Sun up
I was up at 4AM on Thursday as I had a lot to get done by 10AM when my #1 intern arrived. I got my post up, cleaned up the kitchen, washed the last small window in the dining room, and went out to start prepping for helpers by 8AM.
I took my camera, the empty stakes box and the buckets for BulbTone out with me. First thing I did was spill the part full bucket of Bulbtone on the back steps. So I cleaned up that mess.
I put the empty box where it belonged, filled the buckets with BulbTone, and loaded the sled and took it to the Big garden. Then I carried the tools around to the Big garden. But I could not find the 2 pitchforks anywhere. So I started hunting for them but I couldn’t get to the barn because the car was frosted over, inside and out. So I left it running to defrost inside so I could see to drive.
I collected the tools and sleds for the Time Bank workers who were coming for 10:30AM and by then I could see to drive, so I went to the barn to look for the pitchforks. Nothing…
So I came inside and called my neighbor to see if we’d left them there last time we collected hay. She called back, no, not there. So I went out to the garden shed again and started moving stuff and found them on the other side of the shed, under the sleds. Sigh… Half an hour wasted.
Rain recently – 1¼ inches
So next I started double checking I had everything everyone would need and couldn’t find my camera. So I spent 20 minutes looking for that and found it in the sleds for the Time Bank workers. Sigh…
To keep my helper friend busy for 5 hours while I was working in the Big garden, I picked kale to tear and freeze in serving portions. I found a paste tomato for supper sandwich.
By now it was 10 AM and my #1 intern was late. So I went inside to rest until she came. She got here about 10:20AM and I set her to pulling up the lima and green bean plants in the Big garden.
One of the women from Time Bank arrived at 10:30AM so I showed her what needed to be done and what not to do and she got busy pulling up the invasive weeds in the walkways and beds.
The 2nd woman arrived at 10:45AM and she went to work also.
Another job for my helper friend was processing parsnips. So I headed out to dig them. Getting them out would give us some place to move the mulch to.
But the foliage was thigh high so I first had to hack that off. That filled 3 totes. Then I started trying to dig the parsnips.
I had planted them late in June in hopes they would not turn into monsters and was digging them 2 months early so the pests wouldn’t eat them. They had had a few weeks of 30’sF nights and one hard freeze at 26F.
Everything I found online said several nights at 40F would start the sweetening process, so I figured I was good. But I wasn’t…most of them were about 4” in diameter or much larger and went down a minimum of 2’ into the ground. Sigh…
There was one that both my #1 intern and I could not budge. It finally broke off a foot down. It must have had a huge taproot down 3’ at least. Unfortunately, my helper friend forgot to get photos of these monsters before he put them in the sandbox.
In the bottom left photo, if you look, you can see 3 normal size parsnips under the “small” ones. There were 3 or 4 rotten ones that I put right into compost. There were several that didn’t have a main taproot but lots of side shoots. I filled 2 totes full of roots. My #1 intern got them into the house for me.
After that I was resting on the back porch steps and saw this huge grasshopper in the alyssum in that tiny flowerbed. My #1 intern got this photo for me.
I was sitting on the back porch steps resting earlier and a tiny brown wren flew over and inspected the parsnip tops in the sled. Then it flew over and sat on the steps not 2” from me. When I turned slightly to see where it was, it flew into the azalea.
Views from the back porch steps
My helper friend arrived at 11:30AM and I went in to get him started on the parsnips. He got the sandbox half emptied and wet the bottom layer. Then he got the giant parsnips into the box and filled in around them and got the sand wet. I left more tops on them than recommended but it’s an experiment to see how they do down there.
Before he put them in, he washed them all in the clean room to make sure there wasn’t rotten areas on them. He sorted out the “small” ones for the fridge storage then started peeling the wonky or damaged ones.
In the meantime my #1 intern and I were out cleaning the debris off the mulch before moving it.
I also cleaned the dead out of the Swiss chard. Then we started moving and stacking the mulch.
The Time Bank people left around 1PM. They’d made a huge dent in the invasive weeds in the New Herb garden. I sent them home with seedlings from the cold frames and all the seeds they wanted off stuff.
It was 2:30PM when we finished moving the mulch and we were both wiped out. We went inside and had a yogurt snack and she left at 3PM to do errands.
I got a shower and sat down for a while. My helper friend continued to peel and cut up parsnips.
After an hour’s rest, I came out and wrapped the “small” ones in wet paper towels and put them in unsealed vacuum bags to go in the vegetable drawers in the clean room fridge.
I was too tired to process the kale (remember the kale?) so my helper friend took it down to the cellar fridge and covered it with plastic wrap. I would have to do it on Friday morning while I waited for it to warm up outside.
He managed to get all the wonky parsnips cut up and chopped for blanching but he ran out of time and I was too tired. I will have to do it on Friday morning while I wait for it to warm up outside.
My #1 intern stayed over because she is going to help get the garlic planted on Friday. My helper friend will be here at 8AM to finish his job list from Thursday. I’d had no idea the parsnip harvest would be so huge!
I am so enjoying the views out the few clean windows I have so far.
So another busy day…