Reflexive Props

I bought the wire egg basket from RetroChalet. Because it was from Etsy, I convo'd the shop owner with the shot of the basket in action. This was the response.

http://vintagechalet.blogspot.com/2011/05/vintage-wire-baskets-farmhouse-finds.html

Crazy Weather

May's crazy weather continues. We just don't know what to think. One day it's 80 degrees

Then we get thunderstrorms with hail! This was from last night, May 23.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the water was sluicing off the roof like a waterfall. There were several inches of rainwater in the buckets this morning.

I got the beans planted at my house. At least the ground is soft, and it's mild enough at night for the soil to have warmed up. I took this pic on Thursday, and the beans have already sprouted by today (Tues.) I have automatic drip circled around the big teepees. I also put in tomatoes to the left, and peppers to the right. I'm gonna put borgs (or whatever the volunteers were) all along the back.

Also on last Thursday, Karen and Glen came over to the farm to celebrate. Glen was supposed to have been done for the semester, but they keep needing him!

Karen enjoys the shade! We opened some of the plum wine to taste and share. It was delicious!

Delina agrees! She came over on Friday, and taught us about Uncle Tony's share. Seems her Uncle Tony always laid an empty wine bottle on its side. After a bit, the last drops gather and make one final sip!

Dean brought us more fava beans. I never realized how utterly delicious they are, and the plants will grow and produce all winter in our climate. I'm definitely planting lots next year.

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What We're Eating
Fava bean hummus! Shell favas, then boil for 5 mins. Slip the skins off and put in a blender/processor with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and lots and lots of fresh spring garlic. Spice it up with salt, cumin, and dried pepper. Serve on homemade pita bread with Pedrozo's feta cheese, preserved lemon, assorted chard and mustard greens, snowpeas, and slices of fresh-picked onions. Out of this world!
At the farm we're still grazing on snowpeas, arugula, chard, and cherries. Dean brought this one. It wasn't our fault!

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Rick found some habanero starts at Little Red Hen, and we put them at the back of 2A.

And I had to include a shot of our cute new egg basket. I found it on Etsy, and it's very functional as well as attractive. It has a nice big opening to fit an egg-filled hand. Also we can rinse and disinfect right in the basket.

Saturday was Bill and Laura's annual picnic on the mountain. It was a perfect day for it (no hail lol). They had everything looking really lovely.

Rusty is away being shown, so Heidi got to be the only dog.

Rick and Bill check out the solar array.

Melinda, Titus, Lori, Jane, and Kathleen enjoy the shady lawn..

Rick and Catherine look so cute in the glider. I didn't take any pics of the food, but of course it was superb. There were brats and sandwiches, potato salad, devilled eggs (guess who from!), homemade ice cream cookies and two kinds of cheesecake. I also took up a bottle of plum wine for everyone to taste.

Rainbows

Now that it's mid May, the weather should be warm and sunny, right? Guess again! Here's the rain just pouring down.

Everything got well watered.

The double rainbow was spectacular!

We're sure glad we built the bar.

The beans are sprouted already! I think they liked that big rain just after they were planted.

We're still eating cherries. We saw the first Western Tanager yesterday, so we better get to picking before the birds eat them all.

We have some poppies that are distinctively more yellow than usual. We're hoping to grow more of them.

Summer 2011 Row Key

Here's what's planted for summer:

1B: Garlic
2A: Peppers: 5 Jalapeno (RC/AV), Pasilla, 13 Big Jim (RC), Fresno, 3 Jalas (RC) Pasilla
2B: Spring Blue Podded Peas
3A: Onions
3B: Spring Snow Peas
4A: Open double row of Onions with Arugula (x3) between
4B: Summer Beans (5-7): Cherokee Trail, Papa De Rola, Bolita (all for drying)
5A: Garlic
5B: Summer Beans (5-7): Christmas Lima, Black Eyed Peas, Filet mixed colors (2 rows)
6A: Tomatoes (5-2): Sungold, Early Girl, Tiger, Lemon Boy, Black Tula, Italian Tree
6B: Spring Snow Peas
7B: Tomatoes (5-4): Pineapple, Deans Early Girl, Lemon Boy, German Strawberry, Pineapple, Red Pear (back row) with Romas in front row.
8B: Potatoes (3-28) in cages with straw.

As of 5-15 I still have tomatillos and peppers in the greenhouse, and nothing yet planted at my yard.
Onions and peas are ripe, while garlic will be soon. Cherries are ripe.

Summer Garden In

Last weekend, 5-7 was a live music day in the hood! First there was this bike-in party going on in the backyard across the alley. There were about 100 people on bicycles and a band. They played for about an hour, then everyone hopped on their bikes to go to the next part of the party. How cool!

After that, Ed's band had band practice, which was also nice. So we had live music all day while we planted and built. Rick got the framing in for the slab.

 As noted in the last post, tomatoes went in last week (5-2). Yeah, it was too early, but it was getting too hot in the coldframe, and I didn't want to lose the starts I bought. Then mid week (5-7) I planted the beans in rows 4B and 5B. Filet beans don't appear here, but I planted those also.

Last Wed. (5-11) Rick C and I set in all the pepper starts in 2A.

I augmented the irrigation to get good coverage, and planted them pretty tightly.

I got bean towers set up at my house also.

Last Thursday, we bottled the rest of the plum wine.

Rick checks the clarity, or in this case, the opacity.

Weird framing helped make this more interesting.

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What We're Eating
Cherries are getting really ripe, and we're still getting a nice handful of snow peas a day. And of course, lots and lots of eggs.

Half the fun is stalking the wild cherry...

The earliest arugula is to seed now, but the next planting is coming up nicely.

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Weather Note
It's been all over the map. Mostly warm, but still windy, with a big thunderstorm last weekend. Today is windy again after a couple of nice days, and it looks like another storm is blowing in. I'm gonna wish I hadn't planted the summer crops yet... but on the other hand, if you wait too long, it's too hot to transplant.

Cherries and Wine

But not cherry wine.... The cherries are just beginning to ripen.

Making us think that it was just about time to bottle the plum wine. Fortunately, Karen and Glen were ready to help us! Here Rick pipes the wine into the bottles.

And Glen did the mighty smash of the wine corker.

Meanwhile, back at the farm... Row 6a is all planted with tomatoes around the existing chard and mustard. They ought to be fine together, and we'll eat the chard at baby stage anyway.

I put the rest of the tomatoes in Row 7b, because that one was ready to go! Row 6b still has peas, and hasn't had the chickens on it yet.

Rick put all the poles in the ground, so I'm ready to plant beans as well. I got some wire from Colliers today, so I should have all I need to put the bean trellises up. Once those are up, I can plant all the beans. Then, I'll plant the peppers and lay down the straw between the rows. Phew! But after that comes the fun part: drinking beer while waiting to switch the irrigation to the next row.

May Day

Happy Birthday Rick!

Yesterday, I planted the first of the tomatoes in row 6a.. It might be a bit soon still, but the nights are in the 50s, and the comforter is off the bed (by one day lol!)
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Lords of Ultima
Demigod (our team) won Lords of Ultima for World 11 yesterday. Go us!
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Last week we went over to Rick and Catherine's to see how their garden is doing. Here are the wallflowers out front.

Rick planted his tomatoes along the side of their house.

Here's a closeup of all the Big Jims in his coldframe.

Rick looks over the garden. Notice we're still wearing coats!

The chois were the star of the garden. Delicious too!

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Weather Note
It's been windy. Nasty wind. There were some serious gusts, but mostly it's just been windy nonstop for more than a week, which gets really annoying. And it's been cold still up until the last couple of days. Finally this week's forcast calls for lows in the 50s.

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Bill and Laura came to town the Sat. before Easter, and brought cute little Easter baskets. Laura grew real grass in them!

Here they are enjoying the farm.

Dean visited the farm also. He brought us some Early Girl starts.

We rigged up a cold frame on the big potting table. I filled it with starts from Al Vogel since mine didn't develop properly.

And we've just about got the hole dug. It actually goes back a bit farther than shown in this picture. We'll frame it up on Wed. and hopefully pour cement on Saturday.

The big irises are blooming.

It's just about time to clean out the tub for the season!