Wednesday, February 22, 2012
New Blog for the farm
I seem to be unable to change the url for the farm blog from the original brandybrookfarm. blogspot.com so I've set up an entirely new blog for Stonewall Corner Farm that now reflects the correct url. I was hoping to preserve the history of the blog by just changing the name but, apparently, it doesn't quite work the way I'd hoped. I want people to be able to find us with the correct farm name, so this will be the last post at this url. Please visit http://stonewallcornerfarm.blogspot.com/ to continue reading about our adventures. Thanks!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Challenges and planning.....
I've tried in a variety of different ways to add this to the side bar on this blog:
http://www.sustainableeats.com/sign-up-for-the-urban-farm-handbook-challenge/
It's got a nifty little graphic and everything. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I can't get blogger to accept it. So, please check out the link instead.
The upshot of it is, that it's a 12 month "challenge" (11 challenges, one reflection month) to help transition to a more self-sustaining lifestyle. It's based on the book, The Urban Farm Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Farm-Handbook-Resources-Preparing/dp/1594856370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328884747&sr=1-1) which I will admit I haven't read but stumbled over on another blog called Food In Jars (http://www.foodinjars.com/2012/02/books-the-urban-farm-handbook/) which I read fairly often. Food In Jars author Marisa does a fine job of reviewing the book (not to mention writing a great blog in general!) in the above linked blog post, so click, read, and enjoy her great review and lovely photos. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to a book or challenge oriented towards 'urban' farmers because I don't think of us that way - we are definitely out in the country and not in an urban setting. Out of curiosity, mostly due to Marisa's wonderful book review, I clicked on the challenge link she provided to see what it was all about and the more I read, the more I thought, hey, this could be really helpful to us. The final clincher was the sentence, "This challenge will be what you make of it – the ultimate in crazy or just dipping your toe in." Oh, ok. No pressure, no deadlines. I won't look like a deadbeat to the world if I can't meet some list of required tasks if life gets too busy to do a lot but I can at least keep up by reading the monthly guest blog challenges. Maybe I can do this. Sounds very interesting to me, and I want to learn more about almost about all the topics listed (seed saving, soil building, dairy, preserving, grains, to name a few). Plus, it will give me some exposure to things I don't think too much about right now (like bartering or foraging, for instance). Sounds like a winner all around!
I am continuing to get the gardens planned and hope to finish that today. We are going to plant all three plots again this year. Just to complicate things a little more, in addition to companion planting I am also using crop rotation principles. In all seriousness, it doesn't really complicate things that much and it actually helps in deciding what goes where in each plot. For those of you not familiar with the concepts involved with rotation, it's pretty logical: don't plant the same plants or plants from the same family in the same space every year. It's proven to help reduce the incidence of pests and disease. For example: don't plant potatoes in one spot one year and then tomatoes in that same spot the next year. Potatoes and tomatoes are both nightshades and share the same diseases which can stay in the soil between seasons. I'm also going a little further with it in trying to take into account the nutritional needs of the plants. Another example: corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, which leaves the soil it was planted in lower in nitrogen than before. Legumes (peas & beans) 'fix' nitrogen in the soil, so it would help restore nitrogen to the former corn patch if you plant beans there the following year. Simple things that will, hopefully, make a big difference in the overall health of the garden.
http://www.sustainableeats.com/sign-up-for-the-urban-farm-handbook-challenge/
It's got a nifty little graphic and everything. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I can't get blogger to accept it. So, please check out the link instead.
The upshot of it is, that it's a 12 month "challenge" (11 challenges, one reflection month) to help transition to a more self-sustaining lifestyle. It's based on the book, The Urban Farm Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Farm-Handbook-Resources-Preparing/dp/1594856370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328884747&sr=1-1) which I will admit I haven't read but stumbled over on another blog called Food In Jars (http://www.foodinjars.com/2012/02/books-the-urban-farm-handbook/) which I read fairly often. Food In Jars author Marisa does a fine job of reviewing the book (not to mention writing a great blog in general!) in the above linked blog post, so click, read, and enjoy her great review and lovely photos. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to a book or challenge oriented towards 'urban' farmers because I don't think of us that way - we are definitely out in the country and not in an urban setting. Out of curiosity, mostly due to Marisa's wonderful book review, I clicked on the challenge link she provided to see what it was all about and the more I read, the more I thought, hey, this could be really helpful to us. The final clincher was the sentence, "This challenge will be what you make of it – the ultimate in crazy or just dipping your toe in." Oh, ok. No pressure, no deadlines. I won't look like a deadbeat to the world if I can't meet some list of required tasks if life gets too busy to do a lot but I can at least keep up by reading the monthly guest blog challenges. Maybe I can do this. Sounds very interesting to me, and I want to learn more about almost about all the topics listed (seed saving, soil building, dairy, preserving, grains, to name a few). Plus, it will give me some exposure to things I don't think too much about right now (like bartering or foraging, for instance). Sounds like a winner all around!
I am continuing to get the gardens planned and hope to finish that today. We are going to plant all three plots again this year. Just to complicate things a little more, in addition to companion planting I am also using crop rotation principles. In all seriousness, it doesn't really complicate things that much and it actually helps in deciding what goes where in each plot. For those of you not familiar with the concepts involved with rotation, it's pretty logical: don't plant the same plants or plants from the same family in the same space every year. It's proven to help reduce the incidence of pests and disease. For example: don't plant potatoes in one spot one year and then tomatoes in that same spot the next year. Potatoes and tomatoes are both nightshades and share the same diseases which can stay in the soil between seasons. I'm also going a little further with it in trying to take into account the nutritional needs of the plants. Another example: corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, which leaves the soil it was planted in lower in nitrogen than before. Legumes (peas & beans) 'fix' nitrogen in the soil, so it would help restore nitrogen to the former corn patch if you plant beans there the following year. Simple things that will, hopefully, make a big difference in the overall health of the garden.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Today and a look ahead....
I just finished reading through the past couple of months' worth of posts and have discovered that I have started nearly every one with an apology that it's taken me so long between postings. Oh, my. I'm just not gonna' do that anymore. My goal is to be more consistent and post more often and I will keep working towards that, but I'm going to quit apologizing with every post. Life just is what it is right now and, sometimes, it's challenging. That means I don't get to put in the time to writing posts as much as I'd like to right now. I'm just going to keep forging ahead and we'll see how things go from here. Thanks very much for taking the ride with me and for reading, regardless of how often I am able to post.
It's raining here in our part of the northeast today and it's about 34 degrees out. An overall cold, raw, day. Challenging to deal with the dogs because none of us (me or the dogs) like it when they go out in the rain. They come in as wet mudballs and none of us enjoys dealing with that. But, they don't really like being stuck inside, either. Beau just hurt his paw jumping up to try to reach a rawhide chew that I'd put up because they were fighting over it. Usually, it's all just a grand game for them and nothing is serious. This time, however, Marcie got very serious about defending it and scared me when she lunged for Beau when he got too close. That is NOT acceptable so I put her in time out and put up the chew. When I let her out, Beau tried to resume the game by jumping up to get the chew, but caught his paw on the door to Marcie's crate when I told him to get down and hurt himself badly enough to yelp. No visible damage, thank goodness! Now that the drama has subsided, they are all sacked out on the floor and peace has returned to our tiny temporary home.
Tiny by my standards, anyway. Somewhere around 300 square feet. We never thought we'd be in here so long but the house is taking longer to complete than we expected. Things are finally moving along, though, and the interior work is picking up speed. All of the downstairs has been drywalled and the kitchen cabinets are about to be installed. Fireplace (with hand forged 18th century reproduction crane! yay!) and masonry for the woodstove have been completed, just waiting on the exterior chimney to be finished. I need to go take some pictures for you when it's sunny again. I am hoping to be able to move in in March, but it will probably be April or May.
Farm work right now consists of garden planning and getting space ready for livestock. If all goes according to plan this year we'll have chickens, turkeys, pigs, and maybe even a couple of sheep, with a livestock guardian dog to go along with them all. And most likely, no vacations together. It may be silly, but that is a sad trade-off for me. It is, however, a reality of farming for most.
Planning the garden isn't as simple as just deciding what to plant (though that's not always simple, either), it also includes WHERE to plant it. We have a long term permaculture plan for our farm, so that has to be taken into consideration. We also have to consider issues of succession planting. For example, you shouldn't plant nightshades (ie: tomatoes and potatoes) in the same ground two years in a row. We had lots of tomatoes and potatoes last year, so that will take some serious consideration. And we want to plant legumes (peas, beans) where the corn was to restore some of the nitrogen in the soil that the corn (a heavy nitrogen feeder) depleted. I also really want to try a couple of traditional 3 Sisters mounds, so we need to decide where to place those. The list goes on with things like that, and then there is the added issue of companion planting to seriously complicate it even more! Slow going, but it will be worthwhile in the end. I'm just getting anxious about ordering seeds, because I know I was behind last year and had to scramble to find bouquet dill when my first choice source sold out. I also couldn't get some flowers that I wanted for the same reason, so I am pushing myself to get the plan completed and things ordered asap. And, just to throw a wrench into the whole works, school is starting again for me. Fortunately, I have a less involved schedule this semester. I'm pretty happy about that because I think, between school, house and farm, things are going to be pretty busy.
It's raining here in our part of the northeast today and it's about 34 degrees out. An overall cold, raw, day. Challenging to deal with the dogs because none of us (me or the dogs) like it when they go out in the rain. They come in as wet mudballs and none of us enjoys dealing with that. But, they don't really like being stuck inside, either. Beau just hurt his paw jumping up to try to reach a rawhide chew that I'd put up because they were fighting over it. Usually, it's all just a grand game for them and nothing is serious. This time, however, Marcie got very serious about defending it and scared me when she lunged for Beau when he got too close. That is NOT acceptable so I put her in time out and put up the chew. When I let her out, Beau tried to resume the game by jumping up to get the chew, but caught his paw on the door to Marcie's crate when I told him to get down and hurt himself badly enough to yelp. No visible damage, thank goodness! Now that the drama has subsided, they are all sacked out on the floor and peace has returned to our tiny temporary home.
Tiny by my standards, anyway. Somewhere around 300 square feet. We never thought we'd be in here so long but the house is taking longer to complete than we expected. Things are finally moving along, though, and the interior work is picking up speed. All of the downstairs has been drywalled and the kitchen cabinets are about to be installed. Fireplace (with hand forged 18th century reproduction crane! yay!) and masonry for the woodstove have been completed, just waiting on the exterior chimney to be finished. I need to go take some pictures for you when it's sunny again. I am hoping to be able to move in in March, but it will probably be April or May.
Farm work right now consists of garden planning and getting space ready for livestock. If all goes according to plan this year we'll have chickens, turkeys, pigs, and maybe even a couple of sheep, with a livestock guardian dog to go along with them all. And most likely, no vacations together. It may be silly, but that is a sad trade-off for me. It is, however, a reality of farming for most.
Planning the garden isn't as simple as just deciding what to plant (though that's not always simple, either), it also includes WHERE to plant it. We have a long term permaculture plan for our farm, so that has to be taken into consideration. We also have to consider issues of succession planting. For example, you shouldn't plant nightshades (ie: tomatoes and potatoes) in the same ground two years in a row. We had lots of tomatoes and potatoes last year, so that will take some serious consideration. And we want to plant legumes (peas, beans) where the corn was to restore some of the nitrogen in the soil that the corn (a heavy nitrogen feeder) depleted. I also really want to try a couple of traditional 3 Sisters mounds, so we need to decide where to place those. The list goes on with things like that, and then there is the added issue of companion planting to seriously complicate it even more! Slow going, but it will be worthwhile in the end. I'm just getting anxious about ordering seeds, because I know I was behind last year and had to scramble to find bouquet dill when my first choice source sold out. I also couldn't get some flowers that I wanted for the same reason, so I am pushing myself to get the plan completed and things ordered asap. And, just to throw a wrench into the whole works, school is starting again for me. Fortunately, I have a less involved schedule this semester. I'm pretty happy about that because I think, between school, house and farm, things are going to be pretty busy.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
"A riddle
wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" - Winston Churchill (1939). While Churchill was referring to Russia when he said this, I am referring to another "foreign country", if you will: the past. Being a 'history geek' I've always loved the quote, "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there." (L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between, 1953) and the more history I learn, the more I believe it to be true. I love the Churchill quote, too, and both together sum up how I'm feeling about the name of the moving body of water (brook? creek?) on our property.
All this started when we went to the craft fair in town today:
There were quite a few vendors selling all manner of things (hand carved wooden bowls, jewelry, hand braided rugs, Native American jewelry and crafts, pottery, and more) and they had a very nice turn-out for a first - time craft fair. I brought home a couple of things: a beautiful blue and green stoneware bowl from Rhonda Wainshilbaum:
A really cool t-shirt from Wicked Stepmother Jewelry:
Loved this because it is a gravestone rubbing from one of the old cemeteries in town and supports the town Historical Commission. And, last but not least, prints of two old maps of town (also from Wicked Stepmother) - one is the 1871 map I mentioned in my previous post and the other is dated 1858:
The even better part of finding these is that purchase of them also helps support the town Historical Commission ~ not some on-line company (where I was going to buy them in the future) who I would also have to pay to ship them to me. Nope, they are here in my hands right now AND helped the Historical Commission. Can't get better than that. Oh, wait, yes it can: they were less expensive than the on-line price! Wicked Stepmother doesn't seem to have an on-line presence but, if I find one, I will post it for you. They had more t-shirt designs and had earrings with early gravestone type designs - REALLY cool stuff!
Ok, so to get back to the history/riddle/enigma thing: when I got these two map prints home I spent some time looking closely and comparing them. I found our farm site then, out of curiosity, I looked for the brook. Somehow, in the thirteen years from 1858 to 1871, the names of this moving body of water mysteriously changed. In 1858 what we thought was Brandy Brook was Still's Brook, which (in 1858) ran into Buddington Creek just below us. Then, in 1871, Still's Brook somehow becomes un-named and what was Buddington Creek becomes Glen Brook. Now, I know the answer to why these names have mysteriously changed and/or disappeared, it's really quite simple: the 1858 map is by H.F. Walling and the 1871 map is by F.W. Beers. Two different map makers, two different sets of information. The Beers Atlas seems to have become the accepted version because an 1894 USGS topo map found on line uses the Beers names, which have pretty much stayed the same into the present time. I'm going to have to do some more digging into the town history at some point in the future, though, because I'd never heard of Still's Brook or Buddington Creek before and they intrigue me.....
All this started when we went to the craft fair in town today:
Ok, so to get back to the history/riddle/enigma thing: when I got these two map prints home I spent some time looking closely and comparing them. I found our farm site then, out of curiosity, I looked for the brook. Somehow, in the thirteen years from 1858 to 1871, the names of this moving body of water mysteriously changed. In 1858 what we thought was Brandy Brook was Still's Brook, which (in 1858) ran into Buddington Creek just below us. Then, in 1871, Still's Brook somehow becomes un-named and what was Buddington Creek becomes Glen Brook. Now, I know the answer to why these names have mysteriously changed and/or disappeared, it's really quite simple: the 1858 map is by H.F. Walling and the 1871 map is by F.W. Beers. Two different map makers, two different sets of information. The Beers Atlas seems to have become the accepted version because an 1894 USGS topo map found on line uses the Beers names, which have pretty much stayed the same into the present time. I'm going to have to do some more digging into the town history at some point in the future, though, because I'd never heard of Still's Brook or Buddington Creek before and they intrigue me.....
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
A rose.....
by any other name would smell as sweet. - Wm. Shakespeare
And, a blog and a farm, by any other name, would still be the same blog and farm. So, from here on out, Brandy Brook Farm is Stonewall Corner Farm. I'm going to miss the name Brandy Brook Farm ~ I really liked it and loved the way it just alliteratively rolled off the tongue. Alas... we have discovered that the brook that runs through the farm is not named Brandy brook after all and it just doesn't seem right to name the farm for it. It seems dishonest, somehow. The actual name of the brook is Glen brook and we are not going to use that because there is already a farm in town with the name Glen Brook Farm. It was an honest mistake ~ Brandy brook actually runs into Glen brook and we didn't realize that the name changed before it got to our property. I found this 1871 map of our town on line and it very clearly labels Glen Brook:
So, we spent some time seriously brainstorming new names for the farm and, based on some of the words that describe our place that we mixed and matched (quite literally - I wrote them out and we cut up the paper and randomly picked words to put together) we finally settled on Stonewall Corner Farm as the new name. And, this time, it's official: there is a business license on file with the town that makes it so.
All this means that, for those of you who follow or are subscribed to this blog, the name of the blog will be changing with the next post, probably in the next week or so. Just wanted to give y'all a head's up.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Lessons and reflections, Part 2
Ha! Bet you thought I forgot! Sorry it's been so long. Really. School was a little hairy for a while, and then I got sick. Really sick - viral asthmatic bronchitis. That = coughing all the time and having trouble breathing. I think I'm getting better but I am still coughing some. All that means that I haven't been able to do anything in the garden so Country Boy has taken care of all of the winter prep, including planting (and MULCHING!!) 91 cloves of garlic. It's only a pound, so will most likely yield enough for just our use but we'll see. That would be almost a head of garlic a week if they all make it, which might be a little much. We do use a lot of garlic but, well.... sometimes you can have too much of a good thing! We got ours from High Mowing Organic Seeds:
From their website:
"Organic Purple Glazer Garlic - HEIRLOOM A glazed purple-striped garlic that grows well in most climates, but really excels in places with cold winters. Likes to be planted early in the fall. Excellent for raw eating and for roasting because of its exceptional sweetness. Outer bulb wrappers are white and inner bulb wrappers can be almost solid purple. Will store for 6-7 months. There are 8-10 cloves per bulb. Originally from the Republic of Georgia. Hardneck (Allium tuberosum)"
I LOVE this company! They produce beautiful catalogs that provide all the information you need about their seeds.
We also got all the potatoes harvested ~ Country Boy did most of the work for that, too. We got a great harvest and the potatoes are wonderful. We won't be selling them, though, because we didn't get them covered soon enough and they started to green up some. I've used them to make scalloped potatoes and they were fine - we ate the whole casserole with no ill effects - you just have to peel them to remove the green. Count it as a lesson learned. We will plant potatoes again next year, too - lots of them. And lots more French Fingerlings, too, because those, folks, are delicious!
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