My Inner Hipppie

I'm listening to public radio while putting up garden vegetables and it just isn't cutting it. Throwing open the cabinet doors of the CD collection I perused the artists: I flip past Steely Dan, Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan...Janis it is.....now I was back into the 70's....walking through a field in Lincolnville, Maine behind the only church in town. We, my future husband and I, were picking and eating raspberries while looking for herbs to make tea. At the time I was living in an old farmhouse a mile or two from the Atlantic Ocean. Life was easy, simple and free. I imagine I was wearing a long skirt, kerchief on my head, my favorite green canvas L.L.Bean backpack on my back, and most likely barefoot. We had a passion for simplicity and the organic.

Joplin in the mint

As Janis was wailing out her songs from my favorite album, Pearl, I'm sauteing summer squash, steaming swiss chard and green beans, and making chicken broth. All of which will go into the freezer so we can enjoy the garden all year round. I'm happy and content with my 1970's revival going on in my kitchen until I remember that I dropped off my 20 something daughter at the airport yesterday on a flight to the Rocky Mountains to hike and camp only to discover on the ride there that she has yet to buy a ticket home. I can't find my colander among the dirty dishes and realize it has been left in the garden.

All of a sudden I have a clarifying moment as I head to the freezer...when I next talk with my wanderlust daughter I'll let her know that the last chance call for fresh cooked swiss chard with fig balsamic vinegar is very soon. So come back east young woman. Then I pick up the phone and dial my mom.

Da Bees

Honey Bee on a Nasturtium flower

This is our second year with Honey Bees. We have 2 hives at New Farm. Last year we had a rough winter and we lost both hives. We re-established them this year. One hive comes from a “package” of 3000 bees and a fertilized queen from Georgia that we poured into an empty hive body. The other hive we established with a “nuc” or a nuclear hive of 5 frames from a beekeeper here in Connecticut. A nuc has a queen, brood, workers and food. We transferred the nuc frames to our hive and add more frames. We gave them a kick start feeding of 2:1 sugar water and some essential oils. Each hive should have about 10,000 bees when mature. We will see which hive does better. We learned a lot last year…mostly from our mistakes and hopefully that will pay off this year.

Above - One of our hives

Left - A frame in a hive body

The bees arrived in early May and now they have drawn out about a dozen frames of the 20 frames in the two hive bodies that make up each hive. We hope they will draw out and fill all 20 frames with brood, honey and pollen before the fall nectar flow. We would then put on a queen excluder and “supers”. The workers would add honey to the supers but the queen could add no eggs to these frames. The supers would be where we would get our honey.

Inspecting a frame for brood

There is no doubt that we have seen a difference in the way our crops produce since we have had the bees…more cucumbers, squash, tomatillos…more everything. Better pollination means more flowers produce fruit. Right now there are a lot of plants in blossom in and around New Farm, and between the Honey Bees, the various Bumble Bees and other pollinators the garden is buzzing.
A Honey Bee and a Bumble Bee jockey for position on a squash blossom

We’ll keep you posted on their progress and especially if we get a chance to extract some honey for us.
The smoker is used to calm the bees when working the hives in our apiary.

Weekend Bounty

"Not to brag...but, check out my garden bounty!"

Just a showing of everything that we picked from our garden this afternoon:

From left to right:  Sweet Italian frying peppers, hot cherry peppers (green and red), green beans, extra-long cucumbers, Hungarian wax peppers (to be pickled), sun gold tomatoes, green pepper, and yellow summer squash.

Too bad we are going to dinner tonight for Kate's birthday or else we would have quite the garden feast.  Perhaps tomorrow night. 

“All dressed out and someplace to go”

The Silence of the Cornish Game Hens

After twelve weeks of raising the birds, their time had come.  Ideally, they are supposed to be dressed out after ten weeks or so.  Nevertheless, all ten hens were still very much alive, plump and healthy. In accordance with protocol, we stopped feeding them a day before their slaughter appointment, which was to be 8 AM Saturday morning.   

The first step was to load the birds into the back of our truck to drive them the four hours to our friends’ farm in New Hampshire.  We made the hens’ appointment with the grim reaper into a weekend-long event with friends at Black Sheep Farm in Ossipee.  Our friends have a lovely historic farm stead and they have been inspirational for us in our livestock pursuits, besides… we always have a great time when we get together.   Arriving in New Hampshire Friday night, our ten hens met twenty-five of our friends’ hens for their last night on earth.   

Early the next morning, about 6:00 AM to be exact, we loaded up the 35 birds in the back of a pickup.  We drove to a one-man slaughter stand, which is currently un-named, but as he later told us with a smile, is considering the name “Last Stop Chicken Shop”. 

The operation was located in the front yard of his house in very rural New Hampshire.  He took the time to explain to us, in not too much detail, the whole process.  He had invested in the equipment for his own use but since it was no small investment he decided to branch out and provide the dressing service for some other folks. We were among the fortunate few.  His operation was fresh and clean, his farm organic and he only charged $2.00/bird for his services.  Here are the gory details:

Step 1: Birds get put upside down in cones.  The carotid artery is cut and they bleed out.

Step 2:  Birds are scalded in Boiling Water Tank #1.  This kills bacteria and begins to loosen feathers. 

Step 3: The birds are tumbled to remove feathers.

Step 4. The birds are rinsed again and then beheaded, entrails cleaned, crop, oil gland, etc removed.

Step 5. Feet and any remaining feathers removed. 

Step 6. Rinse clean and pack in vacuum bag.

They came back to us looking a bit like birds you would buy in the market.  But we knew what they ate, and that they were fresh, clean, and organic.

Our birds were big and one even dressed out at 6½ pounds.  They are roosting in our freezer and they sure will look good coming out of the rotisserie.  Now, in the words of Ron Popeil, we just have to “set it and forget it”. 

Squish Squash

We have been picking our Yellow Squash and Zucchini!

It is the easiest vegetable to grow. They are ready to pick early in the summer season.  Our harvest this year has been plentiful, we pick them everyday now so that they do not grow too big.  Our biggest challenge in growing this summer classic is finding enough ways to cook them.  Needless to say, we have been eating squash and zucchini every night.

Recipe:  Summer Harvest Pasta Sauce

1. Saute onions until they are slightly carmelized in a big pan on the stovetop, add garlic and sliced vegetables: zucchini, summer squash, whatever you have from the garden. 
2. Add canned whole tomatoes and chicken broth and continue to simmer together. 
3. Add a sprinkling of garden herbs.  Our faves: rosemary, sage, basil, parsely and herbs de provence  (given to us by my aunt from a recent trip to France).   
4. Add cooked spaghetti and heat until warm
5. Dinner is served!

Our Garden Obelisk

The History:  The obelisk is an ancient structure used throughout history in many civilizations such as ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome, Ethiopia and even pre-Inca Peru.  Obelisks were thought to honor the sun god and channel positive energy.  They are prominent in parks, city centers and gardens.  Examples of obelisks are The Washington Monument,  Vaticano in St. Peter’s Square and Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park.   Stanley Kubrick even chose the obelisk as the key symbol in his film “2001-A Space Odyssey” where it appears in the beginning as the apes make tools and the end where one is found on Jupiter.

Our garden obelisk is constructed of red cedar and is 12 feet tall.  Our design is a traditional wood structure and is modeled on one we saw in the California garden of John Muir.  In addition to positive energy and architectural interest our obelisk also provides a place for peas and pole beans to climb.  We used some thin green cable and hidden steel stakes to keep the structure from toppling in high winds.

Bluebirds nest at the top.  We used a redwood and copper bluebird house to top the pyramid.  Feeling the energy,  Eastern Bluebirds took up residence 3 hours after we erected it.  They have been there every year since often raising multiple broods.  Just last week, this year’s bluebirds raised a brood of four fledglings.  The Bluebirds love to feed on ants and any carpenter ants in the firewood in our garden area have to deal with the chickens on one side and the Bluebirds everywhere else.  



An Eastern Bluebird feeding its young atop our garden obelisk

The male and female bluebird guarding their nest



The obelisk is the center piece of our garden connecting us with ancient gardeners of the past.  Can you feel the energy?