I so intended to write to you again in the spring. But I somehow slid right through from Winter to Summer and missed the entirety of the middle months! Well, here’s the truth, if you don’t hear from me, it’s good news. It means the farm, kitchen and the vineyard are eating up almost all my waking hours and that means we are in business and life is good!
I did get some quiet time in February and March and that was lovely. Got a few things done and was well ready for planting time when it came ‘round. I opted to go into the field with our first five rows of sunflowers and crops in early April. Highly risky! But we have 40 rows at 70 ft per row, I figured if I lost the first five due to a frost, I had 35 more. We’ll I didn’t lose them and hence, we had big beautiful sunflowers, peas, greens and herbs by mid June.
I also direct sowed (seeds right into ground, no greenhouse sprouting) pretty much everything because my experiment to plant seedlings and put in the hoop houses to sprout was an abject failure! So let’s talk a little more about hoop houses – specifically the ones we had. As I believe I mentioned, they were another universe in the winter; warm, moist and earthy smelling. Bess threatened to take a chair and just sit in their on some of the colder dryer days. But, based on the recommendation of the gent who covered them, we used a cloudy plastic. This did a number of things including bring the growing process to the slower than a snail’s pace! So while we did enjoy everything we grew in the houses during the winter, the growth was slow. Between the pace and the perpectual dampness, I actually think the seeds rotted in the soil before ever having a chance to sprout. Well, we won’t do that again. So next year, 1) clear plastic on the houses and 2) I will use my tiny pup tent greenhouse for the seedlings – it allows for light and drying air flow when manually manipulated each day.
In the field, we’ve tried a variety of moisture and weed control methods and have basically found that hand pulling in conjunction with straw is our best bet. Well, that would be unless we could cover all non-flower/veggie growing areas with old grass cloth carpet that we got when The Neighbors replaced their massive rug and gave us the old one. So perfect but, well, though massive, not nearly enough to do the trick in the entire two acres!
During a property tour recently, I was asked what we do about the gophers and ground squirrels and I said “we share”. Yes, we have them but, so far, they have not wrecked the havoc they could, so we cohabitate. We’ve sprayed only once with pyrethrum. It is organic but it’s still an insecticide and takes out the good (bees and lady bugs) with the bad (cucumber beetles – which, for the record, eat e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g except cucumbers). We spray early in the morning to avoid the good guys but the field takes on an eerie quiet immediately after. I don’t like but I’ll take it just once a year.
The vineyard was planted in late May. It’s a wonder to see. We planted sprouts we’d ordered a year ago. For a year they were tended in an ideal environment greenhouse during summer and then perfectly pruned and placed in cold storage in the winter, only to be returned to the sun and leaf sprouting before delivery to us. We loved them. So did the gophers. Now this, my friends, is where I draw the line. At $3.50 a plant, we lost more than 60 before we got things under control with devices we call gophinators, an owl house and all new sprouts being planted within gopher-proof baskets. Take my word for it, if you want to plant big sprouts, put them in gopher baskets from the getgo!
We have finished codling moth spraying (also organic) for the season. We will have a smaller harvest of orchard fruit this year as most of the trees are bi-annuals. That’s ok, half is plenty to feed all the canning and pie-making classes on the agenda. We need to fertilize the orchard. Must do some research on that but I love me some chicken poop.
The Farmer's Markets have been truly great for us, especially Saturday at Steele Winery. It's fun to see everyone who stops by, especially the regulars. This Saturday, we will add a full second booth, just to sell the massive quantities of onions, beets, carrots, etc that are leaping out of the field!
And all of this goes on surrounding the heart of the property, our barn. The kitchen has become a hub of great classes and wonderful events. I’m shocked but not that the Farm Feast Happy Hours sell out faster than the get-your-hands-dirty-and-work Cookin’ on the Farm Classes. No matter, those that attend both have a good time and those that attend the classes go home with a hefty amount of additional knowledge. We had a near fatal problem of temperature management in the kitchen when guests were coming – after all it’s built for speed, not comfort. Every commercial kitchen on earth is a temp nightmare. However, we’ve figured out how to get the majority of the hot work done long before class time and then invoke the swamp-cooler which brings the temp down to a human condition. I worry about the canning classes coming up but I’ll warn the guests; wear as little as you can, it’s gonna be hot! We’ve got lots of great catering gigs coming up including many small parties, an Olive Orchard Italian Feast at Boatque Winery, a big wonderful wedding and, the Poly Pop-Up at the Pear Festival (say that three times fast!) and the Steele Harvest Festival. All in all, between the classes, parties and catering, we will be kept quite busy!
Beyond all this, there are a few big projects on the horizon yet this summer, including building a lean-to to enclose our pressure tanks and water tank pipes and finish out the barn loft. Those involve contractors and that can be a struggle here in Lake County but we’ll make it work. We are getting there, a day, a week and a season at a time and we couldn’t love the process, the results and this little plot eden any more than we do! I’ll keep you posted.