Garlic Mustard: Not Just a Nuisance
Our second Spring on the farm was when we first identified garlic mustard, and once we had, we started noticing that it was everywhere. It was one of the first green things up in the Spring, one of the first…
Our First Asparagus: Worth the Wait
We planted purple asparagus crowns during our first Spring here. Normally, you are meant to wait two years after planting before you begin to harvest asparagus, so last Spring should have been our first harvest. We had so few…
Peas!
Our pea plants have been looking very healthy and happy this year, and late last week I was excited to notice the first few blooms. I’d forgotten though, how quickly flowers turn into actual peas, so I was surprised and…
Guinea Egg Pasta
Since I posted about our first Guinea hen egg of the year, those birds have kept us filthy with the things, laying as many as a dozen eggs in one day. It’s been wonderful having fresh, extra rich eggs always…
Slug Prevention: This Year’s Method
Being in a bit of a hollow, most of the time our little acreage stays pretty damp and cool. Where the garden is concerned, that climate is a mixed blessing. While we rarely have to irrigate, crops like tomatoes and…
Holy Bolting Rhubarb
We planted this rhubarb plant at the end of last summer and were thrilled at how rapidly it was growing and filling out this Spring. Then Cory noticed an odd pinkish knot in the middle of it. I thought might…
Savoring Ramps: Pickles and More
Ramp season is upon us, and our patches of them seem even more dense and lush than the past two years. Because their season is so short, we tend to harvest more ramps than we can possibly eat before they…
First Guinea Egg of the Year!
Having had so many eggs stolen toward the end of the last laying season, we were concerned that this season’s would all be spirited away before we had the chance to get to them. Much to my glee, this…
A Stranger in Our Midst
I found these perfect little tracks in the dust on top of the bins we keep our Guinea feed in the other day. I’m not well-versed in identifying animal tracks, but I do have a suspicion that they belong to…
Forced Blooms: A Bright Spot Amid the Late-Winter Gloom
Yesterday, when, for the second day in a row, I spent several hours outside doing yard work, I was heartened by the sense that Spring had finally arrived. Today I awoke to 4 or 5 inches of snow and despair…that…