Simple Pleasures

Summer is all about simple pleasures. Whether it's seeing that first tomato turning color on the vine, or cutting into a watermelon summer time is a marvelous, magical time. It takes longer than you think for a tomato to turn ripe. Watermelons take about three months to ripen. Gardening is all about patience. Early pickers are not welcome in the garden. Patience certainly pays off though. Biting into that first tomato or watermelon just brings a big smile and a deep joy to me.
The summer crops are really coming on strong right now. Harvest goes on just about everyday. There's green beans, squash, zuchinni, okra, purple hull and black eye peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Watermelons and cantaloupes are starting to ripen. Fall vegetables are being seeded into trays for an early start. I'm daydreaming about fall weather right now. I'm also looking forward to a week off in early October.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

It's been hot here. Hotter than usual for this time of year. The heat comes on like a blanket. It makes me want to eat watermelons and tomato sandwiches. I'm behind on summer planting and the compost is running out. Ahhhh!!! But it will be ok. This week I will finish the summer planting. Here's what I have left to plant.....Musquee De Provence pumpkins, Potimarron and Melonette de Vendee winter squash, Boule D'Or melons, and Cannelini beans. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, watermelons, peppers, and eggplant are all doing well. The rows are 150ft. long. The garlic is totally dry now. It cured in the barn and is now ready to sell. The wild blackberries are starting to come on now. Last Thursday I picked four pints worth. Mulching like crazy.

Blue Jay Way

There's so much going on lately. We bought a billy goat. His name is Zappa. He's a Boer billy. We were just going to buy some more goats to help the three girls with brush control. Then we thought well why not just get a billy. The goats are doing a most excellent job eating the brush down. They really go crazy over it. The weather here has been perfect! Spring is a beautiful time of year here on the farm. My favorite time is late in the afternoon around dusk. The garden is doing great! This morning I harvested French breakfast radishes and baby kale. About the kale. I direct seeded the kale. Well when you direct seed just about anything you need to thin it. Well if you let the kale or say radishes get big enough you can harvest the thinnings. Spring is not yet over and planning for summer is under way. Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, squash, beans, and watermelons have been seeded into trays.

Donkeys and manure

Donkeys are awesome. Besides being a very noble creature. They are fun to have around. You can do all kinds of things with them. With donkeys you have jennies(female) and jacks(male). With the jennies you can train them to be ridden or carry items. They are also very good guard animals. Donkeys hate dogs and coyotes and will stomp one in a heartbeat. Loads of people have them for their sheep, goats, and cows. Jacks on the other hand are alot different. They still hate dogs and coyotes, but you can't have them around other animals except for donkeys or horses. Jacks will chase and kill goats. They can be sweet and gentle one moment and the next turn aggressive. We have a jack named Buford. We originally got him to guard the goats. But then we figured out that you can't have him and the goats together because he will chase them. The reason why he does this is because he's a stallion and the pasture and woods is his domain. You know he's the man. He pities any other fools. So we have them separate. He's very social though. He likes to hangout next to the girls on his side of the electric netting. Even though Buford can be aggressive he's ajoy to have around. On of my favorite things about him is his manure output. He makes lots of good manure for compost. One cool thing about donkeys is that they poo in big piles. They just don't go anywhere and everywhere. They have piles. It makes it so easy for hauling manure. That leads me to my next post. Manure and soil.

Tippy Toes

Lots of planting going on. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning was busy with planting. Green Arrow and Sugarsnap peas, Cylindra beets, Icicle and French Breakfast radishes, Monte Bianco Fennel, Red Russian Kale, Agretti(also known as Roscana...it's an Italian vegetable that looks like a huge chive...flavor is a bit bitter and sour...good braised in olive oil with garlic), Merlo Nero Spinach, Wild Argula, and Bianca Di Miaggio and Red from Florence Onions. The Oasis Turnips are coming up really well. They are a salad turnip that you can eat raw. Flavor is a sweet. Perfect in salads.
The preparation for planting something goes like this. Since some of the area we're planting in as been a garden in quite a long time there's alot more work involved. The ground was plowed with a chisel plow. Then tilled in. Alot of farmers will then take a drag harrow and pull it over the newly plowed and tilled area. The harrow pulls out of the ground clods of grass and debris. Since we don't have one I used a regular rake. It doesn't get everything out, but it definately helps. Then I spread composted horse and donkey manure. I till it in one more time. Now I've got a nice bed. I stretch out a string as a guide. Then if I'm direct seeding I make a furrow with a hoe right next to the string. I go along tapping the seeds out of the pack. I cover the seeds up with dirt. I tell the seeds I'm tucking them in. Then I lightly tamp the soil down and water them in.

Planting and Rednecks

Planting is in full swing here. Mammoth Melting Snowpeas and Oasis turnips have been directly seeded into the soil. Des Vertus Savoy and Mammoth Red Rock cabbage, Gobbo Di Nizzio Cardoons, Calabrese broccoli, and Bianca Di Miaggio onions have been seeded into trays. Rouge Sang carrots, Blue Solaize Leeks, and Music Garlic are going strong. Today Sugarsnap peas were planted. Tomorrow Green Arrow peas, French Breakfast and Icicle radishes, Cylindra beets, and shit I can't remember the variety of fennel that will be planted. Oh well. Merlo Nero spinach, wild argula, Lacinto and Red Russian kale, and Agretti need to be planted.
I hate four wheelers and the rednecks who drive them! They have no respect for anything and everything. We've always had problems with four wheelers. They have shit for brains and think oh there's some wide open land let's go ride alllllll over it. They don't think this could be someones property.

Terroir

Terroir is the key. It is pronounced terwar. Terroir refers to the soil, climate, and topography of a microregion, and pinpoints what makes an ingredient grown in one place taste different from the same ingredient grown in another. But terroir isn't merely rainfall, mineral content, and angles of exposure to sunlight. No matter where we're from terroir is our cultural and historical link to the land, the expression of the land itself and of the people who live there.
The land here in Chula Vista Alabama is very hilly with plateaus. We're in the foothills of the Appalachain Mountains. In fact you can see a small mountain called Bald Rock from the farm. The soil here is sandy from all the sandstone in the area. The soil is also acidic. You can tell its acidic from all the pine trees in the area. Plants can tell you lots of things about your soil. It gets very windy here from time to time.