This Week at Ramsey Farms

In the Garden...

Wow last Sunday's weather was FANTASTIC! I believe it got up to about 74 degrees with bright sunshine all day. Chris and I along with our four year old's help, got most of a mimosa tree and surrounding overgrowth of brush cut down and hauled away or ready to be chopped into firewood.  Let me tell you, our little boy is so strong and super helpful! Such a great little worker!

Chris got another section of the original garden fencing taken down. Then we measured - very precisely I might add (with strings and sticks and squares and measuring tapes) the new footprint for this year's garden. This year's garden will take up much more room than last year, so we painstakingly cut and removed the sod (okay, so it wasn't all that hard!) then Chris built 3 sides to the 20x4 raised bed for what we refer to as "row #1" (far left in image below). Then yesterday (Saturday) we were able to finish building the bed and spent all day preparing the soil. Below is an image of part of our garden plan for 2014.

You can see the 2014 garden photo album by clicking here. I will continue adding pics to update.

The rapid radish growth in the cold frame is rather exciting and these crazy weather and temperature changes keep me rather active during the day. I opened it all the way up Monday morning for an hour or two to catch some of the light rain that was falling in a nice mild 62 degrees. When the sun started shining, I closed the lid back up for just a short while. By the time the temp was 69 degrees in the backyard, the cold frame had risen to a nice humid 89 degrees so I vented it a few inches to avoid overheating and scorching those little baby radish leaves. Click HERE to see all the pics of the cold frame (scroll to the bottom of that page to see the most recent ones).

Thursday I opened the cold frame and lightly covered those little seedlings (and seeded soil) with sheets of newspaper and closed it up for the night. Rain was predicted and lows under 29, I think this may be a good way to insulate when necessary.

I have opaque 4-mil plastic covering the kid's raised bed. This is using the sun's rays to heat the soil under it in preparation for planting sweet peas next weekend. The plastic covering will actually stay in place for about two weeks after the seeds are in the ground.

In the Kitchen...

Pita bread before baking

Chili

apple cider vinegar fermenting

Just wanted to share. I fed my kids frozen pizza twice this week. Do you think badly of me?! lol Just didn't want y'all thinking I cooked from scratch every single night. I generally do (except for leftovers), but this week has been so busy with work, taxes, and other non-farm life. I feel less guilty now that I've gotten that off my chest and shared with you all! ;)

We did have some delicious chili and lots of yummy fresh baked bread this week, including pita bread. I hope to share the chili recipe and how to make pita bread (pocket & all) with you later this week...it just got a little too hectic 'round here for me this week! :)  I mixed up a new batch of under-arm-conditioner (a.k.a. deodorant) yesterday and shea butter lotion (slash lip balm slash hair conditioner) as well. Look for those articles later this week too - so check back daily! :)