Homestead Happenings

 

Welcome back to Homestead Happenings!

Well, it's been a while.

I was having trouble getting pictures to load up

on my laptop, and I'm not sure how I figured out 

a different way, but we'll see how it goes.

I really am trainable!

This lone sunflower has been a major hub of activity

over the last week or so.

Although many, many sunflower seeds were planted,

for some reason this is the only one that showed up.

It could be the drought that we are still experiencing,

but it's just not been the same summer without them.

The Seminole pumpkins are doing well

and started to climb the arched cattle panel.

So far, we have no flowers, but I continue to hope

that we will be able to enjoy this fall treat.

This particular pumpkin stores very well.

Let me know if you'd like some seeds.

The bed where the onions grew is now seeded with

carrots and a few lettuce varieties.

I've grown carrots before, but had decided

that since organic carrots are so affordable at the store,

it's not really worth it to grow your own.

I changed my mind.

The boards and screen cover you see are 

left in place until the seeds germinate.

I learned that on GrowVeg,

one of my favorite YouTube gardening channels.

The secondary reason for the covers is to keep the chooks

from scratching up the seeds.

Let's see what pops up!

Some of the leeks have been harvested,

and these will be cleaned, chopped and put into

the freezer in glass jars.

They will come in handy during soup making season.

There's nothing better than homemade leek soup

on a cold wintry evening.

Having this wire rack out on the front porch worked out well.

Garlic, onions, and now the leeks can dry there

before being put into long term storage.

This corner of the porch stays dry and shaded,

so we'll use this method from now on.

I've been thinking of giving up on growing onions,

because the harvest seems so small and the fruit

does not seem to bulb up as expected.

This is our harvest this year (apart from some

which has been given away), which added up to

seven pounds.

They are fine looking bulbs, and I'm sure they will

taste great, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra bed space.

Leeks have always done better in my garden,

so time will tell if this veg makes it into next year's list.

This is my first ever homemade

elderberry syrup made from the land!

The honey is local (3 doors down),

and the recipe was SO simple!

The best tip was to pick the berries

when they are super dark,

place them in a container and freeze them

until you have enough to make a batch.

Once they are frozen, they are much easier to destem,

and fingers stay clean and dry.

This will be a yearly ritual now,

and there are still berries left on the bushes

for the chooks and the birds.

(I'm secretly thinking I need to make more room for elderberries.)

Another new venture in the kitchen

is this non-dairy ice cream recipe.

It uses water, almond butter, vanilla and maple syrup.

It is incredibly creamy tasting and because it

is so clean, it can be enjoyed anytime,

not just for a special occasion.

I can't wait to try new combinations!

The bread baking continues with my new obsession

of everything fresh-milled flour.

The flavor is amazing and knowing that this bread

is actually nourishing my body motivates me to explore

new recipes regularly.

The book below is one of my go-to sources

for easy to follow, simple recipes.

Our baby chooks are all grown up!

They are free ranging with the rest of the flock,

and will soon graduate into the big run

with the rest of the girls,

although they will continue to stay in their own coop.

In just a few weeks, they should be laying and

allowing us to share eggs with our neighbors and friends.

What a blessing these girls have been.

They actually seem to enjoy being together, share food without fighting,

and move as one unit when they are out foraging.

They could teach our older girls a thing or two 

about getting along.

So grateful to have been able to grow our flock

and that everyone is healthy and active.

It feels good to share on the blog again,

and I'm glad that at least for now,

things are working okay.

I missed writing, and it's important to me

to record my day-to-day garden adventures here.

It's the simple things in life that matter.

~daisy

Homestead Happenings

It's Friday and time to share what's going on 

around our Piedmont Homestead.

Spring has definitely arrived,

and we have color popping up all over!

These purple irises have never looked better.

Something I've wanted for a while now,

is a pulley system for drying clothes.

I had been using a whirly-gig type,

which worked fine,

but as I get older, I am looking to

streamline chores and make things easier on myself.

What a thrill it was to use it for the first time!

What can I say?  I find joy in the everyday.

These lovely blue pots had contained our blueberries.

They had been relocated to this area,

after a disappointing harvest a few years ago.

Unfortunately, the move didn't help.

I decided to again try growing in the ground,

in a different location.

When I pulled up the plants,

none of them had much root development.

No wonder we didn't get any fruit.

Back into the ground they go,

this time right on the outside of the new chicken run.

I placed wire cages around them,

because I noticed Betty eating the flowers off of the stems.

Ugh.

I'm hoping that the fertilizer from the chooks

will aid in healthier plants.

I also added tons of organic material

collected from the recent cleanup of our woods.

The pine needles and leaf mulch should benefit them.

Time will tell.

The strawberries have been replanted

in the round Birdie's bed,

after redesigning the garden layout.

It was promptly fertilized with 10-10-10.

I’ll need to come up with an idea

to keep the squirrels out of this container.

I'm thinking of adding more strawberries to another bed as well.

The potato cages were placed inside this silver metal bed.

This will be a flex-bed, changing out crops as needed.

The other silver bed was placed between the two tall Birdie beds.

The plan is to sow herbs here,

or maybe designate it as a tea garden.

As each bed is moved to its new location,

hardware cloth is added to the bottom,

to deter critters (read squirrels), from digging up from below.

Before the soil is added,

the irrigation needs to be fed up into the side of the bed,

to offer a more efficient watering system.

The bottoms of the taller beds will be filled with

logs, branches, twigs and a layer of shredded leaves

before the soil is added.

We have plenty of wood piles to clean up around the homestead.

This takes up some of the cavernous space in the bed,

and saves on soil costs.

These deep beds are great for root crops,

but the height actually makes it easier for harvesting at waist level.

These two are enjoying their time together.

Betty (left) and Queenie (right) have become best buds.

They spend their days (and nights) together,

and can often be found sitting side-by-side sunbathing.

In fact, I'd say that Betty's balance issues

have become almost non-existent due to Queenie.

Friendship can be a great healer.

And, believe it or not,

she has started laying eggs again.

It's been months since she's offered us anything,

but now she is laying quite regularly.

Just shows you what a little love and understanding will do for a body.

These leeks that were started from seed that a friend shared,

are jumping out of their winter sowing containers.

I've never had such good germination of leeks.

Just look at the root development!

These beauties were transplanted into pots

and left to grow on before placing in beds.

Up ahead-leek soup!

My French momma would be proud.

The front garden is coming along.

I've been working on this over the last year,

adding some much-needed evergreen interest here.

It's still a work in progress,

but I'm feeling very contented with our movement forward.

What a treat to once again have fresh picked flowers

to bring into the house.

No doubt there will be plenty more

throughout the growing season.

I'm not sure why,

but I'm feeling a renewed sense of stewardship 

that I've never really felt before.

Things are coming together in a most

extraordinary way,

and it's such a blessing.

What's happening at your homestead 

on this fine spring day?

Friday Fotos

 

 

 With spring practically knocking on our door,

this will wrap up the Friday Fotos feature for this season.

The colors have been brilliant all around the neighborhood.

 

One plant I want to put on my "it's time to buy" list

is the forsythia.

I've never been too big a fan of yellow in the garden,

but this bush is so striking that I will be on the lookout

for a few to add to the landscape.

Until then, I will have to be content admiring my neighbor's.

 

Queenie

 

This week, we have some good news and some bad news.

I'll start with the bad news (although it could've been worse.)

There was an incident on Wednesday evening while the chooks were ranging.

The neighbors' dogs got out and they headed straight for the chooks.

(These are new neighbors and we kind of agreed to keep the chooks in the run

in the morning so the dogs could be let out,

and vice versa.)

After much mayhem and scrambling,

the chooks got away and the pups were put inside.

I decided to put the chooks back in the run,

as they were fairly freaked out by the episode.

Being a newbie chicken keeper, I didn't think about checking them.

 

When C went to lock the coop up that evening,

he came in to tell me that there was a problem.

When I went to check, the entire inside of the coop

was splattered with blood.

Poor Queenie had been hurt in the commotion.

I cleaned her up as best I could and let her spend the night

by herself on the side of the coop where the nesting boxes rest.

This way, she could hear her friends on the other side of the wall,

but didn't need to worry about being disturbed.

Thankfully, yesterday she seemed fine and I was so relieved

to see her look up at me as I retrieved her from the coop.

It looks like their free-ranging days are over.

We are working on a larger fenced in area,

so that they will be able to forage safely.

 

 

 

On a happier note,

the snap peas are up!

Wouldn't you know that just as soon as I had gone to the store

to purchase fresh seed, I discovered that they had germinated.

Ah well, more seeds for fall planting.

 

The leeks are growing a lot more

since the row covers were removed.

It hasn't hurt that we've had ample rain in the last two weeks.

 

 

I'm not sure how this happened,

but the garlic looks like it's coming up in bunches.

I've never had this happen before,

so I'm not sure if it's me trying to emulate Charles Dowding,

or something funky going on with the cloves.

In any case, there will be plenty of garlic in our future.

 

I can hardly believe this is cabbage that I planted.

It's a first-for-me crop,

and something that I love eating raw,

so if the heads keep growing, it'll be a happy day.

 

 

The parsley is rockin'!

It has been drinking in every drop of rain we've had

and getting ready to host black swallowtail caterpillars

(I hope).

 

The existing blueberry bushes are leafing out,

which is amazing, considering that I wasn't even sure if they were still viable.

I have three bushes that will be transplanted to the new area,

where the three new bushes will be installed this weekend.

I'll be going to pick them up today at our local Extension office,

along with our new asparagus plants.

Soil acidifier was purchased this week,

so that I can add it to the compost mixture and give the blueberries a great start.

 

 

 

 One of the best things to happen this week,

was the germination of eggplant!

There are two varieties seeded,

one a long, Japanese type and the other

the Listada de Gandia variety.

I've grown both before,

and love to pan fry it to perfection.

 

Listada de Gandia eggplant

Isn't it gorgeous?

 

 

The first sweet potato slip of the season popped out

 this past week!

I'm so excited to grow my own slips

and have a windowsill for just that purpose. 

This is so easy to do and is so rewarding to watch.

 

 The gravel project is complete,

and we all love not only the way it looks,

but the sound of the crunching gravel when we walk on it.

Grateful to have finished something on our 2021 project list.

It wasn't easy, but it was very gratifying.

When we renovated the kitchen a year ago,

we decided we'd like to get some stools for the island,

but couldn't find exactly what we both liked.

IKEA saved the day with these bar stools.

They seem to be perfect for the spot and are so comfy!

It makes me love our new kitchen even more.

 

With spring officially just days away,

we'll be starting up with Garden Fridays next week.

Until then,

may the sunshine bless your homestead.
 

Garden Friday

 Welcome back to Garden Friday.

There's a lot of green going on in these parts.

The cool snap we had this week didn't seem to bother a thing.

Here's what we've got growing.

 The lettuce is still tasty, although some is turning bitter,

with the onset of bolting.

There are baby lettuces and newly sown varieties as well,

so I hope to be able to harvest for the next few weeks.

 It's yummalicious time!

Snap peas are consumed fresh off the vine,

so they usually don't even make it into the house.

It's my reward for doing my gardening chores.

 The October beans germinated well and are growing the best

out of all the varieties I have tried.

These were obtained from a local nursery.

 It never ceases to amaze me that we can grow enough food

to feed a family, all starting with just a tiny seed.

 The first nasturtium leaf was sampled this week.

I had known about the flowers being edible,

but recently learned that the leaves can be eaten as well.

I could see adding this to salads.

Nasturtiums are planted as a companion plant

throughout the garden, to help ward off pests.

 The leeks in the hugelkultur bed were planted 

at the same time...

as these in their own container.

The difference in maturation is massive!

Maybe they need their own space

and felt crowded in the big bed.

It might be good to have two different harvest times,

that way we can extend the season of eating.

 Sweet potato slips are doing well in the indoor "greenhouse".

With their planting time approaching,

I think we might just have enough to get a bunch in the ground.

This was the first time I've grown my own slips,

and I will be repeating the practice next year.

It was so easy, and fun to watch besides!

 Our local ACE hardware was giving away free onion sets,

since the season is more or less over.

How can you pass up free?

I grabbed a handful of firm, dry bulbs.

 Another gift I received just yesterday,

was these Indiana cantaloupe seeds from a neighbor.

She said that she used to buy these melons

when she lived up north, and they were the best things she ever tasted.

I'll throw some in a pot and see what we get.

The mailbox bed has been a bit disappointing.

I sowed a mess of flower seeds in it

and only a handful of things have come up.

Guess I'll be scouting the next plant swap or farmers' market

to get some things to fill in.

The flush of the iris blooms is eagerly being awaited.

A fresh coat of paint helped our butterfly marker

brighten right up.

It is placed in the butterfly bed,

which is filling out quite nicely.

gaillardia

It's a stupendous time to be a gardener here in the Piedmont.

With daytime temps in the high 70's and low humidity,

it's a wonder I come into the house at all.

Here's hoping that you are able to enjoy

all Mother Nature has to offer.