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Poppy Corners Farm

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Walnut Creek, California
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Walnut Creek, California

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Raptor Day

January 4, 2019 Elizabeth Boegel
My manzanita is blooming!

My manzanita is blooming!

Do you remember me telling you about the rat problem?

To sum up: 2018 was the year we were inundated with roof rats. This is not uncommon in our neighborhood, which 100 years ago was part of the foothills leading to Mt Diablo. Well, it still is part of the foothills, but now it’s covered with houses. Living this close to open space and a state park means that we get wildlife of all kinds in our suburban yards - and most of the time we love that. The line of cars on the way to the freeway every morning, folks in a hurry to get to work? stops completely when a rafter of wild turkeys wants to cross the road. Folks with small dogs like chihuahuas and terriers? they keep ‘em inside when hearing reports of a coyote roaming the streets. Depending on the season, you’re likely to see whole families of deer munching on whatever they can find, and the opossums who make their nests under our outbuildings. Raccoons, moles, voles, snakes, foxes, we’ve got it all. But this past year, the rats were out of control.

And it wasn’t just in our house; most of our neighbors were also complaining of a surfeit of rodents. We would have guests over to eat, and as we sat around the farm table on the patio enjoying twilight and home brew, we’d see whole groups of them skittering along the fenceline. While we were accustomed to it, it put guests off, I can tell you. And when the rats moved into the walls of our home, we declared war. It took the better part of the year to figure out every single way they were getting into the house and close it off. We had vector control come out. We refurbished our garage door so it would shut tight against the floor when closed. We hired a guy to climb all over the roof and figure out where to put hardware mesh to close off holes. I checked and re-checked the protection around the chicken coop and food. We bought bin after bin for the garage to house anything remotely food-like, even potting soil. We had to get a new dishwasher because rats had chewed the water line in our old one and shorted it out. We stopped composting. We set traps. We set more traps. There were traps everywhere. We also had rat mites - a microscopic bug that lives on rats which moved on to biting some of our family, the itching driving them, sleepless, slowly out of their minds. The same hired rat guy spread a ‘safe’ sort of dusty poison in our crawl space and attic, several times, to kill the mites. It went on and on. The rat guy came every Wednesday and every Wednesday he found new places to fortify. It was crazy. We resorted to a Vitamin D-based poison that kills rats but not the things that eat rats.

Eventually, we did get a handle on the problem. We no longer have them in our house. But I just got a text from a neighbor asking about the guy who came out every week and could they have the contact info? because everyone in their house is itching like mad. So I know the rats are still out there. They are non-native and have found a very good home here, where every third house keeps chickens, everyone has dog or cat food lying around, folks feed the birds, and everyone composts.

Remember when we talked about insects, and about the prey-predator balance? There is always more prey than predator. This was the case with the rats. I pleaded to the trees every day: Where are you, hawks? Where are you, owls? I pleaded with the woodpiles too: Where are you, snakes? I all but did dances, shaking instruments and ululating. Praying, but instead of saying “come, Lord Jesus” I was saying “come, predators.” When would the balance be restored???

January 3rd, 2019, that’s when.

imagine credit: Evan Lipton, Macaulay Library

imagine credit: Evan Lipton, Macaulay Library

I know I posted before about the Cooper’s Hawk hanging out in our yard, hunting the little birds. Yesterday I watched her nab one, then sit on the fence for a good two minutes before flying off with the bird in her talons. Where there’s one hawk, there are others - and rats are good food for them too. I have also recently seen Red Tail Hawks circling our yard. The chickens know to head inside where they can’t be seen, when a hawk is overhead. They are on high alert.

image credit: Tony Varela, Macaulay Library

image credit: Tony Varela, Macaulay Library

Last night, we also heard a Great Horned Owl for the first time in a while. They have a very loud and striking call. This particular one was quite close, in our neighbor’s oak tree right across the street. They are voracious predators of rodents. They have a huge range in their diet and will eat almost anything, but small mammals are their bread-n-butter. They also eat squirrels.

image credit: Darren Clark, Macaulay Library

image credit: Darren Clark, Macaulay Library

We also heard a Barn Owl for the first time last night in a long while. I remember the first time I heard one and I thought, naturally, ‘that’s a screech owl.’ Because barn owls screech, or ‘scream.’ Screech owls actually have a very nice hoot. So how did those two get mixed up, way back when???? Anyway, the scream of a barn owl is quite startling. Last night there was one in close proximity to the Great Horned Owl and they were singing a duet of some kind. I was desperately hoping they were Game-of-Thrones type war cries, and the rats would soon see their doom.

After we both stood out in the cold, shivering and listening for a while, Tom declared it ‘Raptor Day.’ And so it was. Here’s to more of them, and less of the rats. And come summer, I’m hoping to have a ‘Snake Day.’ I shall report if it becomes so.

Predators always come. It’s a mantra worth repeating.

Today, however, I have declared it ‘Bread and Bean’ day. I am cooking up some of the rattlesnake beans I dried and saved this past summer, and making a bean and kale soup, or maybe pasta e fagioli. I haven’t made bread in two months, so that’s happening too, and it’s nice to have a warm and sourdoughy kitchen on a cold day.

One of my professors is teaching an Edible Landscaping class this spring and has asked for my help. I’m not sure how much help I can give, because I have a very full class load, but one thing I can do is share seeds. I spent some time clearing out old seeds and organizing what I have left, and then I put in five big orders: for veg, at Seed Savers, Baker Creek, and Johnny’s; for flowers, at Renee’s and Floret Farm. Tom also gave me some flower seeds from Larner which need sowing now. Anyway, I have plenty of seeds to share and it will be fun to swap with my teacher and try some of his varieties. I’ve got my beds laid out for summer planting (on paper that is) and it’s fun to think about the coming season. My teacher said “you’re so organized!” and then I told him how I’d gone out the garden a couple days ago and found three huge Daikon radishes that I don’t remember planting. So how organized am I, really?

We ate these, pickled with carrots, in Bahn Mi sandwiches last night, yum.

I’ll share my summer plans and seed varieties with you as we get closer to planting time. Meanwhile I’m imagining that we are all doing the same thing right now - planning and buying. It’s winter’s chief joy for gardeners. :)

Tags wildlife, IPM, vegetable garden, cooking, preserving
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Happy New Year!

December 31, 2018 Elizabeth Boegel
Frittata made with our chicken eggs, kale from the garden, and freshly fermented cheese

Frittata made with our chicken eggs, kale from the garden, and freshly fermented cheese

All the holiday decorations have been put back in the garage, and the house is clean and bright for a fresh start in 2019. Outside there is quite a gale - I like to think the wind is blowing away 2018 and bringing in the new year. Tom and I will fall asleep long before midnight, but perhaps the kids will manage to stay awake.

One thing we like to do around now is set a theme for the garden for the coming year. 2018 was the year to ‘Improve the Soil,’ and I definitely think we accomplished that, even without the proof of any nutrient or soil-life lab test. The testimony is in our delicious produce and thriving, healthy ornamental plants and trees.

Of course, soil improvement is not something you can accomplish in one year; it’s taken us 15 years on this property and six dedicated years of best practice to get where we are today. However, as a ‘last gasp’ in our soil improvement year, we had 20 cubic yards of free wood chips delivered from a local tree company. We’ve spent the last two weeks moving it, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow, to every bit of un-planted soil.

It also makes the garden look nice and smell good, on top of feeding the microbiology in the soil. And, of course, it also improves our own cardiovascular health. :)

I think 2019 is going to focus on making the garden really lovely. I so appreciated that one pollinator garden full of tall, blow-in-the-breeze, pollinator-attractant blooms that invited the whole neighborhood to stop and gaze every time they walked by - and kept me totally entertained with creatures of all kinds. Not to mention providing lots of cut-flower bouquets to give as gifts or to decorate our home. My garden-design skills are really rudimentary, but I do feel like I’m hitting my stride with annual flowers, and I want to do even more to keep the garden beautiful. So, more on that as I learn and try new ways of planning and designing.

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Another thing I wanted to do in 2019 was continue a ‘monthly’ thread that runs through the entire year, like I did in 2018 with the seasonal wreaths. I polled my family and they agreed that it would be fun to do a series of seasonal meals, using what you can find typically in season in the store or garden. So you can begin to look for that in January. However, in that spirit, I want to share how to make a fresh fermented cheese that is totally delicious.

I found this recipe on the One-Cow Revolution website. I watched a series this couple did for Living Web Farms, about how just having one cow (or other in-milk ruminant) on your farm can provide food for a family immediately, even as you wait for the garden to mature and the hens to lay eggs. Of course there is no way to have a cow (and her calf) on our 1/6 acre, but someday in the future I hope to make this a reality, so I’m always interested in learning about it. The series was terrific, and I’ve been enjoying reading their short-but-sweet blog posts about every farming subject under the sun. Lately they posted one about homemade cottage cheese, and that inspired me to give it a go in my own kitchen, with store-bought milk.

Tom and I have made all kinds of cheeses before, but all have used lemon juice or vinegar or rennet, none have just fermented naturally. So this was a little different - it’s incredibly simple, but it takes some time. You start out with the freshest milk you can find. Pour it into a nonreactive pan or bowl and cover with cheesecloth. Then, just let it sit on the counter for two days (in summer, this would take less time, as warm temperatures speed up fermentation). The milk will ‘clabber’ - that is, sour - and begin to look a bit like yogurt.

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Then, you stir it gently with a whisk, and put it in a warm place. I turned my oven on to the lowest available temp (175) and placed the bowl on top of the stove where the warm air from the oven blows out. I left it there for several hours, pivoting it regularly and stirring it, so that it heated evenly. I suppose you could also put it in a proofing drawer if you have one, or in your dehydrator set on low. As the soured milk heated, it started to form curds. After several hours, I drained it, tied it up in a cheesecloth, and let it drain some more.

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I started with a quart of milk and ended up with about a cup of cheese. I wouldn’t call it cottage cheese, like One-Cow Revolution did - I’d call it more like a farmer’s cheese, or ricotta. Once salted, it was delicious, and I ate it on my lunch-time frittata. The chickens enjoyed the whey.

Tom and I wish all of you a very happy new year. We are hopeful and excited to see what people like us, and you, can do in our small ways to improve everything around us and make the world a healthier, more productive, and better place to live. Cheers!

Tags cooking, goals
2 Comments

Happy Christmas!

December 25, 2018 Elizabeth Boegel
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Happy Christmas to all! I want to thank you so much for reading my blog and being a part of my gardening life. Using this space to explore, muse, create, and write helps me to keep on track and makes me very happy. I appreciate you being here and helping me on my journey.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday with family time, good food, and good music! Looking forward to growing another year in the garden with all of you.

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Moss and Meteor

December 20, 2018 Elizabeth Boegel
IMG_1367.jpg

In the winter, when we finally get some rain, the mosses explode in our patio. It happens every year. They are beautiful little creatures that deserve some recognition; how is it that such an ancient, unsophisticated plant returns in this spot year after year?

Mosses are Bryophytes - land plants that have no vascular system, which means they have no xylem and phloem conducting water and nutrients around the plant tissues. The other difference is in the way they reproduce - mosses reproduce by spores rather than seed, therefore, they produce no flowers. They also don’t grow true roots; rather, they have rhizoids, little root-like hairs that anchor the plant and conduct water.

There are nearly 25,000 named species of bryophytes. Only ferns and flowering plants have more species. They also exist on all continents, including Antartica. Bryophytes are ancient, one of our earliest known plants, and have a long evolutionary history that originates with algae. They do photosynthesize nutrients and have evolved to live in many habitats.

I’m speculating that the moss returns to our patio cracks because it has released enough spores in that space to grow new plants each year, similar to a persistent seedbank. The environment is absolutely right; the deep cracks protect the spores (and possibly the rhizoids) over the hot summer, and enough moisture lives there, even in the hottest months, to keep everything in a sort of ‘holding’ pattern. Then the rains come, the temperatures drop, and the moss flourishes, to repeat the cycle.

It’s really quite a lovely plant and softens the hard lines of the patio with it’s feathery sporophytes (those little white things that look like flowers on top). I can’t believe I used to kill it every winter. There is an insidious and effective marketing campaign to eradicate anything that grows out of place, or at least what we consider out of place, and I used to buy into that. It takes a conscious shift to realize that nature provides a gracious covering over almost any surface; it’s designed to be that way, and there’s a purpose for it. Because it photosynthesizes, if nothing else, it’s providing oxygen for us to breathe. But I have come to welcome the winter moss and enjoy it’s bright green presence in the grey months.

image credit: NBC news

image credit: NBC news

Last night, as Kate and I were driving to an appointment right after sunset, we saw this in the sky. From where we were, it was much bigger, and the sky was much darker - it looked like a golden lasso in the night sky, very close to us indeed. Kate thought it was just a trick of clouds and light, but I wondered … and then later that night, the question was answered for me. It was the smoky trail of a meteor which had struck about 30 miles up in space over the Pacific ocean, burning into our atmosphere. This is something I never even considered and I think it’s quite magical. Scott Manley, one of our favorite space-and-science-guys, made a YouTube video about it which I have copied below. Just one more reminder that we are living in a universe that contains infinite mystery.





Tags learning
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They're Everywhere!

December 16, 2018 Elizabeth Boegel
IMG_0222.jpg

Not actual mantids actually; they are all long dead and gone for the year. This picture was taken in August when the mantids were all super busy hunting in my flowers. But now that the trees are bare, I’m finding evidence that they lived well here. And I’m finding it everywhere!

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That evidence is egg cases. Every time we go outside, we seem to find a new one. This one is on the plum tree, the same exact tree in the top photo.

I’m really unsure whether I have the California mantids (Stegmomantis californica) or the Carolina mantids (Stegmomantis carolina). My guess is Carolina, because they are really the more common mantids around here, unfortunately. Some of the egg cases, like the one above, look very Carolina. But some of them, like the one below, looks more like California.

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This one is from the oak tree. A large branch came down in the wind, and when I was cleaning it up, I noticed the egg case. I decided to put it in my butterfly cage and leave it on the front porch over the winter; in spring I hope to catch lots of babies emerging.

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The mantid egg cases or sacs are called ootheca. Soon after mating, in late summer or fall, the female mantis lays her eggs in a mass (sometimes dozens, often hundreds at a time in that mass) on a nearby branch. Then she secretes a foamy substance from her abdomen to cover it. Over time, this substance hardens into a styrofoam-like consistency, able to withstand predators and the elements. The female may produce just one egg case or several after mating just once. The ootheca protects the babies by keeping them insulated over the winter. In the spring, the nymphs hatch from the eggs while still in the case, then make their way out and immediately go in search of food.

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The nymphs look like tiny little mantids - there are no stages of growth or instars. They just grow bigger!

As I’ve said before, the mantids are a non-selective predator, meaning they’ll eat anything they come across whether we consider it a good guy or pest. But balance in the garden depends on predators, and we can’t be picky about which ones show up. I welcome these mantids into the garden to eat up anything from flies to aphids to termites to bees. I’m actually hoping they will help me control the early yellow jacket queens as they emerge from their underground nests in the spring.

Tags insects, IPM, wildlife
2 Comments
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