Rippling Flax

Our flax has dried in the shock long enough. It made a good size load after it was all put on. This is from a 50 foot by 50 foot patch.It seems like a quite a bit from that small area.Removing the seed pods is the next step. That is done with the Rippling Comb. This is our first time growing flax and I am building all the tools as we go, so this will be interesting.

Here is the rippling comb in action. Mounting the comb on the box seems to catch the majority of the seed pods. After using the comb this way for a while I took it back to the shop and added legs to raise it up about two feet. I need to add some weight to it or stake it down however as you have to pull quite hard to take off the seed pods and the whole thing wants to move around.I should have welded the nails on rather than brazing them. The nails bend if I get to enthusiastic pulling and if they were welded on I could heat it up on the forge and temper them a bit.I can't do that with the braze because the brazing compound will melt and let go before it is hot enough to temper.                                  

Here is the flax laid out to ret or rot the "glue" that holds the stalk and fibers together. This is called dew retting and will take about two weeks. The flax has to be turned over a couple times during that period. You can also ret by submerging the flax in water.This is much faster, only about a week I guess. We will probably do some that way too so we can compare the results.Right now I have enough projects going that I am in no hurry.

Companion Planting

Flowers are a nice addition to any garden. While many people might think of them as simply decorations,I make use of some of their other characteristics.These Nasturtiums for instance are edible and both the flowers and young leaves are a nice spicy addition to a salad.I plant them for the other benefit they bestow on my garden which is their ability to repel aphids, squash bugs, and most importantly, cabbage moths. I think they are very effective inter-planted in each row. Their biggest draw back is that they do not transplant well and the seed is expensive.
Another very decorative and useful, though not edible flower, is the common marigold. It definitely helps repel some of those harder to control type bugs such as cabbage moths and mexican bean beetles. Marigolds also are known to repel nematodes, a type of microscopic earth dwelling organism that can cause several  root diseases.
 There is a fairly long list of flowers as well as herbs that can help the organic grower in the everlasting battle with insects. The practice of inter planting for these characteristics is generally refered to as companion planting. To be effective, there must be a fairly dense population of the flowers.In my experience each flower will help protect those plants adjacent to them but the protection does not extend much beyond that. Still, once planted the flowers will not only brighten your garden, they will help protect it 24/7.

In Praise of Mulch

Here is a pic that shows what mulch can do. This row of cabbage and broccoli has been weeded once since I planted. The benefits of good mulch go way beyond fewer weeds. Continuous cover preservers and protects your soil from erosion, both from wind and rain. It limits water loss from evaporation, very important in a drought year like this. If it is organic it improves the tilth of the soil and adds valuable nutrients as it decomposes. You can walk in your garden soon after a rain and not get muddy feet! And, as you crawl down that row of green beans, harvesting the bounty, you will be on nice soft mulch.
  There are disadvantages with mulch too of course. In a wet year, mulch will harbor slugs. You can trap and remove them by placing old wooden boards on the soil. The slugs hide there during the day and you can then remove them from your garden. You can also drown them in nearly empty beer cans set almost flush with the soil. The beer attracts them. Another problem can be introducing weed seeds to your garden from the mulch. I  use well rotted hay or let piles of grass, cut green ,heat up to destroy weed seeds before applying it to the garden. Mulch can tie up nitrogen in the process of decomposing but I view that as a benefit  since I normally have plenty of nitrogen and this keeps it from being lost. It is available to the plants after the mulch has broken down sufficiently. For mulch to be an effective weed barrier it must be THICK. I view 3-4 inches as the very minimum and try for 6 inches. Long hay that is not well rotted will be a problem if you rototill your garden.  I prefer chopped mulch as it makes a denser cover and will still till under easily. It is organic, it is sustainable, and I like it.

Purple Coneflower

 Purple Coneflower, Echinacea  purpurea, is a nice perennial that is ornamental and a well known medicinal plant. It is generally considered a immune system stimulant and is widely used in Europe. There are two other very similar coneflowers, the Narrow Leaf Coneflower , and the Pale Purple Coneflower, all three being native North American species. Many color variations have been bred for the nursery industry over the last few years. I don't know if any of those would retain the medicinal qualities. If used medicinally most herbalist recommend that it not be taken continuously. A routine of two weeks on followed by two weeks of is often recommended. Both the above ground parts and the roots are used although the root preparations are considered better.
  I started my plants from seed over ten years ago. They will naturalize and can even out compete grasses with little help.  It started about two weeks ago and will continue to bloom until frost here. Tough plant, looks nice, useful, I like it.

Slim Pick'ins

I guess this pic fairly well sums up our berry picking expedition. The blackberries were not any where near ready and they are badly in need of some rain. This bunch looks good compared to most that we saw. If we get a decent rain in the next few days there will be a very nice crop. The berries will be smallish but there are a lot of them. There were a few nice late season raspberries but someone else was already picking those. The big disadvantage of a easy access berry patch, other berry pickers! Our next stop was our patch of gooseberries.

I left the camera in the car because this patch is not easy access so the only pic you get of the goose berries is the 8 pints of jelly Ann made with our pickings.These were the smooth gooseberry but that name definitely only refers to the fruit. Those canes had thorns on their thorns! The patch is on a nice river flood plain of old soft maples and thorn apple. Mixed in with that was a lot of saw briar and, as if that was not enough, a very generous growth of wood nettle. It made for very interesting picking conditions.
After we felt we had accumulated enough thorn pricks and nettle stings we gave up and went for a walk on the river bank.The river was very low. Lots of american hazel nuts along that stretch of ground. The burr oaks we looked at have some acorns on but nothing like last years crop. We checked out another flowage for wild rice and were pleased to see it looking well along. Will probably be a early ricing season. That got us so excited that we  went yesterday and bought our rice harvesting permit just so we will be ready!

Berry Picking

We are off to spend the day berry picking. Both black berries and goose berries should be ripe. We have several berry patches scouted out. Last year some kind of cane boring insect hit all of the blackberries in our patch. The canes, which were hanging with green fruit, just dried up. It was very disappointing. This seems to be a good year for all sorts of insects so it may be the same this year. We did see a lot of berries on the canes earlier in the year though. While we are out we will check on the american hazelnut crop.We use them a lot when we have them, especially with wild rice and cranberries for breakfast. We will also check out the burr oak acorn crop. I like the acorn flour pancakes Ann makes and while we have a fair cache of acorn meal from last year, a basket of fresh acorns would be welcome. The pic above, which I threw in for lack of a better one, is of a local lake that has wild rice. The bright green along the edges of the lake is wild rice. Hopefully, Mid August will see Ann and I out there harvesting some of it.

Harvest Time Begins

The big harvest crunch is beginning. Ann pulled this garlic a few days ago. Peas are all gone. I want to try a fall planting in a few weeks. We have started to pick green beans. We will have no shortage of them this year and will have lots to sell . Broccoli is starting to produce nicely. Kohlrabi are almost done, just a few left. Cucumbers are almost big enough to pick. I love cucumber, onion and tomato salad. Don't think I'll have a ripe tomato for a couple more weeks though. We have been selectively pulling an onion or two as needed now for a while. New red potatoes, yum. We just reach under and steal a few without disturbing the plant. They are actually getting quite large now but they still have that delicious new potato taste.Northern Wisconsin sweet corn is still a couple weeks away at least. Ours is tasseling now. The peppers in my high tunnel seem to like the extra heat and all have set lots of fruit as are the tomatoes. I will definitely be building more high tunnel for next year. The only draw back so far is that you have to be very attentive to watering.The higher heat causes the plants to get thirsty quickly. Well worth the extra work though.