Summer 15' Updates

I'm not a big picture taker, but I didn't quit taking pictures so much as I quit uploading them onto the computer. When the pictures do go up they're several months behind whatever news has happened. That among many other things contribute to the lack of personal posts on this blog. We're also trying to be more aware of OPSEC around here. The internet doesn't need to know when so & so is coming & what the time frame is & our planned activities. Having a public blog just kind of throws that out of the window, but I'm not ready to wholly throw in the towel yet.

My garden is the prettiest, biggest & looks to be the most productive one yet. There are swarms of Japanese beetles everywhere & not everything has come up but it's the most cheerful place to be despite that. It always makes me smile. I got a lot more garlic than I thought I would & my late planting is still growing well, though I don't think it will come up in time except to go back in as seed.
I've been canning all week, it's much more gratifying to see home canned goods arrive in a glut on our pantry rather than grocery cans. The children have been working w/ me pretty steadily as well. They sincerely enjoy working w/ me as opposed to merely completing an assigned task. I can't work on everything though, delegation is a must.
Unhappily our AC went out last week towards the end of my first canning session so I've been trying to get it done before 10:00. The actual canning part is done outside on a propane burner but cooking the fruit/blanching, etc. take place on the stove. The stove is shut off after 10:00 & supper is either salad, grilled or crockpotted w/ a lemonade break midafternoon.

We took the whole month of June off & just finished the required standardized testing for homeschoolers. I tend to do it before we start the new school year. I'd like to dip my toe into the school schedule next week & see how it goes. School in the heat is a drag, & outside jobs are better accomplished in the morning, we might set up shop under a tree for it instead.

 I've got melons trellised, onions, resting strawberries & a plot at rest awaiting winter greens.

2 stands of popcorn, another kind of strawberry & the herbs are creeping everywhere. I'll handle them this fall.

 I've never had a row of tomatoes before! 3 kinds, sweet potatoes, beans & pie pumpkins. 2 more rows waiting for greens.

View from above.

More of Spring

This video was the very first day of spring & it just keeps getting busier out here. Happily, God has providentially granted us rain almost every other day so we don't have to spend too much time watering the gardens. Victor has a little "guerrila garden" up the hill w/ his special low-acid Mr. Stripey tomatoes & cukes he wants for pickles. It's up on the mountain somewhere secret. I found some potatoes sprouting up from last year & he asked for one. I handed it over & he tucked it in his black Tonka truck w/ shovel & disappeared.



Mike& I are having a "potato-off". I'm trying them in a tire tower & he's built a potato tower out of old shipping crates. We've used these crates for everything.



Who will grow the most? I found spouts coming up in the garden that I missed last harvest & he bought some from Lowes. Stay tuned...



We have at least one rat in the hayloft. I've actually seen it while up there & occasionally we find dead babies in the goat run that V & C like to feed to the chickens. Sometimes it feels like Lord of the Flies around here. In preparation for the goatlings birth Mike gave the goat shed a thorough mucking & found it! He blocked it in w/ cinderblocks & shot I won't say how many times. His trophy that the chickens wouldn't touch:



There's another one at least, I can hear it squeaking in the mornings when I'm doing chicken chores. Mike was getting water & saw a tail disappear over the roof. I saw a ratty whiskery pink nose peeking from the side of the slab in the chicken shed. These rats put me in mind of Garth Williams drawings of Templeton after he'd gorged himself. Salt & Pepper mindlessly leads her 10 babies (1 died) in there & I just know 1 will get taken out by the rat.



Here is Annie, still not having babies. I've just about decided she isn't pregnant. But wait!



Victor & Charlotte have taken them!



No, I found them this morning. Annie looked gaunt & there was a big spread of birth slime on the floor which I tossed w/ the rake & strawed over. It was quiet though so just thought she had lost a freaky mucous plug but there were the 2 little bucklings, one stuck under a pallet. They were shivering & it was fairly cool & overcast so I brought them in for an hour or so until the sun came out. Annie was starving so I took her to the front & fed her a goodly chunk of grain, alfalfa & a box of raisens. Unhappily through my negligence the white goat got a bath.



I had been running back & forth all morning misplacing things trying to figure out how to promote bonding while not dying of chill & running off of 2 cups of coffee w/out breakfast. Mike was at school. Victor was so good about holding the brown goat until his legs & the goat fell asleep so I said he might lay him on the towel in the tub & leave him. I was finishing up clothes & Miranda came out & proudly announced that she had "I shompoo baby doat!" Mike (who was back from school & making us breakfast) exchanged a look & went to see little white goat was covered w/ pink conditioner. I gave it a very warm rinse off in the laundry sink which as a detachable nozzle w/ shower option. He seemed to like it. But whatever special bonding smell that was on him got washed off. Annie shows fairly strong signs of rejecting him. She milks great & I'm getting enough to put in a bottle to feed him so we'll see if he makes it or not. We think it's funny how they're ears are half Nubian half La Mancha.





Well, it's a long day & I'm beat. It looks like we've got unexpected midnight feedings to do. We're thankful for all of the new life, & wisdom we've been given in the first short weeks of the season. Oh yeah, I also made my first batch of saurkraut. I followed Joannes directions implicitly so go check out her blog & pictures on how to make it if you'd like to. I used the rubber handle of a hammer to pound w/.

Sprung has Springed! (Reverse that)

Spring pictures. This is the start of what we hope DV will be a good size orchard. We cut down alot of trees w/ help from the brethren over at Zion Road & put in 5 apple trees, (4 Red Delicious, 1 Granny Smith)

From the othe angle, w/ Bullet , our RIR/Orpington in the foreground. He is personable.

Annie & maybe Abigail too are close to kidding, though Abby doesn't look near as big as Annie.

We will shampoo her before the milking commences. She has her mother's lopsided teat, we're hoping she doesn't have the mastitis tendency. You can almost taste the milk!

Pear blossom from Asian pear trees planted last year

Salt & Pepper sitting on her clutch. She brooded us 11 chicks, praise God. We're thankful. Another clutch of 12 or 13 seems to be taken over in shiftwork between an experienced hen & a first year. They take turns sitting on it while the other goes to eat, drink, dust, roost, scratch, whatever. I hope they settle it by next week.

Oddments of Summer

After the rain.

Someone didn't pick up their toys!
Our little branch after a heavy shower.

A new square of heirloom pole beans.

Not a cucumber like I thought. We've got cantelopes!

A pumpkin.

Did you know potatoes grow fruit? It's poisonous.

The root cellar gets deeper.

"Providence's Perpetuation" as the Siffords say. 5!

A fairy egg. Tiny, w/ a thick shell & no yolk.

Size comparison to lady Gaga's for fun.

Mountain Laural.

Every year shows us new wonders from God that we get excited over & thankful for.

Garden Update

This might be one of the least attractive parts of food production, but certainly it's one of the most necessary & money saving. May I present the humble yet noble compost heap! Back in Va. we had one of those cool & jazzy compost makers that cost a ton, but it was basically a black bottomless trashcan. Our current system is less polished, but it works as well as our previous neighborhood association friendly container while producing WAY more. You just can't beat manure.
Emptying the kitchen compost pail is Charlotte's daily task & is a beginner chore for our house at around 2.5 years. I turn the pile every 3 months or so because I'm lazy & the gardens get a blanket of it in the fall & immediately after I've harvested something.


This is some kind of volunteer that has sprung up around the compost pile. I haven't figure it out yet, but so far the goats are leaving it alone.


Here's the bulk of it. It's mostly just a little kitchen garden, we've got 1 square of beans, 4 of garlic, 2 potatoes, 2 strawberries, a seriously struggling square of spinach, a square in which I keep planting new things that never appear & the the entire southern end is for vining crops, also not yet out. I've also planted some carrots, peppers & echinacea, DV, they'll appear w/ all of the rain we're receiving. 4 tomatoes are in the earth boxes at the foot of the garden. We're really hoping to keep ahead of the horn worms this year.


A close-up of the strawberries. This is our second year w/ them, the goats got at them twice last year so our harvest was minimal. They've sent out some runners, new crowns & they're still not worth the space I've given them, we've gotten more than last year already. I hope to be able to clear some land by the stream & transplant them down there if I can prevent a raccoon buffet, which brings me to my next personal project:


Clearing land. There is just so much of it to be done, I kind of just have been shoving it on the back burner. I got this much done in 2-3 of Miranda's nap times; I worked until I needed the chainsaw, which Mike very obligingly did. They're so dangerous, I won't touch one. This plot I had intended for sweet potatoes. It's a race to see who will be done first, slipping sweet potatoes, or bearing strawberries? The soil is good, fluffy & acidic, so we'll see.


Here are my sweet potatoes waiting patiently. 2 didn't make it & grew moldy, the rest are holding on. I have since read that January is the time to start slips, but as they are a heat loving plant, I'm sure I would just kill them doing that, my winter sink area temperature is in the low 60's, unless I'm cooking in there. Their companion is a basil, that needs to be outside before I pluck him to death. The african violet is a full time resident.


Rootlets! Proof of life! I've read that you can get 50 slips from one sweet potato half, I'm hoping this is true. I've got 4 left & they're putting out purplish leaves as well. I have no idea what kind of sweet potatoes (or what the regular potatoes) are, #10 all purpose potato & whatever sweet potatoes Aldi's sells.


Here is a cool tree stump on the way to my next plot. It was cooler as a tree, but still neat how it holds on:



And here is the next land plot to clear. Either the sweet potatoes, strawberries, carrots or maybe a melon will go down here. It depends on whatever is ready first. I've gotten a good bit of it done, but I need to drag the whole pile I threw over the stream to the burn/ or split pile before Mike comes w/ the chain saw so we don't start a forest fire.

My project is on halt because Mike has needed some help building a chicken house & we've commenced on the root cellar. After digging for a couple of hours I don''t feel like clearing, especially in our present humidity. We woke up at 5:30 to escape the worst of it & have cooked out the last 2 days to keep the heat out of the house. It is 9:00 & I AM BEAT. Good night, all.

Wild Fare

We have been blessed to get some old timey, local knowledge from my mother in law's neighbor & it has changed our menu (considerably, I think) for the better. She was gracious enough to come & walk our property w/ us, pointing things out to us explaining what they were good for & how to prepare them. Meet our new green, the poke-weed.

Now, I'm not big on greens. I like raw spinach & being located a little more southernly than I was raised I've tried the local fare. (Livermush w/ Cheerwine, anyone?) I'm not big on kale, collards, turnip or mustard greens. I'll eat them but I won't relish them like this Poke-weed. It's delicious! Seriously! It has the consistency of canned spinach which I've also never liked, but w/a nutty asparagus flavor. There is one small drawback, & that is that it's poisonous. If you try this, please use more than my paltry blog post to guide you & get a field guide (the human kind, that will literally guide you) to verify. But it's so good!

With any plant you harvest, use a sharp knife. Poke-weed can grow tall & has large leaves but you want a newish plant & the newer smaller leaves off of the crown. It has a thick, fleshy stalk that is light purple when new & darkens considerably as the plant matures. PURPLE=POISON. Avoid cutting the purple altogether, as the plant grows, the purple travels up the stem of the leaves.
This is wild onion & it's starting to be at the end of its season on our property & beginning to go into its reproductive phase. It is small, strong, pungent, & replaces both garlic & onion when you cook. If you do pull it all up, it won't reproduce as there are no cloves, just the single bulb. Leave some for next year.

A tiny scape. Besides the weedy appearance of a patch, scapes are a good indicator of allium maturity. In my domestic garlic patch, I had no scapes last year which is why I thought my garlic all died when I transplanted it from Va. Now I have twice the amount & a goodly harvest waiting for me. Scapes & stems can be chopped & used in any dish where regular green onions would be used, just wash first. I have also heard that you can pickle scapes, but I've not got any experience w/ that.

The bulb.

A poke-weed of advance maturity. They put out purple berries in the fall which are also poisonous but from what I've read, make a good dye. See all of the purple? I did harvest the leaves & cut the stalk back to extend our harvest, but watch for that purple. For the record, we didn't die.

Now to cook! Take your greens, wash & rinse well.

Next boil for 10-15 min. There is death in the pot! Or maybe just some stomach cramps, probably more in elderly, very young, or people w/ compromised imune systems. I'm not offering medical advice, just showing what I did.

DRAIN YOUR FIRST WATER. Then boil it again for another 10-15 min. A second picture would be redundant, so see above again.

DRAIN YOUR SECOND WATER. Repeat glance at below photo if necessary.



The wild onion, cleaned up. I'm throwing in store onion w/ it, I need the garlic flavor.

Squeeze into your garlic press, you ought to have olive oil or bacon grease (hey, we like both) warmed up in your skillet.

Saute. Yes, those are hamburger buns & they were delicious, but not made w/ as much love, they are a bread machine product.

Pick a lot of poke-weed, it does cook down considerably after 2 boilings.

Fry it all up, I threw some lemon pepper & salt on there.

A yummy supper & enthusiastic children! Mine did not eat this batch because of the diced onion as they hate onions & felt deceived & let down when I served it. They both ate all of Mike's who made his w/ just the wild onion. I did eat 2 batches in a 24 hour period once & had some stomach cramps. If you have regularity problems, this will do it for you. We've had it 3x this week w/ no problems, excepting my greediness.

The lowley dandelion is another great green & I've read of ways you can cook all of its parts as well, but here's a simple salad. The plant below has flowers, so it's no good. You want the serrated toothy leaves that haven't budded yet. You also don't want plants where fertilizer has been applied.

Here's a big bunch, just to show the taproot. Dandelion is good for your kidney's & packed w/ vitamin C.

My thumb is on a flower bud so this plant is suspect. The salad from this bunch was heading towards the bitter side, but that's not anything blue cheese can't fix.

Clean & rinse your leaves very well. It's a low plant, so all of the rain spatter is goin to join itself to the underside of your leaves.

Drain it out & repeat until the water washes clean. No, I'm not actually doing that here, I'm playing w/ my photagraphy skills.

Add whatever vegetables you have & use like lettuce! If you've gotten it early enough, it's pretty sweet. I'd give up after June though.

I haven't tried this one yet, but I'm pretty sure that it's lambs-quarters. I plan on washing, cutting & steaming it this week, I'll let you know how it turns out.

I can't tell you how excited we are to see & use God's provision of our land in ways that we've never heard of. My mother-in-law's neighbor is another wonderful blessing & we're thankful for her wisdom & lore in local woodcraft.