New Beginnings

The daffodils have come and gone now. A few are still in bloom but it's mostly over.

The hyacinths are still going strong. They've been a lovely addition to the border.

The daffodils look lovely on the table. We enjoyed our first taste of this single-hop Harvest, which is an excellent beer: much lighter and clearer than other Harvests. And Catherine is wearing her new hat.

Ann brought another of her relatives over.

The seedlings are all up nicely. By now, almost every square has sprouted. In the garden, the peas and radishes have sprouted.

Karen's seeds, in the back, were planted later (2-20), but hers are just starting to sprout also.

Rick continues to work on the chicken coop. He has both side walls built now, minus their windows, and he's laid a lot of the foundation.

Catherine and I did a big flurry of painting and we got the cabinets installed. The bar is fully primed, with color on the back wall.

Rick tests the utility of the back bar.

I have continued to work through the steps of getting licensed to sell food. Here is Amberglen Farms' first business license! I've completed all the steps for the county as well, and I'm just waiting for email verification and I can start selling. The bad news is that I can't make the zucchini relish in my home kitchen, but I'll just focus on other products, and consider doing the relish in a commercial kitchen. I also applied for a "farm scholarship" that will help offset the cost of selling at markets, if I get it.

******************************************************
Weather Note
We were working hard on the bar because we knew another storm was coming in, and the rain started early Wednesday morning. Yesterday, we had an inch of rain in the gauge. There was a break between the storms yesterday, so I threw some clover seed down back by the grapes. By today, it's raining again, and this is supposed to be the wind-and-thunderstorm part of the storm. We're just grateful for some precipitation. Notice that the peach tree is starting to bloom nicely.

*********************************************************

Rains Came

Well, the drought isn't over, but we got some welcome rain. It started on 2-8, when we got about two inches.

By the next day, we were up to two and a half inches.

And by the end of the storm, we had gained more than four inches!

The rain helped everything out, but especially the spring bulbs. These are the hyacinths I put in this winter. On 2-8 they are just popping up.

And a week later, they are blooming. The daffodils are still blooming heavily as well. By now, the light purple ones have bloomed also, and the smell is heavenly.

It was definitely time to plant tomatoes and peppers, so I got after it on 2-11 in flat D. D1 Blue Beauty, D2 Indigo Rose, D3 Indigo Blueberries, D4 Indigo Apple, D5 Cosmonaut Volkov, D6 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, D7 Momotaro, D9 Black Krim, and D10 Black Icicle. Yeah, that's only 9. I apparently can't count.

The rest of the tomatoes went in flat E. E1 Tangerine, E2 and E3 Borg, E4 and E5 Sungold. E6-E10 Tumbling Tiger. I'm thinking of trying to sell starts of the tigers.

Peppers went in flat C and flat F on 2-12. C1 Red Thai (Renees), C2 Red Thai (Baker Creek), C3 Cayenne mix, C4 Tabasco, C5 purple Jalapeno, C6 Fish Pepper, C7 Red Peter, C8 Beaver Dam, C9 3-sided Syrian, C10 Jimmy Nardellos.

Flat F: F1-F2 Jalapeno "Craig's Grande," F3-F4 Serrano "Sureno," F5-F6 Pizza Pepper, F7-F8 New Mexico "Joe Parker," F9 Poblano, F10 Pasilla.

I got the beds in sector 3 cleaned up and put down new straw. I planted Cherry Belle radishes on the right side of row 6A.

On the left side of row 6A, I planted Amethyst and French Breakfast radishes.

In rows 3 and 4A, I planted a variety of peas. I planted these from left to right, so Maestro in the left side of 3A, and Sweet Horizon snow peas on the right. Serge on the left side of 4A and Dakota on the right. These are descending in order of height, with the tallest to the left. I used innoculant, although I almost forgot and had to go back over the first row. I also planted the first row too thinly (it says to plant 1 inch apart and not thin because peas do better in a thick stand) so I went back and planted a second row by each original row. On row 4, I just planted the two rows more thickly.

I watered in my peas, but then it rained last night also.
********************************
What I'm Producing
I hate to be idle, so I've been making candy (which is excellent)...

And these little hats.

**********************************

Early Spring

It looks like we will have an early spring. We did get a bit more wintery weather since the last post, but it's still looking springish. The hyacinths I planted are coming up nicely. They had sprouted by 1-23. Notice how dry that ground looks!

Around that same time, the daffs started blooming, and within a week they were in full bloom.

On Saturday, 1-25, I planted this pack of sweet peas along the back of Buddy's house.

I couldn't resist another arty shot of the sycamores' reflections.

After a long hiatus, we got eggs again. I had held off buying any, so these were well received.

We did get a couple of good heads of broccoli. 

And this Romanesco Veronica survived the frost, but got too aphid infested to eat.

*************************************************

What We're Eating

Even in the depths of winter, we are eating homegrown food. This dinner was homegrown beans, homegrown broccoli, homegrown green garlic, and homegrown hot sauce, with homemade cornbread. The beans we grew are really excellent. I've had a hard time sharing. However, I did make and share some gingerbread cookies with candied lemon and orange peel. The orange was better.

*************************************************

The kale in the backyard is small but thriving. I think once it warms up a little, it will take off.

We decided to put in a couple more bare root fruit trees this year. So first I dug a big hole.

Then we drove out to Hodges and got the trees. On the left is a Liz's Late nectarine, and on the right is an O'Henry peach. I already pruned them down to what I want to have as the main branch structure. We only put in two because we'll grow them semi-espalier along the fenceline. The peach will ripen in early August and the nectarine in late August. This will mesh nicely with our other fruit ripening times.

The little bit of rain we got (about half an inch on 1-29) made the ground soft and easy to dig. So I got going on the driveway project. This is the before picture. 

Rick helped me move some of the big pieces around, and I continued to dig out all the bermuda and other weeds.

Including lots of nasty Johnson grass.

Meanwhile, back at the farm... By 1-31 we had iris blooming.

And green buds showing on the plum trees.

Rick got the new chicken pen door constructed. Here he's stapling on the netting.

We got it installed and the pen moved last Sunday (2-2). Speaking of groundhog day, it was cloudy, which should mean an early spring. In case all the stuff blooming wasn't enough of a clue... 

Rick was very proud of the fact that these two tiny snips of wood were all that was leftover from the project. He turned a bit of throw-away packing material into a fantastic door, and didn't even waste any!

We played croquet last Saturday.

Then went back to the farm to frolic in the sunshine. 

Finally, I took this picture so we could really value the beans we grew.