Summer Break

So a happy Alice is one that is on vacation. Yep, Stuart and I actually left our safe haven of bluebirds and meadows and trucked it up the blue ridge mountains to the relaxing town of Hendersonville where my father and his girlfriend own a cabin in town with an acre pond. We raided my dad's awesome garden for
these delicious mulberries and raspberries. I've never had the pleasure of plucking either fruit from their ground rooted source, so what a pleasure. We'll be trying to grow both of these fruits, although I hear raspberries are tricky in our region. There were also ripe blueberries (garden planted), and on a hike up to the top of a mountain near Lake Lure we scavenged for mouthfuls of ripe, juicy, sweet and tart blackberries. Can we say heaven? Most definitely.
We also got a self-guided tour of my dad's leaf mulch pile. He got all the leaves collected from the town of Hendersonville dumped in his garden. These pictures do no justice to the size and scope of this pile of leaves. It goes back about 50 ft behind my father, and about twenty more ft in both directions to the right and left. HUGE!!!! This is the one of the best assets a farmer can have, this mound of organic mulch, and my father is quite proud of his pile. Within a year, even if left alone, around 1/5 of the pile will turn to leaf mold, a rich, velvety textured organic soil amendment that is basically like worm castings. Last year the town of Hillsborough brought leaves to us, shredded up and ready to mulch, and saying goodbye to those leaves was probably the hardest part about leaving our former garden. Leaf separation anxiety is a real condition. We did a soil analysis on some leaf mold from our old farm and the nutrient content was off the charts. Needless to say, my mouth was watering over this mound of goodness. Wish we had the luck of such a vast organic pile with which to condition our soil, but I guess cover crops, chicken manure, and rabbit manure will have to do for now. We also did a bit of canoeing and Stuart got to show off his mad skills. Feathering, j-stroke, draw-stroke, his triple lutz diparoo stroke, and all those other great strokes he loves. When canoeing.

Flower Confidential notes

So this past week I listened to a great podcast. It was the 6/09/08 Democracy Now broadcasting Bill Moyers keynote address at the National Conference for Media Reform. AMAZING!!! What a job we all face. If any of you have the time, it's well worth listening to. This past week I also finished a book I've been reading, Flower Confidential. It's kind of like a flower version of the omnivore's dilemma, but without as much of the ethical pathos that Pollen creates. I personally think it would have been better if she would have presented more questioning about the flower trade system as is, but it was a good read and I definitely learned quite a few things. Such as: there are flower companies in central/south america that will dip whole flowers, flower bud first, into vats of fungicides so that the flowers will pass though US customs (note to self: gross, no more rose petal baths!); flower imports make up nearly 80% of all flowers purchased nationwide (note to self: grow more flowers); California dominates the domestic market, growing 68% of the flowers in the US (California, no doubt about it); there are roses in Ecuador that grow five ft tall and have a bloom the size of a softball (note to self: DANG!); imported flowers are not tested for illegal pesticide residue (vegetables are); at the customs checkpoint for flowers and veggies in Miami, if a box of flowers fails inspection or is questionable regarding insects and fungus, sometimes the flowers will be fumigated in a special methyl bromide chamber at the airport (disgusting); Stewart writes "flowers aren't the only item subject to fumigation....all of the asparagus coming in from Peru was fumigated as a matter of course," including organic no spray asparagus (never again will we yearn for out of season asparagus); the Swiss spend over 100 dollars on flowers per capita annually, with Holland, Germany, and Great Britian all spending forty to sixty dollars per capita. The US only spends 26 dollars per capita, and most of that spending is concentrated on a relatively small number of households (fellow friends, indulge yourselves with local flowers!) That is probably enough for everyone to digest. She also takes the reader through the Aalsmeer flower auction in Holland which sounds pretty fascinating. So this beautiful creature munching on some old dill we have is a black swallowtail caterpillar, also known as a parsleyworm. I almost walked right by it as they camouflage themselves so well. I think they are so gorgeous. If only I could have such color and vibrancy and patterns of delight. And then to metamorphosize into a black swallowtail??!! I wonder what the human equivalent of metamorphasis would be. I could use a cacoon right about now. Come out on the other side capable of flying; sounds good to me. And here is another pic of an item I can't wait to eat. MELONS!!!! We have so many melons this year. We hope they're as good as last year. We get customers for life from a good melon. We're trying some new varieties this year as well. Last year our best variety was "orange coban" or something with coban in the name. It was an heirloom and I have never tasted a more delicious canteloupe.
The flowers up top and here are bouquets I made up for our special community dinner at Panciuto which was a great experience.Salpiglossis (or peruvian lily), scarlet scabiosa, black knight scabiosa (love it!), ping-pong scabiosa, and lime zinnias made for a nice dark expression of romance and intimacy. We weren't all making out or anything at the dinner, but hopefully the flowers helped to increase the convivial mood. Stuart and I had to talk for a brief while before dinner was served and of course I was nervous for hours leading up to it. It wasn't so bad. I actually rambled on and on and think I may have not let Stuart talk enough. The food was amazing as always and Panciuto is hosting more of these dinners if anyone is interested. Well worth it.

Public Enemy Number One has arrived

No, enemy number one is actually not this menace of a worm. This hornworm is such a pig that its latin name means glutton. Believe it or not, manduca sexta is only ranked enemy number three right now. Enemy number one has arrived with its glinty, metallic coat of armor, ready to wreak havoc in the safe haven of bluebird meadows. I've already had enough of their orgies and ravenous attacks on our zinnias and basil that go on all day; they make me think of Bosch's work. I think he must have been a gardener with the Japanese beetle in mind when he painted. He just superimposed humans on the images of the beetles. Yes, they are a serious menace, and I think we may have to get traps for them this year. I hate to see our flowers bite the dust to such a pest.
Our hero here who spotted the hornworm eating a green bean of all things is our amazing helper and my mother Paula. She has been coming to help us out on our hectic Fridays, so a shout out to my mom is in order. We've also had some help from Mike Adamo and Adam Gori, both of whom are photographers masquerading as normal people at their regular jobs. Adam has some of our wedding pics posted on his website, First Person Photography, if anyone is really bored (bored enough to look at our wedding pics, not bored enough to check out Adam's great website).
As for flowers, we're still waiting on the lizzy. The salpiglossis is blooming, as pictured; a unique cut that few people seem willing to purchase. It has a velvety texture and looks like a petunia crossed with alstroemeria. Nothing too exciting. Speaking of exciting, I need to go write the CSA newsletter! We have potatoes and green beans coming in. Even though potatoes are so commonplace, they are one of my favorite vegetables, especially fingerlings and any fresh dug tater. Hopefully our CSA members enjoy them as much as I do. Until we meet again friends.

A few places I'd rather be and Papaver Somniferum

Here is a stunning gift of poppy seed heads from Helga, our friend from four leaf farm. Aren't they incredible? Each seed head contains around 1500-2000 seeds. Might be even more than that. Amazing. Celosia is another flower that is a seed producing superstar. The only problem with these ladies is that the seed scatters all over the counter or floor beneath the flowers. So little black seeds are their trademark. In any case, we'll have lots of poppy seeds, and we just hope we're not mistaken for criminals as we try to grow them. We'll hide all the opium in the basement I guess. As for the flower scene on the farm, we're stuck with black-eyed susans and sunflowers this week. I'm ready for the lisianthus to bloom. Stuart and I netted it and put shade cloth on it today so it'll stretch and be tall and beautiful with legs like Uma and a face like Salma Hayek. Well, I guess we'll have to see about that. They might turn out to be more along the lines of Imelda Staunton and Janet Reno.











And seeing as how it has been so hot and I've been daydreaming about places to be other than 105 degree north cackalacky, here are a few photos of places I wouldn't mind revisiting. Here I stand at Avalanche Lake up in NY, enjoying a little hike in the Adirondacks. Nice and cool, 40s at night, 60s in the daytime. One of my favorite hikes ever I might add.
And here goes Stuart down our favorite swimming hole up at Stone Mtn., NC. We love it there. Not only do you get to take a nice hike up a 600ft granite dome, there are waterfalls galore and it is only two hours and fifteen minutes from here. We'll be making an annual visit at some point this year.And last but certainly not least, we have the bahamas. This is Stuart's niece Claire, or should I say her behind, and I must say she is one of the most adorable children ever, comparable only to her older sister Ella who is just as adorable. Almost makes me want kids. Almost. So it's nice to be able to virtually revisit these places, and there are oh so many more places we'd like to go. But the reality of it all is that I am in NC right now. In the hot Piedmont. Farming. Crazy fools we be. World-travel will have to wait until we (1)find the million dollars hidden on our farm, (2) planes run on solar or wind-powered electic energy (3) the crops decide it's time for a vacation and (4) we run out of things to do on the farm. For the time being, NC isn't really all that bad, and where else could we make it farming our second year together?

Hot in the city

I tried kissing this little guy today, thinking he might turn into a cold shower, but alas, not even Stuart's double appeared. Which is probably a good thing. We've been sweating buckets and guzzling water like crazy today. We're in for a break from the oppressive heat right now, and I can tell our laundry is about to increase exponentially along with the temperature as I refuse to put back on drenched and dirty clothing. I think a run to the thrift store for some more work clothes might be in order. We've been irrigating daily out of our pond which we're praying will hold up for the season. It already looks half a foot low and we're just getting started. No more overhead sprinkler; drip line from here on out. I should take a pic of the lotus flower a customer gave to us this spring. It's unfurled a few big leaf pads and I'm ready to start some more. I've always wanted to have some lotus flowers ever since this woman brought them to the Carrboro market ages ago. They're on up there with tulips, dahlias, callas, and peonies. Speaking of which, I'm going to be ambitous and try to grow callas next year. Even the Arnosky's said callas are hard to grow, but does that stop Bluebird Meadows from trying? I don't think so. Hopefully the price of their bulbs won't stop us either. And, as we're on the topic of incredible flowers, here is the very beginning of a oriental lily bud. Kind of, what's the word, yonic? I do believe so. I am psyched to have the orientals on the way even though lilies are ubiquitous at this point in the flower grower's world. I've always been intimidated by them, but they really weren't that hard to grow. I should probably say this after they bloom.....
and here are some pansies we started in January, thinking they'd be blooming in March. Just three months off. They're a little too smily for my taste, but I do love how small and delicate they are, and anything blue and blooming is alright with me. Feels like I could just dive into them. I'll be using them in the wedding we have this weekend, our last in a stream of them. Enough already of wedding flowers!!! I get too emotionally involved doing all these wedding flowers. It's a little too reminiscent of feeling like the bride the day before the wedding. Or the day of the wedding. Nervous, anxious, sleep deprived, high-strung. I think I might just revert to growing the flowers. We'll see. I guess I should go back to the field and plant some zinnias and sunflowers. I'll leave everyone with the image of avant-garde Clover-rover.

Panciuto leaves the kitchen and Clover's new friend

So Stuart and I were thrilled to have Aimee and Aaron Vandemark of Panciuto come out and visit our farm last week. Not everyday does this man step out of the kitchen, and not every day does Bluebird Meadows have the best chef in town (and one of our best customers) come to visit the farm. In fact, Aaron is the only chef so far to visit our farm. He makes a concerted effort to buy as much as he possibly can from local farmers and for him and Aimee to come see our farm (in the middle of nowhere) shows their dedication. So we were honored and delighted to have some company besides our crazy goofy human-dog Clover.We also think it is important for us as farmers to reciprocate the support we get from local chefs by going for a meal at their restaurants. For Valentine's Day this year we treated ourselves to a meal at Panciuto--meaning potbellied in Italian--in Hillsborough. I will go so far as to say it was the best meal ever.The meal inspired us to raise quail as soon as we have a house on our property and also to return to the restaurant at least twice a year to celebrate slow-food in its finest form. Here is a link to the current menu at Panciuto... http://www.panciuto.com/menu.html ....maybe we should make that a three time a year visit. They also brought us a six pack gift of Peroni, a lovely way to end a long work day on the farm. Hats off to them for coming out.
So I can't resist; I have to post a picture of my younger brother's very unique dog Jizarah. Clover got to spend the long Memorial day weekend with her so they are best buds now. Jizarah is seven months old and weighs 110 pounds. Her mother weighed 130 pounds and Jizarah looks bigger every time I see her. She is super sweet and I prefer her company to most humans. I'll never forget when I was doing my taxes on my brother's computer and Jizarah was with me on the couch and all of a sudden !THWACK! Jizarah rolled off the couch. So funny. Freaked me out for a minute cause I thought it was an earthquake. For some reason Clover looks like such a little redneck dog next to Jizarah. When UNC was playing in the NCAA tournament my younger brother Aubrey picked up a kid's size UNC jersey for Clover and maybe it's the image of her wearing that jersey that makes her out to be a redneck dog around Jizarah. He couldn't find a jersey to fit his girl so the hoss remained jersey-free. Stuart was not thrilled to say the least as his blood runs duke blue. poor fellow. how embarrassing. so next blog I hope to post pics of our Memorial Day weekend adventures up in northern Virginia. We visited Stuart's sister's boyfriend's vineyard where he works, Linden, and saw the winemaking process and machinery. We also did a little hike on the Appalachian trail. more on that later! And as I must include at least one pic per blog of some flowers, here is a pic of market last week. Carrots are in!!! Purple haze carrots for this weekend....

Where did all the flowers go?

another busy week to add to the fire. I'm a bit sad that all of our spring flowers have climaxed and are now looking old and dejected in the field with weeds creeping up around them. It's been so cool here that none of our early spring planted flowers have started blooming yet; campanula, statice, bee-balm or monarda, rudbekia, cosmos, scabiosa....ladies, it's time to put forth your best effort and bloom. I don't really know what to do with myself when there are no flowers blooming...I kind of wither up on the inside and my pulse slows, my color fades; people start asking me what's wrong. For solace I turn to squashing potato beetles. They've gotten out of hand and have begun eating our fingerling plants now. The gall. It's too bad we can't bunch up squash blossoms. They are shockingly vibrant. When we put them on our market table people slow down and do double takes, running into other customers and market tables as their eyes are glued to the color. We have no idea how to price them and we have to pick them around 5:30 Sat. morning so they still look fresh and, like picking squash, you have to bear the squash leaves scratching your arms and making you itch. Most people stuff them with a saute (ricotta, onion, a thinly sliced and diced veggie--you could even use squash) and then batter the flower and saute or fry that. We have one customer that puts them in a soup, but that seems like it diminishes their status a bit. They should be the highlight of the meal if you ask me. And can you believe this radicchio??? YUM! I wish we had a grill. Although if that were the case I'd have to abandon farming and just cook all the time. Why is grilled food so freakin good? I guess for the radicchio we'll have to saute it (boring) and pair it with some gluten free pasta for Stuart's sensitive tummy. It should still be delicious.
So to end this blog I have to post a pic of the cool old house we're living in. Built in the 1860's, the original kitchen was separate from the house. There are five of these HUGE oaks right around the house. They make it worth living here. We had to do a serious clean up job to ge the house in order. The kitchen took a couple days. I think it had been around ten years with no one living here. I got completely disoriented when I first went in the house. Up one staircase and down another and I had no idea where I was. Whoever owned this house was well off back in the day. There is a ping-pong table all the way from finland and Stuart and I only got one game in before we utilized it for a greenhouse table. I hope to bring it back out eventually because I will win at some point.
I've also been thinking about what I can do to save the planet. I'm thinking a tree planting party sounds fun. We'll make a map of our property with all the sites people can go to, and we'll have to transplant trees and have them ready for everyone. I guess we'd also have to figure out how to get everyone out here by carpooling since we're light years away from town. And then we'll record who planted what tree and it'll be AWESOME. I'm still brainstorming though. Any suggestions on how to save the earth will be well received.

Mothers Day Market and the 11th hour

So we had our best market ever this past Saturday. There were flowers galore; all of our spring flowers peaked just in time for mother's day which is actually pretty miraculous considering I'm not a good enough grower yet to plan for such things. The grace of our garden's bounty is almost always a delightful surprise for us. We're continually shocked by how much produce and flowers can be harvested in a fairly small amount of space. Although to be honest our garden doesn't really feel so small anymore. And everything isn't always so graceful. We're embarassed to say we cannot grow a good beet as of yet, and our first planting of brassicas has been a waste of space (a large waste of space). Also, our potato plants are currently being devoured by colorado potato beetles. I'll have to take a picture of these monsters to show you because they really are disgusting. I've gotten to the point where I can kill them unabashedly, squishing their little larvae between my fingers, gleefully feeling them 'pop' and smatter orange fluid all over the plant and my hand. Gross, I know, but a reality.
After market, exhaustion set in and just today do we both feel semi-normal again after sleeping most of the day Sunday and taking it easy yesterday. I was up til 1:30 am Friday night bunching flowers, and Stuart was actually at a Radiohead show in Charlotte which he thoroughly enjoyed although I missed him being here with me.
On Sunday we watched the movie 'The 11th Hour'. Stuart initially didn't want to watch it, claiming we already knew about global warming and its devastating possibilities. However, recent storms here and across the globe have prompted me to feel not only frightened by the reality of global warming, but yearning for more things I can do to help. Thursday night Stuart and I had quite a scare with a tornado touching down only six miles from our home. And we live in a rackety old 1860s home, a home that just wouldn't hold up in a tornado. We watched the storm coming on our local news radar, and couldn't believe the size and scope of the storm. The flourescent pink areas that indicated hail and possible tornadoes were huge and coming our way. We even crawled under a desk downstairs for refuge at 1:30am, listening to the wind howl and feeling very unprotected and vulnerable. But back to the movie---it was fascinating and completely captivating, despite the cameo shots of Leo. Stuart and I said we would just watch some of it and then take a break to do some other things but we remained glued to the screen for the duration of the film. I recommend we all watch this movie as one of the most fundamental things that needs to happen here is awareness of the problems we face.

Kiwis and May madness

This week has been crazy, although every week seems crazy these days. I think May might be one of the toughest months for farming around here. We're still taking care of everything spring, including seeding spring veggies, while trying to get everything early summer into the ground. And harvest for CSA and two markets. And start more summer seed. And weed and water it all. We also have four weddings to do this month. One down, three to go. How do we stay sane? That is a very good question. Lots of dark brooding moments in the strawberry patch and a complacency with a messy house help. We should try and eat better but granola with yogurt and berries, smoothies, and grits and eggs are the foods of choice these days. I'm actually avoiding the kitchen right now so I don't have to make dinner. Its kind of sad with all this absolutely delicious produce we're growing. Just not enough time in the day.
These pictures are of a couple kiwi plants and their fruit setting that our friends Tim and Helga of Four Leaf Farm recently gave us. A wedding present we finally decided to go pick up from their house and boy am I glad we did. The plants (one male and one female in order to acheive proper pollination) are really cool looking and even cooler is the fact that they will eventually produce kiwis! Tim and Helga said they got 800 off of their pair (the female plant really, the male is just good for pollination) two years ago. It's going to be fun taking care of the plants; looks like they require some serious trellising so we'll have to get creative. So not only did we get some kiwi plants, we also got an excellent dinner of salmon they had caught themselves in Alaska and a grand tour of their beautiful farm. They bring some of the nicest produce the Durham Farmers Market has to offer and Stuart and I have always admired their skills so it was quite a pleasure to see where all the magic happens.
We had an awesome market last Saturday. It was pretty close to our all time record which was last July when our melons came in. All the flowers on saturday sold really well except for the foxglove.What was i thinking that it would steal the show? I was very wrong, even though I am still a big fan of the flower. Batchelor buttons of all the flowers seem to be vying for most popular flower. I guess it is the blue. I eagerly await this color all spring and miss it when it's gone. There aren't too many flowers that bloom a true blue. It's edible as well, although I doubt many people eat it. I'm just dumbfounded though to have people choose this flower of all the ones on the table. I guess it's the price as it is the cheapest option on the table. We are thinking this weekend is going to be pretty insane as well at market since it is mother's day and graduation weekend for UNC and Duke (I think). So don't forget your mother this weekend!

Temp pic for market