Piedmont Farm Tour - Day 2 Slideshow

On day 2 of the Piedmont Farm Tour last weekend, we visited Timberwood Organics, Fickle Creek Farm,Chapel Hill Creamery, Pickards Mountain Eco Institute and Four Leaf Farm:



If you'd like to see which farms are which, and some captions, you can see the Flickr set here.

Slideshow of Piedmont Farm Tour - Day 1

I previously blogged about the Piedmont Farm Tour, which was held last weekend. I went both days, enjoyed myself thoroughly, and took some pictures. These farms sell flowers, produce, herbs, meat and eggs to our local farmers markets.

Below is the slideshow from the first day (last Saturday) and we visited several farms in northern Orange County: Maple Spring Gardens, Wild Hare Farms, Captain J.S. Pope Farm, Anatoth Community Garden, a farm not on the tour (a friend knew the farmers) and we saw llamas and alpacas there, and the last farm visited was Whitted Bowers Farm, a biodynamic farm.




Tomorrow I'll put up some pictures of the Day 2 of the Farm Tour.

If you'd like to see the captions of the pictures in the slideshow, detailing which farms the pictures are from just click here.

Hey, want to tour some local farms?

This upcoming Farm Tour definitely looks like something I'm going to participate in, and I'm surprised I didn't know about it before now. That's one big reason why I'm posting about it, to get the information out there in case you want to participate too.

If you've read books like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or The Omnivore's Dilemma, you might be more interested than ever in being acquainted with exactly where your food comes from. I am. And if you shop at your local Farmer's Market whenever you can, do you sometimes wonder what these farms look like, or how they operate? You should consider taking part in the 14th Annual Piedmont Farm Tour on the weekend of April 25 & 26th from 1pm to 6pm. A pdf map with lots of useful information can be found here.

This year’s Piedmont Farm Tour will bring together consumers, farmers, and producers in one of the largest farm tours in the country. It is a great time to go exploring in the North Carolina countryside. With over forty farms to choose from, you and your family can craft an exciting day visiting and learning about farming and agriculture.

If you’re looking for some animal action you can pet goats, hold chickens or rabbits and get up close to cows and sheep. Plant lovers can learn about growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, and berries. See how farmers manage their land with hoop houses, traveling chicken coops, irrigation systems, and greenhouses. Learn how prawns are saving farmland at Stagg Creek Farm, new to the tour this year.

There will be lots of opportunities to buy meat, eggs, poultry, and prawns, so bring a cooler. One button buys a carload of people two days of touring.

The above from Weaver Street Market.

You can buy the button for admission (for a carload of folks) referenced above here.

A list of participating farms at the pdf above or here.

Hope there's good weather that weekend. Sounds like a fun time to me.

Thanks to my pal Jack for letting me know about this tour.

New Year's Day Hike - Umstead State Park

For the sixth year in a row, some friends and I gathered for an afternoon hike on New Year's Day. This year we chose Umstead State Park. Umstead is fairly large, and there are entrances from both I-40 and Hwy 70. We'd done a hike on the Hwy 70 side before, so we tried the I-40 side, which enters off Harrison Avenue.

We walked the "Company Mill Trail" down to Crabtree Creek and a little beyond. The trail was rocky but well-marked. The air was cold and exhilarating. A nice start to the New Year. At the trailhead:



A sample of what the trail looked like:


Once down at Crabtree Creek, it's easy to see the ruins of the old dam that was in use at least as early at 1810.


There was also a grist mill in use at the site in the 1800s, and the old mill stone is now displayed beside the trail. The mill stone was thought to be lost, but in the mid-1990's it was found in the riverbed downstream from the dam and recovered. A National Guard helicopter helped pull it out of the creekbed and place it beside the trail.



Going along further down the trail you can see the old foundation of what was probably the mill operator's house. Also further down the trail--we didn't get that far--there is a bridle trail that is part of what was the "Durham Road" that is an old, old trail connecting Raleigh and Durham. Evidently an former stage road can be found bisecting this route too and I'd like to go back soon and find it. (This information is via Randy Johnson's Hiking North Carolina, a guide worth owning, in my opinion.)

There is a nice new metal bridge that crosses Crabtree Creek and another map on the other side of the bridge for checking your route. This section of the trail is nice for stopping and enjoying climbing the rocks, checking out the old dam ruins and the mill stone, and listening to the rushing water. The entire loop of the Company Mill trail is 4.8 miles. Down to Crabtree Creek and back is just over 2 miles.


I love to see the surprising green ferns peeking out of the brown leaves in winter.

It's a nice hike and closeby too. The park was very well kept with plenty of maps at the trailhead. A highly recommended afternoon hike.

Christmas Cactus

This time of year when nearly nothing is blooming, my Christmas Cactus explodes with beautiful pink blooms. This one (below) was a gift from a friend a few years ago who came to our house one night for dinner. It's not too terribly hard to care for as outlined here. And it's not really a "cactus" as it doesn't grow in the desert, but rather is a tropical plant that grows in the rainforests of South America. Certainly grows quite well here hot, humid NC as long as it comes inside in the winter.

Christmas Cactus

One bloom

The blooms always looks like some sort of butterfly creature in flight--or maybe an angel if you are in the Christmas spirit when it blooms.

A Berry Breakfast

Outside my kitchen window this morning, a cold, fluffed-up cardinal chows down on berries. The berry tree was in the shade still but I snapped a few pictures anyway. (You can click the pictures to make them larger. )

Got weeds? Hire the Goats!

Instead of firing up the noisy weed-eater and possibly contracting poison ivy and a case of achy arms and shoulders, if you live 'round here, you can invite The Goat Patrol to your garden to handle your weeds and vines and unwanted vegetation. A friend mentioned she'd be witnessing The Goat Patrol taking down some weeds over the weekend and I was intrigued. Here they are in action a few days ago, doing their job and chowing down--not to mention providing entertainment.

You can even meet the herd before they come over to help you out.

Word was that the owner of the yard in the pictures above was very pleased after the job was complete, and that the little ones in the household were thrilled with the goats coming over for the day.


(Photos were provided courtesy of Wendy Evans.)

An Electric Lawn Mower?

A few years ago, maybe 4 or 5, I bought an electric lawn mower. Lots of people said "okaaaay, but they don't have enough power to cut thick grass." Being the hardhead I am, I went ahead and bought it. I liked that it would be quiet (it is) and that I didn't have to fool with cans of gasoline and a persnickety lawn mower engine. I worried about the fact that I always wait until the grass is thick and high, so it might not be able to cut it properly with the electric mower.

I've been pleased with it, so I thought you might be pondering one. They do just fine. I took some pictures for the heck of it, just to show how well mine does, if you are thinking of trading in for an electric.

My Black & Deck Electric Mower:

My backyard a few weeks ago, needing a cut:

Cutting through just fine (the grass was damp):

All done!

The cord is never a problem because when I plug it in, I cut away from where I have the cord plugged in so it's always on the cut side of the lawn, seldom in the way. I'd like to try a cordless lawn mower, but this one has lots of good years left in it. It's never given me one bit of trouble.

Never failed to start, never balked at all. Easy.

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Red Spider!

Red Spider Lily, that is. Also called the Equinox Lily, Magic Lily, or Hurricane Lily. Or Lycoris radiata to be precise.

One of the many great things about owning an older home, in my opinion, is that someone may've planted cool things in the yard. The first time early fall rolled around after we moved into this house, and I stepped out the backdoor and these greeted me, I was enchanted with them. Here are some pictures I took a few days ago:

Taken from above.

Our cluster of Lycoris radiata.

Seems like these just pop up overnight. Boom, there they are, all red and bright and slightly Dr. Seuss-looking saying, "Hey, someone planted me here years ago so they could enjoy me." So I do make it a point to stop and admire them in their 2 or 3 weeks of glory and oddity. Thank you, whoever you are, for planting these. This house and its tended yard has been here since 1926 so it could've been long ago.

I've never done a thing but enjoy them each fall when they pop out of the ground, so they must do well here in our climate. They are native to China and Japan, often seen in groups on the ridge of rice fields.

If ingested they are supposed to give you lucid dreams. I wouldn't try that, though.

African Milk Plant

Years ago, maybe 20 years ago even, my Mom gave me a small plant to put inside my tiny apartment. I didn't want anything that required a lot of fussing over, but I did want a house plant, something green, of some kind. It was a baby of a plant that Mom had received from her sister. I didn't even know the name of it at the time, but it was happy with sporadic water and some sunlight. It grew slowly.

Now it is pretty big and top heavy and is prone to tipping over, which it sadly often does. I've found that it is not a cactus, but a succulent, and is an African Milk Plant (Euphorbia trigona). I haul it outside in the summer, where it loves the heat and humidity and sunshine, and inside for the winter, when it goes dormant.



I wonder what will happen to it if it gets much bigger and I can't haul it outside in the summer because it is too tall and too heavy. It won't be happy all year round in the house, and I don't have a sunroom where it could stay year round and get enough light. Maybe I need to donate it to someone who does have a sunroom where it could stay in one place? I do have a couple of babies from it, the smaller of which is about the size of the plant when my Mom gave it to me years ago:



Oh, and it's supposed to be good luck to give one of these as a gift, so 20 years late I'd like to say, "Thanks Mom for the good luck gift! But what do I do with it now?"

Fairy Rings

IF YOU SEE A FAERY RING

If you see a faery ring
In a field of grass,
Very lightly step around,
Tip-toe as you pass,
Last night faeries frolicked there-
And they're sleeping somewhere near.
If you see a tiny faery,
Lying fast asleep
Shut your eyes
And run away,
Do not stay to peek!
Do not tell
Or you'll break a faery spell.

~ William Shakespeare

A block or so away from my house I saw a burgeoning Fairy Ring, but alas no "tiny faery" as Shakespeare suggested I might see. I've always been fascinated by Fairy Rings, so I had to go back and get a better look and maybe a picture or two. Not sure what kind of mushroom this is specificially, however, because many different kinds of mushrooms can populate a Fairy Ring.




It's quite possibly a Scotch Bonnet 'shroom from the looks of it though. Edited to add: Don't ever eat mushrooms unless you are 100% positive what they are--and then double-check that.