gardening, self-sufficiency, homesteading, food preserves diary
Blog documenting progress in transforming new property (50 acres - mostly wooded) into garden-farmette . Trying to become more self-sufficient and more self-aware.
This is sure saving me lots of work! Now all I have to do is to move it to where it belongs. Around they trees mostly.
I still need to move the new stuff up on the pile so that it "ferments" better
Grape health
There is no doubt that the new sprays (myclobutanil and manzate) are keeping the black rot and rust at bay this year. With the weather being this wet if I didn't have these sprays these grape vines would be dead - I am sure!
Lots of grapes on these vines!
I hope the varmints don't get them before I do!
Orchard update
The orchard trees look ok. The June drop didn't seems to drop much; most of the fruit is still intact! I have noticed some diseased looking leaves so I think I will spray sevin and fungicide - just like the grapes.
Pear tree looking ok. Not needing bracing. yet.
For some reason this pristine apple tree isn't needing bracing. Apples are lower in the tree i guess.
I switched out the stakes on the pristine apple trees. The "leaning board" idea just wasn't working. I moved back to the tried and true tripod setup.
These are getting close to ready!
More Choke cherry/berry damage
Freaking rabbits! I have managed to kill 4 so far. I also took out a small groundhog nearby and a raccoon out in the sheep hollow. Still, there is a big rabbit that I haven't been able to get in this area. I am pretty sure hes the one doing this too. I got a couple have-a-heart traps at TSC last week. I am trying them out.
They just snip off the top and leave them lay!
I mowed around the choke cherries this weekend too. I use the small - hand mower for this.
Here is one of the have-a-heart traps ready to get the buggers!
Forsythia & elderberry cleanup
I finally got around to trimming the grass away from the forsythia and elderberries. I did find that one of the forsythia had died below the elderberries. I am trying to keep them clear until they are big enough to overwhelm the weeds. I still can't get into the elderberries out in the swamp.
Squash and cukes planted!
I was finally able to get into the garden and put the plastic down and plant the squash and cukes. I planted all of the buttercup and summer squash that I had left. I only put in a few cukes.
The corn is growing nicely. Where it came up. I was used up all the old seed I had laying around.
We continue to harvest cucumbers from the raised beds. They seem to be ok - although some damage from the SVBs can be seen, they aren't hit as hard as the squash.
Just a few days of cucs here! More on their way
Here is the last picking just before we headed up to the farm! One squash (the last?) and a bunch of cucs!
The squash, below, are hit very hard by the SVBs. I am not sure we will get anymore squash from these plants! :(
SVBs really tear into these poor plants
You can see the blossom of an eggplant here. They are growing nicely.
Some "Fruits" of my labor!
Katherine made these delicious black-raspberry muffins from the raspberries I picked last weekend! Quite tasty!
Black-raspberry muffins!
Prep for Harvest-Right Freeze Dryer continues
I ordered some things in preparation for the freeze dryer arrival. We needed something to put it on - we decide that a rolling cart would be best. I shopped online for almost half a day and decieded on the ULINE flat top heavy plastic cart. LOL - THEN I read in a facebook group about the freeze-dryer a recommendation for this very cart!
Nice cart with a flat top and shelf below for associated items.
And then to the farm
When we got to the farm on Friday afternoon it was apparent that we had gotten some rain - about an inch according to the rain gauge. The grass certainly appreciated it! I set right in to mowing the lawn. I got all but the orchard, cherry orchard, and the back field around the pines and pecans mowed. I picked elderberries pretty much the rest of my time during the weekend! Due to another storm moving through Saturday I was unable to mow that day, but Sunday I was able to get the orchard mowed. The orchard really needed it!
Sweet Potato and squash status
It looks like something is still eating these potatoes! Damn! However, they are growing quite nicely now so maybe the effect wont be so bad.
Some of these are nibbled right down to the ground! And right next to the mole spike! Deer?
Nice healthy growth here!
The winter squash (and a couple summer squash too!) are growing nicely. I hope they have time to produce some decent squash before the season changes on them.
Squash are doing nicely - is there time yet for them to yield though?
Finally, to the elderberries!
I was so busy the rest of the time picking elderberries and de-stemming them that I forgot to take pictures of the berries! Oh well, they look the same as always so no great loss. We got about 4-5 gallon more from the entire weekends pickings. The bulk of the berries have not come in yet! I will need to do some re-arranging in the freezer up there to fit more in!
And more berries...
I also braved the black-raspberry patch again and picked about 1.5 pints of berries. There were plenty more but I was tired of being sliced and diced by those thorns! I also picked some more strawberries from our patch. Not a great lot though. Many of the ripe berries looked bad - I think they split because of the hot dry weather followed by those rains. I tossed a bunch. We have about a pint, all told now (minus the ones I ate last weekend). I must remember to only order the ever-bearing berries next year - we just don't have the time in the spring to pick the early berries I guess. If I can keep my wits about me this fall I should cover the strawberries with mulch so that they don't freeze out.
Katherine made a black-raspberry pie and another batch of raspberry muffins with this weekends pickings. I think there are still a few berries left - not sure what will happen to those!
Wednesday and Thursday Katherine had been talking about 2 dogs she had seen online that were adoptable. She really wanted to go see them, even though they were at a shelter near Philly. So Thursday afternoon we headed out (not great timing - Memorial day weekend, rush hour, hot, etc).
The trip back was not near as bad as the trip up. Still took some time though
Nice sunset. We didn't get home until about 9:30pm
This is a really nice shelter and the staff are wonderful!
We got there after about 3 hours and they let us have some time with the pups. they were bath very shy and poor Sugar was quite scared and timid. We got good vibes from both though and Katherine gave the green light. We bought some stuff for the dogs while we were there. Leashes, collars, cages. They gave us a bag of puppy food each and some old towels/blankets for the cages. It was a special for memorial day weekend; 2 for 1! So we got out for under $500 for everything! These pups are neutered, have their shots and even have a chips already installed. We even got a health information folder on each dog! We have a vet appointment this upcoming Wednesday to get a better idea about their health, just to be sure. Frisco's got some stitches from being fixed that don't look great (he keeps licking at them) and Sugar's ears look a bit red.
Sugar Getting comfy!
Aww, first night in new home. Passed out
Sugar getting some water
Playing dog games!
More dog games!
We have a little barrier at the top of the stairs to keep them from the downstairs and the foyer. Frisco looks so cute peeking up over the barrier!
Shih-Tzu's are known to be energetic and needing exercise. Frisco must have two dogs inside of him - he is pure energy!
Sugar, checking this plant out
Frisco, in a rare moment of not moving
Sugar, resting soundly after chewing on new toy
Air Conditioning, Raised beds and new plantings
I was planning on going to the farm this Memorial day weekend, but we thought it a better idea to stay home and let the dogs get used to us. Also we thought that driving them that far so soon would add to their disorientation.
In anycase, it was hot here and I was tired of the portable AC's inefficiencies. Those roll around units just don't bring them temperature under control like the window units do. So I got two new window units - one for my office and one for the living room. They installed fairly easily (heavy - but not like the old window units) and they are super efficient. They maintained house temp nice and cool during hot weekend (it got almost to 90F).
After taking care of some dog issues I was able to get some plants in the ground. The peppers and the one eggplant I had were transplanted into a raised bed. I had room left over in that bed so I planted some more eggplant seed. They seed was obviously not germinating well, so i just dumped the last of the packets into the soil. If too many come up I will just thin them. I did the same with some tomato seed in the "kale" bed. I had only used about 2/3'rds of the kale bed so I used the rest for tomatoes. Finally, I re-spaded the raised bed next to the woodpile and planted about half of it with cucumbers. I left the summer squash seed up at the farm. I will bring them back next time we go up and plant a few hill in the cucumber bed.
I had to put some fencing up around the beds because the dogs think its super fun to dig in them! I left the fencing off the potato patch, but I also found that the dogs will plow into them when playing, so I am starting to place some fencing around them as well.
The Kale and Collards are looking good.
Potatoes on left, about half of right bed is planted in cucs
peppers and eggplant on left, Kale and tomatoes in center, potatoes on the right.
I made some Kale crackers with some of the kale that I thinned from the bed.
I re-tried a recipe for Kale crackers that I had used a couple years ago. I think its the same recipe - or very similar anyway. Its basically 6 C Kale, 1 C almonds, 1/4C nutritional yeast and seasonings. Here is a link to the actual recipe (which I only vaguely followed): Kale Cracker Recipe They did turn out super yummy! I will make more this year, I am sure! These are nice nutritious and have no processed food ingredients. We are trying to eat better - removing as much processed foods from our diets as we can stand. I would still like to produce everything that we eat, but that's just not possible yet.
