Homestead Happenings

July has been busier than a humming-bird on crack. I can’t believe the month is about over already. We’ve been very busy on our little homestead with gardening, feeding, canning, cleaning, building, clearing and all the other ings it takes to have a homestead.

The gardens are coming in strong. The cucumbers have been a good harvest too. I’ve put up 24 pints of bread and butter pickles.

We finished up with the spring green beans and ended up with six gallons in the freezer. The Z Man has planted more green beans for me to can, but we aren’t sure how well they are going to do. Between the rabbits and the heat, they aren’t looking too great.

The sweet potatoes and the butternut squash are looking great! Cant wait for those.

The pigs are growing and the chickens are doing fine, but none of us like this heat.

Our tomatoes are finally coming in and I canned 8 quarts of tomato juice last weekend. Perfect timing too as this week I opened my last jar from last years crop.

This weekend I’ll be canning salsa.

The Z Man’s pumpkins are really amazing this year! Is it bad that I am ready for fall, football and pumpkin everything?

It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!!!

We’ve had some really strong storms lately, but some don’t seem to mind….

It’s true, rain is a good thing…. it keeps everything growing and green.

We are so blessed… Thank you God for loving us.

And thank you to the Z Man for all of his beautiful photography.

I hope y’all are having a wonderful summer.

Till next time,

Lori

Homestead Happenings

It’s been a minute since I’ve last posted. We’ve just been so busy with our jobs and with work around our little homestead.

Our two little pigs have adjusted well to their new lifestyle. These two seem much more settled than the last generation of bacon and bar-b-q.

The gardens were slow getting started because we’ve had a bit of a cooler spring, but now they are starting to take off. We are getting a steady supply of snow peas, green beans, zucchini and squash. The cucumbers aren’t doing so great this year.

I told you about the little orchard the Z Man put in for us. All the trees seem to be doing good and are showing small signs of new growth.

I’ve finally figured out how to make (good) yogurt with the right consistency from raw milk. Usually raw milk yogurt produces a thinner consistency yogurt, but the trick is to strain 3/4 of the yogurt as you would to make a thick greek style yogurt then whisk the last 1/4 of the thinner yogurt in to the thick yogurt and it produces the perfect creamy yogurt texture.

The chickens are happy and blessing us with fresh eggs daily.

I made and bottled my first batch of kombucha. I even got the Z Man to try it and he liked it, once he got past the fear of it maybe poisoning him. But, I have a confession, as much as I want to get into the kombucha thing, I’m just not into it, and I’m ok with that decision. It was fun to try it, but it’s not something I’ll continue to do.

I’ve been washing and organizing my mason jars getting ready for the canning season. I expect I’ll be canning green beans next week.

I made my first meat purchase from Polyface Farms of a chicken larder (fifteen whole chickens). The best way to describe the taste of these chickens is to say they just taste more chickeny. They are so good, and lean, not bloated with all the salt water that store bought chickens are loaded with. I’m fortunate that Polyface delivers to my area on a monthly basis. The Z Man thought I was a bit crazy when I asked him to go with me to meet a van in an ally behind the co-op to buy chicken, but let’s face it it’s pretty common for him to think I’m crazy anyway, so… you know just another day in our life. I will continue to buy from Polyface Farms, because the meat just taste so much better, it’s worth the little extra cost to us.

On a sad note, our old yellow lab “Charlie” passed away. He lived a good life, but now he is in heaven chewing the arms off sofas and steeling food from the tables. RIP Charlie.

Two days after Charlie passed, I found a little kitten in bushes outside my office window. I called around, but no one in the area claimed her, so off to the vet we went. She weighed only 1lb. I had always said I would never get another cat because I would never find another one that was like my beloved Maggie who passed about 10 years ago. Maggie was a wonderful cat that would greet you at the door with kisses then turn around and chase dogs out of the yard. This little kitten is just like Maggie. Loving and feisty. Some people say it was a sign to find this kitten right after Charlie passed. I don’t know about that, but I do know that she has given us lots of smiles since bringing her home.

Meet Roxy Y’all.

(The Z Man named her, and she has completely turned into daddy’s girl, she just L-O-V-E-S her daddy! I mean I just saved her life and all, that’s all, no big deal)

I hope Y’all are having a wonderful start to your summer.

Till next time…

Lori

Coming Soon – The Little Homestead Orchard

The Z Man and I have been wanting to add fruit crops to our little homestead but couldn’t decide what we wanted.

I had dreams of a big strawberry patch and making strawberry jam and strawberry wine and strawberry shortcakes and strawberry pies and strawberry syrup and strawberry everything.

While the Z Man was having nightmares of more work for him and an aching back. Admittedly most often my ideas do create more work for him, so I understand.

We decided on apples and pears and off to the nursery we went. I called ahead to make sure they still had trees in stock and the man on the phone said, “yep we’ve got apple trees, come get what you want cause the wind is blowing them all over the parking lot and I’m tired of picking them up”

He wasn’t kidding either. When we got there the trees were all laying down and scattered about. And, I guess he was tired of picking them up because he marked the trees down from $24 to $7.00 each.

We got 13 trees! 3 Liberty Apple, 2 Golden Delicious Apple, 1 Red Delicious Apple, 1 Pink Lady Apple, 1 Macintosh Apple, 1 Winesap Apple and 4 Kieffer Pears.

It was a good decision to go with apples and pears instead of strawberries.

In about 3 or 4 years we’ll be enjoying the fruits of these trees for many years to come.

I can see apple butter, apple pie, apple cider, apple wine, apple crisp, apple everything.

I feel like our little homestead is complete now. We have our vegetable and herb gardens, we have our chickens and pigs, we have goji berries and wild blackberries and now we have apples and pears.

Well, complete at least until I get my next crazy idea…. I can feel the Z Man just shaking his head at me now and wondering what’s next.

Herb Time

I use a lot of herbs in my cooking which makes it important for me to take tender care of my herb garden. Ha, actually I mostly neglect them all year long except for early spring and late fall when I clean their beds and perhaps the Z Man gives them a fresh coat of mulch. Herbs are very forgiving and are the easiest thing to grow.

Well, except for cilantro! I have the hardest time growing cilantro which really stinks because I use a lot of it in cooking and when canning my salsa.

In the early spring I always have some pop up in the garden voluntarily but it doesn’t last long.

This year the Z Man transplanted some of it into pots for me and they are looking pretty good (for now).

All the other herbs (rosemary, thyme and mint) made it through the winter and are growing nicely.

I’ve already made the first round of cuts on the herbs and have hung them to dry. I like to try to get 3 cuts dried for winter use. Especially the sage, I use quite a bit when we grind our pork sausage in the fall.

My oregano is going crazy this year, the first cut didn’t even make a dent in it. I’ll need to do another cut this weekend.

The sage is a little slower growing, but I managed to get two good size bundles hung.

Here is a picture of the sage before I cut it. This sage plant is probably 5 years old now.

To dry my herbs all I do is cut them, wrap a rubber band around the base and hang them in the kitchen for a few months. Looking at them hanging during the summer months gives me this kind of old day medicine woman feeling. Which reminds me I want to share my rose toner with y’all when the roses start blooming.

I once saw Jamie Oliver on a cooking show going nuts over finding some dried oregano that was still on the stems in a little specialty food store. Look at me having that in my kitchen all summer long… 🙂

Herbs are good for you and add so much flavor to meals, you may even find yourself using less salt in place of fresh (or dried) herbs.

If you are new to gardening or perhaps have limited space, try growing herbs. You can make your flower beds multipurpose by planting herbs in them. And, think about all the money you’ll save by doing it yourself.

Have fun and have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori