3rd week of April 2007
Not many pleasant opportunities to work outdoors are coming our way. We did bundle up to get some peas, greens and beets in the ground before the rain came and later planted about 40 seedling trees. One row of Arbor Vitae trees is intended for a windbreak for the garden behind our house. Too bad it will take many years for that to mature because we could have used it during these windy days! The Hereford beef cows will be heading out to the woods pasture and start their intensive grazing cycle this week and our neighbor put his dairy cows out to rotational graze in our front pasture yesterday.
One windy evening I attended "Khamphanh's Cooking School" with a Kidron Mennonite ladies group and learned to make spring rolls and Pad Thai, both dishes that use many ingredients that we grow on the farm along with the addition of rice noodles and rice papers. Khamphanh is a Laotian friend who a few years ago shared seeds with me from her Laotion chili peppers and shallot sets (both staples of her daily cooking) and I also was inspired to try yard long beans after seeing them in her garden. Another friend I met with this week was my summer helper, Shanelle Miller of Kidron, who will be working in my gardens on her day off from work and several evenings. She is very enthusiastic 
about learning more about gardening and went home with a stack of books to start her learning process.
An experiment we were challenged to try is if microwaved water has an effect on plant growth. So my son Reuben set up an experiment with 4 pots of lettuce seedlings and 4 pots with bean seeds. Tap water, boiled tap water, spring water and microwaved water are the variables being used to water each pot. I'll keep you posted on any earth shattering results. Hopefully by next week, I'll be able to do more of my own experimenting OUTDOORS!
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