Merry Christmas from Maddy Angel!

Last Lettuce of the Season

Its the end of the year, but we still have a row of lettuce keeping warm along the foundation:

Or had.  It got turned into salad with fennel and apple cider vinagrette.

Miss M. Pacific City, Oregon.

A belated Thanksgiving picture of M.  (Now that it's Christmas)

Making Cheese!

A watched cheese never curdles.

Snack Time

Flood

It's officially the rainy season, as indicated by our first flood of the year.  Here is the lake at Irving Park, one of many low spots on Fremont.  There was a similar, albeit smaller, lake in our basement unfortunately.

The weather is forecast to be like this for the next few days, then about the same still for about 5 months.  Look for more indoor MCF posts as we try to figure out what city farmers do during the winter....

Pork, it's what's for dinner!

Carrots

 Just when you thought the growing season was over, and perhaps the MCF had even gone into hibernation...carrots!  The miracle of carrots is that you can leave them in the ground until you're ready to eat them, assuming they aren't so close to the surface that slugs get them first.

So about these carrots.  Hmmm, they're sort of round.  Nice and fat and tasty, but not so long.  I remember reading about carrots, and learning that the soil had to be loosened deeply or the result would be stubby carrots.  Well, I leave it to you to determine how much bother I may have/have not put into preparing the root bed...

18# of apples, step 2

German Apple Pancake

18 pounds of apples, step 1

Here is how the apple consumption is going: 

Apple crisp: 3 Crispin, 2 Cortland.  

Plus a Gala, Mancoun, and Crispin eaten.  

But then we went to a wedding and the reception was at an orchard.  The centerpiece had 2 apples in it, so we had to add 2 Cortland back to the total...

Apple

The Miller City Farm is on the road, out visiting other farms. (And Grandparents).  

Today, Owen's Apple Orchards.  At home, Maddy won't eat an apple unless its skinned and sliced.  But afield, after a hard day of picking, anything goes.  

Now, what to do with 18# of apples?

Beans

A mix of our home grown beans, after a night of soaking.  Mmm, they make good soup!

Lawn Annexation

The garden wasn't big enough.  Or at least the part of the garden that gets sun wasn't big enough.  And the yard had a barren area that needed some grass.  Time for a remodel before:

and after:

Sure, it doesn't look like much to you.  But now the garden bulges out into former lawn space by nearly 3 feet (or by two tomato plants, depends on how you measure).  At the same time, Maddy and Jules have more yard to run around in (not that Juliet is a very fast runner)

Whole Foods Parking Lot

Getting Bigger

Our first tomato to break the 1/2 pound mark, finally.  Weighing in at nearly 9oz is this freakish Cherokee Purple that looks to be a sort of double, except it grew off one stem.  These tomatoes haven't turned out as big as I had hoped, nor as purple as I expected.  This one even lost a taste test against a red tomato stolen off an untended vine down the street.  Argh!

M waters the Fig tree

I'm not wanting for help around the Miller City Farm.  Maddy takes a lot of pride in her fig tree, which seems to grow even faster than her.

Rain, oh no!

We've been enjoying a rain-free summer.  No front yard to mow.  Struggling weeds.  And for the tomatoes, regular but limited watering.  

Until this week that is.  Now we've been getting a preview of fall with cooler temperatures and occasional showers.  This was too much water for the tomatoes, which started to split.  I think the Cherokee Purples are supposed to turn, well, purple.  These still have green shoulders, but what was I to do when faced with splitting tomatoes?  So I picked these and was pleased to see that the green tomatoes haven't split.  

For dinner tonight: fish in tomato water

More and Bigger Compost

Here's our new compost bin.  (Thanks Dad!)
It's huge compared to the old one, and has a door on the bottom of the front through which the compost can be shoveled out. 

"New bin in, Old bin out"

Beans

Maddy helped me with harvesting the first 3 feet of the Calypso bean row.  Here, she shows off the harvest.

"Proud of her Harvest"

After shelling, this is the result. 



"Bowl of Beans"



Most are the calypso bush beans, but there are a few pole beans mixed in too.  Now that those beans are out, I'll till the stems in, add some compost, and plant for a fall beet crop.

Juliet and I

Juliet sleeping.  Me awaiting my slice of pie.

First Tomato

Here it is, the first Cherokee Purple from the garden with some basil.  This one tomato is a milestone, since last year we succeeded in growing exactly Zero tomatoes to edible size.  Since this picture was taken, 2 more CPs have been enjoyed.

I should also take this opportunity to document some more garden goings on.  The carrots I planted along the driveway have sprouted.  They've also subsequently gone missing.  Not wilted, not eaten down to stumps, just gone.  Bummer, for sure and a bit of a mystery since the adjacent strawberry plant has red berries that no creature has bothered to disturb.

Also, 2 days ago I planted 3 fall crops.  Rainbow chard "Bright Lights", short season onions "Walla Walla", and some sort of new kale the name I've forgotten.  The gardening book I read says that if you plant kale on 24" centers and they're not crowding each other out by November that you have serious soil fertility issues.  Well we probably do, so I planted them at 18" intervals.  No harm if they get a little cozy I figure.

In other news, the Blueberries bushes are winding down and got a big dose of seed meal hoed into the soil.  The asparagus has not yet been destroyed by slugs, and got a good bath of worm tea yesterday.  The English Laurel continues to fight a battle of resistance and oppression, but has been reduced a few feet closer to the fence since we've had the property.  Hopefully this opens up some additional space for next year's garden.

Peas

Here's two new lines of peas, marching towards a fall harvest.  They were planted 10 days ago, and broke ground just as the first tomatoes were turning red.  

Meanwhile, I've started lettuce seeds in the basement grow room.  I had tried in the patch where the peas are, but then I've learned that lettuce doesn't germinate well with soil temperatures above 70 degrees.  Hopefully by starting in the cool basement I'll have something to plant outside in a few weeks.

Helping Hand

Michael and Naomi are digging up their backyard.  Messy Madeleine is a nice neighbor, so she offered to help out.  Given a trowel and 20 minutes, she moved a lot of dirt!  Maybe not where Michael wanted it, but at least it got moved!

The chimney sweep & Michael.

Sighted in the backyard

Possibly the World's Biggest Blackberry

Bean Update

Sorry, I couldn't fit the baby into this picture of Shield beans, as it's about 3 feet up the plant.  It appears that my beans have an ailment.  Some fungus or parasite or virus is turning the leaves a lacy yellow.  It's kind of pretty, but I don't think its healthy....  Fortunately it's got good size pods on it, so I'm hopeful that some sort of crop will work out.  

And planning for the fall, I've planted a row of red carrots next to the Calypso beans.  They seem to take so long to germinate that we'll probably have the beans harvested and out before the carrots turn up.

Beans

Here's a picture of our Black Calypso Bean crop so far. These heirlooms appear to have a bush form to them, staying low to the ground but still producing a good quantity of pods.

(5-day old Juliet added for size perspective)

Morning Harvest

Today Maddy and I headed to Columbia Farms on Sauvie Island to stock up on berries. Strawberry season is winding down, but fortunately blueberries are ripe!

Maddy worked hard, and sure was exhausted on the drive home. Poor thing, she's in a fresh fruit coma.

The last step was to wash and vacuum pack our fruit for the winter. 3 pints each of: blueberry, strawberry, Cascade raspberry, and blackberry.

Tomatoes

Looking down from the top of the tomato cage. In the background is the overgrown fire hydrant. And on the left...First tomato!

Beans

This is where the peas used to be. I'd planted beans to succeed the pea crop and the beans came up pretty quickly. Quicker than I expected frankly, so I needed to get the pea vines out of the way. This wasn't a major tragedy since the pea productivity was trailing off and I was getting sick of eating peas. (Is it Ok to say that? In past years peas never produced for me so I should be grateful for the heavy yield this year. Pounds after pounds. Green. Yellow. Snow. Snap. Sugar Pod. They never stopped. When can I eat something different?)

So I'm happy to see these pole beans doing what they're supposed to. Out of sight to the west there are some bush beans that have flowered and are started to set pods. Having had too many beans in years past this year we planted mostly shelling beans so we can dry what we don't eat. I'm hoping that the bean production can exceed what the peas did!

Strawberries

Little M tries out life as a field laborer. Out to the strawberry fields Maddy and get us some of those delicious Hood berries!

Shucks!

Favorite Food of the Week is corn, and she's happy to help out with the shucking.

Blue

Not so much blue yet, but plump. After taking this picture I put netting over the bushes to protect from the inevitable onslaught of birds.

6/29 Garden Update

Here's the farm as of today. A little unruly, overgrown, and out of control but better that than not being growing at all.

The garbage can is in there for a size reference. In other words, the tallest peas are taller than me. To the far left are some peppers and then tomatoes in cages that are succumbing to the peas. To the right are a few rows of lettuce, some of which are bolting. I had tried to plant beans under the peas for a succession crop, but I think they were shaded out.

Lessons for next year: don't plant so many peas! Don't plant so much lettuce!

Apples

The apple tree is full of fruit! Small fruit, but clearly apples. Shortly after this picture I thinned out most of the little guys; I want the tree to concentrate on getting established this year as it's rather spindly.

Omelet for Breakfast

Local eggs. Spinach picked fresh from our garden. And of course cheese.

Pea Update

Miss M likes to eat peas, but she is falling behind. These golden snow peas have kicked production into high gear and we can't eat them quite fast enough. Madeleine's suggestion "Pick peas!" is now followed by the demand "Daddy eat peas!" as she seems to have had her fill lately.*

Meanwhile I've planted pole beans under these peas so hopefully we'll have those to look forward to as well.

*Actually what happens is that the pea pods take more than 2 chews each, and she loses patience when her mouth fills up and she can't fit any more.

Either Miss M is getting smaller or the Plants are getting huge!

Then why do we have cats?....

We suffered a rodent raid. It cleared out all the pepper starts, and 13 of the 16 lettuce starts leaving what you see here. They also pruned the spinach back to stumps, so the trap is baited with spinach. Stay tuned.....

Beans

Today, 5/23, I put in beans. Beans in rows, beans in succession under the peas, beans everywhere. Bush beans, pole beans, heirloom beans, endangered beans. Now I just have to try to remember where I put them all. Black Calypso along the driveway left, Hidatsa shield to the right. Mitla black in the garden to the left, california blackeye between the beet rows.

First Pea Pod

Maddy and I just noticed it today, our first pea pod of the season. This is from the heirloom Golden Peas which have pretty indigo/purple flowers. Our Cascade Peas are blooming too, so the first harvest isn't far away....

Morel

What a lucky backyard find my Mom made!

M Waters the Lettuce, again

She's really into watering. And she's learning to water the plants without simultaneously stepping on them, which is progress. Things you might note in this picture:

1-From the jacket you can tell that it's 60 today instead of 75

2-Some of those peas vines are taller than M!

3-Someone needs to mow that lawn....

4-She is watering the newest lettuce starts, but the buttercrunch heads right in front of her are ready to eat tonight!

Miss M Waters the Baby Lettuce

How to Yoke Oxen

For when the backyard farm gets too big to till by hand: oxen

M feeds The Ladies