FINALLY BACK ON! LOL

Things have been nuts around here...seems I can't get any down time to write on this and I have missed it. :) We have finally started getting eggs....they are not producing a lot...but its getting darker soon and staying dark longer and they just started out so we are looking into a solar light for them since we do not have electric up there and the darkness makes them sleep more and lay less. We also got 3 piglets. 2 females and a male. We at first just let them run together and then Hamlet (the male) started to mount the girls (Petunia & Miss Piggy) and so we had to separate them. We built 3 pens in the pig barn. One for the boar, one for the sow and the finishing pigs (ones we eat) and the last smallest one for farrowing (giving birth). We can start breeding in September of 2012. We are only breeding the one female...the other is for meat for us and we shall be butchering near the end of summer...around the same time we breed the other female. Their gestation period is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days long and their first litter will be smaller like maybe 8-10 piglets....but after that they can have up to 22 piglets at a time and can have 2 litters a year! So we are looking at possibly 44 piglets a year! LOL Now there is no way we could eat that many and we are keeping 2-3 per litter for our family of soon to be 7 alone and then selling the rest off to help with the cost of their grain. They eat quite a bit.....we have left overs for them...like peanut butter crusts, celery tops, soggy cereal, and so on for them.....which gets to be about a mixing bowl full 2 times a day and a scoop of grain per pig per feeding time. We have also made waterers that remind of a guinea pig waterer and they love it! It makes my life easier because I only have to fill their water once every 3 days. In winter...well that will be different since the water will freeze. We have also decided to get a Rooster for the chickens and do meat birds that way since the Cornish X Rock Broilers were too big of a pain in the butt. They taste good.....but more work then it was worth. We have found a farm that is selling us calves for the Spring.....we just need to get their fence and barn up yet.....we have time so no rush. We are getting Holsteins a male and 2 females and a steer Angus for us to use as the meat cow while we wait on the others. We plan to have the male breed with 2 females so we can get milk from both and after birthing and use one of the calves as a steer and sell the other to make up some cost. That will be like 3 years from now...but baby steps. We choose to go this route so our kids and the animals would get used to each other and be as gentle as possible....having a herd of kids and mean animals don't mix. As far as the garden went since August....well it sucked. We had so many problems that we got almost nothing usable out of it. Everything rotted and over ripened and it was a mess :( So I am currently planning on next seasons garden and we are expanding again....I am hoping we get to expand as far as I would like....but we shall see....can't push my husband too far! HA HA HA He has enough to deal with ....our house has had 3 major renovations in the past month and not by choice. Roof, water heater/new heater and dining room ceiling (because of the water heater). Anyways back to gardening. I have purchased most of the seeds and started to clean out a part in our basement which will be where we have the seed room. We have been saving yogurt and peanut butter jars etc. for seeds to transplant and prolong our season and my window sills just won't hold the amount we need. If all goes as I have dreamed we need over a 1,000 containers and I think we are only at like 350. So we shall see. My sowing starts in January since we have decided to add celery and leeks to our little farm and if all goes well I should be digging up our last crops in mid November. If we have weather like this past year I have no idea what we are going to do, cry?? HA HA HA We are still going to be doing succession planting and companion planting to make use of the little space we do have and we are adding in more vertical stuff. Like we are adding potato boxes this next season. If it goes right we are supposed to get about 100lbs of potatoes from this method and only use a 4'x4' area....well we are doing like 5 or 6 of these...but you get the idea. We will be trying to do the upside down tomatoes again since I think I know what we did wrong....just hoping to get more containers. I have also just bought and planted (well I didn't plant them my mom and her boyfriend did) 4 new trees. 2 more apple, a pear and a peach. They also added in 4 grape vines and 2 blackberry bushes. So we are going on with the fruit area as well....was hoping to get more blueberry bushes, but I will take what I can get :) We have also decided to skip the raised beds this season, since our beds were getting too big and it was just too big of a hassle. We are also using a make shift greenhouse....I am using an old outside table under my tent thing we use during the summer for shade without the top, just the frame and plastic from the hardware store....still wondering if this is going to work....guess we will see on that too. 

Well we still have a ways to go till we are self sufficient but we are getting there! Slowly we are getting there. All good things come to those who wait! LOL

The end of the season looming

Well its the beginning of August already and we are slowly looking at things starting to point towards fall.

Our tomatoes (wild and planted) have exploded with fruit! I have to say tomatoes are my favorite thing to grow in the garden....you can never have enough because they are so versatile and have so many uses. I made spaghetti sauce this time with all the tomatoes I had. I got 7 pints out of it. I use all kinds of tomatoes. Roma, beefsteak, and cherry. I also don't seed or skin my tomatoes. I put it all in! :)

I don't do anything fantastic for my spaghetti sauce I just wash the tomatoes, cut them and puree them. After pureed I put them into my huge stock pot and reduce the puree by 1/3 to make a thick sauce. I cheated this time, the discount grocery store nearby my house had spaghetti seasoning packets so for really really cheap and I knew there was going to be a point where I needed to cheat to help me get things done faster this season.....so that's where I cheated. For the times I do not cheat I usually puree an onion or two with the tomatoes, depending on how many tomatoes I have. Same with garlic cloves. Then as it is reducing and almost done, I usually add dried oregano, salt and pepper. This is all to taste. So make it as you like it!

Here are the gorgeous tomatoes.

After pureed and reduced. You can see the seeds floating in there.

I have also found a way to seal the lids without boiling them forever. Right after I fill them and put the lid on then I flip them upside down till the cool off and they seal themselves!

Here is my gorgeous spaghetti sauce all sealed and ready to be eaten! YUM!

Same night as I was making my sauce I was making roasted rosemary potatoes with the potatoes out of our garden.

Here is Mr. Smith chopping them up.

Here they are after washing.

Here they are before cooking. I just put olive oil down and slightly coat the potatoes then put salt and rosemary and every now and then a little garlic powder and cook at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

We had a horrible tragedy here on the farm. 10 of our broilers had heart attacks. :( We let them get too old. So we know for next time that we can't leave the smaller ones to get a little fatter...we need to slaughter them all at once. We had 6 left and this past weekend 4 were slaughtered. Other circumstances came up and we had to stop there. So this weekend we shall be finishing them off. I am praying they make it.

Back to a lighter topic. Our zucchini have also exploded and I had so much that I could make 16 loaves of zucchini bread and still had enough left over to make stuffed zucchini tonight. I post that recipe later...I would like to post how my family liked it as well.

Haven't posted in awhile

First I would like to apologize in the couple week time span since my last post. There has been a lot of drama here at the farm and surprisingly nothing to do with the farm or any of my kids. Anyways...back to farming. We are about to enter our 3rd weekend of butchering. We had done it a little different then we have ever expected. 1st weekend we did 5 fatties, 2nd weekend another broke a leg the day before so he was going to the chopping cone and 2 others as well. This weekend we will only be doing another 3. The heat this week has been unbearable and there has been no rain for like 2 weeks. So trying to keep my family, the animals and my garden hydrated has taken all the extra energy I have left after this butterbean I am growing has sucked it out of me. HA HA HA

Here is the plucking station. You have to scald the skin a little to help get the feathers off. We used a turkey fryer hooked up to a gas grill.

Here is Mr. Smith scalding the skin.

Here is Mr. Smith about to take this fatty to chopping cone. We bought a piece of stainless steel flexible metal sheeting and made a cone. You put the chicken in the top head down and chop the head off. It then drains the blood.

Here is Mr. Edgar helping Mr. Smith pluck the feathers. He got paid in chicken meat :D

Here is a zucchini I pulled from garden last weekend and have a gotten a few more since. I put a pen next to it so you can see how big this guy really is! LOL My baby belly is in the picture too....this butterbean is growing fast! My sister in law has a really good recipie for zucchini I need to get off of her to use up some of these zukes!! LOL Its not slowing down :D

So in about a month we change the layers feed in anticipation of them laying eggs about a month later. Excited about that!! We have been letting outdoors almost at sunset to start getting used to being out of the coop. Mr. Smith had to chase some of them to get them back in the coop last night...they did not want to go back! They like the outside! It is so neat seeing them eat the grass and bugs and how they interact with each other and play.

I have also planted 6 cabbage seeds and 8 broccoli seeds for my fall seedlings. I did not get any more potatoes in and the last of potatoes are about to be done. Almost all my onions are done and finally my tomatoes are starting to turn red! So excited to start making spaghetti sauce! I saw 2 pumpkins finally growing around the corn. I did get another wave of corn in and I am going to try my best to get another in this weekend or next weekend...next weekend is the last weekend for my zone to get them fully grown before the first frost.

That's all that has been really happening here farm wise. Harvest continues and the heat wave/drought continues. We shall see what comes this next week! :)

Making food from harvest

Zucchini Bread

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup mashed/pureed zucchini

1/2 cup canola oil

1/3 cup water

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the 1st 7 ingredients. In a small bowl combine the eggs, zucchini, oil & water. Stir into dry ingredients, just until moistened.

Transfer to a greased 9x5in loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 min. Cool for 10 min.

Huge zuke from my garden.

Pureeing it.

Baking in the loaf pan.

Done!! YUM YUM!

Wanted to show this pic. Of all the peas I have gotten out of the garden this is all the peas that came out of it. Enough for a serving for 1 person. :(

Spiced Blueberry Jam

1 1/2 quarts blueberries

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1 pkg pectin

5 cups sugar

Directions:

Remove stems & full crush ripe blueberries completely, one layer at a time (or blend coarsely in a food processor) Measure 4 cups of crushed fruit. Add more berries if necessary.

Place berries in a large kettle and stir in lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and sure-jel or can-jel. Place over high heat and stir until mixture comes to a hard boil. Immediately add sugar and bring to a full boil, hard 1 min, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, skim off foam with a metal spoon, stir and allow to cool for 5 min to prevent floating fruit.

Ladle into sterilized glass jars, leaving 1/2" space at top. Seal with lids. This should make about 7 cups or 3 1/2 pints of jam.

One of my jars of jam! :D Yum! This might be the last that I get to make of jam for the season. So hopefully 4 more pints of strawberry jam & 3 1/2 pints of blueberry jam will get us through to next strawberry season...unless the orchard started grapes...then maybe I will do grape jelly...but my little homestead is not ready for that just yet....a few years down the road! :)

This is the week!

This is the week that the chickens bite the big one. LOL Wednesday is the 8 week mark...but we will not be able to do the butchering until the weekend. I will post pictures of how big they have gotten a little later! I am so excited! :) We will be eating chicken quite a bit for dinner in the upcoming weeks...but hey I don't have to go to the store and buy them! I know where they were kept, how they were treated and what they were fed! :) Happy 4th of July!!

New garden pics!

Here is one of our zucchini plants with 2 zucchinis currently growing.

Green Beans on back fence, FINALLY growing good!

Roma tomatoes.

Wild tomatoes, we did not plant these. These are the beds that they grew in last year, but they have spread to even outside of the garden. It's weird, but I will take it!

3 sisters: sweet corn, green beans, and pumpkins. You can see the corn cobs growing in!

Our potato bed.

Cabbage.

Jalapeno peppers.

Broccoli.

Strawberry plants still spreading like wild fire! Next year will be good picking!

The onion bed that we just took 36 onions out of. Still have a few left that are still growing. :)

Close up of some of the 36 onions we pulled.

Real close close up!

The whole table where we are letting them dry out for storage.

Another close up. Some got pretty good sized.

A HUGE zucchini growing.

The 4 zucchini plants.

Sweet shelling peas...finally growing well also.

Sweet corn grown in the traditional way.

Another wave of sweet corn....1 more to come hopefully today and another in about 2-3 weeks, last of the season!

2nd onion bed, still growing strong. These are already looking larger then the ones we harvested from the first bed.

Cucumber.....have to weed here, I know!! LOL

Blueberries.

Onion seeds? These were flowering on top of the onions and I know that's where you get vegetable seeds. So I am going to look up how to store these or use them for fall crop.

So there are some updated pics....I know I haven't posted some in awhile. I will be posting more as things progress!

Awesome harvest today

These are the potatoes I dug out of our garden today! It was like digging for gold! It was awesome...I was so excited! We saw the one green top of the potato all wilted and when it does that, it means they are ready for eating! We are only getting one potato per green top so far...but only 2 greens were wilted. So hopefully there will be more as the rest go. I do have more time so I think I might replant some new potatoes to keep it going. These are red potatoes....they sprouted first before the russets...so I do not think the russets will wilt in time for me to replant those. This was an awesome learning experience so far and I am excited to see where it goes from here!

We are also getting onions now as well. They are not as big as I had hoped (forgot to take a picture, I will add one a little later) I think our soil was too compacted. They are still about 100 times bigger then when we planted them, I was just hoping for the ones I buy from the farmer's market that are the size of Mr. Smith's fist! We have harvested 3 onions so far...but all the green tops are now falling over and are telling us they are ready as well. The strawberries we planted next to them have taken over the bed...so it looks like we are going to have to plant more onions in another area. The strawberries taking over is nice for next years strawberry harvest!

Our broccoli has started to get heads and I waited 2 days too long to cut the one head and it started to flower...so it may be on the starchy side. Oh well. :)  I only got 1 head so far and its on the small side.

My blueberry bushes surprised me, I was not expecting blueberries this year since we just planted them this past fall, but they have given me a pretty nice harvest so far!

The peas....are slow and steady. We really missed the ball on those. I tried string with them and it wasn't working and then my husband got an old chicken fence...but it wasn't long enough and they haven't been producing well.

Corn is insane right now. When I was reading up on corn all the blogs and garden posts and everything said I would only get 1 cob per stalk....but I am getting 2 or 3 cobs per stalk so far and the pole green beans are running crazy all over the corn its great! No beans yet, but it is great to see. I still have not planted the next wave of corn and today was perfect weather to do it....the baby just wasn't agreeing with me or the weather. So I shall just have to hope and pray the baby will let me plant them tomorrow since Mr. Smith is supposed to get home from work early!

Zucchini has started to form from the flowers...I have about 3 or 4 started but a billion flowers! So I think it will be a good harvest year for zucchini...now we only eat zucchini in breads...so we shall have a lot of zucchini bread over the winter, which is great with hot chocolate on the cold winter nights cuddling with my hubby!

Kidney beans are finally coming in...very slow as well. Only have 3 for the entire season so far and I don't think its going to get any better...we just kept running into too many problems. Navy beans are non existent in the garden for the very same reason.

We have jalapeno peppers forming I saw 4-5 of them. I also saw 2-3 sweet yellow banana peppers and 2 green bell peppers.

We have so many wild tomato plants that I am no longer worried about planting more to make enough spaghetti sauce! We only really use tomatoes for spaghetti sauce and salsa...my husband likes them on his grilled cheese and I like them in hoagies. I would like to try tomato soup again this winter...but I have yet to find a recipe that my kids will eat. So we shall see.

We did replant cucumbers...as seedlings from a friend who had leftovers and they do not seem to be growing. I am going to try for the 3rd time to do pickle cukes...and I know I am running out of time.

This weekend Mr. Smith and I HAVE to sit down and figure out what we are doing for our fall harvest....this is the weekend to start that! Crazy that its already here and the season is already 1/2 way over.

Blueberry season has begun!

So as strawberry season closes, blueberry season opens! we have gotten 20 blueberries in the past 2 days...my kids are running by and eating them right off the bush :) We definitely need to get more blueberry bushes this fall.

Only 2 more weeks till its time to butcher the other 24 broilers.

I also found more room to plant another 2 waves of corn. The 1st wave is already making nice looking corn and the 2nd wave should soon be following! So this weekend I plan to plant the other wave of corn and in 3 weeks plant the final wave of corn. I counted backwards from the 1st frost date, using the harvest days on the pack of the seed packet and gave myself an extra week in case October decides to be extra cold so we can still get more corn! Our first potato greens have started to wither and dry...meaning about time to dig up those potatoes! I am so excited...it seems like everything is moving smoothly and we shall see how long this lasts us. My zucchini and pumpkins have begun to flower and the broccoli is growing insanely! I will have to add pictures soon....we had a crazy week and have ignored my garden for the past 4 days....it has surprised me in that time...and also exploded with weeds. :(

Strawberries are dwindling.

Looks like the strawberry harvest is coming to a close....only got 1 today and doesn't look like any more are really growing. I don't see any more flowers either. Pea pods are going really slow right now as well. Cabbage is starting to get the roll leaves and are about to start forming a ball! Potatoes started to flow, blueberries are starting to get a slight blue hue and some pumpkins have flowered. My wild tomatoes have started to flower as well. In about 2 weeks I will have to start planting the fall seedlings. Ones that have the longest till harvest first of course. I will be talking to Mr. Smith about that this week. I am thinking there is room for one more wave of corn.... might just do it. The last wave I did I just started to see little sproutlets! They are all gorgeous :)

Garden work

Got my last wave of sweet corn in over the weekend. Broccoli is starting to sprout heads, green beans within the 3 sisters are starting to climb the corn stalks, tomatoes are flowering and kidney beans are forming! :D Still have a lot to do to catch up and since it will be nicer out tonight, Mr. Smith and I will have to plant more transplants and get the peas growing upwards to grow more pea pods. I need to seed the cucumber pickles yet and in about 2-3 weeks it will be time to start seeding the fall crops. Well the fall broccoli and so on. crazy how fast the season goes. Onions are starting to flower so I can get their seeds? Which will be nice so I don't have to buy more seeds.

The layers are getting a little more courageous and started to look outside and thinking of going outside....soon they will be out there. :)

The first butchering

Pork Chop the chicken has left us.

It was a little weird at first but now it looks like a chicken you would buy from the store. Smaller, but still tasty looking. :) Will let you know how it tastes!!

We had so many strawberries everyday and the kids couldn't keep up eating them the whole time so we made muffins. :)

Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups strawberries, washed, hulled and cut into small chunks

Directions:

preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line pan with muffin cups.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together eggs and sugar until light. Add milk, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Gently whisk.

In another bowl, combine flour, powder, salt and cinnamon. Add to milk mixture and stir just until flour disappears. Fold in berries.

Spoon thick batter into muffin cups to the top. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins

Here are a few of our strawberries from our garden.

Cutting them up.

The thick batter.

Just a few minutes in the oven.

Close up of batter in muffin cups.

Close up of done muffin! YUM!

Here are all the muffins cooked!

They were so good! We are still getting a good number of berries and I am thinking of making homemade fruit roll ups! They look pretty easy so if i do get to do it I will post the recipe and pics :)