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Tiny Farm Blog
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Two acres and some tools: a photo-blog of daily life on an organic microfarm.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'Indoors'
After the market
Somehow, I always forget to take enough pictures at the market, of things like setting up the stand. It’s really great, how a plain old small town street, in about an hour, turns into a…fa...
Changing of the weather
Um, more weather. Still no change in the strangeness. This is typical of most of the days this summer, yet another rain rolling in, usually right on top of a beautiful, sunny break, then rolling out a...
Beans and big weeds
Hand pulling big weeds is a regular garden feature this summer of rainy, weed-favoring weather. In the before and after, the second and third plantings of snap beans (Jade and Indy Gold) are disappear...
The Endless Salad…
Lunch has turned into a collaborative cooking affair, built around the near-infinite possibilities of the Endless SALAD. Everyone who’s around pitches in: here, Lynn and Melissa chop. We build i...
Work for a dreary day
Rain is usually the only thing that stops work in the field, and not even that on harvest days, but this crazy cold May has had it’s particularly nasty, stay-inside days, and today was one of &#...
Early spring rounds
A gray and gloomy, windy day…but WARM. Well, fairly above freezing for the most part, and with a little rain, yesterday’s speeded-up melting continued. But we’re still a ways off fro...
First tomato: 2008
Here’s the very first tomato seedling to emerge and spread its seed leaves: a Striped German (a big, bi-color heirloom, one of my top 3-4 favorites over the last couple of years). This is six da...
Seedling action
The main tiny farming action is with the seedlings now; even if the snow melted off tomorrow (which it won’t), it’d still take a sunny, windy couple of weeks, give or take, for the field t...
Inside and out…
Inside, in the increasingly GREEN Milkhouse, this year’s artificial sun set-up is done. It’s about fitting in as much area-under-lights as possible, while making sure all of the trays are ...
Peppers!
Another little new-season milestone: the first of the original veggie gang has appeared. These are Gypsy (hybrid) sweet peppers, seeded six days ago, along with other peppers and eggplant. They start...
The watering tray
It’s funny how almost random objects can become practically indispensable tools. Like this rigid gray tray, given to me a while back, just the one, amongst a mixed bunch of plastic flower pots f...
Celery!
Celery has been surging up over the last day or so, 10 days after seeding. This is Utah 52-70, a pretty common variety. Celery is a member of the carrot family (Apiaceae), along with parsley, parsnip,...
Seedlings continue to grow…
Seedling production is on about the same schedule as last year, except there are a few new things on the go: celery, onions, leek, celeriac. The three grow racks aren’t yet full (and there̵...
More fun with lettuce
Some of the early lettuce I ended up leaving two to a cell, to see how they’d do. Now, I divided a bunch of those and potted them up singly to a much roomier 38-cell plug sheet (up from 72), and...
Two arugulas
The arugula, about a month from seeding, is looking lush and…TASTY. While fiddling with macro focus and tripod (I’ve been using a borrowed one lately for indoor pics), I reached around to ...
Fuzzy little rosemary
Hmmm, so that’s what tiny rosemary seedlings REALLY look like with their first true leaves. I’m experimenting with the new camera. On macro, it’s practically a microscope. I can focu...
Parsley update
Around two weeks after emerging, the first set of curly parsley is putting out its first true leaves. This is Krausa Market, a “triple curled” variety. Aka moss-curled. There’s als...
Tea and fungi
Chamomile tea prevents damping off—I’m a believer! It’s one of those natural but-do-they-really-work remedies, used where more product-minded folks would fork over a few bucks for a bott...
Simpson Elite
More early lettuce. This is Simpson Elite, an improved variety of Black Seeded Simpson, which is a really fast, reliable heirloom from the 1800’s. I grow both. They have thin, delicate, pale gre...
Lightbox suspended
Another seedling room set-up task checked off today: hanging the lightbox. Not exactly a big job—the chains were already there from last year—but having it in place is a big visual reminder in the...
New rosemary
Rosemary, seeded 10 days ago, has been coming up over the last couple of days. I’ve heard that germination for this herb can be hard, under 50%. I’ve usually done better than that. This tr...
Parsley!
The first parsley has been popping up over the last day. This is Hilmar, a new flat leaf variety I’m trying for the first time this year, in addition to the regular Plain Italian that’s a...
Tomato seed
It’s sounds a little odd to call it that, but this is my tomato seed collection. A rough count says there are maybe 150 packets, with another 30 on the way with the just-completed all-heirloom ...
Ten-day leeks
The leeks are thriving, all straight up and down. Ten days from seeding, and some of ’em are nearly 3″ (7.5cm) tall. Clearly, the seed was more viable than expected, looks like practically every o...
Lettuce-watching
Tiny farming is in a mid-winter slow motion state right now, kinda like the calm before the storm. I don’t have daily livestock chores—I don’t have animals!—and as far as garden activi...
Leeks appear
That was quick! After barely four days, the Jolant 75-day early leeks are poking up quite vigorously (there are early leeks and long season one’s that’re usually 100 days+ and more cold ha...
Little lettuce
The year’s first lettuce is beginning to put on its true leaves. Here, Granada that will turn an intense burgundy, is just barely showing a tinge of red around the edges. The seedlings are still...
Seedling treatment
The fan is oscillating and the grow racks are slowly filling up. Parsley—curly and flat-leaf—are underway, and there’s more lettuce and some herbs… Fanning the seedlings is particularl...
Books! Seed! Orders arrive…
Better than Christmas! The first half of the first big seed order, and my first book order in months, both arrived today. Seed every year comes almost entirely from three companies: William Dam, Vesey...
Arugula emerges
That was quick! Early morning, and the arugula (and Granada lettuce) has popped up in barely two days. Air temperature in the Milkhouse where the grow racks are stays mostly in the 60-65°F (15-17°C)...