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Hi Everyone,
Rain was predicted—but working in the garden was on the agenda. Would it be possible to do both? Monday morning just as I was sitting down at my desk to read my Bible, the heavens opened up and it begin to RAIN!!! For one hour the rain came down. Shortly after 7:00 when I arrived in the kitchen to help cook breakfast we heard a ping and a pong, a clink and a clunk. It lasted just long enough for us to say, “Is that hail? It will ruin the garden!” Then it was over, and we gave a sigh of relief. By the time we sat down to eat breakfast at 7:30, the black clouds had sailed on. By the time we finished milking the cows, it was a beautiful day and we headed for the garden to pull weeds—our not so favorite past time of late. There are weeds, and then there are WEEDS! One weed when pulled never returns, the other weed when pulled comes back just as soon as you turn your back. Nut grass and betony have done their share of taking over parts of the garden. We are trying our best to eradicate them, but their roots hide deep, and if a piece is left behind it will sprout. The garden beds are 16 feet wide and 48 feet long. We have broadforked and hand weeded every inch of three of them. We still have two left to go. By Thursday afternoon garden bed #2 was ready to be planted. We still need some more wood chips to fill in the walkways, but tomorrow is the day I have been impatiently waiting for—the day we get to plant the okra, field peas, zucchini, and butternut squash. We still have some preparations to do in garden bed #6, so that we can plant spaghetti squash, Seminole Pumpkin, and Lemon Squash (a yellow squash that is the shape and size of a lemon).
As the rains kiss the land and turn the fields green, causing the grass to grow faster and faster, we have been able to move the beef cows into rotational grazing and the heifer calves too. Papa spent Monday going round and round on the tractor dragging a pasture with a drag behind him as he spreads all the manure that has collected in the winter pastures. The grasses are still too short for the sheep to obey hotwire, so they continue to run free in the pond field. The Jersey milk cows have been rotating all along through the winter grasses. In the dead of winter everyone eats hay. When the winter grasses come up we rotate the sheep and cows through those fields if there is enough. Last year we had a sparse crop of rye grass, and the sheep started to consume it all. We then sectioned off the land letting the sheep have all the grass in the pond field, and the milk cows having the north pastures to rotate through. For most of the winter we let the cows out on the green grass for a few hours every day, and then we brought them into a field where we feed them hay. Once spring hits and the Bahia grasses begin to grow, we leave them out on the green fields—rotating them to a new field every day. Once the grasses start to grow, the cows refuse to eat hay, and so do the sheep.
Onions are one of my favorite vegetables to grow. Last Thanksgiving we planted over 400 Vidalia onion starts. They are now big and ready for harvest. I was ready to harvest them a few weeks ago before the rains arrived—but it wasn’t time to harvest onions according to the moon. If you harvest onions at the wrong time they will rot—but I had a sneaky suspicion that if we waited until the right time, they would rot. The “right” time just happened to be during the week that we got all the rain, and you cannot harvest them in the rain. Sure enough, the onions began to get soggy. On Monday we harvested all the “wet” onions. Then on Tuesday after the sun had done a good job drying the others out, we harvested the rest of the onions. We had one problem though—where do we cure them? In the past we have always cured them in the brooder house—but it is full of baby chicks. It was full last year too, so we cured them in the shed we got from my brother. This year that shed was full of things that belong in other places. We also had another problem—what do we cure the onions on? We have two drying racks, but both are being used in the green house to start plants on. So as soon as we were finished milking Tuesday morning, we headed to the shed and cleaned it out. Then we took the wooden base of the crate that the new sink for the Poultry kitchen came in, and stapled a mesh wire too it. Then we placed it in the shed and loaded it with all the onions. It was Friday before we had a chance to go back and do anything more with them. We then had an onion party—and thankfully they were sweet onions so there were no sad stories to tell to cover up for any crying eyes. We cut the tops off of the onions, the roots off, and cleaned off the outer wrappings that were full of sand or water. Now they sit to cure—until all the onions produce a dried brown skin. Then the next question will need to be solved—where will we store them? In the past we have stored them in the walk in cooler—but they have a tendency to get too cold and have a frozen texture. I have also stored them in the pantry—but they tend to rot due to the heat of the laundry room. Last year we did not have a bumper crop, so we stored them in the veggie bins of our house fridge. The ideal storage temp for onions is 35 to 40 degrees, with no moisture. We have plans for a cold storage—but that won’t happen anytime soon.
With all the time trying to get the garden beds prepared for planting, and harvesting the onions, we once again got behind on packaging eggs. Mom had planned on packaging eggs on Friday afternoon—when it was supposed to be raining. There was one problem though—Steve only works for 40 hours a week, which usually means he gets off early on Fridays. There was no way that Mom and I could package 15 buckets of eggs. So we called a family that has helped us a few other times in the past. We offered to trade eggs for labor. They arrived around 2:30 and by 4:30 we were all done. It was such a blessing for both families. It was a blessing for us—because there was no way we could get that many eggs done in one afternoon by ourselves. It was a blessing for them—because the day before they had done their shopping at Costco’s and the store was sold out of eggs. They were praying for eggs—and we called to ask if they would help us in exchange for some eggs. It is so neat to see how God supplies for His people.
With the garden beds taking shape, I knew that we were ready to start planting seeds this week. I grabbed my basket of seeds and separated out the seed packs that I had already planted from those that I needed to plant. When I pulled up the onions I weeded that bed and topped it with compost so that I could plant some yellow crooked neck squash. There was one problem though—I couldn’t find my stash of squash seeds. I also realized that I forgot to include butternut squash in my garden maps—and I couldn’t find those seeds either. I have a feeling there is some secret place somewhere that I have them, but alas, I have no idea where. So Friday night after our company left Mom and I headed to Lowe’s to see if I could find some organic yellow squash and butternut squash seeds. The store was packed, and the seed stands had been ransacked. Saturday morning I called our local feed store that sells open-pollinated seeds and asked them if they had any yellow squash and butternut squash seeds. To my delight—they DID! As soon as I was finished milking the cows and had the Gainesville order packed I headed to the Farm Store. We have done business there for years, and are on quite friendly terms with one of the workers—I am pretty sure that he watched me grow up. I went in and he got me the seeds—a nice scoop that held about two tablespoons of seeds. Then he placed them on the counter and said, “Merry Christmas”. He just gave them to me—I was shocked and blessed. I like buying my seeds locally, because you get a large amount of seeds for a very cheap price—usually a dollar or two per ounce. This time they were cheaper than cheap—they were free! Now I cannot wait to get those seeds in the ground, and then I cannot wait until they sprout, and then I cannot wait until they are ready to harvest, and then I cannot wait until we can make a meal out of them. Yes, gardening requires a lot of patience.
My day is almost over, and then I can go to bed, and when I get up in the morning a new week begins here on the farm. I am looking forward to it.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare