They're Getting Bigger...

Part of our daily routine during this part of the year, is to take care of our seedlings. Most of them need to be watered every day, and as they get bigger we will need to thin some of them out. In our first entry about planting seeds we talked about planting several seeds in each plug to ensure we get good germination. Sometimes we get GREAT germination, and we have to pinch off some of the plants so that the ones we keep will grow bigger and stronger.
As they get bigger, we gently run our hands along them to help strengthen the stems. This simulates the breeze they would be resisting if they were outdoors, the resistance is what triggers them to thicken their stems. Some people set up oscillating fans for this which works really well too.
Our seedlings have grown quite a bit since our last entry. And our grow room is getting super full.

Leeks

Kohlrabi

Red Russian Kale

Siberian Dwarf Kale


Cabbage

It won't be too much longer till we get these little guys in the ground!

Starting the Season

Yesterday was such a beautiful day to officially start off the season. It was sunny and by mid-day it was just above 40 degrees! After so much freezing cold weather, it actually felt really warm. We cleaned out the "grow-room" (where we start all our seeds under lights) to prepare for the 35 flats we needed to plant.
We got most of our seeds in the mail a week or two ago (yay!) and organized them in groups: greens, roots, beans, nightshade family, brassica family, etc. A lot of Fedco seeds come in paper packets, so we store the packets in plastic bags to keep them from getting wet. Storing them in groups makes it a lot easier to find the seeds we need when its time to plant.


After we cleaned out the grow-room, we were ready to get started. We decided to work in the high-tunnel since it was 80 degrees inside - with the sun shining through it almost felt like summer. First, we mixed up a batch of potting soil. We make our own because, for the quantity we use, its much cheaper than bagged potting mixes. Plus, we know exactly what goes into it and exactly how much. The bulk of it is compost, peat moss, and perlite. We also add some amendments for balanced nutrients.
Once the potting soil is mixed, we get it wet. If you fill the flats with dry soil, seed them and then try to water them, the seeds will float to the top and the soil compacts and shrinks. It's not good.
We fill the flats with the moist soil and then carefully place seeds into each plug. For most things, we use plug trays that hold 72 plugs. This one was ready to be planted with red cabbage. We poke a shallow hole in each plug, put 2 - 3 seeds in the center, and cover them up.
Its important to put more than one seed per plug because not every seed is going to germinate. It saves a lot of time to double up rather than having to go back and re-seed the empty plugs.
Abby and Daniel stopped by to help out - this is Abby seeding some kohlrabi:
We ended up planting cabbage, kale, celery, onions, leeks, kohlrabi, parsley, mint, sage, lemon balm, rosemary, chives, and thyme. The veggies will go in the ground in March and the herbs will be sold at plant sales, the Go Local Fair, and the first few farmers markets. Now if spring could just hurry up and get here!

Ordering Seeds!

Seed catalogs - possibly my favorite kind of mail. I think, between all of us, we are probably signed up for every seed catalog available to the east coast. We get all organic seed catalogs, all heirloom catalogs, catalogs for larger growers, catalogs for smaller growers, garden supply catalogs that also sell some seeds....the list goes on. There is nothing like opening up a fresh catalog and drooling at all the pictures and variety descriptions. These are some of our favorites:



As we go through them, they start to look a little more like this:

We sat down a few days ago to try to hammer out our seed order for this season. We secured another acre across the street which means we will be planting a TON more than last season. Each catalog is a little different and I think it may be one of the few things left that still feels simpler to do with the actual paper copies rather than online.

Some catalogs have no pictures at all, just very thorough descriptions and comparisons.

Others have beautiful photographs - they are the most fun to thumb through.

Drool.

Our favorite place has to be Fedco Seeds out of Waterville, ME. They have everything we could want. For example: they break up their seed selections into open-pollinated and hybrid. Since we do our best to only use open-pollinated and heirloom varieties, this is so helpful! (If you are wondering what the difference is, the most important thing to know is that you CAN save seeds from open-pollinated plants and you CAN NOT save seeds from hybrid plants.) Most catalogs will tell you if it is one or the other, but they don't separate them into sections.
Another nice thing they have are really entertaining descriptions of each variety. Like this one for the Yellow Brandywine tomato:
"When she's good, she's very very good, but when she's bad she's awful." And about care and culture: "Compost the weird-looking fruits." Ha! Or for a variety of mizuna mustard greens we are getting called Ruby Streaks: "As if an artist had carefully brushed deep purple filigree on the delicately serrated leaves of mizuna." Who cares if they have pictures - who can resist that?!

Fedco's general philosophy is also something we appreciate. They are a co-op "to maximize social capital for the benefit of [their] entire community" rather than a profit driven company for the benefit of a few owners. They offer resources to seed saving organizations and they do not carry genetically modified seeds (on purpose). They even test their corn and beets to make sure! And so clearly, you can guess, they also avoid Monsanto seeds. Not to mention, their prices are absolutely unbeatable. They are often half to a quarter of the price of other popular seed companies.

There are definitely other places we like: Johnny's Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, etc. but we by 95% of our seeds from Fedco.

It took us two full days, but we got our seeds ordered! Can't wait until they show up!

Field Trip: Tree Chopping, Determined Eggplant, and Tiny Milk Goats

This summer, we met Abby and Daniel at the Downtown Westminster Farmers' Market. They come every Saturday and pick up some produce from several vendors. After the first few visits, we found out they had purchased a farm in Westminster - but not just any farm, Greg and Kris's from Thorne Farm. (Thorne Farm is also a vendor at the market, right across from us as a matter of fact.) It's a beautiful 4.5 acre property only about 20 minutes from our place!
They already have a lot of really fun things going on there, and have even more planned for the future. On a recent Sunday we got a chance to go hang out with them and all their little farm friends.
Our tour started with the beautiful 1950's house, I didn't get any pictures but you can see a few on Abby's blog. The rooms are covered in wood paneling - real wood paneling, not the cheesy staple on kind - and it is the perfect size.
Behind the house the land goes back into a wedge shape, on the right will be their pasture as soon as the fences go up and on the left are their vegetable gardens. They have some really fun veggies growing (all heirlooms, yay!) and the plants have been very persistent in spite of a very pesky groundhog.

This eggplant had been eaten away and had seemingly died, it grew back and is now flowering again!

They are growing basil, peppers, beans, sweet corn, pie pumpkins, watermelons, eggplants, tomatoes and more!

Next on the tour were the three dead trees that need to come down before the new fences go up, one of which was coming down while we were there. Daniel and Shawn worked on clearing the way for the falling tree and then the lengthy task of cutting it down.

Here Daniel is cutting a wedge into the front third of the tree. This cut will guide it as it falls.

They then cut into the back of the tree until they were a few inches from the original wedge.

And TIMBER!!! The tree came down - to the applause of the neighbors who were watching from their deck.
Our final stop on the tour was the goats and chickens. They have 22 Rhode Island Red hens that were happily pecking at some cantaloupe rinds when we got there. In the future, they plan to get some rare heritage birds (we warned them that the polish ones, like Trudy, get beat up on).
The goats, however, are amazing! They are so sweet and full of personality...and small! They are smaller than my dog.

This is Stardust, the only one Abby is currently milking. She is the leader of the females and demands it stays that way. She threw two or three fits while we were there, which involved stomping to the back of the barn and giving us funny looks. I think she was mad that she wasn't receiving ALL of the attention. :)

This is her son, Ziggy. He is a very sweet wether (this is a castrated male). He is a little shy and acts a lot like a dog.

Abby and Daniel are planning to breed the four below soon so they will start producing milk too. For how small they are, each goat will produce more milk than you think - a quart per day! If you didn't check out her blog with my first link, here it is again. You can see the names of these four and a video of them. Abby spins eco/human/animal friendly fibers into all kinds of beautiful and awesome yarns. You must see them!

While we were hanging out with the goats, milking time rolled around. This is Stardust's favorite time of day.

The milk pail, cider wash for her udders, brush, and grain for her to eat.

She showed us how to do it! It's hard at first, but once you get it, it's fun.

These two are jealous of her milking time...they will get their chance soon!

There will only be more fun adventures had here, keep a look out for them. :)