Breaking Ground April 22, 2009

I'm a little late posting this, but just over a year ago, on April 22, a beautiful, bright, spring day, not unlike this year's Mother's Day, two teams of horses, Harry and Sophie, and Blue and Bell, pranced and danced their way across the tender young grasses sprouting in the field, dragging heavy plows behind them, their drivers bumping and bouncing uncomfortably on the solid metal seat, carving out the very first row of what is now the Harvest House Farm's large garden.  Here are the pictures of the horses breaking ground.

Horse Drawn Plow Pictures HERE

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year turned out to be a wonderful bright Sunday.  With all the cold blustery weather lately, it was so nice to have just one day of blue skies, and the wind even died down to a strong breeze... how wonderful!  So, we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon to help Lori put the greenhouse together.  Caution, this post is picture intensive!

The greenhouse frame March 3.

A farm volunteer installing the end panels.

Volunteer Dylan cleaning some plastic.

The resident rooster struttin' his stuff.

Shaun helping measure the greenhouse.

Then to measure the plastic...

We folded the plastic accordion style and pulled it into position.

We then borrowed a couple tennis balls from the dogs and a climbing rope from a volunteer...

... and pulled the plastic over.  One rope on each end, one in the middle, one person on each end of the greenhouse keeping the plastic pulled tight to the ends, and Dylan running around inside helping push the plastic over.

The dogs, from left to right, Jefe, Jasmine, Harvey, and Suka, waiting patiently to have their tennis balls back.

Once the plastic was up and over, we used 'wiggle wire' to hold the ends in place.

We then screwed boards to the outside to hold the sides in place.  The bottom portion of plastic will be able to roll up for ventilation.

Shaun trying out the finished greenhouse.

In other farm news... Some really beautiful tulips have started to bloom by the house.  Three different colors, red yellow and orange!

Other volunteers have started replacing the worn fence rails.

Old rails...

... new rails.


And to start off the growing season with high hopes, we took a moment to compare this years developing pumpkin crop to the last of the previous season's.

Huge thanks to all the volunteers who had their hands on the greenhouse and Happy Mother's Day!

Garlic or Barley?

April has really warmed up and plants in the ground are starting to grow.  The garlic came up nicely, but the mulch sprouted right along with it!  To save the garlic, with the help of one of the farm's volunteers (thanks Tim!), we lifted the mulch and turned it, uprooting the barley in the process.

 Sprouting mulch on the left, garlic with turned mulch on the right.

The garden soil has been tilled (thanks Mick!), and it's still a little early, but we decided to take advantage of the warm days to plant some seeds.  It's good to plant potatoes on a full moon (which happens tonight), so the potatoes are in, as well as some peas, spinach, parsnips, carrots, and red beets.  It's early, but don't worry... We have frost cloth and row covers!  You know... for that third week of May... half of June... and July 4th!

Tilled garden space.

As part of the Farm's environmental quality improvement program, we have been busy planting trees for a new windbreak.  Over 900 seedlings from the state nursery will be planted in four rows around the perimeter of the property, eventually providing valuable foraging and nesting habitat for bug eating birds, and helpful insects like bees.  

One of the farm volunteers planting a Blue Spruce.


Stay tuned for more farm news!

April's Seedlings

I do believe spring has sprung, however, we continue to get inches upon inches of snow dumped on us, usually followed almost immediately by a warm, sunny day, melt-off, and mud, mud, mud.  Really, this is not ideal weather for planting, but it is still early, and this weather is typical of spring time in Montana.

While the family is playing somewhere tropical waiting for the weather to clear, life at the farm just can't wait.  Seeds are started indoors and are really starting to take off.  As soon as the warm days decide to stay and the ground dries out enough, these little green things will be growing strong and ready to plant, lending themselves to (hopefully!) a bountiful summer harvest!

 New onion soldiers still wearing their little black helmets.

WOW - time for Lori and her hard working volunteers to start working with the earth getting ready for another fabulous season of awesome veggies from Harvest House Farm - I can't wait to use all this fresh locally grown food this summer - stay tuned and I will post recipes using local sustainable food grown right here on the farm............enjoy mud season!!!!

Spring Preparation

Welcome to the beginning of the Harvest House Farm blog!  Now that it is March, the mud is starting to overtake the snow and it is time to start preparing for our second year's planting season.  There is still a lot of snow on the garden, and much, much work to be done, but to get it all started off on the right foot, a load of rails to repair the fences was delivered today by a neighbor.

In the spirit of catering to the locals and the local chefs, Lori spotted a requested variety of organic kale on a trip to the hardware store, and grabbed it up!  I can't wait to see this leafy green beauty pop up out of the ground and onto my summer plate!

As the weather warms up and the work begins, stop by the farm to volunteer and keep an eye on the blog for the latest updates and happenings!

Fabulous February Frost

February is the time to start seeding onions and organizing details while waiting for the warmer weather. These beautiful frost patterns were an early morning delight on the windows of the cold frame where a few hardy greens have wintered over.