Mulching Blueberries-Grace shows us how to really work

 Grace shoveled

and carried mulch.

Before adding the mulch to the newly pruned blueberry bushes Grace and David added coffee chaff

The chaff goes underneath the mulch so it doesnt blow away.

Hard work for happy blueberry plants.

Grace's reward was a ride on the zip line. So fast she was just a blur.

Pruning Blueberry Bushes

There is a proverbial discussion on the farm about what to cut and what to keep. This dates pretty far back from what I hear and it had to happen before we could get started.

These bushes are old and the recommendation would be to replace them. But they are still bearing.

There is another recommendation to take them down to just a few inches above the ground and let new growth develop over the next few years. They are tall and will be hard to reach at harvest time.

After examination of the trees we just decided to start by removing all dead wood and branches that intervened in other trees and open up the centers.

For me it just took getting over my initial resistance to hurting anything.

Once the pruning was underway it was a very enjoyable afternoon. The job was done and the result satisfying.

It was interesting, though, how the one who had advocated the hardest for the more extreme cutting mourned the most every loss of fruit bud.

In the Greenhouse

Sunday morning to the greenhouse for a peak at whats up...
Bill is starting his seedlings for his 2 projects on Ivory Silo Farm. He is growing vegetables to sell to restaurants and he is starting a seed saving project. Check out his facebook page for the seed project.

https://www.facebook.com/theivorysiloproject

Bill reflects on his seedlings as his seedlings reflect on him.

And here they are warm and cozy.

Just sprouting and growing

baby onions!

Bill showed us how they sprout folded

and then unfurl and take the seeds with them.

They need a long time in the greenhouse before planting.

Bill demoed his upside down watering technique

to mist yet not disturb the little plants. And then we had to prune the blueberry bushes. But first we had a talk about whether or not to get chickens and if so where to put them.

And so we took a look at a neighbors happy hens.

Early in the middle of March...

Looking

out

the door

on a cold day.

Once outside Earl

guards

the barn

leaving us to walk in the bitter wind in search of a good spot to put bee hives.

Here? On the North side of this field against the windbreak of trees? It felt cozy to me standing there in front of the holly...because as my teachers say...Bees...like their entrance to face South, sun in the morning, dappled shade in the afternoon.

Remembering when this mustard was flowering and thinking it is good forage for bees.

On the way back in search of signs of spring

we found mud

and more mud.

Growing up in Vermont I thought mud season was Spring. But it is a sign of spring to come and so are these blueberry buds.

March 4th! Into spring....

Marching forth toward and into spring
remembering
to march forth into and through
all the challenges and circumstances of my life
When I am able to I (remember)
the joys
and then I endure
(with neither pride nor shame)
the rest
and be resilient enough
to march forth into the next occurrence
This has been the key to my survival
and thus my great gratitude for the day
of my birth
March 4th

Apple Cider-Racking and Bottling (Hard to make Hard)

The bubbling action seems to have stopped. A thin film, like the mold that develops on sour pickling projects sometimes, was starting to form on the cider in it's carboys... so I decided to bottle. I was careful to insert the syphon into the bottle without touching any of the white growth taking the clear cider in the middle and leaving the debris on the bottom as well as the top.

This portion I am giving more time in a secondary. I added sugar and it grew in volume and started to form bubbles on top again.

I used 8 oz bottles for cider tasting. I left some to be still and added a bit of sugar to others to see how it would change it. The theory is not to sweeten but to make it sparkle. Adding sugar to a secondary as I also did is to make it dryer not sweeter, because the yeasts, if there are any left consume, the sugar.

I also used 750 ml bottles for sharing. Bubbles formed from the sugar. In this case there is no outlet for the rising bubbles as there is in the jug with the airlock-which lets the air out, but hopefully not in.

These will have to sit for a few months at least judging by how they taste. It will be fun to see how they change over time and to start to get a feel for how cider that has not been controlled with yeasts and chemicals ages. I understand these things are used to create consistency in product. So in my case each year will most likely be different, but I am still interested in trying to get a feel for how to do it without these aides. Especially now that I see this beautiful product and am forgetting how "hard" this was to do.