Turning spring around
All winter, our farm
grows toward the sun. I plant most of our fall and early spring
crops in the mule garden, the furthest away from the shade of the
hill. We bask in the warmth that comes in the south-facing bank of
windows in front of the trailer, and our tractored chickens do the same
with their open-fronted living quarters.
But as April brings a
spell of days in the low 80s, everything turns around. First comes
the chicken tractor, which I literally turn 180 degrees so the solid
back creates a shaded zone for hot afternoons. I start to close
the shades on the trailer's west windows to block out afternoon
heat. And soon we'll even switch our work schedule so we do
outside tasks in the morning instead of the afternoon.
This heat spell won't
last long, and by tomorrow I'll be scurrying around to cover up
seedlings, glad the strawberries haven't yet opened their blooms.
The hint of summer was fun, though, since it gave me the chance to
lounge in the yard and find the year's first four-leaf clovers (two in
one patch).
As a completely unrelated side note, I really appreciated everyone's rhubarb suggestions! I merged several pieces of advice together by tossing about a cup of chopped stalks with about two tablespoons of strawberry freezer jam
and roasting them at 450 degrees for about ten minutes until they were
just becoming soft. Adding the strawberry-roasted rhubarb to a
spring salad of lettuce, baby kale, and arugula, topped with hard-boiled
eggs, a store-bought avocado, and a bit more strawberry jam drizzled on
top was delicious!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Hi Anna,
Have to comment on that lovely looking salad! We enjoy rhubarb (and avocados and eggs) many ways here, too. We most often enjoy rhubarb savory, sauteed with other vegetables or steamed and then simmered in a curry. Yesterday, I spied a rhubarb crown peeking through the soil. Just last Monday I was boiling maple sap and in snow up to our knees. Today, a warm, gusting wind is blowing, and the honey bees are flying! Pleased to report that our one "survivor" colony is building up quickly!
Best, Eva