Nuts! The Farm Report 9-25-2018

Nuts!

The Farm Report: 9-25-2018

Rather, Carpathian Nuts! or Persian Nuts! or California Walnuts! By whatever name you call 'em, they are delicious and they are dropping right now. They have a milder flavor than pecans - and make Better-Than-Pecan Pie as far as I'm concerned.Click Here to see the pics in Google Photos.

Unlike our typical midwestern Black Walnuts, Juglans nigra, which drops the nut gooey husk and all, the husks on these Carpathian Walnuts, Juglans regia, crack open into quarters like a flower opening when they are ripe and ready to fall.  

This nut is ready to drop. All I have to do now is get to it on the ground before the squirrels do! 

BINGO! 

Well, as you might remember, I turned in my Official Organic Gardener's card for this year due to short help and bad weather - and maybe a little bad attitude, too. Here is one happy result. I sowed the ground around my melon patch with oats and rye grasses. Then, after they were up and the weeds were suppressed - without any tilling on my part! - I killed the grasses around the melons  with (No! Don't say it!) Yes. I used a selective grass-killing herbicide.  Result: Grown in place straw-like mulch and a nice clean melon patch.

After the sweet corn patch was put to bed, I immediately tilled it up and seeded it with a cocktail of buckwheat, oats, soybeans and rye. The buckwheat sprang up within about 3 days. 

Here is the same spot 1 week later. Amazing! 

The patch after about 5 days. 

Same patch about a week later. Cover crops were 'invented' by the Romans, and good farmers have been using them ever since. We do it on a commercial scale in our fields now. Except, I plant by hand and the field guys use an airplane. They plant the seed right over the standing corn before it is harvested. The idea being that the seed has a chance to fall to the ground and get a foothold. Later, when the corn has been harvested and the light let back in, the seed is ready to go - and grow for the winter. Next spring, it is part of the soil, including all the nutrients it has gathered and held over the winter. It works. My bank agrees.... and so does the garden.

The Thanksgiving lettuces are in the greenhouse. Zoey somehow feels the need to stand guard. Maybe she's afraid the chickens will get the lettuce. 

So where are they? In these Walmart sweater pans. I'm growing the lettuces using a passive hydroponic system. No pumps, no water falls, no nuttin' except plant, water and fertilizer. The system was origianlly designed by Dr. Bernard Kratky at the University of Hawaii. The roots grow through the 'net' pots into the water. As the water level drops, the 'air' roots develop. Lettuce loves this system. Not all plants do. 

View from below. The little 'net' pots hold the plants until their roots develop. 

So there were a few tomatoes this year. Waste not, want not, they say. So I picked a basked full and headed for the shop kitchen. 

At least we can make some decent chili this winter! Canning tomatoes has always been one of our most fun times with the garden. We like to play with our food. (I put a few cayenne pepper into the brew, too. But I won't tell if you don't.) I have another cayenne pepper story that involves Zoey, but I can't tell you here.

Nuts!
In Memoriam

When General Anthony McAuliffe was asked to surrender during a battle in WW II, his response was 'Nuts!' So it is with me. I am not going to surrender. Even though we have been surrounded and attacked - again.  Coyotes broke into the High Security Maximum Detention Area during the last 2 nights. They dug under and pushed open the chain link gate, after pushing through the electric fence wire strands! The Two Henriettas survived, but only 'Big Daddy' and his little pullet 'Sweetheart' made it through from the Replacement Platoon. Churchill said, "Never give in, Never ever ever give in!" And I ain't, but it is a disappointment. Here's to better news next time.

September Song: The Farm Report 9-14-2018

September Song: 

The Farm Report 9-14-2018

Click here to see the pics in Google Albums 

"You were my September song, you lasted way too long." So the chorus of the old song goes. The view from my shop window shows the season's change. September is a ripening month and the month when we move away from the heat of summer into the glorious colors of autumn and the harvest.

Hurricane? Schmuricane! Hurricane Florence is upon us, but phttt. It's nutin'. Downgraded to just a Category 2 as I write. Let me tell you what a REAL hurricane was. It is spooky, but EXACTLY 15 years ago, Joyce and I were in Williamsburg, VA doing some research at historic Colonial Williamsburg. I had been commissioned to build an authentic reproduction of a chest and we were there (ostensibly) to make measured drawings and photos. As our plane lifted off from the runway in Omaha, Hurricane Isabel spotted us and pointed its evil eye right at our destination in Williamsburg! It was a category 5 hurricane. To put it short and sweet, there ain't enough tea in China to get me to EVER again be in, around, or near a hurricane. Our room was on a second floor and the building manager said we would be fine (while he caulked the thresholds of the first floor rooms against flooding) - "unless the roof blows off." We could not escape; we weathered the storm in place. Never again - ever. 165 mph wind means SUSTAINED wind, not gusts. Here's what it is like: Tie down an airplane on the runway and run up the prop to top speed. Get a fire hose and have somebody hold it in front of the prop opened up spraying water full blast. Then, go stand behind the prop and see how you like it. Oh, and the heat is in the 90's and the air pressure is so low your body swells up. And you don't know whether you'll live or die. I found the experience less than fun. And my back went out, too. I'll say no more....

"Oh how I hate to get up in the morning! Oh how I'd rather stay in bed." Irving Berlin's WW I song seemed to be playing in O.J.'s mind the other morning. He's a hard sleeper sometimes. Maybe he stayed out partying too late the night before?

The garden was a bust this year, mostly. The tomatoes didn't like the high high temps, and they suffered from herbicide drift. These ones are the first and only from the season. Many of the plants just died. 

Usually, one tomato makes a huge handful. This year, these three scrawny fruits are the best examples I have to show.

The late broccoli is sweet.

The cayenne peppers are good. 

The plants in the cups are the Thanksgiving lettuces started just 2 weeks ago. I'm looking forward to cool mornings in the greenhouse.

We did get enough tomatoes for one batch of homemade tomato/cayenne juice. Zoey loves tomato scraps. Between fresh tomato scraps and fresh raw sweetcorn, these are the only times I ever see her snap or get grouchy at anything. She's guarding her 'mater stash! 

Zoey is usually so calm. But not when somebody is tryin' to get her leavin's!!! Henrietta tried sneaking away a taste. Nope! The Replacement Platoon had already been scolded and sent away packing. 

 After a half-hearted "Get Away!" snarl, Henrietta got the drift and decided to leave, too.

But when it was all over and done with, O.J. decided to just lay back down and dream sweet dreams about ground squirrel stew or mousie pies. Oh how he hates to get up in the morning, and Oh how he'd rather just stay in bed. Some days are like that. Otherwise, all is well at Oakdale Farm.

Hawk! Run for your life! The Farm Report 8-31-2018

Hawk! Run for your Life!:
The Farm Report 8-31-2018

Click this link to view the photos in Google Albums

Hawk! They were called 'Marsh Hawks' when I was a kid. Now they are known as Northern Harriers. As in 'U.S. Marines Harrier Jet.' The two even sorta kinda look and fly alike. Well, my sister and I were out admiring the Replacement Platoon, F-Troop, the other day when I spotted Mr. Harrier swooping around like a fighter jet scoping out the chicks. Yikes! 

About the same time, one of what I think is probably 2 little roosters spotted the hawk, too.

"Quick!" he chirped in gallus gallus domesticus (Apparently chickens speak Latin. Who knew?). and they all raced for cover under the bushes. The hawk didn't just go away, he swooped around for awhile before deciding to let them fatten up for another day. I'll be on careful watch now for awhile.

Jimmy Durante used to sing a song with the lyrics, "Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go, but still had the feeling that you wanted to stay? Go or stay, stay or go?..." "Chickens," as my son Jon informed me some time ago, 'Are not problem solvers, Dad." The Troop decided it would be good to go back to stay in the protection of the night jail.  Eventually though, they decided to go.

I'm starting the fall lettuce in diatomaceous earth this time. It seems to work like magic. 

After only 3 days, the little seeds sprouted and the plants started breaking the surface.

This is where I live. Well not really. But kind of. Joyce was a registered interior designer and member of the American Society of Interior Designers. Her special interest area was grand public buildings. She knew more about these big old barns than is healthy for most of us. She thrived on it. To get her through the winter blues a winter ago we watched the old BBC Harry Dodson series about Victorian Kitchen Gardens. One of Harry's projects was to recreate the Victorian greenhouse and grow musk melons out of season. His variety of choice was Blenheim Orange. It is a small melon which was developed just for greenhouse growing - in the greenhouses inside the walled garden at Blenheim Palace. That building is Blenheim Palace - which is where Sir Winston Churchill grew up. His grandfather was the Duke of Marlborough, who owned Blenheim Palace. So, through the magic of the interwebs, I found some Blenheim Orange seeds.

This is what the melons look like. They are small, but delicious. 

Now my sister thinks we should have fresh melons with our Thanksgiving salads.... Of course she would. So now I'm workin' on it. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. 

Otherwise, all is OK at Oakdale Farm. Have a great week.

To Every Thing There is a Season: The Farm Report 8-24-2018

To Every Thing There is a Season

The Farm Report 8-24-2018

Click this link to see the pics in Google Photos

Carola's Hosta are in bloom. Our family and Carola's first began our long friendship one fall afternoon in Wisconsin. These flowers were just blooming then, and I am reminded of that day every fall. Hostas are pretty much bullet proof. Even Japanese Beetles don't phase 'em! All these plants - and more around Oakdale Farm - came from one plant when we moved from Wisconsin to Iowa.

Part of the madness in my defense strategy is 'Benign Neglect.' I carefully hide my new little fruit trees in mountains of weeds. Even Giant Ragweed can be good for something. 

If you look closely between the two steel 'deer repellent' posts you'll see the sweetest little apple tree. And! In the tire and the weeds is a new Intrepid peach for next year. Did you know the sulfur they use making rubber tires smells like dead decaying flesh to deer? They don't like to go where their dead friends have been, so 'Hey Presto!' we have a peach survivor. Now to keep it safe from the deer AND the rabbits this winter. The struggles never end.

And! In the tire and the weeds is a new Intrepid peach for next year. Did you know the sulfur they use making rubber tires smells like dead decaying flesh to deer? They don't like to go where their dead friends have been, so 'Hey Presto!' we have a peach survivor. Now to keep it safe from the deer AND the rabbits this winter. The struggles never end. 

'Momma's Hedge Rose' may be on the way out. Age and Japanese Beetles have taken a toll this summer.

Out in the back gardens, here is one of my favorite gardening tools - a big lawn mower! 

See what it can do with just a few minutes of proper attention?! The 2018 sweet corn season is officially over.

If you'll look, you can see 3 generations of garden tools here. The lawn mower, my tiller, and between them, the old reliable potato fork. The one I just about took my toe off with last summer!

Henry Ford was quoted as saying that "Usually, a man with a machine is more productive than a man alone."  Of course, he was selling machines! But for us hobby/farm/machine/history geeks, that is one of his most famous farm tools back there in the pic. It is a 1952 8N. Still works and still amazes.  I actually do most of the mowing with it. The young kids can't believe THAT is where the modern 3-point hitch got its start. Yep! Harry Ferguson invented it, and Henry Ford made it and sold 'em. And that tractor is also the subject of some tremendous stories about patent infringement lawsuits, handshake deals between Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson, and the fact that Edsel Ford discovered they were losing money on every one of the hundreds of thousands of 'em they sold. Edsel was shocked! Henry felt that if people could see those little grey tractors in the fields, they would want to go to town and buy one of his cars! He made his money on the parts, son. On the parts! School has started, the leaves are turning, and I'm turning under the garden. Have a good week.

The Dog Days of Summer: The Farm Report 8-17-2018

The Dog Days of Summer

The Farm Report 8-17-2018

Click this link to see pics in Google Photos

There are different versions of what the 'Dog Days' of summer actually means. Is it celestial or is it the calendar? Is it just the summer 'blahs?' Is it part of Poor Richard's poetry? Who knows. Whatever it is, it is hot and we're tired of it. Zoey has the right idea; When in doubt, Snooze it out. Better days will come...tomorrow.  

It is sweetcorn harvest time though! My brother came out to Oakdale Farm to help pick and shuck (that's him in the pic; you probably recognized him even though we don't look a lot alike). Beautiful and prime ready to freeze.

 Thirty-eight bags later, we're set for the winter. Soups, stews, cornbread laced with the 'real thing' and of course, corn chowder! 

It is also time to start some new little plants for the winter greenhouse. Lettuce loves it cool and not so bright. Broccoli, snap peas, beets kale and radishes will all go in. The goal is to have fresh picked salads for Thanksgiving dinner. Or maybe for the Superbowl party! 

And a greenhouse note: Here is what we had just a year ago. The frame was up, the support ironwork was going in, and we were getting ready for the plastic top. That didn't happen until September a year ago. We've come a long way.

Miss Kitty, the Official Shop Cat, isn't impressed though. She thinks that if Zoey can have her own 'Dog Days' then the feline contingent of the operation should at least have a little more comfort time in the hay too. Cats always find a comfortable place to be - even when things are not optimal by other people's standards. They know how to adapt, survive and enjoy the day. Take a lesson....