A Big Day!

Today was a beautiful, sunny day on the Palouse so we decided to work in the garden rebuilding our hoophouse. Our last one didn't fare so well under these harsh winter conditions (ha ha). So today the hoophouse got a brand new, study wood frame base and newly retaped UV treated plastic. Even though this new hoophouse looks so much fancier, it is still being done on a college budget. We figure about $10 in parts and pieces and two hours of labor from the master craftsman. It was very exciting watching this whole thing come together. We hope you're as excited as we are!

This is the frame without the plastic. This gives us 20 square feet of garden space for winter harvesting and summer crops that require more heat and protection like eggplants and peppers.

This center piece will hold the hoops steady. We purchased 1/2 inch PVC pipe from the building supply. They are thin enough to bend at a pretty severe angle. We attached the center piece by drilling a small hole at either end and lacing twine through. We then made several passes around the wood and pvc to make sure there was good connection and would not affect the plastic when it was laid over top. This is a solid frame!!

I call this our art deco yard art. We had several pieces of miscellaneous plastic from a hoophouse we helped build. The plastic is UV treated and rated to last four years. So if the snow (what is that again?) doesn't collapse the frame, it should last us a long time. The whole thing doesn't weigh more than less than 10 pounds. So it is easy for one person to move and will allow us to prop up during the hot summer months. 

MMMMMM... What's in the pretty little (new!) enameled cast iron pot? Bavarian Barley Stew!!

This tasty little dish is full of local pork sausage (prepared by my dad!), barley, and lots of our local storage produce like carrots, parsnips, garlic, and cabbage. My better half made a nice chicken stock last night after eating a wonderful chicken from a local producer. We also added our own stewed tomatoes from last summer's bounty. The only thing we had to add that wasn't local was a bay leaf. But I'm pretty convinced I should try growing a small bay plant/tree and harvest these tasty little leaves to sell locally and use for our own cooking pleasure.

It's so interesting too, we have found that the carrots we stored from October in our fridge are becoming sweeter. They taste so wonderful that we've been eating them like crazy. We might have to start digging up our carrots from the garden that we overwintered under a nice bed of straw. I'll let you know when that happens!