June 15, 2014 Scape love on Father's Day

Oh how beautiful our first garlic crop looked a few summers back.  Novice growers, we admired the rows of curly green stalks, each one topped by a round lavender "flower". This blooming imposter is actually a clump of individual seeds that zap energy and nutrients from the maturing bulb, still growing during its final weeks like a baby in the womb. Which is why bunches of cut scapes appear at farmers markets weeks before bushels of hard-necked garlic hit the stands.




Instead of being irked by the scapes, we've learned to embrace and savor them as a short-lived summer delicacy which must be enjoyed at their freshest immediately after harvesting, no drying required like their cousin underground. 









 
Last year, we roasted the scapes and savored them like an aromatic asparagus.  This Father's Day, we made amazing scape pesto in the processor with pine nuts, olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper and Parmesan cheese.

June 13 - 14, 2014 Uninvited Guests (those pesky gnats)

What seemed like a good idea in the fall is driving me batty in the spring. Or should I say "buggy". Swarms of pesky and annoying gnats were hovering around our heads as we weeded the garlic plot for one last growth spurt. Jeff said, "Ignore them, but the tiny biting flies were in my face, up my nose, even swallowed a few. Praying for whatever breeze could come our way, we persevered and got the weeding job done. Then we planted two pumpkin patches, one in the original lower field and another near the lodge by Dan's milo food plot. We're trying the recommended technique of planting three seeds per mound, then adding mulch to keep the weeds down.  I ordered Giant Magic Hybrid seeds from Gurney's Seed and Nursery in Indiana. Advertised to grow Big Pumpkins in Less Time! - 22-24 pounds, 2 weeks earlier than the others. Sure! Believe it when I see 'em. We also planted Mammoth Gray Stripe sunflowers promised to grow 9 to 12 feet high, with flowers measuring 14 inches across.  

Before - Weedy Garlic

After

Original Pumpkin Field

New Pumpkin and Sunflower Field

Jeff watering the seeds

Progress is starting on the covered bridge foundation. Neighbor Tim poured concrete on one side, while the other side waits for time and weather.  

View from atop the bridge

May 24 - 25, 2014 Arbor Day

 Invitation

Grab your work gloves, books and a shovel and come join us at Covo Hills farm to plant some more trees this year!
We're having our third annual Arbor Day Festival weekend at the farm and would love for you to join us. And we promise that the weather will be perfect this year. We've ordered another 500 bare root trees to plant along with some cute little trees Dan has grown from seed in his nursery.  Hope you can make it - last year was a lot of fun and the crew planted all 500 trees in less than 3 hours - a Guinness record?

Dan prepping bare root trees for planting

Dan's Nursery

Saturday Night Fireside

Mitch and Jess

Farm Bros

Mike and Deena

Mark and Deena

MariBeth and Deena

Jeff and Marianne

Dan and Marianne

Nita

                            

Our Arbor Day

Dan instructing the crew

Captive planters

Jeff demonstrating while Ellen watches
(husband Mark escaped the camera)
 

Jeff and Deena

Janie, Brian and Jeff (beauty, brains and brawn)

Kate and Tim (love birds)

Mary and Tom (cutest hat)

MariBeth, Jess and Deena (best smiles)

Marianne helping Kate and Tim

Tim and Mark  (beer break)

 Here is the overall breakdown of what we planted –

-        75 White Pines ( the long, soft needled pines)

-        100 Norway Spruce ( the other conifer with stubby branches)

-        50 Swamp White Oak

-        50 Burr Oak

-        100 Pecan

-        50 White Oak

-        75 Cherry 

-        25 White Oak/Pin Oak from nursery

-        75 Burr Oak from Nursery

-        25 Walnut from Nursery

All of the these are excellent habitat trees that will provide food and shelter for a multitude of critters and which are native to the area.

Blue tree markers

Thank You

The Voellinger’s and Cortopassi’s  would like to heartily thank all of you that participated in our 2014 Arbor Day event - for all of the TLC and hard work you put in to get this year's batch of bare root seedlings in the ground.

We were able to plant 500 bare root trees we purchased and around 125 seedlings that were grown from acorns in our nursery!  The warm weather made it feel like we planted 900 trees so maybe we need to request a little less of a perfect weather day next time.

We had about 11 people for the overnight on Saturday prior to the planting on Sunday and it was a blast – huge bonfire, great food and drink and plenty of storytelling.  The start of a new tradition.

You all were fantastic to give up a full day ( or more) to come out and work.  Hopefully you had a little fun mixed in with the work and are willing to come back.

October 19 - 20, 2013 Garlic Planting

After pumpkin harvest comes garlic planting.

We ordered Music, German Red, Purple Italian and Spanish Roja from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply in Grass Valley, CA, not to far away from where Jeff's Uncle Frank lives. After deciding 160 plantings were more than enough for a day's work, I handed the overabundance over to willing gardeners. Happy to report, California garlic will be popping up this spring in Batavia, Burr Ridge and Hinsdale.

Fall colors starting to show over harvested corn field

Evening sky in subtle pastels

Brian and Janie, Guy and Elodie arrived on Sunday to help put the garlic to bed for the winter. We threw hay on the field in mounded heaps so the garlic stays warm til spring.

We enjoyed a brisk Autumn day at the farm with Bella and Coco 

Guy quickly took to the ATV

Then invited Elodie to join him

Brian took Coco and Bella in for a rest

Jeff and Dan found time to work on the tractor

October 12 - 13, 2013 Pumpkin Harvest

This fall's pumpkin harvest is not the best like the banner year of 2011, but not the worst. There's enough to decorate the front porch and lend inspiration for next year.