Winter Wonderland

For someone who despises snow, I have to admit that this Christmas weather was enchanting. However, I think I'll be requesting our seed catalogues and turning my thoughts to the ever so distant spring.

Broccoli Harvest

We decided to pick all the substantial broccoli and cauliflower heads before the forecasted hard frost this weekend. It was surprising the sheer amount we were able to grow this fall compared to last year's single (inedible) yellow head of cauliflower.

Great Greens from the Fall Gardens

Last year we were so busy on the Hemingway Land Project that we never managed to put together a fall garden. This year I was able to plant lettuce, spinach, peas, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage all in the last week in August. In the future I may skip the entire spring garden and just concentrate on the fall garden. Our plants seemed to grow twice as fast as their spring counterparts. They also competed with less weeds. The fall garden did require a great deal more watering, but I'll take watering over weeding any day. Another benefit I found was that by August all the organic seeds were 50% off in the local shops.

Papa Steve's Rose Garden

Bryan and I were so impressed by Papa Steve's rose garden that we decided to have a family picture day among the flowers. After the snow falls we can hang these pictures to remind us that the color will soon return to Iowa.

Finally Fall

Fall has finally arrived at the Hemingway Land Project Farm. Last weekend with the coming of October we experienced our first frost. We were able to save the spinach and lettuce by bundling the lot in old blankets.

Spaghetti Squash Unwrapping

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I sat down in the garden to open the preciously wrapped spaghetti squash. With a grand total of three surviving squash, I have been carefully protecting our small crop with row covers to ensure their survival. Unfortunately these squash were just planted as an afterthought. The bumper crop of squash was planted in an area we now refer to as the "dead zone". An area in which even the weeds refused to grow. Sadly this year will not yield the wealth of varied squash we were expecting.

As I began unwrapping the squash the aptly named squash bugs detected our vulnerability and rushed to devour the rind of the poor vegetable. At this point I took great delight in squashing each and everyone of these little munchers, watching gleefully as the exploded yellow and green guts covered the garden leaves.

The Fall Garden

This year we planted a fall garden. Basically a do over garden for some of our earlier failures. A cabbage and pea reprieve. We planted three different varieties of peas with the hope that one will flourish. We also discovered that using grass clippings could save us a fortune on mulch. The grass clippings may not be as aesthetically pleasing but they are absolutely free.

Jiffy Pop

This year in addition to sweet corn we decided to grow a small patch of pop corn. At this point we have harvested the ears and now we will let them dry for a few weeks. I can't wait to test the kernels at the end of this week. Hopefully they will be dry enough to pop for the Landlocked Film Fest.

Successfully mastered broccoli

Last summer we had trouble growing our broccoli. Started from seeds in the garden, the broccoli never realized it's full potential. However, this year we have successfully grown two broccoli plants and will be consuming the fruits of our labor tonight for dinner. I'm thinking roasted broccoli over pasta would celebrate this most delicious veggie success.

Harvesting the Summer Wheat

Papa Steve agreed to grow organic wheat for our project this year. He grew a few acres of wheat under no spray conditions. Papa Steve had also just purchased a new combine and offered everyone a ride in his buddy seat. The wheat ground up beautifully and made superb bread.

Papa Steve will be saving three hundred pounds of wheat for our two families and selling the rest as animal feed. While I'm happy that he will recoup some of his money on the wheat, I feel that it is a shame to see such high quality stuff sold as feed.

Corn and Beans

The sweet corn is taller then the two of us and has began to developed small ears. However, I still could not wait for the corn to mature and bought some wonderful sweet corn from our neighbors. Instead of corn we have zucchini, greens beans and

peas ready to harvest.

chicken bread line

Every day is an easter egg hunt

Now that temperatures are in the upper 80's the chickens have become increasingly more aggravating. Looking for a chill and breezy new nest the chickens are nesting everywhere but in their coop.

You Dig?

Our little new potatoes became a lovely father's day gift. Unfortunately now our potatoes have out grown their cute new potato stage and have matured into full sized spuds.

Just garden and sky

A canopy of berries

After our disappointing spring mushroom hunting experience, Bryan and I were overwhelmed by the amount of summer berries we have discovered. There is a local trail within biking distance of our house on which our friend noticed mulberries. I have been passionately hunting wild mulberries since Papa Steve cut down his mulberry tree. While picking a few mulberry bushes on the bike path I noticed raspberry bushes. Upon closer inspection I found the entire path was over grown with black raspberries. If you stopped to look up you discover that you were under a literal canopy of red and black berries. Gleefully we pick two quarts of black raspberries before we tired. It was more then enough to make a batch of jam. Later that week we saw black raspberries selling at the farmers market for five dollars a pint. A forager's savings of $20!

Yes the project is progressing, no i'm not blogging.

We have been avoiding blogging lately. Many improvements have been made. Here are just a few photographs of the garden as of this week.

(post script: these photographs were taken before we received our massive truck load of mulch)

rare sightings

The first defense against pests in a garden is observation. There is apparently great value in the ability to identify that destructive agent. Well after weeks of broken, mashed, squashed, and just plain snapped plants we were able to take these rare photos of the creature who has been destroying the garden.

Recently I have taken up swearing...

Recently I have taken up swearing, along with kicking the tires and all out red faced yelling at our ancient rotor tiller. These antics are usually followed by an exhausted flop into the near by grass where I ponder our decision to grow our own food. After several repairs, and consulting sessions with Papa Steve, I've given up and will be renting a tiller tomorrow from the City. $90 a day is preferable to slowly losing my mind. I'm resting in the hammock today because tomorrow will be a marathon of tilling.

Looking for guests this summer

We were thinking of trying out a residency program this summer but have not cleaned or renovated the studio spaces yet. However, we have finished the guest room and would love to have visitors this summer. Call it an visiting artist position if you like. Come relax, have fresh organic produce, sit by the fire at night and sleep in the hammock. It's pretty quiet out here on the farm. We would love the share our experience with anyone who wanted to stop by. Check out the rough draft of the new residency website and gallery.

Spring Chickens

It was such a lovely spring day that I could not help taking a few new pictures for the blog.

recent renovations

It's not a porch, it's a nursery for little plant babies.

Planting Potatoes

Highs in the 80's today, if I close my eyes I can almost believe I'm back in Florida.

Planting potatoes this week. As the UPS man pointed out, we are indeed running two weeks late using Good Friday as the standard planting date in Iowa. However, last year we did not plant until May 18th and we still had an outstanding potato crop.

(exhausted from stealing potatoes)

Finally Spring

The chickens are adorable. They now come when called and follow us around the farm all day.

sprouting

I love sprouting. I've up-graded from simple sprouting with mung beans and lentils to growing sunflower sprouts. They are a little more work but so worth the effort. Plus they are ridiculously overpriced at the store.

If you have never sprouted before here are the simple directions. Sprouts are great during the winter, they sprout in 3 to 7 days and add a touch of green to the house.

Want to start sprouting today?

Supplies:

-an old jar

-a rubber band and cheese cloth (or paper, old cloth, fancy sprouting screen)

-water

-brown lentils, french lentils mung beans, sunflower seeds

1. soak mung beans over night in warm water (they will vastly enlarge so use maybe an 1/8 cup)

2. place cheese cloth on jar and drain

3. place jar in a warm well lit area but not in direct sun light

4. rinse mung beans twice a day (I place mine by my coffee maker to remind myself to wash them)

5. After about three to four days when sprouts look almost full grown place them in direct sun light to green for a day.

6. rinse and place in refrigerator.

Sunflower seeds are a bit more complicated.

Follow steps 1-4 like regular sprouts. After rinsing the sprouts for two days transfer to tray with growing medium. I use a plastic take out container as my tray. I then cut holes in the bottom for drainage. I use an extra lid under the take out container to catch water.

Water the seeds then cover the tray with the lid and keep out of direct sun light for two days.

Then remove the lid and place tray in south window to green for two days. Be sure to keep the growing medium moist.

Trim with scissors then place your sprouts in a bag with a little water and refrigerate.

Bread Making with Papa Steve

We finally achieved a measure of success with our bread making. After producing five loafs of brick like whole wheat bread, we sought out Papa Steve's advice. He introduced us to the magic of Vital Wheat Gluten. (which I now refer to as the magic powder which must be added to everything just incase)

The results were two lovely loafs of honey roasted sunflower whole wheat bread.

all I could think about was my play-dough factory days

Bryan and I have wanted to make our own pasta since the beginning of our project. Bryan fondly remembers makings spaghetti with his grandmother as a child. Not to mention that we were excited to make a product that was entirely on project. The wheat was grown organically on my father's farm and he and I recently ground it into pasta flour. The eggs of course came from our chickens and we used our own frozen vegetables from the garden in the flavored pastas.

Grandfather Siebels was kind enough to gift us Grandmother's old pasta machine. We were tickled to find the original receipts attached to the bottom of the machine. Includling the amount she had paid in cash and with a check. The only directions however were in Italian, thankfully we found many helpful videos on the internet to guide our noodle making adventure.

We spent two days making pasta, the ravioli was served deep fat fried for a super bowl party at Papa Steve's house. The rest of the pasta was shaped into carrot and beet flavored fettucini. We soon ran out of drying locations and converted two curtain rods in to pasta dryers. We decided that pasta curtains were definitely a whimsical addition to the kitchen. I was sadden to have to remove them after the drying period.

We greatly enjoyed the pasta creation but we were happy to pack the pasta maker back into the original box. It will be a few months before we again play with our adult "play"dough factory.