smell of fermentation!   There is something very rewarding about the concept of vineyard to vat, grapes to goblet,

farm to table, farm to fork, onions to oven, pesto to pizza and squash to salad.   We are always coming up with a  fun way to

describe our motto here at Van Till Family Farm & Winery.  We are farmers and love to value add to what we grow

so our guests can have an enjoyable experience here at the farm & winery.

But there was another harvest this fall at the winery, though along the lines of farm to table,  this one is more like

weeds to wall!

Clay for the Wall

Yes, we took our own soil (where weeds come from), added a few stabilizers and built an Earthen  Wall on the

east side of the Patio Pavillion gardens.  It is

quite a piece of craftsmanship.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching Floyd and Linda build it last month.

The wall  has been made with Compressed Earth Blocks , also called CEB, which are

bricks that are made from mostly clay, and a little sand and cement.    This mix is loaded, somewhat dry,  into a hopper, and with hydraulics

it is pressed into  large bricks.

Under  1200 psi, these   bricks are durable!

Bricks from Clay for the Wall

Earthen Plaster is applied to the bricks giving a  smooth  finish to the wall.  With a water repellent finish,  it will be water proof and ready for the weather.   The wall will be the backdrop for a

The finished wall waiting for the water feature.

water feature which will certainly add to the  peaceful

and relaxing atmosphere that is here at the winery.

Even though the weather has cooled down, the garden path

is still extending an invitation to explore the fall garden.  Follow the path and come  see the wall!

Comfrey plant before leaves are cut off for compost around this young espalier tree.

In this second picture, I have chopped down this comfrey plant, (Russian Comfrey),  for the 3rd time this year and laid the leaves down around the small fruit trees that we have started in the Secret Garden.  This plant was put into the garden as a Dynamic Accumulator, to bring nutrients, especially calcium,  (which is vital for good, sweet fruit),  from deep in the soil into the leaves.  The plant had grown  very lush  with leaves and flowers, and then I cut it back  to the ground, as you can see in the picture, and spread the leaves around the root zone of these small fruit trees.  This doesn’t hurt the plant at all, in fact,  I will be cutting it back again a few more times this summer and into the fall.  The best way to tell if it is really  accumulating calcium is to take a soil test.  I will wait until next year or the year after to do that.  Building the soil without purchasing ” off-farm” inputs does take patience,  and is an ideal way to build soil in a urban garden, too.

Since there is always something exciting happening in the garden, I am willing to wait a year or so to tell if my soil building on these trees is effective.  In the meantime, I am training the fruit trees in the Secret Garden using two techniques developed in Europe called Espalier and The Lorette System.   These trees will be trained and  pruned during the summer months using methods that allow for lots of fruit in a small space.   Building a wall for the garden is in the August plans just before grape harvest  so, when we begin construction, I will post on that progress.  Too much to do outside to spend too much time on the computer.  Enjoying the season, Deb

still bound together with the rubber band.  I could see that they were still alive!  I took those out, set them aside and took the  onion peels, outer leaves of the lettuce, carrot ends and cilantro roots to the compost bin.  How could I discard something that was still alive!

Green Onions in February on the Patio

The next day, I found a 1 gallon nursery pot, filled it with potting soil mixed with compost, took off the rubber band and planted and watered  those

scalllions in the pot.  The next week  I could see they were growing, and soon we were harvesting the tops of  these green onions for our Southwestern Pizza.

It was pretty simple and didn’t take much effort.  In fact, they even survived with  very little water in the summer,  winter in an unheated greenhouse  and are now growing on the patio, ready to be harvested again this week.  And we thought the onion was only an ordinary  vegetable crop.

Oranges and Lemons on the Patio Pavilion in February

.

Order the Southwestern Pizza and you will be enjoying local fresh grown greens, in winter, in Missouri!  And did you notice the bright orange and yellow in the picture?

Yes, those are oranges and lemons growing on trees in our Patio Pavilion!  Stop by and see them,  but please don’t pick the oranges!

to be able to dig in the soil, and work with plants that have blooms ( geraniums),  foliage ( boston ivy),  and fruit ( naval orange

and Meyers lemon trees) when most of the ground all around was  just beginning to defrost!

Frozen ground and 7 inches of snow didn’t stop me though,  from harvesting in the farmscape.   I collected cuttings of  pussy willows ( Salix Chaenomeloides, Giant Pussy Willow),  curly willow ( Salix Matsudana Golden Curls) and a bright orange one (Saliz alba  Britzensis,  Coral Bark Willow).   I made these  ‘ornamental woodies’  into  dry arrangement decorations for the Patio Pavillion and the Tasting Room.  And compared to a  snowy day  like yesterday,  the Patio Pavilion temperature stayed near 62 degrees most of the day, such a taste of spring!

I had gotten behind in my maintenance this winter and spent the last few weeks trying to  catching up.  As I was working with the plants in the sun, I reflected on why I hadn’t done this earlier, because it should have been done a long time ago.  We like our patio and farmscape to look relaxing and  inviting and we aim to set a stage for our guests to enjoy the plants and atmosphere while they visit here at the winery.  We certainly don’t want them to  feel like they  must jump up and clean out dead plant material from the flower beds!

We are a farm family, though,  and when my Dad passed away early December, all of the load shifted to Cliff and the staff as Brian and I went to California for a few weeks.

Deb's Parents: Ted and Louise Scott

As expected, shifting back into gear takes time and I couldn’t get to these plants.

But as I stopped and reflected on the events over the last few months, I realized how much both Cliff and my parents had contributed to who we are.

My mother loved to garden, and I think I inherited the love of plants from her.  I had seen her successfully start plants from cuttings that had been discarded on the ground.  Is that a green thumb?   And what did I do today?  Why I picked up a broken branch from a geranium plant growing in a container near the patio door, got a mason jar filled with water and stuck that green branch in the water. Did I think twice about it, no!  I just knew, that was what needed to be done and I am quite confident that it will grow.  That must be an “inherited green thumb”!

My father kept very good records and loved history.  He would keep records of phone conversations for years and actually refer back to them to verify some facts.

I remember my brother telling me he had talked to  Dad regarding some business transaction and had told him the details.  Months later, my brother couldn’t remember the details, but he called  Dad, and Dad found the yellow legal pad which he had taken notes on and gave the facts to my brother.

I keep  a lot of records and have a lot of pictures of plants on the farm.  I must admit though, I don’t have them organized well and they get lost in a pile on my desk!

So, where do I get the ability to take care of the plants on the farm and keep records and enjoy writing?  I probably caught it from my Mom and Dad.

They devoted a great deal of time to us seven children and I am grateful for their dedication to us.

Cliff's Parents: Jim and Verna Van Till

Cliff’s parents enjoyed people  and were always having someone over to their house for dinner or coffee.  His Mom had a real gift of hospitality, even keeping  notes on what you were served so she wouldn’t serve the same thing the next time you came to dinner!  Cliff thinks of the farm as an extension of our home and we try to make our guests feel

welcome and comfortable  as if the Patio Pavilion were our home.   Cliff’s Dad was an honest man and a man of  integrity and  Cliff  shares those same values too.  Cliff’s parents devoted a great deal of time to raising their six children too, and for that we are also very grateful.

So, it is our hope, as you read this blog and if you can visit the farm and winery, that you will enjoy your time spent here and  that you will enjoy your  visit to the farm and winery.

Though my husband and I have some  God given talents and abilities, it was our parents that helped guide us and never told us we couldn’t achieve our dreams.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

Ghost Peppers ready for harvest. Now what do I do!

with green, orange and yes, red fruit.  As the pepper ripen they change

colors from green to orange to red.    I have been watching the plants

all summer  with a healthy respect for the unusual crop they bear.

This is the hottest pepper in the world and I have been eyeing them

from a distance,  they seem to carry a mystery about them!

I am just not sure what to do with these peppers!

Jalapenos can be as hot as 8,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units), habaneros

can be as hot as 350,000 SHU, with Ghost Peppers checking in at 1,000,000 SHU,

the hottest pepper in the world!

We have 2 Chipotle Peppers Sauces  and 3 Pepper Jams that we make here at the

winery with the jalapeno peppers that we grow on the farm. And those sauces range from

mildly hot to hot!  I use my habanero peppers in a tonic that ages with garlic, horseradish,

onions and vinegar that builds the immune system!  Wow, is it hot, but really good!

So what am I going to do with these Ghost Peppers?  They are ready for harvest.

Has anyone every used them?  I would be interested in hearing how you have used these peppers.

put them in the wood fired oven and waited on the patio with a glass of wine.  This was a great combination!

Just a hint of smoke from the remains of a hot pizza baking fire and plenty of bubbling juice

oozing out of the whole wheat crust, made this a wine pairing experience!  Cliff had the

beef and I had the chicken pot pie  and the Chardonnel was a perfect match.

Farm Crafted Pot Pies baked in the Wood Fired Oven

As you can see, it was such a relaxing dinner, with some tomatoes from our container tomatoes, Tumbling Tom.  This tomato only needs a 1 gallon size container, and it produces!

We have a Tomato Tower with 30 container tomato plants growing on it.  The tower looks like a Christmas tree with green plants and little

red balls.  These tomato plants can be grown in a 12″ container, so they do well in this tower.  We already picked the first flush, and they were great

in a tomato, cucumber, basil and onion salad with an olive oil dressing.  I will get a picture of the tower with  the second flush of yellow blossoms out in the next blog.

These plants  love this heat we have been having and do very well with regular watering in the towers.  They are indeterminate

and will produce until frost.  I like that!

and hot as can be for another!  Over all, everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the insectary plants in the farmscape, learning about

Beginning the tour

growing strawberries in grow towers, walking through the beginning stage of  the “The Secret Garden”, learning about High Brix Farming and, of course, no tour is complete until you eat on the pat

io!

The first tour was a group on vacation with World Wide Country Tours.  We had met them at the Jesse James Farm in Kearney

and rode the bus with them to the farm.   On the bus, we sampled farm crafted jams, sauces and jellies as we talked about the history

of our farm and the area.

In the Vineyard

Walking through the flower gardens with just enough rain to make us glad we were dining on the dry patio.AfQuiz winners scored 100%

ter the tour, ready for the test!

Of course who would figure that 1 week later, when the Lawson Middle School students arriv

ed to

day for their farm tour and pizza

making ( and  eating)  lesson that it would be 89 degrees and hot!

We did have a quiz at the end of the tour and there were two students with perfect score!  Way to go girls!

In the picture they are holding their

gift certificates.

Students helped make these farmstead pizzas with ingredients they harvested during their tour

These farm guests are welcome back. Thanks for coming!

We always enjoy giving these tours, because  we  find ourselves looking  fresh and new at what we see every day.  We are then

reminded how fortunate we are to be called to farm and live so close to the land.  I am going to have to end this now and remove the

remnants of the compost pile, (that I was showing the students today), that I see is still under my fingernails.

It’s a never ending battle!   Maybe that is living too close to the land!  More Later.

prune, the more confident I will be.  But for now, when I see the grape flower clusters, I am greatly relieved that they are off to a great start!

Here are some pictures of the beneficial insect activity ( the good bugs) in the hoop house. 

On my hand, I have a ladybug larva, which looks like an alligator.  The larva look like alligators before they

pupate to the adult stage, (round red and black spots)  which is much more familiar to most people.

But I love finding these guys!  The next picture is an alligator on the spinach that overwintered in the hoop house. 

The spinach were transplanted  in October and were covered with  row cover, which protected them  during  the winter.  When the weather started to get above freezing this spring, these spinach started to grow, but they had been really stressed during the winter and had attracted white fly and aphids, ( bad bugs.)  I left them alone, not willing to pull out plants that had survived -11 degrees and that were struggling.  I was sure they would pull out of it and give me a great early harvest.  I also  knew the aphids would not move over onto the lettuce I planted because the lettuce  was vigorous and healthy and bugs attack  sick or stressed plants, at least I hoped they wouldn’t.   And,   sure enough, there has been a lot of really green growth on the spinach these last 3 weeks , the aphid are nowhere to be found, ( they are not on the lettuce!) and there are alligators crawling all over the spinach.  It would be safe to assume the good bugs ate the bad ones.  Sometimes just waiting does have it’s rewards!

This picture shows another of  the deer repellent plants in the farmscape. This one is an allium, it is a bulb, and it is a  relative of  onions and garlic.  This one smells like onions and the deer don’t like that.

I have tulips planted everywhere, and the     

alliums give off enough odor that the deer don’t find the tulips.   I haven’t seen any deer tracks and all tulips are accounted for in the flower beds!  Sorry deer, no candy this spring.

This picture shows the lettuce growing in the greenhouse in one of our towers.  I can get an earlier start in the greenhouse by transplanting  lettuce and  other greens into these pots that stack 6 on top of each other.  This

lettuce is a Deer’s Tongue that is sweet and crisp.  The leaves come to a point and have good flavor. I can get 36 plants in a 4′ x 4′ space.  by picking the outer leaves 2 times per week,  3-4 towers gives plenty of lettuce for our farm crafted salads being served here on the farm.  More  about some other lettuces next week.

Thanks for letting me share about the unique aspects of farming here in Missouri!

Crown Imperial

This cool looking plant is Crown Imperial, or Fritillaria Imperialis.  This one is 7 years old and has finally multiplied to three blooms!  The first 3 years the plant sent up its stalk and yet no bloom.  Then it has been a work horse.  Why is it in the farmscape?   Cliff really likes it,  and it is used to repel deer and rodents.  The bulb smells pretty foul and you don’t want to put your nose too close to the blooms, they also have a very unpleasant odor!  I have these spaced throughout the farmscape to camouflage the tulips that are soon to bloom.  This is called camouflage gardening.  Everything in my farmscape is deer resistant, except the tulips!  By planting daffodils, hyacinths and the crown imperials throughout the beds,  the deer will not

Crown Imperial with Daffodils to deter the deer

be able to find the tulips so well, which is like candy to them.  This fall, I will  plant  these bulbs around the hoop house to deter the moles.  If you find yourself in the area, stop by and see these unique flowers.  Don’t worry, the smell won’t ruin your appetite for pizza !  The hyacinths are in full bloom right now and their sweet smell masks the odor of   the Crown Imperial.