The $100 head of broccoli

Ain't she lovely? After almost 7 months of waiting (and after producing leaves the size of elephant ears) we've got our first broccoli flower! This is Romanesco, an Italian heirloom variety, that is known for its spirally florets. Let's just hope its delicious, too.
Two weeks ago I stopped in Chattanooga, TN on my way to Atlanta, GA. A very pretty town nestled between the Smokies and the Tennessee River, I cruised the downtown and picnicked at the community 13 acre Urban farm. Its called Crabtree Farm, and you can check out photos on Flickr.
In other news, we've planted most of the peppers starts, and will start on eggplant this week. We're steady in the upper 80s and low 90s, with scattered thunderstorms and muggy mornings. The squash are loving it, as are the tomatoes. Only 3 weeks out of the greenhouse and we've got flowers!
We're hoping to start selling at the farmer's market in 2 weeks. I've been spending mornings transplanting tomato starts to sell, and we are hoping to have chard, snap peas, carrots, and, perhaps, if we're lucky, broccoli. Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be quite an adventure.

Babies!

I believe this is what "knee-high to a grasshopper" sized corn looks like. May is monsoon month around here, apparently, which is great for crops, but also very good for weeds. Thanks to our new comrades, we're finally keeping up! Pictured here solo (he is posing with that sprinkler, mind you) is Sebastián, followed by his cuñado (bro-in-law) Francisco, pictured with Chris.
After a few days of warming up our Spanish, we learned that they were potato farmers in Guatemala (they've been in the states for about 5 years) and can pretty much run the show from here on out! We're even ordering a few seeds from Guatemala on their recommendation to see if they yield as well here as they do there. I'm laughing that I was a little worried that I might go a whole summer without practicing my Spanish- instead I'm learning a whole new set of vocabulary! Of course I've already threatened to teach them English later this summer when it's too hot to work ;)
A quick photo-montage of the babes: to the left, the carrots have responded, finally, to intensive weeding, as have the peas (below). To the right, baby tomato plants 'hardening off' before we put them in the ground. We've now got about 400 plants outdoors and will most likely do a second crop in the greenhouse after the lettuce is done... expect me to be moving quickly from tomato heaven to tomato hell come July.Finally, a quick shout-out to the Parents, who made a harrowing drive through tornadoes and driving rain for a Mother's day visit. We had dinner in the Skamp, visited the horses next door, and talked a LOT about algae. It was short but sweet, and I appreciated having the day off with not much else to do but eat and eat and eat!
Stay tuned for more tomatoes and images of the Urban Farm I checked out in Chattanooga this week... two hours further south really gives you a head start, or maybe I'm just jealous.

Full Throttle

It's catch-up blog post! A quick plug, first of all, to check the updated Flickr set, as it will supply more details of the 'goings-on' around here...
At last, the long awaited Guerrilla Gardening Bike Ride! We had, needless to say, a blast. Pictured here are the seed "bombs" (mixture of clay, compost, and wildflower seeds) that we threw in empty lots all over Knoxville... as well as our youngest (and most enthusiastic) participant- notice the ducking by-standers.
Jacob arrived last Monday night, and immediately got to work building me a proper greywater drainage system. Using 12' of 4" pipe and a ton of wood chips, my kitchen/shower/sink water will get a good filtering before soaking into the ground. It was sweet of him, but really, I think it was just an excuse to use the SkidSteer.
On Thursday we left for the Smokies, taking a round-about route through Gatlinburg, the National Park, the Cherokee Indian reservation, and finally, along 50 breathtaking miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway (southeastern part of the mtns in NC) to Asheville, NC. We kicked around that cute little town (think mini-Portland) for a night, stuffed ourselves with possibly the best BBQ ever, and Skamper'd back to Knoxville to attend a Permaculture/Urban Farming art show. The lovely Brendan demonstrates mushroom log-plugging techniques to the masses.


Vacation over, we plunged full-speed ahead with planting. Chris broke down and hired two Guatemalans (Sebastián y Francisco) to help save our backs. ¡Gracias a Díos! More about those gents as we get to know them better. The speed factor is much appreciated; since Monday we've planted cucumbers, squash, beans, corn, melons, and onions, dug several dozen tomato holes (details to follow, it's quite a process), weeded and mulched the greenhouse, trellised the rest of the peas, and have torn down the front wall (intentionally) of the barn. Did I mention its only Wednesday?
I'll leave you all with several images from my greenhouse photoshoot of last evening. We will make our first lettuce harvest on Friday! And if you've never saved seed from your spinach before (and really, why haven't you?), this is what spinach looks like when it "bolts" and goes to seed. More pictures from the shoot on Flickr, or maybe you'll receive one in your mailbox... If you don't think I have your address and would like handmade postcards, email me!

85 degrees and sunny...

Summer arrived this week, and it looks like it's here to stay! The plants in the greenhouse are happy about this... pictured is our lettuce crop and the flats of baby tomatoes and peppers. These will go into outdoor beds over the next month now that the danger of frost has passed. I'm waking up at 7am to 70 degrees already!

And now for the Chicken of the Week:
Meet Alpha, Queen Bee of the Roost and now our only remaining chicken. We learned a hard lesson last week: that no matter how stupid you think a chicken is, they're actually even dumber than that. We let the chickens out of the coop while Chris was doing some repairs, and, long story short, the chickens never found their way back. Last I saw them they were huddled on top of a nearby compost pile 10 feet from the coop, and in the morning, all that remained were feathers. (you try herding chickens in the dark some time...) Alpha strolled back onto the field around 10 am, and eventually made into the coop where she's been secure ever since. With the giant chicken project on the horizon, I'm glad we learned this lesson early, although the situation is rather sad.

Brendan and I spent much of last week (between weedings) building our Humanure compost pile. We are now independent of municipal sewers but are confident that our 'outhouse' method will be safe and, in the long run, much cleaner. More pictures and details on Flickr.

The season is moving at a real clip. We had to trellise the peas this week, and are expecting broccoli florets within the next 10 days. Broccoli lovers (you know who you are), check Flickr for more pictures of baby plants...
Jacob arrives tomorrow and we are planning a mini-roadtrip through the Smokey Mtns later in the week. It will be nice to get away for a minute and reconnect with The Boy; this month has been non-stop action!

Back to Business

First of all, sadly, today the Guerrilla Gardening Bike Race was rained out. (It's not Seattle, after all.) So you'll have to wait until next week for the details!
Back to business... Brendan and I spent the week making mushroom logs for a Fall-harvest crop in the woods of Chris's property. We plugged over a hundred 4 foot white oak logs with Shitaake, Pearl Oyster, Phoenix Oyster, Blue Oyster, and Lion's Mane Oyster mushroom mycelium- infused wooden dowels. How's that for a mouth full?
Tomorrow we'll begin to set them up, Teepee- style, in mulch covered "fallows," or water-ways, in the woods. The logs will draw water up from the ground, keeping the mycelium moist as it colonizes the logs. About six months into their respective lifecycles, the logs will begin to "fruit" and we'll have delicious mushrooms! The idea is to make the operation as self-irrigated as possible, so we'll be building a water-catching system in the nearby field to direct an extra amount of water to the woods. We're thinking 10x10 lean-tos with gutters that drain into a series of 55-Gal drums. More later.
Most excitingly, of course, are my new digs... the Skamper!
A photo-montage of this vintage but very comfortable little camper:
I've been exploring the country roads on the bicycle, and really enjoy the quiet beauty of the area and the farm. No crickets or fireflies yet, but most importantly, we're still mosquito-free.
On the horizon: transplanting the tomato crop to the field and getting 'brooding houses' ready for the arrival of our baby chicks! I'm reading everything I can get my hands on about how to be a Chicken Mom... any suggestions?
Also next week: the last installment of Chicken of the Week for a while. Yes, I know we just got started, but it's not over forever, and I'll explain later.
For those of you who want a more visual experience, my Flickr site is now equipped with a Farmblog companion slideshow. Check it out!

And now, I leave you with the best photo so far... Enjoy!

The Inagural Chicken O' The Week Post

And boy is it a doozy! May I present to you the World's first lesbian chicken couple: Portia and Ellen!

















These lovely ladies are our greenhouse chickens. Besides keeping things exciting, they help keep the insects and worms away from our lettuce. Portia is the Partridge Rock (dark brown with textured feathers) on the left, and Ellen with the auburn coloring. Props to Brendan for so aptly naming the girls...

Well, Chris was right about a last late frost. We're expecting lows in the 20's and snow the next 2 nights. Today was spent frantically building a warming 'shed' within the greenhouse to keep our recently (and frantically, by yours truly) sowed tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants from freezing alive.















After all, who wouldn't want to save a tomato named "Radiator Charlie's Morgage Lifter"?!

"Murckles"

What's slimy, brown, and looks like a gnome?







According to Appalacian lore, they're called 'murckles'(pronounced miracles in everyday English), because they show up on a mountain side every April, last for one day, but, once dried, last all year long. We know these beauties as Morel Mushrooms, the only culinary mushroom that completely re-constitues to its fresh form after being dried. Oh, and they're delicious and worth $30 a pound.
This morning Chris and I rose before dawn to visit a secret 'patch.' It was prime mushroom hunting weather- cold, windy and misty- just like home! After about 2 hours of stooped walking up wooded hills, we had wet heads and almost three pounds of fresh black Morels.
Later, after lunch, Chris made contact with the Blackberry Farms resort, a shwanky place in the Smokeys. The head chef wants 5 pounds of our foraged Morels a week... that's $150 extra Farm Income as often as we can find them!


Stay tuned for the first installation of Chicken of the Week!