Bees and Earwigs

March 16, 2016 Elizabeth Boegel

I wasn't feeling hot today, so I stayed home from work - I haven't had a sick day in a long time, and while it's never fun to be sick, it IS fun to be at home unexpectedly. I got a lot done. I'm not good at resting; I did watch an hour of TV and read a little. But mostly I puttered. I made a black-bottomed banana cream pie for a co-workers birthday, and brownies for the kids. I got bolognese sauce going early on and between all the chocolate and the tomato sauce, the house has smelled good all day. It's sunny and about 75 degrees. Something hard to ignore was all the bee activity in the yard. Big native bees, tiny native bees, and honey bees from the hive. All swirling and buzzing and foraging.

I saw some honey bees taking their first flight outside the hive, so the colony is definitely growing, hooray! We'll need to open it up and take a look this weekend.

But I didn't just gape at the bees. I also WENT TO WAR. Those damn earwigs. They are eating everything! Here are my battle tools:

I got everything on sale, and this was the cheapest olive oil I could find. Everything I read online said to use olive oil, so I went with that instead of something cheaper, but in hindsight, I can't imagine that olive oil is the only oil you could use - the point is just to drown the suckers. I buried the bowls in the dirt, so that they are flush - three to each 4x8 bed. Then I added a layer of oil, a dollop of molasses, and a glug of soy sauce. I'll take a picture in the morning and show you the results. I'm hoping for mass destruction.

a bowl near the spinach. most of my greens are full of holes, this patch isn't awful.

At this point, the greens with large leaves are going to the chickens (we're still eating the young, tender leaves), so it's no big deal if the earwigs eat them. What concerns me is that they are making babies, and every time I disturb the dirt, I notice masses of them. I don't want them here when I begin summer planting in a month. This is a preventative measure for the summer crops.

I'm feeling slightly better, so back to work tomorrow, but my mind will be with the bees, flying in the flowers!

Weekend Away at The Apple Farm

March 13, 2016 Elizabeth Boegel

On Friday, I promised you tales of a grand adventure. I can deliver on that promise! Tom and I took the weekend away, leaving the kids and the dog in the care of my folks, and spent a "Stay and Cook" weekend in Philo at The Apple Farm.

an ornamental apple tree in the farm's flower garden

The farm is located in the Anderson Valley, a forty-mile stretch of hilly land between Highway 101 and Highway 1, on Highway 128. Many folks take this road from our neck of the woods en route to Mendocino. But Anderson Valley is a good trip in its own right; full of good food, wineries, fun shops, and an excellent State Park, Hendy Woods.

Wild chamomile was prolific all over the side of the road

When I was in my 20's, I used to take this drive all the time. When Tom and I got married, we came to the Anderson Valley to buy our wedding sparkling wine from Roederer Estate. We came up here with the kids and my folks several years ago to camp at Hendy Woods and ride the Skunk Train.

On that camping trip, we stopped to buy apples and juice at The Apple Farm's fruit stand. They had a lovely pink apple I had never tried before, the Pink Pearl. It was crisp and sweet and perfect, and that apple stuck in my memory.

This apple tree seems to be looking back at us!

Fast forward to my birthday of this year, a couple of months ago. Tom surprised me with a wonderful trip to this same farm. He had remembered, too, and thought to check out if we could stay there. He booked us on a 'cook and stay' weekend, which meant we would stay in one of the cabins, and cook three delicious meals in the wonderful kitchen, with the owners, Karen and Tim.

We took the day off Friday and drove up in pouring rain, stopping for a delightful Cuban sandwich in Windsor at Rumba Cuban Kitchen. By the time we got to the farm at 3, the skies had cleared, and after getting settled, we immediately went for a walk through the orchard. We were sure glad we took the opportunity, because it started raining again that evening and didn't stop the entire weekend.

What an incredible farm. Tim grows over 80 different varieties of apples, along with other fruit trees. Karen keeps a large kitchen garden with plenty of veg and herbs, and there are flowers all over the property. At the moment, they have sheep and goats, ducks and chickens, and several farm dogs.

The acreage is bordered by a small, unnamed creek on one side ("some people call it Bitter Creek," Karen told us) and the extremely swollen-at-the-moment Navarro River, which runs all the way down to the Pacific Ocean.

We very much enjoyed our walk around the property, throwing sticks for the dogs and checking out the flowers growing everywhere.

That night, we had a truly memorable dinner at The Boonville Hotel, which is owned by Karen's brother. After that meal, it was up to us to cook and create Karen's menu for the weekend.

We had a terrific time learning from Karen and her helpers in the kitchen, as well as from the other couples (there were two) that were cooking with us. Karen's family owned, among other restaurants, the French Laundry before Thomas Keller, so she was an excellent teacher and we learned so much from her. I was glad that Tom and I had some pretty extensive cooking experience going in, but it was clear that you didn't need that to succeed over the weekend. Beginners are also quite welcome.

the kitchen, as we were gearing up the first morning

We used many ingredients from the farm itself, as well as local meats and dairy. It was very much a farm-to-table experience as well as a great lesson in locavore eating. We went hoping to learn how to use or preserve some of the excess in our own garden, and perhaps pick up some fancy (and practical!) techniques that would help us in our cooking going forward. We learned all of these things.

There was also plenty of time to get to know the other couples and the owners of the farm. Tim was supposed to take us on an 'official' farm tour, but since it was raining so hard, we just sat and talked about the farm and his operation. It was fascinating.

chopping produce was always a group effort

I don't have to tell you, the meals were excellent. I mean, mind-blowingly good. Karen showed us how to make the most out of our garden herbs to extract fabulous flavor. We used the farm's homemade vinegar and juice constantly. Tim served local Navarro wines with every meal, as well as the farm's own hard cider.

We also had plenty of TV-and-computer-free time in our bright and cheerful room, snuggled under duvets, reading books, with the fireplace on, listening to the rain on the roof.

We loved our weekend, cooking, eating, exploring the beautiful farm. I hope we get to come back someday.

Driving home, we wondered how things had fared flood-wise at our little homestead. Sure enough, we came back to extensive standing water in the back yard, and some water in the garage. The experts say the drought isn't over, but I'm guessing we've had a good dent in it, anyway. I made a mistake leaving the tomato and pepper seedlings outside while we were gone, as the forecast was for a little rain and a little sun. They look pretty droopy, but I'm hoping a few days in the sun will perk them up. (We're supposed to have five clear days before the next storm.) I took a short, wet tour of our garden just to make sure everything was ok, and I was given a gift, near the kale.

This is a 'bird's nest fungus,' which I have always hoped to see in our garden, but never have. These are all over right now. Aren't they fabulous and strange?

There's broccoli to pick, as well as shelling peas, carrots and beets, and of course the ever-present greens. I have a heeled-in Asian pear waiting for planting along with 10 lavender plants, two rhubarb crowns, and two lemon verbena plants. Oh yeah, and don't forget 50 plugs of herbs! And before that gets done, three cubic yards of dirt needs to be wheelbarrowed over to the new beds. It's a good thing the weather is supposed to clear up.

the frog friend we found on our steps outside the cabin

It was a wonderful weekend. Here's to vacation!!! And thanks so much to The Apple Farm for a really incredible experience.

Hops Arrive

March 11, 2016 Elizabeth Boegel

The other three sets of hops arrived!

Tom planted some Cascade hops a few weeks ago in one planter, and he ordered some more because it's the hop he uses most in his recipes. Then we've got Centennial and Northern Brewer. We'll see how they all do! We'll have far more hops than we need, but as I've said before, there is some evidence that the pollen from hop flowers prevents varroa mites in honeybees. So we're not just growing hops for the beer.

In other news, I'm going to battle. My foe? Earwigs.

They are eating everything in my garden; it's become not just a nuisance, but a massive problem. I'm going to put out black plastic bowls filled with oil, molasses, and soy sauce, buried in the soil and flush with the surface. Apparently this catches earwigs by the hundreds. I'm going to put three bowls in every raised bed. I'll let you know how that works. Hopefully I'll have lots of dead evidence to show you after a few days. (Do you think the chickens would eat dead earwigs soaked in soy sauce?)

Meanwhile, Tom and I have something exciting planned. I can't tell you about it yet, but I promise to update you before the end of the weekend. It involves food, cooking, farm produce, and probably a hike or two. Stay tuned!

I'll leave you with a lovely picture of some California native wildflowers I found in a local park. Someone thoughtful (the Native Plant Society?) scattered these seeds last fall. I love Baby Blue Eyes.

By the way, it's still raining! Putting a dent in our drought....

Hop Trellis

March 6, 2016 Elizabeth Boegel

We had a brief respite from rain today. This meant I could get all my outdoor chores done - shoveling mulch out from inside the new raised beds, cleaning and storing the birdfeeders for the summer, and getting some flower seeds in the pollinator gardens.

The Western Redbud tree is blooming.

And the chard sure looks fine with the sun shining through. Plus ladybug.

But the real project of the day was getting the trellis built for the hops. The Cascade rhizomes we got from Ruby at IUH are already sprouting.

Tiny, but they'll grow fast, and will need something to grow on. Tom built four beautiful redwood planters to hold the rhizomes; three more kinds of hops are coming this week. The planters were expensive but will be used forever, for something else if the hop project fails. The trellis is made of 10 foot lengths of 3/4" electrical conduit which was extremely cheap. The trellis is attached to the foot of each planter. It's very, very tall.

I've ordered special twine made of jute for stringing up and over the trellis. We'll get that done next weekend. Then, in theory, the hops will grow up and over, making a nice shade canopy for our outdoor dining room on hot summer days!

As we were working on this project, I noticed that some of the tomato seedlings were drooping a bit. So I found some lengths of old wire that I saved when we made the chicken coop, and I fashioned tiny holders for them, so that the leaves won't ever touch the soil. Many tomato diseases are soil-borne.

A pork shoulder has been in the smoker since this morning, and bread got baked, as usual. It made an excellent lunch, slathered with grass-fed cow butter.

Look at that crumb! So light, and yet you can see all the good bran in there. Healthy and delicious! I'm getting better at bread baking each week.

A Spring Frittata

March 5, 2016 Elizabeth Boegel

It's raining!

I can feel the whole garden growing.

The broccoli is tall, but heading poorly. I'm thinking it's because I started it too late in the season. Anyway, I decided to cut off some of the blossoms, and pick some other veg, and make a Spring Frittata for lunch.

It's delightful to be harvesting out of the raised beds again. Baby turnips, for slicing and eating raw, nearly every day. Greens every day for sure, both for us and the chickens. (The heads of lettuce are filled with tiny slugs and earwigs - I tend to give those to the chickens, who love some protein with their veg. Luckily the kale, chard, and spinach is bug free, for now.) And now shelling peas, getting plumper every day, filling the trellis. I harvested another single asparagus stalk and took it to work to share with the kids. I don't think they liked it much.

I'll saute the veg in some olive oil, add plenty of fresh eggs, salt and pepper, dash of cream, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. With the heel of last week's sourdough, it'll be a delicious lunch.

We have a long list of outdoor chores to get to, but until the rain stops (and we hope it goes on for a long, long time), those will be on hold. We need to get the trellis for the hops built, as the ones already planted are coming up, and three more kinds are on order and will be shipped to us this week. I need to dig mulch out of the new raised beds to prepare them for the soil mix that is being delivered Monday afternoon. The Hosui Asian Pear I ordered will arrive this week and will need to be planted in one of those beds, as well as some rhubarb and lemon verbena, also arriving this coming week. I found a resource for local lavender; Mountain Valley Growers are sending me twelve plants this week, too. I have 50 herb starts going under the indoor lamp that will go in those beds, everything from Thyme to Savory, and they've all sprouted. So it might just be that I'm doing outdoor chores in the rain, whether I like it or not.

That's ok, it's fun to be busy in the garden and have lots to do. Makes me eager for summer and the bounty we'll have then. My tomato and pepper seedlings are spending the day indoors, as well.

We've begun saving egg shells for tomato planting. I plan to put a dozen crushed eggshells around the rootball of each tomato plant, to help with blossom-end rot, which we had a lot of last year. My Epsom salt rescue came too late to fix the problem. Besides, we have no lack of eggshells here. Every time this bowl holds 12 (or 24 halves), I crush them and put them in a small container, then in the freezer. I'll be planting 12 tomato plants, so I need a minimum of 12 dozen eggshells. It wouldn't hurt to add eggshells to the pepper plants, too.

Rhode Island Red, Easter Egger, and Plymouth Barred Rock eggshells

The calcium helps with the uptake and regulation of water in the tomato plants, and we could really use help with that, in our drought-starved area. I read a wonderful post by Garden Betty (also a Californian, though Southern) about how she prepares her beds for tomato plants, and was surprised to see that she adds a fish head to each hole. I'd love to do that, but I'd have Joe the dog and Tasha the cat (not to mention dozens of local raccoons, skunks, and coyotes) digging up my precious plants. So I'll skip that step. However I will follow her idea of spraying the leaves with dissolved aspirin tablets. I am also toying with the idea of using the Florida weave for trellising my tomatoes, rather than making new cages. I'll keep you updated, of course. All of this is just dreamy dreaming right now, but in a month, it'll be time to get these babies in the ground.

I've also spent some time re-doing the summer garden plan, but I'll share that with you when it's closer to planting time.

Happy Saturday! Happy March!