Albino Deer Visits the Cows' Salt Lick

We have a lot of whitetail deer in our area. I generally consider them a nuisance. They like to run into the electric fence, especially during hunting season. They can be counted upon to destroy any fruit trees or berry bushes that aren't fenced from them or sprayed with a deer repellant. They carry Lyme disease, which can have some very nasty consequences, and now with chronic wasting disease verified in Pennsylvania, one must consider whether or not they are willing to eat venison harvested from our area. Of course the game commission and some other government agency or study says that there is no proof of CWD transmission to humans. Somehow though I am a bit hesitant to become their conclusive evidence of transmission.

Well anyway, tonight my family and I got to see something that made us enjoy the deer again, kind of like when I was young, and Pennsylvania wasn't overrun with deer, and it was neat to see a deer. We saw a young albino buck in several different locations on the farm. He had jumped the fence behind the barn and was licking the selenium salt lick that I put out for our cow who is about to have her first calf. After a while he jumped the fence and left for the woods, but a bit later my two of my sons and I saw him out in another field and we took some long distance snapshots with our camera that needs to be upgraded this Christmas.

Here are a few of the shots taken by my wife and two of my sons. Notice how the chickens are playing it safe with this stranger. If our Scottish Highland bull was in the same spot they would be practically underneath him.

I will soon be going out to the barn with my daughter Catherine to finish the new nesting boxes that we have been working upon.

Our flock has been growing and growing since Catherine and Paul have discovered that if you put eggs under a broody hen in about 21 days they turn into cute little chicks. So far they have hatched 19 chicks with more to come.

We have eight new ones in the water trough, minus the water, and we are going to let them out with their hen soon. We used absolutely no heat lamps with these 8 chicks. The mom keeps them warm, and it was 35 degreess this morning.

We are crossing Golden Laced Wyandottes with Buff Orpingtons. So far we have had very nice results.

Celery in Pennsylvania?

As a kid I grew up eating celery with peanut butter on it practically on a daily basis. Celery was inexpensive, Skippy Peanut Butter  stuck to it, and I could make it. 

A while back someone was talking about pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables, and they mentioned that celery was the worst as far as pesticides. I did some research on the internet, and it does seem that celery is one of the worst as far as that goes. It does say that you're still better off to eat it even if it does have a bit of pesticide left over on it, but this is something I'd rather not think about. 

One website, foodsafetynews.com put celery in its dirty dozen, based upon pesticide residue. Another site whatsonmyfood.org listed 64 pesticide residues that can be found on celery, according to the USDA Pesticide Data Program. It also gives the percentage of the time that each one is found on the celery samples.

Well anyway, I always thought that you needed to be in the Salinas or Central Valley or some other warm-weather California paradise to grow celery. I thought you had to have a near-Mediterranean climate zone, and nice sandy soil for celery to be a worthwhile endeavor, but I proved myself wrong this year.

I planted some celery in one of our gardens this spring. Thinking that this was probably going to be a waste of time, I relegated the celery to a kind of neglected corner of the garden. A place that gets about 1/2 day shade, nestled between the red raspberries and the rhubarb. I didn't expect it to do very well..

Another factor was our soil. We are literally on the first mountain of the Appalachians, or Alleghenies as we call them in Pennsylvania in our area. We are in what is called the Chestnut Ridge, though all of the chestnut trees are gone due to a blight that killed the American Chestnuts years ago. However, because we are right on the edge of the Pittsburgh Plateau and the Allegheny Mountains, I really think our soil is more of the Pittsburgh Plateau type, which is more clay and silt than the sandstone soil of the Alleghenies, which I considered another strike against the celery giving a good show.

In spite of a bit of neglect the celery surprised me. It seemed to do nothing for the first part of the spring, but near the end of summer it got big and began to look a bit like the celery of the grocery store. It turned out to be great tasting, showed no signs of any insect or any other damage, and I really did almost nothing with it except weed it a few times when it was about to be overtaken.

We picked it a day or two ago, because we had a frost warning, and I ate about 5 stalks loaded with peanut butter, and my family joined me in my celery feast. Though the peanut butter was Smucker's Natural, it tasted like it did when I was a kid, though it tasted a bit stronger, if that is possible with celery.

I didn't get the best photos for this, I should have laid a bunch out on the table so you could see the size. Some of the bunches were about grocery store size, others were a bit smaller. The sunnier side of the row did better. Like I said I didn't do my picture taking quick enough because while I was busy eating it my wife chopped up the rest and bagged it for the freezer and winter soups. So this picture will have to suffice.

The bottom line on the celery is that it is going to get a better spot in the garden next year. I liked my Pennsylvania celery.

One of the Benefits of Making Loose Hay

Jumping into the Haystack

The other day I noticed that the computers and couches were empty, so I asked my wife where all the kids were. She said they they were all up in the barn. This surprised me so I went up to see what was going on.

My first son was hanging around taking pictures of the old Farmall M for his facebook page, and also carving something. My second son was rasping an ax handle he was making from some oak wood. 

My third son and my daughter were up on the loft jumping down into the pile of loose hay that we took in this year, the old-fashioned way.

I'm not going to discuss the hay-making process right now, or the benefits of loose hay, except for one. Jumping into it can't be beat, It provides a much softer landing than baled hay. Here are some pictures I took to illustrate this point.

More Wasps = Less Caterpillars

I always kept my head down a bit and talked to these guys in the shed.

  Last year I decided to knock down all of the wasp nests that were close by on the farm. I was vigilant, knocking down the nests as soon as they began construction. I did not kill the wasps. I just hoped that they would move somewhere else, close enough to be beneficial yet far enough to not worry me about a family member or myself getting stung. This plan didn't work out as my blueberries, apple trees. and tomatoes were plagued with caterpillars.

This year I let the wasps have free reign. There were two nests on the side porch. The shed was filled with them, both inside and outside up in the eaves. The barn had its usual contingent.

I also put Planter's Peanut and Gatorade containers upside down on T-Posts on an old fence, and the wasps colonized there as well.

Gatorade Mix Container and Wasps (I call this type Yellow Jackets)

The results were great. Virtually no caterpillers on any plants, and zero Army Caterpillars (Spodoptera), which were the main culprits the past year. They can eat the leaves off half a blueberry bush in a day. And they make quick work of the leaves on the apple trees. I did have a few tomato hornworms (picture below) on my grape tomatoes, but that was it.

Five-spotted Hawk Moth Caterpiller AKA Tomato Hornworm

Thankfully we only had one sting from our caterpillar eating friends. One wasp felt the need to climb into my bathing suit while it was hanging on the line, and it didn't appreciate me invading its personal space when I put the suit on. I then didn't appreciate it invading my personal space.

Planter's Peanut Container and New Occupants

Tree Tanglefoot for your Pear & other Trees

If you read my last post, "To Spray or Not to Spray," then you know my Asian pears are 100% organic. In fact to me, they are beyond "certified organic," because I sprayed nothing on them, not even allowable organic sprays. But I did use a barrier on the trunks to stop the ants that ruined some of my Hosui pears last summer.

I used Tree Tanglefoot and Tangle-Guard tree banding material and some twine to keep the ants from getting up the trunk and into the fruit hanging on the tree. The ants still hung around beneath the tree eating anything that fell from the tree, but they did not get up into the tree at all, which kind of surprised me, because I thought those buggers would find some way to get at those pears.

I ordered a 15 ounce tub of Tree Tanglefoot Insect Barrier and a 3 inch by 50 feet roll of Tangle-Guard Tree Banding Material. The Tanglefoot cost $10.99  and the Tangle-Guard was $5.99 both were from Amazon. The Tangle-Guard is a corrogated waterproof paper roll, and the TangleFoot is an oil-based, non-drying goop. Goop is my word choice. You don't want to get a bunch of this stuff on your hands, but it is OMRI rated and certified for organic gardening.

I thought that applying this was going to be a nightmare, but it wasn't. I got a pizza box from my porch some twine from the barn, and a putty knife from the shed and set off to do it. I weeded around the trunk, then I wrapped the trunk with the tree wrap a few times, making about a 6 inch wide band around the trunk, a few inches from the ground. I then loosely tied the paper to the trunk with some twine, then quickly applied a blob of the Tanglefoot onto the twine and "spackled" it onto the paper. Then I liberally applied the goop around the paper, being careful not to get it onto the trunk.

I did this for my Hosui and Korean pear trees, and I had zero problems with ants eating the pears. Last year the ants ruined about 1/4 of my Hosui pears. They just climb up there and eat holes into the pears. You really can't blame them, the pears are so sweet and juicy.

About halfway through the summer, I took off the old wrap and goop and put new ones on. I don't know if this was necessary, but I wasn't going to take any chances, because the ants were about, eating any pears that prematurely fell to the ground.

I still have most of the tub and wrap waiting for next year. It really doesn't take much of either product to protect a tree. I also plan to use this on my Black Tartarian Cherry tree, which is also an ant favorite, next year.

Here are some pictures of the "Tangle Products" and the Hosui pears which were the ants' favorites.

To Spray or Not to Spray?

We decided that we did not want to use any pesticides, fungicides, or any other type of spray on or near our edibles, years ago. We decided that we wanted our children to be able to go outside and eat anything they wanted to eat from our vegetable gardens, fruit trees, vines and bushes. 

I also didn't want to kill all of the bees that are constantly working for us on our trees and bushes and in the garden. We are loaded with bumble bees, honeybees, mason bees, and probably every other bee available in Western Pennsylvania. When our trees are in bloom they are humming, you can hear it as you approach the tree. I had never seen so many bees in my life till we moved here from a suburb of Pittsburgh about 14 years ago. 

Another reason I don't spray is because our chickens are free range, and I mean really free range. They go anywhere they want, except they are banned from the vegetable gardens and blueberry bushes for parts of the year. 

Well, anyway, what I have been trying to do is find crops do well on our property with zero spraying, and one that is really showing promise is the Asian pear. This year we had Hosui and Korean pears that were really nice, and they were completely organic. 

The Korean pears look almost perfect. I believe it is because their skin is russetted, which means they have a slightly rough, greenish-brown coat. Now this may make you think that they aren't as enjoyable as a smooth-skinned pear, but I actually prefer them. There is a contrast of texture and flavor between the skin and the flesh that makes the fruit more complex and interesting. A regular pear can be delicious, but these are even better.

I planted a Russet apple tree this summer, and I am hoping to find that the Russet apples will be like the Korean pears, bug free. I remember being able to buy Russet apples in the store when I was a kid, but now they are nowhere to be found. They were around in the 1500s when Shakespeare referred to them as leathercoats in Henry IV Part 1, I suppose they don't catch your eye in the store like a shiny red apple does, but if they can be grown pesticide free, they're the ones I'll grow. 

Here are a some pictures of our fledgling pear orchard and the Hosui and Korean pears. I also have some Chojuro trees, but they were more recently planted, and haven't begun to bear.

As you can see the pears are round, and both the Korean and the Hosui have white flesh.

Korean Pears

A "leathercoat" pear

Hosui Pears - They were'nt as nice looking as the Koreans, but they were great tasting and  far more free of insect damage than our non-spray apples.