About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

Weekly farm update – Where the heart is

By on March 10, 2012 in farm life, farm update

Having Poppa home all day every day has been amazing…it has but it has also turned my world upside down and I feel I have completely lost my rhythm.  No longer is any specific day laundry day or baking day.  Every day is cleaning day and doing whatever project he has decided we are doing that day, day.  If that sounds like sour grapes, I don’t mean it to be.  It’s just that I feel I really need to get back to what I consider some kind of rhythm.

Usually at this time of year and most of the year, I am in the garden in the morning.  Lately, I feel like I have to get all my “chores” done first and so by the time I get out into the garden it is pretty late and I am getting very little done.  I do have the cleanest house ever though but the garden…ehh not so much.

My kids decided to jump in with me today and we did get alot of weeding done.  As I was weeding around the grapevines growing along the fence I saw this pretty flower bud.  I thought, “that looks like a blackberry”  but we were at least 50 feet from the blackberry patch.

 I pulled out enough weeds so that I found where it started and it looked like it was about 2 feet long.  My first thought was to pull it up and put it in the blackberry patch but as I followed the vine I discovered it was taller than me, so we decided that if it grew that much right there in between two veggie beds, maybe we should leave it there.  Eddie brought over one of my wrought iron trellises and we trained it around the trellis which will now be its permanent home.  Permaculture and me have never really been friends.  I have too much need to control where everything grows but I guess this is permaculture and I am OK with it.

new blackberry trellis in the yet to be weeded part of the garden
this little noble grape vine seems pretty much dead…but if you look closer
little signs of life are sprouting
a scupernong fry grapevine
loads of white little flowers on the blueberry bushes and the wonderful sound of lots of beautiful bees buzzing around
Eddie digging compost from last years horse manure pile
my trusty compost tumblers (mothers day gift 5 years ago) surrounded by more weeds that need to be pulled.  We put any food compost in here and everything else in the big pile.  Otherwise, we get too many critters looking for the buffet line.
simple entertainment 
compost piles are bouncy fun
View of the garden from a distance.  As you can see the fence needs to be repainted black as do all the fences on the farm.  Hopefully the next picture will look at lot neater and greener.  
row of strawberry plants


tomato flowers
future pea shoots for salad and then we will replant them for conventional peas.  Should be about two weeks from farm to fork
hierba buena mint
sage 
hoping this little lavender plant will get lots bigger because I have so many uses for it
In the herb bed all the different mints are spreading out and I was so happy to see them back again for another year and the rosemary which is now 8 years old is perfuming the garden again. 

There is still so much to do and lots more weeding to before I can get to the fun stuff  but right now I can surely say.
My heart belongs in the garden.  

I am linking up Saturdays to Small Things.   I will be posting a weekly farm update on Saturdays.  This will be my way of documenting all that we do on our farm.  Thanks for spending a little while here in the garden.



If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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Meatless Friday Meal Recipe Linkup: Quinoa burgers with salad

By on March 9, 2012 in Meatless Friday

Quinoa Burgers- A recipe by Farmish Momma  (formerly known as Crunchy Catholic Momma)

2 cups quinoa
4 cups water
4 green onions, sliced thin green and white parts
4 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 eggs
1 small onion chopped fine
1 cup whole grain bread crumbs
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa in water according to directions,  cool the quinoa and mix with all the other ingredients in a bowl.  Drop 1/4 cup size balls onto a frying pan (I use my ice cream scoop half full) then smoosh them flat with the spatula.  Cook one and try it, if it needs more salt then add it and make the rest.  To cook, let them fry on one side on medium heat with a little bit of oil (just enough to coat the pan) until brown on one side, carefully with a spatula, flip it to the other side and let it cook until brown and crisped up.  Serve on a bun with some salad and enjoy.

after all this chopping my eyes were very teary…
compost pail ready to get dumped in the compost bin (do you all compost?)  These are all the things that we can’t give the chickens but would not want to waste by putting it in the garbage.

 

beautiful free range eggs

 

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia

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