Clover Field Meats

Today, I am very happy to say, we discovered Clover Field Meats just south of Marshall on IL Highway 1 , not so very far from us. We chatted with the very congenial owners for awhile and it looks like we may have found a very good source for beef and pork. Although the meat is hormone and antibiotic free and pasture raised, they are still fed corn for the marbling. Hey, we are taking steps and this is a major step in the right direction. Just like the organic milk that I buy from the store is not my absolute ideal with the corn fed dairy cows, this is OK. I still feel good in taking this route. Also the owner seemed very open to talk to us about raising a beef for us and keeping it from any grain! Win-win. His overhead for that beef would be reduced and that equals more profit for him and we would get our corn-less beef. (smile)

Please do go and check them out if you are looking to upgrade your beef and pork. Another plus is that it is local and sustainable. You can rest assured that this meat was not shipped from Argentina or even from 1500 miles away in the USA. It's a very good thing.

Change, Change, Change

I have been thinking about either cutting way back, or stopping altogether my consumption of milk and coffee. These are two things that a) we spend alot of money on, b) are not necessarily good for our health and c) there is no way we are going to 'grow' or 'raise' ourselves.

Allright...I confess: we are serious Starbucks fans. It is like an addiction. Everytime we go into town for any reason, or hit the road, we must grab that almost $2 cuppa Joe (fortunately we gave up the fancy dancy Mochas, Lattes, Cappucinos a long time ago). We even broke down recently and purchased their new Gold Card for $25. This gives us a ten percent discount with every purchase and there are freebies occasionally for cardholders. Believe me, at our current rate, we will get our money's worth out of the price of the card. If I quit Starbucks altogether, what I might miss most of all is the free used coffee grounds that we always grab on our way out the door. Or my garden will. Just ingenious, whoever thought of that idea...having the customers happily haul all of your coffee ground waste for you! I hope that guy got a huge bonus from corporate ; )

As far as the milk...I have been buying Organic for about a year. This makes the cost of drinking milk significantly higher. I have still not been happy with the fact that Organic Dairy Cows are fed corn. My ideal dairy cow would live only on organic pasture grass... I figured organic corn-fed dairy cows without added hormones or antibiotics is better than no milk at all.
However, there is much research that testifies to the fact that bovine milk or any other kind of milk is unnecessary even harmful to adult humans or any other adult mammals. I quit eating breakfast cereal a long time ago. Cold cereal is really not yummy without real milk...so what would I be missing? I enjoy a glass of milk every couple of days, or now and then a mug of hot cocoa (I use Hershey's plain, unsweetened cocoa). May not be so difficult if I still allow it as a rare indulgence.

Now if only I could have some of that Horchata like I had in Korea instead. Hard to believe...best Horchata that I've ever had was at a Mexican restaurant in Seoul while visiting brother. There were, in fact, several 'best-I've-ever-tried' at restaurants in Korea. Hmmm...

Seed Starting Tips

Amishland Seeds
Heirloom Tomatoes
Seed Starting BasicsMother Earth News article
Grow it! (a Mother Earth News blog)

Small Fruit in My Garden

I now have several different small fruits in my garden, so in keeping with my purpose of this blog I will post some applicable links here as I find them.

I have Latham and Heritage red raspberries and an unknown black raspberry. This site from the University of Illinois Extension on the care of raspberries is helpful.

Recently purchased were Doyle's Thornless Blackberries. They have not been planted yet, but are sitting in the cold foyer waiting for spring. These will need a wire trellis in a good sunny location.

Two articles from Dave's Garden:

Time to Tame the Raspberry Jungle

Okay, so you have raspberries, blackberries or other brambles… How do you control them? With a Bramble Trellis!

There was an unknown grape vine here on the property. It was a young start and was easy to move to our preferred spot next to the chicken run a couple of years ago. It did fruit last year, so we do know that it is a red grape with seeds. I am not real fond of them for fresh eating, but the chickens love them! I need to build a trellis for the vine this year.

We also need strawberries. There is so much work to do outside, that it may be awhile before I have a good permanent site prepared for a strawberry bed. The grubs are really bad, so I should put grub control on my list of things that I must handle this year! The plan is to apply beneficial nematodes and Milky Spore.

Midwest Small Fruit Pest Management Handbook

Average Last Frost Date is April 25ish.

Well, I don’t know what I was thinking! After looking back into my manual, it appears that the average lost frost date for my county is April 25, not Memorial Day…a whole month earlier! I must have had Memorial Day in my head from before we moved down here. Kane County, where I lived for over ten years, has an average last frost date of May 5th. Still not as late as Memorial Day, but somebody must have told me that and it just stuck. I was just winging it back then. I had never gardened before we lived there. I was always pretty happy with the results, though. I guess it was just beginner’s luck. Hmmm.

Now that I am paying better attention to what I am trying to do…
Well, one thing that I have learned is to keep a gardening journal. Another thing is to do some research. It certainly doesn’t hurt…better than ‘winging it’ for sure! Advice to self: research, take note of the experience of gardeners before me, but also don’t be afraid to experiment a little.

That said, since my last post, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to try and ‘winter seed’ outside. I referred back to my Master Gardener class manual for help. It is February tenth and so ten and a half weeks before our average last frost date. Actually, I could even push that to ten weeks…we are bordering on the line between April 25th and April 20th. And those are just averages after all.

According to the manual, “Very Hardy vegetables will withstand freezing temperatures and hard frosts without injury. They can be planted as soon as the ground can be prepared. Spinach and lettuce seeds may even be broadcast on late snows over soil prepared in the fall.”

What I am thinking is that this would apply to direct seeding in the garden where there is no protection from the elements. Since I am wanting to get some things started outside under protection, where the temperature is several degrees higher, would it be such a risk to try starting those ‘very hardy’ vegetables right now? I have plenty of seeds, so I can try my luck now with some and also save some to start later.

Here is the list from the manual: seeds to plant 4-6 weeks before average frost-free date: kale, kohlrabi, leaf lettuce, onion, pea, rutabaga, salsify, spinach, turnip. So tomatoes and peppers are not 'very hardy', but I knew that, didn't I? There are a list of transplants as well, but I will address those later.

I have all of these seeds on hand. Some of the seeds that I have are old-- kohlrabi, turnips, etc. I will not necessarily need to save any for later seeding. If my 'pushing the limits' with these is not successful, I will just buy fresh seeds to try again later. Tomorrow, I will sterilize my seed trays and get this gardening season rolling!

Winter Sowing Seeds in Containers

I have been anxious to try and yet aprehensive about taking risks with different methods of propagation (time and money are at risk). But it is imperative to learn how to do these things, after all, or I will never have more than one year's experience gardening thirty or forty times over! And wouldn't that be a tragedy!

Even starting some seeds indoors feels a bit risky to me. I have had varying degrees of success with this in the past. As I posted previously, my intention is to start part of my tomatoes and peppers inside. But today, I read some articles found in the Dave's Garden newletter about 'winter sowing' seeds. This is not an entirely new idea to me, but one that I have never tried. And actually, I never thought about winter sowing seeds outside in containers the way 'Critter' is doing. No point in me trying to re-explain it all. Here is the article: Six More Weeks of Winter!? Celebrate by Winter Sowing Your Seeds! and here is her follow-up article just in case you have gone crazy with winter sowing:What to do with 10,000 Spring Sprouts in Your Winter Sowing Containers

Actually, an idea just came to me! I have the tops of those PVC drums that can be used to protect my winter sown seeds from the elements. These will provide filtered light, will be warmed by the sun and can be easily lifted to water when necessary and hardening off. Hmmmm...I can easily come by some fresh horse manure to use to heat up this little mini "hot house". Now I am deviating from Critter's instructions...will this still be 'winter sowing', per se?