A Tour of my Farm in January
The weather continues to be very strange. Here it is, January 11th, and we haven’t had any snowfall since that very damaging freak storm at the end of October. What’s more, the temperatures have been so mild. Just last weekend it was upwards of 60ºF in the New York City region, causing plants and animals a great deal of confusion, especially since the temperatures are dropping once again. At the farm, we are now ready for winter’s arrival. After being thrown completely off schedule by the weather, the crew finally caught up with all of the chores. Here are some photos of how things look all tucked away and also a little tour of the sanctuaries in my greenhouses.
1 Before leaving for vacation, I took some photos of a very dramatic sky early one morning at the farm.
2 The fast-moving cloud formations were so unusual and rather foreboding.
3 The sky looked just like a magnificent oil painting.
4 Another view
5 The morning light was stunning.
6 While I was away on vacation, the farm crew finished all the burlapping. The espalier apple orchard is now enclosed in a burlap windscreen. The rounded figures are standard wisteria.
7 The Gravenstein apple espalier is also surrounded with a burlap windscreen. The farm has a tendency to be very windy and I wanted the trees and shrubs to be protected as much as possible.
8 Art on burlap - The tree shadows look great!
9 The boxwood hedge surrounding the herbaceous peony beds is tucked away neatly beneath a burlap covered bamboo frame structure.
10 The fellows have really outdone themselves this year!
11 The boxwood hedge in front of the Summer House
12 And the tall American boxwood hedge behind the Summer House - These hedges are ten-feet tall! That's a lot of sewing!
13 All of the garden urns have been wrapped in plastic and covered with burlap.
14 Truly amazing! The allee of boxwood is well-protected from the elements.
15 The temperatures have been very mild, but apparently it's cold enough for this little rill to freeze upon the stone wall it passes through.
16 Look carefully and you can see a skin of ice on the water's surface.
17 Did I say it's been unseasonably warm? The daffodils should not be doing this in January! So many plants are confused by this weather.
18 Inside the newest greenhouse - The tropical plants are flourishing!
19 The fig trees have tender new foliage and even figs!
20 This is a Nagami kumquat - Unlike other citrus fruits, which have thick, pithy rinds, kumquat peel is thin and soft, and perfectly edible.
21 Citrus x Citrofortunella mitis is similar to a mandarin orange.
22 This tree is loaded!
23 A better look at the fruit - these small, juicy, sour oranges are wonderful in recipes and also for making preserves. I'm going to make marmalade.
24 Citrus limon 'Striped Lemonade' - This unusual tree is especially beautiful from its variegated leaves and fragrant blossoms, to its striped fruit - lovely!
25 Citrus limon 'Ponderossa' or 'The American Wonder Lemon' - this plant produces a thick mass of highly fragrant flowers, which become tiny lemons. Those lemons get bigger and bigger, often up to 5 pounds!
26 Citrus sinensis 'Blood Orange' - I really love this fruit because its distinctive tasting flesh is purple rather than orange.
27 Flowers of the blood orange plant - I forgot to mention that it is so very fragrant in the greenhouse!
28 A close look at a blood orange flower, which has an extremely floral aroma
29 The base of this giant potted tree fern is covered with baby tears.
30 Baby tears plant is a moss-like, creeping plant composed of threadlike stems with tiny, kidney-shaped, bright green leaves. It is obviously very happy growing here.
31 This agave plant has been very busy creating offsets known as pups. These pups grow from runners sent out from the base of the parent plant, just below the soil surface.
32 These pups will have to be carefully cut off of the runner and planted in smaller pots.
33 The bloom of a century plant, or Agave americana - The century plant is monocarpic, meaning it will bloom once in its lifetime. That bloom may not appear for 10 or 20 years, or more.
34 The upward-facing yellow flowers grow in clusters at the end of horizontal branches near the top of a tall stalk that emerges from a thick basal rosette of gray-green leaves.
35 The flower structure of the century plant resembles a candelabrum and sits atop a fast growing flower stalk that may reach 10 or even 25-feet!
36 Also in that greenhouse is fragrant rosemary in full bloom.
37 The rosemary flowers are edible and make excellent garnishes.
38 The cold house, where we grow directly in the amended soil, continues to flourish. I love having all of this fresh produce to enjoy.
39 Gorgeous broccoli!
40 Pak choi for stir fries
41 Spinach Gigante D'inverno - Spinach is a main ingredient in my daily 'green juice.'
42 Tall Top Early Wonder Beets
43 Rows and rows of feathery carrots
44 Colorful Rainbow Swiss Chard
45 Early Mizuna - This early maturing Japanese mustard is also known as kyona. Mizuna has become very popular as a salad green and is also delicious cooked.
46 Blooming in the main greenhouse is this showy crimson bromeliad, a tropical plant. This family contains more than 3,000 species and the pineapple is the most well-known bromeliad.
47 Also blooming in the greenhouse is Scadoxus, a member of the amaryllis family, native to South Africa.
48 For obvious reasons, this spectacular flower is also referred to as the paintbrush lily.
49 Medinilla Magnifica is one of my new acquisitions. Native to the Philippine Islands, medinilla is an epiphytic tropical evergreen shrub that grows to 8-feet tall in its native habitat. I love its waxy leaves and pendulous blooms.
50 A very pretty Paphiopedilum, or Lady Slipper orchid
51 Paphiopedilum maudiae, another slipper orchid also called 'The Queen'
52 Bright purple Epidendrum orchid flowers
53 The beautiful pink and cream flower stalk of variegated Acanthus Whitewater
54 The lush unfurling fronds of a bird's nest fern
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
Martha,
The burlap is so neatly done - looks wonderful!
The amount of produce in your green houses is unbeliveable. Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | January 11th, 2012 at 12:52 am
Thank you Martha.... your life is just so.... enviable and beautiful. Thanks for sharing it
Posted by: ~liz | January 11th, 2012 at 12:55 am
It's good your crew has finished preparing the farm Martha, I just saw on the news your part the country is going to be getting rain/ice/snow soon! They did do a good job, everything looks nice snd secure. The tropicals look like they are thriving in the new greenhouse. I love the citrus trees. Jo Malone has a perfume, Orange Blosssom, that smells heavenly, as I imagine the greenhouse does! Thanks for the info on rosemary flowers. I didn't know they were edible. I have plenty of rosemary in my landscape, mainly because they are deer proof. My favorites in the cold house are the spinach and early mizuna, Yum! Thanks for giving us an update Martha, you know it's our favorite!
Posted by: Cindy F | January 11th, 2012 at 9:58 am
Martha,
The amount of work your staff did putting up all that burlap is incredible!! They must have worked 24/7....I hope they get paid well!!! How can you possibly eat all of those vegetables by yourself? Perhaps you can donate some to families in need (there are certainly many folks out of work who could use help feeding their families).
Posted by: Sharon | January 11th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Hello Love your farm its so beautiful. Me and my family love your show we learn so much with you and your guest, I just found out that your show is going to be canceled, is this true? It would be so sad if its true because we learn so much from you guys, thank you very much for everything and hope to keep seeing you on TV.
The Agosto Family
Posted by: Vanessa Agosto | January 11th, 2012 at 10:18 am
Hi Martha, How fun it was to be able to talk to you on Sirius Radio 110 yesterday afternoon! I just love to hear you live on Sirius and the questions and your answers are fabulous! That was quite a surprise and it made my day again! I absolutely love today's blog post about your wonderful Bedford farm and how ready your terrific crew has made it prepared for winter snow that hasn't happened yet! Our weather is very unusual also and having days in the 50s is great for winter so I can do things outside without freezing. These photos and comments are fantastic! The clouds look alot like ours over Puget Sound, but we have lots of fog, also. All of the burlapping is spectacular and looks so clean and neat-great work crew! Photo #8 is beautifully artistic! All of these outdoor photos are outstanding! Sure hope those daffodils don't freeze-do you have to cover them with compost to protect them? Your new greenhouse with the tropical plants is really beautiful! All of the plants look so healthy! Sure wish I had all of those tropical plants! I do have an agave in my house and it is lovely! Would love to have a coldhouse, too! Those vegetables look so delicious and I'll bet Jude and Alexis love them, too! Thanks so much for letting us tour your farm again! Look forward to seeing you on the Today Show this morning and to see your Hallmark TV Show, also! Have a great day! Off to see your orchids on The Daily Wag! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | January 11th, 2012 at 10:24 am
It looks like Father Winter will be testing all of us and our readiness in the next few days...I'm off to tuck in my cows!
Posted by: iacowgirl | January 11th, 2012 at 10:44 am
Aunt Vera,85+, told me weather was this mild in 1956 and we know those winter storms will come but this mild winter is so appreciated here in Dakota. My level of ambition never would allow me sew burlap up but did go outside and sow some poppy seed yesterday before the rains came. I have a green tomato growing on plant in window that will soon be ready to fry and these wonderful pictures inspire me to plant produce seeds.
Posted by: ann | January 11th, 2012 at 10:57 am
That First picture... Amazing...green grass! Maine is about to be whallupped by a big snow storm tonight!
Dan Viger
Hollis 5 Corners, Maine.
Posted by: Dan Viger | January 11th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Absolutely love when you do segments from your farm. You should do more of them, so many people are trying to be self-reliant and you are so knowledgeable and organized. You could call the shows Fridays on the Farm. Topics like caring for chickens and other fowl; schedules for barn chores; harvest recipes; energy efficiency; so many ideas. Please, more from the farm.
Posted by: Catherine Davis | January 11th, 2012 at 11:25 am
The farm is looking good and so very serene after all those troubles earlier on. It's a rather odd Winter here in Vancouver, Canada as well. Rain, wind storms and warmth followed by clear frosty days...not at all what was predicted for us. I plan to walk around my small space garden today to see what's happening there.
Enjoy the stillness of Winter.
Posted by: sherey | January 11th, 2012 at 11:55 am
Martha,
Magnificent work by your crew to prep the farm for winter. I live in Maryland and we are experiencing very warm weather for January. I'm curious to know if the confused spring bulbs will be damaged if and when the temperatures drop again?
Posted by: Ian | January 11th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
With so many flowering plants in the hot house would it make sense to have the bee hives in the hot house to pollinate the flowers in winter?
Posted by: Giovanni | January 11th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Hi Martha,
When I started looking at your pictures, all I could think was the Burlap of Bedford but then came the daffodils and the Green House and the Cold House. Even your rosemary plants bloom. I have never seen a flower on a rosemary plant. You sure do have a green thumb which isn’t exactly a news flash but you have so many different plants and vegetables thriving all at once. I have a hard time keeping up on just the few plants I have in the ground. Years ago, one of our century plants bloomed and then died which somebody said it would do but maybe it just went dormant and we thought it was a goner. I think I emailed you a picture. Anyway, the flower stalk grew up taller than the house and I remember people driving by just to see it. The other 3 century plants we had on the swale were destroyed when someone lost control of their car and drove over them and we haven’t planted any since. They get so big when you plant them outside and then a lot of thorny trimming is involved so I think I’ll stick with coleus and elephant ears and philodendron. Thanks for the January update – I love your impressive plants and you made me hungry for fresh beets. I’ll see if I can get some at the grocery. Trish
Posted by: Trish | January 11th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
I have been waiting for more pictures of the farm! The weather here has also been very mild but I know old man winter will show up, perhaps in February. Looking forward to spring after seeing your pictures of the veggies!
Posted by: Fran | January 11th, 2012 at 1:46 pm
I am worrying about finding burlap to wrap my one rosemary plant....so this did make me giggle. We have 12, 12 by 4 raised beds, and a large square in the middle for herbs. We planted 220 cloves of garlic this fall, and I am so afraid they are sprouting....hope not.
I have also noticed the irises sprouting, and also my phlox. Here is southeastern Massachusetts our plants (and bunnies) are quite confused as well.
Thanks for the peek at your garden....even though it's covered!
Posted by: Nantucket Daffodil | January 11th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Perhaps I'm in the minority here but I really do miss the snow. And snow is essential for so many of our indigenous plants and animals in the Northeast, which a lot of us tend to forget. I'm hoping to see Old Man Winter at least once this season!
Posted by: Andrew Ritchie | January 11th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
I'm with Andrew, I'm looking forward to some snow too! Your farm looks like a lovely place to spend the colder, darker months
Posted by: Naomi A. | January 11th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
I'm another one who wishes that we had snow, or at least more rain! The winter in the northeast, this year, is so totally opposite of last year! It seems that last winter used up the snow for this winter..;) Also, we do need the precipitation..at times I've been watering the shrubs with a watering can. It could be a problem down the road. It's been too warm and dry. I do love the photos of your farm. I'm amazed at all the burlap and the work involved. At first I thought, it could be reused again...then, everything grows, or is trimmed, so it must be starting from scratch every year. You grounds crew do a phenomenal job! One photo looks a little like you're on the moon with the round wraps of grey. It still looks very beautiful in it's own way. Also, the plants in the greenhouse are so
luscious..the fruits and vegetables ready to be eaten. Wonderful! Thank you for the tour!
Posted by: Judy | January 11th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Martha I was watching your episode this week on Pasta and noticed how beautiful the eggs were from your hens. The chef was also commenting on them. Maybe you could do a segment on what kind of hens they are and what you recommend. What you feed them etc... I do know it is becoming popular in the blog world to have some chickens and the cute little houses are adorable that people are building! I am very interested in having some of my own and would be really interested in knowing how to get in the beginning stages of having and owning hens! Thanks so much and I am so glad that you cleared up that you will not be leaving us! Have a blessed day!
Juanita in South Carolina!
Posted by: Juanita Proffitt | January 11th, 2012 at 6:40 pm
What a gift to have your own organic fresh vegetables available year round!!! It is so rewarding. Was reading your blogs about your trip to the Bahamas and it was really good to hear that Alexis brought baby Jude's own frozen baby food that I am sure she makes herself for Jude. Good for her and Jude has such a great start to life because of a grandmother like you and a mom like Alexis.
Posted by: antonia rankin | January 11th, 2012 at 6:45 pm
how many yards of burlap was that?! Incredible work, Team Martha. And that Limon tree in the greenhouse is phenomenal.
Posted by: Anna Kuhn | January 11th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
To Martha and all who have the opportunity to contribute: THANK YOU... for helping to make the world a much more peaceful, and interesting, and beautiful place!!!
Posted by: eileen | January 11th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Hi Martha
I really wish I could grow something, anything. I tried to plant a garden twice and couldn't even get one pumpkin to grow. Do you have a book out thats about farming and growing a garden. I would love to get all your info! Love everything you do! My husband and I have a restaurant in NE PA and love fresh food. The name is Carl von Lugers in Scranton PA. I'd love to grow some veggies , please publish a book about gardening. Love the pictures of your farm.
Posted by: margaret dickert | January 12th, 2012 at 12:50 am
Dear Martha,
I'm curious to know how many yards of burlap it took to make all the coverings for your plants, bushes, trees, etc. Is that really necessary to the health of the bushes and trees? I planted two cherry bushes last year and one apple tree. I had to cover them with cages and netting through the winter to keep the deer away. Maybe I should have used burlap too. Our winter here in Iowa has also been mild. Just wondering. I love your shows and watch them often as I can. I learn so much from them. Thanks for sharing your talents and your life with us.
Posted by: Vicki | January 12th, 2012 at 1:35 am
Martha,
Here in coastal Virginia we have daffodils blooming! This is not typical for our region but, like you, we have had an unusually warm Fall. I love seeing the plants growing in your greenhouse!
Posted by: Evelyn | January 12th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Martha,
You always amaze me with pictures and produce from your wonderful farm. It inspires me to become a gardener here in Vacaville, CA. I watch your show every day.You should have a contest to see who can come up with a new idea for the garden that can be used by everyone across the USA and the grand prize would be a visit to your wonderful farm....
Ruth B, Vacaville,CA
Posted by: Ruth Bailey | January 12th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
My sister and I live in Central and West Texas call each other every day to discuss what we have seen on your TV show, what was in your blog, etc. Your show and pictures always make me want to do what you have been doing, go where you have gone, read what you have read. I am very thankful for someone that has discriminating taste in books, hobbies, travels to share with those of us that are incapacitated in one way or another. You are a true heroin for American women. Thank you so much.
Posted by: Annette McCarty | January 12th, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Beautiful farm! I wish that my life revolved around an agrarian calendar instead of office hours.
Posted by: Sandy | January 14th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Gorgeous photos Martha! You make me miss my greenhouse. I've been bending the husbands ear for the past year...I feel a greenhouse coming in my near future.
Thanks for sharing the wonders of your farm.
Posted by: Heather | Farmgirl Gourmet | January 14th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Martha,
Back in the mid to late 60s I decorated 5 or 6 Christmas presents for my daughter making every present an animal. I would love to have a book/magazine on decorating presents. My daughter was 4 and remembers all her presents. We cannot find any pictures but I remember getting the ideas from a magazine such as Family Circle, but am not sure.
Would you please work on such a project?
Thank you.
Janet
Posted by: Janet stoner | January 16th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
my family are starting a farm cows sheep the lots seeing These pictures are inspirational thanks for sharing
Posted by: Zaynab Kabir | January 19th, 2012 at 4:13 am
I'm not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I'll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road. Cheers
Posted by: Ken Loshe | February 6th, 2012 at 1:34 am
I don't use burlap. Instead, I made a cylinder around what I want insinuated and fill it with the fallen autumn leaves. Works like a charm - especially on my beloved hydrangeas!
Posted by: Dawn | February 9th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Hi Martha I watched your show today and missed the name of the glutun free flower to use. If possible to get the name of it. Thank you. I tried to get the recipe for the waffles but couldn't find. Thank you Roxene Love your show.
Posted by: Roxene Cardinal | February 13th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
I love your farm. It reminds me of the ones I grew up on in Ohio we didn't have all the vegetable that you have, but we had horse and the man that own the farm mainly grew hay to support his horse, but I love farm and wish that I had one.
When I was young we always had a garden to feed our family. There were 9 people in my family, so we grew what we could to feed them all. I hope you have many vegetables and have fun with your horses.
Posted by: Donna Sylvester | June 23rd, 2012 at 9:41 pm