Bush Beans and Pole Beans Have Sprouted

Saturday morning I went out to the garden to see if anything had grown.  The bean seeds, which were out of sight the previous day, had sprouted and were sporting their two cotyledonous leaves!  With 1/2 inch rain on Saturday night, it's off to the races now.

Tomato Plants in the Ground

I planted a bed full of tomatoes this morning!  One plant of Aunt Ruby's Green, and two each of the other varieties.

                  Black Krim                    Sun Gold
                                                      Cherry


                 Aunt Ruby's                   Long Tom
                 German Green


                  Mule Team                    Cherokee
                                                       Purple

I planted them in the bed as shown above.  It'll be hard to forget what's what this year, though.  It's going to be a colorful assortment of tomatoes... purple, black, gold, green... and even some red!

Aunt Ruby's German Green  80 days.  (Indeterminate)  Heirloom beefsteak variety from Ruby Arnold of Greeneville, Tennessee who passed away in 1997. Slightly flattened, 1 pound fruit that ripens to a pale greenish-yellow ("lime jello green") with a slight pink blush that extends to the inside. Superb, fruity, sweet and slightly spicy taste. apparently, judging when they're ripe can be a bit tricky.  Watch for a faint yellow blush on the stem end and a softening of the fruit.  I bought this on a whim from Will at the Pittsboro Farmers' Market.

Long Tom  85-90 days. (Indeterminate)   A popular heirloom with scrumptious, old-fashioned, tomato-y flavor. The fruits are meaty with few seeds -- delicious in salads or sauces. A strong vine, this variety yields superior crops of barrel-shaped, 5in fruit.  Purchased from Will at the Pittsboro Farmers' Market.
 
Cherokee Purple  85 days. (Indeterminate) Disease resistant, good for the South. Pre-1890 Tennessee Heirloom, reportedly of Cherokee Indian origin.  Large fruits (10 to 12 oz.) are smooth with slightly ridged shoulders. Ripens to a unique dark, dusky pink/purple. Sometimes called a 'black' tomato, the color carries through to the flesh, especially at the stem end. Good resistance to Septoria leaf spot.  My favorite tomato last year!  Purchased from Will at the Pittsboro Farmers' Market.

Mule Team  86 days. (Indeterminate) Heirloom that is notable for its uniform red fruit, weighing 8 to 12 oz., on vines that bear continuously until frost. Fruits are slightly ovate with slightly dented shoulders and are defect-free resulting in a continuous yield with a very high percentage of usable fruit.  Aptly named workhorse of a tomato which delivers well and long into the season.  The fruit is sweet with a slight amount of tang. 'Mule Team' is one of my favorites.  Purchased from Will at the Pittsboro Farmers' Market.

Black Krim  75-90 days (Indeterminate) Heirloom from the Black Sea of Russia.  Dark brown-red tomatoes are large, 10 to 12 ozs., and very richly flavored with just a hint of saltiness. Color is darker in hot weather, and fruit seems to set well even in the heat. Prone to cracking, but a very heavy producer.  Best eaten fresh.  Not a good canner.  I picked this one out of the seed catalog and grew my own seedlings.  Tip read online:  Pick it before it looks ripe. Goes soft quickly, and does tend to get cracks.
 

SunGold Cherry Beautiful cherry tomato that ripens to a golden orange. The Sun Gold Cherry is possibly the sweetest cherry tomato around. Plants bear lots of fruit, and ripen early, continuing to produce throughout the season. I love these little bites of summertime!  Purchased from Will at the Pittsboro Farmers' Market.

Blessed rain ... but not enough!

It finally rained this afternoon.  My rain gauge registered 1/4".  Better than nothing, but I'm greedy!  Sure would've been nice to get a good, long soaking rain.  At least the residual pollen has been washed away and the world has been freshened up.

Green Smoothies

I've been thinking about vegetable smoothies.  I have many delicious greens in the garden.  While I can enjoy most of them raw, some are not that appealing.  Take radish tops, for example.  They're a little hairy and tough, but they're loaded with vitamin C.  In fact, radish greens contain almost six times the amount of vitamin C found in their root and are also a good source of calcium. It seems a shame to throw all that goodness to the chickens!

I went on-line to read how other people use their veggies to make smoothies.  The prevailing advice seems to be this:  Use equal amounts of greens (packed) and fruit; add banana or avocado for creaminess; plus juice and/or water to aid with the mixing and to make it all the right consistency.  There was an emphasis on using fruit to cover up the taste of the greens.  What's wrong with the taste of greens?

For my first attempt I followed the advice.  I collected and cleaned an assortment of greens from the garden, including several varieties of leaf lettuce, spinach, beet greens, and radish tops.  I measured two cups, firmly packed, into my blender.  Then I added one small apple - sliced with skin intact, 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries, and 1/2 avocado, along with 1/2 cup orange juice and 1 cup water.  I processed it until it was nice and smooth ... and brown!  It looked like sludge, but I have to say it was pretty tasty, albeit on the sweet side.  So I added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and called it "done".  I'm sure noone else would have touched it.  The color was very off-putting.  I put it in an opaque plastic cup.  Problem solved!

The next day I decided to forget all that fruit.  Too sweet.  Plus, I like the taste of greens!  I basically put together a salad in the blender. 

I started with 2 cups (packed) of the same greens mix from the garden, with the addition of parsley.
I added:

• 1 carrot, grated
• 1/4 small bell pepper, chopped
• 1/8 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup cottage cheese (for creaminess)
• 1/2 cup prepared vegetable (V-8) juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 ice cubes
• a few twists of fresh ground black pepper

I zinged it all up in the blender.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about!  Bright green, nutritious AND delicious!

April 15 - One of my favorite days!

What a busy week!  April 15 is the annual tax deadline, which translates into a lot of bookkeeping work.  A necessary evil.  What I like to focus on, though, is that April 15 means no more danger of frost.  Time to seriously get into the garden!

Yesterday I planted two rows of Blue Lake Pole Beans and three rows of Jade Bush Beans.  I thinned one row of beets, adding the baby greens to my salad mix.  I sowed more seed in the holes where squash seeds planted earlier seem to have failed to germinate.

Today, Rouse helped me put up a string trellis for the sugar snaps to climb on.  I planted one row of Lek's Long Pole Beans right down the middle of the sugar snap bed.  I figure they'll climb up the spent peas when the time comes.  I'm always looking for efficient use of space in the garden!

I pulled up the rest of the fall spinach and made a wilted spinach salad for supper tonight.  Dressed with hot bacon vinaigrette and topped with fresh hard boiled eggs, it was very tasty.  We still have enough cut spinach for another meal.

A Zesty Bouquet!

Hubby Keeps Wifey Happy in the Garden

No more hauling water!  No more dragging hoses back and forth!

Rouse had a water line run out to the garden with a heavy duty water pipe installed on location.  Good ol' H2O right at my fingertips for watering the garden, watering the chickens, cleaning up. 

Thanks for making my life easier, Rouse!

Wow! How things change in a few days!

We've been in Asheville this past weekend, visiting Noah and Andrew, getting some work done on the house, and checking the local woods for spring wild flowers.  Rain was threatening as we left town, and I had hoped we would get a good rain to wash away the record-setting amount of pollen that has fallen this season.  We drove westward through heavy rain that slowed our progress on Thursday night.  Alas, no measurable rain fell here all weekend.  Despite that, the garden grew noticeably!

Most dramatic were the potatoes.  Many of the plants had come up through the leaf mulch, had leafed out, and grown a good 4 inches above the mulch.  The zucchini and yellow squash seeds had germinated and become little established plants.  The cucumber seeds had sprouted.  The sugar snaps are finally growing!

The Spinach is Going...

Before leaving for a weekend in Asheville I harvested about half the spinach, blanched it, packaged it, and stored it in the freezer.

The Greens are Bolting

Last night it was the kale.  Tonight, the mustard greens have been cut, processed, and stored in the freezer.  I put up three quart bags full.  The spinach is next.  It's getting very leggy!

BTW... the sick chicken seems to be all better.  She happily joined the rest of the flock scratching for corn in the chicken yard this morning.  Time will tell.

Kale Can Not Take Another 90 Degree Day

This evening I pulled up the fall kale.  It was starting to bolt, and the high temp is predicted to be 90 degrees tomorrow.  I trimmed off all the young, tender, green leaves; blanched them for 2 minutes; cooled them quickly and drained them.

Then I packed the greens into freezer bags and tucked them into the freezer.  It's amazing how much greens cook down.  A sink full of greens resulted in the equivalent of two quart bags full.

Sick Chick

I've had a sick chicken today.  She was obviously feeling poorly last night.  When I let the girls out to go free-ranging she stayed behind in the chicken yard.  She was so lethargic!  She didn't resist being picked up at all. I carried her into the hen house where she could get a drink of water.  I was afraid she had gotten dehydrated, as I had let the water go dry yesterday afternoon.  She did drink a little while I was watching and I let her go to roost as normal.

This morning as I was preparing the space for the chicks I saw that she was still lethargic.  Her eyes were dull.  She just wasn't right.  I assembled one of our dog crates, covered the bottom with straw, and settled her in it with plenty of food and water.  I put her under cover in the barn, out of the chicken yard and away from the other chickens.  I didn't want to increase the chance of infecting the entire flock. When I picked her up to put her in the crate I noticed she had a "soft shelled" egg hanging from her vent.  I wiped it away best I could and put her in the cage.

I checked with the folks at the feed store.  They had no idea really what might be wrong, but suggested I administer antibiotics just in case, which I started right away in her water.  This afternoon she's perking up.  Her eyes even seem brighter.  It's hard to believe drugs would be so fast acting, so I have to wonder if it might have been difficult passage of that soft-shelled egg??

First Radishes

Pulled the first radishes today.  Zesty!  Crunchy!

Chicks Take Their Place in the Chicken Yard

I constructed a partition in the "safe" zone of the chicken yard.  The chicks are getting acclimated to their new digs.  The mature hens are curious!

The Chicks Have Moved to the Chicken Coop

Last night the chicks gave me a fit as I attempted to move them back indoors from their small outdoor enclosure.  First, the rooster escaped!  He was so fast.  As I reached under the wire cage he squeezed out and ran into the larger yard.  I couldn't catch him, and didn't want to terrorize him too much.  I grabbed the other chick from out of the cage and put her into the tub we've been using for their indoor living space.  As I was trying to flush the little rooster out of the bushes, she hopped out of the tub.  Two chicks running around the yard!

I hollared at Rouse, who was in the wood shop.  He was wearing ear protection while operating the saw, so it took a few minutes to get his attention.  He came to help.  What a sight, the two of us chasing those two biddies around the yard!  I managed to snag one, and got him in the tub - with a screen over the top this time.  The other chick was very successfully evasive.  And the sun was going down!  It was time to get creative.  Rouse went out to the barn and came back with the crab net.  He used it to direct the chick back to the wire enclosure which I plopped down over her.  Then he slid the net under the wire cage and caught her.  I was able to get ahold of her, remove her from the net, and get her into the tub.

We decided it was time to move them to the chicken house and yard where they can run around safely.  They still need to be separated from the big hens, though.  We set up the wire cage inside the hen house with their waterer and feed dish.  I ran an extension cord out to the barn to power a heat lamp during the night.  Today I'll have to partition off a section of the "safe" zone so they can be in the chicken yard, but next to the mature hens.  That way, they'll all get used to one another.

Who Needs Las Vegas? We Have a Garden!

What?  You say it's not April 15 yet?  Maybe not, but it was 90 degrees today and I couldn't resist the temptation to put some seeds in the ground.  I know statistically speaking there's still chance of frost until after the 15th, but I feel like living dangerously.  If the weather stays nice, I'm two weeks ahead of schedule.  If not, I'm out a few bucks and I plant again at the prescribed time.  Nothing gambled, nothing gained!

I planted Black Beauty Zucchini squash and Early Prolific Straightneck summer squash... one row of each in the same bed.  I'm hoping for an early crop in order to avoid squash bug destruction.  I also planted some Muncher Cucumbers between the bush cherries.  I thought they might get established and start bearing before the cherries mature and overtake the space.  Munchers are a low acid - 'burpless' - cucumber, easier to digest than others. This variety is supposed to produce a heavy set early on with plenty of  fruit to pickle (2" - 5" length) as well as to slice fresh (5" - 8" length).

The kale and mustard greens are getting ready to bolt any day now.  I've been cutting greens daily.  Sure is nice to have a big ol' pot of greens cooked up and ready to eat in the 'fridge.

Growing Chicks

The chicks are starting to look a little scruffy.  Their wing feathers are in and they're losing their body fluff.  New feathers coming in must be itchy... they've been scratching themselves.  Here, the rooster is on the left.  He's a little smaller than his companion.

Nice weather means the chicks can spend their days outdoors.  Andrew made a wire cage a few years ago that we use as a chick enclosure.  They love scratching in the dirt, and they love chickweed!  I toss them handfuls of it and they gobble it right up.

My little rooster!