The Simple Life: This Week at Ramsey Farms

Sunday, December 15, 2013

This Week at Ramsey Farms

I Dislike Winter Cold

The weather is starting to get to me. I added a countdown to spring to this blog's home page! I'm constantly checking on how low the night's temperatures will go. And worse? I'm obsessing about the Weather

Channel's map showing the temps all across America and wishing I was there! It dawned on me today, it's only about mid-December and we still have January, February, and most of March to go with this coldness! NOOOOOOO!!!

The process of locating the property I want to buy (a.k.a. The Big Farm) has unofficially started thanks to my daydream tendencies. The official kick start to this endeavor will not be until February/March 2014. However, I believe that I have decided based on weather and warmth that this family will be relocating southward. Today anywhere from Savannah, GA south to Orlando, FL as far east as the Atlantic and as far west as Mobile, AL. Georgia-Florida line. The current country song, "Sunny and 75" keeps playing in my mind. This case of spring fever will never end so let's fly south like the birds do and not worry with these 30s, 20s, and even colder temperatures.

Spring Garden Planning for the Kids

It's always exciting when our teenage daughter actually wants to participate in something with us. My nerdy garden planning software was just the trick to get her interested in building her own 4'x8' raised garden bed that she and her little brother will care for in the spring. She has a super plan created with potatoes and
nasturtiums. The nasturtium flower is an awesome companion for many plants. It deters aphids, squash bugs, and other pests while attracting beneficial insects. We just learned too that the leaves, flowers, and seeds of nasturtiums are edible and great in salads!

I Dream in Cauliflower

Checking on the growth maturity of the cauliflower pretty much every day this week. Today I am armed with a ruler! :) Most of the cauliflower heads are about 3" across with a few in the 3.5" range and one is 4" across. Not much longer now!

Thursday night the forecast was to drop to about 23/24 so once again we lovingly tucked in the crops for a cold winter's night! Everything got a sheet-tent over it except for the kale and garlic.

I may have mentioned blanching the cauliflower in a previous post. This is when you tie up the outer leaves around the cauliflower head to protect it from the heat and light of the sun. Here is a pic of some of the cauliflower plants with their clothespins or ties on them.

I did some kale research this week to find out about continual growth cycles and life span of this sweet hardy green. The kale in my garden now should survive throughout the entire winter ("overwintering") until it bolts (turns to flowers then seed) in the spring! NEXT YEAR! This is a long term relationship right here! haha! And the cool thing is that by harvesting the larger, older leaves of the kale plants, they will continually produce new baby leaves from the center all winter until it bolts! I'm pretty sure I did not know this little bit of info until today and I'm quite excited about it (as anyone who knows me would guess)! So fresh kale here all winter! Need some? Give me a call! :)