We Must Be Crazy

Did our monthly Winter market this past Saturday. It was a cold one with snow showers and a stiff breeze. Us farmers were seriously doubting our sanity for being there. And yet a lot of dedicated local food mavins came out to the monthly market despite the weather. We now know who the core farmers' market supporters are after this bitter cold market

We sold a lot of garlic, potatoes and onions. We sold no squash probably because we had to put it away in the van within a half hour of putting it on the table because it started to freeze (it was a balmy 14˚F by 10:30am according to Karen Baldwin's Van).

I bought 3 dozen eggs from Karen because her eggs are almost as good as the eggs we used to raise. She had a lot of eggs-3 coolers full of 'em. February is the month that hens come out of their winter vacation and start to lay in earnest. I remember when we had hens we would be getting a couple dozen a day from 75 layers Nov/Dec/Jan and into the beginning of February and than suddenly one morning you go into the coop to collect eggs and everyone is laying and instead of 2 dozen you have 6 dozen eggs to clean and pack into cartons.

And picked up my first milk order from the cow share I bought in January. Raw milk is such a wonderful food. It is a shame that the pasteurized dairy lobby prevents most people from having the choice of buying their milk raw, though that may change in Ohio this year as there is a bill going through the state house that wants to change the law so grade A dairies can sell raw milk from their farms. It's a start.

After market we went over to the Nelson's to pick up the shelving we had bought the week before. Got there and met Pat and terri and proceeded to take apart 3 shelving units. We had planned on taking down a lean-too for the lexan panels but it was too cold to work with plastic. so we loaded the van with dusty shelving units instead and took them home. They will go into the store eventually. First we have to finish a wall and paint the place.

Hoophouse how To-Part 3

Last in a Series






Detail of how 10’ conduit is held together

Trench for anchoring plastic. Either a shovel or plow will work. What we do is turn the soil and move it to the edge of the trench, put the plastic over the frame, center it than put the edges in the trench and with a shovel put the soil back over the plastic.








Finished hoophouse. the edges are kept down with large rocks, tires, milk crates filled with rocks. Any heavy but movable item.






Detail of how we keep ends open and the houses vented in warm weather using a pole stuck between the plastic and a hoop. In hot weather (above 80˚F) we will dig up one edge of the plastic and take it off the hoops and leave it to the side (so it can be put back on quickly if we get a cold spell which has happened the past 6 springs-weeks of hot weather followed by a frost.)





A few things I should mention. You will need to irrigate in a hoophouse. We use drip irrigation. The irrigation and plastic mulch, if you are using that, need to go down before the hoophouse goes up.


If you are doing tomatoes or anything else that will be trellised get the materials you will be using erected before the plastic goes on. You cannot use a post driver with 2' of head space for a 7' fence stake.


The rebar needs some discussion (and some photos too but I don't have any right now). we put washers on the rebar so it does not sink too far into the ground. without the washers the wind will pound the rebar and conduit into the ground sometimes 2" or more so the houses get rather short. The washers stop this. We have used big (2") metal washers as well as pieces of 2"x4" with holes drilled in them for the rebar.

The structures are passively heated. we do not use any auxillery heat but we do suppliment heat with buckets of water, dark mulches and row covers.


That is it. Simple to put up with no power tools. It takes about 2 to 3 hours for one person to put one of these structures up if they do not have to bend conduit (which you only have to do once but will add several hours to the task). It takes about 45 minutes to take one down with one person. If you have several people you can put one up in about 10 minutes (we did this at a farm tour/workshop we had a few years ago-had 10 people put up one of these complete with plastic dug in in about 15 minutes with only one person knowing what to do).

Hoophouse How To-Part 2

Now that we have the ingredients we can start to put things together

bending conduit with a pipe bender

Using a tree to bend conduit (this tree was NOT sturdy and we broke it a few minutes after this picture was taken so if you go this route use a STURDY Tree)

Erecting part of a section (i.e. 2 pieces of conduit bent and fasten together with a connector)

Two complete sections. These would have rebar driven in to the ground at a complementary angle that the conduit would slip over and be anchored to the ground.

Detail of how two sections are connected together

Stay Tuned for Part 3 Coming very very soon

Hoophouse How To-Part 1 What you need

Since several people have requested more pictures and info on our hoophouses I am going to to a series of How-To-Build entries. I'd do this all in one entry but it is heavy on photos which will not load quickly for anyone using dial-up



Here is what you need tool wise.
1” to 1 1/2” metal conduit in 10’ or 20’ lengths (if using 20’ lengths no need for connectors)
greenhouse plastic-6mil, UV stable (not shown)
connectors
rebar
clamps
hammer
wrenches
screwdriver (slotted)
pipe bender or sturdy tree

Part two will deal with Construction

Progress

Yesterday was an eventful day. What with the extremely warm weather (around 60˚F), the accident in the afternoon and a stormy evening and night with 40mph winds (but no damage from the storms). I don't know how the guy who got hit yesterday is doing, the roadwork has been cancelled for today so no one to ask. I don't know if this is weather related or because of the accident.

I saw on the news that this bridge project will start for real on Monday and last until October which is pretty much our entire season-Bummer man.

The reason for this post is to post some pictures of the hoophouse Eugene erected Wednesday. This hoophouse will be for arugula and lettuce. I have posted two shots.



Here is a full shot of a completed hoophouse. It is 100' long and 12' wide. The white patches next to it are beds of fall planted garlic under row covers. the sides are held down by soil and the ends have several water filled tires to keep them down. this easily survived a night of 30mph winds with 40+mph gusts.



This shot is further down the hoophouse and is supposed to show the second structure going up. But I see that has become almost invisible (damn my cheap low resolution camera. I really need a 5 or greater mega pixle camera). You can see in the distance a glass coldframe and a pile of plastic waiting to be stretched onto another hoophouse.

Witness to a Bad Accident

Emergency Vehicles Dealing with the Accident

We are no longer virgins. We witnessed our first serious accident on US 127. A highway workers was hit by a young man driving a pick-up truck southbound right outside our driveway this afternoon around 1:55pm. The highway worker was stopping cars for bridge work going on down the road about 1/2 mile. The young man said he did not see the stopped vehicles in front of him and in order not to hit the vehicles in front of him he veered off the road and hit the flag man who was standing in the southbound lane nearly on the shoulder of the road. The highway worker (who we were developing a vague relationship with because he was parking his truck in out parking area and we figured he would be there for months since there is some major bridge work starting) had a bloody face and it looked like a broken leg or ankle and perhaps a broken back. They put him on a back board and put a neck brace on him.

I know he was conscious because I talked to him and got him a towel to wipe the blood off of his face. He knew who he was and where he was and what had happened and even exactly where his wallet was (which Eugene got for him as the paramedics arrived).

It was strange waiting for the authorities to arrive. The guy was lying on the ground in shock bleeding. A small group of people gathered there, Eugene and I, the first two people in the line, a couple of road workers who came up from the bridge and I guess called 911, the kid who hit the worker. We were all milling about with no purpose confused as to what to do. . There was a stack of traffic building up on the highway but no one to keep them stopped so eventually the line started moving. No one stopped the traffic. One guy, a witness to the accident, said he hoped there was no oncoming traffic (there wasn't because they had already stopped the northbound traffic). I finally found something to do by looking at the injured worker and seeing his face covered with blood asked him if he wanted a towel. He said yes so I went and got him one and gave it to him just as the fist emergency people arrived. waiting for the emergency vehicles turns minutes into hours

Okay I don't know what happens when a normal person gets hurt out here but when a highway worker gets hit is is a major production. We had 5 Sheriff cars, 4 paramedics in personal vehicles, an ambulance, a fire truck (to wash the blood off the road), a tow truck that was not needed, a bunch of ODOT trucks (it was one of their own that got hurt). It was a full road.

The authorities did their jobs. Some cops interviewed the kid who caused the accident (I suspect he was on a cell phone and just was not paying attention to the road, bad mistake on his part), some investigated the accident scene. The Paramedics got to work cutting away clothing and getting the guy stable and in the ambulance. The Firefighters washed the road clean of human blood and the highway dept. Got a person to stop traffic (which by this time was backed up at least 2 miles). After an hour everything was back to normal, the road was cleared and all the trucks parked in our parking area were gone.


I made peanut butter cookies and Eugene battened down the hatches for tonight's wind storm.

Hoophouse Time!

I don't care what the groundhogs around here predicted about spring coming late, I say they are wrong and my proof is the 4 buzzards (black turkey vultures) I saw soaring just north of Hueston Woods State Park on Saturday afternoon. The tulips and lilies coming up in about every yard that has them planted (though I have yet to see any crocuses). And the fact that today we started hauling out the hoophouse equipment so we can start putting up hoophouses in the next few days for lettuce and the strawberry plants that will arrive March 15th, or there abouts.

It was a fine day. Not a cloud in the sky (except the occasional chem trail). It started out chilly with a heavy frost and tufts of snow still hanging out on the north side of the hills, trees and grassy knolls. But by noon most of the snow was gone, the pond was about half melted and Eugene was busy opening up another bed (which makes 27 of 'em). After lunch we decided to start getting the hoophouse stuff together. We started with taking 3 100' x 25' rolls of greenhouse plastic out to where they will be used. They were heavy and smelled like cat pee (the last 3 years we have had several neutered male cats who would hold pissing matches against the hoophouses). Good thing they will be used outside. Next we opened the container that holds the hoops and rebar stakes for the skeleton of the structures and found we had to move several long (500') pieces of landscape fabric that we use for mulching crops. So we hauled those out to the field and laid them out. The plan is to cut them into 50' pieces so they fit our beds tomorrow. Would have done it today but no one had a knife nor wanted to go find one.

Finally we could get at the hoops and rebar and started piling rebar on the cart so I could pull them out to the area where they will be needed. I got them where they needed to be and found myself out of breath. I started tossing them off the cart onto the ground but was stopped by eugene after I was half done. I was told we needed to put them on something like a skid. Eugene than told me there might be a skid in the barn and I asked why we couldn't use the skid we uncovered earlier this morning that was along the west fence (which is about 200' away vs about 1/4 mile to the barn which may or may not have a skid that could be used). he grumbled something and than went and got the thing and dumped the rebar stakes onto it. On the way back to get more we loaded the cart with an old gas tank and hauled that to the ever growing display of farm art we have for sale. Got back and loaded the cart up again with rebar stakes and took the second load out to the garden beds and though the load seemed heavier than the first. Going back with an empty cart was quit hard and it felt like it was loaded down big time. The problem was mud had encased the wheels and was rubbing against the supports causing a great amount of drag. Cleaned off the wheels and took the last load out and than decided it was time to make dinner.

Dinner will be a small pastured chicken we raised last year. I think we will be eating "Gimpy" the runt of the litter last year. He somehow broke a wing early on in his life which did nothing for his growth. The bird I am roasting is missing a wing and is under 3 pounds so it must be him. I will make delicata squash and probably kale that we did not grow but had to buy at Kroger's. It is no where near as good as our kale but it is better than no greens at all. And since we are not growing any greens this winter beggars cannot be choosers, though I would really like some chard and no one around here (other than us) sells the stuff. C'est la vie

Saturday Sale

This past Saturday we went down to Oxford to check out a sale. The Nelson's, a Couple who have been CSA members of ours in the past, bought Hooven's, a popular nursery in Oxford, OH and they will be turning this into a place for workshops and conferences concerning green topics like organic foods, Zen Buddhism, simplicity, etc.. And because of their plans they decided they really do not need several thousand pots, seedling flats, greenhouses, carts, shelving, baskets, garden chemicals (most toxic as Bill Hooven did not seem to believe in organic management), etc., etc..

So we went down to see what they had and picked up many 10' pieces of conduit that will be turned into at least part of a hoophouse, 3 shelving units, 2 huge bags of perlite (we won't need to buy any more of that in our lifetimes unless we get a lot bigger), a couple of bags of hydrated garden lime and this coming Saturday after market (yes we have a farmers' market coming up on the 18th) we will go back and see if we can get this Lexan sheathed lean to taken down. If we are successful, we will have enough material to make a couple of good sized greenhouses (the heated permanent kind). If we are not than we will have helped the Nelson's get rid of part of a building that is in the way of their plans. I suspect, however, even in failure, that we will be able to extract many aged Lexan panels, enough to do something out here.

The way cool thing about this transaction is it will be a barter. We get stuff they do not need in exchange for food later on this season. I love it when we can barter with people, it is such a nice economy. If we did not need cash money to pay bills and mortgages and such I would do far more bartering. Always wanted to barter a season long CSA subscription for an hour long massage a week. If you are a local masseuse/masseur who is interested in all the pure food you can eat leave a comment and we will get in touch.

NBC Olympic Coverage-WTF?

Every two years they hold some sort of Olympic even. This year it is the Winter games in Torino, Italy.

I have been watching this on NBC and so far I have not been impressed. The opening ceremonies started with non olympic competition of some sort. I really don't know what it was because I was watching the last night (probably ever) of Arrested Development. 2 full hours of all new shows and a wrap up essentially of the series. It was well worth the time to view. I guess I will have to get a hold of a DVD compatible TV, a DVD player and discs of all 3 seasons of Arrested Development if I ever want to see it again

But I digress, back to the opening ceremonies rant.

So at 8pm I tune into NBC and see things that are not a grand pageant but people doing snow sports. So I go to FOX and watch AD. At commercials I go back to NBC. Still no pageantry. Finally at 9pm they start the opening ceremonies. Why did they wait so long. To make sure I would be asleep with an hour to go? I mean the ceremonies ended at 9pm GMT (4pm EST) which means NBC could have aired it anytime after that. And they did not have to include the hour long quasi Olympic sports hour.

On the first full day of competition things did not get started on non cable NBC until 3pm. Why so late in the day. Are the really badly drawn and animated cartoons and vapid Teen reality shows that important? I guess they do sell a lot of sugar frosted crap and video games and that means big $$$$ to the network/GE and its' shareholders.

And when things did get started all we saw were qualifying events. Why? if there were medal events (even ones the Americans do not have a chance in) than show those and don't waste our time with qualifying.

And now because they made figure skating squeaky clean as far as judging is concerned and we don't seem to have a psycho trailer bitch like Tanya Harding whacking other competitors lurking around the rink we have to hear about Michelle Kwan quitting. Look she shouldn't have gotten a spot on on the team to begin with. She is past her prime and not world class material any longer. but she was given a spot anyway it seems for old times sake. To give her a final chance at a gold medal. So now she has become the soap opera of the games thus far.

I give her high marks for seeing the folly in the selection committee and stepping aside so her team will be able to to do as well as possible. She has a lot of class.

And today it sounds like a few hours of the Olympics will be preempted by the NASCAR Nextel Cup Budwieser Shootout that was rained out yesterday. I have no problem with NASCAR Nextel Cup racing. I am a fan, not a major fan, but I follow the sport and have favorite drivers. I have yet to go to a race much less travel around the USA in a huge RV/Bus going to all the races and spending 4 days a week getting drunk and BBQing hunks of meat in the infield of a superspeedway. Nor do I collect Jeff Gordon or other official NASCAR paraphanailia like my friend Rosie (and so many other fans of the sport)

Look NBC if you are going to do this Olympic thing you need to commit to it and go full out. So far you have not done this and I fear tomorrow there will Soaps and no sports in the afternoon.

An Ode to Garlic Powder

Today was garlic day. I decided it was time to dehydrate persian star garlic for garlic powder before it got too far gone. So I chopped the ends of bulbs off, separated cloves and when I got enough ready loaded up a dehydrator. I quit after filling 2 of the 3 dehydrators I own. I got about 1/2 bushel processed in a couple of hours (that is several hundred bulbs). The next step after they have dried to hard nuggets is to clean off the paper wrappers and than grind the cloves into powder and than sell the stuff.

And now I smell like garlic and probably will for a couple of days now that it has penetrated my skin. I feel this has to be very healthy to get such a strong dose of garlic in a subdermal manner. Garlic is good stuff, it has antibiotic and fungicidal properties as well as making a darned fine addition to just about all food.

I once read the smell of garlic bread baking in the oven calmed over aggressive men. If any such men were to walk into this house over the next 3 to 5 days they should, if the theory is true that garlic hath smell to calm the savage breast, go into a near coma of calmness.

I won't be able to tell with my husband since he ain't the aggressive type (thank the Gods and Goddesses. Been there done that a long time ago, long before I was into growing and processing garlic)

Onions and Leeks

More signs of life awakening;

The leeks and mercury onions have germinated. I hope the rest will follow suit but I did plant a lot of year old seed and onion seed does not last very long so the rest may not do so well. I did hit them all with a feed of weal Maxi-crop (a kelp based fertilizer) and perhaps that will kick the older seed into high gear and get them germinating. It sure is nice to have some stuff growing under lights

What is this?

What do think this is and how was it done? All correct and/or incredibly creative guesses will get a fabulous NoPrize