Finally getting my hands dirty!

At long last I got down on my hands and knees and started to work in the vegetable garden. I hadn't done a thing to it in the fall, thinking that the dead plant matter would serve to boost the organic matter in the soil (yeah, right, who am I kidding! I actually ran out of time), and it showed. Today I tackled the pea patch. Motherwort plants were everywhere. Not my favourite weed, it's so stinky, but easy to dig out, and great for those unfortunate women who suffer menstrual cramps. The garden gave birth to hundreds of small rocks again, so they all went into a bucket and were taken to a new home. Of course the Mantis tiller wouldn't work until it had been drained of last year's gas, and then it took lots of tweaking to get it running, but by suppertime the peas (Oregon sugar pod snap peas) were planted, and we could go in and enjoy some yummy vegetarian chili that had been simmering on the stove since lunchtime.
Thanks to the holes in the index and middle fingers of my right glove, the cracks in my hands are full of dirt. I need to find someone with the same-sized hands as mine who wears out their left glove first, and then we can trade! And my right knee is looking more grey than the left.
I did stop to enjoy the crocuses and dwarf irises in one of my flower beds, and admit I abandoned the practical job of planting peas long enough to clean out the perennial flower bed!
Happy spring!

Busy Days of Spring

With spring come good intentions and big plans - one of them being to post blogs more regularly! Here's what's been keeping me busy lately:

Watching our (?) honeybees collect sap from our tapping holes...

Helping our friend Montana at Wholearth Farm shear her sheep...

Making pasta...

Selling my wares at the Peterborough Garden Show, planting seeds, keeping the goats from escaping, selling at the Peterborough Farmers' Market on Saturdays...

Stay tuned!

Karen

Paperwork

It's organic certification time again - everything is due March 31, so I'm holed up in the office right now, stealing glances outside and trying not to procrastinate... hmm, it's sunny, maybe I should do a load of laundry, eat some lunch, hang the laundry up outside, get the mail, clean the bathroom....

Winter blahs

I love winter, don't get me wrong, but this winter has yet to impress me. No snowstorms in our area, no minus 20 nights, no cracking in the rafters... The snow isn't quite deep enough to cross country ski, unless you like being hung up on rocks, fallen branches and grass. Give me the winter of 2009, when our driveway looked like this:

That of course was the winter we moved from the white cheesemasters house to the brick farmhouse. The winter we couldn't use our driveway because the snowblower stopped working. The winter I moved most of our household by sled, up the driveway...

It was tough work, but it was a memorable winter. So bring on the winter!!!

Going Solar

At long last our solar panels have been hooked up! Of course the first two days of going live have been cloudy, but despite the clouds we have made $2 and saved 5.6 lbs of C02.

Aptly named Sunny Boy, this unit displays C02 saved, KW produced and number of hours of production.

The panels seem to be larger than the barn! Just wait until you see the panels beside the solar fence charger we use for our goats' moveable electric fence...

 Unfortunately, the goats can no longer access their jumping platform - they might
play with the joystick and risk electrocution!

Homemade hot sauce

This summer was a great one for peppers! Now that they've all been harvested, it's a great time to experiment with different hot sauces. It's amazing, how different they call can be. They're not just hot, there are subtle differences between all of them!
I've made harissa, a north African hot sauce with hints of cumin and coriander, Chinese chili garlic sauce, Thai hot sauce, and Thai sweet and sour sauce. Let me know if you want any recipes!

Thoughts of spring

Looking out over the fields that are, for the most part, put to bed and ready for the big freeze, I find myself optimistically looking forward to the next growing season. But I find that while I have dreams of perfection from October to May, when the garden is still in the planning stages, I resign myself to reality come July and August!