Some pictures......

Whew, been a while! This summer has been goofy, weather wise. Toward the end of May, we were kicking up dust as we worked in the field. Then, it started raining the end of May, and been regular rains since. A couple areas of our plots actually got a little too wet, rather like a spring wetness, except once it's planted, you can't really get in there and work the soil to extensively to let it dry out a bit. But, all in all, things are going great here. :) In the main tomato greenhouse, there's lots of fruit set, and a few starting to turn.

We've kept busy working on keeping back weeds, and lots of succession planting for fall crops. The winter carrots have been planted, and germinated well, in spite (or perhaps partly due to) the torrential rain we had a night or two after planting. They are a bit diminutive in size yet, but by October or November, they should be ready for harvest, and our customers can enjoy sweet, crunchy fresh-dug carrots all winter long again!

Little baby carrots, just coming out of the ground.

I see a couple little weeds in the carrot picture as well. Gotta get out there with the collinear hoe and take care of that project.

Here's a shot across the winter carrot plot, it goes along and over the little rise, plus a couple shorter beds at the end of one of the greenhouses. I am planning to do a couple more small plantings, to see how late I can seed and still get a good crop. We usually seed them in about July 7, then you need to faithfully water them until they germinate. (If the soil crusts or dries out, not good for them when they are just sprouting.)

Ya, those are kid tracks cruising down the beds. I think Anthony invited Molly to go for a stroll down the carrot beds. Not particularly helpful, but, no real harm done, either. If there's a couple crooked carrots in the stomp marks, they'll go fine in the stew pot here. I did admonish them to walk in the paths, however, not down the beds. They say a kid's attention span is as long as their age in seconds. But, hopefully they paid attention when I was talking, and will stay off the beds. :)

The fruiting crops are sure liking the bursts of heat we've been having- more and more cukes and zucchini have been coming off. The picture directly above is a new kind of cucumber we are trying this year- Picklebush. It's supposed to be a bit more compact, so hopefully it will set lots of cukes, but won't be a bother with long vines parading all over creation. And, I've been pumped to see pollinators appearing as well. We have a small patch of cilantro and Italian Parsley that over-wintered in one of the greenhouses last winter. Figured, shucks, they've made it through a winter, might as well save seed off those ones, and breed up some seed from those that have winter survival genetics. :) The bees, some critters that look like flies, and all sorts of pollinators are sure lovin' the parsley. Cilantro has finished flowering, and will start to mature as time goes on.

Not sure what this is........

Nor this, but if you know, feel free to chime in. :)

Here's a picture of a new interesting thing we tried- called walking onions, or tree onions. Someone gave one of the vendors at the Tori some bulbs to share around. Really interesting. They are apparently a perennial onion, and set little bulbs at the top of their stalk. These little bulbs can be used in pickling or whatnot. Or, they can be re-planted to get more onions. Or, they can be left alone, and in the fall, the stalks tip over, and the little bulbs root in where they fall (a foot or so away from the mother plant), hence they are called "walking onions". Kind of neat and odd looking.

We tried growing some white turnips under row cover, ans another planting of radish. Hopefully the row cover will keep the infernal root maggot flies off the turnips. It's disgusting, even in the planting late last fall, the root maggots wouldn't leave them alone. Pull up a nice looking turnip, and it's full of root maggot tunneling, a pox on the nasty critters!! The row cover has surely helped keep flea beetles from chewing the daylights out of the leaves; hopefully, it has also kept the little gray root maggot flies off as well.

Under protection from root maggots and flea beetles, not frost!

And the carrots are getting DANGEROUSLY close- here's the "cracking of the row", as I call it; a surefire way of knowing the little roots are swelling up nicely.

Cracking of the row......

Brussels sprouts are really taking off now.....

We'll let them grow until early September, then "top" them (cut out the growing point). That will force them to set lots of nice firm brussels sprouts for our fall/winter sales. They sure were popular last fall, so we planted a load more this year. :)

How we "stake" peas in the home garden.......

We let peas crawl up dead evergreen limbs (the spruce seems to be the best shape for this). Then, when gardening is done, we can just pitch them onto a bonfire or use them as kindling, or some such. No fuss, no muss, and the peas love it. These are a shelling type pea in the home garden; we tried planting edible-pod snap type for market twice, but they rotted out both times (ROT 'EM!). So, no snap peas this year, not gonna try the third time. But my lovely and gracious Janice will have plenty of shelling types for winter stir-fry and other toothsome delicacies. :)

Comfrey as a "catch" crop....

Tried something new by the composting bins- we planted comfrey by them. Comfrey is a rapidly growing, deeply rooting plant. You can cut and compost the leaves; and my thinking was that if/when nutrients leach into the ground from the compost, perhaps the comfrey will catch some of them, and I can cut it, compost it, and get a second shot at it. Makes sense to me anyway, and it looks nice as well. :)

Brown gold, in one of the compost bins......

Amazing- the pond was still overflowing in mid-July......

And here's a couple shots of roses- they are so beautiful, fragrant, and serene looking. Lots of the old-time roses have such a strong sweet smell to them, that seems to have been lost on some of the newer types.

In non-farm news, my youngest sister got married last month, end of June. 'Twas a big time- like all functions that Janice, mom, my sisters, and sisters-in-law are involved with, the food is so good, you could HURT YOURSELF eating, as the saying goes. :) But we had a grand time, got them all married off proper, and gave them a good send-off with horns honking and a trail of vehicles following them out of downtown Chassell. :)

 Last little item, before I bid you all adieu, is baby rabbits. The mamma is a beautiful Flemish Giant, white and black flecked. The babies are a riot of different colors- some dark (which will take after the daddy), some pink and dark spotted (which will take after mamma). But they are all so cute, and she took good care of them.

She had them nicely covered......

And I uncovered them to snap a picture. (Then tucked them back in.)

Well, that's it. Y'all take care now, and eat your veggies!

Some pictures of spring crops......

Happy May! Things are going quite well here at Niemela's Market Gardens. As folks who live in the area know, this spring has been a bit funny. Weird swings, a bit like the pendulum on a clock. Hot spell, then cool, then hot again. This past Monday, it was almost unbearably hot. Today, we were wearing jackets and hats again. It was nice to not have mosquitoes buzzing us all day, though. When the wind whips off Keweenaw Bay, it sure cools things off. In the greenhouses, however, the crops in the ground think it's high summer. Some of the early type greens should be ready in a couple weeks or so, lettuce, kale, chard. Green onions soon to follow, and beets. Carrots will be a bit slower than I was hoping (one of my faults is to be overly optimistic at times), but they'll come along in due time and huge numbers. Here's how some of the early transplanted kale looks........

Starbor kale.....

 Oh, and the collards! I had some older seed of Cascade Glaze collards I threw in, and ended up with a handful of plants. I don't think too much of that variety will make it to the market tables, however. One day, while my lovely wife Janice was cruising along through one of the growing tunnels, she exclaimed, "Ooohhhh, Cascade Glaze collards!!" I imagine they'll disappear as they get big enough to eat (and it won't be rabbits), but that's fine, the queen of the cottage gets first dibs. :) There'll be plenty of the pictured variety called Flash.

Flash collards.....

Speaking of markets, the Hancock Tori will go along this summer, in the same location, in spite of the road construction project in downtown Hancock. I imagine it will be a bit of a kerfuffle once the work begins in earnest, but we'll make the best of it. The city is supposed to have wooden sidewalks and a crosswalk, for when the road is all dug up directly in front of the market. Little bit of a nuisance, but Yoopers are tough! Gotta be to live up here.....:)

There is also a new market starting up in downtown Houghton, on Tuesday evenings, which we plan to be attending. I was happy it got off the ground, because a market earlier in the week was getting desperately needed. Crops get picked over for the big Saturday markets, then there's not really any good opportunities to move product out until the Wednesday Tori. This new market will help get some more veggies through the pipeline earlier in the week. Hooray!

We also plan to be attending the Lake Linden Farmer's Market on Saturdays (and we will be doing the Tori as usual), so this summer looks to be beautifully busy. So thankful for the kids, many hands make work light, as the saying goes, plus, once they get old enough to start working at the markets, it's a blast! I love watching them interact with the customers and improving their "people" skills. Hands-on direct marketing, 101! :)

"Greenhouse #4"

Pink Brandywine closeup.......

It's rather fun, kind of like a puzzle, trying to figure out where to plant things, in which beds, which greenhouse, etc. In Greenhouse #4, we have a bed of kale, with a small patch of radish at the end. Middle bed has tomatoes, which can run up strings to the roof, and some basil interplanted, with some cilantro planted alongside a portion of the tomato bed. The other side bed, has collards, chard, and some radish. Once the summer plants are winding down, we'll transplant other crops for fall/winter harvest, and then remove the summer crops when it's time to give the new plants more elbow room.

Bright Lights chard...

Muir lettuce, an old standby for us....

And Oscarde, another of our favs.

Another things going on here is.........hogs! One of the gilts we bought this past summer is going to be having her first litter in a couple weeks. Pansy is her name, and here she is.

Pansy's on the right, giving us the eye....

Despite her looking a bit devilish in this picture, she's actually my favorite of the 3 pigs here. Petunia, the red gilt, is a bit more "wired", not as mellow. Oreo, the daddy, is OK, but is a bit intimidating, when he comes grunting/snorting/puffing up to see what you have for him in the slop bucket. But, Pansy is a perfect sweetheart, if a pig can be a sweetheart. :) The kids know not to make pets of many of the animals here, since many of them we raise for meat, and it's not fun to eat someone's pet. However, since these pigs will hopefully be around for a good while, I told the kids we can make them into pets of sorts. Of sorts, obviously, because they can't run around the yard with the kids like the dog, but more pets than, say meat chickens, who are given a good life, then eaten. :) The little kids can't go in the pig yard by themselves; but I've been known to hop over the electric fence with a forked stick and do a bit of back-scratching. Pansy especially has gotten to be a bit like a dog, in that she will sometimes follow me around, then stand placidly for a back-scratch, with sleepy eyes. Rather endearing. Hopefully she will be a great mommy to her piggies, we will see soon!

Well, I'm gonna wind down. Y'all take care now. Oh, wait, here's one more. Oreo, saying hi, or bye, or ???????? Or maybe, what are you doing, sticking that funny looking thing in my face?

Some mid-summer pictures.......

Been a while, long past time to post something. Our facebook page gets updated more often, due to the fact of it's ease- snap a couple pictures, write a few words, and it's done. Even if you are not a fb subscriber, you can view our page here. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Niemelas-Market-Gardens/423815084449330

I took a spin around this evening, and wanted to share some pictures with you. Been a nice busy summer, weather has been good, other than trying to work in the mid-90s with high humidity stretch we had for a while there. :) Days like that, about mid-day, I'd usually give up all pretense, loaded up the family, and head for Keweenaw Bay. Not good to work out in the sun when it's that hot.

Baby butternut squash.

Delicata squash.

We put in a bunch of winter squash this year, in what is called the north field. So tasty in the nippy fall days to sit down to some baked squash with whatever else is for supper. My lovely and gracious wife Janice says they are good as is (and they are); I still think, just like most things can be improved with bacon, any winter squash that's already good can be improved with a puddle of butter and brown sugar in the hollow. :)

"Leeking" a secret here.....

We planted a bunch of leeks this season. I like crops that like my soil, aren't too demanding, tolerate frosts, and are popular with our customers. Leeks definitely fit that description, so we put in quite a bit more than last season.

Jerusalem artichokes, a.k.a. Sunchokes

We put in some of these in a section of the garden. I've had a couple places where they've been growing neglected for a while, but this year we put some in an area where we can take care of them. It was a bit risky, since they are reputed to be almost impossible to eradicate if you want them gone. But I get kind of used to living on the edge, I guess. :) My daddy once said if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. :) If they get to be a problem, I'll run the piggies through them and let them root 'em out. God gave pigs a snout for a reason, and they love to use it.

Brussels sprouts starting to go....

About early September or so, we'll go down the brussels sprout rows and cut out the growing point, and cause them to finish up the ones that are formed, rather than keep growing taller and taller.

Cilantro becoming coriander. :)

Oscarde lettuce we are letting go to seed for next season.

Climbing Sungold tomatoes......

These plants are getting to the end of their ropes, literally. Pruned and twirled up strings, some of them are starting to hit the top of the greenhouse. If I had a bit more forethought, when I hung the strings, I would've left some extra hanging at the top. But not too big of a problem, I'll just add on some pieces to the top of the string, untie them, let them down a couple feet or so, and they can keep growing up. The stems that are sagging on the ground supposedly just root in the bed. They've set loads of fruit, some of which has been trickling onto the market tables.....

Dill weed.

Put in a couple small late plantings of dill, for fresh herb use. The earlier plantings are starting to look like the next picture, which is wonderful for picklin', but not so nice for sprinkling over fresh-dug new potatoes. (Which, incidentally, we should start having on the market tables next week.)

Almost dill seed...

Yellow crookneck squash.

Starfighter lettuce.

In order to have lettuce all summer, you need to sow all summer. This is a new one I'm trying, a little bit darker green leaf type than the lighter green summer crisp we've had. Fun to change it up once in a while, and try new varieties. We'll be planting lettuces for whole-head harvest probably to the end of August, the later plantings will finish up growing in the tunnels.

Part of my "office", where I get to hang out during the summer. :)

The weedy patch in the foreground is part of the old herb garden, which has since moved up in the world. (Wrote about it in earlier posts.) I'm gonna run the two piggies we are raising for the table through it, and plant hopefully next year. Pigs are wonderful to use for working rough areas for next season planting; they love to root, and don't even know they are doing our work for us. :)

A couple weeks back, after Saturday morning market, we went to Fort Wilkins to catch a little of the War Between The States era re-enactments. Fort Wilkins is always fun to visit, especially to see how they lived in days gone by. I found the general store (among many of the other buildings) to be quite quaint. If you have never been to Fort Wilkins, it's definitely a good stop.

Well, I better run along. Y'all take care now, and eat your veggies. :)

Of potatoes, pigs and other pictures.....

Things are going well here, and have been going well at market. Thank you to all of our wonderful customers- we've been going home early from market, always a nice thing. To get there, sell the produce, and go home to work on the gardens there. :) Here's a shot of last Saturday's table, before the folks started showing up, and cleaning up the goodies. Set up, keep loading out of the coolers into the display tubs, then take down the tables and go home to get back into the dirt. :)

Love those shiny radishes!!

After tying up some tomatoes in Tunnel #1, which was moved over and is planted to tomatoes, cukes, basil and peppers, I took a scoot around to get some other pictures of how some other stuff is doing here. Sungolds are coming along quite well in Tunnel # 2. We've been keeping them tied up and pruned, and have even had a small handful of them turn ripe.

Sungolds.....

We have these ones pruned to 2 leaders. Basically, we remove every side sucker that sprouts in the notch by the leaf, until the one directly BELOW the first flower cluster. The one directly below the first flower cluster then becomes the second leader.  When done when the suckers are still small, they are easy to pinch off. When they are pruned, it makes the plant much more manageable, without all the side growth getting in the way; and it is supposed to allow earlier ripening of the fruit. Tomatoes are a tropical perennial, grown as an annual in our climate. Allowing all the vegetative growth may work well in the tropics; here, our growing season is a bit shorter, to say the least. :) So the plant needs to be somewhat curbed and made to work for us; cut back some of the vegetation, and force the plant to use some energy to actually make and ripen fruit.

I missed a small sucker on this plant.........

Which I snapped off, after snapping a picture of it.

You can see the sucker shoot, to the right of the second twirl of orange string. The scar above the second twirl of string is a shoot that was removed previously, and has healed over nicely. Anyway, on to other things.

Gypsy Broccoli, next to my #10 boot to show the size.

Tendersweet Cabbage.

These plants are growing where our pigs were rooting and fertilizing last summer; they seem to like the soil there. I use the pigs to dig up areas we need for the following season. They do a wondrous job, eating through the weed and grass roots, working the soil deeply as they root, and all the while dropping fertilizer as they work. We work the soil with the tiller behind them, let it mellow and rot down over winter, then till a couple more times in the spring, and it's ready to go. It probably helps that these plants are growing in a little valley, the soil tends to be richer and damper in a lower area anyway. We have a couple piggies this year, named "Hammie" and "Sausage". They are busy rooting around, working some areas I need for planting next season. We raise them to eat them, so we don't like to name them cute pet names like Wilbur (wasn't that the name of the pig in Charlotte's Web?) or Petunia. If you call them food, everyone including the little tykes know the end result we're shooting for, and don't make pets out of them. Not to say that I don't think animals should be well cared for, if they are destined for the dinner plate. No sirree. I think animals should be raised kindly and decently, given a good life and lots of food, then butchered quickly and processed properly. In the Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery, a pig raiser who contributed to the pig section of her book told the way to gauge happiness in pigs, and I quote, "Dirt on the snout, as a measure of contentedness, depends on where the dirt is. No dirt means not happy. Dirt half way up the snout means happy. Dirt up past the eyes means ecstasy." End quote. I think raising pigs on a concrete floor out of the sunshine without an opportunity to ever root, is no way for a pig to live. They should have dirt to root in, so they can "express their pigness", as Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm would say. Well, I shouldn't hog up all the space on this post talking about pigs, so let's move along here. :) Whoops, one more, then we'll go on.

Hammie "expressing his pigness", while Sausage looks on in approval.

Giant of Italy flat leaf parsley.

Muir Lettuce

Don't know why this machine started flipping the pictures lengthwise, rather than sideways like normal. It'll be a change of pace for your eyes. :) Now it's back to normal. Technology gives me fits from time to time.

C-Plot.

Tiny baby Red Norland Spud.

Some of the early spuds.

The beets alluded to in the previous post are starting to perk up.

Clary Sage in the herb garden. Thought the flower buds were cool....

Old rose bush starting it's show in the round flower garden. <3

Well, I better run along now. Y'all take care now, and eat your veggies. :) Bye-bye.