Flowers

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Chive
Rose
Orchid
Not sure…
Iris
Kumquat I think…
…
Roses
Paw Paw Flowers

Paw Flower I hand-pollinated with pa paintbrush and added a dead herring under so fly’s would pollinate. Beas do not pollinate paw paw. Fly’s do so in the south some folks use roadkill underneath…
Lily

Figs in a cold climate

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Brown Turkey Figs (I think…)
Dying off in fall
12 fig trees a few feet apart. I learned this method from the amazing fig guru Ross Raddi of https://www.figboss.com/
I bend these over (cut the biggest stalks), cover with 30 bags of neighbors fall leaves and add a tarp on top for the winter. Voles ate a ring around the base of these this year despite coating with https://ivorganics.com/
Mine are not as consistently sweet as I’d like but may are.
When they are sweet like this, they can’t be beat.
The other way to winterize..Painted with Ivy organic coating.
Quite a process

Leaves or straw for a blanket. Then black tar paper taped with gorrila tape (will find a pic later) and a bucket or trash can on top. It’s a pain but worth it. Wrap around thanksgiving and unwrap in April ish or keep in containers unwrapped in garage like the two by the fire hydrant above.

Gardening Part 2 – Harvest

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Boston Marrow Squash (the big orange ones that early Americans in New England liked…Misc squash, Zuchini and Scallions
Garnet Yams
These are great cust in slices and roasted or washed and baked
Unlike growing potatoes where you cut them in slices and let the eyes grow then plant, yams need to be made from slips. You let shoots grow even a few inches, ideally much more and them twist them off and root by soaking in water for maybe a week and then plant. Thi way you get sweet potatoes and not just leaves. The leaves are good and very healthy to eat either way.
Delicoota squash, kale, asian pears, amaranth, grapes.

Bao, Vietnamese squash

More bao
After learning to use make and use Biochar, our soil was amazing, and we had a Bao plant grow 40 ish feet long and twenty feet up into a neighbor’s tree. We gave the Veitnamese school in Dorchser several trunk fulls.
Bitter Melon. Very bitter but makes you live to 100…
Edible Luffa on the top left. Ground cherries mixed with strawberries.
In the back high row the edible luffa flowers get bombabred by bees.
This picture coincidentally was taken may 9th but some years ago and today happens to be May 9th. I only just started getting stuff in the ground this year but as much as two months earlier in previous years like in March I stated cold crops like chines broccoli, kale, carrots, beets, lettuce early as either direct seed or from seedlings grown indoors but started in February lol. These simple caterpillar tunnel nonheated greenhouse-like structures can get you two extra months – at least. A month or two on either side of the growing season.
Beats, swiss chard, scallion, fennel
Mini Mexican cucumbers (turned out to get crazy with maybe 1,000 produced. Too many and they are good but not that good. The strawberries are Mara Des Bois which I consider the only ones to grow. Insanely sweet and grow all season unlike most that grow mostly in June. And these spread like crazy. I pad $30 I think when I bought them now I give sprouts away.
We get huge blackberries. Can;t remember the variety. We have Arapho also but they are smaller and while Good we prefer the giant ones. So do the birds so you sadly need to net them or lose them.
Ouch
Grapes are fairly easy to grow and super sweet. You need to cut the vines back in the spring.
Danvers carrots, delicata squash, cherry tomatoes, french fillet beans
It’s much easier to eat veggies when you grow them. Much more nutritious and flavorful.

Gardening – Home Farming

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Backyard Garden
Harvest…
Paw Paw like Mango in front.
The only Mango we managed to grow (indoors and just outdoors in July/Aug)
Baby mangos
Atlantic Giant Pumpkin
Pear
Potatoes grown in bags and cherry tomatoes
Grow tent
Fig
Persimmon (Nakita’s Gift cold hardy variety)
Compost
Burning wood for soil (biochar chunks, not ash)
Biochar run through chipper before soaking for 2 days in compost tea and worm poop and then adding to compost bin
Pluot (Plum Apricot Hybrid)
Santa Rosa Plum

12 closely planted figs that I bent down and covered with leaves and a tarp for the winter. Voles at the bark so, many of them may die…Normally, we get a couple hundred figs.

Huge blackberry and apples on right behind.
Asparagus
Harvest before it gets too long, but you must leave some to grow as plants to keep healthy. It takes a couple of years to get lots of production.
Asian Pear
Asina pear
Asian pears. You get big ones if you grow way less. You have to get used to severe thinning. It hurts but best to get rid of dozens or even a hundred small ones.
Doesn’t gets full sun but does ok.
Mint is perennial and invasive, so it’s nice to contain it in a half-whisky barrel.
Very old pear tree I cut back by a third over two years and grafted 3 or 4 varieties of pear on.
Hydroponic – Close to organic

First Giant Bluefin Tuna on Firstlight

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We caught our first Giant Bluefin Tuna September 3rd, 2016

  • 97 inches
  • 362.5 lbs dressed (head, tail and organs off/out)
  • Fought for a little over two and a half hours

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Core and tail sample for the dealer to judge the quality and potential price
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We turned down Shimano and Simrad for sponsors and went with Marshall’s for the lame $9 hats and Coppertone lol.

FYI: I’m sitting on Pollock guts.

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We ran out of balloons LOL…so we went mad max style with clean up glovestuna-balloontuna-bangeduptuna-cutting
We had to drag it home since we are waiting to get a gin pole installed to help us haul it into the boat. tuna-drag-intuna-tail-cutWe get to keep the tail and head steakstuna-tail-head-steaks
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Porbeagle Shark Caught and Released Off Stellwagen Bank

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We caught this small 4-5 foot Porbeagle shark off Stellwagen Bank and we released it. We were hoping for Giant Bluefin Tuna…

You can keep and eat these. Mako, Thresher and Porbeagle are good eating. It was a bit small, so we figured we would let him go and grow this time.

Apparently the small ones are the best eating but check the changing regulations and learn about them before keeping any.

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Porbeagle Shark

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Then we caught a Dogfish / Sandshark. These are basically a nuisance.  The English use them for fish and chips. They have spines on their fin in the back that can cause infections, so steer clear.

He made a rude comment about my choice of colors in my lobstering outfit so we gave him a warning and threw him back.

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Dogfish – Sandshark

Dogfish Tail Spine

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