In the Garden

More garden pictures?  Well yes, because this is the first fall garden I've had that is still producing.  And, even better, its the first fall garden I haven't been done with by now (except the green beans--I was done with them a long time ago, and they're still limping along).  So for my own entertainment and fond memories--and maybe a few of yours as well...

Last minute not-too-cold frames, I figure they'll work until a hard frost.  So far Jack hasn't shown up around here.                      

 

Melissa Savoy Cabbage

 

Asparagus, with berries.  (This is my first full year with Asparagus--is this normal?) 

 

Orange-paste tomatoes that just might make it to ripe before the temps plunge.

 

God I love nasturtiums.

 

Squash and half of the beans have been cleared out.  Spring kale planted in the farther bed, the closer bed will get a heap of seaweed and a cover of straw to rest for the winter.  Or maybe garlic in a few weeks.  Haven't decided yet.  Front bed:  fall carrots, and broccoli that just wouldn't grow.    

 

 Remember the radish pods?  They have the added bonus of self-seeding, and I recently discovered this sweet little harvest of fall radishes.  Who knew?

In the garden...

     

  Plenty of critters, and still that giant squash,

  fall beets, onions as big as breasts (someone else's), carrots, our first cabbage head,

bush beans that won't quit, bull's blood beet and redbore kale, arugula, and those tomatoes (worth growing for the color alone).

I'm not sure what I like more, the taste or the view!  

Morsels

Tiny bites of goodness from the past week...

Its been a while since a proper morsels post, here goes:

A weekend at the lake...

*  We spent the weekend with friends at their family camp in NH.   It was just the sort of low key, float about on the water, read a book in a day or two, ice cream, wine, good friends, good chocolate, and happy children (most of the time) sort of weekend we've all been needing.  The evenings had an August crispness to them, but the day times were just right for jumping in the lake.

* Wylie asked for only money for his birthday this year and saved up enough to buy half an iPod.  In exchange for storing any music and podcasts I want, plus an extra chore a day for several weeks, we bought him the other half.  Our days are now filled with music, texting,  hearing about the latest apps, and negotiating screen time.  But, we've also gained an organized dresser, a clean art shelf, and sparkling bathrooms.  Plus, one very happy boy.

Sibling haircuts

*  Kale got himself a new doo courtesy of Wylie's barber shop (which has since been closed for business).  This picture is after I've shortened the rest to "match" the sides.  Our friends say he's just missing his team number shaved into the side, 1985 style.  I say he's lucky his hair is the same color as his scalp.  Either way its a good thing he's cute.  Its a good thing his brother's cute too...


Thister Thuzy thitting on a thistle

* Juniper's been losing teeth left and right.  As of yesterday afternoon that space is twice as wide.  



screen porch

* The screen porch is completely finished and is functioning as our new living room.  Its funny how much our living pattern has changed since its been built.  We sit out there much of the day (when there's time for sitting), have coffee in the morning and candlelight drinks after the kids are in bed.  The "ice cream window" was put in last week, and makes for easy serving/clean up when we eat out there.  Rob fixed up a drying rack for our garlic out there as well.  Between the cedar and the garlic, it smells amazing--and there are no bugs!


In the garden

* In the garden:  green beans slowing to a crawl, tomatoes taller than me, a handful of carrots, beets and beet greens, way too many cabbage worms and tiny garden snails, frogs in the frog pond, a cucumber a day, kale seedlings coming up fast, spinach going in, onions getting bigger by the hour, plenty of weeds, and one gigantic squash.


this neck gets me every time

Happy Summer (its not over yet!)

Disclosure

So, the truth is (for those of you who have never been here) we don't actually live on a farm.
As Wylie often reminds us, "Real farms have fields of vegetables, and cows and pigs and hay fields. This is not a real farm."  He says this with conviction, and some disappointment.

I get it.

We know a lot of true, honest to goodness farmers.  We are literally surrounded by CSA's here in Waldo County.  Check out the beautiful words and pictures from our friends over at Village Farm.
Now that is a real farm.
My sister and her family have suddenly, excitedly found themselves as caretakers of an amazingly beautiful farm and have launched right into it with sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens, not to mention plenty of gumption.  There's is a farm.

In that sense Frogwater farm is not a real farm. We have a handful of acres, mostly wooded, and half of them in a marsh.  The Frogwater part is legit.  We call it a farm because frankly, Frogwater homestead doesn't sound nearly as nice.  We like the alliteration.  It has never been our goal/dream to support ourselves off our land.  We do however hope to sustain ourselves--food wise and soul wise. In that regard we are a farm--though a tiny one to be sure.

And even though there aren't any milking goats yet (or ever depending on who you ask) we do have a few animals:

Eleven ladies--laying hens of various ages, breeds and personalities.  More on the ladies in another post.  Also Ollie, the cat we share with our tenant.

New this year are between 30 and 60 thousand (in one hive) Carniolan honey bees.  The bees officially live down the road a bit, but will hopefully make their way to Frogwater next spring.

In the past we loved having runner ducks, but they have gone to a better place...
across town to a farm where the dog won't try to eat them.

And Marley.

(Does this look like the face of a duck killer?)

We do aspire to grow most of our own food someday, and perhaps some pigs in the near future...

For now though, when people ask about our farm, I tell them, these days we're mostly growing children.

Most days that feels like plenty to sustain us.

.

Harvest

Sometimes it feels a little like magic.

In The Garden

This has been a strange year so far in the garden.  Never before have I had tomatoes and peas at the same time.  This one (below) was a seedling from a green house and quite big when I got it so it had a head start--but still.  The ones I started myself are flowering.  The garlic is nearly ready to harvest, but the green beans have just begun to flower.  Strange.  But I'm not complaining.  Its been a great year so far for peas and greens (all those cool weather crops) and these past two weeks of sun and heat are making everything else happy.  

But, what I'm really psyched about right now are radish pods.  Every year I plant radishes, and they end up small, woody and deformed.  This year was no different.  After pulling up three or four gnarly ones I decided to leave the rest to go to seed (radish flowers supposedly stave of cucumber beetles--plus they look pretty).  Then, the newest issue of Mother Earth News arrived highlighting the virtues of radish pods. What? These are the little seed pods produced after the flowers, and can be eaten raw like snap peas, or sauteed in a stir fry etc.  They have a spicy bite to them eaten raw, are sweeter cooked, and are pretty darn cute just to look at.  Yum.   So, if you're like me and can't seem to grow a decent radish; or maybe you don't even like radishes but plant them to mark your carrots, and now you've got a bunch of gone to seed radishes taking up space, well--you're in luck.  Pretty blooms and tasty pods.  Who knew?

Tomato, shell peas, lettuce mix, chard

radish pods and flowers, caged nasturtium, snap peas

 

Monday Morsels

Its been beautiful here... then raining... then hot and muggy...then pouring buckets, followed by a sun so bright and a sky so blue it almost hurts.  All of which has made for some amazing green around these parts, with everything growing in leaps and bounds, including somehow, the children.  The maples and oaks are all leafed out and our yard suddenly feels as if its enclosed in a lush green envelope. Its at times a little claustrophobic but mostly perfect. We've been busy doing all kinds of things in the yard and garden, alternating with inside quiet time, lots of audio books, and a new home school routine that seems to be working well for us (details to come).  Which is to say I haven't made much time for blogging, but here's a bit of whats going on in our little green corner of the world.  

Morsels: Tasty bites from the past few days...er weeks.  

Me:  "Grampy's going to come soon, on his motorcycle."

Kale:  "Its not a motorcycle, its a MOTORCYCLE!" (insert loud vrooming).

 Juniper has been taking a little tumbling class, and is extending her repertoire of somersaults, bridges, and frog headstands, to include the trapeze.  Our own acrobat in the making.

When I posted this photo the first time, it occurred to me how silly (irresponsible?) it looks--me in full bee gear while Wylie lays about in shorts and a tee just feet away.  But truly, that's how docile these bees are!  They are incredible really.  More on the bees to come I'm sure.  

The other busy bees around here have started their own garden (in the remains of our raised beds from the old garden site).  They're growing peas and beans with big plans for a money making venture curbside (or gravelly edge side.)

Model airplane kit;  $3.00 at a yard sale;  Several hours of focused concentration:  priceless.

Conversation between Kale and a Robin:  

"Oh hi birdie, hi!  What you name birdie?  Robin that my name, ha!"

First blooms on our peach tree ever!  

                     Rock star brothers

Garden in progress (from last week).  The tiny hoop houses are for the tomatoes, built from left over fencing and plastic.  I hope to put up a few more, with row covers for the brassicas and squash to go in this week.  

One of our favorite salads these days::  shredded cabbage (red or green), shredded carrots, sesame seeds, unsweetened coconut flakes, and raisins.  Dressed with olive oil, apple cider vinegar with a bit of honey and a pinch of sea salt.  My kids eat salad regularly, but this is the only one they enjoy.  

Chicken Lovers 

(Kale's tee was one I painted for Juni when she was 4, her friend Eve, above, had a matching one)

Enjoy your weekend!

Monday Morsels: Cranberries!

Wow!  I've never been so excited about cranberries before.  I mean, I've always liked them just fine--but there's something so exciting about finding wild food, in abundance, right in my yard.  Obviously we're psyched.  And my birthday rake is just the tool for the job, loving it!  

* Morsels are a little late this week--its been a busy one.  Just a few highlights from last week:  

fun in the leaves 

 for some...

* Last week we had a cold snap and broke out all the woolens.  Kale is sporting two hand-knits from Wylie's toddlers days.  Love that.
 

* Just as quickly as the cold came, it was gone.  Eighty degree days in October are a bit off, but we'll take 'um.

*Mime came for a quick visit, with treats for all:  candy corn, sushi, and playmo' guys.
Favorite Juniper quote:  "That Mimi is full of mischief!".

* Kale is all about guys lately.  He used to be all about the trucks, but now he's figured out that there are worker guys who get to drive those trucks.  Now all of our little tractors have mini guys propped in/on them somehow.  I love that his definition of a "worker guy" can stretch to include a Lego mini figure of a pirate woman, a Guatemalan worry doll, and even a tiny plastic chicken.  All of whom happened to be just the right size to fit his needs.  He and I found his "train guy" hat at Goodwill.  We both think its pretty much the greatest.

* The peppers survived the hard frost (they were in the cold frame).  The beans and basil did not.  Bummer.

A few survivors

* The sunflowers were a crazy 12 feet tall!  The garden looks so different without them.  I hope the seeds were far enough along to dry for the birds.  I've tried every year, but mostly they just mildew.  Any suggestions?

Hay wagon 

*  Last summer we gave our runner ducks to a farm where there were no dogs trying to eat them.  We miss our funny ladies, but know they are happier there.  I ran into their new farmers last week, who mentioned that one of our ladies is a new mama.  Ducklings might just be the cutest baby animal I've known. Certainly the funniest!

* With this warm spell I put a late crop of lettuce/spinach/kale into the cold frame.  I also thinned the carrots and beets and fed it all some chicken poop tea (seriously).  It seems late to me--not sure if they'll get a good enough start before the cold really hits.  If they're not big enough to harvest before snow they should at least have a great head start on the spring.  

                      Nearly full moon over the bay

Happy Full Moon!