Greenhouse Prep

Spring is knocking on the door here at the farm. The month of February brings a big start to the gardening season. This month involves lots of cleaning, organizing, planning and even planting for the upcoming months.

I am very fortunate here on the farm to have an insulated greenhouse. Honestly, this is a game changer with Central Oregon gardening.  On a sunny day in January or February, temps inside our greenhouse can reach the upper 80's or even 90 degrees on a windy, cold 45 degree day. Central Oregon sunshine is powerful!  With that influx of temperatures, consistent monitoring is required. I have another gardening perk besides the actual greenhouse. My sweetie wired in automatic fans last Valentine's Day to ensure that precious seedlings don't overheat if we are away from the farm. 

Our greenhouse is roughly 500 square feet. We have shelving all along the exterior walls, a bank of shelving through the center, and a large 3x5 foot permanent raised bed on the southern side. The floor is paved concrete, and we've wired permanent outlets and lights inside. Our last major project inside the greenhouse is to add an automatic drip watering system. Adding auto watering will ensure that life inside the greenhouse continues on if our energy is focused somewhere else on the farm. The odds are good with that...there are many things going on around here!

The thermostat on the left works with the outlets inside the greenhouse. When temperatures dip below freezing inside, the small, temporary space heater kicks on to protect seedlings on cold mornings. 

Red wiggler worms make their home in this raised bed space as well.

Pots and seedling trays stacked ready for planting this season. 

Center aisle shelving ready for seedling trays later this season

I want to emphasize that this greenhouse space has taken years to create. YEARS. Unless you have a limitless budget, it will take time to get to a place where you have these resources. My first years of gardening were filled with many mistakes and tremendous effort. I lacked the right space, the right soil, the right seeds, the right knowledge. I had to make mistakes, I had to read, and I had to be okay with trial and error over the learning process. If I could give one piece of advice to any aspiring gardener, it would be to have patience! 

Gardening in Central Oregon is like no other location. Our warm, bright sunny days are followed by drastic temperature dips at night. Our growing season is much shorter than many other areas. Gardening here takes years of refinement and the right tools to be successful. Many, many, trials and errors have brought me to consider msyelf a pseudo-confident gardener. I know that this is a forever learning process... that is part of the fun!

Seed starting mix is much different than planting soil. 

Seedling mix is airy and light. Seed starts aren't restricted by the weight of the soil as they germinate.

Potting soil also comes in a variety of ways. Bottom line: you get what you pay for. 

Now that you've had the grand tour, here's what is happening at Prineville Honey Bee Haven. My space has been organized and inventoried. I have start up supplies ready to go and early season seeds selected (more on seeds another day). 

Seed tape is a nice option for small seeds. If you want a time saver, seed tape works nicely to ensure proper seed spacing and a quick planting method.

Early season seed options.

Thus far in the greenhouse, I have started several different things. We have onion, lettuce, spinach, chard, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage started. The onion, lettuce, spinach, and chard were planted directly in the greenhouse raised bed. The remaining seeds were planted in individual seed pots. They will germinate, sprout, and establish themselves in the greenhouse over the next few months. In early April, they will be transplanted outside. 

Perennial flower seeds have also been started in the greenhouse. Perennials take a LONG time to germinate and to establish from seed. I have to give these seeds a big head start in order to plant them for the honey bee garden and see flowers this season. Honey bees like clustered plantings of flowers. They like to forage on one sort of plant until they have taken all of the pollen and nectar that given plant has to offer. By planting these seeds in the greenhouse, I can transplant them in clusters later in the growing season. 

Honey bee perennial favorites that need a big head start in the growing season. 

Image credit: friends of the earth

There you have it...the beginnings of our gardening adventure this year at Prineville Honey Bee Haven. I emphasize the word adventure and I add the word process. Gardening is exciting, time consuming, rewarding, but not instantaneous. Setting realistic goals with your budget in mind is incredibly important. You can garden on any budget. You can garden in many different spaces. You can garden with various knowledge and skill sets. The most important thing to remember is that you have to take all of those pieces into account when you decide to try it.

If you are looking for a hobby that you can share with your family for years to come, gardening may be something for you to consider. Watching the honey bees help with the pollination process is magic. Nothing compares to harvesting your own food and then sitting around the table sharing it with those you love. The food to fork experience is a worthy contender on your bucket list. 

Seed Saving at Prineville Honey Bee Haven

Heritage Marigold Seeds

Saying goodbye to something that you love can be painful. Honestly, I try to avoid it as much as possible. Because I love all that lives and grows here on the farm, my favorite flowers are no exception to the, "do not say goodbye category."

Enter in...seed saving. Yes, I find great joy in saving seeds from my favorite flowers, vegetables, and fruits on the farm. It takes some time and effort, but like I said... I don't like saying goodbye. 

Jarrahdale/Carving Pumpkin cross 2015.

Exhibit A: This beautiful pumpkin grew on the farm this last season. Thanks to our sweet honey bees, it was a cross pollination success. It appears that a honey bee visited the flower of a Jarrahdale pumpkin and then came over to see a carving pumpkin flower. The results- this gorgeous specimen. I saved some seeds from it of course, hoping next year's pollination will deliver a close repeat offender. I know that I can't bank on it because of pollination variables, but I will be hopeful. 

We all know that pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes. The inside, the outside, the seeds, the smell, all can vary pumpkin to pumpkin. Some smell like freshly peeled cucumber when you open them. Others smell like things I'd rather not mention. The color range is so vast with pumpkins, and the purpose is so varied as well. We grow pumpkins for their colors and pretty autumn decor. We also grow pumpkins for Halloween carving and seed roasting. The most useful pumpkins we grow however, are the pie pumpkins. Having fresh pumpkin on hand for recipes is quite useful year round. 

Some pumpkin varieties have very "stringy" insides and limited seeds.

To save the seeds from a pumpkin is a pretty straight forward task. Cut the pumpkin open and remove all of the seeds you hope to keep. 

Seven seed varieties for next year's planting.

Seeds drying for several days on the counter. 

Sorting seeds

Once the seeds have been cleaned and sorted, they need to sit out and dry for several days. The moisture must be out of the seeds before they are stored over the winter. It is important to remove any underdeveloped seeds (top), broken seeds (right), and to keep only the fully developed seeds. 

After the seeds are dried, we store them in the refrigerator until spring. This process is called "stratification," and it mimics nature's winter. 

Seeds will be packaged in envelopes and labeled according to contents. Seeds will be available in the spring of 2016.

Luna, Patch and Mary eager for pumpkin treats.

Seed saving wouldn't be complete around here if the rest of the family didn't get in on it. Left over pumpkin found its way into the pasture for the cows, the goat pen, and the chicken coop. Pumpkin for everyone! 

Calendula seeds for next year headed to the refrigerator. The bees love these in the fall.

Sunflowers- a honey bee favorite.

Heritage marigolds in bloom.

Colorful reminders like these pictures get us through these cold winter days. Knowing we will see these beautiful flowers again next season makes the effort to save the seeds worth it! Klann farm will have seeds come spring 2016. If you are interested in planting similar flowers like the ones found at Prineville Honey Bee Haven, be sure to check back with us. 

Photo credit Andy Tullis- Bend Bulletin

Fall on the Farm

Sometimes I feel like I am part squirrel during the autumn months. I know it isn't technically fall yet, but that doesn't keep a farm from having "fall-like" chores. I couldn't choose topics specifically on this blustery afternoon, as the variety of things we have going on here is just too diverse! Introducing my life this weekend in pictures:

Potatoes curing on the table in the carport for future meals.

First up, potatoes. The kids and I dug up the potatoes in the patch this weekend. I leave them sitting out on a table for a few days (no washing the dirt off) so that they "cure" for winter storage. This conglomeration of starchy yumminess will last us through the holidays for sure. 

I must mention that when you dig up potatoes, it's fairly certain that you will hit a few with the shovel as you work. I seemed particularly on target this weekend slicing and dicing several, so we are having potatoes for dinner tonight. It is important to not have any cuts or bruises on the potatoes you plan to store because they will rot all the others. This inspection takes time, but it is well worth the effort to have your own potatoes through the winter months. 

Breakfast burritos for the next two weeks. 

Next up- meal prep. I cooked and prepped a ridiculous amount of food this weekend! I can't tell you how much stress this saves during the week when meals are ready to go. These burritos are an easy warm up in the morning as we race to school and work. 

I stick extras of these meals in the freezer and just pull them out when we need them. Making lunches can be exhausting, stressful and expensive unless you think ahead. 

Poppy and Flax seed drying on the counter for next year.

Next- seed saving. I told you I was a squirrel right? I save all kinds of seeds as they turn on the flower heads. After they dry, I put them in ventilated containers and stick them in the refrigerator. This is called "stratification." It is like simulating winter for the seeds. I pull them out of the fridge when I am ready to plant. 

The honey bees love the sunflowers that line the gravel driveway to our house. We have hundreds of sunflowers along the lane. I purchased these little mesh bags from the Dollar Store to help salvage the seeds from the eager birds visiting the bee garden. The bags allow the air to flow and dry the heads while protecting the heads from hungry birds. There are PLENTY of left over seed heads for our feathered friends and I will enjoy using the seeds next year in the garden. The  seed heads in the bucket will dry in the basement this winter and guarantee a pretty garden next year!

The pumpkins along the lane are changing colors with the seasons. The honey bees have worked their magic pollinating carving pumpkins, gourds and all sorts of zucchini plants. This harvest will come in a few weeks (hopefully) as the first frost settles in. Besides the pumpkins, we have grapes, peppers and tomatoes left on the list to harvest and tuck away. It's a good thing that work gives us a break from farming during the week right? 

Cabbage and Sauerkraut

Just as the cauliflower harvest brought great yields this garden season, so did the cabbage here on the farm. After slowly recovering from our recent loss of Ida Mae, we've spent the last few weeks harvesting, eating and preserving the enormous cabbage crop. 

Wonder Woman and Alice joined me for the morning pick.

A typical year of cauliflower brings fresh cabbage salad, coleslaw, fish tacos and cabbage rolls for a few weeks over the early summer months. As quickly as those yummy dishes arrive, it seams that they in turn quickly disappear. This year I wanted to preserve the harvest beyond a 2-3 week window and I set out to make sauerkraut. 

 Both Wonder Woman (my inspiration and bracelet wearing alter ego) and my dedicated companion Alice helped make the initial harvest a bit easier. I had to move fairly quickly on the harvest too, as Little Bunny Foo Foo was enjoying late night snacks on different heads of cabbage in the garden. The culprit couldn't even commit to which cabbage head to sample, so I had various cabbage heads decorated with small nibbles here and there. 

I pulled about 23 heads of cabbage from both gardens by the time it was all said and done. The dreaded cabbage moth had made her mark on a few of the heads and other garden friends sampled along the growing season too. Even after all of that, I had an ENORMOUS bounty to tackle. 

Farm girls get dirty- 

To get a little perspective about what I was taking on the next several days, I asked our kids to come outside when they woke up and sit with the cabbage. They are getting good at smiling by produce these days!

My Cabbage Patch Kids

As I mentioned earlier, the process of making sauerkraut took several days. A day for picking, sorting and washing, a day for prepping the canner, jars and supplies and a day of cutting and actual canning. Exhausting right? 

I went online to find recipes for making sauerkraut and found lots of resources. As with all canning, you want to be sure to follow directions specifically and practice good food handling practices. I pinned several recipes to my "Summer Bounty" Pinterest board if you are interested.

We ended up making two kinds of sauerkraut this year. In a nutshell, the sauerkraut process is the same for all types until a given point. You can preserve it for long term use using a water bath (see picture above) or you can ferment it in a crock/jar for 21+ days and then keep it in the refrigerator. The difference between the two is the probiotic benefit of the refrigerated type. Once the kraut is cooked and sealed, it loses that perk. The taste is the same, but the benefits are different. Probiotics+short term storage or sauerkraut+ months of eating. You get to decide.

Sauerkraut "cooking" in the cool/dark pantry for the next several weeks.

If you don't count the time it took to plant, care for and grow the actual cabbage, the sauerkraut creation process took about three days. Sixty three plus pounds of cabbage heads passed through the kitchen on those days and they are now settled in on the shelves of the pantry. It is fun to look a the variegated colors and think about the dishes we can make from them. I will note that there is NO WAY we will be able to eat all of these jars! Christmas is just around the corner and I like nothing more than handing out a homemade gift. 

Cauliflower: A Harvest Win For The Whole Farm

Large cauliflower leaves provide a water source for our thirsty bees.

I've been busy lately with the cauliflower in the garden. This is the first year I was able to successfully grow it and I have to say it has been an exceptional harvest year. I started this journey in early February when I first planted the cauliflower seeds in the greenhouse. It was February 2nd to be exact. The kids and I made our daily trip into the retreat of the insulated greenhouse on a cold morning. Believe it or not, a sunny winter day with temperatures below freezing can deliver an 80 degree retreat in the greenhouse.

Below is a picture of what we planted this year. This variety comes from the company Territorial Seeds. I devour their catalog during the winter months wishing and dreaming and this year I felt like this short season variety would give me the best chance. Notice the part about "50-60 days." We will get back to that part in a bit.

Fast forward to the tail end of June (4+ months later). I've harvested roughly 20-25 heads of this amazing and delicious stuff. Yes, that is correct, 20-25. I apologize for losing count, but I can make up for it with pictures of what I did (and still am doing) with it. 

The cold crop bed at the farm. This bed includes onions, cabbage, broccoli, potatoes and cauliflower. 

With 20+ cauliflower heads ready all at once, I had to have a plan for what to do with them. I knew I wanted to harvest them before the big heat set in around here and I knew that meant pulling the entire plant. Cauliflower offers only one harvest as opposed to broccoli, which may send another shoot up. This left some gaping holes in the garden space, but I have plans for those!

Time to find some new things to add to those empty spaces.

In order not to make this post too long, I'll quickly show you a few of the things I did with this amazing harvest. The story of how to blanch vegetables and how to can them will come another day.

I made sure to wash the cauliflower when I brought it into the house to ensure that none of nature's little friends tried to join us inside. Soaking the heads for a few hours in a light salt water helps with this. I used my trusty Ball Canning book in my experiment with a few jars of pickled cauliflower. 

I can't forget to note that we had other winners in this great harvest here on the farm. Our chickens earned the right to forage and devour the left over leaves after my harvest. They were happy ladies too.

I feel very pleased with how this year's harvest turned out. We have fresh cauliflower in the fridge for snacking and meals. We have plenty of enticing cauliflower resources to reach for during the cold winter months ahead too. It has been an enormous task to "put it away" in the freezer and in canning jars, but I am thankful to have had the chance to do it. February 2nd to June 28th... not quite the timeline noted on the seed package. That is gardening in Central Oregon for you! This little face makes it all worth it though.

Onions start to finish

   Planting onions this year has been an experiment to say the least. We eat a lot of onions at our house... I think I could safely say that almost every meal includes an onion of some sort. For the last several years I have increased the number of onions we grow in the garden and have managed to keep them stored in the basement for when I need them.  We are down to about five onions from last year's garden, so  I am getting anxious to start planting!

   The normal plan of attack in planting onions on our farm is twofold: onion sets and onion bulbs. Normally, I buy Walla Walla Sweet onion sets at the hardware store. I also typically buy onion bulbs at the local nursery making sure to pick a variety of white, yellow and reds. This year I did both of those things, but I also decided to start onions from SEED. Crazy right? It actually has been a fairly simple process and I am eager to see how things work out. 

 The process started out in February this year by planting two varieties of onion seeds in seed trays. We use a great deal of yellow and red onions, so I chose those for this little experiment. Until yesterday, all I have done is water the seedlings and keep the tops short by "giving them a haircut" every so often to help build up the roots. This literally means I take a pair of scissors every few weeks and trim them to no longer than three inches long.  I have also been working to prepare them for living outside by "hardening them off" for a few hours each day. I take five minutes each day to move plants in and out of the greenhouse to be sure they are not shocked by their sudden life outside in the elements. 

 Yesterday I methodically removed each of the onion starts out of their trays and carefully shuffled them to their new home in the garden. They serve as terrific borders for the beds and are companions with most plants. I dug trenches with my hand trowel and carefully placed the onion starts along the border. I planted them closer than the normal recommended spacing because I know I will be thinning them out as the season goes along as green onions. I will carefully harvest them as I need them in the kitchen so that the remaining plants have adequate spacing to grow to full size by harvest time. 

A sample plant list for honey bee foraging.

Remember to think about the bees when you are planning out your garden space. Having the right kind of plants alongside your vegetable starts will help bring honey bee pollinators your way.