YES! It's January!

Well, we made it!

An amazing amount of snow makes everything seem twilight zonish. Or like a land for the little people. The trees are so much shorter! Everything is shorter; the greenhouse, the barn, the mailbox... And it's so beautiful. Sparkly and white. Gorgeous!

Our generator is up and running on straight veggie oil now. This month we will tie to the grid with manual disconnect.



I also get to begin graphing veggie time; when what starts get started, planted outside, harvest times etc. AND THEN?

I GET TO ORDER SEEDS!!!

I love this part!

Happy New Year everyone!

Update

It's been awhile. Been busy, of course.

Created a new web site for the business, creating strategy for next outdoor growing season, boiler system is integrated now with tilapia breeder tank and nursery in the greenhouse...
"Chopping wood, hauling water"

Thought I'd quickly add something here.

Cheers!
(come check out the website!)

Passion Fruit and Figs etc...

I think it is interesting that the figs and the date palm, which I haven't put up a picture of yet, & the tropicals and sub tropicals are all growing so well in the same environment. The date palm is growing from a seed that came from a bulk bag of dates that I bought last year at Tu B'shvat, (ט"ו בשבט ) the New Year of the Trees. So I planted 5 seeds and 1 grew. It has 5 fronds so far. I'll take a picture of that, too and put it up here, as well as the passion fruit vines that are all over the place. Man, are they vigorous! I was reading that the passion fruit will take a year or more to fruit. Come April, it will be a year. We'll see what we'll see. Something to look forward to.

Figs

1st Papaya Flower

Been Awhile

It's been awhile. Lots done and lots to do. Diesel generator is on its way, addition to the barn is almost complete, figs are on my fig tree and papayas have buds. There will be more to write when I have more time. Some photos as well. Thanks for checking in.
Cheers!

Seasonal Observations

Good Morning.

OUR PAPAYA HAVE FRUITING STEMS GROWING!!

Why is this so wonderful?

Because it was an experiment.

Because we live in Maine.

And Lacewings have been ordered to combat the stupid spider mites.

Other thoughts:

My Beebalm, Shastas and Borage finished blooming around a month or so ago. This week the Beebalm and Borage are blooming again and the Shastas are setting up buds. My Painted Daisies are budding also. My green peppers are 3 feet tall, leafy and deep beautiful green with absolutely no signs of a bud. The tomatoes are taking forever to ripen. 2 other gardeners were telling me similar observations of their peppers and tomatoes. hmmm.

Update

( The Count from Sesame Street)

1,2...2 sunshiny days in a row. WOW!
I picked 1 lb. of beans day before yesterday. This morning? 3 more pounds. AMAZING.

Last weekend was a bit nuts. We had Farmers' Market on Saturday and then Open Farm Day on Sunday. What a wonderful reception we had. So many people came to see our operation here, more than last year. For 5 hours or so we walked people around the greenhouse and the gardens and explained the different methods of growing, the various forms of hydroponics and semi-hydro etc... We were informed that some of our gardens were a model of perma-culture. Which I found interesting. We just plant every year. We observe. "Oh, look, this soil is way too wet. It's not draining." So that area became raised beds to fix the issue. Folks enjoyed the gardens, which made me feel good.



This weekend is Washington Days.
Jamming happening shin dig with music, food, vendors, parade etc...
This ought to be pretty lively.