Winter Squash

Spring has definitely made its way to Wisconsin and that's wonderful! A friend of mine planted many early spring garden vegetables last weekend, but my ground was still frozen solid. This week still took our evening temps downs into the 20s, so the ground still hasn't thawed too much, but I have many seeds underway in the house and even moved 8 flats of seeds outdoors into my little cold frames by the garden.

I will be starting my tomatoes very soon so that is very exciting....they are my favorite veggie. I also now have to decide what I will plant in terms of winter squash. I got a little carried away this year when I discovered the Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds Company. They carry so many heirlooms I'd never heard of before that I had to get several varieties and I had already placed my order to Fedco and Seed Savers. I will list the varieties I have.

I had some Delicata seeds left from last year.

From Seed Savers:
American Tonda
Gutaemalan Blue

From Fedco:
Blue Hubbard
Burpee Butterbush Butternut
Squisito Spaghetti

From Baker's Creek:
Shishigatani (or Toonas Makino)
Sweet Dumpling
Kamo Kamo
Vegetable Spaghetti
Pomme D'or
Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato
Musquee de Provence
Australian Butter
Galeux d'Eysines

I know that in order to be able to save seeds from this year's planting that I will either have to only choose a few varieties and plant them far apart or else I will have to do some hand pollinating (that's what I will most likely do). Plus I have the added benefit of helping a few other gardeners and we can use one variety in their garden and then we will have pure seed to save.

Keep coming spring!!!

Chicken Delight

I lost my Cuckoo Maran Rooster as I mentioned in my last post. But yesterday as I was talking to a friend, I asked her if she was going to be ordering from the McMurray Hatchery anytime soon and coincidentally she was planning on placing an order today.

So she tacked four straight run (will contain an assortment of males and females) Cuckoo Marans onto her order for me. Yippee!!! I'll be getting a new rooster and a couple new hens, so I'm happy. They will be coming in April about the same time that my order of Barred Rock Chickens are coming so they will all be raised together....JOY!

I will have to make sure and tag the Cuckoo Maran's legs as they look VERY MUCH like the Barred Rock Chickens and I know I won't be able to tell them apart once they get bigger.

I am trying raising the Barred Rocks as my main meat bird this year as they are a heritage bird that is listed on Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste. What is Slow Food USA? Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world.

The Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates. I am happy to report that I am currently raising several of the items on their list and will soon be adding even more!

Raising animals is a lot of joy and I am glad I have something to be happy about after such calamity in the chicken coop.

Calamity in the Chicken House

Last night we had our first real calamity raising chickens. Our son was in charge of closing up the coop at nightfall because I was not home. However, he forgot to do it and by the time he remembered he went out and discovered 5 possums in the coop and our Cuckoo Maran rooster, Coke, lying dead on the floor. He rushed in the house to call me. By the time he got back out to the coop the possums were gone. So we had our first loss due to predator issues. It's a good thing our son passed hunter safety a few weeks ago because he can definitely work on eliminating this large population of predators.

We still have our rooster, Cocky, who is an off-spring of our original rooster, LeRoy. But I am very disappointed about the loss of Coke. I was planning on isolating him with the five Cuckoo Maran hens we have and hatching out more purebred chicks. I love these chickens because they lay very dark brown eggs and it broadens the spectrum of colors of our chickens' eggs. A new Araucana rooster will be coming in early April that I plan to breed with our three Araucana hens for more purebred Araucana chicks, so I still have that to look forward to. Araucana eggs are also delightful as they can range in color from greenish to bluish to pinkish and they are so pretty along side the light brown and dark brown eggs from the other chickens.

I guess I'll have to take a picture of a typical dozen eggs we get so you can see the large color range.

Say a prayer that we get the possums before the possums get the chickens.

Fixing Heisman

Today is the day Heisman was fixed. My friend, Jodi, came over and showed me how to band his tail and his reproductive unit and we gave him his first dose of cd&t. This was all very helpful to me as I had never done it before and soon I will have about 30 lambs to do this for. We plan to keep Heisman as a whether and knew we would not be breeding him. We have a ram for our next year's breeding program and Heisman is not the breed we want in our offspring...although he is darling. So fixed now he is.

How to Start Seeds under Grow Lights

March is FINALLY here. In Wisconsin March is the beginning of starting seeds under grow lights. Today I moved all the stuff out of my storage area and set up my grow lights for my seed starting. For two months I have to find another place to put my extra stuff so I can set up the growing area (it's a good excuse to weed things out of storage as well).

So far I have started many new herbs, celeriac, celery, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and onions. By the time I am ready to start the peppers, tomatoes, gourds, and other crops this first batch will be going in the ground.

I have always used regular fluorescent lights in the inexpensive shop light fixtures you can get for about $5 at home improvement stores. I know experts recommend that you replace the bulbs every year, but I don't do this and I've never had a problem getting my plants off to a great start.

I always use Jiffy potting soil and cut expenses in the area of planting containers. Often I cut off milk jugs and use the bottom to start seedlings. Then I take the best seedlings to transplant into small containers (like yogurt cups or homemade paper pots). I also start seeds in the little starting packs that fit nicely inside a liner pan. If you are careful you can save these each year and reuse. Be sure to wash them well and it is a good idea to use a little bleach to disinfect them.

I water the seeds well, then cover with saran wrap. When the seeds begin to sprout I remove the wrap and make sure to water from the bottom (some plants will dampen off if the soil is wet at the base of the plant....yes....this has happened to me, so I know from experience....water from below).

Place the lights as close to the soil as you can and adjust slightly higher as needed when the plants grow. It is important to keep the lights close to the plants! That's really all there is to starting seeds inside. Sometimes I also start a few flats of seeds by a window. I haven't had any trouble doing that, but the plants do tend to get leggier than if they are under grow lights.

Yippee, spring is almost here!