Summer Garden in June

A lot has been happening in this garden of ours!  (I take no credit for Ethan's wonky owl "scarecrow," just so you know).  Man, it's a big garden.  I can't even photograph it.  What was I thinking?

 The first casualties have begun to appear:

Most of my beans and a few squash and cucumbers have some yucky virus.  It won't kill them, but will make them produce less.  See the crinkly leaves? Apparently it is spread by white flies, which are new to Florida as of like 2006 or so.  I kept the beans, but pulled out the cucumbers and squash that were affected.

 

I also had to destroy most of the tomatillos, due to suspected fungal infection.  I still have a couple of plants.  I shed a few tears over the salsas that will never be.  It is mystifying, because this is the first year I've grown any solanaceous plants in this particular spot.  We do have the wild nightshades, so maybe that's where it comes from.  I practice a pretty long rotation in my garden.

Not only that, but a squash vine borer must have escaped my watchful eye and killed one of my pumpkins.

The rare, heirloom corn was doing great, until Tom Sawyer's gang got in and nibbled down a quarter of it.  Jerks!!

It has solidified our decision to put them in the freezer next weekend (I am talking about the boy baby goats here, to avoid confusion).  We had wanted to wait until the fall, but it has become clear that there is no way we will be able to wean them, because they can squeeze through every fence we have.  They are still cute - it will be hard.

The garden now has a baby-goat-proof-Fort-Knox-like structure on the front of it, which makes it very hard for us to get in, too.  Only until next weekend.

First harvests are beginning to appear.  Kale, basil, the first cucumbers and squash blossoms made it into the kitchen.  So nice to have fresh cucumber salad again!  I can't even bring myself to buy cucumbers at the store.  They are always squashy and limp.  Also, I'm realizing just how much basil I've planted.  I think pesto should be making an appearance at least once a week.

We are digging the potatoes (not the loveliest this year - I think ants were eating them), and officially giving the winter garden back to the wild for the time being.

The orchard has really been helping out.  We got 3-4 lbs of blueberries the other day, a bunch of white peaches and the first yellow squash (cooked it up with the potatoes).

On Tuesday I got a rare chance to go out to a movie by myself while Ethan did the chores.  It was a special screening of Open Sesame: the Story of Seeds, put on by the folks at Forage Farm.  Many of the people featured in the movie I was familiar with either through their writing, seed catalogs, or other people writing about them, and it was cool to see them in the movie.  There were also moments when I realized what an heirloom vegetable nerd I am.  They would show a random handful of seeds, and I'd be like, "That's Jacob's Cattle Beans!" or "That was Christmas Pole Lima!"

It was great to see so many other locals interested in seed saving.  I was also excited to learn that Forage Farm is establishing a seed library to try to cultivate seeds that are adapted to our area.  I've seen in my garden the difference between seeds that were grown in a different climate versus the seeds that have been grown here for many generations.

Berry Season

 The blueberries and blackberries are in full swing.  It's a good year and the bushes are loaded.  We are busy picking for eating fresh, and also for the freezer.  The chores have slowed WAY down as everyone can't help but stop for the luscious, ripe berry near the path.

 That was Clothilde eating an "Akba," iguana-style.  The big kids in particular have been over-indulging.  It's the season when we get to eat as many fresh berries as we possibly can - even to the point of stomach distress.  Soon they are gone and over for the whole year, other than what we can stash in the freezer.  I don't do jam, because I don't like all the sugar, and we just don't eat jam very often.  But I do have some other things in mind -  like fermented blackberry soda, fresh berry smoothies, ice cream?  Bavarian cream? Pie....cobbler, trifle, grain-free pancakes.

Berry stains all around!

Nature Finds: Spiders

The spiders are appearing more and more now that the weather is warming.  I think this is a Golden Orb Weaver.  I've read research that was done at Archibald Biological Station in South Florida that suggests the fancy white designs in spider webs are to keep damage from birds and larger animals to a minimum.

 This was a wolf spider carrying an egg case Ethan found while checking the fence lines and moving the cows.  

The cup-and-saucer webs are stunning when all hung with dew.  This one liked the coral honeysuckle on the garden fence to build a web, but they are also seen along the grass on the ground.

The banana spiders are also getting started.  Ethan was hoping to photograph it regularly so we could watch it grow.  They get enormous.  It's amazing to see how large and high they spin their webs, often stretched between two tall trees.  We often try to figure out how they manage it without wings.




This was a Black Widow that was living in the dug-out gopher tortoise burrow on the way to the pastures.  It was laying eggs in the most interesting way.  It had made an egg case and was stabbing it's ovapositer into the egg case again and again, laying eggs inside.

Second Recital

There were some long-awaited preparations going on Sunday afternoon as we got Rose ready for her second ballet recital.

We are not used to make-up!  Especially not stage make-up.  But it turned out pretty good thanks to my amazing mother-in-law, Griselda.

Clothilde even "sat" through most of the show (we did everyone a favor and removed her at intermission).  It helped that she had six laps to crawl between.

The show was Beauty and the Beast.  Some of the older dancers were amazingly talented.  Our favorite part, of course, was when our little dancer was on.
 Afterwards, it was a special treat to find her best friend from school was part of the show, too!

(Her bouquet was a homegrown one from the garden!  Cilantro flowers, yarrow, daisy fleabane, flowering basil, and roses.  It smelled good enough to eat, and in fact Rose was eating bits of it on the way home.)

Piglets are growing up

The piglets are quickly growing up.  They have abandoned their nest and roam around after Star now.

They stay together in a little herd and play together or try to root like big pigs.

Fruit from the Earth

 The peaches have been amazing this year!  We had even more than I'd thought on the trees.  Mirin had a "momotaro" peach he called it that he's been watching ripen for weeks that he finally got to eat the other day.  The squirrels in town have destroyed almost every peach on our trees by the house, but at the farm a big old owl comes and sits by the orchard every evening to hunt, and there's a pair of mating hawks we see often.  The farm squirrels keep very close to the forest.

 

Every day we each pick a peach to eat fresh, but we also brought some home with the early rabbiteye blueberries with cream and grain-free coconut pound cake.  A fresh peach right off the tree is so delicious.  Also extra fuzzy.  I guess all the handling of the store peaches wears some of the fuzz off.  For so many years we've watched these trees grow, and it seemed like we would never get fruit from them.

The chanterelle mushrooms are out since it rained.  Here is one of our omelettes - mushrooms, horsemint and fresh eggs.

We got some good rain, and the corn seedlings are sprouting!  It is so hopeful to see them growing at last.  They were in the freezer for so long I was afraid they wouldn't grow at all.

Someone asked me what the eggs of Squash Vine Borer moths look like.  Here's a picture of one.  They look like tiny brown spots on the stems.  They seem to really like laying eggs on the tender little leaves and buds, but I have also found a lot just above the ground on the main stem.  I pick them off into soapy water, just in case just scratching them off isn't enough to keep them from hatching.

Yarn Along

Joining in with Ginny today!

I finished Clothilde's Phoebe sweater last week, and am now making a start on one for Rose.  She requested the same color - Quince & Co's Winesap.  It reminds me of Little Red Ridinghood with this pattern.  I've finished the decorative border on the bottom and am struggling through the monotonous body stocking stitch.  I guess I share Elizabeth Zimmerman's dislike of purling (it's harder on my hands with the thicker yarn), and I found myself trying to knit backwards to avoid it the other day!

I would have liked to post pictures of Clothilde in the Phoebe sweater, but she wouldn't let me put it on her at all.  I can't really blame her, as it's been in the 90's during the day, and it's really too hot to be knitting!  We have such a short winter, though, that if I want to knit for next winter it must be done now.

Nature Finds: Sun and Moon

 Over the weekend, Ethan went out to do the chores early in the morning so we could go to the Folk Festival.  The evening time out there is beautiful because of the sunsets and fireflies, but in the early mornings are all silvery with dew.

When he arrived one day he noticed something interesting in the garden.

 The blooming sunflowers were facing east where the sun was rising.  They follow the movement of sun all day long across the sky.

The evening primroses were still open (they close soon after the sun rises and the day becomes hot).  They were all facing west where the nearly full moon was sinking below the tree line.  You can see in the background how the sunflower is facing the opposite way.

Do the evening primroses follow the moon?

Recovering

We are all so tired from the Folk Festival.  This year the "Florida Remembered" area that we participate in was not in the usual nice, central spot under an oak tree by the Folk Life stage.  Instead there was a guy with chainsaw carvings.  They put us WAY far away beyond the dumpsters and portapotties.  I'm afraid it was a little like being seated "below the salt."



There was a good deal of uphill walking to do to get to anything else.  Of course there were the usual golf cart shuttles for the non-athletic and decrepit, but Clothilde was absolutely terrified of them.  We thought she would love riding on them, so we tried to catch a ride up to the Old Marble stage on Friday.  It turned out to be the golf cart ride from hell as Clothilde screamed hysterically the whole way and everyone stared.

Otherwise, it was wonderful, but that's why we are extra, extra tired this year from lugging the toddler all over the place.  I think we might only go for one day next year if Clothilde is still scared of golf carts. 

All the children were so busy running and playing all day they almost forgot to eat or drink unless they were reminded.  We made some new friends and Mirin helped build the chickee with Willie.  There is a special way that the fronds are twisted onto the poles.  It got a real test, because on Sunday afternoon it rained torrentially and Mirin said it was still dry under the chickee.

It was extremely hot, but every afternoon we went and cooled off in the Suwanee River.

So we're resting up today.  There's still some work that needs done in the garden, and of course the regular chores.  But the happy feeling from new friends, beautiful music and fun still lingers.  Oh, and the chigger bites do, too.

Have Ax, Will Travel...

 

We're enjoying the Florida Folk Festival again today!  Mirin is really one of the Barefoot Boys this year, working with his own ax to hew a beam.

 

Piglets

We're headed to the Florida Folk Festival this weekend, where we hope Mirin can help Willie build his usual chickie with wood and palmetto fronds.

Here's a short clip of Star nursing her piglets - so much cuteness!  They always fight over the bottom nipples for some reason.

Nature Finds

 These are jumping spiders, but we like to call them "Florida Tarantulas" because they look so ferocious.   Notice the iridescent green fangs?  It was living on the same post as the matriarch roach that I wrote about a bit ago.  Incidentally, I haven't seen them lately!

This is one of our pecan trees that  has finally leafed out.  Summer is in full swing, everything is fresh and green and bushy.  It actually had pecans on it last year.

The Corn is in!

We finally got the Dudley Farm dent corn in!

I'm not sure if I've talked very much about my plans for this corn this year.  Dudley Farm is an old homestead that was turned into a park.  Ethan's grandfather actually helped work with Sally Morrison before it was a park.  Ethan worked there for a short time before Sally retired, and got a handful of corn seeds that were sitting in our freezer for several years.

I'd wanted to plant them anyway, just because it's so cool to have our own very local, native genetics, but there were so many interesting corn varieties in seed catalogs I wanted to try out, it took me years before I planted the kernals.  It just never seemed urgent at all, because I thought we could always get more.  I think that's the impression modern life gives the world - infinite.

But once Sally retired and the park came under new management, they stopped selling their homegrown, stone ground corn once a year at the cane grinding.  They still sell ground corn, but it is sourced from somewhere in Georgia.  I learned that they have very badly mismanaged the corn by not planting it at the right time or not planing enough to maintain genetic diversity.  They must have completely ignored Sally's notes and just googled an IFAS PDF on when to plant corn.  Sally told us years ago that they plant the corn very late, beyond the dry season, so it gets plenty of rain and doesn't need irrigation, which they couldn't provide.

Last year I finally planted the Dudley Farm corn.  I studied how to save pure seed and even bought tassel and ear bags so I could hand-polllinate.  But it was just too much last year.  I missed the tiny window when the tassels come out and start taking in pollen, and I had grown many other varieties alongside, so I didn't save seed from last season.  I did some more research and realized I could just grow Dudley corn and wind-pollinate, which is a better way to save especially rare seeds anyway.  I spoke to the ranger at Dudley Farm and asked if I could get some more seeds, because I wasn't sure if I had enough left to plant.  She said they really could only spare maybe 50, because they were so low, which worried me even more.  When I got the seeds out to plant, I was so relieved to find that I still had over 300.

So the corn is in!  This might be a last chance for this corn variety...
The garden is huge this year.  There's only the okra and sweet potatoes left to put in.  Now I can think about getting the minerals and fertilizer on the pastures.  The work is never really over.

No Place For a Stroller

Over the weekend we had Rose's daisy scout troop out for a farm tour.  The girls had a blast playing in the pit and on the hammock.  We've had an unusual coldish snap lately, and it was beautifully, unseasonably cool and pleasant on Saturday.  The weather was perfect and dry, not unlike southern California.
They got to feed the goats, pet a kind of ugly adolescent meat chicken, see a newborn piglet and taste straight-from-the-cow fresh milk!  We also brought some watermelon to share with them, and my mom made an agua fresca from soursop that was very refreshing. 


Otherwise, the only thing that wasn't quite perfect was that I misjudged the walking capabilities of average American people.  I realized this as I was bringing them up to see the cows and observed that many of them had pained faces, were breathing heavily and didn't seem very enthusiastic to walk all the way across the farm again to see the pigs after that.  One daisy scout tapped my leg and informed me that she had TWO scratches already.  I told her she was lucky she only had that many, and Ethan mentioned that we had once contemplated naming the farm "Poky Pastures."


One poor woman tried to bring a very nice jogging stroller for her toddler, which she abandoned in the milking paddock for most of the tour.  I just hope it left with all the wheels intact, because really the farm is no place for a stroller.  It was painful to watch her struggle to push it through the waist-high rye cover crop in the garden to see the baby chickies.  There's still the occasional hidden cactus in there.  I thought maybe we could have offered to put her toddler in the wheelbarrow with Clothilde, but then it still has manure and moldy hay stuck to the bottom.  Oh well.

Clothilde was strangely fascinated with the stroller and kept trying to climb in while we were still in the milking paddock feeding the goats.  Strange, because when we tried to put her in the stroller at home she screamed and tried to throw herself out face first.  It's probably the same phenomenon of how a car seat is very fun when it's not strapped into a vehicle.

Star's First Litter

A couple of weeks ago, Ethan thought he had noticed Star and Bee in heat, and he thought maybe we should get feeder pigs again this year for next year's pork.

 But on Friday when Ethan went to feed the pigs, Star did not show up to eat.  He went looking for her, thinking that at the worst she had swallowed some glass from the old homestead site, or best she had escaped.  But when he found her, there was a third possibility he didn't think of.

Piglets!

She had made herself a nest and was grunting softly.  We fenced out the other pigs so she could have some space to herself.  When we checked on her just before leaving late on Friday night, three had been born so far.

Ethan got to see the first two be born.  The first thing he saw was a curly pig tail come out!

By Saturday morning, four piglets had been born, two girls and two boys.  They were nursing and doing well. 

 We made Star as comfortable as possible, with her own dish of barley and water. She doesn't seem to mind us looking at the piglets.  Ethan even picked some up.

 I was concerned on Saturday, because Star seemed to be having trouble standing up to eat.  She paused, and then heaved herself up very heavily.  Later we found out she was still in labor....

Because another piglet showed up!  It only has one spot.  Ethan says she ran out of spots for that one.

Treed

 

Can you see Mirin in the tree?

Isla didn't actually tree him - he was climbing it anyway.

Yesterday we had torrential rains, and this morning was very cool -  especially for May!  Rose had to look around for a jacket for school.  It was only 55 F, but after 89 degree weather, it feels freezing.

The ditch just beyond the driveway was all full of muddy water.  Ethan was joking that we should go "muddn.'"  It was in reference to an evening about a month ago when we were leaving late - I think it was past eight o'clock, and we saw a group of maybe three or four bros shuffling around on the side  of the ditch.  They were sheepishly tying their golf cart to a rope attached to their four-door jeep that was jammed in the mud.  Their car obviously didn't have the off-road capabilities they thought it did.

Mirin made a great sandcastle by his pit with the damp sand.  It even had a drawbridge.

This evening our pig Star was not at her usual place at dinner.  Ethan found she had made a nest and was in the process of giving birth!  Four piglets were born when we left just now, and I think more were on the way.  These are the first piglets bred and born on our farm.  They all looked big and healthy, too.  I hope they don't get stepped on or anything.