Fall Is Here

Wow really my last post was in May?  That’s terrible.  I have a plan to get back on track.  Really this time I mean it!  Thank you for loyal followers sticking around, and for the new followers!

What have I been doing?  Well who knew that starting a business (um, yes, while working full time even though my husband is doing the bulk of the actual work) would take all my time?  Yeah, I know, any of you who have started a business probably could have told me that.  So wild rose cupcakes (and now cakes too) has continued all summer and now into the fall.  We have several orders scheduled for October getting us off to a good start as the Farmer’s Market season comes to an end.   

Here are some of our cupcakes

 

Here is my favorite cake I’ve made so far, a princess cake for a 4 year old, the doll was provided by the customer.

 

What else has been going on?  Well my sister got married and we had a lovely trip to Bellingham for the wedding, and to Oregon to visit family.  Yep we did the wedding cupcakes. 

The garden went totally crazy while we were gone. I really didn't give it the attention I should have this year, maybe because I knew we were going to be out of town during the prime picking time. So chickweed took over, many things bolted, it was kinda ugly.  We are busy digging potatoes, carrots and still need to get the last of the cabbage, kale and swiss chard from the garden before a hard freeze takes everything. 

Yes we are in full fall mode now, the hard frost is just around the corner...

There have been hard frosts near us, but so far it hasn't hit us.  My homegrown, misguided Delphinium finally decided to bloom?  

Finally my tomato update!  Yep we got tomatoes this year!  Ok so they aren't ripe, but there are definitely TOMATOES!  Ok, and so the ones I grew from seed died, and we bought these already started from Hawks Greenhouse, but whatever, we have tomatoes!!  We have taken the tomatoes from the green house and they are hanging in the garage to hopefully ripen.  How do you ripen your green tomatoes?

Our new layers (this is one of our two Delaware), we also have 3 new Ameraucana and they have started to lay cute little eggs.  We have yet to add a few of our older layers to the stew pot, but that will be coming before winter.

 

 

 

 

 

We have been adding to the woodpile, looking forward to our first fire of the year, but then again, that really means winter is coming, so we haven't got the stove going yet.

What's Going On Around Here

Ok, so I'm soooo far behind in my posting, that I'm going to do a picture post of what's going on.

In late March we went to san Antonio for a conference and enjoyed some 80 degree weather while we still had snow on the ground.  I came home April 1 to "break up"

The snow melted fairly quickly, but green up still didn't happen until mid May

Our older chickens are enjoying being out of their coop all day

Last weekend our Bronze Turkeys enjoyed moving from the garage to outdoors

We have a few replacement layers still in the garage, we have 4 Ameraucana and 2 Delaware.  Ameraucana have been our best layers all winter, we have never grown Delaware before.  We didn't hatch any, and we are not doing any chickens for meat this year.  (it refuses to quit writing in italics!)

The Rhubarb is coming up, no sign of the strawberries, apparently they didn't enjoy or -50 this winter.

The starts are being hardened off outdoors.  This could have happened much earlier and they should be in the ground already, but my life has been taken over by cupcakes!!!

Yep Wild Rose Cupcakes is still selling cupcakes at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market. 

The tomatoes did get moved out a couple weeks ago.  We did put some heating coils under the soil to keep it a bit warmer in there, with the intention of getting them out early May, but in reality we didn't need them because they didn't get moved out until mid May and it was plenty warm then.   They look great mostly because they were purchased from a greenhouse.  Mine managed to all die again this year after transplanting the first time.  I don't get it!

Pollinating with an electric toothbrush. 

Well that's a very quick update of the past 2 months!  This weekend our goal is to get the garden beds planted.

Spring! - Sort Of

Even though there's at least a couple feet of packed snow on the ground, more being added on a regular basis, we're still hitting below 0, and even got as cold as -20 for a low last week,  it's still feeling like spring to me around here.  We have a lot more light, it's getting light around 7am and dark around 7 pm, we are above zero during the day (and actually have a temperature difference between the high and low), and IT'S TIME TO START SEEDS!  After a long, cold, white, winter, nothing makes me more happy that to put my hands in the dirt again and see green growing things, even if it's only indoors.

I recently trudged outdoors to retrieve my seed starting trays and packs from the greenhouse. It's always a chore because the greenhouse is in an area where the snow doesn't get packed, luckily my husband had a small trail packed on the way out there, but if I stepped off of it (which I did a couple times) it was over knee deep powdery snow.  He had also shoveled around the door for me so that it could be opened. 

Not a great picture, but there was 2" of ice in the bottom of my trays, freezing all of my containers inside.  I had kept them under my planter and was apparently watering them all summer.  (note to self, put them up on the planters at the end of the season, it would be so much easier to get them later!)

I started some flowers mid February, Delphinium, Columbine, Pansy, Petunia, and Echinacea.   Yesterday I planted several herbs, thyme, basil, dill, cilantro, sage, and oregano.  I also planted several varieties of tomato to go out into the greenhouse.  I started Siletz, Oregon Spring, Early Tanana, Nova, Manitoba, Sungold and Sweetie cherry tomatoes and a few varieties of heirloom slicing tomato seeds I saved from my CSA, I have no idea what the varieties are though.  I grow determinate tomato varieties and early varieties to hopefully get some tomatoes in our short, cool growing season.  I have so far been very unsuccessful with tomatoes, so I'll keep you posted. 

I used a moistened organic seed starting mix, placed into packs of 9 saved from previous years, labeled and covered with plastic wrap. 

Then put them under regular florescent shop light placed 3-4 inches above the plants, lights on heating pads for 1-2 weeks until the starts have emerged, then uncover and remove the heating pad. 

Seed Buying - It's what to do when It's -30 to -40 for days!

What to do on the -40 degree days?  Shop for seeds!

I've hit the seed catalogs.  It's the happiest thing I can think of (well besides dreaming of a trip to Hawaii) when it's been -30 to -40 for days on end.  I'm ready to think of green, growing things!  A girl can dream anyway.  I tend to buy from Denali Seeds because they are for and sold here in Alaska, and Territorial Seeds, which is where I ordered from this year. I actually am trying to keep my seed purchasing to a minimum this year, I have a bunch of seeds leftover from last year when I bought everything new.  I seal them in ziploc sandwich bags, and zip everything in a gallon ziploc bag and keep it in the garage, the coolest part of my house, but heated so it doesn't freeze.

  Tomatoes are the one thing I have yet to get to grow more than 1-2 green ones per year here in AK.  I was hoping that a greenhouse would help, but we had a very cold year and everything was 2 weeks behind, and my greenhouse was taken over by powdery mildew too.  I started them indoors in early March, but over-watered or something and most died and I had to start them again the beginning of April.  I will try a different soil, and water very carefully this year.  I do plan to start them the first couple weeks of March.

A fellow AK blogger at Wild Roots Homestead posted a pic of a bunch of actual tomatoes grown right here in interior alaska, and from last year, when I got nothing.  She recommended some soil treatments and varieties, I wish I could, but cannot find the actual post.  I do remember her saying she has put fish parts under the plants.  I have 19 fish heads in my freezer and I'll definitely give this a try this year.  , she also recommended several varieties of tomatoes.  I cannot remember them all, but found a couple of those I remembered  from Territorial Seeds, Oregon Spring, Siletz, and Sungold cherry tomato.  Last year I grew Manitoba Heriloom tomatoes.  I think those have promise, and did set fruit, maybe in a warmer winter I may get someting.  I also grew Nova and got basically nothing.  I have a few seeds of each left and will try those again.  I also have some seeds I saved from my CSA box that had damaged heirloom tomatoes that I'll give a try.  I have no idea what the variety is. 

So my tomato plan for the year:

• Start seeds early March on a warming seed starting mat 
• Different soils when I re-pot my starts
• Careful watering
• Fish fertalizer until they flower, then will use a blooming fertalizer
• Put out in greenhouse as soon as it is warm enough.  Sadly this is early-mid may at the very soonest.
• Place a fish head under each plant
• To limit powdery mildew I will be very careful to keep the leaves dry and ventilate better.  It was a VERY wet year for us, which is unusual, so a normal year may help. 

I'll keep you posted on my progress.  Does anyone have any other suggestions for me?

Around the Farm

Wow was it only September 7th that I posted it was starting to look fall like around here?  Well the leaves are all gone from the trees, and today we had our first flurries of the year, nothing that stuck though.  It's definitely chilly out there!

My backyard September 7th

My backyard September 30th

We finally got some freezes and I have everything out of the garden and greenhouse.  One more garden season in the books.  One of these days I'll go over what went well and didn't.  It was a late starting season, chilly and wet.  Basically the usual cold season crops, greens, peas, and potatoes did really well.  Any of the marginal items such as tomatoes and pumpkins, not so much....

We've had a freeze, but not even enough to take the sunflowers.  They didn't bloom because I forgot to start them until too late.

The greenhouse could have probably gone a bit longer, if only it wasn't all dead from powdery mildew

The freezers are more than full stuffed with turkeys, chickens, caribou, and salmon and berries.  Not so much with vegetables, they garden just wasn't that great this year, but I'll take the meat!

The wood shed is getting fuller, we need at least a few more trips.  We've had some issues, rain that made the road not passable, a broken chainsaw, and broken 4 wheeler than slowed us down.  

We've been burning wood for the last week, and the house now is feeling cozy and warm again.  I hate hauling the wood, but I love the feeling of the house heated with it!

I really look forward to this time of year.  As much as I love summer, the pace is crazy and by the time September comes to an end, I'm exhausted ready to slow down! 

Ok, I don't really have a dog team, it's just a fun sign I found when we were out wood cutting.

Garden Update - Greenhouse disaster!

So, it's been a long time since I posted.  I can't exactly say why except that summer is busy...
and it's quickly winding down...
and I've been disappointed with our cool wet summer weather....
and the mediocre results of my garden...
and  I was out of town at a conference... (nothing to do with this blog), but I'll post some pics of my trip on Friday anyway.
Enough excuses?

It's looking rather fall like around here

I came home to the disappointing realization that powdery mildew has taken over my cucumbers

And my tomatoes

and my basil (notice the chickweed is untouched!) Anybody have an organic treatment? Advice on avoiding in the future?

Not a huge loss I suppose, this is what all of my tomatoes look like anyway... all 5 of them...

This is a sampling of what I harvested today, the last of the cauliflower, the zucchini is winding down, as are the peas, the last of the cucumbers, and the first of the beans.  I wasn't sure we were going to get any beans this year, so I'm happy I'll at least get 1 meal out of it. I've harvested some from almost everything I planted, but am disappointed that I didn't' get enough of anything to preserve.  We got a 2 week late start on the garden season, and it was a very cool and wet summer.

Anyone guess where I've been?

Around the Farm This Week

 Here is a little update on what's going on around here this week.  I read other blogs and I'm jealous that harvests are going, but we're getting closer...

The greens are almost big enough to steal some of the outer leaves, my lettuce doesn't bolt too often, so I harvest the outer leaves as long as I can leaving it to grow until I  think it's getting close to bolting.  Next year I'm going to start my lettuce a few weeks earlier than I did this year, to get an earlier start.

The shelling peas are blooming, still waiting for the snap peas to bloom.

We finally fixed up the existing flowerbed around a large birch tree next to the garden.  The bed was impossibly weedy and the brich trees used to hold in the dirt were degrading.  We put down a weed barrier, new dirt and new birch for the sides.  I finally got my stunted, root bound Echinacea, callendula, and camomile, and chives in the ground, also added some non edible flowers cosmos and columbine.  (not sure why I can't get it out of italics!)

Several weeks back we finally got the future meat and replacement layers out of the garage.  We have a chicken tractor, but it wasn't predator proof, so my husband attached it to the existing yard, and fenced off part for them, and put railroad ties around the bottom to keep predators out, which so far has worked.  

Here are some of our two batches of chickens (apologize for the poor Iphone pic, it doesn't do motion well and those little buggers are fast moving).  We are attempting heritage breeds for meat this year, we have a mix of Australorp, Barred Rock, Buff Orphington and Ameraucana (not heritage), our rooster is Barred rock, apparently those are strong genes, every chicken looks like Barred Rock!  It's an experiment, but I'd rather have small chicken, than raise the icky Cornish Cross again.  Not sure when exactly we should butcher them.  Any advice?

We had a deck/balcony that was rotting to the point of being dangerous, (it sits over the oil tank and my husband was afraid it would fall on the delivery guy) at the back of our house.  My husband took it down, next year we hope to replace it with a nice, safe, new two level deck. 

Well thats what's going on around here this week, what's going on around yours?

How does my garden grow?

Sorry about my lack of posting this week, I've been a bit under the weather.  I decided to post an update on how the garden, chickens and turkeys are doing.  Please excuse the poor picture quality, my digital camera died and I'm down to just my iphone.

So far the greenhouse cucumbers look much better than last year.  The milk jugs didn't do much to keep it warmer, but they seem to work quite well at keeping it cooler on the really hot days.

My Maintoba tomato has some buds!  They seem to have recovered nicely.

The jalapenos in the cold frame are doing well, and we have buds and a few peppers growing

The sungold snacking tomatoes I have in the outdoor pot are also doing much better and have a couple buds.

The rhubarb is growing well, one of my few perennial fruits.

I have some yellow summer squash going, zucchini too, but the picture was blurry.

A patty pan squash too, my first time growing these.

The broccoli is growing too, not big enough to form any heads yet though

The greens have taken off finally.

The cabbage too.

Eagerly awaiting the peas to start flowering.  Got them nicely weeded and mulched with some straw.

The potatoes are up and hilled.

The turkeys are getting big, and come begging at the fence for chickweed snacks as much as the chickens do!

The chickens enjoying their summertime treats.

Bailey our puppy is getting big.

Ok so she's not a garden, chicken or turkey, but she is stinkin' cute, and so busy, she makes our hyper springer appear calm.

 Well that's what's going on in my garden and around our place this week.  I have a front flowerbed to weed and to be terraced, and a flowerbed around a tree in the backyard that needs extreme help.  If I make headway on those I'll post some pics, bad, grainy iphone pics, but hey they'll be pics.