Staying Green this Holiday Season: Recycling Christmas Trees

After the holidays, our thoughts turn to what to do with our Christmas tree now that its role as centerpiece is over. Many people think of very creative ways to re-use their trees, and others rely on community programs for disposal of their trees. Trees can be recycled and used for interesting functions including bird feeders/shelters, fuel chips and mulch.


One of my favorite newsletters, Dave's Garden, has just reprinted a few ideas for people to re-use their Christmas trees in their own yard:

• Do you live on a farm with a fish-stocked pond? The tree can be immersed in the deepest part to provide a habitat for the fish and aquatic animals living there.
• Do you have a backyard “habitat”? Cut the tree in half (or thirds, if it is very large), then push the sections back into the underbrush around the perimeter, or under large shrubs in your “wild” area. In the spring, sow seeds for fast-growing or vining plants that will quickly cover the bare branches.
• Do you have a wood-burning stove or a fireplace? Cut the trunk into suitable lengths and add to your woodpile for future fuel. NEVER try to burn the dry branches in a stove or fireplace; they are highly combustible and can quickly burn out of control.
• Do you own a wood-chipper or have access to one? Chip the tree into mulch for spring, or to dry for fire-starter fuel.
• If none of these ideas would work for you, check your local town website or newspaper to see if the city maintenance department is offering a collection site. Many smaller towns mulch these trees for use in city projects, and often invite residents to help themselves to the city mulch pile.

The author's list inspired me to start looking at some of the community-based options available in Michigan. Many of our cities, townships and counties offer recycling programs that include drop-off points where residents can take their trees. Some even offer curbside pickup. Here is a short list of community programs in Michigan to help you decide where to take your tree after the holiday:

The city of Grand Rapids offers free drop-off recycling, and curbside pickup for a very small fee for most of the month of January.

Cascade Township's dropoff point is a fire station, from 12/26 through 1/11.

Oakland County residents can use the several drop-off points hosted by the Oakland County Parks. from 12/25 through 1/16.

Earth 911 lists Johnston Farm & Composting as a drop-off location for Christmas trees, for a fee, in Livingston County.

I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. If these are all too far from you, by all means take a look at your local newspaper & see what's available nearby. I'd love to see what you find, too - please share in a comment!

Happy Holidays!!

Winter Wonderland Party

The weather outside looks wonderful for next week, and we want to celebrate it! Come join us for a hayride next Thursday, December 30, for our first-ever Winter Wonderland Hayride Party! Details are still in the works, but right now we do know that we'll have hayride tours of the farm, and a hot dog & marshmallow roast complete with hot drinks. Keep an eye on our facebook page - as we figure out the nitty gritty, we'll post an event with times, details, prices and rsvp instructions. We can't wait!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

I've been having fun reading about pumpkins and squash lately. Here are a few things I've learned you can do with them. Ok, I already know about most of it, but these are some of the more eye-catching web pages I've seen.

Carve a jack-o-lantern in your favorite silly, scary, using nifty tools and a basic template
or get more involved with specialty carving techniques
A friend carved this one for us early in the season:


Underwater Pumpkin Carving - yes, you really can carve a pumpkin under water!

Paint fun faces or designs on them, sometimes with a 4-H club

Make lots of delicious treats with the flesh and the seeds.
Like pie, custard, muffins, waffles, cheesecake and about half a dozen more just on the linked page! This applies to both pumpkins and squashes - and with squashes' slightly varying flavors, you can experiment with any recipe for subtle taste changes.

Roasting squash seeds: I like to cut open small squashes of two or three different kinds and roast all the seeds the same way, then compare their flavors. My favorite so far is Delicata seeds, which is also my favorite squash for a quick, microwaved treat.

You can take stop-action footage of a carved pumpkin wilting. Or you can just look at a video in a stock footage collection.

And here are some of my personal favorites:

You can visit a pumpkin patch and let fly on a pumkpin launcher


and then watch it zip over the terrain -or pond- as far as you can make it go!















And of course, you can spend time with your family choosing just the right pumpkin to become the canvas for your own artwork. Visiting a pumpkin patch with a hayride and other family activities is one of the best ways to spend a weekend afternoon!

My New Favorite Veggie: Purple Potatoes

We started growing these last year, and all winter long when I'd go to the potato boxes I would reach for the purples before any other. These relatively uncommon tubers have flesh that ranges in hue from dark blue to lavender, sometimes mixed with a little white. They have a subtle nutty flavor; we think they taste even more "potato-y" than many white or yellow potatoes. Microwaving preserves the color the best, but steaming and baking are also favorable methods of preparation. When boiling, it's fun to watch the water change color! In fact, if you leave the skin on, prepare to see your potato water become a lovely shade of green. Since it's purple inside and out, the pigments make it very high in antioxidants - more, I've heard it said, than blueberries, pound for pound!

Here are a few ideas for adding this tasty, nutritious spud to your menu:

Combine it with other potatoes and veggies when doing roasted veggies

Mash some of these babies, and separately mash a lovely orange-colored winter squash, or sweet potatoes. Serve them side by side, or gently swirled together in a serving bowl.

Roast a couple and toss them with a baked spaghetti squash.

Prepare them as you would any other potato and surprise the family!

How about a specific recipe? This one's Fork Crushed Purple Potatoes

Enjoy!

What's that Moth?

From MSU's Landscape Alerts:

Butterflies and Moths on the Internet
Duke Elsner, MSUE Educator, Grand Traverse County

The Internet is loaded with sites that provide information on moths and butterflies. The great challenge in using these sites is picking out the good ones with accurate and useful information. I’ve been exploring these for some time now, and here are my favorites for help with the identification of butterflies and moths:

Butterflies and Moths of North America
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/ This is a searchable database of verified butterfly and moth records in the United States and Mexico. It includes dynamic distribution maps, photographs, species accounts, and species checklists for every U.S. county and each Mexican state.

The Children’s Butterfly Site
http://www.kidsbutterfly.org/ This is a companion site to the Butterflies and Moths of North America, intended for a youth audience.

North American Moth Photographers Group
http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/MainMenu.shtml The Moth Photographers Group is a non-profit organization with the purpose of aiding nature photographers and others in identifying moths. Their goal is to make accessible via the Internet photographs of most of the moths occurring in North America.

Images of North American Moth Species
http://eweb.furman.edu/~snyderjohn/leplist/ Access and links to photos of caterpillar and adult forms of thousands of North American moth species.

North America Butterfly Association
http://www.naba.org/ This the largest association in North America of people interested in butterflies. Its goal is to increase public enjoyment and conservation of butterflies. Their site includes information for locating and identifying butterflies, how to create successful butterfly gardens, and how to photograph butterflies.

Southeast Michigan Butterfly Association
http://www.sembabutterfly.com/index.html A great source of local information for Southeast Michigan, with links to many resources.

Thoughts on Growing Pesticide-Free Sweet Corn

My family is quite conscious of our community's desire for produce that nourishes, tastes great, and has low impact on the environment. We want to be able to provide that to them, and so began our quest to grow pesticide-free sweet corn. The learning curve has been quite a ride! From variety selection, to cover crop usage and selection, from weed control to just how much damage can be done by four-legged & six-legged pests, and even how and when to properly harvest, there are dozens of factors that go into how successful a sweet corn crop will be.

Variety selection might have been our most important step in protecting our crop from pests, and providing a long-lasting harvest. We chose varieties that would withstand cooler weather in the fall, so we can keep providing corn for a long season. Our other criteria included: a long holding life on the stalk, so we don't have to pick it all at once; a long shelf life after picking, so you can take home a dozen and eat it all week if you want to; a nice large ear and an extra-sweet, tender kernel for tasty goodness. But the trait that's been the most beneficial is the length of the husks - they're longer than many others, so the tip of the ear is down below the end. This hides the kernels from the insects that would burrow into the tip of the ear and chow down before we'd get to it. That means far fewer - almost zero - ears with worms in, even though there are no insecticides applied.


And that brings me to the "getting to it." That longer husk has made it challenging for some of us (ok, me - Christina) to learn how to select ears when picking. After picking every day for two weeks, this week I finally got the hang of it and realized that I'd been picking some of my corn early! It was tasty and tender, but not quite big enough. Now that I really know what I'm doing the corn I'm picking is a better fit for everyone who's coming to eat it.

Dry, Hot Conditions Contribute to Summer Stress for New Trees

by Bert Cregg, Horticulture and Forestry

From Landscape Crop Advisory Team Alert, August 13, 2010

The warm temperatures of the past couple months coupled with low precipitation in many areas have caused many trees in Lower Michigan to begin to shut down. As I've noted before irrigation during the summer is critical for newly established trees and shrubs. By "newly established," I'm referring to trees that have been planted in the past two years. Even with the best of circumstances, newly planted trees should be irrigated every seven to 10 days during the summer. This year, however, is not the best of circumstances and even well-established trees are showing signs of stress.

What are the signs? For some trees, such as maples, we're seeing early fall color. In some cases, we'll get some red, but more typically we'll just get some yellow. We're also seeing some leaf folding or leaf rolling. I have noticed a lot of cottonwoods, tulip-poplars, and sycamore that are shedding leaves. It's important to remember that conifers are suffering in the heat as well, even though the appearance may not be as dramatic as some shade trees. When the weather gets as hot as it has and rainfall is lacking, it's important to get landscape trees some water. If our current patterns continue, we may see effects into this fall and beyond. For maples, although we're seeing some early fall color, we may lose a lot of leaves, so there are fewer around for the regular fall show. Also, as trees are stressed in the late summer and fall, they are less able to acclimate going into winter. Therefore, we may see more evidence of winter injury come next spring.

What to do? To the extent practical, try to irrigate trees showing signs of stress as soon as possible. If you can't get to all your trees; prioritize .Water newly established trees first. A lawn covered with leaves from a large old tulip-poplar may be hard to ignore, but it will likely survive and recover; whereas the next few weeks could be make or break for trees planted this year or last year. Remember: don't kill with kindness. One good soaking once a week is better than drowning the tree every day. Make sure to avoid surface run-off. Dry soils often crust over and resist infiltration until they are wetted. If your watering by hand, go from tree to tree, giving each a little water and cycle through a few times to make sure water is infiltrating. And, of course, mulch, mulch, mulch.

Zucchini (Thanks to the Dinner Diva, Leanne Ely)

While Leanne's article is about zucchini, I bet any of the summer squashes would be great with both this trick and the recipe!

From Tips, Tricks and a Recipe
Today's focus is on Zucchini
I am lucky enough to have some planted in my garden and it's going crazy. I've had about 4 zucchini so far and YUM, delish! Here are some things you need to know about zucchini:

Massively low in calories--one large zucchini is only 16 calories!

Plenty of phyto nutrients including beta-carotene, B vitamins, a little vitamin C and plenty o' potassium!

Here's Today's TRICK:
To change things up, I grate my zucchini, sautéing it in garlic and olive oil, topping it with a little freshly grated Romano cheese and fresh ground pepper. Nice side dish and almost rice-like or pasta-like in texture.

Here's a TIP:
Small to medium sized zucchinis are most tasty. Look for a smooth, unblemished skin and nice dark green color. Tasty zucchs skin should feel soft, but the zucchini itself should be hard and not squishy (that means its past its prime, yuck!)

And your RECIPE:
(from Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way)

Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Serves 6

2 1/4 cups orzo
2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
15 Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
6 green onions, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 large tomato, seeded and cubed
1 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, deribbed and chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Prepare orzo according to package directions; Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again very thoroughly. Place in a large bowl.

Stir in the zucchini, olives, green onions, celery, tomato, and green bell pepper.

In a small bowl, beat together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano, dill, salt and pepper. Pour over the salad and toss to coat well. Sprinkle on the feta cheese and toss again. Add the mayonnaise and toss gently. Chill at least for 2 hours and bring to room temperature before serving.

Per Serving: 575 Calories; 34g Fat; 14g Protein; 57g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 28mg Cholesterol; 528mg Sodium. Exchanges: 3 Grain (Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 5 1/2 Fat.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Serve with a simple caprese salad: sliced ripe tomatoes, layered with fresh basil leaves, sliced mozzarella and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Fresh ground pepper over the top finishes it beautifully.
Copyright (C) 2010 www.savingdinner.com Leanne Ely, CNC All rights reserved.

Recycling Used Political Signs

What to do with those political signs in your front yard, now that the election is over? Drop them off at Trim Pines! We'll find some very creative ways to reuse and recycle them for you. We can use the wires and the cardboard, and when we're done we'll be careful to scrap them instead of landfilling.

One of the ideas that got discarded (pardon the pun): To use the cardboard in our hayride/bonfire marketing: "Use your least favorite politician's sign for kindling in your own bonfire"

An idea that is being saved for fall: Use the wires for row cover supports in the market garden. They'll help extend the season for many tasty veggies. Sounds like mini-involvement for the community in growing local produce! I can't wait to try it.

Dinner Diva: Pickles

Here's an excerpt from one of my favorite nutrition/cooking newsletters. I thought it timely, as we have a great supply of squashes and cucumbers coming up at the farmstand. Great for pickling, as well as fresh eating. Enjoy!

Dinner Diva
Pickles
By Leanne Ely, C.N.C.

Dear Friends,

Way back in the days before refrigeration, the number one way to preserve food was with the pickling process. All pickling is, is putting your food (usually veggies, but sometimes eggs or meat) in salt or vinegar, or both for a long time. These tandem ingredients stop the growth of bad bacteria that make food spoil.

If you've been lucky enough to end up with a bounty of cucumbers from either your own garden, a friend's or picked them up at the farmer's market, making your own pickles is a tasty way to get your cucs dealt with before you burn out on too many cucumber salads. Making pickles is fun and easy. To get started, you'll need some simple canning supplies, some recipes, and of course, cucumbers!

Here's a list of supplies (a few of which you probably already have) to make pickle making a breeze: candy thermometer, a stone crock, a weight, jars, lids, bands, canning salt, white or cider vinegar, boiling water canner. You should be able to buy most of these items at your local super center, and sometimes you can even find these items used at thrift stores. Ask your grandma or some neighbors for some of this stuff; you might be surprised at who has canning jars in their attic!

I like the Ball Blue Book of Canning; pick up a current copy to make sure you're canning safely and away you go.

Here are some great recipes for pickles, enjoy!

Grandma's Famous Bread and Butter Pickles

6 pounds cucumbers, washed, sliced
2 pounds onions, peeled, sliced
1/2 cup canning salt (make sure it's called "canning salt", table salt won't do)
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons celery seed
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 quart apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon ginger

In a large bowl or container place sliced onion and cucumbers, sprinkle with canning salt, cover with ice. Refrigerate for three hours. In a large pot, bring to boil, the sugar, mustard seed, celery, turmeric vinegar, peppercorns, and ginger. Sugar should be dissolved and boiling, then drain the pickles and onions well, add to boiling mixture. Immediately fill pint and quart jars with cucumbers, onion and juice mixture. Leave 1/2 inch head space for expansion. (follow instructions with your canner) Process for 30 minutes keeping the temperature at 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grandma's Famous Dill Pickles

10 small pickling cucumbers, thin slice cut from each end
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons canning salt
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
4 teaspoons dill seeds
4 small cloves garlic, peeled, smashed

Process jars in canner according to canner instructions. In a sauce pan combine vinegar, water, salt, and sugar; bring to a boil. Place 1 teaspoon dill seeds and 1 clove of garlic into each jar, then pack in cucumbers. Pour boiling mixture over cucumbers leaving 1/2 inch head space for expansion. Process 30 minutes keeping the temperature at 180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tips: Always put on labels and dates so that you know when you made them. Avoid allowing to freeze but do store in a cool, dry, dark place.

Remember to follow your canner instructions, as well as recipes to the T -- jars should be in the rack and covered by 1 or 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a full rolling boil, boil for as long as your directions state at the exact temperatures stated. Timing starts after water is boiling.

Always check your seals, they should be lowered in the middle and not move when you press lightly. Once completely cooled remove bands and wash and dry them thoroughly. Some people leave them on, but make extra sure you always check the seal before opening. One reason to leave bands off is so that if something went wrong the lid will pop off and not be artificially held in place by the band.
Copyright (C) 2010 www.savingdinner.com Leanne Ely, CNC All rights reserved

Tree of the Week: Corkbark Fir

Abies lasiocarpa, also known as Rocky Mountain Fir, has one-inch, bluish-green needles. It is native to Northwest North America and throughout the Rocky Mountains. In the wild it is a narrow, spire-like tree but less so in cultivation - in many landscapes it has a narrowly pyramidal form. The tree grows best in moist, well-drained soils and does well in clay soils, making it a great choice for our area. Its moderate growth rate and narrow habit combine with its bluish foliage to make a great specimen, or a screening or border tree for smaller spaces. The notable bark is especially interesting in young trees, where it can be readily seen on the trunk. We like its short, stiff needles, which make for a great peek-a-boo effect for the lovely bark!

SWEET CORN is ready!

The verdict is in! Sweet corn is ready for harvest, and we'll have our first batch here to open our roadside stand tomorrow. See you Saturday, July 10 for some delicious sweet corn! One of my favorite ways to enjoy it is raw, right in the field. In a few days I plan to collect some recipes and prep tips from our customers. Want to add yours now?

Protecting Trees From Hot, Dry Weather

If you venture out into your yard this hot, muggy afternoon, you'll probably see some of what I saw in the field today: droopy leaves. I tell ya, I felt just as droopy as those leaves looked! It reminded me, it's time to check the soil moisture.
So I've been going around, digging into gardens, fields, pots, root balls - anything that might need my help with some water.

I'm going to suggest you do the same, especially on your trees that have been in the ground three years or less. Since we only have a 30% chance of rain this week, now is the time to get these trees good & wet, if you haven't yet. Our moisture monitoring tutorial can help you get the hang of checking the soil, and our watering instructions will tell you how to put the water on.

Now, if your tree's root area is already wet, it could still show some sign of wilting this afternoon. That's just because it's darn hot. If you look at the tree in the morning, before the mercury rises too much, you should see that the leaves have perked up quite a bit overnight. Another hot day might influence trees to use more water than usual, so don't be afraid to check on them a couple times this week.

"Owl's" Well

Look who came for a late-night snack! This beautiful horned owl found his
way into one of our roster pens one night last month. His talons and wings were very impressive, and we were all in awe just to be within 20 feet of this amazing predator with his penetrating eyes and stern gaze.

We think he only had one bird for dinner before Mike found him in the morning, and closed the gate to separate him from the pen's remaining inhabitants. You can just see the separate room the roosters are in. But even though there was a door between them, we noticed our birds definitely kept as much distance as they could!

After we ooh-ed and ahh-ed over him for a while, the owl seemed calm enough to release without any danger to ourselves. Mike and a couple of helpers slid open a roof panel, and the owl wasted no time in making a dramatic exit.

Don't forget about newly planted trees and shrubs

You know, there are times I'd like to make a point about a topic, but somebody else already did - and better than I could! In last week's MSU Landscape Alert, Associate Professor Bert Cregg advised us to remember our newly planted trees and shrubs. Here's how he begins:

"Buying and planting new trees and shrubs is an exciting and time-honored rite of spring. But it’s important to remember your trees and shrubs AFTER you’ve gotten them in the ground. The first two years after planting are critical to the long-term survival of most woody ornaments, especially the first year. New trees and shrubs, whether container-grown or balled-in-burlap, need time for their roots to grow into surrounding soil in order to survive the transpiration water loss associated with summer temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s."

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I'll just link to his article. It expresses a lot of the tree care advice that we use at Trim Pines, such as infrequent, deep watering and using organic mulches. And check out Dr. Cregg's comment above, about the first two years. It's a wonderful thing! We like to go one further, and consider a tree "new" for the first three years.

Boy, are we a lucky farm! We've had a bee hive box sitting outside, waiting for us to find or purchase some bees to move into it. Yesterday, we think a hive swarmed and moved in without our even asking. Now we have one more colony of bees here to pollinate our pumpkins & veggie garden, and help the local ecosystem. Check out these photos of the bees moving in: The first shot shows a large number of bees near the entrance to the box, and in the second it looks like most of them have moved in already. Their move-in process made it a challenge to get into our own front door for a little while, and it was fascinating to watch!

Some neat information that we've learned about bees this year:

If you see bees swarming, it means that a new colony has split off from the old one, because they've outgrown their hive. They're looking for a place to build a new hive! So, with our pumpkins and veggies in need of bees for great production, we've bought some bee suits & other equipment and are looking to collect any swarms that we see. If you see a swarm, contact us and we'll try to help collect it. Once it's moved in here, we might just name it after you!

It's going to be extra hot all week long! Forecasts indicate that we'll be having temperatures in the mid to upper 80's through Friday. We've paused in transplanting, and want to recommend some care tips for the week.

Last week's rain may not have watered your trees sufficiently. And, trees get wilty when it's hot and sunny, just like we do, so they'll need your help to push a large amount of water up through the leaves. Step outside today and check the soil, to see if it's wet. If not, give them a good soaking so they have a lot of moisture in the root ball. And it wouldn't hurt to check again in a day or two, to see how much they're using. The photo at left shows a handful of soil where a tree would need to be soaked well for this week.

Second, if you haven't got mulch on top of the root systems yet, do it now. Mulch will help keep that moisture from evaporating, so the tree can use it better.

Third, while you're watering is a great time for an application of Root Stimulator. Let's help those roots grow so they can use the moisture in the surrounding soil.