Spring Planting

Nine littles running around...

 Chickens and guineas snapping up bugs...

 Fresh eggs...

 Friends to help… The potatoes are all planted!  This year, Yukon Gold and Purple Viking.  The exact poundage is unknown, as we are planting sprouted potatoes left from last year.  I would estimate 80 pounds.

Potatoes are at YJ Acres this year, not Purgatory Ranch.  Our difficulty in keeping ahead of the weeds should be ameliorated by the closer location.

It was infinitely more enjoyable to plant with friends than alone, and it's far more compelling to get to work when friends are coming!  We're excited to have the drip tape out and the mainline repaired in preparation for future planting.  Next up is onions!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Change in Plans

Oh, the predictably unpredictable life of farming.

We won't be selling our (delicious) chicken at the farmer's market this year due to licensing requirements.  It's long and complicated, and I see the reason behind it, but we aren't big enough farmers to eat the cost of the license right now.  Maybe in a year or two.

Our onion crop is nearly a total loss.  Between the baby, the warm spring, the wet May, and our other projects, we don't have much to show for all the onions we planted.  Hey, it happens.

The potato crop currently stands at 240 pounds, split equally between red and white potatoes.  This may be our best crop ever, despite the weeds.  I spent two early, early mornings digging on my own, as the wee ones can't be trusted out at Purgatory Ranch yet.

Purgatory Ranch will probably be allowed to lie fallow next year.  Getting out there to weed has been nearly impossible this year, and we must spend our time as best we can.  Maybe, when the babies are bigger, we will return, but for now we must reduce.

Strawberries are growing, but slowly.  The heat has slowed down the formation of berries.  The new strawberry bed is planted, drip hose laid, and mulched.

All our long term projects have taken serious time away from the current garden.  The above new strawberry bed as well as 50 new grape vines will pay off in the future, but this year, we are simply behind.

I also forget that no matter how lovely our baby is, between her mobility and needs and her brother's developmental issues (a story for another day), we are behind.  I can't tackle my usual projects, which leaves more for James, and he can only do so much, as heroic as he is.

Garlic leaves are browning, so it's time to gather in that harvest as well.  I hope it does not disappoint.

This probably reads as a long, drawn out complaint, but I don't mean to complain.  We have been blessed abundantly by our Creator this year, as in past years.  There will be plenty of produce to gather; and we are all healthy; and our farm is just changing!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Spring Time

50 pounds of potatoes in the ground by March 17.  In the south bed, 15 pounds of Red Norland and 10 of Dakota Pearl.  In the north bed, 25 pounds of Yukon Gold.  It took us about two hours, but we added mulch to the rows to keep down weeds.  Let's see how this year goes!

Horseradish is peeking out.

 The first daffodils are already a few days old.

and the cherry bushes are blooming.  Of course, we will probably have a late freeze (or even a regular one!) and kill any cherries, but these surely are beautiful.

Even a few crocus flowers are here and there.

I'm trying a new location for seedlings this year, and they sprouted in less than three days.  I think that means I finally found a good location!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

the Root Harvest has begun

Due to circumstances beyond our control and a boring long story, we are expecting a harvest much smaller than we originally anticipated, but the beginnings sure look (and smell) fabulous!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Potatoes

Onions

Longhorn cattle on our land

Strawberries!  They even escaped last night's frost.

Horseradish

Raspberries

 Everything needs to be weeded desperately, but this pregnant momma can only handle so much on her own.  At least I am keeping up with watering and keeping the birds fed, watered, and relatively clean (I can only move one coop alone, so the others have to wait for James to be home).

I have oodles of flats of tomatoes, etc., being tempered outside, but I've had a rough year with my starts.  So many tomatoes did poorly that I'm disappointed in myself.

Even more, we need rain.  Pray for rain for us!

Planting

 March 14, we began the process of planting out at Purgatory Ranch.  First, this required mowing.

 Since we're adding a new bed this year, James mowed the entire triangle.  Dust was flying, but we tried to keep top soil loss to a minimum.

 That was it for the evening, especially after the brakes locked up on our trailer and caught fire just as we reached home.

 March 15, James organized a delivery of 8 tons (maybe more) of composted cow manure.  He then proceeded to till our  beds.  Meanwhile, I made a trip or two home and cut potatoes.  And cut potatoes. Did I mention we purchased 140 pounds of potatoes this year?

 We brought fishing wire and yarn to mark our rows, keeping me from my inability to plant anything in a straight line.

 50 pounds of potatoes later (Yukon gold in the south bed and Viking plus leftover Yukon in the north bed) meant we were out of space with only 1/3 of our crop planted.  Aiyiyi.

 There was a little mishap with a shovel as well!  (You know us... there's always a mishap.)

Weather brought excitement in the form of hail, high winds, and 1.5" of rain, which we definitely needed.  It also enforced no more planting for most of spring break, as it was too wet.

More potatoes (most of the remaining) were planting at Secondhand Ranch on the 20th.  From the south, we planted 12 rows: (1-2) Kennebec, (3-4) eastern half Kennebec, western half Red Lasota, a new variety for us, (5-6) Red Norland, (7-8) western tip R. Norland, mainly Russet Burbank, east tip Dakota, and finally 9-12 was all Dakota Crisp.  All told, we planted 25 pounds each of Kennebec, Yukon Gold, Red Norland, Dakota Crisp, and Purple Viking.  We also planted 10 pounds of Russet Burbank and 5 of Red Lasota.

Finally, we were able to plant out 14 bundles of onions on the 22nd.  With 6 bundles of Candy, 2 of Red Candy, 2 Texas SuperSweet, 2 Southern Belle, and 2 Vidalia, it was a busy time.  For record keeping purposes, we planted east to west in this order: (1) Vidalia, (2) Red Candy, (3) Texas Supersweet, (4-5) Southern Belle, (6-11) Candy, and (12-13) Red Candy.

To wrap up our planting, James eked out a few rows of All Blue at Yahweh Jireh Acres as well as a few rows of remaining Dakota Crisp.

Whew!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Potato Harvest 2013 Results

Sad, especially when I just read that a 10 pound per pound ratio is considered "normal."  I suppose not watering and minimal weeding is a fair trade-off for such a large yield, but it didn't encourage me with the results this year...

In 2010, we planted and harvested 130 pounds, for a 3.5:1 ratio.
In 2011, we planted and harvested 265 pounds, for an almost 4:1 ratio.
Last year, we planted 40 pounds and harvested 293.5 pounds, for a 7.3:1 ratio.
This year, we planted 81.5 pounds and harvested 253, for a 3.1:1 ratio.  After going back to find the earlier years, it is disappointing that this was the lowest year ever.

We also had a cold, wet spring.  We saved potato seed, and they were too sprouted to produce reliably. Also, we used our younger, less fertile bed.  All that being said, I could probably crunch numbers, but we'll just leave it as it is.

Of course, last year, we planted LOTS of onions and lost most of them.  This year, we have a rock-star performance by onions, harvesting 282.5 pounds at this point, with one more largish harvest to total. Reds were definitely less productive than yellow.

Let the numbers speak for themselves...

Type	Seed Weight	Yield	Ratio
Russet Burkbank	5	3	0.428571429
All Blue	7	8	1.142857143
Kennebec	6	18	3
Purple Viking	5.5	0	0
Dakota Pearl/Crisp	26.5	55	2.075
Red Norland	12.5	97	7.76
Yukon Gold	12	72	6
Total	81.5	253	3.104294479
Onions
Candy	4	151.5	37.875
Red Candy	3	17	5.666666667
Vidalia	4	97	24.25
Burgundy	1	17	17

Next year, All Blue, Yukon Gold, Dakota, and Red Norland will be back on my list.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Grasshoppers

The skeletal remains of potato plants signaled for us that harvest time had arrived.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Potatoes and Onions

Yesterday's labor was wild!  I didn't expect to pull so many onions, but with the tops either eaten or down, we concluded harvest of three of our four types of onion.

There's plenty left to harvest:

We pulled this beautiful box of Red Burgundy.  These are a spicier red onion.

And so many Sweet Granex that the boxes overflowed!

 The remaining, milder Red Candy were also pulled.  For whatever reason, this onion had the most insect/wild animal damage, with most of their tops missing.

The Yukon Gold, while not nearly so prolific as the Red Norland, weighed in at 67 pounds for a tidy harvest.  We also damaged fewer this time, learning our lesson to dig at least twice as far away as we had last year, as the potatoes had spread so much further.

We're offering all the onions and potatoes grown at Purgatory Ranch for sale this year!

The little green fruits are potato fruits, which I may or may not split open to plant some of their seeds.  I guess if I get bored...

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Harvest!

 After the depressing, stomach-churning news of last night (a story for another time regarding a farmer's herbicide), I needed a good morning's work at Purgatory Ranch.

Myle, James and I tackled the most neglected potatoes and realized the grasshoppers had decimated the foliage of these plants.  If we weeded and waited to harvest, the plants would disappear by the next week, and we wouldn't know where to dig.

Unexpected harvest time?  Game on!

The Red Norlands produced fabulously, yielding 97 pounds of gloriously red-skinned potatoes.  We observed the differences in harvest from years past: the ground was not bone dry, making the digging more complicated (we'll take the problems if the rain comes!), potatoes had spread more, so the field is pockmarked with our large holes.  Technically, the yields are lower than last year's, but given the blatant neglect they received this year (one woman, mostly alone since everyone else was frantically busy elsewhere, can only do so much!), these are more than satisfactory results.  I think Red Norland will return to the planting schedule next year!

We also discovered our Red Candy onions had not fared well against the onslaught of weeds.  Most tops were missing, and in pulling weeds, we began to pull onions.  With a shrug of shoulders, we harvested instead of weeding.  12 pound of onions for one row is not bad!  We also harvest some sweet yellow onions (marketed as transplants as Vidalia, but who knew it's not legal to sell "Vidalia" onions grown outside a specific region of Georgia!?).

If you're in the area, we're selling produce this year.  Email me for info!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

War on Weeds

Oh, that I could find more early morning hours, after dawn but before the heat causes me to wilt, as I have so much weeding to do!  I spend one day at Secondhand Ranch and on at Purgatory, but I can't spare more from YJ Acres.  I'm perpetually behind, and the heat is making me more behind.

We've begun a slow thinning-harvest of the onions.  I have some that are already baseball sized or larger.  The onions look beautiful and make the car smell fantastic (maybe not after an hour or two in the heat.  Then the smell becomes a bit of an overpowering stench).

In more peculiar news, many of the potatoes in the north bed have set fruit.  Why this year did so many set fruit?  Past years, I've had a plant or two, but I'd feel it safe to claim at least 50 plants have set fruit!  I may save the fruits for the seed and trial-plant a few next year.  It may be foolish and a waste of precious time, but I'm intrigued by the possibilities.  Yes, I may be obsessed.

To add the the peculiarity of my recent trip to Purgatory Ranch, chew on this bit of fat: where plants never grew from my seed potatoes, I have begun to uncover small potatoes growing directly on the seed potato!  There are no discernible roots, although I could have missed them, but I have found handfuls of small potatoes.  I'd love to know how a potato can reproduce without an above-ground foliage.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Fencing, Weeding, and Purgatory

After weeks, even months, of intermittent work, the fence encompassing the front 20 acres of Purgatory Ranch is complete, gates and all.  The barbed wire on the easy end will remind me of the location of the  dreaded poison ivy.  (Speaking of which, how have I stumbled into it three times this summer with tiny patches?  No major outbreaks, but itchy nonetheless!)

 Weeding this year is a battle.  JoJo is a most delightful baby, much more cooperative than Jimmy ever was at this age, but I still can't seem to get ahead of the weeds.  James set out to help me today... But before that story, bask in the sight of my not-quite-so-empty north potato bed.  At one point, I thought I had lost 95% of this bed.  Now I'd estimate my losses at 40%, which is much more reasonable and will undoubtedly yield more potatoes than we can possibly consume.  I enjoy extras when it comes to food.

(The exuberance of tree onions always fascinates me.)

And the purgatory of the title can be summed up as... A once-friendly neighbor may have irreparably damaged our friendship by calling James some terrible names and attempting to bully James to solve his own problems.  Thus, James spend 6 hours burning brush piles.  I even have sunburned forearms to prove my participation in the excitement.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Purgatory Ranch, End of May

Tree onions are setting bulblets in a wild frenzy of growth.

I haven't hacked out too many onions in my weeding, and neither downpour nor animals have consumed entire rows.

The north bed looks to be a 60% loss.  What there is, is so choked by weeds that I am freeing row by row.  It will take time.

 The south bed is looking wonderful.  After this picture, I managed to hill up and weed four rows of potatoes.  Growth is amazing!

Much to my surprise (not, I think, to James), our pond holds water for the first time in almost three years.  Clearing out the cedars and junk helped!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.