January 26, 2012 Cobrahead Weeder, Cuttings & Farm Stand

Greetings,

I wanted to give you an update on the Organic View Radio Show I will be doing with June Stoyer later today.   You can find information about the show by going to www.blogtalkradio.com-theorganicview/2012/01/26/author-and-herbalist-tammi-hartung-homegrown-herbs .

There is a great deal happening at Desert Canyon Farm now.  It may only be January for most people, but for us spring has already arrived in terms of the greenhouse work load.  Above are literally thousands of rosemary plugs that we are transplanting up into larger sized pots in order that they will be ready when customers start ordering in earnest around the first of March.

This niffty tool is a CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator.  We recently added it to our arsenal of gardening tools and we are quite impressed with how well it works.  It is a small hand tool with a design that  is easy on arthritic hands like mine and it is very light weight.  However, that dosen’t mean that it is not strong!  I’ve been testing it in the garden digging up perennial mallows that need to be eradicated, along with some pink violets I’ve been wanting to re-locate to another area in the garden.  The cobrahead lifted them both out of the soil easily and then I used it to prepare the soil and re-plant the violets….easy, easy, easy!!  I think we will really like this tool and I expect that we will be purchasing several more so that the whole farm crew has them to use in the flower seed production field this summer.  So, if you want to learn more about the CobraHead Weeder go to www.cobrahead.com .  I know that they are available also by mailorder through Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, and I’m sure many other places as well.

Our new Farm Stand construction is moving right along.  Chris has been installing the end doors this week.  The frame looks like a giant whale rib cage to me!  We’ve been having very good weather for this work, although we would trade the warm weather for some good nourishing moisture in the form of rain or snow.  My goodness, it is so dry, and this is worrysome for the upcoming growing and irrigating season.  It is mighty fine construction weather though.

Yesterday, Lizz worked a great part of the day doing vegetative cuttings.  Here she is working on Vietnamese Coriander, which is a culinary herb in Asian cooking.  It does not produce seed, so it must be rooted from tip cuttings or done by root divisions.  We prefer the cuttings approach.  We’ve also been taking cuttings in mass of rosemary, variegated sages, all sorts of thymes and oreganos, mints galore, and other herbs.  In addition, we do cuttings of many different fariy garden plants and green roof plants that we offer.  It is time consuming work, but for those plants that are not canidates for seed production, cuttings are the thing we must do.

January 25, 2012 The Organic View Radio Show

Here is a little bit of spring to appease your garden fever, which is you are like me, you have a bad case of about now.  I am seeing some bulbs starting to break throught he soil surface of the garden and I know it’s way early, but just seeig their little pointy leaves poking through is making me long for spring to arrive!

Just an FYI…tomorrow, January 26, 2012, at 2pm Colorado time I will be the guest on The Organic View Radio Show.  You can find the Show at www.TheOrganicView.com  and I hope that you will tune in and listen as June Stoyer, the shows host, and I visit about growing and using herbs.  For those of you on Facebook, you can go to www.facebook.com/TheOrganicViewRadioShow as well.

Here is todays tip:  Make a rosemary baked potato lunch.  Gourmet baked potatoes are easy to make and absolutely delicious, plus the topping choices are virtually endless.  Experiement for what you like and, most importantly, have fun!!

Rosemary Baked Potato

1 large baking potato, already baked (I bake potatoes sitting directly on the rack of the oven at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes or so, until they are soft and slightly squishy)

1 generous dolup of butter or a generous drizzle of olive oil

1 clove of fresh garlic minced

1 Tablespoon of freshly chopped rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon of dried crushed rosemary leaves

Optional: sprinkle of crumbled bacon or a spoonful of sour cream

Add all of the ingredients above to top your baked potato.  Adjust the ingredients to your personal tastes or diet.  Add other ingredients  of your own choice if you so desire.

January 22, 2012 Good to be back on the Homeplace

Yesterday, I drove to Santa Fe to give a presentation at Santa Fe Greenhouses.  We had a fantastic turnout of wonderful folks interested in cooking with and growing herbs.

Today, I made the drive back home in what should have been 6 hours max, but it ended up taking me 8 hours because of the icy roads outside of Santa Fe and the horrible outrageous winds the whole drive home!  I’m very happy to be back on my homeplace!!

Meet Gwenivere, our beautiful gray girl.  She is our youngest kitty and a very sassy, but sweet, gal.

This is Pouncita, the blue point siamese, is the eldest kitty.  Sometimes we call her Bossita, so you get the message about her personality.  She is the smallest of the three cats, but she definately rules the roost.

Finally, meet Professor Longhair.  He is Gwenivere’s big brother, but neither of them look anything like their mother, who was a black and white tiny little cat that remined you of a milk cow.  Professor is the “big guy” weighing in at 21 pounds plus 3″ of long hair on every part of him.  He thinks the bath tub is a great big bed just for him.

So, are you wondering why you are seeing just cat photos on this post?  Mostly because I’m frazzled from the drive with not a lot of energy for anything much this evening, but I did want to at least check in before the week gets started tomorrow.  Have a great week and I’ll be in touch soon.

January 16, 2012 Cuttings and Seedlings

Tonight, Pouncita is taking advantage of a warm woodstove snooze as the weather outside is getting colder and colder.  There is snow in parts of Colorado, but here we just seem  to be getting the cold and wind.  We need moisture, so I hope the situation changes in that directon, but it is not forecasted for us here.  I guess I should be a bit more like Pouncita and just take advantage of what comes my way, aye.

This is a double yellow datura plant that has been blooming for some time now in the greenhouse.  It grew in this 8″ pot all summer in the back yard, waiting to be planted in the garden, but that never got accomplished.  When I brought it into the greenhouse for the winter, thinking I’d plant it in the garden next spring, I had no idea it would bloom so beautifully for so long.  It has been quite an eye-catcher.

For the past two days we have begun the huge process of pricking seedlings out of propagation tubs and transplanting them into their own individual plug cell.  Once they get well-rooted we will transplant them into larger pots, but this is the first step.  Yesterday, Doug and I worked on some of them and later in the day my friend Sadie stopped by and offered to transplant seedlings a while too.  It’s wonderful to have the extra help, plus have a visit at the same time.  Today, Lizz continued the process while I worked on other tasks.  We will be doing this work on-going for weeks now as we steadily work towards building up spring plant inventory.

Oh, before I forget, I will be speaking in Santa Fe this weekend on Saturday at 2pm.  I will be speaking at Santa Fe Greenhouses on “Growing Culinary Herbs Indoors and In The Garden”.  You can find details on how to buy a ticket for the presentation on the Classes and Events page of this blog, along with location information.  I will have a book-signing following my talk.  Hope to see you there!

On a final note, please check out Lizz’ new webpage and blog called Postage Stamp Farm.  You can find it at postagestampfarm.weebly.com .  Lizz is the assitant grower here and my right hand person.  She works in the greenhouses, takes care of many of the gardens and occassionally helps me with office stuff and customer service.  She is nothing short of amazing and we love her dearly.  Anyway, she is an aspiring urban homesteader and doing an amazing job of it on a very small piece of property.  Just goes to prove that you can accomplish a huge amount in a small space if you are just mindful of the process.  She recently aquired a bunny for fiber so that she can spin her own yarn and use it to knit with.  The bunny’s name is Sage and he is really a charming buck.

She and my daughter, M’lissa, have been working hard also on getting the signage ready for the spring farm stand plant sale on our Open Farm Days coming up.  M’lissa was nearly cross-eyed by the end of today trying to create signs for all the heritage heirloom food plants and old-fashioned flowers we will have for sale.  My hope is that I won’t have worn her out before we get to make signs for some of the other great plants we will have for sale too, but there are a zillion plant varieties and that is a lot of signs!  Thank you M’lissa for all that you do here!!!  We love you more than we can say.

Guess that is all for tonight.  Stay warm as the cold winds blow.

January 9, 2012 Heritage Heirloom Food Plants

Black Forest Kabocha Squash

Yippee…I just finished putting in all the varieties of vegetables and fruits into the Heritage Heirloom Food Plant Information page of this blog.  I was beginning to think it might never get finished, but the information is there.  As we are able to take photos of the plants during the growing season, and as time allows we will begin to insert pictures to whatever varieties we have them for.  I hope you will enjoy the database and find it helpful and inspiring as you plan for your upcoming food gardening season.

Cheers,  Tammi

White Cherry Tomato

January 8, 2012 A very busy weekend!

This truck belonged to Chris’ grandad and Chris inherited it when he was in college.  About 18 years ago Chris restored it, but this winter he got a hankering to refresh the restoration a bit.  So, he’s been fine-tuning the paint, refinished the wood in the bed floor, added beauty rings to the wheels and a side rail for a final touch.  It looks great!  It seems like this truck has its own fan club around town.  Chris drives it to the hardware store, to get pizza…that sort of thing.  As we are driving along people smile and wave.  This old truck makes people feel happy, no two ways about it!

Part of my week has been to put together some baskets of natural fiber nesting materials for the birds that live here on the farm.  I put in roving of merino mohair, mandella wool, alpaca felt ribbons and alpaca wool.  The alpaca fiber came from my friend Robin’s alpaca herd nearby in Penrose.  She and her husband own Little Circle Alpaca Farm and I love buying fiber from her.  Anyway, here is the end result tied into the tree.  I built 4 baskets and scattered them about in trees around the farm.  If I were a baby bird this spring I would be very pleased with the softness and warmth of my nest home.

For our christmas present, Lizz, Jake and Biggi gave us these wonderful signs.  Lizz built and painted them for us to use at the Farm Stand to celebrate our heirloom heritage food plants and the old fashioned flowers that we sell, along with more than 500 different varieties of herb plants.

They are great signs and we are so thrilled to have them!

  And speaking of Farm Stand, today I planted more than 50 plug flats of seeds, many of the varieties will be for Farm Stand, along with our wholesale customers.

It has been a very busy weekend.  Yesterday Chris and I put up the bows for our new Farm Stand greenhouse sturcture.  It looks like a giant whale rib cage!  The building is starting to take it’s form now and before we know it we will have it filled with plants.

The coming week will be equally busy, but it feels good to be getting a lot done.  Hope your week is dandy too.

January 6, 2012 Great Mini Gardens in a Tray

This past year we introduced some new categories of our Mini Gardens in a Tray Collections.  In addition to the original group of culinary, medicinal, tea and fragrance gardens, we added a few more groupings.  Now we have…

Traditional Mini Gardens in a Tray are our standard grouping of herb choices and they include Culinary, Medicinal, Tea, Fragrance and Mixed Herbs Mini Gardens.

Heritage Heirloom Food Mini Gardens have a wide range of choices, some of which are cool season heritage veggies gardens, heirloom tomatoes gardens, hot season heritage veggie gardens, just to name a few.

Wildlife Mini Gardens which include honey bee gardens, native pollinator gardens, beneficial insects gardens, wild bird gardens, bumble bee gardens and hummingbird gardens.

Fairy, Gnome and Green Roof Mini Gardens are filled with sweet and wonderful small plants that are just perfect for your fairy or gnome gardens.  The green roof mini gardens are loaded with tough plants that grow beautifully on your green roof.

Cook’s Mini Gardens are our most popular Mini Gardens collection.  There are 18 different versions of Cook’s Mini Gardens and they are all fantastic and fun!  Unlike the other Mini Gardens  we build, these Cook’s Mini Gardens also come with a tag attached to each garden that gives recipe ideas for using them.  Some of the Cook’s Mini Gardens are Superb Soups and Stews, I Love My Grill, A Taste of Asia, Extraordinary Eggs, and loads of other cooking versions perfect for any chef or aspiring chefs.

You will love these Mini Gardens!!! 

In addition to making our Mini Gardens in a Tray collections available to our wholesale customers, we will also have them available at our Farm Stand this spring during our Open Farm Days.

Other news…well, I did not make my deadline of getting the heritage heirloom food info page of this blog updated completely by the end of 2011.  I’m sad to report that I am still working on it.  I still have pumpkins, squash, swiss chard, tomatoes and watermelons left to update.  Thank you for your patience and I hope to have it all complete very soon.

December 30, 2011 The Heirloom Life Gardener

Recently, I was asked to review a great new book called The Heirloom Life Gardener by Jere and Emilee Gettle.  The Gettles own Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, which you may recognize because they have an incredible listing of heirloom vegetable seeds.  Their catalog is awesome too.

So, I’ve been enjoying their new book for the past couple of weeks and it is really wonderful, filled with incredible pictures, and so much information it will burst your bubble if you think you can process it in any kind of short period of time.  This is definately a book for heritage food gardeners.

The chapters range from their personal story to insight about sourcing old varieties of vegetables from different parts of the world.  The book includes sections for every type of vegetable from squash and radishes to the ever popular heirloom tomatoes.

I would encourage you to snag this treasure of a book by adding a copy to your personal library, and a couple of extra copies you can gift to special gardening friends or a family member who is into heritage food gardening.  The book is available through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $29.99 and worth every single penny!  Check out their website at www.rareseeds.com  or phone them at 417-924-8917.

Well, I have been on a vegetable mission myself of late.  I’m working very hard to get the heritage heirloom plant information page of this blog updated with all the  varieties we grow here at the farm, most of which we offer for sale to our wholesale customers.  We also sell them to the public from our Farm Stand during our Open Farm Days on weekends starting the last weekend of April and going through the last weekend of May (these are the only dates that we are open to the public).  These delicious tomatoes are Red Robin Cherry Tomatoes.

I hope you will check out that plant list for information on growing and using these great food plants.  I have completed through peppers and my hope is that I can get all the way through the list by end of the weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed.  It’s a very big task.  At some point I also hope to add in some more pictures, but that may have to wait until a bit later when time allows.  This is one of my favorite squashes called Black Forest Kabocha.

Some have asked what the difference is between an heirloom and heritage food plant.  The basic difference is that an heirloom is at least 50 years old or older and is open-pollinated.  Heritage food plants are old-fashioned and traditional varieties, many of which are decades old, and they might be open pollinated or hybrids.  They are definately and absolutely NOT genetically modified organisims or GMO’s.

All of these food plants are important to our food traditions and part of our cultural stories.  I am passionate about all of them because they are delicious, nutritious and pure fun.  Many of them have unique stories, well…actually they each and every one do.   They are important to enrich our lives and fill our pantries.

Check out the Heritage Heirloom Food Plant Info page of this blog.  I think you will find it interesting.  But keep checking it every so often, because there are a lot more plants still needing to be included in my list and I’m working on that as fast as I can.  See ya!

December 22, 2011 Happy Holidays

It looks as though we will have a white christmas this year!  It is wonderful to know that there is good moisture in this snow nourishing the flower field, even as it sleeps quietly through the winter season.

Chris and I are sending you a solstice wish for a lovely end of the year holiday and an even more amazing and good 2012.

Merry Christmas!

December 18, 2011 Beautiful Hawk

This beauty lives here with us on the farm.  We see her nearly every day as she hunts around the gardens and the ponds.  For the past few days she has flown very near to me as I have been doing my outside chores.   She seems to enjoy sitting in a tree, or in this case on our chair, and giving me a good looking over!  M’lissa was able to take these great photos of her yesterday.  She is a sharp shinned hawk and a young bird.  We have learned that her eyes will turn red when she becomes a mature adult.  We are pretty sure she is a female, but not absolutely certain yet.  She has been hunting mice and smaller birds.  She seems especially fond of the collared doves, and since there seems to be an over abundance of those doves, driving away the native doves, I don’t mind if she has them for her lunch.  Anyway, she only hunts what she needs to eat and so that is fair enough.  We all do that, don’t we…even if our hunting grounds are a grocery market filled with bright lights and terrible christmas music.  Ha!

Today, I spend 6 hours sowing seeds in the greenhouse.  I really enjoy the process of planting seeds, so the 6 hours went by quickly enough.  I listened to the Thomas Jefferson Hour and the Spendid Table on NPR, which is always a treat for me to be able to take in those radio shows.  The benches in the greenhouse are quickly filling up with seed flats and propagation tubs.  Very soon there are going to be thousands of seedlings to transplant quite literally.  It is good work though, and I enjoyed my day very much.