Hunting & Gathering

We are in harvest mode in the garden.  Yesterday alone we picked 40 pounds of tomatoes and 8 pounds of green beans.  We are still getting zucchini, cucumber, green peppers, onions and garlic.  I found a spaghetti sauce recipe that is fantastic and I can make it entirely with contents from our garden.

With so much we decided to get busy canning right away.  We put up 9 quarts of green beans, 7 quarts of tomatoes, and 4 quarts of the spaghetti sauce.  Previously we had frozen a couple bags of corn and some grated zucchini.

Speaking of the freezer, deer season is rapidly approaching.  We have been working hard at cleaning out the freezer by eating what is left of last year's deer meat, and other frozen items from last year.  Squirrel season is already in and we made squirrel and dumplings on Friday.  I made my dumplings from scratch using a double batch of J.P.'s Big Daddy Biscuits.

It is so fun to be partially self sufficient.  Many of our meals lately have come from things that we have preserved, saved, harvested, or hunted.  In addition, like the biscuits, much of our ingredients we start from scratch.

We have always composted, but now a bunch of our fresh vegetable scraps go to the animals.  My hope is to plant our own hay to be able to feed them next year instead of buying it.  I guess if the Mayan's were right about December 12th, we will be prepared to survive here on the east half of the southwest quarter.

Good News Bad News

I went out early this morning to pick a few ears of corn, which I was sure would be ready.  I intentionally left them during the last picking, thinking they needed a couple more days.  Well, there are not any good ears left.  Something is eating them.

Based on the fact the stalk isn't knocked over, I think deer not raccoon.  I found plenty of deer tracks near my tomato plants and peppers as well.  While that isn't good for the vegetable garden, it is about to be hunting season.  With the drought, we were worried about the health of the deer population.  With them eating out of my garden, I think hunting season will be just fine on the east half of the southwest quarter.

My Animals Eat Better Than I Do

Here is a picture of today's harvest, excepting the sweet corn which I already put in the fridge.  I intend to eat it tonite.  I had been looking forward to eating the corn we harvested two nights ago.  We were sure I brought it in, but neither Susan or I could remember seeing it in either fridge.  When we harvested those nine ears, we gave away all that we already had figuring we had enough for our family.

When I was in the garden today, I found seven of those nine ears.  The bag I put them in was still sitting in the garden.  The remaining seven ended up going to Norbert, Rocky, Donkey, and the chickens.  At first I was a bit upset, but realized, I wasn't wasting any food.  I was feeding food I grew to the animals, meaning I don't have to buy feed.

Part of the goal of growing our own food is being self sufficient.  I have to remember that I don't have to actually eat everything.  We have bartered food this week for things we are short of.  We have given food away, knowing that our generosity will be repaid at some point in the future.  My mood changed as I watched how much the animals enjoyed the semi fresh corn.

So in this drought, where we have had slimmer pickings on sweet corn, we missed out on one meal.  But our loss was the animals gain, here on the east half of the southwest quarter.

Gardening in a Drought

So with July having been the hottest month since 1871 according to Paul Poteet, our garden has had mixed results.  We watered every couple days since planting late in May.  However, with a vacation at the beginning of July and concern over running the well dry, we have backed off that schedule.

Our peas didn't tolerate the heat well and we only ate a few ripe ones while standing in the garden.  We had good results from our lettuce, but didn't continue to pick it enough and it has all gone bitter.  The radishes did well and we pickled quite a few along with some "non-garden" vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, and asparagus.  You can see them in this picture as they age amongst my collection of growlers.

Cucumber and zucchini seem to be the hit of the garden and we are working hard on keeping up with new ways to cook zucchini before it gets bad.  We pickled seven quarts of cucumbers just this week, using dill from our herb garden and garlic from our own garden.  Fairly self sufficient, wouldn't you say?

Finally we ate sweet corn out of our garden this week too.  The first couple dozen ears we probably waited too long, so we froze most of that for use in winter soups.  The second batch we picked was exactly what we hoped for; tender, sweet, juicy corn on the cob!

Tomatoes and green peppers are coming along nicely now too.  We made a small batch of salsa with the first pickings, and have been eating tomatoes with about every meal this week.  In my future I foresee a lot of tomato canning.

We are still waiting on our carrots, and our green beans.  We watered again because our beans have flowered and we think we are only days away from a tremendous crop.  More updates to come as August arrives on the east half of the southwest quarter.

Mirror Recycling Project

I like re using wood I find on the property.  It has a great weathered look, even when machined and treated.  Plus, I am not taking more of the natural resources than I need since I am re using previous resources that have been discarded.

For this project, my raw materials came from a couple different places.  In the picture, the boards are old fence boards from the property. The grey square behind them is the back side of a mirror I salvaged from a bathroom remodeling project.

I have planed the boards to remove the old really weathered wood, plus make them uniform thickness.  I cut them to size and joined them together to make a frame for the mirror.

My goal was to make this an entry way mirror with hooks for coats or decorations.  Keeping with the recycling theme, I decided to salvage some insulators from the old electric fence on the property.

Grace and I went and retrieved some this morning.  They are soaking in some vinegar and hot water to clean up a little bit and then they will be ready to attach.

I still need to stain the frame before final assembly.  I attempted to use black raspberries from the property as a stain, but it is too purple a finish for me.  I am going to end up with a store bought stain for this project.




I finally wrapped this project up.  Here is the final version, hanging in my kitchen.  I ended up with a polyshades that worked really well on that old oak.  Two coats gave me the color I wanted and the protection level I was after.  We bought vinyl lettering to apply to the bottom. I found the saying while searching for recycling quotes.  Once I found the saying, I also found a blog with that same title.  I will give a shout out to that blog as it espouses many of my beliefs and the core of this project.

Knee high by the fourth of july

So we weeded and thinned our lettuce and radishes today.  Overall I'm pleased with the growth and our efforts at weeding.

This is just a picture of our corn, which meets and exceeds the old adage.  In late July we should have a bountiful harvest.

We harvested two full brown paper bags of radishes and a plastic Kroger bag full of lettuce today.  Anyone in the metro Indy area needs some, call me.

First Harvest

It's been a while since I posted.  Busy with a lot of things including trying to figure out why all our chickens are gone.  Maybe coyotes, but probably raccoons.  Didn't help that Addison, one of our dogs, killed a few.

My sweet potato experiment is finally beginning to take shape.  I had given up on it, but I finally see some vines beginning to make their way out of the top.  It took longer than I thought, but it is helping me learn patience.  

Since I posted last, our garden has started to come in nicely.  Here is the first batch of radishes we pulled.  We also thinned our lettuce, a variety type that includes arugula.  In the bottom picture, you can see the radishes and lettuce as the bedding for these tuna cakes I made along with some rice pilaf.

 I am looking forward to continuing to eat fresh from the garden as a part of every meal.  The leftover lettuce, we wilted in some bacon grease and included in a frittata the next morning.

We will replace the chickens, after a little more security goes into their coop, and soon a whole meal will be made of food grown, raised, or harvested off of the east half of the southwest quarter.