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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

The weather has been unbelievable.  A week or so ago it was over 70, and
yesterday Coos Bay unofficially reached a high of 79!  So there hasn't
been much time for typing.  This morning I'm holding down the fort all
alone at the Plant Clinic, and there's little business since it's the
first one of the year, so I have extra time.  Later this morning I have
to call about bull calves, someone to finish clearing the fence line,
and some trees I need to buy.

The weather was so good for so long that I got all the early bloomers
pruned: Japanese plums, peaches, and Hall's Hardy almond.  It's a good
thing, too, because I was in a bit of a spot.  It was so much fun to try
out the new hand saw that Lee got for Christmas that I got carried away
with pruning the cherry laurel hedge, finishing about 30% of it before I
realized that it would take much longer to clip off the compostable
parts and pack them off.  I couldn't wait forever, either, because it's
a lot harder if the leaves all fall off first.  One day, while the pile
of unprocessed cherry laurel still lay in the driveway, I got a sharp
stick of dead salmonberry in the eye while I was clearing the woods.  I
was having trouble keeping my eyes open, but I still managed to clip a
hour's worth of laurel later that same day.  The next day I went to the
eye clinic, where there's no BS with taking your temp and your BP, and
the cost was reasonable.  I had quite a scratch on my right cornea, but
it was on the opaque part on top.  If it had started pouring rain, I
wouldn't have any pruning done, because I hadn't really started much on
the fruit trees before my injury.  But things went fine.  The eye
healed, despite the antibiotic eye drops, but I'm still glad I went just
to find out if there was any debris left in my eye (and there was not).

The other day I dug into the old compost bin for the first time.  It was
great.  Even berry vines that are just one year old break apart readily.
 The only problem ones were probably hard and brown to start with.
With a compost sifter it's pretty easy to separate it into fine compost
suitable for potatoes, and a lumpy mix of eggshells and crushed berry
vines that's perfect for peas.  Yesterday I planted fava beans on the
south side of a small patch of chervil, for shade, but I'm holding off
until I buy some inoculant today to plant the peas (where the celeriac
came out).

Speaking of celeriac, some of you may know the show "Ramsay's Kitchen
Nightmares" on the BBC, in which master chef Gordon Ramsay travels
around to failing restaurants in Britain and whips the staff into line
(or they leave).  I've never laughed so hard.  Anyway, he has a very
simple on-line recipe for "celeriac lasagne" in which strips of lemony
parboiled celeriac are layered with a seasoned mixture of celeriac puree
and cream and butter and topped with parmesan before baking.  I have
four monster celeriacs in the bin, so I can't wait to try it, but it's
not a sunny weather dish, so maybe this weekend the Oregon weather will
live up to expectations (or at least be a little cloudy, one might hope).

I built a truly great guinea cage.  I used a shelving unit (about $75)
and wrapped the lower two shelf spaces with rabbit cage wire on three
sides (the wide back and the two narrow sides) -- the wire is just the
right width.  I cut out the center wire lengthwise from another piece
long enough to cover the wide front spaces, dividing it in two halves
with little prongs hanging off them.  I twisted these prongs around the
metal rod that runs horizontally, and it made two wide doors that hinge
at the bottom.  Each of the two shelves is fitted with three small
cafeteria trays (that fit just right sideways) and small lengths of 2' x
4' that cover the remaining floor space at the two ends.  I've only
attached one door, but the rest is easy.  I packed in a bunch of straw,
mounted a water bottle, and put some old sows in.  So for about $90, I
have two new cages ( along with the equivalent of a table to elevate
them), and two shelves are still left over on top for putting plants on.
 It's a lot better deal than the $75 pet shop garbage cages that break
in less than a year, and cleaning is effortless because the trays dump
right out the front into a trough.

I finally broke down and ordered some Cedrela sinensis seeds from
Sheffield's.  They were $15.00 for 2 grams.  This Chinese tree was
offered for years by Raintree as Chop Suey Tree, but they don't have any
now.  The cheapest one I found was $412.50 from a nursery in CT.  I
found evidence on line that lots of nurseries used to carry it, like
Sonoma Horticultural Nursery.  I know it's been denounced by radical
environmentalists because it suckers freely.  Now the tasty leaves have
been shown to have anti-cancer activity, and of course you can order all
kinds of little tea bags from our friends in China.  It's hard to figure
out what forces are behind the eradication of this important
permaculture plant in domestic commerce.  It's funny, because if I lived
in Europe I could have one delivered overnight.  You can order one from
a European nursery, but the government requires a permit that's mailed
in advance so it can travel with the shipment, and you also have to pay
to have the soil rinsed off the roots before it's mailed.  Anyway, I've
soaked the seeds and now they're supposed to be cold-stratified for 30
days.  Good seed normally sinks resolutely and stays there, but with
these seeds, 40% sank immediately, later last night they were all
floating, and today they've all sunk.  It's not exactly behavior I
associate with living seed.  Also, the soaking water is tinted a faint
brown.  Live seeds don't usually color the soaking water, because
they're taking up water and hoarding their own organic compounds, unlike
dead tissue, which freely exchanges substances with the water through
osmosis.

There was no pea inoculant here in the middle of nowhere, so I planted
them anyway, because they were already soaking.  I also planted some
corn salad among the garlic beds.  In a week or so I'll plant breadseed
poppy and finally a bed of potatoes where the green onions are coming out.

I'm on the committee to landscape the new extension office.  I think I
finally may have some solid ideas.  There's a perfect spot for Cedrela.
 Maybe we can get in touch with some horticulture people at OSU and get
some plants.  I'd really love to plant the prostrate cultivar of Acacia
dealbata, called "Kambah Karpet"; maybe it's possible to acquire one
from Australia through the University.  The acacias here are in full
bloom and the effect is overpowering, like instant spring.

Well, the Cedrela sprouted and they're growing nicely.  Speaking of
perennial spring greens, my copy of "Food in England" by Dorothy Hartley
arrived.  It has recipes for hawthorn bud salads, linden shoot
sandwiches, pickled ashen keys (the immature winged seed of the ash),
nettle soup, fennel sauce, chive spread, etc.  Would you believe fava
bean butter, goose fat mayonnaise, and potato cheese?

Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the day I pulled up in the U-Haul.
 It's also the day we start demolishing the old shed.  Tonight I have
to box up some chickens for the move to their new coop tomorrow.

Happy spring!

Bill