Garlic Cleaning Day

In my last post 11 days ago I mentioned that I harvested garlic.  I hung the garlic in the basement for all this time to cure.  Garlic needs a curing time of 10-14 days and that makes it better for long term storage.  So today I spent the afternoon cleaning it up and preparing it for our market booth this Thursday.   It was a nice cool, low humidity day - only 69 for a high temp.  I took everything out on the porch and spent time listening to all the animal life around the yard.   Birds were singing, the trumpeter swans were honking, the bees were buzzing, the wind was whispering through the trees, and every now and then I would hear the splash of the beavers in the pond.  It was all very relaxing and a good break from worrying about covid and the craziness of the world!

I took everything out on our front porch to work with, as cleaning garlic can be a dirty job. 

I used scissors to cut off the dry stems to about an inch above the garlic head, and used a soft old toothbrush to scrub away dry soil.  Also trimmed the roots to 1/4 inch with scissors.   It took me most of the afternoon to clean over 100 heads of garlic, but it was very relaxing. 

This is what the garlic looks like before cleaning and trimming.

I ended up with a nice big box full of garlic to sell at market.  I usually package up several sizes in a bag to sell, so that a cook has options as to what size garlic to use. 

Fresh garlic has a very mild and mellow taste, unlike older boxed garlic you buy at the store.  Old garlic can have a very strong and pungent taste, sometimes almost rancid.   Fresh garlic is very smooth tasting and quite mild when cooked.    Many supermarkets sell garlic from China.   Please don't buy that!  Be sure to look at the country of origin.  Garlic is very easy to grow, so I am surprised that our country would even import garlic. 
     While sitting on the porch I enjoyed just looking at the scenery.  It is always so peaceful here on the farm.

A view of our pasture land and part of the lower garden and some of our woodland. 

A view of our lake and some of the wildflowers that support our bees, and more of our woodland area. 

I've been picking a quart of raspberries every day, and now there will be another fruit to pick!  Gooseberries!  They are very sweet to eat when they are dark red.

Lots of gooseberries ready to pick.  When the berries turn dark red, they are ready to pick and eat.  One has to be careful picking, though, as the bushes have sharp thorns.   You can see some of these thorns in the photo.   These gooseberries are almost an inch in diameter. 

I used some of the fresh garlic today while cooking our lunch.  We enjoyed baked chicken, a vegetable rice casserole, and some freshly picked yellow crookneck squash cooked with garlic and butter and Parmesan cheese.  For dessert we had peaches with fresh raspberries from the back yard.  Yum!

An Early July Day at Honey B Farm

After all the rain and high heat of the last couple weeks, today was pretty decent.  Harold and I were able to get out and catch up on yard and garden chores, as the humidity was fair and the temp was about 81.  We certainly had some weeding to do!!  Some of the weeds were 2 or 3 feet high!  Yes!  that high.  When the temps were in the 90's and the humidity extremely high there was no way we were going to do weeding.   The other day we actually mowed the weeds with the mulching mower in between the rows. 
     I took some photos of how things are as of today.  Our bees are working hard on sweet clover and trefoil and garden blossoms.  The yard is humming.  Things are growing nicely in the garden in spite of the weeds.   Within the next week we will be eating fresh new potatoes, zucchini, summer squash, peas, peppers, and cabbage.  I have been enjoying fresh raspberries for several days now.  I pick almost a quart a day.  It has taken me almost 8 years to get a good raspberry patch going.   This year the berries are extremely abundant.

Some raspberries I just picked this afternoon.  Raspberries are definitely my favorite fruit.

In a few days we will be eating fresh green beans!   Nothing better than fresh beans.

Today I harvested the garlic from the greenhouse.  I got a very nice harvest of various sizes of garlic heads.  After they dry for about 2 weeks we can sell some at our market booth.

Two full buckets of garlic, about 100 heads.

A variety of sizes in the garlic.  Some heads are really big, some quite small.  I prefer small to medium heads for cooking and making pickles.   Surface dirt is left on the tender heads right now, as taking off all the soil will damage the thin outer coating of the heads and they will not keep as well.  After the heads dry for about 10-14 days, the surface dirt comes off easily without damaging the thin skin of the garlic.   I then trim the roots to about 1/4 inch, and trim the stem to about an inch.

From the amount of weeds in the rows you can see how much weeding we had to do today!  On our hands and knees, pulling and pulling and pulling.....but the peppers and cabbages look good now.

Last week Harold worked on the potato patch, laying down straw to deter the potato bugs.   It looks great, eh?  We can eat tiny new potatoes now, but we will let them grow just a bit more.  Creamed new potatoes will soon be on the lunch menu! You can see our sweet corn is growing well behind the potatoes.

The pumpkin patch and winter squash is growing nicely.  I think we will have an abundant supply of pie pumpkins and squash.  This area of the newly expanded garden used to be a 'farm graveyard' of old tractors and equipment.  A lot of work this spring made it into a usable garden space!  We had to bust new sod and unearth pieces of metal and old machinery parts.

Harold made a rough looking scarecrow in an attempt to foil the deer.  He used one of his old shirts and an old pair of jeans.  From the side and back, it sort of looks like him!  I tease Harold about just "hanging around in the garden".  So far I think it has worked to foil the deer.

My farm cats have had a tough time finding places to keep cool.  The hot sun makes everything boiling.   In the afternoons they hide under tall weeds, coming out only to drink some cool water.

A couple of this year's kittens take refuge in some tall burdock plants.

Here are three more of this spring's kittens hiding in burdock leaves.  Not only does the burdock keep them cool in the hot sun, but helps them to escape the ever present deer flies and mosquitoes.

During the last couple week's hot spell, I spent some time in my basement craft room working on a new quilt.  I am making a bedspread size quilt for our bedroom in a pinwheel pattern.  I love to work with scraps, and my fabric stash is full of a variety of cottons.  Here are some of the squares I have made so far.  I think I need to make about 80 or 90 of these squares for a bedspread size!  This project should really make a good dent in my stash of fabric scraps!

Here are 4 squares I have completed.  The quilt will have light blue sashing and stripping, and I will tie the quilt with blue and white crochet thread.

This is the basic pattern I am working with.  I got the pattern off the internet.  The horizontal and vertical lines will be light blue.  I think this will look charming in our blue and white wallpapered bedroom. It's nice and cool in the basement in the summer, and warm down there in the winter.  So my spare moments are spent sewing.

So far we have escaped all the very bad weather and hail and tornadoes.   We are praying that the rest of the summer will bring us many more blessings.  And we look forward to our honey harvest at the end of August.

Some Blessings To Cheer Me

A couple years ago my husband Harold bought me a tea rose bush for an Easter present.  It has taken a while to get going, and I haven't done much to care for the poor plant other than water it and do some occasional weeding.  One year, the mice almost ate the plant during the harsh winter.  We also never mulched it this winter.  But this year - oh my!  The tea rose bush has just burst into colorful roses!  There are almost 20 beautiful rose blossoms on the plant!  It has also doubled in size.  I picked a nice little branch and put it in a bud vase on my kitchen window sill to enjoy.   It smells wonderful and certainly cheers me up just to look at it.

A lovely bunch of tea roses in the kitchen

We are also beginning to harvest many fresh veggies from the garden and greenhouse.  Today as a vegetable for our lunch, we will have fresh carrots and snow peas.

Fresh veggies for our lunch today!

And here is my favorite way to prepare carrots and snow peas - a wonderful combination!  Here at Honey B Farm, we certainly have plenty of honey to cook with!

HONEY GLAZED SNOW PEAS AND CARROTS

2 c. sliced carrots 

1/2 lb snow peas, trimmed of stem ends

3 T. butter 

1/2 tsp. cornstarch

2 T. honey

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil.   Add carrots and cook until tender crisp, 10-12 min.   Add snow peas and cook a few minutes more until tender crisp.  Drain and set aside.  Melt butter in the same pan and stir in the cornstarch.  Stir in the honey.  Return veggies to the pan and heat and stir until glazed and hot.    Wonderful!!  

Note:  this recipe does not work very well with frozen veggies - use fresh. 

Next week we should have new potatoes from the garden, and also raspberries!  I have tried for many years to get a good raspberry patch going.  It seems like either the bugs or the bears eat all the fruit.  But this year the raspberries seem to be especially abundant!  I am hoping nothing destroys them between now and next week because I DO love fresh raspberries!  I have fond memories of my sister and I picking raspberries with my grandfather at his place in northern Indiana.   My sister and I still love to pick and eat raspberries!

During these difficult and sometimes depressing times we are currently living in, it is so nice to have fresh flowers and vegetables and fruit to enjoy.   It is the little things in life that can add so much joy!

A Most Unusual Bee Swarm!

A couple days ago one of our largest hives swarmed into a tree behind the beeyard.   The swarm was way up high in the tree and we couldn't get to it.  Harold used a rifle to shoot the branch down and was hoping the bees would go into a swarm box he had ready.  The bees did not go there, but instead went into a branch even higher up the tree.  Today the swarm was still there, so Harold shot the branch down again with a rifle.  This time the bees went back into the original hive. 
     Later this afternoon, the swarm decided to go out of the hive and gather on a small cherry tree sapling in front of the beeyard!  Now we could catch them!  These bees really wanted to go someplace new!  We managed to gather the bees, and take them to a friend's farm about 10 miles away.   Now they should be happy because they feel they have truly swarmed into a "new place".  Whenever we gather a swarm we take them to our friend Joe's farm.   They live there until honey harvest time.    In exchange for allowing us to bring swarms to his place, we give Joe all the honey he wants.
     Here is the process this afternoon in photos.  We were glad not to lose the hive because at $170 a hive we sure don't want to lose it! 

This is the swarm covering the small cherry sapling.   Almost looks like a brown cactus, doesn't it?

Harold set a swarm gathering box on a bucket and aimed the entrance hole near the swarm in the hopes they would explore it and go in.  Yes - it worked!

Harold watched as they slowly went into the swarm box.

Harold used a bee brush to clear the entrance hole occasionally so that it wouldn't get too clogged with bees trying to get in.

Almost all of the swarm is in the swarm box now!

Almost done!  Just about a cup or so of bees left!

Over at Joe's farm Harold uses pliers to lift the frame of bees into a new hive box.

Harold accidentally dropped the pliers into the swarm box, so he just lifted the frames of bees with his bare hands!

There were some loose bees in the swarm box and Harold just shook them into the new hive.

He set a hive cover over the frames.  We also put a feeder in there with some sugar solution to help them get started in their new home. 

The new hive is complete.  A few straggler bees are making their way into their new home.

Back at our place, the cherry tree is empty now of bees!   Success at catching this swarm after 3 days!!

We will check on the bees at Joe's place at least once a week.  They should do fine there, and now they will feel that they have totally swarmed and found a new place.   Why bees swarm is a mystery.   It's just what bees do.
There's an old saying about swarms that goes like this:

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly

At least we are back to having 10 hives now at our place, plus this one at Joe's!
Never a dull moment here on Honey B Farm!
    

Oh! Those (blankety blank) Deer!!

It's been a real war with deer this garden season.  We put up electric fencing, and it is powerful.  But somehow the deer manage to either climb through or jump over the fencing and they have eaten about 50 or 60 cabbages so far!   That translates to over $120 worth of  income lost to the deer just in cabbages alone.  Plus they also ate two cherry trees, some green beans, pepper plants and eggplants.   They have also snipped off branches of our apple trees.   I simply cannot tolerate the loss of revenue from the deer!  It truly is hard to foil deer, as they have hollow hairs and don't feel electric fencing too much unless they either sniff it with their nose and get zapped, or really get a good dose of the wires.   They are also excellent jumpers, so fencing has to be high.  

It's not like they are starving - we have acres of woodland filled with plants and small twigs for them to eat.  The deer hunters in the neighborhood have planted "deer plots" of corn and soybeans for them to eat.  So why do they pick on my gardens?  I didn't seem to have this problem last year, but a couple years ago they were sort of pesty.  At that time I was able to foil them with CD's hanging on wires.  As the CD's spin they catch the sun and moonlight and yard lighting and shine like strobe lights.  They look like big flashing eyeballs to the deer and that seemed to scare them away.   Putting on CD's to the fencing is a chore to maintain, as they fall off or twist off, or wear out and need to be replaced.  Sometimes the ties get so tangled in the wind they wrap around the wire and are useless.   But this year I am trying them again!    I can also put foil strips on the hot wire and when the deer come to investigate the foil, they may get zapped. 

I can start some new cabbage plants, as they are only 50 day variety.  The kraut cabbages are 100 days, but I should be able to plant some in the greenhouse, as this late variety can take a little frost and I can harvest things in the greenhouse until mid November.   It's just a shame that I have already lost hundreds of dollars of income due to the deer's appetite!
Harold put barbed wire fencing about 6 feet up, plus several layers of hot wire between the top and bottom.  If the deer try to jump over the fence, I truly hope they "split some hide" (oh - did I say that?  Yes!  This is war!)  I will also staple white grocery bags to posts in the garden, which sometimes scare them away.  If dogs weren't such a bother and expense to keep, I would get a nice big dog to chase deer away.    But high vet bills is something I can't afford right now.   Sometimes my cats chase deer away, especially my cat Fluffy who absolutely hates deer in the yard, but cats are good mousers, not really good deer chasers.   Most of the time the deer think my cats are just playing and they chase the cats back!

This is all so very discouraging!  I work so hard, only to have my garden produce destroyed by stupid deer.   It is especially challenging since we are out in the woods.   We shall see who wins.    This fall I hope the deer hunters wipe out a goodly number of deer because it seems like we are being overrun with them.  Dare I say I hope they shoot every last one of them?  Well, maybe not - but they do need to thin out the herd quite a bit.

I have tied CD's about every 10 feet all around both gardens.   They twist and turn and shine and reflect moonlight and yard lighting to look like giant strobe lights.   It used to scare the deer until they figured out these things wouldn't hurt them.   I haven't used these for a few years, so I hope the new batch of deer either don't know what these are, or forgot about them.

The top wire of the electric fencing is sharp barbed wire.  Hopefully when the deer try to jump over the fence they will snag their hide on this. 

The top barbed wire line is about 6 or so feet high.   Deer can probably jump that high, but the posts don't come any higher!

On a positive note, I DO have some lovely flowers this year, and we have a lot of gooseberries growing.   I hope the birds will not eat all the gooseberries because they make a wonderful jelly. 

Lots of gooseberries growing on the four bushes that I have.   When the gooseberries turn pink, they are sweet and ready to eat just as they are, or juiced up into jelly.

Some of the lovely petunias I have this year.  I started all of these plants from seed from last year.  They also smell wonderful!

These yellow petunias are called Butter and Eggs.  They are a pale yellow with white edges and dark yellow centers.   So pretty!

My favorite petunias are these double ruffled types.  The blooms are huge - about 4 inches across and have a wonderful aroma. 

Salad Days

For the past several days we have been enjoying fresh salads for lunch!  Here I am picking some spinach, and there is plenty of baby romaine and buttercrunch lettuce and radishes in the background to add to the salad.   I have about 3/4 of the regular gardens planted.  We got a good dose of much needed rain yesterday, so when things dry up enough to work in the garden I still have hot pepper plants to put in, and tomato plants and cabbages.  I also need to plant various root vegetables and pumpkins and more green beans.    It sounds like we will have a Farmer's Market this summer with some restrictions for Covid 19, but we are not sure of the start date.
     It is SO nice to have fresh vegetables again!

A very nice stand of spinach ready for picking.

In my greenhouse, enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Things Are Really Buzzing Now

After what seems like an eternity of cold, windy, rainy weather it is fairly sunny today with only a hint of probable rain.  Our bees have been holed up in the hives for days now, but today they are going crazy!  The whole yard is humming like a well oiled engine!  If I step outside I can hear the whole yard buzzing.  We are in a dandelion flow right now - and the bees DO love dandelions!  Beekeepers can never mow the yard when these weeds - er, "wildflowers" - are in bloom!  It is a good source of bee food.

Here is one of our hard working forage bees gathering pollen and whatever else on a dandelion.   Almost every dandelion in the yard has one or two bees on it.

One of many areas in the yard with dandelions.   I will have to wait to mow this area!

So many bees lined up to bring pollen into the hive!  Almost every one of our 10 hives looks like this.   We have the entrance reducer on right now until the hive gets going to help prevent predators and fighting.   With such a narrow opening for the bees, they wait in line so to speak.

Another hive of bees waiting in line to bring in the dandelion pollen.   This is a stronger hive, so the entrance is larger for them.

This strong beehive decided to use a crack in the hive for an entrance right from the very beginning!  So we are letting them "do their thing" if it makes them happy.

For some reason the bees have decided to get their water from this leaky hose fitting!  Once the bees establish a water source, that's it!  They tell the other bees, and that becomes THE place to get water!  I guess I will have to endure this leaky hose for a while until I can train them to use some other source for water!   I will have to make sure that I don't just grab the hose without looking first!!

Here is another bee getting water from my leaky hose outside of the greenhouse.

We doubled the size of our Upper Garden.  For those of you who have been to my house, you can see that this garden is twice the size it was before!  We intend to make wider rows that can be cultivated with a riding tiller.  This will save our old 70+ year old backs!  We have to garden smarter as we get older! 

Things are growing nicely in the greenhouse.  I am gradually bringing out trays of plants to harden up out there before putting them in the garden later this month.

Until I plant tomatoes here in the middle section of the greenhouse I have trays of onions, tomatoes, herbs and peppers hardening up. 

Here is some Tom Thumb lettuce growing.  I just love this small buttercrunch head variety.  Just one or two small heads of these lettuces make up a good bowl of salad for dinner.  When they are ready to harvest, the heads are about 5 or 6 inches in diameter.  When you cut the bottom roots off, the whole head just falls apart into small leaves that are easily washed for the salad bowl.   As you can see, I have some weeding and thinning to do here, though!

The long range weather forecast is for 70 degree temps.  So we will be busy tilling up the gardens again, and I will be spending hours and hours outside planting and planting, and planting......   Our growing season is only 90 to 100 days, so things have to be done right on schedule.    It will be SO nice to have fresh veggies again!