How onion seeds are made, and some pictures

One of the things that intrigues me is growing out seed. Some of the reasons for doing so are to break the stranglehold seed companies have over farmers. If they don't have the seed, neither do I. That fact was borne out this spring while trying to order Winterbor kale, which had a seed crop failure, and the seed was very hard to come by, at least in the seed houses I frequent. Ended up using Blue Scotch Curled Kale instead. Another reason is that when you grow out seed, over time it becomes acclimated to your particular area and soil type. And there is also the satisfaction of going full circle, so to speak- the plants you lovingly nurtured run to seed, either the same year of planting (annuals) or the second year (in the case of biennial plants), after which you collect the seed, and save it for next year's planting. Well, while walking by the Evergreen Bunching Onion seed patch, I noticed they were ready to collect and dry down. They started out looking something like this last fall..........

then overwintered, and avoided getting eaten by the hungry deer, or killed by our brutal winter. This spring, they started doing this..........

Then, the other day, I was walking by and noticed they were starting to look like this........

Pods starting to open, getting ready to drop seed.

I thought, time to collect them. So Joshua and I went out and collected the nice looking seed heads.

Some of next year's bunching onions.

Then laid them out to dry down on a rag on top of the old pump organ in the front porch......

After which, when the heads have dried down, I'll rub them between my hands to release the little black seeds, and put them away to be planted next spring. It's kinda neat. Here's some more pictures, in no particular order of importance....

Janice thought he was ugly, I thought he was so ugly he's was kinda cute.

Baby sparrow the kids found, and got some pics of before turning him loose again.

The new herb location.

After having them get so wet, with the ground so heavy where they used to be, they are now safe up on the hill east of the big market garden. If they get too wet in the new location, we have bigger problems than herb plants not doing well. Gonna have a swimming pool in the basement. Maybe the living room too. Not much chance of them getting too wet where they are now. So it's good. :)

Baby lettuce, safe from the grasshoppers.

We had some grasshoppers in the seed-starting greenhouse, and they were scything the  baby lettuce off at the stem. No way they can recover when that happens. So, I was thinking we would have to build a raised platform outside, with a cover over so new baby lettuce don't get beat apart by rains. Then, thought, why not put them in the little portable greenhouse? (Thanks, K.H.) Problem solved. Put dirt around the skirting, made sure there were no grasshoppers in there, closed the zippers, and the lettuces were safe. I know the grasshoppers need to eat too, but they can go eat grass. :)

Bright Lights Chard, as beautiful as it is good.

Baby Anthony, checking out something by the round flower garden.

Amiga Cucumber

Lots of lettuce and other stuff, in the area known as "C-plot".

Shasta Daisies, taking over the long flower bed (BP, RY, need starts for your places?)

 

Like their smiling faces

         

Bee on borage blossom

Blacktail Watermelons on the hugelbed

Sorry, folks for this one from last winter. Taken on my phone camera, it's evidence.

See, Kimber from Hungry Horse, Montana. I wasn't lyin'. :)

That's it for now, gotta run, y'all take care.

Update on bee swarm, pictures, kale "spaghetti"

Here's an update on the first bee swarm- they took to their new home, and are happily going about their business. We had another swarm that we were able to catch, and a third one that got away. Hopefully they are done swarming now. I dabble a bit in "bee-keeping", but sometimes for novices like me it's a bit difficult to "keep" the bees. :) Anyway, here's a picture of one of the new drawn-out frames in the top-bar hive.

Really pretty, I think.

A top bar hive is exactly that- there are only top bars, not a fully rectangle frame with a foundation that the bees draw out their comb on. Some people put a small starter strip hanging off the top bar, this type of frame I cut a groove in so the bees would have some inkling of where they should start building, and to kind of give them a toe hold, so to speak. They create their comb by hanging from the top bar, and building the comb as they are hanging there. Really amazing to me. In the center of the comb and a little toward the left, the more yellow part is drawn out and sealed off brood, which should hatch out in about 3 weeks or less.  In other "bees-ness", they found the squash blossoms.......

Bumblebee on a male squash blossom

Honeybee on a female squash blossom.

It's always a joy when the bees find the blossoms and start doing their work. For the early zucchini, we have been hand-pollinating, but it cuts down on the workload when the bees start helping out. We'll probably keep on hand-pollinating, at least for a while. There's not really a lot of bees out yet, and it's kinda discouraging if the squash don't get pollinated, and end up deformed or with the end rotted. We usually have one of the little tikes running around go "be a bumblebee" for a while, and they think it's a hoot to pretend they are bumblebees. Hand-pollinating is really not that hard to do, just pick an open male blossom (for beginning gardeners, that's the one usually on a long stem, with no tiny fruit at the base of the blossom), tear the petals off, leaving the stamen, (the part the bumblebee was curled around), and work it over and around the pistil of the open female flower, which is the part the honeybee's head is partly under. Female flowers are the ones that have a tiny fruit at the base of the blossom. The bees are lapping up the nectar, and as they fly from flower to flower, are unknowingly helping the plants produce fruit. It is really neat, how God created things to work together- the plants give the bees nectar and pollen; the bees, while collecting the products they need from the plants, are actually helping them out. Win-win for both species. :)

Here's some more pictures.......

Snap peas, almost ready to harvest.

More baby lettuce, ready for your late-August salads. :)

Happy spuds.

I've really been happy how the spuds are doing this year. Last few years, we haven't had good crops of potatoes, between lots of seed rotting last (wet, cold) spring, to another year having them in soil they obviously didn't like, and not being able to give them as much water as they would like. Have had to buy store spuds for family use even. (Yuck!) This year, I pledged to myself, I'm gonna do what I have to do to at least grow enough spuds for the kiddos to eat, so they can have real potatoes, and not have to eat psuedo-spuds from the store. With the rain and mostly cooler summer, the spuds seem to be loving it, so I'm hopeful there will be enough of them for our winter use, and some to sell for the winter veggie sales. Kinda like a present, though- you never really know until you open it. In this case, open the potato hills, and see what's under there. :) Talking about opening things, today the boys opened the last beet earth pit, we buried last October; lo and behold, beets! Some at the top had gone bad. The ones lower down, while not perfect, were still in usable condition. I had tried an experiment with this pit, only digging 10 inches or so down, heaping them up so they were partly above ground (this type of setup is commonly called a "clamp"), and putting a good layer of leaves over them, then the dirt. I'm guessing the top ones may have frozen with the brutal winter we had. In any case, beets we put in the ground last fall are gonna be on the table tonight. I love it! Could of course have fresh beets from the garden, but it's a sense of accomplishment to see how well (and how long) root crops will store underground in a "live" condition.

Zucchino Rampicante........

from the good folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They are sorta strange looking, but have good reviews. They can be eaten as a summer squash, left to mature and be eaten as a winter squash, and are supposed to be very prolific. What's not to love about them? We'll find out I guess, and if they ARE good, we'll grow them for market next season. If not, the goats will love 'em.

One of the old time rose bushes by the pond.

They don't look quite as fancy or uniform as the newer hybrids, but the fragrance is heavenly. I wish I could put the fragrance in this post, but I don't have the technology to do that yet. (And I guess I don't want it, for that matter.) So, if you want to smell them, you'll have to stop by for a chat. :)

Here, at long last, is the recipe for the "kale spaghetti". We're not big on fancy terms or gourmet cooking here, just plain easy down-home food. And the recipe we make is for a huge bowl, so if you have fewer eaters, cut the amounts in thirds or less.

                                                        

5 bunches of kale, torn into pieces, with the stems cut into small pieces, if you choose to use them; otherwise toss them into your (or your neighbor's) compost heap)

2 cups green onions, bulb and all, cut up

8 cloves garlic

2 oz. fresh lemon balm

2 lbs. spaghetti noodles

 Coconut oil for wilting the greens

Optional: 1 lb. (or 2) of Jimmy Dean Italian Sausage, nice flavor


Fry the meat, saving the grease for part of the oil to fry the greens in. Put the noodles on to boil; while they are cookin', put the grease from the meat and a bit of oil (we like coconut oil) in a pan, add in the greens, garlic, lemon balm, and onions, and lightly fry until they are tender. (We usually have to fry the greens in three panfuls, there's so much.) When the noodles are done to your liking,  and the greens are tender, toss the noodles, meat, and greens all together in a big bowl, mix them, load onto your plate, salt and pepper to taste, and devour. It's good for a quick (not too heavy) summer mid-day or evening meal. There, I told you it'd be easy, didn't I? :)

Well, I better run along. Y'all please take care now!

Succession planting, baby sparrows, geese, and goats

Summer days are here again! We've been having a blast, the Wednesday and Saturday market table has been filled up with lots of fresh lettuce, kale, chard, scallions, cukes, zucchini, and the first baby beets. Hopefully carrots will be starting to be available in 2-3 weeks. One of the aspects I love most about this lifestyle is the direct marketing, actually talking to the people who eat our veggies. I enjoy the chatting, exchanging ideas with other fellow gardeners, and such. To me, market gardening goes beyond being a job, it's an exciting privilege made possible by our wonderful customers. Thank you all!

How do you get fresh heads of lettuce in September and October? You start them in July and August- which we've been doing. This time of year, we seed the mini-blocks on flats, then bring them down the basement until they germinate. Lettuce, being a cool weather crop, has a hard time germinating in the tropical weather of the greenhouse, so I do my best to bow to their preferences. Plants want to grow, my job as the gardener is to try to provide the conditions they like best, so they can do their best. :) Also, we started the last (for this year) planting of zucchini and cukes. I imagine they will start producing early September, when we will erect a quick low tunnel over them, hand pollinate the zucchinis, and hopefully have them until the regular market shuts down for the year. The after market veggie delivery program will have lots of greens and root crops, hopefully some winter squash as well. More on that later.

The other day, my daughter Faith came running, saying, Dad, you have to see these little baby birds. They are just like little spiders. So, of course, I had to take a look.

Hmmmm..... I guess a bit spidery, hey? :)

They were some kind of sparrow, couldn't get a good identification of the parent who was chirping with concern in the tree nearby. So we went on our way, so it could get on with the job of raising the little insect eaters. I like sparrows, they are wonderful at helping keep garden pests in check.

I mentioned in an earlier post about "potato onions". We planted them last fall, as single sets; this spring, lo and behold, they divided, just like they were supposed to. I'm gonna build up my seed stock for a couple years. Hopefully I can bring some to market in the future.

One makes five.

Now, an update on the geese. They are doing well, Goosie has figured out no one is heading for the oven just yet, so he is still a bit cantankerous, just not to the extent he was earlier. They are getting quite big. One is noticeably smaller, I don't know yet if it's a female or just blessed with small stature genes.

Goosie is on the left.

Flower bed north of the driveway.

Hazelnuts. The kids race the squirrels to get them first. :)

Blacktail Mountain watermelons on the hugelbed.

Garlic drying.

It seems I am always struggling to get garlic. My father-in-law is a farmer in central Oregon, and being in a desert climate, he has no trouble growing garlic. When they need water, he irrigates them. When it's time to dry down, he stops watering, and that's it. UP here, it's a different story, getting rain, dewy mornings, etc. This year, we pulled them when they were segmented, but the tops were still green. It looks like it might be a success. Seed garlic for next year, some for Jan to use in her cooking, and maybe some for market. Gotta see how much she'll spare. I ain't about to argue with the cook. No good to argue anywho. :) Live in peace, like I tell the kids when they get in a spat about something.

I mentioned the after market veggie delivery program. I often hear customers lamenting when the short season up here is drawing to a close, and they can't get fresh vegs anymore. Last fall, we tried some limited direct marketing (mostly through email) with a few of the regular customers, and it was a success. So this year, we planted lots of crops specifically with after season sales in mind. Loads of winter carrots, dug from under the snow like this...............

Crispy sweet winter carrots, date stamp tells the story. :)

as well as beets, squash, soon to be planted turnips, winter radishes, spuds, dry onions, and lots of greens- spinach, arugula, braising mix, kale, chard, etc. The roots can be stored underground, and greens harvested from low tunnels and walk-in tunnels quite late into the year. We send out an email usually weekly (or when the greens are over, bi-weekly for root crops), the email will have a listing of crops available with pricing, and where the drop spot will be. You can then order what you would like, we pick to order, and meet at the drop spot. If this is something you are interested in, stop by the Hancock Tori Wednesday or Saturday, and get us your email. Or email us at niemelasmarketgardens at gmail dot com. If you participated last fall, or have already been added this year, no need to do anything. :)

Well, gonna roll on here. I'll let Cordelia, one of the three goats currently milking here, say goodbye. She is kinda funny looking, especially with her "airplane ears", the result of a breeding between a floppy eared Nubian and a stiff eared French Alpine/Nigerian Dwarf. The ears kind of stick out, and are especially hilarious when she tilts her head. Not the prettiest goat maybe, but, as Momma used to tell us boys, "pretty is as pretty does", and Cordelia has a very amiable personality and is a wonderful mother. When my sons get old enough to worry about such things, the advice from Pappa is that it's better to marry a plain jane with a nice personality and compatible religious beliefs than a supermodel who is meaner than a junk yard dog. :) (Certainly not implying here that having a pretty face is synonymous with having a not nice personality, but you get my drift. ) Anywho, have a good day.

Cordelia says, "Good day!"

Fourth of July, gardening pics, and a bee swarm

It keeps rolling along here, the weather has been good all-in-all. Last night we had 42 degrees for a low, a bit chilly for July, but that's life in da UP, I guess. The good rains we had earlier in the week really helped out. We can certainly irrigate if we need to, but it's so much nicer and easier when God waters the gardens. :)

On July 4th, we worked in the morning, then took the afternoon off, went picnicking with the family, and had a hoot. Between Dad and mom, my siblings and their spouses who were able to make it, plus all the kiddos, I think there were 41 of us present. Picnic by Prickett Dam, then some of us went up Silver Mountain. 'Twas a good walk up and down, nice views on top, but I'm sure I have a few more gray hairs from making sure none of the kids strayed off the hiking trail. The top of a mountain is not a good place to go running willy-nilly around the woods, to be sure. Here's some pics.

On the rocks toward the (I think) west side.

Tree growing on the rock face

I think this was in the area people rappel down-whew!!

Down below in the ravine W/SW of the main sheer drop-off

My lovely and gracious wife Janice, a native Oregonian, didn't quite understand why this native flatlander (who thinks Brockway Mountain is kinda big) was holding onto her with might and main as she peered over the drop-off. But the sight was almost enough to make a flatlander feel queasy. I talked to a guy who, in his training for the service, had done rock climbing there- it's over 200 feet down. Afterwards, we watched the fireworks in Baraga, and while waiting for them to start, I had a chance to tell the kids what the Fourth of July is about, and to share with them the American view of law and government- there is a Creator God, inalienable rights come from Him, and the purpose of government is to protect and defend those God-given rights. And that "whenever any Form of government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it", as the Declaration of Independence states. Then rolled on home and to bed.

Here are a few more pictures....

Happy potatos

Close-up of peas, with dead evergreen branches to clamber up on

 

Tunnel still pumping out lots of zucchini and cukes

I'm antsy to try "Nancy" lettuce in a salad

The round flower garden, more color

Today, we also had our honeybees swarm for the first time this year. That we know of, anyway. Swarming means a bunch of bees and the old queen bee leave the hive, looking for a new home. Usually means the quarters are getting too tight, and some have to leave. I'm not an expert on bees, and it's probably miss-management on my part that caused them to do so. We got a hold of the swarm in the nearby white birch, and tried putting them in another hive. Hopefully they will accept the new home.

The swarm

The swarm and I

The attempt at re-homing, below. Shooting it off my little carry around camera, and I'm not a great techy guy, so the quality is what it is.

(Edited on July 28, added two new videos.- the quality of the previous clip was crummy, as you who saw it can attest to. Turns out my cellphone videos posted here are better quality than my camera recorder, so the two clips below are actually of hiving a second swarm we were able to capture on my phone, a few days later than the first swarm. Pardon Janice's finger hanging over the lens part of the time. :) Same thing pretty much as hiving the first swarm, though. )

Well, gotta run, my self-imposed break is over, off to the gardens again. Y'all take care now.

Summer finally, I think.......

I am cautiously optimistic that we are finally in a summer weather pattern. Things have been rolling along here, been taking lots of early green type vegs to market, even some cukes and zucchini. The green things have been loving the cool wet weather we had up until now, the outside fruiting crops not so much. But things are turning around now. Inside the tunnel. however, the tomatos/zucchini/cukes have been thinking it's summer for a while, as you can see below.

And, I love the look of lettuce of different texture and color, rolling up the hillside (actually down the hillside, in this case.) We had to start planting this spring in the higher areas first, while waiting for things to dry out down in the hollers. :)

Ignore the weeds, their day is coming. :)

It's nice to have lots of salad material again. We eat lots of salad this time of year, kinda like you eat with the seasons, whatever's growing at the moment. A big bowl of chili on a 90 degree day, no thanks. But salad? You betcha!

Fresh red and green leaf lettuce, cukes, green onions, home-grown pinto beans, fresh eggs from the hen coop, grated beets (these we put into earth pits last fall, they are still in great shape!!), croutons, elbow macaroni, raisins, sunflower seeds, and home made dressing. Yum!

Here's a mounded "hugelbed" in progress......

Almost there....

dug out with shovels, logs hauled in, layered with hay and grasses and such, a layer of hen coop material, then mounded up with dirt, as below.

Watermelon and cukes, more stuff to come.

'Twas a bit of a job, but it's an experiment. I noticed an interesting thing, when I was planting, you could feel the heat of the material slowly starting to break down under the dirt. The watermelon and cukes are loving it. I'm gonna plant a bunch more things, little bit of each kind of crop, and see how they like it. Maybe make some more mounded beds if it works out. But, if we make a whole bunch, gonna have to get some bigger equipment in here then making them by hand, otherwise it'll take so long I'll either be pushing daisies or too old to plant them by the time we'd be done. :)

Help! Cukes gone wild in the seed-starting tunnel.....

In a case of poor management of my part, I should've made a trellis of some sort for these vines to climb up on. I think we're gonna have to drape some mesh trellis material over the upper rails, and somehow train the vines to start climbing. Right now they seem to want to run all over the path. But, they are making cukes, so it's good.

Shrooms!

A year or so ago we bought some shiitake plugs from Fungi Perfecti in Washington state, drilled some holes in a couple maple logs, and let them start colonizing. This spring we started getting mushrooms. Kinda neat- you soak them in water for a couple days or so, take 'em out, set them somewhere, and watch what happens. Just another way to get some good eatin' off your own place. I think I'm gonna order a bunch more plugs and get a lot of logs going.


Here's a couple pictures of some crops going to seed (yes, they are supposed to, I want to collect seed). Evergreen Bunching onions in the top pic, and Lutz Green Leaf beets below. More on seed saving when there's more to talk about. :)

In closing, here's a few more pictures, and a neat paragraph about family I saw a while back, so I saved it. :)

First rose in the round flower garden

Huge cloud Sunday evening north of the place

Another awesome sky formation the same evening

Saw online, no copyright infringement intended. :)

I feel blessed and thankful to be surrounded by both blood family and family like the above. Gotta run, y'all take care now!!