May 4, 2014

A sample of the mixed heirloom lettuce we grow - 'Red Salad Bowl,' 'Black Seeded Simpson,' and 'Red Romaine'.

Chives in bloom.

It's strawberry season.  The kids didn't need a reminder; they raced outdoors first thing in a tumble of giggles, "I'm going to beat yous," and one "wait for me" looking for a pair of crocks.  Welcome May, month of cherry jam, berries, and more good things to come on our hobby farm.  A beautiful and slow spring has been ideal for growing spinach, and we expect to process 2 dozen+ quarts for the freezer.  For root crops, we have beets, radishes, and carrots in the cold frame still. Lettuce is a little out of hand and is begging our first tomatoes, still a month away.  Broccoli and peas will be producing a heavy crop soon.

'Passion and Purity' Iris.

One new project we're working on this year is a dry bean fence along the barn.  We ordered several varieties of heirloom climbing pole-type beans, suitable for drying, from the Seed Saver's Exchange in Iowa.  By the way, we are moving almost entirely to heirloom variety vegetables and plan to save our own seeds from year to year.  The dry beans will make great additions to soups and other dishes as a source of protein.  Sweet corn, melons, cukes, zucchini, sunflowers, and huckleberries are all planted.  

We couldn't be happier with our pasture-raised, hormone-free, antibiotic-free broiler chickens.  All our birds weighed in over 6 lbs. processed, at half the cost per pound for the same label at market price.  The flavor?  If you lived close to a farm before the commercial chicken industry, you might have an idea what a real chicken tastes like.  And it's something you'd never forget, in a longing sort of way.

Peas climbing the fence in the foreground, followed by 25 ft. rows of broccoli, lettuce, and spinach.

The cold frame still producing lettuce,
carrots, and beets.  A second-year 'Goldrush'
apple tree just beyond.

Spinach.

Pasture-raised, antibiotic-free, hormone-free Cornish Cross broiler chickens at 8 weeks.

Fresh processed chickens weighing over 6 lbs each.  That's more than 18 lbs of meat!
And with that rich yellow skin, it's time for some Southern Fried Chicken.

April 10, 2014

Calling all bees!  Winesap apple blossoms greet the Spring.

The cold frame has been a huge success this year as we're gathering spinach, radishes, carrots, beets, and loads of mixed lettuce up to one month before the spring garden could have produced it.  But the main garden is under way as peas, carrots, onions, broccoli, and 625 ft. of spinach are growing well in this beautiful Spring season.  We added two plum trees this year, a Red Santa Rosa, and a Blue Damson, to our orchard collection of apples, peaches, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and figs.  Warm-season vegetable seedlings are growing and will be ready to transplant out in a week or two, when we will also plant many of our heirloom beans, cukes, melons, squash, and corn varieties from seed.

The cold frame, in peak of Spring production.  After this crop is harvested, we will use the frame to grow eggplant.

8 varieties of tomatoes, various peppers, lettuce, and herbs to be transplanted into the garden soon.

The strawberry pyramid bed in bloom.

Cornish Cross broilers at four weeks old, already weighing in at a meaty two pounds, free-range over grass.

Spring at Palmetto Acres Garden

Baby lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, and carrots growing happily in the cold frame.

Jumbo-sized brown eggs from our layers.

Spring was all the buzz this weekend!  We had gorgeous weather to garden in South Carolina.  There's not much in season, just some early mixed greens, lemons, and farm-fresh eggs (sounds to me like a recipe for lemon bars and spring salad; oh, we added a couple early radishes on that salad, too).  Plans are being put into action for this summer's food garden, and already some vegetable seeds are sprouting under fluorescent lights indoors.  It's our fourth year on this property, and fruit trees look like they are going to put on a heavy crop - 10 bush cherries are lit up with hundreds of thousands of white blossoms; if there are no late freezes, we will need braces for peach and apple trees.

Meyer lemons ripening indoors.

Last spring we introduced laying chickens to our hobby farm; there has been no more fun and rewarding endeavor.  Our jumbo-sized eggs do not fit well in standard egg containers.  We're adding meat chickens this year of the Cornish Rock variety, which top out at 6-8 pounds by eight weeks of age.  It's the same breed chicken in any grocery store; ours will be raised on an organic diet and free-ranged over grass, as natural a life as possible, which should yield highly superior meat at less cost per pound than market free-range organic chickens.

Laying hens in their movable chicken run.

Cornish Rock chick

Cornish Rock chicks get their first meal in the brooder.  As cute as they are, these are livestock, not pets.

Building A Cold Frame

Seeds of Gourmet Lettuce Blend, Bloomsdale spinach, Short-N-Sweet carrot, Detroit Dark Red beet,
and Cherry Belle radish laid out for planting in the cold frame.

Thanks to my father-in-law for the free-to-us
discarded window!

Winter has not been kind to southern gardens this year; green edibles in our veggie patch did not survive January, and the forecast for what's to come indicates more frigid weather.  Though we may still get snow, under a cold frame vegetables are getting an early start on the growing season.  

A cold frame is a bottomless box with a top that admits light, providing the benefits of a greenhouse on a convenient scale.  We used 2"x12"s treated with wood preservative to discourage rot; total dimensions are 68" x 46".  The lid is hinged to help with ventilation.  The cold frame is situated on the sunny south side of our barn.

The cold frame is 12" high in front, 18" high in back to help with
water drainage and to catch slanted rays of winter sun.

Fitted with the window on top.

Potting mix 8" deep fills the inside.  Even on a cold cloudy day,
soil inside the cold frame feels warm.