On several morning strolls amongst the vegetables I surprised Peter Rabbit. I felt like Farmer McGregor running around with a rake in my hand, yelling not as the Loony Tune character Elmer J. Fudd, “You wascally wabbit!”, but instead I had more choice words.
Val spent some time on the road recently and share's her observations about farming when it's not around here.
Twenty-one years ago, I looked out to the home of my future garden, and watched where the tree shadows fell over the course of a summer, planning my vegetable garden. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have tilled the soil.
Trees … maple, pine, ash, oak, and more cover Nelson’s hills, valleys, and most of New Hampshire. After exploring (some call this bushwhacking) the woods through a blanket of green or gray-brown, depending on season, I’ll often come out onto a road, homestead, or fields. This time of year, when I come out to a field, I like to stop, breath in the scent, enjoy the sunshine, flowering grasses, the beauty of the clearing, and hopefully a view.
A wattle fence project, with a cameo by rabbits.
Spring fever hits me early. Longer days, with my chickens going into the coop later, and the arrival of seed catalogs start the process in January. In February I start my onions and leeks and come March, spring fever is in full force.
Photos from the farmers, and from Val Van Meier [...]
Imagine the hillsides in Nelson with few trees, and with stone walls and pasture as far as the eye can see. Continue on this daydream and now see sheep, lots of sheep, roughly 7,000 sheep. The year is about 1836. Sheep farming is still a thing here. Read about Nelson's sheep farmers today.
A visit with Sylvia Davatz, a passionate seed saver … and grower of rice and peanuts.
If I was going to try growing microgreens, I needed to decide what to use as a base, coir mats like Linda or soil like Gourmet Greens, a business I visited in Vermont years ago when I was thinking of adding a hoop house to extend our growing season. I suppose it’s all about preference and what you have available. I do like the idea of composting the seed-starting mix with the microgreen roots.
