Halloween

We had our Halloween party on the Saturday before Halloween (10-26). The theme was Fairy Tales, and folks had some great costumes. It was a fairly small party, but still fun. Titus and Jane were sick, Karen and Glen were up in Forest Ranch making wine, Keith and Noel were out of town...etc. But we still had a good core of wacky folks. Rick made a very scary Captain Hook. I did ask him to check his sword at the door, though.

I used my Lady Godiva hair yet again; this time I was Rapunzel. If you look closely, you can see the prince climbing my hair. 

I went all over town looking for a good action figure, and this guy was perfect. He was even fully articulated, so I could pose him at will. I made him a teeny tiny T-tunic and a crown, a belt and a sword. I figured he would take his boots off for climbing. 

Laura came as Cruella Deville, and brought her delicious ghoul-lash.

But by far the best costumes of the night were Rick and Catherine's! Hilarious. Rick makes such a... disturbing... Little Bo Peep. 

Delina had to drive back from a tournament, but she made it. And Cindy came as a mom who reads fairy tales to her kids. I told her any costume counts as long as you can make up a story about it! 

Melinda and Rita came. We may never see Melinda in a dress again! 

Tom was perfect as the Mad Hatter!

There was plenty of good food.

And music on the patio.

Fortunately the weather was clear and not too cold so we could use the back patio. 

Single, Fresh, Wet, and Wild

Saturday was the first annual Sierra Nevada Single, Fresh, Wet, and Wild festival. We went with Karen and Glen. Rick, Karen, and I walked, and Glen rode his bike over once he finished golfing. It was a fantastic event!

But before I get into the full details, lemme catch up on farm news. I mean, this IS a farm blog after all... We're eating lovely cabbages.

And getting a lot of broccoli. This is the start of the main crop; we already harvested the center heads of the earliest ones, which were the Packmans on row 5 that were planted on 6-20 (!). These pictured are the Apollos that we had such good luck with last year.

And remember that bug we were going to identify? Rick found a site and tracked it down: they are nymph forms of Harlequin beetles (a type of "stink bug"). They are indeed sucking the life out of our broccoli leaves, so I'm going to hunt them down and slay them. Last Thursday was Rock Band night, but it was also Firestone Walker night at the Handle Bar, so we started off there!

I started with the FW  Double Jack IPA and Rick had the FW Wookey Jack. Next I had a Drakes Aroma Coma. Both were delicious, and the big IPA got me heading down the road to tipsy!

 Friday I got busy and planted  two big beds of garlic in Sector 4 (by the house). I got 4 rows in each bed, with just under 30 in each row for approx 100 per bed. I got the irrigation set up on Sunday.

Ok back to the festival! We walked over, and got in line. The tractor in the back is pulling a shuttle car. They set it up with parking at the fairgrounds and shuttles to bring you over. But lots of folks walked or rode bikes.

On the way in we saw this exhibitor.

Once we got in, we got a program and a cute little glass. I had my pencil at the ready to make notes.

It took place mostly inside the huge tent. We made little "base camps" so we could foray out and grab beers around the sector, then return and find everyone. We changed base camp several times to work the whole floor.

Outside they had food tents (in the background) and lots of seating. You could have all you wanted to eat and drink, and there were never any lines! Much better than our first Octoberfest. These stations were sausage (with rolls, sauerkraut, mustard, and coleslaw), taco bar, and pretzles with beer cheese. The last station also had a big bowl of sliced watermelon radishes, which were great for palate cleansing.

Beer tasting is serious business!

They had a display of beer camp partners breweries.

And the pedal powered bar.

Ken Grossman was signing autographs.

Here were all the beers, with my notes...

Autumn Frolicking

So we haven't just been digging and planting. Sunday, Tom played at Has Beans in Chapmantown. His band is Adam, Rita, Rita's daughter, and Tom.

They set up in the alleyway, which was kinda cool, although we had rails and plantings between us and the band.

But it was a lovely sunny day, and we chatted with some great folks between songs. Nora was there, and Melinda, and Dan and Judy.

Afterward, we went to the Handle Bar. Tom ponders his flight...

They bought a kegerator, but too late! There's no Kolsch left to be had! So we drank Trumer Pilsner instead.

Not a bad way to spend a beautiful Fall Sunday.

Autumn Planting Roundup

We're having that slice of almost perfect weather that we often get in early Fall. It gets pleasantly warm in the day, and cool enough at night to snuggle up with blankets. I got the backyard pretty much all squared away. The beans are out of row 1 and greens are taking their place. There are transplants in the front (set in 9-20) and direct seeded stuff (seeded 9-24) in the back. Row 2 is broccoli and cabbage that went in on 9-1.

The last Friday, 10-11, I cleaned up row 3, taking out all the tomatoes, but leaving the peppers for now. I got it planted with Continuity Butterhead lettuce, Winter Red kale, a tiny strip of Surrey arugula (saved seed), then French Red shallots. Also on Friday, I put some of our saved Spanish Roja garlic in row 4 back, and row 5 back is the garlic that sprouted, only the biggest ones, transplanted on 9-1. I could probably take out the cherry and Borg tomatoes now, but they're still producing a little, and I'm not in a hurry.

The backyard is in pretty good shape. At the farm however, I'm behind on getting the garlic in. I decided to put it in sector 3, because it's almost ready, and it hasn't had garlic or onions there recently. The chickens are lending a hand... or a wing? Mostly a foot, as they scratch and scratch up the dirt. We did lose one chicken so we're down to 10. Since this shot, I've finished digging up the whole area. I just need to rake it into rows and put down straw on the paths.

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Weather Note
Sector 3 became suddenly much easier to dig when it rained on Saturday night. It wasn't even that cloudy, but we had a brief downpour. We all took shelter in the bar, and waited it out. I was glad I'd gotten row 4 planted.
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This is row 4, newly planted in crimson clover for a cover crop/forage row. I'll keep planting as I keep taking out tomatoes and peppers.

We're still getting peppers!

The broccoli is doing well. We've had some aphids, but I've washed them off. We have six rows of broccoli. (One row not shown here). The cabbages that were set in on 7-22 are already done and harvested! I'm going to put lettuce behind them.

The broccoli are producing well. The Packmans in row 5 are already on side shoots, and they were maybe planted just a tiny bit early. On the other hand, it was nice to have them.

This flat of lettuce is doing well. Since this was taken, I thinned/transplanted them, and I have 49 plants.

We're seeing lots of these on the broccoli. We don't know if they are eating the aphids or the brocs! I'm going to try to identify it.

This row of greens should keep us fed for a while. There's lettuce, chard, kale, win choi, and violetta pak choi.

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What We're Eating

Pickings are a little slim but... with the last few tomatoes, a zucchini, a pepper or two, some green garlic, and fresh oregano. 

I was able to scrape up a pizza's worth of veg. I sliced the zucchini, salted it and let it sit while I prepped the rest. Then I rinsed and dried it. A lot of liquid came out from that, so it didn't make my pizza soggy. 

The pizza was fantastic. 

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Rick C.'s BD

Rick C. is turning 60! His birthday is actually next Sunday, but Catherine will be out of town visiting her daughter so we had the party last weekend. It was a lovely day, we had a nice turnout, and best of all, Catherine did all the work! Well we helped a little, but really, it was all her.

There was music, and food, and drink, and good cheer.

And more music.

And cake too!

The weather cooperated; it was sunny and warm but not hot, there was not too much wind (for once), and even toward evening it was barely light-sweater cool. Buddy somehow managed to cram the huge pile of vegetation from the sector 3 into the bin so we had a nice clean yard, which was important because we used the sycamore's shade.