Sweet Peas

It’s March in Pennsylvania, which means the end of cabin fever season is near. Though we can expect some schizophrenic weather, its perfect time to start the seedlings, potatoes, onions and of course our favorite peas. The goal is to always get them planted by St. Patty’s Day, but this year we were actually a little early for a change! Peas are a great plant for the kids to put directly into the soil and this year the kids pretty much did the entire planting. Little Declan is just getting started, but was super excited to just be outside and in the dirt.

The Garden Preseason

March means its time to get the early season gardening activities in as Spring is right around the corner.  Onions, potatoes, and peas all go in and we've started all the seedlings for the May plants.  Each year the number and variety of plants increases and so does the size of the garden.  The kids are great with planting the garden and harvesting; now we just them to do do some of the weeding this year!

Harvest

The one thing the kids are really great at doing is picking!  Its harvest season and they are great at finding anything ripe.  From raspberries to tomatoes, strawberries, and cherries.   If its red, they are all over it!  

2017 Garden Prep

In the late weeks of March and April, I enjoy anything that resembles spring.  Tying flies, calling turkeys, and watching Penguins hockey will keep me going until spring peaks around the corner.  But, I've really come to love planting seeds each spring with the kids.  Doing this for a few years now really gives me a benchmark on how much they have retained in terms of their understanding about nature and how things work.  It also give me a benchmark on their dexterity and ability to follow instruction, as seeds are microscopic!  I remember trying to give them seeds this small my first year and it was a mess.  As a word of advice, stick with pumpkin, watermelon, and zucchini the first few years.  

But, this was a great little winter break and once we planted, we made sure to revisit and water and eventually plug in the grow lights.  Every morning they want to run downstairs to the basement to see what has sprouted and how much bigger they've gotten.  They surely are interested and I cant wait to remind them of what all their hard work is turning into in the late summer / fall.

Family Traditions

For many decades my Pap, Dad, and Uncle have made the annual pilgrimage up to Lehman Brothers Farm in Berlin, Somerset County, PA to get the highest quality cabbage in the country.   This cabbage is dense like a bowling ball and is the secret to the high quality sauerkraut we make each fall.  

This picture of my Pap, at age 92, is one of my all time favorites.  I get lost thinking of my Pap's entire life experiences in this one picture.  For me, it's so deep.  

We took the kids up to the farm and got a very similar picture.   Similar to the picture of my Pap, I get lost staring into the eyes of these kids .   I feel like I am staring directly into the history and generations of our family.  Without my Pap and Dad now, these kids gives me so much happiness knowing the family traditions live on.  

Starting the Orchard

With the new house and a couple acres of space, we wanted to start planting some apple / pear trees in our first year, so we could enjoy them in a few years when they matured.  We bought a Honeycrisp and Gala apple and a Bosc and Bartlett pear for our family Easter gifts.  The apples are dwarf and pears are semi-dwarf.  There is a lot to learn about fruit trees (if you want to really do it right), so I've been researching a lot.  For now, the trees are in the ground and we have a fence to keep the deer out. 

The twins had a ball helping throw dirt and playing peek-a-boo!   It's amazing how much joy can be found in a dirt hole! 

 Just add water

A few weeks later