Welcome Spring!

Spring has sprung! There is evidence and excitement all over our yard . . .

Rhubarb (now in it's 3rd spring) is showing itself . . . 

Swiss Chard, overwintered in cold frames are looking fabulous . . . 

Strawberries are coming to life and have been thinned and strawed . . . 

Hens (now almost one) are in the full swing of laying motion. Here is Pearl, our best layer.

The hens have been in trouble recently though for raking the nice straw in their nesting boxes, out with they big ole feet!! Silly hens.

This is probably Elizabeth, our medium sized Barred Rock. 

The Rocks were very keen on investigating this camera business . . . 

Garlic (4 varieties) planted in the fall is looking healthy! Can't wait!

Asparagus (3rd spring) is ready to start picking daily. A wonderful thing.

My honey bees are a-flyin' -- pictured here on a peach tree.

Both hives have made it through the winter.

One has symptoms of Nosema, so I've treated both hives with medicine. Both queens are laying, and there is fresh brood in both hives. We actually saw baby bees being born when we went in for the first time last week! 

One of my dwarf peach trees in bloom.

A plum-cot tree in bloom. (plum & apricot combined)

Outside in My Garden

When spring really starts showing itself, I have this feeling in my heart . . . I can't believe it came! The miracle of everything seemingly coming back to life fills me with surprise. It's almost like deep in my gut I thought winter might overtake us permanently. Do any of you have this feeling when spring comes around? 

Here are the joys of coming spring around my garden . . . 

One of the most exciting: My Asparagus! The crowns are actually thriving under the dirt and are starting to send up shoots. Can you believe it?!

Awwwww . . . so cute!

There's another one!

And another!

Here is my rhubarb ready to burst open!

Look! It's a rhubarb leaf! I can already taste the tart stalks!

Anyone have great rhubarb recipes?

I'm planning pies galore, jam and conserve.

Just look at my happy garlic!

I hope all is well under that mulch.

My Siberian Kale made it through the winter (no wonder, Siberian)

So, do I just eat this and forget about new plantings?

Does kale really do well as a . . . perennial?

It's looking good though, isn't it?

All of these leaves are new growth. Amazing.

Inside the cold frames.

I've been a little slack about opening and closing my frames with so many other things going on.

It's gotten a little toasty in there recently and some of the plants are starting to bolt. I am considering removing the frames this weekend. Hmmmmm?

What I really need to do is thin them out, and have a greens fiesta! Look at the bok choy! So much to do!

Eat your heart out baby!

Now, I don't mean to make you other northerners jealous or anything (well, maybe a little), but take a look at what I harvested from my little home garden in the second week of March:

Arugula and Mesclun Greens from my cold frames . . . 

Winter hardy leeks mulched in my garden . . .

Local Rehoboth Eggs (Rhode Island Reds)

Don't you just love the variation in size?

I wish I could say they were from my chickens . . . but alas . . . 

Leek and Cheddar Quiche

Arugula and Mesclun greens 

with lemon juice, olive oil, Portuguese red pepper sauce, salt and pepper.

Now THAT is a great, healthy meal for the family! 

The quiche recipe I always use is a good old Fannie Farmer basic quiche recipe where you can add any vegetable of choice to the recipe depending on what you have on hand . . . which is great in the summer if you have a vegetable garden! You just roam around outside to see what's available for the pickin'. I need to get the remaining leeks out of my garden (they are scattered throughout) so I will be ready for new seedlings in April and May! 

Basic Quiche Recipe:

Prepare one oil Pie Crust - get the recipe and instructions HERE.

Partially bake the crust (of course with quiche, you only make the bottom) prick prepared crust in pie plate with a fork several times. Then bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Pull out of the oven when it's done (carefully, so you don't damage the edge of the crust).

Meanwhile, while the crust is baking prepare your quiche filling.

Saute 2 leeks (rinsed well) Slice lengthwise several times, then chopped into 1/8" slices. Rinse chopped leeks again in a fine colander. Then saute in 1 T of butter (or olive oil) and a sprinkle of salt. If you want to use another vegetable, use about 1 cup of chopped veggies - like broccoli, spinach, asparagus.

Filling - Mix into a large bowl (if it has a pouring spout, all the better)

• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
  
• 2 Cups whole milk (recipe calls for light cream, but I've used the milk and it works well)
  
• 1/2 t salt
  
• 1/8 t nutmeg
  
• pinch cayenne pepper (don't worry, your quiche won't taste spicy)
  
• 1 1/4 C grated cheese - sometimes I use a little more. (For my leek quiche I used cheddar cheese and a little freshly grated parm cheese -- simply because that's what I had on hand.) Saving some (maybe 1/8 C) to sprinkle on the top after I pour the egg mixture into the crust.
  
• Sauteed veggie of choice - 1 Cup raw

Mix the above, then when your crust is precooked make sure your pie crust is on a rack in the oven with the rack pulled out. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust, sprinkle the reserved cheese on top, and then gently slide the quiche into the oven. 

Cook quiche at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes more - until the egg mixture has set in the center of the quiche. 

Yum. Yum. Yum. 

Around the House this Weekend

With the warm weather we have had over the past several days with highs in the 50's and 60's, we've finally managed to rid ourselves (again) of all of our snow. To have a snowless weekend with warm spring-like temperatures to work outside and fiddle with the yard was wonderful. A glimpse of things to come. 

I drafted Victor (who has been away on a business trip for four days) to prune back our wild black raspberry patch with me. We have never gone through the entire patch and cut the dead wood or carried out the old branches. When I'd had some landscaping done very early in my time at our house, the landscaper asked if I wanted him to leave the wild black raspberries. "Sure" I said. They are aggressive whipper-snappers, like mint and strawberries, so we'd beat them back as they crept into our yard and threatened to take over the place. But they had never been properly pruned. Until last year we'd never had a decent showing of black raspberries, and I was starting to regret having kept them. No longer! I read up on how to prune them, and we went to work. 

Now, this tidy patch might not look impressive to you . . . 

But when you look at the pile of dead wood we pruned away and hauled out of the patch, suddenly you realize what we accomplished yesterday afternoon! Wow! It's safe to say that we took out more than we left standing. Hopefully this year or next we will see a large reward for our work.

Below is our side yard - there are trees off to the left. In an effort to seek out more growing space, I've decided to use this mulchy area to grow my zucchini, pumpkins, winter squash, yellow squash, watermelons and cantaloupe. My plan is to dig large holes, fill them with loam, compost and peat moss (my leaf mold still isn't ready) and create mounds for my sprawling plants to grow. They can spread all over the mulchy area without disturbing my smaller garden that doesn't have room for such things. Clever, eh? I hope they will be happy in this location. 

Here are my spring garlic shoots!

Don't they look promising? 

All three varieties have sprouted now, every four inches along 3 long rows. Exciting!

Here is the happy arugula growing in my cold frames.

And my Mesclun Greens!

Here is the little farm where I get my local eggs.

Isn't this chicken coop adorable?

We'd just gotten a lot of snow the day before, so the chickens were all "cooped up"!

Normally, they are allowed to roam around on this small fenced in field to the right.

Maybe there are 30 of them? It's quite a few. 

All Rhode Island Reds. Large brown eggs with gorgeous bright yellow yolks.

Cold Frame Lessons and Woodstove Status

Let's talk about the good news first, shall we? The good news is, just the other night I had an arugula salad that I picked fresh from my garden in the wintertime. Fabulous! A little lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper -- yumola! Next year I think I will plant all arugula, kale and winter hardy lettuce (which seems to be doing just fine). I will also start my plants sooner. That is the good news. I am not discouraged. The plants are growing and happy and they require very little watering if any.

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Now for the lessons .... err, bad news.

First, Eliot Coleman in his book Four Season Harvest recommended not painting the frames simply to avoid maintenance. "Hey!" I said to myself, "I don't mind painting and sanding every year, plus it will preserve the wood longer." The lesson is: Listen to Eliot Coleman. It's not just a matter of yearly maintenance. The temperatures that the wood experiences day to day, night to night is so extreme that in spite of my hard and careful work -- the paint is chipping. Everywhere. Even the glazing -- old and new -- is peeling off. It's a mess. Sad. Maybe an oil, or a stain would be better. Eliot just leaves his -- as is.
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Here is my garden at the start of our last snow storm. Wisps of dried asparagus on the left side, broccoli on the far end (that finally called it a day and wilted), leeks and kale scattered throughout. In the foreground is where we planted our garlic. I put the wire fencing up because our dog was stomping through that area to short cut through to the front yard. Leeks are in the foreground, and although they look a little floppy here, they are doing just fine in the cold.

Here were the cold frames after the big storm we had just before Christmas.

Here is my progress as I was gently shoveling off the mounds of snow.

And then, alas, some glass fell into my mueslin greens. I'd put this pane upside down without thinking of the consequences. When the glazing fell off, the window was no longer being held onto the frame. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a big deal because of the wooden lip that the glass sits on. But, I put this frame on upside down. Ugh. I still have yet to fix this problem -- temporarily somehow. I think we may use Plexiglas glued or nailed to the top. For awhile I had cardboard covering the hole. Now I have a big piece of Styrofoam that came in some packaging laying on top and secured with large stones. We are expecting a lot of wind along with 4-8 inches of snow. Isn't this a sad sight?

On a brighter note, our wood stove is churning along nicely. We have our digital thermostats set to 60 degrees. I start the fire in the morning from the embers still burning from the night before (if everything went well) and get the temp up to a happy 68 degrees or even warmer. All from free wood in our back yard. Sometimes if I can't tolerate the morning cold I bring the temp up to 68 degrees with our furnace, then turn it back down and the wood stove just maintains the temp from there.
In any case, our first winter oil bill came and it was $156.13 for 71 gallons. For the same time period last year we used 97.4 gallons and using this year's prices we saved $57.81. I just called the oil guy to see if I could get the stats from my two previous bills (because I forgot to document them) and when he found out who I was he said "Hey! Your name came up the other day!" I told him that I'd bought a wood stove insert and he told the story of how he and his brother had been talking about whether or not to come by and fill up our tank -- wanting to be sure I didn't run out in the middle of winter. They decided that I probably didn't need any because the last time they were by I'd only taken 70 gallons -- he had remembered the exact amount -- and he'd seen smoke coming from the chimney and figured I'd gotten a wood stove. Isn't that funny?! I think you're doing pretty well when even the oil guy takes notice! Exciting!

Wonderful Weekend

To me, this weekend was perfection. We were all together, working outside all bundled up in 20 degree weather, interspersed with great food. We started out our day with pancakes -- a recipe given to me by my Aunt Janie and one Victor and I have recently decided (after much tasting) is the best there is. Then we went outdoors to tackle my wood inventory. Our wood burning stove insert is new to us, so we weren't busily squirreling away wood all summer and fall. It was past time to get busy.

Thankfully, in our back woods there are countless -- who knows how many years worth -- standing dead and fallen trees that are all ready "seasoned". Victor cut and chopped and the kids and I carried and stacked. Mid-day, we had an outdoor hot chocolate break with marshmallows. For lunch we took a break and had chicken soup and corn bread that I had stashed away in the freezer. We went back at it after lunch and worked until the sun was low on the horizon. I made egg rolls and fried rice with eggs and beef from a nearby farm, and sweet peppers, cayenne peppers, broccoli and carrots from our garden. How wonderful. We ate our feast while watching A Christmas Story.

On Sunday, after church, the boys were back outside.

Benjamin was very excited to learn how to split wood.

Last count was six logs that he'd split by himself -- and proud!

Benjamin and Ripley take a "play" break from work -- which left to their own devices outside usually includes mud, dirt and water. (Notice Benjamin's knees -- yep, that's my boy.)

Our progress.

Isn't my Siberian Kale gorgeous in the sunlight?

Here is my Arugula, making progress and looking cozy in the closed cold frame.

Mesclun Mix Greens churning away and getting big.