Five Crows Garden Show Part One

Two Sundays ago, Naomi and I went to Five Crows home to help her build her raise beds. The raise beds were designed by yours truly with additions and modifications provided by Naomi. The construction of the garden went well and by the end of the day Five Crows had a great raised bed garden if I do say so myself.

Here is a sketch or plan for the garden beds. Although it was slightly altered (for the better) its basic design stayed pretty much the same.

Naomi and I constructing the garden beds. We began by first by putting four 8 foot boards into a "star" shaped design. We then used L-brackets to secure the boards to each other.

Then after those four boards were put together we then moved the design so that it was exactly where we wanted it within the garden area.

(BTW I love the sign posts in front of Five Crows garden area)

After connecting those four boards I was off to the garage to begin cutting out the 4 foot lengths so we could begin constructing the five checker box design.

In the next post I will detail the next steps that we took in order to bring the garden about.

The Grand Opening of Growing Home's Wood Street Farm

Here is a great story that I found on Green Roof Growers. This is just a great idea and a wonderful achievement.

Allium sativum

Allium sativum or Garlic has been used culinary and medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Although scientists do not know exactly when it was cultivated many believe that most likely descended from the Asian plant Allium longicuspis.

Planting garlic is a fall affair. Each clove needs to be planted 6 to 8 inches away from each other.

Each garlic needs to be planted flat tip down and needs to be covered with about two inches of soil.

After all the garlic has been planted you need to make sure that you use a good layer of insulation so the garlic plants will not freeze. Last year and this year I am using a 6 inch layer of straw. I have read that you can also use leaves, but someone I know lost their entire garlic crop from using only leaves as their insulation. So I suggest using straw.

Map of garlic plot (labeled and dated)

A Boulderific Farmers' Market

Earlier this month Naomi and I went on a trip out west. Our first stop was Boulder, Colorado for her brother's wedding. While we were out there we heard quite a bit about the fabulous farmers' market that they had. The previous year we had seen Denver's, but her brother told us that nothing could beat Boulder's. So we went to have our own look.

Boulder's farmers' market took up several blocks and incorporated many local farms. Some who specialized in specific crops, while others had your typical variety.

I was a bit sad that I had not driven to Boulder and therefore could not purchase much if any of the wonderful foods that were on display.

Speaking of specialty farm stands, this stand from Wee Bee Farms only had garlic. The stand had about 12 different varieties. Naomi and I picked up two bags of assorted garlic. One for planting and one for cooking with. We ended up with Chesnok Red, Inchelium Red, Chicago Italian, Peskem River, Lortz Italian, Shatili, Shantung Purple, Rose de Lautrec and a few more. (More on Garlic later)

Some stands such as this one clearly made a habit of sprucing up their tables to attract customers. There were clearly over 25 farms on attendance at this market.

Additionally, there were quite a few artisan cheese makers, bakers, and a variety of other stands

Another place that we did purchase some goods was this apple orchard stand. There were at least 6 different varieties and of course we had to try each one to know what was best.

At this farm stand you could buy freshly ground flour made from whole wheat grain. Wish we had something like this at our local farmers market.

Another interesting stand was this one, which sold fire roasted peppers made to order.

Well Boulder's farmers' market was as good as its publicity. Anyone who travels through this area in the late spring, summer, or early fall should definitely stop by this one on a Saturday morning or afternoon.