Sec. of Agriculture

Michael Pollan for Secretary of Agriculture!

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Posty, posty

OK, I know…three posts in a day…odd.  I’ve been very, very busy and I’m sorry to say that my blogging has gone by the wayside.  However, that doesn’t mean I’ve not been doing anything.

I am working on some upcoming posts for the next couple of weeks.  They include:

-Finally planting my garlic!  Yes!  I really, finally did it!

-Suprprising generosity from a fellow blogger

-My “root cellar”

-A recap of my growing season this year

So, you know, stay tuned!

*blushes*

Oh, y’all!  I got a blog award!  My very first.

 

Thank you so very, very much to Children in the Corn  (which is a blog I LOVE!) for falling for me!

Dear Gods of Weather

Please do not take your wintry vengence upon me.  I see you punishing my fellow bloggers, but I don’t know why!

What do I need to sacrifice to you to assure me of warm weather and no snow?  I don’t think I can take flurries just yet.  Please wait until December at least!

I don’t want to end up like these guys!

The seeds are off!

OK, Howling Hill!  I’m sorry to say that I missed my two week deadline by 1 day, but I did finally mail the seeds off today at lunch. 

Here’s what I took:

1 complete packet of Dill

1 complete bag of Cannelinni beans

And then about 20 seeeds each of:

Okra

Kandy King Corn

Black Turtle Beans

Here’s what I put in:

A big bag of Egyptian (Walking) Onions

White Cleome (what I call “firecracker flowers”  I don’t know the real common name)

An almost full packet of Yellow Crookneck Squash

An almost full packet of Long Island Brussels Sprouts

_____

I’m very excited about the Okra, which I’m skeptical about growing here but I’m sure going to give it a try!  It will be worth it for one small handful of fried okra.  Also, the dill, because we spent a small fortune on dill this year and didn’t make anywhere near the number of pickles that we wanted to make.  Next year I’m dill pickling EVERYTHING! 

Now my seeds are off to Allie and Allie’s Answers!  How exciting!  I can’t wait to see what she choose.  Enjoy, Allie!  (PS:  Pick my walking onions, they are AWESOME!)

(Don’t have any idea what I’m talking about?  Why, it’s the seed swap!)

This Historic Moment

Like I said, I’ll keep politics out of this blog, but if you want to know how I, as a historian (did y’all know that I’m a historian?), feel about what happened last night, please check out my personal blog, Tayloropolis.

And there isn’t anything incendiary or aggressive in that post.  So if you’re hurting about the election yesterday, don’t feel like you have to avoid it.  In fact, it’s written mostly for you.

Today’s the day!

Don’t forget to vote!  Pete and I are going today after work.  I’m bracing for long lines!

2 Things:

1.  Don’t forget that tomorrow is Election day!  No excuses!

2.  I’ve started writing a new blog (God help us all!) for my CSA, Colchester Farm.  I’m moderating it, in a way, and doing most of the posting, but we will have ocassional guest posts by the couple that runs it and other volunteers.  I hope you’ll check it out- I think you’ll like it very much:

http://colchesterfarm.wordpress.com

Seed Swap

There were TWO very exciting packages awaiting me in the mailbox this morning.  (Two?  How did I get so lucky?)

The first was three heads of Garlic that I ordered from Seeds of Change.  I now have all of my garlic that I’m going to plant.  I just need to…plant it.  Tomorrow is the day, unless it is too cold, windy, or some other stupid excuse.  No!  Tomorrow I will do it!

The second package was the (drumroll!) package of seeds from Howling Hill’s annual seed exchange!  I think this is a genius idea, which is why I signed up for it, and I’m so thrilled to be a part of it!   Here’s what we do.  One person starts the seed exchange using the leftover seeds from their packets or seeds that they saved this year.  They send it to someone who then takes out whatever seeds they would like to use and replaces the same number with their extra seeds.  That person sends it on to the next person in the list and so on.  Cool huh?

This is especially great for me because I have such a tiny garden that I have no hope of ever using all the seeds I have.  Now I get to expand my own seed collection and share my extras with other people.  It’s really fascinating to see where the seeds are going after me, as well.  They make their way down the East coast all the way to Florida before they head on to Michigan, Kansas, and Washington State and then finally back to HH in New Hampshire.   The rule is that we all have to post a link on our blogs (if we have one) when we get it so that we’ll all be able to track it.

I still haven’t decided what I’m going to take and put in, but it feels so exciting to have new seeds in my house!  I’ll post again to tell you what I took and what I put in and where it’s going next.

Thanks for doing this, HH!  I can’t wait to follow the progress of our seeds!

First Frost

When we got up this morning, there was a thick layer of frost on our cars.   This wasn’t a little rinky-dink frost either, the grass sounded like I was walking on broken glass.   It’s our first one we’ve had so far, though there have been other frosts very close by.  We live on a little hill, so that makes a difference I suppose.  I’ve been anticipating our first frost since October 10th, so I feel like I got 13 extra days. 

Good enough for me!  Two of my green peppers made it to full red and I was able to leave my beans on the vine long enough to get a grocery bag full of mature pods that I’ll shell.  Sadly, none of them made it to full dry, though many of them have leathery, almost dry pods.  I’d like to save some for seed.  Can I let those dry fully off the vine and still use them for seed?  Anyone know?

As of now the only thing I’ve still got in the ground are carrots and Jerusalem Artichokes.  My peas were still bearing as of last night, but that frost may have killed them (it’s pitch black when I leave for work in the morning, so I wasn’t able to check them).  They never really did much anyway.  I think I maybe got 20-30 pods off of them?  Ah well…experiment completed!

My garlic still needs to be planted.  Hopefully I’ll get to that this weekend.