Capable Hands

When I was a small child, I loved to sit with my grandmother and hold her hands.

Her hands were thin and worn, bearing the evidence of much hard work. I particularly liked how the veins stood out along the backs of her hands, how her rings fit loosely on the fingers, but wouldn’t slide over the slightly gnarled knuckles. There was a beauty in her hands, a sense of purpose in her grip. I wasn’t the only one who thought this. My grandfather, who was a sculptor among many other things, had once carved a copy of my grandmother’s hand, back when they were young, because he thought it was so beautiful. He had it for years, and it is one of the things I wish I had thought to request upon their passing.

My grandmother was born at the turn of the twentieth century, one of thirteen children, who knew more than her fair share of hardship. She was harsh and gentle, severe and kind. She loved me like no one else did, and I miss her to this day.

In our times together, she would take my small hand in hers, matching the fingers, tracing the lines. Every time she would say, “such capable little hands, Dolly…such capable little hands!”

This irritated my mother, who took the comment to mean that it appeared that I would have to work…to do menial labor (something my mother saw as beneath her, I suppose). But, I found it challenging, exciting….It sounded like Granny thought I could do anything! That seemed wonderful!

Lately, when I’ve looked down at my own aging hands, I see purpose, I see strength, I see the fulfillment of Granny’s comments from long ago. Yes, I DO have capable hands! I’ve done all sorts of things using these hands in my life here on the farm. A challenge or hardship is met with the thought that “I can do this”…although, I admit, sometimes I do have to add….”I HOPE and PRAY!”


So, this one is a THANKS with love to Granny…although she’s been gone for a LONG time…she may well have molded my thinking for the rest of my life….just by holding my hands!

The Week in Review

We’ve gotten to that time of year where it’s hard to find a chunk of time to sit down at the computer and document what’s going on around here. So, I guess we’re going to have to do some type of weekly review.

Last week was opening day of the S/A Farmers’ Market. While it was great to get back in the swing of things, somehow it didn’t rate a blog entry. Where last year’s opening day was gorgeous and wonderful, this year it was cold, I didn’t feel well, and it just seemed too early to think about the Market season. We had sun, rain, snow, sleet, and WIND to contend with in the weather department. But, we sold everything we took. This week looks like we’ll have more stuff to take. The weather looks to be…well, different than last week.

The weather has been a real challenge lately. The temperatures are running a little below normal, and it seems like it rains at the most inopportune of times. Our scheduled plantings are all out of whack. But as Mark Twain said, “if you don’t like the weather….wait five minutes!” That’s about the size of it. Last week was 80, today not quite 50…tomorrow is supposed to be at least 80!

We finally caught a break in the weather on Monday, and Tom decided to make the most of it and get the onions in the ground. When we talk about planting some crop, it may be assumed that we just go out and stick it in the ground. Now, that would be SO nice. There’s a lot of prep. work before anything ever gets planted. Sometimes the preparation alone takes hours. In addition to the time for preparation, we don’t plant things in the typical home gardener numbers. This year there are about 3000 onions to plant.


He went out to till and set up the irrigation system, I ran to town for feed and supplies. By the time I got back, he was already planting the tiny onion plants.
We order onion plants (not sets) from a supplier in Texas. This supplier has hundreds of acres of onions. One week alone they shipped 40 MILLION onion plants across the nation. It is far more efficient and cost-effective for us to order these plants than to attempt to start our own. We know…I have tried!

That project pretty well shot Monday. But, the onions were in the ground and the predicted rain showers would water them in for us. The “predicted rainshowers” turned out to be a huge thunderstorm that provided us with a half an inch of rain, not to mention thunder that threatened to bounce me out of bed in the middle of the night. Poor guard dog Jed, he hates thunderstorms. He was crying in the night, trying desperately to get on the porch…or under the porch! I keep telling him he's an embarassment to dogs everywhere, but it just doesn't faze him.

Tuesday was very wet and still had the occasional shower to contend with, so we did some inside work, and ran to town so Tom could get some stuff he needed for the management of the Market. We also worked the sheep again in preparation for the spring/summer season out on grass. Again, the weather is slowing things down. The cool nights keep the grass from growing quickly, and the sheep are still eating mostly hay. The hay supply is rapidly dwindling and the sheep are most anxious for a little of the green stuff.

Wednesday, oh Wednesday…is SUPPOSED to be our hoophouse day. We have found that if we dedicate one day during the week to the maintenance of the hoophouses, we can keep them in full production and the weeds don’t get TOO far out of hand. To this end, Tom headed out to till some of the empty beds after breakfast. He has this tiny tiller that works great for the hoophouse. Well, I should say…it works great for the hoophouse…when it’s working. It seems to have had more than its fair share of “issues”. This time it was a cracked primer bulb. Now, I don’t really know what that does, but, I do know that it wouldn’t work without it. That meant a couple of phone calls and then a trip to the hardware store. No work in the hoophouse could happen until that got fixed. I set off to the greenhouse to start seeds. There were squash and cukes to start for transplants and I can always start more lettuce!

While I was in the greenhouse, A called. She’s been fighting some type of illness for over a week, and was making her third trip to the Doc. The doctor’s office is one of the few things remaining in M’brook, so she was coming this way. She was in need of a little “mom time”, so I accompanied her to the dr. and took her to town to get some odds and ends to make her feel better. …and that was Wednesday. The day of hoophouse work never materialized. Although, Tom did FINALLY get the tiller in working order, and tilled the empty beds.


Yikes, that means Thursday had arrived. With Thursday comes a thought of Market preparation. I try to do some harvesting on Thursdays to keep from feeling too pushed on Friday. But, this particular Thursday was going to be gorgeous, and all those brassicas REALLY needed planting. The brassicas are broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and I had started about 500 seedlings. As Tom tilled and placed irrigation tape,I got the planting done in the hoophouse from Wednesday. All the hoophouse beds are currently in some stage of production! Early in the day we had visions of planting potatoes and strawberries, too. By the time lunchtime rolled around, we were still planting brassicas. The taters and berries will just have to wait! We got all the brassicas planted, and watered in. Now, we just have to wait for them to GROW. I love putting transplants in the garden. It goes from bare earth to GARDEN just like that! Well, just like that....with a WHOLE lot of bending, plunking, and planting!





Somewhere in there, the post office called…the second batch of broiler chicks had arrived and was terrorizing the post office. Seriously, the post office lady doesn’t need to say anything when she calls; the peeping chicks raise such a ruckus! I could hear them when I pulled in the parking lot. They looked great, adapted to their temporary home in the shop, and will be gracing someone’s table in about 8 weeks.

Then suddenly, it was Friday. Friday is harvest day. Usually, we start picking right after breakfast. I pick the lettuce and other greens, while Tom washes and packs. By lunchtime the greens are picked and packed and we move on to other crops. At the height of the season, we start harvesting on Thursday and are finished with everything by suppertime on Friday. Tom prints the signs and I re-stock the freezer in the late afternoon or early evening. Again, we hit a snag. The sheep were looking for greener pastures and some of them got in the wrong paddock. The simple task of getting them from point A to point B proved to be a cussing job. Since they were being so uncooperative, we went ahead and moved them to a completely different place. This was BEFORE breakfast, mind you. Breakfast was late, picking started late, but we got back on track. Despite the cold, clammy weather that made picking a real chore, we had a great harvest and were finished in time for supper. Bedtime would come early…

Saturday starts at 4:30 AM…and it’s off to the Market!

Comic Relief

It is very easy to get all too caught up in the work to be done and the busyness of life on the farm to ever begin to enjoy it. To ensure that I don't get too bogged down, I try, really try, to find time to appreciate the ridiculous things that happen around here.

I was standing at the kitchen sink the other afternoon. The window over the sink faces the backyard. From there I can see the flower garden and birdbath, the barn and back corral, and this time of year…I can see all the way out to Middlebrook Road. I have been astounded at the number of odd things I’ve seen while gazing out the window. This day would prove to be no exception.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the dogs galloped into the backyard, barking furiously. I assumed it was another skirmish in the ongoing “battle of the crows”. Not a crow in sight. They were quite adamant about some type of problem, so I went to the back door. As I opened the door, a chicken flew up out of the flower garden, clucking in terror.
The dogs were not chasing her, they were barking about the ruckus. I called Tom, and headed out to corral the chicken. As I approached the flower garden, a CAT jumped out!


Apparently, the cat must have seen all those Nature specials we’ve been watching. He was stalking that chicken just like a lion would a gazelle. He would crouch down and pounce out at her. Then, his sister joined in the “hunt”. When I yelled at the cat, the dogs got excited and began romping all about. They never tried to bother the chicken, but they were going to take on the cats.“Boooyyy” (that’s how his name is pronounced) got down to stalking again. He was even doing the little hunting twitch like the big cats. Tom was focused on capturing the chicken. The chicken was in no real danger; she is larger than the cat. But, we did need to get her back in the pen.


Then it hit me…the sheer ridiculousness of the situation just got me. Here is this poor hen, dumber than a post, trying to get back to the other chickens. She is being pursued by two cats, two dogs and two humans. It was no wonder that her clucking turned into shrieking as she ran first one way and then the other. I couldn’t help, I just couldn’t….I was just laughing too hard. Sorry, Tom!

Finally, the hen was captured, the electric fence re-energized, and all was right with the world again. If laughter is indeed the best medicine, I’m good to go for quite some time.


Whew, that was a good one!

Global Farming

We were wandering around in Lowe’s the other day, when we happened on these gorgeous plants. They were amazing….I wanted them….I wanted them all. Oh, wait….that wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing….

Our “mission” at Lowes was simple…Tom needed a bucket. He had a specific type in mind, so we ended up searching a couple of stores. Once we found it, we were heading out to the truck and the plants caught my eye. Unbeknownst to Tom, I am feeling the need to spruce up the old homeplace, and flowers top the list.

Amazingly, he was taken with these gorgeous plants as well. I had never seen anything quite like them, and neither had he. The name on the tag meant nothing to us. We left them there, hoping to find out a little more about them prior to buying.


When I got home and looked them up online, I found out that they are a Japanese hybrid. The world-renowned plant breeders in Japan have come up with a plant that will flower in cold weather, providing color and interest to the late-winter, early-spring garden. Thus, adding to the cash-flow of the garden centers around the world, and the beautification of yards and gardens everywhere. Yay, Japanese plant breeders!

That got me thinking about the Japanese tsunami. More precisely, it got me thinking about the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami.

Some of the most amazing things come from the plant breeders and seed houses in Japan…before the tsunami. I saw video footage of the destruction following the tsunami. I don’t know if these folks will ever be able to re-create their farms, their growing facilities, their lives. It didn’t occur to me until I was thinking of the pretty plants at Lowes, but this will affect the world…in far more ways than just tsunami recovery funds or radiation worries. There were great losses in the agricultural world, too. Eventually, this will affect the food supply…because, like it or not…we do live in a GLOBAL community!

When we plant our garden every year, we don’t give a whole lot of thought to where the seeds come from. When you purchase food, you don’t stop and wonder about the whole chain of life deal. At least, I don't.

All vegetables come from some type of seed stock. But, in order to have seeds to plant, someone….somewhere...must have bred the specific variety, allowed it to flower and then fruit, collect the seeds, and process them for use by the consumer. It is possible to do this yourself (on a very small scale), if you are using open-pollinated varieties. But most times we (the growers) rely on someone else to do this part of the job. Consider for a moment the large acreages required for the production of SEEDS. No one can eat that crop because the seeds are necessary for the raising of food elsewhere. The amounts of land, production crop, and seeds needed are mind-boggling.

Different areas of the country, and the world, are known for their seed stock production. Most seed potatoes come from Maine or Canada. We get our onion plants from Texas, where the producer has HUNDREDS of acres of little onion plants. They shipped out 40 million plants in ONE week. They are responsible for about 70% of the onions produced in this country. I’ve noticed on the seed packets that we grow seeds from Chile, Germany, Japan, China, and Mexico to name a few. Somehow, this gives me a new awareness of the smallness of our world.

All the current rhetoric concerning LOCAL, ORGANIC, SUSTAINABLE, etc. …. makes me wonder. Has anyone considered the fact that we are all somehow dependent upon folks we have never met, in places we have never visited, or in many cases…that speak languages we cannot understand? As the John Dunne quote goes….”no man is an island”.

The current prices paid for grains are affected by the drought (and therefore greater demand) in Asia, more specifically China. The supply of certain specialty items, seeds or other products in daily use are affected by weather trends and/or possibly war and civil unrest more than half a world away.

I know that I am not alone in my concern for our own agricultural community. But, perhaps I need to expand my horizons. Perhaps all of us should embrace the fact that it IS a global community, and as such what happens “over there” may well affect us here “at home”.

So, next time you see a pretty plant or an unusual offering at the garden center or possibly farmers’ market, remember that a farmer somewhere worked hard for you. Without farmers, we’d all be cold, naked, and hungry….and without the gorgeous plants that I fully intend to incorporate into the “farm beautification project”.

As a farmer, this is a humbling, awesome thought. As a consumer, I would hope that it would make me (and my fellow consumers) far more thoughtful and far more grateful to those who work so hard to provide for my needs and desires.

We Can Rest Easy Tonight

Ellie Mae is one of our guardian dogs. Nothing enters the property without her knowledge. That is, unless she is eating broken eggs in the backyard, then a whole lot gets by her.

She alerts us to strange vehicles, deer, cats, you name it. Amazingly, she can tell the difference between our barn cats and the feral cats that occasionally roam through. The barn cats are treated as her kith and kin, while the feral cats are the enemy to be driven away with great ferocity. Occasionally, we cannot figure out WHY we are being alerted. I guess this is because we are ONLY human.

Her biggest concern, for unknown reasons, is the flock of crows that lives in the neighborhood. They roost in the trees along the property line, pick up odds and ends from the compost pile, and eat the eggs that the hens occasionally lay outside. Perhaps this is the basis of the controversy…Ellie loves her eggs.


Ellie and the crows have this ongoing battle. They land in the yard, the field, or the orchard and walk around, talking to each other. When she catches sight of them, she charges out, tail spinning, barking fiercely. They fly up into the nearby trees and taunt her. Occasionally, she gets so frustrated with their taunting, that she continues to bark, and jumps around, causing bits of grass to fly around.

The other day, Tom pulled some old irrigation tape out of one of the garden beds in anticipation of tilling and re-planting. He rolled it up and hung it on the fence that runs around the garden, with the intention of picking it up on his next trip down the driveway.

All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, Ellie came charging down the driveway, barking furiously. Tom couldn’t see anything, but she was convinced there was some type of trouble. He watched her to see if he could figure out what was going on. Sure enough, she charged up to where that old t-tape was hanging on the fencepost. It didn’t move. She barked some more. She charged it, barked at it, but it wouldn’t go away. It seems then she got slightly worried and frustrated. Eventually, she gave up the fight. Only to charge out at it once again later in the day. She continued to do this as long as it hung on the fencepost.


Tom had a great time laughing at how she thought that old tape was a crow! He couldn’t understand how she could think such a thing, until A came out, and as she was going out the drive, she said “What’s that really ugly bird up there? Oh, it’s NOT a bird!” THAT gave Tom a laugh as well!

Now, I don’t know about Tom, but I will indeed rest much easier knowing that we will not be attacked by crows or worn out t-tape as long as Ellie Mae is on the job!

STC....baby....STC

I am a list maker…a goal oriented person. Tom is not, he’s flexible and easygoing.

I would like to plan the next 50 years, work the plan, and then make another list. Tom takes life as it comes.

Back in December, we planned the gardens for the 2011 season. Despite his easygoing nature, Tom realizes the value of a good plan. We usually take a day, get out the seed catalogs, the last year’s records, and make seed orders and site plans. It provides a real sense of accomplishment when we are finished.

In December, it seemed feasible to plant out the 500 brassicas (that's broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage) by the end of March. I started them back in February, and they grew beautifully. We got them ready for planting out by taking them out of the greenhouse and putting them in the farm trailer.
From there we would take them to the field. That night the temperatures dipped to the mid-TWENTIES! Yikes!! Thankfully, we had thought to put frost blanket over them, and the damage was minimal. The forecast was not favorable for planting, so we put them in the hoophouse. By providing protection from the wind and torrential downpours, we effectively saved them all. They are still there, well over a week past our planned planting.

As of right now, there are 200# of potatoes and well over 3,000 onion plants sitting in the shop.
The plan for the potatoes was to plant them out on this past Tuesday. Who knew that we would wake to snow covered ground? It wasn’t just the cold, but now the dampness plays a factor, too. We had planned on planting the onions the first of April, but the ground is far too saturated and cold.



Oh, then I got an email this morning that the asparagus and strawberry plants will be here early next week. We are expecting the delivery of shallotshipment any day now.



But, the weather rules. We did not count on snow, abnormally low temperatures AND rain, every day for nearly a week!

Back when Tom was at the power company, they would make plans for the day along with a notation: STC. Subject To Change. The weather ruled there, too. Water and electricity do NOT mix. “Subject to Change” is the story of my life now.

While I feverishly revise my lists, erasing, crossing out and starting over, I hear Tom chuckling, “STC....STC!” I really must learn to roll with it. Because, everything is

SUBJECT TO CHANGE! (baby) SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

Experience....or just Old?

It occurred to me the other day that between us, we have over 100 years of life experience. At first I thought that sounded rather impressive, then I realized…it just made us sound OLD!

Truthfully, we have just over 80 years of actually growing things between us. Tom tried gardening even when he was a country guy trapped in suburbia. I don’t think he realized he was even in suburbia, back then there were still cows in downtown Fairfax. (honest!)

It wasn’t until he moved to Warrenton that he really began to garden, although the “Brussels Sprout Incident of 1982” could have ended that. He really doesn’t like to talk about it. It was a horrible experience, and could have ended his gardening career.

Tom and his sister rented this little farmhouse just outside of town. It was a cute little homestead carved out of the woods back behind a cattle farm. There was room for a garden, and Tom decided to plant some Brussels sprouts, along with some other things. He really likes Brussels sprouts. Seems cows do, too! Just about the time the sprouts were ready, the cows broke through the fence and ate the plants. ALL the plants! Thankfully, that didn’t turn Tom against gardening….or cows!

Although, it must have been “déjà vu all over again” for him when, years later, our own cow got out in the night and mowed down 150 broccoli plants. It was not fun to attempt to explain to the vet who came out to treat her massive stomachache. He asked what she ate to get into such a state…you should have seen his face when we told him! The vet office had probably wondered about us prior to this event. There is no doubt in my mind that he went back to the office and put a big WEIRD on our file!

I have been planting seeds since I was about 3 years old.
My mother used to get us a “jumble pack” for a penny when she got her garden seeds. The “jumble pack” was essentially the floor sweepings from the seed company. You never knew what would be in the packet. I remember sorting out the seeds and trying to discover what they were prior to planting. I learned a lot from my mother’s one cent investment. When our girls were small, I wanted to re-create the experience. Imagine my shock when I found the jumble pack was then 25cents!

Tom and I have almost always had a garden. When we were first married, and living in a townhouse, our neighbor gave us this gorgeous tomato she grew in her backyard. That was one of the first indications that we just couldn’t bear living in town. We both knew we wanted space for a garden again. I saved some seeds from that tomato and we couldn’t wait to move and have room for our own garden.


The first garden seems SO funny now. It was very tiny, edged with cedar logs from the property. It produced quite well, despite the ongoing battle with the rabbits for the bounty.



Throughout the past 27 years, we have had a variety of gardens and garden styles. The one constant….the garden is always getting bigger! Presently we utilize a bed system, in order to control erosion on our incredibly hilly terrain.
We do have two large garden plots where we grow things needing a lot of room: corn, potatoes, winter squash, sweet potatoes, and the like.




Different crops, different locations, different approaches…it is a study in logistics, climate and plant culture. There is always something new to learn.








Growing for winter sales in unheated hoophouses is our current challenge. Through trial and error, reading books and articles on the subject, and a lot of work, we are becoming more efficient and effective at this new type of growing. We just put season number two of winter sales behind us. We’ve learned a lot from all our gardening adventures throughout the years.








So, despite the fact it makes us sound old…we DO have 80+years of growing experience! …and we are STILL learning!