Can't believe it is already Newfield Farmer's Market Day again!  We have been out straight between last Saturday to this.   We were able to get  the remaining new apple trees, but also  the elderberry cuttings planted out this week.  The cuttings were from taken this winter from the varieties we are already growing here, and rooted.  These new transplanrs enjoyed the wet, cold week far more than we, getting comfie in their new digs. 

Fortunately, it was easy going for planting in that these were holes dug and prepared in Spring of 2012 when the initial hedgerows were put in.  Their predecessors didn't settle in too well , so these are their replacements.   Ready and waiting to get busy!

This means ~ Snow Fire Hollow is chock full of elderberry plants, officially and finally!   Four varieties,  seemingly happy to he here, if the growth so far this season is an indication.  There is one particular spot up on the knoll that could use one more, right next to a wee orphan elderberry, sitting alone,  waiting for a playmate.  But once the playdate begins, the elderberry total is at 87 plants. 
   Woo hoo.

Other Hollow Happenin's'...
More herbs and vegetable seedlings transplanted into the guilds and the veggie beds too, by the H. yesterday in the pouring rain, but he in his glory, rain or shine, in the dirt or muck. 

The keyhole garden is also primed and ready now for me to get out there and re-home some of my perrenial herb seedlings.

The seedlings for market patiently waited for today to roll round again.  They laughed off the wet, cold weather and responded heartily to the couple stretches ( as in hours) of warm sunny weather.  
 
So, the fare this week will be more Amaranth, Purple Beauty as well as Hot Peppers, Pineapple and Sungold Cherry Tomatoes.  Lavender, Lemon Thyme, Chives and eggplant and more!  Organically grown, here at the Hollow.  

Also, I must mention that we  have handmade market bags available, too.  So stop in at the booth and pick one up before you shop!  And please take along a seedling or three, all ready to "leave" and get to their new homes.
;) 

 

The seedlings have left home to make their way out into the world!

They are available to good homes only -
please help give the little guys and gals a place to spread their roots and leaves!  

:) 

Newfield Farmer's Market Day is 6 days from today.  We have today and tomorrow,  off from, you know,  work, to get busy working to be ready for it.

The day has dawned,  and it's time to get busy.   My coffee cup is empty without the desireable effect I was hoping for.   Cold, Cruel world.
I would write the to-do list here,  but that would serve no purpose and just make me hyperventilate.  Besides, H. just ascended the stairs, with each step calling out what's on The List.
Great.... Breathe in, breathe out. 

The day has arrived! 
One of the reasons we chose 'Hollow' as part of our little orchard's name,  is because it aptly describes the lay of the land here.  Like so many homes today, our property is the result of an old farm and it's pasture from a bygone time,  purchased and then subdivided.  
The Webber Farm, as it once was named, is now divided into 6 homes, all with about the same amount of land as we own.   The perimeter of the old farmland,  like so many of New England, still has smattered vestiges of the rockwall built by clearing the land by stronghands and oxen.  These earlier farmers did the unenviable task of attempting to clear their quarry of various stones and boulders that were in the way of decent farming soil so they could do what was natural in their time, if survival for themselves and family was to happen.  
Once erected, the walls served to delineate the property, hold back the ever encroaching woodland, and keep in the livestock.  I still am deeply saddened that 98% of the beautiful historical rockwall that lined the front of the property was destroyed to make way for "progress" and chop up the farm into new homes.  Much of the back wall has crumbled as the woods marched forward to reclaim itself.

Anyway, back to the "hollow"....
The Webber Farm and it's pastureland, sat in a lull of land between a road and a hill.  Thereby each parcel now has a home which sits either nearer to the road, or back along the front of that hill.
Our home is situated on a high point, above the road on an earthen-covered granite ledge, with the orchard and garden rolling downward and then begins a gentle slope upwards onto that hill, way out back.  The land belonging to our neighbors on either side of us, is at a varying degrees of  higher elevation. So there you are left with a bit of a hollow.  That, I suppose we could now call phase 1 and 2 of our orchard's development. 

Today, began the planting of the  slope on that hill, and it faces South. This will be the final frontier for us, as we have no where else to g(ro)w.  The property ends just beyond there.
A south-facing slope is a desirable trait in planting of fruit trees.   Our intent is to move the apple trees from their nursery bed to there, and along the slopes' s perimeter, instead of a rockwall, we will plant a Sea Buckthorn hedge.  There are several reasons for those choices I will detail later in the Etcetera tab.  But for today, it is pictures of that new beginning of this particular end, but a good one.
To commemorate the event, it poured rain just about the entire time:


 

Such a beautiful day spent with family overlooking the ocean.  We enjoyed Lobster Rolls made fresh at our picnic table,  followed by some kite flying.  The wind cooperated about half the time,  but they flew!    We topped off the day with delicious watermelon and "Nana-made"  Date Bars. 

We will be grafting again tomorrow to finish up the trees.  We are rather behind on the grafting than we care to be, but life and work sometimes get in the way of well,  more life and work. 

I learned a lesson today.  Do not turn your back on an asparagus bed!  This morning they were sizeable for cutting, "later".  Well,   when we returned this afternoon we had long spindly green and purple asparagus trees!  

Guess what's for dinner?  woop woop

I couldn't resist some pics of our way home.  Serious Eats at the Famous Big G's in Windsor, after a stop at Johnny's Selected Seeds.  It was a great day, blue skies and a smattering of dark clouds and ploppy rain drops here and there made for a nice trip home.

Tom says it all!  A beautiful day to pick up a couple trees and planting amendments.  This is quite the happening place.  We were here last year on a Saturday, and while busy, nothing matches the crush of this year's Friday crowd.
The doors opened at 9 a.m.  We pulled in at 9:30 , after a 2 + hour drive to get here.   The parking lot was nearly full already!

I would put pictures of the how busy it was, but it was so crowded I have serious close ups of people.... trying to manage my phone with a box full of trees  - as the pictures attest, not easy.

While H. took my place in line, I wandered over into the Herbs and Bulbs (also asparagus and strawberries area).  I picked up some more herbs for the Keyhole Garden and guilds,  as well as a couple of pretty perennial bulbs. 

As we went outside, these flowers were growing along the edge 9 the parking lot.  They looked like little dandelions perched atop purple asparagus.   I don't know what they are , but I scooped one up for the ride home to investigate it further.  Any guesses?