary

So the weather is still nice and the whole Middle East is rising up against (and above) decades-old dictatorships...Twenty Toothpicks (2011) is proving to be a historical year already. I just wanted to show my support for the people of all of those countries that are finding a political voice in what could be a new era of democracy for the region. Hopefully this leads to a more peaceful world soon.

50s and 60s during the day and anywhere from 28 to 45 at night. It certainly feels like Spring came early...maybe the groundhog really did call it. I think as long as we don't have really hard frosts really late, everything will be OK with this early warming.

At this time last year, there were inches of snow on the ground and the year before it snowed right about now. No snow in the forecast so far, so I've been raking leaves out of beds at Penland and replacing them with wood chips---somewhat cosmetic, but the leaves do mat down more than the chips and make it harder for plants to emerge. The chips this year come from the huge piles that came from the tops of all the trees cut for the new dorm. If I buy chips I always go for shredded pine instead of hardwood because I found that hardwood gets more of those weird fungus that look like neon colored deer puke. The mixed chips I've used at Penland seem fine though.

I have been doing lots of cutting back and also weeding, hoping to get a jump on the weeds before they get even hardier. So far that has mostly been Crown Vetch, which adds nitrogen and has pretty flowers, but sprawls and takes over and even worse, develops a root system that winds up being impossible to take out without digging the whole bed. Dandelions are up and similar to Vetch they have positive and negative traits. Dandelions do the job of tilling and accumulating valuable nutrients from deeper down than other plants can, but they are such a recognizable weed that I pretty much have to take them out. Others include Yellow Dock, Burdock, Wild Onions, Clovers, and Grasses. We had a really dry spell for a couple of weeks, but thankfully we've gotten some rain that makes weeding much easier. It also makes raking much harder because the leaves are so heavy.

Crocus and Snowdrops have already bloomed and I saw my first Daffodil open today. Tulips and hyacinths are not far behind. Set up my compost bin and I'm getting ready for Penland students to arrive.

At home, I've been keeping my chickens inside the coop, which is really hard to do when the weather is so nice. It has the benefit of letting the pasture grow a little without the constant pressure of all that pecking. I also know that I'm finding all the eggs and the other day I got 14 in one day, which is a record for this group of ladies (and gents). Getting almost a dozen a day feels way better than the 2 or so that I feel like I've gotten for the last couple of years. I think that when I had the sheep last year and the chickens did not have access to food at all times, that probably limited their production. I also think they lay elsewhere when they are roaming outside. I find them every so often, but I've looked many times and can't figure out where they go. At least one hen really likes the carport and I can't, for the life of me, find her roost. It feels so good to see them in the sunlight and its nice that there are starting to be some greens for them to munch on besides my compost. Most of the tiny green plants poking up are on the other side of a temporary electric fencing (poultry netting is what I call it) I put up, but my charger must suck because they never look like they get shocked and they'll cross over to get to the pasture, but won't be able to get back over so they huddle against the fence in the evening and I have to go carry them into the coop (another reason I have been leaving them in the coop for nights that I'm not around or just don't feel like going into a muddy pasture to scoop up a couple of hens). A funny thing happened the other evening when a couple of hens just decided to roost for the night on the ground, on the RIGHT side of the fence so they could have just walked into the coop if they wanted to, but I guess they were so used to being trapped by the fence they just sat there and waited for me! My buddy, Cheryl, who also raises birds, has a bunch of youngin's already, probably from her incubator, and she wants to borrow my rooster, Clapton, for some fertilization. I really like Clapton. He's really sweet and I feel like we have a good understanding. Newspaper is still just a freaknut.

I spread all last years coop scoopin's onto the veggies garden and my berries. I also sheet mulched the berries, laying about a cup of Steve Solomon's COF around each plant, then putting cardboard below the pine shaving/sheep poop/chicken poop mixture from the coop, with a layer of chips to top it all off. I hope the poop isn't too active (hot) for the berries and the perennials in the veggie garden. I am assuming that by the time I plant the home veggies, it will be fine. I think I'm doing mostly later season hot weather stuff at home this year. Got half of the bank by the road cut back, but still need to finish and clear out the wooded part of the chicken's pasture. Neighbor Gordon and neighbor Danny are excited to collaborate this year, which could mean chickens and/or corn and taters and /or some hops!! Our neighborhood definitely has potential! Starting my roommate search for this season, crossing my fingers. Getting psyched for the OGS this weekend!!!

PEACE

Coop