New Farm: 2013

Monday, July 1, 2013

Sea (&) Scapes

Garlic scapes fresh picked and roasting

Late June was a time of harvesting some good fish from the sea out in Long Island Sound and some incredible garlic scapes from the garden. It was also a banner year for strawberries.

Ben boated this striper on a rare sunny day in June. We had record rainfall the last couple months...with enough nice days mixed in to get out on the water and in the garden.

Garlic scapes are a delicacy that have qualities of garlic, asparagas, scallion...they are actaully kind of unique. It can be made into a pesto as well. We have some more hard neck garlic coming this fall and will plant another bed for sure...if just for the scapes.

A raised bed with hard neck garlic planted last fall. Most of it is "Irish Red" - a red striped varietal. The plants throw up curly scapes this time of year. Hardneck garlic is another winner our friends up at Back Sheep Farm in New Hampshire turned us on to.

...The whole world became my garden!
But the sea which no one tends is also a garden
when the sun strikes it and the waves are wakened.
I have seen it and so have you
when it puts all flowers to shame.
... We knew that
along with the rest of it
for we were born by the sea,
knew its rose hedges to the very water's brink.
There the pink mallow grows and in their season strawberries...

from Asphodel by William Carlos Williams

We landed some nice Fluke at 6 Mile Reef about half way acroos the sound to the north fork of Long Island, NY. Each Fluke (a.k.a. Summer Flounder) yielded 4 nice filets . It was excellent filet-o-sole especially combined with the summer veggies coming up like Swiss Chard, Arugala and especially the Garlic Scapes.

Curt with a nice fluke.

Dad caught this 24" doormat.

Uncle Den got this keeper.

Bluefish too.

12 hours on the water and ready to head back to the garden...or the kicthen anyway. We had every kind of conditon out there...calm, chop, rough, rain, sun, thick fog, wind...it was great day in any case.

Meanwhile ...back at the farm....

Strawberry plants everywhere

Broilers fattening and have a date with destiny on June 26

Scapes with rice and beans are perfect with rosted fresh fluke.

Lots happening in June!

This wood frog vistited the kitchen window while we were cooking the SeaScapes

Sunday, June 16, 2013

A Fungus Among Us (Part I)

This past year we researched growing mushrooms. We saw some excellent techniques for growing Shitake on logs. Much of our yard is shady and moist including a part fenced in garden area to the south of the barn. One of the best wood species for Shitake is Red Oak and we were dropping 2 trees over the winter. Seems like we have a good environment to add shrooms to the garden mix so we you-tubed it up a bit and ordered some mycelium plug spawn.

We also got a bag of Hen-Of-The-Woods mycelium spawn plugs and will try that species as well since we love that mushroom varietal. They are trickier to grow and prefer a softwood specie stump partly buried. We’ll get that going soon.

We cut the Red Oak logs into 4’ lengths and back in at the end of April when it was warm enough we drilled out the logs, tapped in the plugs, sealed up the plug holes with wax and piled em' up to do their thing.

pluggin away

logs drilled, plugged and waxed

heating up the wax

log cabin stack ...now we just have to wait

if these shelf fungi can grown on a stump nearby on a oak tree we downed for the garden then we should be able to get Shitaki

meanwhile in May ...4 new layers are growing

May and things are beginning to pop like this Kale

meat chickens came aboard Memorial Day weekend and are fattening nicely into June

Mountain Laurel, the Connecticut State Flower, has been particularly lush this year

looking good into June

The inoculated logs are in a good spot - check out these ferns

We should get some fruiting heads this fall and then the logs will produce for about 7 years throwing mushrooms after any good wet period. We can also force the logs by hosing them down good.

our operation is a little smaller than this...

...but hopefully we should get enough of these...

Stay tuned for Part II where we get a first harvest and then comes the mushroom omelets and pizza.

A Long Winter's Nap...is finally over.

It was a real winter this year. Superstorm Sandy delivered a wake up call in October and cold weather and snow put the garden to sleep in November and December. The Blizzard of '13 dumped 38" of snow on February 8th and pretty much shut the state down for 3 days. As I write this post in mid April there are still some piles of snow melting in some spots.

A December snow storm covered the garden.

digging out after 12" was relatively easy compared with with what was to follow

Snow and cold did not prevent us from making improvements as we expanded the garden around the new barn. This BFR fought us for two days but after a come-along, hammer drill, cold chisels, levers and some determination we won. Here Ben and Taylor have it on the run. Would have appreciated a backhoe...or an ox.

The frozen ground allowed us to get some machines in and take down some trees to get some more sun on the garden...and some firewood.

Easy does it with that oak tree

Cheers!

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Robert Frost

The blizzard dumped 38" and it was a few days before we could clear out. Kendra's car is under there somewhere.

drifts of 4 ft plus blocked doors

Digging out out after a few days of cabin fever

Snow prevented us from harvesting these parsnips. We dug em out first week n April wondered if they would be bitter after a long sleep...quite the opposite...they were sweet and delicious - boiled, roasted or made into soup.