Garlic Planting Begins

While I spent last week making food with all the tomatoes, etc and canning and freezing, Orrin was preparing new garden beds in what will be the main garden area (a separate area from the greenhouse location). Today we began planting garlic. We planted 7 different types of garlic, for a total of about 120 cloves planted, as well as some bulbils (those will be ready in 2 years). We still have 5 more types to plant. It feels good to start getting those into the ground for next year, as we can never have too much garlic!

  

Moving Companies are Ridiculous

We finally got our furniture delivered to us at the end of September. It was bittersweet, as we were very happy to see all our worldly possessions after 2 ½ months apart, but also felt pretty abused by the moving companies that we had to deal with (Two Small Men with Big Hearts who took our stuff from Salt Spring to Victoria, BC, and AMS who took our stuff from Victoria to our new home in Nova Scotia). Customer service from both places was non-existent, and both companies tried to scam us. In one case, we called them on it, but in two other cases, we got the short end of the stick. In particular, we had to pay more than what we'd agreed to or else we would not have received our stuff at all. Pretty crummy. We have filed a claim for some damaged furniture (which they will probably not pay, but thought we'd go through the exercise anyway), but plan to file with the Better Business Bureau once we're done having to deal with them. All I can say is – if you are moving across the country, DO NOT use these companies. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having a good experience with a mover, so you may be better off renting a uhaul and driving yourself, but I know there are con's with that too.  

A Bountiful Harvest, Thanks to a Friend

We have become friends with a woman who came from away specifically to farm on the south shore this season. She leased some land, and has been selling her produce at a couple markets a week. She just left town to go home this past weekend, and needed help pulling all her plants before she left, to leave the garden area in good shape for the owners. On Friday, a week and a half ago, we went over and spent an afternoon helping her out, in exchange for any plants that we wanted to take home and transplant, as well as any veggies that she hadn't sold. It was a fun afternoon with her that didn't feel like work at all, until I got into the car to head home and realized how tired I was. We took home a bounty of plants and produce, of which I am so thankful to her for. We brought home about 100 different types of kale and chard that we transplanted into the greenhouse area that we've been preparing, about 12 basil plants (not transplanted, just pulled), several hot pepper plants (matchbox, cayenne, jalapeno and habanero), lots of tomatillos, and an incredible amount of tomatoes. I couldn't even estimate just how many pounds of tomatoes we brought home, I can only tell you what we've done with it so far – filled a 9-tray dehydrator 4 times, made 4 batches of pasta sauce, and made 12 pints of salsa. And that's only about half of them, the rest are ripening as I write this!

When we decided to move to Nova Scotia in early spring, one of the hardest parts of the decision was recognizing that we were not going to be able to have a garden. All the food that we brought home that day more than made up for that loss.

Planting our fall greens

We have now planted 3 beds of 25' with 5 rows of greens in each bed. The first greens we planted are coming up very slowly, and unfortunately we don't have any compost yet to help improve the soil. Our dream of having greens all winter may not work out as we had hoped, if the soil is not healthy enough to grow the greens right now. We're crossing our fingers, and working on a back-up plan. Stay tuned!

Working on the Chain Gang

Our driveway is half a mile long. It's a bit strange, since all the other houses on our street are within 100 ft of the road, but we kind of like the privacy. (Although, ask me again after our first winter, and we'll see if all that snow on the driveway changes my mind!) The driveway is a one-lane gravel road, with potholes on it. I figure, if we're going to be driving back and forth on this road on a regular basis (which we already are), I wanted to try to level it out some. So I flexed my muscles a bit, loaded up a wheelbarrow with a shovel and heavy-duty rake, and headed out to go fill in the holes. There is large gravel/dirt/shale pile on the property that I used as filler. I went and filled my wheelbarrow with as much as I could heft, and started filling holes. I'd dump some dirt in a hole, rake it level, then stomp on it with my feet to pack it down a bit, and maybe throw more dirt on there if it still wasn't level. Then I'd head back for more dirt and move to the next pothole. At one point, Orrin and Oliver came and helped for a bit, which mostly meant that I held Oliver while Orrin gave me a break with shoveling and raking. Then Oliver and I did the “pothole dance” to pack it down.

The more holes I filled, and the further I got from the pile of dirt/gravel, the harder my arms had to work to heft that wheelbarrow. A few hours later, I had spaghetti arms, and most of the holes were filled. I probably need a couple more wheelbarrows worth of dirt to finish the job, but was pretty happy with what I'd gotten done. It was a pretty basic kind of task to do, playing with dirt and shovels, but very fulfilling. I got to enjoy our forest, with the leaves starting to change color now, and a warm, cloudy fall day.

Farmer's Market: On the Other Side of the Table

We've been spending about a day a week gardening at a local farm. We help out doing whatever needs to be done that day, in exchange for fresh veggies at the end of it. It seems like a pretty good deal for both parties. For us, it prolongs our having to get “real” jobs because we're not spending as much money on food. The farmer recently asked if we wanted to go to market for her to sell, as she was going to be away for a few days and didn't want her produce to go to waste in the fields.

We took on the job. We went over to the farm the day before market day to harvest, picking cucumbers, zucchini's, tomatoes, herbs, greens, and the like. We harvested amounts that she recommended, based on how items had been selling in previous weeks. The day of the market, we went to Mahone Bay and set things up. It was fun to lay things out on pretty tablecloths and in baskets to make everything look nice.

It was a great day! Not particularly financially, but for so many other things. I really enjoyed chatting with customers, hearing what they liked, and seeing some of them being open to trying new veggies. When it was slow, I chatted with some of the other vendors. There was a nice comfort there, of all these people coming together to sell their local food. I could sense the pride in them, selling what they had worked hard for. It was a little different for us, as we hadn't been involved in growing that food to the same extent, but I know I will feel similarly when we get to the point where we are selling our own food.

It got us thinking about things like how to harvest, how to care for greens so that they don't wilt before they get to market, and how to present the food at market. I'm so glad to have had that opportunity.  

Digging up (truck) body parts

At first we thought it might be a car bumper

But it kept growing!

We'd levered it up so it was standing up on end, with logs and rocks behind it

And finally dug it all out and pulled it out of the hole!

This is what we think is either the hood of a truck, or the top of the cab of a truck. Either way, it was a lot of metal to dig up!