…from our trip to the Joyce Kilmer / Slickrock Area.

I can’t seem to get these images in the order that’d I’d like. Oh, well. I don’t have the patience to mess with it anymore now.

ACT cites a Dept of Labor report stating that the price of eggs has risen nearly 35% over the past 12 months.

Who knew that those chickens could increase their value so much by just lazing around the backyard?

Wow, it just occurred to me that it has been over a month since the last post… alot has been going on during the past 5 weeks. Here’s a quick run-down of the highlights:

Trip to Portland. It was business and the weather was crummy but it’s always a nice place to visit. Beervana, they call it. I made stops at a few brewpubs: Bridgeport, Rogue, Lucky Labrador and sipped other fine hoppy treats when possible. Reading the newspaper, it seems that Portland has a thriving farmers market; I also noticed a story about some transplants from North Carolina that have opened a biscuits and gravy eatery. Apparently one could not find that particular delicacy before… I, for one, am glad that problem has been fixed.

Speaking of NC, it was good to see some Mt. Pleasant boys… my buddy Scott M. made it into the City to hang out and his wife gave birth to a little girl the day I left. The Avett Bros sold out the Crystal Ballroom and, as always, put on a hell of a show.

1st Annual Backyard Chicken Grill. Layers are probably best suited for the pot. Live and learn, eh? A group of good friends helped us enjoy a couple of the yardbirds and some homebrew. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll have some cornish birdss next year. Mmm, tasty.

More garden planting. Here’s the current inventory of what’s in the ground and growing: garlic (2 types), arugala, spinach, lettuce (assortment), carrots (2 types), tomatoes (2 types), peppers (4 types), cilantro, basil, thyme, chard, potatoes (2 types), green beans, lima beans (2 types), onions, ground cherry, blueberries, raspberry, currant, rosemary, and finally, hops (6 types). Still some more left to do…

1st day at the Asheville City Market. A great bunch of people. We had a lot of fun and just about broke even. We’ll chalk it up as a success. We’re looking forward to getting to know the other vendors and, hopefully, documenting a bit of what they do to bring their goods to market. We’re back on June 14th.

Camping trip to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest / Slickrock Wilderness. Short car camping trip with many hours of rainfall. We still got a bunch of photos and had a great time.

Rain-fed, solar-powered garden irrigation system. I’ve been getting really tired of filling up the watering can from the rain barrel and hauling it around. It takes several trips each watering session. I got a little carried away with the idea of adding a pump to the rain barrel and ended up spending entirely too much on the system but I couldn’t let it go once to the idea evolved. Here’s the quick sketch of the frankenstein system that I rigged together yesterday: 5 watt solar panel (designed to charge an automatic gate opener) wired to a 12v lawn mower battery with a charge controller connected to a 12v DC to 120v AC inverter to which a 350 GPH transfer pump is attached that sucks water out of the barrel and pushes it through a series of soaker hoses to some thirsty plants. No more carrying water all over the place, I can just flip the switch. I’m considering taking it to the next step and adding a timer and float switch combination. Then I wouldn’t even have to think about it. The garden would water itself.

Last, but certainly not least , Honour’s Birthday!
I picked up an absolutely amazing carrot cake from Short Street Cakes

Reading the editorial section of our local paper this evening, I found myself drawn to an opinion piece entitled “Flawed energy policy is fueling our food crisis.” While I’m not sure that I completely agree with the author’s assertion that government mandated ethanol problems are the root cause of rapidly rising food costs, I do believe she may be getting close to the real issue.

How far does your food travel?

Be it oil or corn (or both) that provides the raw material which fuels the transport, shipping a tomato a couple of thousand miles is costly and subject to market forces beyond my, or your, control. As I’m typing this I’m recalling that even corn-based ethanol relies heavily on oil in the form of petro-chemical fertilizers. It’s quite the complex web.

The real issue: overly complex distribution systems and extreme reliance on such.

Yep, most of my food comes from afar. Are we trying to rely less on that? Sure. Are we fanatical about it? Nope. But buying local products when possible from the grocery store or the upcoming Asheville City Market and supporting the folks that actually live in your community is great. There’s also something really rewarding about watching the first spinach plants of the season grow in my own backyard.

I’ll raise a glass of homemade beer as a cheers to the newly planted hops rhizomes and other treats in my own backyard that won’t have to travel but a few feet to my pint glass and plate.

Most of our work seems to revolve around the backyard, whereas the front yard is mostly just a place that needs the grass mowed.

We do, however, have a beautiful cherry tree in blossom now that resides in our front yard. We certainly don’t want to short change the other front yard trees: there is a whopper of an oak tree (just across the property line but we share in the bounty of acorns and leaves), a weeping cherry that gives us a short but wonderful display each year, a tripled-trunked birch, and a few miscellaneous, yet-not-quite-remarkable others. We’ll provide more details as time passes… in the meantime, please enjoy these images of the early plum blossoms.

These images were printed, framed, and submitted for the Madison County Arts Council “The All Mighty Chicken Exhibit” juried contest. An opening reception is scheduled for April 4th @ 6pm in Marshall. Hope to see y’all there.

I recieved a response from the Town Manager. It was not nearly as encouraging as I had hoped it would be. Here’s a snippet that you can read for yourself:

“And I agree that this would truly be growing your food locally. However, in my opinion, I believe that you would have major opposition from residents and neighbors.”

Oh, well.

I mentioned the other day that I had brought home two new chicks. We tagged along on a friend’s order from McMurray Hatchery with a request for two black star female chickens. We may have ended up with a soon-to-be rooster rather than hen. We’ll know what’s up when the bird either crows or lays an egg…

The chicks went out for a stroll in the garlic bed today and we couldn’t help but think how the two ingredients would make a great dinner.

4 week old chicks aren’t the most cooperative subjects but we might have gotten a couple of good images. A Polaroid example below.

34 cloves of hierloom garlic were planted back in October and are growing strong. This is our first attempt at growing garlic… it was just last fall that I learned garlic has to be in ground over-winter to produce the individual cloves. Learn something new all the time.

The two varieties are Inchelium Red and Tochliavri from Seed Savers Exchange. Slow Food USA offers some information on the Inchelium Red: “Hailing from the Colville Indian Reservation in Inchelium, Washington, this garlic is a large and beautiful artichoke variety.” Garlicsmiths says that the Tochliavri “…is the pride of the village of Tochliavri in the Republic of Georgia” and it’s flavor “…is often referred to as ideal.”

The images below are some more Polaroid proof shots from the trusty 4×5. We’ve got a set of forsythia flowers and a couple of daffodils making their way out… In particular, I was most intrigued by the daffodil emerging from the the newly shed ’skin’ that had been protecting the premature bloom. A few more days and they’ll be in full force.

We got a pansy (no not Andy T. , but a flower) and a couple of purple blossoms, that I’m unfamiliar with, to pose also… it was the daff and forsynthia that we decided to commit to ‘real’ film. It might be a few weeks before they’re shipped to be processed.

In other news… I picked up a couple of new chicks tonight. The wife’s cool with it These not-quite-pullets have been hanging with a class full of kindergartners for their first four weeks of life but have now taken up residence in our garage. They’ll be taking over for the hens that take part in the “First Annual Backyard Chicken Grill” in a few weeks!

Compliments of the backyard flock. This will be one of our offerings at the Asheville City Market. For now though, we’ve just listed a set for sale on eBay to test the waters.

The cards are blank inside, come three to a set, and are strikingly unique.