Homestead Holiday Letter 2019

It’s the time of year when cards and letters from family and friends start dropping into our mailbox. My favorite letter each year is always from an older couple who have a hobby farm on the other side of town. We don’t see them often, but we exchange letters every year. What I like best about their letter is that it relates what none of our other friends write in their letters – how their garden did, projects they’re working on, and general home-spun humor.

So, in case there’s another crazy farm lady (or guy) out there who thinks the same, here’s my Homestead Holiday Letter for 2019.

My 2018 garden - adding more space for 2019

This year was our first full year on the homestead. In 2018 we basically had a smaller version of what we’d left at the old house – our laying hens, a batch of broilers, a couple of pigs, and a little bit of a garden (a few cucumbers, a butternut squash, and just enough tomatoes to keep up with what my daughter would grab and eat when she walked through the garden). Most of my energy was spent on getting settled into the house.

In 2019, with the house a little more organized, I got more serious. The fall before, I’d expanded my garden footprint to about three times its previous size by laying down cardboard and covering it with a deep layer of leaves and grass clippings. I let the chickens run through it all winter, so the soil was well fed and ready to plant in the spring.

Planning the 2019 garden

I rebuilt my mini-greenhouse (the flimsy metal frame had crumpled under the weight of the squash I tried to store on it over the winter in 2016) and started most of my garden seeds indoors, since I’d learned that transplants are easier to plant into deep mulch. I’d only done this haphazardly before, starting what I guessed would be a good number of seeds about 6 weeks before our last frost date. This year I took some extra time and planned out how many of each plant I needed for each bed, which companion flowers and herbs would benefit each vegetable, and made a seed starting schedule.  (You can see my basic seed starting plan by clicking here). I really think planning made the biggest difference in the garden this year. It may seem counter intuitive, but my work indoors in January had the biggest effect on my harvest in the fall.

Making maple syrup in the snowy March weather

With my seed schedule set, starting my seedlings was easy, which left time in March for trying something new. I’d taken a class on making maple syrup, and I’d tagged as many maple trees as I could identify in the fall, so it was time to put that information into practice. I set up a little trial-size boiling station in the garden (hoping the ash from the small fires would help fortify the soil even more) and set to work. It was fun to try something new, and a great excuse to sit around a campfire two or three times a week. When all was said and done, I’d made a little over 3 gallons of maple syrup, which was just enough to cover the cost of the supplies I’d purchased. I look forward to making even more syrup this year - now that I know what I’m doing! And this year, it will all be free, since I saved enough making syrup last year to offset the cost of the infrastructure! (You can read about my maple syrup adventures by clicking here, here, here, or here).

Getting the garden ready

Syruping finished up in April, which left a little time for Easter travels before it was time to start garden prep. We needed to mark off the garden beds (I used as many straight(ish) logs from the woods as I could haul over for borders for my beds), scrape the good compost off of the paths and into the beds (it was all one big chicken-scattered bed after the winter), lay down another layer of paper mulch (we’d saved up our feed sacks from the pigs and chickens the year before, so we had a good stash – but even so, we didn’t have as many as we would have liked), cover the paper on the paths with pine needles, and add strips of compost where I was going to be planting seeds (a friend from church brought over a dump trailer full of broken down manure from their beef cattle barn – leading me to wonder what exactly it said about me that one of my most-appreciated gifts of the year was a literal load of crap!)

Apple blossoms on our one year old tree

May, as always, came with a rush – baby bunnies and baby chicks to cuddle and care for, baby garden plants to be hardened off and planted outside, homeschool classes to finish up and field trips to take. It was a wet spring, and the wildflowers were spectacular (the not-so wildflowers on the apple and plum trees were also wonderful). In the middle of all of this rush, I injured myself (not moving logs or hauling feed bags, but moving furniture to wash the living room floor!) I had a herniated disk in my lower spine, which put me out of commission for most of the summer.

Thankfully, my daughters really stepped up and helped out. My youngest daughter, in particular, took on the bulk of the outdoor responsibilities. She fed the laying hens every day, collected eggs, and raised the broilers pretty much single-handedly (and did a great job – probably better than I’ve done!) 

Harvesting wild strawberries

She also took upon herself to forage as much food as she could, hunting out wild mushrooms (after carefully identifying them, of course!), wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, rose hips, and hazelnuts from our property and along the side of our country road.

My oldest daughter decided that she would be in charge of the tomatoes (which only made sense, since she ate most of them!) We had a little under 20 plants this year, and although she didn’t tend them as carefully as I would have, she did a good job and we ended up canning a good amount (read: it’s almost January and they aren’t all gone yet – a new record!)

My middle daughter took over raising the pigs, which was a major undertaking, since we move our pig pen (four 16-foot hog panels lashed together at the corners, with an old truck topper for shelter) at minimum every 10 days, depending on how much they tear up the ground (toward butcher time it’s almost every day). The pigs ended up a little smaller than usual, but without her help we wouldn’t have had them at all, so I’m very grateful for her efforts!

As you can imagine, with four teenagers in the house (all five will be teenagers this coming year!) we had a busy summer. They discovered sailing, and took their little boats out as often as they could manage. We also took a stay-cation this summer, seeing as much of our little corner of the world as we could fit in over the course of a week. On our last day, a record-breaking storm went through our area, so after our relaxing week we had a week of hard work cleaning up downed trees (a task my husband is still working hard on – turning all of that destruction into firewood!)  

In August, our energy turned to harvesting and enjoying the fruits of our labor. We had enough corn for two big meals of corn on the cob, quarts and quarts of pickles and dilly beans, and just when we thought we could handle the bounty, the apples were ripe. Our own trees are too small to bear (we planted them in 2018 – the first spring we lived here), but friends offered us their surplus and we took advantage of the opportunity. What the kids didn’t eat out of hand we made into applesauce, apple jelly, apple cider vinegar, and apple pie filling  until we ran out of jars, and made the rest into cider. The skins, cores, and wormy apples went to the pigs and chickens to be turned into bacon and eggs.(You can read my post about how many things you can make all from the same apples by clicking here)

Our last harvest of the year was our pumpkins. My middle daughter (who also tended the pigs this summer) always claims the privilege of raising our carving pumpkins every year. They must have liked the mulch, because they were huge – too big to reach my arms around – and prolific – we ended up with about a dozen that size! Needless to say, the kids had a great time carving those giants this fall!

Now the garden is all snug under its blanket of snow, waiting for spring so that the chickens can again clean out all of the over-wintered bugs and add their little packets of fertilizer before I shut them out for the summer growing season. I love how God made all of the seasons so different, so that we can enjoy each one as it comes around again. Each has its own challenges and joys, beginning with hope and excitement and usually ending with an exhausted farmer ready to move on to the next thing!

I’d like to wish each of you reading this a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – may your harvest be bountiful, your animals stay healthy, and your family grow in love and productiveness!

Drop a line in the comment section below and let me know how your homestead did this year, whether it's a pot of herbs on your windowsill or a farm on 100 acres! I love to hear what everyone is up to!

Spring Planting Signs

Everyone knows that farming is dependent on the weather. Where I live, in hardiness zone 4b, we have short summers and long winters, so we really need to maximize our growing season. We want to get our plants in as early as possible; but how do we know when the ground is ready to plant? Too early, and our transplants won't survive and seeds will just rot. Here in Northwestern Wisconsin, frost-out can vary by weeks from year to year - it seems like sometimes the ground thaws out in March, and other times not until mid-April. So how do you know when it's safe to plant?

If you've read Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic book Farmer Boy, you may remember the scene where Almanzo and Alice are arguing about planting time:

At the end of the row he looked at the ash tree’s crumpled new leaves, and asked Alice if she knew when to plant corn. She didn’t, so he told her. Corn-planting time is when the ash leaves are as big as squirrel’s ears.
“How big a squirrel?” Alice asked.
“Just an ordinary squirrel.”
“Well, those leaves are as big as a baby squirrel’s ears. And it isn’t corn-planting time.”
For a minute Almanzo didn’t know what to think. Then he said:
“A baby squirrel isn’t a squirrel; it’s a kitten.”
“But it’s just as much a squirrel—”
“No it isn’t. It’s a kitten. Little cats are kittens, and little foxes are kittens, and little squirrels are kittens. A kitten isn’t a cat, and a kitten isn’t a squirrel, either.”
“Oh,” Alice said.

Squirrels and kittens aside, there are many signs from nature that give us hints at what's going on below ground. One rule of thumb I've heard is that if the weeds are coming up, cold-hardy plants like spinach, lettuce, and broccoli should be able to grow, too. Makes sense, don't you think? If it's warm enough for the "wild" plants to germinate, our cultivated plants should be able to, too.

A more specific tip I've read is that you should plant potatoes, beets, carrots, and peas when the dandelions start blooming. Now, I have dandelions growing right up next to my house that are about to flower, but I'm not going by that, since they're benefiting from the warmth coming off of the foundation - a very different microclimate than down in my garden. I need to look at the dandelions growing around my garden to see when that soil is ready.

Another tip I've heard is that when crocus flowers start blooming, you can plant peas, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and broccoli. Or, if you don't have crocus flowers, you can plant these when the lilacs show their first leaves, or when the daffodils begin to bloom. In our neck of the woods, the daffodils are just sending up their first leaves right now, the lilac leaves aren't out yet, and unfortunately I don't have any crocus flowers planted on our new property. So it looks like I have a little time to wait before I should start planting - which I should note for next year, since the broccoli and Brussels sprouts I started indoors are more than ready to be transplanted! Ah, well. I'll know to start my seeds a little later next spring.

For the more tender vegetables like corn and beans, the old-timers said that you can plant these when oak leaves are the size of a mouse's ear - or, if you're more the Alice type, and want to be contentious about what size mouse, you can wait until the apple blossoms start to fall. Another sign is when the daylillies bloom; that's when you'll want to put out your tomatoes and peppers. And when the lilac flowers start to fade, then you can plant your cucumbers and squash.

In our modern, over-scheduled world, this seems very imprecise and hard to plan. I want to know when to start my seedlings indoors so they'll be at the perfect size when planting time comes! But any farmer will tell you, the real world doesn't necessarily run on your schedule. Some years spring will warm up early, other years you'll get snow the first week of June (my dad has a photo of snow on our lilac bush from a freak June snowstorm when I was a teenager). But knowing what signs to look for can help you know when your part of the world is ready to start growing again.

2019 Seed Starting Plan

Although you wouldn't know it to look outside, (as you can tell by Monday's post) spring is just around the corner! Our last frost date around here is May 15th (well, that's a little optimistic, but it usually works out alright), so March 1st is time to start my first seeds indoors (if you have a different last frost date, you can use this chart, too - just adjust your seed starting times back accordingly).

Here's my plan for sowing seeds this spring:

March 1st - start indoors:
5 parsley plants
12 Brussels sprouts
20 broccoli
(these are all cool-season plants, so I'll aim to get them transplanted outside around April 15th)

April 1st - start indoors:
17 tomatoes (to be planted out May 15th)
12 spinach
12 lettuce (I'll plant both the spinach and the lettuce every 2 weeks for a continuous harvest; I'll plant the firsts set out on April 15th)
20 rutabagas (transplant April 15th)
4 jalapenos (transplant June 1st)

April 15th - direct sow in the garden:
peas
lettuce
spinach
onions

May 1st - start indoors:
5 watermelon
5 pumpkins
1 butternut squash
5 cucumbers
4 dill
5 nasturtium
3 hollyhocks
5 calendula
4 borage
1 basil

May 1st - direct sow in the garden:
potatoes
carrots
radishes
swiss chard

June 1st - direct sow in the garden:
corn
runner beans
bush beans

How about you? Are you starting any seeds indoors this year?

Free Tomato Plants

Not only can you propagate herbs from cuttings, you can also do it with tomatoes! Tomatoes are well-known for rooting very easily, so they're actually one of the easiest plants to propagate this way. I currently have two tomato "mamas" growing in front of my kitchen patio door, and can't wait to plant cuttings from them in the spring.

I actually started them sort of by accident - I was tying up my tomato plants in the garden in July, and accidentally broke off two side branches. Instead of just throwing them in the compost pile, I decided to try growing them as cuttings to see if they would take hold. I didn't use any rooting hormone, I simply sunk the stems in well-moistened soil and kept them watered. I had them outdoors in pots until our first frost in September, and before I brought them in they each had tiny tomatoes starting to grow on them (we ate them in October - boy, was it good to have fresh, home-grown tomatoes while the snow was flying outside!)

They haven't flowered since (decreased light? lower temperature? the dog's tail constantly knocking off small branches?), but since I'm not counting on them for fruit over the winter, just vegetation for cuttings in the spring, I don't mind.

I'm very excited about this experiment because it means not only will I have a head start on spring planting (cuttings get going much faster than seeds) but, since each cutting is an exact copy of the parent plant, I don't have to worry about cross-polination. Since I grow more than one type of tomato (I usually have at least one cherry, one brandywine, and a bunch of roma-type for sauce) I usually end up with "mutts" when I save seed. This can be a fun little experiment, but it's a little less amusing when I meant to plant a bunch of meaty romas for the winter's supply of spaghetti sauce and end up with a bunch of cherry tomatoes instead!

But if I save a couple "mamas" from each type of plant in the fall, I should be able to start as many new cuttings as I'd like in the early spring, sure that they'll turn out to be the kind of plant I want (I'd save more than one plant of each kind, just in case - one of the plants I saved this summer got knocked over by an over-excited dog, and is barely hanging on).

I can't wait to see what other plants I can grow this way (although I may need my husband to build me a sunroom for all of these plants to overwinter in!)

Ugly Tomatoes

Have you ever noticed that the tomatoes that look the worst often taste the best?

This beauty would never appear on any store shelf, but it was delicious! Sure, it's a bit tricky cutting out the stem, and those strange brown rings (they're just on the skin - anyone know what they are, and what causes them?) but it's definitely worth it, in my book, for the flavor. Unless I'm entertaining, I really don't care what it looks like (and if I invited people over, that means I'd have to share!)

Sorry, I don't even know what variety this one is (I'm guessing either a Brandywine or a Mortgage Lifter - my tomato patch this summer was a mishmash of old seeds I needed to use up (I think all of them were between 5 and 10 years old!) So there were some of those two types, some Jelly Bean, some Beefsteak, and I think some saved Romas, too - so I have quite a variety pouring in!)

First Harvest of 2012

It's official! I harvested the first vegetable out of my garden this afternoon - a handful of spinach to add to our spaghetti sauce. The gardening season has officially begun!

(and, as you can see, the weeding season needs to begin as well . . .)

The brown and yellow tips are on the leaves that stayed on the plant over the winter; the plants that had started growing in the fall started up again as soon as the snow was gone. I would never have expected a spinach plant to survive our cold Wisconsin winters, but here's living proof that they do!

Spring is Bustin' Out All Over!

We've been having a strange spring warm spell this past week, with temps in the 60s, and even up into the 70s once or twice. Considering that just two weeks ago we got over a foot of snow in one day and it looked like this around here:

 it's amazing that today I found this in the garden:

and these, too!

Not only that, but the rhubarb is starting to peek out:

and the spinach that was covered in all that deep snow over the winter is sending out tiny new leaves:

Over in the herb garden, the chives are coming up through last year's dead growth:

and, under cover (I accidently brushed off the spent leaves that were hiding this baby), the oregano is getting ready for the growing season, too:

I just love spring! It seems like every time I go outside, there's a new sign that what looked dead was just waiting for the right time to come alive again!

Maybe that's why Easter is my favorite holiday?

This post is part of Farmgirl Friday.

Much about Mulch

This season, I tried five kinds of mulch: red plastic mulch film, a thicker silver plastic mulch, and, between the beds, I covered the paths in black landscape fabric,  black plastic, or old paper feed bags (note: the links are to products similar to what I used, not necessarily the exact product. I honestly don't remember which brand names I purchased). Here's what I found:

I was really disapointed in the red film. The tomatoes didn't do very well at all (although that might be due to other factors, since the other tomatoes (some with silver mulch and some with no mulch at all) didn't do any better. But when I pulled it up this fall, I found that the weeds hadn't been bothered by it at all! They were somewhat physically crushed under it, but creeped out the sides and the holes for the tomato stems. Apparently they got plenty of water and light to thrive. I definitely won't be using that product again.

(Here you can see the red plastic film, and all of the weeds peeking out from the edges and the tomato holes. You can also see how puffed up it is from the weeds growing beneath it.

On either side of that bed are the paths covered in paper feed bags, which are obviously the worse for wear - most of the bags on the right side are completely gone. But the ground where they were is still fairly weed-free, with sure signs of a lot of healthy worm activity.)

The silver mulch did much better. This is my second year using this same piece, and it looked like it could go for another season at least. The soil underneath was almost completely weed-free, except for where a few had snuck out through the holes for the tomato stems. If I wasn't trying to get away from using plastic, I would definitely use this again.

(Here you can see the silver mulch (on right), the black plastic mulch (in the foreground on the path), and the black landscape fabric (on the far side of the path). Obviously, the landscape fabric is ruined, while the two plastic mulches look like they could survive another season at least.)

On the paths, the black landscape fabric didn't work well at all. I think this product is meant to be covered with chips or rocks, and I left it bare, so perhaps that's why I had problems. It was torn and worn through in places in less than a month.

The black plastic mulch did much better - it's a similar weight to the silver plastic mulch, and performed very well, even under a summer's worth of walking/kneeling/wheelbarrow traffic. Again, if I wasn't trying to get away from plastic, I'd use it again.

The feed bags worked fairly well - they're paper, so by this time of year they're pretty faded and bedraggled, but they kept the weeds down very well, and underneath I found quite a lot of worm castings, which I think is encouraging. You do have to make sure to overlap them very well, since they're so narrow the grass in particular will find its way to the light if they're not overlapped enough. I also catch my boots on them a lot, since there are so many loose edges. But they're free, and they're not plastic! Unfortunately, I'm not getting feed in this type of bag anymore, so I'll have to think of something else for next year.

Next summer, I'm thinking of trying paper mulch. Has anyone out there used it? What do you think?

Garden Accounting - October/November

This is the fifth installment in this series - you can see the totals for June here, July here, August here, and September here.

Since we had our first frost on September 21st, I was expecting the garden to be pretty much done, with just the potatoes and carrots left to harvest. But the herbs kept going strong (except the basil, of course) and, surprisingly, the broccoli just kept getting better and better! The cabbage worms slowed considerably (but they were still there), so that must have helped.

So, how did I do? My total for October was $185, which added to the running total so far makes $1,120! Over a thousand dollars worth of food from my little garden! (I should note here that as of this writing, November 10th (the first snowfall, which I am officially calling the end of Garden Season 2011), I harvested another $10 worth of carrots and lettuce, bringing the Season Total to $1,130. Not too shabby!)

Here's what I harvested in October:
76 pounds of potatoes
5 pounds of onions
2 pounds of chard (not counting what I fed to the chickens, about a plant a day)
18 1/2 pounds of carrots
2 bunches of parsley
4 ounces of chives
5 pounds of broccoli
8 heads of garlic (I'm saving most of it for next year)
2 pounds of lettuce

And for November:
2 pounds of carrots
1 pound of lettuce