Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Celery

I can't believe that one of our biggest garden successes this year has been..... celery. Seriously. I never thought of growing it before.... but the store celery is just so bad and so expensive I figured why not try a couple six packs?

Who would have guessed?

It has been the best thing ever. I love being able to go and get a stalk from one of the plants for potato salad, my lettuce bucket, or a stir fry. Unfortunately I've been stealing stalks and some of the plants need time to come back from a hard pruning. If I remember right I think I can over winter some of the plants inside. I'll have to go back and find my resource on that....

Soon.

My tomatoes are really coming on also. These last few big rains and going to yield some big 'maters. Some of the plants are bigger than me!

Good thing I have Shine in the garden to keep it bunny-free. 

Kai did an excellent job with the pigz this morning. She and my Dog#1 came and helped me again. Kai is really doing a great job at holding her ground and also controlling her prey drive....there is no nippin' at the heels with bear killers. She could have one of these pigz down within seconds. One of the reasons I have her working with my Dog#1 is not only to learn the ropes... but also to make sure that she follows his lead. She did great.

The pigz tried to nose up on her but Kai gave them the mean face and her growl. Then I had Dog#1 move the pigz back towards the woods - Kai was right there bullying them back from me.

Of course the pigz only wanted their milk and corn and couldn't figure out why I brought in the Brute Squad.

Not only is this great training for Kai but it's also teaching them pigz they can't just run up on me. This weekend I watched while the pigz swarmed my husband when he went in to feed them. One of the overjoyed porkers darted between my husband's legs. There was almost a hog wild rodeo. It was funny when it happened to him... but the fact is if those pigz did that to me they would have just tumbled me over. If they would have gotten me on the ground it would have been no laughing matter.

So the dogs always come with me and have a strong message for the pigz to stay back and give me plenty of room.  I'm glad every day I have such hard workin' farm dogs.


The Brute Squad. 
 
Kai was so proud of herself when we walked up the hill. You should have seen her prancy, princess wiggle walk!  Good job, Kai!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Did you plant celery? Does your princess have a wiggle walk?



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are some good pups ya got there!

Vera said...

What happy looking celery! I always thought it was too fiddly to grow so have never tried. But I do have some cut and come again celery, and that is thriving. And what an absolutely good idea it is to train your dogs up when you have to handle the pigs. If I was you I would do exactly the same. We know what pigs can get up to when there are legs to barge through!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Thanks Cat! Yep they are very very good workers.
:-)

I couldnt believe how easy it was, Vera! I have not had any luck with starting it from seeds but the little starts did terrific. I am very very proud of Kai - she is doing great. :-)

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