Mountain Prairie Farm

Monday, March 23, 2015

It's official. I've "misplaced" my camera. Waaaa! It wasn't the most expensive camera. It was old and starting to take pictures with off color. But it was the only one I had. So the blog will just go on with old pictures from the farm until I can get a new camera. Or until I find the old.
Maybe it's in the chicken coop.....(yuck).

In honor of spring, I'm seeding more flats. I usually wait until the first week of April because if I plant too soon, the little plantlings are spindly and falling over by the time the nights are above freezing and they can be put out in the garden.

Here are some small hot pepper plants seeded in February. Peppers can be finicky so I try to start them a bit early. This way if the first plantings didn't take I have plenty of time to start over.

The sweet little yellow Hungarians haven't even poked their heads out yet. I hope they hurry. Just the thought of spicy Hungarian yellow peppers in vinegar makes my mouth water. I can't wait for planting time!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

So it's snowing.

Yes, it is just March.

Yes, this is Montana.

The snow is soft and heavy and is coming down fast.

It's really almost raining.

It won't stick.

The girls aren't really convinced of that.

I shouldn't be surprised that it is still snowing.

We could have much more snow in the coming weeks.

I was hoping it would be an early spring and we could plant the garden soon.

I should know better.

This isn't my first Montana spring.

But it does drive me to drink.

Carrot update....Ewwww!

So I (finally) peeked into the All-Natural-Play-Sand bucket where the 10 pounds of sweet carrots were lounging until we were ready to eat them. The plan was to sample them through the winter to determine if storing carrots in sand was a viable option for winter eating. Well, to put it bluntly.....it was a bust.

There are some carrots that are partially crisp but mostly they are just slimy. I don't think there was one whole edible carrot in the entire bucket. I admit that I didn't look at them until yesterday so the bucket might have become so cold that the carrots froze in the sand. But I don't think so. None of the other food we have stored next to the carrot bucket froze and those other items are not protected in sand. For whatever reason this experiment just didn't work for us.

So, going forward, if we want carrots through the winter I will probably just pressure can them in quart jars. I love canning so this isn't a hardship. However, it does take time and resources. I was hoping that we could store the carrots raw. But further research will have to be completed before we can store them raw. Stay tuned.

(Hmmm. Now what am I going to do with #50 of slimy-carrot-All-Natural-Play-Sand?)

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Geraniums.......aaahhhh

I love geraniums. Especially red ones. They just scream summer.

These I've had for a long time. I think I bought the original "mother plant" back in 2012. And each year just before first first hard frost, I dig them out of their summer home and bring them in the house.

They live happily on this south facing window sill for all the winter months.

Then in March, I take cuttings of some of the branches and root them in water.

By May the new cuttings have put out enough roots to go into the soil and become mother plants themselves; a self perpetuating action.