Now THAT'S a Carrot!

I went out to the garden to grab a couple of carrots for a salad I was making

I grabbed what I thought was a bunch of carrot tops and pulled

and out popped this monster.

After making sure that it didn't taste weird (it didn't)

I used about a third in my salad and chopped the rest up for horse treats.

I promise I grew this with nothing but horse poop-

no nuclear radiation involved.

Black Gold

 Recently, Big E and I managed to get the garden weeded 

and tilled and ready for the winter.

We have a large pile of straw mulch and weeds that need to be burned 

(to hopefully kill off some of those squash bugs that lived among them)

but other than that, it's all good to go.

 We also began carting wheelbarrows full of composted manure

up the hill from the barn to the garden.

(and after pushing a few wheelbarrows full I realize we have a crap ton lot of work to do to get in shape for the 40 for my 40th)

It's black gold.

We're hoping this helps with some of the issues the garden was having this past growing season.

We had a great year the year before, but this year was less than stellar.

I blamed our lack of fertilizing.

(Not to mention we had that little thing called a wedding to plan)

There's about 3/4 of the garden left to fill with all that warm composted fertilizer

and once that's done,

we plan on covering it with black plastic.

I've been told the black plastic will heat up and kill off bugs and weed seeds.

At the very least it will help the soil warm up in the spring 

so perhaps I'll have quick germination for those spring veggies.

Now we just have to wait out the winter...

Bring on Fall

I managed to get all those new falls seeds planted this week.

(Not all by myself- Big E manned the tiller and 

pulled some weeds and 

took care of wedding photographer details. 

I know, he's awesome)

Just in time for some steady rain rain today.

Hoping to can some beets and sauerkraut later this fall.

New Fall Seeds

I received my latest order of seeds yesterday and can't wait to get them in the ground. Because I've managed to use my canner and not blow anyone up, I've become adventurous and plan on attempting to make my own sauerkraut. So I have 2 varieties of cabbage to try. I also have Autumn King carrots, Dwarf Curled Scotch Kale, Siberian Dwarf Kale and a beet blend. All these were ordered through Annie's Heirloom Seeds. I wasn't too impressed with the germination of the kale and cabbage seeds I got from Seed Savers so I'm giving this new company a try. Now to talk Big E into building a couple of poly tunnels...