Correction


A tiny celery plant, planted 11 days ago

In a post yesterday, I said that my Wakefield cabbage plants didn’t germinate well. I was wrong. I had misread the chart on which I recorded what was planted where in the starter trays. It actually was celery that appeared to have a problem. But now I can see that the celery seeds actually are germinating. They’re just much smaller seeds and slower to appear. So far, six of the 10 celery seeds are up.

The plants are looking much better now that I’ve lowered the grow light closer to the plants. If all continues to go well, 95 percent of the seeds I planted will make it all the way to the garden.


For comparison, this is an 11-day-old brussels sprout

Pruning the apple trees

This photo was taken last week when the weather was colder. Most of the apple trees needed to be pruned. The trees don’t show up very well in the photo, but they’re there. I have 10 apple trees, semi-dwarf, planted in the fall of 2008. The tallest of these trees is now over eight feet. I’m hoping I might even get an apple or two this year.

Two of my apple trees — both Arkansas blacks — died last summer. I replaced them with two two-year-old Arkansas black trees from the same nursery — Century Farm Orchards. Because Arkansas blacks are my favorite apples, I requested full-size trees, rather than semi-dwarfs, for the new trees. In response, David Vernon, the orchardist, taught me something new. He said that I can make the semi-dwarf trees into full-size apple trees by planting the trees deeper, with the graft underground. Then, he says, roots will grow from the part of the tree above the graft onto the semi-dwarf root stock, thus producing a full-size tree.

Tuna-nut burgers


Burgers made with tuna, ground brazil nuts, ground pumpkin seeds, and an egg

I use quite a lot of canned salmon, tuna, and sardines in the abbey kitchen, but other than that I have never cooked meat here. The protein foods are fish, soy milk, soybeans and other legumes, grains, lots of nuts, some rice, and the eggs that Patience, Ruth and Chastity lay. I’m always looking for ways to work more nuts into my cooking. One new method is to combine nuts ground in the blender with something like tuna for burgers. Brazil nuts are particularly interesting when used in burgers and meat analogs. When ground, they have a kind of crab-like texture.

For the burgers in the photo, I used about three parts nuts and seeds to two parts tuna. The burgers tend to be a bit dry, though, and they crave some kind of savory sauce.

I always buy the nuts from the bulk section at Whole Foods. That’s much cheaper, and fresher, than buying packaged nuts. Walnuts and pine nuts are very expensive. The best bargains in nuts right now are brazil nuts, cashews, and raw macadamia nuts. Hazelnuts also are reasonably priced, but, in my opinion, the flavor of hazelnuts doesn’t combine well with other foods.

There. That's finally done.

Until today, there were two pesky reminders that, three years ago, the sunny acre of land that Acorn Abbey sits upon was an elderly patch of pine trees. Those reminders were two large, ugly woodpiles left over from cleaning up after the loggers. Today Ken moved them. We threw the wood into the rabbit patches. It was all pine, and no one wants to burn pine for heating. No one was interesting in hauling it away to use as fuel.

The next step: to clean up those areas and prepare them to become wildflower patches. This will involve a good bit of tilling, compost, and fertilizer. Today I ordered two pounds of bulk wildflower seeds from Outsidepride. As soon as the danger of frost is past, we’ll sow the wildflowers into the beds.

I never intended to end up with an acre of grass to mow. But here I am. I have a lot of yard. The wildflower patches will cut down a bit on the amount of mowing. But most important is that I wanted to get started on rehabilitating the soil in the wildflower areas. My plan is to use those areas to extend the garden in the future, if I need to. Those areas are outside the garden fence, but surely there are some kinds of crops that the deer won’t destroy.

By the way, the Jeep and the utility trailer have been my only beasts of burden during this project. Most people around here have pickups, but I wanted to avoid the expense of another vehicle to maintain and insure. I can do most anything with the Jeep and trailer that a pickup can do.

10-day-old plants

The baby plants for the winter garden are now 10 days old. So far, things are going pretty well for a first effort, but there are some problems. I’m afraid that some of the plants may already be too leggy. Some of the seeds weren’t deep enough, and some plants fell over, though they were able to send down a root. I had very poor germination with the Wakefield cabbage, for reasons I don’t understand. [See correction: It wasn’t the Wakefield cabbage.]

Lessons learned so far: The grow-light should have been lower to provide more intense light and reduce legginess. I need better forceps to place the seeds at the right depth in the growing media. I’m hoping that the legginess can be corrected when I transfer the plants to potting soil in peat moss cups.

These plants are all for the early garden: cabbage, broccoli, brussels spouts, cauliflower, and celery. I also have lettuce and snow pea seeds, which I will plant directly into the ground. I’m shooting for March 15 for planting things outdoors, depending on the weather. When these plants have been moved outdoors, I’ll start seeds for the summer garden — tomatoes, squash, etc.

Work day

There was an area of garden I would have liked to till last fall, but I didn’t, because there were a couple of small trees in the way that needed to be transplanted first. Ken transplanted those trees today and did the tilling. We’re only about a month away, I hope, from planting the early crops. In the photo above, Ken has dug up one of the trees and put it in the wheelbarrow. Patience has approached to admire Ken’s digging.


Next: Ken with the tiller


With the tilling done, the chickens now cluster around to explore the fresh-dug dirt.


That’s Patience at Ken’s left hand. She has a huge crush on Ken.


The hawk mesh over the entire garden is almost done. I have to pick up more fishing line, though, before Ken can finish the job. He calculates that he has used about 1.6 miles of fishing line so far. We’re confident that the fishing line will keep the hawks away from the chickens. But it remains to be seen how long the fishing line will last. A long time, I hope, because it was a huge amount of work for Ken putting it up.

Spring fever day


Sunday was sunny, and the temperature was above 50F. Everyone, including the cat and the chickens, had spring fever. Even the cabbage and broccoli seeds, planted less than 48 hours ago, had sprouted in their little indoor hothouses (photos later this week when the plants are bigger). The chickens had a nice long day outside under Ken’s watchful eye. But they constantly scan the sky. At one point, when two hawks were circling, the chickens all went back into the chicken house.


The first thing Ken did was to put up a new bluebird house. We now have three bluebird houses.


After much thinking and discussion, we finally decided that the best way to protect the chickens from the hawks is to tie fishing line, spaced about 12 inches apart, along the top of the garden fence. This is a big job and will take some time, but when you become attached to your chickens, you’ll do whatever it takes to protect them. The fishing line isn’t visible in the photo above, but it does show up in the next photo below.


Some of the strands of fishing line can be seen to the left of the bluebird house.


Ken is about 25 percent done with the fishing line project.


We found quite a lot of animal poop in the garden, in the thick patch of winter rye grass. Neither Ken nor I can distinguish rabbit poop from deer poop, but this almost certainly has to be rabbit poop. It’s very doubtful that deer could get over the 8-foot fence. And if deer had been into the garden, there’d be tracks. The poor hungry rabbits need the winter grass, so we’ll wait until spring to try to find and block the places where the rabbits are getting under the fence. And part of the plan for next winter is to plant a stand of winter rye grass near the rabbit patch, particularly to provide winter food for the rabbits.


The winter rye does look delicious, doesn’t it? It has been a great winter salad for the chickens.

Time to start seeds for the early garden

This year, I’m determined to start everything in the garden from seed, using heirloom seeds. If I’m calculating planting dates and starting times correctly, then now’s the time to start seeds indoors for the early garden — cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc. When those things are in the ground, then I’ll start the seeds for the summer garden — tomatoes, squash, etc. For the early garden, I also bought seeds for lettuce and snow peas, but those don’t need to be started early indoors.

To do this, I bought a seed-starting system from Park Seeds. This includes the growing media, the little greenhouses, fluorescent grow lights, a soil warming mat, etc.

The grow lights are hooked to a timer to turn the lights on and off as appropriate. The warming mat keeps the soil warm while the seeds are germinating.

I ordered my seeds online from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

As an experiment, I’m going to try to grow some celery. I doubt that celery will like my soil and climate, but I’m going to see how it goes. And, of course, the reason I’m using heirloom seeds is that I want to learn how to save my own seeds from year to year.

I’ll post more photos when I have some baby plants.


Park’s “Bio Dome” seed-starting system


A thermostat controls the soil-warming mat.


A timer controls the grow lights.

I flunk the Creole test


This platter gets an F.

In my ongoing efforts to break out of the same-old-breakfast routine, this morning I attempted baked grits with cheese, blackened beans, and fried apples. The beans were terrible. I had never attempted that sort of seasoning before, and I don’t think I was quite clear on the concept. And though the grits were good, I went too far in my effort to make them a comfort food. Less cheese and less butter would have been better. I’d give myself a B+ for the concept and an F for the execution.