our homestead: transplanting sweet peppers

Peppers, on a journey to the greenhouse

The last sunny day we had around here I was able to transplant my 'little bell' sweet red pepper starts out to the greenhouse. I was waiting for the weather to warm up just a tad more (especially night time tempertatures), since peppers need some more heat than tomatoes to thrive. They're now all nestled into the greenhouse amongst the tomatoes.

Baby peppers in their new home

All I have left in regards to starts growing on my windows are some 'Five Acre Farm' melon seeds I saved last summer after enjoying one of their melons at the farmers market. I guess they are an heirloom seed passed on to them from a Grandmother: a small, cantaloupe-like melon with a pale green shell with black speckles. I remember they almost looked like large eggs. I plan to let the melons snake around the ground of the greenhouse, whereas I'll have my tomatoes and peppers supported vertically with twine. My theory is that the melon plants will act as a living mulch, keeping the soil's moisture level up during the heat of the summer. It's amazing how hot it can get in my greenhouse on a sunny day...especially since I don't heat it. I had to open the window recently because my greenhouse themometer read 100 degrees!

Oh, and all the while I was working in the greenhouse, getting my peppers situated, these two pups were hanging out in the shade with their new friends, the Muscovies:

our homestead: transplanting myself, tomatoes and Muscovy ducks

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. For one, I've started a new job. I'm no longer managing the produce department at my local co-op and have been "transplanted" to work for a non-profit farming organization. This organization has an 18 acre working farm on site and its building is amazingly green: built with recycled concrete, a roof which is half solar panels and half sedum, radiant geothermal heated floors, composting toilets, motion sensor lighting, bio swails and rain gardens and the works. I'm their new Retail Manager and am in charge of setting up a store for them which will only sell food grown in Washington State. We will have  locally grown and raised produce, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, grains, herbs, tea and honey, and hopefully, a little later down the road as I work with vendors and we can afford more equipment, breads and pastas made with all-Washington grown ingredients, canned goods like jams and pickles, hard ciders, mead and small-farm, ethically raised meats. Our store is scheduled to open on Cinco de Mayo this year, so I've been calling all my farmers and searching high and low for new ones. I feel blessed that I'll be able to provide so many of my favorite producers with another location to sell at. Very exciting!

About to transplant my tomato starts out to the greenhouse

Anyhow, readying up my farm store is definitely not the only thing I've been working on lately. Over a St. Patrick's Day feast of corned beef and cabbage at our buddy's house, my husband and I mentioned how we'd just brought home a small troop of chicks and ducklings and were looking forward to raising our feathered flock for eggs. One of our friends in attendance mentioned that he had six full grown Muscovy ducks whom he was trying to find a home for since his new job required so much travel he would have trouble caring for them. Who can turn down a free duck? Especially when there's six of them! We told him we would gladly take them. I will get back to the tale of the Muscovy ducks shortly, but first I want to talk about my tomatoes. Interesting segway, I know, but the ducks are really cool, so I'll save them for last. 

Last week we had a stretch of sunny weather and our outdoor temperatures had been slowly rising to the not-so-dangerous-for-tomatoes-if-you-have-a-greenhouse-zone, so I decided it was time to get my tomato plants out to the greenhouse and off of my windowsills. The greenhouse had recently been occupied by a troop of Muscovy ducks, thus in the days before I was able to transplant my tomatoes, my husband and I had to do some double-time duck pen building with old wood we found on our property and chicken wire...in order to transplant the ducks. I bet the few days those ducks were living in greenhouse really amped up the soil nutrients in there. Before transplanting my tomatoes into their new home, I wanted to further amend their soil with all sorts of good stuff. 

A little blurry, here's Banjo hanging out by my Valentine's Day wheelbarrow

And here's why Banjo was hanging out by the wheelbarrow: juicy worm castings from kitchen scraps

I wheeled down the lower tubs of my worm bin to spread down my planting rows. This year, I decided to really put my back into it and build some killer raised beds for my tomatoes. I further loosened my soil (something I'd been working on ever so often over the winter), and scattered a healthy amount of the compost, as well as fish bone meal, oyster shell and whatever green alfalfa I had on hand. The compost and alfalfa will serve as a source of nitrogen for my starts, whereas the fish bone meal will give them a nice dose of phosphorous, and the oyster shell will give them some calcium. 

Check out these amendments 

I also sprinkled some "Root Zone" wherever I planned to plant a start. "Root Zone" is a pellet-sized supplement made up of Mycorrhizal Fungi, Trichoderma and helpful bacteria. 

These little guys will help my tomatoes by forming a symbiotic relationship with their roots. Part of the whole purpose of photosynthesis is to not only help a plant grow but to create sugars which plants will excrete into the soil to attract and support beneficial microbes through their roots. If their roots are colonized by the fungi and bacteria (also found in "Root Zone"), the plants will have an easier time absorbing water and nutrients from their surrounding soil because of the expansive fungal networks these little guys will build around their roots. Soil microbes can also absorb and digest certain nutrients that plant roots cannot directly absorb due to soil pH factors, and these microbes can make these nutrients available for their host plants. Mycorrhiza fungal networks can also protect roots from parasitic nematode attack. I'm not into tilling my soil for the very reason that I don't want to chop up my fungal networks and earthworms. 

After plumping up my soil with all these goodies, I started to build up my rows into wide hills, and then proceeded to plant each tomato start along the rows with about a foot or so between each plant. 

Two rows planted, and a third row in the process of being built up

Four rows planted, the one to the right is a "double row"

At the end of the day I'd planted four rows of tomato starts, with one row being "double wide" with plants staggered to fit. I planted one row of Evergreen tomatoes, three and a half rows of Pink Brandywine tomatoes, a half row of Cherry Falls cherry tomatoes and a row of yellow marigolds running down the left side wall of the greenhouse for fun and for some natural pest deterrence. I still have red bell pepper and melon starts to bring out later...I'm going to have to get creative with those. I might figure out a way I can dig two more rows running perpendicular to the tomato rows on the outer edges of the my greenhouse and perhaps I'll train my melons to either climb up twine or let them creep along the ground to shelter the shallow root systems of my tomatoes. I imagine my greenhouse will look like a jungle in July. 

And now onto the Muscovies! Our Muscovy ducks are awesome, I'm really, really excited about them! They are a really interesting breed because unlike most ducks, they are not related to Mallards. They originate from Central and South America and look like giant prehistoric turkey ducks. I bought a book on ducks yesterday and they referred to Muscovies as the "heavyweights" of ducks. So cool. The book also said that  in  1514, Spanish Conquistadors discovered that the people who inhabited what we now know as Columbia were raising Muscovies. Wild Muscovies can still be spotted in the jungles of the Americas.

Here are the Muscovies hanging out in their run, check out their view. 

That big guy to the right is the drake and the rest are his ladies

What a handsome guy

Check out their dinosaur feet complete with claws

One thing I find interesting about this breed is that they don't quack. The females make a bit of a whispery whistle sound and the male makes a non-threatening hiss. They also wag their tales and are supposed to enjoy roosting like chickens. Our drake is three years old and our females are a year old. We plan to raise our own Muscovy ducklings this year to sell and we're also looking into raising some for meat. Last night, I spent my evening reading about all the genetic crosses and colorings one can achieve through selective breeding with the Muscovies. As one can tell from the pictures, they are very colorful birds. It will be an interesting year. 

our homestead: farmers market season begins (and I transplanted my tomatoes!)

I worked my first farmer's market of the season today. I've peddled organic produce for the same Skagit Valley farmer for the past six summers. It's always special for me when market season starts- I get to return to my community of creative, industrious and earthy people. I started coming along to market with my mom when I was about ten or eleven years old, and used to help her sell her handmade goatmilk soap. If I was lucky I'd get $5.00 to spend as I ran around the grassy marketplace in my barefeet with my little brother. Such wonderful summer memories of spending time with my mom with a cold Cherry Bomb Special in hand (an amazing fizzy drink one of my favorite vendors used to make). My mom still comes to market, but she's had quite a lot more to sell these past few years, ever since starting the tomato farm. Along with her awesome goatmilk soap, she'll usually bring all sorts of tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic, dried lavender blossoms and jars of honey.

I've met so many interesting characters over the years...I figure someday I might have to write a book about it. There was the iron worker who was nearly seven feet tall (I'm sure he was only six feet, but when I was little he was ginormous). He had a thick, black beard and a big old belly and would show up to market with an assortment of iron garden art: big, metal black flowers, birds, vines, gates and the likes. To set up his wares he'd just toss them right out of the van, *crash* *clang* *clang* on top of each other. Then there's my favorite honey vendor who always comes to market with his portly australian shepherd (who loves pasta and cheeseburgers). This particular honeyman has a huge heart and a hearty cackle to top it off. He's always sharing stories of his younger years with me (like the time he lived in Panama) and sharing business advice. Right now he's learning how to produce his own Queen bees, and he also raises canaries and pigeons. And then there's the farmer I work for. Anyone who's met him knows he's quite the character. He's notorious for showing up late to market, but that's just because he always has the freshest produce (and probably the best). I definitely have to credit my sleuth with cooking vegetables, and my knowledge of weird heirlooms, to working for this guy. He's chalk full of the coolest recipes and really tries to bring something different to market such as several types of fingerling potato varieties, squash blossoms, wild mushrooms, pickle weed, huckleberries, golden raspberries, striped tomatoes, kohlrabi, celery root, purple basil, lemon sorrel, pink and white striped chioga beets, kale flowers, asian pears and so much more.

Anyway, my first market of the season rocked. My farmer brought along his family, so it was like a little reunion. His daughter even made us all vetch crowns (I'm wearing mine in the picture above). All of the customers seemed happy to see us, and excited to have good food in their neighborhood once more. This spring has been so cold that it was certainly a hopeful sight to see produce out on the tables: arugula, spinach, kale, radishes, leeks, spring garlic and onions, chives, cilantro, parsley, potatoes and plant starts.

Speaking of plant starts, I am also happy to announce that I was able to move out all of my tomato starts to my greenhouse today after the market (I'm holding one of my starts in the photo above). I was also able to plant celery, basil and pickling cucumber starts next to the tomatoes as well. I'll be sure to post a more detailed blog about my greenhouse setup in the the coming days. Now, I'm going to sit back and relax and enjoy some homemade rice pudding I was gifted by the Italian pasta vendor. What a good day!

our homestead: surveying growth in a cold spring

Well, the sun decided to show itself today (finally!). What a glorious day it turned out to be- bright blue sky, big puffy mountains of clouds and a gorgeous pink and orange sunset (which I watched down on the riverbank with my dog). We've been having such a frigid spring this year. Last night's temperatures were 39 degrees Fahrenheit by my house and it tried to snow in a few spots, so I was very grateful for some sunshine today.

I spent my time outdoors starting the preparations needed for transplanting my tomatoes into my hoop house. Mainly, I have to finish ripping up the sod along the floor of the hoop house, and then I'll bring in compost and supplement the soil. Then I'll be able to direct transplant my starts into the earth. Luckily my hoop house will protect my starts from the cold (though the chill does slow the growing process).

While out and about in my yard I stopped to weed my potato and pea patch. Hooray! My sugar snap peas (bottom photo) are starting to shoot out of the soil. Not surprising since peas do fairly well in cooler climates. I also checked up on my garlic (which I planted in October), and all three varieties are growing quite well. Next year my garlic patch will become my vegetable patch and my garlic will be replanted in my current vegetable patch (right near the asparagus). I plan to do wider rows for my next garlic planting as well. Anyway, seeing that things are continuing to grow (albeit slowly) makes me hopeful for the growing season. I am chomping at the bit to plant some carrots and onions though!