Dear Friends,
 pink slaw |  |
it is lunch time and I am sitting in the Hugging House waiting for the soup to warm up and eating BF "pink-slaw" as we call our winter salad made of coleslaw with shredded cabbage, carrots, beets, apples, raisins and walnuts and a dressing made with lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup and water. More sap is boiling to make more maple syrup.
onions
I am admiring the 11 boxes of onion seedlings, all up and green doing their thing until planting time in May. My friend Ann Bennett told me that I have to get a heating mat for the heat loving seeds (peppers, tomatoes, eggplants) to have excellent germination, "they are so worth it" she said. So I got a seedling heat mat and some Popsicle sticks(1000) to mark the plants later. We had our annual Birdsfoot Community retreat the past weekend and our house was not well heated and so I tried the heat mat in the Main House which has regular electricity. First it did not get hot enough at night because the wood heated Main House is not that warm at night either, then I put it in a Styrofoam box and observed it for three hours while making Goldie cheese and it got almost too hot. I figured out to have the lid slightly open and have good results! The peppers are sprouting after only 5 days when it takes usually two weeks at my house with the wood stove cooking sap and the tray sitting on top of the highest book shelf. We have been saving our own pepper seeds for over 30 years.
Next week its tomato time to try again. After sprouting the plants will come back to Hugging House to be in close observation and in the light as we have big southern windows. The greenhouse by the barn does not get used until later in April. Why heat it if the plants and us like being in the same house.
I also got three of the four beds in the high tunnel covered with manure. I pushed the wheelbarrow through the snow, while the cows were still tied up from the morning milking. That will give us the 120 days to harvest from when manure was applied. The fourth bed will have early lettuce and beans. Beans don't need high nitrate as they go into symbiosis with nitrate fixing bacteria in their roots. They actually make pockets for the bacteria to live and they turn to pink little balls on the roots if they are active. Very cool, I will send a picture when it happens.
Which brings me to the books I read this winter and things I intuitively believed for a long time that plants if in healthy microbial active soil by giving off sugars and acids through their roots can steer the soil life to get nutrients delivered to them and to protect them form diseases. It is estimated that they give off as much as 30% or more of their assimilated products to feed the soil life. The key to diverse life is to not disturb the soil so mycorhiza can grow.
I hope you all have a wonderful winter. I love winter as it gives me time off from the busy garden season and time to visit with friends and to reflect.
Please sign up for the summer CSA, you can take a $10 early bird discount if you sign up before the end of March. I am also attaching the" Bonus Buck "application for people with lower income.
Be well,
Dulli
2023 CSA Online Sign-up (pay online)
2023 CSA Old Fashioned sign-up form (download pdf form and pay by check)
I also got three of the four beds in the high tunnel covered with manure. I pushed the wheelbarrow through the snow, while the cows were still tied up from the morning milking. That will give us the 120 days to harvest from when manure was applied. The fourth bed will have early lettuce and beans. Beans don't need high nitrate as they go into symbiosis with nitrate fixing bacteria in their roots. They actually make pockets for the bacteria to live and they turn to pink little balls on the roots if they are active. Very cool, I will send a picture when it happens.
Which brings me to the books I read this winter and things I intuitively believed for a long time that plants if in healthy microbial active soil by giving off sugars and acids through their roots can steer the soil life to get nutrients delivered to them and to protect them form diseases. It is estimated that they give off as much as 30% or more of their assimilated products to feed the soil life. The key to diverse life is to not disturb the soil so mycorhiza can grow.
I hope you all have a wonderful winter. I love winter as it gives me time off from the busy garden season and time to visit with friends and to reflect.
Please sign up for the summer CSA, you can take a $10 early bird discount if you sign up before the end of March. I am also attaching the" Bonus Buck "application for people with lower income.
Be well,
Dulli
2023 CSA Online Sign-up (pay online)
2023 CSA Old Fashioned sign-up form (download pdf form and pay by check)
| 2023summercsa.pdf |
