Turkey Tracks: October 27, 2011
October Update
We’ve had the loveliest Indian Summer here on Mid-Coast Maine. But, as we move into November, the weather is suddenly colder and our thoughts are turning toward getting out warmer clothes. We’ve nearly finished winterizing and final harvesting. It’s actually a lot to do. But all the pots, except one by the garage door that John can’t part with yet, have been emptied, cleaned, and stored. And, all the porch furniture has been stored in the garage. The hot tub has been emptied, cleaned, and been filled with fresh water. The chicken coop has been moved and all the bedding cleaned. I’ve put straw around it for the winter. I’ve planted next year’s garlic and mulched the strawberries.
We’ve put up the boardwalk, and John has cleaned it. The wood grows mold over the summer, as it’s in the shade on the north side of the garage. That mold is incredibly slippery and dangerous.
You can see, too, that the garden has been bedded down with straw. THat’s a roll of 2-foot chicken wire we’ll put around the low side to keep the chickens from scratching the straw out into the grass. I like them to scratch in the garden; it breaks up the straw and blends it into the topsoil.
The cold frame is full of a last crop of lettuce and radish plants. See…
The leeks I planted did very well this year. I left some of the smaller ones in the garden and covered them with straw to overwinter. The cabbages were small. We had a really rainy, cool August, so I think they didn’t get enough sunshine. They’re tasty though! And we’ve been enjoying leek and potato soup infused with carrots and cabbage, cooked until veggies are tender, and made smooth with a hand-held blender. Often I throw in some of the last of the parsley chopped fine. Serve with a big chunk of butter or a swirl of heavy cream. It’s the classic French recipe, actually.
We’ve strawed the front bed, fenced it, and trimmed back all the raspberries, bayberry bushes, and rugosa roses. So, the chicken briar patch is gone. The chickens miss it, too, especially as our driveway hawk has been stalking them lately.
Nancy and Sally are molting big time, and they are sad to behold. Nancy is the most extreme at the moment. She has big feather quills coming in all around her neck though. Chicken feathers are almost all protein, so it takes a lot of energy for a chicken to molt. They don’t lay while molting, and since Pearl has not started laying (???), we have no blue eggs. Nancy misses her tail feathers I think.
My Roo, aka as Pretty Pierre, is really coming into his own. Not a leaf drops in the yard that he isn’t right there to see what it is.
My friend Carole Whelan of Birds and Bees Farm sent me a picture of her new rooster, a Splash Maran. Isn’t he a pretty fellow?
Friday nights bring the added joy of picking up a pizza made in Rose’s wood-burning oven. (Rose and Peter Thomas, The Vegetable Shed, Lincolnville, Maine.) Rich smoky flavors play over the vegetables from her farm–over meat and cheese and sauce she’d added or made. What a treat!
This picture is overexposed with the camera’s flash, but you get the point. Are we spoiled or what?
Finally, I’m working on a new quilt–based on Rhea Butler’s method, called La La Log Cabin. Rhea is from Alewives quilting in Damariscotta Mills. Here’s a picture of the quilt taking shape on the design wall. It’s all being made from batiks in my stash:
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