Mid-June Update

Baby Amish Paste tomatoes as of June 16th!
I realized that I never did a list of what I am growing this year for varieties and the like. I think I also need to acknowledge the fact that I change my mind a lot. I keep going back and reading what I posted this spring making sure I am not too redundant, seeing what I wrote about my plan and it is so far off from what is going on now. I adapt I guess! So here is a list of what and what varieties are growing this year:

*Currently Growing*
Garden Peas, Lincoln (OP)
Cabbage, Melissa Savoy (F1H)
Broccoli, Thompson (OP)
Cauliflower, Snow Crown (F1H)
Brussels Sprouts, Gustus (F1H)
Kale, Lacinato (OP)
Carrot, Scarlet Keeper (OP)
Beet, Early Wonder Tall Top (OP)
Swiss Chard, Bright Lights (OP)
Lettuce, Blushed Butter Cos (OP)
Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson (OP)
Onion, Clear Dawn (OP)
Onion, Copra (F1H)
Onion, Rossa di Milano (OP)
Herb, Comfry
Herb, Mammoth Dill
Herb, Cilantro
Herb, Greek Oregano
Herb, Broad Leaf Sage
Herb, Stevia
Herb, Resina Calendula
Herb, Chamomile
Pepper, King of the North Bell (OP)
Pepper, Early Jalapeno (OP)
Pepper, Long Red Narrow Cayenne (OP)
Pepper, Hungarian Hot Wax (OP)
Tomato, Amish Paste (OP)
Tomato, Rutgers (OP)
Tomato, Super Sweet 100's (F1H)
Cucumber, National Pickling (OP)
Cucumber, Super Zagross (OP)
Corn, Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored Popcorn (OP)
Pole Bean, True Red Cranberry (OP)
Pole Bean, Kentucky Wonder (OP)
Squash, Spineless Beauty Zucchini (F1H)
Squash, Spaghetti (OP)
Squash, Waltham Butternut (OP)
Pumpkin, Rouge Vif d'Etampes (OP)
Pumpkin, Howden (OP)

*Fall Garden Additions*
Spinach, Winter Bloomsdale (OP)
Spinach, Giant Winter (OP)
Kale, Red Russian (OP)
Beet, Chioggia (OP)

*OP- open pollinated
*F1H- F-1 Hybrid

Many of what I am growing this year is new to me or I have yet to grow it successfully. I am still a fairly 'young' gardener experience wise so I am still in the process of experimenting with what crops and varieties I like to grow and grow well in my garden. Oh, the possibilities! My mind is running a mile a minute as I write this. Much to my husband's head shaking I pretty much live and breathe gardening right now. God bless him, he puts up with my constant chatter about what came up today and future plans. Most of my problem is that I have this feeling in my gut that we will need to rely on what we grow to feed us in the very near future. Not only because food is becoming more expensive but because eventually the farm land that is feeding this country now will give out. Even organic (commercial) farms are taking more out of the ground than they can put back. This is not a choice for me anymore, it is my children's future.


The chamomile for tea and tinctures and the calendula for salves are blooming. A little lavender plant I picked up today at a local nursery which I planted in a pot so I can bring it in in the winter.
Now that I have stepped of my soap box, lets get on to the updates! The first thing I am so excited to share is how I am implementing 'Back to Eden' gardening methods right now. I was letting my brain get in the way by thinking I had to start this kind of garden right (meaning having a flat area covered in newspaper, compost and then 4-6 inches of chips and left to do it's thing for the winter). But, the more I was researching, reading and watching videos of tours of Paul's garden, I realized I was forgetting the most important part. All things are possible through God! Friends of mine have been taking down trees and chipping the branches since last fall and had said I was welcome to them anytime. So as I need I have been collecting the wood chips and bringing them back to the garden. Because I made free form raised beds the sides were just dirt which meant that moisture was being lost from more than just the top surface. I covered the sides of the beds with 2-3 inches of chips and about an inch on the top because some of the plants are too small for it to be deeper. I will add another inch or two as they grow taller. When I am done Everything will have a layer including the pots and greenhouse beds. Most of what I am using is aged about 9 months and has already started breaking down, the ones on the potato bed are new. I know a lot of people make the argument against using wood chips as a mulch because it will rob the nitrogen from your plants, but this only occurs if you are either tilling the chips into the soil (NO!) or if you are planting directly in raw wood chips that are not yet well into the composting process. This style of gardening will not appeal to everyone but I firmly believe that it can work for anyone. It is simple, almost too simple and that is what trips most up I think.


Super Sweet 100, basil and a marigold. I'm growing this as a 'snack' plant near the house.
Next is what's up! Everything I planted on and shortly after the Memorial Day 'get the garden in' is up and flourishing. We had a few set backs (pre-wood chips I might add), with too much moisture and I did lose a couple of cucumber seedlings that had come up right before the 5 days of rain. It continued to be overcast and showery almost daily after and I am a bit worried that we are in for a wet summer without enough sun. The greens will love it but the crops I am really counting on (tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, beans) will not. Praying for sun and low humidity! Hahaha! That might be as much for the plants as it is for me ;-)


Beets and carrots are showing signs of root swelling beneath the soil line and the broccoli is getting bigger!
A nice look at the jungle of greens and where I trimmed leaves from a broccoli plant. Looks like the beet greens could use another harvest.
Things I am going to be working on indoors is planning the fall garden! I will be in Arizona mid July so I want to be able to come home and not worry about when to plant what. I will be on call for births before I leave til the end of August so I really need to get organized so I don't miss my planting mark. I've always had good intentions of having a productive fall garden but I seem to always lose my steam by August or so and just say heck with it. No more I tell ya! I am actually considering forming another bed or two just for fall crops. But, I won't pull the trigger on that until I am sure I do not have room anywhere else. Frankly, I have a lot I need to grow for fall crops more in quantity of each crop. I need greens, cole crops, carrots and beets to get up through the winter. I will dry a lot of herbs and grow as many as I can on my (new!) south facing kitchen window. This year is my experiment to see what amount I need to plant next year by how fast we run out with normal use.

Dill is growing wonderfully and comfry is being harvested weekly. I just put the last harvest of leaves in oil to infuse to make salves.
Cabbage and sulking lettuce I might pull; young cauliflower and broccoli that are growing heartily; peas that are about a day or two away from first harvest.

Just a little longer than they will be perfect! These are so sweet it's like little bursts of sugar. I am watering the bed every other day while they are filling out.

Bell peppers are budding and the onions are thickening finally.
I need to just marvel at and share how green all the plants in the barn garden are! I'm not sure if it is the horse/chicken manure compost or the Coast of Maine composts, but I have never witnessed such a color in anything I have grown myself. That and the blossoms on the tomatoes are gigantic. HUGE! I haven't seen that before either! What's more is that I was using a high quality organic fertilizer last year and didn't experience this kind of growth and health. This year I really just focused on soil diversity from different compost sources and am blown away. As much as it is tempting to stick yourself in a class of gardening style (Back to Eden, Square Foot, Biointensive, etc.) I think that like most things in life we need to just chuck the stereotypes and 'boxes' out the window. Gardening is not a science to me, I know most would disagree, and there is no right or wrong (except using toxins, that's just not cool). It drives me nuts when people nay say on certain styles simply because they read somewhere it's 'wrong'. Be a rebel! Do it carpet cleaner style and try new things in a corner of your garden you don't care about with spare seeds. No one is going to come get you if you mix different methods. I do it all the time and from the looks of the start of this growing season, I'm so glad I did.

The kiddos playing and hanging out by the barn garden with me while I puttered. Puzzle Boy never smiles until after I snap pictures! Happy Boy on the other hand flashed me a whopper! Oh, and do you see how big my daughter is next to her big brother who is four years older?
Potatoes getting ready to flower. They have to have quadrupled in size in the last two weeks! I have not watered since putting the wood chips on and I have never seen such beautiful potato plants. I snapped a leaf off and it was so moist it dripped.
Hot peppers preparing to bloom as well. I just pruned all the peppers and they have responded with better color and good growth immediately. I love pruning!
Zucchini and the squash/pumpkin/pole bean bed.

Sunflowers are coming up strong both in this fence line garden and the playhouse garden. All the herbs are exploding and need harvesting except the lemon balm which I just did Sunday.

Large garden bed with (in picture order) blackseeded simpson lettuce, lacinato kale with onions in the background, chard, cucumbers (which are still recovering from the rain damage) and corn. Pallet with onions which are a bit behind the onions in the large bed for unexplained reasons.

The tomatoes were staked today. The first picture shows the unsupported lean, second the nice straight stem after, third shows the figure eight method of tying. I also like to tie mine in a bow to make adjustments easy as they grow.
Last I will show you my new fence line behind the garden. After the horse decided to bust out yesterday morning from his pasture over yonder, I decided he needed the electric fence again. So, the little brat is on 'barn arrest' til further notice. He obliged me with a jail bird pose.
So there you have it! Another one after the fourth to come.

This post was share on Green Thumb Thursday Blog Hop.

How to Make a Sunflower Playhouse

Quite a few years ago now I remember I read a brief something about sunflower playhouses on a seed website. At the time a didn't have children so I kind of filed that idea away in my brain. Well, now I do! and they are the perfect ages to appreciate a playhouse made of plants. My daughter's favorite color is yellow and she loves to hide in small spaces so I have a feeling I will need to drag her in the house for dinner at the end of the summer!


The first thing you need to do is find an area in your yard or garden that gets at least 6 hours of full sun if not 8-10. Ideally this spot would also be in a place that is convenient for kids to play safely (right next to the driveway or road might not be a good idea in case your little angels decide to *pop!* out of their house to surprise you!). Next, decide how you would like to prepare your soil. This is completely personal and there are tons of different ways but my current favorite way is to lay down some cardboard or paper, a few inches of my horse/chicken/barn waste compost and then a mulch. This time I will be using hay that I raked of the barn floor (multi-tasking, cleaning the barn and mulching!). I like this way of soil prep for several reasons but the most important is that I can do it all by myself with a wheelbarrow and shovel. Oh, and it's free. With your chosen method, make a horseshoe shape ring.

Ok, so it is a simple method but it is hard work!

Remember to put soil on the paper as you go! Wind can be sneaky.
After you have prepped for planting, um, plant! I am using Mammoth Sunflowers which grow 8-12 feet high but you can mix and match your types as you please. Be sure to stagger the seeds in at least 2 rows so that the "walls" don't have gaping holes in them. Another nice method would be to not only stagger the seeds but to use varied heights (tallest on the inside row, shortest on the outside). When the plants are a couple inches high pull your mulch around them to prevent weeds and moisture loss.

Ready for seeds! I will mulch when the plants are a few inches high.
A note about sunflowers: they are heavier feeders and drinkers. I know I tend to forget that flowers need to be fed like vegetables do! Make sure to use a good amount of rich compost to produce hearty stalks and large blooms. If you mulch fairly heavy not only will that help with watering frequency but it will provide a bit of extra support to an extent.

Clearly this is what needs to happen with the extra newspaper... if you are 3.
Now all that is left to do is to wait for it to grow! By the end of the summer not only will the kids have a super awesome living fort but I will have lots of sunflower heads to keep the chickens happy all winter. Well, as long as the cat keeps the birds away.

If you have kids, this is an awesome way to spoil them for (in my case) about $2 and an hour of my time. Involve them in the process and then they will be able to show it off to their friends and be so proud of being a homestead kid! Homesteading with children can be rather challenging at times but with a bit of creativity both of you will have memories that can't be made any other way.

This post was shared on Green Thumb Thursday Blog Hop.

Canning My Own 'Convenience' Foods

For me canning is somewhat romantic. It gives you pause to think of simple or weighty things as you wait for things to boil or gain proper pressure. It gives you the comfort of an exact routine each time you fill a jar and prep it for processing. And, it praises you with clear vessels showing you beautiful food waiting to be enjoyed. Yup, for me canning is just something I enjoy. Since I didn't can at all this summer I was feeling a bit bummed like I missed out. Well I was reading an old cookbook my mom gave me a few years ago in my renewed quest of simpler yet tasty food, and I ran across instructions for canning dry beans so that they are ready just like store bought canned beans. So I wanted to give it a try as well as get some stock in the pantry ready to go.

I started with stock. We are slowly getting our chickens butchered so I had a carcass from one bird I roasted and one I had stashed in the freezer from a previous chicken dinner. I put them in the really big stock pot with onions (skin left on for color), celery, carrots, bay leaves and peppercorns, covered with water and set on the wood stove for several hours. I them strained it and left it in the fridge to cool overnight so I could skim the fat off the next morning. I then returned the stock to the big pot and the wood stove to come to a boil while I got everything ready for the canner. My husband's bosses were kind enough to lend me their pressure canner for my projects! I have yet to get my own but, one will be coming my way as a housewarming present from my grandparents, I just need to pick it out. Anyway! Stock is just about as simple as it gets. You just heat it to a boil, pour into hot jars, seal and process. I ended up with 10 quarts plus a little more which I just poured into my moose stew. I will caution you from using too many herbs or flavorings in your stock if you are going to can it because canning will intensify the flavor. One quart jar is equivalent to one standard box of stock minus the MSG, plastic lining and mystery ingredients. I hope to get a good stash of beef stock put up before I return the pressure canner. We have a ton of moose so I often needs beef stock to make stews and quick gravies to accompany steaks. I could make stock from the moose meat but I just can't bear to boil that beautiful meat to death!



Wednesday I canned the beans. I had recently bought an assortment of dry beans for the pantry since I am restocking (more on that later), so I canned a pound each of navy, pinto and garbanzo beans. I soaked them all overnight so they were fully re-hydrated yet not softened. Each pound filled a bit over 3 pint jars so I made a combined jar of pinto and navy beans. The garbanzos got cooked and went to the chickens because I forgot about them and they cooked unevenly (my bad). I chose to can pints because they hold about the same as a standard can which I thought would serve my pantry better. I am not to going to give instructions on how to can beans but there are plenty of resources which I used available either on the internet or in books. From the looks of things from the outside of the jars the beans might be slightly mushy. I read after the fact that softened water can cause this which is what we have. It might also be because the pressure was higher for a bit while I was trying to find the sweet spot for maintaining the proper pressure.

I would really like to try canning soups and things like baked beans as well in the future. Why bother? Well, right now we have about 300 pounds of moose and deer in the two deep freezers in the basement and the upstairs freezer is a drawer style in the fridge that always seems to be packed with odds and ends. Needless to say I do not have much room for stock and ready made items. Also, I am not real good about remembering to take things out of the freezer ahead to thaw. When I want some stock it's nice to just pop a top like the store bought stuff. Just way better.

So the kitchen has been busy! Not only with canning but I also made venison jerky and was on a quest for the perfect gluten free cinnamon roll. Add in making 3 meals a day and I have pretty much been spending all my time not nursing the baby in the kitchen. And, sometimes I nurse the baby in the kitchen. I have food prepping problems...

I'll be sharing about my pantry and how I am trying to both simplify and stock it up soon. In January I will be giving the Pantry Challenge another go to encourage me to use up bits that have been hanging around too long or are just hanging out because it's easier than figuring our what to do with it. So, I will try to blog daily on the challenge to share how I make it work beginning January 1st!

Til next time!