Tag Archives: North Georgia candy roaster

A Mid-Winter Scrapbook

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The old Cook’s Mill, across from the farm, is clearly not much to look at. Until, that is, you begin examining how much skill went into the building and the old stone flume channel across the creek. Here was an appropriately scaled technology for a small self-sustaining valley.

 

 

 

 

 

File under: I know the feeling. The larger hogs in the woods are hard to rouse for breakfast, when the temperature is ten degrees.

A friend gifted us one of his few remaining North Georgia Candy Roasters (a winter squash) from the fall garden. Which we used as the foundation for a delicious sweet stew on a cold night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The year-old ram lambs on a sunny six-degree morning, always hungry.

The sun just peaking over the eastern ridge, reveals beauty in unexpected places (the chicken coop and a maple tree).

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, even in a drab winter landscape, the cardinal is easy to spot and always welcome. The first of the new crop of lambs, confident and healthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, finally, yesterday as the temps rose to 59 degrees, the girls took advantage of the warm weather to take a cleansing flight.

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Reading this weekend: Grey Seas Under, by Farley Mowat. An exceptional book about ordinary heroism. It is the history of a salvage and rescue tug on the North Atlantic.

Garden Seed Inventory 2013

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This morning the bags and jars came down for the count: that annual survey of seeds saved, packets of seeds never used, and some elderly specimens of uncertain viability. Always an exciting moment to survey the wealth and dream, can we pull off actually planting all four gourds on the land? Try and figure out how to expand an already packed herb garden? What would I do with the Anise Hyssop? Or, how do I solve the question of leeks, every year the same thing, they get planted but never amount to anything? Perhaps because I treat them like the kid of some ne’re-do-well parents, don’t expect anything so don’t get anything?

Ah, the pain of too many questions. The head spins with trying to decide on one good melon to grow. Charentais is our preferred melon for the table. But they are temperamental, indecisive little buggers with a very short window of maturity. The smell of one achieving that peak deliciousness is like a dinner bell rung inviting all of the available poultry and wildlife to dine. Last year I reached through the vines to clutch a hollowed out shell of a melon only to find a hen had just finished dining on same. So, Turkey melon it will be, prolific and tasty, enough for the chickens and enough for us. But then there are those Prescott Fond Blancs….

Beans are fairly easy to decide on the type: a lima, a pole and a crowder for the garden. But now which varieties to grow? And so it goes with most vegetables in the following list. Maintaining a small seed collection inevitably feels me with guilt. Each year I watch the dates on some vegetables edge their way into oblivion. There really is only so much garden room or space. And there are practical limitations on growing similar varieties within pollination distances of each other if you want to save true seed for the next year.

If you live within the immediate area (Tennessee Valley) and want to try some of these seeds let me know. My skill at starting herbs is negligible. So if you want to turn your hand to starting some of those and are willing to gift me a few for transplants, have at it.

Green manures: Sudan grass, buckwheat.

Gourds: birdhouse, loofah, Mayo Bule, African water bottle.

Squash: Golden Hubbard (winter), yellow crookneck (summer), Musque du Provence (winter), Sugar Pie (winter), Patty pan (summer), North Georgia candy roaster (winter), Yellow Zucchini (Russian summer).

Okra: Clemson, Louisiana Purple.

Greens, Lettuce: Seven top (turnips), kale, Bloomsdale (spinach), Georgia giant (collards), Black seeded Simpson (lettuce).

Corn: Hickory, Bodacious sweet, Moseby’s sweet, Kandy Korn, White broom (sorghum), Honeydrip (sorghum).

Watermelons: Charleston Grey, Orangelo.

Beans: Louisiana Purple (pole), Mississippi (crowder), Texas Zipper Creams (crowder), Sieva (lima), Christmas (lima), Cuban black (bush), Case Knife (pole), October bean (pole), Tennessee Cutshorts (pole), Rattlesnake (pole), North Carolina (lima).

Melons: Turkey, Prescott Fond Blanc, Charentais, Petit Gris de Rennes.

Cucumbers: Boothby Blonde, Siberian (Gherkin style).

Peppers: Poblano, Hatch.

Herbs and Flowers: Grandma’s Eink’s dill, Mammoth dill, Sweet basil, Summer savory, Fennel, Lavender, Anise Hyssop, Cutting Celery, Feverfew, Cumin, Purple coneflower, Outhouse hollyhocks, Monkshood, Lovage, Dahlia.

Miscellaneous: Ester Cook (leeks), Giant Musselburg (leeks), Turga (parsnips), Long Island Improved (Brussel Sprouts), Detroit Red (beets), Black winter radish, Rutabaga (old Russian heirloom), Geisha Turnip (salad turnip), Mystery pack of tomato seeds (package in Russian).

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Rereading this weekend: The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry by Janet Vorwald Dohner, a wonderful book from the Yale University agrarian series.