Redbud at Dusk

Everybody's redbud trees are glorious this time around...even ours. Just the one, actually. There were two. Because Will plants two of things, always (or so it seems). And they have to be one on this side and one on that side, exactly the same distance apart. I'm not a big fan of the 'equal trees' thing. Or bushes, or anything else. But that's ok. Because the redbuds have decided they're just not going to cooperate with that train of thought. The one on the left of the porch is beautiful, even though it has to lean way out from the oak tree, looking for more sun. But the one on the right keeps dying. Well, that's rediculous; actually, there was one, and it died, and then Will planted another and it hasn't chosen to put out any flowers or growth yet this spring - so, maybe it is dying too. Maybe he'll be forced to plant something else there in that spot...if he can stand it. We'll see if he insists on setting out redbud tree #3. I'll let you know.

In the meantime, those big fat stupid bumblebees are all over it, and won't let anyone near it. It belongs to them, don't you know. I've never actually been attacked by one of those bees, but they do bump into you.

P.S. Ants in the strawberries...not around every plant, but around enough of them to be worriesome. hmmm.

Early March walk-around

I thought the wildflowers were going to be a here-today/ gone-tomorrow kind of thing...obviously I was wrong about that. Every week there seem to be more of them and new ones...makes me think we should have just spread seed all over the entire place. Man, wouldn't that be something....
So, we just kind of wandered around with the camera, checking out springtime happenings; in case you aren't totally sick of looking at close-ups of wildflowers here's another one for you:
Now, I can get all excited about multiple pictures of wildflowers - at least at the moment - because we spread the seed and here they are and it's a beautiful thing. But it reminds me of my mother, in a way. She was a daylilly nut. Well, that's not fair. Let me clarify: she raised and bred daylilies and was a big member of the Hemerocallis Society. (I keep trying to spell 'daylilly' and the spell-check just wants me to change it to Doolally and I'm not going to do that...so I will check on this later.) But I digress. She would take a billion pictures of all of her different lilies and dad would just roll his eyes because he could NOT sit through a slide-show of this, and they all looked exactly alike to him. And when there was a society meeting, all the lily fanatics would come over and they would auction off little bundles of roots and of course these actually DID look all alike, but he never got it.
Now we continue our walk:
last weekend it was beautiful and warm and work-outside weather. I went around with gloves and hoe and shovel and pruning shears, uncovering surprises...things that were coming up from below: mint and tarragon and lemon balm...the mint beds Will built for me one Mother's Day several years ago are holding up: but the bermuda grass, the evil, evil Bermuda Grass...it creep up and crawls between the boards and SO wants to take over these beds. But I get in there with a shovel and hoe and pry it up and rip it out with my bare hands...and then there are the ant beds in the corners. But so far, so good.
The Mexican Tarragon can be counted on to spring up from the bottom of the plants every spring; I know there are other varieties of tarragon, but this does best here, and is every bit as pungent and culinary-worthy as any other type. Pretty soon, these little leaves will rise up and form long stalks and hold their own until next fall and the first frost: And then there is the lowly lemon-balm; I only say this because it has limited uses, as far as I know. As with other lemony herbs, you'd love to do all manner of things with it, but let's face it. It smells exactly like Lemon Pledge. So, as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't want tea from it, not really. There are so many other lemon-smelling herbs that will do nicely for that purpose. On the other hand, I have been making all of our cleaning agents for months now, and perhaps it will serve well for the furniture polish. This year, I plan to see about that.The Rosemary is blooming. It is beautiful, but I am thinking about it...i have had a couple of rosemary beds. I set out little tiny plants all in a row - they explode into the scenario you see here: it lasts a couple of years more - then the whole thing begins to die; I suppose that is a life-span issue. I haven't really thought about it before, but from the looks of things, the big bloom may be the beginning of the end for this bed. It takes a couple of years for the plants to actually offer this display. We shall see.
And finally: we have our Offerings: something old, something new - kind of a wedding thing. The carrots have been in the ground since October. They are holding out, but it has been as very wet winter; we should go ahead and dig them all out now. The strawberries, also put in in the fall, are just now offering their bounty. It's all good.

ok, that's uncalled for...

...so the wind is blowing really hard, so you move the BIG PLASTIC OWL off of the dock because, let's face it....when the wind knocks him over his head comes off and then you run the risk of the owl head blowing into the pond -not good.
So, you move him to the carport, where he sits amongst last fall's remaining pumpkins and every time you look out there you think there's a cat sitting in the middle of the pumpkins but it's not - it's the BIG PLASTIC OWL.
Anyway - so the dock is unprotected and the ducks come and sit on the dock at night and they leave - well, we've talked about that BUT THIS TIME they have left a gift!
Trouble is, after Will takes this picture and we all have a good laugh, he puts it in with the eggs in the icebox, and I don't know which one is the duck egg and he won't tell me. So, I have to examine the container of eggs and look at them carefully. Not that I mind eating a duck egg, necessarily,l and it is awfully fresh, no doubt - I just would like to know, that's all!

Painted Bee Boxes All In A Row

A good weekend's worth of work, the bee boxes come unassembled and unpainted. With the three farm hives building up gentle Italian workers for our spring clover, and a colony (or nuc, for nucleus) of hearty Russians in the works, I must try to stay ahead of their housing (and honey storage) needs. A lot of nails, glue, and three coats of exterior enamel have these hive supers ready for the honey flow. Now, there are only 81 honey comb frames (nine per box) to go. Yikes! What have I gotten into.

Thais wanted me to explain what the Russian bees are about, and I will try to be brief. If you've been following the blog, you know we got into bees last spring because there were so few honeybees around the farm. One of the reasons for the dearth of bees is that so many of the native honeybee populations were decimated by a number of honeybee pests imported from overseas. One of the worst of these, the varroa mite, plagues the bees, attaching to their brood while still developing in their cells and holding on through the adult bees lives unless groomed or knocked off. If the infestation becomes too great, the hive will lose so many bees that it will die off or swarm away. Commercial beekeepers, and many hobbyists, keep the mites in check by treating their hives with miticides (essentially poisons), which are hard on the bees and can leave residual traces in the honey and comb. Can you say organic farm? It won't happen here.

Hence, the Russians. Unlike the Italian honeybees (also imported to America), which had never been exposed to varroa mites, Russian bee stock comes from the same part of the world as varroa mites (eastern Russia-western China) and are thus better adapted through behaviors (removal of mites from infected cells, grooming, etc.) that keeps the mites in check. They do so much better, in fact, that chemical treatment is not needed. So less than a year into beekeeping and I am already trying to adapt to the ever-changing insect world. By the way, I will not get rid of my Italian ladies, not directly anyway. I will eventually requeen the hives with Russian queens and my Italians will slowly develop a decidedly Slavic accent. In the mean time, there are non-chemical tricks to limit the damage to the Italian hives. I will miss my more gentle Italians, but the honey will still be just as sweet.

Spring is early but we'll take it!

I remember, back in the fall, driving the pickup truck slowly, oh-so-very-slowly, round and round and up and down the field while Will sat on the tailgate, spreading clover seed and saying (way too frequently) "Too fast! Slow Down! Turn Left! Turn Right! Not THAT way!" What I DON'T remember is driving round and round only the outside edge of the field...but if you look at it now, you'd think we only seeded the edges and not the inner part...thats the way the clover chose to come up. There is some in the middle, but not a lot. The edge looks great, though! There'll still be plenty for the bees (all are very busy, by the way). Will has plans to take a couple of the hives over to a friends organic blueberry farm when the bushes bloom. He also wants a new hive of 'Russian Bees'. Don't ask. I have no idea what they are or how they are different. If I can encourage Will to post here, maybe he'll enlighten all of us.
And then we have the strawberries (yea!). Three 75-foot rows. That's a lot of strawberry plants. As you can see, they are blooming and setting. Will can say 'now don't get too excited' all he wants, but as we say down here...'me, I'm excited!' It is true. Many times, a crop looks fabulous but the weather turns or a pest enters the scene, and suddenly the crop takes a downturn. And we would hate to get our customers all anticipating a bumper crop of berries only to wind up with a lot of disappointed folks. I have to say, though, we have never had a strawberry crop that didn't perform, and I don't expect this year will be any different. It's so great to have SOMETHING in February in the garden. The only way for that to happen is to get out there in November and make sure you get those plants in the ground. We don't get to it every year. The window is fairly small for strawberry planting, and you have to locate the little plants and have somebody put them aside for you. P.S.; ditto for garlic, and we did that too! Of course, garlic doesn't look as exciting as a little plant full of strawberries, but it's a great thing to have a lot of.

Wildflowers...it must be spring

Will seeded wildflowers around the pond and into the little tiny woods area beside it...last fall. And here they are...as advertised; we were joking about seeding into flats or buying expensive annuals, and really - they are just pumped up versions of these...as you can see: alyssum, snapdragons and on and on.
Ah, yes...even the Willow trees know it is Spring...

A Fish In The Hand..2008 version

A year and several months later...
from tiny little things to big fat perch; and I argued against the hybrid perch - for what I thought were pretty good reasons. But these are beautiful. Me, I like my perch fried whole - and that means there is a point beyond which they are really too big for that; but maybe not. But maybe outside rather than in the kitchen. We have a whole pond full of these guys now...I think we;re going to have a spring and summer full of fish frying parties.

The Pitiful Louisiana Freeze-Scare

OK. So, it's going to 'freeze' and we all freak out. Of course, we can be forgiven for this because

(a) it hardly ever freezes and
(b) we actually have crops that will be killed by this.

The seasonal crops, well, that's just the way it goes. Plant some more stuff next month. It's a roll of the dice. But then there are the long-term issues. Like fruit trees. We already know not to put the Meyer Lemon trees in the ground. That would just be asking for it. So we move to ever-bigger pots each year. And we haul them into-the-house; out-of-the-house etc. etc. We think this is worth the effort. I mean, hey - it's January, and there are lemons in the living room!
But there are the 'Louisiana fruits', right? Satsumas, yes. Figs, yes. Both must be planted in the ground for the long term, and both must be protected for the 48-hour nastiness of freezing temps we get once a year, maybe twice. And so, last week, we knew we must prepare. Will thought about it...sheets draped? Plastic? Both? and then there is the wind. Would either or both blow off? And what of the middle of the day? Sometimes it warms up so much you have to uncover them, then cover them back up. And, if covered by too many layers, they will drop their leaves for lack of sun. So...we have (TADAAA) the Satsuma Teepees!
This is the skeleton only, of course. We kept the Satsumas in pots for two years, or maybe it was three, before we finally put them in the ground. A couple of years from now, they'll be too big for this, but for now it will do. I mean, 24 DEGREES! Thats' big stuff for down here. A layer of plastic, then a sheet, and there you have it! (notice the very lazy dogs in the background)...and now we get to the 'totally lame' part. You know, we don't get ice. I mean, the natural kind. So, if we want to see ice, we have to make our own. We are not the only ones guilty of this, I know that. But as long as you're keeping a little bit of water running, you might as well try to make something pretty and icy for the morning after. We've done better, I must say, but here is our pitiful ice event...don't laugh! Besides, the whole thing is so last week...today and yesterday and the day before that..70 degrees. Now all we have is a very soggy sad garden. However, the carrots look good, the Collards can take anything, and the spinach is all for me! (sadly, there's not enough for the public...maybe early spring for another round).

Al The Owl

...standing watch on the dock.

Actually, I bought this 'big plastic owl with rotating head' for Will for Christmas. This is because, last June, he kept asking me to "find a big plastic owl to put out in the corn". Well, not only did I know that the town of Zachary had no big plastic owls, but i wasn't willing to drive all over Baton Rouge in search of a big plastic owl. And then, while online shopping, looking for a couple of (hopefully artistic and not too expensive) metal cranes to put out by the pond...there he was, lo and behold...the afore-mentioned 'big plastic owl'.
There is a reason he is keeping watch on the dock. There are some very ugly and quite annoying muskovy ducks that like to come over from the pond next door and hang around. That's not so bad, really...but they like the dock and they roost on the dock and anybody that has seen what they leave behind when roosting on a dock can understand why it's icky. And messy. And hard to clean up. And Will was dutifully out there shooting them with the bottle-rocket-gun-contraption-thing he has...previously used to scare off herons and egrets and the like. But these ducks just didn't care. It didn't scare them in the least. He even hit one with a bottle rocket (I think that was an accident but I'm not sure). and it didn't even make him jump (hardly). and it certainly didn't make him fly away. But they hate the owl. So they just roost on the fountain instead. Which means you have to turn on the fountain periodically to chase them off. I'm sure this will be an on-going saga. But, for now, the owl is at least keeping them off the dock. I wish they'd just go home!
UPDATE: Well, it's dark now, New Year's Night, freezing cold, and Will has been stalking the ducks...he spent probably most of an hour shooting them directly with bottle rockets...there's still one who won't go home. So he is off to East Feliciana Parish to score some larger ammo before all of the fireworks stands close up for the season!

A Thanksgiving Table

I don't know what got into him....but Will spent a good part of Thanksgiving morning out in the carport...arranging all the fall vegetables onto a table. The table sagged with bounty (literally. It was quite beautiful, but I knew that, as cold as it was that day, folks would only see it in passing on their way to the door! No matter. It is indeed a work of art.
And one more Thanksgiving note: We wanted to use as much garden produce as possible for our Thanksgiving dinner. So, after all other menu items had been decided, Will got a wild hair and decided to make 'gumbo z'herbes'. This is a traditional louisiana gumbo made with 7 greens. Actually, his was made with 10 greens (!) A thing of beauty, but I must say, it has been many years since I have washed each and every leaf pulled from an entire BATHTUB of greens!
That is all for now. Will has interesting post-frost garden pics on his camera, but I haven't made it into that store yet....

Well, it's November

Down here, that means it's cool at night, sometimes very cool....and you wear a jacket to work or a sweater and then it heats up during the day and you forget that it's fall. Then the sun goes down. And, at night, the grass is wet and cold. And the air is dry. Some of the crops love this; the lettuce and other greens, the broccoli. But you think about the fall tomatoes, and the peppers, the basil and other things that will go with the first frost...which will be soon, maybe. You never know. It's kind of sad, in it's way. I see the flowers. When you walk near the zinnias they explode with butterflies. It cannot last.
I went out in the dark tonight with a big flashlight...trudged across the yard and into the garden to pick basil. Will was making a pizza and this was all he asked of me...it was little enough.
I clipped the middle out of one big plant and the scent rose and I stopped and put it to my nose. I remember this spring, when I picked the first basil and I thought...I haven't smelled this smell in 6 or 7 months, maybe more. It was heaven. So I tried to savor it out there in the dark.

Today, Will planted the garlic. It will over-winter, to be harvested in late spring. We will try to plant strawberries next week. Same thing. If you're not with it in november, you simply don't have strawberries in the spring. Wish us luck. We are overwhelmed with other things, and sometimes our plans don't come to fruition (so to speak). But the berries are a must. We have a 2-year-old grand-daughter and I believe it is imperative that she wander into the garden next spring to gorge on strawberries.

At least I know that these little greens will be with us, frost and freezes and everything, until we throw our hands up and plow them under next spring.

I would like to HAVE a Butternut Squash - But THEN what?

We had a lovely new customer today - a Montessori teacher...she has read Barbara Kingsolver's book (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle....in case you haven't seen this reference before on this blog - buy it, read it). She is searching for food, organically grown if possible - within 100 miles of where she lives (that's kind of the premise of the book). Like many people, she wants to eat seasonally, but there are seasonal vegetables she really hasn't cooked before. For her, and for all of you out there who come by to see what's up on the farm, here is your first Winter Squash Recipe. It's not the most artful scanning known to man, but it will do, and there will be more, hopefully tomorrow.
I think this will be helpful. And, if any of our customers out there have a recipe they would like to share, PLEASE DO!. PS; to our customer on Saturday, who was buying summer squash to do the Thanksgiving 'spinach and bread crumbs and anise' etc. stuffed squash...please send me the recipe and I'll post it...a pic would be fabulous, but if you can't that's ok too).

The Squash Artist

so...I asked Will to arrange the squash so I could take a picture, so I could send an update to our email list. You know how it is...once you have yellow squash and zucchini, you have more and more and more of it every day until it's like a bad dream. And it doesn't 'put up' well'. So. One must alert the customers, so that this beautiful food doesn't go to waste. I asked Will, because he is the family 'Master of Vegetable Arrangements'. And, in my opinion, this is proof.

Potato Witty

yes. A Cat who knows his place... amongst the sweet potatoes....

Green For Fall

you know...usually, August comes and the grass on the side of the road turns brown..the trees are turning from green to brown, Things just look tired, that's all. They've grown and now they're ready to give it up for fall and then for winter.
Not this year. Things are unusually green for fall. Beautiful, but very, very green.
We've had lots of rain, which is also unusual this time of year...its kept us out of the field for the past couple of weeks. Well, not completely out, but less tilling etc. than we'd like. Things are looking up for the fall vegetables, although the pumpkins are marginal. Hints of viruses and disease brought on by too much wet....we'll have to wait and see. Same with the winter squash. Again, we'll have to see. Will has been yanking a plant or two out of the ground every couple of days. When one plant has a virus, you have to remove it, or it will infect the other plants. That's just the way it is...a little dry weather would go a long way at this point.
Here we have the 'cats on a fence' phenomena...And here, we have the first very beautiful Acorn Squash.
SO; tonight's embarrassingly fabulous menu: FRIED chicken. FRIED Sweet Potato Chips; FRIED slices of Acorn Squash. Yes. A truly Southern dinner. Everything FRIED!!!!
I think we are feeling the effects of many weeks with no sugar of any kind and no processed carbs. (!) The sweet potato chips were the highlight, I must say. There is a company down here named 'ZAPPS'. It's a chips thing. They make all manner of wonderful potato chips spiced with things we love: cajun stuff and vinegar and like that. Up until a year ago, you could always get ZAPPS Sweet Potato Chips. But they don't make them anymore. And we really wanted them. So we made our own. Better than ZAPPS. And there's a whole field of sweet potatoes out there. yea.

Two pictures on this Saturday night...

First, we have this;
Two tons of chicken manure from Mississippi + one very old FarmAll tractor plowing it under.
and you get: really pretty dirt. You must admit, that is a glorious color...

and here is picture #2:
In the 'yes, we have bananas' category. How cool. I still don't understand why the flower is not open, yet the fruit has set. Obviously, I know nothing about bananas. (!) In this part of the country, lots of people have banana plants (or trees) and they freeze back every year. And not many folks we know have ever actually HAD bananas. But Will has been taking care of this plant, cutting back the frozen stalks and wrapping the trunk, for a couple of years now. I read that once a stalk produces, it will not produce again, Only the new growth will produce. We were both surprised to look up and see this. It is a first for us. We only planted this for decorative purposes, not to actually GET any bananas! surprise!

A Dead Picnic Table and the Rebirth of the Zinnias

Ah, me. I could tell you stories about this picnic table. It was from 'the farm'. the original 'farm'. And that was long ago and far away. Our daughter's outdoor sixth birthday party. Countless fish fries and all-garden summer feasts. It was built, I think, by a guy named Scott. It has moved as we have moved...many times. And it has been out by the barn, with tall, tall grass growing up through it this summer. Too heavy to move, even to mow under. And Will says it's over. So, as I respect his opinion on the death of useful things, I can be sad but not too sad. True, it doesn't look like junk. But Will says it's junk. So there you have it.And then, apropos to the name of this very website, we have this fall's 'accidental zinnias'. They were a row in the herb beds. They were mowed down. They re-seeded. I asked that Will please not plow the little babies under. He respected my wishes. thank you. And now, we have flowers in the middle of the sad late year herbs beds. Beautiful, no? We also have the 'not-accidental' zinnias, planted a couple of weeks ago, and coming along for the fall. not nearly as impressive. But, patience, patience.

Can you believe this?

tropical depression to hurricane in FOURTEEN HOURS!

just goes to show
you can't take your eyes off the tropics for a minute this time of year.
We're crossing our fingers about the rainfall.
the garden can only take so much, and we remember the heartbreaking 'remnants of Allison' back in late June of whatever year that was...more than 23 inches of rain here in three days. 350 tomato and pepper plants, loaded with fruit...drowned. dead as the proverbial doornail. It was very sad. We won't get that much, but we stand to get more than we want on the garden. Can't do anything about it...we'll just have to wait and see.

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200709_n0z.html?extraprod=n0z#a_topad

Fall Crops...

In case you're wondering what's actually happening with the crops...
we have, at the moment:
Sweet Potato mayhem: 500 little plants that have done well and will be harvested relatively soon.
Keep in mind that, as a customer, you should probably get a crate of them and keep them to 'cure' into the winter.Fall tomatoes and peppers are in the field and coming along. It will be a while yet, but know they are doing well. We'll let you know....
The 'Winter Squash' are doing quite well, and setting fruit. These are Acorn and Butternut squashes. They don't come in as quickly as summer squash, but store very well.Summer squash (yellow, zucchini), and cucumbers are up in the flat. Even though they aren't yet in the field, they'll produce in a big hurry once they're set out.

And then there are the pumpkins...pie pumpkins and jack-o-lantern pumpkins. Lots of blooms but no fruit set as of yet. I haven't talked to Will about this, but I think the nights are not cool enough yet...not to worry...there will be pumpkins. For those of you who have little ones who want to pick a pumpkin for Halloween, I don't think it will be a problem, but here we are at this moment:
You can see the buds and the spent bloom...
For those of you who groove on the beginnings of the garden, you can see things are on their way. We will be planting rows of beans (red, green, yellow) this week. And lettuces and spinach of course. Any questions? drthais@cox.net. Ask them here.
In the meantime, we have honey from the hives available, and if you want a 'first fishing experience' for the kids, weekend pond fishing is available. Let us know if you want details about that!

Definitely NOT a catfish!

So..Will and I have been trying to catch catfish out of the pond. Last weekend we thought we'd just haul in a few and have them in the fridge for the week. Well...come to find out, our catfish are WAY smarter than that. I'm here to tell you that last Sunday, they actually HID from us...and this is true.
Every night, we feed them. They come up by the dozens and swarm on the surface of the pond, gobbling up all the food. The perch don't even stand a chance. We have to haul off and sling fish food way out for the perch. Well. once the catfish figured out we were actually FISHING for them, they didn't come to the dock at all. They were nowhere. We were puzzled. I even caught Will out in the night with a flashlight on the other side of the pond, kind of looking around in the water. It was very curious.
So, this evening we gave it another go. He left the fountain on, I think for cover. And when I got out there, he was being very quiet and fishing really deep off the end of the dock. I joined in, not having much hope. He caught a really big catfish. I was impressed, and hopeful. We were sitting there staring at our corks, and he was telling me...'you know, with catfish, you have to be patient" ok, patience. I can do that. Then he says..."look. see? (and he's getting a bite) "just let him take it. let him pull it way under." Hey! another one! And he pulls it to the surface. But. Uh.
It's not a catfish. It's the ugliest nastiest snapping turtle you've ever seen! I mean, EEwww!
He was hooked pretty good. Will kind of drags him over to the bank. 'I need a shovel" he says. A shovel? By the time I get to the barn and back, I won't even get a picture~! wait!. So I run in to get the camera. And the closest implement at hand is a big hoe. So I brought him that. But the turtle is in a vile mood by now, snapping and whatnot. And he breaks free of the hook and sinks under the dock. So there you have it. He's down there. Somewhere. I figure there's 1000 fish in that pond, so he's eatin' pretty well. Oh, and p.s.///after the first catfish was caught, the rest of them disappeared. Will had to wait until after a rainstorm and threw out a big load of fish food. Then he had them all confused and caught two more. But there are 200 of them in that pond. And it seems like all 200 come to dinner every evening. So we'll have to come up with a fairly clever strategy about this.