Living off the land

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I was recently telling someone about how we've been eating this winter.

I began with... "well, I don't really go to a grocery store much anymore, only once in a while to get something for the kids like bananas or oats, whole wheat flour...".   Also, we don't eat out much (maybe once every month or two as a special treat at our friends' Mexican restaurant).

I stopped to dwell on how we really have been eating, especially this winter because it's our first winter living on the farm... basically, we've been eating all the foods that we grew here last spring, summer, and fall!  Most of the fresh vegetable crops are gone, with the exception of some winter spinach & green onions outside in our unheated greenhouse tunnels (and you bet we're still eating those, whenever it's warm enough to open the greenhouse plastic!).  So, what are we eating?

From our root cellar: onions, garlic, beets, winter squash, rutabaga, turnips, carrots, potatoes, and black walnuts.  From our pantry: our farm-grown and farm-canned jars of tomatoes, salsas (red and green!), pickles, pickled jalapenos, apple & pear butters, and grape juice canned from our grape vines is a special treat when an illness strikes.  From our freezers: our own farm-raised and farm-butchered stewing chickens, awesome beef raised on a nearby organic farm (they are one of our CSA customers - we try to support back!  :-), raw milk from the same farm, raw honey (my latest batch was purchased from one of our egg customers :-), kefir (similar to yogurt) made from the raw milk, maple syrup from another friend's farm, and of course all of our farm-raised fruits & vegetables pulled from the deep freezers: sweet corn cut fresh off the cob last August, green beans and sugar snap peas, chopped & frozen sweet bell peppers, and fruit from our fruit trees & vines: bags of frozen mulberries, peaches, and black raspberries.  Plus tiny strawberries picked on my cousin's organic farm 2 summers ago (awesome).  I even bought a 50 pound bag of red winter wheat from a farmer down the road, borrowed a friend's hand mill, and we ground some fresh whole wheat flour!  That was fun - my oldest son especially enjoyed it, but I will admit we're mostly using purchased whole wheat flour.

We still do buy quite a bit, especially things like dried & canned beans, cheese, and treats like tortilla chips, but as I'm writing this I'm realizing that we're mostly eating off our own land.  Guess this is what "the fruits of our labor" is all about!

And, to be honest, we're eating so well.  It's all so delicious, all the winter soups, stews, casseroles.... we can't buy vegetables & meat this good in a store.  Or in a restaurant.  It's just not the same.

Although I will admit I am missing lettuce....our farm's lettuce, that is...  but not enough to buy lettuce from the store - store lettuce doesn't taste good!  I'll be content to wait about 2 more months until our first crop is ready.  :-)

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Building a backyard greenhouse for $110

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Our backyard greenhouse is finally finished - it took a few weeks -we spread it out.  Figuring out something from scratch like this can be frustrating and we found that when something went wrong (which it did) and needed to be redone (of course, it did) it was best for us to walk away for a few days or a week before starting again.  Better that than start bickering at each other, which happened a bit anyway.  Ah well, that's life!  :-)  But now, it's finished, and we are SO STINKIN' PROUD of ourselves!!!!!! 

Now you can learn from our mistakes and frustrations - here it is!  Directions to build your own unheated greenhouse - technically called a "hoophouse".  These directions will build a 20 foot long by 12 foot wide, and 6 foot tall greenhouse.  (20'x12'x6').  

I decided to build the frame out of low- cost PVC plumbing pipe.  It will also require some wood, hardware, and plastic sheeting.  You'll need a hacksaw for cutting and a good power screwdriver (we used a cordless drill with a screwdriver bit), a long measuring tape, and some sort of flags or markers you can push into the ground.  Here are the "ingredients":

• 11 PVC pipes, measuring 3/4" wide and 10' long
• 1 PVC pipe measuring 1 1/4" wide by 10' long
• Plastic sheeting: 2 packages 6 mil thick 10'x25', 1 package 4 mil thick 8'x25' (you'll only use a small bit of the 4 mil package)
• Wood: 2 pieces 2x2, 6 pieces 1x2 firring strips
• Hardware: 3 packs mending plates, 1 package corner brackets, 1 package of 2 hinges, 2 packs 3/4" steel pipe strap
• Duct tape, one large roll

To start, you'll need to plot out the spot where you want to put the hoophouse.  I placed mine over a portion of my already existing garden.  Look for the ground to be fairly level and somewhat sheltered from wind (the rear of mine backs up to a bush row, and there is a tree directly to the left and another about 30 feet to the right).  Now, most importantly, since this greenhouse is unheated, we need to get the most sunshine possible to hit it.  So, really, this greenhouse will be passive solar heated.  To do this, you want to orient the hoophouse so that the long side is facing the south.  In the winter, the sun is lower in the Southern sky, and you want the sun to hit the greenhouse for as much time each day as possible (of course, here in my area there is a lot of cloudiness in winter!).  If there are trees partially shading the greenhouse, remember that the leaves will not be on the trees in the winter, so there will be less shade and it will probably be alright, just so long as it will only be shaded for a small portion of the day.

After you've picked the spot, get the tape measure and wire flags.  You'll want to plot this out.  Decide where the door-side of the house will be and place a corner flag there.  Then measure 12' exactly across from this flag and place another.  This is where the first "hoop" of your hoophouse will go.  Keep measuring out until you've plotted out the entire 20 foot long house, or 5 hoops.

Next, I connected and glued together 2 PVC pipes using a tee-connector.  Then I pushed the ends of the PVC pipe into the ground where the flags were (you may need to dig a hole and water the ground where the pipe will go, to make it easier to push into the ground).  This seemed to work great until we bent & installed the hoops.

 But then a few days later, after we had put the plastic on, 2 of the joints popped out.  You can see them below, in the middle.  They came out of the tee-connector on one end. 

Back to the drawing  board.  We brainstormed at the local hardware store, and my husband came up with a very simple solution: buying a larger PVC pipe that could slide over the thinner ones.  We bought a 1 1/4" PC pipe and cut it into 5 pieces, each about 18" long.  Remember that the pipes came apart in the middle?  So we now have 2 pipes sticking out of the ground, no longer connected in the middle (no longer making a hoop).  Over one of these pipes we slid the newly made 1 1/4" PVC connector piece.  Next we took the two PVC pipes that were already in the ground but had come apart (Use 2 people for this!):  , standing on a ladder, and held them together while the other person quickly taped them together using duct tape.  Then we quickly slid the 1 1/4" pvc connector piece over the joint of duct tape.  Then we duct taped over it all, just for good measure - why not?   Like the first three hoops you see here:

Next, we added some stability by attaching wood to the sides.  I also wanted the wood as a place I could staple the plastic to, but that would allow me to roll up the plastic a few feet on the sides (meaning the plastic is not permanently attached to the ground, and can be lifted up until this piece of wood, so I could vent the hoophouse when it gets too hot in late spring or early fall.  We attached the wood to the pvc using 3/4" galvanized steel pipe straps.  It's basically a half-circle of metal with two screwholes on each side. These were connected on the inside of the hoophouse. We attached each piece of wood to the next piece using mending plates, on the outside of the wood.

 

Next came the plastic sheeting.  This was the most expensive part of this project.  For high wind and heavy snow areas, 6 mil plastic is recommended.  This is super thick and heavy duty, but also not cheap.  It cost us about $22 for a 10x25' roll, and we used 2 rolls.  We had to splice it together with duct tape.  Next time, I'm splurging on a huge roll so we don't need to use tape.

Before we attached the plastic, I made my rows and planted the fall seed.  I tied up the remaining tomatoes to make room for more seeds on the left side as well.

Next we put the plastic up, and my 2 older sons helped to water them with our new backpack sprayer.  This was purchased for use in watering seedlings on the farm garden, as I have no water access there.  But we decided to break it open and use it here at home.  It reminded me of the Ghostbusters backpacks...

Next, my husband tried making a door, but the 1x2" wood was splitting on him & causing him a lot of frustration.  I finally got him to nix the idea.

I remembered that we had a bunch of old storm windows in the attic.  One of the first projects we did on our old house when we bought it almost 10 years ago was to take off the old storm windows and replace them with storm/screen combinations.  The old storm windows were so beautiful I didn't want to part with them.  I'm glad I kept them - it made a perfect door.

My husband build the frame around the storm window, and attached it with hinges.  Next, we spliced even more plastic wrap over the frame so it would reach the ground (I used the cheaper 4 mil on this part), and I stapled it tightly to the frame.

I used a utility knife and cut off the excess.

For winter, I plan on using straw bales along the outside base, to sit on top of the plastic edge and also supply a bit of ground-level insulation.
Viola!  There you have it.  A homemade hoophouse.

It's toasty warm inside!

1 day after finishing the plastic installation, the outside temp was 75 degrees, and the inside temp was 94.5!

The cost of the hoophouse was just under $110.  The most expensive single item was the plastic sheeting, at almost $50.  The pvc frame cost $20, the wood was $12, the hardware & duct tape was $25.

A very similar hoophouse in a growers catalog that I receive sells for $1000.  Theirs is the exact same size, except it uses steel hoops.  So we built ours for 90% cheaper than ordering the kit.  Now you can see why we're so proud.  I love it when something comes together like this.

I'll have to keep an eye on heavy snow loads on top, maybe brushing off heavy snow if needed (even the tall steel hoophouses have been known to collapse under heavy, wet snow).  My goal is to keep the cold-tolerant crops from freezing.  I will be using row cover and possibly and interior layer of plastic over the crops as well.  My goal for this first year is to keep spinach growing all winter.  I'm in a zone 5 , right on the border with zone 4.   Think I can do it?  It will be fun trying!

Thanks for visiting the All Natural Mama blog, home to Wishful Acres Organic Farm!

I'm officially a farmer

When I purchased my vegetable seeds last winter, I had intended to sell my organic veggies at our local farmer's market. Back in February when I contacted them, the market was already full and not taking new vendors.

So... I have been slowly making plans to open a self-serve vegetable stand here at my home, in the driveway. One of the items on my to-do list was to contact my insurance company. In case someone were to fall on my property buying vegetables - you know, just wanted to know if my homeowner's policy would cover any liability. I spoke with my insurance company a couple of weeks ago and got the a-okay. However, last week a new homeowner's policy arrived. Apparently there was an extra item I needed. So... for $15 a year, I now have a policy which includes "Incidental Farming Personal Liability" coverage.


Guess I'm now officially a farmer.

As for the farm stand:

I am hoping to have it up and running this week or the next. I'm moving slowly, waiting for a few more vegetables to be ready. Right now all I have to offer is lettuce, a few peas, a few onions, a bit of greens, a few beets ... not much. I did notice a few very small zucchini at the farm plot yesterday so hopefully there will be more soon.

I do plan to offer some baked goods as well. Perhaps cookies, breads... that type of thing. I'm perplexed about how much to charge for the baked goods and some of the produce. I plan on making a trip to our local market this week to get an idea.

I drew up plans for the money payment box a couple of weeks ago. Used my rusty algebra and put my thinking cap on. I then transferred the plans to the piece of wood. I began cutting... and almost immediately broke the jigsaw blade. Luckily, my husband was kind enough to help me out with his circular saw (something I wouldn't touch myself!). It turned into a family project. It's now almost complete. We just need to cut the payment slot, attach the lock, and get it hung on the garage.

My signs are almost ready. One for the front yard, one for the side yard. I spoke with a city representative a few weeks ago to get the rules on signage in yards because I know there are city laws I need to abide by. The boys all helped me paint the wood (and themselves).


I also used my rusty graphic design skills and created a promotional flyer that I plan to hang in a few places around town. What do you think?


Comments and suggestions appreciated!

I'll send out a notification to friends and family via email and post on my blog when the stand opens. I also plan to create a listing on www.localharvest.org . The flyers will be hung as well.

It's slowly all coming together!



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