My sister - my friend

I have one sister.  Her name is Helen.  (Mom sure liked the old fashioned names, didn't she?)  We are 13 months apart.  Most people thought we were twins.  We have never had what I would call a close relationship.  If she needed something, she'd call and visa versa, but never a buddy one.  Today she stopped by the shop where I make our goodies and we had a nice long talk.

We are as different as night and day.  I had one child of my own and a step son  (whom I adore)  and she has 7, yes that's right 7 kids.  They range in age from 28 to 5.  I would just shoot myself.  We both married young.  She was 16, I was 17.  She got a divorce after 12 years, I think.  Good thing, the jerk was bad for her.  She then met a man who was 10 years younger and they married and had the last 3 kids.  She already had a grandson by then.  I would just shoot myself.

She didn't work outside the home during her first marriage but took a job after she separated from her husband and hasn't looked back since.  Her second husband died when the youngest was 5 weeks old.  He was 29 years old.  A great big teddy bear.  We all loved him.  She has been raising this part of her family by herself since then.

She found internet dating.  I would just shoot myself.  Some of the men she has brought around for us to meet makes me wonder just how lonely she is.  But she has someone now, he is a little younger.  I think she likes to train them.  (smile)  But he is good with her and her kids.  He is lessening the load.  He isn't the perfect guy but then where is the perfect guy. 

I wish her much love and happiness.  As I grow older, family ties grow more important.  So, Helen, here's to you.  I love you and am proud of you.  Happiness to your future.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Squishy week on the farm

It has rained and rained and rained here this month.  I thought April was the shower month!?! 

I got part of the garden planted.  The early garden is in.  The middle garden should be going in now through the end of the month.  About the time the ground gets just dry enough to run the tiller the rain starts again.  I WILL GET THIS MIDDLE GARDEN IN, no matter what.

The greenhouse green beans have baby beans on them.  They are so cute.  I should have some available for the mid part of June at the Farmers Market.  Tomatoes have beautiful blooms for the past week or so but so far no tomatoes have formed.  I have seen the bees so I know they have been polinated.  The zucchini and eggplant are doing great as well.  I think the rabbits have found one of the raised beds, the black beauty eggplant and some of the green peppers look a little (a lot) nibbled on. 

We just got another order from Whole Foods for PourAPie.  We are excited to say the least.  I sent a confirmation invoice yesterday.  If all is accepted, we will begin the production of that order this week.  Maybe rain is a good thing.  Don't know what I would do if I could be in the garden but needed to be in the kitchen at the same time.  Probably garden during the day and process orders at night.  Who needs sleep anyway?

My son, Steve just bought a tractor.  He is the most city boy you have ever seen.  If fact, his wife Erin calls him Clark Griswald after Chevy Chase is the vacation movies.  He will be the farmer who shows up at the farm in his camaro with his designer boots on.  Farmer Casanova is he.  They just purchased 11 acres on which to build a house and start a small farmette.  They don't want to farm as a job but as a hobby.  I think their oldest, Tucker (almost 4) will be the farmer.  He is always wanting to ride on the tractor at Nana's.  Lauren (almost 3) is another story, she will be the city girl.  She is definitely our diva.

As I have found my camera.  It was in my coat pocket from Thanksgiving.  I will be able to give you visual updates on the farm.  Until then, don't worry about the dirt under your nails.  It'll come out by November!

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Freezing my blooms off

Yesterday we went to The Herb Faire.  It is sponsored by the Wabash Valley Herb Society.  We are vendors every year selling a variety of things.  This year we had plants, aprons, jams, jellies, pie fillings, towels, and stuff from our bakery.  It was a busy day but boy was it cold.  I mean COLD.  I had on 4 layers of clothes and was still cold.  My sister wasn't able to watch Sam for us this time so she went with us.  I got to warm up by chasing her around.  She only had about 15 melt-downs.  These are Sam throwing herself on the ground and crying.  I just stand around and wait for her to quit.  When she finds out she is not getting her way she usually will calm down and go with the flow. She is so much like her mother it is scarey.

The gardens are looking fantastic.  I must have cut about 3000 maple seedlings out of the blueberries today.  I know I didn't get them all but I will keep after it.  The deer feasted on a lot of the blueberry plants through the winter.  The plants that we weeded around and put sawdust around were eaten pretty bad but the ones that we didn't get to and let the weeds grow up around look good.  We have decided that we will just let the weeds grow and try and confuse the deer. I did happen to find a few blueberries.  This is the first year that we will be picking from the bushes.  We aren't ready to open the u-pick just yet, but maybe in another year or two.

I am waiting on a load of "garden" dirt to put in the last 2 raised beds.  I plan to put in more tomatoes and have an asparagus bed in the other.  I have 100 asparagus crowns holding over to put in.  Within the next couple of years, I hope for at least 500 asparagus plants.  I have also planted 10 more rhubarb plants.  That makes a total of 62 in the ground.  Hopefully the deer won't find these. 

We have another faire this next Saturday at Marshall, IL.  Another garden show.  After that all plants left over will go into the ground for the final planting.  The greenhouse is already empty except for the green beans that have small beans on them.  I can't wait until all seedlings and plants are gone from the barn.  I live my life in seasons of the farm:  seed planting, transplanting, transplanting again, planting in ground, selling, planting, selling, and final planting.  By the time I get the last plants in the ground, I am so ready for snow (not really).  Then it is farmers markets time. 

Oh yeah, Happy Mothers Day to all.  Hope all  your kiddies at least called you today to tell you how special you are. Surprise, surprise both of mine did.  Both of those kids are keepers.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

'TIGHTWAD GAZETTE'

I have a copy of Amy Dacyczn's book "The Complete Tightwad Gazette".  I love it.  I probably read this book about 2 times a year.  While I laugh at some of her suggestions for saving money,  some of my ideas are only reinforced. 

For those of you who don't know, Amy is a mother of 6 children who lived on a very tight budget while her husband was in the service and came up with many ideas to save money.  In fact, bought a house in Maine with cash while her husband only earned about 30,000 a year.  WOW

Being from a poor family, many of the things she suggests are just part of our lives.  Hanging laundry, who doesn't do that.  Gardening and canning your own food, of course.  If Mom didn't put up the produce each summer, we would have gone hungry each winter.  Some of the things are just too much for even me, dumpster diving at the local bakery for day old bread,  NO THANKS!! 

This reminds me of the time my 9 year old grandson, Wyatt, who was about 5 or 6 at the time, saw a chicken lay an egg for the first time.  He exclaimed :"Nana, that chicken just pooped an egg"  It took a while to get him to eat eggs again. 

We here at Appleseed Farm walk a fine line between having enough produce to sell to make a living and having enough produce to put by for the winter.  We have 3 families plus my parents to grow food for.  It has definitely been a learning experience.  But one we are conquering. 

Speaking of the farm, we had a nice cool rain this past weekend.  Now the sun is shining.  I can't believe how early the garden is in.  I plan to put the second wave in next week or the week after.  Live is good here, come see.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Just what does "locally grown" mean?

I recently attended a seminar at a local college that in very into the green movement.  Saint Mary of the Woods College is very forethinking and was going green way before it was cool to do so.  This was a group of farmers - mostly female to listen to a woman from Michigan telling how to extend the growing season, set up CSA, basically how she made her life work for her.  The question came up regarding "organic" v/s "local".  Organic is a term that is not so important anymore.  People who farm sustainably rarely use chemical or practices that are bad for the earth.  However local was another hot topic all together.  There were approximately 20 people there and I bet they got 20 different answers to what "local" really means. 

To me, it means knowing where my food comes from.  I do not want my food to have visited more states than I have.  I don't want it trucked or flown in to my area.  If it is, I know that chemicals had to be used to perserve it and that it was not picked at it's peak of freshness.  Local to me is knowing the farmer who grew my food.  Being able to go to that farm and see the food being grown.  Know that my farmer has an actual "farmers' tan"  and got it the right way.  I want to see the chickens who laid my eggs and gave the wonderful component to the compost pile. 

I know when I go to these farms that I will see a mess at times.  I will catch the farmer not looking picture ready.  She will be sweaty, red faced and maybe just a little grumpy from the weight of the farm on her shoulders, but inside she will be happy and content.  Doing what she loves and making a difference in her own little way. 

As you can see, local means just that to me.  Go one, I dare you to find a local farmers market and meet your farmer.  She just might become a part of your family.  More work to do...

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

TAKING TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES

Today I slept in.  Yep, that's right, I slept until 9:30 in the morning.  Got up, took a shower, took the plastic off the plants (frost warning again last night) and went to town to get my hair done.  It is a lot shorter than it has been in years but I love it.  In fact, I may go a bit shorter on my next visit.  What about going back to blonde?  Could be. 

Anyway, the farm beat Mother Nature again last night.  All plants made it through the frost warning without injury.  We covered the early garden with plastic and threw sheets over all the rest.   When I uncovered them this morning, I was happily releived.  I even saw the okra coming up.  Remember the okra, farmer Robert drove over it with the tractor.  But it has that great survival spirit and is coming up through the tire marks. 

In case I forgot to tell you, the sweet corn is up.  That is the first planting, we will plant every couple of weeks for a month or so.  We used our new to us 4 row planter this time.  The first time, we forgot to open all the knobs and only planted 1 row of the 4, but we figured it out and have been planting a regular 4 rows like we were suppose too.  It is way cool. 

Blueberries are doing well.  Third year for some.  Deer likes them, did a lot of pruning to these bushes but as long as they leave some we'll be OK.

Out to recover the plants.  I like the idea of a mini greenhouse on them while it is cool.  Maybe it will hasten bloom and fruiting.  Lessons to be learned.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

WHAT'S UP ON THE FARM?

We had 3 days of rain this week.  Mother Nature is undecided today, fickle ole woman that she is, whether we have had enough or not.  Anyway, it was much needed.  I have the early garden in at least 1 month earlier than usual.  The tomatoes are doing fabulous.  In the raised beds, I have 30 celebrity tomatoes and 30 juliet tomatoes.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but remember it is the EARLY garden.  I also have 74 eggplant, 56 green peppers, about 100 leeks, a bed of beets, 4 long rows of okra, 6 looonnng rows of green beans and sweet corn.  I'll try to get pictures, but remember from earlier posts, lost my camera.  Haven't been able to find it yet.

The next phase of the garden will be going in within the next 2 weeks.  The greenhouse is holding the plants getting ready for this planting.  The plants will be hardened off beginning the middle of the week and in the ground soon after.  For the final phase of the planting, around the end of May, the seedlings are just emerging their heads from the soil in the seedling room.  They will be ready for their first transplanting in about 2 weeks.  Right on scedule. 

I have decided to diversify yet again.  I have a beautiful seedling room and great greenhouses so why not try my hand at perennials. Flowers that come up year after year.  They are so expensive at the stores, and look like fertilizer in it's raw form (crap) so it was worth a try.  They are looking fabulous.  The only thing with these is they must be held over a year so they can be sold with some size on them.  Most perennial don't bloom the first year and buyers want the bloom.  Heck, so do I.  But with unheated greenhouses and barns, it shouldn't be any trouble, right, RIGHT.. Update as possible.

Back to work, I must go.  Finally getting over a chest cold that has slowed me down.  Back to female farming with a passion.  Remember, we will be at the Wabash Valley Herb Faire, in Terre Haute,Indiana the Sat before Mother's Day.  Hope to see you there, in the meantime....

See ya on the farm
Charlotte