One small seed, one giant leap

 

What a month it has been! A trip to Texas, more farming classess, buying our first large installments of farm supplies and starting our seeds.

In one drop of a seed into the dirt, years of dreaming became a reality. When these plants grow a little more they will be transplanted into a deeper planter and then finally into the earth in mid-April. By starting our seeds now, we gained almost 1 1/2 months of growing season, which should mean we will have some vegetables and fruits of our own to bring to the table when we have family guests in May. Some vegetables like to be transplanted (tomatoes) some don't (carrots), but we went ahead and started early at least a few seeds of every variety this year.

The planting season of the area is determined by many things, but the most important one is the last freeze. For us this means we can begin to plant our crops outdoors mid-April and the growing season will end in October. Since this is a relatively short growing season when you consider that we want to eat everyday of the year, different ways for our plants to get warmth, sunlight and nutrients need to be pursued. For this year that means seed-starting inside, and probably a cold-frame this fall and winter. In the next few years we hope to build a greenhouse and take advantage of the sun all year-round. Preserving food is a great way to hold on to many fruits and vegetables even during months nothing can typically be grown (and we will be doing a lot of this), but some things do not store well or at all (like lettuce and broccoli) so if we want to eat them year round, we need to extend the season.

This month has also been marked by the renovation of our kitchen. Since it was basically the very same kitchen that has been here since the house was built over 100 years ago, it was not practical for our uses. This was a debate for us; preserve the charm of the original kitchen, or make it as useful for our food preperation/storage as possible. Practicality won out, but we saved the antique stove and will try to think of some way to incorporate it in the future.



 

 

Seed starting.

 

Happy pups in their own yard - they'll have to give it up to the cow in a few years.