Wind and Weed Wars

 Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Weeding is now in full force yet the crops are thriving too. My weeding efforts are concentrated on root crops and money crops. Root crops, such as onions and carrots, do not like to compete with the roots of weeds. The money crops, such as the cucumbers, need to reach their full potential so we have great pickles this fall.

The black plastic mulch was a great investment. Even in the areas where we have a horrible reoccurring grass problem, the rows are better under control. You can see in one of the pictures that between the rows we still

Cabbage

have a battle but at least the plants aren't being suffocated. In addition to the black mulch, we've used grass cuttings on other rows. Frank tends the yard, so now we say he's the mulch farmer.

We had two days of unbelievable wind. It's always windy here, but this was over the top. We had to stake the pepper plants to keep them from bending so far they would break. I think we lost only one.

The wind usually blows from the same direction - kind of out of the southwest.

Peppers

You can tell from this poor apple tree who had a major trim over the winter.

The garlic is all harvested and curing which takes three to five weeks.

Heavy decisions this week on the pickles. After finding some jars of our Old World style too soft, we may discontinue them. It's a touch process getting them to retain enough firmness and pump up the flavor. Our regular ones are

Onions

great but the Old World was Frank and Lance's favorite. But consistency is so important if you go retail. We'll see. Only one more Farmers' Market and we're out of product until September. Success!

Wow! What Happened in 2 1/2 Weeks

Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Checking for cucumbers

There are twenty pictures I'd like to share with you, but loading that many would take more patience than I possess. The crops have shot up both inside and outside the greenhouse. Frank and I were gone two and a half weeks on our maiden RV voyage, and the rows of veggies filled out in our absence.

There are two phenomenons of farming that will probably never cease to amaze me. When the seed goes into the ground and pushes up to display the plant to come is amazing. But more amazing to me is a whole field of tiny little things that seem to blossom and bear fruit overnight. I'm not sure why it hits me that way - I obviously watch them grow. Now the work cannot be stalled. No more vacations from the farm until harvesting is over. We can't put the cucumbers on hold.

Dill before we left

Dill two and half weeks later

After complaining about no rain, we've had so much I can't get in the field to weed. It's making harvesting very messy. We skipped a day, but it rained again, so Lance and a friend slugged through the mud to get the cucumbers before they were too big to pickle. 

Me, weeding potatoes before RVing

Two more purchases - another canning pot and a bag freezer. We're doing so many pickles this year, one pot is not going to cut it. We also learned that no matter how careful we were, grocery freezer bags do not prevent freezer burn. My tip for the day: spend the money on a proper bag freezer. It will save you on your food bill.

Organic farming is not only hard work (as all farming is) but it also requires the farmer to be on his toes and one step ahead of - if possible - of Mother Nature. Lance bought and released bugs that eat bugs in the greenhouse. I have to think they're doing their job by the looks of the plants. His vigilance this year before the plants began bearing in the fields has been successful. Last year, we lost plants due to nasty pests or had small veggies in some cases because of pest problems. He

Cucumbers and tomatoes flourish

sprayed early on with a natural spray of neem oil.

Just a note: Our trip was great fun and we discovered all kinds of things about RVing. I posted some pictures on Facebook if you'd like to check them out. Thanks to our lifestyle, multiple generations living under one roof who share the workload, we are able to do what we've always wanted - on a smaller scale but rich with fun.

Chamomile ready to dry

West Indian Gherkin plants

Ready to harvest at 1 1/2 inch

Smoking Dells, Crazy Dill and Austrian Delight

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

This has been quite a week.

The first signs of the fire

Near Prescott, which is about thirty miles south of us, a forest fire broke out. From here it looked like it was in the dells, but no. This area is so dry. We had a little snow in January and that's been the extent of our precipitation. A couple of mornings ago, we saw a strange cloud rise up over the property across the street. We realized it was smoke. The smoke turned the  whole sky gray until the wind changed. On Wednesday, we went to a baseball game in

Wednesday going toward Chino Valley

Phoenix and although the sky looked smoke free toward Prescott, one mountain closer to us (but still a long ways off) had flames near the bottom. It looked pretty small. As we came back into the area that evening, we could see the fire had gained speed again.

Rote Riesen carrots

We finished the first major pull-the-weeds-fest. The veggies seemed to love it. You could practically watch them grow - especially the
Austrian carrots and Austrian garden peas. Our good friends, the Rainers, sent Lance and Christie a box of various seeds as a wedding gift. The peas and carrots

Wonderfully sweet garden peas

are out-growing the American varieties.

The greenhouse is practically overrun with greens. We're doing salads every night. The dill is really going crazy but  we like that. We need a lot of seed for canning. Most of the dill will be left to go to seed but we'll pinch some for cooking now and then. Like tonight we had lemon and dill covered catfish. I'll also dry some to get us through the winter.

"My" garlic

We harvested our first ever crop of garlic. We didn't grow any last year. This was my one crop that I planted last October. They like to go in the ground and chill over the winter. Now that I know how easy it is, I plan to grow more next time.

A better netting system this year for the blackberries

Greenhouse from the dill end

Greenhouse from the broccoli end

We leave on our first RV trip on Monday. I'll probably not have any firsthand news from Tortuga Flats Farm to report so I'm taking a couple of weeks off.
 
If you follow me on Facebook, I'm sure I'll have reports and pictures from the road. www.facebook.com/BrendaWhitesideAuthor

Everyone have a safe and fun 4th!

Eye Wear Eating Roses and Strawberries for Looks

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Tortuga Thursday 

 

A shape of his own

A quick trip across Tortuga Flats Farm...part of it anyway. In the front yard, I tend to the decorative vegetation. Not only are the hollyhocks blooming, but roses do amazingly well here. At least the climbing kind and the miniature varieties. This one in the picture wasn't put to a trellis until this year so  he's growing rather oddly. I planted strawberry plants in the front garden last year

Strawberry plants

because I like the way they look and send out runners. Once in awhile I get a strawberry off of them before the bugs chow down.

 

Out in the main vegetable area we've had some halts in weeding. By this time next week, all vegetable rows will be clear and then maintenance should be easier. I'll get a picture of the whole area then. You can see from the first picture of the cucumbers all the weeds pulled and waiting between the rows for the rake. The other picture is of another variety of cucumbers and the style of trellis Lance put up. The red caps are protection on the ends of the wire.

 

Dead weeds wait to be raked

Cucumbers and trellis

Two unrelated events this week that have nothing to do with farming. I lost my favorite/best pair of glasses. Fortunately, I have two back up pairs. Where could they be? I'm guessing somewhere outside - orchard? vegetable main area? blackberries? lost in the weird rose bush? If I didn't know better Xena might have eaten them. I searched but they didn't turn up. The back up pairs will have to do. We don't have health insurance, much less eye care insurance.

 

Secondly, Rusty had to have his teeth cleaned. This was some major procedure to the tune of $300 +. It required him being put under and spending most of the day at the vet. On the positive side, he didn't have to have any extractions and he did fine with the drugs. We'll be doing without a couple of non-essentials for the next month or so to pay for it. He's worth it. After all, he is the smartest dog in the world!

 

Hula on the Farm

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Red and gold seed potatoes

I'm sure you've heard enough from me about the wind and dust of Paulden. Most of the time, I accept it. Not much else I can do. And most of the time the wind doesn't bother me, but I'll never embrace the dust. Now and then something rides with the wind that really bothers me. Today my eyes are burning so bad I'm  having trouble focusing on the computer screen. Too bad the cucumbers haven't come up yet because I understand they're good for the eyes - used on the outside.

Tomatoes still in trays

We got the seed potatoes a few days ago, red and golden. They are sunning by the living room window until they go in the ground next week. Learning how to grow potatoes was one of those REALLY? moments for me. I would never have thought they came from those little root things that pop out on them when they start going bad in your cupboard. We mail-ordered the sweet potato slips as we can't get them locally. Same process. Lance's potato rows are 115 feet long. I think we'll have a few potatoes.

Setting up tomato trellis

We're experimenting with three different ways to grow pickling cucumbers. We intend on  making a lot of pickles and relish. Cash crop. They vine and Lance wanted to experiment on which method will have them climbing the best.

Last year, we planted a lot of rows of tomatoes and we let them grow helter skelter with total abandon. That was wild and not too easy to harvest. And remember that wind? If you were reading last year, you'll remember the tangled mess we had after one big blow. This year, we'll train those vines.

Peas are popping!

A few rows of seeds are in the ground. This year's improvement of a drip system is working great so far although it does not cure the weed problem entirely. We aren't getting the uncontrollable amount of weeds between rows from flooding. But the rows themselves have hundreds of tiny weeds popping up. Trouble is at this point it's nearly impossible to tell the veggies
from the weeds. Once we can tell, we'll hula hoe those little suckers right

Hula Hoe

away. The hula hoe is like the greatest tool. You can clear tons of weeds and not have to hand pick for hours. Just scrape it over dry ground and voila! Weed-be-gone.






Remember I put out a Quarterly Newsletter about my writing and books. If you'd like to receive it via email and have a chance to win gift cards in July and September, go here to join: http://www.brendawhiteside.com/contact.html#newsletter 

Pickles, Pines, Pretty Baby

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Trellis for the cumcumbers

I strolled around the orchard, main garden and blackberry rows today making notes of what I could take care of over the next ten days or so. My disappointment spiked in the orchard. In May, last year, we had golf ball sized pears on the trees. There is not even a hint of fruit. They bloomed too early and the frost and heavy winds never gave them a chance. A couple of the apple trees show promise. Time will tell.

And it's time to start weeding.




The greenhouse is still not 100% in use. The trays of plants are there in the daytime but at night all trays except the onions are moved into the garage. Tonight and tomorrow night it will dip into the twenties. We happen to be in a cold spot. Last year, we noticed that several times we got frost when the forecast said we'd be okay. Paulden is too small to have our own weather station so we rely on the readings from the south end of Chino Valley, which can't be more than ten or twelve miles away. We bought a gauge that holds the lowest temp in the last twelve hours and discovered we run eight to ten degrees colder than the forecast. That is huge for our baby veggies. The garage is warmer so every night Lance has been carrying the trays to their warm station.

Tonto Creek behind the resort

Ponderosa Pine

Another money saver tip for you - sign up for emails from Amazon Local Deals or some other such site like Groupon or Crowdcut. Frank and I just spent two nights at Kohl's Ranch Resort in the pines outside of Payson, Arizona. This is a beautiful resort with full amenities. We got two nights and $25 toward dinner for $129. You
can get deals on everything from painting your house to doughnuts to resort discounts. I get emails daily and of course have to delete them but once in a while something pops up that saves us big time.

My hair is the longest it's been in many years - as a result of ratcheting down the finances. I've been using the local beauty school but even so on an infrequent basis. And less frequently of late because I'm saving to go to my hair lady in Phoenix. I figure twice a year I'll get a consistent cut and color. This next week I'll combine a trip to see my mom, attend a writers' conference and get my hair done. Not a huge thing to report but I did say I'd share the nitty gritty/pros and cons of this experiment. Getting my hair done on a regular basis was a casualty. The plus side is I rather like my hair long again.

Sadi Belle

Something else that is growing besides my hair and the veggies is my granddaughter. She is two months old and amazing. She now smiles frequently, recognizes if someone is a stranger and grabs for her favorite bear. Every morning, I can hear her at the other end of the house "talking" to her bear. She has a voice that carries like her singer-daddy.

Here's a final thought for you - where can you see a thirty-some year old lady in a green tutu and flip flops, a seventy-some year old man in army fatigue pants and Grateful dead tee shirt and a cowboy with long white hair who has a German accent? No not Walmart but certainly at the Paulden Post Office.

Ten Degrees and You Want Me To What?

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

What's left of the punching bag Lance worked out on

Unbelievably cold temps lately. Frank and I moved in last January, and I know for sure it never got this cold. I look out at the orchard and wonder how on earth those trees stay alive. They certainly look dead. The grass in the yard crunches under my shoes in the early morning - can't be good for it. The empty garden is so sad looking  with the cold lumpy dirt.

Meanwhile, keeping active this time of year is more difficult. Some of us have more ambition than others. We have equipment on the back porch but I can't bring myself to brave the cold to lift weights. My fingers are getting more workout on the laptop. Does that count? I painted most of the wood trim today. I'm counting that since my back is feeling the pain.

We've sent off the proposed plan to get a quote for the watering system we plan to have in the spring. Last year we operated on the flooding system. Crops were planted in raised rows and the trenches on either side were flooded. This causes massive amounts of weeds in the trenches and was near impossible to keep up with. The new system would be flat hoses that have holes. The flat hoses can be buried under the soil on each side of the plants. No raised rows needed. The water would go more directly to the plants and should help the weed problem. In addition, plastic can be laid where the plants are not. I had the job of primary weeder so I'm rooting for this new plan.

Our crops will be fewer this year. For our own consumption, we're only planting what we like to eat. No corn this year, not as many patty pan, no cauliflower or leeks. We found some veggies produce so much per plant that we won't need as many. So far (seeds not bought yet) it looks like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, patty pan, butternut squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, cucumbers, radish and a variety of herbs. For commercial purposes, we're concentrating on one crop. Frank and Lance are the leads on that. When it's all in place, I'll unveil the great plan!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Sadie's first toy

While Frank and I were away on the weekend for my high school reunion in Phoenix and a lunch out on Sunday, Lance combed the fields for the last of many of the veggies. But he also said that if we don't get another freeze for a week or so, we could have a few more. And some of them actually like cold weather. We had a freeze Friday night which wiped out the last of all the squash and okra. It also damaged tomato plants but they're about done anyway. Today he'll get the remaining cherry tomatoes and large green tomatoes off. The peppers are done.

End of season ugly cabbage

These final harvested veggies aren't pretty. They're survivors, and I'm sure they still have plenty of nutrition.

We might see more cabbage and broccoli. The Brussels sprouts are just now sprouting. In fact, I'd forgotten we had planted them. I walk by them all the time but they look a lot like cabbage plants. I thought they were duds - no heads forming. Now I find out I should've pinched them back from the beginning to encourage side chutes. They have one main trunk with lots of little nubs showing, so here's hoping.

Relish, pickles, peppers, green sauce

Our freezer is full and the canned food has spilled out of the pantry and now lines the tops of the kitchen cabinets. This winter will be fun every time we try a new jar!
We bought a flame throwing thing to help with clean up and weeding. With Frank's discount at Home Depot, it was only $45 and will be well worth the expense. Some of our weeds are small trees. We'll scorch some of them then Lance will till back into the soil. Compost!

The high school reunion was fun. My closest friends from those days were not there; two of them are deceased. But I recognized a lot of faces - although some I had to look at the faces on their name tags. I had a lot of acquaintances in high school, never fit with any one group, so I knew a few people from all the different clicks. Although I enjoyed those years, I would NEVER want to go back. We stayed at my mom's in Sun City. Friends took us to lunch on Sunday for Frank's birthday next weekend. It was beautiful eating on the patio of Dillon's on Lake Pleasant. Great weekend.

The clutch on the chevy is shot. We have an appointment to take it in on Wednesday. $700. I practically cried. Lance and Christie sold their old clunker a few weeks ago so we are sharing our two vehicles until they get another. Which means they will pay half the clutch cost, but still... A bit of a set back for some other needed things around here.

Have you ever sold gold? I just did. I have, no had now, a gold charm bracelet that my mother-in-law put together for me of all the highlights of my life at that point in time. But I never wear it, and she is gone. So I sold it. I can't use the money to fix the car. We already had it earmarked for the back up pump on our well which is even more expensive than the car expense. If we were to lose electricity for any length of time, we wouldn't have water. Hate spending money on something 'just in case' but farmer Lance is pretty adamant about this.

On the brightest side - Christie's tummy is growing. My granddaughter is now active and making herself known. They're calling her Sadie Belladonna. Sadie Bell for short. I saw a rocking horse that makes noises when you touch the ear. I wanted to buy it so bad but seemed foolish to buy something that wouldn't get used for about three years, so I walked away from it. Ha. Went back the next day and got it. It'll look great just sitting in a corner of the nursery waiting for Sadie Bell to climb on. Next year will be a ton of fun!

Death to the Weeds! #36

The weed killer suited for battle

Between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, our family has experienced nearly all of the major life milestones. We've had a wedding, a funeral, two births-to-come announcements and a wedding announcement not to mention someone turned the big 6-0. One weekend we had a wedding one day and a funeral the next. That was an emotional roller coaster of a weekend.

Squash

Our garden is a microcosm of life in the same time period. We've had births, deaths and yesterday I got to experience what I would call a wedding. Or maybe the wedding night. A bee dipped into one flower and dispersed his bounty in another. The pollen is the wedding ring? At any rate, in the end we'll have butternut squash to show for the ceremony.

I've been the messenger of death lately - or actually the hand of death. Waging war against weeds is an endless effort, and today I got serious. I took the weed eater to the garden. The heck with hand-pulling in this heat. The weeds are taking over, and I couldn't let that happen. I sliced them off at the ankle. And if they reappear, I can now deal with them a few at a time.

Rusty enjoys a roll in the grass

Next year, we have a better plan that should eliminate a good part of our weed problem. All those lovely rows make for a beautiful home for weeds down in the troughs where we flood. A few vegetables, like potatoes and onions, may still need mounds but the rest can grow on flat ground. Then we buy these flat hose things with little holes that lie on each side of the plants and water the plants directly. They aren't very expensive but we'll  have to wait until next planting season for that investment. Quite frankly, I can't do another year of this kind of weeding.