Fall Plowin': The Farm Report 11-30-2024

 Fall Plowin'
The Farm Report
11-30-2024

Well, not everything is black and white. Fall plowing, like they used to do back in the day when I was a skinny kid with hair, just isn't done anymore. Out here where I live, we have been 'no-til' farming for generations, and we have been planting fall cover crops on the fields for a long time, too. 

So, why do I 'fall plow' my garden? I don't like to use a ton of chemicals on my food patch, and I need it to be clean in the spring and ready to plant. By plowing under the mulch and other stuff, I can get a good clean seed bed right away in March/April on the first days, and I won't need herbicides to keep the weeds from sprouting and growing so soon. If I don't get it ready now, then I'm fighting mud and misery in the spring. Erosion control is one reason NOT to fall plow. However, I'm telling you that if you don't take the step and get your fall ground prepped and ready, then it won't be long before you're looking up other hobbies to pursue, because you will have gone sour on gardening - and you'll be buying your veggies at the farmers market or the grocery store.

On of my favorite 'last jobs' in the garden each year is digging the carrots. We had what some would call 'not the best' gardening season this year. Others, like ME would say it was just a crap year! So, I didn't get a ton of carrots, but like these, they are just delicious. Eliot Coleman's words saying that sugar is Mother Nature's antifreeze have once again proven correct. This variety is Royal Chantenay. It is short and blocky, but full of flavor. I cut off the tops and give 'em a dirt brushing. Then to store them, I put them in Walmart bags in the shop fridge. They'll keep there nearly all winter - unless we eat them first.

Speaking of Mother Nature - She's giggling again!!! You might have to biggie up the pic to get the joke, but those little tiny green dots are what we call 'Fall Annuals.' She has cleverly devised classes of plants - which are mostly what we call weeds - which drop their seeds early in the spring. She lets them lay in the soil all summer, and when it is getting cold she tells them to go ahead and sprout! They lay here all winter napping. Then when the good weather starts, Bang! You've got Weeds! Don't mess with Mother Nature - she's crafty and it's hard to get ahead of her.

Here's the reality of gardening. Everything eventually rots. Out on the tarp garden, the vinyl tarp has served its time. I think this was the fourth or fifth summer for it. Old Sol - Mr. Sunshine himself - has pretty much burnt the life out of the material. I've got it cleaned off, and my game plan is to not remove the tarp, but to just laminate another layer on top of it. Also, for next year's garden, I'm going to turn the mini-beds into water beds. If you're old enough to remember water beds, you'll also remember water bed liners which kept the inevitable leaks from ruining the ceiling below the bed. I love growing in fabric grow bags, so what I'm going to try is just lining the mini-beds with black plastic and mulch to keep a little water dam going. I'll set the grow bags right down on the plastic, and let them wick up the water. I'm thinking it will be a winner! Hope springs eternal!!!

This is the remains of the grow bag Rose Garden.  The weather got hot and I lost interest. When I was cleaning it up, to my immense surprise, over half of the roses survived! And that is with ZERO care from Tim this summer. Another reason I'm going to do more with grow bags. I like using them, and obviously the plants like growing in them.

I've set the survivors on top of the empty water pans so they can dry out and cure before I take them inside for the winter. They'll go into an unheated dark part of my shop building like last year. That part worked out fine.

The hydroponic beet patch is done. I planted these about a month ago. Ordinarily, they would have produced. But, our light has been getting shorter and shorter every day and the plants respond accordingly. One good thing: the beets told me they really like the idea of growing in the tubes. Another good thing: growing in the cold, the leaves are really delicious. Yes, they do taste like sweet beets. But, one good salad is all I'll get.

See the beet roots growing their way down into the water solution? The fabric is a 'starter wick' I use to keep the potting soil moist while the little beet plants are finding their way.

I even put up my little diesel heater to extend the season for them. I was hoping for maybe a Christmas salad. Nope. As I write, I can tell you that yesterday, the high temperature inside the greenhouse was 19F. I burned over one gallon of diesel before it ran out. If I kept doing that, it would cost over $5 a day to keep 3 Napa cabbages and a few beet greens going. I love gardening, but that's just dumb. So, we're done for this year.

Again, the benefit is that I learned Napa Cabbage loves to grow in grow bags and will tolerate really cold temps. These are sitting on a bucket of water solution with a wick running from the bottom of the bag down into the water. It works great. You should try it!

The variety is a hybrid Burpee's sell called Barrel Head.

How I read the news every morning! The glare at the bottom of the pic is my laptop screen. The stare across the room is Annie Oakley laser beaming thought waves at me saying, "Tim, get off your lazy butt and let's get outside. We've got work to do."

OK, so we're working on the root cellar again. We have always called it 'The Cave.' So that's how I name it now. Because I put a new door on the concrete work that was put in place around 124 years ago, there was a gap underneath the threshold where Annie is looking. The blocks and boards are my feeble attempt to form up a barrier to hold some concrete. Until we can make this thing mouse proof, it isn't usable. And my sister won't help me clean it out!

A little water, a little mud, a little elbow grease, and we've got concrete ready to put in place.

"Hey Tim! Remember that screw-up I pointed out to you when you made this new door last time? Well, it's still there buddy! And I'm not going to let you forget it, either." She almost seemed like she was smiling at the chance to show me how I messed up. Herding dogs are bossy.

There it is.... See how it is narrower at the left end and wider at the right end? I shoulda fixed it when I had the chance.

So, for other fall fun, I've been makin' bacon again. Once you learn how to do this - and it ain't hard! - you just don't want to go back to buying watered down chemical cured store bought bacon. Yes, I've become a bacon snob!

Add black pepper, curing salts, spices and time in the fridge to let it all get happy, then into the smoker for a day's adventure and this is what you're rewarded with. It tastes just as good as it looks, if I do say so myself.

You can't beat it.

I've also been making my own lunch meat. Olive loaf is one of my favorites. No eye lids or, well, I won't be crude, but you get my drift. This is just pure pork shoulder and olives with spices. Cooked sous vide until done, then sliced. How could you not want to do this?

I'm thinking some venison might be a good addition to my sausage making this year!!! This little tree is one in the timber that doesn't make any difference to me. However! The same pointy antlered buck that rubbed the bark off this tree will do the exact same thing to my new fruit trees down in the orchard - and it will kill them. So, I says to myself, if something is going to get killed it shouldn't be my expensive new fruit trees, by gum!
 
Two can play this game.

...And that's a wrap. The weather has suddenly gotten colder, I've been nursing a sinus cold that would make Frankenstein's Monster proud, and it will soon be officially 'Winter.' Annie thinks it is OK for me to take a little extra time to read in the mornings, and I'm good with that too. Plus, the seed catalogs are arriving and there's so many new things I want to try. I've got work to do.

Be thankful, be happy and be prosperous.

Grow where you're planted.

All is well at Oakdale Farm.

Trick or Treat! The Farm Report 10-30-2024

 Trick or Treat!
The Farm Report
10-30-2024

Yikes! Trick or Treat indeed!!! If you're an internet follower, you'll know this is North America's only marsupial - the Opossum. The internet says they are wonderful tick-eating creatures that everyone should want to have some of in and around their homes. Well, NOT ME! They are chicken killers, and I no longer have hens because I got tired of feeding my birds to these little devils. 

So, how did I get this picture? Annie eats supper in the shop. She is a delicate eater, and usually her feed dish is only half emptied by morning when I go out to get her for coffee. Lately though, her dish has been licked clean. TaDa! now we know why. Oh, I forgot - the picture. Well the other night after a busy day, we quickly wheeled into the shop for last rites. Bang! Right there sitting on my chair as if to politely say, 'Tim, I want some dog food, too,' sat this little 'possum.

I've carefully worked with Annie not to be grouchy with others around her food dish. We've got plenty and she never has to worry about going without. Plus, I don't want a dog fighting me over whether I can put my hand in the dish when I'm delivering free food for her. Well...Annie was tolerating dinner guests without being rude. These two knew each other! Annie wouldn't attack, and the 'possum just patiently waited. I wasn't so polite. We'll leave it at that....

Wild life is part of living out here on the edge of civilization. I often joke that I live in the middle of nowhere. Here's proof. That's my house off in the distance. This is the view from my mother's cornfield to the east of the place.

This is the view of the cornfields off to the west of the place when you're sitting on my front porch. You'll notice a distinct lack of a need for a Home Owner's Association enforcement committee. I would never even think of doing it, of course, but I could pretty much drop trou and pee in the front yard any time I had the urge. The wildlife appreciate the privacy, too. It goes with the territory.

We have a new player, sorta, at Oakdale Farm. This is a real ermine weasel in winter garb. They turn white in the winter and have a little black tip on their tails. Ermine is the super expensive fur you see on Royal Robes such as the ones King Charles and Prince William and all the Dukes wear ceremoniously at the big events. The little black dots on their cloaks come from the black tips on the tails of the ermine who donated.

You'll have to WAY Biggie size this pic to see my Ermine. That's him way out there. He's that white dot Annie is watching. I don't have stoat weasels out here, but I do have a pure white tomcat who also happens to have a black tip on the end of his tail. He's a feral cat, so we don't sit together and purr, but he seems friendly enough. Annie likes him, and he does sometimes sleep in her shop kennel room near her. He's a hunter, and I need that. Rodent control is important. Anybody who can work for their living out here gets free food and a warm spot to sleep. They also get a free spay/neuter coupon good at the Fremont County Vet Clinic - if I could catch him!

It's that time of year again. Annie and I dug the spuds for the year. It's been a hot dry miserable gardening year. I only got about 1/3 the potatoes I usually get.

Sewing project! Used to be, everything came in 'Gunny Sacks.' Plain old burlap bags were everywhere. Now, nobody knows what they even are. Walmart keeps burlap fabric on hand, so I've been buying burlap and sewing my own 'tater bags. Burlap is perfect for root veggie storage. I have my onions in them as well as the spuds. They breath, they temper the temperature changes, they keep out a lot of light. They work. But you'll have to make your own.

Not only was my tater crop small, the potatoes were small, too. Waste not! I say. Little golf ball sized taters are the best tasting ones as far as I'm concerned. I decided to just can them up for making roasted potatoes all winter long. How to peel them? Youtube showed me this trick. Saw off the handle of a toilet brush and stick it into a drill. Add spuds and water to a bucket. Operate drill until clean. It works! 

Clean enough for me. I like the flavor of the peel anyway, so this is where I stopped washing and scrubbing and headed to the kitchen to prep for canning.

Yes, I did buy a brand new toilet brush for the purpose.

I know you were wondering....

"Plant your turnips on the fourth of July, wet or dry," says the old farmer's poem. "Dig your turnips on the 15th of October, drunk or sober," it finishes. So, obediently, we dug 'em. I don't really like turnips but they are fun and bullet proof to grow. And I can grin like a 5th grader all year long reciting the little poem to myself.

Another Trick or Treat - treat. I found some acorn squash hiding in the debris waiting for me. Such a simple joy, but they are so good. Acorn squash is among my favorites. Steam cook, a little brown sugar and a whole lot of butter. Heaven.

The rabbits ate my beets and I didn't get even one. So, not being a guy who gives up, I started some beet seeds in soil blocks to plant in the greenhouse. Beets can take some cold weather. Why not try.

Annie felt like Ermine needed to work in the greenhouse because she thought there were mice in the hay mulch underneath the hydroponic tubes. She hunted while I prepped the beets.

One beet per pot is the limit.

72 pots later, and we've converted from strawberries to beets. Stay tuned with your fingers crossed. 

I'm also doing some wicked Dutch buckets for Napa cabbage.

Napa cabbage likes low light and cold temperatures. This one is planted in DE mixed with cypress bark. The fertilizer and water wick up from the bucket well underneath. Set it and forget it.

Lettuce is a cool weather/low light plant, too. It grows like fire when things are right for it. These roots emerged from this pot just 5 days after I transplanted them. Fresh lettuce for Thanksgiving?!

Kratky pans. No pumps, no aeration, nothin' - just water and fertilizer in solution.

I like Masterblend. Regular Miracle Grow works, too. Try it!

These Walmart sweater pans are also set it and forget it. You've seen my lettuce pans before. This is how it starts. Hopefully, we have enough days of light left to make a crop.

The garden went to Hell in a Handbasket this year. The green row is carrots. I don't dig them until just before the ground freezes. Eliot Coleman says, "Sugar is Mother Nature's antifreeze." He's right. Cold grown carrots are the sweetest you'll ever taste.

I used cattle panels to support my pole beans and tomatoes again this year. Cleaning off all the spent vines and weeds can be a problem job. This year Annie and I used a little different approach: We tied them onto the hitch on the back of the Ranger and dragged them around in the field. When we got back to home base, the vines were totally cleaned off. You're seeing a little corn shuck leavings that will blow off in the wind. I laughed out loud while I was doing this. If anybody had been around to see this rodeo, I'd probably be writing from a home somewhere - with guys in white suits watching over me.

The herding dog DNA in Annie kicked in. She was tired, but she knew all those panels were important to me. She also knew that her breeding heritage was telling her the pack needed watching. So, dutifully, she sat for nearly an hour and just watched over the gang of panels to make sure nobody got out of line or tried to escape. Herding dogs be nuts sometimes!

For fun, I stopped by the National Corn Husking Championship contest. My son, Jon, told me he lived his entire childhood with my Joyce and I dragging him and his brother around to see historic sites and learn how they 'used to do stuff.' He seemed a little resentful, actually. But this is actually how they used to do it before combines and tractors. People walked into the field with a wagon and a team, and they picked and shucked the corn one ear at at time. The big white board is a 'bang board' so the husker could just toss the ear toward the wagon and it would 'bang' and drop in.

Nowdays, it is not a poor farmer's game. Beautiful horse teams, classy wagons, and all the gear to haul everything and everybody around is the course de rigueur.

Belgium horses, Shires, and lots of others were there. 

This is the parking lot with all the trucks, trailers and gear. There were people there in the contest from 9 different states.

People like to know how they 'used to do it,' Jon.

Let me finish with Annie's Ears. She pretty much talks with them. Heelers have 'bat ears.' When Annie's ears are up, she's a happy camper ready to get after it.

When Annie's ears are at half mast, she's still OK, but she smells a rat. "Whaddya mean I might not get to go?"

When I tell Annie she has to stay at the farm while I go to town her ears go down low (and yes, she does understand when I say I have to go to town). It's like she's saying, "Aw poop! I have to stay here." She doesn't like it, but she minds without struggle. She's a lousy rider. It's better for both of us when she just stays with Miss Kitty in the shop.

Annie also thinks she is a lap dog. When we take a little 'news break' after lunch, she often lays in my lap. One ear up to listen for evil spirits - or Ron's pickup truck. The other ear back to make sure she doesn't miss me getting ready to get back to work. I'm carefully looked after!

All is well here at Oakdale Farm. I hope all is well with you, too.

Cheers.