Seed Saving

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Yesterday we tried to collect up as many seeds from our garden as were available. We had so many failed crops that we did not get the seeds I was hoping for, but we got a few.

These are the very last peppers from the garden. It has frosted twice and the plants are now dead.





We also harvested some plantain for drying.













And the last bit of grapes, we are going to keep, since we did no spraying later in the season for this second crop.





Decided to try to dry some chives. No one recommends it, as they seem to lose a lot of flavor, but I buy dried chives at the store, and these would go to waste anyhow.





I can never get enough of the sky.









The fall colors are beginning to be well noticed.









The first thing we did was plant the Jerusalem Artichokes a friend sent me. They arrived with the grains. I've always wanted to try them, and even ordered them once, but they were never planted. So this was a special treat.

You dig a trench about 5 to 7 inches deep.





They say that anything under 2 ounces will not grow. That, in combination with the fact that in the lower 1/3 of the country, they do not thrive as well as the upper 2/3, I went ahead and spaced out the larger ones, and then used the smaller ones as possible filler.





We made two rows, each about 6 or so feet long, and dropped them in.





We shall see what comes up in the spring.





Next we decided to save these marigold seeds. I have no idea if they come up true to form, or if these are hybrids, but I hate letting seed go to waste. There were a lot of seeds on the ground, so I wonder how well these reseed themselves?





Michael is turning into such a man. He gets in there, studies the situation, and comes to me to help me with what he has figured out. I appreciate that so much. Here he's showing me how he found to pull the seeds out more quickly. We saved three colors in three different bags.





We bagged up Cosmos Bright Lights seeds. Again, I have not looked these up to see if they are hybrids. I am guessing they are, so the offspring may be a surprise.





Lovage is a biennial. These should overwinter, flower and seed in the spring. It is the roots that you harvest, for the most part.





The Fernleaf Dill.









Next was the cilantro which has already reseeded somewhat.













And the fennel.





We pulled one, to see about the bulb. But you have to get the bulbs early, as they are above the ground, not below. This one is beginning to grow new stalks, but I suspect it will be killed off before we get new bulbs. Maybe I'll cover the bases of a few and see what happens.





Then the broom corn we'd cut down a few weeks ago. I took most of it for a holiday decor vase, and we saved some seed from the rest.





Basil seed. We'll need to shake these out once they get just a bit drier.





A store-bought pie pumpkin that had not been made into pie yet. I'll save the seeds.





And letting the seeds air dry a bit more in the house as rain is coming again.





I have a craving for scrambled eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes with peppers/onion/bacon, sausage, waffles, and a huge glass of orange juice.

Guess I'll go eat an apple. :o)

~Faith

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Double Trouble

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( EDIT - Having issues with my two main browsers, so had to go through IE to post pics on last entry. Whew! Took me 1/2 hour. )

I had just decided to put my pictures on manually since the browser coding issue had not been resolved yet, but discovered that I cannot even do it manually.

Here, in my editor, all the html icon links above are working.... except the "Add Image" icon. Is anyone else having this problem?

So I don't know what's up, but I hope the issue is resolved soon. Without pictures my posts are way too wordy.

Yesterday we weeded and tended the herb, strawberry, and flower beds. I ended up with two large bouquets of sunflowers. The June bearing strawberries are laden with green fruits, that the birds are even eating now. We harvested another large basket of basil.

We began gathering branches to make bean teepees, as the corn did not come up sufficiently to do so. We will do more this morning.

Last night, until about 10 pm, we cleaned out the tool shed. It's done but we need to find a place to store all our sports equipment. The year before DH left us, was the year Michael and I focused on his sports. We spent several hours each day doing a variety of sports as part of his school. We had the back of the minivan packed with equipment and just carried it around with us.

However, we've not had time for sports at all any longer, and are hauling all kinds of farm stuff around in the van, since our truck doesn't work. LOL So the sports equipment has been in the tool shed, taking up a good deal of room. We've got to find a place for it all.

I am selling a tennis ball throwing machine that I had found thrown away and had wanted to repair.

Still have a box of cukes, a large basket of summer squash, and the basil from yesterday to process today. And go up on the hill to cut and strip red cedar saplings for bean poles. Perhaps we can get to cleaning out the studio today as well.

I haven't even got to the pool yet.

And this is too wordy. ;)

~Faith

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Dad, Mystery Squash, Summer, and Measuring Day

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Happy SUMMER! OK, we're hot and humid enough for me now! :) Rains last week, heat this week. Missing that pool already!

My dad has taught me more than any other person in existence. From him I got my work ethic. He knows how to do so many things and I voraciously am trying to learn as much as opportunity allows while he is here.

I respect my dad. He is a man of integrity. A man of God.

Last night, we went to his home to fix a Father's Day dinner for him. As usual, he had done more for me than I could do for him.





He even made this so that it could be dismantled and taken to our place to use if we desired. Amazing.

We sat outside as lasagna, summer squash casserole, and bread baked, and we fixed a table together. That's my mom, who is having a harder and harder time due to Alzheimer's.





At this point she does not like to go anywhere, and she does not do a lot around the house except for basic housework and a little cooking. She gets easily upset and frustrated by any thing that goes unexpectedly, even if something is in the wrong spot. She spends a lot of time on the computer game Bejeweled. She no longer wants to work on her genealogy hobby.

Dad is having to adjust to all this. Things are quite different than what he has been used to with her his whole life. But they are still going strong at 55 years of marriage. :)

Where in the world is Michael?









Isn't this interesting?









Here are some pictures of volunteer plants, which are doing better, of course, than the ones I've worked really hard on.

This one looks vaguely like a little scallop, but the plant is growing like something else, kind of like a muskmelon, so we'll see what changes occur.









This one is likely a cross between a zucchini and pumpkin, but I'm not sure yet. I actually love how those taste and call them Zuchins.









Here was our first harvest of wild blackberries on Saturday. I brought them up and shared them with Michael. It's going to be a TERRIFIC wild blackberry year, with all the rain we have been blessed with just before ripening time!





And, in comparison, here is the progress of the Doyle Thornless Blackberries we've got coming. What... maybe a week behind?





The progress of the baby birds. At my parents house yesterday, we determined that they are likely mockingbirds.





The parent birds in front of the neighbor's house, trying to distract Michael as he's getting the shot.









The first day of each new season has always been Measuring Day. I have carried a 2 x 2 with me and each of my kids was marked to measure growth. Michael grew another half inch through the spring. I also noticed that, for the first time, his foot is longer than mine! And I wear a size 9 or 10!





For a get together with friends on Friday, what fun it was to slice up cucumbers from the garden, and head out to the herb garden with a basket and sheers to trim just a bit of basil and fennel to mix in.

Are you like me? Does it just make you feel wonderful to tread across the grass in your bare feet, skirts swinging about your calves, carrying a basket filled with what you've grown? There is something real and beautiful about it. :)

The salad was tasty, crisp and refreshing.





On our day of rest Saturday, we also had some fun designing a dream outdoor kitchen.





Imagine a pavilion roof, stone floor and cabinetry, brick BBQs and oven, stainless steel. And gas burners for now, but the ability to use all wood if necessary. Everly Brothers. Dree-ee-eeam. Dream, dream, dreeean, dree-ee-eeam. Dream, dream, dream. LOL

I've been wanting lavender to make all sorts of wonderful things. Here is one of my folk's plants. I tried to use the Obamenomics logic to convince them that they had more than their share and should dig some up and give them to me, but no dice.

I will need to learn cutting techniques for them.





The dental office cleaning job took quite a while this weekend. I had to polish the formica countertops. I've never done that before and I had to figure out how it was supposed to be done, then all the extra elbow grease. I can't say I noticed a difference really...

Today - a GIFT! A friend is coming to work on the farm with us all day, just for the experience. :) And she's going to stay the night so we can stare at stars. Michael is always too tired and ready for bed, so it will be nice to have a star-gazing companion.

I hope it's not cloudy! :)

~Faith

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Gooseberries and Lettuce! Oh, My!

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I just noticed, all of my pictures are cut off on the right side. Must be the layout. When things slow down, Cyn, I am emailing you! LOL

If you saw my refrigerator, you'd gasp, then laugh. All you can see is bags of lettuce! A quick visit at my parent's home yesterday evening turned into two hours of harvesting and washing their lettuce crop. And if you'd seen my dad's puppy dog eyes, you'd have come home with all this as well. LOL





Dad wanted it washed up 'just so' as he always does. My dad's perfectionist tendencies used to annoy me. Now I just appreciate his attention to detail and that he cares enough to do everything he does in the best way possible. I like that as well, but I do my best to find balance. However, he was his house and his lettuce, so we washed a lot of lettuce in a particular way which took longer.

All that being so, we got home much later than anticipated, didn't get to the things we'd planned on, and I spent several hours attempting to dry lettuce and find a way to store it! This pile was 5 feet long and a foot high in the middle. On the way home we picked up some of those 'green bags' so it would not all go to waste.





So I was up til midnight last night, and still had to leave most of the lettuce out. I kid you not, I was BLOW DRYING LETTUCE! LOL

Today, while trying to do a day of rest, instead I find myself trying to figure out what to do with about 20 gallons of gooseberries.

But it has been so long since I've even had time to post that it has been bugging the heck out of me. So I quit working on 6 pies, turned off the audio book of Gulliver's Travels (Have you seen those cool Playaway pre-loaded digital audio books? We checked one out of the library.), and am coming to sit down and try to put in all the stuff we've been doing all week.

I'll try to get in the highlights in one post here...

Last Friday we had a different sort of get-together. Movie night!





Some even dressed the part. I loved this!





Of course we had to look at the garden first. This is what tired people who don't want to trudge up and down a hill do...





And a great movie, complete with popcorn and general silliness.





Last Saturday we did pretty well with resting. I am sure you can all imagine how hard it is to not do anything when it is this time of year! (Today a great example!)

I did walk around and document every crop we had going. This is the only journal I have at this point, so I am keeping track of what is planted and how it's doing by weekly photos. I won't bore you with them today. LOL

Except.... I am getting excited about trying fennel bulbs. I also think I may try to naturalize some of them. I hear they grow in the wild like crazy, so it would be nice to be able to harvest the bulbs without taking up garden space. 'Nother experiment to try.





Monday morning we finished picking cherries. Not enough left to warrant another trip. I decided to try Cherry Cafloutie - sort of. I changed up the recipe and threw it together in the blender. It ended up being rather custardy and needed more custard to the cherries, in ratio, but it was delicious!





More pruning and training the vineyard. It's looking pretty good! Stopped for a one-sided swallow tail butterfly.





And to see how that nest of eggs in the kiwi arbor is doing. Not sure what kind of bird this is. I wish I knew more bird species.





Then we decided to tackle the gooseberries.









We got two gallons off the first bush. They really produce well. They are only about 3' high and 3' across, and I give them no care. After this, we decided to let them mature just a little longer, as I felt they were still too unripe.





We got a grain mill in the mail when we came in! Michael could not wait to try it, so he got some rice out and gave it a spin! Our kitchen counters are too thick, so we tried it on the desk.









THANKS KELLE!

After a hard days work, we went ahead and swam, even though we have still not been successful at getting the filter system in and working. It still leaks after 4 attempts. I hope to get that fixed some time soon.









Ah, that water feels SO good! :)





Wednesday we had our first big basil harvest. I am going to be inundated by basil, I can see. I did not know how much to plant or really what to expect, so we have about 30 plants in a 4 by 4 foot area of the herb bed. We really LOVE weeding those plants, the aroma just fills the air. LOL This is how much we ended up with, after trimming the top third off the plants.





Still plenty left growing out there!





I bagged some up to give away to friends later that evening.





And set about to drying the rest.









Michael wanted to try grinding the leaves in the grain mill, but he discovered that the morter and pestle work much better.









And we ended up with a cup of dried basil.





The question remains... what will we do with the next 20 weeks of harvest???

Back to what really prevented me from posting much this week... When we came in for rests, we sat down and did things like clean gooseberries! It took hours to de-stem and de-blossom the 2 gallons from that first bush.





It was done, but we are not doing that to the rest!





The current progress on the shady lettuce bed.





YAY! We are getting cukes!









Broom corn and peanuts are growing.





A good day's work weeding.





And here are the rest of the gooseberries we picked on Thursday! Help me! I still have 11 gallons of frozen ones from last year. I am going to do something with them, just not sure what yet.





Finally getting the pumpkins and winter squash scarified and soaking for planting on Friday.





And we spent several hours collecting scrap wood from the hill and cutting boards to finish up the potato boxes.

It was the first time I'd used the saw since my accident last year. I have to admit that I felt a twist of nerves thinking about turning it on. So I grabbed it and chased them away. I did fine until I had to rip a very long board, which was how I ended up cutting through my fingers, and I didn't like doing that. But it was a perfect chance to chase away the rest of the ghosts, so it was done.





Charging up the fence battery, it's monthly thing.





While picking up the battery from down below, we checked the chickens. Our rooster, the one that had been attacked by the hawk, was dead in the house. I don't know why. His skin was blue-green. A few days after the attack we noticed a blue-green spot on his skin. I wonder if it was gangrene? We may have a rooster to replace him, but I'm not sure. I miss his crowing, and he was very beautiful. :(


Oh, we had some really nice compliments last week. We were cleaning the dental office when the owner came by. I went out to chat with him and also asked if he was pleased with our work, or had he noticed anything he would like us to do better.

He not only said he was very pleased, but told me that they'd had a staff meeting the week before and he had asked the staff what they thought. They all were pleased. As a matter of fact, one had set a 'trap' to see if we'd get it. She said the whole time the other cleaning lady had been there, she'd never gotten it, but we did the very first time. (I wish I knew what trap she'd set. LOL)

Well, those are some highlights of the last week. I am undertaking canning.

Wishing I had a canning mentor...

Faith

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