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Post by zachary on Jan 24, 2012 12:57:33 GMT -5
Joseph, I find the Archbishop's Druid Blog very enlightening. I see what he means about choices that are really not choices every day here on the farm. I once bookmarked his site and read it for a short while. But when I came on this essay I felt compelled to comment. thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2011/01/tarpaper-shack-principle.htmTo make a long story short, Mr. Greer didn't appreciate my remarks, and I was banned from the site before I'd ever made a post there! To me his blog is a case of "big fish, small pond", and he's just not going to tolerate anything which doesn't kowtow to his own view of The Way Things Ought To Be.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 24, 2012 13:46:19 GMT -5
People think I am a mechanical genius. My secret is that I know how to use two part epoxy.... It's especially nice with a bit of fiberglass mesh inside of it. Oh my.
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Post by zachary on Jan 24, 2012 14:00:45 GMT -5
Generally with cut/paste I'm ok, but not this time. During my earliest internet days I tried to put in url addresses with the keyboard, and that hardly ever worked! Two-part epoxy is indeed wonderful stuff. I'm partial to the stick types because I can 'knead' them with latex-gloved hands. Last year I dropped my favorite stainless steel tea-kettle and broke the bakelite handle in two places. It went right back into service with a pair of brown epoxy patches on the black handle.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 24, 2012 14:05:19 GMT -5
Yup. That stick epoxy is really clever. I also have a pot with an epoxy handle.
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Post by justness on Jan 24, 2012 14:08:44 GMT -5
Joseph, she's referring to your 3" x 30" butternut. Blushing... I didn't think anyone saw THAT photo. Oh duh! She got the drawing on the seed packet. I was so naive back then. 3x30 would be the third squash from the left in this photo if the seed packet is also marked 2010. If there was a 4x32 or something similar, then that was the squash on the end. I got the original seed from one of my neighbors. I'm guessing that it started out as Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck. (If the packet is marked 2009, then my neighbor grew the seed. If it's 2010 I grew it.) Growing season for all of these was 88 days from planting until they were killed by frost. About 75% of the varieties planted didn't produce seed that year (2010), and those that did produce a fruit were barely started when the frost arrived. [That's only one cheese pumpkin from a whole packet of seed, and one Naples Long, etc.] They all grew in the same patch so pollen could have come from any of these (or other similar ones not shown). The row was planted largest to smallest, so similar sizes would have tended to pollinate each other. The row was 150 feet long, and this is most of the harvest, so it was not a good year for producing butternuts, but it was a great year for selecting for short season. Starting with the most well adapted parent, and having a longer growing season in 2011 seed from the 4th squash from the left produced 4 fruits like this. Seeds from the fruits on the right side of the top photo produced these offspring, and a truckload more. With the longer growing season they ripened on the vine. These are what I saved for seed from the small/medium patch. The X was made with a sharpie to indicate which fruits in the patch ripened soonest. Due to popular demand for small butternuts, this group is being split into a small fruited landrace and a medium fruited landrace. It's nice to be able to harvest butternuts... The first year I planted butternuts I got around 5 fruits. The photo at the top of this post shows most of the second year yield. Here's more of the yield from the 3rd year. There was another harvest similar to this. Seems like I have finally got some moschata germplasm that thrives in my garden. Like I often say, the third year of a breeding/selection program seems magical to me, when the desired phenotype is there in abundance. [The zucchini are landrace seed for next year, the crookneck are leftovers intended as decorations, I don't remember what the corn is.] My 2011 planting of the large necked-butternut failed to germinate. Hoping to give it another go in 2012. Joseph, as it is called the excellency of the pumpkin, is happy to be purchased , i fell in love at first sight. I have sent to the Croatia-city Zagreb
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 6, 2012 2:44:29 GMT -5
Finally something to do in the garden. Harvest!!! The walnuts didn't fall from the tree at the normal time this fall. They stayed attached to the limbs until a snowfall a couple weeks ago. We are having a bit of a thaw in town, so the ground was clear enough of snow that I could gather 5 gallons of walnuts today. The farm is still snow-covered. I washed them, and put them in the dehydrator at 125F. They were a bit larger in diameter than the height of the trays, so I wrapped the dehydrator in newsprint. I have been daydreaming about growing mushrooms so that I can offer something early in the season in addition to green onions. I guess I'll hold some walnuts for the early spring CSA baskets. And I have some parching corn (excess sugary enhanced from my breeding program, but it's very nice as a parching corn.) I also dug and ate daylily roots. They were tiny. Taste was sweet and pleasant. Texture was fine. The patch is large, so they would be a great emergency survival food. If I was going to grow them as a food crop, I'd want to find a variety with larger tubers and/or roots.
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 6, 2012 10:02:12 GMT -5
My experiences of daylily tubers in my old place was that they were unpleasant though I'm going to try them again. I'm always on the search for interesting day lilies too. Tuber size probably various environmentally. Ours aren't super tiny though it's probably about perception too . However, I cannot dig this time of year to recheck!
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 6, 2012 18:19:17 GMT -5
Hey Joseph, Do you have the circular type of dehydrator (Harvest master or something like that) I melted mine, but kept the good trays? You want them? Also, I have oyster mushrooms in the fridge. These are spored on dowels. You drill fruitwood logs and insert them. Do you want some?
Holly
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Post by steev on Feb 6, 2012 19:15:20 GMT -5
Holly, I don't know why you think there is no crank-operated equipment; ANY equipment I use is crank-operated, even the power-tools.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 6, 2012 19:38:01 GMT -5
Holly: Yes thanks. Twice a year for the last five years, I've went to the hardware store intending to get more dehydrator trays. When I see how expensive they are, I go home without them... I keep day-dreaming that a competitor will offer a knock-off that fits. I'm using the Harvest Maid from American Harvest. A storm took some branches on the edge of the field. I'll cut those up as soon as the snow melts. I trimmed last fall to remove branches that were shadowing the solar panels, so I've already got wood lined up for a mushroom project. Hey Joseph, Do you have the circular type of dehydrator (Harvest master or something like that) I melted mine, but kept the good trays? You want them? Also, I have oyster mushrooms in the fridge. These are spored on dowels. You drill fruitwood logs and insert them. Do you want some? Holly
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 6, 2012 22:01:29 GMT -5
Joseph, see I knew I kept them for a reason. I'll drop you a pm the day the spores go out, so they don't languish at the p.o.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 19, 2012 23:45:55 GMT -5
Some of my true potato seeds got posted on eBay a few days ago. Oh my heck! I never would have expected them to be so blazingly popular.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 20, 2012 5:04:15 GMT -5
You posted them or are they being resold?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 20, 2012 8:25:02 GMT -5
It's a joint venture. I have placed all my seeds in the public-domain: I'd be content either way.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 26, 2012 22:57:22 GMT -5
I planted 175 pots of sweet peppers this weekend. I'm expecting to transplant them into the garden in about 12 weeks. They consisted of: 18 BitBit mixed bell peppers 42 Joseph's landrace bell 42 Joseph's landrace yellow 43 Joseph's small early color I put them in paper pots that I made myself so that I can plant them while standing up by using a tube seeder. I feel like peat pots, and jiffy-pots interfere with root development so I don't want to use them even though they are round and would work with the seeder. I can make about 100 paper pots per hour. Some of my peppers may be descended from the Homegrown Goodness landrace of sweet peppers.
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