October 29, 2016

Yesterday was a busy, busy day and I didn't get a chance to work on this post...so here we go!

FALL GARDEN

Finally got the fall crops into their new space outside of the Hoop House. This happened one week ago and everything looks good - except for my Chinese Cabbage. I need to figure out what sort of bug is eating the leaves on that one.

Experimenting with a low tunnel

Lettuce, Spinach, Chard, Bunching Onions, Beets and Purple Broccoli!

We finished up planting the rest of the crops in one of Mary's boxes so I have a couple of places to pay attention to. It will get harder when DST ends. It will be dark when I leave for work and when I come home. I will be going into weekend gardening mode I guess. The good thing is that I will the week of Thanksgiving off so I will have all sorts of time to play around in the mini gardens.

DAHLIA LIFTING

This year was the second year for the dahlias so I decided that getting them out of the ground would be a good thing. We'll store them and then early next spring we'll divide them and get them ready to plant again. Next season they will be planted in another part of the back yard to add some interest to the view. We don't get to enjoy them nearly as much when they are in the garden, so the back yard will be perfect. 

Getting them dug up seemed to go quickly - so quick that I didn't have a chance to do a plant myself. That was a little sad because I like to dig them up too! Oh well, there will always be next time.

These tubers represent two different plants. The one on the right is clearly a mutant! It might have had 4 or 5 stalks coming out of it with each one just filled with big beautiful blooms. 

We'll turn this part of the garden into raised beds for next season. It will kind of match what I started on the other end of the garden. Then this will be mainly vegetables. There is still a lot of grass that can be turned back into garden space and it may be what will happen next season. 

MORE HARVEST

The weather has been very mild, mostly wet, but there hasn't been a frost yet. Yesterday, I was able to get a harvest of the Shishito Peppers. I thought for sure that those were done a couple of months ago when the weather was so warm and the buds all died off. I put water on them now and then, but then things changed when the rain started up again. Imagine that...a little rain and these plants found new life! 

Today I looked from a different angle and there are still peppers to be picked! If we don't harvest the rest that are on the plant, I might let them go red and then save the seeds for next year. I already did some of them, but I already don't remember where I put those seeds. 

Before I pulled up the cucumber plants I spied a couple of good sized cucumbers that were very ready to be picked. They were delicious!

CHICKENS

Just this afternoon it occurred to me that we could buy young laying hens instead of getting chicks to raise up. While cruising through Craigslist I found a listing for a place in Woodland, WA just north of us that have a variety of pullets which will produce eggs sooner than if we were to get the chicks from the farm in Tangent, OR to raise up.

My plan is to still get the chicks (Cornish Cross) to raise for meat at the Tangent farm, but the layers might be coming from Woodland. We'll just have to decide on what sort of coop to build and get some poultry fence to define their space and we'll be good to go! We'll have eggs before we know it.

My first choice is the Australorp, but they are a little spendy so I think I'll go with a Rhode Island Red for now and then add the Australorp at a later time. Both are said to be good layers and when they start to get too old for egg laying they will be make a good broiler chicken in the freezer.

ALL IN ONE

The last tray of seeds that we started for the fall crops got a little confused. Some how one of the blocks got 3 different seeds. One of two things will happen - survival of the fittest or a new plant...

Behold the Broc-On-Chard or a Purple Broccoli, Onion and Swiss Chard. Since this is a year of experiments - why not put it in the garden right? 

WHAT THE...??

I have not mastered taking photos with my phone...

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!