Buckwheat

The pic to the left is our first patch of buckwheat in full bloom. Buckwheat is a indeterminate plant which means it will just keep putting on new blooms until frost kills it. I had originally intended to use this strip for corn but it got to late in the season for corn so I put this in to provide cover and as a green manure crop. Since then I have decided to let it go and take what ever grain matures. Chickens will eat whole buckwheat so I can use it to replace some of the high price corn I would have to buy otherwise. It is not that big of a patch so I'll be able to thresh it out by hand. The right hand pic is of another strip of that patch which we planted camalina on. Camalina is a member of the mustard family which can be used as a forage crop. We read several articals about it and thought we would give it a try.We have just started cutting it so we will see how the cows like it after it is dry. They don't seem to impressed with it fresh. I also put in some late green beans in this field so we will have green beans again in a week or two.

Reshi- Mannentake

 We went on a short foraging hike yesterday . Our main objective was to check on a large patch of nanny berries and see how ripe they are.That was a big disappointment. The drought has taken it's toll on the nannies, there were almost no berries on the bushes.  Our next stop was a area that has had hen of the woods fruiting under several large oaks there in past years. Hen of the woods is a fabulous mushroom and besides tasting great, they are huge. Not this year though, none to be found although we will check for them again if we get a rain. While there we did find this large bunch of Varnish Conk.This variety is Ganoderma tsugae, which always grows on Eastern Hemlock in our area. It has a more famous relative, Ganoderma lucidum, commonly called by it's Japanese name, Reshi. The G. tsugae is called Mannentake in Japan and both of these are used medicinally.Their main difference is that the G. lucidum only grows on hardwoods, usually maple in our area. My understanding is that they are interchangeable as far as medicinal use goes. I have not used this mushroom but it does have a very enticing aroma. It is to tough to be eaten and is used as a tea.

Hazelnuts

We have been busy harvesting hazelnuts the last couple of days. Most of those we gather are the American Hazelnut, Corylus americana .There are two native hazelnuts in our area, the American and the Beaked Hazelnut, Corylus cornuta. The Beaked are usually ready to pick earlier in our area and never seem to be as plentiful. We try to pick a huge pile of hazelnuts because it is very deceptive as to how many nuts you actually have. The pic below is of one days picking.  The plastic they are on is about10 feet wide and 30 feet long.

It will take about five gallons of nuts in the husk to produce one quart of nuts in the shell. That quart of nuts in the shell will only yield about a cup of nut meats!  Removing the husks is a matter of letting them get very dry and then somehow crushing the husk to release the nut. We put a few gallons in a strong bag and stomp on them. The nuts are then hand separated from the husk fragments. At that point the can be stored and shelled at your convenience.

Here is a pic of them on the bush. These are average size clusters with 5 to 7 nuts in each cluster. Some times clusters will be found with 15 -20 nuts in a cluster but that is very unusual. You can roll the nut out of the husk with you thumb when they are ripe enough. One year we picked for two days without doing that important test first. None of the nuts were mature enough to be usable. Now we check each bush as we pick to make sure the nuts are mature. We do sell some of these beauties but we really like them and they are very labor intensive. There is a movement to improve and thereby commercialize our native hazels but given all the other wonders that have been bestowed on us by improving on mother nature I,m not sure I am buying into that.

Oxen?

Ann is beginning the training on this steer as a oxen. We are always looking for ways both to save money and to reduce our negative impact on the earth. Draft animals versus mechanical power is part of that discussion. Having acquired a couple of extra bull calves this spring, Ann thought this would be a good time to attempt to train one for draft. This steer, aptly named Red, seems the best candidate. He is friendly and learns fast. Ann is just at the halter training stage now though starting to add in voice commands. If it seems to be going well I'll have to get to work and try my hand at making a yoke for him. At least if the training doesn't work out we will still have a nice steer.
  We think a ox will be a little safer for novice teamsters compared to a draft horse, especially as it is being trained by Ann right from the start. We had also thought about a draft mule but they are too pricey for us. There are lots of pro's and con's to the issue of which animal is best suited to draft use, but we had the steer so we are going with that.

Here is a shot of Ann's flax laid out to ret. The grayer stuff to the right has been turned over once and we will try to start processing that for fiber later this week, time allowing. We might try harvesting wild rice one more day this week and we are definitely going to spend at least one day picking hazel nuts. The gardens have been producing enough to keep me at the market three days a week so time is in short supply right now.
 A note to anyone I have talked to at market, I will be adding a page with info on ordering wild rice and some of our other items soon. Until then if you need something just send a e-mail and I'll get back to you.

King Stropharia Mushroom

Here is what you like to see when you are harvesting wild rice, nothing but untouched rice for as far as you can see! The rice here is a little thin but it is falling in the canoe at a steady pace .We went out every day last week. Yesterday we decided the gardens could not take any more neglect so had to stay home and get some other work done. Our sweet corn is finally ready so we did up about 200 ears. Ann put as much as she could in the dehydrator and the balance in the freezer. Our son,Dane, has been busy while we were out ricing.

He has been riuppling the flax so I had quite a pile of seed to thresh out. I just pour a couple gallons of seed pods in a bucket and mash away at them until I've smashed most of the pods open. I then screen out the seed and all the small bits of pod. The bigger pieces of pod and unbroken ones go back for another round of mashing and the seed/fine stuff mix gets winnowed with a fan to separate out the seed.
 This other pic is Ann hamming for the camera. The blue tarp keeps our rice from the bottom of the canoe where it might get sand or dirt in it.

 These are pictures of our surprise yesterday. This spring I inoculated a big pile of wood chip mulch with mushroom spore . I bought the spore from a company called Fungi Perfecti out of Olympia,WA. I had sort of forgotten about it as I didn't expect anything before next spring especially considering how dry it has been. Luckily I happened to pass close by there and noticed this lovely sight. This is the King Stropharia mushroom which is one of three mushrooms I inoculated with. Stropharia rugoso-annulata, is a large mushroom with purple black spores.

The cap is burgundy to tan and it can be found wild in many places although I have never seen it. Just for reference that basket they are in is 14 inches across. There were quite a few larger than these but they were too old. I also should get Shaggy Mane and a Oyster mushroom in this patch at some point. This is my first try at growing mushrooms so I am quite excited by this . I also have several different types inoculated on logs but nothing there yet. Those I will have to initiate to get themto start fruiting.

I have to wait until they have completely colonized the logs to do that so that will be a post some other day. Today we are back to the wild rice so I'll post again later in the week.

Rice Harvest

Just a short post, we have started the annual wild rice harvest so I won't have much time to write for a few days. The rice is just beginning to fall nicely and it looks like it will be a good season. We are concentrating on one flowage for now. I could tell you which one but what fun would that be!? The water level could be a bit higher for better access but I can live with what we got. It is frustrating to see heavy, thick rice that is in water too shallow for our canoe though. Be back soon, the rice is calling.

Bee Pasture

The fall honey flow has started and it is several weeks early just like almost every thing connected to the weather. This pic is one of the typical fall flowers bees feed on. A white aster, probably ,Panicled Aster, Aster simplex, which has been blooming for two weeks. I'm not sure how this is going to effect my hives but I am guessing I will have to leave a lot more honey in the hive for the bee's winter food supply.

Here is another common fall bee plant, also an aster. I believe this one is the New England Aster, Aster laevis . It is a pretty plant and the flowers are much bluer than they look in this pic. It is just starting to bloom but once again, much too early in the year.

Here is probably one of the most important fall bee plants in this area, a goldenrod.  There are over 60 species of goldenrod, Solidago, in the north east to north central part of the U.S. and almost all of them provide food for the honey bee. I am not sure which of the half dozen that are common here this one is. My bees are still feeding on dutch clover in my fields.

I also plant this for my bee pasture, a common garden herb, borage. Borago officinalis, is a self seeding annual, about afoot and a half tall, and it sprawls somewhat. I plant it both as a useful companion plant, it helps repel flea beetles, and as pasture for bees. It is also edible, the young leaves are good in a salad and the flowers can be used in salads or to flavor a cooling drink. The flowers are almost all blue but there is the occasional pink one.A nice addition to your garden even if you don't keep bees.

Bear Poop

Finally starting to find a few ripe black berries. The canes are just loaded with berries but they are small and if they are in a very sunny spot they have dried up. To little rain has left them a lot smaller than normal and they are not the juicy blast of flavor they are on a better year. Oh well, better than none and they will still make some tasty jelly. We did find a nice size patch a little more off the beaten track so should be able to pick again in a few days. That is if the bears don't find them first. There was a lot of bear sign in the area . I almost stepped in a big ol' pile of bear poop. I guess that answers one question anyway. Yes, they do.

Here was our take for the day. Got about 7 quarts so that will make a lot of jelly. Black berries make outstanding wine so I'm hoping for a good haul next time!

Green Beans

Here is the days picking of green beans, about two and a half bushels or 75 pounds. We generally plant at least two varieties of main crops like green beans.Usually we plant Blue Lake and try some other variety for the second one. This year we planted a variety called STRIKER from Johnny"s Selected Seeds. It is probably going to replace Blue Lake on our rotation if it does as well again next year. Very nice beans, strong plants, very productive even in this drought year with iffy watering. We have had some rain all summer but not really enough. Now in the last couple weeks it is getting much drier so we have to water the gardens on a regular basis. Being off grid, we don't have a sprinkler system so we water with watering cans. I am glad we put down plenty of mulch to help retain that moisture. The weather forecast calls for a chance of rain every day for the rest of this week so maybe we will get a break from carrying water.