Funny Vegetables

Check out this monster tomato!! It was the highlight of my morning. I've been canning for 12 hours now! Luckily, I'm done with the hard part. Now I can sit back and relax and just switch out the canner every so often. Yahoo!


These are my pitiful little onions...I'm still not sure exactly why they flowered instead of growing. They are so cute that I almost don't mind except that they're already gone! Don't they look almost like little purple light bulbs?

Onion Confusion

I planted onions in the spring...

So apparently I've been having a blond moment for the last several weeks now. I've been excited to collect seed from whatever garden plants I can. My onions sent up nice big flowers that now have thousands of seeds in them. I thought great, yippee, I get to save some onion seed. Ummm, no. Well, yes, I get some onion seeds. But no freakin' onions!! I pulled them up today and the aren't much bigger than the sets I planted.
Duh, I guess I should have thought about that. Apparently onions are not supposed to flower in their first year and if they do the bulbs will be very small. The bulbs also won't store well since they have been pierced where the flower stalk pushed up. The only explanation I can find for this is extreme temperature fluctuations during the growing seasons. Yep, we've got that going on here in Michigan.
So what do you think? Has this happened to you? Am I missing something? Is this more likely to happen when you grow from onion sets? I'm so bummed.

Sunday Stroll: Garden Update

I have been taking a stroll around my yard every morning and evening lately. There is a lot of activity to keep up with! All of these pictures are from the garden today. I thought I would combine the garden update and Sunday Stroll this week to keep things simple. Plus, I have a lot of other things to post about this coming week.

Potatoes are finally up! Yay!!

I have picked and picked, eaten and shared, and yet till - the asparagus is going to seed.

The first row of peas is really growing. The second row is up and about 1-2" tall.

My little bitty lettuce. This was one of the first things I planted. It is growing very slowly but I'm just glad it lived.

The onions have doing great all along.

The garlic is huge!

I saved the best for last. Check out the blossoms on our new pear tree! This is the one that I just planted a few weeks ago. The pear tree that I planted last year has a lot more leaves but no blossoms yet. I can see this little blossoming tree from my window.

See who else is strolling on Sunday over at Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll... Sort of

I just really didn't feel like doing much today. Yesterday Brian cut up our old rabbit cage so I could have 2 pieces of plywood for our new farm sign. I painted them this morning. Then we went to breakfast with Brian's Grandpa. I'm pretty sure he turned 93 this year! After breakfast I put on a second coat of paint. We watched King Corn. I was really disappointed! I guess it might make a bigger impact on people who don't farm but it really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I was hoping the film would help Brian to see why corn in everything is a bad thing, but it wasn't too convincing.

After the movie Brian worked out in the shop for awhile. It was pretty rainy and cold today so I didn't go out. I've been working on our website like crazy and it is almost done!! Get ready, I'm going to want everyone's opinions of it once it is done! :) Then I worked on tracing our logo on to the farm sign. I've got one piece almost done, then I can paint it. Anyway, since I'd really like to get back in to Sunday Strolls, I have some garden pictures to share from this week, plus one that shows where I've spent most of my day!

The garlic is getting so tall!


The onions are coming up!


I have been so tempted to snap off a piece of asparagus to taste...


The peas are coming up. I really thought they wouldn't make it since I planted them so early. I'm glad they did!


This is where the cat and I have been, and I think I'm heading back there...


Head over to Quiet Country House to see who else is strolling today.

Planting Onions!

This should by no means be taken as a tutorial since I am planting onions this year for the very first time. I wasn't even going to post about it until I saw that little paper bag sitting next to the freshly planted row and thought what a cute picture that would make.

We don't eat many onions, just a few in casseroles and such, so I probably didn't need to plant any. Our good friend Rob shared some of his last year and is growing plenty again this year. These ones just caught my eye in line at the feed store so I picked up a couple bags. I figure it can't hurt to learn a new skill.

The paper that came with the onion sets had decent directions: plant 2-3" apart just deep enough to cover the tops in rows 12" apart. Thin later to 4" apart, then harvest in July or August when tops dry and fall over. I pretty much followed the directions except went about 4" apart right from the start. I've never been one to "thin" plants out, I just can't bring myself to pull up the little buggers just when they get going.

While out in the garden I also cut away the old asparagus stalks from last year and trimmed back some of the old strawberries too. My favorite part of last summer was spending a few hours in the garden each morning before work. It has been so nice to be out there again the last few days.

I was thrilled that today was nice enough to plant without getting hypothermia. I put in one row of lettuce and one row of sugar peas on Monday and thought my fingers were going to fall off. Only in Michigan do you have to hoe through the snow to get your seeds in at a decent time.

Have you ever grown onions? Did you start with sets or seeds? I tried seeds indoors last year but none of the seeds I started then did any good. What are you planting? Are you getting back in to a routine that includes garden "chores"?

How Do You Start Your Seedlings?

I am happy to be back to blogging after the holiday. I meant to leave a more upbeat post up over Christmas but have been having a lot of trouble with my internet connection and therefore gave up. I have some nice Christmas pics to post and I'd like to share what gifts we gave this year, as well as some nice things we received.

Today, though, I would like to discuss something that has been on my mind a lot, and apparently on others too. Let's talk about garden plans! The latest edition of Hobby Farms is full of tips and tricks for garden planning. Sharon Astyk posted awhile back about signs of a possible seed shortage so I sorted through what was left of last year's seeds and made my list for this year.

I order my seeds almost exclusively through Baker Creek Seed Co. at rareseeds.com. They are a great company to deal with and produce a wonderful catalog chuck full of good information. The real reason I prefer them is because they care so much about seed integrity and I trust them. Frankly, I don't have to time or the knowledge to sort through other catalogs and pick out the seeds that are non-GMO, "safe", etc. I have some basic knowledge of those concepts but feel good ordering there until I take time to expand my knowledge.

I did have a lot of seeds left from last year. Not because I wanted to but because the first batch of seedlings I started didn't do very well so I gave up on a lot of the plants that require early starting. Last year I used black plastic trays and a mix of peat, vermiculite, and perlite. I planted the seeds as directed and kept the soil moist. The trays sat on a big table near our cornstove so they were very warm. Then when the plants emerged I moved them upstairs to our bay window. The temperature was quite a bit cooler but they needed the light. I tried to rotate the trays regularly to prevent the seedlings from growing crooked but they got very spindly and almost none lived once I moved them outside.

I checked with the hometown greenhouse but the owner doesn't have any room to start veggies for me, she uses all her space for flowers. Last year I bought a flat of tomato seedlings and they produced well but they were definitely no heirloom variety. This makes me think there may be a market for any extra seedlings I produced.

I've looked at growing setups in catalogs and they all seem to be quite expensive. I've heard of people using those long tube lights (forgive me I forget the correct name for them!). Should I invest in some of those or look into a small greenhouse? I would love to hear what works for you! I'm not necessarily opposed to buy seedlings I just haven't found a local source of the types I want.

Keep in mind I'm in Michigan so I don't plant much outside until May or June. Tomatoes are my main concern, and last year I remember trying some broccoli and onions so we could have an early supply of them.

One Day Weekend

After interning Friday and Saturday and picking up an afternoon shift driving carriages on Sunday, I was very ready for Monday to arrive. It seems kind of sad to me that more people don't recognize what Memorial Day is really about. I am proud of my relatives that fought for this country and when we have kids I want to take time and explain to them how important that is.

This year we didn't do anything special and like of lot of other people we took advantage of an extra day off to get a lot done around the farm. Here is a before picture of a little spot on our sideyard. There are a few big pine trees along with some large rocks and our Centennial Farm sign sits right in front, facing the road. Our garden ends just a few feet to the left of this picture. I needed a good place to plant my raspberry bushes and since this area needed a little sprucing up I decided to "kill two birds with one stone".

We don't have any hedge trimmers (I added them to the wedding registry list ;) ) so I used a hand saw and hacked off all the dead and hanging branches. I moved that rotting log and dug up a nice area for the bushes. I avoided most of the tree roots and was able to dig 8-12 inches deep. I had purchased 3 Everbearing Heritage bushes and some friends gave me a lot of "suckers" from their patch. They don't know what kind they are since they got them from a friend as well but their patch produces a bounty of large berries every year so I wasn't about to turn down their offer. Several of the plants probably won't make it due to root damage while digging them up so I planted them closer than normal. I mulched all around them with straw and watered them well.

The results is quite pleasing to look at, especially compared to what was there before. I also had yet to plant my 25 Strawberry plants. I found a great wooden barrel at an auction that I wanted to use for strawberries but that was a bigger project than I wanted for one day so I picked another spot. I can always buy more plants for the barrel later. When we first moved in there were overgrown bushes 10-20' out around the front porch. While pulling them out Brian found this great iron pot. Since it is still sitting in our front yard I thought it was as good a place as any to put strawberries. I planted them in a circle and mulched them with straw. Eventually we will move this pot and possibly even hang it. It should be a pretty sight with berries spreading out over the sides. I also planted some onions that I had started indoors and some carrot seeds.

I went back out tonight and covered everything with thick blanket of straw since, of course, they're calling for a hard frost tonight. Yesterday was 86 degrees and humid, today is 50-55ish and windy. I guess that's what we get for living in Michigan!

I ordered a couple books the other day and the first one arrived today. It is "Day Range Poultry" by Andy Lee. I'll report on it in a later post, sounds like a good night to cuddle up with the dogs and a big blanket and tear in to it!