October 21, 2016

Seriously - not a lot happened this week. Besides the sweet FREEZER that was a freebie from down the street nothing else has been notable. The week has been a little challenging and man, I'm tired today!

The Top 5 of the Week

THE GARDEN

Last weekend the weather forecast called for high winds and rain for most of Saturday. It was windy and it was rainy, but not nearly as much as the storm was supposedly going to be. Girls Breakfast Club finally happened and on our way to drop off our friend I mentioned to Mary that I would be spending some time in the garden pulling up stuff that need to be piled onto the compost. Once I put that out there Mary decided that she would come over despite what the weather report was.

All of my ground cherry plants, beans and outside tomatoes were pulled up and composted. I took the two sugar pumpkins that were orange and put them in the hoop house to cure out a little. Transplanted the second round of purple broccoli and then called it a day. It was nasty out and it was getting unpleasant.

THE PROJECT

Later in the afternoon I went ahead and processed the 5 pounds of roma tomatoes and made sauce - my first time making fresh sauce from my own tomatoes from my own garden! I can't believe that I didn't try doing this before. I froze a couple of cups in a freezer bag and then made pucks with the rest by putting them into a muffin tin. Evidently they were hard to remove from the pan...I think silicone will be the way to go next time

THE HARVEST

Sunday afternoon I picked another pound of hoop house tomatoes. I'm hoping that there will be a few more so I can make some more sauce for the freezer. These are some good looking tomatoes!

For the longest time I didn't think that the tomatoes would actually pollinate - so we set up an oscillating fan. I think that might have been the early problem...maybe not. Maybe I was just impatient. Either way, the fan was a good decision to see that the plants would be pollinated and to keep the temperature down a little. 

There are more tomatoes that appear to be ripening - especially the crazy Mortgage Lifters. We went from having 3 or 4 to already picking that many and a couple more that turned red. AND there are more on the two plants. We'll see if they ripen. If not - there may be fried green tomatoes on our menu in the near future. There is always something new to try.

THE FLOWERS

Way back when, I grew lots of flowers. It was something that I REALLY liked. A LOT. 

Dahlia Garden from around 1998

The garden at one time was a lot of flowers and some veggies. One year I had all of the dahlias and grew a lot of favorites - zinnias, bachelor buttons, cosmos, sunflowers and whatever else caught my eye while shopping for seeds. 

At one time I thought that I might make something out of flowers as a business. I still like the idea of that, but along with veggies and some sort of subscription thing...BUT that is another story for another time.

This year is the 2nd year for my new round of dahlias that I ordered at the Swan Island Dahlia show Labor Day 2014 for the following season. 

At that time I chose a collection that would be good for bouquets. The first season only 7 of the 10 tubers came up. After receiving the replacements this past spring we got them into the ground and two of them came up. I'm guessing that the one that didn't come up just doesn't want to be in my garden so I'll just let that one go.

The dahlias will be cut down and then the tubers dug up and stored for next season. This is one of my favorite things to do - get more from a little. The only problem that I see for next year is where we will put them next year. There will be quite a few to plant.

THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR 2017

I got the dates for the Mother Earth News fair for next year. Next year the fair will be the weekend of August 6 & 7 at the Linn County Event Center in Albany. 

It would be nice to take in more than a couple of presentations for the day. So we'll have to hope and pray for a cooler day. This year the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees and man it was hot. We'll see - the fair will be in the Willamette Valley and I'm not so sure that it will be much cooler in August than June. Meh, what do I know? I just love looking at all things farming.

That's all for now! 

CHICKENS!

From the time that I was in middle school until my mom passed away in 1986 we had chickens. It started off harmless enough - just 6 chickens (it might have been a dozen) and a rooster too. Yeah, okay...this is kinda cool. We don't have to buy eggs at the store! We just go out and check the nesting boxes and BOOM - eggs.

Well, after awhile a duck made it home with my dad. He "found" this big ol' ugly duck that turned out to be a muscovy duck. Yeah, I don't know how he got that thing home, but he did. The mill is located 5 miles from the house and he drove home with a duck in his pick-up. Yeah, just let that sink in. It wasn't the only critter that he brought home, but it was unique.

Anyway, I'm thinking that the whole collect the whole set mentality started after that duck arrived at our house. Over the next year or two more of a coop was built, more chickens of various varieties were added as well as other types of birds. It started with chickens, then the duck, then a couple other ducks to keep the original duck company, then geese, doves, pheasants...and a Peacock and peahen. To say the least, our house became a landmark. Not only did we have ducks and geese...there were more than one variety of breed. OMG - REALLY?

Okay, so fast forward to where we are now....

For a lot of years I always said that I didn't want to do chickens on our property. In the last couple of years my desire for home grown veggies has become more of a priority rather than a fad. I am interested in choosing "local" as much as possible, but sometimes it's not. Local can be within Washington or Oregon - because for us that is local. Ideally I like organic, but I'm not always convinced of the growing practices and that is just another post altogether. However, we have tried to do better as far as growing more stuff in the garden that we'll put on our table and choosing our produce as wisely as possible for the things that are not in the garden.

NOW...we shall add meat to the mix. A friend of ours was mentioning a book that she read and how chicken is the worst of all meat that is available at the store. I can see it, mass produced chicken in close quarters have to be "treated" with antibiotics and chemicals to make sure that the chickens are "healthy" for the consumer. You have to ask, how long are those antibiotics detectable in the now butchered chicken? Where did this chicken come from? Is it local? How about the food that is put in front of that chicken? Is it free of chemicals? So many things to consider.

Right now so many things are an experiment - growing stuff from seed, growing tomatoes in the hoop house, growing fall/winter crops. Why not add growing chickens for meat?

Why Not In-DEED?!

So, in the spring we plan to do a test run. Hopefully make this a small group project - and try to get some plump chickens into our freezer and into the freezers at homes of our friends! I have the breed all figured out, Cornish Cross.

The chicks at 1 day old (photo credit: Whitehurst Heritage Farms)

Nothing terribly special about these dudes.

I don't proclaim to know how to raise chickens, but I have more experience than those who might join us in this experiment. Also, I have NO IDEA how to raise a chick to maturity to graduate to the freezer.

The good thing is we have been following Justin Rhodes of Abundant Permaculture and he has excellent resources in different forms - we usually watch his YouTube channel. There is a film, there are plans for coops...a series of videos on chickens and also references that point to other people who raise the mighty chicken.

I have researched where to get chicks and where to rent the poultry processing equipment - research food and all that stuff too. Justin Rhodes talks of a thing called "magic water" that he thinks gives the chicks a jumpstart in their immunity.

This should be a fun experience. Growing veggies AND meat...

We Didn't Ask...but We Received!

We were out on a walk after I got home from work yesterday and I didn't notice on our way out, but on the way back to our house, I noticed that one of the houses across the street had a major appliance out on the driveway and the sign on the front of it said...

Those particular neighbors were not home, but we decided that we should take it...the sign said so!! While Tom went to the house to get the pick-up, I walked a couple of houses down to our friends house and asked for a little he-man power from Mike.

Oh man...check this baby out...

I seriously don't know how much this would cost, but man...free is GOOD! It is a Kenmore Heavy Duty Commercial model and it's BIG!

I haven't had a freezer this big ever - well, my parents had a freezer probably a little smaller than this on AND a chest freezer. 

This thing is a blessing and the fact that we hadn't think to pray for this (yet) makes it even more of a validation of what we have in mind for the future of our hobby farm and the potential for raising chickens for meat. 

Man oh man oh man...the first chicken we butcher goes to the people who gave up this freezer!

Oh yeah...making connections through home grown food goodness!

October 14, 2016

This week has been a fairly slow week around the property and the garden, but there is always something going on.

PRESERVING

With so many tomatoes I thought I would try pickling some of the Green Cherry Tomatoes. A few years ago I did a refrigerator recipe for pickled cucumbers - cucumbers that I probably bought at the store and they turned out pretty well. Fast forward to this week I recall a recipe that came from a Mother Earth News email and tucked that away for future reference and then there was a vlog by Bri (of Art & Bri). To be honest I didn't watch the video, but I decided I would try to find something that I could try and came across THIS one.

The recipe was straight forward and it didn't take much time at all. The first round that I did made a couple of quarts (the recipe is written for one quart).Then a couple of days later I decided to try another round in the morning before going to work.

These were processed this past Monday, October 10.

FALL GARDEN

The plants are ready, the space is ready, but we need to figure out how to put together a low tunnel - mostly to protect my plants from the critters that might be hanging around during the rainy season. At the beginning of the week we still needed the row cover fabric that we'll use to cover the row up. That has been purchased and we are good to go. However, life keeps happening and other things have been taking up our time instead. AND with the high winds that are in the forecast for tomorrow (10/15) I'm not sure that we'll have a lot of action outside. The plants will be fine though they are currently living in the hoop house and growing like crazy! I'll be happy to get them out though. These crops are my last garden experiment for the year and I would like to get it done sooner than later.

The front tray has my Flower Sprouts and the tray behind has Kale and Purple Broccoli.

Pac Choi

PLANNING

For 2017 I am hoping to do a little farm stand of some sort at the end of the driveway starting in the spring and continuing for as long as I have stuff to offer. So far my vision includes doing vegetable starts as well as a variety of pretty flowers and some common kitchen herbs This all in addition to growing our own food.

I have all sorts of ideas like growing item for salsa, salads, pickling. Also, I thought it would be cool to offer the veggies in "kits" for those salads and salsas etc. That's a different idea that I have not seen, not around here anyway and I'm hoping that I could make that my "thing." With so many neighbors that live directly across the street that have little to no yard, they might appreciate some fresh produce or even some flower and veggie starts to put in containers. Hmmm....

Next year will be all about MORE - specifically of the things that did well - potatoes, beans, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and the leafy items. Let's be serious, it's hard to NOT grow leafy items. Especially Kale. I still have the kale that I planted in late spring and I'm planning to add more - haha! I see more mashed potatoes and kale on the Winter menu.

Then number one thing on the list of things to do next year - chickens! I want to follow the Justin Rhodes way of raising chickens and garden prep and get some chickens. I'll have a few months to plan what type of chicken to raise (for meat and eggs), the kind of structure we want to house them in and where we want to get them started on the property. I suppose the first thing to do is figure out where to buy the little guys first. More research!

END OF SEASON

There are several items that are at the end of their season and it's time to get them pulled up. Last weekend I cleaned up the area that had all of the tomatillo experiment and just threw them aside. The Tongues of Fire drying beans that I planted midseason survived the heat and the deer and I got a few pods. Enough that I will definitely plant more next year for a larger harvest. The green beans have been done for a while as well as the cabbage. There are still a few items to clean up!

You would think that the tomatoes would be ready to go, but they are still hanging in there. There hasn't been a frost yet so the plants are okay. I'll be going out to see if there are any more perfect green tomatoes for pickling. The Groop House tomatoes are growing like crazy and I actually had to trim them back. Mostly so I could see where the ripening tomatoes were hiding more than anything. I have 2 or 3 cayenne pepper plants that have some puny little peppers on them so I might just go ahead and get those out of there. Those are just taking up space.

Mary planned to be over after we do our Girls Breakfast Club. We'll see if she really wants to come over while it's stormy out. High winds...I don't think even I would really want to go out and continue with my end of summer veggie season tasks.

DAHLIAS

The Dahlias hoo-boy. I want to lift them this year, but I'm not sure when that will be now that it is already mid-October. If I gotta wait until November I will, but I would rather get those out sooner than later. The purpose of storing the tubers...to double or triple the Dahlia garden and add another thing to sell. Nine out of the ten plants came up so next year we'll have a a goodly amount to plant. I guess we should prepare another area for them!

The life of a hobby farmer: there is always something new, always a project/experiment and there is always satisfaction with working hard with our hands and with each other.

There isn't anything else I'd rather do.