I feel for the growers, whose livelihood is threatened by crop damage and losses. Rising prices won’t help if you have no crop to sell. I also feel for restaurant owners, who are scrambling to find alternate sources and absorbing higher costs while trying to not raise prices and drive away customers in an already fragile economy.

But how did our food system ever get in this shape, where a hiccup in Florida (or California) is felt by folks hundreds or thousands of miles away? How did we come to expect a slice of tomato on our Burger Doodle sandwich, even though it’s the middle of winter, and the tomato is going to be bland and tasteless anyway? And don’t get me going on the food poisoning scares of recent years involving spinach, tomatoes, peppers and other foods. Food safety is a whole other issue, for another day perhaps.

Am I the only one that sees the irony in all this?

After all, I don’t think it’s normal for a person like me, living in the Midwest, to expect fresh warm-season vegetables all year round. A trip to the grocery will quickly reveal how far some of the produce there has traveled, and how it isn’t really fresh – at least not by my definition.

For example, on a recent trip to Sam’s Club to buy some staples, I noticed that the “fresh” asparagus came from Mexico and the pea pods and green beans came from Guatemala. I passed on them.

But back to tomatoes. Given that it’s March, and I haven’t had a fresh tomato since maybe last November, I’m as anxious as the next person for a ripe, juicy slice of tomato. I just don’t expect to find one at the supermarket in winter!  I sowed some early tomato seeds last week on March 1st, and with any luck we will get our first taste of fresh tomato by late June. Until then, we’ll make do by enjoying our dried tomatoes, and our frozen sauces, purees and other tomato products we put up last year.

early tomato seedlings

I know our answer doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for us: we grow our own food, as much as we can. We enjoy what we can when it’s in season, and preserve as much as we can for the rest of the year. We try our best to buy local, though it’s not possible for all things. And it won’t be long, maybe a few weeks or so, and we’ll be enjoying fresh homegrown asparagus. I mean, really fresh asparagus, grown in our own backyard.  Total transportation distance: maybe 100 feet. Time from harvest to table: minutes.

As the author of Ecclesiastes wrote, “to every thing there is a season”. Who am I to argue with that?

That prompted me to check the bluebird houses. I’m glad I did, because a male English sparrow was stuffing one of the houses full of grass and trash. I cleaned out the mess, and left the side open to discourage future nest building for a few days. I decided to put a third bluebird house up, just to offer a little more variety. And it was just in the nick of time too.

female bluebird flying off in a blur

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of blue. It was a female bluebird, landing on a metal fencepost. I ran to get the camera. She took off just as I pushed the shutter button. I knew if the female was around, the male likely was too, and it didn’t take long to spot him sitting in a peach tree nearby.

male bluebird in peach tree

I first saw bluebirds here last December. If it is the same pair, then they must have liked what they saw. Regardless, we put out the welcome mat. They’ll like the nice big juicy bugs we grow here. And now they have several houses to choose from. How could they not want to stay?

One is a house I made years ago out of red cedar. That’s the one the sparrows were trying to nest in. The other two are ones I bought from Gilbertson Nestbox Company. Steve Gilberston is a bluebird enthusiastic who set out to design better nesting boxes for bluebirds.

I have to admit I wondered if the birds would take to the ones made from PVC pipe, but after putting one up at the our Master Gardener Display Gardens last year, a pair of bluebirds took to them almost immediately. They fledged two broods of young last year, and they picked the PVC design over several wooden ones that were nearby and available. With that in mind I put up another PVC box at Happy Acres last year.

Gilbertson PVC bluebird nesting box

The nest box is attached to a length of metal conduit, which is then slid over a piece of concrete rebar stake driven into the ground. The box design is supposed to deter English sparrows, while the metal pipe keeps many predators from climbing up into the box.

wood Gilbertson nest box

The third choice for BB housing is another Gilbertson creation, but this one has a more traditional wooden design. We will see how it does given the fact that sparrows are already present and trying to nest in the other wood box.

I’m really looking forward to seeing bluebirds  here, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed they are here to stay!

baby spinach harvest

The spinach was harvested when I did the final thinning from one of the greenhouse beds. I have more thinning to do, so we’ll have that to eat next week perhaps. When I thin spinach the first time I always leave it a bit close together so I can eat some later when I do the final thinning.

unthinned spinach

I also harvested more Golden Yellow pak choi, tatsoi, and various lettuces. Total haul for the week was 2.11 lbs. I have created a table with this year’s harvest totals and put it on its own page. That should make tracking a bit easier.

dark green tatsoi

This weekend I took advantage of the sunshine and warmer temps and worked on the cold frame beds. I harvested all the lettuce that was left, and replanted. The larger cold frame now has lettuce and spinach, while the smaller one is planted with curly endive and radicchio.

cold frame with lettuce seedlings and spinach

cold frame with endive and radicchio

The harvests are starting to pick up here, and it won’t be long before the first asparagus is ready. That will be a true sign of spring!

2009: salad greens planted in window boxes

I filled the containers with potting soil, to which I added a little compost and a dusting of high-nitrogen organic fertilizer. I also gave them an occasional drink of guano tea or fish emulsion fertilizer.

The lettuce grew so well in the window boxes that I decided to do it again this year. In late winter, I have some extra room in the greenhouse, so I can plant the window boxes and keep them in there. In the protected environment of the greenhouse, the plants grow quickly. When space becomes an issue, I will set the planters outside to finish growing.

2010 window boxes - salads to go

In the photo above, the center box is planted with arugula and Salad Bowl lettuce, while the box on the right is a mix of red Merlot and green Multy lettuces. For the leftmost box I planted a lettuce mix from Hudson Valley Seed Library, and in the long bottom box I planted some spicy mesclun mix I got from Johnny’s. I should be able to get 2-3 cuttings from the mixes before warm weather gets here.

If you’ve never tried growing salad greens in containers, or if you just don’t have room to plant them in your garden, you might want to try window boxes or other containers. Then you can have Salads To Go too!

our first soap

This recipe formed the base of our next experiments in soapmaking. For our second batch two weeks ago we added a few more ingredients, like shea butter, oatmeal and peppermint essential oil. It should be cured in another two weeks. Of course we are anxious to try it too.

But we’re not done experimenting yet – not by a long shot! Today we made our third batch of soap. This one will be strictly a hand soap. We’re calling it Happy Acres Citrus Coffee Hand Soap. We added some of our own recycled coffee grounds for scrubbing, some lanolin for an emollient, brewed coffee for color, and citrus essential oils for scent. I’m sure Lynda will be blogging about it over on Bloom, Bake & Create soon. She’s done an amazing job of researching for all things soap-related here.

getting ready to make soap

It takes a little over two hours from start to finish for one batch of soap, including prep time and cleanup. And we have found it to be a fun thing to do – so much fun in fact, we are already planning for our fourth batch of soap. I am thinking it will involve lavender, but I don’t know for sure.

So stay tuned for more adventures in soap-making!

January 2008 - snowy beginning

Inside the house, about half the floor space is occupied by benches, and the other half is planting beds. I attached metal shelves below the roof to hold flats of plants. I can squeeze in about 30 flats of plants on the shelves and benches.

Outside the greenhouse, I made raised beds along one side and the back. Measuring 4 feet wide by 28 feet long, they add 112 feet of growing space to the area. The other side of the greenhouse has 2 large trash containers that are filled with potting mixes, plus some plant stands. The photo below also shows the two large roof vents that open automatically when the greenhouse gets warm.

raised bed construction

A year after installation, the redwood is aging nicely, and the greenhouse is lively and full of plants in spring.

Spring 2009 - front view of greenhouse, with beds at left

Inside the greenhouse, one 3×5 ft bed and another 3×7 ft bed provide 36 square feet of intensely planted, year-round growing space. In cooler weather they’re home to a variety of greens, and in summer I plant part of the space in trellised cucumbers.

beds inside the greenhouse

I sent the following photo to my former IT teammates who are still working at the salt mine, so to speak. I told them this is how I had always imagined retirement – drinking my morning coffee and reading the paper in a nice warm greenhouse!

Ahh, I love retirement!