Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Samson the Dog of Valor

Samson is a golden retriever that we adopted two months ago.  He is replacing our beloved golden retriever Ginger that died of cancer just before Christmas.  Samson looks just like Ginger except he is FAT!  We have had him on a diet and he is much slimmer but still is a big boy!  He is a wonderful alert dog and growls and barks whenever someone comes by.  He is not however aggressive, although I don't know what he would do if confronted with someone intending to do us harm.  He is so sweet with our children and the children that come over all the time.  He has never even growled at them even though they dress him up and use him as a pillow.  We named him Samson because he just looked like a Samson.  He has very beautiful fur.


Whenever we are outside he posts himself guard duty of the children and follows them wherever they go.  He doesn't dig or chew so he is the perfect dog.

The first egg!

We bought our day old chicks from a feed store at the beginning of April and have been nurturing them with tender care for the past 4 months.  Every day they are given garden scraps and leftover food from our kitchen as well as the feed that they need to grow.  Then this morning I went to fill the feeder in the coop and what do I see.  A lovely chocolate brown egg laying in the litter!  Our first egg!


Our egg is the brown one next to a store bought large size egg.

When chickens first start laying they don't know to go in the nesting box and so you sometimes will find eggs on the floor.  The eggs will first be small and then as the hen ages the eggs will get bigger and bigger.  Depending on feeding and the time of year we can expect one egg per day from each chicken.  That means we will be getting from 60 to 70 eggs per week!

What do you do with all those eggs you say?  Well you can make lots of puddings, quiches, and eggs for breakfast.  You can cut down on your meat intake by supplementing eggs.  Did you know that an egg contains all vital vitamins and nutrients except vitamin C?  You can make breads and cookies and other baked goods with less expense. And those eggs are much cheaper, healthier, and fresher than store bought. In fact just the scraps from our garden and kitchen would almost be enough to feed our 10 chickens with a tiny supplement of chicken feed.  That means that we get our eggs almost for free. 

With the recent salmonella scare I am especially glad to have our own eggs.  I know exactly what is going on in my coop. My chickens are fed a varied and healthy diet with lots of greens and fruits.   If one of my chickens gets sick I will notice right off.  In the chicken industry they only notice a disease spreading when the chickens start dying.  Would you want to eat an egg from a sick chicken?   And what happens when meat prices go up as they are forecasting in the coming months?  For those people who are already struggling having a way to provide their own protein would be smart.

Plus having chickens is fun!  They are neat to watch and pretty too.  There are so many varieties to choose from that anyone could find a breed that appeals to them.  We spend probably 5 to 10 minutes per day feeding them because we have an automatic water and feeder.  And every week I throw some fresh wood shavings into the coop to keep it clean.  The biggest job is shoveling it out twice a year and all that lovely manure goes into the compost heap for enriching our garden.

All around having chickens is worth the work.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Canning Peaches and Plums

On Saturday my lovely sister asked if I would like to come over and pick peaches from her tree.  Of course I wanted to.  Our peach trees that we planted this year will not bear a large amount of fruit for probably 2 to 3 years so the chance to can tree ripened peaches is one I wouldn't pass up. It's just amazing how much one fruit tree can produce. She had already canned about 20 quarts and gave us half the tree to pick.  We didn't even pick all the peaches from our half because some were still very green.  She still has the other half to pic and process for her own family.  Just to let you know home canned peaches that are tree ripened will put you off store bought for the rest of your life! 

While I was in town I also went and picked a bunch of wild plums.  These are small plums but very sweet.  I decided to use them for jelly since they wouldn't make good jam. 

 
 
  I add cinnamon sticks and piece of nutmeg to the syrup to add spice flavor to them. All in all I canned 21 quarts and 7 pints of peaches and then 17 pints of plum jelly in one very long day.  I only stopped because a jar broke in my hand and cut the heck out of my finger.  Blood and peaches shouldn't go together so I took the hint and ended the day.

What a wonderful abundant land we live in.  We are so lucky to have access to good inexpensive food. 
We are truly blessed!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Of Gardens, Chickens, and Pansies

This is the time of year I love best.  My garden is approaching that wonderfull time of harvest and I can see whats coming along.  It has been a slightly dissapointing year for many of my crops.  My watermelons are not going to make it and my cucumbers have fizzeled.  But the pumpkin and winter squash patch has done o.k. so we will have pleanty of pies and roasted sweet squash this winter.  I planted butter nut squash, buttercup squash, acorn squash, amish sweet pie pumpkins, conneticut feild pumpkins, and a Big Max pumkins to try to enter into fair but it's not going to be ready in time.  Yummy!



Here is my pumkin and squash patch
Not really big but I hope to get several fruits from each plant


This pumkin is huge! 
It will at least reach 40 lbs and probably more



Our chickens are about to start laying.  We got them as day old chicks in April and I can't wait to get fresh eggs again. 



Pansies for some reason grow all over our property.  They are one of my very favorite flowers and the children love to pick them to give me boquets.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Easy Wood Splitting- One of those great ideas that make you say "why didn't I think of that?"



This has got to be one of the greatest ideas.  I remember splitting wood every day for our fireplace when I was a girl so this will be a life saver.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Making a treat for cheap!

We got a boat load of free bananas that were very ripe the other day and since our family doesn't like banana breads I decided to make banana Popsicles.  They look very good and the kids are going crazy over them.  It funny how much children appreciate something so simple to make.

A Canning Day

The day before yesterday I recieved a ton of free produce that was about to hit overripe.  So I decided to can it into usable winter foods. 

I made:

7 quarts vegitable soup with onion, carrot, potatoes, celery, corn and tomatoes

3 quarts applesauce

6 pints onion condiment

3 pints zuccini relish



I also dried banana chips and had the kids go out and pick the feverfew blossems to dry for tea this winter.







The vegitable soup smelled soooo good! I pressure canned that, but everything else just needed a boiling water bath. I will probably make another 4 quarts of applesauce with the apples I have left and I still have a ton of onions I need to process. It was a good day!

Psalm 34

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise sall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt his name together.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Growing an Heirloom Apple Orchard

My first experience with Heirloom Apples was when we moved into our home in Wyoming.  Across the street from our house was an old orchard that had fallen into disuse.  Always in horror of seeing good food go to waste I asked the owner if I could pick some of the fruit before it all went to waste.  But I was refused!  She informed me that she left the orchard for the deer so they had food to eat.  After many visits that included bribes of home baked bread, eggs from our hens, and even produce from our garden the last member of the family gave me grudging permission to pick some apples. On entering the orchard I was amazed that the trees still produced fruit. Almost all the trees were half dead and broken, most of the apples were small although few had any worm damage. Upon tasting the first apple I was in love. It was crisp, sweet tart and creamy fleshed. Going over later to thank the owner with a jar of applesauce I asked about the history of the orchard. The aged lady seemed pleased to have a "youngster" interested and filled me in on all the details. This was an ancient apple orchard which turned out to be over 100 years old.  It had been planted by the original homesteader 3 generations before and in its day people had come from miles around to buy apples and cider from the family.  It is one of the few orchards in Wyoming due to the severely cold (up to -40) winters.  The variety of the apples was called Wealthy.

Well the moment I got home I started researching this delicious and hardy apple.  I found that it had been developed in 1860 in Minnesota, was extremely hardy, and was great for cooking.

Fast forward a few years and we decided to plant 5 apple trees at our new home. Our family loves apples and we go through tons in the form of applesauce, pie, cider, chutney, and fresh eating.   As we were living in Washington state apples are not expensive so I knew I wanted varieties that are not common to the markets.  After doing much research I ordered my trees from a company called Tree's of Antiquity at treesofantiquity.com.  They literally have hundreds of varieties of apple trees and with the help of their knowledgeable staff I picked trees that were suited to our hot summers and sometimes cold winters.  Unfortunately Wealthy was not a candidate for our area!  But I was given some suggestions of similar varieties that would do better.  The 5 trees are Gravenstein, Macoun, Newtown Pippen, Roxbury Russet, and Winesap.  All of the varieties I choose are multipurpose meaning that you can use them for fresh eating, cooking, and cider.  I also made sure that they were known for their keeping ability so that we could be eating fresh apples into the spring.  The Newtown Pippin tree was the favorite apple of George Washington and developed in 1759!

Here is a picture of our mini apple orchard


They will begin bearing fruit in good amounts in 2 to 3 years.  As you can see we have planted them fairly close together as we intend to prune them to semi dwarf size.  The plants you see between them are green beans and lettuces which form a good cover crop and use up the wasted space.  They have grown at least a foot since we planted them this spring!

There are some things you should make sure of if you want to plant fruit trees in your yard.

1.  The most important  thing is to make sure that the tree is suited to your climate.  There would be nothing as disappointing as watching your apples tree grow for a few years and then end up with year after year of disappointing or nonexistent harvests.  There are now varieties of fruit trees that can thrive in the coldest northern states but would die in the south.  Also some apples will live and even fruit well in your area but may end up tasting mealy because they do best in the eastern states.  The only way to avoid these pitfalls is to talk to a knowledgeable orchardist who can guide you to the trees best suited for your climate.

2.  Cross pollination.  Almost all fruit trees require a cross pollinator.  This is another tree that blossoms at the same time.  Most trees will need a different variety to cross pollinate with.  So you will need a tree that blossoms at roughly the same time and is compatible with your tree.  Again having a knowledgeable person is key to finding the right trees.

3.  Next is what are you going to do with the fruit.  If you want fruit just for fresh eating then choose a variety to suit that.  Just remember that you will get allot of fruit and many fresh eating varieties are not suited for storage, cooking, or canning.  If you want to can much of the fruit or make pies you must make sure the variety is known for that.  And lastly it may be a good idea to choose varieties that store for long periods of time.  After all the longer they store the longer you can enjoy them!

4. Adequate sun and space.  All fruit trees do best in full sun with enough space to spread out, you will need at least 10 feet square.  You can keep them at dwarf size but you must realize that the smaller you keep the trees the less fruit you will get.

5. City ordnance's for your area.  In our state because of the huge apple industry there are some areas that actually go around to see if local citizens are spraying their trees.  If they don't the city will spray them for the tree owner and then send them a bill!  Talk about big brother!




Tuesday, August 3, 2010

How much food can you raise on an average sized lot in town?

As food prices go up many of us are looking at ways to save money yet still feed our family nutritious food.  For some that means cutting back on the more expensive healthy food and buying the highly processed "frankenfood" instead.  One show I caught a glimpse of had a women who bought most of her food at the dollar store.  She cooked a menu based solely on what she could find there which consisted of highly processed mystery meats and boxed "dinner additions".  She was very proud to be able to feed her family of 4 a dinner for under $15.00 a night.  But every food product she used was from China which is not known for its high standards of food processing.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the dollar store.  I just don't buy food there!   What I wonder is why more people don't root up their useless grass that must be mowed, weedwacked, and fertilized and instead plant things that will actually feed them.  Many people complain about the cost of food but  tell me that they can't possibly raise food where they live because they only have an average sized yard.  They say it's too hard, to much work, and they don't know how to do it. Meanwhile they pay hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege to go to the health club and work out.  They could burn the same amount of calories weeding, hoeing, and digging in there garden, and in the end save those hard earned dollars.    Throw in a few fruit trees, some berry brambles, and maybe even a couple of laying hens and you would be surprised how much organic and practically free food you can produce.

Right now on barely 3/4 of an acre we have 3 raised beds, 5 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 pear trees, a medium sized patch planted in winter squash/zucchini/cucumbers/melons, 6 grape vines, a small strawberry patch, 2 herb gardens (one medicinal, one culinary), 2 elderberry bushes, a bunch of different berries brambles, 3 blueberry bushes, several beds of tomatoes and lettuce and carrots, a chicken coop with 11 chickens, and the garage with 20 rabbits.

We planted and built all of these things in just one spring following us moving in.  The fruit trees will not produce for another 2 to 3 years, the berries and grapes will produce next year, and the garden has been supplying us with food for our lunch dinners every night.  As  a side note my garden is not doing well at all this year due to unseasonably cold weather.  We are going to be planting at least 3 more fruit trees, currents, gooseberries, 2 more grapevines, and build up to six more raised beds.  With this setup not only will I be able to produce all of our canned veggies,canned fruit, jams, jellies, juice, and dried fruits for a full year for six people.  I will also be able to provide all the fresh fruits and veggies from spring to fall for our eating. 

From our 10 laying hens who will start laying next month we can expect about an egg a day from each of them from spring to fall and slightly less in the winter.  That is a total of 60 eggs per week!  That's right 60 eggs per week from 10 chickens.  And our chickens eat very little feed store food.  They get all the scraps from the house like sour milk, stale bread, leftover veggies and fruit, rice and beans.  They also get weeds, bugs and garden cast offs.  My eldest son will soon be in charge of the watering and feeding of the chickens.  From our rabbits we can supplement our meat budget with very little space expended.  They also eat our garden castoffs and dandelions greens. My eldest daughter is in charge of their care and feeding morning and night.  There is nothing our children love more than to go give the chickens their scraps, collect eggs or see the brand new baby bunnies.  They see everyday how we must be good caretakers of our animals and garden if we want to reap the rewards of fresh eggs or ripe tomatoes.  In this way the whole family participates in the productions of our food.

We spend maybe 1/2 hour per day in the garden doing things like watering/weeding/planting/and harvesting.  Animal care takes another 15 min to 1/2 hour per day depending on whats going on.  In my opinion it's worth with work to have organic fresh produce, meat and eggs.

How did I become an urban homesteader?

My sister recently asked me what an urban homesteader was and it got me thinking.  What makes a person a homesteader?  It's not just having a garden or a few chickens in town, it's a total mindset. It means you believe strongly in growing your own food and not letting anything go to waste.  You are constantly learning new skills and you don't  let your lack of knowledge stop you from trying new things.  It means thinking up new and unique ways of doing everything having to do with gardening and animal raising because of limited space.  And every homesteader I have talked to has a different reason why they do it. Very few do it to be more "green" and to save the planet.  Many do it to provide healthy organic food for their family.  Others do it because they don't want to be dependent on the national food supply and the government.  And then there are those who do it just because they love it. 

I would fall into the last three categories.  I started gardening on a small plot at our first home.  I did it just because I loved it.  Every year my garden plan would grow and every winter I would read book after book on gardening.  Soon I was reading homesteading books that had lots of good info on gardening but also talked about raising chickens, pigs, rabbits, and goats.  Story after story of people in town raising much of there own food enchanted me and I began to dream of laying hens and a jersey milk cow.  I wanted my children to know where food comes from and was interested to life of hard work and simple living. 

This was not just a sudden thing for me either.  My fondest memories as a little girl was of my great grandmothers home in the country and playing by her chicken coop watching the amazing birds do there thing.  I loved to explore the pastures and fields and the highlight of my time there was bottle feeding day old calves.  As a girl I begged my mom to let me have a garden in our suburban yard and chopped the firewood every day for our fireplace.  I loved to cook and was cooking the family dinners from age 11.  My favorite books growing up were My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet.  My favorite vacations was going camping, river rafting, and shooting with my father.  He taught me how to make a fire in the woods, find wild foods like mushrooms and berries, and how to fish for my supper.

When my husband and I moved to Wyoming and five acres in the country it seemed my dream was finally coming true.  As soon as spring came we planted an acre of garden and we purchased some laying hens from a friend.  I can't describe my joy when the first egg was laid.  We all gathered round to admire it and the children had their first lesson on where food really comes from.  We loved the country life of silence and lovely vistas, something we never had in town with noisy neighbors and loud bass thumping music.  Every day had a new joy to discover.  My garden went gangbusters and I was soon supplying our one neighbor and the man who farmed the fields around our house with as much vegetables as they could want.  I loved just watching our chickens scratching around our property.  My eldest daughter discovered the joys of being able to explore in the countryside without fear of abduction and my youngest children loved going out to the chicken coop to find eggs and admire the horses in the pasture next door.We soon purchased rabbits for my daughter to have for a 4-H project and even acquired a few milk goats which gave us milk for our hungry brood.

But what does this have to do with urban homesteading you say?  Right!  Fast forward 5 years, one new baby, several moves, a new job for my husband and you find me with four children in a 100 year old Victorian home in a tiny town on 3/4 of an acre.  How did my dream go from total self sufficiency to living in town again?  Well the answer is complicated.  We loved the country but our children never had friends close enough to play with.  Also finding a reasonably prices piece of land with a house that wasn't falling apart was impossible.  So here I am making my little piece of heaven a productive food producing place.  Now to be fair it's not like living in Seattle or Portland and trying to have a large garden and farm animals.  We live in a very small town of less than 2,000 people and the main industry is wheat farming.  We are hours away from any major city and the nights are as quite here as they were in the country.  The favored topic of conversation is how the harvest is going and the expectations of the upcoming hunting season.

So what does my urban homestead look like?  My goal is to turn every square foot of our yard into some kind of food or herb production.  Right now we have planted raspberries, strawberries, elderberries, dewberries, 5 new apple trees, 2 peach trees, two pear trees, 6 grape vines, 3 blueberries, assorted herbs, a wintersquash cucumber and melon patch, 18 tomato plants, tons of green beans lettuces beets and carrots, 10 laying hens, 20 meat rabbits, Samson the guard dog, and Smoky the cat.  We have a fireplace and woodcook stove for heating and cooking on in the winter. And a huge basement for storing all our food.

The food producing plants are only utilizing half of our property right now.  We are planning to build at least 5 more raised beds and plant 4 more fruit trees, two more grape vines, and gooseberries and currents.  The trees will take at least 3 years to start producing, the berries will produce next spring, and we are eating something from the garden every night with dinner.  You can see that you can produce a huge amount of food on a regular sized lot in town.  I can much of our food and have processed over 80 jars of assorted fruits, jams, and veggies so far. Homesteading is a constant challenge and learning experience.  Every year something does really well and something fails completely.  This year we had cold weather all the way into July which is unheard of around here.  The consequence being that my melons cucumbers and pumpkins did not germinate and I had to replant them.  My larger pumpkins may not ripen in time for the first frost.  So my journey of homesteading continues every day.