An Update

All's well on this end. Been checking on the stay-at-home people, dropping off groceries and prescriptions to them. Been helping out people in need of various assistance, like getting their trash to the dump, that sort of thing. (Driving a pickup truck makes me a valuable person!) I've mowed a few extra lawns this week. My main off-the-farm focus has been on getting the local farmers market reopened. Believe me, it's been an interesting challenge involving lots of phone calls. Somewhere in there I've managed to get a bit of farm work done too. 

This week I actually got stuff planted. Wow. I made some progress. 

.....104 green onion seedlings planted into corners here and there

.....50 taro keikis into pots for resale

.....12 sq ft of peas, variety: Oregon Trail

.....14 sq ft of yellow snap beans, variety: Carson

.....36 plugs of Genovese basil planted into a greenhouse

.....10 tomato plants into a greenhouse 

I also dug up a dozen banana keikis to give to a friend. Digging around here isn't easy! I got distracted and ended up digging up a pile of rocks to add to my driveway rock wall project. 

Now if only I can get to those cilantro and beet seedlings and get them into the garden. 

Catching Up with the Pineapples

Now that I'm on a roll with the pineapple scene, I have a strong desire to get more of my pineapple tops into the ground. Last week as an incentive to pull weeds, I had laid down rather ugly looking layers of cardboard in my hugelpits....thus resulting in an urge to cover it up, therefore = weed pulling to gather mulch material. So along somewhat this same line of reasoning, to help kickstart myself with planting my accumulated pineapple tops, I took one of the rattier looking panfuls of tops and set them beside my entry steps, right where I'd have to look at them a dozen times a day. Finally that did the trick. Today I got 21 tops planted. Yahoo! 

The pineapple tops have been sitting in water for several weeks just waiting to get into the ground. So they are a little sad looking. But a sharp pair of scissors removes all the brown lead tips making them look a whole lot better. I remove the lower leaves, revealing the stem/stalk. This just makes it easier for the roots to form and expand out. 

Of the 21 tops I got planted today, I think 19 should make it. 2 looked in worse shape than the others. My own fault for letting them sit around too long. I still have another group to plant and hope to get to them tomorrow, if it doesn't rain too bad. Not that I can't work in the rain, but it's not as enjoyable for sure. 

Why am I planting so many pineapple tops? First, because I have them. Second, because I'm now on a mission to grow pineapples. While they are quite sellable, I also want to supply a local jam maker with fresh pineapples. He has come up with a recipe for pina colada jam that is to die for. His only problem is that he doesn't have very many pineapple plants himself. So I intend to supply him with plenty of them in exchange for jam. 

New Plantings

For my square foot accountants, here are my recent plantings.... 

Comfrey - 21 new starts. 

Beans - 16 sq ft , variety : Royal Burgundy

              12 sq ft , variety : Calima

Peas - 10 sq ft , variety : Oregon sugar pod II 

Green onions - 20 sq ft

I have lots of various seeds just started in the mini greenhouses, but I won't list them until the seedlings are ready to transplant out into the garden. 

What I've Planted To Date

I last reported on July 6th. Since then I've added: 

Pineapples - 221

Green beans (assorted colors)- 10 pallet boxes (36 plants per box) 

Peas, snap- 8 foot row

Taro- 67

Peppermint- 2 six inch clumps

Chocolate mint- 4 six inch clumps

Tree, Finger lime- 1

Tree, Brazil plum- 1

Turmeric- 55 ft row

Potatoes- 6 pallet boxes (averaging 20 plants per box= 120 plants) 

Tomatoes - 8

Gourd- 1

Pipinola- 2

Pumpkins- 4

Sweet peppers- 24

Eggplant- 3

Lilikoi- 1

Plus I recently started seeds, which are now baby seedlings in the mini greenhouses. Soon these will get planted out into various garden beds. The numbers I've listed are the projected number of seedlings I plan to plant out. Any unplanted seedlings will be used to sell or trade. 

Broccoli- 24

Onions- 50

Basil- 12

Dill- 8

Bok choy- 24

Ground cherry- 12

Tomatoes- 12

Papaya- 20

Beets- 40

Chard- 12

So year to date planting totals.......

Banana trees - 4

Basil- 12

Beans for seed production - 10 foot row

Beans for eating - 10 pallet boxes (36 plants per box) 

Beets- 40

Bok choy- 24

Broccoli- 24

Chard- 12

Chaya - 32 cuttings

Chocolate mint- 4 six inch clumps

Cholesterol spinach - 400 square feet

Cucumbers - 18 plants

Dill- 8

Eggplant- 3

Gourd- 1

Ground cherry- 12

Lilikoi- 1

Lima beans - 40' row plus 5 individual seeds

Onions- 50

Papaya- 20

Peas, snap - 8 foot row

Peppermint- 2 six inch clumps

Pineapples - 239

Pipinolas - 21

Potatoes - 448 plants

Pumpkins- 4

Summer squash - 8 plants

Sweet peppers- 24

Taro - 97 plants

Tomatoes - 40 plants 

Tree, finger lime - 1

Tree, Brazil plum- 1

Turmeric- 55 foot row

Winged beans - 15 plants

And I'm not done yet for this year! Yikes! Looking at the number of pineapples I've put in, I'm either going to make some money selling pineapples or else my chickens and sheep are going to be very happy. 

Recent plantings

Since the last time I listed the planting statistics, I've added.......

Potatoes - 15 grow boxes = 328 plants 

Tomatoes -20 plants 

Cucumbers - 18 plants

Summer squash - 8 plants

Lima beans - 40' row (6" plant spacing), plus 5 seeds of a local variety that I've never discovered the name for. 

Taro - 14 plants

Beans for seed production - 10 foot row

Winged beans - 15 plants (a Japanese variety) 

.

So year to date planting totals.......

Banana trees - 4

Beans for seed production - 10 foot row

Chaya - 32 cuttings

Cholesterol spinach - 400 square feet

Cucumbers - 18 plants

Lima beans - 40' row plus 5 individual seeds

Pineapples - 18

Pipinolas - 19

Potatoes - 328 plants

Summer squash - 8 plants

Taro - 30 plants

Tomatoes - 20 plants 

Winged beans - 15 plants

Just a note...... Keep in mind that not everything that gets planted actually becomes productive. Some plants die or grow stunted. Some get damaged by pests or disease. Some suffer from environmental damage, such as wind. Some get destroyed by a lose goat, a person stepping on them, etc. And some simply don't produce up to their potential. Thus I tend to plant excess and hope for the best. 

More Seeds and Plants Started

Did some more seed sowing and added some more items to the list .......

Onion (yellow spanish) 

Tomato (black vernissage)

Squash (black beauty zucchini, desert zucchini, dark star zucchini)

Lettuce (green ice) 

Parsley (evergreen, Italian) 

Catnip

Basil (genovese)

Cucumber (bella, saber, puccini, nokya)

Carrot (solar yellow)

Pepper, sweet (buran)

Papaya ( local variety) 

Assorted flowers (forget me not, johnny jump up, alyssum) 

With the squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers I'm only sowing 3 seeds each. These plants will be going into the greenhouses so I don't need very many plants. I'll save the extra seed for starting more new plants later. 

I also has some questionable seed on hand. It was old and I didn't know if it would germinate. Rather than use a garden bed, I opted to start some in pots. It's just to see if the seed is still good. If anything sprouts, I can always transplant it into the garden.....

Beans (red swan)

Lima beans (eastland, and an unnamed black & white lima) 

I've also done a bit more planting......

8 pipinolas

6 pineapple tops

16 taro starts 

So the plantings to date this year come to.....

400 square feet of cholesterol spinach

19 pipinolas

18 pineapples

32 chaya cuttings

4 banana trees

16 taro

Too Wet Once Again

There's so much I want to get done, but it's been tough. Things have been too wet again. Lots of rain and little sunshine between the rain to dry up the wet. Oh well. Such is life. 

I've been getting a bit of work done. Got the 20 foot long section of rock wall completed. And in my efforts to clean up the goat pasture I discovered another pile of not-giant-sized rocks which I promptly moved up to the driveway for wall building. So another 10 foot section got created along the opposite side of the driveway. One of these days this long driveway will actually be lined with rock wall. I think it's beautiful. I hope that a future owner thinks is too and doesn't bulldoze it away. One never knows,

Got some planting done, some of it in the rain.......

400' square feet of cholesterol spinach 

11 pipinolas

12 pineapples

32 chaya cuttings planted

4 bananas trees

I hadn't planned on expanding my chaya production, but the last windstorm blew down one of the large plants, so I chopped it up into cuttings. So since it was available, I went ahead and planted them. I'm not a big eater of chaya, but I can always cook it up in the livestock slop-n-glop pot. Both the chickens and pigs gobble it down that way. 

My poor laundry hasn't gettin dry in days. One of the downsides of using a clothesline. This might prompt me into making that solar clothes dryer that I've been meaning to do for years now. Yeah, I'm a little behind on project completion! 

The weed/fern pulling project in the first pasture is almost done. Just one more day's work to go!!!! David took on the second pasture enclosure and weed whacked all the ferns down. I'm going to seed both pastures the same way and see what the difference is. I already know that most the ferns won't grow back in the handpulled pasture, and that ferns will slowly return in the weedwacked one. But can the growing oats and corn out compete the ferns? Will the sheep eat tender young ferns? Will the ferns die away if the keep topping them with a weedwacker? Or will the fern regrow in the weedwacked section overtake all the efforts? All questions yet to be answered. 

Totals 2018 -- Final Planting Frenzy

One final push to get things planted this year.....

...1/4 acre of oats for pasture grazing

...10 banana trees

...126 sq ft taro

...14 pineapples

...about 500 onion seedlings

...35 chaya cuttings

...400 sq ft sweet potatoes

...22 pipinola

...10 sugar cane starts 

So here are this year's totals: 

Single plants : 

4 moringa

34 bananas

2 citrus

135 pineapples scattered about the farm

52 pipinola scattered about the farm 

500 (about) onion seedlings

35 chaya 

10 sugar cane

Sq ft of garden space planted : 

699 turmeric

18 yacon

45 potatoes

634 sweet potatoes

30 cholesterol spinach

66 pipinolas

30 chocolate mint

1076 taro

72 peas

305 fresh green beans

396 pineapple

Sq Ft Totals to Date for 2018

Recently I've planted :

16 banana trees

60 sq ft of sweet potatoes

20 pineapples 

This makes the totals for the year so far..........

Single plants : 

4 moringa

24 bananas

2 citrus

121 pineapples scattered about the farm

30 pipinola scattered about the farm 

Sq ft of garden space planted : 

699 turmeric

18 yacon

45 potatoes

234 sweet potatoes

30 cholesterol spinach

66 pipinolas

30 chocolate mint

950 taro

72 peas

305 fresh green beans

396 pineapple

As you can deduce, there's not been much veggie farming this year. It's been unusually wet, so much of what I planted rotted, got mildew, or was destroyed by slugs. Thus I've done a lot more food buying than I had planned on, but still got quite a bit from the farm via what I had frozen, dried, and already growing. But things are now looking up. It's drying out. I've ordered onion plants. I'm starting seeds in the mini greenhouses. I'm an optimist. 

Planting More P & P's

Today I added 18 more baby white pineapples to the gardens. I'm hoping that next year I'll be drowning in pineapples. That would be grand. 

Found spots for a dozen more pipinolas. If you live here, you probably think I'm crazy growing all these pipinola. But they are an easy crop for feeding to the pigs and chickens.......and wwoofers. Low work crops are right up my alley! 

Speaking of pipinolas, I harvested an oddity today. You know, if you grow enough veggies you're bound to find some oddball ones. Well. This is the first oddball pipinola that I've come upon. It's a double, a Siamese twin so to speak. The pair in the foreground are joined. I put one behind them to show you what they normally look like. 

Pipinola fruits are always singles. Not only have I never seen two being produced on the same spot on the stem, I've never seen two joined. Pretty neat, I'd say. 

Adding More Pineapples

This is pineapple season, so as I'm harvesting pineapples for home use, as gifts, or to trade, I'm getting a lot of pineapple tops. These tops are how I primarily start new plants. Around here, tips don't get discarded. No way! They get replanted to start more plants. Oh, eventually I'll have as many pineapples as I can handle, but I'm not near that limit yet.  

So since that last time I listed a tally, I've added 41 new pineapple plants to the tally, all of them scattered about the farm rather than in organized beds. And more tops are waiting for garden space to open up. 

When I can't get right away to planting a top, I will clean up the bottom (pull lower leaves off the stem) and place it in water. I'll use whatever small jar I have handy for this task. After a week or so, the tops start pushing roots, so it gets critical to plant them asap. A few of these tops have been sitting in water for over a week, so this weekend they need to get into the ground for their best chance of growing well.

I grow both the golden and the white varieties, though I have a strong preference to the white. But at this stage of the game, I'm not throwing away any golden tops. They'll get planted too as I open up space for them. Whenever I finally have a glut of pineapple plants, I plan to gradually discard the golden ones. 

Farm Update

Not so chatty on the blog lately, but I've been busy with community life and working on the farm. One day was dedicated to a local spay/neuter clinic. Another to training a group of new flock keepers how to do the basic husbandry with their sheep and demonstrating castrating, deworming, shearing, and hoof trimming. Yet another day devoted to getting ready for another possible hurricane, though this one actually passed us by. 

Around the farm, work is a constant. The grass grows and begs to be mowed. Garden beds demand weeding and mulching (mulch material is a by-product of the grass mowing. It's so nifty to be able to "stack" the chores.) Pineapples need picking and tops need replanting. Lilikoi is starting to come in. More banana  bunches are ready. And so on, and so on. 

For those who are counting, I've just added 14 inividual pineapples to the tally. I also planted 4 more banana trees. Plus 6 more pipinola scattered about under some trees. 

By the way, it's lilikoi and pineapple season once again. The lilikoi are a bit later this year than last year, perhaps due to the wet weather. And they aren't as abundant. The pineapples are right on time. Yum! We've harvested about 2 dozen so far, with half the crowns being replanted into my gardens, the other half going to Adam. I've only managed to get 4 ripe pineapples into the freezer because we've been gobbling the pineapple up almost as fast as we are harvesting it. By the way, I grow predominately white pineapples. I've got some gold ones mixed in with the whites, but by far we prefer the whites. 

More of the Garden Reclaimed

My weekends are usually non-productive farm days. Since hubby is still working a job, I let him dictate how we spend the weekends, and you can bet it won't be working in the farm. He's no country boy! So along came Monday, and I had a chance to tackle another farm project. I opted to reclaim another garden growing area in order to plant more taro that is waiting on the side lines for space. 

Doing the standard routine, 190 square feet was ready for planting before lunch. The taro had already been prepared, so it was just a matter of popping them into place and giving them a good drink. Out came the mower and within an hour I had plenty of grass clippings to mulch the entire area. Done. Time for lunch and a break to recuperate from the mornings activity.

Post-lunch I opted for some farm maintenance and house chores. A bit boring, but necessary. Filled the gas tanks on the ATVs, mower, generators. Did a couple loads of laundry and distributed  the water to the gardens around the house. Cleaned out the raingutters on the house and barn. Fixed the screen door. Spied a bunch of ready bananas and cut it down, plus cut up the pau tree. Hung the bunch up by the house for further ripening.......

Swept the leaves off the concrete walkways. Weedwacked the grass down around the house. Harvested mamaki leaves and got them into the dehydrator. And did a dozen more little jobs that just help keep things running around here. 

Day done. 

Monday on the Farm

After a weekend, Monday is always catch-up day. Today was no different. After the routine daily chores, I spent the morning preparing another garden bed for replanting. This one is 216 sq ft. 

The last crop was sweet potatoes, a crop I use to help condition new soil. It's a stepping stone. So after harvesting all the sweets (most went to livestock food), I added several wheelbarrowfuls of compost, plus a dusting of coral sand and lava sand. Then tilled everything in to the depth of 3 to 4 inches. In the process, the tiller kicked out a lot more rocks. Now to plant....

Pineapples. Yup. This garden bed is on Matt's property and he prefers crops that don't need a lot of attention. And since I had a lot of young pineapple plants that needed a home, it was a good match. So in went 40 white pineapples. 

Spent the rest of the morning cooking slop & glop, preparing taro starts for planting tomorrow, and cutting some guava poles for another project I'll tell you about later. 

Afternoon job priority was watering what I already have growing. The beans, peas, taro, mint, turmeric, sweet potatoes, pineapples, etc. Irrigation used 300 gallons of water to give each plant a suitable drink, some requiring more water than others. It took me an hour. 

The rest of the afternoon included working on the back pastures clearing brush and sowing grass seed. Finished up the afternoon by feeding the livestock, taking a much deserved shower, and thinking about what to have for dinner. A full day. 

Planting More

First an update on the Maxibel beans. Seeded on July 15, they've germinated and seem to be growing well. Today I added a 2 inch layer of grass mulch. Why not thicker? The plants are only 7" high and they don't respond well to being smothered. So a light mulching will do, and I'll top that off again in about two weeks. The only problem I've had when mulching beans is slugs. So I will have to watch for them and take action when they move into the neighborhood. 

Right next to the Maxibels I prepared more ground for planting. An inch of compost, a dusting of lava sand and wood ash, and a light covering of sheep manure. Till the top three inches. Wallah.....ready to plant. 

Why only till the top three inches? Because it's rocky below that. Every time I till, the tiller kicks out a few more rocks. So over time, the bed gradually gets derocked. Rather than spend all my time digging rocks I'd rather get things growing. Rock removal can get done bit by bit as the years go by. By the way, I only remove rocks bigger than a hen's egg. The smaller rocks stay in the garden. Rocks provide minerals and improve the structure of my soil. As long as my little tiller can deal with the rock, it stays. 

So I've just added 300 sq ft of garden beds. What to plant? Peas and some more beans. I'm going with a couple rows of snap peas, a couple of snow peas, then what space is left will be divided between a purple bush bean and a yellow one. Just adding some variety. 

For the record.....

72 sq ft ---- peas

228 sq ft --- beans 

More Beds Completed

Ok number counters, here's some more square footages for you. 

Bed ..... 36 sq ft .....taro

Bed ..... 60 sq ft .....taro

Bed ..... 56 sq ft .....taro

Bed ..... 60 sq ft .....taro

Bed ..... 132 sq ft ...taro

Above, a small bed tucked between some fruit trees. Planted and almost completely mulched. 

Yeah, I'm focused on getting the taro replanted. I have quite a few varieties that I'm growing. So it felt good the get five more harvested and then restarted. 

Above, 132 sq ft right outside the rock wall out front by the street. I haven't had a problem with people stealing taro. And I have an agreement with the hunters that they can harvest the taro as they wish in exchange for meat and slaughter waste. It's an arrangement that works out well. 

"I" asked me "Why do you grow so much taro?" Truthfully, I don't eat all this taro. There are a few varieties that grace my table from time to time, but most of it doesn't. I grow most of it for preservation purposes. I like having the Hawaiian varieties here for other people to take home and grow. I donate plenty of starts to various Hawaiian cultural events, specifically for them to be given away to anyone who wishes to grow them. Many years ago Jerry Konanui started my interest in taro. He gave me several taro huli, I think 6 or 8. That kind gesture got me interested in local foods. I now payback that kindness by offering huli to others. 

As I harvest the taro, I prepare the starts for replanting, and direct the rest of the plant to the livestock feed pot. Taro needs to be cooked before feeding it to the pigs and chickens, though I've seen chickens dig up the corms in the garden and eat them raw! Egads. I don't know how they can do that. Taro has a high "itch" factor that bothers most animals, including man. So I cook it. My taro patches yield quite a lot of livestock food. 

Above, a little garden bed along the driveway. I will utilize even small or narrow spaces for growing food. 

Square Footage

Plenty of readers have been asking about how much land do I have in growing spaces. Truthfully I can't say exactly. Some of my garden beds are teeny, some large. Trees, such as bananas and edible trees are planted singularly rather than in an organized orchard. So how would I calculate the square footage in them? 

For those of you who are curious, I'll start posting square footage, If you noticed, I'm including the square footage of the garden beds that I'm reclaiming (beds 1 though 5 so far). For those of you who have a need to crunch numbers, you can add them up for me. You can also add some beds that I've already done this year (I won't include anything prior to 1/1/18). 

... Single trees : 4 moringa, 4 bananas, 2 citrus

... 28 pineapples scattered about the farm

... Turmeric : 300 sq ft + 45 sq ft + 30 sq ft + 324 sq ft = 699 sq ft total

... Yacon in grow boxes = 18 sq ft

... Potatoes in grow boxes = 45 sq ft

... Sweet potatoes 174 sq ft

... Cholesterol spinach 30 sq ft

... Pipinolas 66 sq ft

... Chocolate mint 30 sq ft

I'll continue to mention the square footage of what I'm planting just so people can get a better idea of how much I'm growing. Just keep in mind that not all of this stuff goes onto my own dinner table. Yes, some does. But some also goes to Adam and Matt and to other people I know. Some is used for trading. Some gets sold. Much goes to feed the livestock. Some gets donated to senior centers and local food distribution efforts. 

I'm not one for keeping strict records. Through experience I've developed a feeling for how much I need to grow of this or that. And since the excess can always be sold, given away, or fed to the animals, the exact numbers are no big deal. By the way, I don't weigh my harvest either. I know of plenty of people who proudly know how many pounds of this or that comes out of their gardens. Frankly, I don't have the time to weight everything. And to me it doesn't make much difference if I don't weigh it. As long as there is plenty, that's all that matters. Besides, nothing goes to waste! 

ps- 

Bed 1 = 180

Bed 2 =   77

Bed 3 = 192

Bed 4 = 112

Bed 5 = 112