May Flowers (and Rain)

Honey bee on plum blossoms

Spring is here:

So much for posting on the first of the month but hey, it’s only the 5th. Not too bad. 

The rain has made everything green up and take off, but a week or so of dry weather would be nice.  We have gotten over 1 and half inches of rain in the past 2 weeks.  Every time the ground is almost dry enough to work, we get more rain. 

Plums are blooming everywhere.  Wild plums are the true sign of spring here.  The haskaps/honeyberries are almost done blooming.  They started about the second week in April, just like normal.  The cold doesn’t bother them at all.  Our apple trees are thinking about blooming.  Hopefully we have not more hard freezes that impact the blooms or the fruit.  We really missed not having any apples last fall due last spring’s weather. 

Asparagus and rhubarb are up and going great guns.  We are picking about 3 pounds of asparagus every day.  We are selling both through the Yellowstone Valley Food Hub and also at our store. 

As with most avid growers, we start planning for our next garden as soon at the end of the current growing year.  Well that’s not exactly true.  All through the growing season we look at what is working and what’s not, what seeds germinated and grew, what things were a bust or just more time and effort than we wanted to give them.  We have those daily/weekly discussions and just hope and pray we remember them by the next spring.  Most of the time we do.  Once in a while we get half way through the season and suddenly remember that last year we said never again on that particular thing.    

We started ordering seeds back in December and have added a few orders since then.  We are replanting many of the same vegetable varieties as we did last year, as they have done well for us.  This year we will be adding Rattlesnake beans.  They are striped when fresh but turn green when cooked.  We are also adding some smaller varieties of winter squash: acorn, butternut and spaghetti.  Last year at the Gardener’s Market, people would comment that our squashes were just too big for one or two people so we are opting for smaller squash.  After selling at the market in Billings the last few years, we noticed that many of the folks we sell to want smaller items.  Half pounds of beans as opposed to full pounds.  We are packaging smaller and choosing not to sell the smaller amount at a higher price like the big guys do. 

Nursery Stock:

We now have a nursery license.  This means we can sell trees, bushed and plants.  We are starting with just a few things this year and we’ll see how it goes.  If you are interested in something not listed below, let us know and we will see what we can do to order it in. 

We ordered several apple trees in both dwarf and semi-dwarf.  They are Honey Crisp and Woodarz.  The dwarf varieties will be 7-10 foot and the semi-dwarf will be 8-12 foot.  We have had several requests for Honey Crisp.  Woodarz has done well at our orchard and is a great eating apple (Christie’s favorite).  These trees should be here by May 6th.  If you are interested, let us know.  We are selling them at a good price and both trees are hardy for the area. 

By the end of the month, we should have the rest of our nursery stock to sell.  We’ll have haskap/honeyberries, raspberries, American elderberries, strawberries and asparagus crowns. Check out our website for the full list. TownshipRoadFarm.com We will also have a new variety of cherry, the “FE”.  It’s a tart, slightly sweet cherry from the Bozeman area.  We have not grown it but we know the guy that does.  It’s been grown all over Montana buy his family. This is the first year it’s avaible to purchase.

Last month we attended the combined Montana Berry Growers Association/Montana Grape and Wine Association conference.  As always, we learned, we saw old friends and made some new ones.  This year’s meeting was in Missoula and we believe it will be there again next year.  It is a nice venue that is willing to work with both groups.  We had a great speaker from Nova Scottia that talked about the emergence of fruit wines.  People want to support locally made and not only applies to the wine but the fruit that goes into wine.  We also had speakers that hit on the U-Pick model (where folks pick their own fruit).  We have thought about doing u-pick and are looking at ways to implement it. 

Aunt Ruby’s Rhubarb Cobbler:

In honor of spring and rhubarb, here’s Aunt Ruby’s rhubarb cobbler.   Aunt Ruby wasn’t really an aunt.  She was Grandma Baker’s friend from Ladysmith Wisconsin and she made the best rhubarb cobbler.  She passed her recipe down to Larry’s mom, Mary and that’s when it became a family favorite.  Same recipe and same rhubarb Larry grew up eating (we moved the rhubarb to our place). 

Aunt Rubys rhubarb cobbler

Ingredients:

6 cups of rhubarb cut about 1/2-inch pieces

2 and 1/4 cups of sugar

2 cups of your favorite pancake mix

2 large eggs

1/2 cup butter

The Recipe:

Mix 6 cups of cut rhubarb (about ½ inch) with

1 1/2 cups of sugar and

1 cup of pancake mix

Put in a 9x13 baking dish (no need to grease the pan)

Mix 3/4 cup of sugar with

1 cup of pancake mix and

2 large eggs

Pour egg mixture on top of the rhubarb

Melt 1/2 cup of butter

Drizzle meted butter over egg mixture

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until brown and crispy.