We’re looking forward to setting up our booth at the market again in a couple of weeks. Our scheduled days for June and July are below… we hope to see you there.
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June 14th
June 21st
July 5th
July 12th
Garlic is a truly wonderful plant…
Down at the market this past Saturday I noticed a big ‘ol pile of scapes in one of the booths… so I, of course, had to get me some of them.
Rather than look for a recipe online, I improvised and whipped up a decent cream sauce:
butter
green onion
scapes!
salt
pepper
white wine
allspice
cream
parmesan
Dinner turned out nicely and most everything you see on the plate (steak, scape, pasta, broccoli) came from either Buncombe or Madison County… the lettuce, as close as the backyard.
The garlic we’re growing here out back won’t give up any scapes since neither are hardneck varieties… so I may need to add another variety to the mix this fall.
We had a large format portrait session this evening with the ants. The peonies just happened to be in the shots as well… No 4X5 film on display here now, just some macro shots with the digital Nikon D1X. The yet-to-bloom-poppy is paired with the remnants of an already faded blossom. Our dogs compliment shots of the rain barrel, compost bin, hops trellises and general garden area. Hope y’all enjoy. Come back now, ya hear.
Read a little more about some ants and peonies here.
So, after I got carried away with my rain-fed, solar-powered garden irrigation idea it became clear: the soaker hoses just ain’t gonna cut it. Too much wasted water… like 65 gallons gone in 20 minutes and the hops at the end of the line were still thirsty. Plenty of water for the first few plants though.
The timer and float switch will both stay at the hardware store. I’ll still use the solar powered pump and will continue to enjoy not filling up the watering cans 10 times per watering session. I’ll use a sprinkle attachment at the end of a regular hose though.
The true realizations are: I like walking around the garden and giving the plants the individual watering attention that they need. It’s the type of inefficiency that I relish.
I was unable to make it to my brother’s graduation from Montana State University last week. I did, however, make a brew for him to enjoy whenever he wants to celebrate his well earned degree.
The good folks at Kettlehouse Brewing Company were kind enough to share the recipe for one of bro’s favorites, Cold Smoke Scotch Ale. It was really awesome that they answered my email inquiry with the goods that I needed to know in order to pull off a decent replica of the original. A pinch of peated malt was added as a personal touch.
Cheers!
disclaimer: this image was not approved by HH Fine Arts but I posted it anyhow 
I’ve loosely kept up with some of the Dervaes’ efforts for a year or so now and they have influenced some of my current thinking… Seems they’ve hit Prime Time, a post on the Deep Green Perspective blog links to an ABC News article about the Dervaes family and their Los Angeles suburban farm on a 1/5th of an acre.
It’s worth a read and a follow-up perusal of the Path to Freedom blog.
Well, the 1 year old crowns are here anyhow. 12 of ‘em arrived via USPS at my door. It was sort of an impulse buy the other week… so, now I’ve got to till up a bed. I’m just hoping that the spot I have in mind gets enough sun. We’ll see.
So they’re called Jersey Supreme and are one of the all-male jersey hybrids that are known for yielding a high qauntity harvest. A bit of information on asparagus, in general, can be found here
Fresh, tender asparagus spears will be found on our dinner table next spring.
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
