Anne! How do ya like it? When Charlynn told me how good @ranchogordo.bsky.social beans are & of waitlist, I signed up. Tho when I was accepted it was pandemic, times were tough, I couldn't afford, so sadly had to pass.
We're growing our own dry beans on #themicrofarm now, tho I'd still love 'em.
This 4 part thread is why we grow as much of our own produce on #theMicrofarm as we can, w/focus on vegetables & protein foods good for long term storage, are easily frozen, or fermented. Dry beans, winter squash, sweet potatoes, root crops, cabbage, etc.
#GoodFood=GoodHealth
Harvested Nov 8:
View from a warm cozy lit windowsill with colorful vases and pots out into the early cold light of a blue snowy morning, Dec 24, 2025. The image is one of human-made comfort and warmth making the best of a long, cold, winter.
To my bsky friends and #Post family – what a long, strange, year. I've missed connecting with you all and writing about #theMicrofarm and my wanderings.
My wish is that the New Year brings us all peace, comfort, and the warmth of knowing we will emerge from this madness with renewed strength.
Image with portraits of Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt, both singer songwriters, in classic portrait lighting and both holding guitars as if playing them. Lovett is in a black leather sport coat on a black background and Hiatt is in a dark teal sportcoat on a painterly teal background.
So what did Santa bring you?
Gift-giving here on #theMicrofarm will wait 'til the Grankiddo can be here, though the Kiddo said "Check your email, Dad. . . "
She bought tickets for us to see two of my singer-songwriter heroes, #LyleLovett and #JohnHiatt. She grew up listening to them. What a peach!
Every once in a while I come upon a recipe that fits snugly into plans for creative ways to cook the food we grow in #theMicrofarm gardens.
Here's a good one for both home & camp cooking. It's likely to become a holiday tradition for us, along w/Hopping John, Collards & Cornbread Dumplings. . . 1/
❄️🎄Wishing all my friends, old and new, a warm and wonderful holiday from #theMicrofarm. ⛄️❄️
A particle board jig with screws in an arch on which a 10' piece of metal conduit is being bent into an arch before cutting to length.
I devised a simple jig for bending the metal conduit into the desired radius. Also figured a quick easy, sturdy, way to attach them to my raised beds. If anyone is interested, I'll post up more about that process as I have time.
Have I told ya how much I love my #SanityGarden here on #theMicrofarm?
Vermont cranberry beans, volunteer squash, and marigolds in a raised garden bed.
2nd growth green cabbage after 1st head harvested
All of which should, hopefully, extend my growing season so that the second heads of cabbage (which grow from the stalk after main head is harvested) and my 2nd plantings of beans etc have better chance to mature.
All great fun experimenting with for fresh wholesome food for #theMicrofarm table. 3/
Photo of a long, angled, view of three tall, 12' long, raised garden beds with new conduit semi-circular hoops installed, ready for UV-resistant greenhouse cover. Along the rails of the closest tall bed is an assortment of colorful red, yellow, and green vegetables just harvested and sitting in morning sun. To the left are three low raised garden beds supporting a tall walk-through arch of cattle panel fencing.
Prepping #theMicrofarm 's 3 tall raised garden beds for cold weather. I bent & installed 1/2" EMT conduit in 1/2 hoops to support UV resistant greenhouse cover. Inside that will be last year's red Pex hoops supporting IRAD greenhouse cover, creating double-walled protection. 1/
#SanityGarden
photo of a row of colorful just-picked vegetables resting on the flat top board around the edge of a tall raised garden bed. It includes a few types of tomatoes, delicata and carnival winter squash, patty pan summer squash, and several peppers of various types. In the foreground are several 2nd crop rutabaga tops growing in the raised bed and a red-handled pair of garden snips. In the background are two lower raised garden beds full of marigolds red and yellow and tomato plants.
Have I told you how much I love our vegetable garden?
I've started 2nd plantings of rutabaga, red and golden beets, beans, cabbage, and 3 types cukes. Time to get new metal hoops made and cover 'em up before first freeze.
Collards, tomatoes, & peppers all still strong.
#theMicrofarm #SanityGarden
Handsome, playful and goofy black & white dog stands with his front paws on the edge of a black coffee table, on which is an all black cat sitting on his haunches, his front paws out in front. Both dog and cat are looking straight at the viewer as if their mock battle was interrupted unexpectedly.
Morning Ritual
These two weren't expecting me, evidently. An every morning ritual, the cat bats the dog about the head with both paws in rapid fashion & the dog bobs and weaves, lunging in with nips and nibbles. A chase then generally ensues, sliding and skittering across old floors.
#theMicrofarm
Photo of view looking back between several low raised garden beds or redwood colored frames surrounding galvanized aluminum tin, with arched trellises, lush vegetable growth, and a hanging basket of struggling nasturtiums.
... #theMicrofarm, have I told you how much I love my gardens?
They are, truly, keeping me sane in these trying times. I'm up before 1st light this time of year to go out & check things, & both of us check the gardens before we go in the house when we get home from somewhere. ... 4/
#GetOutside
The cotyledon from Maine co-op Fedco Seed's Vermont Cranberry Dry Bean sprout rises from dry grass mulch, reaching for the sky, strong and proud. Planted 8/15, emerged just two days later (!), I have hopes it and it's several fellow seedlings will mature before hard frost. This is an old New England staple, and though edible before dry by cooking via typical "green bean" methods, is usually harvested when the bean husk is thoroughly dry on the vine. It shells *very* easily, providing an abundance of wholesome speckled dry beans to use throughout the winter and to use for replanting come spring. Buy once, reap the harvest forever. Chock full of protein and great for the diet, strong and vigorous to grow, I'm tickled as hell to be growing these beans for my family and neighbors.
WAITING FOR JACK
Vermont Cranberry Dry Beans. . . anyone ever try them?
Though I planted these late as a fall crop & don't know if they'll mature before hard frost, I'm excited to have them in the #SanityGarden here on #theMicrofarm.
Strong & vigorous, they emerged two days after planting... 1/
Image of a woman from shoulders down, in green and orange, standing in an open doorway, arm around a huge bunch of freshly pulled bright orange carrots with even brighter lush bunch of greens sticking out the back.
A Girl & Her Carrots
She sure loves her carrots and comes in with a huge wide smile wit bunches like this. These are Scarlet Nantes – very sweet when pulled at the right time.
She's a peas & carrots girl, for sure ad simply adores growing both.
#theMicrofarm #SanityGarden #Maine
Somewhat of a bird's eye view of several handsome raised garden beds of redwood colored frames and roofing metal with a variety of vegetables growing and garden implements about.
We do love our gardens here on #theMicrofarm, all of 'em, though especially our growing vegetable garden spread.
Thanks, pretty good so far...hope you're having a good summer, too.
Five jars of colorful fermented vegetables on a wrought iron table with a rose pattern. From L to R: 1 qt of cubed Beets with grated carrot, garlic, and dill; 1 qt of Sweet Sauerkraut with cabbage, grated carrot, and garlic; 3qt jar with bail lid full of Half-Sour Pickles, Brooklyn Deli-Style; 1 qt of straight sauerkraut, 1 qt of Half-Sour Pickles. In the background are weather cedar shake shingles and a porch railing.
From #theMicrofarm #SanityGarden.
5 jars of fermented goodness.
L>R: 1qt Beets w/carrot, garlic, & dill; 1qt Sweet Sauerkraut w/cabbage, carrot, & garlic; 3qt jar of Half-Sour Pickles, Brooklyn Deli-Style; 1qt of straight sauerkraut; 1qt of Half-Sour Pickles.
All from the garden!
#GetOutside
The dog we had, the Wingnut Doggo, succumbed to a sudden fast-growth tumor just over a year ago. You may know that, not sure.
Our new dog, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, or Beau, Bobo, You Goofball, Whattadog, is fitting right in. He's a terrific help in the garden.
#theMicrofarm
Five heads of homegrown cabbage of the Primo variety resting on a wooden planked porch, having just been rinsed.
And. . .CABBAGE!
First year: not too shabby.
I can hardly wait to make my own slaws & sauerkraut. I adore good sauerkraut. I have red cabbage growing, too, and am putting in another bunch of green cabbage to see if I make it before hard frost.
#theMicrofarm #GetOutside
#LeaveItBetterThanYouFoundIt
At some point, definitely! It's a Kiddo's favorite.
I wish it were a smidge easier to grow a small crop of wheat for milling here on #theMicrofarm to use for baking our own bread, especially for fall/winter soups. I've looked into it, and it's certainly doable, though not a priority. Yet.
Approximately four dozen just pulled onions of various sizes and colors lay on a grade bed drying in the sun before going to the curing rack. #GetOutside
To distract from the always bad, sad, news: ONIONS!
Pulled early this morning from raised bed #1 in the #SanityGarden here on #theMicrofarm, approximately four dozen onions of various sizes & colors lay drying in the sun before going to the curing rack, then storage.
So good, so tasty. #GetOutside
Heya Janice!
I wish I had a lot more time to devote to writing about #theMicrofarm and what we've been doing. One of these days, and little by little.
I hope you're doing well, sister.
On a porcelain kitchen table sits a wide variety of garden perennials in black 2qt pots arranged around a tan container with red and yellow annuals. The perennials include Joe Pye Weed, alliums, 2 colors echinacea, 2 colors yarrow. In front of it all is a handmade card that says "Happy Birthday!"
A wide variety of garden perennials being planted in a pleasing arrangement in a newly dug garden. The perennials include Joe Pye Weed, alliums, 2 colors echinacea, 2 colors yarrow. At upper left is a red watering can. At upper right are the knees and hands of a person adjusting a hose nozzle spray for watering.
The Kiddo's birthday was last month.
Instead of spending $85 on cut flower arrangement–as I usually do & been disappointed–I spent same amount on perennials & one arrangement of annuals (local kid raising $).
So, 10 two-qt perennials to divide up & plant.
A new tradition is born on #theMicrofarm.
So incredible! Love seeing how #themicrofarm is doing.
Well hey, Blythe!
How's thing down under?
Y'know, these raised beds are the single best improvement we've made here on #theMicrofarm and for ourselves. We get so much satisfaction from them.
A colorful variety of just harvested produce on two wooden porch steps, including cukes, patty pan squash, Poblano, Hungarian, and Jalafuego peppers, Sungold cherry tomatoes, Carnival squash, hybrid landrace squash, Golden Zucchini, collard and cabbage greens, green beans, yellow and red onions.
Harvest from #theMicrofarm #SanityGarden, most all from just this morning, including:
cukes, patty pan squash, Poblano, Hungarian, & Jalafuego peppers, Sungold cherry tomatoes, Carnival squash, hybrid landrace squash, Golden Zucchini, collard & cabbage greens, green beans, yellow and red onions.
To my Cumberland County, Maine friends: yet another bad ass thunderstorm system moving through.
This one, so far, has dropped quarter-sized hail with winds up to 60mph. Just skirted #themicrofarm and is moving fast and out over the Atlantic. More coming behind it.
Be careful out there.
A couple dozen heads of garlic, just harvested, full with roots & stalks, lay on the edge of a raised garden bed. Laying across is a paint stir stick used as garden marker that says "Organic German White Garlic, 10/27, Hoss, 6 rows, 23 cloves."
From #TheMicrofarm Sanity Garden, 1st harvest of garlic this morning. Organic German White Hardneck, planted last Oct, were the first to emerge in early spring and proved to thrive best.
Now to hang & dry for a few weeks to dry & cure, then store.
Also ready are both Music & Purple Hardneck.
Y'know, the Kiddo & I tell each other on the reg how fortunate we feel that things worked out the way they have & that we get to share so much of our skills & talents here on #themicrofarm.
A new friend of mine came by and said, when I showed her around, "this is like a fairy tale setting!"
I helped Kiddo & her pal get set up to go camping with a bunch of my adventure gear. Felt good to handle it, clean it, & get it ready.
I miss the road. I miss not having a destination.
With #themicrofarm being quiet, I'm having a summer ale & cranking favorite tunes:
youtu.be/Nl17t3ERqkE?...
