2nd week of April 2009
Cool, wet weather continues in Northeast Ohio. A snowy day gave opportunity to knot two comforters we pieced this winter and we did get the freezers defrosted. We found several "treasures" to finish up before the next season comes like a bag of frozen currants and some forgotten strawberry jam but we also discovered some unused items that will not go on the list for preserving this coming year like multiple bags of shredded zucchini and chicken livers. I've been mixing frozen currants into baked goods like coffeecake and pancakes. We'll definitely put more in the freezer next year. Although this weather is ideal for finishing up winter projects, it is not conducive to planting. The greenhouse is overflowing with flats waiting to go in the ground and it's tricky to even walk to the other end. We continue to transplant lettuce, herbs and tomatoes to packs and will hope for warm weather soon.
The garlic is coming along nicely and is 6-8" tall already. We put out a total of 3000 and I was thankful to see that the extra cold weather this winter didn't affect them adversly. Here is a view of the three long garlic beds. We have been eating garlic scallions from the bed where I planted the smallest cloves. I experimented planting whole heads of undersized garlic and they made wonderful scallions out of something that otherwise would have been wasted. They are tasty in salads and sometimes we nibble on them raw for meals. Even the baby likes chewing on them.
This week was also full of education opportunities. I presented a "Gourmet Gardening" program at the Orrville library, did my first gardening demo at Lehmans for the season and we had a display at the Orrville YMCA Healthy Kids Day event. But the most interesting education happens when various people show up at our farm to see my coldframes and garden. There are also friends stopping in to talk to Olin about raising grass fed beef plus a friend trying to get us interested in raising goats for the ethnic market.
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