I just love this time of year! Today the sky was brilliant blue with fast moving clouds that varied from gorgeous white to dark steel gray. The light bounced off the already fading tree colors. It was a beautiful day altogether. The wind was not too bad so Tom and Ed and I were able to finally get the main piece of plastic in place on the high tunnel. We started working on the twist-of-the-wrist assembly, but a blast of really cold wind hit us and it started to sleet, so we decided to pack everything up and will try to finish tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will go back out to the field and pick some collard leaves to take to the Open House at North Country Vet on Saturday. I will have wheat bouquets, Hubbard Squash, some heirloom tomatoes, I'll see if I have any Lemon Cucumbers left in the garden and check the Basil, some corn stalk bundles, and, of course, New England Pie Pumpkins. There will also be some of my crocheted jar toppers and bookmarks and knitted dolls. I hope the good weather holds, and I am definitely dressing warmly!
I put a profile of our farm on the Savor Wisconsin web site, so if you get a chance check it out. The tree fruits, of course, are not producing yet, but next year I should have some of the small fruits, asparagus, rhubarb, and horseradish. Did I tell you I planted Czech Broadleaf and Samarkand certified organic garlic for next year, too? I'm already watching the mail box for next year's seed catalogs and dreaming about filling up the high tunnel.
There was a great recipe for organic fertilizer in the June/July issue of Mother Earth News that I cut out and intend to try next year. I currently use Neptune's Harvest and Sonic Bloom with my own composted chicken manure, and I am really curious to see how this recipe compares. The author uses soybean meal in the recipe, and I wonder why that instead of alfalfa meal. He uses 4-6 quarts of the mix per 100 sq. ft. so I am thinking this must be a pretty potent recipe.
Speaking of compost, I turned over my compost the other day and is it ever looking good! I was debating going ahead and putting it on the field, but I think I will give it another year. I have one more bin to turn over into the first bin.
My dad turned over a 100 x 100 ft. section next to the farm house for a garden for Tom next year -- he doesn't like his current location because there are too many rocks to deal with. Anyway, we need to go over and pick rocks out of the new field, which is ok because I need rocks for my herb garden and landscaping in the front yard. Dad has a plow for his tractor and will go over the plot a couple of times so I think we will be able to pick out most of this year's rocks. I wonder what Tom wants to plant?
Well, it's getting dark and I have to shut the chickens in for the night so I'll check out for now. I hope to have some pictures to post soon for you all to see.
