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Part 1 in starting our food forest

Removing poplers to make place for fruit bearing trees

At the roadside of our property we have 3 big poplers which gave us concerns. After talking to our environmental agency we agreed upon taking these poplers down including the numerous smaller ones.

In our very windy, often stormy, location this type of tree is very dangerous, because poplers tend to fall over or snap of by storm. These poplers are only a few meters from the road and also our buildings. There is also the danger if these trees fall over there branches penetrate the ground deeply, which could cause damage to the main underground gas pipeline running through our property. The same danger occurs while cutting down the trees as well, so we have to do some things different. But more about that in a different blog post.

**Putting the choker chain around the base of the tree**

But first things first. We start by removing all the smaller trees by pulling them out of the ground with our winch. This way we hope to get as much as we can of the roots out of the ground. Due to the gas pipeline we are not allowed to dig the roots up.

Fortunate we have a 6,5 Ton winch which is remote controlled. The winch makes easy work removing those smaller trees.

Sometimes the roots snap of and we had to pull them out separate.

Here are a few more impressions.

The final result. This small peace of our property has been cleared and mulched to prepare for the new fruit bearing trees.

The next step: cutting down the big poplers

Trying something new: A Straw Bed

Since we have no usable soil on our property and I have seen and read about building up soil and mulching with straw or hay we have decided to try something new.

**Place for straw bed. Rubble with blown in sediment**

Our hay is reserved for feeding the animals, since we have a limited amount of it. Straw on the other hand we have plenty, so we have build up our bed with straw.

We have spread a thick layer of straw on the ground which should keep the moisture from draining into the ground. We are building this straw bed on old rubble.

**Straw layer, compost soil layer and the start of the top straw layer**

On the straw comes a layer of compost soil and on top comes another thick layer of straw.

**Half way building up the straw bed with the 3 layers**

Unfortunately we did not get the compost soil until May. In the best case such a bed is build in the fall, so the bed has time to get thoroughly wet and the straw below has the chance to start decompose.

I planted tomatoes, squash, cucumber and peppers. For weeks I was very disappointed that nothing happened. The plants did not die, but they did not grow either.

**Tomatoes and squash plants. Cucumbers and chillies are in the back**

After about 2 months all of a sudden the plants started to grow and they grew well. Of course it being already mid summer we had very little harvest from this bed. A few cucumbers and some chillies is all.

**Cucumber and the beginning of a squash**

The squash and tomatoes did not have the time to cure. Here are some pictures from the beginning of October just before the first night frost came.

All in all it was a shame we did not build this bed in the fall, but I have high expectations for next year.

Red beets harvest and soup making

A simple soup made out of our own red beets

After a light night frost we started harvesting all of our red beets before the frost makes them useless. We love our red beets as a soup. Even our children eat this soup well, so I thought to shear the simple way I make this soup with you.