Nettle Harvest

It's that time of year again!  As anyone who has been following this blog knows, nettle season is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love nettles.  They are just so incredibly delicious and nutritious.  And there is such a brief window of time in which they are at their peak for harvest and fresh eating.  Oh, how I really, really love nettles....

 

And, so it was that earlier this week our family set out into the woods with our rubber gloves, pruning shears and harvest baskets.  Thankfully, I am not alone in my nettle passion.  If I were, it would probably be a challenge to get my loves on board for risking a good sting or two in the pursuit of this delectable wild bounty.  

Steve was quite skilled and was the only one of us who managed to harvest without getting a single sting.  Cedar, Sequoia and I all fell prey to the painful defenses of this amazing plant.

For those of you who may not know about stinging nettles or have not encountered them, the stalks and leaves are lined with tiny little hairs, that when touched and broken act like a little hypodermic needle and inject a mixture of compounds that sting and irritate the skin.  However, once steamed or dried, the nettles no longer sting and can be eaten and enjoyed.

I find nettles to be the most amazing plant.  They are absolutely delicious (as I repeatedly gush), plus they are also useful in other ways.  They are a dynamic accumulator, which means that they use their roots to dig deep in the soil and gather minerals, macro and micronutrients and then transfer those nutrients to their leaves.  Nettles are particularly good at harvesting nitrogen, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, iron and sodium.  That is much of why they are so nutritious to us humans, but also why they are so good for the soil.  Nettles can be added to your compost for enhancement with those deeply mined goodies.  Plus, the stalks an be used as a fiber plant!  Nettles contain a bast fiber much like flax and hemp, so can be rendered and woven.  I had the wonderful opportunity several years ago to learn to soften and spin nettle fiber into cord.  It was awesome.  Aren't these plants incredible?! I'm seriously in love with this particular flora friend.

Our harvest day concluded with homemade pizzas topped with loads of nettles and shallots.  It was delicious to say the least!  Quite the springtime feast in honor of one of my favorite plants.  There is a plan in place to make a large batch of nettle raviolis to put in the freezer to keep the nettle enjoyment going all year.  (We just need to find the time to make them!  It's quite the process...) And loads are going into the dehydrator to have a large stash on hand for tea as well.  My favorite nettle tea blend can be found here.  But, I also drink just plain nettle tea pretty much every day.  It's so good.

Our favorite harvesting spot happens to also be along one of our favorite local trails.  So, in addition to the joy of the seasonal gathering, we get to revel in the beauty of a walk in woods along a gorgeous inlet of south Puget Sound.  And settle into the sounds, smells and wonder of being in the forest together with a simple agenda.

Even the smallest among us seemed to have a blast attempting to throw himself out of the carrier on my back!

 

I hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying your favorite springtime treats this weekend!   

Around the Homestead

I'm a couple of days late with my "Around the Homestead" post.  But, I figure, better late than never!

I suppose I'll start out with the greenhouses....

The onions, beets and broccoli are doing great!

And so are the cucumbers and radishes.  Soon I hope to get pole beans planted between the cukes.

Eggplants are flowering!?!

The cantaloups are rockin'.  I love their heart-shaped leaves.

The watermelons are also growing strong.
I can't believe we might actually get melons!
An impossibility here without the help of a greenhouse... and a dream come true for the kids!

Hello!  Our tomatoes and basil are out of control!  Italian, anyone?

Our early tomato varieties are already producing lots of fruit.

Carrots are up.

I sowed these dry shelling beans the other day.  They are from seed we saved a couple years ago.

I've been harvesting lots of basil everyday.

This is that area I mentioned a few posts back that we chose to sheet mulch just outside the greenhouses.  Doug, the owner, covered the whole area in thick road-bed cloth and then put about 4 inches of his soil mix on top.  Since that's not the greatest growing environment and Doug is very attached to keeping the cloth down, Steve and I opted to sheet mulch on top and work to build more soil.  We pulled and cut back all the weeds that were growing in the space and left them in place, threw down a thin dusting of blood meal (very high in nitrogen) to burn the weeds and stimulate decomposition,  then a layer of newspaper, then a 2 inch layer of aged cow manure, and then about a 3-4 inch layer of straw on top of that.  On top of the straw, we built big squash mounds using soil amended with minerals.  This will soon be our pumpkin and winter squash patch!  We had hoped to companion corn and beans to create a three sisters garden, but this area gets pretty hammered with wind and, the soil being so thin here, we are worried the corn will blow over.  We might try it anyway!  I'm also thinking about tossing down some cover crop seed in the straw.... gotta clear it with Doug first though!

Now, onto things around the homestead....

The calendula is huge!  Up to my waist and loaded with flowers.  It looks so beautiful with the foxglove growing up through it and a backdrop of peas in bloom.

I love the inside of foxglove!

Chamomile is looking great.  I love growing our own medicinal herbs.

This sunflower blossom is starting to form.

The raspberry thicket is loaded with soon-to-be-ripe berries!  And loaded with bees, too!

Peas are on... finally!

I look forward to the poppy blooms every year.  Currently we have all stages of the flower on our gigantic bushes.  Here's my ode to the amazing poppy in all its forms....

Aren't they incredible?

Blueberries are fully on.  Now they just need to ripen so we can gobble them up!

Lillies popping up among the spinach

The fig is finally leafing out.

Our potato boxes are beyond ready for a few more layers of cedar planks and some straw!

The apples are full of tiny fruit.  I really need to get in there and thin them.

Green strawberries.... Come on sun!!!
It's been a long, cold spring.
We are usually harvesting strawberries by now.
But, these guys are not even showing signs of blushing yet.

The little chickens love to cuddle in the garden cart!

And, last but not least....
The old man who watches carefully over it all!

Happy summer everyone!

Herb Spiral Beauty

Good morning!

So sorry for the lack of posts over the last week.  I have thrown my back again and sitting at the computer hurts more than anything.  The spinal kink couldn't have come at a worse time, since there is so much to be done around here.  I am still plugging away at things, just very slowly and carefully.

Speaking of getting things done, I am very excited to share what my super incredible and amazing brother and sister (in-law) have created....

Check out that beautiful herb spiral!  Isn't it lovely!  They felt inspired and motivated after reading the Herb Spirals and Spiral Gardens post and they built one of their own.  I think that it is just absolutely perfect.  I can't wait to actually see it in person with my own two eyes.

So, there you have it, a living example of a beautiful and functional herb spiral.  While Richard and Suja are truly exceptional people who rock this world with their positivity and love and do everything they put their minds to extremely well, building an herb spiral really is an easy project and anyone can do it.  If you feel at all inclined, I encourage you to jump in and create one.  It's great fun, so satisfying and such a delightful result... as demonstrated above.

Thanks, Richard and Suja, for allowing me to share your photos here.  I love you guys so very much and can't wait to squeeze you again soon!

Herb Spirals and Spiral Gardens

About a week ago, someone asked about our spiral garden.  Ours happens to be a huge variation on the Herb Spiral.  Herb Spirals are a cool way of taking a traditional row of herbs and twisting it up into a space saving, multi-micro-climate little herb garden.

Here is a design by Bill Mollison:

Not only are herb spirals pretty to look at if done well, but more importantly they create several different micro-climates for your herbs.  The top of the spiral will have drier soil than the lower part as it drains through the day.  The side facing the sun will be considerably warmer than the one facing away from the sun.  The side facing the sunrise will warm earlier in the day and maintain a more even and gentle heat than the side facing the hot afternoon sun.  Therefore, you can plant a great diversity of herbs in your spiral meeting their many varied needs.  Herbs that like heat and well drained soil, such as rosemary, can be planted towards the top of the spiral facing the afternoon sun.  Those that like things cooler and wetter and would bolt if exposed to too much heat can be placed accordingly.  Bill's above example also includes a small pond at the bottom to grow water plants such as watercress and water chestnut.  This also gives the added benefits of ecological diversity, reflected sunlight from the pond surface, more edge, providing a habitat for frogs which love to hunt pests, and a water source for many beneficial pollinators like bees and hummingbirds. 

Herb Spirals are generally quite small (about 1-2 meters wide and tall), as they are designed to be space saving, user friendly and easily watered with just one sprinkler.  Our spiral garden that I mentioned in Going Rogue is huge by comparison.  But it is basically the same concept.  It is about 10 meters wide and 2 meters high and has a gigantic Big Leaf Maple growing at the center.  There are very large boulders along the tier edges as opposed the football-sized rocks generally used in herb spirals.  We have yet to put in a pond, but it is in the plans.  The design of our garden allows for cool loving crops to be grown on the shaded side all summer long.  Not only is it facing away from the sun, but it is also shaded by the maple.  And heat-loving plants do quite well on the sunny side because they get both the heat from the sun and the reflected heat from the large boulders.

the sun-facing side of our spiral garden

Our spiral garden is home to many different perennial fruits such as raspberry, gooseberry, jostaberry, strawberry and fig.  It also houses many annuals in the summer - lettuce, kale, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, summer and winter squash, etc.  We are also sure to plant lots of annual flowers each year to attract beneficial insects and birds and provide pollen and nectar for the honey bees.

not much going on yet since it is still so early in the season

The spiral garden belongs to the kids.  It is their experimental zone and they get to choose what goes in each year.  We, of course, help direct them as to ideal placement, but for the most part, it's their thing.  They get to design and learn all about different plants and micro-climates and, most importantly I think, learn from experience what works and what doesn't.  They get to make their own choices, see what happens through the season, and learn from it so that they can improve upon it the next year.  I don't want my kids to take for granted whatever some "expert" tells them they should do.  I want them to experiment and think for themselves.  Who knows what cool thing they'll figure out that you or I never thought of?  

Hazel Weaving

It's a quiet morning here on the homestead.  We're all fighting a cold, which seems to put a gentle hush on everything.... Cedar is still sleeping, Sequoia is practicing spelling while her pumpkin bread bakes in the oven.  And I get to sit here in a quiet house with my hot cup of coffee!

Sequoia is having a matching cup of "coffee" with me this morning

Yesterday was pretty busy since the sun made several peek-a-boo appearances throughout the day.  My favorite project was working on a woven fence to protect these guys

from this guy.

beloved hound - squisher of freshly worked beds

We are coppicing hazels and maples for their suckers to use as trellises and fencing.  The hazel, in particular, is really fun to use because of its crooked branches.  They zig-zag like lightening bolts.  Plus, they are really pliable and flexible, making them both easy and pretty to use.  So... after feeding the asparagus some compost and interplanting broccoli and lettuce among the spears, I tried my hand at my first woven hazel fence.  My initial pass at it did not go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.  I placed the "posts" too far apart to have it be structurally sound.  I hope to work on it some more today if the rain holds off.  Stay tuned for photos of the finished product.

Cedar just woke up and the bread just came out of the oven, so I need to hop to other things....  More on the fence, homeschooling and the solarium coming soon!

Farm for the Future video

For folks wondering, "Why permaculture?", this is a great video.  It's just shy of an hour so you'll have to make some time for it, but it's a good watch.  Enjoy!

Going Rogue

Ok... so my animals have turned on me and they are going rogue.  Remember the other day when I showed you the lovely sheet mulching in the garden using the chicken bedding/manure?  Well, the ladies are apparently trying to take it back!  I'm serious!  Each day, a few mischievous hens make a break for it and sneak their way into the garden to scratch the daylights out of those lovely beds.  Mulching scattered everywhere... everywhere that is except for where it's supposed to be!  Come on ladies, just let it go.  I want your straw and poop now.

This afternoon, I'm squatting in the raspberries (again) clearing a spot to transplant some new shoots and my dog strolls by.  He skirts past me and cruises right into the main veggie garden, where he knows he's not allowed.  I tell him to vamoose... "Out!" I say.  He casually glances over his shoulder at me as he continues his jaunt into the garden.  "Out of the garden!" I holler again.  One more dismissive glance tells me, basically, "Whatever lady."  He then trots into the hoop house, takes one more look at me, turns his back end in my general direction, and drops a dog bomb!  I kid you not!  The ultimate in the world of doggie defiance, a canine coup if you will.  Why do these animals thwart me?

Animal antics aside, my day was great!  Actually, both yesterday and today were wonderful.   Believe it or not folks, the sun actually came out!  Wahoo!  I love the sun.

Yesterday involved a spur-of-the-moment scavenger hunt.  I made and hid clever little clues all over the homestead for the kids to find, each one leading to the next.  They loved it and had a blast.  I adore sweaty, rosy-faced, happy kids.  I really do.  Here are a couple of yesterday's clues.  Leave me a comment with your best guess.

1) "You can call me Spotty.  You can call me Dotty.  But now I need to use the outdoor _______."

2) "They are so delicious and sweet,
      they makes me wiggle my feet.
      I begin to dance me a jig
      whenever I eats me a _____!"

Where would you look?

Here are some photos from today around here.  Enjoy!

happy raspberries
tomorrow they get a thick layer of maple chips mixed with mushroom spawn

rhubarb

Comfrey so determined to grow that it actually busted through the sheet mulching cardboard

Healthy comfrey that we love - a wonderful garden and compost helper

Hyacinth opening and smelling so sweet!

the new path I've been working on in the kids' spiral garden

the same path on the other side of the maple - plus bleeding heart!

gooseberries busting out of dormancy!

the bees are flying

fiddleheads!

the alder grove that will soon become a new garden

another path I've been working on leading to the orchard cottage
it'll be an office & craft space once completed

yet another path in progress - leading to the sauna
I love having huge chip piles ready for use!
just beyond the trees behind the sauna is where the new sheep pasture will be going

the babes are growing up!
they are enjoying their new tractor until they're ready to join the big birds

As you can see, spring is definitely in the air and there are lots of reminders everywhere.  I can't wait to get back out there again tomorrow....  Have a great weekend!