Sweet Local Farm

The Forsythia is now in full bloom:

What a hopeful sign of spring just around the corner:

How cute were our little chickens!

So fluffy!

A week and a half ago I picked some Forythia branches to bring indoors for early blooms. The branches awoke and are now covered with little yellow buds that will bloom any day now. If you have Forsythia shrubs in your yard, go pick a few branches. You will not be disappointed.

On Sunday we had guests over for brunch. We drank sparkling Mimosas and spicy Bloody Mary cocktails. Our hens continue to lay throughout the winter, so we had plenty of eggs for some delicious omelettes.

I made my own vegetarian Bloody Mary mix:

The table set with ivory Fiesta ware:

A fresh fruit salad in a cabbage bowl with rhubarb serving utensils:

I love the old fashioned Fiesta disc pitchers:

Omelette bar all ready to go:

The hen tablecloth is from Portugal and is perfect for a farm house kitchen:

Enjoy other tablescapes here:

Cooking in our Lodge cast iron skillet is fun! It is great for stovetop to oven recipes, stir fries, eggs, and more. Tonight we had a craving for cookies so Luke baked one giant chocolate chip cookie in the skillet.

Here is the cookie before we popped it in the oven:

Here is the recipe: Skillet-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie

And here is our delicious cookie all baked:

I’ve said this before, but homeownership, or should I say farm ownership, is hard work. If something breaks, you have to fix it. If something needs maintenance, it is up to you to care for it. With this in mind I’ve come up with a list of tasks I’d like to do this summer to the house, barn, and workshop.

1. The gutters on the barn. The back gutters on the barn are wooden and completely rotted away. The watershed of the barn’s roof runs right into the barnyard where the goats and chickens live. This makes for a sloppy, muddy mess. It is also slowly deteriorating the walls of the barn by wearing away the paint and staying moist all the time. In order to fix this we will need a long length of gutter and some really tall ladders.

2. The roof on the corncrib. The corncrib is a two story shed attached to the back of the barn. When the previous owners put a new roof on the barn they did not do the corncrib. It will be a nice “small” roofing project that I’ve enlisted my Mom to come help me do. I’ve seen her up on the roofs of various houses my whole life. She also works at Home Depot and knows a lot about home repair.

3. The broken window. We have a broken window in the barn. My mom fixed our last broken window and now we need to learn how to do it for ourselves.

4. Stain the porch. I stained the front steps this past fall and was very happy with the result. I want to stain the rest of the porch to match.

5. Paint the porch. The white paint on the railings of the porch is flaking and needs to be repainted. I figure I can do the project in a short time without any major equipment. We got a power washer for Christmas so this will be the perfect time to use it!

6. Remove moss from the workshop roof. There is green mossy growth on the north side of the workshop roof. It will eventually eat the shingles and ruin the roof. To save it, we need to spray the roof with a special solution.

7. Paint the barn! For anyone who has seen the barn in person, you know it is a massive structure. It will take a lot of scraping, power washing, repairs, supplies, and time to paint. My goal is to paint one side per year for the next few years. By breaking it down into a manageable task I feel like it is less overwhelming.

Our barn:

And now that I’m feeling thoroughly overwhelmed I thought I’d post some pretty barns I found on Flickr. Did you know our barn was originally painted light blue and had hand hewn wooden shingles? We plan to stick to red, but here are some colorful barns others have posted:

blue barn
yellow barn
red barn
orange barn
white barn
green barn
black barn
grey barn

Check out the Wicked Good Scene zine for an interview with my husband about the return of his band, Piebald.

My mother said today is the most depressing day of the year. I’m not quite sure of her reasoning on that claim, but I agree. It is cold and dark and its been slushy for the past few days. I’m getting anxious for the days when I can have coffee on the porch and get up early with the sun. So Mom says be depressed today, but be happy tomorrow because the most depressing day of the year has already passed.

I did get a set of eight charming vintage martini glasses today at my favorite thrift shop. Maybe it’s time for a dirty martini…

Cheers!

We will be starting our first seedlings in just over a month’s time. I am preparing by getting all our supplies in order- seed starting pots, warming mats, non soil potting medium, and whatever else we may need. I also finished my tentative seed starting calendar:

Tomato: start inside on 3/19 6 wks before last frost – move outside 5/7-5/14 if warm, or to greenhouse
Sweetie Cherry Tomato
San Marzano Paste Tomato
Medford Tomato
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato
various tomato seeds from Bishop Homegrown

Pepper: start inside on 3/5 8 wks before last frost – move outside 5/7-5/14 if warm or to greenhouse

Early Jalapeno Pepper
Maya Red Habenero Pepper
Bell Pepper

Eggplant: start inside on 2/26 9 wks before last frost – move outside 5/7-5/14 if warm or to greenhouse
Black Beauty Eggplant

Potato: start outside 4/30 -5/7
Rose Finn Apple Fingerling Potato
Russian Banana Fingerling Potato
Yukon Gold Potato
All Red Potato
Red Gold Potato
All Blue Potato

Greens: start outside – also experiment with very early spring plantings in the greenhouse
High Mowing DMR Lettuce Mix 4/9, check soil for workability, 3 wks before last frost
Astro Arugula /9, check soil for workability, 3 wks before last frost
Samish F1 Hybrid Spinach 3/26 check soil for workability, plant every two weeks
Fordhook Giant Chard 4/9, check soil for workability, 3 wks before last frost
Dwarf Jewel Nasturtium 5/7

Peas: start outside on 3/17 – check soil for workability, set up pea trellis (appx 3ft high), 6 wks before last frost
Sugar Snap Pea

Beans: start outside
Gold Rush Wax Bean- (bush bean) start outside on 5/14 if warm, use inoculant, 2 wks after last frost
Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean – require tall trellis, start outside on 5/14 if warm, use inoculant, 2 wks after last frost
Light Red Kidney Bean (drying bean)
Fiskeby Soybean – require some support/trellis start outside on 5/14 if warm, use inoculant, 2 wks after last frost

Corn: start outside 5/7 to 5/14, 1-2 weeks after last frost
Luscious F1 Hybrid Corn

Beets, Carrots and Radish: start outside
Early Wonder Tall Top Beet 4/9, check soil for workability, 3 wks before last frost
Guardsmark Chioggia Beet 4/9, check soil for workability, 3 wks before last frost
Cherry Belle Radish 4/9, check soil for workability, 3 wks before last frost
Napoli F1 Hybrid Carrot 4/30, check soil for workability, wk of last frost
Scarlet Nantes Carrot 4/30, check soil for workability, wk of last frost

Brassicas: inside
De Cicco Broccoli 3/26 4 wks before last frost
Lacinato Dinosaur Kale 2/26 9 wks before last frost
Red Express Cabbage 3/26 4 wks before last frost

Winter Squash: start outside 5/7 – 5/14 protect from bunnies
New England Pie Pumpkin
Howden Pumpkin
Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
Sweet REBA Acorn Squash
Waltham Butternut
Baby Blue Hubbard Squash

Summer Squash: start outside on 5/14 if the soil is well warmed. 2 wks after last frost
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Dark Green Zucchini

Cucumbers: start outside on 5/14 if the soil is well warmed. 2 wks after last frost
Little Leaf Cucumber
Marketmore 76 Cucumber

Onions and Chives: start outside on 4/30
Cortland F1 Hybrid Onion
Red Baron Onion
Chives

Herbs: start outside
Genovese Basil 5/7
Dill Bouquet 4/30
Santo Cilantro 5/7
Common Sage 5/7
Parsley 4/23

Sunflowers – 5/7 outside

Hops – cascade – follow planting instructions with rhizomes

Asparagus crowns – follow planting instructions

Tobacco start inside on 3/19 6 wks before last frost – move outside 5/7-5/14 if warm, or to greenhouse