I'm growing mushrooms!!

I had such a great time yesterday at the Mushroom Workshop and would like to send out a big thank you to Anne Pärtna, Hugh Martin and Greg Bender for being gracious and patient teachers.  


With me came home with seven small logs having drilled holes, inoculated with mushroom spawn, and sealed with wax.  I placed the logs on the north side of the house, and they will be fine there, for now, but when the days get longer I'll have to move them into a thicket of sorts so as not to expose them to too much direct sunlight.


In between arriving at the workshop and coming home, I met so many pleasant and interesting people, along with firming up bonds with people I've begun to know and enjoy.  


I can't wait to get together with some others who are going to continue with their mushroom growing and expand my little mushroom operation.  It is said, after all, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 


This year is going to be a busy, productive, more-than-likely stressful at times and entirely fulfilling four-seasons of fun, food and fellowship.  

photo credit 

Favorite Farm Foto Friday

The Garden of Weedin'

I haven't been keeping up with the weeds in the garden.  While we're making confessions, I haven't been keeping up with much of anything lately. One of the great things about being a farmhousewife is that eventually, I may or may not ever catch up and I'm ok with that.  Well, that's not entirely true - I do have the drive to keep up most of the time - but lately the heat has been unusually intense and therein lies the explanation of my slacking decrease in ability to keep up.  

Basically, it's too hot.

So instead of getting out there working the garden, I'll just put pictures on here.

This is the unintentional combination of a rogue snake gourd plant intertwined with a mass of cucumber plantings.  So far it has proved to be a pain in the hiney challenge when it comes to finding those hiding cukes.

Both plants do make for a showy area of interest in the garden.

what? is that?

oh! that's a Snake Gourd !

And this is what makes it all worth the backache and the bellyaching about the backache.  

I read this quote and rather identified with it - I hope you will like it as well as I do.  And p.s.  I thought of a newfound blogger friend and her post  Cultivating Perfection  when I read this also.  Miriam, this one's for you (and me).  

My garden is a balancing act between weeds and wonders.
Though I started out as a frustrated perfectionist, over the
years I've learned how to enjoy my garden rather than feel
enslaved by it, thanks to a growing know-how and a
change in mindset.
-   Carol Stocker

When I grow up, I want to be just like her.  

on growing stuff

It's not easy being green.  But it's more expensive to "buy green". Also, there's something refreshing and soulful about nurturing a plant, from seedling to full fledge blossoming and producing, fruits and vegetables springing forth, gaining size and color every day.  Eating the  gleaning is in and of itself an entirely separate fulfillment.

This is the cute part of gardening.  All of it tucked in neat little compartments, taking up little space and enjoying the warmth of the sun.  

Then, here we have the somewhat ugly task of mulching to control weeds, which isn't very pretty, but neither are the weeds.  I saw a quote once, and can't remember it verbatim, but it basically said that weeds are mother natures' flowers popping up where we don't want them.  Isn't that the truth?!

What we have here is the poor-man's version of raised-beds.  We composted manure, grass clippings, leaves, and added composted cotton-seed hulls and made our own unconventional "raised rows".  So far, they've worked great.  Ed mows between them with the push-mower and I hand weed the little rascals that show up in between and around the plants.  

I've culled the cabbage plants after harvest and am halfway done doing the same with the potatoes.  We have two rogue Corn plants each with one ear of corn on them.  We've been joking about who gets them since there are three of us.  It'll be like a fight between two one-armed men.  Not really, I just wanted to see if I could use that joke in some form of a sentence.  I'm sure Eddie will get both of them, he's the corn lover.  

Next year our 'beds' will be even more 'raised' - as we'll add more clippings, manure and other green and brown goodies.  Maybe in a few years they'll be waist-high and we won't have to bend over.  I'll keep you posted on that.

So when one garden's organically, one gets holy (holy? know how sometimes you type a word and it just doesn't look right?  this is one of those moments for me....)  hole-y produce.  I don't care. It's my way of sharing.

Speaking of gardening, I'd better get out there and tend to it.  

Happy Green Thumbing!