Diane Visits

Diane is Catherine's good friend, and she reads this blog to keep track of what Catherine is up to. We were so excited when she visited the farm in person. We enjoyed meeting her and showing her around the farm. In fact, I was so charmed, I forgot to take any pictures! At the very last moment, I ran out and assaulted her in the car as she was driving away. This is a terrible picture (and I apologize for that) but I do have photographic proof that she was there! Great to meet you Diane, and I promise next time I'll get a much better pic of you. That gives you incentive to return!

March Comes In

Here in Chico, the adage is usually backward: March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion. We had an exceptionally long "Spring Break" of nice weather through February and early March, but it's supposed to start raining soon. Unfortunately, that means it might be raining when Sarah and Nathan are here.

But, in the meantime, the last couple of weeks have been glorious. We took advantage of the nice weather to till up row 3A.

Rick C. brought over some starts of broccoli and bok choi. His attic seed starting area is working out well. He waters in the newly transplanted starts.

The almond tree is in full bloom

As is the apricot.

And the peach.

The cherry is just starting to blossom, and the plums are blossoming. Here you can see 3A with the brocs and boks. I planted the next row over in a variety of greens.

Giant Red Mustard, Blondy Chard, Winter Red Kale, Green Mustard, Red Chidori Kale, Win-Win Choi, and Yellow and Magenta Chard. I planted sparingly, and tried to intersperse the colors in a pleasing manner.

I also planted some more peppers and tomatoes to put in Rick and Catherine's attic. Three colors of cherry tomatoes plus Sweet Tangerine tomatoes, Pasilla peppers, Cuban Seasoning peppers, Serrano, red and orange Thai, and Biker Billy Jalapenos. I then gave Rick seeds for about 50 more plants, including red, yellow, and orange bells, more Serranos, Cubans, and Jalapenos, some Holy Mole peppers, plus more Sweet Tangerines.

This blue jay is helping us out by eating some sort of huge pupa. He looks like he has a big ol' stogie in his mouth.

The chickens have just about finished on rows 7 and 8. I pulled the rest of the broccoli out of row 6B and have put them on that as well. I think we can plant that in carrots. The soil will be nice and loose.

Just a couple of days ago, the irises started to bloom. There is just a little bit of overlap between the late daffodils and the early irises.

The onions and garlics are loving the warm, sunny weather.

And the greens are doing great also. All the arugula bolted, so that's all pulled out now, leaving more room for the baby lettuces.

The favas are in full bloom. I haven't seen any beans setting yet, but they are covered with ladybugs and bees. It's nice to see our ladybug population hatch out before the aphids get really going.

Speaking of bug issues, we went over to the Ag Mart and bought a sprayer and some organic horticultural oil. Rick sprayed the grape vines thoroughly last weekend. That should help cut down the whiteflies. We need to spray again this weekend to follow up. Rick and Buddy have also been getting after the back of the house area. Here the chickens are helping.

That corner was a real mess, but they're finding it.

The forsythia is just starting to bloom now, and you can see that the daffodils are fading. Does this gazing ball make me look fat?

A few clouds make the apricot blossoms look even nicer.

Spring, Glorious Spring

It's Spring! Glorious Spring!

If I haven't posted lately, it's because we've been out frolicking in the beautiful Spring sunshine.* Chico usually gets two weeks of heavenly weather in February, and this year, we're going on the third week. The bloom sequence is alread up to almonds: (quince, hyacinth/early narcissus, daffodils, almonds, fruit trees, etc.) The purple plums by Vallombrosa are in full bloom, as are the Bradford pears downtown. This picture was taken on the 18th when the first blossoms showed.

The daffodils are amazing right now. One is supposed to plant peas while the daffodils are blooming, so we put snow peas in row 1B. I also planted peas (shelling pea "Sabre" from Renee's seeds)  at my house between the fava rows. This picture actually shows us cleverly watering the bird feeder... we've changed out watering strategy to avoid this in the future.

The apricot branch on the plum is showing color.

And the favas started blooming this week, both at the farm and at my house.

I got going on the path project. I had already brought the flagstones over, and Buddy bought some sand, so now all I have to do is dig out the dirt. I used the hose and cord to lay out the shape.

And we used the good grass we dug out to resod a low, sparse area. You can't even tell, as this picture shows.

We also got busy and put mulch around the back of the bar. Again, it doesn't look like much, but it means we won't have a bermuda-grass wasteland back there.

We spread mulch around the side also, basically finishing out that area.

And in case that wasn't enough, we started clearing the area behind the house. That will be our tomato patch this year. Three years ago, when we put fully half the garden in Solanacea, we knew we'd have to break more ground. Tomatoes need a four-year rotation, and year one we used half the garden, and scraped by with a quarter garden for the next two years, but this year, we're out of space! So here are our captive dinosaurs, clearing the weeds and bugs out for us.

And, as long as we had mulch to work with, we remulched under the rug, and put a new rug down. Here you can see us doing what we do best... ah! That's farmin'!

As far as crops go, the oldest arugula and broccoli are past their prime.

But the new arugula and lettuces are doing really well. Rick C brought over some bok choi starts, and he plans to bring more starts over this weekend. His attic seed starting zone is working really well.

In my backyard, I planted a bunch of seeds yesterday: peas between the favas, then in the second row, from the front to back, red mustard, blondy chard, seasoning celery, and yellow chard. These were planted across the row, with watermelon radishes between each row.

The apple at my house hasn't bloomed yet, but it got a good pruning this winter, and is developing a good shape, even if it has a slight list.

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What We're Eating
I made these sandwiches with homemade rolls, polish sausage from the Meat Locker, swiss cheese, saurkraut, and sauteed kale with sundried tomatoes. Delicious!

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* And killing people... I'm back into an mmo that supports pvp so... must... kill... noobs...

Winter Catchup

So much has been going on, and I'm so behind on blogging about it! I finally finished the art grouping on the kitchen wall, and I really like it. Notice the growler in the corner! I love having herbs and peppers hanging ready for use.

Last weekend was busy. Friday we all congregated at the farm.

It was warm in the middle of the day, but it quickly cooled off.

I had finally finished Rick C's hat.

Buddy and Rick model their hats.

And here's Rick's.

Then on Saturday (last week) we had another beer tasting with Karen and Glen. This was Rick's turn, and he did more IPAs. It's a big, and delicious, category!

Here are all the beers we tried. The winners were Ruthless Rye (I picked that one out right away!), Mongo, and Leafer Madness.

In the middle of last week, we had an irrigation failure. The big central pipe just shattered from all the UV and the freezing. Rick and Buddy fixed it up, and it's working fine now.

I put some new straw out to discourage any spring weeds and generally dress it up a bit. I'm proud of how much we have growing in the dead of winter. We finally pulled the lettuces/daikon bed out, and the chickens are on it in this pic. Then we have onions and garlic, arugula, broccoli, favas, and lettuces.

I planted another row of favas to the left of the older ones in row 5a.

I've also been working on cleaning up the irises along the edge of the tub enclosure. This is where we're going to flag the pathway.

We got serious on the back of the bar. This shot was taken half way through, but we finished digging this out and put the chickens on it. We are all ready to put the mulch on now.

Buddy gets down! He clambered right under the lilac and roses to get some stubborn weeds out.

While we were digging, Rick found this nasty fellow. Has to be the pupa of a tomato hornworm (sphinx moth).

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What We're Eating
Pizza! This pizza has homemade crust, homegrown tomato sauce, homegrown hot peppers, homegrown broccoli, and homegrown arugula. It also has mozzarella and Canadian bacon. MMMMM!

For the beer tasting, I cooked lima beans and dove breast beans, with steak and cornbread. The beans were both scrumptious.
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