Leap Day

Outside

Inside

Planted Ring of Fire Cayenne Peppers from High Mowing Seeds in red plastic cups today.  They take a while to germinate, so for now are nestled in behind the wood stove keeping warm.  Will be planting tomatoes soon as well (waiting for back ordered seeds.) 

The day was windy and quite cold, and the week ahead looks like more of the same.   Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you satisfaction and comfort.  

Book Winners!

I'm excited to send out a copy of my book to the three winners on my book give away:

Toni at Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains

Steve at Out on the Prairie

Pom Pom at Pom Pom's Ponderings

If you don't read these three wonderful blogs, you should check them out.  Thank you, friends, for playing along.  I hope you enjoy the book!

Been a while since I posted a photo of Mabel, so here is one from a walk before the snow got so deep.  Now a walk in the woods is a snow shoe or cross country ski proposition, and I'm reluctant to admit it, but I have mostly been "sitting this one out."

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy.

Book Give Away

Still working on my seed order post... but in the meantime, will host a small book giveaway.  Just to keep this simple, will give away a book to the first three who comment and tell me a little bit about their own vegetable gardening experience.  I will send the books out within the next week or two, and just ask that if you are a winner, after you have read the book, will you please post a review to Amazon and/or your own blog?  

I will post the names of the winners later this week and have you email me privately with mailing details.

Thank you to those who participate!

Root Cellar... for Nan

We currently use the "dry side" of our basement as a root cellar.  This side of the basement includes a window, that we use in fall, before temperatures drop, to ventilate and facilitate airflow.  We store our vegetables in wire racks... again allow airflow.  Late in winter (around now) we need to start cooking our squash and eating or freezing, as some varieties will not hold until spring in our space.

This year, we are storing several hundred potatoes, several hundred onions, dozens of butternut and delicata squash, and a few spaghetti squash.  We also have a few dozen heads of garlic.  Of these, the butternut are the only item that are beginning to deteriorate, so we have been using those first. These days, on our table you will find generous servings of squash soup, cornbread with squash puree as an ingredient, and roasted squash as a frequent side dish.

We are planning to add a more traditional root cellar to the farm, perhaps this spring.  I will be chronicling the progress of that project.

These photos are excerpted from my recently published book, Cultivating Success: In the Garden.

Three posts brewing at once

Most of the blogs I read have much more reliable bloggers at the helm than I seem to be myself. I do have a few posts in the works, just haven't  found time for anything more than a quick update... and here it is.

I am nearly done planning the spring garden and will post soon with information regarding seed sources and chosen varieties...

I am planning a special post on root-cellaring for dear Nan of Letters from a Hill Farm because she expressed curiosity in a  comment on a previous post.  I just need to pull some pictures together and post.  By the way, there is a little bit on this subject in my recently published book.

That brings me to the last post I have in the works... a little book give away is coming up.  Will post details on that early next week.  Stay tuned!

That photo at the top reveals the level of gloom we have been dealing with here in my neck of the woods. Not a great deal of sunshine in our winter so far.  I love those days with blue skies and brilliant sunshine glinting over fresh white snow.  Still waiting for a day like that.  In the meantime, where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy, and something good to look forward to.

Comforts of Home

The lull of deep winter has settled over our house.  Through January, we were quiet, planning for the upcoming season of busyness and intense endeavor.  For the past few days, we were travelling in and around New York City.  We saw and did many fun and interesting things,but it will be nice to return to the quiet routines of home and work.  I will be up to my elbows in seed catalogs for the next few weeks... until the sap rises in the Maple trees and we begin making maple syrup; our first harvest of each new year.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you all the comforts of home.