Garlic

Two years ago we harvested our first crop of 50 heads.

This past first of August it was about 60.

This past week, 105 cloves were planted, all coming from our own garlic harvest.

I am finding garlic to be one of the easiest and most rewarding crops to grow and store and plan to do more each year until we have more than enough for ourselves, neighbors and friends, gifts and to sell.

(Side note:  Here is an interesting article - what do you think?)

Working Outside till Dark

Yesterday I planted garlic.  My homesteading friend told me that she always plants garlic on the 15th of October so I was only off by one day.

The air was warmer than usual and the light beautiful and after dinner I returned outside shoveling and dumping wheelbarrows of compost until the last light left feeling full and complete.

Garden Blessings

Upon returning home and finding an overgrown, but plentiful garden, I got right to work using the abundance.

Green Bean Salad

I added feta, red onions from the garden and Annie's Organic Sesame Ginger Dressing.

Zucchini Bread/Cake

Zucchini with garlic, tomato sauce and mozzarella for dinner.

What are you cooking or baking from this bountiful time of the year?

Growing Food

While the rest of the family is off at the baseball field helping to fix the fencing and play on the playground late this Sunday afternoon,  I thought I would take a moment to share some of what we have been doing here on our little homestead.

The warmth of the sun has been helping to dry the soil and really get things growing.  The snap peas and lettuce have sprouted, which I am so excited about - our first food of the year is on its way.

Mike (dear husband) has been putting up the fencing for the goats.  He is making good progress.  We are just using saplings and fencing that we have found, was left behind, or given to us.  We truly don't buy new things all that often.

I have been doing lots in the gardens.  I am expanding them quite a bit.  Last year was our first planting season here and all of the garden areas are brand new - there was not an existing garden - so it does take time.  Our strategy has been to pile compost into the back of our old Suburban (which we have access to for free from a neighbor that has 5 -6 year old composted cow manure - pure black and beautiful stuff!), and then shovel it out into piles on our property.  From there, I wheelbarrow several loads a day to wherever I am planting and just put it right on top of the soil.  If there are a lot of weeds or grass, I just turn it over with a shovel and shake out the soil and then throw the weeds into the chicken's fenced in area.  We do not till the gardens. 

In between the rows I put the chicken house little (in other words, poopy old hay), to provide some protection from weeds and then to become part of the soil for next year. 

So far I have planted about half of the onions, lettuce, snap peas, carrots and parsnips.  For flowers, sweet peas and bachelor buttons.  Next on my list is mixing half sand and half compost to make the mounds for early potato planting.  The small potatoes we over wintered in the basement look great and are growing little sprouts.

Oh, I could just spend the entire day outside when it is as lovely as it has been.  It is amazing how quickly the time goes when you are working.  However, I think everyone would get quite hungry and the house would soon be a mess, and there are always orders to work on - so it is a balance of time.  I am so grateful, though, for the time I do spend outside growing food for our family.

Happy May!

"Welcome be thou, faire, fresshe May."

Geoffrey Chaucer

Warm wishes,

Tonya

Planting Time

Yesterday I planted both of these as well as some lettuce. 

There has been such a nice rhythm to our days, these last few days.

In the morning I am mostly inside, working with the children, baking, packaging orders, cleaning, etc.

After lunch, after Abraham's nap (and sometimes a nap for me too), we head outside to do the garden work usually - a few wheelbarrows of compost hauled each day to the planting areas, a little  more digging in a new garden area, mending of fences, and just yesterday, planting.

It feels so good to use my muscles again, and to be building them up a little bit more each day to meet the demands of the coming season.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Spring! Robins, Chickens and Gardens

This morning I heard Isaac yell, "I see one!", as he was looking out the window. 

"What?" I ask, a bit worried.

"A robin!"

The chickens are loving their freedom.

The snow has melted in one of our garden areas.  The chickens and children have been enjoying hours of digging in the soil.

I worked on organizing some fencing and planning where I would plant the snap peas under the beautiful blue sky with the warmth of the sun on our faces.  Pure joy!

Wishing you spring joys wherever you are,
Tonya

Thankful for Some Green

Not outside... we are still thigh-high in the white stuff.

but some green that came in the mail.

Our seed order which gives us much to look forward to and this wonderful book which I can sit inside by the woodstove to read because it really still is winter outside.

Warm wishes,

Tonya

Potatoes

Our homesteading neighbors offered us their still to be harvested, three rows of surplus potatoes for just 

$30.00.

Michael (dear husband) went over with the little ones and dug them all up, brought them home, and lay them out on our porch to dry out for two days.  I am now picking through them, sorting them out - keepers to be stored in our basement in boxes and feedbags, a basket for us to keep in our pantry, and a box of small ones to save for seed potatoes for next spring. 

We harvested about 30 pounds of potatoes ourselves this year from our own small garden area.  We have been busy increasing our garden over the past two months and we hope to harvest close to 100 pounds next year from our own land.

However, we are so grateful for the well over 100 pounds from our neighbors and I am hopeful that they will keep well in our basement which should stay about 40 degrees all winter.

So far I have been making mashed potatoes and oven baked potatoes.  The children all love the oven baked.  I peel, cut into chunks and then mix in a large bowl with olive oil and spices and then bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

What are your favorite potato recipes?

Warm wishes, Tonya

Gardens, Raspberries, Compost and Sunflowers

Lots and lots of tomatoes to pick each day.  We have mostly the smaller sun gold variety and then a slightly larger tomato that turns a beautiful bright shade of red.   Abraham came to me last evening requesting "one, two baskets for me and Sarah" and they returned in with baskets full.

Piling compost in new garden areas.


We discovered that we have fall raspberries!  Last autumn Mike brush hogged an area on the other side of the pond.  While talking with some  homesteaders at the library yesterday I learned that cutting fall raspberries down to ground level is what you are supposed to do after the first hard frost.  Yeah!  We inadvertently did this last fall and are reaping the benefits this season!

Our butternut squash is growing so large thanks to this unusually hot weather we are  having here in northern Vermont.

Sunflowers from our garden on a embroidered circle, one of the beautiful items I received from Maribeth for the
Vintage Swap.


Warm wishes for a beautiful weekend,
Tonya

From Garden to Table

We had purchased some organic bulghar wheat at the natural food store and I had Tabouli on my mind on this very hot day.

Skimming through my favorite cookbooks I came across a great recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen.

So I took a stroll through our gardens to see what else I could find to include in the tabouli.

Here is what I found after a brief walk. I had already pulled, washed and grated some carrots earlier in the day to include in the salad.

~pepper, parsley and chives for the salad, the lavender and egg I put aside for other uses~

Here is the recipe I used for the Tabouli :

You should begin to soak the bulghar at least 3 hours before serving time. It needs to thoroughly marinate and chill.

1 cup dry bulghar wheat

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 heaping tsp. crushed, fresh garlic

1/2 cup chopped scallions (I used chives)

1/2 t. dried mint (I used finely chopped fresh mint, about 2 Tablespoons)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 medium tomatoes , diced (we didn't have these yet, so no tomatoes but soon)

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup chopped cucumbers (didn't have these ready yet either)

1 chopped green pepper

1) Combine bulghar, boiling water and salt in a bowl. Cover and let stand 15 - 20 minutes.

2) Add lemon juice, garlic, oil and mint and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate 2 -3 hours.

3) Just before serving add the vegetables and mix gently.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Thinning, Weeding, and a Mystery Plant

One garden job I am not particularly fond of is thinning. I am not sure if it is because it is tedious. But probably not, as I enjoy many forms of tedious handwork such as embroidery and knitting. Perhaps I don't enjoy it because I have to make constant decisions; shall this plant stay or go, how far apart shall I leave the little shoots, and the big one ~ each plant I pull means certain death. Now that last reason truly doesn't make a lot of sense because we are growing the vegetables to eat anyway right? But in another way I am denying that little plant the opportunity to become all it can be. Oh, probably I am philosophizing way too much about these little plants of mine.

I have been enjoying having the littles in the garden with me this year. Even Abraham, at two, seems to understand which plant to weed and which to let grow to provide food for us.

After some quick instruction by his sister Sarah, who is the supreme weeder in our family, he has been doing a terrific job of weeding.

Finally, we brought in many truck fulls (read moving back seat forward in our old Suburban, putting a tarp down and piling the compost on top of the tarp) of beautiful composted manure - wonderful black stuff. Well several weeks ago I noticed something from the squash family growing in the middle of my unplanted garden. I just knew it was meant to be there and there was no way I would pull it out.

This is what it looks like now, but it is still a mystery... such fun to wait and see what it will produce.

Warm wishes, Tonya

The Winner Is....

Rose from the blog, Goodwife Rose.

I will get the ribbon runners right in the mail to you.

Thanks to everyone for leaving a comment. It was wonderful to read all the kind words.

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Just wanted to share a picture this morning of our chives nearly ready to bloom next to some violas. It was wonderful to have some chives on our salad from our local organic farm over the weekend. About two more weeks until our own lettuce is ready for picking.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Growing, Growing, Growing

Our wood pile is growing....

The radishes and lettuce are growing......

I observed our first tendril on the snap peas.....

Happy Spring Growing.

Warm wishes, Tonya

Homestead Happenings

"In the spring,

at the end of the day,

you should smell like dirt."

~Margaret Atwood

Our snap peas are up! That is one in the photograph above... it is a little hard to see, but so exciting.

We have been fencing in our gardens to keep our chickens out. Creating new garden spaces does take a lot of work, but it will be worth it. We chose two areas on our new homestead that show the most promise and now we are in the process of covering them with composted cow manure that we can get for free from a neighbor down the road. It is the really good black stuff full of red worms.

Now, chickens and gardens don't mix. Originally, we were going to fence in the chickens in an area around the barn. Well, after dear husband made branch posts, sledge hammered them into the ground and wrapped recycled fencing from our neighbor who has a rubbish collection business (in other words we didn't have to go out and buy new fencing), I just couldn't leave them fenced in. I have such a soft spot for these chickens and probably would for any animal. They just need to free range - to eat insects, grass, worms, but - NOT my garden!

So, Michael has been fencing in our garden areas. It isn't pretty, but the benefits out weigh the negatives.

Here is a picture ~

We have another garden area to go.

I have been planting seeds in egg cartons to grow on a card table in our bathroom window. Oh, we are just so blessed with this home with sunny spaces. My homesteading neighbor gave me a packet of tomato seeds she wasn't going to plant and a farming friend gave me some of her own tomato starts. With 30 tomato plants started, I may not be buying any tomato six packs from our local organic farm this spring. I also started 12 melons, and a dozen money plants (seeds from our neighbor - an herb and flower seller). Money plants or luminaria. They are a biannual with pink/purple flowers. The second year they leave disk-shaped seed heads which you can gently pull off the seed hulls by rubbing between your fingers to leave "silver dollars" which are great for dried flower arrangements.

I snapped this picture this morning by holding my camera behind my back as I was walking down the driveway to put some mail in the mailbox. My ladies love to follow me whenever I am out.

Enjoy this day. Warm wishes, Tonya

Crafting Over the Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend mostly at home, and mostly working with our hands.

In our small kitchen garden at home, I planted a bit of lettuce and some snap peas.

Saturday afternoon we tilled our large market garden, it is about 50' x 40'. This will be our fourth year of growing here and the soil is finally looking like it should over most of it. While Mike was tilling, I raked and pulled out large clumps of weeds, etc..

We did lots of creating as well.

I finally finished this special order for a customer. The wool yarn used was all hand dyed. She wanted a set of rainbow gnomes in subtle shades.

Gathered scraps of fabric, chose yellows and blues and made this scrap fabric wreath, inspired by GardenMama.

Our neighbor raises sheep organically for meat and we were given seven bags of wool! (Certified organic as well.)

So... I could use some help with the best/easiest/simplest ways to wash and pick this.

This is a picture of our first batch that I washed and it still has to be picked through.

Finally, the girls helped me set up our Easter shelf.

Happy Monday and Happy Spring.

Warm wishes and joy, Tonya

Spring on our Homestead

Sarah in our kitchen garden.

We will be still using our garden plot one mile down the road and a plot on some neighbor's land as well. Our soil on our new homestead is full of clay and much of the area is wet. It will take some time to build up the soil. I am starting with an area that probably was a flower garden at one time. There are lots of roots to pull up but the soil is rich. We will extend this garden a bit more each year.

As we work the soil we have to fend off the chickens as they come right where I am working to get the worms as I expose them I worry that I may hit one with my tool by accident.

Here is a picture of one of the girls sunning herself after giving herself a dirt bath nearby where we were working.

We have eight maple trees tapped this year. Our new homestead was overgrown and as we clear out and open up the land a bit, the maple trees should grow at a faster rate. Right now they are on the small side. We had our first cup of syrup with our pancakes the morning before last and should have just a bit more than that for tomorrow morning.

Overlooking our pond

Finally, we all need a little rest after a hard day's work. Our neighbors didn't want these chairs. They were still in their boxes and our 11 year old son, Isaac, put them together for us. Can you believe that they are the same color as our home? .....

Warm wishes and joy, Tonya

Canning Tomatoes

Oh... this is so simple.

We have Roma tomatoes this year to can and they make a wonderful sauce.

In our new rustic cottage, we do have electricity and the previous owner left a blender. My dear homesteader and neighbor suggested to me that I just wash cut and throw the tomatoes into the blender, heat, and then can. How simple is that! Wow - no boiling the whole tomatoes, dipping in cold water, peeling the skin off, running through the food mill.

Eight quarts were canned yesterday afternoon and I have been enjoying making fresh sauce at will with the baskets of tomatoes. And there was just enough coolness in the air to use the woodstove to heat up the canning water and cook the tomatoes a bit before transferring to the stove top for the boiling time.

To make sauce:

Blend enough tomatoes (skins and all)

In a heavy large saucepan, I add olive oil and chopped onions and garlic to saute.

Next add the tomatoes. Add flour (thickener), seasoning such as basil, oregano, thyme, pepper, salt. Add some sugar to your taste. Let heat up to a soft boil and then turn down to simmer for 45 minutes. Simple and delicious!