More Learnin'

Last week, I went up to my long lost cousins home, and we made our tomato basil soup, mostly made from ingredients from our gardens. It was delicious! I brought enough home for 6 full meals. While up there, Cousin L (I never know if I should put people's names into these things... is there a privacy issue?? Comments are welcome on this point!) introduced me to a fellow farmer. This was one of the most fasinating people I have ever met! He does organic gardening, and was the first person to introduce CSA to the Island, way back when. He gave me an amazing tour, and showed me different techniques for doing my gardens... now I'll have to rethink alot of what I had planned! and how he gets all his compost- he just calls up all the local landscapers and arbourists in the area, and they just come by and drop off all their compost for him. They get rid of it faster and cheaper, and he gets free compost! It's so simple... why didn't I think of that?? lol! He also gave me some Jerusalem Artichoke to plant in my garden for harvest next year. The whole gist of these ramblings is that I learned ALOT, I met someone who is successful at doing what I want to do, and it got me hugely revved up for doing my gardens this next year. I was revved up anyway, but now it's at super-revved status! I ran home, planted another bed of garlic, got a bed prepared for the JA, and started making new and improved plans for my little farm. Tomorrow, I plan on getting over my shyness issues, and want to start calling landscapers in the area, let them know I am a convenient drop off spot for their garden waste.

We had a really, really sharp frost the other night that knocked off my peas. I knew it was a long shot with them, and they were SO close to being ready. Next year I will have my timing down, and I will get a good fall crop. It's not a total waste, anyway- I got lots of yummy pea shoots from it, plus the foliage can either feed the chickens and turkeys, or make good compost. Either is a good thing!

I have pretty much decided not to do pigs next year. I want to put all my energies into my gardens, so I think the piggies will have to wait until the year after. At least there is no shortage of things to do around here!

I have been doing some layering with the cascade berries I was given last fall. I only had 3 plants by the end, but now I am getting my numbers back up. I've got about 6 plants now, and by spring, that should almost double. I hope to be able to get some more beds ready by then, so I can really work on expanding the berry patch. I am going to do the same with my thornless blackberry, so I won't have to buy any more plants... I'll just make my own.