It Never Rains but it…Freezes? Independence Days Update Week 5 (Well, Actually 6)
Sharon June 1st, 2009
The frost is on the pumpkin, the hay is in the…ok, only on the tiny pumpkin plants, and the hay is still busy being grass in the fields, but for cripes sake it is June first and we woke up to frost! Now I realize that some of you reading this from warmer places sort of assume that we have frost 12 months of the year here – as Mark Twain said about the same general area, “10 months of winter, 2 months of mighty poor sledding” but normally, June 1 is solidly past our last frost date.
I don’t think I lost much – the frost was very light, and the plants on the edge of the house and in the lower garden by the fence were fine. I managed to cover a lot, and because the garden redesign has pushed me late, there were still a lot of things not planted. So I should be fine, if a little grumpy to have to restart the squash and corn.
What I’m really worried about is the local farms – if the valley and nearby farms had a real freeze last night, the fruit and produce crops will all be late, or limited, which will suck deeply for small farms trying to make a living.
Yesterday afternoon, we got a call from the postmaster in Albany, letting us know that chicks had arrived at his post office – they couldn’t be trucked out to our little local post office until today, but he very kindly gave us a chance to come pick them up yesterday afternoon, which was great – the shorter the time in shipping, the healthier they’ll be – so my big worry last night was keeping the teenies warm on such a cold night. We only have one brooder set up, because, after all, this is June – that’s why we ordered them so late, because we are trying to minimize electric usage. But all were fine this morning, so that’s good.
Kidding watch on Selene has intensified – today is her official “due date” – although that seems to have as much relevance for her as it ever did for me with any of my pregnancies (my non-goat kids came 2 weeks late, 10 days late, 3 weeks early and 9 days early, respectively). She’s showing no signs of immanent delivery, but we’re pretty sure she’s pregnant, not just fat 
, although carrying lightly. I’m just as relieved she didn’t kid last night in the cold. I’m giving a talk in Troy today at the “Eating Locally” monthly meeting tonight, and one of my projects is to make sure that Eric has all the equipment and stuff, just in case. Otherwise, I’ve been designated official midwife, my husband insisting jokingly “I don’t know nothing about birthin’ no babies.” I keep pointing out to him that at least he was watching during our deliveries – me, I was kind of distracted, for some reason .
Ok, on to the update:
1. Plant something: Many tomatoes (many of which are now dead), basil (ibid), carrots (will be fine), seaberries, raspberries, blueberries, sweet cherries, ginko trees, valerian, meadowsweet, bearberry, wintergreen, lungwort, periwinkle, hip roses, red currants, poppies (breadseed), broccoli, asparagus, beets, kale, chard, cabbage, onions, bunching onions, more peas, more favas, dry corn, sweet corn, green beans, dry beans, goji berry, forsythia, rhubarb, good king henry, sea kale, malinga, zucchini, summer squash, chard.
2. Harvest something: Sorrel, lettuce, scallions, bok choy, the first peas, johnny jump up blossoms, plantain, dandelion, nettles, chives, rhubarb, asparagus.
3. Preserve something: Made aspargus pickles, rhubarb sauce.
4. Reduced Waste: Not too much unusual, although despite all the guests we had last weekend, we managed not to throw any leftovers out, which was good, since we were cooking more or less nonstop – feeding guests is just different than feeding ourselves – no “yeah, they can just eat the…” to it. My estimate is that last week we had guests for 16 of 21 meals, so just not feeding good stuff to the chickens is pretty good for us .
5. Preparation and storage: Got some cheap organic whole wheat pasta and added that to storage. Ordered sugar for summer canning. Got my plans for the manual well pump in the mail – traded books for them.
6. Built community food systems – attended local Permaculture Guild first meeting. began mulling over a small-livestock workshop for urban and suburban residents, am giving a talk at the Local Food group tonight, gave away two copies of _A Nation of Farmers_ to a sustainable food fundraiser. did some radio interviews for ANOF, put in a neighbor’s salad garden.
7. Eat the food – we had asparagus-sesame noodles for a picnic, which was good, and is a new rotation. Lots of asian style soups with nettles and tofu – I’ve finally managed to make a fairly firm tofu at home.
Ok, must go inspect the frost damage. Bleah!
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
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Plant something: Chinese Long White Bitter Melon, Birdhouse Gourd, Tom Watson Watermelon, Congo Watermelon, Honey Drip Sorghum, Loves-Lies-Bleeding-Red Amaranth, Echinacea, Luffa Gourd, Chinese Red Noodle Bean, Tomatillos – both green and purple, Lemon Balm, Purple Hull Pinkeye Cowpea, and Rosemary
Harvest something: Chard. Everything else is still small.
Preserve something: Candied citrus peels, froze solar-cooked sweet corn
Reduce waste: Composting all paper waste. Checked food reserves and corrected inventory, unfortunately discovering the rolled oats went bad. Composted them and caught the mice in the compost pile. Reorganized freezer.
Preparation and Storage: Learned how to make soap, both solid and liquid. Hubby finished building window bench for dog, which doubles as storage. Reorganized storage of material, quilts, and canning supplies in house.
Build Community Food Systems: Organized trip for CSA members to goat ranch to get manure for gardens. Only five people signed up (less than 2% of the members!) and only two actually showed up. I picked up manure for 3 people by special request. (Photos of goat kids on my blog.) Finalized menu for solar cooking demo in a couple weeks. Solar-cooking and freezing or canning food for it already to be sure to have enough.
Eat the Food: Made a mostly local pizza last night with stored CSA wheat, topped with fake mozzarella cheese and mostly CSA veggies (yellow & red tomatoes, grilled eggplant, garlic, onion, fresh basil, and store-bought mushrooms). Rotated stored wheat and used some to make stuffed braided bread from scratch.
Still a little limited after hand surgery. No two-handed garden work yet. None the less, here’s our update for the IDC for this week:
Plant Something:
Planted eggplant, squash, and cucumber seedlings and direct seeded some sunflowers and nasturtiums
Harvest Something:
Picked the first few strawberries and a little lettuce and oregano.
Preserve Something:
Put up some oregano for drying, froze some rhubarb from the local farm.
Reduce Waste:
Attended a lecture regarding the local watershed, water conservation and restoration of the local river. Attended a river blessing for the Concord River.
Preparation and Storage:
Purchased some bulk dehydrated black beans and whole wheat biscuit mix both organic from maryjanesfarm.com for food storage.
Build Community Food Systems:
Shared four bean salad and home baked banana bread at a luncheon before the River blessing. Bought fresh eggs, greens and rhubarb from the local farm.
Eat the Food:
Baked rhubarb coffee cake and muffins, some to eat now, some to share and some to freeze for a rainy day, baked banana bread with whole wheat flower, local honey and lots of old bananas to share at a luncheon and freeze for later. Made from storage, more four bean salad and some delicious spaghetti sauce with dried mushrooms and fresh herbs from the garden.
Hope you’re having a good week!
Harvest something: wild nettles and STRAWBERRIES from the CSA farm! Our first pickup isn’t for another week, but we got to go in early and pick strawberries because they ripened early! Last year I was actually a bit disappointed with the strawberries, but this year they’re amazing.
Preserve something: dried nettles
Storage: picked up some on-sale vitamins…if I crush those calcium supplement tablets and bake them into things, will that keep the calcium digestible? They’re just too chalky to eat as-is.
Community food systems: gave a new fellow CSA-shareholder some advice on pickups. Signed up to help with dialog about the economy through the local interfaith organization. Was going to bring canned food to the food pantry drop box, but forgot. Next time.
Eat the Food: Used up some dried veggies in soup
Reduce Waste: Does taking home leftover food after services count? I have a *lot* of crackers now. And some of them are the delicious kind with the black pepper and poppyseeds in them…
We got away with temps that just dipped below 50. I covered the tomatoes and peppers anyway, fussbudget that I am.
Planted: chard, more beets, red cabbage, several perennial herb seedlings, transplanted onions, shallots and leeks, started okra and more kale in containers.
Harvest: Still mostly lettuce and herbs, plus eggs from the girls.
Preserved: zilch
Reduce waste: Still feeding lots of weeds to the chickens, and saving metal cans for self-watering containers for non-hardy fruit trees (next spring’s project). Recycled a bunch of cardboard. And next…
Prep/store: We built a rocket stove this weekend! It’s my birthday present for this year, and we built it almost entirely from scrounged and scavenged materials. It’s brick (thus permanent and fixed) so we’re still waiting for the mortar to set before firing it up. I can’t wait! Now we have an efficient, all-weather, sustainable cooking method, and a minimum way to keep warm if/when tshtf. We’ll have fuel enough to run it just from the twigs dropped by our five mature trees.
I also stocked up on organic butter when I spotted a good sale.
Community: Took three large heads of lettuce and some herbs from the garden to the food bank, and got one friend to do the same.
Eat the food: figured out how to use dehydrated pumpkin in pasta, along with fresh sage out of the garden: Yum! Working our way slowly through last year’s canned tomato sauce.
Mostly planted:
more peas, bean, lettuce, potatoes, spinich plus beats and carrots.
Netted the strawberries
made and deliverd meals for 1 in crisis household for 3 days plus dinner for my cross the street neighbors (that the community food thing, you know)
asked the housecarpenter down the street to see about getting real stairs into the attic — which is doable.
Considering the pros and cons of getting a home improvement loan when everyone else is paying off debt like mad.
that’s all , folks.
Plant: Potted on seedlings– california bell pepper, italian red sweet pepper, spicy globe basil; transplanted starts– from farmer’s market, peppermint; commercial, okra, Empress of India nasturium; transplanted volunteer “big leaf” shiso to better places; pricked out lettuce seedlings and filled gaps
Harvest: Red chard, kale, egyptian and bunching onion greens, parsley
Preserve: Dried white clover heads; dehydrated strawberries
Prep/Store: Continued to clean up fence beds; finished cleaning up herb/butterfly bed; started cleaning up large containers for planting; continue to transition seedlings from inside to outside; researched various plants
Waste Not: Talked about maintaining compost heaps with my assistant; worked on cleaning out refrigerator
Community: Talked gardening with my assistant and gave her a tour of my garden; Shopped only the farmer’s market for food this week
Eat: Made rhubarb sauce; used cilantro roots for the first time in a stir fry (my partner who is not as crazy as I am about leaf cilantro like this); a lot of homemade tarragon-mustard salad dressing; lasagna with everything from storage, farmer’s market or garden
Plant: bee balm, tarragon, peppers, tomatoes, beets, onions, marigolds
Harvest: squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary
Preserve: zip
Waste Not: still working on potty training the 2 y/o; convinced dh to start peeing in the garden; normal recycling stuff
Prep/Storage: more sugar (for preserving) & coffee
Community Food Systems: gave excess produce to struggling neighbors; worked out a plan to process/store meat from deer & hogs that are ransacking neighborhood gardens — if/when we can “harvest” them
Eat the Food: squash, peppers, onions, herbs from garden; kale from mom’s garden; successfully made fried rice from leftovers; made pasta salads from storage/garden
Having a tough time with all the other commitments…
plant : put 7 tomato plants into the garden
harvest – nothing yet ready
preserve – nothing
waste not – regular weekly recycle – sorted kids clothes for donation
Prep & Storgae – got a great deal on canned diced tomatos at the store – stocked up just in case. Used coupons and stocked up on batteries that were on sale.
CSF – helped my kids make a list of sale items to look for for the town food pantry, shopped the new health food store in town
Eat the Food – ate from the leftovers all weekend…
Oh, Sharon, you do know that before pregancy was mirco-managed, due date translated to anything a fortnight on either side of this date, don’t you?
Planted: Corn! Beans!
Harvested: late asparagus, lettuce, lambs’ quarters
Surprised: Purslane coming up! (Good news)
Made: Sauerkraut and tried it last night; it’s not bad
Vinegar started
Piles of bread, which everyone says that they like.
Not independent yet but trying
Here is my update for the week.
Highlight: Making a decision to register for a year long herbal apprenticeship and having my first day!
I’ll have my update up on my site later but my big news is I lost an entire tower of potatoes!!! I dumped it out today after realizing the plants were all dead and the soil is FILLED with ants, grubs, and I don’t know what all else, and not a single potato other than the slimy mess at the bottom that used to be the starts. I wish I knew what happened!!
Sorry to hear about the demoralizing frost up north. Glad you didn’t lose too much, Sharon, especially since you’ve obviously been planting like a madwoman. That’s quite a list, on top of the one from the last round.
Plant: raspberry, grape, kiwi, zucchini, beans, vincas, watermelon
Harvest: squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, herbs
Preserve: nothing yet, since I’ve stopped using my freezer for preserving and am working it down, and I just got my canning equipment and am pondering where to store not only the equipment but the rows of jars I plan to fill this summer.
Waste Not: instead of pitching a bunch of medium sized nursery plant pots from last summer, am recycling some of the dirt into composting and the grow boxes, and plan to re-use the pots for propagating various fruit plants and shrubs – once I figure out how to do that
Prep/Storage: coffee, canned greens and carrots and sweet potatoes, dried fruit, seltzer water
Community Food Systems: bought tools and supplies from our small town hardware guy instead of driving to the next town to buy them at Home Depot. Talked to the guy about gardening, encouraged his plans to expand his garden next season from the current few tomato plants, learned from him about local fruit trees that work and that don’t in this climate. Bought eggs from a local backyard homesteader.
Eat the Food: in summer mode now, putting garden peppers, tomatoes, etc. in anything and everything every day, including “tomato and whatever else there is” salad for lunch most days. Threw a few okra pods that needed to be used up into a big pot of green beans and onions. Didn’t like the slimy-ness that resulted, but hubby didn’t notice, oddly enough, and he hates okra except in gumbo and is big on texture-pickiness. Leftover green beans tonight. Wonder if I just rinse them a bit…
Heron – on dealing with mucilaginous okra… Water exacerbates the sliminess. I think that’s why deep frying okra dredged in cornmeal became a popular way to prepare them. I don’t fry food so I’ve two other ways to deal with okra that minimize the slime. The first is to harvest them when small and just eat them raw. They’re tasty and not too slimy that way. The second way is to slice them and saute with onions and other vegetables, then add stock, and finally couscous at the end. The couscous absorbs the sliminess so that it is not noticeable at all. Even my hubby will eat them that way.
My week’s update—such as it is—is here
http://kirbanita.typepad.com/take_joy/2009/06/independence-days-5.html
It was a disjointed week, so not much was accomplished (other than a clean chicken house).
Plant something: pak choy, collards, new snow pea plant, baked bread, made yogurt.
Harvest something: home grown mushrooms!
Preserve Something: Learned how to bottle chutney (water process)
Prep & Storage: Bought books with b’day money: Homegrown Evolution, Joy of Cooking, ordered Nation of Farmers & pre-ordered Independence Day. Found Edible Landscaping & Radical Sustainability 2nd hand from Amazon. Bought pomegranate molasses & raspberry juice cordial (on sale). Walnuts, tofu, mountain bread & raisins for stockpile. Ordered mini-greenhouse.
Reduce Waste: Usual bokashi plus – compost dead snowpea vines, sprout avo pips, organised cardboard tubes for seedlings. Rehoused pots & strawberry plants from a friend who can’t keep them.
Build Food Systems: enrolled for local intro to permaculture course.
Eat the Food: mushies, sprouts, greens, yogurt, bread
5/30/09: Yard sale season is going here big-time!
Planted: n/a
Harvested: weekly organic csa veggie box and flowers, a friend brought me 2 huge bags of her meyer lemons
Preserved: limoncello: mixed orange peel sugar syrup with vodka soaked peels and strained into bottles for us and gifts
Reduced Waste: community composting/recycling; non-recyclable plastic/metal waste to Depot for Creative Reuse; saved several jars and bottles for reuse. Donated videos, clothes, books, mixed nails. Received hand-me-down clothes and shoes for both dds.
Preparation and Storage: 10 votive candles (yard sale)
Build Community Food Systems: researching recipes for Preserved Lemons to swap 6/7 for marmalade (salt only and salt and spices); noted and emailed locations of loquat trees to Forage Oakland
Eat the Food: roasted csa veggies; spaghetti sauce from frozen roasted mushrooms and ground beef, storage pasta, tomato sauce, popcorn, oil, oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts, coconut milk, chocolate chips
LisaH
Whew! What a busy two weeks we’ve had.
Plant Something:
42 tomato plants (12 different varieties)
carrots under burlap
16 cabbages under floating row cover
60 green bell peppers
1 green zucchini
1 yellow zucchini
1 row leaf lettuce
1 row of English cucumbers
‘Beurre De Roquencourt’ bush beans
Set up and planted our herb bed – post coming on this at the blog…
Harvest Something:
Rhubarb
Mint
Trimmed the onion transplants and ate the trimmings
Camomile flowers
Basil
Preserve Something:
Dried the camomile flowers for tea
Dried the leftover mint and basil
Reduced Waste:
Used moldy hay to mulch new garden section
Used lots of cardboard under the hay
Kept the baler twine and am using it instead of bought string for marking garden rows
Build Community Food Systems:
Dh and children very busy putting in the market garden
Eat the Food:
Local Bought- wheat, eggs, beef, honey, asparagus
Home Preserved – pickles, green beans,
Pantry Storage – lots as I’m starting to just buy things on sale and really stock up so a lot we eat from storage instead of buying as we need it.
Fresh from garden – rhubarb, herbs
Try Something New:
I took a good look at what we use as dried herbs for cooking and for teas, many of these could be grown in our garden. So our something new is putting in the herb bed in the garden and stocking it with herbs that I want to dry. This is a step towards independence from the industrial farming machine.
So far I’ve planted: basil, sage, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives, tarragon, mint, lemon balm, and camomile. I’m going to add dill and cat mint this week.
Plant something – garlic (which was attempting to plant itself in the seed drawer, so fairly urgent to get it in the soil!), seedlings of celery and spinach from BB’s colleague, broad beans (aquadulce, early long pod, crimson), dwarf lemon tree, blueberries.
Harvest something – oregano leaves (the herbs have had long enough to get over their transplant shock) for pizza sauce.
Preserve something – rhubarb jam, apple marmalade. Have decided I’m a big fan of jam recipes that call for sutting bits up and letting them sit (which I’m interpreting as overnight) then cooking off the next day – works a lot better around fulltime jobs.
Prep and Storage – began testing house capacity (four extra people work fine if some BYO bedding). Stocked up on chickpeas, rice, olive oil, potatoes. Prepared 3 temporary garden beds (BB did most of the heavy work, my mattock technique is only slowly improving) and hacked down more of the jungle.
Reduce waste – not so brilliant (see extra people). Saved wrapping paper from birthday presents?
Community Food Systems – went to the fortnightly farmers market in our suburb. It’s not as large as the one in the nearby town, but given it is walkable and has a basic range of vege, meat and plants we will try to alternate markets.
Eat the Food – yes and no. Visitors meant some eating out, but also managed some curries, homemade pizza, risotto, soups and a stand out birthday meal of duck breast with pickled cherries and a chocolate and pear tart.
This is our week 6 update. It is not the most lengthy of updates, as I was sick for most of last week and we were out of town attending a funeral for the weekend.
Planted something—we planted a few more bush beans, filled in a few filet pole beans, and planted some okra where others did not bloom.
Harvest something—beet greens, red and green spring onions, lettuce, spinach, gobs and gobs of wonderful peas, various herbs, flowers for arranging, and bamboo for stakes.
Preserve something—chopped green onions and blanched spinach (both for the freezer)
Reduced waste—we continue to recycle at home and help with the church, we use our rain barrel and compost. We used bamboo that had some weather damage for stakes and a project for the church rather than mulching. We brought veggies from our CSA to have for relatives when traveling instead of letting them waste in the fridge at home.
Prep and storage—we added a few more cans of food to the stockpile. My husband completed the stool from silver maple, and it looks beautiful. We thinned a few plants in the garden and added the next tier to the potato boxes.
Build the community food systems—I led a coupon workshop before we left for the funeral on Saturday. The workshop participants were very patient with me, as I taught them how to stockpile and donate extra goods to charity by using money saving tools all while talking with a raspy voice from my cold. I bought a few items for the food pantry at our church, which I help to manage. I made up some food boxes for the hungry and organized the pantry there. I worked with a friend to plan the food for vacation Bible school which takes place this week. We gave a large box of blood glucose meters to a local birthing center.
Eat the food—I made an Asian inspired soup with bok choy, garlic scapes, carrots, spinach, noodles and chicken broth. It was a perfect tonic for my cold. We brought a salad to the reception after the funeral, and it made my heart warm to hear them talking about how it was nice to have something fresh. We brought some fresh radishes on our trip, and it was so cute watching my dad enjoy them more than he has ever any dessert.
Hello,
Here’s my update:
http://cauldronridge.blogspot.com/2009/05/independence-day-challenge-week-5_31.html
It seems whenever I start to lose my oomph for the Independence Days something comes about to remind me why it is important to *be prepared*. Between my personal life and the public, there is much to be pondered. There is the fact my husband has had to work away for most of the year; the job opportunities put on a ‘freeze’; to GM and, as you so aptly pointed out, tax money is going to those entities and not real people; and the threat of bombs; lost retirement and disease all of which brings new perspective to why this is so important.
My update: http://smallvictoriesgreen.wetpaint.com/page/June+01+09
We had cold rain with hail on the weekend! In a lull I went out to put row cover on the tomatoes and their basil sidekicks. Everything else is either cold-hardy or still being coddled in the greenhouse or cold frame.
LisaH – I’ve been happy with the preserved lemons recipe from the Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving. Email me if you’d like the recipe (can’t post it due to copyright). The only ingredients are lemons, salt, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Oh, wait, never mind. You said you need them by 6/7. These take two weeks.
planted: tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, peanuts, black-eyed peas, okra, basil, marigolds, dill, sweet potatoes
harvested: mustard greens, lettuce, dill, radishes, kale, collard, spring onions
preserved: kombucha
reduced waste: harvest and use rainwater
prep and storage: digging new beds, put powdered milk in jars and stored in plastic bin, candles from thrift store
community food systems: talking and encourage gardening. sharing csa.
eat the food: spring rolls made with CSA chinese cabbage, sesame seed, grated radish, tofu, and rice wrappers. dry roasted in cast iron frying pan on stovetop – rolled oats, sunflower seeds, sesame (from storage) and added raisons and yogurt – homemade muesli.
Plant something:
too late for that
Harvest something:
lettuce, chard
Preserve something:
not this week
Reduce waste:
froze 2 dozen eggs (the chickens got ahead of us)
Prep and storage:
added to store of OTC meds
split and put up more wood downed by ice storm last Feb.
Community:
found out days and locations of local farmers’markets and resolved to visit them
Eat the food:
Chard, lettuce, lots of eggs, older canned fruit
Plant something: carrots, peas, pole beans, blue flax, xplant black zucchini, butternut squash, Anna Hubbard squash, purple cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potatoes, heirloom tomatoes & peppers, turnip top from fridge, blue flax.
Harvest something: lettuce (from neighbor), raspberry leaves, strawberry leaves, anise hyssop leaves, chive flowers, sorrel clover, chard, mint, basil, shepherd’s purse, arugula, lamb’s quarters.
Preserve something: dried raspberry, strawberry, anise hyssop leaves, chive flowers. Five batches of jam, clearing the berries out of the freezer from last year.
Eat something: eating up all the veggies from the freezer that didn’t get eaten over the winter, ate everything we harvested (except what was dried) in salads. Boy, was some of it bitter! Odd but generally tasty salads.
Reduce waste: no rain in May! Have started saving rinse water from the kitchen in the rain barrel, and the boys help water the garden from their wading pool. Freecycling. Grabbed an old exercycle by the side of the alley to convert to an electric generator. Supposed to work with a solar type battery.
Prep & storage: Reorganized pantry, had food left over from May’s storage so June’s will be adjusted. Cleaning out basement to make storage neater.
Community: discussed planting fruit & nut trees on the boulevard with neighbors, mentioned making my front yard into a community rhubarb patch (not enough sun, unfortunately), traded jam for lettuce, finished organizing June’s summer camp for neighborhood kids. Whew! Invited a homeschooling friend to join us for Juneberry picking on campus when they’re ripe. Sharing starts & slips & seeds with two other homeschooling friends. CSA will start delivering next week, we’re sharing with someone new in our babysitting co-op (another community effort).
2 week report. Some details at my link and at Flickr…
1. Plant something – more tomatoes, eggplants, winter squash, lettuce, cukes, corn, pumpkins, stevia, runner beans, bush beans.
2. Harvest something – Elephant garlic, onions, kale, chard, broccoli, leeks, dandelions, strawberries, comfrey, chicken eggs, duck eggs, radishes, broadbeans, PEAS.
3. Preserve something – dried comrey, tored it. Dried peppermint; stored it; drying marjoram.
4. Reduce waste – Moved all the compost one heap on. Started new “heap” in the compost drum. Still bringing home cardboard, newspapers, bottles, and bubble pack every day, for use in projects. Made black water bottles for heat sinks in the garden. Carrying duck-pond water to the orchard trees. WEEDING LIKE CRAZY.
5. Preparation and Storage – Cooked up and froze leftover picnic chicken. Rebuilt a section of bedroom wall, taking the opportunity to beef up the insulation there.
6. Build Community Food Systems – Beloved continues Master Gardening at Extension Service. I’ve volunteered to help out at a Sustainability Conference down the road. These same people do a huge Herbal Conference every year and people come from all over the world to it — great neighbors to have.
7. Eat the Food – From dried: basil. From storage: rolled wheat, oats, spelt flour, rye, buckwheat, brewer’s yeast, sunflowers, flaxseed. Pear sauce, duck eggs, chicken eggs. From garden: elephant garlic, onions, kale, chard, leeks, dandelions, fava beans, radishes. Strawberries! Peas!
We actually didn’t frost this time(yay)- did twice though just the other day- I had covered up- I own massive quantities of row cover- just for times like these.
I am very behind in planting this season- but the weather has been tough- am putting all the tomatoes and eggplant in the greenhouse tomorrow- they grow in there all summer so I can harvest a crop before fall!
Have planted the potatoes, onions, summer and winter squash, melons, cukes, beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, corn and new strawberry plants for next year. For home use(non-farm) I’ve put in some greens as well.
Friends gave me a cold-frame this past fall and I planted it to kale, chard and spinach- I had really early greens in there this spring- and they are still going strong- that was lovely- I will improve on that this year.
I also over-wintered leeks in the ground- inadvertently- the ground froze and that was that- they made it just fine…….
I’ve harvested asparagus for home-use and chives of course. Everything else is still a ways away…..
Planted: thyme, echinacea, jalapeños, habaneros, groundnut (Apios americana)
Harvested: asparagus, lettuce, violets, sage, oregano, comfrey, dock, nettle, bee balm
Preserved: dried dock, nettle, bee balm
Reduced Waste: nothing new, still composting, reusing, repurposing
Prepared and Stored: Added iodine to pantry supply, ordered 3 months’ supply of medications, looking into water filtration systems, wind and solar battery chargers for alternate well pump energy supply
Build Community Food System: Working with fellow land trust member on craft for a town festival that teaches how to plant seeds and plan a garden and make plant labels from sticks
Eat the Food: Salad! Asparagus! We have been noshing on violet leaves for sore throats. We have begun rotating the food through the pantry system now, and my beloved with completely with me on the pantry project!
If your doe is pregnant,you would definitely be able to feel them moving at this point.I can always feel them at just about three months.Just hold your hands on her right flank,down low by her belly.Doing this while they eat their grain is easier.I keep a small herd of dairy goats and have for about ten years.If you ever have any questions,please feel free to ask me.
Planted: sage, lavender, alyssum, stock, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillo,lemon cucumbers, pickling cumbers, basil, dill, alyssum, chickweed, buckwheat, calendula, california poppies, sunflowers and bachelors buttons.. Also oregano, lemon thyme and peppermint salvaged from various places they had escaped to or no longer belonged; they were divided into more pieces and set in new locations.
Harvested: savory, overwintered celery, peppermint, dandelions, lovage, thyme, spearmint, lemon balm, lettuce and baby spinach from the generous neighbors. CSA vegetables, bought some local strawberries.
Preserve something: Hung up the mint and lemon balm to dry. Used the peppermint in an herbal digestive syrup, also started a peppermint tincture and a dandelion tincture. Made rose water, rose vinegar.
Reduce waste: Decided, sadly, I must give up the freezer to reduce our electricity use. An old upright that was old when we were given it 15 years ago, and lives in the uninsulated garage. So the summer’s project is to use up all the food in it and give it away.
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Prep/store, etc: Managed a minute here and five minutes there of weeding the strawberries and peas.
Eat the food: Defrosted and ate some of the frozen pesto and strawberries from last summer (not together). Slowly but steadily eating the overwintered leeks occupying a large section of the refrigerator. Pizza and calzone with greens from CSA and homemade tomato sauce from pantry, green salads with vegetables from CSA. Also rhubarb conserve and various jams from last year and beyond, some of which get tucked into coffee cakes, muffins or scones. Having spent several years making too much jam, I’m on a mission to get it used up, and vowing to produce only reasonable quantities from now on. Friends are rolling their eyes and saying “yeah, right.”
Build Community Food Systems:
Our Slow Food group sponsored a talk on winter gardening at the public library May 30; well attended.
Took some apothecary’s rose starts to a friend (she plans to eat the hips, so I’m counting this as a food thing), along with a pot of spearmint. Gave her the recipes for the digestive syrup and an herbal red wine cough syrup. She promised me an arnica start; I promised her a start of the comfrey running rampant in the back yard.
Had a meeting with the Slow Food group, going over our planned summer events (mostly talks at the library on issues such as winter gardening, permaculture, keeping chickens, preserving,. ect., plus possibly a potluck here and there). Shared CSA vegetables with a friend. Introduced a friend to lovage; also gave her some of the celery.
the lettuce and baby spinach were from the generous neighbors.
Generous neighbors are a treasure.
Plant something: first I had to weed and prepare the beds for the next planting. Spent several days weeding out 4 foot tall Jerusalem artichoke stalks (memo to myself: no more J chokes in the veggie garden after this, only in a patch of their own) from two of the beds, and quackgrass roots from another. Finally began the next set of plantings – so, far, Arkansas Traveler tomatoes and a frying-type sweet pepper.
Harvest something: strawberries, lettuce, kale, collards, the first few raspberries and serviceberries, nasturtium flowers, green onions (green and purple ones!)
Preserve something: stripped the dried leaves from the spearmint stems. Started drying some anise hyssop. The DH worked some more on the solar food dehydrator he’s building.
Reduce waste: made a new compost pile from the J choke stalks and other garden weeds and last year’s leaves. Consolidated two other compost piles in the hope that they will do better together, in the process moving a rabbit nest in one pile to underneath a white pine (the babies survived). Started forming another new pile from the quackgrassed bed’s weeds. Brought home brown paper for use as mulch liner. The DH found and brought home a manually-cranked “newspaper shredder” from the stuff in his dad’s garage – just what I wanted for shredding paper for the worm bed and for composting. Took unwanted electronics to local nonprofit group that refurbishes what they can and properly recycles/disposes of what they can’t, and took hazardous waste to county-wide collection event for proper disposal.
Prep/storage: ordered more rice and tea to replenish lowered supply, and made sure we have enough of everything else on hand.
Community food systems: wrote the next article in a year-long series titled Veggie Growing: A Month-by-Month Guide for our Zen Center’s newsletter. This installment covers June and July.
Eat the food: all of what we harvested
No pregnant goats or any chicks here. My challenge update is posted on my blog
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