holy batman! I just bought a farm!!

[OakLeaf]

Eden, do you plant shiso every year? I tried once and found it incredibly difficult to start ... but it's happy to re-seed itself year after year. For the last ten years or so I just choose a few volunteers and let them grow where they choose!

[Eden]

I planted my shiso from starts that I got a local Asian grocery. It's the first year I've had it and it grew marvelously. I let it seed and I'm hoping next year I get some volunteers.

[smilingcat]

shiso germination needs one odd trick. It needs repeated freezing and thawing. Put it in a freezer and let it freeze for several days. Take it out of the freezer into somewhere its cool (not warm) for few days and repeat this three or four times. This sort of mimics nature with its arrival of spring. After the fourth or fifth time of doing this, scatter the seeds in a pot filled with soil then add about 1/4" of soil on top and water well. And that is supposed to help with germination. I used to go dig up the volunteers I find in my yard.

I find shiso germination to be almost as frustrating as parsnips. Parsnips has to be the worst in germination. And it must have the shortest viability.

Never had luck with shiso when I tried in a flat or waited for the soil to warm in the spring time.

Kinds of lettuce: buttercrunch bib, red iceberg, green oakleaf, merville de quatre, rogue d'hive, bronze mignoitte, tom thumb, pirat butterhead, antares leaf lettuce, blushed butter romain...Some solid green, solid pink or red, some speckled, some form tight head, some loose, some frilly and all are supposed to taste very yummy. I have tom thumb growing in the green house right now. It's only about 2 inches across. They need to be about 5 inches across.

You can find these seeds at rareseeds,com, seedsavers.com, fedcoseeds.com, groworganics.com, Anniesheirloomseeds.com, Victoryseeds.com, territorialseeds and bountiful gardens. One really odd place I found was a place called mypatriotsupply.com.

rareseeds.com is BakerCreekHierloom seeds company and its probably the best heirloom seed company around. Seedsavers exchange is a non-profit organization. Their goal is to save varieties from going extinct.

To Oakleaf and Eden:

I will be planting number of japanese ume trees so I can make pickled plum. Also will be planting sansho trees for sansho pepper. Plum and pepper will not be available for about a year or two. Sansho pepper would be easy to ship when they become available on my farm.

Sansho trees are more like shrub and require may be four feet by four feet space. They are cold hardy so it should be quite okay in Seattle area. Soil doesn't have to be that great but it does need descent drainage. branches have nasty thorns so plant them underneath your windows. Burglers will have extra hard time. You can make tsukudani out of sansho pepper leaves and the husk of the seed pod IS the sansho pepper. Not the seed some grind the seed as well. And lastly, you do need a male and a female plant. You can get them at bayflora.com and onegreenworld.com. Latter is probably one of the best places to get trees. Another place is fourwindsnursery in California.

[Eden]

Yum - I've had kinome on something that Kotaro used to make for us before he moved on to his own restaurant, but not often so I don't think it was easy to get. I'll bet you'll be a rare US source for it. I recall when the seed pods were nearly impossible to get here because of an import ban - they can carry citrus canker. The ban has been lifted, but all imported stuff has to be heat treated, so you'll be able to say yours is not.

[smilingcat]

My ever pragmatic (engineering side) won out again. I signed up for a small farms conference consisting of three sessions. Attendees can attend all three sessions but only one topic out of each session. Each session has about nine maybe twelve topics.

First topic mentioned in each of the three session was how to have six figure income for small plots. Speaker is Jean-Martin Fortier. The person whose book I read cover to cover and duly impressed. I'm not a groupie but it would have been interesting to hear what he had to say and not just what he wrote. But alas, instead I signed up for other topics: Advanced Plant Disease Mgmt on organic veg. farm, impact of organic certification and coorperative farming...

Whhooey! May be I'll still take the book and have him autograph it.

It's not about kumba-ya or feel good thing. It's just business. So when do I have fun?? or get to play in the dirt??

right now trying to figure out how to install over 900 feet (274m) of deer and critter fencing... It's over seven feet high (2.1m). Fencing will enclose in a rectangle an area of about one and a quarter acre. Inside it I need to mark out the rows/beds and the furrows. Mark out the location of trellis supports. install over 10000 feet (3000m) of drip lines (irrigation). ITS GOING TO BE FUN FUN FUN!

Maybe its time I bought a flannel shirt. yuk yuk yuk... http://www.ehow.com/how_6199011_dres...farm-girl.html

[smilingcat]

I dread trying to hook up an implement/tools to the tractor. It has a thing called a three point hitch. at each point is a pin that goes through the 3 arms/links on the tractor and through the holes in the implement. You can just imagine, trying to lineup the holes just right. What a nightmare...

I have two working tractor a small one and a utility tractor. I managed to connect the wood chipper to the smaller one because it is much easier but when I tried to lift the wood chipper, the tractor front end lifted up. not a good sign. Wood chipper needs to go on my utility tractor. But it has maybe a 2000 pound tiller hooked to it. Thinking of how to disconnect it is making my stomach churn. then attach the 1000 pound wood chipper. After all said and done repeat the process in reverse. Have you ever tried to line up your car to less than a 1/10 inch? I can't budge either equipment to line it up.

just some of the fun on the farm.

[Pax]

Wish I was there to help you, I don't have a lot of skills, but that's one of them.

A little tip, RVers use these thingys to help them line up a hitch, you can also use a one of the Orange flags on a pole like you see on the back of a bike trailer. http://t.harborfreight.com/magnetic-....google.com%2F