When The Snow Blows...

We are solidly in the midst of an Arctic blast.  It is cold, icy, snowy and windy.  It is not fit for humans outside.  Luckily for Creek Cottage Homestead (and me) we only have chickens to take care of as far as farm chores. The chickens get fed and watered, eggs collected, and checked on twice a day.  Other than that I get to hunker down inside and keep warm.

Besides schooling the kids and general household chores I've been staying busy by browsing seed catalogs and coming up with a must read list for the remaining months of winter.  The list is long but I've found every book but one through the local library system!  I love libraries!  So tomorrow I going to venture out and have my trusty librarian order me some books.

1. Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte (Companion Planting)
2. Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon (Survival Gardening)
3. Market Farming Success by Lynn Bycznski (Farming Biz)
4. Flower Farming by Lynn Bycznski (Cut Flower Biz)
5. Great Herb Mixes You Can Make by Jim Long (This is the only book I may have to purchase!)
6. Making Bentwood Furniture by Jim Long (Craft)
7. Making Dream Pillows by Jim Long (Herbal Craft)
8. From the Ground Up by Jeanne Nolan (Memoir and Gardening Advice)
9. Backyard Market Gardening by Andrew Lee (Farming Biz)
10. Chicken Tractors by Andrew Lee (Chicken Housing)
11. Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin (Chicken Biz)
12. Dairy Goats by Gregory, Diana (Goat Education)
13. Goats, Rabbits & Chickens by Hollis Lee (Animal Education)
14. How To Raise Dairy Goats by Martha Maeda (Goat Education)
15. Raising Goats: The Backyard Dairy Alternative by David Weems (Goat Education)
16. Gathering: Memoir Of A Seed Saver by Diane Ott Whealy (Memoir & Seed Saving)
17. Homegrown Herbs by Tammi Hartung (Herbs)
18. The Holistic Orchard by Michael Phillips (Fruit Trees)

What do you think?  Think it will keep me busy into spring?

You can see from the list what my priorities are for the coming year: Growing and selling produce, growing and selling flowers and herbs, crafting and selling what we can, increasing our egg laying flock and adding broilers, raising a small milk goat herd (after we get fencing accomplished- the actual animals may have to wait until the spring after this coming one), and starting our fruit orchard.  We plan on adding a couple of Heirloom/Heritage fruit trees per year.  This year will be apple trees.

That's not too much to chew off is it?  We shall see!  What have you all been doing this winter?

Plant Organic Potatoes!

For Christmas Farmer John gave me a subscription to the Magazine Mary Jane's Farm.  In the December/January 2014 issue there is a very enlightening article on potatoes: The Real Dirt on Spuds.

What stood out most to me was a quote by Wendy Gordon of The Wedge Natural Foods Co-op in Minnesota. "Growing potatoes... implies a clockwork schedule of pesticide application."

The article goes on to say that before potatoes are planted, insecticides are spread over the field. Tubers are then covered in fungicide. More poison is applied at "hilling" time and sink into the plant. During the entire growing time more insecticide and fungicides are applied and when harvest comes more chemicals are used. Once in storage the taters are treated to prevent sprouting. Gordon points out that potato farmers wear protective gear to keep them safe from the chemicals.

Really?  How much of that are we digesting?  That is just gross!

And then on top of all that... our wonderful USDA (U.S.Duh as Joel Salatin refers to them as) wants to approve a new GMO potato.  There is even a petition you can sign at www.FoodAndWaterWatch.org telling McDonald's (the U.S.'s largest buyer of spuds) not to go that route.

So while I've been chewing on that info, this video popped up on Facebook.  This lovely, little, third-grade girl experimented with non-organic, supermarket chain organic and health food store organic potatoes. It doesn't get more simple to see which one I prefer to consume. Eye opening!

Good thing I already perused Territorial Seeds new catalog and found that they offer at least 10 organic tuber options (not including sweets).  I plan on purchasing their kitchen garden collection of three different types. Yumminess awaits!

Besides not having to consume gallons of pesticide there is one more good reason to grow your own, which you can read about here.

Anyway you think about it, growing your own organic potatoes is a good investment!

Happenings Around The Homestead...

This is the first year we have ever grown cabbage.  I love fresh from the garden cabbage but do not enjoy it cooked or fermented.  However, my husband loves sauerkraut so we are experimenting with our first ever batch.  It's sitting on the counter as we speak.  We don't have a crock so we are using (re-using) a Costco pickle jar covered with an old t-shirt rag.  It's high tech, let me tell you.  I may (or may not) try some when it's done.  I know, I know, kraut is supposed to be really good for you.

We have also yet to have a frost in my area so the tomatoes are still coming on strong.  The kids are getting good at prepping the tomatoes for canning.  (Apples too.)  When they start to complain, I simply say, "You like to eat, don't you?"

This is a pic of the bag City Girl whipped up in about 15 minutes.  She wanted a certain size and everything we had was either too big or too small so she went down to our "craft" room and created what she needed.  The body of the bag is a bottom leg of a pair of jeans she had made into cut-offs earlier this year.  She merely had to sew one end shut.  For the handle she made a braided rope made from old t-shirts and sewed it on.  We had some iron-on decals laying around and she embellished the bag with those. (The decals were marketed for the back of jean pockets... who wants their daughter wearing kissy lips on her backside? This is a much more tasteful application.)

There are so many possibilities for this bag.  It is really only limited by your imagination.  It is a quick, easy, and cheap project.  Goodwill stores are great sources of jeans and t-shirts!

What have you all been up to?

Alice Waters Helps Me Sneak Veges!

 Chef Alice Waters is brilliant when it comes to vege recipes.  I've been turning to her book The Art of Simple Food for ideas on what to do with my garden bounty.

Tonight we are using fresh tomatoes and making her Simple Tomato Sauce: 2 lbs ripe tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and seasonings.  And I'm going to sneak in some roasted patty pan squash into it too! (Of course I will also put in some ground beef so that my meat loving son will be appeased.)  Served over pasta it will be simple and yummy.

She also has a recipe for raw tomato sauce.  Fresh tomatoes, basil and olive oil!

 

Last night I used some of my chard for her Chard Frittata.  Chard, olive oil, onion, garlic, seasonings and eggs (from our chickens) served on garlic toast. Yummy!  What I love about her recipes is that they really are simple yet cheffy and taste delicious!

If you are not the best "scratch" cook (like me) I recommend this cook book highly!

Eat This... NOT That!

Eat This!

 

Our tomatoes are finally coming ripe fast enough to warrant a bit of canning tomorrow.  I have already pulled out my trusted Ball Blue Book and will be canning a few quarts of tomato sauce.

 I no longer buy pre-made pasta sauces but in the past I have depended on plain tomato sauce for my sauce base.  What is so bad about that?  It's organic right?  Yep, however the acidic nature of tomatoes causes the lining of the can to leak BPA into the food.  Uncool!

Not That!

My budget is miniscule and I can not afford the premium sauce that comes in glass jars but I am able to make my own! I urge everyone to try canning tomatoes.  They're pretty easy and the taste is awesome! Not to mention kicking one more nasty chemical out of the house.  Hmmm... seems our great-grandparents had it good!

Fall must be on it's way!

Our first pumpkin (and probably our only).

 

We planted our corn, melons, winter squash and pumpkins in another area of our property then our other gardens.  It is amazing how the soil quality can be so different.  Since it was our first year planting we didn't amend the soil.  Most of our gardens did great but the corn, etc. did poorly.  I'm not surprised that the melons didn't do good as our summer was fairly cool and rainy but I'm very disappointed that I didn't get a lot of pie pumpkins. (My husband is sad not to get a lot of corn.)  We picked the beauty above before the chickens could get to it but I'm not seeing many more thriving.  Good thing for farmer's markets.  I will not partake in store canned pumpkin. Yuck!

 

One thing we were very surprised to get was Okra. I didn't think it would grow in Michigan.

 

 

 

 

We also got some broccoli (spelling?). We have never managed to get any before so small victories right?

 

 

Next year we will be laying on the manure and compost and making sure the soil is well amended so everything does well.

 

What victories and set backs did you all have this summer in your garden?

 

 

Bad Surprises!

Yesterday I had good surprises.  Today... not so much.

Bad surprises:

1. All those lovely tomatoes I thought I might harvest?  1/2 of them have blossom rot.

2. My smallest daughter got stung by bees... 4 times.

3. A predatory bird (hawk, falcon, etc.) tried to sweep down and steal one of laying chickens this evening as we were putting them away.


Praises:

1. At least the chickens get to eat well.  Lots of tomatoes went their way.

2. Taylor seems not to have had an allergic reaction any more serious than some nausea and slight swelling around the stings. We are keeping an eye on her.

3.  The bird did not get my hen.  She ran for cover as I ran at the bird.  The bird aborted and landed in a tree on the property line.

Lessons learned:

1. Blossom rot can be caused by lack of calcium in the soil.  High amounts of nitrogen can also cause it. I don't know about the calcium levels but we did have the chickens in that bed before we tilled it and planted.  It is possible that the chicken manure was too "hot" for the plants.

2. Keeping baking soda, topical benedryl and ibuprofen handy is a good thing.  Also learned that nausea is part of an allergic action.

3. Must keep an eye out for predatory birds.  If anyone is gonna eat chicken it's me! Also apparently I will run toward a predator to save a chicken.  Maybe I should start carrying a sling and a stone.

Wow! What will tomorrow bring?! Tomatoes with noses?

Surprise, Surprise!

 

City Daughter

Today was a day of pleasant surprises for me:

1. Six people to the dentist with not a one cavity! City daughter does need her wisdom teeth pulled though.

2. I was researching the YA market (Young Adult Books) and found out that the Christian publishing industry is really latching on to YA.  Yeah!  I'm not sure if I want to go Christian or Mainstream when I'm done with The Follower but it is good to know I have more options.

3. My tomatoes are really starting to ripen.  I may have enough ripe to start canning!

4. I remembered I had a Costco package of pork chops in the freezer.  Meat for dinner!

5. Farmer John made it home from Detroit meetings in time to eat dinner with us.

6. City daughter baked my favorite cookies for dessert... chocolate chip!

What a really good day!  Simple things make me happy :)

Fighting The Curse!

In Genesis Chapter 3 God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you... It will produce thorns and thistles for you."

Yep!  Wonderful.

That is why we have this:

And this...

 

 And this...

 

But even in God's original plan we had work to do. In Genesis 2:15 it says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

 

...And so that is what we did today.  We worked hard fighting the curse of weeds and taking care of our little piece of blessing.  Not all aspects of homesteading are glamorous- actually very few are- but the rewards are bountiful when you see the finished product of all your hard work.

 

 

Nothing left but the mailbox, the day lilies and dirt. 

 

The plan is to chip fallen branches (from the backwoods of our property) and cover the dirt with chip mulch and then next spring put in some more plants.  I think lavender would be good.  What do you think?

 

Food From The Ground!

My "city daughter" wonders why we can't just buy our food from a store like normal people.  She did not get the "farmer" gene.  I however did and even though my gardens are messy (er, that means tons of weeds) there is just nothing like going out your back door and digging up dinner.  Here is a picture of the bounty we picked just the other day...

 

Zucchini, cabbage, carrots, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, parsnips, beans, rutabagas, turnips, horseradish, dill, basil, patty pan squash and chard! Oh, and eggs from the chickens! So much more fun and rewarding to harvest your own rather then traverse the tiles of the grocery store under bad lighting!  I was going to say bad music too but then I remembered that the Musak playing now is from the 80's and were talkin' bout my generation!

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time...

Then

When we planted our tomatoes this spring we put them fairly close together.  My thought process was that this might crowd out the weeds and we'd have less weeding.  Well, we certainly don't have a lot of weeds in the tomato patch  and we have tons of tomatoes on the vine waiting to get ripe.  The problem?  They've grown into an impassable tomato forest.  Short of sending in the four year-old with one of those little flags you put on the back of bikes, I don't know how we are going to harvest our crop.  We can't get to it. I'm also paranoid of tomato horn worms which could travel (actually slink) from plant to plant very easily in our vege jungle. Next year I guess I will fight weeds and space out my plants properly.  Sigh. I hate weeds.

Now

Weeding & Sweating To The Oldies

Music

We're out in the garden today.  Can't ask for more perfect gardening weather.  It is sunny and 75'ish.  Still when you are out there working it gets hot and let's face it, weeding is not the most intellectually stimulating activity around.  So we got the idea to take out a fully charged computer and play music.  My daughter's band of choice?  The Beatles!  Andi Rose likes my music.

Well, not exactly "my" music.  I love the Beatles, but they broke up shortly after I was born.  I wanted to clarify that because I'm vain enough to not want to age myself more then I have to.  "My" music is 80's new wave and alternative which Andi likes too.

The time passed way too quick and soon we had our goal for the day met.  Yeah!  We figure if we weed consistently every single day (except Sundays) then we will be victorious over the weeds.

 Weeds vs. Vegetables

In other gardening news, we are buried beneath "green" beans and zucchini right now.  I say "green" because we also planted purple beans so we have both.  We haven't canned any yet but probably this weekend.  We don't have a pressure canner so we will pickle them.  The zukes we shred and freeze.  I most definitely have more than enough for the year. (No complaints- food is food and zukes are pretty darn versatile.)

Beans

Our peas are done and we even have some to save for seed for next year. That is the beauty of heirloom seeds! Wow, I can't believe that I'm thinking about next year while I'm still in the dirt of this year. In a few more days I'll be planting some things for fall gardening.  We're getting pretty serious about wanting to supply as much of our own food as possible. (Not that we're there yet.  I'm very thankful for grocery stores.)

Pea Seeds

What all are you planting, planning, harvesting? Do you use conventional or heirloom seeds?  Do you save seed?

Grandparents, Shopping & Beestings!

Grandparents:

 

Mom and Dad Schuh

We said goodbye to my parents today.  They headed toward home this morning.  I always love when they come and I hate it when they leave.  I love living in Michigan except for being so far from family.  The spot where they parked their trailer looks sadly empty.  Sigh. 

 The entire clan posing for the camera (set up on the BBQ)

 Closer pic with me at the camera... the way I prefer it!

 The kids... do they look hot and sweaty?  We all were... it was right before we finally got a storm to cool things down.

 

Shopping:

I made two discoveries while out shopping today.  1. If you are looking for flip-flops and/or sandals now is the time to buy.  All the stores are clearing out their summer stuff in order to make room for fall items.  My pair of dress flip-flops (yes, I said dress flip-flops- I might be a redneck.) broke a couple of days ago necessitating replacement.  I found a great pair for $8- 1/2 off. I am pleased.  I was willing to spend up to $15. 2.Sadly, it is cheaper to buy full length pajama pants at Old Navy and Sears and cut them to the needed length (long shorts) instead of sewing your own.  My daughter needed some summer sleepwear and she didn't want the short shorts or full length pants that most stores have.  She was willing (and able) to sew some but the fabric she wanted was $6 a yard (which is actually not that expensive as far as fabric goes) and she needed around 3 yards.  Hmmm... $18 to sew or $10/$12 dollars premade.  For pajamas we'll go with the latter but it is still hard for me to buy something new and then cut it up.  It seems wrong, just like buying jeans with the holes already in them.

 

Beestings:

It would appear that some type of stinging bee-like creatures have made a nest in the ground in my red lettuce.  I was picking tonight and felt a prick.  I thought maybe it was a thorny weed I had brushed against but while inspecting the injury (on my lower leg) I noticed "bees" flying around the area.  Ahhh... I've been stung.  The pain was not very strong at first but boy did that pain level rise.  I had to call harvesting to an end and rush inside to tend to it.  Thank goodness for plain old baking soda and water paste.  It may look funky on my leg but the relief was almost instantaneous.

 

What home-remedies do you use for bee-stings?

Lock Your Doors & Booby Trap Your Porch!

Is this a familiar site in your neck of the woods?

 

Zuke season has arrived and I made the mistake of planting all the seeds in the packet.  I forgot just how prolific each plant can be.  We are bursting with zucchini.   But the fun thing is there is so much you can do with it: quick breads, muffins, pancakes, cookies, stir fry, battered and fried, pickled and on it goes.  We shall not go hungry where there is zucchini.  My freezer will be stocked high!  My chickens will eat well.  And still there will be surplus...

What will I do with said surplus?  Start a cottage industry of course.  Creek Cottage Homestead (The official name of our farm.) is now offering fresh, homebaked, zucchini bread for $8 a loaf for local area pick up.  If you live in the Grand Rapids area you can place an order via the comment section.  If you don't order you run the risk of heaps of huge zukes being dumped in your car when you aren't looking and dropped on your porch steps. (Warning zukes produce like rabbits.) I know where you live! (Well, not really... some of you.) Don't let this be your fate.

Coming soon muffins and cookies and perhaps even cake.  I might try a gluten-free experiment too.  Anyone ever try quick breads with out wheat flour?

What do you all do with your zucchini?  Anyone willing to share recipes?

Of Turnips and Rutabagas...

This is our first gardening year on our new property.  We moved in last mid-June and decided just to watch and listen to the property before embarking on any gardening ventures. But while we waited, we planned and for Christmas I gifted my husband with a seed collection from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

 

The collection I bought him was the Large Northern Package (They also have southern packages.) and it contained over 25 types of vegetables/60 varieties.  In other words we got 60 packages of seeds.  Included were some veges that we probably wouldn't have picked on our own like turnips and rutabagas.  But since we know we need to expand our vegetable horizons we planted everything with a vow to try it and use it/preserve it.

 

 

Now it is into summer and the turnips are ready for harvesting and the rutabagas are growing nicely.  But what to do with them?  Of course I've seen them at the grocery store and occasionally at the farm market but I've always skipped over them.  So I consulted my cookbooks and came up with a recipe for butter roasted turnips.  Surprise of surprise they weren't bad.  Now, they will never be a common sight on my dinner table but seasonally they will make a nice change.  Next time I'm going to try roasting them with butter and brown sugar so they carmelize a bit. I also might mash them. 

 

What I'm really excited to do is use the turnips and rutabagas in soups!  Not in the summer, though.  I try to stay away from hot soups during the summer. They are, however, a staple on our table the other three seasons. 

 

There are three ways to preserve the veges.  I can can them but I would need a pressure canner and I do not as of yet have one.  I could blanch and freeze them or I can blanch and dehydrate them.  I'm going for dehydrating.  After prepping the veges (wash, remove tops, peel) I will cut them up into slices, steam blanch for 5 minutes and then dry them in our dehydrator.

 

 

 

As you can see our dehydrator is a dinosaur but it still works just fine and soon I will have preserved turnips and rutabagas to throw into soups when ever I want.  I think they will be a perfect addition to my hearty homemade soups!

 

How do you use your turnips and other root veges?  Anyone willing to share recipes?

 

Removing Garden Carpet...

You know that Ben Franklin saying... "A stitch in time saves nine"?  Yep... truth!  We put off weeding in favor of other farm chores, mainly keeping up with the strawberries and now we will pay dearly.  We have hours of weeding ahead of us.  Almost all of our garden beds are entirely carpeted.  Pretty but not practical.  Between rain, hot and humid weather, mosquitoes and other commitments we just haven't gotten out there to do it.  Now we have no choice.  Our veges are still healthy and growing but I don't want to lose harvest because I didn't weed.

We have chosen to go organic and not use any chemical weed control.  I don't even want chemical fertilizer on my lawn.  We have tried mulching: wood chips, leaves, straw, newspaper... we still have weeds.  There just isn't anyway around it.

I actually find weeding relaxing but my children are not fans and I don't like "whine" in my garden.  That is what makes weeding unbearable for me.  I think today, since it is hot and humid, we will use the 1/2 hour on, 1/2 off method.  I also think my 1/2 hour off will be spent in the kiddie pool or fighting the mosquitoes back in the woods and setting a lawn chair in the creek.  I admit to having elements of redneckness in me.

Despite the weeds we have peas galore, tomatoes forming, squash and beans blooming and basil out of control and tons of greens!  I'm thinking I need to watch Craigslist for a cheap used electric stove to put outside for an outdoor canning kitchen so I can put up the bounty without heating the house up. (We are being frugal and trying to avoid using air conditioning.)

Well, I guess I'd better feed the tribe lunch and head out to "roll up" the "carpet".  I wish it were going to be that easy.

Have a great day!

 Carpeted root crops!

 

 Beans

 

 Zukes

 

Tomatoes 

 

Basil 

 

Peas 

 

Endive, Chard, Kale and some Dill

Rooster Pedicures & Other Chicken Tales

Yep, you read the title correctly.  Today my husband gave our two adult roosters a pedicure.  Three of the four hens they have access to all have bloody gashes on them and these hens all get along with each other.  The roosters are the culprits.  Their spurs were so long and pointy that every time they got busy with the ladies they were gashing them. So Jack and Sawyer got a spa day today.  They got caught and held upside down while John filed down their spurs to duller nubs.  I think the ladies will appreciate the results.

We also cleaned out the "horse stall" portion of our barn (holding bikes, car toppers and other misc. things) and made it into a night area for our two "free-rangers".  John was a little put out that the ladies (Mrs. Q really) were roosting on the steering wheel and leaving lovely little "gifts" and deposits all over the cab.  So out came the junk and in went two cardboard nesting boxes, their food, water and grit and a roost.  At night I simply close the sliding stall door and in the morning I'll open it.  This way the tractor should stay clean.  (I've only seen Mrs. Q on it at bedtime.) I thought perhaps we would have trouble getting them into it but tonight we walked them into the barn and they went right into the stall.  What good ladies.

We took the cardboard nesting boxes for Mrs. P and Q and the other hens got two brand new nesting boxes.  My son did most of the construction while my husband instructed him.  I think they look pretty snazzy.  Hopefully the hens think so too.  I hope the changes don't mean we go eggless for awhile again since we just got them back to laying.

Also today, for a refreshing change, I picked peas and not strawberries!  We enjoyed straight from the garden peas for dinner.  Yum!  I'm also excited because we have pepper forming on our plants and tomatoes too!  Good summer eating ahead.  Now if we could just get on top of the weeds.