I Guess I'll Go Eat Worms...

Okay, I will not be eating actual worms.  I will be eating the delicious food, that grows from the soil, that comes from the worms, that ate my garbage!  I know, compost is not something that usually gets one all riled up, but for me it is pretty darn fascinating.  Every time I'm out in the yard and I see the robins digging for wiggly little worms I get excited thinking about my garden and the nutrient rich soil they will soon have the pleasure of growing in.

After watching the birds make a meal of these creepy-crawlers, I get out my bucket, flip my already massive compost pile and snatch up a few of those slimy little fellows for myself, setting them to work eating my food scraps.  You see, I'm trying my hand at catch-and-release-vermi-composting or, in layman's terms, I'm catching a bunch of worms, putting them in a bucket and waiting for miracles.

I have two books, Garden Anywhere and The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, that sing the praises of using worms to quickly break down compostable materials (coffee grounds, banana peels, etc).  Both books use slightly different approaches so after scanning the pages of each and using some tools around the house I have created a lovely little bucket of worms!

To make your own worm bucket you will need:

A five gallon (or larger) container with a lid
A Shovel-full of Garden Soil or Finished Compost
Enough Newspaper Ripped into strips to fill your bucket half-full
Rubber Gloves (strongly encouraged, I did NOT use gloves which was a mistake)
Drill
corn meal
water
worms
veggie scraps

• Drill some holes along the sides of your bucket so that your worms have room to breathe.
• Rip your newspaper into strips no longer than 3 inches long and wide.  Moisten the newspaper pieces and add them to your bucket until it is half full.
• Add your soil and a sprinkling of corn meal and toss everything together.  Don't bury the newspaper in soil but use enough to coat the newspaper so that it feels gritty and looks a bit muddy.
• Place the earthworms that you've caught from your yard into the bin.  Take veggie and fruit scraps, cut them into small pieces, and bury them under the bedding for your worms.  The food for your worms must be buried for easy worm access.  Check on your worms' progress every few days by stirring through the bedding and mixing things up (rubber gloves are strongly recommended for this task).  Also, make sure that the bin is kept moist but not soggy so that your critters can stay properly hydrated.  A sprinkle from a watering can does the trick, as does a spray bottle.  When your bucket is teaming with worms, release some of them into your outdoor compost pile or start a second bucket!  
• For more info check out: Treehugger.com, Vermicompost.net, and HowStuffWorks.com

So far my worms are eating fairly slowly, but I've only caught about 50-75.  These books suggest 200+ worms for a 12 gallon bucket.  The more worms, the more quickly your food scraps turn into magnificent soil for the garden.  

Change of Pace

I have moved to lovely Upstate New York and things are beginning to settle into place.  Do I have an actual room to call my own? Not yet.  Is there a grocery store in town?  Not exactly... but there will be soonish.  Oh, how I've missed the little pleasures of the north country.

I've been here since the end of March and since moving I have made eight dozen newspaper pots for seedlings, planted tons of seeds in the aforementioned pots, eaten three delicious cheese rolls, pruned two lilac bushes, pruned many, many raspberry canes, picked up a truckload of cherry flooring, mudded and spackled and mudded and spackled and sanded and mudded the third floor of the B&B, baked some tasty bran muffins, baked some tasty orange poppy-seed scones, baked some tasty banana walnut muffins knit a seed-stitch scarf that took a long time but that I am exceptionally pleased with and ironed and cleaned and dusted and vacuumed more than I ever thought I could in the span of two weeks.  It has been heaven.

Despite the fact that I no longer have easy access to the wondrous goodies from the co-op and the great company of the folks in B-town, the work and lifestyle here has been excellent - I love setting my own hours - even if I am working for  twelve hours a day instead of eight.  

The biggest drawback from this new way of life is that it is incredibly easy to get sucked into the work that needs to be done around the house and my small business has taken a backseat for the time being.  If only there were a few more hours in each day.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

My home is deep in the forest near the roots of the mountains. -Treebeard 

For some reason I am on this strange enchanted-woodland-cuckoo-clock-fair-isle-knitting  kick.  Maybe it's the antlers I got for Christmas from my grandmother, maybe it's just springtime and the birds are chirping, or maybe I've watched too many episodes of Faerie Tale Theater... the bottom line is there is something incredibly romantic and frightening about the woods--which is probably why it is so darn enticing.

And so, dear tree huggers, I have composed two lists; some of my all time favorite woodland-themed songs and some of  my all time favorite woodland-inspired movies.  So grab your dirndl, skip to grandma's house and get your rocky mountain high on.
 

Songs for a walk in the woods:

• The King of Trees - Cat Stevens (album: Buddha and the Chocolate Box)
• Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell (album: Clouds)
• Annie's Song - John Denver (album: Back Home Again)
• Mother Nature's Son - The Beatles (album: The White Album)
• Hyper-Ballad - Björk (album: Post)
• She's a Rainbow - The Rolling Stones (album: Their Satanic Majesties Request)
• Get Out the Map - Indigo Girls (album: Retrospective)
• The Fox - Nickel Creek (album: Nickel Creek)
• Killing the Blues - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (album: Raising Sand)
• Blue Skies - Willie Nelson (album: Stardust)
• Harvest Moon - Neil Young (album: Harvest Moon)

Movies featuring the Forest:

• FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
• A River Runs Through It (1992)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• The Last Unicorn (1982)
• Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981)
• The Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
• The Secret Garden (1993)

Thanks Baby Loves Pink,  Touch of the Dutch,Good Egg, Timber!, and Designs by Erin !

Dreaming of Spring

It's that time of year.  The time of year where it snows and melts and snows and melts and snows and once again I'm just itching to start my dear little seedlings so that I can have a bountiful crop of delicious treats, but I don't want to jump the gun.

 

Last year my tomatoes were a bit crowded and they ended up rather leggy with minimal fruit. But this year will be my year! I just know it. Armed with some lovely gardening resources (The Backyard Homestead, Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers, Garden Anywhere, The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook )  I am ready to take on some serious planting and whip my basil and carrots and tomatoes into shape! No more cramming 5 plants into one pot (I will have a yard this year)!

Working at Cate Farm was one of the best jobs ever!

 

I think that my number one problem when it comes to gardening is deciding which tasty morsels to plant. With so many seeds to choose from a lady can be quite overwhelmed! I've drooled over the High Mowing Organic Seeds website for awhile now and today I just finished buying what I think will be the last of my seeds.


The list includes - but is not necessarily going to be limited to:

Brandywine Tomatoes - Heirloom
National Pickling Cucumbers
Kentucky Wonder Pole Peans - Heirloom
King Richard Leeks
Old Spice Mix Sweet Peas
Autumn Beauty Mix Sunflowers
Green Zebra Specialty Tomatoes
Sweet Marjoram
Evergreen Hardy Onions
Red Cored Chantenay Carrots
Genovese Basil
Lolla Rossa Lettuce
New England Pie Pumpkins
Bouquet Dill
Early Wonder Tall Top Beets
Lacinato 'Dinosaur' Kale - Heirloom
Hotshot Spicy Mix Mustard Greens

Am I overzealous? Definitely.  Am I over my head? Probably.  Am I going to plant all these lovely treats and then some?  Absolutely.  Besides, who gets a lovely full delicious garden if they don't plant all kinds of seeds?  This is no time to be conservative...  I will go all out this year and that is that!

Is it Memorial day yet?

Progress Report.... part 1

Today I spent some quality time working on the portrait of Mr. French and I do believe that I've made some headway! Hooray! 

I may have jumped the gun by telling a certain someone that this thing would be done by the end of the weekend (oops).  I often forget that oil paint takes several days to dry and then there's the fact that I'm not quite finished yet.  Oh the joys of wishful thinking.  Luckily, that certain someone is quite understanding and hopefully won't mind waiting on Mr. French for a few more days. 

More to come!

Mud and Drywall

I'm currently in Canton, New York, helping a good friend finish the top floor of his bed and breakfast, 24 East Main.  It has been so invigorating to put down the knitting needles and pick up a broad knife and a spackle tray.  There is also something to be said for a full day of physical labor; I've been sleeping and eating like a champion.  More on the progress of the B&B later, but for now, I think it's supper time.

'Tis the Season to Be Curling...

... and skating and bobsledding and luge-ing.  The winter games have officially begun and I, for one, am absolutely thrilled!

Call me crazy, but I do believe that the Winter Games are ever so much more romantic than their summer counterpart.  I mean come on... biathlon anyone?

It's true, seeing those swimmers swim and those sprinters sprint is pretty darn exciting, but track and field events look pretty tired compared to the glistening snow and the shiny skiis, skates, helmets and sleds.

I'm also a sucker for those fabulously sparkling figure skating outfits.  Holy Tanya Harding-err Nancy Kerrigan I want a closet full of those things!  

And did I mention that as a spectator, curling up in a knit-blanket to watch the games is much more enticing when it's -10° outside?

Whether you prefer the summer games or the winter games, here are some tasty winter treasures that have the potential to bring out everyone's inner Olympian... even if we never make it off the couch.  So I urge you, fellow spectators, to feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time!