Forcing Spring to Arrive

   Why do Spring, Summer and Fall seem to rush by so quickly and yet Winter lingers on forever in New England? The secret to leaving the gloominess of late winter behind and rushing into an early spring isn't really that hard. When we think of spring we inevitably think of flowers. Although there may be snow on the ground (as it is here in Vermont) we can bring spring inside our homes right out of our winter looking yards.
   The calendar says it is officially spring as of March 20th, but I have been forcing a bit of spring for several weeks. It all started during an unusually warm spell at the end of January when I noticed the pussy willows in our yard starting to slightly open up. That was all I needed to motivate me to pick some branches from the bushes and bring them into our warm house to fully open. Within a few days presto it seemed like spring!
   Generally flowering branches cut in January take 3 weeks to bloom in your home, branches cut in February take 2 weeks, and branches cut in March can flower in just one week. Be sure that the buds on the branches are fairly swollen before forcing them to flower in the house.

These peach tree buds are swollen on the branches and ready to force indoors.

Strip the bark from the bottom inch of the branch and put two cuts in the bottom of the stem in an X, this will enable the stem to take up water more efficiently. Be patient and watch spring unfurl indoors while it is still too chilly outside.

   Try forcing redbud, flowering quince, flowering dogwood, forsythia, crabapple, apple, plum, peach, any flowering fruit tree, as well as, spirea, mountain laurel, pussy willow, rhododendrons and azaleas. It is always fun to experiment every year and add a few new species to the flowering branches you have already had success with. Enjoy tricking these beautiful harbingers of spring into blooming in your home too.

Forsythia starting to come out in the house in February.

 

 

Apple branches being forced last month.

 

 

Pussy willows forced at the end of January added to a bouquet of flowers from The Farm at Mill Village in South Royalton, Vermont.

 

 

    



 





 

 



Butternut Squash Beef Stew Recipe

   The Christmas decorating continues At The Farm at Mill Village. Hopefully I will be done by Friday, so I can sit and relax listening to Christmas music and just enjoy looking at all the embellishments which bring back wonderful memories of past Christmas seasons. On Saturday we plan to go and cut our Christmas tree at the local tree farm in Chelsea, Vermont. It would be nice to have a fresh snowfall on the ground, but the forecast for today and Friday is calling for mostly rain with a little mix of snow and freezing rain. Tomorrow night may bring an inch or two of snow, so I have my fingers crossed for a little tree harvesting snow.
   This year I decorated the wreath on my barn with vintage garden hand tools, a terra cotta flower pot filled with faux holly and apples, and a miniature watering can. I tied the garden tools on with baling twine that I took off of a bale of hay in the barn. That's what I call re purposing.

 

   I forgot to mention in my last post that our oldest black lab, Millie, had her birthday last Sunday on December 1st. Millie is now 14 years old! She only climbs the stairs once a day now just to go to bed at night, do to her arthritis, but other than that gets around pretty well. She also has much less gray hair than I do. She is such a joy to us!

Millie

 

   Tired of leftover Thanksgiving turkey? Try this tasty, warming stew on a chilly night for supper. The butternut squash and Marsala wine give it a sweetness that is just delicious and the herbs lend a savory flavor. Served with a loaf of crusty bread it is a wonderful winter meal. Enjoy!

 

 

Butternut Squash and Beef Stew

Olive oil

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

Rosemary

Thyme

Beef cubes coated with flour,salt, and pepper

1 cup Marsala wine

1 butternut squash cubed

can of diced tomatoes (15 oz.)

3 cups beef broth

 

- saute' onion and garlic in olive oil

- add flour,salt,and pepper coated beef cubes and brown

- loosen browned bits with Marsala wine

- add beef broth and thyme and rosemary (tied in a bouquet)

- add tomatoes, squash and more pepper to taste

- cook at least 1 1/2 hours ( better if cooked all afternoon)

- remove herb bouquet

- served garnished with fresh parsley

 



 

 

First Snow

   This morning we are having our first snowfall in South Royalton, Vermont. Only up to an inch is predicted, but it is our first honest to goodness snow of the season. Since the date is October 30, old timers would forecast 30 major snowstorms for this winter. I don't know if this "old wives tale" will come true, but that is a lot of snowstorms for the winter of 2013-2014. We only just had our first frost last week on Monday, so after a very mild October we are suddenly plunging head first into winter it seems. Yesterday's morning low was 19 degrees and today's was 24 degrees. Brrrrr.
   Last week we devoted to the delivery and stacking of seven cords of wood to heat our farmhouse for the winter. We are lucky to have a 20x24 1930s garage on our property that we store our firewood in every fall and winter, to keep it dry. Also lucky enough to have it only a few steps from the backdoor of our house, a blessing during frigid Vermont winters. The garage seems to accumulate a lot of gardening equipment and "where do we put this?" items in the summer, but come fall it is cleaned out for only the firewood and storage of our porch and garden furniture.
   We also brought our hay home and stacked it in the barn last weekend, and can now breathe a sigh of relief that all the heavy lifting of wood and hay is complete, we'll be warm this winter, and the sheep will be well fed.
   One of our ewes, Charlotte, will be leaving to go to another farm to be bred in the beginning of November. I know we will miss her, but she will soon be back and hopefully grace our farm with a beautiful lamb (maybe twins) next April. The sheep are being lazy laying outside on the sunny days and still foraging for apples. It seems the pace of all the animals has slowed down and with no gardening chores I finally have time to make Christmas presents. So far I have made 4 1/2 presents,  with a lot more to go. So since the weather is chilly and snowy, I am off to my craft room to create. Enjoy the snow!

Sunrise over the barn last Tuesday am

Millie checking out the first frost

First snow!

A poor "woolly-bear" caterpillar caught in the first snow

 

First Frost

It has to happen sooner or later, tonight South Royalton, Vermont is predicted to have the first frost of the season. The weather forcasters are predicting temperatures to be in the upper 20s to around 30 degrees. Don't forget to bring tender potted plants indoors if you want to keep them a little longer. Also, cover any crops you may still have in the garden that you want to prolong the growing season of. I think I will bring in my nearly ripe tomatoes along with the ripe ones and put them on window sills to finish ripening. I have two huge potted herbs in the herb garden, a rosemary plant and a lemon verbena plant, that I will bring in. Other than the tomatoes and herbs, I think it is time to let nature take its course. By mid-September I am pretty tired of being a slave to the gardens. I am looking forward to putting the gardens to bed for the winter, and spending a cozy winter baking, quilting and wool needle felting, all in the comfort of two woodstoves.
The Tunbridge World's Fair is just a memory now, but despite the first two days of rain and mud, sunshine returned for the weekend. I was very pleased to receive blue ribbons for all of the herbs I entered, as well as my huge potted begonia. Our hens, despite their setback from the fox attack in August, received a second place red ribbon for their eggs.

Prize Winning Eggs

Blue Ribbon Parsley

 

The first place blue ribbon for my wool needle felted downy woodpecker and nuthatch was my greatest accomplishment. Although it feels so good to win a blue ribbon for things you have grown in the garden, there is no comparison to the feeling of winning first prize for something you designed and created yourself without the benefit of a pattern or instructions. I am already dreaming of next year's fair and what I can enter. I have never entered any of the vegetables I grow, so that is on the top of my list.

Wool Needlefelted First Place Birds

 

View the rest of my wool needle felting at www.thefarmatmillvillage.com