*The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.
— Joel Salatin*
Seed catalogs in the mail and seed displays at the store start to create an excitement in me. I just had to start a few seedlings a couple of weeks ago. Some of them may have been a little too early to start, like the cucumbers and squash, but the tomatoes and basil are looking pretty good and right on schedule. This is the first time that I have started tomato seedlings from saved seeds. A man gave us a gorgeous tomato last year and said that it was an heirloom and that we should save its seeds. I think he called it Miss Molly. I was surprised and pleased to see that they sprouted. You can do that with heirloom varieties, but hybrids will not yield fruit that is like the parent. It will revert back to one of the varieties that they combined.
As the weather permits, we have been clearing off our garden space and cleaning the old vines off of the tomato cages. We will cover the soil with cardboard and wood chips that they county road crews drop off at our driveway for us. I am making some changes this year that hopefully will keep weeds at a minimum since I don’t want to use any nasty chemicals to kill them.
Part of the cleanup involved burning down our 20 year old rotten chicken house. The squirrels had eaten holes in the roof and the sides and water had flowed through and rotted a lot of it too. It’s been about 5 years since I had any chickens. My kids have chickens and we can get eggs from them now so it may be a while before I do that again.
We lit the house on fire and the blaze was so intense that we were a little afraid that we had gotten in over our heads, but it was all contained and burnt to the ground. I was wishing for some marshmallows.
I had posted a video of the blaze on Instagram and so far it has gotten 164 views. LOL, it’s interesting how people like to watch things burn. Here’s the link if you have a little pyro in you too.
https://instagram.com/p/BgKQ5GfFurV/
I will post updates on the garden progress. Thanks for stopping by Stillwaters Farm!
p.s. That is my turnip that I grew.
