Cooking up a Storm

Well our garden has been doing wonderful which has in turn made me more domestic which I am pretty sure my husband is loving. On Sunday I got up and weighed our tomatoes we had accumulated quite the bowl full in our fridge and voila we has 6lbs, perfect! So let the process begin! Gabe and I spent most of the day in the kitchen we made 4 more jars of tomato sauce but this time I didn't have to buy anything from the store!! I was pretty excited and while that was working I decided to make zucchini bread, since we had just picked one the night before. So here is another recipe I found on the Internet.

As with everything at our house we omit the nuts (safety first) and my hubby had one suggestion put sugar on the top for a sweet crunch. 

Otherwise it was a success. Here's Gabe enjoying all of our hard work 

Zucchini

I just realized that I never shared what I decided to do about which way to grow our zucchini. Our choices were:

1. Just letting them grow as they please.

2. Growing them Vertically. Whether that be using a tomato cage or stakes.

We ended up making a cage out of some fencing we had, so it was kind of like a tomato cage. (I didn't take any pictures of it on the plants where you could see it, sorry.)  

In this picture the cage in in place and you can see how the plant is growing upward.  

As the plants started to get bigger I trimmed up the leaves on the bottom so the Zucchini had room to grow. The plant started to get pretty big for the cage and it was becoming difficult to reach in and trim up the plant. 

Right before we left for vacation I removed the cage. I knew I wasn't going to be there to remove the pesky leaves that were in the way and we did have some little Zucchini popping up. We switched to the free method.

I think it worked out quite well because when we got back this is what we had waiting for us.

Now to make something delicious out of them!

When Life gives you Tomatoes

We have been getting tomatoes from the garden lately and we decided to try a tomato sauce recipe with the ones we had plus a few extra from the store since not all of our tomatoes were ripe at the same time. We thought starting with a small batch was a good starting place since it was a new recipe.

Seasoned Tomato Sauce

INGREDIENTS

• • 12 cups chopped ripe tomatoes (about 6lbs)
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1tsp dried)
  • 2 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, sugar, pepper and bay leaves in a large stainless steel or enameled saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, until very thick, about 1 1/4 hours; stir frequently. Press through a food mill or coarse sieve to remove seeds and skins. Add lemon juice and salt.
2. Ladle sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe tops clean. Put on lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Remove and cool.
3. Makes about 4 cups

What I did a little different: We don't have a food mill to remove the seeds and skins so we started by blanching the tomatoes so we could peel them before we started. We just left the seeds in.

Blanch Your Tomatoes

• Fill a large 7- to 8-quart pot with 1 gallon water; bring water to boiling. 
• Using a sharp knife, cut a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato. This encourages the skin to split during blanching so you'll be able to slip off the skin easily with your fingers once the tomatoes have cooled. 
• Working in 1-pound batches, immerse tomatoes in the boiling water.
• Cook until the tomato skins split open.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer tomatoes to a large bowl of ice water.

Between Harvests

From time to time I get really fed up with the weather, it seems like all it does is rain. The grass is constantly wet and I can't mow, which of course means it is taking over and that stresses me out plus the chicken run is a muddy mess, because no mater what I do, it rains and makes it worse. I JUST WANT SUN! 

Then the little voice in my head says "It could be way worse! We could be the state having wild fires!" OK OK you are so right little voice and I am so glad we aren't that state by the way. Plus it is making taking care of the garden easier so I should just count my blessings. Let me tell you what, the rain is doing wonders in the garden division. 

Our Blackberry bush started to produce this year! We got a hole 4 or so berries, but I'm sure next year will be awesome!

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Everything is really looking great which is awesome but then at the same time we are in the hurry up and wait part of the process again. We were so excited to have lettuce and strawberries earlier in the year and now that the strawberries have stopped producing we are just kind of hanging out and waiting for all of our other plants to come into harvest season. 

As you can see the tomatoes are doing amazingly well and are probably the next to be harvested we are just waiting for all of those beautiful things to turn red. 

Happy Gardening!

James and the giant peach

We planted a peach tree in the summer of 2013 and this year we got our first little peach from it. Hopefully next year we will get at least 2 peaches :)

Yummy Grass

Took the smaller chickens out for some fun in the grass. 

We also took out the babies to the garden and used them as weed control and as fertilizers.

The Fruits of our Labor

Our garden is doing great and we have already been eating the fruits of our labor! 

We have been picking strawberries like crazy, the last couple of weeks, and mainly eating them as soon as they are picked. This weekend we did something other than just eat them straight out of the garden, we had strawberry shortcake.

Shawn and Gabe have also been steeling lettuce every chance they get. I'm just glad that all of the boys are eating fresh food from the garden as their snack of choice! This is one of the things that we were wanting when we moved here and started this blog.

We added a new garden bed this year with multiple types of corn.

Garden

I wanted to update you on our Garden Projects and show you how well our seedlings are doing out in the garden.

Here is a picture of our new trellis for Green beans and Peas, you can also see the plastic that we have put down between the beds to get rid of the grass. We haven't gotten rocks put down yet but it is a start.

The Cucumbers are growing nicely

Peas, Lettuce and Green beans have all sprouted.

The Zucchini are getting bigger. We haven't ever grown Zucchini before so this is a new experience. I have done some research and there are different methods to growing them. 

1. just letting them grow as they please.

2. growing them vertically. whether that be using a tomato cage or stakes.

I am going to have to pick one soon because they are growing fast.

Garden Problems

Ok so here are a couple of garden problems that we are trying to fix this year.

1. That Pesky Grass

As you can see in this picture of our strawberry bed from last year the grass between the beds gets unruly and is quite the pain in the butt. Keeping up with Mowing between them and then weed eating, just so you can get to your plants, waists all of the time you could be gardening.

Anyway I found a couple of pictures on Pinterest and went "WOW, why didn't I think of that?"

Now you cant tell me that doesn't look like a more fun place to be.

So we started by laying down this plastic barrier between the beds. Hopefully this will block off all of the grass from growing in between the beds so we can lay down rocks.

2. Unhappy Green Beans

So here is another picture of our garden from last year. We planted Green Beans all along he trellis. Some of them did quite well and other were blocked by the corn and didn't get much light. also when they did get going good they ran out of trellis.

 So another Pinterest solution an archway!

So I am putting my arch from one side of the bed to the other instead of over the isle. While taking a note from another Pinterest idea and using the space underneath to grow lettuce, which likes the shade.

Wish us luck. I'll post more pictures as we get farther along!

Escapee

We let all three ducks out for an adventure thinking we would bring them back in after a day or two. Well we got two of them in but this little lady has a mind of her own. She doesn't want any part of it. I've tried catching her, opening the gate and hearding her, leaving the coop open with food inside and me nowhere close so she could get in on her own and none of them seem to be working. Now I don't mind her being in the pond but she comes up and talks to her duck friends and does laps around the run like she wants in but she won't let me help her. We have been at this for a couple weeks now. If you get too close she flies back to the pond. 

She has got me stumped. 

The Guineas are Laying

Yeah ok, I probably should have realized this before now, but I hadn't. See I had heard that Guinea fowl like to lay outside in brush and are very protective of their eggs, yadda, yadda and so I guess I just didn't think they would have been laying inside the coop with the rest of the birds. Not to mention both of our guinea are female so I guess they are probably smart enough to know they aren't fertile.

I had even noticed their eggs to be a little different and was wondering which one of my chickens was laying them. as you know we have several Partridge Cochin bantams and an old English bantam so I was expecting little eggs from them and figured one of them was just laying a slightly different shape anyway I saw one of the Guineas in a nesting box the other day and got the bright idea to google Guinea fowl eggs and there they were and I went wow DUH.

So there you have it.

This is a constant learning process for me.

And now I know all of my ladies are laying.

Moving On Up

Well I noticed that our chicks were just getting too big for the rabbit cage I had them in. I knew I needed to move them, but our little white chick just wasn't quite big enough due to the Pasty Butt experience. 

See the next step is for them to move into the brooder, which is out in the chicken coop. Which isn't a bad place to be especially when we kept a heater on in the winter, but we haven't done that since spring started and I knew that our Missouri spring nights would just be too cold for a girl without all of her feathers. 

I didn't want to move everyone else and leave her behind, so I waited a little longer than I normally would have to move them out to the brooder. Well once she had more feathers we moved them all out, and I have to tell you it wasn't a minute too soon because bigger birds mean more poop and a stinkier living environment for all of us. 

They have twice as much room now, so I'm pretty sure they are happier.

Now it's time for the big chickens to get to know the chicks a little before they have to start sharing space. We want the transition to go as smoothly as possible.

I don't know if it is just our flock or if all birds are only bothered by others of the same species but it seems that chickens only care about pecking order with chickens the fact that there are Guinea Fowl, Turkey and Ducks all living with them just doesn't seem to matter.

What? Butts

Ok so as you guys know we have 12 healthy little fluffy additions to our little farm that just happen to be living in the house with us for the time being. Well one Sunday I took them out in the yard to see grass. Which by the way is the coolest thing ever to a chick that lives inside a house, and I noticed 4 or 5 pasty butts (yes that is a technical term).

So what is pasty butt? Well that is when their droppings get stuck in their fluff instead of falling to the ground and it clogs up the works like a cork. Problem is its fatal so yea you have to clean the poop off their rears.

So what do you do about it? You stick them in some water to let it soften up and wipe it off gently now make sure it's warm or the poor little things could freeze to death.

Ok so back to what happened on our adventure outside. We got out a tub and had a chicken bath.  I cleaned them off and about a week one little chick had it again. This time was the Hubby's turn to clean. Anyway we haven't had any problems since then and they are all growing.

Tip: If your chick already has its wing feathers and has a tendency to fly then you might do it in a bath tub or a storage tub with higher sides because they will not keep their butts in the water where they need to be for this to work.

Eggs

We are having quite the time with eggs, we have been getting 5-6 a day with our current 7 hens. Now that we just added 6 more hens, that I know have been laying, and two ducks, that have been as well, we are sure to have our hands full. I think we are going to need an egg basket after all. 

It's nice that after all this time we are getting eggs like we had hoped. Our flock is getting bigger and we are getting that much closer to being self sufficient. And if we keep up with production we may even get to sell some eggs and make a little money back.

And I'll leave you with a picture of a little chicken shaking her tail feathers.

New Additions

Today is a big day for our little coup. 

We got 7 new Partridge Cochin Bantams. 6 hens and 1 rooster
All fully grown and the girls are supposed to be everyday layers

We also got 2 new Muscovy ducks.
Also layers

All of our chickens are trying to re-figure out the pecking order. Total we have 3 Roosters and 13 Hens, that are all trying to find their place, hopefully they all calm down tonight they have had a stressful day. 

The ducks are very calm and agreeable which is nice, so I'm not too worried about them. There are 3 of them now, I didn't want our one duck to get lonely.

Spring Cleaning

The warm weather has arrived and we are taking advantage of it while we can. We cleaned out the coop, rearranged it a bit and laid down fresh hay in the coop and the run.

We also cut down a couple of trees and put them in the run to give the flock something to play with and we got them a feed block which they LOVE now that they found it.

We also added some new roosts in the coop.

Now here is a video for a little fun :)