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?

Secret Egg Stash!

After moving our chicken tractor on Saturday and the ensuing pandemonium required to get them in the past couple of nights, Farmer John and I figured the chickens were a bit stressed and not laying eggs.

Of course last time we thought that we found a secret stash a couple of days later.

Deja Vu!

I just happened to see a chicken sitting in a very hidden place under some bushes.  When I went to go inspect it further thinking this was Divergent's hiding place I was surprised to find another secret stash filled with eggs.

Clearly the chickens were not stressed.  They just didn't want to lay their eggs in the chicken tractor.

The nest was so tiny and so far back in the bushes that I had to get my nine year-old daughter to crawl in to fetch the eggs.

Of course since so many eggs had been lain there a couple had been stepped on and cracked open. Reagan, though, was a trooper and retrieved all the good ones even though they were quite dirty.  The hens all looked on, quite curious as to what we might be doing there.

We pulled a dozen eggs from that spot.

 

I usually don't wash my eggs but these got washed.  I also floated them to make sure they were fresh. They were.  I candled them with a flashlight too, just to make sure that nothing was developing.

 

My four year-old watched each step with unwavering eyes.  She loves collecting eggs and wanted to learn more.

 

Today when we went out to collect eggs we checked the stash area but there was nothing there.  There were however eggs in the nesting boxes in the chicken tractor.  I can't figure out these birds for nothing.  I think they're messing with me.

 

Update on Divergent Hen:  I found her hiding place and it wasn't the above egg nest.  As I was putting in hens last night  (We only needed to help one beside Divergent in.) I watched her slowly saunter away around to the front of the house.  She had disappeared by the time( a couple of minutes later) I could go for her but I looked for her and I just happened to see her in one of our trees... but she wasn't on a thick branch near the trunk. She was up and out on a very tiny branch near the outside of the tree.  I know that was not were I had looked the nights before.

 

I was able to coax her down from the tree and then I caught her and carried her to the tractor.  She went calmly as if she was happy that I had found her.  I hope she goes to the tractor tonight. I would prefer her not to be divergent.

 

 

 

Apple Picking On A School Day!

Finally got my pictures from Thursday to load! Here are some...

 

 Us girls. (The boys were getting our buckets weighed.)

 Farmer John's favorite!

 Looking for just the right apples...

 Got one!

 Got a bucket full!

 Baking Apples

Our Haul!!!! Now the real work begins.

Homeschooling In The Orchard!

 

We took our first homeschool field trip of the season today.  We went apple picking at the U-pick farm in Fennville.

 

They had tons of varieties to chose from.  We only got a few kinds. Some for baking, some for sauce and some for eating.  They are so much better then any grocery store apple.  It was almost like eating sweet, crisp candy.

 

I sense apple pie for dessert tonight.  The ladies over at Homestead Blessings are cidering.  What do you like to do with apples? 

 

I'm having some issues with uploading photos right now but if I get it working I have a lot of fun pictures to post.

 

 

 

 

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?

 

 

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 :)

The Starving Week...

We jokingly refer to every other week in our house as starving week.  I get money to purchase food every two weeks so right before pay day pickings are pretty slim.  Tonight I was fretting over what to make that would constitute an entire meal and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome:

Wonderful rolls made from scratch by the city daughter who loves to bake,

Salad with produce from our garden and from the farmer's market topped with...

Shredded cheese, nuts and bacon,

Water or Milk to drink

It always surprises me how something comes together from seemingly nothing.  God is good to us!

Tomorrow it will be a beans and rice meal!

I was laughing with my mom tonight that we are becoming vegetarians by budget!

I still have two chickens to make into coq au vin too.

What something do you make out of nothing?