Happy Farming . com

Here’s an inspiring video about a little girl helping her mom set up a Square Foot Garden, and harvesting quite impressive radishes. One word: Awwww :

Back in the fall last year I took pictures of my new shredder, a Bosch AXT 2500HP. I was a bit reluctant to go out and buy a shredder in this higher price range but my previous experiences with cheaper shredders was driving me.

The old one I used to have had a flywheel with blades mounted on it, but the problem was the blades wore down really quick, and on top of that you would have to force the material into the shredder, because it simply couldn’t get hold of it any other way.

This new shredder uses a different principle and there are absolutely no problems with getting the machine to ‘eat’ the organic material. It chops everything into 3 cm (1 inch) pieces and have a very strong motor (this version runs on 16 amps at 230 volts AC). The third picture shows the grinder; a good way to keep ‘the suits’ out of your garden pretty scary for someone wearing a tie:

But I’m glad the suits put this on the market, because it’s a wonderful machine. I’m really looking forward to see the quality of the final compost.

Here’s a video showing some action. I’m chopping up shoots from apple trees with the leaves still on:

And the result (I’m closing down this raised bed, or else then material would go onto the compost heap instead.):

The shredder even took care of the Christmas tree during winter :

Now that I’m selling the house and not being able to take my trees with me I got the idea that I wanted to grow a new peach tree from seed. I did save a peach stone last year just for fun and wasn’t planning on using it for anything, but now the situation is different:

The ripe peach fruits on the mother tree were very delicious, so I expect a stone or seed from this particular tree would grow up to produce similar fruits:

I decided to give the seed an easy start by using a water pump plier on the hard stone surrounding the soft seed inside:

And this is were the disappointment kicked in:

The seed inside the hard shell was completely dried out. I tried two different stones, but both were dry and lifeless. I won’t even bother planting these as I don’t believe they’ll germinate at all.  They look a lot like the squash seeds I tried to save earlier, which I gave up on too because they dried out too.
Now what is going here? Is it really too late to use a seed saved only 6 months ago? I don’t think so. What I think is that the company who developed this particular type of peach tree focused on building its resistance to peach leaf curl and forgot all about its ability to reproduce. The funny thing is though, that this particular tree is NOT resistant to peach leaf curl after all.
And me? I just feel stupid for buying this unnatural crap. I’ll go look for a heirloom peach seed instead. If you know where to find one please leave a comment below.

In about two weeks a new garden adventure will begin for me, as I’ll be moving to a new property together with my girlfriend and our two small kids. What’s new for me is that this time it’s a rented place compared to our current house, which I own myself. We had a brief talk with the landlord, and it turns out that the former renters were allowed to put up a greenhouse,  and we’re free to do what we want in the garden as long as it “appears cultivated” as he put it. I’m still a bit unsure about what I can and what I can’t do, but maybe it’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission in this case Of course I’ll leave any old trees alone, but I’m certainly planning on converting part of the lawn into vegetable beds. Whether I’m bringing in a truckload of concrete slabs to be used as paths between beds I’m not sure, but I guess most of what I would like to do in the garden can be cleaned up and removed in a matter of weeks. The ultimate garden dream is still to have my own land to play on. I’m looking forward to that.
I’m leaving five old wonderful apple trees behind, but luckily there are two old ones on the new property and according to the owner they produce loads of apples and they are free for us to use. I’m glad we bought a high quality juicer last year, perfect for apples too. The apple trees provide shade in the garden, but it also has an open space with lots of sun. To the south west there’s even a small stream running by, and across the stream there’s a field with grazing horses. Very nice scenery.
Unfortunately I’ll have to leave my 30 sq m (320 sq ft) garage behind and cram most of my stuff into a much smaller, unheated shed, in like only one fifth of the area. I’ll have to sell or give away some of it, but that’s okay, this was never meant to be a high tech operation anyway. I’m keeping the shredder though – that is just an awesome piece of equipment, a Bosch AXT 2500HP. I’ll post some pictures and videos of that beast later on. It has helped me produce great composting ready material, so I’m seriously considering moving my three compost heaps with me to the new location, if the content is not too gross. Gotta feed the soil, right?
Speaking of feeding the soil – sometimes I get carried away and just go on and on, talking about  soil and manure and homesteading, and somewhere along the road my girlfriend somehow convinced herself that rabbits running freely around the garden is a total win-win situation. When will I learn to shut the hell up? I’m not sure I agree entirely with that But at least neither one of us talks about chopping them up for meat like good old John Seymour did. That’s just too old school for us vegetarians. I’m sure the kids would love to play with them though. We just need to convince them that it’s NOT candy that’s scattered all over the lawn

Now that the snow is covering everything around here I’ve had a chance to look through the stacks of paper documenting my food growing adventures in 2009.

This is a log describing the food I’m bringing in from my garden grown in 2009. I’m using the following beds:

Raised bed, 3 m x 1.2 m
Raised bed, 5 m x 1.2 m
Bed, 6 m x 1.2 m
Bed, 6 m x 1.2 m

(Note: The list below is not fully updated yet…)

———————-

Peach:

2009-08-19: 1 pcs. (90 g)

———————-

Cucumber:

2009-08-10: 209 g
2009-08-06: 400 g
2009-07-25: 211 g
2009-07-21: 2 pcs. (439 g)

———————-

Strawberry:

2009-06-24: 173 g
2009-06-17: 357 g
2009-06-13: 36 g
2009-06-10: 185 g

———————-

Parsnip:

2009-10-15: 2 pcs. (1532 g)

———————-

Tomato:

TBD

———————-

Beans:

2009-08-06: 230 g (bush)

———————-

Peas:

2009-07-23: 30 pcs.

———————-

Onion:

2009-08-14: 1 pcs. (119 g)
2009-08-08: 2 pcs. yellow (288 g)

———————-

Red beet:

2009-11-22: 1 pcs. (194 g)
2009-10-15: 5 pcs. round (770 g)
2009-07-20: 1 pcs. round (243 g), 2 pcs. long (556 g)
2009-07-13: 3 pcs. round (743 g), 3 pcs. long (748 g)
2009-07-12: 302 g
2009-07-11: 432 g round
2009-07-03: 1 pcs. (480 g)

———————-

Squash:

2009-08-10: 863 g
2009-08-06: 1 pcs. (1500 g)
2009-07-26: 2 pcs. (899 g)

———————-

Radish:

2009-06-17: Red (112 g), white (221 g)
2009-06-11: 3 pcs. Ice (26 g)

———————-

Carrot:

2009-08-15: 11 pcs. (472 g)
2009-08-14: 3 pcs. (196 g)
2009-07-23: 377 g
2009-07-22: 5 pcs. (271 g)
2009-07-21: 4 pcs. (287 g)
2009-07-20: 3 pcs. (267 g)
2009-07-17: 5 pcs. (410 g)
2009-07-15: 144 g
2009-07-12: 1090 g
2009-07-04: 3 pcs. (267 g)
2009-07-03: 182 g
———————-

Spinach:

2009-06-17: 197 g
2009-06-05: 135 g
2009-05-30: 132 g
2009-05-22: 78 g

———————-

Lettuce:

2009-06-20: 268 g (1 head)
———————-

Potatoes:

2009-07-22: 1170 g (2  plants)
2009-07-20: 1204 g (2 plants)
2009-07-17: 1263 g (2 plants)
2009-07-12: 901 g
2009-07-11: 725 g
2009-07-07: 268 g (1 plant, 1 shoot), 1033 g (1 plant, several shoots)
2009-07-05: 606 g (2 plants)
2009-07-04: 811 g (2 plants)
2009-07-03: 670 g
2009-07-01: 724 g
2009-06-30: 860 g Asparagus

———————-

Oh boy have I been wanting to use that headline! Free Heirloom Seeds™ is what everybody wants, right? Well, me too. And to some degree, the heirloom part is even true in this case. I’m offering 5 bags of spinach seeds from my garden, seeds I saved in 2009. Maybe one year is not entirely what you would define as heirloom, as 2009 was my first year collecting seeds, but anyway, if you want a bag to experiment with, please send me your address either via the contact page or email and I’ll send a bag to you. If you have a garden blog I can also post a link to your blog.

I have only tested two spinach seeds last summer to do a quick check of their ability to germinate, so please don’t be too disappointed, if the seeds won’t grow for some reason, but I think they will.

I’m curious to find out if any bags of seeds will be confiscated by the Empire. Being spinach seeds I believe they have a chance of passing through the system. If the bags were full of Marijuana seeds it would be a completely other story I mean, outlawing a plant?? Isn’t outlawing plants the same as outlawing roads, because roads can be used by bank robbers?

ANYWAYS – if you get a bag of seeds it would be fun hearing about your experiences with it. There are 5 bags up for grabs, and one bag per person, each with about 200 seeds. If enough people are interested I can make more bags, but at the moment my fingers are hurting from separating seeds, as spinach seeds have an amazingly rough outer layer and sit closely together.

I don’t know about you but I’m beginning to look forward to spring!

Photo by Irene2005.

Last year I decided to sell my property. I never really thought about how much space we would like to have when raising two kids, so the house was suddenly a bit small (92 sq m) when they finally arrived. After that I received notice, that I was going to be fired in the summer of 2010, but it felt like I was one step ahead already, because the main reason I moved to this town was because there was a job for me, and now that it’s gone I might as well move. At least there’s not much holding me back and the same its true for my girlfriend.

I would really like to do more experiments in my garden, like for instance building a giant biodynamic compost heap, or try to store potatoes in the ground covered with straw, or maybe try out new ways of improving the soil with manure from animals, but I’m pretty sure that this would not always be a pretty sight. It would be messy. And that’s okay when you play, but it’s not okay when you live in a pretty neighborhood.

I don’t know how people play, when they live in a pretty neighbourhood. Maybe they play games on the computer, but I like going outside and play and get some fresh air and dirt on my clothes. And as the saying goes, the only difference between boys and men are the size of their toys. I would love to have at least 10,000 sq m (108,000 sq ft) to play on – man I would get myself some toys.

It’s like the chicken-egg problem – if I had this size property I could grow lots of fruits and vegetables for sale, and the money earned would pay for the property. So at the moment I have to rent a smaller place and at least get something going. As the majority of people live in cities and urban areas today this is maybe what is needed; more creative ways and examples of growing food in these crowded places. I can’t figure out if it’s only me who think cities and urban areas are crowded or people feel they are forced to live here. As I see it the more crowded it gets the more diversity is lost. At least this is true for the plant and animal kingdom. You’ll never find a goat or a cow strolling down a busy street in a modern western city, you’ll have to live in India to see that. In my small family we’re so disconnected from the plant and animal kingdom, that we’ll have to turn to books to find out what it’s about. An hour ago I read a bedtime story to my 2 year old daughter about a girl and her brother spending their vacation on a self-sufficient farm in the countryside. Why would anyone want to print this kind of books, if there wasn’t some kind of need to connect with the animals or the plant kingdom? She plays with plastic animals, for Christ’s sake. I feel poor in a rich country.

Exciting times ahead for happyfarming.com! I’ve been told that I’ll be fired from my cosy engineering job in the summer 2010. A part of me is freaking out because I’m afraid that I won’t be able to support myself and my family due to this change, but another part of me is excited, because I’ve often dreamed about moving on during the last three years. Apparently it has been tougher to do than I thought it would be, so I choose to see it as a blessing that I have been kicked in the butt from above.

The problem I’m facing now is, that the bank won’t let me borrow money to buy the farm of my dreams, since I won’t have a job for long. A smaller place would also do, but it seems it’s not going to happen. So I’ll probably end up renting a property to have a place to grow stuff. I have looked into buying what people in the UK or USA refer to as an allotment or plot, but last time I checked the price was 34,000 USD for a 400 m2 plot, which means: it ain’t gonna happen! I’m under the impression that around here it’s more about socializing and banging each other on the head with rules and regulations than it is about growing something eatable.

This is Magnus showing the most efficient way to harvest sea buckthorn. Well, he doesn’t exactly harvest the berries, but he only takes away the raw juice, which is good because he doesn’t harm the buckthorn shrubs:
Part 1:

Photo by Arthur Chapman.

I’m not growing sea buckthorn in my garden (yet?…), but it grows along the coast of Denmark, so it’s available for free around this time of the year, if you bother to go out and harvest the berries.

A thank you goes to Dorte for the juice recipe below!

“Sea buckthorn juice is able to keep fresh for about 1 year when it is stored in a cold place, without a preservative, because it exists naturally in the berries. When the juice has been extracted from the berries, you can drink it as “schnapps”, since it is very “strong”. Or you can mix 600 g (21 ounces) of cane sugar per 1 l (4 cups) raw juice. The raw juice and sugar is stirred without heating up.

Juice for drinking: Mix about 1½ dl (½ cup) of the sugar mixture and 8½ dl (3½ cups) water (depending on the taste). The sugar mixture will separate, so you will have to give it a shake before mixing with water. If you don’t drink the final mixture right away you will have to stir again, since it will also separate.”