A Day Off

Yesterday was gorgeous–74 degrees or so and sunny.  A perfect fall day.  I kept telling myself, since  I was trapped inside grading papers all morning and most of the afternoon, that it was actually a little too warm to work in the gardens.
Instead, I worked online down at the coffee shop–the furnace guys were here [...]

Lately…

I’ve been tempted to post an “out of office” note here–though knowing my own tendencies I would likely begin blogging three times a day simply because I said I wasn’t going to.  Instead of that, I’ll just say posts may be a bit more sporadic for an indeterminate length of time (and yes, I know [...]

Manure and Garlic

Manure day!  At first our neighbor Kathy (who boards horses) and I talked about loading my truck, then she’d bring some loader-scoops down while I was shoveling out the truck-load–saving a bit of gas and wear on her machine.
But that manure was WAY wetter and heavier than I thought it’d be.  Last time, we got [...]

Putting the Beds to Bed: Farm Edition, Part Two

Good field sanitation isn’t my favorite farm chore of the season.  It’s just not that much fun to take down, clear, out, compost and burn everything it took all season to build up.
But it’s far from a thankless task.  In fact, it’s probably the number one way to make the gardens seem like a promise [...]

Putting the Beds to Bed: Farm Edition, Part One

According to MSN’s Careerbuilder page, farming and ranching is the fifth most dangerous occupation in the U.S.
Rest assured dear readers, I am not in that much danger–I don’t use big machinery that could tear off my arm (well, maybe the chipper-shredder could), and I’m not going to get trapped in a grain bin.  I’m also [...]

Putting the Beds to Bed: Home Edition

Having made my manure-supplier call for the farm gardens (and realizing it’ll be a week or two before I’ll be able to get that project underway), I settled on using these lovely weekend days to focus on getting things in shape at home.
The home gardens don’t get much love during the regular farming season–they’re pretty [...]

Digging Parsnips in the Rain

Tomorrow is our next-to-last market in Vermillion, so I thought I’d get out and dig those parsnips now that we’ve had some frosts and freezes.  There are still leeks out there, too, and I took in about twenty more of the biggest ones. I dug some horseradish, too.
I was whining on Facebook the other day [...]

Decorating for Fall? Buy Local!

I am hearing from a lot of local producers that they’ve got a glut of pumpkins and gourds this year.  I’m also seeing a lot of great-looking ornamental corn, tiny pumpkins, pretty squash, and other great decorative fall produce.
The only problem is, a lot of those producers are having a hard time moving their lovely [...]

Pre-Freeze Harvest Notes

I managed to get a few images of the pre-freeze harvest Friday after critiquing student essays and heading to Sioux Falls to pick up M. Usually there’s a bit more than 24 hours between the first killing frost and hard freeze, but that wasn’t the case this year.
Thursday morning I went out to harvest for [...]

Here Comes Winter!

In between critiquing a gazillion composition essays, I’ve been running around outside the house, clipping bunches of herbs from the home gardens to throw in the dehydrator.
I also pulled in the volunteer buttercup squash and am looking closely at whether or not to harvest a bagful of nasturtium leaves, beet greens, and other tasty edibles.  [...]