A month later - Hoping for a Winter Harvest

The high tunnel has been planted for the winter garden. My son and I did some soil tests before we planted and recorded our data. Once we harvest we will test again. We found some old French doors at a salvage place for $5 each and the old wooden trimmed sliding glass, double-paned door for free at the dump. We don't lose too much light on that side of the tunnel. This is a view of the western exposure. The rolled up side is south facing.

Looking west from the eastern door. In the fore ground, center row you can see the Tatsoi, next the Chinese Cabbage, parsley, leeks, and finally our onion sets.

Our young farmer.

The Chinese Cabbage, or Wong Bok, is doing great. Everything has been getting thinned and replanted. We have had a pretty warm November.

My son and I filled the barrels with water to hopefully increase humidity and increase heat at night. ? We are planning on getting some thermometers to monitor temperature variation.

He likes to come up with ideas to test, a scientist in the making!

Salad greens, Claytonia, Parsley, Easter Egg Radish... I have also planted Bok Choy, Bull's Blood Beets, Feldsalat or Mache, Mustard Greens, Daikon Radish, tons of varieties of spinach, Choy Pac, and transplanted Kale and Chard from the garden. I still have Celeriac growing too.

We still have to cover the crops with a secondary row cover, but that won't be until next month. Tune in for more later... but meanwhile,

our salad greens in all of their crisp, autumn yumminess....

We are grateful and happy.

Evening Chores

I just love evening chores, especially now when it is cold and all of my peeps are confined and without grass. When the back door slams shut and I walk out singing and they hear me. The turkeys are the closest and they start squabbling, the chickens hear them and start cackling, the ducks sing their song and the geese honk loudly.

They eagerly wait for me, ears or eyes up, and smiling their little animal smiles... Dinner.

Bunny often hops towards me, nose wiggling, hoping for a carrot or piece of apple and some kale. All of the fresh summer/autumn goodies are almost gone. It was 30 degrees F last night.

Those little turkeys aren't so little anymore. We kept two. She is so curious and always hoping for kale or broccoli leaves...

And the girls? They know when it is time to go to the barn. They hear the buckets and hear me sing and come to the gate hoping for food.

Our Aracaunas are our newest and youngest flock. No eggs yet, but lots of pretty feathers and happy personalities.

The original flock. They head in on their own around 4:00 these days. The sun is setting so much earlier now. They go in to eat and get ready to roost.

Our three ducks. As the evening draws in and I walk out they turn and run to their house, eager, hungry and cold.

And finally, my two wonderful geese, Toulouse and Flory. They still think I am their mom so they go pretty easily as I herd them far across the yard back to their little house next to the turkeys. They honk, but go willingly.

Yes, I love this time of the day.

I never regret my chores. I really enjoy seeing all of my friends, singing to them, feeding them, and tucking them in for the night. It makes my heart feel so full, so right with the world when they are warm, well fed and content. I have done my job as their protector and partner.

The simple things in life give us so much joy.

Life is good.

Happy Autumn!

I let all of the animals into the garden this week. Clean up and fertilize. The geese pose in the bed of garlic.

We have started to put the garden to bed. First a heavy layer of already composted manure mix and then leaves, lots of lovely leaves... Since we were gone for almost two weeks we are way behind and winter feels like it has arrived today... cold, dark and rainy...

I love to put ginger in our green drink and since we are trying to grow everything that is in our green drink I thought I would try my hand at ginger too. I planted the root in late July and it is taking off. The leaves are very soft and smell like ginger. It is such a wonderful plant to grow in the house. I plan on planting lots more and once our greenhouse is up there will be plenty of green drink to go around.

We have been talking and reading When French Women Cook, I love reading Madeleine Kamman's book. It is a story of life, of women, of delicious food with wonderful recipes from the women in her life. That has been the source of my inspiration in life lately,

The Women In My Life...

no wonder I am attracted to this book.

See the sprouts? Just put the root into good soil, lots of sun and a bit of water. I picked a very plump, buddy looking root. I have the pot in a pan of rocks and water too, for humidity. It seems to be working, and the smell, lovely.

My girlfriend gave me this recipe for a raw green drink that is a meal...

A bit of garlic, a bit of ginger, a few apple pieces, a carrot, a bit of celery, any greens and lots of them, a splash of apple juice, a dash of cayenne pepper blended in a good blender, strained and voile' dinner, with some almonds for crunch on the side.

Well, I am off to clean my studio. I hope you have a happy Halloween! Boo!

A new season...

A self-portrait from four years ago when my little boy was only 6!

I had a big medical scare at the end of September. My life was once again clearly brought into focus. My love, my energy, my fear, my joie de vivre. Every breath is such a wonderful gift... It is all just a heart beat away, moment to moment. I definitely have MS, new lesions, but no loss of neurological function, this time, thankfully. The cancer is still stable, no new growth according to our expert Dr. Liebsch. The radiologist here thought differently but we trust our guy. Exhale, deep sigh, I have been sleeping through the night these last few days....

It is so funny how just last week I looked at my reflection in the mirror and felt so much compassion. Compassion for the girl that still had so much life that she wanted to lead. I am not clinging, I am not suffering but I am a mother of a young boy.

I wasn't terrified, I was sad. I was so capable of being present in my stress this time, watching it manifest itself in my body, feeling it arise and take hold of me. Because I was able to witness this amazing response to the news that IT might be back I was able to calm myself, comfort myself, embrace myself. I was very present in my thoughts, very connected to my body. I felt strong and accepting and then...

Dr. Liebsch called, he felt the radiologist was wrong about the cancer but I do have two new lesions. The thought of neurological demise and deterioration is not a happy thought but it so much easier to breathe through now that I have gone through this journey. I feel in control. My life is what I want to lead, not my fear. I am so busy living and being that I don't want to cling to the "what if's" any longer. Peace is my quest.

I awaken happy, grateful and thinking about my day's work, not the alternative, not now.

The garden after a light frost, October 3rd.

The fall colors were a bit muted and quick this year. We had an extremely dry summer. The plants suffered, the trees struggled...

Lots of good nutrients for the garden, I just have to rake them all up and put them in the garden soil. So if you see bags of raked leaves that people leave out on the curb for the trash man, pick them up, free food for your garden, no work for you!

A "Mammoth" Sunflower from Seed Savers.

Four big heads filled two large jars! Not all of them ripened in time, oh well, we have enough for eating and next year's seeds. The rest are for the birds and the mice.

Happy Days! I hope yours are too...

Peace.

The first hard frost....

Not so long ago....

Just a few of the many...

Autumn is here, the air is cold, the days are short, the coyotes are back. We have a large pack in the forest behind our house, we can hear them howling, like wolves, in the darkness. The chickens are all locked up, tight.

Tonight we are expecting our first hard frost of the season...

Old jars from my neighbor...

Chocolate.... from 1911.

Hinx Jinx

The old witch stinks

The fat begins to fry.

There's nobody home

But Jumpin' Joan

And mother and father and I.

There is no where else than here...

I reach down to touch the earth. To affirm her power, with her as my witness I open my eyes. There is no place but here, no other moment, just now.

I am awakening. Freeing myself from the unreality.

I am experiencing an ever expanding epiphany, powerful glimpses into my truth,
the truth that exists for me. It is all within me, it is all now, this moment.

There is no where else than now.

Fruits of our labor...

Here are my raised bed gardens in late May.

We started the second phase of our raised bed vegetable gardens this April.  After my surgery in February I was unable to lift, dig or carry anything until May.  Phase two of our second year garden was smaller than we had planned but was still beautiful, productive and educational.

It was the year without a summer.  Rain, lack of sunshine and below average (read "cold") temperatures in New England took its toll on our region's food production.  We had so many cold, rainy days in June that it delayed the growth of our warm loving crops.  

The average temperature for June 2009 in the Nashua, NH area was 63.3 degrees, on June 1st it was 39 degrees in some areas.  The precipitation was on average 6.56", 2.56" above normal.  A late frost killed most of the flowers on the strawberry crop, so regionally strawberries were hard to find.  In our garden they were non-existent.  Our basil, tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants were very late to start.  We ultimately lost the tomatoes and potatoes to the blight...we did get two eggplants and quite a few basil, but fall came early and it has already snowed.

I feel like our raised beds (3'w x 14' l x 18" h) helped keep the vegetables from flooding.  Last year the back garden was under water from all of the rain, the deep hardpan and the possible granite ledge under the yard... The soil was warmer too from the sun heating up the entire bed.  It was definitely easier to weed.  

We built a compost bin out of pallets from the local dump.  A local farmer sells composted cow manure.  His cows are raised naturally.  No antibiotics nor growth hormones.  Grass fed in our community.  We filled the raised beds with the manure and mulched with last years left over straw.  The straw is not a local product (Canada and NY) but we had it, we use it (about 5 bales a year) and it works.

My raised bed gardens in late June.

My garden and chicken yard in early October.  The chickens are molting and not laying as many eggs per day right now.  You can see our spiral rock garden.  We build a half moon bed farther to the right.  The back garden has been stripped bare by the chickens.  The purple kale look like prehistoric plants because we have been picking leaves from the bottom up.  Yummy.

I have dreams of starting a campaign for food justice in our community.  This is my beginning.  I feel like my health will hold out, I will spend the winter preparing and when spring comes around again...

Reflections of a whirlwind...

Summer....

New beginnings....

Flowers, herbs, legumes, grass....

Ducks, chickens, bunnies, children...

Birthday cakes, vanilla ice cream with dinosaur sprinkles...

Swings in trees, leaves, solid maple trunks....

Sweet, delicious, green, bountiful peas....my favorite garden vegetable this year.

Salamanders in the grass.

Covered bridges...

Instead of city lights, wooden boards...

Fresh picked apples...

Eleven pounds of late season blueberries, local corn and homegrown food...

Autumn raspberries....

Autumn is here, the summer flew past, the leaves are changing, the air is crisp, the rains are cold, Jack Frost has come and the gardens are drifting off to sleep.  

New seasons of life, thankful, peaceful, quiet, warm, filling.