Our Victory Garden

Watermelon Sorbet

2011-08-25T12:00:00.001-04:00

On a whim we picked up a watermelon plant while buying herbs from an Amish farm this spring. It has taken up a large part of the garden and honestly makes a wonderful ground cover.

The first melon weighed in at an even 40 lbs! There's another beast of similar size still on the vine.

Gardener being serious about watermelon

So what do you do when there is not enough space in the fridge for a fruit that weighs more than our toddler? You make amazingly delicious watermelon sorbet and eat it, that's what you do.

We don't usually have watermelon around and I can't easily remember the last time we ate any. I think that might change when it comes time for planning next year's garden.

A Productive Project

2011-08-24T20:47:00.000-04:00

The other weekend I finally got around to starting a new project. I've been spending my spare time reading up on woodworking and I really wanted to try out making a few things around the house. First on the list was a cooking spoon. The catch is that I'm trying to do this only with hand tools.

I've picked up a modest assortment of starter tools but there was one missing piece. It's very hard to shape a block of wood without a good way to hold the blank steady. The answer is a device called a shave horse.

I went into the garage where a stack of odd 2x4s and 2x6s have accumulated, and with the addition of a metal rod and a hinge, I created my first homemade tool.

I've been working with apple wood that fell from our oft mentioned apple tree. You can see that the finished product is rather rough and ugly but has been used and works perfectly.

The next one will be a bit prettier if I get around to picking up a much needed gooseneck scraper.

Late Summer Homestead Tour

2011-08-01T01:00:00.001-04:00

As August 1st is considered a special time to celebrate the summer harvests in some traditions, we thought it would be fun to participate in Northwest Edible Life's nosy neighbor homestead tour today.

Our gardens and landscape are definitely going into the jungle-like state that they start to take on here in southeastern Pennsylvania in late summer. In fact, the past couple weeks have been pretty consistently in the high 90s to 100s with extreme humidity and almost no rain. Which means that very little weeding has been done, and I've been putting off planting fall-crop seeds. But that certainly doesn't mean that nothing is going on in the garden. Let's take a peek around!

Lettuce plants which are flowering and going to seed.

Swiss chard from this spring, which have come back and are ready to harvest again after being feasted on by deer.

Watermelon vines are taking over the entire bed and threatening to strangle everything in their path.

The one and only watermelon growing on all that vine.

Baby eggplant. Remind me to post my awesome Moroccan Eggplant Salad recipe sometime!

Pumpkins showing evidence of another night of munching deer. We planted five varieties of pumpkins this year, so I'm really hoping we manage to get at least a few for jack-o-lanterns and pies. We're already thinking about Halloween!

Tomatoes just starting to ripen. The kitchen will be overrun soon!

Tomatillos.

Jalapenos. Looks like we have some salsa in our near future.

In one of our perennial patches we have a few blackberries ripening on the canes we planted last summer.

And the mint is getting well established. These flowers are attracting all kinds of buzzing creatures. Can you spot the dragonfly?

Out back the corn patch is looking good.

The ladies are hoping we'll be sharing some of that corn with them.

My new herb patch has been handy in the kitchen. I'm not used to having access to so many fresh herbs, so this has been a real treat!

Hops just about ready to harvest. Next spring they're going to need to be divided, so our homebrewing buddies should be planning their hops patches now!

This spring's new additions: Niagara and Concord grape vines, and a bluebird house (which has already had its first nest of baby bluebirds hatch and take wing!)

Apple trees planted last fall, looking pretty happy, and outgrowing their protective cages.

Apples on our huge old apple tree starting to ripen. These guys are destined for cider.

The two peach trees up front were planted this spring, and have leafed out nicely. I enjoy imagining what our little orchard will look like in a few years' time.

Our recently improved rain barrel system.

Here's a view of the "pasture." We let the back half-acre go wild to let the grasses go to seed and fill in, in anticipation of future ruminants. We now need to invest in a scythe...

And here is a peaceful view of our acre of woods, where we get most of our firewood, a little maple syrup and a few nuts.

Now it's time to go back inside to finish making pickles with the last of the cucumber harvest and daydream about the cooler autumn days ahead! Thanks for joining us on our tour!

Our Pantry

2011-05-20T18:00:00.001-04:00

Now that spring is here and fresh veggies are starting to show up, it's nice to be able to get away from the winter pantry a bit. We did, however, take some time recently to make a few upgrades. We used to keep everything on two small bookshelves, but now we've moved it all together onto some sturdy permanent shelving with a sheet to block our jarred goods from the little sunlight in our basement.

There are probably enough beans here to last us about 7 months if we ate them everyday. Beans are great because they're really nutritious, versatile, good for storage, and very cheap even when you buy organic. We've started buying bulk dried goods like these from Amazon because of their new "subscribe and save" feature that makes them even cheaper than buying from the local grocery store, plus they have organic products we just can't find around here.

We also keep sunflower and sesame seeds, olive oil, sardines, canned milk and tomatoes, salt, sugar, coffee, peanuts and peanut butter, vinegar, pickles, jams, water, juice, and some convenience items in our pantry. Along with the frozen meats, seafood, and produce in the freezer, the eggs from our hens, the fresh veggies from our garden, and our well-stocked spice cabinet, I really only have to buy dairy on a weekly basis and I never have to worry about being able to pull together a meal!

Bread and Yogurt

2011-05-18T20:17:00.000-04:00

I recently used a King Arthur Flour gift certificate to purchase a few splurges, including the yogurt maker and 6 quart dough bucket pictured below. Bread and yogurt are two staples around here, so I figured it would be worthwhile to make both a little easier.

Sprout was a bit late to the solid foods game, but yogurt was one of the first things he decided he liked and it's still one of his favorites. Making yogurt is pretty simple - all you really need to do is use some store-bought yogurt as a starter which you mix with heated milk and then this little machine holds it at a temperature of about 110 degrees for around 8 hours. Once you make the first batch, you just have to make sure that you save some as a starter for the next one. Those little YoBaby 4-packs were putting a pretty good dent in the grocery budget, so now I can make Sprout his favorite apple-cinnamon flavored breakfast with homemade apple butter for about 1/4 of the cost.

We've also recently realized that it's been more than a year since we last bought a loaf of bread from the store. Using the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day system works really well for me. What you see on the right in the picture above is a big batch of bread dough which I just mix together real quick, leave on the counter for two hours to rise and then I put it in the fridge until I'm ready to make a loaf. On baking day I pull out a 2 pound hunk which I shape into a loaf and then put it in a pan to rise again for about 2 hours before baking at 450 degrees for 45 minutes.

Here's a whole grain rye loaf, fresh from the oven. Peasant food can feel pretty luxurious sometimes!

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T21:53:00.000-04:00

I know it's a little bit late, but Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers out there! The Gardeness, Sprout and I celebrated by going into the city yesterday. We walked the 5k Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Philadelphia.

Go Team Leigh!

We were proud to be there with my big sister, who walked this year as a survivor of breast cancer. Joined by my mother, cousins and friends, it was a great way to spend time with the mothers in my life. I was truly amazed to see all of the support given by the city, businesses and community members.

We walked with more than 40,000 people

Just to throw in a homesteading related note, we recently picked up a few bags of Purina's Pink 50 chicken feed. It's all for such an important cause!

Bock'n Out!

2011-05-01T20:35:00.000-04:00

Today we had the chance to partake in a great and novel experience. The 2011 Sly Fox Bock Fest was held today at the Sly Fox Brewhouse in Phoenixville, PA. Not only was this event a celebration of excellent local bock beers, it was also the 11th annual goat race!

Nearly 50 goats ran, trotted and bleated their way across the finish line. We had a blast drinking good beer, listening to traditional German music and petting all the horned little speed demons.

The best part was when a three legged goat named Peggy beat out all of the competition. Word on the street is that Sly Fox will be naming this year's maibock in her honor.

Sustainable in the Suburbs?

2011-04-27T18:44:00.000-04:00

When we were kids, the area where we live would have fit pretty squarely into the category of rural. Twenty-some-odd years later, we're undeniably suburban. The population in our community (counting the eight nearest municipalities) went from 23,148 in 1980 to 45,771 today. Some of Chester County's biggest challenges these days are trying to plan for smart growth while preserving our agricultural heritage and open space.

So why do we choose to stay here? Well, for one, the Gardener's family has been in this end of the county since at least the early 1700s, and the house we bought was actually built by his uncle in the late 1960s. Most of the members of our family still live within a half-hour drive, and we like being able to stay close. Mostly, we feel like it's important to stay where we were raised and try to make a difference in the future of our community.

That being said, we recognize that trying to "homestead" in the suburbs comes with its share of challenges. For one, prices are high here. Another big one is the fact that it's basically impossible to live without at least one car. And perhaps the biggest one is the fact that we just don't fit in. We're sure our neighbors must wonder what the heck we're doing when we're plowing up big sections of our previously manicured lawn, hanging our undies out to dry, and picking dandelions. They're probably also worrying about what we're doing to their property values. Maybe one day they'll ask us for tips on starting their own vegetable gardens, but in the meantime we're always trying to maintain a level of orderliness that will keep the peace.

But there's a lot of good to be found here as well. I feel lucky that within about a 10 mile radius we have producers of local organic dairy and meat products, mushrooms, honey, flour and livestock feed, not to mention at least four CSAs, five farmers' markets, and three wineries! Within 50 miles we have the big city of Philadelphia, numerous universities, and great restaurants and breweries. We have access to culture and forward thinking, as well as hundred year old farms and small town community spirit.

The suburbs are constantly getting a bad rap as a comatose land of consumerism and conformity, but I don't think it has to be that way. I'd like to hear about some of your experiences in trying to live self-sufficiently on the outskirts, or tell us why you think "sustainability" and "suburbia" are simply irreconcilable!

Mulch Madness

2011-04-26T12:00:00.001-04:00

We finally broke down and bought a load of much needed mulch. This mulch mountain is what 8 cubic yards looks like, after having probably 20 wheelbarrow-loads already toted away.

Our mulching projects went in order of urgency - first, the apple and hazelnut trees we planted in the fall, then the much-neglected blueberry bushes we planted two falls ago, and then our perennial beds containing our hops vines, chicory, blackberries, mint, rhubarb, and our newly-planted strawberry crowns. Here you can see the hops bed, with some daffodil bulbs strewn in, and with plenty of room for the chives, lavender, sage, rosemary, and thyme I'll be planting soon.

With Sprout being born right at the time when this work should have been done last year, it just didn't get done, which meant that later in the season the weeds got pretty unmanageable. This year, all the heavy lifting should pay off with healthier plants (and happier neighbors too, I'm sure). Our next project is to put down a layer of cardboard and then mulch the walkways between our vegetable beds to cut down on mowing and trimming, and to get us a step closer to the colonial-kitchen-garden inspired and more suburban-friendly design we have in mind.

Out on the Line

2011-04-25T13:02:00.012-04:00

It's now been about five months since our electric dryer quit working and we decided not to fix it. During the winter, our "Study", the room with the wood stove, was where you could find our temporary clothes line, tied to and strung between two extra dining room chairs which were weighed down with boxes of encyclopedias. Now that spring is here, I'm so glad to be able to take the laundry outside to hang in the breezes and sunshine!

We decided to relocate the line from halfway across the back lawn to just a few steps from the deck. Inspired by a post on one of our favorite blogs, we designed our upgraded new poles to resemble telephone poles, complete with blue glass insulators, and we have plans to add clothes-pin-holding "transformers" and bird silhouettes just for kitsch. I see no reason why chores have to be boring, or why utility can't also be artistic!

Happy Bunny Egg Day

2011-04-24T21:51:00.000-04:00

We dyed a dozen of our hens' eggs this weekend. I'm pretty sure it's the first time we've ever dyed brown eggs, but they came out brilliant.

They made for a tasty breakfast.

Cold Frame Progress

2011-04-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

It's been about a month since I planted some kale under the glass and its looking pretty good.

I absolutely love this kale! We collected the seeds from our biennial kale in its second season. It grows a thick almost shrub like trunk at the base and sprouts new leaves late into the fall. The flavor is less bitter than most store bought kale and it self seeds like crazy.

In the center you can see some baby cabbages. It may look really crowded in there but the cabbage is an early maturing miniature cabbage.

Early Season Experiment

2011-03-17T20:42:00.000-04:00

This past holiday season the Gardness' family gave me a copy of The Winter Harvest Handbook. It's quite an amazing book that details the steps employed by Eliot Coleman to not only extend the growing season in Maine but to actually grow greens all year round. We didn't manage to test out the deep winter growing techniques but we were inspired to build our first cold frame.

Motivated to keep it as cheap as possible, I dug around the basement and found two matching picture frames. The sides are made from a 2x6 with a bit of 2x4 that I ran through the table saw to angle the glass. It's small but the hope is to make several others, possibly using plexiglass poster frames. On a sunny day when the air temperature was around 55° we saw it as high as 95° under the glass.

This past weekend I planted a few kale seeds in the frame so we'll be watching and waiting for any sprouts.

Flowers of Spring

2011-03-17T19:46:00.000-04:00

The perennials planted by my late aunt have started their annual bloom around the homestead. Spring is indeed upon us!

Tree Taping Time

2011-02-08T14:33:00.001-05:00

I think we are all starting to come out of our hibernation a little lately. Even though there is a bit of snow on the ground the trees are starting to wake up. This week, depending on the weather, we will be tapping a few of our maple trees. We're waiting for the temperature changes to be just right. Maple sap flows when daily highs are above freezing and nightly lows are below freezing consistently.

Last year we were able to freeze a bit of sap that we recently boiled down into syrup. It took nearly 3 gallons of sap and about 5 hours to make 3/4 of a bottle of syrup.

It was really an easy process. We simply filled a large pot with sap, put it on the stove, set up a fan to blow the moisture away from the cabinetry and let it boil.

The syrup is a little cloudy because we didn't bother to filter it. It has a very rich and creamy maple flavor a bit like maple fudge with a slight chocolaty flavor in there somewhere. The results are wonderful and far better than I had expected.

More Meat

2011-02-08T14:33:00.000-05:00

I always find it hard to post about hunting related topics. There's so much stigma and political/cultural bias associated with it that I find myself picking my words carefully but here we go.

Last year we stocked the freezer with a bit of venison that comfortably held us through the end of summer. Over the past year we've hardly bought more than a pound of beef for cooking at home, though we did buy poultry.

I took a doe early this season that was roughly the same size as last year's doe. I usually take my deer to a local butcher (Hershey's Farm Market) to prepare and package the meat and they do a great job.

I love supporting the few traditional businesses in our area. However, one of the big missing pieces in my experience has been butchering. We've all seen the chart in the grocery store with the names used for different cuts of meat but there's a lot more to it than knowing the dotted lines on a picture.

An opportunity to learn presented itself during a day of hunting with my dad and my brother. After three days, sunrise to sunset in the snow, my brother took a small buck. A very small buck. It's important to note that butcher shops usually charge a flat rate for their services. This means depending on the size of the deer the cost could be from $1.00/pound to $8.00/pound. This deer was looking to be on the $8.00/pound side.

My brother offered us a deal, we could keep the meat if we butchered the deer and gave him the tenderloin. A few youtube videos and an email with Hank Shaw later we were sharpening our knives and rolling out the butcher paper.

We ended up with an additional 12 lbs of steaks and ground in the freezer. Did I mention the deer was really small?

The process wasn't nearly as tricky or as gross as you might think. My hope is to follow this education into the various forms of charcuterie but I've got a long way to go.

Cider

2010-11-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

Wow, how time gets away from us these days. If there is a busier time of year than Spring for us, it's definitely Autumn. One of the big projects I had been planning for ages was to brew a batch of hard cider from scratch. As I watched the apples ripen this summer I finally took action.

The most important piece of the process was to procure a press. With a limited budget and a DIY spirit I planned out a simple press made from common hardware store items. One thing I realized pretty quickly is that there is more than one way to crush an apple. In the States we usually see cider presses made from a barrel of wood slats inside a cast iron frame. This design clearly didn't lend itself to our budget or abilities. The more exciting cider press design is the sort used widely in the UK. It is basically two boards with a bag of apple pulp in between. For around $50 I was able to gather the needed pieces to throw together a plywood and 2x4 bottle jack powered cider press.

Note: The plywood I used is made from oak. I've read using pine can hurt the flavor of the cider.

After collecting two large shopping bags full of apples from our aging, unhealthy, unidentified apple tree, we were in business.

With the help of a couple of friends we crushed the apples in a bucket using the advanced "log jamming" technique (similar to the process employed by Native Americans to crush corn). Once crushed the apple pulp was put in a nylon mesh bag (the sort used to filter wine grapes). The squeezing process was started and continued until the 2x4s gave creaking and popping sounds that let us know the maximum pressure had been reached.

We pasteurized the raw cider just because we're sissies. We then pitched some cheap Nottingham Ale Yeast that was laying around in the fridge. The result was a slightly sour but intoxicating dry cider. While not a great brew, I suspect the final result had more to do with the poor quality of the apples and yeast selection than with the process or equipment. Though I'm completely satisfied with our efforts, it's a shame we will probably have to wait another year before we can experiment further.

Planning for Canning

2010-08-08T18:42:00.003-04:00

I know the beginning of August is still smack in the middle of the summer season, but for some reason, to me, it always feels like the very edge of Autumn. I think it has something to do with the fact that, as the harvests start coming in, it becomes time to start freezing and canning in preparation for winter, and planting fall crops in the spaces that have been opening up in the garden. The days are already noticeably shorter, and the apples are starting to weigh down the branches of our old Duchess tree.

Thus, the Gardener has built an inexpensive little cider press and we've been experimenting with our windfall apples. We've collected a little more than a gallon of juice, and in the next few days we'll try making our first batch of hard cider.

This past week we've also received our first share of fruit from the North Star Orchard CSA. In our bag were Summer Blaze and Redfree apples, Red Haven and White Lady peaches, Vanette and Oullins plums, and Delight pears. Though we're really enjoying eating these fruits as they are (fresh, crisp, and juicy!), I've also been planning out how I'm going to can some of them for winter. For the most part, I think I'm going to keep my recipes pretty simple, to highlight the natural flavors of each variety of fruit, but I've also got plans for some more interesting spreads like honeyed yellow tomato butter, which I'm thinking will go well with our almost-done-aging farmhouse cheddar.

What else makes it feel like the start of Fall? 45 pounds of Desiree, Carola, and Yukon Gold potatoes harvested and stored away, that's what!

Backyard Beverages

2010-07-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

Call it a hippie cliché, old fashioned, backwater brew or what have you, but we decided to try a batch of dandelion wine. Of the many stories I've heard about it, I've never known anyone who has actually confessed to making or drinking dandelion wine.

We did our best to follow a "Pennsylvania German" pre-prohibition recipe we found randomly on the web. Warning: this recipe calls for a lot of sugar.

We had a really hard time getting the yeast to start and were about to start over when it quickly fermented the dandelion syrup into something passable as an adult beverage/cleaning product.

Almost ready to bottle. We'll give it another week or so in the secondary fermenter.

This hasn't been the only experimental drink we've been working on. Inspired by a post over on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook we tried a bit of homemade root beer last night.

We took the easy track for the first attempt by making it in the common form as a non-alcoholic soda.

Luckily we have a sassafras tree in our back yard so collecting a bit of root was as simple as pulling up a few of the saplings surrounding the main tree and cutting off the roots.

We made sure to hang on to the leaves in hopes of making filé powder for gumbo. We'll let you know how that goes.

Cutting up the roots before boiling them was a good bit of fun. It was the first time we've had a need to use our loppers in the kitchen. The pint jar there is full of root beer syrup.

We've also been in the habit lately of using our mixer (with attachment) to make ice cream. I couldn't resist having a root beer float using a bit of our last batch of vanilla ice cream.

Words can't describe how good it was. I'm tempted to head to the kitchen for another one right now.

Room for Improvement, Soil Improvement

2010-06-21T14:30:00.000-04:00

This being our first growing season in the new house, we're starting to find out what does well in our soil and what really doesn't. We've yet to do a soil test, and we haven't added any amendments, but we're working on that.

Last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to attend a potluck dinner with the Community Gardens of Chester County. Dinner was amazing and made even better by a talk on the manufacture and use of biochar by our gracious host. The wheels are already turning as to how we'll be adding this medium to our soil. Our big hope is that we can lighten the heavy clay in our soil with material sourced from our own yard.

Our garlic, it appears, doesn't like our heavy soil much at all. The Gardeness dug up the German Extra Hardy today, and even though the leaves looked fine, almost all of the bulbs are rotten. The Romanian Reds seem to have fared better, but they're small, with only a couple of cloves each. I hope this doesn't mean bad news for our potatoes as well. As you might recall from last year, the Romanian Red was the variety that survived when the other rotted out then too. It's really important to me that we keep this stock going, even if that means replanting all of it this fall and having nothing to cook with.

On a brighter note, our heirloom family corn seems to feel right at home, and all three varieties of beans have sprouted and are growing nicely. Our goal is to find plants that do well here naturally, and save those seeds year after year.

When Life Gives You Thistles, Make Some Cheese!

2010-06-21T11:17:00.013-04:00

What's missing when you have a fresh peasant loaf and a bottle of homemade ale? Some good cheese, of course! We decided it was high time to fill that void, so we set out to make some farmhouse cheddar. We ordered starter, rennet, and a mold from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company and bought two gallons of good quality raw grassfed Jersey milk from a local Amish family. We visited their farm and got to see their happy cows and clean facilities, and we were really impressed! They also sell sheep's milk, which we may have to try another time!

So to make a farmhouse cheddar, you heat the milk gently to 90 degrees, add some mesophilic starter, and let it ripen for 45 minutes. Then you add the rennet and let it set at that temperature for another 45 minutes until it breaks, at which point you cut it into curds.

You slowly bring up the temperature of the curds to 100 degrees, and then drain them by pouring them into a cheesecloth and hanging it for an hour.

Once drained, you break the curds up into small pieces, and mix in some salt.

Then you pack them into a cheesecloth lined mold and press, applying 10 pounds of pressure for 10 minutes, then 20 pounds for 10 minutes, and lastly 50 pounds for 12 hours. Afterwards, the cheese is removed from the mold, the cloth is carefully peeled away, and it's left to air dry for 2 - 4 days, allowing a rind to develop.

At that point you can wax or bandage it, and let it age for a couple of months. Just as with all food preservation methods, so long as you pay attention to cleanliness, there's not much else to stress about.

We plan on making a mother culture from our store bought starter, and we've read that we can make rennet from our thistles! Now if only we had a cow...

So Many Things to Learn

2010-05-21T13:48:00.001-04:00

Today I've been repeatedly faced with my gardening shortcomings. First, I found out that my Canada Thistle eradication efforts were only making things worse. Our front flower bed, which runs the entire length of the house, is completely infested with these evil weeds. I thought that by pulling them out before they flowered I would be making good headway. Turns out that each time you break the root, it produces several more plants. So... I guess I'm going to try cutting them off at gound level as often as possible in hopes that I'll eventually weaken the root systems enough that they'll stop growing back.

Then, I moved my seedlings outside this morning to continue hardening them off in preparation for planting them this weekend, and I took a good look at them. Even though we had fluorescent lights on them for 16 hours a day, and also had them in a south facing window, they don't look a heck of a lot better than the ones we started last year. At least my tomato plants aren't pale or leggy this year, but instead are dark purple and still very small, with only a couple of true leaves at this point. When I looked at a gardening forum this morning, where purple tomato seedlings were the topic of discussion, I was really disheartened to see what other people's tomato plants looked like by the time they're getting them in the garden. They've got to be 20 times bigger! My seedlings always look like this, though, and usually survive just fine (except when a late frost comes in, like last year). But I can't help but think how much earlier I'd get fruit and how much better the crop would be if they had a better start.

And finally, when I checked the garden for progress, the potatoes are coming up (yay!) but the peas haven't grown much in the last couple of weeks, and the spinach is pretty much non-existant. It came up about a week after I planted it, but since then it's barely grown at all. I know the last week in April is a bit late for spinach, but we planted it the same time last year, and had no problem. Perhaps it was the freak weekend of almost 90 degree weather we had shortly after I put the seeds in the ground. Maybe the soil isn't to their liking. I just don't know...

But it's a beautiful day outside, so I'll try not to dwell on it. Learning from mistakes is all part of the process.

Week 1: Buy Better Milk

2010-05-17T14:36:00.012-04:00

After watching Food, Inc. and No Impact Man recently, we realized that we've been getting kind of lax with some of our lifestyle choices. Having a baby definitely makes it tempting to do things based on convenience rather than conscience. So to get ourselves back on track we've decided to make one new resolution each week that we'll try to make a part of our everyday lives.

This week, we're going to stop buying supermarket milk. We like Stoneyfield, but we're lucky enough to have a great local company that sells grass-fed, certified organic, gently pasteurized milk that comes in returnable glass bottles.

I'll have to go a little bit out of my way to get it, and remember to wash and take back the bottles, but it'll be worth it. Not only does their milk taste like real milk, but we'll also be getting extra CLA and Omega-3 fatty acids. All of their farms are located in Lancaster County, so it should all come from about 50 miles away or less. And we won't have to worry about what the packaging is made of or where it goes after we're done using it. And even though it costs a little bit more, the money we spend stays local and supports our farming neighbors. If you're interested in finding local grass-fed milk, check out Eat Wild.

Baby Fruits

2010-05-16T20:00:00.001-04:00

Our yard is ripe with new growth and the start of this year's backyard fruit crop. Take a look at some of the little ones...

Apples

Mulberries

Wild Raspberries

Wineberries

Kousa Dogwood fruits

I'm optimistic that we'll have a good harvest for cider, pies and wines later this summer. We'll let you know how we do!

Overwintered Kale and Spring Peas

2010-05-04T15:12:00.012-04:00

The kale we planted last fall never grew very big, so we didn't end up harvesting any of it. We just left the scrawny little plants in the garden over winter, and we were surprised when they were still alive come spring. Now they've got beautiful yellow flowers and plenty of seed pods on them!

Since kale will cross with other Brassicas, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, saving seed can be tricky. But considering that we don't have any of those growing nearby at the moment, we should be able to get a pretty nice seed harvest for planting next year!

Peas are also great to save for seed, and we plan to do just that with some of our fall crop. But our spring crop will be all for eating, and I was pleased to find these pea shoots coming up in the garden this morning.

Peas are one of my favorite garden vegetables. They're easy to grow. You just pop them in the soil, no indoor starting to fuss with, and they pretty much take care of themselves, making up for the extra effort involved in shelling! They're worth growing in the home garden for fresh eating because they're so much sweeter than anything you'll get from the market, but they also freeze beautifully for something green to eat all winter long. Also, we can't forget to mention how useful the pods can be. We planted about 100 pea seeds, and plan to plant the same number again in July as a fall crop. I'm hoping for a freezer full!

Cannibalism in the Coop

2010-04-26T10:40:00.000-04:00

We've got a problem: our chickens have turned cannibal. First, the Barred Rocks started hen pecking the Reds, pulling out the feathers on their heads. Obviously, cannibalism in this case is a bit of an overstatement, but that's what the text books call it. There was never any blood, just pecking to establish the social order. And now, they're eating the eggs. Just this past weekend we started to notice a decrease in the eggs we were getting, and when Gardener was outside he heard one of the hens making a loud banging noise in the coop. He looked inside to see one of the Reds eating a broken egg in the nest box. We're not sure what started it, but yesterday we got no eggs, and this morning there was evidence of more broken yolks.

This weekend we also ended up building an isolation coop for one of the henpecked Reds. We noticed she was spending a lot of time hiding from the others, and then we noticed that she also has a swollen toe which she's limping on. We built this temporary "chicken hospital" to get her away from the others so that she can get plenty to eat and some rest.

I've been spending some time researching tips to stop the egg eating, but I'm really not sure what to do. A lot of what I'm hearing is that once they get the taste for eggs, it's nearly impossible to stop them. We'd be more than happy to hear from anyone who might have any suggestions. (Please!)

Sprout!

2010-03-27T12:49:00.016-04:00

We're pleased to introduce you to our biggest project yet to come to fruition:

Sprout!

We've gone almost 2 months without a blog post, and there's a lot going on around the homestead:

The garlic has really taken off, and is looking strong and healthy. Even though we had lots of rain on top of melting snow at the end of winter, we didn't have any problems with rotting this year, so it looks like we'll be sticking with hardneck varieties. It's nice to have something green in the garden this early!

Out back in the wild perennial patch, the raspberries and wineberries are getting leafy. Downstairs in the seed starting station, everything is doing its thing (although I do have to say that I still feel we have room for improvement in this realm).

Our hops plants came back and are looking really good. We're in the process of "renovating" their plot to include other perennials like strawberries and rhubarb. We're also working hard to get the other garden plots ready for planting. This week our peas, potatoes, spinach, carrots, beets, and lettuce will be going in.

Caring for baby Sprout is proving to make getting other things done much more difficult than I had anticipated, but that really just means learning a new pace.

Hickory Nut Shortbread

2010-02-23T14:01:00.000-05:00

Continuing our trials with baking, we finally found a use for all those hickory nuts we collected from the woods in the fall. Last night we adapted a walnut shortbread recipe, just substituting hickory nuts for walnuts and made the most delicious shortbread cookies!

The industrial strength nut cracker that the Gardeness gave me for Yule was put to good use and made the job much easier (and safer) than using a hammer.

Also, after moving two of our taps over the weekend our maple sap collection has taken off and I'm feeling really optimistic about how much syrup we might get. We've started the alpine strawberries (from seed again) with gooseberries next on the agenda. It was kind of a busy weekend, in a relaxing sort of way.

Snowed In

2010-02-11T16:41:00.007-05:00

Last Saturday we got blasted with about 2 feet of snow, and yesterday we got at least another foot with the bonus of "blizzard" conditions. Everything basically shut down, and even our municipal snow plows were getting stuck.

It was the kind of day for staying inside and planning for spring. We made a bunch of paper pots for starting our seedlings, got all our planting dates down on the calendar, and tried our darndest not to feel like we'd entered The Shining!

These little Woodins peeking from their woolen log also helped keep things cheery. They were a gift from Pragmatiste for the little one on the way, and I have to say they're about the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Beautiful Bread!

2010-02-03T16:13:00.000-05:00

It's been about 8 months since the last time I baked any bread. My past trials had certainly been edible, but I was struggling with it not rising enough, and not developing the right crust or crumb. Well, the stars must have aligned last night, because I finally baked my first truly good loaf!

The recipe and the yeast were the same, but I used actual bread flour and had the benefit of a new mixer and a newer, more accurate oven. Right from the beginning, it rose more in the bowl than it ever had before, and just kept rising in the oven. When I took it out I could tell the crust was just right, and it even "sang" as it cooled.

This morning I couldn't help myself but break into it. It was a delicious start to the day! I think I may need to see about finding a bulk supply of flour, because I'm gonna want to have fresh bread everyday now!

Halfway Through Winter, Halfway to Spring!

2010-02-01T17:34:00.009-05:00

Despite the very frosty weather, we're starting to feel a thaw on the homestead! We had been looking for good old-fashioned steel maple syrup buckets, and found them at Tap My Trees.
Going by bark, opposite growth patterns, seed pods, and dried up old leaves, we picked out three trees which we believe to be maples of one sort or another. We drilled, tapped, and watched sap start to drip!

Seeds are starting to arrive, and it's time again to start making our paper pots.

We signed up for a fruit CSA with North Star Orchard, and we're looking forward to apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, and pears from August to November.

And, our hens gave us a whopping 166 eggs for the month of January! Don't worry, we didn't eat them all ourselves - sharing is part of the joy.

UHC2AM8AF7S9

Meat in the Freezer

2010-01-20T12:34:00.006-05:00

With the ground thoroughly frozen, aside from the freak rain lately, there isn't much going on in the garden. We harvested a handful of carrots last month which marked the absolute last of our 2009 produce. The one thing we were able to harvest was a bit of meat.

One of our major goals with livestock is to raise multi-purpose animals. We've chosen animals which, with hopefully minimal upkeep, will live long productive and happy lives. Since we are not raising them for meat, hunting has become a valuable alternative to buying meat. What was once common practice in Chester County has quickly become a taboo. Within the past 20 to 30 years much of the wooded land for hunting has been developed. In my early teens I hunted small game but like the new norm in these parts I opted for video games and indoor hobbies during high school and college.

I never gave up my love of being in the woods and the recognition of the natural world that hunting provides.

In the fall of 2008 I had the chance to go on a Pronghorn Antelope hunt in Wyoming which was an amazing experience and I brought home some wonderful (though slightly gamey) range fed meat. It was a shame that I had to travel halfway across the country for my first big game. This year I was determined to hunt local and was able to harvest a modest 32 lbs of Pennsylvania Whitetail Deer.

We cooked up a bit of the venison in shepherd's pie made with some of those carrots I mentioned earlier. It turned out to be my absolute favorite meal in recent memory.

I'm hopeful that social trends can shift in favor of responsible hunting to help regulate the ecosystems we live in. Hunting can help lower the number of deer hit by cars, prevent the cost and waste while at the same time reducing our consumption of less healthy imported meat. We've removed the original predators and it seems there should be an obligation to take their place in a sustainable way.

Busy Birds

2010-01-08T11:23:00.006-05:00

In the past 10 days we've collected over 40 eggs from our 8 hens.

They're coming in all sizes. The large one here is so big we can't close the egg carton properly.

Now we just need to find a souffle pan!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-06T12:09:00.014-05:00

Another new year is upon us, and with it comes the usual thoughts of resolutions. Unlike diet or exercise resolutions, gardening and homesteading plans come naturally this time of year, when everything is gray and cold and we're looking so forward to longer, warmer days and the green of new sprouts.

Looking back on 2009 for a moment, we accomplished so much and so little all at the same time. Most importantly we got through the six month ordeal that was buying our new house, which not only made us homeowners for the first time, but also land owners at last! Unfortunately, the timing of it all made it very difficult for us to do much gardening at all. In the spring our garden was miles from home, which meant we didn't get to give it the attention it deserved, and in the fall we were faced with the prospect of starting all new veggie beds. But we did have some other projects to keep us busy, the greatest of which were our chickens, which are proving to be a very rewarding addition! We managed to get 41 eggs in the second half of December alone! We also got to go foraging in our little woods on the back of our lot, where we collected raspberries, wineberries, mulberries, hickory nuts, walnuts, and firewood.

This coming year will be bringing us many new joys, as well as challenges! Just as spring is arriving, so will be our first baby! We're hoping to be able to power through the sleepless nights and find the time and energy to put up fencing, get some baby lambs, plant fruit trees and other perennials, and grow the majority of our own produce, just to name a few!

For me personally, my goals this year will be to learn to simplify, establish routines, and be better prepared. The key, I think, is going to be practicing things like canning, baking bread, brewing and knitting until they become like second nature, so that I can better fit them into a busy schedule without feeling like I have too many chores to do. I also need to be willing to do fewer things if it means they can be done better, particularly in the garden. As much as I love looking through the seed catalogs and reading about all the rare and interesting varieties of everything, I'm going to be choosing fewer plants and basing my decisions on hardiness, reliability, and how well they store or take to processing. And, I'm not going to plant all of my seedlings at once!! Having gone through a late frost which devastated most of our carefully grown veggies this past spring, I've learned my lesson!

As for the Gardener, his main goals are to do more with what we have by nurturing our best trees, wild berry bushes and our neglected hops. Composting more and working harder at amending the soil in our garden are also on his list. Our sleep schedules are going to be a struggle when the little one arrives but he's hopeful that it will help him learn to manage his time better. Collecting sap for syrup, building native bee houses and bird houses, setting up our rain barrels, lumber-jacking and learning more about native useful plants and fungi, round out his resolutions.

2010 stands to be a very exciting year, and we look forward to sharing it all with you!

Pea Pod Crunk Juice

2009-12-21T12:11:00.012-05:00

At last we've found the time to make a small batch of wine. This is our first attempt at making wine, so we're really optimistic!

We've mentioned before our love for the British sitcom The Good Neighbors (aka The Good Life) and their hilarious adventures in sustainability. One of the recurring jokes of the series is their high test home made wine that they call Peapod Burgundy.

Inspired by their antics we froze pea pods from our garden this summer. Sadly we didn't have quite enough so we had to pick up additional peas from the store but here is our improvised recipe pulled together from several wine sites.

3 lbs. pea pods (about half from our garden)
3 tiny limes (from our sad little lime tree probably equal to 1 full lime)
5 cups sugar
1 black English breakfast tea bag
1 gram Red Star Premier Cuvee dry white wine yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 gallon water

We boiled the pea pods and lime peel for 30 minutes. We then strained the hot must into another container with the sugar, nutrient, lime juice and tea bag. Once all the sugar had dissolved, we funneled it into a 1 gallon jug and pitched the yeast. Since then the air lock has been bubbling away in a dark corner. We tasted the must before pitching the yeast and it has a surprisingly sweet but earthy fruity flavor something like a very sweet herbal tea.

Upon the recommendation of our good friend Pragmatiste we've christened the wine "Lady Lydia Peapod's Royal Holiday Wine" after our bulldog Lydia. It's only fitting since Peapod is her actual middle name.

Sadly the fermentation and clarification process will take a full year so we won't be able to raise a glass until the next holiday season. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait!

An Early Christmas Present

2009-12-14T14:41:00.003-05:00

This morning I was awoken by the Gardeness showing me our first gift of the holiday season.

One of the feathered ones laid this cute little egg last night. This is the first of what we hope to be a plentiful bounty. It's so exciting!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

2009-12-08T09:12:00.004-05:00

Ahh, the smell of pine really makes the Christmas season! This weekend we made our yearly trip out to our local tree farm to cut down a yuletide pine to decorate the living room. We know there is some controversy surrounding the environmental ethics of cutting live trees, so we wanted to point out a few facts. We won't even bother arguing live vs. artificial, because buying a tree from China, which is made of petroleum products, and which will one day sit in a landfill is not even an option. We could buy a tree with a root ball and plant it, but we already have lots of pine trees and need the pasture space for our sheep instead. Besides, did you know that for every Christmas tree cut, 3 are replanted? What other reasons do we have for cutting a live tree? Our tree was grown on a local family farm that has been in operation for 39 years, and which grows 25 acres of trees. That's 25 acres of farmland being preserved from development. Land that most likely would not be suitable for other crops is being protected from erosion and creating lots of oxygen. It also provides a habitat for small wildlife creatures, which is disturbed only minimally when the time comes to harvest. When the season ends and it's time to dispose of the tree, many municipalities will pick it up and chip it, and then it's used for public works projects or it's composted. So, we get to support the local economy, support open space and agriculture, and minimize pollution all at the same time! Plus, it doesn't get much better than hiking out in the snow with saw in hand to pick out just the right tree to bring home!

Keeping Busy

2009-11-09T10:37:00.016-05:00

A few weeks ago we had some amazing 70 degree weather, which we put to good use by finally getting out to the garden. We planted about 80 cloves of the Romanian Red garlic that we harvested this summer, and about 50 cloves of German Extra Hardy, which we ordered from Seed Savers Exchange, and which had some of the biggest cloves I have ever seen! I hope we can grow ours just as big! We also planted eight blueberry bushes which were a gift from our amazing real estate agent. Unfortunately, we haven't had a chance to do a soil test, so we didn't add any amendments when we planted them, but we did mulch them very heavily with pine needles.

On the chicken front, we're still waiting for our first eggs. We kept hearing that 20 weeks of age is the magic time when hens start to lay, and right now we're at 25 weeks and still no sign. Upon doing some further research, it seems that we may have to wait until at least the end of December. You see, if you get your chickens late, and they don't start laying before fall when the nights come earlier, there may be a delay until at least the winter solstice when the days start getting longer again. So we'll either be getting eggs any day now, or we won't have anything until closer to spring. Either way, we've located a supplier of straw from Craigslist, and got a delivery of 10 bales. With it we've made a nice nest inside the coop for laying eggs, and spread a layer of it on the ground to keep things clean now that the grass is no longer growing. We're also thinking about ordering some scratch feed for the winter, because it will help them gain weight and give them something to occupy themselves with. We're still trying to figure out some solar solution to keeping their water from freezing.

We're also in the middle of a batch of beer. We had a lovely afternoon where we invited friends over to spend time, eat, chat, and help us brew a batch of British Farmhouse Ale. We improvised an all-grain recipe made with Maris Otter barley, Fuggles and Kent Goldings hops, and Whitbread yeast. Saturday we racked it over to the secondary fermenter and it looks and smells quite tasty. We pretty much have no idea what it will be like when it's done, but hopefully it'll be a pleasant surprise. Our next alcohol experiment is going to be a holiday pea pod wine!

A New Season

2009-10-18T17:35:00.008-04:00

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone? I can't believe it's been two months since our last post! Since then the summer bounty has given way to a decidedly colder and less lazy season.

Unfortunately, the chaos of moving meant that we never really got a fall garden going, but we did manage to find a small harvest at the borrowed summer garden. The biggest success was the fact that we had several ears of corn make it to maturity, which is more than we could manage last year. We planted two kinds, a red heirloom field variety which has been kept in The Gardener's family for generations, and a Native American sweet corn. We got some nice specimens of the red corn to replant on a larger scale next year, and some interesting crosses. One ear is bright yellow interspersed with purple, and another is red with orange swirls.

The cool weather has also inspired us to explore the small woods in our backyard. We've been foraging for whatever goodies we can find, and a big part of that has been firewood. We've decided to put off using our oil heater for a while, and right now we're attempting to heat the house with just the fireplace and a space heater in the bedroom. It's hard work chopping and splitting wood, and tending to the fire, but we've managed to keep the temperature in the house in the mid-60s, which is plenty warm. Plus, it's super cozy to snuggle up and watch the flames!

In the next couple of weeks, our projects will be to plant the garlic and a cover crop of winter barley, knit some socks and holiday gifts, and make some beer and wine!

Fresh Movie Screening!

2009-08-17T11:32:00.012-04:00

We are co-hosting a free screening of the movie Fresh this Saturday, August 22nd and we'd like to invite everyone to come! Fresh is a documentary by Ana Sofia Joanes which features interviews with Michael Pollan and a tour of Joel Salatin's farm, as well as highlighting the work of other farmers and business people who are creating a more healthy and sustainable way of growing food that is accessible to everyone.

Unlike some other recently released food documentaries, Fresh isn't about scaring us with the gory details of why the current industrial system is making us and the planet sick. Rather, it's a hopeful and inspiring collection of tales about people who are already making positive changes and proving that it can be done.

There will also be a few local growers, such as North Star Orchard, who will be in attendance to help answer questions and be a voice for the sustainable farming community in southeastern Pennsylvania. Buy Fresh Buy Local will be providing listings of local food producers.

Please join us this Saturday, August 22nd, 7:00 pm at the London Grove Friends Meetinghouse, 500 West Street Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348.

Where Eggs Come From

2009-08-04T21:33:00.008-04:00

It's only been two months since the little baby chicks showed up at the post office but it might as well have been two years (in chicken time). The fuzzy little chicks have been growing almost faster than the weeds in our garden and now are fully feathered grass mowing machines. Despite their appetites we still have two months left until we can start to expect eggs.

Speaking of grub, we recently found a great source for organic chicken feed practically in our backyard. After a few phone calls, a kind gentleman from McGeary Organics offered to meet us halfway to their mill in Lancaster with a bag of organic layer developer feed. The feed is top notch and we really feel fortunate to have such a local source for affordable organic feed. In addition to various organic livestock feeds they also mill organic flour.

But the biggest news on the chicken front has been that the chickens we able to finally move into their new house! We built our Eglu Cube on the day we went to settlement and the soon-to-be-egg-machines have been scracthing up the grass and eating pretty much everything in sight ever since. We make sure to move the Cube to new grass every night after the girls have snuggled up in the coop for bed. Now we just need to pick out a few good omlette recipes.

Where Do We Start?

2009-07-21T15:19:00.007-04:00

At long last, the saga of our quest for land has come to a conclusion, but that also means that the real work is just beginning! The Gardener and I have purchased a new home about 12 miles from our old abode, and with it comes plenty of space for creating a real homestead. We now have almost 4 acres! About 1/3 of that is currently wooded, but it leaves at least an acre for sheep pasture, and more than enough space for growing tons of vegetables and fruits.

The chickens are already loving their new Eglu and have really taken to scratching around in the grass and looking for bugs. There's a lot of overgrowth that needs to be cleared, but we have found some raspberries, wineberries, and a mulberry tree that we'll definitely be leaving. We also have a huge old neglected apple tree that we're going to try to prune back into shape. This weekend we're going to be renting a sod cutter and getting our garden beds ready. We're planning on having 5 separate beds, which should be just right for rotating crops and having one permanent one. We'll probably only use one or two for Fall crops and plant the rest with cover crops. The first thing we need to do is plant our pumpkins so that they're ready for Halloween! I'm also really excited about planting more peas since our spring crop did so well and were so easy to grow.

Meanwhile, over at the borrowed veggie plot, we have plenty of kale, bunches of green tomatoes, some baby peppers and eggplants, and squash galore. Our Yukon Gold potatoes should be ready to harvest in the next couple of weeks, and the Yellow Finn and German Butterball to follow shortly. Our corn is also starting to tassel. I know our garden is suffering from our inability to tend it on a daily basis, but I'm confident we'll still end up getting plenty of goodies!

Now that life has settled down enough for us to start getting some real work done, we'll be posting up a storm about all of our new projects. The only question now is where do we start?

The Summer Harvests Have Begun!

2009-06-28T20:46:00.010-04:00

This June has been one of the rainiest I can remember, but the rains have finally let up and it seems like summer is now in full swing. The veggies in the garden are growing fast, and so are the weeds, which we're struggling to catch up with. We're also getting to harvest the first crops of the season. We pulled all of our spinach and got three bags worth to freeze. We have peas coming on, and we have bunches of kale to be picked. And today we harvested the garlic. All of our softneck garlic rotted out over the winter, but the Romanian Red hardnecks grew pretty well. For some reason, some of them grew large scapes, which we cut only two weeks ago and made pesto out of, and some of them did not. When we dug the heads up today, the ones which had had scapes turned out to be very small, with apparently only two or three cloves each. But most of them grew to a respectable size, and they're all hanging in the kitchen to cure. I can't wait to taste them!

We've been meaning to put up some photos of the garden, but we keep forgetting to take the camera. It's been great having our big 20' x 40' plot to grow in this year, but it's also difficult to find the time to tend it since we can't just walk out the back door to it when we have a few extra minutes. Since it's also difficult to grab a few leaves of kale or a few pea pods for dinner, it's making more sense for us to harvest as much as we can when we're there and then preserve it.

Our good friend Pragmatiste surprised us this weekend with the awesome gift of this classic book on preserving, which is a complete reference on everything you need to know to can, freeze, cure, dry, and cellar, with plenty of scientific rationale. Now we should have no trouble keeping all of our veggies delicious and nutritious!

Just Hatched!

2009-06-03T20:47:00.010-04:00

At 7:10 this morning the phone rang, just as we had been hoping it would. The lady at the post office was calling to let us know that our little baby chicks had arrived! We got there before they opened, but they were more than happy to let us in to claim our box of fluffy peepers. The Gardener got to take them home (as I grumpily had to go to the office) and he was given the responsibility of introducing them to their new digs, feeding and watering them.

We spent the day thinking up names for our eight little layers, and settled on Lorraine, Benedictina, Florentine, Frittata, Tikka, Pot Pie, Buck Buck, and Begok. All of them seem to be doing quite well, even though Frittata gave the Gardener a bit of a scare at first. Now she's even pushing the bigger ones around. The lighter colored ones (Flo, Lo, Bennie, and Fritta) are Rhode Island Reds. They get the fancy names because they behave more like ladies. The dark ones are Barred Plymouth Rocks, and they are plucky to say the least.

The coop should be arriving this week as well. It's travelling by boat from England and then into Philadelphia via Greyhound where we'll have to pick it up at the station. Kind of ridiculous, I know, but we've chosen the Omlet brand because their coops are particularly suburban friendly in their Ikea-like design, and we're hoping to stay on our neighbors' good sides.

In the meantime they'll stay warm, cozy, and safe in their custom built brooder. We've even rigged up a "chickam" so that we can keep an eye on them from our computers at work!

Homemade Snack Attack

2009-06-01T20:16:00.009-04:00

We spent a good bit of yesterday out of the garden and in the kitchen (though we did find time to plant a few replacement tomatoes). The Gardeness baked up a whole wheat batard, attempting a tricky technique that we found on the Artisan Bread in Five blog. I have to say it turned out quite nice, though perfecting the crust is still giving us trouble. Earlier in the week she had picked up two quarts of strawberries from the West Grove Farmers Market. After finding a recipe for strawberry jam, we finally had a chance to play with our newly loaned canning gear and promptly turned the kitchen into a makeshift sauna.

The latest Mother Earth News has a little blurb about making butter and I remember doing something like that in elementary school with a mason jar filled with cream and marbles. So when the kitchen got a bit too hot, I tried to whip up a batch. I didn't have any marbles or cream so I filled a mason jar 3/4 with whole milk. About an hour of shaking later we had decent little chunk of creamy butter. Adding a dash of salt gave it a nice earthy richness.

You can't beat little homemade snacks like these... Unless you're really into lime-like stuff and giant Cheetos.

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A Practical Experience

2009-05-23T15:15:00.006-04:00

So today on our trip to the milk store we decided to stop by a rare and used book store in Kennett owned by Thomas Macaluso. Hoping we might find some cool old tome of conventional wisdom on gardening we stumbled upon a gem.

Ten Acres Enough: A Practical Experience by James Miller (7th Edition) was published in 1865. The book covers the real world experiences of a gentleman farmer making due with just 10 acres of land near Philadelphia in the mid 19th century. It's hard to think of a more fitting guide to get us started. I mean this is a pre-industrial agriculture DIY manual written about a "garden farm" less than 100 miles from home. Check out a New York Times review of the first edition from 1864. We'll be sure to share bits of advice over the next few weeks.

In other news we'll be stopping by the borrowed plot to plant our heirloom Bartels family corn later today. Fingers crossed that the critters don't ransack the seedlings this year.

Garden Heartbreak

2009-05-22T09:19:00.010-04:00

Last Saturday was the Big Day of Planting, and all of our little veggie sprouts finally got nestled into their new garden plot. Things were looking good for a couple of days until a late and unexpected frost hit on Monday night. We knew it was going to get cold, but there was no frost warning, so we trusted everything would be ok. Tuesday afternoon I got an email from my dad - bad news. All of the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and basil were gone - shriveled up and dead. It was a pretty heartbreaking sight.

As I was pretty sure there wouldn't be time to start from seed again, and to avoid a total loss, I went down the street to the Amish farm and purchased some replacements. No, they're not open-pollinated, organic heirlooms, but in the end, the point of the garden is to have something to eat. We're going to try direct seeding some of the tomato varieties that we were particularly looking forward to, and hope to get at least a few fruits before the fall frosts come in.

On a brighter note, our peas, spinach, and lettuce are growing strong, and our other greens, tubers, and crucifers appear to have survived as well. Yesterday we planted some carrot and beet seeds amongst the onions. Next weekend we'll be planting beans and corn, and the week after that our baby chicks arrive!

Yay for Farmers' Markets!

2009-05-14T22:06:00.005-04:00

Farmers' market season has finally arrived! This afternoon I stopped by my local market on the way home from work to meet this year's group of farmers and see what they had to offer. New to the scene was North Creek Nurseries, specializing in native perennial plants. I asked Erin what she would recommend for attracting pollinators, and her suggestion was Nepeta, which has small blue flowers that bloom all summer long, and leaves which have a really lovely sweet and spicy fragrance. It wasn't until I got home that I realized Nepeta is catmint, but this variety (nepeta x faassenii) is more attractive to bees and butterflies than to cats. Also new this year is Long Valley Farm, selling organically raised free-range chicken meat and eggs, and Swarmbustin' Honey with their ten types of local honey including "Totally Raw", Buckwheat, and Hot Garlic. Rounding out the offerings were Jack's Jams and Jellies, R & R Teas, and and assortment of Amish produce and baked-goods stands. I came home with chicken, oyster mushrooms, and bibb lettuce for making asian lettuce wraps for dinner tonight!

All this fresh local produce has us itching to get out and plant our little veggie sprouts, which are more than ready to be liberated from their little paper pots. We've been given a generous sized plot of land to garden in my dad's backyard, which was freshly tilled yesterday afternoon, and our seedlings are being hardened-off on the back deck in preparation for the Big Day of Planting this coming Saturday!

Urban Gardening? Try Nomadic Gardening...

2009-04-25T12:28:00.005-04:00

All is not lost, dear readers! Our sunburned tomato sprouts did indeed wither away and die, but we replanted them a few days later and our new batch is up and growing. We've decided that a cold frame or a small greenhouse is going to be a must for next year. Grow lights just can't compete with sunlight. When we compare our stringy sprouts with the ones our Amish neighbors are selling, the difference is night and day.

Last night we planted a whole bunch of peas and spinach. Digging in the real dirt, finally! This brings us to some news that we were waiting to tell, but at this point I don't think we can wait any longer. Remember, way back in January, when we told you we were dreaming big? Well, the Gardener and Gardeness have been on a quest since then to buy some land, and though we're getting closer, we're not there yet. This means that we're now facing the challenge of gardening without a garden. We can't plant in the space we're renting now, because we don't want to leave our veggies behind. The peas were planted in a corner of my father's garden, which he generously donated. Some things, like the hops waiting in the frige and the potatoes which are coming in the mail soon, we're going to try growing in portable containers. But when last frost comes in a few weeks, I honestly don't know what we're going to do with everything. If anyone out there has attempted to be a nomadic gardener and has any suggestions, we'd be glad to hear them!

In light of what we've just said you may well consider us insane when we now tell you we have just ordered chickens! Yes, we decided that we simply couldn't wait any longer. The Gardener told me that all he really wanted for his birthday was an Eglu cube, so a shiny red one is on order and due to arrive by Greyhound freight. Late in May, eight little baby chicks will be arriving - four Rhode Island Red and four Plymouth Rock hens. Oh, the excitement!

A Little Too Much Sun

2009-04-05T21:46:00.013-04:00

On this lovely sunny spring day, we decided to try to kill all of our seedlings. We had the best of intentions. Our tomatoes, asparagus, celery, and bee's friend have been looking a bit pale and leggy, so we thought we'd give them a dose of sunshine. We left them out on the back deck while we went to an early Easter gathering, and when we got back four hours later, our poor plants were all dried up, wilted, and frizzled. We've watered them and have our fingers crossed. So I guess we've either killed them or made them stronger.

We also spent this evening planting some more veggies. Today it was cabbage, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, peppers, and eggplants. We now have, assuming they all survive, 252 little plants growing in little paper pots under the grow lights in our basement. I really hope we aren't biting off more than we can chew!

Also, in an unexpected jog through town we stumbled across a chicken hideout. Yesterday our Basset Hound decided to go for a tour of the neighborhood when the back door blew open. While searching for our little troublemaker, the Gardener found a rooster crowing from inside a shed type coop on the next street over. Luckily, I found Ginny cowering in some bushes at the end of our street but that's the second set of backyard chickens we've spotted in town. In related news our brochure from Omlet arrived on Friday. Keep your eyes peeled for more details on that!

Can There Ever Be Too Many Tomatoes? Or Socks?

2009-03-22T12:14:00.018-04:00

Spring is officially here, which means it's time to plant more seeds! Today is the all-important day of tomato seed planting, and we have 9 varieties going in this year. Yes, perhaps that is going a bit overboard, but there are so many beautiful and delicious tomatoes to choose from out there that it's hard not to. Plus, we're looking forward to a bumper crop so that we can make plenty of sauce to preserve for next winter. We're also planting some onion seeds today, although we really should have done so about 3 weeks ago. Typically onions can be planted in the garden several weeks before the last frost date, but due to some factors outside of our control, there's a pretty good chance we won't be getting our spring plantings done before the middle of May anyway, so our late seed sowing shouldn't be a problem. Along with the veggie seeds, we'll also be starting some herbs and flowers - sweet Genovese basil, purple Dark Opal basil, sage, rosemary, stevia, lavender, chamomile, and bee's friend.

Also of note, our hop rhizomes have arrived!

In other homesteading news, we have completed our first scarves! They're very simple, just done in knit stitch. Mine is made from a nice thick wool yarn with a size 7 needle, so it's very warm and almost wind-proof. And green! I was so excited about how well it turned out, that I went straight out and bought more yarn to make a throw blanket. The Gardener's is in manly shades of olive drab, but is softer and squishier. He now dreams of knitting his own socks! Our dear friend Pragmatiste has given us an awesome set of interchangeable circular needles to try out. They will be perfect for making some thick, wooly socks for the next time the Gardener goes camping up in the mountains!

Well Worth Watching

2009-03-13T12:22:00.004-04:00

The sprouts are sprouting and we're trying to keep ourselves distracted. I managed to mulch some of the beds with hay and bought a few supplies for creating a new raised bed last weekend. And though there are plenty of books on the nightstand that need finishing, we decided to watch TV instead.

I found a recent BBC series called Victorian Farm, which gave a much needed escape to someplace green and growing. The show focuses on three historians who try their hands at Victorian farming with authentic equipment and practices. The six part series covers the span of a year on the farm. The hosts grow and harvest an acre of wheat, lamb ewes over winter and raise a litter of piglets. Pretty much a dream year.

If you have access to a copy of the show I really recommend it.

Signs of Life

2009-02-04T09:39:00.010-05:00

A mere 14 days into our 30 day wait, what should I spy but these luminescent little signs of life! A handful of our strawberry seeds have already begun to poke their heads above the dirt. As exciting and encouraging as this discovery has been, it also means we need to hurry up and get our grow light hoisted from the basement ceiling a bit sooner than anticipated.

In other news, we've started two flats of asparagus seeds, which are surprisingly large and not at all what you would expect them to look like until you realize that they come from little red berries. Starting asparagus from seed rather than crowns means we'll have to wait four years instead of three for the bed to be established enough to start taking cuttings, but seeds are a heck of a lot cheaper. And besides, we like a good challenge!

We also wanted to mention that we've chosen to start our seeds in homemade paper pots, as you can see in the photo. Several seed catalogs sell the wooden pot maker that you can see in the photo in our last post. We thought this would be a great way to recycle newspaper, and it's also the most sustainable solution we could find. One purchase will fulfill our seed-starting needs for a lifetime, it's environmentally friendly, and it's easily shared. We did buy some plastic flats with lids, but they should last for years, and are recyclable. We also bought some seed starting mix this year, but next year we hope to be able to use compost from our back yard.

Meanwhile, as we wait for the weather to warm up, the Gardeness and the Gardener have been learning how to knit! I must say, if you ever find yourself stressing out, especially if it's due to having to wait for something, knitting is a wonderful way to distract yourself. Plus you get something warm to snuggle with when you're done!

Waiting for Spring

2009-01-31T11:40:00.007-05:00

This week we attended the second session of a two-part program on Sustainable Small-Scale Vegetable Production given by our local cooperative extension. The organizers were really excited because they had a record turn out! It was just an introduction to the concepts of sustainable farming, so none of the speakers went into a lot of detail, but what they stressed repeatedly was the need to plan carefully, and the importance of soil testing. Luckily, a soil test kit was included in the price of attendance! Once the soil thaws out this spring, we'll definitely be out back digging up a sample, and we'll be back here with the results. If you haven't already looked up your local cooperative extension, you should - they have tons of resources and people who can answer almost any question you might have about growing things.

All this talk about growing vegetables was in stark contrast to the snow, ice, and freezing temperatures we've been having. Luckily, seed starting time has arrived, which is keeping me from going completely stir-crazy! Last weekend I started a flat of alpine stawberry seeds. Most strawberries are planted as crowns and spread by runners, but alpines (aka fraises des bois) spread by seed and are great for urban gardeners because they don't need a lot of space, and can do well even without a lot of direct sun. They take about 30 days to germinate, according to the seed packet, so we'll have to be patient while we wait for signs of life from these tiny seeds.

Dreaming Big in 2009!

2009-01-13T12:55:00.006-05:00

A new year has begun, and you know what that means: seed catalogs galore! It may seem as if the Gardener and Gardeness have been neglecting their readers lately, but we have in fact been very busy working on blog-worthy projects these past two months. One of those projects has been diligently perusing our catalogs and planning this year's garden. We've been dreaming big, and our order lists are ambitious! We'll be procuring the majority of our seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange for several reasons: they're a non-profit organization with proceeds going towards the preservation of heirloom varieties, they offer many rare and interesting seeds, and their prices are very competitive. We have also decided to plant only open pollinated varieties, so that we can try to save seeds for next year. Not only that, but we've also decided to be really brave and try growing things like asparagus, strawberries, and onions all from seed - no crowns or sets here! Oh boy, wish us luck!

In other news, in our search to find entertainment without a cable subscription, we recently discovered a wonderful old sitcom on Netflix, and have been watching it voraciously. It's a British program from the mid 1970s called "The Good Life," (also called Good Neighbors) in which Tom, along with his wife Barbara, decides to quit his corporate job and start a farm in their suburban back yard in an effort to become totally self-sufficient. They till up the lawn, plant lots of veggies, get chickens, pigs and a goat, and build an electric generator that runs on methane, all to the disdain and amusement of their snobby friends and next door neighbors. We recommend it highly!

Stay tuned, as we hope to announce more of our aforementioned projects, both BIG and small, in the coming weeks! For now, please keep your fingers crossed for us! Happy 2009!

Apple Butter - or - Overcoming the Fear of Canning

2008-11-11T10:33:00.007-05:00

On Sunday, feeling domestic and a bit brave, I decided to get out our new freecycled canning pot and make some homemade apple butter from the apples I had bought on a whim the previous day. Now, I've been interested in canning for quite some time, but I've always been a bit hesitant. Knowing the principles of homebrewing, I'm not sure why I continued to fear the process of preserving food, but now having the tools to do so, including the Ball Blue Book, I no longer had any excuse not to just go for it. I peeled and sliced four pounds of apples, and simmered them in a little water until they were nice and soft, then put them in a food processor. To that I added sugar and spices, and let it gently bubble for about four hours until it was just the right consistency. By that point the jars were done sterilizing in the dishwasher and were keeping warm, the lids were simmering in a small pot of water, and the canning pot was starting to reach a boil. The apple butter filled six half-pint jars, which went into the boiling water for ten minutes. When I pulled them out, I heard the reassuring pop pop pop of the lids and I knew everything would be ok :-) The Gardener and I sampled some of what was left in the pot, and it was delicious! One jar we will keep for ourselves and the rest will make some nice Christmas gifts, but five jars is not nearly enough to go around, so I'll be keeping my eye out for another fun recipe to make. Hopefully next year we will have enough of a harvest from our garden that we'll be canning some of our own vegetables. I'm thinking salsa!

Garlic on an Autumn Morning

2008-11-02T18:58:00.007-05:00

Now that it's November, and the risk of scaring off any Halloween vampires has passed, I took advantage of my extra hour (given the fact that I forgot to change the clocks until after I woke up this morning) to finally plant our garlic. If all goes well, we should get about 70 heads of garlic come sometime around July. We ordered two varieties of organically grown garlic - Transylvanian and Romanian Red - however the Transylvanian was back ordered and then replaced with Russian Red Toch. Romanian Red is an heirloom hardneck porcelain variety, which should have large cloves and a strong flavor, and should store very well. Russian Red Toch is a softneck artichoke variety which should have small to medium cloves, a flavor mild enough to enjoy raw, be ready to harvest early, and be able to be stored for 5 to 6 months. My big hope now is that the squirrels don't dig up all the cloves before the ground freezes. You wouldn't think they'd be interested, but they've been eating everything from pumpkins to jalapenos, so I wouldn't put it past them. I've never planted anything this late in the year before, but I have to say that I really enjoyed having one last chance to get outside and put my hands in the cool dirt before winter. Soon enough there will be snow on the ground and we'll be knee deep in seed catalogs planning for next year!

King Potiron

2008-10-29T13:44:00.005-04:00

Pumpkin pie for all! All hail the Pumpkin King!

You may have noticed a distinct lack in progress and news here lately but it was it was not without worthy cause. Two big adventures were under way, the first was a twelve day trip to South Dakota and Wyoming, the second was our 6th Annual Halloween Gala. Both were amazing and a grand time was had by all.

As part of our preparations for Halloween, I picked up this behemoth of a pumpkin at an Amish farm on my way to work. When I say "picked up" I mean lifted with a bit of back strain and the assistance of a particularly tough Amish lady. If Liddy (pictured there) weighs 65 lbs I couldn't guess the weight of that beast. At least a few pies are on the list of things to do before Thanksgiving.

No Farms No Food

2008-10-29T12:25:00.004-04:00

The New York Times recently published an article by Michael Pollan, entitled An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief. In it he gives our future leader a heads-up regarding the current situation in which "the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close." He charges that now is the time to not only address food prices but to reform America's entire food system, and the good news is that the combination of the food and energy crises will actually create a political environment where reform will be possible for the first time in a long time. The three pillars of his vision include resolarizing the American farm, reregionalizing the food system, and rebuilding America's food culture. The best part is that by following his straightforward suggestions we would be able to contribute greatly to solving our problems of energy dependence, climate change, food security, and health care. I urge everyone to read this article, as it is also a good summary of most of his recent publications.

Speaking of reregionalizing our food system, we were recently impressed to notice that one of our neighbors was sporting a new "No Farms, No Food" bumper sticker. You can get yours from the American Farmland Trust. And while you're keeping it local, don't forget to check out Local Harvest to find a farm near you and reserve your heritage turkey for Thanksgiving!

Tiddly Beer Beer Beer

2008-08-17T23:21:00.005-04:00

♫A long time ago, way back in history♫ or more like last weekend, we had a little get together to brew for a friend's birthday. I hastily put together a recipe for a black lager (aka schwarzbier) using a few grains we had laying around. We're still lacking a few pieces of equipment needed to pull off an all-grain recipe so we had to pick up a can of malt extract.

I dub this beer September Black Lager.

Grains:
2 lbs. American Vienna
2 lbs. American 2-row
1 lb. Roasted Barley

Extract:
3.5 lbs. Liquid Amber (Muntons)

Hops:
1 oz. Liberty (60 minute boil)
1 oz. Spaltz (15 minute boil)

Yeast:
Oktoberfest/Märzen Lager Yeast

The main difference between lager and ale is the temperature at which it ferments. While ales ferment at room temperature, the lager yeast we used ferments most comfortably in the 52 to 58 degree range. To keep the lager cool we're using a converted freezer that can maintain higher temperatures (and uses far less electricity) than a standard unit. The bitterness for this recipe may be a little low for the style but we had to substitute Liberty and Spaltz hops for what originally should have been Tettnanger and Hallertau. The shop we get supplies from stocks imported hops and apparently Germany had a bad crop this year. Yet another reason we are making room for hops in our garden this spring.

Check out that bubbling caramel goodness. Only five more weeks until it's ready to bottle!

Learning Valuable Masonry Skills

2008-08-17T22:24:00.007-04:00

We finally started the enormous task of repairing the neglected brick barbecue in the back yard. Our neighbor tells us that one of her family members that lived in our house built it long ago. Since we moved in this brick fireplace has been sort of an ancient ruin hinting at the mid 20th century glory days of our house. It sat somber in the weeds evoking memories of 1960's and 1970's style summer cookouts and outdoor parties with cold beer, charbroiled burgers and hotdogs.

You can see the Gardeness hard at work exercising her background in historic preservation. The plan is to add a cast iron griddle to give us more options as to what can be cooked on the grill. It's not quite finished yet but close enough we can almost taste the burgers.

Spicy Dill Spears

2008-08-10T20:45:00.008-04:00

Last week we found time to make a batch of refrigerator pickles from a few of our cucumbers. It has been a week and they are now fully flavorized. We threw together four pints of deliciousness from cucumbers and fresh dill out of our garden. Along with store bought dried spices, the recipe called for dried hot peppers to give them some bite. We also added some Amish garlic to ward off the evil spirits in these parts.

Now that we have a cucumber plant we've gone through more vinegar in the past two months than the three years we've lived in this house. It's wonderful learning how to prepare simple foods that we take for granted as coming from a jar or can. We hope to step up to an actual canning process for our next batch of cucumbers (not just refrigerator pickles).

The First Harvest

2008-08-04T11:10:00.008-04:00

This past Friday marked the Gaelic/pagan holiday of Lughnasadh. In times past this was a celebration of the beginning of the harvest season. Typically this was a time for bonfires and handfasting weddings. Though nowadays few people celebrate (or are even aware of) the holiday outside of Ireland, we found it pretty fitting to what's happening in our garden.

Our first harvest of the year includes these cucumbers, crook-neck squash and green beans. We're quite pleased with our first attempt at providing for ourselves and look forward to celebrating the continuing harvest season.

Barrels of Monkeys! Oh wait...

2008-08-04T10:37:00.005-04:00

The delivery man loves us. He has to, otherwise why would he leave such wonderful things on our doorstep? Maybe it's because I pay him to, but anyway, this past week he brought us two 50 gallon rain barrels! While not quite as fun as a barrel monkeys, they are infinitely more useful.

These used olive shipping containers have replaced our spray painted 55 gallon plastic corn syrup barrel from ebay. Now, for those of you thinking "Why would anyone want to ship used olives?" unfortunately I can't help you, but for the rest of you asking "What was wrong with the old one?" here's the deal. A few months ago we almost ran it dry between rains, then when the rain did come the barrel quickly filled and gobs of water just poured onto the yard. I then went back to ebay and if you can believe this, there were no corn syrup barrels of the same design to be found. So we broke down and started collecting water in a plastic tote. Let me tell you, a plastic tote full of swampy water and a spray painted plastic drum just don't spiffy up the look of a backyard.

After a bit of research I fell in love with the 1127-B from the lovely people at Eagle Peak Containers. They may not be as eye catching as oak wine barrels but for the price they make a world of difference and they're saving us bundles in water bills.

Chickadee dee dee

2008-07-22T22:33:00.010-04:00

Just picture in your head a little Chickadee flitting about a garden. Cheeping at you every now and then. So lighthearted, so carefree, imagine it drinking from the bird bath. Aww, such a sweet image...

Now let me tell you about the real critters; the angry, violent, highly skilled birds of prey known as the Chickadee. These natural born assassins are an insect's worst nightmare. Black-capped Chickadees can devour up to 1,000 insects a day each, their songs contain a highly sophisticated communication system and they can be hand-tamed (if you don't mind losing a few fingers in the process... I kid).

So naturally when I saw Japanese Beetles chowing down on our sad little strawberry plant I immediately thought "If only I had some hungry little birdies around." Considering neither of us know the song for "Please come eat these evil bugs" in Chickadee, we resorted to another option.

This is where I offer many thanks to the wonderful Shaw Creek Bird Supply site. Using their brilliant plans for building a Black-capped Chickadee Nest Box, we were able to quickly assemble a home fit for royalty (of the Chickadee kind). Somehow we happened to have a 4' section of 1" x 6" laying in the garage and using our handy-dandy saw, brad nailer, drill and Rotozip we produced this:

Oddly enough later the same afternoon we had two black-capped cuties eating at our bird feeder. I don't expect they'll move in right away but a cozy home awaits them. By the way, if you would like to hear more about the cute, innocent, sheltered, narrow view of Chickadees have a listen to this ditty.

Wild Pumpkins!

2008-07-22T21:11:00.007-04:00

After Halloween last year, we threw all of the leftover whole pumpkins into a compost heap that is now the pumpkin patch. We planted a few baking pumpkins this summer, just to be sure we'll have a few pies this fall. Of the five or six pumpkins we threw in last year only two seeds made it, but they came alive with a wicked vengeance.

Not only are they out-doing our other pumpkin plants in every way, but frankly we're having a hard time keeping them contained. I can't wait to hack into the first of these monsters to grab seeds for next year.

The Summer of Sustainability

2008-07-10T12:04:00.006-04:00

We're reaching the height of summer in our garden, and most of our crops are starting to produce signs that we'll at least get some small harvest this year. After having to replant the corn so many times, I'm not sure if we will get anything out of them, especially the sweet corn, but perhaps the field corn will work out since it can stay on the stalk longer. Our green beans are budding, and the squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins, tomatoes, and peppers are blooming. We have one small green tomato, our blueberry bushes have berries that are beginning to turn blue, and the strawberry plants are sporadically putting out one berry at a time. We have some lettuce and spinach coming up, and we just planted some peas. The basil and other herbs are also doing very well. Unfortunately, it appears that the apple tree has a case of powdery mildew, so we are going in search of an organic cure this weekend.

All in all, I think our first foray into vegetable gardening is going pretty well. Next year we'll get an earlier start and hopefully we'll have lots of good compost to amend the soil with. We're planning on growing some winter barley after the crops are done this fall. Once we start harvesting, we'll keep track of how much we get, so that next year we can have a better estimate of how many plants we need to be able to eat plenty of fresh veggies in the summer and also put some by for the winter. We are also in the planning stages of getting a couple of Buff Plymouth Rock chickens in the spring.

To supplement our homegrown veggies and fruits, we're getting all of our produce from the local Amish farms. We're also purchasing organic milk and butter from grass-fed cows from a local company called Natural by Nature, pasture raised angus burger from Dr. Elkins' farm, and free range chickens from Rumbleway Farm. We're weeding out most of the processed foods from our pantry, and doing our best to buy local as much as possible. Our efforts to help support sustainable agriculture may be small, but we are certainly enjoying them!

Heirloom Gardening Tool

2008-07-07T10:07:00.005-04:00

This weekend we were presented with an amazing gift from my uncle; a home-built weeding tool based on one he uses in his flower garden.

It can be used similar to a hoe for uprooting pesky roots but on the edges the blade is sharp as a knife and makes quick work of cutting down sprouting weeds. Not only is the tool extremely functional but it is also made of family history. The handle and blade were made of farming equipment from the Bartels family dairy farm. It's made the rounds in our yard and already sky-rocketed to the top of our must have gardening equipment. Thanks Uncle David!

Massacre in the Corn Patch

2008-06-06T12:21:00.005-04:00

As I turned the corner around the house to take a peek at the garden yesterday evening, I couldn't help but gasp as I saw what had happened to all of the corn sprouts.

Some evil bird had discovered that if he pulled the plant out of the ground he could feast on the yummy corn kernels that the leaves were growing out of, and he proceeded to pull out every last one. Little baby corns lay strewn across the ground, dead, like in some kind of garden horror film. Now we must plant a new patch, but this time we will be prepared to fight back!

Secret Agent Toad

2008-06-05T23:18:00.007-04:00

All alone and trapped by the enemy. No sweat... his ninja like reflexes will save him.

Introducing a our backyard's latest action hero... Golden Eye!

This is the first toad that we've found this year. He was fighting his way out of a tarp we had laying in the yard. We named him Golden Eye for obvious reasons. I think he might be blind in his golden eye but he seems like a feisty little bugger. We'll probably be seeing more of him this summer.

Sprouts!

2008-06-05T12:23:00.007-04:00

We may have gotten a late start to our vegetable gardening this Spring, but the warm days and rainy weather have made our little sprouts happy and they are growing fast.

Our first attempt at a garden is all vegetables and herbs that we hope are simple to grow. At the moment we have planted:

Bartels Family Corn
Provider Snap Beans
Blue Something Snap Beans
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Cucumbers
Dill
Rosemary
Basil
Nasturtiums
Cosmos

The heirloom corn was the first to come up, followed by the cucumbers, yellow crookneck squash, and lastly came the snap beans. The row of Provider snap beans that we planted doesn't look too good at the moment, but not knowing how they're supposed to look, I guess we'll wait and see if they get a second set of leaves before we try replanting them.

Two of the nasturtiums have sprouted at this point, as well as the dill and the cosmos. It's hard to tell what's a crop and what's a weed, since we're such newbies at this point. Next comes the difficult task of choosing which of the little ones must be sacrificed for the good of the group.

We still need to get a second bed ready for planting lettuce, spinach, carrots, and turnips. And of course we thought of some more things we wanted to plant, so we have sweet corn and lima bean seeds coming in the mail, along with some tomato plants. Better late than never, hopefully!

Kaboom

2008-06-05T00:05:00.000-04:00

Let's start this off with a bang, shall we?

Last night, a peaceful laundry folding session was rudely interrupted as the sound of an explosion tore through the house. Well this isn't the kind of noise you expect to hear coming from the next room at 11:00 PM on a Tuesday night... maybe some people would? Maybe we should? Anyways, we bravely crept out into the dining room to see what had broken what.

To our pleasant surprise, we were welcomed to a late night soiree! The loud bang that had us tip-toeing around the corner was to our delight the joyous sound of a cork popping from a delicious bottle of mead that had been sitting on the dinner table. Yes indeed, our homemade Yule mead is now an outgoing sparkling mead, spreading laughter and mini-parties wherever it goes. We of course broke out the glasses and filled them up with frothy goodness. Look closely, it's bubbling!

I'm excited to find out how it matures into the fall and see if it gives up its wild youth for a more refined old age.

Garden news on the way...