• Still love okra flowers!
• Okra, cherry tomatoes & Mexican sour gherkins are growing in the aquaponics system.
• The water in one of our ponds completely evaporated. So, I took advantage of it and troweled out much of the duck sludge. This was literally a crappy job. But, I’m so glad I did it.
• Basil growing next to an herb barrel.
• The ladies are continuing to lay well, so I’ve been making lots of hard boiled eggs.
• Awhile back I ordered hatching eggs. Things didn’t go as I had planned and only one black copper marans hatched. Not that it’s a few weeks old, I noticed it has a few white feathers. Ugh! This was a damned expensive chicken for it not even to be breeding stock.
• Zucchini has been blanched and frozen.
• The tomatoes have been transformed into sauce. One batch has Italian flavor. The other has Mexican.

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Things are in full swing around here. It’s a busy time of year trying to keep up. But, the reward makes it all worth it.

• Years ago, Farm Kid2 requested a flower garden all his own. I ended up putting together one near the chicken coops for him. Rookie mistake. Often our chickens free range and they love that plot of dirt, making it difficult for anything to grow. This year, though, only a couple roosters are free ranging, and we’ve had much better luck with the wildflower seeds we planted in the spring.

• Farm Kid2 collected sage seeds from last years plant that has already bloomed.

• The last couple years a barn swallow couple has built a nest and hatch babies above our porch. This year’s babies are here.

• The middle photo is of the bounty I collected one day. Tomatoes and Mexican sour gherkins from the greenhouse. Raspberries, kale, & squash from the main garden. Flat leaf parsley from the herb pots. Eggs from the hens. And, lavender from a flower bed.

• Stinking Chamomile, or Anthemis cotula, and mint growing in front of the chicken run.

• I put eggs in the incubator for the first time this year. The rooster responsible for fertilizing the eggs is an olive egger. My goal was to produce more olive eggers. But, I ended up adding a few other eggs in as well.

• Snakes are now on my naughty list. I’m not a fan of snakes. But, I can appreciate them and I am thankful they prey on mice. I dislike mice even more than snakes. However, I was unaware that they also prey on goldfish. Ugh! A few months ago, we lost all but one of out ducks. I tried to find a bright side – which was I can have goldfish in our ponds once again. I happily bought more goldfish thinking they wouldn’t quickly turn into duck food. There are a lot of snakes out and about these days. I ignore them. They ignore me. But, one day a particular snake seemed a bit aggressive. It never came after me, his behavior was just different than the other snakes. I didn’t realize at the time that he was fishing and I was disrupting his hunt… until I did realize it because he caught a fish right in front of me. Then hauled it off in to the bushes to devour it. Stinker! Go eat a mouse!

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How does our garden grow? Well, it has come to a complete halt. We haven’t harvested anything for a couple weeks. We didn’t plant a fall garden, so nothing new is coming on.

THE MAIN GARDEN

We moved the spring hatched chicks that are looking to be roosters out to the garden. They have been eating most of what’s left in the garden and also fertilizing the garden rows.

FRUIT TREES

GREENHOUSE & AQUAPONICS

HARVESTING & PRESERVING

Another growing season has come and gone. I’m ok with that. I’m ready for a break. Preparing for next year will be here in just a couple months.

I am so thankful for the good food we grow, but it sure is a lot of work.

The post How Our Garden Grows – October 2014 appeared first on .

THE MAIN GARDEN

OUTSIDE THE GARDEN FENCE

FRUIT TREES

GREENHOUSE & AQUAPONICS

HARVESTING & PRESERVING

I can’t help but be grateful that we can feed our family in this way. It’s a lot of work. It’s definitely time consuming. And, there is nothing quick or easy about it. I’m so glad to not only feed my kids good food, but also to show them everyday where their food comes from. It’s truly a rare treat in this modern world.

The post How Our Garden Grows – September 2014 appeared first on .

The garden has gone crazy, so we spent much of August picking & preserving our garden bounty.

THE MAIN GARDEN

Everything is growing like crazy, weeds and vegetables both.

Many recently hatched birds have been hanging out in the garden.

LEFT TOP & BOTTOM: A variety of squash and pumpkins are growing in the garden.
RIGHT: A first for us: Grapes! The same couple grape plants have been struggling to grow. Deer, elk, and our own dog have stunted their growth year after year. But this year they are growing safely inside the garden fence and they are thriving.

LEFT: Eggplant and its fabulous purple flowers.
RIGHT: I love the marigolds in my herb row! Must plant them again next year.

LEFT: Green Peppers.
RIGHT: Farmer John used the green peppers, as well as other garden goodies to make salsa. Yum!

LEFT: So much mint!
RIGHT: I turned a lot of the mint into simple syrup.

LEFT: Cabbage growing in the garden.
TOP RIGHT: Once picked, some of the cabbage was turned into coleslaw.
BOTTOM RIGHT: I baked rolls and put the coleslaw on a pulled pork sandwich. So good!

OUTSIDE THE GARDEN FENCE

LEFT: Corn. The shortest corn I’ve ever seen. It’s not even as tall as I am.
RIGHT: Short or not, they’re still producing ears of corn. They are just growing very close to the ground and they are quite tasty.

LEFT: Speckled Swan Gourd.
RIGHT: Birdhouse Gourd.

LEFT: Sunlight Pumpkins.
TOP & BOTTOM RIGHT: The chickens love the Sunlight Pumpkins. Boo!

LEFT: I know the chickens like to pick their own tomatoes right off the plant, but this was a first. She came and snagged one right from my bowl.
RIGHT: What was left of my garden harvest after the chicken thief stopped by.

FRUIT TREES

The plums ripened and were delish. However, the deer ate as many as we did.

HARVESTING & PRESERVING

Farmer John canned beets and dilly green beans.

LEFT: I chopped herbs like sage and cilantro in a food processor, drizzling in a little olive oil. I then took the herb/oil mix and froze them to use over the winter.
RIGHT: Most of the basil, though, has been turned into pesto. Then used in dishes such as this.

I tried taking zucchini chunks and transforming them to fruit snacks. They were just so-so, really not that good. They were weird and chewy. We ate them, but I certainly haven’t made them again.

LEFT: I also used the zucchini chunks to make faux pineapple. This turned out far better than the fruit snacks. So far we’ve only used it on pizza, but I can’t wait to try it in a stir fry.
RIGHT: Instead of the same ol’ zucchini bread, I made Pineapple Zucchini Bread. It was a nice change.

August certainly was a productive month in the garden.

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It’s the end of July, which is the typical time our garden really takes off. This year is no different. The plants that started well in May are doing great & many are now being harvested.

THE MAIN GARDEN

OUTSIDE THE GARDEN FENCE

Corn, tomatoes, gourds & pumpkins are growing outside the fence, unprotected from the deer. All seems well so far.

FRUIT TREES

Most of our fruit trees were planted about 5 years ago. They are finally producing a decent amount of fruit. So exciting!

HARVESTING & PRESERVING

It’s a lot of work, but it is so rewarding growing our own produce.

The post How Our Garden Grows – July 2014 appeared first on .

We planted most of our garden throughout May. Some stuff was planted earlier than others, some things were started inside & some were planted right in the garden rows. We planted everything from seed & didn’t buy any starts this year.

It seems like the garden is off to a slow start, but there’s a lot growing. Here’s how the garden is growing so far:

THE MAIN GARDEN

OUTSIDE THE GARDEN FENCE

FRUITS

GREENHOUSE & AQUAPONICS

HARVESTING & PRESERVING

Like I mentioned earlier, we’re off to a slow start in the garden. But, we have managed to harvest a couple things.

So far, so good with this year’s growing season. I can’t wait ’til August when the kitchen will be overflowing with our bounty.

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