The Rodger's Forge Farm Initiative

A much much much needed long weekend is almost here... I can't wait to go piddle around in the garden and possibly make some cheese. I know, I'm a wild woman. Some day I want my eulogy to read, "When she wasn't eating mustard directly from the jar, she loved pole dancing and making State Fair winning jams..."
(Pole dancing ROCKS by the way)

So, I found the Rodger's Forge Farm Initiative online. Very cool! I had no idea such a thing existed. They are just a collective of people growing food in their yards. They said they are facing some resistance from the community association for gardening in their front yards. You see, this is why I live in Idlewylde. (Next neighborhood over; slightly less Stepford-like)

I remember our realtor telling us (when we mentioned looking for houses in Rodger's Forge) "Are you kidding?! One look at that tattoo and they 'll be chasing you down the street with lacrosse sticks!" and boy was he right. I'd be rioting if anyone told me I couldn't garden in my own yard. I'd rip out the grass and plant a cornfield. No no, you're supposed to have a vast expanse of green grass, like a good middle class american household. A vast expanse of desert wasteland as far as bees are concerned. A waste of water. If you're going to water it, you should be able to eat it. Yeah, it's a good thing I don't live there. I wonder how they'd feel about chickens? :)

First and Franklin

Here's First and Franklin, the Presbyterian Church Marc and I have been working on since December. It's finally done!

Perhaps a new title is in order

I think instead of "Pickles to Paint: The creative endeavors of my spare time" my blog title should read, "Pickles to Paint: My ever increasing obsession with homesteading, sustainable organic farming and the local food revolution!!!" Is that too much? I just joined the Hamilton Crop Circle group and the Roger's Forge Farming blog. Hamilton Tavern is installing a huge rooftop garden this spring. It looks fantastic. Who knew?

I'm back to the cheesemaking obsession. (at least while I'm waiting for my Bokashi composting supplies to arrive) I think I might try some blue cheese next. I also found a recipe for Greek Haloumi cheese (and a related haloumi cheese-stuffed bread) that I think might make a good weekend project, you know, in my "free" time.

Lightning Bugs!!

I just saw the first lightning bugs of the year! It is now officially summer. As soon as the nights get warm enough, the lightning bugs are out. The garden is looking good today; the one bed with the bamboo pagoda is still not quite where I want it to be. Stuff just doesn't seem to be doing much of anything; I am starting to get suspicious. It's the same soil mix that's in the other two though, which seem to be doing OK. Perhaps I am just too impatient. (I'm so surprised.) I bought a new Ligularia desdemona today over at Belvedere Square... I haven't decided exactly where to plant it yet, but I am thinking along the front porch. I think it will do well there. Hmmm. OK, now I'm just rambling.

Bokashi Fever!

I am completely, entirely obsessed with compost lately. I've been researching Bokashi composting, which is different from traditional composting. Bokashi composting works with anaerobic bacteria in a fermentation process. You add food scraps (including meat and dairy) and cover them with "bokashi starter" which is essentially rice or wheat hulls inncolualted with microorganisms and molasses. They are dormant until they come into contact with food, and then they activate, breaking down the food scraps. Once the bin is full, you let it sit for a week or so to completely ferment. Then, it can be added to the compost pile by burying it under a layer of soil. For me, this is the way to go; fermented scraps that are buried are of no interest to Les Ratas which have been a problem as of late. And, it makes compost much faster than a traditional pile.

The downside of the Bokashi system is that you need to keep buying more activator to layer with the food scraps. This could be cost prohibitive if you restrict yourself to their prepackaged product. As is the norm for me, I figured out a way to do it myself for much cheaper. You can buy the innoculant in liquid form, mix it with molasses and water, and then spray it onto wheat hulls, sawdust, whatever. Once it dries, you store it and add a few handfuls of it every time you add more food scraps. Also, you can't just keep the stuff in a bucket; I am using two gallon plastic buckets with Gamma lids. Gamma lids are like a five gallon bucket lid that has a hole in the middle that unscrews. Then its closed, it makes an airtight seal, which is great for anaerobic bacteria (and bad for fruit flies.) I have to install small plastic spigots to the bottoms of the buckets of drain off liquid every few days, much like compost tea. This can then be diluted and used on the garden. I've ordered my buckets, lids and spigots. For starters, I just ordered the prepackaged activator stuff, just to see how this whole process works out for me. I'd rather not end up with 50 lbs of wheat hulls if this doesn't work for me. it's about $10 for a one pound bag of activator, which is good for about 5 gallons of food scraps. I ordered two gallon buckets so they can fit easily under the sink in the kitchen. The advantage to multiple buckets is that you can have a space once one is filled and needs to sit and ferment for awhile. Iam so excited to try this!! If it works, everyone is getting Bokashi composters for Christmas.

The Mt. Vernon rescue rose

The Farm, May 23, 2010

Well, here is the Mt. Vernon rose that I rescued from the destroyed wine barrel in the alley behind First and Franklin... quite pretty actually. I'm glad it wasn't that really dark, dull red that seems to be on roses everywhere. That's my least favorite color of rose. It has such a dead flat quality. This one is at least brighter and more cheerful.

The Farm is doing well; this morning I went out early and pruned tomato suckers. The jury is still out for me on suckering; some people say that you should snip them because they don't grow fruit and sap energy from the plant. But I have seen suckers with flowers on them; so that can't be entirely true. Sometimes I trim them just to keep the plant from getting to dense and unweildy. I try to trim off the lowest branches to keep good airflow and stave off fungal diseases.

I also had a brilliant idea this weekend. I'm going to make cold frames that I can just stack on top of my raised beds in the fall so I can grow lettuce and spinach into the winter, among other things. I'll just have the angled side face South to get maximum light exposure. I like the idea.

Still reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle... Absolutely love it. I can't believe I haven't read it sooner! She's truly living the dream... wow. It's so inspiring. I also picked up The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan at Daedalus friday night. Very informative, but I was a little disappointed when they went on and on about the virtues of black walnut trees without any mention of the fact that THEY POISON EVERYTHING. Kind of an important little factoid. She's got a lot of great information otherwise though.

So, all hopped up on inspiration from Barbara Kingsolver, I decided to delve into some baking today. I made a fabulous loaf of foccacia bread, which is already halfway gone. I topped it with garlic powder, rosemary, oregano, parsley, kosher salt and olive oil. I am in the process of making some white sandwich bread, but that one doesn't seem to be going quite as well; it's not really rising how I expected it would. It may end up being really dense and chewy. Oh well, it's a start. I'll have to get some good basic baking books and learn more. Bread's never really been my thing. I am also making a batch of homemade yogurt, so that should be ready in a few hours. I was going to grill some veggies tomorrow night and make some good tahini to go with them.

It's the little things; I've got to start somewhere. It's not really realistic for me to drop everything and go buy a farm. But maybe I can start by making some of my own bread at least.

The Little Salad That Could

Yay! Last night we had the first real, homegrown, organic salad out of our own sustainable little garden! No lettuce that has been trucked 1500 miles, no pesticides, nothing. It was two different kinds of lettuce, kale, beet greens and spinach. It was fantastic. I was so proud of it I was just beaming. I know it's a lot of work to go through for a salad, but boy was it worth it.

I started Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver the other day, and I am hooked. I'm so impressed; the premise of the book is that the are living on an old farm in Virginia somewhere, and they decide that for one year they are only going to eat things made locally; with in their state or as close to home as possible. It's a pretty daunting task, especially when you have two kids to deal with. I'm fascinated. As much as I love the idea though, I don't know if I could convince Marc to do that. He's all in favor of whatever I want to do; but like he said, it's not his dream, and he doesn't want to be forced to help me with some monumental task. Sustainable farming is a physically demanding full time job. I understand that, and I respect it. I love him too much not to respect his wishes. But anyway, it just makes me feel good about what I'm doing; I feel like I'm contributing, and I have to believe that one person can make a difference. If we don't have that, there's no hope for anybody.

On a side note, I am back to the same problem I had last year with the self watering containers being festering cesspools of mosquito larvae. I think I'm going to try the guppy thing again, only more of them this year. Last year I only had 6 per box, and I don't think all of them made it all season. Maybe more of them will keep the mosquitioes in check. They were pretty vicious out there yesterday. I haven't had any luck with the oil method, (putting a tablespoon full of oil in the water is supposed to disrupt the surface tension enough that they can't breed in the water somehow) it didn't seem to have any effect and it made a mess. Obviously, no mosquito dunks since it's a food source, but there's got to be something else I can try. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I am also ready to toss in the towel with my worm bin. It is a stinky mess, and I don't know what to do about it. I added more paper, but it's still gross. I was going to mix it in, but then I read that I'm not supposed to disturb the worms too much. I added some peat moss, to absorb excess moisture. It's just not working, and I don't know what to do. The worms are doing well, there are lots of them, but I'm not seeing any castings per se. It doesn't look anything like the worm bins I am seeing in pictures online. It's just gross. I was thinking that if I had a proper "bin" it might do better, but I don't know if I'm willing to gamble another $100 to find out it's the same thing. I think I'm going to drill more drainage holes, and put it up on blocks off the ground to increase the air circulation. That might help. OK, helpful suggestions, now is the time.

Update

I haven't updated this in awhile since I haven't had internet access for two weeks. It was horrible... I forget how much I rely on it until it's gone.

So, one more day of chilly rain, and then it's supposed to warm up a bit. I hope so, I am really tired of this 50 and raining bit. The vegetables look miserable and waterlogged. Despite the dampness, my tomatoes are doing great; I even have some green tomatoes already on the Thessaloniki. The cucumbers are worrying me; they look a little yellow; I'm not sure if this means they need fertilizer, or if I've been fertilizing too much. Or, perhaps it's just too damned cold for them. They are doing OK, but they are not exactly thriving. I'll just have to wait and see.

My hardy banana is once again back with a vengeance, and is trying to take over the world. It actually pushed bricks out of its way this year. One sprout come up in the middle of Marc's succulent bed, so he has decided it is marked for death. No one trespasses in the succulent bed. I'd dig some up and move it, but I don't know where I could move it where it would get enough sun to be happy. I think it may start uprooting the driveway soon.

Olive's birthday party is Saturday; we got a load of mulch last weekend and mulched all the flowerbeds, so things are looking pretty good. We have to mow the lawn before Saturday, but that's about it. I really really hope it doesn't rain because there's no way I can fit all those people in my house. Let alone a dozen or so kids. Marc got some new patio furniture; there's a chair, a chaise lounge and a table. He and Olive got me a fire pit for mother's day, which I absolutely LOVE. It's so cozy out there now, and we actually use it, which is great.

I'm also back to cooking up some ideas for mosaic sculpture projects for myself...

Garden Progress

Today, beautiful. Finally! I feel like I can finally really relax. I love sitting out on the deck in the evenings and being totally comfortable, not chilly. I like to have the windows open at night, and hear the slight ticking noise of the ceiling fan. It's fantastic.

Today I planted some of the cucumbers and melons I had started inside. They were outside for two days, not much hardening off, but I think they will be OK. Generally cukes and squash don't do well when transplanted, so I like to get them in the ground as soon as I can so there's the least amount of disturbance to their roots. I think this bamboo trellis is going to be a thing of wonder this summer. I can't wait to see what it looks like covered in melons and cucumbers! I got all the tomatoes in; I still have 8 I need to find homes for, but I think I can do it. A guy from work who is another big veggie gardener is bringing me some sort of orange heirloom he got in PA somewhere. I gave him some kale, some rhubarb and two tomatoes. The onions are coming up too, they are so cute! No sign of the beans yet, which is a little unusual, but it's been pretty cold before today, so I'm sure they will be up soon. I'm just impatient.