Catching up

 Wow, this blog still exists. I apologize for dropping off the face of the Earth for so long. I was so disheartened by some losses and failures that I completely missed out on chronicling my journey to becoming a "real" farmer. It did happen eventually, just not the way I imagined it. 

    My dreams of becoming a vegetable farmer were more or less dashed after that last season I wrote about here. By 2014 the weeds became overwhelming in my lazy no-till scheme (I still whole-heartedly believe no-till can work, just not the way I was doing it). The need for soil improvement was (and still is) so great and it's hard to know where to even start. What happened is I gave up on trying to be a "real" farmer and eventually I became a seed farmer of native wildflowers and medicinal herbs. I started a food forest with drought tolerant native fruit and nut species and improved my pollinator habitat. I started making salves and tinctures with the plants in my yard--including the weeds! Last year I started experimenting with ecoprinting and botanical dyeing, which yielded some fruitful results! 

    I also returned to school since my last post. My thesis research is on the sand cherry, Prunus pumila, and its pollination biology. I have struggled with finding a rewarding career that pays enough while living in a rural area, so I hope that improving my education will assist me with that. I feel lucky and blessed to be getting paid to go to school (yay STEM fields!) and to have that guaranteed income at a time when so many people are struggling or out of work. I hope to graduate at the end of this year and then start a new career in the spring of 2022. I really want that 2-3 months off in between to a) replenish my adrenal system after all this crazy stress and b) spend some time turning all my beautiful plant-dyed fabrics and yarns into cool stuff I can sell. 

    I also started a family since my last post. I am so excited to try gardening with my kid this year. I made some new beds by piling peat, compost, and straw on top of cardboard and we planted some cover crops and cold weather crops in them. Nothing has come up yet, so we may need to try again. I took an inventory of my seeds and discovered I have way too many of them. I have begun to transfer them from my closet to other growers so they don't just die here. It's a difficult process, deciding which ones I'll actually plant someday and which ones are better off in someone else's care. I have some cool seeds because in 2013 I invested quite a bit in heirloom varieties and I compulsively bought rare seeds when I encountered them. So far a Romanesco broccoli and a Russian kale from 2013 have sprouted with really good germination rates, so I am hopeful for the rest. 

Tough Summer Followed by Magic Fall

      This wonderful extension of the growing season has been quite a miracle! It is October 8 and we have yet to experience a hard frost! I like to think the cold is waiting on my Glass Gem corn to mature. It has silked but so far I don't think there are any mature ears yet.

      This has been a really tough year for Magic Summer Minifarm, which is why I haven't been posting flower or produce availability. There is barely enough for me and the bees! I have heard that other growers in the area had a rough year also, with stunted, yellow crops. Some folks even tilled in their gardens in July when they realized they weren't going to produce much. I can't attest for anyone else but for me there have been several factors contributing to the poor production at Magic Summer.

      First, the summer was slow to warm up, and then it was very warm and very dry for long stretches. I am growing in very sandy soil that doesn't hold much water.

      Second, the garden was overrun with animals. The rabbits have been nuisances, but less so since my mom helped me put up a little rabbit fence around the garden perimeter. The doe who lives in the woods behind the property had triplets this year, and the four of them kept the peas about two inches tall for the first half of the growing season. More recently they have eaten the majority of the sunflowers and beans.

      But the main issue is that I have pushed the sugar sand soil too far while waiting for my compost to be ready. This is the third year I have asked for produce without giving much back to build the soil. The compost is ready now, though, and I plan to spread it this fall once the hard frost does hit. I have also been building the soil with cover crops and mycelial inoculations from Fungi Perfecti. I will be spraying 500 (biodynamic horn manure preparation) and barrel compost (another biodynamic preparation--this one is made from cow manure, egg shells, and basalt) later this week, and I will use the straw from my straw bales to mulch the garden and help keep down the weeds next year. The recent rains have really brought out the mushrooms in the field, the garden, and the compost. It is sort of jarring to see them in the soil I normally think of as much dryer than I would like it to be, but in a good way. It makes me hopeful that maybe what I am doing actually is making a difference and healing the land. That was definitely not apparent two months ago.

      The produce that I have been able to harvest this year includes several varieties of hot peppers (none of the peppers I grew from seed survived to produce--those that did produce were given to me by some friends), a few ears of Lindsay Meyer blue corn, American Tonda pumpkins, Iran squash, Bountiful beans (which are beautiful as well as bountiful--a great decorative and highly productive dry purple bean), shogoin white turnips, Spanish black radishes, Spacemaster bush cucumbers, and some volunteer zucchini from last year's compost pile. Oh yes, and there was also a delicious bounty of strawberries and raspberries. And a few peas. I tried growing the purple podded peas but they didn't hold a candle to the sugar snaps I planted last year that were both extremely prolific but also wonderfully sweet and tender. The purple podded peas are pretty but the pods are too tough to eat and they didn't do so well in the hostile conditions of the garden. They are recommended as a "soup pea" rather than a fresh eating pea.

 Here is one of the few sunflowers that didn't get eaten by deer. Bumblebees love sunflowers!

 At the top of this photo is the Glass Gem corn. In the middle you see a row that contains watermelons, okra, and zinnias. At the bottom there are lots of weeds. I hardly weeded at all this year. Part of the reason for that was I was burned out and a little lazy, but another part was allowing useful weeds like evening primrose to flourish.

 Man, this photo is just depressing. even the weeds are struggling to survive. Those stick-looking things are last year's sunflower stalks. I never cut them down or pulled them out.

 Here is a squash vine creeping into the strawberry patch, which is spattered with more evening primrose.

 These gorgeous flowers are Persian Carpet zinnias. They are surrounded by moon and stars watermelon vines that did not produce any fruit.

So something ate almost all of the Kabuli black garbanzo beans. I was so excited about those things. I planted some more in July or August but I think they need to be planted in the spring to have enough time to mature. I will be planting fava beans this fall though. And some garlic that my late grandmother grew, thanks to my great aunt!

 Lindsay Meyer blue corn with asparagus in the background. The purple flower spike is from vetch, which I planted as a cover crop in the spring.

Here is another shot of the zinnias and watermelon vines, with the scrappy nest of weeds in the walkways.

Catching Up

This week's flower availability: yarrow, valerian, iris, and bee's friend
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the bedding plant sale! I have planted all the leftovers from the sale, aside from the native perennial fruits. I may use some of those to replace trees and shrubs that didn't take off once they were planted in the orchard, but there are quite a few left if anyone is interested. The inventory includes high bush cranberry, lilac, basswood, Juneberry, chokeberry (Aronia), and American wild plum. I am selling them for $6 each or 2 for $10. I also plan to bring whatever is left to the Fond du Lac Resource Management division's Ganawenjigewin Maawanji'idiwin (Taking Care of Things Gathering) farmers' market on September 6 at the pow wow grounds behind the Fond du Lac Ojibwe School. I will also bring cut flowers, winter squash, melons, tomatoes, and whatever else I have by early September.
So far this year's garden is off to a good start. A big buck has been sneaking in occasionally to eat the tops off the peas. The grasshoppers are everywhere for the third year in a row, but once again they mostly don't bother the crops I planted. They destroyed some small, young tomato and pepper plants and skeletonized my rhubarb again, but for the most part they stick to the weeds and the compost when feeding. The fava bean plants all came up but suffered a bit from being splashed with dirt. The dirt seemed to damage the lower leaves, and that combined with the poor, sandy soil has resulted in few flowers on the plants. The fava beans in my work garden are doing better, and the bumblebees seem to love the flowers. I picked two different corn varieties to grow this year. I am hoping they will flower and silk separately, but I have corn condoms in case they don't. The varieties I picked are Lindsay Meyer blue, the corn that matured fastest at work last year, and Glass Gem, the most beautiful corn I've ever seen. I don't think I would mind if they crossed, but I prefer to have "pure"ish seeds if possible (John Navazio's book, "The Organic Seed Grower," stresses that there is no such thing as "pure" seed) .
I mentioned my poor, sandy soil. This year I finally have finished compost, but I have not yet made time to add the biodynamic preparations to it so I can add it to the garden. I will have to get on that soon. I have been spending so much time at work that it has been hard for me to get my butt out to my home garden when I have some free time. I haven't sprayed 500 or 501 yet either! i am thinking I may spray the barrel compost I got at the biodynamic farming conference last fall soon, and spray 500 in the fall. I have also tried using cover crops this year. They are only planted in about 1/4 of the garden, but I have more to plant as the season progresses. Currently there is crimson clover and bee's friend, plus a few volunteer buckwheat and vetch plants.
I just transplanted my sweet potato plants today. They arrived from Sand Hill Preservation Center last week with a note stating that it is in fact okay to plant them so late, and that they would catch up to sweet potato plants that were put in the ground up to a month ago because the warmth of the soil helps the plants grow more than the length or number of days it has to grow. I am trying a few traditionally southern crops this year, including okra, melons, and cotton. I had meant to try peanuts, but put it off for too long and now it is too late to plant them. My work garden got some, and those are doing well. Sand Hill Preservation Center sells black peanuts that have a maturation time of only 100 days, which is about all we have here.

My strawberries are ripening finally also. Are there many other places in the US where strawberries ripen in July? Some animal helped itself to the first few ripe strawberries but I got a handful this morning. Last year only 3 strawberries grew on the plants but there are scores more this year, which is exciting. I also have some alpine strawberries growing, in three different colors: red, yellow, and white. Those probably won't flower this year, but next year I will have some cool treats.

Spring arrives just in time for summer

The garden is coming to life despite the persistent cold weather. Peas, fava beans, garlic, turnips, and cover crops have emerged and I'm still holding off on planting my warm season crops. The elderberries, irises, honeyberries, asparagus, catmint, and other perennials are returning, and the honeyberries especially look vibrant. They have flowered already. Ground nesting bee nests abound, probably more this year than in the past two because the garden wasn't tilled this year. Despite that, the weeds haven't been too bad. I think the weather has helped keep the weeds at bay more or less, so I have actually had time to pull them occasionally.

 I put in over 100 new perennial fruits in the backyard behind the garden, including grapes, Juneberries, American wild plum, Aronia/chokeberry, blueberries, a red fleshed apple, a peach, more sand cherries, elderberries, currants, and raspberries. I am looking forward to 2015, by which time all the perennials from this year will be "running." I've heard people say that in the first year a perennial "sits" and doesn't grow much, and the second year it "crawls"  (grows a little). The third year it "runs" (grows a lot). Right now they don't look like much--just a bunch of sticks in the ground. Some have leaves, but no flowers yet. I have potted up the extras for sale. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing some native superfruits. They are $6 each or 2 for $10. I also have purple lilacs, basswood, shrub roses, and hazelnuts. Tulips are available for $5 per dozen.

 The compost failed to change much over the winter, even though I put it in a sunnier spot than 2011's compost and covered it with a black tarp. I think the problem is too many "browns," or too much carbon, and not enough "greens," or nitrogen-rich materials. I will mow the lawn this weekend before I turn the compost and add the grass clippings to it before I apply the biodynamic preparations.

 I am growing some new things this year, like garbanzo beans, fava beans, lentils, cotton, and peanuts. The photo on the right is of a Kabouli black garbanzo bean. I purchased them from both Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Irish Eyes Seeds. Perhaps I did something wrong, but so far it seems like the germination rate is a bit low for the Baker Creek Seeds. I have tried to fill in the bare spots in garbanzo beds with seeds from Irish Eyes, so we'll see if the germination is any better for those. I have direct seeded the lentils, but haven't seen them sprouting yet. The favas are coming up. The grasshoppers may be chewing on them a little. They seem to like sheep sorrel, which grows around the garden perimeter and creeps into it every chance it gets. So I am tolerating a dense patch of sheep sorrel in the garden to feed the damn grasshoppers so they don't eat the fava beans or anything else I plant. Depending on how pesky they get this year, I might try eating the grasshoppers this year. Someone suggested it at a work meeting recently.

 Here is one of the honeyberries I planted last year. There are 8 in the garden, and all of them have come back looking so much better than they did last year, and certainly bigger. They seem to have nearly finished flowering, and I'm looking forward to having my first taste of honeyberries once they ripen.
I tasted a few spears of asparagus. I ate them raw less than 5 feet from where they grow. Delicious! It's hard not to eat all of them, but I want the asparagus plants to grow big so I have to restrain myself. I have been checking every day to see how many spears are up and if any plants might be able to spare one or two spears for me. The ones I let go are growing tall. I can't wait for the asparagus to "run." I planted it last spring, and I think it was 2 year old crowns (maybe 1 year old crowns? I have only recently started to keep better records).
I mentioned above that I put a red fleshed apple in the back yard. I just heard about red fleshed apples a couple of months ago. I found them by looking through Southmeadow Fruit Gardens catalog. Southmeadow Fruit Gardens is a company in Michigan with an enormous collection of heritage and commercial varieties of apples. They sell other fruits too, as well as rootstocks. I wanted the apple called Hidden Rose, but they were out so I asked for the red fleshed apple with the reddest flesh they had left, and they sent Almata. It had red flower buds about to burst when it arrived, but unfortunately the uncouth four-legged neighbors ate them all. Now the tree is sprouting beautiful red leaves and the vegetarians in the neighborhood seem to have found other sources of food (though I'm pretty sure they are the ones chomping the strawberry leaves). My uncle in law dropped off some straw bales and fence posts and short rabbit fencing. I will be installing a fence soon to try to keep at least some of the critters out.  The straw bales will cover up the insulation in the front of the house, catch rain from the roof, and grow some cucurbits. So much work to do still! But it is a labor of love.
As for the heirloom bedding plant sale, let's wait until next Friday and Saturday, June 14 and 15. By then the starts will look better and the soil might even be warm enough for planting.
Friday & Saturday, June 14 &15 from 9 to 3. Email me at the contact link above for directions.

SALE POSTPONED UNTIL JUNE 14 & 15

Due to bad weather and overextension of my time and energy, I have decided to postpone the heirloom plant sale until Friday & Saturday, June 14 & 15. The native edible perennials are ready to go but some of the annuals need a little more time to develop. I will stick around the farm in case folks show up anyway. Sorry for the short notice. It has been a crazy week, and it seems it will probably get worse before it gets better.

Heirloom Vegetable and Native Fruit Sale Saturday & Sunday, June 1 & 2

Spring is off to a slow start but the bulbs I planted last fall are starting to pop up. Tulip leaves and crocus flowers are starting to dot the front yard. So far there is nothing available for sale from Magic Summer Minifarm. However, I have been preparing for the June 1-2 heirloom vegetable and native fruit sale and I have listed the varieties that will be part of the sale below. Depending on the inventory left after the June 1-2 plant sale, I may add a second weekend sale in June. Or I may let it dictate, to some extent, the contents of the garden. Fond du Lac Reservation is starting a monthly farmers' market this year in July. Look for Magic Summer Minifarm produce there (more details to come).

Vegetables:
artichoke: Tavor
cucumber: Lemon
                  White Wonder
eggplant: Black Stem (orange fruit)
                Rosita (pink)
                Thai Green (green)
                Thai Yellow egg (yellow)
gourd: Loofa (vegetable sponge)
            Thai Bottle (used to make containers)
 melon: Ananas D'Amerique
             Tigger
             Valencia Winter melon
             Yellow Canary
pepper: Maule's Red Hot
             Pasilla Bajio (long, brown, mildly hot)
             Thai Yellow Chilli
             Wisconsin Lakes (sweet bell)
summer squash: Rugosa Friulana (wrinkled yellow crookneck)
winter squash: American Tonda (pumpkin)
                         Knife River
                         Musquee de Provence (AKA Cinderella pumpkin)
strawberry: Everbearing
tomato: Black from Tula
             Tigerella
             Silvery Fir Tree
             Purple Russian
             Super Sweet 100 (not an heirloom, I know, but they are delicious)
watermelon: Cream of Saskatchewan (white flesh, short season)
                      Golden Midget (yellow skin, red flesh, personal size)
                      Orangeglo (orange flesh)

flowers: Cosmos
              Marigold
              Sweet Pea
              Zinnia

native fruit trees: American Plum
                              Chokecherry
                              Juneberry

native fruit shrubs: Aronia (chokeberry)
                                 Sand Cherry
                                 Elderberry
                                 Highbush Cranberry

native nut trees: Hazelnut

native ornamentals for pollinators: Lilac
                                                          Shrub Rose (pink)
                                                          Basswood (AKA Linden)
            

Beginnings

As Easter was a fruit day, I decided to sow the seeds of some of the longer season plants I hope to sell in a few months at the Magic Summer Minifarm heirloom bedding plant and native perennial sale June 1 & 2. I sowed 4 heirloom varieties each of eggplant and pepper, 7 tomatoes, 3 wild strawberries, and luffa gourds. I cleaned out the dead and dying lavender and rosemary I was attempting to overwinter in the kitchen after discovering mites on them and  a few whiteflies on my fuchsia. I prefer to avoid excessive insect infestation if I can avoid it. The poor fuchsia is quarantined in the bathtub where I keep forgetting to leave the light on. As a control measure for whiteflies, I sprayed the undersides of the all the leaves with neem oil diluted in water. Next I will prune off any leaves that appear to be harboring juvenile whiteflies, throw them outside in the bitter cold(*), check for more bugs on the other plants, spray neem if necessary, and return the fuchsia to the big kitchen window. I am hoping to avoid the insect problems I had last year at this time. I need a larger growing space. I have been hearing from friends about their high tunnels and their warm, thawed soil, getting a little jealous. Finances permitting, I will probably put in a basic high tunnel this summer to accommodate the developing nursery business and expand the existing growing space.

left-right, top-bottom: Phaelenopsis orchid, Dracaena, Huachuma, Dracaena, fig, fig, coffee, Algerian ivy,  lavender, pitcher plant, tomato trays, aloe

left-right, top-bottom: African violet, African violet, strawberry tray, 3 Cattleya orchids, vanilla orchid, thyme, Hawarthia, Huachuma, starfish flower (Stapelia sp.)

onions, artichoke, luffa gourd, peppers, eggplant, vanilla, future bee bath (shallow dish filled with stones and water--bees can drown easily because the surface tension of water is a challenge for them)

 
(*)Speaking of the bitter cold, I don't actually mind it as much as I mind the more than foot of snow still chilling in the backyard. I made my first trip to the compost pile in months (most of our compost has gone to worms or wildlife since the snow got deep) and it was pretty difficult. The Ojibwe name for March translates to "hard crust on the snow moon," and that hard crust is exactly what I was stomping through to reach the compost pile. The pile is apparently not warm enough to melt the snow on top of it. I haven't had great success with compost so far--still trying to figure out how to mix things in the right ratio to make it cook. One issue may be that I covered the compost pile with a black tarp, and now it is dry because the melting snow can't penetrate the tarp. The microorganisms that help create compost require water for their metabolic processes. Once the snow melts I could replace the tarp with black landscaping fabric to allow moisture in. I might turn the compost, depending on how it looks, and I'll add the biodynamic compost preparations to it either way. Some animal is living (or scavenging) in the compost pile. I saw a mouse- to rat-sized hole dug into the snow on top of the pile. I'm hoping whatever made it hasn't chewed through the tarp, but I'd be surprised if it hasn't. Oh well--this is a learning process and I am still figuring out many things. And at least I still have my awesome gardening job to help support and develop the minifarm while I figure those things out.