Direct Seeded Broccoli

Direct Seeded Broccoli

On August 19, I planted some broccoli and cabbage. A few weeks later, I released my chickens to roam free for the winter. What I found out is that chickens like to eat healthy too, so I’ve had to put up a small fence to keep them out. I didn’t have much wire, so I choose the group of plants that looked the most promising, and placed the wire around them. They are growing fairly well, and I’m actually looking forward to eating some broccoli. I’m not a big fan of most cold weather veggies, but when you grow your own food, it always tastes better. I figure I can stomach them if I add a little cheese, or maybe some bacon and cheese…. now that sounds good !

The cabbage is also growing pretty well, but I’ve only got a few plants protected, so there won’t be enough to make home made sauerkraut. I hope to build a chicken house before spring, and attach a fairly large run for them. Then maybe I can grow a larger cool season garden. It just doesn’t feel right not having row after row of veggies. Spring won’t be here soon enough.

Trouble Letting Go…

Indoor Celery

I’ve had a great deal of luck growing most plants from seed, with the exceptions of Pak Choi, Cabbage, Onions and Celery. The one celery plant that grew, I gave up waiting for germination, and reused the soil for a tomato plant. After planting the tomato in a flower box on my Mother’s porch, this little bugger decided to take root, and grow. Being the only celery plant that I’ve successfully grown from seed, I couldn’t let the cold weather take it away, so I dug it up and brought it inside for the winter. The plant seems to be growing well indoors, and has joined the ranks of all the other indoor plants I have, including two tomatoes, and two pepper plants. This winter I’ll try to discover what I did wrong with the rest of the celery seeds, and maybe I’ll have more luck next year.

Spooky Pumpkins

White Pumpkins

This spring, I started some white pumpkins hoping to grow enough for the kids to carve them for Halloween. However, In the shuffle of over a thousand plants out of the greenhouse, I lost track of them, and they found their way to my sisters farm. The vines grew out of  Sandy’s garden into a berry patch where no one noticed them, and the chickens couldn’t see the light colored snacks. When Sandy found these pumpkins she brought them over to my house so I could save the seeds from them. I had them sitting outside on my lawn mower as decorations when I snapped this shot with the moon included.

Next year, I hope to grow them again, maybe then I’ll get enough of these spooky pumpkins for the kids to carve them.

Sauteed Swiss Shard

Cooking Shard

After chasing the chickens out of the greenhouse, I noticed a row of green in the garden. The Swiss Shard was still growing, and had not been killed by the frost. I did a search, and found that shard will grow until the temperate dips into the medium twenties. I also found a recipe for sauteed chard with onions, and garlic. I didn’t think it would taste very good, but after reading about the vitamin content, I had to try it.

Swiss Chard With Cheese

When it was done cooking, I added some Romano cheese, and tried it. Yum ! Not only was this delicious, it improved my mood as well.

Here’s the simple recipe:

Place a few tea spoons of olive oil in a frying pan.
Cut the shard leaves into inch by inch sections, add to the frying pan with onions and garlic (garlic salt will work as well).
Cook on medium heat till the leaves wilt as shown in the photo.
Add shredded cheese after serving while the greens are still warm.

Enjoy !

Babe’s Getting Bigger

 

Babe

 

The little pig that was barely taller then her water bucket is now twice as big, and just as messy. Since the garden is devoid of all things except broccoli, and cabbage, I’ve switched Babe’s diet over to Sow and Pig feed. She eats about a bag every two weeks, bringing the total investment so far to about $95.00. I’m keeping record of all the money invested as an exploration of sorts. If raising a pig each year is economical, I’ll continue to practice. It’s not hard to take care of a pig once you get in the daily habit of feeding and watering them.

There is also the ulterior motive for having this pig: Manure for growing great gardens. I’ve started a new garden area right next to the barn where it’s easy to transport this growing additive. The area is a more conservative garden, measuring about 10 Feet by 30 Feet. The main crops growing here will likely be tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers. So next year, there will be four garden areas, as I’ve decided to move my tomatoes due to the Late Blight this year, and my doubts about whether the cold will cure the soil this year.

 

Interesting Frost Pattern

 

I noticed an interesting pattern of frost on my car this morning. It was quite unique, probably resulting from the rain we had last night. The shot is a perfect reason to write about the growing season, which I’ve got a much better grasp of after a few years of trial and error. Non-frost tolerant plants will grow from roughly the end of May to the middle of October.

Fall Omelette

Fall Omlette

Now that the first frost has cleared most of the garden, it’s time to enjoy the harvest. Throughout the summer, I’ve been dicing and freezing various veggies for use in the months when they would not be available. I’ve got a freezer packed full with sliced peppers, onions and zucchini, shredded carrots, kohlrabi and turnips. Having these items frozen makes cooking simple.

I like to add vitamins to every meal I eat, if possible, and an omlette is a prime canidate for adding shredded veggies. Above you can see green peppers, onions, and hints of meat and cheese, but what the photo doesn’t show is shredded kohlrabi, carrots, and turnips. These extra veggies add very little in taste, but pack a lot of extra vitamins. I even add these shredded ingredients to spaghetti while cooking the noodles.

The process is quite simple, however, if you’ve never prepared an omlette before here is a breakdown:

For two or three servings, crack 5 eggs into a mixing bowl. Add a small amount of milk, about a 1/4 cup or less. Stir until all the egg yolks are broken, and the mixture is an even color.
Add shredded veggies, raw or frozen.
Add sliced up meat such as salami, ham, etc, and cheese if desired.
Warm up the skillet with bacon greese or cooking oil, then pour in the mix.
Cook until the eggs start to firm up, then flip the whole omelette.

Enjoy.

Paper Compost Bin

Compost Bin

As part of my commitment to lower my Carbon Footprint, I’ve decided to no longer throw away paper, or cardboard. This will reduce the amount of carbon that I put into the atmosphere, since this paper will no longer be burned.  These items can be composted, and in turn the bio mass in them can be turned into beautiful black dirt. I’ve built a bin to compost the paper in, and placed it right next to my walkway, for easy access in the winter.

 The process is fairly simple:

Rip up the paper, or use a paper shredder.
Add in other compostable items, I’ve added some compost from another pile as a catalyst, and some manure from my chicken coop.
Then throw in some weeds or other green items, such as the discarded portion of fruits or veggies.

Do Not include meats or bones, eggs are safe though.

Inside the Compost Bin

Here you can see the inside of my bin with the first layer of shredded paper, some compost and a bit of greens. I’ll keep layering the paper, and mix it every few months.

There is a story about a fire which was consuming the whole forest, and all the animals ran into the river and hid from the flames. Soon, they noticed a little humming bird which would scoop down and take a beak after beak full of water, then return to the fire and let the droplet fall on the fire. The other animals asked the humming bird “what are you doing, your such a little bird, you will never be able to put out that fire”, to which the humming bird said “I’m doing the best that I can”. 

We are all humming birds, and if we each do our part, we can greatly reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, hopefully in time to fully understand the changes that are occuring to our planet. Now, if I can only find a way to melt down plastic into useable objects…..

This Old Barn: Part 2

Barn Before Repairs

On Thursday and Friday Davie and I worked on the back part of the barn.  You can see it needed a lot of work, as some boards have blown off in the last year. The barn looked terrible, and the lack of boards was letting rain inside, on the hay, and everything else. Davie had a tree cut up just for this project, and we finally had the time to get it done. The boards which are missing are 192 1/2 inches long, spanning two floors of the barn. Luckily the rough cut boards we had where about 194 inches long.

Placing the Second Board

Before we started, Davie proclaimed me “The Ground Guy”, in other words, I worked mostly on the ground, bringing supplies to the “Ladder Guy”. Davie climbed up the 40 Ft ladder, and I handed each board up to him.  The process was very different for me, as this was vertical work, different from just about everything else I’ve ever worked on.  I was standing on a 10 Ft ladder placed directly below Davie’s, and I found this a bit unnerving. If he accidentally dropped a hammer, I would be the directly in it’s path.

After Barn Repairs

Here’s how it looked at the end of the day. Over about a years time, Mother Nature will stain the boards to match the rest of the barn.

On Saturday, I cut some more lumber and fitted it over the whole in the basement.  The second story windows still need some work, but that’s a much smaller job for a weekend.

 

This Old Barn: Part 1

Basement Door Missing

It Stay-cation time again, and this time I thought it would be a wise use of my time off to work on the stalls in Mom’s barn. I started with this doorway, re-hanging the door that used to be attached here. It was a small step to get me back into the swing of construction.

Starting The Back Wall

My sister got a great deal on a pony a few days ago, so her and Rob finished the second stall, leaving just one left to be finished. I started with some Rough Cut 2 X 6’s from a tree we had milled last year.  Since the wall was so wide, I added a vertical support in the center.  I worked on this wall for the good part of a day, finishing up around 6 PM in time for some stuffed peppers.

Stall Door Finished and Hung

This morning after getting some rest, I hung the stall door, finishing up the stall. In the background you can see the finished back wall.  I still have another door to build and hang, then clean up all the saw dust.

Hallway, and Pony's Stall

So here’s the result of effort from the entire family. You can read about when we worked on the floor here.

I always like to work on projects like this one due to the outcome. It’s not always enjoyable to work on your vacation, but when the work is done, the payoff makes it all worth it. I can’t wait till the kids come home from school so I can see the look on their faces !

October Peppers

Peppers

It’s almost that time of year when the majority of garden plants perish as  the frost descends from a cloudless sky. When this happens, you can see more stars in the sky than on any other night, and a dark gray band of luminosity appears where our Milky Way galaxy flows.

To prepare for the frost, I’ve harvested the peppers shown above. I picked all but the smallest of them, and plan to slice them up and freeze them. I was surprised to find so many green peppers, as those are some of the least productive up until this point. I’ve had the best luck with “Chablis” peppers, with are the yellowish ones in the picture. The worst results came from the Merlot peppers, which set only a pepper or two per plant. I’ve learned some lessons, and have saved the seeds from the largest peppers, the earliest, and the most productive. Chablis seeds will definitely find their way into the greenhouse next spring.

Woolly Bear Caterpillar

Earlier in the day, I spotted this “Woolly Bear” Caterpillar crawling around on a tire used for a flower bed. When I was a child, I was told that the brown portion of the fur on this creature would tell me how long the winter would be. The more of its back that had brown, the colder and longer the winter would be. I really hope to prove that tale wrong, as this crawler speaks of a long, cold winter.