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.