Here at my Bedford, New York farm, patches of snow and ice cover the ground, but inside my greenhouse there's a flurry of spring activity. This time every year, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, starts seeding our vegetables in preparation for the coming growing season. One of the first vegetables we start are the onions.
Starting onions from seed isn’t difficult. They can be planted closely together in seed starting trays, and because they are shallow-rooted, they can be pulled apart easily when ready for transplanting outdoors. Many of our seed trays, supplies, and seeds are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds - we've been using Johnny's for years. Once planted, the onion seeds remain in the greenhouse until they’re moved to my vegetable garden. And by mid-summer, we will have lots and lots of beautiful, flavorful, fat bulbs to harvest.
Enjoy these photos.
Remember all the onions we harvested last year? Such a bounty of gorgeous fresh onions – it’s one of our favorite crops to pick. The onion, Allium cepa, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium.
Onions require 90 to 100 days to mature from seed, which is around four months. We start seeding our vegetables shortly after the New Year and then in spring we transplant them into the garden.
Seed starting trays come in all different sizes and depths. We use trays with shallow compartments for planting onion seeds. These are 20-row seed flats from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. They keep varieties separate and make the removal of seedlings easy for transplanting to larger celled trays or pots later.
Because I use a lot of onions for cooking and for sharing with my family, we plant many trays of onion seeds. Ryan fills the seed starting tray with mix and pats it down lightly into each row.
It’s best to use a pre-made seed starting mix that contains the proper amounts of vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. Seed starting mixes are available at garden supply stores.
The soil should be level with the top of the tray. Ryan fills several trays first and works in a production line process.
Next, Ryan uses a wooden marker to make quarter-inch deep furrows in each row.
We keep all our seed packets in plastic envelopes, and plastic bins – all are labeled and filed for easy reference. Mason jars with tight-fitting lids, or glass canisters with gasket-type lids also work. Humidity and warmth shorten a seed’s shelf life, so we store the organized seed packets in a greenhouse refrigerator. Then, when it is time to seed our trays, we know they are well organized and in good condition. Here are many of our seeds for onions, shallots, and leeks. We get our seeds from our favorite companies and wherever I find them during my travels. Ryan labels the seed markers and keeps them together with the matching packets.
On one side of the marker he writes the vegetable variety so we can keep track of what grows well and what doesn’t.
On the other side, Ryan indicates what color this particular onion variety is – R for red, W for white, and Y for yellow.
Onion seeds are very small, so be sure to take time dropping them into the tray cells. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of when seeds are sown, when they germinate, and when they are transplanted. These observations will help organize a schedule for the following year. This is a hand seed sower from Johnny’s Selected Seeds – it is one option to help drop the seeds into the trays. This tool allows one to control the flow of seeds through five different size outlets. The funnel-shaped spout makes it easy to return unused seeds to packet.
After pouring a generous amount of seeds into the center dish, Ryan screws the plastic top back onto the hand seed sower and adjusts the amount of seeds that will be released at one time.
And then he begins to drop onion seeds evenly into each compartment.
Ryan places a marker into one of the cells, so it is clear what variety is growing in what tray.
It is good to start larger onions from seed, so they can be harvested the same year. Smaller onions can be planted directly into the ground. Barolo onions are long-day onions with globe-shaped, dark purple-red bulbs.
Once the seeds are dropped, Ryan adds an additional light layer of soil mix, so the seeds are completely covered.
Then he tamps down lightly to make sure there is good contact with the soil.
If preferred, one can also drop seeds by hand. The pellet coating on these seeds helps in seeing, handling, and sowing.
A line of seeds is dropped along the row. The sprouts will be selectively thinned in a few weeks. This process eliminates the weaker sprouts and prevents overcrowding, so seedlings don’t have any competition for soil nutrients or room to mature.
Ryan also adds another thin layer of soil mix to this tray and tamps down lightly.
Once the seed trays are done he places them into our trusted commercial size Urban Cultivator growing system – it has water, temperature and humidity all set-up in the refrigerator like unit.
He covers the trays with plastic humidity domes until germination begins. Once established, the trays will be moved out into the greenhouse where they will remain until they are ready to be separated and transplanted into the ground.
Seeds are usually started about two months before the last frost. We will be planting seeds well into March. Follow along to see what other vegetables are started from seed right here in my greenhouse. I hope these blogs help remind you what you can do to get ready for the next gardening season.
If you're interested in raising chickens or just love learning about all the different and fascinating breeds, find a poultry show near you!
Earlier this month, I attended the 2024 Northeastern Poultry Congress in Springfield, Massachusetts - a poultry show held every year at the Eastern States Exposition Center. The event features more than three-thousand birds, including large fowl, waterfowl, turkeys, pigeons, Guineas, and of course, a variety of wonderful breed chickens. It’s a great way to see beautiful chickens up close and to build relationships with knowledgeable, passionate breeders. This year, I brought home six birds - three White Rock chickens and three Light Brahma chickens and some Silkie chicken eggs, which I am able to incubate here at my farm.
Enjoy these photos.
The Northeastern Poultry Congress holds its show every January. This year, was the 50th anniversary of the event. I have been making the trip for several years now – it is a very popular and well-attended gathering.
Photos of past events are hung up around the Center.
All the show birds are exhibited and judged in the Mallory Complex of the Expo Center. Visitors are able to see the various breeds up close in their crates. Each cage is tagged with the bird’s breed, color or variety, and gender.
Prior to poultry shows and again before judging, these birds are groomed and groomed again – every feather is in place.
Poultry shows are family-friendly and allow visitors to see both traditional and new breeds. The first poultry show in the United States was in 1854, before there were even standards for showing.
Here are some of the award ribbons displayed on one side of the large exhibition room.
This show enters more than a thousand chicken breeds – some with gorgeous markings and feathers. This was classified as a large fowl American cockerel.
The birds are judged against others of the same color, sex and age. They are also judged based on variety and breed. In the end, chickens compete against large fowl and water fowl.
The birds are ranked in each of their classes and then compete for super champion.
These are Light Brahmas, an old breed of feather-footed chicken from Asia. These birds are quiet, gentle, and easy to handle. They are also very hardy in cold weather.
This Bearded Black Silkie won “Best Variety.” A Silkie is a breed of chicken named for its fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like a combination of silk and satin.
Here’s a beautiful turkey being shown on “the red carpet.”
There were also some young birds grouped in X-pens, so visitors could see them more closely. The Northeastern Poultry Congress is always very informative and educational. I always learn something new when I attend.
Here are some eggs on display for competition. These are Maran chicken eggs. The Maran chicken lays the darkest brown eggs. They can be deep reddish-brown or almost black.
Back at my Bedford, New York farm, here are four of the six chickens I brought home – three White Rock and three Light Brahmas.
Light Brahmas are large, white-feathered chickens with black hackles and tail feathers. They are good egg-layers for their size, producing up to 200 large, medium-brown eggs per year.
The White Rock is considered a standard size chicken, but still quite large at six to seven pounds for each hen; roosters are a pound or two heavier. White Rocks are a variety of Plymouth Rock chicken that was first bred in New England in the late 19th century. Hens are good layers of brown eggs.
The White rocks and Light Brahmas joined a couple of Ayam Cemani chickens that are also new to the farm. The Ayam Cemani is an uncommon and relatively modern breed of chicken from Indonesia. This breed has a dominant gene that causes hyperpigmentation, making it entirely black, including feathers, beak, and internal organs.
The small group gets along very well and will eventually join the rest of the flock.
My peafowl in the adjacent enclosure are very curious and came up to the fence to say hello right away.
I am looking forward to seeing these chickens mature and thrive here at my farm. I’ve been raising chickens for many years. Not only do I love keeping them for their fresh, delicious eggs, but I also enjoy learning about the different breeds, varieties and their fun personalities.
Hard not to love a picturesque snow-covered landscape, especially at my Bedford, New York farm.
Yesterday, we got a fresh coating of beautiful, white snow that was just heavy enough to stick to the tree branches and shrubs, stone posts, walls, and steps, and the tops of all the burlap-encased urns and boxwood. The entire farm was a gorgeous winter wonderland. I always love to tour the property during snow storms. When not busy plowing the four miles of carriage road, I take photos.
Enjoy these images and please go to my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to see a fun time-lapsed video.
Tucked away between the Equipment Barn and a grove of weeping willows is my pinetum where I keep a wonderful collection of evergreens I started planting about 15-years ago. This area includes pines, spruces, firs, and others. It’s filled out so nicely over the years.
This snow accumulated on every branch of this evergreen pine, but thankfully did not weigh any down too much.
I add more specimens to this collection every year – some are very rare and slow growing, but I love the variety of plantings I’ve amassed.
Walking behind my main greenhouse, one sees the purple-red canes of the raspberries. They stand out next to the crisp white of the snow. I grow patches of red raspberries, golden raspberries, black raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, and currants.
Further back is my formal rose garden. I redesigned this rose bed last year. The 68-foot by 30-foot space now includes three types of roses – floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses – all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. And all bordered by lush green young boxwood.
And not far are my blueberry bushes – newly pruned and groomed.
Here are my weeping hornbeams. We prune these regularly to keep the beautiful shape. These weeping specimens are rare and hard to find, but I was lucky to get six.
Underneath this snow-covered burlap are the boxwood shrubs along my winding pergola. They were grown from small saplings and nurtured right here at the farm. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here, now well protected from the winter elements.
This is the little house where I store my basket collection. It is located across from my long pergola and nestled under the tall stately bald cypress trees.
This is my allée of lindens that stretches from the carriage road in front of my carport all the way down to my chicken coops. On the right, one can see a bit of the old corn crib, which is original to the property. The unique “keystone” shape, flaring from bottom to top, was designed to shed water.
This storm system only dropped a few inches of snow in the area, but it stuck to every horizontal surface including my 100-year old white spruce fencing from Canada.
This one of my weeping copper beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground.
As trees are cut down, pruned, or groomed, neat piles of branches are placed to the side of the gardens and near the carriage road. These piles will be picked up and ultimately chipped and re-distributed as wood chips.
This is a view looking south at the center section of my pergola. The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China – originally used as grape supports. They’re perfect as posts because they don’t rot over time like the wood overhead. Big boxwood shrubs flank the footpath underneath – also well covered for the season.
Can you identify what this view is? This is my pool with the interesting staddle stones at the north end. Staddle stones were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version.
Adjacent to the pool is this view looking through my fruit orchard. These peach trees were also recently pruned. There are more than 200 fruit trees in this orchard. Among them – apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, medlar, and quince trees.
Even when bare, these great pin oaks look majestic. One can see their interesting branch habit – the pendulous lower branches, horizontal middle branches, and upright upper branches.
The Boxwood Allée looks so different in winter all covered under burlap shrouds to keep everything protected from the snow. This is why I spend so much time doing this project – to keep any heavy snow from weighing down on the shrubs and splaying their branches.
This is my original Allée of Lindens. The linden tree, Tilia, is also referred to as basswood or lime, though it is not related at all to the lime fruit. They are straight stemmed trees with smooth bark. I like to pollard these trees regularly. Pollarding is a type of pruning, a very severe method that involves cutting the branches back either to the trunk, or even all the way down to the top of the trunk to promote the growth of club-headed stems and dense new foliage and branches.
These trees are part of my “Christmas Tree” garden. I planted hundreds of evergreens here 15-years ago and they have all grown so beautifully – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce.
This photo was taken late afternoon, with the sun still trying to poke through the heavy cloud cover. It was very quiet, and very calm. Today’s forecast calls for bitter cold temperatures in the low 20s Fahrenheit. And then next week, possible temperatures in the 50s.
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