Midwinter Planting

Planting? Now? Well, since we probably lost most of our winter broccoli and greens, I decided to start a flat of greens. So, the first flat of Spring is planted. Flat A has rows 1-3 in Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed lettuce, then 4-7 in red winter kale, and 8-10 in Continuity butterhead.

I also decided to get busy and plant the hyacinths I bought at Costco.

White ones are Aiolos and Purple Sensation are lavender with white borders. I put them all around the apricot/plum by where we sit, behind my chair and Buddy's. Buddy also got busy and did a bunch of pruning around the lilac and rose thicket.

And Rick got the afternoon off, so he worked on the bar. He got the rest of the boards up. I would paint but it's too cold now.

We had a beautiful sunset last night. Today is windy and cold, but at least it looks nice and sunny through the windows.

When we walked on Monday, we saw a whole bunch of these sucker fish in Sycamore Pool.

Big Freeze

The predicted big freeze came and we mostly survived it. We had temps down as low as 16 degrees, and it stayed this cold for a solid week. It even snowed a little on 12-6. Temps rose into the low 40s in the day, which wasn't warm enough to melt the ice in the fountain.

There was plenty of ice at One Mile.

And the ice was pretty thick.

We lost a piece of the main irrigation pipe, but Rick already fixed that. Far as we know, nothing else broke, so it was a good thing we took the time to prepare. One of our preparations was to harvest as many lemons as we could. The tree was loaded!

Rick got out the ladder and helped me pick the top ones.

I scrubbed and cut a bunch for lemon-pickle, or Lempickle. I topped off this jar and filled my whole big crock also.

Lemons everywhere! Hundreds and hundreds! Buckets full!

I juiced and froze some, but my freezer is already full.

So after giving a bunch away, making Lempickle, and freezing two big bags of cubes, I still had a lot of lemons left over.

So I made marmalade. The first batch was a test. For it, I used only lemons, and boiled it with a cheesecloth bundle of the extra seeds and pith. This came out really solid! For the second batch, I decided to add mandarin bits as well. The second batch didn't set up as well and I had to add some pectin, but it came out fine. I think for next time, the proper approach is to add the seeds and pith, and make it in reasonable sized batches. Many recipes say jam won't set properly if the recipe is increased too much. I gave huge containers to both Buddy and Rick and Catherine (each probably 2 pints), kept a similar amount for myself, and canned up another 10 half pints. The marmalade is pretty good, but tart and very intense. As always, I made it as low sugar as possible.

Even though it was a very cold couple of weeks, it was sunny and dry, so we did what we could at the farm.

Sadly, the broccoli didn't fare well. It had already been pretty chewed up by aphids, and the freeze was a severe blow. Last year it fed us all winter, but this year, we may have to be content with what we got before the freeze.

Some of it might bounce back, especially the younger stuff in the middle of the garden. What doesn't will be replaced. I'm already ready to start some flats under lights so I can set out in early Feb. In the background of this pic you can see a bit of the new chicken run. We put up a strand of poultry netting, double high, along the back fence from shed to compost. That gives the chickens a great bunch of area to run around in. We tied strings across the top at intervals to deter the hawks.

Delina's birthday party was Friday 12-6, and coming out from Tres, we got snowed on a little. Isn't this a sweet pic of her and her dad?

The day before was the last performance of Somebody Push X before Keith left town. Doggone him! Now we need a new bandmate.

The band as it was. We had some great times. The band will go on, but it won't be the same. Anybody wanna play Rock Band?

Thanksgiving and Beyond

Thanksgiving came very late this year, so I'm not as behind as it looks... We feasted with Titus and Jane again, and it was a wonderful meal and a fun party.

I made the rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, and farm-fresh green salad.

Jane roasted the bird and made side dishes and yams. There were also plenty of pies! I scraped together a pecan pie with the last of last year's pecans from Buddy and Catherine. Kim made her delicious pumpkin streusel. Lori and Becky were there, and Rick and Catherine, Kim, and Cindy.

On Friday after, my folks visited. We had pizza and salad with foraged greens, then toured the farm.

And we got to meet Ann's brother Richard's family: His wife Chris (center left), their daughter Valerie, and her husband Jeff.

Then last Tuesday, when it was safe to go out on the streets again, I brought these hats to the 6th Street Center. It's a place for kids who are on their own for one reason or another.

I was worried that the hats might seem dorky, but the kids loved them. They immediately began trying them on. I hated to block out this gal's pretty face, but I don't know what her situation is, and don't want to put her at risk.

And, Catherine showed me this neat scarf pattern, so I had to recreate it by making her one.

So we've been feasting, visiting, and knitting, but... this is a farm blog. Are we doing any farming? Yeppers! I picked this lovely daikon last week. There are more to come!

With a long hard freeze predicted, we winterized the house and the farm. Rick wrapped the pipes. We also unhooked and opened all the irrigation and any hose fittings.

We had to pick the citrus. Here is the mandarin "before" picture.

And the "after" picture.

And we got the tree wrapped in frost cloth.

I also picked lemons. I picked about 200, but it's only a fraction of what's out there.

I had to stop because I had nowhere to put them all! Finally I resorted to this. I'll keep this first picking for fresh lemons, because I picked them before the freeze. The ones I pick from now on, I'll juice.

And now the freeze is upon us. It was barely above freezing at sundown yesterday, and it's getting into the mid 20s at night. Our fountain is totally frozen, and everything is looking frosty. We may get "freezing mix" later this week.