Spring potato planting

I finally planted my potato patch yesterday! This is always a huge moment that signals spring (and garden weather!) is really here at Five Cats Farm. Potatoes are my favorite crop and we usually grow and store several varieties. I'm growing Yukon Gold, Viking Purple, Mountain Rose, and Huckleberry Gold this year. Last year, we had a major crop failure and so I only had about 20 pounds of potatoes in the garage, which was a major heartbreak, as they didn't last long. Gazing out at my beautiful dirt patch today, I'm dreaming of yummy baby potatoes baked, grilled, and mashed!!!!

You can also see where I asked my husband to start staining the fence, because I didn't want anyone walking on my potato patch once the ground was prepared! We'll get around to the rest later this summer...

Potatoes are nightshades (like tomatoes) and have to be rotated. I have ours on a 4 year rotation and I'm delighted to tell you that this year they return to the optimal spot in our garden - one which produced an incredible yield once before. I will gently murder any volunteer tomatoes or potatoes that try to come up elsewhere in the garden, to prevent blight on my new plants. (Late blight overwinters in living tissues in the ground.)  I'm also really committed to cutting all the pretty flowers off as soon as they appear, so the plants focus their energy down into my tubers.  Hopefully we'll have enough potatoes this year to rejuvenate my seed crop. (Last year's failure means I'm starting from scratch again.)

This energy of new beginnings is much needed, as we lost two of our pretty kitties this past month. Magick passed in January at 18 1/2 years old, and Carolina followed last weekend, which was one week past her 19th birthday. It's been pretty sad and empty feeling, so having some light and hopeful beginnings feels really refreshing. We're down to 4 kitty cats, so we'll be keeping an eye out for the right fluffy one to come join us here at FIVE Cats Farm. ;)

Do you grow potatoes? Tell me about your varieties in the comments!

RIP Magick and Carolina

The Magic of Waiting

Ah, February. In my zone 8 garden, February can be such a mixed bag. Last year was really warm, and I felt really behind as I quickly and frantically began planting. This year, however, I'm watching snow blow again for the third time in 2 weeks. So I have lots of time to ponder my garden plans and also incubate my other dreams and general vision for our space. I find myself caught up in the "Magic of Waiting."

Most wonderful ideas need to be brewed slowly and with tinkering. The time spent in meditation on the desired outcome creates a metaphysical weight that helps propel it into action when the time is right.

This is what I tell myself as I impatiently stare out the window at the snow, anyhow.

Some things you can do while we're waiting for spring:

Draw up garden plans including your crop rotations
Research new plants that you've been considering adding to your garden (We're putting in 2 elderberry)
Order seeds and starts
Create seed tape for tiny seeds like lettuce (all you need is a roll of toilet paper and a mixture of flour & water as "glue")
Start slow-growing crops like onions indoors
Start a garden journal, if you don't already have one
Preserve jars of beautiful marmalade (citrus is in season!)
Read all those garden books by your favorite authors (mine are Steve Solomon and Carol Deppe)
Drink lots of coffee and tea
Pretend you like the magical time of waiting.

What are you doing while winter is coming to a close? Let us know in the comments!

Tully would like the author to remember he is waiting for his treats... without a lot of patience!!

The Power of New - part one

It's a new year! I spent yesterday, like many other people all over the country, meal planning and prepping for the start of a new clean eating plan. (I dislike the term "diet.") Why is it so popular to harness the energy of the new year to start new healthy habits? I like to think it's a free jump start, like hitching your wagon to the universe's team that's already setting out into the new. The energy carries us a little further, perhaps, than if we had picked any old Wednesday to set out. 

There's a danger here, though. When the new lets us down (spoiler alert! the new will likely be very much like the old) we must find the power within ourselves to keep going. We must remember why we set out into the new, full of hope. If we falter, we must keep going. We must remember, as Courtney Carver so pointedly reminds us in her book Soulful Simplicity, "sometimes you have to do the things you don't want to do so you can do the things you want to do." Oh how I wish I didn't need to give myself that tough love, but it's true. I want to be healthy and have less pain. This means I need to lose weight and not eat so much junk food. When my desire to be healthy starts to outweigh my love of junk food, I will start to reach my goal. The key is figuring out how to make it pleasurable and sustainable. (When you figure that out, let me know?)

This is true of any new habit we are working on, not just food. Flossing every day, exercising, meditating, whatever healthy goal we are working toward has the same need.  We must want to result enough to put in the work. And we must be gentle with ourselves and find a way to make it at least a little fun. So that we want to keep going. Forever. 

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How are you using the energy of the new year? Let me know in the comments! 

Meet Tully, our newest addition. He's an absolute grouch, but every once in a while I can get him to be silly...