New site

I am moving my blog over to a new space Turning Wheel Farm. This is the name I will be using for selling eggs, produce, herbs, etc. at a farmer’s market this year and also when I expand next year.

 

Growing List

I don’t like planting tons of stuff from seed and starting it early but I have worked out a good system in past years for starting some indoors and then direct seeding a lot of the other plants.  I use Territorial Seed for the most part because I like them, they are local and the varieties are of course tested for the area and not in the Midwest somewhere. Tomato and pepper plants are grown from starts from the farm store usually and then potatoes are from seed potatoes planted in March.

Basil
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Babylon Hybrid slicing cucumber
Miniature white novelty cucumber
Lemon cucumber
Carrots cumbre hybrid
Carrots nelson hybrid
Yaya Carrots
Canoe Peas – Canoe
Ching-Chiang Pac Choi – Ching-Chiang
Chioggia Beet Seeds
Coriander-Santo (Cilantro)
Cube of Butter Squash – Cube of Butter Squash Seeds
Dakota Peas
Fiesta Broccoli Seeds
Jade Bean – JadeLettuce Pot and patio blend
Lettuce salad bowl oak leaf
Mokum Carrots
Patio Star Squash
Purple Haze Carrots
Red Kuri Squash
Regatta Spinach
Royal Burgundy Bean
Speedy BeanTomato organic beaverlodge sliver ultra early
Thelma Sanders’ Sweet Potato Squash Seeds
Touchstone Gold Beet

Herbs

thyme
lovage
sage
marshmallow
rosemary
mugwort

and many more but haven’t done my herb seed order yet

Fruit 

strawberries

peaches 2

plums2

Asian pear 1

bartlett pear 1

Persimmon 1

There are cherry trees nearby to harvest and then tons of apples everywhere for free in the fall.

Getting ready for Spring

This year I mean business with growing things! I don’t have land yet but I am going to grow our fruit, veggies and chickens for meat and eggs. I am making our own juices and alcohol too. There isn’t any reason that I can’t start small and then when I move to a piece of land I can take the knowledge I have and kick it up a notch. I sent out an e-mail to a few friends to see about the interest in chicken so I can make sure to have only the amount we can all use. No one has a big freezer though my parents have two regular size ones so we can only raise as many as we can all use and freeze. I cannot buy chicken from the regular grocery store without a lot of guilt about what went into that animal before it got to me and how it’s life was. Our raised beds are a good size for placing a chicken tractor (moveable pen) on top of and then it will get fertilized while the chickens are on it too. I haven’t constructed my tractor yet but I have a baby gate idea and also can get free wood nearby to construct one to fit over a raised bed.

I did our seed order from Territorial Seed and they arrived on Thursday. I set up a growing area near the sliding glass door so the seedlings will get real sun and also the grow lights that I set up. Willow had this storage shelf in her closet and I realized that she doesn’t need it because she has a dresser now. I think the lights were $17 each or so at Lowes and the seedling trays were together $8. I put the homemade hard cider and mead on the shelves so they aren’t in the kitchen on the counter taking up space. Some of the airlocks don’t fit under the counter and it was causing a problem for storing them. I will do a separate post on fermenting in summer vs. winter soon including information on different yeasts and temperatures.