There are enough greens spreading their leaves to make a winter salad. The leaves are so tasty, they don’t need any salad dressing.
Category: How Things Grow
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Happiness is Greens in December
Despite the hard freezes of last week, the lettuce in the hoop house is doing well. What’s not to smile about when there are fresh greens for lunch? For Miasa and her growing chicks, happiness is a feeder full of grain.
Happiness is finding a few last beans while pulling the vines off the trellises the beans grew on during the summer. Unwrapping the vines makes you wonder why the beans do what they do. They grow vigorously, wrapping endlessly around anything that will take them higher and higher. Then they flower, grow plump white beans, and die. I’m glad they do it. The beans are wonderful. But what’s in it for the beans? Are they happy while the grow? Are they competing with each other to see who can put out the most beautiful blossoms, the biggest leaves, the longest vines, the fattest beans? Only the beans know.
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Spring in December
Is winter over before it even started? One of the forsythias has started to bud out. Usually the forsythia don’t bloom until the end of January or early February. Chickens love eating many kinds of flowers. In the spring, fallen cherry blossom petals are their favorite. Will they eat these forsythia too?
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On the Trail Today
A spell of cold, dry weather is conducive to maintaining the trails that meander through the woods. The trails don’t a well thought design. For the most part, I’m widening the trails the dogs make during their regular patrols.
In the woods, there is always something fascinating to see. Even though it is a cold day, that isn’t snow on the branches above. It is a pure, white mold. And below, a cedar and wild cherry have grown up together. Their trunks and roots are enmeshed. Cherry roots flow out the trunk of the cedar. The trees are inseparable. A cherry and cedar tree, would one call that a cheddar tree?
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On a Blue Day
On a blue day, the Christmas trees touch the sky. They are so beautiful, they don’t need any decorations. On the ground are wheel barrow after wheel barrow of fallen leaves, waiting to be picked up. In time, they will crumble. Bacteria and bugs will feast on them, turning them into soil to grow beautiful vegetables.
Raking the leaves attracts the chickens, including this young rooster with brilliant colors. Chickens can be among the most colorful of all birds. The variety of colors and patterns is stunning.
Just as stunning is the power of these small arugula seeds to grow into delicious salads. A plant which likes cool weather, I can even plant them in the unheated hoop house in November.
