Dear All, spring is here! It is warm and cold and I am starting to plant the gardens, while still planning the lay out, the annual puzzle. Please look at the new CSA info and sign up papers (click the CSA tab above). Sign up if you can and let me know if you plan not to be with us and don't want newsletters or reminders.
I had wonderful time in Germany with my family and friends. One high point was when I went to visit an old friend from college time and she had invited the entire folk band in which I played 22 years ago and many of them I had not seen since then. One after the other came in as a surprise and brought tears to my eyes, long lost friends, feeling close as ever. We ate dinner and cake and played music all night, they had brought me a violin to play. One of them had not played in years, since his girlfriend had passed away and it was a magical moment, even when our music sounded a bit rough at first. Two of my dear friends from a community in Schoenhagen are planning to come and visit me this year. They had their wedding wish last year be to pay for a trip
to Canada and the US. You can see, I am all happy and ready to go for another year, Steve is very happy to have Kira and me back.
We seeded the greenhouse with chard, spinach, cilantro, parsley, basil and carrots. My house is packed with peppers, tomatoes, onions, celeriac, leeks and first lettuce. Today I am planning to move the seed cabinet to the barn and order the last few missing seed and finish adding up all numbers of harvest, sales and row feet planted in 2011 to do a solid plan for this year. Then comes the mapping out puzzle of all the pieces.
I am planning to buy insect netting from Germany to master the swede midge that keeps eating our broccoli. This will be a $2000 investment, but the nets are supposed to last 20 years. I hope we have lots of broccoli this year, but I am careful in my expectations on paper.
I also got a new cook book by farmer John with new recipes for you. I will write soon with the new CSA sign up and I hope to hear from you.
How are you doing, how was your winter, what are your favorite meals these days? I made sushi with sticky rice, pickled beets, pickled cukes, cooked carrot stripes and cheese strips rolled into nori seaweed. Kira ate 15 of them last Friday.
Last week we put out the guinea pigs "Truffle" and "Nellie" into the hutch for the first time. When we wanted to bring them in in the evening (dark), Nellie did not know the routine,because she came at Thanksgiving and she freaked out. Without warning she jumped out of the 3'high hutch onto the grass and ran under a turned over garden cart. It took us 1/2hr or so to guide her with boards lined up on both sides of the cart to our mudroom and than when she hid behind the skis in the mudroom to catch her and take her inside. All in the dark, Steve, Kira and me hoping she would not run into the woods. What an exciting evening that was.
All the best for now, Dulli
I had wonderful time in Germany with my family and friends. One high point was when I went to visit an old friend from college time and she had invited the entire folk band in which I played 22 years ago and many of them I had not seen since then. One after the other came in as a surprise and brought tears to my eyes, long lost friends, feeling close as ever. We ate dinner and cake and played music all night, they had brought me a violin to play. One of them had not played in years, since his girlfriend had passed away and it was a magical moment, even when our music sounded a bit rough at first. Two of my dear friends from a community in Schoenhagen are planning to come and visit me this year. They had their wedding wish last year be to pay for a trip
to Canada and the US. You can see, I am all happy and ready to go for another year, Steve is very happy to have Kira and me back.
We seeded the greenhouse with chard, spinach, cilantro, parsley, basil and carrots. My house is packed with peppers, tomatoes, onions, celeriac, leeks and first lettuce. Today I am planning to move the seed cabinet to the barn and order the last few missing seed and finish adding up all numbers of harvest, sales and row feet planted in 2011 to do a solid plan for this year. Then comes the mapping out puzzle of all the pieces.
I am planning to buy insect netting from Germany to master the swede midge that keeps eating our broccoli. This will be a $2000 investment, but the nets are supposed to last 20 years. I hope we have lots of broccoli this year, but I am careful in my expectations on paper.
I also got a new cook book by farmer John with new recipes for you. I will write soon with the new CSA sign up and I hope to hear from you.
How are you doing, how was your winter, what are your favorite meals these days? I made sushi with sticky rice, pickled beets, pickled cukes, cooked carrot stripes and cheese strips rolled into nori seaweed. Kira ate 15 of them last Friday.
Last week we put out the guinea pigs "Truffle" and "Nellie" into the hutch for the first time. When we wanted to bring them in in the evening (dark), Nellie did not know the routine,because she came at Thanksgiving and she freaked out. Without warning she jumped out of the 3'high hutch onto the grass and ran under a turned over garden cart. It took us 1/2hr or so to guide her with boards lined up on both sides of the cart to our mudroom and than when she hid behind the skis in the mudroom to catch her and take her inside. All in the dark, Steve, Kira and me hoping she would not run into the woods. What an exciting evening that was.
All the best for now, Dulli
