September Update: Basil Pesto, Parades and Turkey-Leg Babies

Finally, finally, I'm through the cherry tomatoes.

Though our crop of heirloom tomatoes (slicers, beefsteaks, pastes and more) was a crushing blow, the remaining three cherry tomato plants were pleasantly prolific. I picked one last small handful, yesterday, and in the last month I've made enough sun-dried (well, dehydrator-dried) tomatoes to last a year or two. So, that's nice.

Herbs! That's what's on today's docket.
I clipped copious amounts of Rosemary, yesterday, and set it to dry.
It's my very favorite herb, and I know I'll have run out by February.
It's nice to have a stock of home-grown stuff to enjoy, for a while.

Oregano, thyme and bushes of basil demand attention.
I'm making as much Basil Pesto as possible, and will freeze the leftover leaves in oil cubes.

Garden-Fresh Basil Pesto with Sunflower Seeds
5-6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
2 1/2 cups basil leaves, blanched and dried (So tedious, I know!)
3/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

Using a food processor, roughly chop the garlic cloves.
Add the sunflower seeds, pulse a few times to chop and mix.
Add cheese, keep on pulsing!
Add basil, mix until well processed.
SLOWLY Add olive oil while mixing, until pesto is well-blended.
Makes 1 1/2 - 2 cups of pesto - a meal requires about 1/2 cup, so freeze the rest!

With the promise of beautiful fall weather, the fall garden is taking off! I'm harvesting broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, swiss chard, peppers, more swiss chard, romaine and red lettuces, green beans (which I'm letting dry), and the aforementioned herbs. A little crop of carrots is growing well, along with more lettuce, kale, spinach, radishes, ... and parsnips, if I ever get the seeds in the ground.

I've had a lot of trouble growing spinach, in the past month. It seems I got a bum packet of Winter Giant Spinach from Annie's Heirloom Seeds. After waiting for it to germinate for weeks, I contacted the company. Great customer service! They quickly sent me a new package, and I'm pleased to announce that I have spinach seedlings popping up through the soil. Success!

Outside of the garden, life is good. MSU Football is back, and the husband scored a sweet gig that gets him into the games for free, so he's happy. And, he's busy! This Friday is the MSU Homecoming Parade. He was invited to once again LEAD THE PARADE -- so that's neat! I'll share some photos of his alter-ego, Spartan Recycling Man, as he rides in the bucket of the MSU Recycling Center's biggest (and noisiest) truck.

Spartan Recycling Man!

We're in the final stretch of pregnancy, and I wish I could write a delivery date on the calendar. I'm a planner, to say the least. All our ducks are in a row, though. The official due-date for Little Miss Barton is September 29th, but with my luck, I'm guessing she'll be an October baby.

The waiting has resulted in numerous Etsy purchases.
Here's the latest acquisition:

From PoshPipsqueak
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PoshPipsqueak

So. Cute.
Adorable baby clothes have affected me is ways I never expected.
Suddenly, doing laundry is more enjoyable. We'll see how long THAT lasts, though.
Etsy is a hell of a drug. So many lovely toys, cute little baby things, and wonderful gifts. I can only imagine what desperate measures I'll resort to in the coming weeks...

August Homestead Update

Our tomato season began and ended with cherry tomatoes.
Blight took the rest of our plants.
I'll spare you photos of the carnage.

We're disappointed, but the loss was a powerful and lasting lesson in organic gardening.
Pre-treating is the trick, and we just didn't know enough about it.
Now, we do!

We lost about 40 heirloom tomato plants in the span of three days.
I had hoped to fill our chest freezer with the tasty red globes, and turn them into sauce throughout the winter. The blight left us with about a dozen Black Krim tomatoes and a few pounds of cherry tomatoes.
I was truly devastated. Being 8 months pregnant and suffering from a bad cold didn't help.
I spent a few days sobbing over the loss and feeling sorry for myself, and am now greatly recovered.

This weekend I'm busy dehydrating the cherry tomatoes,
planting the fall garden, and cursing the little rodent who
keeps eating my late-summer strawberries.
I'm harvesting delicious zucchini, yellow squash and Ronde de Nice zucchini.
Our experimental cucumbers did well, and we'll do a serious planting next year.
The peppers are starting to plump.
Lazy Housewife Green Beans have been surprisingly productive.
Kale is still coming in.
The pumpkins vines aren't as productive as I'd expected.
The melons were a total flop!
The brasscias are growing tall.
My new crops of lettuce, Swiss Chard, and spinach are popping up.
Time to get some radishes in the ground, I think...

Seed catalogs are starting to arrive, and I can't help but plan for next year's garden.
More flowers! More pumpkins! More tomatoes!

Still lots to do before winter, though.
I found myself swimming in new strawberry plants.
We're scrambling to find protected places to plant them.
I'm tempted to just use them as ground-cover on the hillside, and let the rabbits ravage them.

There's been a good amount of online chatter about a looming polar vortex.
It could bury us in snow in the next 30 days!
Hard to imagine, but worrying.
I'd welcome an early winter (though I'll kick myself for saying this).
It'll hide the wreckage of my tomato beds and speed the healing process.
At the first signs of frost we'll erect our trusty mini-hoops over the salad beds and hope for the best.

Sean has been showing off his carpentry skills in the nursery.
His ingeniously designed changing table is nearly complete, and he has big plans for the closet renovation. We have all sorts of baby-related projects to wrap up in the coming weeks!

Mystery Plant Plagues Property Owners

Update: It's thistle. Enormous, monstrous thistle.

I found about 6 of these plants on my property, and photos are from this morning.

The plants are 4 - 9 feet tall, growing in a wet prairie setting.

Of course, my first thought was "Oh no! Giant Hogweed!"

After some research, I'm not so sure.

It hasn't bloomed and finished developing, yet.
When compared to Giant Hogweed it seems these leaves are different, and the stems don't have those telling purple splotches.

What do you guys think?

And yes, I've already sent photos to the MDARD requesting identification help.

 

Harvested our first Kakai pumpkin (way, way early in the season).
Cat for scale.

Common Gardening Misconceptions and a July Photo Update

Common Misconception #1:

A garden that big must take a LOT of work!
(Actually, it REALLY doesn't.)

This statement is usually followed by something along the lines of
"I'd never want to..."
"I could never deal with..."
"I'll never have time to..."
 
You're right. 
You never will.

BUT! That's because you're limiting yourself, future gardener! If you've already closed off your imagination to the possibility of gardening, then you'll never actually do it. Don't sell yourself short! The possibility of success beings with deciding that it CAN be done.

Our garden truly doesn't take much time or effort, these days...

Time Spent Weeding: 20 minutes/week (if that)
Raised beds full of fluffy soil mean that the few weeds that pop up in some unclaimed spot can be plucked from the dirt without digging or back pain. It can even be done without getting your hands dirty!

Time Spent Watering: 5-10 minutes/day (if that)
Drip irrigation is pretty much the best thing ever. A garden this size could easily take me 2 hours to water. Now, all I do is turn on the spigot. There are still a few flower pots and special plants that need hand-watering, but that's no big deal.
It's been a cooler, wet summer in Mid-Michigan. I've gone whole weeks without watering!

Time Spent on General Maintenance: 10 minutes/day
Sometimes a pea plant or cucumber vine needs to be redirected onto its trellis, or a slug needs to be removed from a squash blossom (Yuck! I recommend old kitchen tongs). Planting can take a few hours, if it's time to put tomato plants in the ground. A few hours spent on this turns into a month or two of watching and waiting, and then months of feasting. It's worth it.

Bugs and Pests: Meh.
It's not so bad. Granted, a plague of locusts could descend at any moment... but so far, so good.

I've removed a half-dozen slugs from the squash plants (again, I use tongs), and Sean removed one nasty squash borer. He's the garden's official bug-squasher, and also deals with all orchard pests. The asparagus bed had a number of hungry beetles, also removed by hand. The kale crop is doing much better this year, though there are a few little green worms munching away. Our population of frogs and toads helps to keep bugs in check, and the garter snake keeps them from becoming a plague of their own.

The birds haven't been destructive at all, as far as I can tell. It helps that we've kept an all-you-can-eat bird seed buffet about 20 feet away from the garden. Beautiful butterflies are everywhere, as are the dragonflies. Honeybees and bumblebees do most of the pollinating work, and I haven't seen a wasp in weeks.

A good fence that cannot be dug beneath is worth the time and effort of installation. I've lost a few plants to squirrels, but most every gardener accepts the fact that nature will reclaim at least 10% of what your harvest. It is only 4 feet tall, but somehow it has kept our garden deer-free, as well.

Edit: I'm no distressing damsel, and have squished countless bugs! Good gloves make me feel invincible. Guess I oughta give myself more credit.

The Hardest Part: EATING ALL OF IT
I harvest continually, from April until Thanksgiving. It begins with radishes, lettuce and spinach, then swiss chard and kale get tossed into the salad. Peas start coming in, then strawberries. Then, the parade of currants, raspberries, blueberries and other yummy things. 

By the time the tomato plants are waist-high, the summer squash is ready to eat. Cucumbers, melons, broccoli, cauliflower, TOMATOES, peppers, and eggplant ripen in quick succession. Keep in mind, there's still salad to be eaten! Carrots, brussel sprouts, parsnips, apples, pumpkins and squash round out the year, sometimes with a new flush of snap peas as a bonus. And always, the salads.

In the bleak days of winter, some root crops can be dug up (Sunchokes, Carrots, Parsnips, Potatoes, etc). Add that to the store of squash, pumpkins, and whatever is in the freezer or canned, and we're enjoying garden-fresh, organic food all year round.
I think I'll try my hand at garlic, this year. It goes into the ground in late October, when everything else dies off. It'll be ready in the spring, just before the space it takes up is needed for tomatoes. It's as if it was planned that way, eh?

We've just completed our first year at this house, so our apple trees and berry bushes are not yet mature. We're supplementing with bulk produce from local growers.

Preserving the harvest does take time, but it's well worth it. 

This year we're drying and freezing most everything, as we're lucky enough to have acquired a giant freezer chest. It's already home to more strawberries than you'd think necessary. We'll add corn, fresh herbs (in ice cubes -- they keep really well!), broccoli, cauliflower, blueberries, green beans, summer squash, raspberries and peas (if we can manage to stop eating all the fresh ones and put some aside...). We'll top off the freezer with tomatoes, as they ripen, and use them to make pasta sauce this winter.

Of course, we'll use some fresh ones for canning our World Famous (well, family-famous) salsa. By the end of the season we'll have canned batches of dill pickles and relish, plenty of jams, and whatever else comes along.

Dehydrating can be more time consuming than canning, but having an unending supply of apple chips and chewy dried blueberries is life-changing. I'm looking forward to "sun"-dried cherry tomatoes, too.

The Point: It's not that much work, and the benefits are immeasurable. 

If it were really that time consuming, there's no way we could be renovating and maintaining our house, enjoying weekend get-aways, working our day jobs and relaxing. I wouldn't spend so much time on the internet, either. ;)


Here's how the garden looks, this morning.
Viewing Tip: Clicking on the image will enlarge it, providing you with a much better look!

HUGE Lazy Housewife Pole Bean.
They're usually harvested and eaten when they're MUCH smaller.
I'm allowing a few to grow big and dry, so we can save some seeds and replant next year.

Grape tomatoes (can't think of the variety right now).
I want to eat them!
Need some hot weather to turn them red.

Beefsteak tomatoes, plumping up.

Two rows of abundant green tomatoes (4 rows total, 10-12 feet long).
The left side is at least 6 feet tall, and growing.
I figure I'll have to lop off their tops before too long.
Next Year: Bigger Trellis!

I suspect this is a tiny Butternut Squash. Yippee!

Cucumber vine (and a poppy), with a promising number of yellow flowers.

Our fantastically productive squash mound,
growing in the Hugelkultur bed I keep meaning to explain to you guys...

Pretty squash flowers!

A few Kakai pumpkins, Sean's favorite variety.
Their green and white stripes are very Spartan,
and their hull-less seeds are the BEST for eating.

A baby Cinderella pumpkin, hiding in the grass.
The Cinderella variety is beautiful, and makes great pies.

Marigolds I grew from seed (after much trouble and dissatisfaction).
With every batch of new blossoms, I'm surprised with a different color combination! The first ones were huge and mostly orange, followed by this pretty scarlet flower.
Looks like it'll be back to big orange beasts in a few more days.

Very determined strawberry plants, striking out for new territory to conquer.
I love it, because these new little "suckers" will replace our 4-year-old plants as their production dwindles.
Sustainable, eh?

Baby Update:
Yup! I'm still pregnant -- about 6.5 months, or 30 weeks.
It's been an embarrassingly easy pregnancy, with no morning sickness or complications. Let's hope that continues. We're looking forward to meeting our daughter in late September.Want to know what we're eating, making and doing?
You can find short, sporadic updates on the Barton Gardens Facebook Page.

Tomatoes Headed to Market! - Garden Update

I'm a nervous plant mamma this morning, as I prepare to send my tomato plants to market. I started far too many seeds this spring! We've planted about 30 tomatoes in the garden (a dozen varieties - all heirloom organic), which left me with 2 dozen extra plants in need of good homes.

The first dozen went fast, as did my extra egg plants and some peppers. These tomato remainders are headed to the South Lansing Farmers Market, and will be sold by our friend at the Clover Row Gardens booth (along with delicious homemade breads and herbs). I'm nervous! I hope these little plants find good homes. I'm sending along a nice tablecloth, in hopes that they'll stand out.

 

I'm also sending along a few extra Crimson Rambler Morning Glory plants, which Sean said I'm ABSOLUTELY NOT allowed to plant in the garden. Spoilsport!

Quick Garden Update:
 - The Hugelkultur bed is a success! Our summer squashes, pumpkins, melons and radishes are growing well, and loving this hot and rainy weather. A Hugelkultur tutorial post is forthcoming.
 - All new apple trees seem to have survived their planting, and are thriving. We have 9 trees, but the "official" definition of an orchard is 10 trees. So, what do we have, a "planned grouping" of apple trees? This seems like reason enough to get just one more...
 - Peas everywhere! Daily, I find myself glaring at the pea trellises. They're trying to strangle one another, and doing a damn good job of it.
 - Last weekend we installed DRIP IRRIGATION. It's pretty fabulous.
 - At long last, I've created a Facebook page to showcase the fruits of our labors. You can find photos of what we're doing, what we're making and what's growing at www.facebook.com/BartonGardens.
 - IT'S TOO HOT! This spring became summer too quickly, and our salads suffer for it. The spinach is bolting and slightly bitter. The radishes are sending up shoots, eating up their own tasty roots in the process. The lettuce stands strong, thus far, but I suspect it will go to seed, soon. This weekend I'm planting an interesting, hot-weather spinach variety. Wish me luck!

May Update from the "Homestead"

Good news travels quickly in the "real" world, but you virtual friends may not have heard the latest "homestead updates"...

 - Our garden is growing -- and fast!
We've doubled the size of our raised-bed veggie garden. The asparagus we planted is beginning to poke up out of the soil. The new strawberry plants are blooming, promising at least a few little berries in June. Salad greens are popping up all over the place, and there are plenty of peas and radishes putting out new leaves.

 - We have an orchard!
Last month, we put 9 apple trees into the northern slope of our property. Most trees are semi-dwarfs, which will grow to about 15 feet tall. The 2 full-dwarfs (Granny Smith Apple) will reach about 10 feet. Other varieties we planted include Winecrisp, Fugi, and a few tasty Honeycrisps. Yum!
Now, technically, it takes 10 trees to have an orchard. We planted a few standard-sized cherry and apple trees about a 1/4 acre away. Does this count?

 - And there's more...
We've put plenty of blueberries into the ground. Currants and Jerusalem Artichokes, too! As long as the seeds don't wash away, we'll have a plethora of native wild flowers and a goofy assortment of sunflowers edging our garden. The summer harvest will be beautiful. The rabbits are healthy, the chicken coop is nearly done, and we're about to build our last raised bed - and not a moment too soon! The little tomato plants I started from seed are quickly outgrowing their starter pots.

 - And the BIG NEWS:
This September, we're having a baby! The husband and I decided to "go for it" at New Year's, and by mid-January we were officially expecting. I was a bit shocked by how quickly this came about, and THRILLED!

Baby Info: Our wonderful doctor says that baby and mother are doing well -- "perfect," even. So, that's good. We're due in late September (the 29th). Last week we learned the baby's gender. We're keeping that a secret, for now. It's been an incredibly easy pregnancy for me, so much so that I feel like I'm bragging. So, I won't. Choosing a name is a challenge, but we've narrowed it down to two or three. Now, the real deliberation begins...
Huckleberry is still a strong contender.


So these days, when I'm not working at the bookshop or digging in the garden, I'm rearranging the house (again and again, as my husband will tell you). There's much to do, and so little time in which to do it. My art studio is becoming the nursery, and the library is to serve as a temporary studio, until we convert the guest room into a proper workspace.

We also have a long list of house projects to do this summer, before the little one arrives. It includes some minor carpentry in the nursery (a closet/storage overhaul!), painting the exterior of the house, some interior painting, tiling the basement bathroom, repairing the barn's split roof, finishing that chicken coop, and keeping up with the garden. I won't be able to help much with the painting, which is frustrating. I suspect the bulk of these projects will fall on my more-than-capable husband and a few wonderfully supportive friends.

Dead Bunnies: Good & Evil, Continued

Late Friday night, in the middle of a spirited game of Settlers of Catan, Sean got a disturbing phone call.

A friendly pro-garden neighbor of Poppin' Fresh called with grim news. Vandals, probably the same schmucks who tampered with our hutches last week (and stole three baby bunnies) were at it again.

Domestic rabbits like our New Zealands are very docile animals, sort of like sheep. These rabbits don't stand a chance against predators, and we had gone to great lengths to build a safe enclosure for their hutches.

The Vandals had taken all 7 rabbits from their cages, removed them from the fenced-in hutch area, and set them loose in the garden.

Neighborhood cats had found our rabbits long before a neighbor noticed them hopping around, unprotected. The cats made quick work of the baby bunnies. It was about 11:30 when the Sean got to Poppin' Fresh. By then, four of the baby rabbits were already dead.

After some desperate hunting, we recovered the doe and buck, and one baby rabbit.

The plants, water containment set-up and hoop house were untouched. There's always a silver lining.

Sketch by CamillaAnne on Deviantart

This destruction of property and animal cruelty has gone unanswered, much to our chagrin. We called the Lansing PD, but they're stretched thin and uninterested in small crimes. We fear causing further animosity, and have removed these three bunnies from the garden. They're in a "secure location."

We're not sure where to go, from here.

Garden Update - With Photos!

September is quickly settling in at the garden, 

and with it comes lots of busy work and plenty of good food.

Sean and the guys finished fencing in our new lot,
and our water storage solutions are working well.

The parsnip seeds I "saved" have germinated,
I'm sore from crouching over the parsnip bed,
thinning out the many extra sprouts.

This summer, Poppin' Fresh has DOUBLED in size, 

after we acquired the lot to our north. 

We may soon make use of the lot to the south, too.

Word of the Learning Leaves gardens spreads slowly, 

and we've had some great new gardeners at the work parties!

A view from behind the hoop house.

Gorgeous onion blossoms!

Our repurposed baby crib, lending support to tasty green beans.

We have over a dozen varieties of tomatoes ripening!

Squash blossoms abound!

The squash are coming in fast and furiously.

Here's our stunted corn - mostly for decoration this year.

The rabbits love dandelions!

"Thing 1" can pack away a pile of dandelions in just a few minutes.

This spooky spider lives near the rabbit hutches.

Living Within the Seasons - Buying in Bulk to Preserve Fruits and Vegetables

Where have I been, you ask?
 It's summer. I've been busy!
 Here's why...


Sean and I are taking part in a grand life experiment, in which we eat lots of organic, locally grown food throughout the year. Most folks think that we're a little bit "funny" for opting to live and eat within the seasons. If you think about it, though, living within the growing cycle is how humans survived and stocked their pantry (and ice house, and spring house) for centuries.

Our process is simple.

Over the last few years we've formed great relationships with a number of local farmers and farmer's markets in the Lansing area. All you have to do is be a friendly customer, and you'll reap the rewards! When a crop is ripe for the picking, we buy a few bushels (on average) at a great bulk price from one of these local growers.

There's no way we could eat a bushel or two of cucumbers before they go bad, so Sean and I preserve the over-abundance to enjoy for the rest of the year. It's may seem like a lot of work, but it's well worth it. The food always tastes better than what you'd find in the grocery store, and it's healthier and cheaper.

We preserve our food in a few different ways. The three main methods are canning, dehydrating and freezing. (We also dabble in lacto-fermentation, but that's a story for another day.)

Every vegetable and fruit has a preferred preservation method.

It's easiest to dehydrate squash and zucchini, which will keep for about a year. You can also dehydrate peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, apples, venison and beef jerky and a myriad of other tasty treats. Dehydrated vegetables are great to cook with, and are extra-delicious in stir fry, soup and sauces.

Never, ever try to dehydrate raspberries or blackberries. We learned this the hard way, and they turned into crunchy, crispy little nuggets. It was like eating a bug's cocoon. 

With ample freezer space, you can freeze just about anything. Strawberries, asparagus and corn are relatively easy to freeze, and they keep for at least a year. Another neat trick is to cook dishes and soups in BIG batches, and freeze the left-overs. If you cook a big pot of cream of asparagus soup, for example, you'll have enough left over for soup and sandwiches in the winter.

Blueberries are easy - you just toss them in a gallon-size freezer bag and tuck it into your icebox. Or, you can vacuum seal them. Don't bother rinsing the blueberries before freezing, as that will wash away their natural wax-like coating. (Rinse them before you eat or cook with them, though!)

You can also save food in glass jars, which is called "canning". To be honest, canning is my least favorite method of preservation. I just can't get excited about sweating over a big pot of boiling water. Still, it's worth the hard, hot work. Tomatoes, green beans, pickled cucumbers,  jellies and jams are commonly canned. Meats, homemade soup and other strange things can also be canned, but that requires a pressure canner.

Right now, it's cucumber season.
We've been pickling.

Sean and I have spent many a romantic evening in our kitchen, this month. There were no lit candles, but we cranked up the classical music while we sweating over our cans (and cans, and cans!) of pickled cucumbers.

Also, it's zucchini season. Green pepper season, too. And green beans. It's nearly tomato season, and it would be corn season if we'd gotten more rain.

If you think we're nuts for doing all of this hard work, you're not alone.

Most of our friends view us with a mixture of skepticism and awe (but mostly skepticism) when the conversation circles around to our strange food practices. We're not ashamed of it. In fact, we're pretty darn proud, but we tend to keep quiet about it because we feel as though we're bragging when we list off the benefits of our proclivity to preserve.

We're not the only food savers in town. Today at Curious I talked with my new friend Ken, a fellow pickle lover and novice canner. We bragged to one another about our freezers full of Michigan blueberries and the benefits of a probiotic diet. Bonding with a stranger over the joys of preserving food helped me gain confidence, and convinced me that what Sean and I are doing isn't completely insane.

If you think you're up for a rewarding challenge, I'd be pleased as punch to answer your questions.

If you want to jump in feet first... STOP!

First, do some research. Make sure you're going about this the right way. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll likely lose all of that fresh food you want to save.  

Courtesy of U-Pick.org

Feeling Fruity: Michigan U-Pick Experiences

In the past month, Sean and I have picked fruit at three very different U-Pick operations in Mid-Michigan.

We picked strawberries at a large production farm, blueberries at a popular cider mill and entertainment-focused farm, and currants from a back yard garden in Lansing. At each location the end result was fresh, delicious fruit that costs far less than buying lesser-quality fruit from the grocery store or farmers' market.

Strawberry Picking at Felzke Farms
Some weeks ago, Sean and I had the good fortune of finding ourselves in the best strawberry plot at  Felzke Farms. It was hot out, but I was glad of my long pants while I crawled between the rows. Felzke Farms is Michigan's largest strawberry producer, and has been a local U-Pick favorite for years. Sean and I had done some reconnaissance while buying 20 lbs of asparagus in the spring, so we knew what we were up against.

We arrived relatively early - around 9 a.m. - and were the last people to score a spot in the BEST strawberry field at Felzke (according to the lovely librarian picking a few rows over). I have never tasted a better strawberry. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but man, these strawberries can change your perspective on life.

About an hour in the field earned us roughly 40 lbs of the ripest, reddest, juiciest Michigan strawberries on the face of the planet (probably). We dehydrated some to put in granola and oatmeal, made a big batch of strawberry jam and froze the rest. Sucking on a frozen strawberry is one the best ways to combat this outrageously dry, hot summer.

Felzke Farms is a production farm, first and foremost. They offer U-Pick strawberries on the side because they have an abundance of strawberries, and there are crazy people like us who are willing to PAY the farm to pick their berries. It's a good deal for the farm, and a good deal for us! These strawberries are WAY better than those we bought by the quart-full from Kroger 2 years ago, or the farmers' market last year. Cheaper, too.

Blueberry Picking at Uncle John's Cider Mill
 The 6-foot blueberry bushes were drooping from the weight of countless ripe berries when we pulled up to the U-Pick field last Sunday. It was a steamy afternoon - about 90 degrees - and we were the only folks there. We bought a pre-paid 10 pound U-Pick box (about $25). An hour later it was overflowing with the best blueberries I've ever tasted!

We've stocked ourselves with delicious blueberry jam, dried blueberries to snack on, frozen blueberries for my oatmeal and a few cans of berries to bake with over the next year. Last night's blueberry crumble was a beautifully violent purple-blue hue that stained our mouths. Yum!

Of course, you don't HAVE to slave away in the sun to get lots of berries for a good price. At Uncle John's you can buy a pre-filled 10 lbs. box for $25 - way cheaper than the grocery store or farmer's market. We opted to pick our own because we like it, and because the berries taste better if you work a little harder for them. The pre-filled boxes are not as fresh, but still a great deal.

Uncle John's is primarily an entertainment location and cider mill, not a production farm like Felzke. They boast sprawling orchards, a winery, a pie house, delicious donuts and cider, U-Pick pumpkins, a fun corn maze and all sorts of family-friendly attractions. They've recently expanded to offer blueberries, asparagus and strawberries to keep people coming in the mill's "off-season". It's working!

Currant Picking in Old Town, Lansing
Sean and I spent our Independence Day morning in Old Town at our friend Lisa's home, picking eight pounds of currants. I love picking currants. Currant bushes don't grow quite as tall as blueberry bushes, but they provide ample shade as I root around, plucking their fruits. Have you ever seen fresh currants? They're lovely little red gems strung together in a way similar to grape bunches.

Picking currants at Lisa's was a significant moment for the two of us - an anniversary, of sorts. Last summer we experienced our first Picking excursion in this very same same back yard on the Grand River. It was hot and dirty work, and I did not enjoy myself. Still, it held a special charm, and the fruits of our labor (pun-tastic!) were well worth a sweaty hour or two. We juiced our berries with various devices, and they will soon become clear, tasty currant jelly.

Lisa is the opposite of massive operations like Felzke Farms and Uncle John's. She's an regular person with a job and a life... a big, back-yard garden. She planted a row of currant bushes years ago, and each season she allows strangers (like us) to come and pick them for a very low price.  It's easy for her, easy for us, and we both benefit.

Since picking currants last summer, we've harvested apples from Clam Lake Orchard (near Torch Lake), a few bushels of huskcherries from Pregitzer Farm, wild raspberries from the areas surrounding "Barton's Blind", a gorgeous Douglas Fir Christmas tree at Peacock Road Tree Farm, the aforementioned strawberries, blueberries, currants and countless other crops from our own gardens.

It's pretty cool, to say the least.

Rabbit and Garden Update

I've been putting this post off for a couple of days,
but it's time to bite the bunny bullet and share some sad news.

There are no baby bunnies.

I was thrilled to announce the arrival of baby New Zealand rabbits at our community garden, earlier this month. It was the first litter, and we were all pretty geeked. The buck and doe are fine, but those poor little baby rabbits died soon after birth.We were shocked, and felt awful. It's been over a week, but I have been avoiding this blog post.

There are numerous possible contributing factors to the kit loss, each as likely as the next. There is no official cause of death, but here are some possibilities:

1. We were not prepared for the litter. It's possible that the nest box was the wrong size. It's possible that we didn't provide enough of the right kind of bedding, which may have resulted in the kits getting too cold at night. The hutches we have are great for housing mature rabbits, but not litters. The doe gave birth two weeks earlier than we expected, which left us scrambling a bit. New cage construction is already under way!

2. The mother rabbit was not prepared for the litter.  Very young mothers, especially those under six months of age, may not "understand" what has happened. Our doe is just about 6 months old, and this was her first litter. Nervous and young mothers sometimes abandon their young, and there's not much that can be done through human intervention. Apparently, it is common for a young mother to lose her first litter.

 The majority of this information was provided by Sean, who is becoming a rabbit master. He's being guided by a friend who just happens to be a veterinary medicine student who specializes in rabbits. He tells us that we're doing things correctly, so that's comforting. He also inspected the doe and gave us the go-ahead to rebreed her.

Death can be a terribly sad thing, especially when it arrives as the shadow of so much life and optimism. Of course we were unhappy and angry that we lost our first litter.  Still, we are a rational bunch of folks who understand that life isn't a Disney movie, and that nature works in mysterious ways. I'd be lying if I told you that a cloud of gloomth has hovered over Poppin' Fresh. We've all dealt with it, and are looking ahead to a rabbit-filled future.  

We've learned from this experience, and we've moved on.  Rabbit death is going to happen, one way or another. Many breeding resources recommend that if you loose a litter, to rebreed immediately, and in 31 more days you'll have more bunnies! We decided to give our momma rabbit a bit of a break, and won't be rebreeding her until later this month.
By then we will all be better prepared!

So, there you have it.

When one thing dies, many more flourish.

 Last week Sean and I participated in some garden outreach, during which we walked around and met most of the neighbors. We invited everyone we met to come over and check out the garden, and promised many tomatoes to friendly folks.

The garden is looking SO GOOD. Now that we've been working the same plot for over a year we feel more confident in our own skills, and we're much more "settled in" in the neighborhood. I've been focusing on beautification, as silly as it sounds, and we have flowers coming up all over the garden. Soon we'll be extending our fence to surround the new lot we acquired, and then Sean will build a few much-needed gates.

Our young fruit trees are doing well, the Jerusalem Artichokes are getting HUGE, and tomatoes, corn and potatoes were planted  our new lot this week. We've been eating fresh snap peas, spinach and lettuce. Squash and pumpkin seedlings will go into the ground soon, and maybe a small crop of hops. We're feeling proud and optimistic with so much tasty food ripe for the taking.

It has been horribly dry in the Lansing area, but we're ready and waiting for a good rainstorm. We've added to our daisy-chain of rain barrels, tripling our water-storage capacity. We have many more barrels set aside, so once we add taps to them we'll be in good shape. Rain barrels are so simple to make, and are absolutely invaluable. Soon I will post an easy how-to rain-barrel demo, so you can make some for your own garden. If  you don't want to wait, do a quick internet search and get started this weekend!

If you want to join us for a work party, keep an eye on the Learning Leaves Community Gardens Facebook Page, where we post schedules for all three of our gardens, on the east side of Lansing.

Community Gardening and Rabbit Keeping FAQ

About a year ago, a friend told us about a new community garden forming a few blocks from our house, funded by the Lansing Land Bank and The Garden Project. We jumped on board, and haven't looked back.

We now help maintain two community gardens where everyone works together. Poppin' Fresh is one of those gardens - and it has exploded in size, in more ways than one!

Our footprint has doubled. Last month we got approval to annex the newly-cleared lot next door. We're slowly gaining new members, which are desperately needed to eat all of the tasty things we're harvesting, year-round.

We're happy for more space, but the most exciting thing to happen at Poppin' this month is the arrival of baby bunnies!

With the arrival of bunnies have come questions from alarmed relatives and curious friends. The best way to learn about what we're doing is to come and see for yourself. Until you make it over to the Garden, allow me to answer some of the questions we hear most often.

Why are you doing this?

We're doing this to learn, plain and simple.

My childhood in the suburbs did not offer much hands-on experience with farming and animal husbandry. Sean and I first got involved in the community garden because it sounded like a good opportunity to get our hands dirty and learn the basics of gardening from knowledgeable people, for free.

Our biggest expenditure has been time, and it is time well spent. We're still learning, but we're also teaching new gardeners what we know. We have fun at the Garden, and the time flies when we're there. It's a nice break from the daily grind. The good people and delicious free food are nice perks, too.

The long-term goal is to strike out on our own, get some land and have our own garden with its associated trappings. Until then, we're making the most of what we have and learning lots along the way.

Okay, so, why rabbits?

Rabbits are so cute! They're cuddly, quiet little buggers with twitchy noses and lucky feet. What's not to like? 

There are other benefits, of course...

• Rabbits produce good fertilizer. And when I say good, I mean really good. Please don't be squeamish - it's just nature! Rabbit manure is one of the very best fertilizers available. Fresh manure from large animals (horses, sheep) is harsh stuff that can kill your plants if applied too soon. It needs to be composted for months before adding it to your soil. Rabbit pellets, which are considered "cold" compost, can be used immediately without killing your plants. It's not as smelly, either.

•  Rabbit pellets fix our soil, and we need it! Before Poppin' Fresh came into existence our land was occupied by a few abandoned houses in a flood plain. We've found more than our fair share of rocks, old asphalt and broken glass while putting in garden beds.  The quality of the food you grow is directly determined by the quality of your soil. Building good soil takes time, but amending it regularly helps! Rabbit pellets are chock-full of good nutrients . They drastically improve the soil's structure and porosity, too. You can find out more about the wonders of rabbit pellets by reading Chris McLaughlin's blog post, Rabbit Manure in the Garden.

• Rabbits eat our weeds! Dandelions and many other weeds are a delicacy in the rabbit world. In a matter of weeks our rabbits ate up every dandelion at Poppin' Fresh, which has left us with nicer grass and happier neighbors.

• Rabbits really are cute!  Adding the rabbits to Poppin' Fresh has strengthened our garden community. Regular gardeners, off-and-on gardeners, newcomers and neighbors all think that the rabbits are pretty darn cool. They've become a nice attraction of the Garden.

•  We're learning livestock maintenance. Rabbits are a cheap, relatively easy introduction to the care and keeping of farm animals. We want chickens, just like most of our gardening peers. Chickens required more than our fledgling garden was willing to provide at that point in time. Rabbits have been a great trial-run for us, and we now feel far more confident about our future ability to keep other kinds of rabbits, chickens, quail, bees, a herd of fainting pygmy goats... or whatever comes along.

So, how do you do it?

 Like many things at Poppin' Fresh, the rabbits just sort of... happened. They were premeditated, but we acquired them far earlier than we expected. It was a mad scramble to prepare for spring, but everything worked out wonderfully.

Our original breeding pair (a buck and a doe) of New Zealand rabbits came from a local breeder. New Zealand rabbits are bred as meat rabbits, not pets. Ours came with small cages, food and water dishes. Though they would have been alright in those little metal cages, Sean built two hutches out of re-purposed desks. They're much happier in their rabbit palaces, within the "Hoppin' Fresh" enclosure.

We cross each bridge when we come to it. As novice rabbit keepers, we didn't know exactly when our doe would give birth, but estimated her due date to be mid-June. We expected a litter of 3 or 4 bunnies. We were wrong. Our doe gave birth to 8 or 9 baby bunnies two weeks sooner than we expected! The Big Hutch Building Party is scheduled for this weekend. If you're available and want to play with power tools while building a better future for some cute rabbits, please join us!

Keeping rabbits as a part of your garden is not as outlandish as you might think. They're worth the work, as long as you don't let them "free range" and eat all of your veggies. That book I continuously mention, The Urban Homestead, was how Sean and I first learned about keeping rabbits as part of homesteading. It seemed bizarre at first. There are some urban gardeners who swear by it, and their results speak well!

The internet is full of helpful information about keeping and benefiting from rabbits, as is the library. We just acquired a copy of the eighth edition of Rabbit Production, by McNitt, Patton, Lukefahr and Cheeke. The MSU Extension is a helpful resource, too. EVERY Michigan county has an Extension office that provides free materials in the hopes of helping people improve their own lives, and their knowledge goes far beyond rabbits and gardening.

What will you do with all those bunnies?

Our main goal is to provide these rabbits with a safe, healthy living environment.

We shelter them, protect them from danger and provide a healthy diet of dry rabbit food and greens from the garden. Once weened, we'll keep the new bunnies in separate cages to control their population... and we'll go from there!

Though we make a lot of jokes about Rabbit Stew, I can't predict the future. All I know is that we'll continue to learn from these rabbits.
 

((Check back soon for video of baby rabbits!))


Find out more about raising meat rabbits on a small-scale urban farm (and SO MUCH MORE!) by watching this video, produced by Dan Shifrin. He's an urban homesteader in Florida.

Think On This: Friday Edition

Buzzfeed has published their list of 40 of the Most Powerful Photographs, and it's a doozy of a list. Some of these photos are so familiar that I am a bit jaded by them - or was, until today. In this era of heightened information sharing, we're constantly bombarded with pictures of all kinds, from all sides. These images have held their value without need of fancy filters and followers on Instagram. I wonder - are they still worth 1000 words each? We've come a long way, folks.

I made it to #10 before I had to grab a towel (not a tissue!) to mop up tears. What a way to start a Friday, eh?

And now, for a bit of societal observation...

I take pleasure in guessing what the next big trends will be in pop culture. I've been right and I've been wrong. Pirates, who all look like Johnny Depp, were quickly overpowered by vampires. ("Vampirates" will always have a special place in my heart).

Fig. 1. What "sexy" has been lately, soon to be replaced!

Fig. 2. Different sort of vampire, obscurely hip in some circles.

I saw the zombie madness from a mile away, as Sean came down with a case of early-onset apocalyptia. People like stories where the characters are so overcome by horror, they lose their way of life (and oftentimes their moral compass). We like The Walking Dead because it pits "normal" people against against other formerly-normal people, and only a few survive. Plus, we're being conditioned to like gore and respond to it in a positive manner - and that's screwed up!

Fig. 3. Zombified Occupants

 Fortunately, the "Next Big Thing" is coming - and it's not Sexy Bankers. (Sorry, Dad.)

Fig. 4. What a "Sexy Banker" might look like.

For months I've been running my mouth, talking about the great Western Americana resurgence. America's identity and belief that it is exceptional largely reflects the romance and independence of The West. With Western Americana comes the idealization of guns, guitars, loose morals, deserts, tribal life, dust, extreme conditions, horses, hard work, ranches, rugged independence and ingenuity, cowboys, fringe, leather, mustaches, big hats, whores, gambling and a determined irreverence for the system. What's not to like? I was certain that the resurgence of the West was nigh.

Fig. 5. American Cowboy

After seeing the Les Miserables trailer I am rooting for a new fad - Revolutionaries! Some historians (and whoever paid close attention in high school) will knock down your door in a frenzy of nerdy excitement for the chance to talk about the intricacies of the French or Russian revolutions. I've heard the suggestion that the American Revolution (which was driven by markets!) has never ended, or at least carried on until the Civil War. History is blanketed in revolutions. That's what history is: one big, revolving power struggle.

Fig. 6. Tank Man, the peaceful protester in Tienanmen Square

The trouble is that Mass Media will NOT be featuring revolutionaries in a good light. That's what they say, right? "The Revolution Will Not Be Broadcast." They don't want you to see that kind of inspirational, fact-based stuff that might confuse you. They don't want you to see gore, real gore, and realize that it's not appropriate to clap and cheer when someone gets brained. They want guns in the hands of Bad Guys and Keepers of the Peace, not normal people. And they certainly don't want you brushing up on your history. Then you might realize that most revolutions are caused by food shortages, and that we're staring down the barrel of Peak Oil and all of the joys that come with it. You might stop wasting your money on their poisonous crap that belittles and imprisons you, and everyone else. Your family, classmates, friends, neighbors, your boss, even all of the strangers on the street you ignore while staring at your phone.

I'm telling you this because I care about you.
Everything runs out, and the rate we're
consuming things it's gonna be sooner, rather than later.

Don't waste time in a panic, all in a tizzy.
Don't be fearful. Just think.

Do yourself the favor of taking 15 minutes
to learn more about Peak Oil and what's to come.

Or, take 15 minutes and figure out how you're going
to cope with increasingly higher gas prices, food prices and debt.

If you think you'd be happy enough living off of MREs, buy a case.

If stocking up on Kraft Mac and Cheese
(why is it that color?!) and hotdogs
is your fall-back, it's time to go to Costco.

If you really want to help yourself out, though,
plant a few seeds in the dirt and see what happens.

You have you lead yourself to happiness.
You have to teach yourself what you need to know,
if you don't want to be one of the Sheeple
waiting blindly for a cataclysm.

I hope I don't sound insane.
I swear, I'm not.
I'm not on a soap box,
I'm just sharing information with
whoever wants to listen, and think.

In the last few years I have experienced
a gradual lifestyle shift, and I truly think
I'm better off now that I'm off the merry-go-round.

Do a few simple things this weekend to help yourself.

Stop watching so much damn television,
 especially those cable news shows!
Drink more water.
Drink less milk.
(It's for babies. Seriously.)

Don't eat at restaurant chains.
Applebee's is no better than Arby's.
If you don't want to cook for yourself,
then go to an independent restaurant that uses
fresh ingredients, not frozen meat patties and "special" sauces.

If you're already doing these things, good on you!
But don't stop there.

Take a look at what you slather all over
yourself and your stuff every day.
Shampoos, lotions, cleaning products.
What's in them?
Who manufactures them?
And who owns those manufacturers?
Proctor and Gamble, probably.

You could go to the farmer's market and try hand-made soap.
You could try making your own laundry detergent, like we did.
It works great and costs about 20 cents a gallon, if that.
There are various recipes with different ingredients, so take a look.

Buying soap isn't some hoity-toity hipster thing.
Soap is soap. It has been for centuries.
The oddly scented, colorful liquid stuff in bottles
is the new and disturbing option for 1st Worlders.

Once again, I recommend reading
The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living.
It disgusts me to link to Amazon, but it's for the greater good. :P

I'll call it a day, here.
If living better interests you, let me know.
I'm thinking about doing a series of posts
showing what we're doing as an example.


"If  the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

Step away from the screen, now. 

Stretch.
Go outside, rain be damned.