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tOne of the things about living in the North is, fruits and veggies are super expensive. I've decided to grow most of my food by calories and that's led to certain decisions. If I had to grow most of my food by dollar value it would look very different.
In the summer and fall there's a ton of stuff to grow and forage, and in early winter all the pickles and sauerkraut and whatnot is great. By March, though, I get pretty tired of pickled or root veggies. This year I didn't do any microgreens but I did give myself permission to buy, not just veggies, but even whatever fruit I wanted at the store. I don't know if you've ever been poor, but spending $5-7/lb on okra or asparagus or red peppers when they barely have any caloric value is kind of an amazing luxury -- let alone spending $3/artichoke, or buying the expensive organic name brand apples.
But. It's spring. What does that mean? Today will be my first harvest of stinging nettles and dandelions (thank goodness for perennials and how quickly they get going) and the lamb's quarters is up and its seed leaves are almost parted enough to show a first true leaf in the greenhouse.
Today I did more indoor starts: my cucumbers (morden early, boston, and national pickling; suyo long; sweet success; and mideast peace), some poppies (ziar, red corn, hungarian breadseed, blue breadseed) and a couple melons (oka, sweet granite, and blacktail mountain watermelon). The melons are a gamble -- they'll only grow if it's an exceptionally hot year.
Still need to do my summer and winter squash and a couple more melons. Then it's only flowers left to do indoors, I think, except for a continuous half-dozen lettuces per week.
It's looking like we're getting some rain in the next couple days, and not just "40% chance of showers" but actual "rain". I'm working on getting a bunch of roofs up for the pigs in their new field and even some walls. That will keep me pretty busy this evening.
I also want to get some seeds in the ground outside before the rain tomorrow. We'll see if time allows but it would be great if so. My little tiller started up on the second pull after sitting all winter -- I didn't even winterize it! -- and the fence on last year's potato patch is coming along.
It's a good time of year. Now if only I didn't have to go to work in the meantime.
In the summer and fall there's a ton of stuff to grow and forage, and in early winter all the pickles and sauerkraut and whatnot is great. By March, though, I get pretty tired of pickled or root veggies. This year I didn't do any microgreens but I did give myself permission to buy, not just veggies, but even whatever fruit I wanted at the store. I don't know if you've ever been poor, but spending $5-7/lb on okra or asparagus or red peppers when they barely have any caloric value is kind of an amazing luxury -- let alone spending $3/artichoke, or buying the expensive organic name brand apples.
But. It's spring. What does that mean? Today will be my first harvest of stinging nettles and dandelions (thank goodness for perennials and how quickly they get going) and the lamb's quarters is up and its seed leaves are almost parted enough to show a first true leaf in the greenhouse.
Today I did more indoor starts: my cucumbers (morden early, boston, and national pickling; suyo long; sweet success; and mideast peace), some poppies (ziar, red corn, hungarian breadseed, blue breadseed) and a couple melons (oka, sweet granite, and blacktail mountain watermelon). The melons are a gamble -- they'll only grow if it's an exceptionally hot year.
Still need to do my summer and winter squash and a couple more melons. Then it's only flowers left to do indoors, I think, except for a continuous half-dozen lettuces per week.
It's looking like we're getting some rain in the next couple days, and not just "40% chance of showers" but actual "rain". I'm working on getting a bunch of roofs up for the pigs in their new field and even some walls. That will keep me pretty busy this evening.
I also want to get some seeds in the ground outside before the rain tomorrow. We'll see if time allows but it would be great if so. My little tiller started up on the second pull after sitting all winter -- I didn't even winterize it! -- and the fence on last year's potato patch is coming along.
It's a good time of year. Now if only I didn't have to go to work in the meantime.
