Production and Transition

I just picked another 5.25 pounds of basil and made 4 more quarts of pesto, half with walnuts and no garlic (for me) and half with garlic and no walnuts (for Rose and Peter). These I am going to freeze in ice cube trays and store in big gallon bags to be used 1 or more at a time. I think it will be a lot easier than freezing the individual quart bags, even though those store nicely, like files.

I pulled up all the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli plants and put them in a pile for the ducks and chickens to eat the cabbage worms off of them. The pile is far from the garden, which will hopefully confuse the pests and keep them from overwintering there. We had cross-striped and imported cabbageworms. The broccoli and cauliflower produced just about nothing. We got about 10 purple and 2 green cabbages, not huge but dense and beautiful and delicious. I will be lacto-fermenting some this afternoon to make real traditional sauerkraut, which involves pounding the cabbage with salt to release the juice, then letting it ferment, completely submerged in the brine, at room temperature for 3 days before refrigerating. It is very sour and tasty and great for replenishing healthy bacteria in the digestive system. Lacto-fermented pickled vegetables do not require vinegar because the naturally occurring bacteria on the surface of the plant initiate a fermentation process which produces beneficial lactic acids. You can also use a little bit of whey from yogurt or cheesemaking to enhance the fermentation process. I will probably be adding some from my....

HOMEMADE RAW GOAT AND COW MILK YOGURT! I discovered a wonderful little farm right down the road called Dainty Doe Farm. They sell herd shares so that they can legally provide raw cow milk to herd share owners. They also sell raw goat milk, yogurt, kefir, kefir grains, and soft cheeses (some items have to be special ordered). I make my yogurt by heating the milk to 110 and then culturing with yogurt, rather than heating to 180 and cooling to 110. that keeps the proteins intact and protects that live enzymes. I hope to do a profile of Dainty Doe Farm soon for my other blog, Eat Local Ozarks. I have been neglecting it, but I intend to get going again with the profile of Foundation Farm.

Cucumbers starting to produce (10 beauties so far). We are looking into growing varieties with no bitterness since they are a bit bitter. You can peel off the bitter skin, or just enjoy the benefits of the bitterness, which include stimulating digestive fluids. 0% bitter varieties are: Lemon, Eversweet, Ashley, Sunnybrook, and Saticoy Hybrid.

Tiny green beans are starting,as well as canteloupe, tiny butternut squash, a few ears of corn. I germinated some corn seeds in paper towel so I can put them out with a better chance of surviving the extreme heat and drought. We are watering A LOT because it is so hot and dry and we can't let all the work we've done thus far go to waste. Even with the cost of water, the value we derive in freshness and nutrient density will outweigh the increased water bill. Installing gutters and water catchment systems will definitely be on the horizon. We are also cleaning and refilling the waterers for the chickens and ducks 3 times a day, and refilling the ducks' kiddie pool once a day. The water gets hot, even in the shade. We also lost the only bit if shade we did have, because tent caterpillars just defoliated the entire tree. I probably should have researched tent caterpillars 2 years ago, but I just read that the way to eradicate them is to remove the egg masses when they appear in late winter. Tent caterpillars like apple and cherry trees so they have to go! So far the trees are doing great and getting really big, except for a few Japanese beetles, which I hand pick from one cherry tree. The apple tree in the empty lot next door is producing some yummy apples. They remind me of Honeycrisp, which I've heard don't produce the same flavor and texture apple here as up North. I'll have to figure out what variety it is, or maybe just start my own from the seeds.

I just mulched the now-empty potato bed with a bale of straw. I let it get too dried out by letting it sit uncovered for a few weeks. I am now covering it and I will water it to get the soil microbes active again. The chickens and ducks are also busily picking through the straw to remove all the weed seeds. The only weeds I am seeing in the tomato bed, which has a very deep straw mulch, are wheat grass shoots growing up around the base of the plants where the mulch is lighter so the roots can get air. They are easy to remove, but if the birds can remove the seeds first it will save me that much work. Saving work is essential. The work with the extra birds and extra gardens this year is definitely pretty intense, especially when the heat makes being outside for long periods of time unbearable. I end up dizzy and have to come in and lie down, even when I drink plenty of water. I have started putting salt and lemon in my water to replace electrolytes, so maybe that will help.

The Rosa Bianca eggplants are beautiful. The fruit gets rather large while still ensconced in the sepals remaining form the now-shriveled flower, then slowly gets bigger and outgrows her shell.

Yolo Wonder red peppers are growing big hidden inside the dense thicket of leaves. They grow with their bottom facing up. They won't turn red until they are fully mature, so they are totally camouflaged now. The Jaluv an Attitude hot peppers are delicious! I tried steaming a couple the other night, which was interesting, but not as interesting as Rose's famous cream cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped jalapenos! I'll be making a big batch of those tonight in her honor, since she is away visiting her extended family on the East coast.

This is the time of year to replant beds that have been vacated by early crops. This has never been one of my strong points, so I am going to try to do a better job this year. We also have a new bed that Peter and I made last fall by laying down cardboard and hay. The chickens have tilled it like crazy for the last few months, so it is probably just about perfect. I see the Bermuda grass starting to encroach, so I want to get that  planted and put some kind of edging material around it to keep the grass controlled, at least to some extent. I will probably be planting more corn, beans, squash and melons since they love heat, and then soon after starting fall crops of greens, peas, and brassicas. The plan is to build a couple cold frames to keep us in salads and dark leafy greens all winter.

Bounty and Love

So much wonderful stuff going on here around the farmstead. Dinner tonight was homegrown, just-harvested roasted potatoes with homegrown rosemary, wild caught Ahi tuna with a lemon-lime basil and French sorrel pesto sauce, and soup of homegrown chard, kale, purple cabbage, jalapeno peppers and potatoes - only ingredients not homegrown were olive oil, onions, garlic and ginger. Lots more lemon-lime basil drying in pretty bunches hung in the kitchen.  The Genovese basil and mystery basil from seed-swap seeds are producing like mad! Pesto galore! I'm thinking pesto could be a great cottage industry - especially when we are growing our own garlic and pine nuts in the future too! The plants produce so reliably and since they repel insects, they are practically invincible!

We finally got rain today, after weeks of scorching dry weather. Rose and I lay on the grass in the front yard watching the dark clouds roll in, and when the rain started to fall, she stood with arms outstretched and face upturned, drinking it in like the Earth itself. The we sat on the porch and just watched it fall. Such a special time. We got a tenth of an inch - I know because I finally stuck the rain gauge I picked up years ago at a yard sale in the ground. Wow, that was easy!

Tons more potatoes ready to harvest. Cabbage forming nice dense firm heads. Broccoli produced one tiny head so far, may be too hot/too late. Same with cauliflower. If we don't get vegetables out of those two crops, we will have tons of green organic matter to build the soil. Jalapenos bursting forth, many fruits per plant, eggplants and red bell peppers flowering, tomatoes looking gorgeous with lots of little fruits starting. Peter found a hornworm - see video of me squishing it before it could defoliate the tomato plants! Green beans flowering, tiny watermelons like pretty striped marbles starting, cukes flowering, kale still producing like crazy. Corn is coming up well, as are sunflowers and melons. I hope to plant more corn - it can be planted until early August here.

The other day Peter harvested a carrot that looked really yellow (although nice and straight), and we thought it was a bad sign, poor soil, etc. Today he pulled up 3 purple carrots and we remembered that those are a mix called Kaleidoscope - multi-colored carrots in Atomic Red, Bambino, Cosmic Purple, Lunar White and Solar Yellow! Planted in the same bed with bright lights rainbow chard - a totally rainbow bed!

Delicata squash, acorn squash, zucchini, butternut and saffron yellow summer squash all coming along. I tried an experiment with those - I wanted to plant them in areas without fencing (to keep chickens out), so I planted each 3 seeds in the center of a plastic ring formed from a juice bottle with top and bottom cut off. This kept the chickens from scratching up the seeds, and so far they don't seem to want to eat the plants. We have a lot of invasive Bermuda grass, and I read recently that shade is more effective at suppressing it than mulch (it just sends tough runners with  pointed tips like talons under the mulch to pop up in new spots with no competition!) Squash family plants provide lots of shade when they are in full leaf, so I planted the squash in various spots where we have been trying to suppress Bermuda with cardboard, leaves and chickens. So far the plan seems like a good one.

Plants we bought of Munstead lavender and Arpa rosemary are thriving in the trampoline bed, and sage and chocolate mint are in the former pea beds. I cut down the pea plants and used the vines for mulch in place. The pea teepees were easily pulled up as-is and folded up to store for the next crop. They are made of bamboo poles and short decorative fencing with twine running between the two. Feverfew is blooming, St. John's Wort is about to flower, marigolds and borage seedlings just poking up. I still haven't gotten some herbs in - I planted some seeds but not sure if they have gotten dry too many times to germinate - nettles, chamomile, calendula, shiso (also known as beefsteak leaf, the herb used to pickle umeboshi plums and available on rare occasions in sushi restaurants) and holy basil. I still have seeds left so I may try restarting those indoors to get them established before putting them outside in this heat.

Gilfeather turnips looking small, maybe some water will do the trick.

We've probably snacked on a hundred or so blueberries, which are just winding down. Will be adding sulfur soon to lower pH. Raspberries fruiting a tiny bit although we didn't expect any until next year. Fruit trees thriving except one pomegranate which sent up a side shoot with leaves that one day suddenly turned brown, shriveled up and fell off.

A friend helped us dump the rest of the leaf bags we got from a neighbor inside the garden to compost in place and keep down encroaching grass. Grass is a constant battle, one in which we have enlisted some new allies - more chickens, and ducks! We now have 4 roosters, none of whom attack me like the ones we had a couple years ago. There are at least 2 blue-egg-layer hens, several drakes, a duck with a broken wing (she came that way from the previous owner, a friend who was moving back to town after a few years in the country), 4 ducklings (we had 5 but lost one to drowning in the kiddie pool - it can happen when they are small, they get waterlogged and if they can't climb out easily they drown - sad, but a learning experience), a "magpie" duck, and 6 Ameraucana pullets. Duck eggs are wonderful - waxy hard shells, big and beautiful. And the ducks are a joy to watch. Maybe we will dig them a proper pond one day! P.S. Ignore the duck tent city in the backgrouund - their new awesome coop is almost done - stay tuned!

And now for pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raw milk cheese giveaway

Great new site I found all about Weston Price type food.

http://www.cheeseslave.com/2011/06/01/monthly-drawing-dutch-grass-fed-cheese-80-value/#comment-108916

Check it out and enter to win cheese.

First garden meals, brave chicks and trampoline gardens

Brrrr! This cold weather has kept the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil inside for a few more days until it really warms up, but it is good news for all the cool weather crops that I planted late like mesclun, spinach, and pac choi, so we have been eating delicious salads! Sweet reward! We also harvested the top leaves off the basil plants that are still indoors and getting a little too tall - they were so yummy with mozzarella. Speaking of which, one project on the near horizon is to start making fresh mozzarella with raw milk from grass fed cows.

I have really gotten on top of the mulching this year. In the past I have procrastinated or made excuses not to mulch, but mulching is really doing yourself a favor - it conserves moisture, keeps weeds down, and encourages soil life from earthworms to beneficial microbes.

Spinach and Pac Choi mulched with grass clippings a few days ago, clippings are now dry and brown

Pea Tipi - We will run twine from the little fence up to the top for pea vines to climb

Gilfeather turnips just mulched with green grass clippings in the middle of the pea tipi

Cabbage plant - still needs mulching

Potato plants doing great! They were easy to plant right under the grass-clipping mulch and they are thriving. The plastic sour cream container is doing great too!

Comfrey plant from a tiny start a friend gave me 2 years ago. Comfrey is very easy to grow - it can take over too but it is very beneficial. This plant has been left without water in a pot for too long, planted in the middle of the lawn (I'm still not sure where I got that weird idea...) and then dug up and moved to this spot. I will dry the roots and leaves to make a healing oil and salve. Comfrey contains allantoin (a common ingredient in lotions and other cosmetics) which helps damaged skin regenerate really quickly. The dark green oil is very healing for chapping, cuts, and scrapes.

The chicks are now outside foraging all day and in the garage only at night.

Brave chicks exploring

An even braver chick exploring the deep grass field

Chickens love wood chips and they like to scratch it off the black fabric mulch that the previous owners so thoughtfully provided so we don't have to weed the ornamental plantings. Yay! More time to grow food!

Just a great picture Rose took

Trampoline gardening:

Where this used to be, we now have a bed for an herb garden:

I noticed the area under the trampoline had been cleared of grass by being shaded and by chickens scratching around in the nice shade. Being a sucker for grass-free ground, I got Peter and Rose to help me move the trampoline so this can be our herb garden. It has a lot of rocks and full sun, both of which are good for Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, oregano and thyme. The rocks absorb the heat and reflect it back, which those plants enjoy. I am clearing the residual grasses around the edges then I will get my herbs in. It will be perennial culinary herbs as well as medicinals (and many herbs fit into both categories - food as medicine and all that jazz!)

Photo credits: Rose Gustafson and Celeste Gustafson