A Little Visitor & Life Around the Homestead

Hello, friends.  Last week, I harvested peas, asparagus, lettuce, a small amount of spinach, and radishes.  Catbrier tips and lambs quarter were foraged for salads.  A nice bunch of oregano was harvested, and dried.  We've enjoyed many salads with our lettuce.  I agreed to hold off shipping an amazon order, for a $1.50 credit, making my current digital credit $5.50.  A pan of egg shells were crushed, and added to the compost bin.  Bread ends were processed into bread crumbs.  Two volunteer tomatoes found near the compost were potted up.  I recently bought a flat of strawberries from a local farm.  We enjoyed some fresh, and some in salads, but weren't going to eat them in time, so I froze the remainder.  The chickens enjoyed the tops that were cut off.  My niece inspired me to start a batch of sprouts.  It'd been a while since I'd started any.  

After grocery shopping in town, I stopped in to see friends.  I was gifted a beautiful, vintage hooked wool rug she couldn't use.  I'd been wanting a pottery cruet for olive oil, and when I picked one out in their shop, I was gifted with it.  I'd really intended to support their business, and felt rather bad about that, though I did bring eggs and basil plants to share.  Laundry was hung on the line.  A full shredder bin was added to the compost bin.  I picked up a library book, and dropped one off.  While there, I donated a book I recently bought, as I knew I wouldn't read it again.  They were happy to have it.  Vegetable soup was made from canned garden produce and fresh vegetables.  I'm doing a good job of eating up the leftovers.  Summer and winter clothes were swapped out.   I decided to make a vegan pesto, and gathered nettles, purslane, basil, and a few lambs quarter for the greens.  The nettles were blanched first, to lose their sting.  It wasn't as good as the cheese version, but it was pretty good, while we're not eating cheese.  

J cleaned out the woodstove, hopefully for the last time this season.  I sifted the ashes, left the ashes themselves for him to put on some of the potatoes, and then pulverized the pieces of char.  It's a simpler version of biochar.  Next, I'll be inoculating it with several things... likely comfrey tea, mycorrhizae, and urine.  That's what we have, and all are mentioned as good things to use.  It's said that if not inoculated, it acts like a sponge, absorbing nutrients until it reaches equilibrium with the soil.  If inoculated, it accelerates mycorrhizal growth, and creates healthier, stronger, more nutrient dense plants.  That all sounds good to me.  I continue drinking celery juice every morning.  I believe I previously mentioned I purchased a new juicer, which I'm loving.  It's this one, which is so easy to disassemble and clean, and so quiet compared to my old one.  It's actually $9 less than when I purchased mine.  The $45 coupon makes it $80.99 at present.   

Parsley was harvested for a cauliflower dish, and our oregano and garlic were used in a mushroom dish.  J pulled up stumps with his tractor, then excavated a spot for the 100 asparagus plants that he bought last week.  The soil in this new spot is pretty bad, so we're brainstorming what we can use to build the soil.  It's a pretty large area.  A neighbor, one of the only ones who doesn't spray with Grazon, is checking to see if he has any spoiled hay we can have.  While it was still cool Sunday morning, we added several tarps full of leaves.  Knowing bought manure and compost can also have Grazon in it, we're going to skip those.   As manure and compost are generally sourced from local and regional materials, and the vast majority of farmers use Grazon around here, it doesn't seem a safe choice.  We're not aware of any way to be sure it doesn't contain it, and J has read accounts of others who have had this happen.  Our food is too precious to risk it, so we'll be creative in coming up with other materials.  Wishing you a lovely and bountiful week.