Valley Mama

Spring is for Sewing

If there was any question about the matter, let me say that spring has definitely arrived here in the San Luis Valley. The robins have returned from their winter homes and are hopping around all over the yard, and the infamous spring winds are blowing the valley dust to the sand dunes (along with any other smallish items laying around my yard). Our spring winds are hard to love. Ask anyone from the valley. Just when the weather warms and spring calls us outside, the winds come and blow us over, sending us back inside once more.  

I always think of that line from the Greg Brown song, "Spring wind blew my list of things to do away," this time of year. Our springs winds blow way more away than my to-do list, and while they can be infuriating and make us all a little crazy, for me, there is a silver (though dusty) lining. Lately, the spring winds may be sending me inside, but I'm welcoming that time indoors to enjoy my sunroom studio and my sewing machine while I can. When summer comes, gardening takes over my life (in a good way), and there is scarcely time for laundry and cleaning, much less crafting. Spring brings balance (think equinox) between my indoor and outdoor worlds, and I appreciate and celebrate that.  

We converted the sunroom to my crafty studio a couple of months ago, and I am not the only one who is enjoying my new favorite room. I keep finding this one curled up on every soft surface she can find...

And legos have invaded one of my tables...

But I don't mind. There is still plenty of space to spread out, cut fabric and sew (on at least one sewing machine) and finding cats in baskets and lego guys perilously perched on my presser foot just keeps things interesting.

My spring sewing to-do list is quite long and ambitious, but I like to dream big. Most are clothes for me and the littles to wear this spring and summer, with some possible linen smock creations to sell at the farmer's market alongside our veggies. With some naptime-sewing this weekend I was able to finish a sweet little spring linen jacket for River and choose/wash/iron some fabrics for my next few projects.

I adore this jacket. It is a kimono-style wrap jacket with a pixie hood. The outer linen is from an old linen dress of mine, and the lining is a pink fox print flannel that River loves. And my favorite part is a little peek-a-boo (or boo-peek, in River speak) applique fox under the hood.  I used this pattern, available as a PDF download on Etsy.  

I could not wait to try it on my little pixie, and she seems to love it as much as I do.  Of course, it required a photo shoot...

I think I may need to make one in my size...

Most of these photos were taken right down the road from our house at the beautiful Yoga Ranch, where, thanks to our friend Elizabeth, we get to spend some time.

Time enjoying the horses...

Climbing hay bales...

And watching the birds fly overhead...

Yes, spring is here.  We get out and enjoy it when we can, and when the winds blow a little too hard, we retreat back indoors, with plenty of springy projects to occupy us until we head back out again.

Planting Seeds, Growing Green

Wow!  It's been a while since my last post...

Sometimes it's nice to step away from the computer, put the camera down and just live life's moments with a little more presence.  

And then there's the warming weather and coming spring, which call us out, out, outside, to play, swing, climb and explore.  

I cannot remember a February this warm since I've lived in the San Luis Valley. During the winter months I often get asked if I miss the garden; if I'm just waiting impatiently for the winter to be over so I can get back to growing food again. My answer often surprises people: not really. I adore summer and growing food for my family and my community. I love fall with it's garden bounty harvest and beauty. I relish winter for the rest and rejuvenation the season brings. And when spring comes, I embrace it with renewed enthusiasm for gardening and growing...but not until the time comes. No, I appreciate the snuggly, slow days of winter (even more now), and I'm in no hurry for them to be over...and then it happens. The light returns, days lengthen, we go outside without our warm winter layers, mud from melting snow oozes everywhere, and those first brave bits of green begin to peek out from sheltered places.  

This is the first awakening of spring (for me at least).  It's playful...reassuring. Our freezing valley nights will prevent gardening from beginning in earnest for another couple of months, cold snowy days will creep up sending us back inside, the restful time is not quite over, and we welcome the warmth and light back with excitement for what is to come.      

When February's warm spell first appeared, I thought, oh, this will pass soon, no reason to go getting spring fever.  And then it just got warmer, and though we still have our cold valley nights, the days this past month have been amazing. One day a couple of weeks ago I said, "that's it, I'm planting the greenhouse." I could no longer resist the temptation to get out and plant. Just like the warmth, the urge to "come out of my winter shell" came quicker this year, but I'm not fighting it.

So, I pulled on my rubber boots to wade through the mud, and the littles and I went outside to play in the garden. We did a little spring cleaning, and even a little planting.

And now, in these first days of March, we have little seedlings, emerging from the warm soil in the greenhouse.         

I have the two best helpers in the world. The garden calls to them as well, and has become the focus of much outside play and work (they're really the same thing, right?).  

The chickens are certainly glad that the snow has melted, and also spend much of their time in the garden, pecking through last year's stalks and seeds.

Given the coming warmth and awakening, it seemed like a good time to get outside with our friends for co-op day to plant some seeds and enjoy the sunshine. You can hardly keep these little ones inside these days anyway (not that we want to). Our inside time consisted of preparing a yummy snack of fruit and seed bars, a brief circle time with one of my favorite rhymes (below) and one of my favorite books, The Story of the Root Children.  

This rhyme is fun for the children to act out, starting as seeds tucked into bed and "sprouting" at the end.

"Sweet baby seed so small and round
Time to rest deep underground.
Under the earth you safely hide,
Stay there now, don't peak outside.
I've dug a wee hole and I've put you to sleep,
but soon your leaves will come up and your roots will grow deep!"

Then it was outside to play and plant. Soil was mixed, pots were filled, seeds planted.

I brought out some of the sunflower heads Melissa stashed in the greenhouse last fall and the children picked out the seeds. Oh, and this was after that moment when I was searching the box of seed packets for sunflower seeds until realization struck that we had all the sunflower seeds we could ever need just a few feet away, still on the last years heads... Winter does leave us a little hazy sometimes.  

And when you get tired of planting seeds, there's always pot stacking...

After a beautiful time outside we came back in to eat the snack we prepared together earlier and have our closing circle.  

Spring, I welcome you, whenever you come, in all your layered, trickster ways.

 

First Harvest

This past week was our first harvest of the season for the CSA.  It is still early in the season for us (we have a very short growing season here), but there is already quite a bit ready for harvest.  The box had spinach, lettuce mix, baby greens (like kale, mizuna, arugula), young spring onions, and radishes (mostly Easter Egg this week).  We do lots of bagged greens early in the season when things are small, but switch to bunching for just about everything later on.    

The spinach is amazing this year and we've been putting it in and on everything!

The baby greens are so tender, still mild, and perfect for eating raw.  They are also great lightly cooked. 

The Easter Egg radishes are mild and a favorite of the farm kids.  If they had their way we would probably not have any left.  We are planting more all the time to try and make up for how many they are eating.

I love young onions.  We eat the whole onion, from the little baby bulb to the tips of the greens!

It's the season to welcome back fresh-from-the-garden salads.  We can't get enough.

Of course, this is just the beginning of what we will have available this summer.  I'm working on creating a page on the blog of our complete planting list, so check back soon for that.  

Besides the veggies, we are trying something new this year...look for salad and basil boxes at the market!

 

Garden Babies

Little seedlings are emerging everywhere!  It is such an exciting time in the garden.  Melissa and I have been working hard the last two weeks to prep and plant row after row, entrusting seeds to the brown earth...and now, we have green.  

Potatoes, onions, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, peas...these are some of the plants whose little leaves have come up from the soil so far.  Speaking of peas, we are amazed at our pea germination rate this year.  We usually have a fairly low germination rate for peas here, even when we use innoculant.  This year we soaked them for two days with the innoculant and then planted them.  So many peas.  We are amazed.  We should have lots of snow, sugar snap and shelling peas to enjoy this year.

We're not quite done planting, though we're getting close.  We'll, I suppose we're never completely done...there is succession planting of  certain crops that will happen all summer...but we are nearing the end of the big, two-week planting push.  We just finished planting carrots, beets, chard, kale and many other varieties of green things.  Now we're on squash, cucumbers, beans, basil, herbs and flowers.  I'm sure I'm leaving a few things out.  

And the two cutest garden babies are growing like weeds as well.  Eating dirt, pulling out drip lines, splashing in water, exploring bugs and tools...they are doing their own important work.  

Not a bad way for them to spend these first summers of their lives...here's to many more.  

Where have all the radishes gone?

Don't let the title scare you...we will have plenty of yummy radishes available this summer (if the farm kids don't eat them all first).  The thing about kids who participate in growing their own food is...they love to eat it.  My son, who claims to dislike just about anything spicy, will munch radishes with a bit of a kick.  All.  Day.  Long.  The same goes for peas (of course), lettuce, spinach, green onions, carrots and most other garden produce.  The kids love eating food straight from the garden.  

That's why we were not surprised when Mason and Bella were thrilled to eat the first radishes from the green house.  

And why we should not have been surprised when we walked in a little later to find most of the french breakfast radishes gone!  

We convinced them to leave the rest to get a little bigger before they ate them.  This was only a small patch in the greenhouse for our early season salads, so they can eat as many as they want.  We will have to keep a close eye on our radishes in the field though.  

There should be plenty of radishes for you to enjoy this summer.  Because radishes show up each week of the growing season, we try to keep them interesting by planting lots of varieties.  Slender french breakfast radishes with a little bite, mild and colorful easter egg radishes, spicy asian varieites, classic round reds, black spanish radishes with white insides, large radishes that look like watermelons, and plenty of daikons...hopefully we won't get bored with this easy garden vegetable!

 

 

Let the Planting Begin

What a week it has been!  Melissa, myself and the farm kids have been in the field every day laying drip lines, prepping rows, building pea fences and (finally) planting!  It always feels so nice to get the first crops in the ground.  

After Alan tilled, we spent most of a day just setting up the irrigation.  Since the shape of the garden is changing a bit this year, the layout of our drip lines has to change as well.  As we went about our work, cutting main lines to add new pieces, solving the puzzle of how to get water to all the spaces to be planted, connecting lines and rolling out new drip tape, I laughed to myself at how easy it all seemed now.  We have this irrigation thing down.  It may seem like I'm bragging, but when we first began this garden-to-market adventure I knew nothing about this mysterious process of irrigation. 

There were so many different sizes of everything, from the poly tubing to the drip tape (and what kind of drip tape was the best?), not to mention the various connectors, emitters, valves and tools to make it all work.  Luette was our irrigation specialist that first year.  (You can read more about how we got started here.)  After a few years of experience, I actually now enjoy this part of spring.

Getting-water-to-plants problems solved, we moved on to prepping rows.  This  means using our hoes to form hills, making a trench down the hill, and adding a little compost.  A lot of work, yes, but definitely worth it.

Oh how good it feels to plant those first rows!  We've planted the greenhouse, salad boxes and various starts, but there is nothing like digging your hands into a freshly prepared row in the field, carefully tucking in little potatoes and onion plants.  

While the recently cut potatoes were curing, onions went in the ground first.  We planted onion plants and sets.  Mason enjoyed helping plant the onion plants.  We'll have plenty of onions this year...red, yellow, white, scallions and even some cute little minature onions.

Utah has his milk while Melissa keeps planting onions.

Now he's ready to help plant onions!

The next thing in the ground was the potatoes,  and what a lot of potatoes we planted.  I believe the phrase of the day (thanks to my superhero obsessed farm boy) was, "Holy potatoes, Batman!"  Yukon golds, reds, fingerlings, and some purples for fun...we love potatoes.  We actually just finished eating last year's potatoes from the root cellar, so I'm excited for those tasty little new potatoes will get soon. 

Yesterday and today we worked on the pea rows. Sugar snap peas, snow peas and shelling peas...I love peas.  Of course planting peas means building pea fences, and we got that finished today as well.

As we work, we sit in a vast expanse of brown.  It's a good brown...a hopeful brown.  We plant, we talk, we watch the farm kids, and we marvel at the way this garden will look in a month.  We honor the brown, and are so excited to welcome the green.

Soil and Seedlings

We were inside the house attempting to clean (well, I  was attempting to clean), when we heard the sound of our gate opening.  When Mason saw that Alan was here, he jumped into his boots and ran outside.  Alan brought his tractor, a different one this time.  How many tractors does Alan have?  We had a little chat to confirm what was to be tilled, and then he got to work.  

I have to admit, I felt as excited as Mason, though not for the same exact reasons.  My farm boy darted around the yard to watch the action of the tilling from different views.  I busied myself in the greenhouse and tried to contain my excitement.  Now, it was really happening.  Now comes the hard work.  Now the garden would begin to come together before our eyes, springing to life as irrigation is run, rows are prepared, and seeds are planted.  This is the work I love.

River, however, is not so sure about the tractor, but she rolls with it as she does with everything (except being separated from me, of course).  

My thoughts turned to this soil, as I watched it become soft and smooth before my eyes.  This is good dirt.  This is soil that is loved, and offers up so much in return.  We have come a long way since we first planted this space, and our care for the soil shows.  I think about a shift to no-till gardening, something I've thought about a lot.  The idea behind no-till is that you leave the soil structure in place, and continually build the fertility with specific crops and organic matter.  It preserves the intregrity of the soil and allows all of the various organisms to thrive, and protects our precious topsoil from erosion.  We are trying it out on a small scale this year, so we'll see how it goes.  I still have a lot to read and learn about it.

As Alan was tilling, it started to rain.  Two days in a row of rain!  And not just a little sprinkle...we're talking a good, heavy rain.  I stepped back into the greenhouse, mostly for the baby on back.  The greenhouse if my absolute favorite place to be when it's raining, especially now that there are beautiful green seedlings everywhere.  

We thanked Alan, Mason jumped out of the boots he jumped into earlier, and ran around in the soil of the new garden plot in the rain.  Beautiful.  

Thank you Alan, thank you millions of soil organisms and thank you rain! 

Spring Update

Happy spring everyone!  I've started a blog for the garden.  Finally.  I've been wanting to do it for years.  I'm still working on it, and will be adding more content soon.  This first post is a spring update that customers received via the email list.  It seemed an appropriate beginning for a new blog!  

We are in full spring swing here, and I'm loving it.  As I sit here thinking about what I'd like to include in this update, River is making her first attempt at crawling on the braided wool rug on the living room floor.  The familiar sounds of Mason playing come from behind me (something related to superheros, I think).  I can look out of one window and see freshly turned earth.  I look out of another window and see the metal frame and lumber that will soon be put back together to become a greenhouse.  I feel so incredibly thankful.  For so much.  So, I offer a garden update this spring in the form of my thanks.  Right now I am incredibly grateful and thankful for...

                                                                    

This amazing Mother Earth, who continues to provide.  From the millions of little organisms in the soil I hold in my hands, to the water that comes from the snow in the mountains.  Melissa and I planted garlic earlier this spring, and there is nothing like digging my hands into the soil for the first time of the season.  

                                                        

One truly incredible partner, who's hard work makes this life possible.  I get to be with my children every day, and grow food for my family and yours...there is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing.  Without Aaron and his ability to put up quick fences for my ever-expanding garden, the animals would have eaten everything.      

                             

Two amazing little people who provide the inspiration and the joy for all of this.  Farm boy is such a big helper this year, and farm girl just had her first taste of soil...I think she liked it.  

                  

Did you hear?  I have an amazing garden partner this year.  Or maybe I should say three, because with Melissa comes Bella and Utah, and I can already tell we're going to have a blast.  Babies on backs, while the farm kids play...we are going to make some amazing things happen this summer.

                          

Alan Simpson.  With his generous help (and his tractor) we are increasing the size of the garden this year.  Seriously.  What would we do without Alan?

                                   

My parents are in Creede full-time now, which means lots of grandma and grandpa time for the farm kids.  They are already helping in our garden endeavor as well.  Just this week they came down from Creede with their truck and trailer and we headed to Jaroso for some of David West's compost and greenhouse soil.  

                         

The gift of a greenhouse from our friends Angie, Russ and Cecily.  Also their time and energy to disassemble this greenhouse (in the rain), load it up, drive it here, and unload it.  They are a beautiful family, and I'm so happy to know them.

                                

Tom Barr, the best sheep shearer in the Valley, who just this week stopped by because he was in the area and sheared the sheep.

                                   

My circle of mamas (you know who you are).  For being inspirational and working to nourish the health and wholeness of us all.   

                                              

All of you.  For buying veggies, offering lovely, kind words of encouragement, and supporting local food in this community.          

                           

For one tiny seed, literally and metaphorically speaking.  Oh how much potential for life and growth can be contained in something so small. 

                              

Also...green tea and functioning septic systems.     

                            

Happy spring to you all!