Thanksgiving Dinner and the Garden

It's been such a nice holiday so far. Having a few days off from work really does wonders! The house is almost as clean as when I used to be home! Sunday I will finish it up and it's ready for winter. At least it won't feel so stuffy and stale.

In the rush before Thanksgiving we failed to get a few things from the grocery store such as celery! How can you have stuffing with no celery? So as we were about to get ready to go to the store I remembered my pot of cutting celery out on the porch. I kept a few things handy on the porch because my garden is not near the kitchen as I would like it to be. The rosemary, sage, basil, parsley root and cutting celery were out there.

The cutting celery and parsley root have been hard for me to get started from seed so they actually spent time indoors. By the time they were ready for the garden, I had it nearly all planted up anyway. A little garden on the porch was convenient.

The cutting celery replaced the celery stalks in our stuffing. It has such a more pronounced flavor that it didn't matter we only had a small amount to use. It was well worth using. Parsley root and carrots go together as well as carrots and parsnips. We actually enjoyed the parsley root more than we would have the parsnips. We've decided to plant more parsley root (perhaps 1/2 of a bed) next year. The leaf of the parsley root has a flavor similar, we thought, to that of cilantro. Stronger than regular flat leaf parsley.

I've been working on my list for next year as well. In fact I've already ordered the leek seed and the order is being processed. I've found a company having the purple sprouting broccoli that so many rave about. It has a longer growing season than I would like, in fact it will take about my whole growing season to mature. This is another veggie that will take up residents in my house until planting out time! I will likely plant a quicker growing variety also. There is a hybrid broccoli which only requires 46 days to maturity. The purple variety, http://www.humeseeds.com/broc_ps.htm
takes 120 days to mature!!! This might be worth growing in a couple of large pots and save the garden space for the early variety. I'll have to think about that when I'm drawing up my plot map.

I also found a curious little tomato called, "Principe Borghese". A small plum tomato that is also excellent for drying. With a determinate vine I won't have to be pruning and staking all season and it sounds like they would make a nice sauce. Most of my tomato planting will probably be these plums and I'll have a couple plants of a good slicing variety.

I was considering planting Nantes and Chantenay carrots, but what I experienced this year with the Chantenays, I think they will be my only carrot next year.

I regret that I didn't plant garlic in the Fall. I was hoping to try for early spring, but none of the companies I've found will ship in the spring. It's all for Fall shipment.

So, this is where I'm at with 2009 garden plans and we still have nearly a month until Christmas. What will I occupy myself with in January? Oh yes, planting leeks and purple broccoli in the house!

Farming Thoughts Continue

Since we're so concerned about the economy and getting into debt with the purchase of property, we are set on the idea of a business plan. We've decided that we would need to earn at least a small income from the farm in order to supplement the loss of about 1/2 of my yearly income. I will just have a bus run so I'll have more time at home. Hubby will probably do that too. Although, the first year will be spent fixing up the buildings and purchasing necessary equipment, while keeping our jobs and living here. We could keep our jobs while living on the farm, but wouldn't be able to work the farm with our present schedules. Possibly our second year we would only have the gardens and chickens.

Many years ago, my husband wanted to take a shot at being a small business owner. He's an autobody technician by trade. The first thing he did was attend a "Small Business Association" seminar. They won't even consider giving anyone a loan unless they are able to provide a five year plan. The seminar was to teach you how to create one. We're using their instructions for our plan.

Typically, it takes about 5 years before a business will operate in the black. In your plan you include your wages and all operating expenses. I must admit, I'm concerned about what we will find regarding taxes. Many small businesses are failing here because of certain laws (minimum wage for one) and the taxes. Mom and Pop businesses are nearly a thing of the past. Pittsburgh has had it's steel industry, but everything else used to be small, family businesses. Boutiques, diners, restaurants, delis, gas stations, everything! Many have had to close.

When my Mother and I were in business, we were able to operate with a crafter's license. Determining if your business is actually considered a hobby is something the tax office will look at. If I will actually be doing seasonal type business, it's possible that a large part of what I want to do will be considered a hobby. For the most part, it will determine how often I report the tax, not whether I need a license or not. I definately will need a Pennsylvania Sales Tax License. We will not have employees, so we shouldn't need a Federal Number. Laws may have changed which require us to do that, we'll have to find out. The problem is that some manufacturers will not consider you for wholesale without one. I've encountered that before.

I'm not familiar with laws concerning farmers. This is something we certainly need to know. I work with a farmer at the garage. He's been very helpful so far and has said he would ride out to the property with us to help us determine how many animals the property will actually provide feed for; if the buildings are in good condition and if they are the right buildings for what we want to do. He's taught me about planting hay and how it grows, when to harvest and how often you have to re-plant. I didn't know that it would grow back for a few years without re-planting. I guess it just gets sparser as the years go by. He is also helping us with what machinery we will need. After we have that information we can get prices. Of course, we always see used equipment advertised in all the newspapers. My husband repairs everything for us. We've never had anyone come in to fix or replace anything in our house and, on our vehicles, with the exception of the replacement of a transmission. That was because he just didn't want to do it. We only pay to have them inspected.

So, this is a start. Lots to keep us busy.

Carrots

I usually plant Danvers Half Longs and they do well. I planted Scarlet Nantes this year and have been very pleased with them. They are a shorter carrot but the flavor is sweet. Hubby held it to the mirror for size.

This one had been in the ground for a while. The earlier ones used weren't as fat!

We looked at a farm a few weeks ago

It probably is the worst time to even consider going into debt, but I really, really, really, want to do some low scale farming. I can taste it!!!!! So, we go on drives just looking at what is for sale out there. One in particular may be within our reach. Although, we don't know what the value of properties per acre and it probably is in the process of changing. This 10 acre farm just might be do-able. It's nothing fancy and the house burned down 2 years ago so we would need a house. No farming equipment at all is present. They did an estate sale and got rid of it all.

The road is on the left side of the picture. This is the top left end of the property. The orange fenced area is around the foundation of the house. The property line goes clear over to the white house in the distance.
This is what's left of the house. We've decided it's not worth even using the foundation so we would have to start over in the same place.

The 4 remaining buildings are grouped pretty much together behind the house. The trees need to come down. Really nasty looking trees that probably got destroyed by the fire.

The well and septic are there so, it doesn't make sense to change the location of the house and have to go into the expense of those things.



This is the grouping of out buildings. The one on the right is the largest. It has 2 stalls in it large enough for cows, and loads of storage space. A tractor and other machinery would fit. Upstairs is the hay loft. Could be used for other storage.

The brown building across the way is a grain barn with a corn crib on the right side. Large bins hold grain inside and there's a loft. There's also space to park machinery or vehicles. Up at the one end of the loft is open to either drop things down and out or store things from the outside - in?

The white building is very cool. It is almost an exact copy of the "Have More Plan" barn. Remember that posting of mine? The floors in th large barn and white barn are concrete by the way. The white building would easily house a few pigs, a couple goats, milking stand, a couple of sheep? Not sure about the sheep. The other side for chickens. We would need to make outdoor chicken run and a pen area for the pigs. The goats would graze. Perhaps a milk cow and one for the freezer.
Then behind these 2 buildings to the left is another small building like a shed.


We thought we could fix this up first and use it for sleeping while we work on the place. We could set up a kitchen in the grain barn easily. In the summer it would be great. Maybe I could actually get some time off in the summer. This place is about 1 hours drive from where I work. But there's a school bus company right down the road a few miles from the farm ;) Guess what I'm thinking.

Okay ~ so the rest of the property (it's a giant square from the looks of it). The next picture is the view from the right of the largest barn.
The property border is the tree line down the backside and to the right of my car it goes over to the neighbor's house.

It's nothing fancy, but being near the road like it is would be a good set up to have a market stand. The closest town is about 3 miles away and is a college town. It's also an Amish community. When we went into town there were wagons, horses and cars and trucks! It was a little hard to navigate through town because of this. Something to get used to. Must be really careful. Also, there is the remnant of a railroad track going across the property and straight into town.
!No tracks or ties, just a bed of dirt. Wouldn't it be fun to ride a horse into town? I'm so into this!

Here's the picture of the other side of the property that goes to the neighbor's house.

Well, I don't know if we can even get a loan right now. But I do know that we could make some money on the farm. Probably not enough to live on so I'll drive bus and maybe the hubby will too and we'll have early morning, mid day, and evening to get the farm work done. No more training or office work. Just a couple hours driving in the morning and a couple in the afternoon.

I have to get into work. Not driving this morning, but have training to do. Have a great day.