corn shucking time

It's been a long time since I've posted, what can I say,computer problems. The cold is finally giving me some rest from the outside responsibilities and time to spin and knit. Today my husband and I shucked our field corn that we have grown for cornmeal and brought it into the barn. What we don't want to keep we will feed to the chickens and turkeys. We planted the garlic last week and I sowed lettuce and spinach in the cold frame. The late cauliflower and brussel sprouts are almost ready and none to soon.

Goodness gracious garlic

Last week I harvested my late garlic, which is a stiff neck variety call Chesnok Red. My early garlic game out about a week and half earlier and it is a soft necked silver skinned(don't know the variety). Soft necked garlics keep better than the hard neck so I want to test this theory this winter and see. As you can see by the photo the hard neck did very well, some are as big as baseballs. I will be preparing the garlic bed for planting this fall by adding compost and rock phosphate. I will be planting  early, mid-season and late season garlics. I'm not sure of the variety yet but I really like the Chesnok Red.

Kitchen Gardens

"I content myself then with an Humble Cottage, and a simple Potagere,"(a kitchen garden)-John Evelyn (1620-1706). "The kitchen garden is the best of gardens" is an old adage. My kitchen garden consists of three raised beds with culinary herbs, aromatic herbs and a sallet garden or salad garden. It should be small enough to tend with hand tools and close to the kitchen. Which is the very reason I will be moving my kitchen garden this fall to a plot next to my kitchen. Kitchen gardens from the earliest of times were kept by the women of the household to provide fresh greens for her table. Martha Washington took care of her own kitchen garden. This is what my kitchen gardens look like now but I will keep you posted of my new garden.

Ram and mule

On Sat. morning my husband and I set off to York, PA to pick up a BFL ram and shetland mule ewe lamb. Our destination was Kathy Davidson's farm and a side trip to Gettysburg. We were not expecting the pleasant welcome of Kathy and her family not to mention the awe inspiring time we had at Gettysburg. The temperature soared to 94 on Sun. but this did not daunt our determination to enjoy our PA trip. Our lambs are safely home and enjoying the new pasture. They will be added to the rest of the flock in a week.

English Roses

Some of my favorite flowers are roses, pinks and pansies. But not just any roses, my favorite are David Austin English Roses. They are hardy, repeat flowering and the fragrances are hard to describe. The one on the left  is called The Pilgrim, but my favorite is Abrahm Darby(below right). A vase of these roses and the fragrance fills the room.

Honey Bees

Where does the time go? Between lambing, kidding and getting early veggies in the garden there seems to be very little time for posting. The first week of May we recieved our shipment of bees. In each package there were 3 lbs of bees and a queen. It was raining when we got them and putting them in the hive body was challenging. They are now pulling comb and foraging for pollen. We feed them sugar water and a pollen patty with vitamins. The honey flow is coming and we need to get the hive ready for gathering by giving them all the help we can.

Towels

Well I finally finished the waffle weave towels I started over a month ago. It took me over 2 weeks to warp and less than a week to weave 2 towels. I liked how fast the weaving went with my new boat shuttle. I will definately weave more but my next project will be a table runner.