They have a rough life

I love my chickens.  They are by no means pets, but they are quite spoiled nonetheless.  When we had just the Buff Orpingtons, they roamed the yard in their chicken tractor.  This past summer, we added some Rhode Island Reds to the mix.  As a result, the girls got a much larger coop and yard. 

They don't move around on the grass anymore, but they still get great treats.  The garden is finishing up and we're about to get our first frost and possible snow.  They always get weeds and yucky produce, but lately, it's been even more.  Today it's worm eaten chard, an over- ripe watermelon and some small, under-developed eggplants.  They get so excited when they see me.  They don't always get treats, but it's often enough.  The alarm goes out and all 7 pair of feet come running.

 

We own half a duplex and the other half is empty and for sale.  I've seen several people look at my chickens and make faces.  The other day I got to talk to one of the real estate agents.  She tells me that the first time someone said that the chickens were bad, she told them to go and look at the chickens close up.  "Look", she said, "They have fresh fruits and vegetables.  They eat better than we do.  Plus, they don't smell.  Someone takes very good care of these chickens."  

Today, they also got a layer of plastic over the run.  Chickens don't mind the rain, but snow does not make them particularly happy.  Their poor little toes get cold.  Since I want my chickens to be outside whenever possible, their run gets covered each year to keep the snow to a minimum.  Snow still gets in there, but not nearly as much.  These girls are valuable, hard working members of our little homestead.  They deserve to be treated well. 

My latest obsession

When my friend Kerry emailed me about a soap class a few years ago, I was excited.  I thought it would be neat.  It seemed like something cool to learn how to do, but I wasn't sure, given my lack of interest in cosmetic things, if it would be something I would love.  The idea of making my own cheese seemed a bit more my speed.  The class was lots of fun and the soap turned out to be the best soap I had ever used.  My sensitive skin loved it.  My additive loathing self loved it.

So, Kerry and I made plans to make some more.  Last year we got together and made a whole bunch of soap for gifts and ourselves.  We ended up with a bunch of soap for gifts and personal use.  I'll admit to being a bit stingy with it, it's good stuff!

I still hadn't made any soap by myself.  We were getting low on soap and I didn't want to use the store bought stuff again.  It makes my skin feel funny.  The only solution was to bit the bullet and make it all by myself.  There is a surprising amount of stuff you need to make soap.  There are different oils, pots, blenders, additives if you like, and of course, the dreaded lye.  I got it all and even decided to get the fancy wooden mold.

 

It turned out to be even more fun when I got to pick out scents and additives.  My daughter and I picked out some neat scents and I was off.  We even got the supplies to make other nifty things like lip balm.  There are several batches curing in the kitchen right now.  The smell in my house is amazing.  

 

The only problem now is that I'm running out of racks to put all the soap on!

Today's Harvest

It's been a busy summer.  The garden has been neglected slightly more than usual, but it seems to be holding it's own.  I have lots on the agenda for the garden in the coming weeks.

The tomatoes were late to the party, but seem to be rolling in well now.  We had a big rain storm last week, so many of them split a bit.  Overall, they managed quite nicely.  It's that time of year when every day there are many pounds of tomatoes.  The canner has been getting a workout and the shelves are quickly filling with lots of yummy things for the winter.

Tomatillos are really coming in now as well.  I did one batch of tomatillo salsa last week and will be doing another this week.  It's indispensable in a lot of my recipes.  The plants produce like mad and as a result, it seems that I don't really need to plant them every year.  A good year of harvests can often last for 2 years.

Cucumbers are also doing well.  One that isn't pictured, is a monster that I found hanging behind the fence.  It was the enormous.  Hubby had to try it and was rewarded with a mouthful of very bitter cuke.  The chickens thought it was gourmet.

It's been a good year for watermelons.  I grew Sugar Babies this year.  After last year's disappointing harvest, I was ready to throw in the towel.  The kids begged and we gave it another try.  We were rewarded with several good sized melons and more to come.

It's also been a huge year for pumpkins and squash.  Zucchinis have thankfully, stopped coming in, but it was one of my biggest years for them.  The pumpkins did well and there is plenty more winter squash still in the garden.  I harvested several acorn squash a week or so ago.  And then there is the Hubbard squash.  I planted them in a 4x10 bed.  There were 2 hills and I planted another hill of another variety that I have since forgotten.  It's forgotten because it got over run by hubbards.  The vines were threatening world domination.  The squash pictured is larger than my food scale can handle, I'll have to get the bathroom scale out.  The problem is that there are 4 more (that I've found) out there and this one is far from being the largest.  I'm told that the taste is incredible, so we'll be having lots of fun with squash this year.  Since there are over 100 lbs of winter squashes yet to be harvested, I don't think we'll be needing to plant many next year.  There will be lots in the freezer for a while.

This post will be part of Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions.  Check out all the amazing produce being harvested around the country and even the world. 

I'm still here

A friend just reminded me that I have completely neglected my blog.  Since becoming the market manager at my town's Farmer's Market, I've become very involved with that.  It's getting to the point that the market doesn't require me to think about it constantly, so I think that an update is in order. 

The garden is going well.  After a cool, wet spring, we're having a hot summer.  This week we're due for a nice break from the heat though.  It's forecast for upper 70s all week.  After a summer of 90s it's quite welcome. 

I overplanted winter squash this year.  This is my hubbards plotting world domination.  The picture is from several weeks ago and they are growing everywhere.  It's made mowing the lawn interesting.  Since they sit right next to the shed, even getting the mower out is a chore.  In addition to the hubbards, I'm innundated with acorn squash, butternuts, sugar pie pumpkins and of course the zucchini.  We'll be living large this winter with the orange veggies. 

My tomatoes are on the late side this year, with nothing ripe yet.  They were small going in and I got them in the ground about 2 weeks later than I usually do. 

I promise to get some updated photos soon and give a better overview of what is going on.  Canning season is about to go into full swing, so there will be lots to see and do. 

Progress finally

After getting some snow on Friday, we're finally warming up a bit.  It's still far from normal temps, but better nonetheless.  I was able to go out and prep about half of the beds and got the peas planted.

It still looks so barren and depressing, but it won't be long.  Most of that fence will hopefully be coming down in the next week or so.  I'll be cutting it up and using it as portable trellising for peas and the like.  It's hard to see from here, but in the main garden the first 2 beds have peas now planted on the Western edge of the beds. 

The brassicas and greens got to spend a few hours sunning themselves today.  It's been pretty windy, so they didn't make it very long.  If the weather continues to warm up, they'll be planted out next week.  Since they're getting a bit leggy, it will be very good for them. 

Compared to last year, it seems like we're incredibly behind.  In reality, last year was much warmer than normal, so this year's colder than normal feels that much worse.  I'd say we're about 2 weeks behind schedule overall, but it will hopefully catch up to where we should be soon.  It isn't all that unusual for New England to kind of skip over Spring and go directly from Winter to Summer.  If that's the case we'll be all set in a few weeks. 

Save your back and a few seeds along the way

It's been a busy few weeks here.  Plans for the Farmer's Market are coming along quite nicely and I'm feeling like it's going to be pretty great.

In between phone calls and helping Hubby with his computer business and being a mom and.... , I've been making seed tapes.  You can find tutorials for how to do them everywhere these days.  What it comes down to is some kind of flimsy, easily broken down paper, glue of some kind and seeds.  I prefer tp, elmers and just about any tiny seed.

You see, I'm not the most patient gardener in the world and I have a bad back.  Given the choice of carefully planting seeds or scattering them everywhere, I'll invariably choose the scatter method.  The problem is that it wastes a ridiculous number of seeds. Then they have to be thinned and I'm not a big fan of thinning either.  It makes me sad to pull out a perfectly good seedling, plus it means I have to get down and pull them.  Seed tapes solve all those problems.  You can buy them pre made, but I'm also cheap and I like to have a lot of variety.

I'm doing beets today.  There will be 3 different varieties this Spring.  Chiogga, Cylindra and Detroit Dark Red are my choices this year.  The carrots have already been done, there are 3 varieties of those as well.  You can't find that at the seed store.  Seed tapes are good for lettuce, parsnips and really any small seed that gets planted in quantity.  I thought about cabbage and broccoli, but that just seemed a bit much.

When they dry, just roll them up and store them away until planting time.

It's been unseasonably cold this March, so nothing much has been happening in the garden.  I'm really hoping that it warms up a bit soon, there are far too many seedlings in the basement.  The cabbage, broccoli, chard, kale and asian greens are all ready to go out.  Since I have no desire to pot them up, I'm hoping it will warm up instead.

Update

Some of you may remember that I had a few things up in the air.  Well one has become official.  I am now the manager of the Bridgewater Farmers Market.  I'm very excited and overwhelmed all at the same time.  There is a ton to get done between now and our opening on June 18th.  We'll be operating from 10-2 on Saturdays.  Since the market manager fell through last year, the market ended after only a few weeks.  We've changed a lot, including the day, time and location.  That means I'm really starting from scratch in many respects.  It's very exciting. 

If you want to find us on Facebook, we're listed as the Bridgewater Mass Farmers Market.  There is also a webpage, but it is in desperate need of a facelift, so I'll wait on giving out that one.  If you're local, come on by!