Saturday, October 27, 2012

After a quick harvest for our Hampden area members I moved one of our greenhouses.  I was finally able to align the stars and catch it on video.  I'll include links to the Youtube channel so anyone who is interested can watch the video and see how we make our mobile houses work in the garden.  First, some new items on our weekly member's email list.  
Brussels Sprouts aren't new but with the first couple of major frosts behind us they will begin to sweeten up.  A real treat!

Speaking of treats, here is one to go with the trick or treat holiday.  I experimented with a late planting of white satin and scarlet nantes carrots and it paid off with our Halloween Carrots Mix.  Beautiful, seasonal and delicious!


I forgot to rotate this picture before putting it on here but you can see one of the key ingredients in next spring's greenhouse move success.  If you don't grease the rails before assembly they don't come apart very easily (and that's a nice way of saying it)!


And here is the greenhouse all prepped and just about ready to move.  You can see the newly shaped, fed and planted beds in the foreground.  At this hour it's already nestled into it's new home for winter.  I've included the links to the videos I shot this morning while moving it.  Be careful with the first one if you are easily motion sick from video.  Sorry, my first walking and filming didn't go well but I didn't realize it until I watched the video later.




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Happy Fall!  What a week this is shaping up to be.  I'll be working on our firewood, planting and mulching garlic and getting beds prepped and planted for the annual fall greenhouse move.  The weather will hopefully cooperate with a respite from the rain.  Before getting the week started I figured it was high time for a blog post.  Below is a photo of some of the ribbons from the Common Ground Fair.  I wasn't able to take the time for a photo shoot while we still had the fresh greens, peas and beans but the ribbons in front represent those items.  All in all we did pretty well.  28 items entered, 13 blue ribbons and 14 red.

This Connecticut Field Pumpkin was one of my favorite entries from our farm.


The next few photos are dedicated to Tim.  He is probably back in England now but he was an invaluable addition to our farm this spring.  In fact, without his help we wouldn't have had nearly the amazing onion crop we have.  He dedicated himself to the health and watering of our seedlings in the spring.  I know he'll take pride in these ribbons for our Ailsa Craig, Red Wing and Patterson Onions.  





Some of our dry beans!


I'm very pleased with this Long Island Cheese Pumpkin.  I had never grown them before but they are now a permanent addition to the Parker Family Farm annual squash field.


Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage.  We didn't have much of a cabbage crop this year but hopefully I'll get a chance to convert what we did get into kraut!




Diablo Brussels Sprouts...and lots of them!



Leeks.  This year I experimented with a new inter-planting idea.  Leeks in the middle of our early beet crop.  It worked very well.  Now the beets are long gone and thanks to Jim and I the leeks are all well mulched for fall.


Thyme


The weekly Brussels Sprouts harvest requires a long, sturdy cart (only 10 stalks is nearly too much for me to push up the hill to the compost pile) to move them to the compost pile for de-leafing and heading.  


Well, that's all for now.  Off to prep beds and stack firewood.  Be well.