Grilled Asparagus Pizza

So you don’t know what to do with all that fresh asparagus that is in season right now?  Have you roasted it with olive oil and garlic the last few times and need a new idea?  You can always pickle and can asparagus, but if you are looking for a fresh way to add this tasty vegetable as part of your main dish – this is the recipe for you!

Pizza is a ‘go to’ staple in our house.  This time of year we are on the run constantly and at the end of a long spring day, pizza is just too easy to resist.  In order to make our meals a little healthier and add a little twist to our pizza night, we decided to use our fresh ingredients straight from the garden for this recipe.  Feel free to add other ingredients to make your own version!

Shaved Asparagus Pizza Recipe

Ingredients:

Shave the asparagus with a standard vegetable peeler.

1 recipe of your favorite pizza dough (Old World Garden Pizza Dough Recipe)
1/2 pound asparagus
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 pound shredded mozzarella
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Several grinds black pepper
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 lemon (optional)

Instructions:

1.Preheat your oven to 475 degrees F

2. To prepare asparagus – Hold a single asparagus spear by its tough end, lay it flat on a cutting board.  Use a vegetable peeler to create long shavings of asparagus by drawing the peeler from the base to the top of the stalk. Repeat with remaining stalks.

Toss asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add red pepper flakes for an extra kick!

**Some pieces will be unevenly thick or too thin to peel (the tip of the stalk).  The mixed thickness gives the pizza a great variety of  texture. Discard tough ends.

3. Toss peelings with olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl.

4. Roll your pizza dough out on a 12 inch pan or pizza stone.  You can use a standard round pizza pan, square one, or keep your dough in an oblong shape – whatever you chose!

5.  Sprinkle pizza dough with Parmesan  then mozzarella cheese.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza

6. Pile asparagus on top.  **I added a little red pepper flakes here for some added flavor.

7. Bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, or until edges are browned, the cheese is bubbly and the asparagus might be lightly charred.

8. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with scallions, lemon juice and lemon zest.

9. Slice and eat!

Enjoy!!!

Mary and Jim

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Concept – a Summer Crisp lettuce is a great choice to sow in late spring because it can tolerate more heat than most lettuce types

Lettuce is one of the fastest and easiest to grow crops around.  It can be grown in the garden, in containers and raised beds, or almost anywhere you can clear out a little space.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of varieties available – in a myriad of colors, textures, all with their own unique taste.   In fact, for most that begin to grow their own lettuce – they are shocked to realize the amazing difference in taste from the generic varieties available in most super markets and grocery stores.  Most “supermarket” lettuce, (like the familiar Iceburg head lettuce) are grown specifically for their ability to handle shipping and store well – not for taste.  When you begin to grow your own – you might just find out that with all that flavor – salad dressing isn’t even needed!

The first of our lettuce is up and through, almost ready for harvest. Pictured if Black Seeded Simpson.

Lettuce can be divided into many categories – but most will agree on these main four  : Butterhead (Bibb style lettuce) , Crisphead (Iceberg, etc.), Looseleaf (Cutting varieties) and Romaine style.

Lettuce in general prefers cooler weather – so you will want to plant a spring/early summer crop, with a second fall crop as well.  The hot summer heat tends to wilt and bolt lettuce.  The good news is that it’s a quick grower, and can actually go from seed to table in as little as three to four weeks!

Preparing The Soil And Planting Lettuce:

Rich, fertile soil is the key to great lettuce.

Lettuce prefers loose, fertile, and well-drained soil.  It will struggle to grow well in hard, clay-type soils.  Prepare your beds by adding in lots of compost and organic matter. If your soil is on the clay-type side – you can also add a few shovel-fulls of sand to help loosen the soil structure and aid in drainage.

Lettuce can be planted with transplants or by directly sowing seed into the soil. We prefer planting most of ours by seed, mainly for the convenience, and for us, they have seemed to do better emerging from the soil than they have as transplants.

If your soil is fertile, lettuce will not require much additional care other than keeping it watered throughout dry periods.  Lettuce, like most vegetable crops, should receive about 1″ of water per week.  If you do want to fertilize – an application of compost tea can be applied once the crops have emerged through the ground.

There is so much more to choose from than just “traditional” Iceburg lettuce

We use a fair amount of straw mulch around the plants to keep weeds to a minimum – weeds can wreak havoc on lettuce crops.  Be sure to take care when weeding – lettuce roots are shallow and are easily pulled from the soil.

To help keep pests at bay – we like to plant a few of our hot pepper plants near our lettuce or directly in the middle of the lettuce bed. Garlic and onions are also known to have the same effect when planted near lettuce crops.

Harvesting Your Lettuce Crop:

Leaf lettuce can be harvested whenever the plants begin to become large enough to snip their tasty leaves.  The beauty of leaf style lettuce is that you can get multiple cutting from the same planting – increasing your yields.  Be aware though, that after the first few cuttings, the leaves will start to become a little less tender with each cutting.  If left alone, leaf lettuce will usually reach their maximum size in about 50 to 55 days.

Most head lettuce varieties mature in 55 to 70 days - and it is important to harvest them before the summer heat begins to wilt their leaves and change their taste.

To store lettuce, wash, drip or spin dry, and place in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Lettuce keeps best right around 32°F.

Here are some of the types we grow and love:

We love Romaine Ridge – an organic variety we found at Johnny’s Seeds.

Buttercrunch :  The name says it all!  Tasty, buttery leaves with a crisp bite.

Black Seeded Simpson :  A crisp, leaf lettuce with great flavor – also handles heat a little better than other varieities

Red Salad Bowl :   Just like its name, a great tasting, beautiful red-leafed lettuce adding lots of color to your plate.

Bibb Lettuce :  We use a variety call “Winter Bibb” – but bibb lettuce in general has a sweet, buttery leaf perfect for fresh salads.

Bibb lettuce is a great choice for the home gardener – it is full of flavor!

Romaine (Ridgeline) : This is an amazing variety of romaine – easy to grow, with wonderful flavor.

Concept : A Summer Crisp lettuce, it’s a great choice to sow in late spring because it can tolerate more heat than most lettuce types

Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary

If you would like to receive our DIY & Gardening  Tips every Tuesday – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right hand column, “like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter

Our Recycled Barn – One of our favorite projects completed on the farm

Our garden – one of our favorite places to write about.

Saturday was a good day for Old World Garden Farms!

15 months ago, when we first started this blog to document building our little farm – we felt fortunate to have a few followers and a few hundred visitors each week. We enjoyed sharing our 3 weekly updates, The Sunday Farm Update Post, Tuesday DIY and gardening articles, and our Friday recipes.  

We used to joke about someday getting to 10,000 visitors, and a 100 followers.  Well, yesterday – in what still seems crazy to us – we passed our 1,000,000th visitor to the site and our 11,000th email follower!  

The milestone couldn’t have come at a better time – as we have a lot of exciting new ventures going on at the farm and the blog. We figured it was a great time to announce them today on the Sunday Update.

Hometalk and Old World Garden Farms – Planning Our First Garden Meet-Up Event

Maybe the most exciting news of the week is being selected by Hometalk to host a Meet-Up that will be taking place later this summer in Central Ohio. For those that don’t know – Hometalk is an incredible website devoted to DIY, Gardening And Landscaping – and creating a platform for people to instantly tap into others hard-earned experience.  They have featured many of our projects on their site in the past year, and we are so excited to be chosen to co-host a meet up event with them on our favorite subject – gardening!

We have been working with Miriam Illions, the Director Of Community Development for Hometalk, to host the event here in Central Ohio.  We are still working out the details, but we will be partnering with Hometalk and a local Central Ohio Greenhouse to host an afternoon covering gardening techniques and tips that we use at the farm – including composting, raised bed gardening and more.  We will even have a a demo on working with pallets to build your own compost bin. It will be a great day to share gardening ideas and spread the word about one of our favorite sites, Hometalk.

We will be sure to publish all the details of the event in next Sunday’s post.  If you are close to the Columbus, Ohio area – we invite you to come on over and meet with us and share in a great day.  For those a little farther away – we will be sure to post lost of pictures and updates of the event!

Click To See All Of Our Past Sunday Farm Updates

While we are at it, we also want to take a minute to thank so many other blogs and websites that have helped us grow over the last year by showcasing our stories, recipes and gardening tips. In particular, Homestead Survival, Canning Granny and Prepper Chicks have all been instrumental in highlighting so many of our stories and posts to their readers – and they are incredibly wonderful web sites full of great information!

Last but not least – we extend a huge Old World Garden Farm “Thank You” to everyone who has visited, commented and shared in our stories to get us to our first million visits. We feel so fortunate to have such wonderful and loyal followers, and hope you continue along with us as our story at Old World Garden unfolds.  We hope someday, to document the entire journey in our ultimate dream – the writing and publishing of a book about our little farm. More than anything else, we will continue to do what we love the most – work and build our little farm one day at a time.

Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary!

f you would like to receive our Gardening / DIY and Farm Updates each week – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right had column, “like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate – canned and ready to be mixed for a nice refreshing summer time drink!

Nothing signifies spring time better than the taste of fresh picked strawberries.  Strawberry recipes are popping up everywhere – jams, jellies, pies, cakes and all sorts of desserts.  Instead of letting those extra strawberries go to waste, how about   making your own strawberry drink recipes.

As summer approaches, there are a lot of events to host and attend. Memorial Day, graduation parties, end of the season sports banquets, Independence Day, and of course those ‘out of this world’ family reunions.  What a great way to use fresh ingredients in everything, including your drinks.  So prepare early and it will not only save you time, but you’ll have the satisfaction that you made something from fresh ingredients.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate Recipe

Ingredients

One lemon yields about 4 tablespoons of juice – roll lemon or place in microwave for 15 seconds before juicing to get all the juice out of the lemon.

6 cups strawberries, cleaned and hulled
4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 cups sugar (or 4 cups agave nectar)

Instructions: 

1. If you are canning this recipe – begin to prepare your jars, lids and water for the hot water bath process.  If not, proceed to step 2.

Heat liquid to 190 degrees Fahrenheit making sure the mixture does not boil.

3. Transfer strawberry puree to a stainless steel saucepan over medium heat. Add lemon juice and sugar while stirring to combine.

Strawberry Daiquiri Mix Recipe

And of course, when you put the words strawberry and drink together, most people think of a Strawberry Daiquiri.  It makes me think of being somewhere nice, warm and tropical.  For now, Ohio will do!  There is nothing better than knowing you made your own Daiquiri and didn’t use a bottled mix or a bagged drink where you have to squeeze your beverage into a glass.  From start to finish, this recipe took 5 minutes – and next time it will even be shorter since the mix is already prepared!

Strawberry Daiquiri Mix

Homemade Strawberry Daiquiri – A quick and easy summer time drink

2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

To Make the Daiquiri you will need: 
1 1/2 cups of ice
2 fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons rum (white or brown)

Instructions: 

1. In a small saucepan combine the water and the sugar over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves.

2. Combine sugar syrup, lime juice, and strawberries in a blender and puree until smooth.

**You can store this mixture in the refrigerator for several days or use immediately.

3. Combine ice, strawberries, rum, and 1/4 cup of the daiquiri mix into a blender.  Blend until smooth.

Pour into a glass – add a straw and garnish with a strawberry

**If you like your daiquiri a little thicker just add more ice.

Enjoy!

Mary and Jim

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There is nothing like fresh picked asparagus from the garden!

Asparagus is different than most of the vegetable crops planted in the garden.  Unlike annual varieties such as tomatoes, cucumber and peppers that need planted each year – asparagus is a perennial.  Once established, they can provide a good crop for 20 to 25 years for you and your family to enjoy!

They also differ because plants are either male or female.  The males are known to have larger and more abundant spear production, while the female varieties tend to be thinner and produce seeds in the fall for reproduction.   Most prefer to plant only the male for the added production levels.  Popular male varieties such as Jersey Giant and Jersey Knight are great choices for those looking for maximum yields.

Asparagus can be started from seed or from what are called crowns – which are nothing more than the roots of 1 to 2-year-old asparagus plants.  Most, (including us) really prefer starting them with the crowns and not from seed.  Growing from seed can take up to 2 to 3 years to have edible spears formed – while starting with crowns can give you a few spears to enjoy by the second year.  It’s also easier to start and maintain the crowns – as their growth is more defined early on, making it easier to keep weeded.

How To Plant :

The first spear of Asparagus breaking through the soil

With the long crop cycle of 20 or more years – it is important to prepare your bed space accordingly.  Work in generous amounts of compost to the soil before planting to provide a good starting base for your crop.  Asparagus will do best in a nice, sunny location.  They can tolerate some partial shade, but grow and thrive much better with full sun.

To plant asparagus, you will want to dig a trench about 6″ deep and about 8″ wide.   We like to space ours about 18″ between crowns.  Place the crown at the bottom of the trench, and cover with about 2″ of topsoil.  As the crown begins to grow through the soil, keep adding a few inches of soil until the soil level has filled in the trench over the course of a few weeks.  This process allows the asparagus to develop a deep root system to provide for years of crop harvests.

In the first year, allow your asparagus to grow tall and wispy to generate good root growth.

For your first year, allow the plants to grow tall.   Resist the temptation to cut a few spears –  you want all of the growth to go to the plant and root structure.  In the fall after they have died off, you can cut them off about 1″ above the soil and place a little straw or compost mulch over them for the winter.

In year two, you will begin to see some small spears shoot through the earth in the spring. You can harvest the first week or two of spears, then allow the plants to once again grow tall and build up strength.  The year 2 spears will be smaller, but still very tasty!

Year 3 is where the fun begins!  You should be close to full harvest – enjoying fresh spears each and every spring for many years to come. After each spring harvest, let your asparagus grow tall in the beds and repeat the process of cutting back after they have died off in the fall.

Upkeep and Maintenance of Beds:

Add a few inches of compost to your beds as a mulch each fall to keep them growing strong.

The biggest key to good productive asparagus is to keep your beds weed free. Weeds and grass compete for valuable nutrients, and a weedy bed will result in smaller, less productive harvests.  We use either straw or compost mulch to keep ours weed-free throughout the year.  It’s also a good idea each fall to put on a two-inch covering of compost on top of your beds to give some added nutrients. Other than that - once established, your asparagus beds will provide you with years of fresh and amazing tasting crops each spring!

Happy Gardening!  - Jim and Mary

If you would like to receive our DIY & Gardening Tips every Tuesday – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right hand column, “like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

The bees are dumped into our waiting hive. In spite of some nervousness…the whole process went fairly well.

The bees are shipped in a wooden crate like box with a can of syrup to keep them fed. The little tab you see on can is what is holding the queen’s cage suspended in the box

The dream of having our own bee hive at the farm – and of course our own  honey, finally became a reality this past week!  On Friday, we received our package of bees and within a few hours – Mary and I officially became “beekeepers”.

All in all, it was a fairly smooth process – taking only about 15 minutes to open the package, remove the queen and bees and place them into the hive.  We had both went over the process of hiving the packaged bees a hundred times in our head – but that doesn’t mean we weren’t a little nervous heading to the farm with about 8,000 bees in a box in the trunk!

Knowing that calm is a good thing when working with bees – we did our best to stay relaxed (or at least a good fake job ). We put on the bee suit and went to work.  We had installed the base and bee-hive structure the previous day in a semi-protected area along a tree line at the farm.  All we had to do now was open the box – remove the queen cage, dump the remaining bees into the hive, and then place the queen in with them.

The queen comes with the bees in a little “cage” suspended from the top of the bee package. On one end of the cage is a wooden plug that once removed, reveals a hard sugary substance. The entire cage is hung in the new hive, and the worker bees will slowly eat the sugar and release the queen. The time it takes this process to occur allows the bees and the queen to become familiar with each other and the bees to accept her as their queen.

Prying out the wooden plug from the queen’s cage. Once the wood plug is out -t he worker bees will begin to eat through the remaining sugar plug to free her into the hive.

About the only hiccup in the whole process is that I dropped the queen box into the mass of bees when opening the shipping box.   Needless to say, the bees were not very happy with me at that point!  But as they swarmed around me – I tried hard to remember the words of our bee-keeping mentor that “calm is good” – and that I was also fully protected.  I slowly reached in, removed it, and then continued on by dumping the remaining bees into the hive.  Next, we suspended the queen and her cage between the frames, closed it up, and all was well!

For the first week or two, we will supplement the bees with a syrup solution made simply from one part water and one part sugar.  It will provide the new colony with some nutrition while the bees become familiar with the surroundings and begin to collect and bring back pollen to the hive.  That is the yellow jar-like object you see attached to the hive.

Placing the Queen in the hive

After placing the queen in the hive, we simply closed the top. The yellow jar attached to the hive is the sugar water feeder.

By yesterday afternoon, just about 24 hours after we had released the bees into the hive – you could already see them flying in and out exploring their new surroundings. Most likely, we will be able to remove the feeder soon – especially with as warm as it is, and with plenty of pollen now available for the bees to collect.

It will be exciting to see the activity throughout the summer.  We will wait about 2 more days and then open the hive to make sure the queen has been freed from her cage and that she has begun to perform her duties. After that – we will leave them “be” for a while and let them to their work of gathering pollen and pollinating our crops.  Hopefully, by summer’s ends, we will have added a couple more super boxes to the hive and have some honey to share with friends and family.

Much like the bees, we have been busy as well this week with the early stages of planting – and continued work on the garden and grape vine fencing.

The sugar snap peas emerging through the ground

The radishes, carrots, sugar snap peas, onions, lettuce and kale have all emerged from the ground and are coming along nicely. The asparagus spears have broken through the ground as well. We started our asparagus patch last year with crowns – and now in their second season they are starting to really take off.  We will harvest just a few this year – and leave the rest to grow and become strong.  By next year, we should be starting to harvest a pretty good crop.  We were even able to plant our first 3 cucumbers yesterday in the straw bale garden crate.

This coming week – planting will continue with some of our peppers and zucchini, potatoes and onions will go in – followed by all of our tomatoes and peppers next week.  It’s hard to believe that within two weeks it will all be in the ground!

Happy Gardening!  - Jim and Mary

If you would like to receive our Gardening / DIY and Farm Updates each week – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right had column, “like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

]]> http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2013/05/05/the-honey-bees-arrive-at-the-farm-the-sunday-farm-update/feed/ 10 oldworldgarden The bees are dumped into our waiting hive. In spite of some nervousness...the whole process went fairly well. The bees are shipped in a wooden crate like box with a can of syrup to keep them fed. The little tab you see on can is what is holding the queen's cage suspended in the box Prying out the wooden plug from the queen's cage. Once the wood plug is out -t he worker bees will begin to eat through the remaining sugar plug to free her into the hive. Placing the Queen in the hive After placing the queen in the hive, we simply closed the top. The yellow jar attached to the hive is the sugar water feeder. The sugar snap peas emerging through the ground http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2013/05/03/peach-habanero-salsa-recipe-and-canning-instructions-celebrating-cinco-de-mayo-with-a-twist/ http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2013/05/03/peach-habanero-salsa-recipe-and-canning-instructions-celebrating-cinco-de-mayo-with-a-twist/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 12:31:00 +0000 oldworldgarden http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/?p=9890 Continue reading »]]>

Peach Habanero Salsa – the sweetness mixed with the heat is irresistible!

With May finally here, it is time to celebrate!  Not only has the weather changed, but things are starting to take shape at the farm.  We have been working hard to catch up from the ever lasting winter and now we can step back and enjoy it (just for a few minutes though – there is more work to be done).

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I am sharing a twist on the traditional salsa recipe.  With peaches ripening in the south, it is a perfect time to try something new as you celebrate with your family and friends.  You can’t beat the sweet taste of the peaches mixed with that unexpected kick of the habanero peppers. It’s just enough heat so you know it is there.  Of course….if you are feeling dangerous – add more peppers or keep the seeds.  Just be sure to have enough cold beverages on hand!

Peach Habanero Salsa Recipe

Habanero Peppers from the garden.

Ingredients

1 c white vinegar

12 c chopped pitted peeled peaches

2 1/2  c chopped red onion

2 habanero peppers, seeded and chopped

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 c loosely packed finely chopped fresh cilantro

Cilantro started from seed…just cut and it’s ready to use.

1/4 cup honey (or substitute agave nectar or white sugar)

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions:

Cut up ingredients and add them to the vinegar and peaches.

In a nonreactive pot add vinegar. Chop peaches and add to vinegar to prevent browning.  Add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened – about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.  If you do not plan to can this recipe, let cool and serve.  Prepare canner, jars and lids. Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Remove air bubbles and adjust head space, if necessary, by adding hot salsa.

If canning:  Prepare canner, jars and lids.  Process in water bath canner 15 minutes. Will make approximately 8 pint jars.

Enjoy!

Mary and Jim

**If you would like to receive our Recipe Of The Week each Friday – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right had column, “like” us on  the Facebook, or follow us on Twitter

A simple crate planter made from pallets and using a straw bale for a growing medium

So you have little space, little time, little money and you still want to garden.  Or maybe you would like to add a great looking focal point to your existing garden or landscape to grow something unique.   Even better, maybe you know of someone who still likes to garden but can’t get out or handle as much of the physical activity anymore.

Here is a great solution to all three!  Create your own Pallet Straw Bale Crate Garden.  It’s attractive, simple to build, and best of all, low or no cost to make.

To build on the cheap, you can create the straw bale frame using the slats from a single pallet

With a single pallet, (3) 2x4x8′s, a bale of straw, and a bag or two of soil and compost – you can create an instant garden space that can provide fresh vegetables or flowers all summer long.

You can purchase all the materials you need for under $15.00 – or build for virtually free using pallets and scrap lumber.   We made a few single bale boxes last week for our garden – and will use them along our fence row to grow our cucumbers in.  You can also double the measurements to make a double bale box and plant to your heart’s content.

The straw bale crates have a lot of built-in advantages!  They are easy to maintain – with little weeding ever needed.  The 2’ high design lends itself to less stooping and bending while tending, and the combination straw, compost and soil make for a great instant growing medium – without the hassle of digging up the earth.

The best part of all – at the end of the season – you can add all of the contents to the compost pile –or start a compost pile right in the pallet box to have fresh compost next year when you’re ready to grow again!

Here is how we made ours:

Start by assembling 2 rectangle frames from scrap wood or 2 x 4′s.

Next – attach the two rectangles with four of your slat boards in each corner

Next – screw in additional slat boards to create the crate “look”.

Materials List:

(1) Straw Bale
(4) 2 x 4 x 20”
(4) 2 x 4 x 44”
(1) Pallet – for vertical boards – be sure to use untreated pallets to be “food safe”
(1) bag of compost – substitute your own for free material
(1) bag of topsoil – substitute your own for free material

***The straw bales we use measure 20″ wide, 18″ high and a little less than 46″ long. Bales can vary in length – so be sure to measure your bale to adjust the length and width of frame boards.  You can also reference our previous post’s on How To Disassemble A Pallet Quickly, and How To Make Your Own Compost for more info.

Building The Garden:

Assemble 2 rectangles from your 2×4’s – screwing or nailing together 2 of the 20” pieces and 2 of the 44” pieces.   Once you have both rectangles together – use your pallet boards to attach vertically to connect the two rectangles to create your straw bale box.

We cut our pallet slat boards into 18″ lengths, (we got about 2 boards for each slat) and then screwed them into the inside of the two frames to form the crate. The spacing is up to you – we put about 4” between each board for ours – we wanted the look of an “old-time” crate.

Planting The “Garden”

Next -use a sharp knife, reciprocating saw or shovel to dig out a 6 to 8″ planting hole

Simply place your plant in the hole and cover with more soil.

We like to put a layer of compost or mulch over the top of the bale to complete the look.

Now it’s easy – place the bale down inside the frame – you may need to wiggle a little and cut a little off here and there to get it to fit depending on the size of the bale.

Simply use a sharp knife or blade to cut out your planting holes – we went about 8” deep and 5” around– filling them with a good mixture of garden soil and compost.  Plant, cover up, water – and the garden is in!  Depending on what you plant – you can fit in 5 to 6 tomato plants, or a combination of pepper and tomato plants per bale, etc.  You can plant a little closer than traditional garden rows because of the raised beds.  Only your imagination is the limit to what you want to grow!

You will get some compression of the bale as the season progresses – the bale will slowly decompose, giving even more nutrients to the plants.  Your plant and roots will thrive in the soil, compost and straw because the garden is off the ground – there will be very little weeds that develop, and should be easy with the added height to pick and maintain.

End of the Season :

If you have a compost bin already set up – you can certainly take the contents and throw them into the pile.  The decomposed straw and soil mixture are great for a pile – adding a lot of carbon material. If not – use the crate box as a compost bin!  Mix up the bale and contents right in the pallet box structure – and start adding some shredded fall leaves, coffee grounds,  vegetable scraps , lawn clippings and more.  By next spring – you will have enough compost made to use in the next bale for planting, with extra if you need it.

So how about trying a straw bale pallet crate garden this year!  And if you have a neighbor or relative that loves garden but finds it difficult now – it’s a great gift to let them have their very own garden

Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary

If you would like to receive our DIY & Gardening Tips every Tuesday – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right hand column, “like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Shared On Gnowfglins

With 72 holes to dig – it was time to bring in some bigger equipment to do the job!

72.  That was the magic number of 12″ wide and 30″ deep holes that we had to dig at the farm last week.  Between the 26 holes needed for the fence to enclose the garden – 30 for the vineyard trellis – and another 16 for the chicken coop run and sensory garden pergola – it was time to go beyond traditional post-hole digger technology.

Mary and I had spent the previous Sunday with a tape measure and a can of orange marking paint – carefully squaring and marking every hole that we needed. After that – it was time to go rent a bobcat and dig!

The post and board fencing being installed around the garden.

We’re very fortunate to have mainly rock-free land at the farm.  In fact – we hit only 1 rock while digging all 72 holes. In all, it took us about two hours – in what would probably have taken us 10 days and a couple of bottles of ibuprofen if dug by hand!

For the most part – it was smooth sailing. I will certainly admit though that digging the grape trellis holes on the hill was a little challenging.  Okay..to be perfectly honest…maybe somewhat frightening! But once I got over the fear that I wasn’t going to tip – all was well.

Next up is the long process of running string and setting posts.  After spending a few evenings this week of setting the garden fence posts – we are all but positive we may still go through a couple of bottles of ibuprofen!

It doesn’t look like much now – but all of these holes are the foundation for the grape post and trellis system that will hopefully be filled with grape vines soon enough!

We have about half of the garden posts and board fencing up so far – and should be able to have the grape trellis and chicken run posts up this week.  The vineyard trellis project is a must – as our now 1-year-old grape plants are starting to bud, and will need to be trained up trellis lines this spring.     

This past week made us realize how lucky we are to be surrounded by so many great people and local businesses.  In building the farm over the last few years – we have developed quite a few fantastic relationships with some great local small business owners.  We try hard to support local business whenever we can – not just because it’s the right thing to do – but for the value and knowledge they bring to our projects.

Case in point – I can’t tell you how many times Bob from Paisley Rentals has gone above and beyond in helping us with whatever project we are working on. To the point of even dropping off or picking up tools from the farm when we were desperate. The same goes for a nearby sawmill where we buy our lumber, or the local greenhouse where we get our trees and plants. The knowledge, advice and friendliness of all of them goes above and beyond – and it made us realize that our little farm project would not be nearly as far along without them.

We have had a lot of great help along the way in building the farm.

That extends to our neighbors as well – all of them at some point have lent a hand – whether it be feeding and watering our chickens when out of town – or helping to pull our truck out of a groundhog hole that swallowed it up in the field.

All in all – it just makes us realize we are very fortunate enough to be around so many great people, that in their own way, help us to build the farm.

Happy Gardening!

Jim and Mary

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Asparagus side salad – a great dish to add to any meal, at any time!

As spring progresses we look forward to the first garden crop to emerge in our area, Asparagus.  This will be the first year that we can harvest a few stems of our asparagus that we planted last year from crowns.  We are excited to have added this crop to our garden collection, and look forward for the many years of harvesting.

In the mean time, we have found a great spring recipe that adds a different twist than on how we traditionally prepare asparagus. Honestly, I have always been very happy roasting asparagus in the traditional way with olive oil and a little kick of garlic.  However, as strange as it may sound, this time of the year, I needed to have a quick cool casserole ready to eat at any time in the refrigerator.  Right now, no one in our house is eating dinner at the same time – unless it is 9 pm.   We are hard at work on various farm projects, attending baseball games, and volunteering at the school.  We are lucky if any two of us are in the house at the same time, unless it is bed time.

So what better way to have a healthy dinner prepared than to have it ready to go.  Since grilled or roasted asparagus doesn’t taste so good cold or refrigerated, we have found a unique way to use up that great spring crop.  Who knew that you didn’t have to ‘cook’ asparagus???  Plus, the best part is, it only takes 5 minutes to make, then you put it in the refrigerator and forget it – until dinner time!

After snapping of the ends, cut asparagus until small pieces including the leafy end.

Ingredients:
1 bunch pencil asparagus
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 cup coarsely grated pecorino cheese
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Directions:
1. Snap the ends of the asparagus off and discard.

Pecorino cheese being shredded over the salad.

pecorino

2. Cut the remaining asparagus, including the tips into very thin slices, crosswise and place in a medium bowl.

3. Add the red onion and pecorino and toss to combine.

4. Dress with the vinegar, olive oil and salt and toss again. The dressing may seem heavy, however the vinegar will sort of “cook” or tenderize the asparagus.

Only 5 minutes to prepare – just place it in the refrigerator to enjoy later!

5. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving, allowing the flavors to meld and the asparagus to become tender.

Enjoy!

Mary and Jim

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