Growing Food – Literal Road Farm

We’ve started migrating our gardening approach to no till, which we find a little challenging to figure out with raised beds. But that plus a bit of neglect led to this bed of overwintering kale flowering in late April which–it turns out–is a huge blessing because it is currently all that is flowering in our garden for the bees.

Last year we went to a gardening conference and learned several tips to help all pollinators, not just bees. Among the tips we learned were:

Have three different “somethings” flowering from last frost to first frost.
Don’t clean up the garden at the end of the growing season because many pollinators overwinter in brush piles and hollow stems.

The second piece of advice is easy to follow because I don’t like doing cleanup in the wet, cold weather of late fall. The first piece of advice will take a learning curve to figure out what we can have in the garden from last frost to first frost–as well as what can withstand a frost since our frost date has been later and later each year (May 1st this year!).

Accidentally discovering that overwintered kale will be there for the bees was good news for us! And a lesson as usually I harvest the buds before they flower and cook them up with garlic, but February and March were too crazy busy and I didn’t get to it. Now I guess kale buds won’t make it on the menu in the future either, which is okay with me: I’d rather help the bees!

Plus I am slowly figuring out how to save seed and this year it looks like I will be experimenting with kale seed.

And the added bonus? These are pretty plants!! Pretty plants full of buzz and activity.

One thing we don’t have to buy: harvest decor. I love decorating for the fall, and I love growing the pumpkins and corn stalks to do so! These mini pumpkins are Jack Be Littles and they are edible and taste good, according to the seed packet. And we had plenty! We must have had over 100 from just four plants. But sadly, I was already pumpkin-ed out with pie pumpkins being used for pumpkin bread and soup and the like, so we didn’t eat any of these. The pigs did! And loved them!

July is usually t-shirt weather when working in the garden, but not this year! I was out in rain gear and rubber boots today! Bleh!

On our small farm journey, we are striving to grow much of our food. This is harder than you might think given the wet clay soils we are stuck with. But despite the challenges, it is joyful, meaningful and educational.

And there’s another benefit: the necessary slowing down required to process and preserve this homegrown food, because that slowing down leads to peace.

On a sunny July afternoon, I sat outside at the picnic table shelling these peas pondering the peace of the process. It didn’t seem like a chore. It seemed like a blessing to be able to sit quietly for an hour with my dog at my feet shelling peas for the freezer while listening to the birds.

Sometimes when I’m doing those kinds of tasks, I think I’d enjoy it more with company, with someone to talk to. But other times, like today, I felt grateful for the solitude and time to simply sit and think and be. My brain was quiet. My heart was full. I was at peace.

All because I had a basket full of peas.

It’s 9:30 at night and I am almost done with today’s project: freezing green beans. I picked up 20 pounds of green beans from a local farmer yesterday and, unlike tomatoes, green beans don’t wait. I didn’t like waiting a day even, but that was the timing. I will soon be done blanching the second batch, dropping them into cold water, drying them, and packing them into plastic bags for the freezer and then finally going to bed.

Although my husband is gone, he will be back and I am trying to do what little bit I can to move forward with our dream of eating local food and starting a small farm by getting some things canned and frozen for winter. The green beans aren’t ours, but they are local, and next year we will have time to get the garden going and then yes, the green beans will be home-grown. For now, at least it keeps us eating a little local during the winter months and reminds us of what we’re working towards. When he gets home, I don’t want it to feel like we had to take a year off from our dream…just the six months. 🙂

Category: Growing Food

Going to Seed for the Bees

Growing Our Own Harvest Decorations

Rain Gear in July?? Not What Summer Gardening Normally Looks Like!

The Peace of Shelling Peas

Snapping Green Beans All Afternoon…It’s All Part of the Dream