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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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Eggs everywhere

By on February 14, 2012 in farm life

Today when the girls brought in the eggs from the coop, it hit me that I had run out of places to put them.  We do eat eggs mind you, lots of them but these girls have been crankin em out faster than we can eat them.  I counted 54 eggs and that means its time to cook lots of egg recipes.

I can tell who layed which eggs and the Auracanas (the green and blue eggs) are definitely in the lead.  Cold days, hot days, and even a scare by a coyote at the coop door does not stop the Auracanas from laying.  You see the dark brown eggs in the front, that one was laid by my one lonesome Buff Orpington though she has no clue she is the only blond in the pack.  The lighter brown eggs are provided courtesy of our Rhode Island Reds, they lay less eggs but slightly bigger ones.

My first stop was deviled eggs.  Not my favorite thing to do (though it is my favorite to eat) because unlike store bought eggs which are 1 to 2 weeks old, farm fresh eggs do not peel easy.  Even after shocking them into cold water they do not peel super easy or pretty but they are so yummy.

I do not wash our eggs until its time to use them.  Yep, thats right, my chickens lay them and we put them away as is.  I was told by an old farmer that eggs should never be washed until ready to use.  They last longer that way.  Thats how we do it around here and if you are only used to store bought bleached eggs I am sure you just fainted at the thought my dirty eggs in my fridge lol.

This week three people have asked to buy eggs from me.  Every day our gals get a bucket full of veggie and fruit pulp from our juicing at every meal, they get every scrap of food that we do not eat (we waste nothing) and if they need it they are given gmo free feed.  I need to call these people back but honestly I have no idea what to charge for our free range, thick shelled beautiful eggs.  Any suggestions?



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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