Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Planting One On ...

Gotta do some gardening stuff soon. Like this weekend. Just because it snowed last Monday doesn't mean it will snow again. Right?

Here are some very interesting Infographics I found. So I'm sharing.

One I couldn't find on the website source is one I stuck on Pinterest. It's regrowing veggies from organic root bases. 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.

If you click on this one it should take you to other more interesting ones. It didn't let me embed them separately. 

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Garden Bounty and Bunny Update ~

We picked one half of our grape harvest tonight. The green ones. Delicious, and enough to make a jar or two of jam. 

Our pumpkin in the trees are turning orange. And are still hanging there, doing their thing. Sorry for the blur. 

Tomatoes are going to be a huge harvest. Our plants are loaded. And we've got some eggplant and peppers close to picking.

The teen bunnies are growing and eating and eating. They might be getting cuter. Two of the three go to their new home on Sunday. And just in time, too. To be continued.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Bits From the Homestead

You haven't seen bunny pictures in awhile. So here's a picture of Edward Screwy-ears. One ear droops the other does not. How cute is that? The first couple of days it flopped he walked with a tilt.

 On my way out to the car the other morning I noticed a squawking mama bird and a rustling in the weeds (I'd say grass, but I must be honest, Creeping Charlie is not considered grass). A nestling was hopping it's way to the safety of the bushes.

My folks have a burbling fountain that apparently has another purpose, as a bird bath.

& poses with her first potato harvest. More coming in a week or two.

Our compost pile contained many squash guts and pumpkin seeds. Something took root and took over a 6 x 8 garden section. I don't know that you can see the really, really high squash/pumpkin hanging 6 feet up in the yew bushes. This should be an interesting process as it unfolds.

A closer view of another "fruit" of the vine that is a bit closer to the ground. Only four feet up in the bushes. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Well, Mr. Darcy, I Nevah...

Farm day was perfect. 78 degrees, sun, breeze and lots of help. 

Toad Boy was at our house building a bunnie palace and & and I got to the farm a bit later than usual. All the lettuce was done. I can't tell you how nice that was. I've been the chief lettuce washer for the past couple of weeks and that is a job that is tedious. 

We have two interns who are now helping. One has been with us for a couple of weeks and she brought a friend along. They are both in the horticulture program at a local community college. And they seem to love what they are learning and doing. 

More hands makes quicker work and for fun conversations. We ended up getting home in record time. Toad Boy was still hard at work on the palace. We had our delicious Kale and sesame/onion/rice vinegar warm salad and a farm fresh lettuce salad. 

A good day was had by all. Except a few deceased-by-force worms. (Oh, and Elizabeth Bennett Bunny was violated a bit. Seems Mr. Darcy's cuteness fooled & into thinking he'd be a gentleman if she removed the divider between them. Uh. Not so much. He was no gentleman. I even suggested that she change his name to Mr. Wickham. We will cut a hole and add a mesh so they can communicate. I'm pretty sure Elizabeth Bennett Bunny prefers her communication to be longing glances and nose rubs verses the reception she received upon her last visit with Mr. Darcy.)

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Crittercized

Critters.

nothing to do with critters. a salad named fresh garden salad. ha. ha.

1st handful of raspberries. AMAZING

A few critter experiences of late.  Coincidence? I think not!

Chipmunks have been a problem in Wisconsin. I found a tip for making their homes less welcoming and sent it to our Wisconsin friends. Hopefully, the changes in their environment will mean they'll move to a better location soon. 

Soon to be moving chipmunk?

(The chipmunks, not the people.) 

Spicy front door.

I found a few friendly little critters while at the garden shop in Wisconsin. Mine is now sporting a nice blue stripe that wasn't there when I bought him. Someone, who broke his little neck, wondered why anyone would keep snakes on the floor. I wondered why anyone would walk without looking. But it's all good.

Snakes on the floor = broken necks, who knew.

The farm this week....the lettuce. Well, let's just say critter season is in full bloom. And if you buy organic lettuce at a decent price, you should probably find the farmer who picked it and give him/her a pat on the back, a huge hug, or a jumbo java. Because, if their experiences are anything like mine, they need hugs, pats and java. Let's just say, after I picked the green or white gutted vermin off the lettuce leaves and stomped them over and over again, I got a wee bit queasy. Not tomato worm weirded-out, but, it changed me. 

Not THE squirrel...a country cousin.

Finally, Mrs. Toad Boy (my daughter-in-law) and Toad Boy strolled to a local restaurant and had an encounter with a squirrel. Now, this girl LOVES squirrels. I've seen her stand statue still for a VERRRY long time to get some good pictures of rodents. So, no doubt, when she spied the squirrel she was probably giddy. 

But, then, it started chasing/stalking them. She said they'd stop and look at it and it would veer to one side and become all incognito and pretend that it wasn't following them. But peripherally she'd see it keeping pace and even creepier, gaining on them. She said they sped up and actually rushed the entrance. Heart pounding, feeling like they had escaped an awful fate, and the squirrel, seeing that they got away, went and hid behind a car and peeked at the door.  Was it waiting for them to come out? 

She said the walk home was a little tense, especially down the block where the incident occurred. They did arrive home unscathed but a little shaky. Methinks her squirrel picture taking days will include a catcher's mask and some leggings now. 

Watch your backs, people. That's all I'm going to say. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Random Thought Bubbles

 After the first trip to the farm where we cut, washed, and sang the praises of the most amazing bounty we arrived to the parking lot where we'd met up to carpool. 

Ironically, it was a local grocery store. Even more ironically, check out the sign. 

Yeah. Right.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Sigh. Nuff Said...

Oh, perfect day at the farm. 

Sunny, glorious. And we got out of there at a decent time so I had evening left in my day. Rob joined us again. I'm thinking he's hooked. Especially since every time I turned around he was tasting something, or volunteering to be the one who tasted it. 

He and I got to take a little hike to the high tunnel to search for the farmer. She took the high road while we were on the low road and arrived right after we left.  (There are technically three roads that lead to the high tunnel, each challenging in it's own special way. ) But we didn't miss out by missing her, Rob got to eat a pea pod fresh off the vine and I was able to show him the blooming tomatoes we had planted just a few weeks ago. It was a gorgeous afternoon for a walk.

& and Aunt HarHarHar went out earlier and they got the pick done and the pack started and the farmer served lunch. Radish sandwiches. Bread. Thin sliced radishes and butter or Earth Balance. Apparently they are delicious. I'll no doubt rave when we try this at home. 

The side was kale, chopped carrots, a garlic clove minced a bit of oil and a healthy splash of rice vinegar sauteed into deliciousness. This was recreated at home for dinner. 

Look at the haul. A garlic scape (the curly growth from, wait for it, garlic.) Cauliflower, broccoli, plus lettuces, kales, chard, radishes. So, so tasty.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Here's How My Garden Grows

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Mysterious Farm Fun

Late breaking farm report. 

Ha. Ha. Just call me Les Nessman. If you don’t get that, WKRP in Cincinnati. If that doesn’t do anything for you, then just move on, there’s nothing for you to see in this paragraph, folks.

The farm was abounding in a plethora of produce once again. (Yes. Blew through two vocab words there.) This time there was no picking for us. We jumped into the washing/packing mode immediately. We were a bit short-staffed. The CSA has grown considerably since last year. Tuesdays of 2011 involved 12 or 13 whole shares and 12 or 13 half shares depending on the day. We had three/four packers/pickers working most Tuesdays.

2012 brings 12 whole shares and 27 half shares. Uh, yeah. Let me break down what a share is. A community supported or sustained agriculture share (CSA) is a fixed price and a fixed number of weeks. A purchaser buys a full share which costs our subscribers $550 for the season or a half share which is $300. (I may be slightly off, but those are the numbers I’m using. So deal. Ha. Ha.) This fee is paid upon entering into the relationship and guarantees the farmer a seasonal income and gives her some upfront money to buy seeds, pay staff, buy wood chips, fencing, all that stuff that goes into running a farm.) In exchange the purchaser gets a box (or a box+ during produce busting weeks). The half share is exactly half of a full share. So if a full share gets a pound of asparagus, the half share gets ½.  Our share is a volunteer share which means we work our little fingers to the bone for our goodie box. (If you want this kind of arrangement in your neck of the woods google CSA in your town and ask if they do volunteer shares, so worth it especially if you love getting dirty etc.)  Another benefit to our arrangement is that sometimes we have extras that we can take like mildly bruised, misshapen or superabundant goodies.) The full shares work out to about 25 bucks a week. This prepurchases pounds of produce. Example last Tuesday = a pound of asparagus. ½ pound of spinach, lettuce (each), a handful of radishes and green garlic. A Napa cabbage that weighed about three pounds, kale and chard and some rosemary and sage. And all of this is as fresh and local as it gets and ORGANIC. Yeah. Definitely worth the price. Especially when it works out to about $4.00 a pound. And this was a light week.

Okay back to my original story. So washing, packing and sorting for 39 boxes. Oy. Let’s just say it took awhile. Oh. We get a trail mix snack that is lovingly put together by one of the Farmers, I am going to call her Grasshopper because she learns well from #1 Farmer (another cultural/media  reference…) And sun tea. :  ). We expect this. Trust me. And she delivers.

While we were packing away the #1 Farmer came in from the field and dropped into a chair. She picked the entire five hours that we little mice prepped. She ate her snack.

And then we entered the Twilight Zone. Strange things began to happen.

#1 Farmer suddenly noticed little grubs on her hand. We see bugs. Every week. Some are good bugs like the Lady Bugs who are escorted back out into the big outdoors. Others are quickly dispatched. Most items are immersed in water, spun dried, handled several times and packed. So these mystery bugs? None of us had seen them, knew from whence they came or what their mission was. Like they just materialized from the air. Mystery #1. Then as we began closing up the boxes and loading them into their proper place, #1 Farmer lifted one and water poured out of it. Not dripped, poured. Everything stopped. We stared at it. I think each of us kind of wondered if the water might turn into blood or pea soup or grubs or something equally disturbing. Being a practical woman, the farmer opened the box, took out the contents and looked at the bags. Nothing. Mystery #2.

Driving home we scanned the horizon for unfamiliar landmarks and reoccurring visuals of black cats. (media reference...Matrix – again, if you don’t get it, just move forward.)

On Wednesday Mystery #2 was solved when & picked up a peeing carton. The Napa cabbage...the little buggars held their water well. Actually, not so well. But with comic timing and slightly awkward results.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Let Them Eat Veggies

Cue moving music. We flipped open the flap on the high tunnel and entered into this scene. Amazing.

Yesterday was the first CSA pack of the season. Slim pickings we thought. Even though the spring warmth and sun started weeks ago, how much could possibly be ready to go?

Teeny tiny baby broccoli....cuchie coo!!!!

teeny tiny baby cabbage. awwwww isn't it cute?

For those who are skeptical that the temperature in a high tunnel/ green house gets up there. Yeah. There is serious sweat involved in gardening.

fields of greens - lettuce eat.

HA.HA.HA. Well, a full box. Lettuce, we harvested pounds of lettuce. That's a lot of lettuce. Trust me. We washed and packed Kale, Swiss Chard, there was asparagus, just a bit, since the season started so early. And the garlic. Oh, the garlic. Green garlic that you can use like green onions. The smell was heavenly. I'm going to saute some of the greens with Swiss Chard and toss in some sunflower seeds. I'm pretty sure that's going to be amazing. We even got nice sized radishes. And dill. Oh my.  I've missed my garden box of deliciousness. And, don't forget to hug your favorite organic farmer. This veggie tending is hard work. 

We also met a horticulture student doing an internship. It was her first day in the fields. She is currently taking a class on insects. We asked her if she'd ever encountered a tomato worm. She has not. We have sufficiently terrified her methinks. And I didn't even tell her about the ritualistic tomato worm dance. 

kale...nuff said.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Veggie House

& and Rob built a little greenhouse for plant starts and etc.  They got the finishing touches on it last night and loaded it with our plant babies. We will be putting things in the ground in about two weeks. I harvested a whole lot of weeds in our garden that are LOVING this unusually warm April weather. It is supposed to hit 90 again today.

Not the best pictures of the green house. But it was pre-sun and I was excited.

Four screen shelves for drainage and sun. A top and front that open for easy access. 

And look at the babies. We have teeny lettuces from seeds, baby tomato plants (Heirloom, from seeds saved from the best tomatoes from our CSA last year.) There was a micro Cilantro harvest last night and we will have sage and basil.

Now that we know what's taking off from our plantings a few weeks ago, we'll start some more and pop them in our new plant incubator. And then use it through the fall for herbs and lettuces.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Budding

Fun happenings over the weekend. &, one of her buddies, and I went to the farm. Yay! We planted about 350 tomato plants in one of the high tunnels. I'm telling you. You want a good core workout, three and a half hours of squatting, crawling, twisting, digging and pressing is a good one. 

We probably won't be going weekly quite yet, but it's just around the corner. It felt so good to get dirty and sweaty planting those little babies.

And there are baby buds everywhere in our yard, our apple tree, blueberry bushes are raring to go. & started some baby vegetables which have begun to grow, too. 

The weather has been so beautiful it's hard to believe we are just in April. High 80s and low 90s is just crazy. Our farmer says we are exactly five weeks ahead of schedule.

It's been so nice & has been riding her cute bike to work. Sunday she even rode to church. Isn't she cute. She arrived a hot, sweaty, quirky mess. Ha. Ha.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Farm Fresh...It's Coming...

Fun farm fact. The farm is ramping up to start the season. 

One of the farmers dropped into &'s coffee shop yesterday. She cordially requests our presence to help plant tomato plants in the high tunnel this week. Uh yeah!

And to, I don't know, make the invitation more enticing, she brought in a bag of first fruits. 

Yep. 

In March, they have been able to harvest some of the baby asparagus we planted last year. 

Yum. Yum. Dinner tonight will include our first green treasure. 

Oh, and on a creepy side note...I was able to harvest our first tick of the season, too. Off of poor &'s thigh. Ugh. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ A Harvest of Disappointment

So. I was discouraged to read parts of this yesterday! I didn't have time to read the whole article. And I've been told that it isn't quite as it appears. That I should read Whole Foods's rebuttal. Which I will do.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/organic-elite-surrenders-to-monsanto/

However. My first response is to say I will never shop there again...that I can no longer trust them. I know this is knee jerk and I don't want to be a jerk.  So I will pause and wait until I have a chance to read it and look into the decision that these corporations made. 


I do feel ashamed to be an Iowan, though. I understand the importance of farming and need for farmers to make money etc. etc. But I also think it's important for farmers to be able to make money producing food that is actually food. 


Trader Joe's. Here is a suggestion for you. Capitalize on the choices made by Whole Foods. I already buy my organic produce (off season) at Trader Joe's. I also buy lots of other organic products. However, Trader Joe's you lack the following items and if you'd sell them I'd not need to go to Whole Foods.


Gluten (organic)
Silken tofu (the shelf version)
Dried beans and lentils (organic)
Organic whole wheat pastry flour
Nutritional yeast
Coconut or almond milk based yogurt


Costco. Take note as well. Add more organic items like oatmeal, beans, lentils, whole wheat pastry flour.... 


Just sayin.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Farm? For Reals...

I revisited the farm yesterday. We hadn't been for three weeks. Three long weeks.

Why? Two birthdays and a few visitors from out of town squeezed our plans. And the CSA was only supposed to go through the last week in September. But because of the hail storm and the damage that intense twenty minutes caused, the farmers planted more greens, turnips, radishes, kept pulling tomatoes out of the high tunnel, eggplants from the bushes that survived, and hoped for a late frost.

This is our haul. Twelve additional boxes looked just like ours, (but had tomatoes, too) and a dozen more were half full of loot. The sink full of lettuce is what 169 ounces of lettuce looks like. That's a whole lotta lettuce. And believe it or not, the farmer had a fight to the death with some pests who were chewing her kohlrabi right before we got there. Sounded ugly. Glad I wasn't there as a witness. Apparently those critters are hardy, Iowa-stock, too.

I missed the farm. And I get to go back for a few more weeks. Crazy that we'll be getting fresh produce into November. Crazy good.