Seed Catalogs are comming!

It's like Christmas all over again!  The seed catalogs are coming!  One of my favorites is Territorial Seed Company.  I can't wait to start picking out what I'll have in my garden next spring.  I hope to post pictures of what I have growing righ tnow by this weekend.  I actually have a vibrant and living garden growing this winter.  Romaine, Oriental spinach, Chinese kale, turnips, carrots, beets, and mustard greens.  All doing pretty well inspite of the several hard freezes we've had.  Cross our fingers they make it long enough to harvest! Pictures to follow soon - I hope!

Crazy Fall

Like I said in my food blog, Omnivores Delight I've had a crazy couple of months.  It's not been a fun crazy, but I keep trying to move forward.  Unfortunately all this craziness has taken a lot of time from my blogs.  I have been busy in my garden though.  I've been attempting to see what I can grow into the winter months here in Humboldt.  So far lettuce and Chinese Kale are thriving well beyond my wildest dreams.  The Oriental Spinach would be if the slugs didn't like it so much.  My turnips and beets are struggling.  The soil just doesn't have the nutrients they need to thrive, but my carrots seem to be doing pretty well.  I just stuck some onion starts in the ground, walla walla's and green bunching onions.  I'm pretty sure this is the wrong time of year to do this, but they seem pretty happy, so we'll see how this goes.  I also have a bunch of mustard greens doing pretty well.  My arugula is struggling, but the seeds I had were pretty old.  I'll have to get some pictures of my garden, as weedy as it is, and keep you posted on the progress.  Hopefully I'll find the  time between now and the crazy Christmas holiday, which by the way we will be enjoying leg of lamb from the lamb we raised ourselves.  I'm so excited about that! 
Happy harvests!

Little apple tree - HUGE apples

My little apple tree produces pretty big apples every year, but this has got to be it's biggest ever:
4 inches across:

This is my giant apple next to an apple that is the size of one you would buy in a store:

A Growing Market

Interesting article for local Humboldt County Farmers with a farm to table concept coordinated by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) http://www.caff.org.

The new food fighters - Health

The new food fighters - Health & nutrition | GreatSchools

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busy busy

I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy busy. I haven't been spending near enough time on my garden, but I have been scrambling to keep it alive. My daughter is in 4-H and has been raising a sheep to show in the fair. We spent the entire last week working on that, as well as her getting the opportunity to learn how to show animals by showing some goats for a friend the week before. It's been an exhausting and rewarding experience for the entire family. She ended up selling her lamb for $5 a pound and made herself a nice profit. I'm very proud of her and she is of herself as she should be. This is her first year (and mine and her dad's) and it's great that she has done so well. Next week is the last week of summer before the girls are back to school and we're off to visit family. I hope I come back to a garden that isn't demolished, other then by the friends who'll be here to watch it and the livestock. They're welcome to indulge. I just hope the varmints, goats, and elements leave me something to work with when I get back.
Enjoy the last dog days of summer, and may your harvest be bountiful!

Love Your Farmers Market

I just voted in the "Love Your Farmers Market" contest sponsored by Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org to help my favorite market, Ferndale Farmers' Market, win a grand prize of $5,000. I care about promoting fresh, local and healthy foods, and I need your help to get enough votes to help Ferndale Farmers' Market win. Please vote here: http://www.care2.com/farmersmarket/17312?refer=21496.01.1249686504.164956.

Humboldt County Fair Livestock Auction

Cordelia is showing her first sheep at the fair. Be there at 1 pm for the auction to cheer her on or put in your bid.

A Relaxing Sunday in the Garden

Politics of the Plate: Family Farms or “Facilities”? Food Politics: Gourmet.com

A great article from Gourmet.com. All American family farms should make themselves aware of this issue.

Politics of the Plate: Family Farms or “Facilities”? Food Politics: Gourmet.com

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Too sick to garden

I've been sick for over 2 weeks now. I've spent little to no time in my garden. The most I've done is a little watering. I do have lots of pictures though, so I'll post them today, because that's all I have energy to do today.

Oriental Spinach on March 29th

Oriental Spinach on April 26th.

Chinese Kale - March 29th
June 6th - Chinese Kale. We'll be eating this in a couple of days.

Romaine lettuce starts - April 26th

Romaine lettuce - June 6th. That's broccoli behind it.

My roses

My strawberry patch, with makeshift deer protection
My poor little fig tree - trying to save it from the deer this year.
Cecelia's basil starts
One of the hen's taking advantage of the leak in our hose.
My tomatoes! Cross your fingers that they keep doing well.
Apples are coming!
Cordelia's beet starts. Unfortunately something demolished these hours after transplanting.
Our veggie garden on June 6th.

Sheesh what a day!

It has been ages since I've posted. I'd like to say it was because I was busy in the garden, but that wouldn't be entirely true. That has been part of it, but only part. For the last week and half I've been sick with some crap that's taken on all kinds of symptoms. I've been stressing about the economy, specifically our own personal economy, trying to keep up at work, with the girls school work and social life, dishes dishes dishes (remember the dishwasher is broken) and a myriad of other things. I have been busy taking pictures along the way, and have tons to post. Now, where to begin.

Tonight, I'm exhausted. It's day 11, going on 12 of whatever this crud is I'm sick with. I got home today and immediately went down for a nap before the girls came home. I got in an hour, barely woke up to my husband scrambling to deal with some kind of chaos in the field. I crawled out and looked out in the field for him to look back in exasperation and say, "OH Shit! They're on the roof!"

That's the goats he's talking about. I yell back, "OK!" Throw on my crocks ( not the best shoes for the challenge ahead) and run up our slope behind the garage and hope I can lure the goats off without actually getting on the roof. (I'm scared to death of heights.) It worked! But then.....

What do I do now? I have to somehow get them back in the field.....alone,

I head for the upper gate next to the chicken coop with Sugar Magnolia following in hot pursuit. This could be good or bad. Is she happy to follow or pissed? Turns out she's pissed. As I try to unhook the makeshift gate with my dog nipping at Sugars feet, she pins me, all 150 lbs of her, against the fence post, and proceeds to push harder and harder until the fence post starts to uproot! I'm yelling for my husband to help, I can't move, she's got me pinned. Then I look up to see him walking slowly towards us, in the neighbors field, holding his chest. Oh shit! He broke his ribs, again. He can't help me. I look behind me and Mocha is looking for an in to give me a good butt. I'm getting angry now. I grab Sugar by the horns and to my surprise I've got her under control. Gotta love adrenaline. Unfortunately I can't hold her with one hand and open the gate with the other. Finally I get it open and realize I can't let her in the way I planned. The 4-H sheep are in there and Sugar can't go there. I check on John and head back the other way. The goats follow, not too closely thankfully. Then they attack my apple tree! Now I'm really pissed!

Between John, our dog CB and me we finally get those damn goats back in the field. But to really top off my day, we walk down to the vegie garden and discover that something ate every single ( about 40) beet sprout I had planted the night before. I drug my sick butt out to the garden and planted the sprouts that my daughter started only to find them demolished. A garden day from hell I'll tell ya!

Tomorrow, I'll have more pleasant stories to tell. I have had some successes and I have tons pictures to share.

Next time you're having a bad gardening day, be glad you don't have any goats on your roof.
Happy gardening!

How does your garden grow?

I haven't posted much lately. I've been trying to get busy in my garden. So far I've mainly got my herbs planted. Here's my oregano, plus some marjoram.

More herbs. I love being able to step out my door and grab fresh herbs when I cook! I have basil, dill, Italian parsley, summer and winter savory.
My romaine lettuce starts are going well. We need to get that cold frame set up so I can move them. This is the second round on my milk jug cloches. This is a great way to start seeds.
My amaranth is making a come back.
My oriental spinach, which I started in my milk jugs a few months ago. It's doing fantastic! I happened to notice our local nursery is selling oriental spinach now. I wonder where they got their seeds. Mine came from China Town in Oakland. I've decided that this stuff will grow pretty much anywhere, since I'm having such success with it. We've recently tested our soil and discovered it's low in everything, nitrogen, phosphorous, potash, and everything else, except acidity, which, typical of the pacific northwest, it's high in.

The Chinese kale I started in my milk jugs is hanging in there. It's not doing as well as the spinach. It's probably needing one of those elements our soil is low in. Hopefully it will keep hanging in there.
The artichokes are producing! Yeah!
Well, back to the garden. I stopped at the nursery yesterday and I created more work for myself. Off to go dig in the dirt.........

The Amaranth has Sprouted!

Back in February I posted about my milk jug cloches that I had planted seeds in as far back as January. The Oriental Spinach and Chinese Kale succeeded, but the slugs got to my lettuce, and the amaranth just never sprouted. Now, here it is 3 months later. I went out to clean out the jugs and try replanting the amaranth. I was sure I had done something wrong, since I was completely guessing on how to sprout them. See, the instructions are all in Chinese. I opened up the neglected jug, that had been out in freezing temperatures and not watered, because I assumed there was nothing growing. I opened up the jug and to my surprise the amaranth has finally sprouted! I'm so excited! In fact, some of the romaine lettuce has sprouted as well. So I planted some more lettuce, and put slug bait around it this time. When the sprouts get big enough to take pictures, I'll post some. Right now they'd be nothing but tiny green blurs.

Cold Frames

My husband and I have been talking about building Cold Frames for a couple of years now. Well, he got motivated a few days ago, and so far this is his masterpiece:

It's big! And I'm wondering how we're going to get this through the door out to the yard. This will prove to be a comedy of errors, I am quite sure. I'm not looking forward to helping him move it, but I am very excited to get some plants going.

Stay tuned for the "big move". I'll have to hand my camera over to my daughter so she can document what should prove to be quite hilarious. I sure hope that glass doesn't break between the garage and the other side of the house!

My poor neglected garden

I have been wanting to get down in my garden and weed for days now. I've been meaning to plan out what and where I'm growing everything, and go out and buy my bounty, but life just seems to keep getting in my way. Today was my husbands birthday, so we went shopping for a gift yesterday. My plan was to get his gift, get some lunch stop at the nursery on the way home and head straight to the garden, but birthday boy had other plans, and I never got near my garden yesterday. I also didn't get any of my other chores done, so that's what I did today, and consequently, only enough time to walk through and take pictures of the neglect after dumping my kitchen scraps in the compost bin.

Here are some things I discovered on my garden stroll. I've got volunteer potatoes popping up, and the mint my husband planted is taking over the upper plot.

This is my Chinese Kale that I started in the milk jug cloches. It's barely hanging in.
But the Oriental Spinach is doing great! It's taken to our cool coastal weather quite well.
I also discovered that the artichokes are starting to flower. Yeah!
This is my pride and joy. I planted this chard a full year ago and it just keeps on producing!

Hopefully I'll be busy weeding and planting in the next few days. If only it would quit raining on the weekends!

Evolution of the Victory Garden Part 5

I'm finally back to write the next part of my Evolution of the Victory Garden. I had written part of it out ahead of time and thought I knew where I'd be going with this, but things are changing rapidly, and people are sending me lots of new information, which I greatly appreciate. So where to start? I'm not entirely sure, but here goes.....

We've had "Victory Gardens" throughout history. I've even read that they started beyond what I had originally posted about the depression in the US in the 1800's, back to Europe in the 1600's. This makes me think, that in times of fear and need, we turn to our connection to the land, Mother Earth, to keep up warm, fed, and safe. Once again, we, here in America at least and maybe in lands far away, are feeling that need to be nurtured by our Mother.

We now have the beginning or the Modern Victory Garden. A retreat to the land. I wonder, how is this different from Victory Gardens of the past?

The difference is in the motivation. During the depression in the 1800's and the Great Depression of the 1930's , it was about survival and morale. During World War I, it was about patriotism, as it was in WWII. Now we're in the era of big agribusiness control, terrorism, food fears, fear of bacterial/viral contamination's, in the midst of a major recession, possible depression, AND we're at war. Once again we turn to the land to save us.

We now face large centralized farms using up too much fossil fuel, using too many chemicals, accidentally spreading e-coli and salmonella. We're seeing outbreaks of dangerous bacterial diseases, obesity, and poor health, in spite of our wealth. We've lost connection with the land and we're out of touch with our food. You can't buy a piece of lamb with fat on it, because the grocery store knows Americans are afraid of the vision of fat, yet we can sell McDonald's hamburgers like no tomorrow, which are laden with more fat then the piece that was trimmed off the lamb chop in order to sell it.

As American's we've lost our collective food minds. But the sanity is returning to the sweet smell of Victory Gardens. Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, both have petitioned the White House to plant a Victory Garden. Finally, First Lady Michelle Obama is having the ground broken on the South Lawn of the White House Lawn for a garden that will supply vegetables for the First Family. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Many are excited about this "new" trend, but there is nothing new about it. In 1800 John and Abigail Adams moved in and planted the first garden at the White House. In 1801 Thomas Jefferson adds ornamentals and fruit trees. In 1814 all is destroyed by the British, but in 1825 John Quincy Adams plants fruit trees and herbs to support the first family. In 1918 Woodrow Wilson uses sheep to fertilize and mow the First Lawn to conserve resources for the war effort. Then, in 1943 Eleanor Roosevelt plants a WW II Victory Garden on the White House Lawn, setting an example for the American People. Now, here we are 66 years later, and we're returning to the soil. Curling up in mamma's lap in a time of need.

Personally, we headed toward the "self sufficiant" life style several years ago. We started with a vegetable garden, then some sheep, then chickens, and now goats. We live on the coast, my husband fishes for much of our food. We're planning on clamming, hunting, gathering, growing vegies/fruits, raising/ butchering meat. We were going to do this before the economy went south, but now, it feels like a necessity. We turned to the soil to heal other ills, now she serves us in an unexpected time of need. I am greatful to my parents for teaching me what I needed to survive in these times. And I'm grateful for my luck in having a place where I can do this and that Mother Earth is providing us with what we need.

Happy Spring, and here's to an abundant crop!

Hey! Why don't we come up with posters for the new Victory Gardens? Got any ideas? Leave them here.

Victory Garden Handbook

I still have a part 5 to add to my Victory Garden series, but have got behind having to deal with sick kids, a sick dog, broken appliances (dishwasher) etc. etc.

To add a little nibble to the subject go to this site and check out the Victory Garden Handbook of the Victory Garden Committee War Services, Pennsylvania State Council of Defense, published April 1944.

I'll be back soon to add to my series. Have a wonderful first day of Spring!

Evolution of The Victory Garden Part 4

Victory Gardens of World War II - These are the gardens my parents talked about and helped to grow with their families.

Many of the Victory Gardens of WWII sprouted from the the Relief Gardens of the Great Depression, and many had their start as WWI Victory Gardens.

During World War II the War Food Administration created the National Victory Garden program and it had five goals.

1. To lessen the demand on commercial vegetable suppliers and therefore make more food available for the Armed Forces.

2. To reduce demand on strategic materials used in food processing and canning.

3. To ease the burden on the railroads transporting war munitions by releasing the produce carriers.

4. To maintain the vitality and morale of Americans on the home front through production of nutritious vegetables and being outdoors to cultivate them

5. To preserve fruit and vegetables for future use when shortages might become worse.

Shortages were very real during WWII and rationing of food and resources were a reality for Americans at the time.


















In 1942 5.5 milion gardeners participated in the War Garden Effort. Seed package sales rose 300%. The USDA estimated that 20 milion gardens were planted with and estimated 9 to 10 million pounds of fruit and vegetables grown per year. That was fourty-four percent of the fresh produce grown in the U.S. In 1943 315,000 pressure cookers sold for canning. Only 66,000 sold the year before.

The Victory Gardens of World War II helped to improve the morale of Americans and provided and outlet for patriotism, fear and anxiety, with loved ones off to war.

Today, we're seeing a resurgence in Victory Gardens and there are many similarities to the Victory Gardens of World War II, but there are some stark differences as well. Stay tuned for Part 5 of the Evolution of Victory Gardens, when we explore the modern Victory Garden.

Evolution of The Victory Garden Part 3

The Great Depression 1929 to 1939:

The stock market crashed, jobs were lost and people were hungry. Once again municipalities turn to gardens to lessen the burden on the American public. Relief gardening programs were put in place to combat hunger, poverty and emotional stress. These gardens were known as welfare gardens, vacant lot gardens, subsistence gardens and depression relief gardens. It was believed that these gardens would improve health and spirit, create feelings of usefulness, productivity, importance and provide opportunities for food and work.

There were three phases to depression era relief gardens. In the beginning the program was hindered by disagreements on the size and placement of the gardens, who would be involved in creating them, uncertainty on the length of the depression and the fact that these gardens would no longer be grown for the sick and disabled, but for healthy people unable to find work. Most support for these gardens came from the citizens themselves in the beginning.

In 1933 these issues were resolved for a couple of reasons. First non government organizations such as The Family Welfare Society and Employee Relief Commission formed garden committees to combat hunger. People with land were encouraged to cultivate and seeds and supplies were provided. Many farmers disliked this program because they felt that by growing more produce in these relief gardens caused overproduction which in turn maintained the depression. Second, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and started the "New Deal". Over the next three years the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) gave over $3 billion of aid to work garden programs. Gardeners received wages for cultivating and distributing to those in need. This program lasted until 1935.

How well did these programs work? In New York City a gardening campaing led by the Welfare Department and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created over 5000 gardens in vacant lots producing $5 worth of vegetables for every $1 invested which came to $2.8 million of food produced by 1934.


In 1935 government funding ended and the third phase began. The gardens were no longer viewed as opportunities for success and improvement. The attitude of the public began to change to viewing the gardens as a tool for poverty and laziness, and that they were best geared towards the disabled and sick. The connotation went from "relief" gardens to the pitiful impression of them becoming "welfare" gardens.

But by 1939 another war was brewing in Europe and these connotations would be looking to change soon. Next up, World War II Victory Gardens.

Evolution of The Victory Garden Part 2

The original "Victory Gardens" began during World War 1, even before the U.S. entered the war. In 1914 in Europe, the allies had most of their farmers go off to war leaving crops unharvested and rotting in the fields, most of the farm land had become part of the war zone, and it was becoming more and more dangerous to ship food to Europe due to the German submarines. There was virtually no meat available, and dairy products were so limited that a person had to get a doctors note saying that it was necessary to their health to acquire them. Bread was often not available at all.

In the U.S. citizens had to cut their consumption of food as prices rose and as the burden fell on North America to provide food for 120,000,000 people. Meatless and wheatless days were promoted in order to conserve. As a response to this community gardens started to pop up everywhere.

In 1917 Charles Lathrop Pack founded the National War Garden Commission. The Commission campaigned for backyard Victory Gardens with posters, cartoons, press releases, and pamphlets to "to arouse the patriots of America to the importance of putting all idle land to work, to teach them how to do it, and to educate them to conserve by canning and drying all food that they could not use while fresh." (Pack 1919). Posters had sayings such as, "Will you have a part in Victory?", "Put the slacker land to work", and "Can the Kaiser". President Woodrow Wilson stated that, "Everyone who creates or cultivates a garden helps..."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture formed a committee on public information to help plant "a million new backyard and vacant lot gardens." These gardens were meant to feed America so that the country would be able to send food abroad to support our European allies, and to save fuel and free up transportation and middleman jobs to help with the war effort.

How well did this effort work? In Dallas Texas in 1918 there were 20,000 gardens producing 17,500 cans of vegetables in only a few weeks. In Marion Indiana where 29,000 people resided there were 14,081 gardens. Nationwide in 1917 there were 3 million garden plots. By 1918 that had increased to 5,285,000 plots with a harvest of 528.5 million pounds of produce for that year.

When put to the test, individual Americans can really produce.

Next stop down garden history lane will be Depression Relief Gardens. Stay tuned.

Evolution of The Victory Garden

I've been hearing the term "Victory Garden" thrown about more and more these days. I had to wonder, how many people really know what a Victory Garden is. Or, should I say was? I grew up hearing the term, having parents who grew up during the depression and who lived through WWII. Their families had Victory Gardens, and they often spoke to me about those gardens, which went beyond vegetables to include chickens, and usually a milk cow. I've seen my Mother shudder at the sight of a butter churner in antique stores. Yes, she had to churn her own butter, but that's another story all together.

My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to blow off chores and do some research on Victory Gardens. I discovered a rich history in American gardening and I'll share what I discovered in my own little series here. So story number one, where did Victory Gardens begin?

I had a vague recollection that WWII Victory Gardens had their start in WWI. When I started researching WWI Victory Gardens I discovered that The U.S. has had a long history of encouraging backyard gardens as a way to get by and even to control the impoverished.

Between 1890 and 1910 a group of middle and upper middle class city dwellers started the City Beautiful Movement. It started out of their fear of the masses of poverty stricken citizens they reluctantly co-existed with. Between 1860 and 1910 the US population had tripled which put a lot of strain on urban areas. Nearly 19,000 people lived in 303 alleys in Washington DC. Sanitation, crime and overpopulation were becoming major issues. It was believed that by beautifying the city it would inspire civic loyalty and improve morals in the poorer civilians, which would, in turn, reduce crime.


Part of this movement involved city gardens, which they hoped would improve the health of the poor population by getting them outside and providing them food and giving them a rest from the stresses of life. One group in Minneapolis grew so much in their City Beautiful garden that they began supplying local stores with their produce.


During the depression of 1893 to 1897 backyard gardens were also encouraged due to increasing poverty and unemployment. Detroit Michigan was hit particularly hard at this time and Mayor Haze S Pingree put out a request to owners of vacant lots to be used by the unemployed to grow vegetables for subsistence. These vacant lot plots later became known as Pingree's Potato Patches. It was hoped, that in doing this, that the food supply would increase and supplement income, and that a sense of self respect and independence would grow as well as gaining the benefits of fresh air and exercise. The gardens ended up saving the city money. Detroit invested $3000 in supplies and in the first year yielded $12,000 worth of vegetables. This allowed the city to not have to raise taxes to support the unemployed and saved Detroit $9000.

2000 people participated over several years between Detroit and Buffalo. One goal for the potato patches was the hope that recent immigrants, like the Polish women pictured above, would socialize and become more ingrained in the "American Way". Similar programs existed in Minneapolis and Denver.

The U.S. has always had a rich agrarian history, but I've never really looked into the city side of that history before. I find it fascinating how city gardening has been used in the past to help the poor become more nourished, not just physically, but emotionally in the past. I have to wonder why (I think I know why) it's not being encouraged so much today.

Next I'll share what I've learned about the Liberty Gardens of the Great War, or better known as World War I.