Early June Days On The Homestead

Hello, friends.  Last week, I made a mixed berry pie with our berries pulled from the freezer, which we enjoyed for a few days.  Golden paste for the pups & hummer food were made.  I tried a new recipe for fat free hummus, which was just OK.  I planted seeds for three varieties of lettuce, more zinnias and cypress vine in pots.  By the end of the week, the cypress vine and zinnias were coming up well, but the lettuce hadn't sprouted yet.  J and I noticed a black spiny caterpillar just hanging out by our door for a few days.  One day, we noticed it had molted into a yellow caterpillar, though before it moved, it had changed back to black.  It may have been the caterpillar of the Buck Moth, though I'm not sure.  J stopped to pick up chicken feed, noticed some two week old "leftover" Rhode Island chicks, and brought two of them home.   They are quite fond of watermelon. So, we're back with chicks in the house, but since Friday, I've been taking them out during the warm part of the day, to hang out with our 9 week old chicks.  

I harvested peas, the last spears of asparagus, lettuce, chard, basil, mulberries, and gathered wild blackberries, purslane, lamb's quarter, and catbrier tips.  Peas, berries, and lamb's quarter were frozen.  A double batch of pesto was made, one for eating now, and the other frozen.  A carrot, carrot tops, chard stems with some greens, and peas were dehydrated and added to the mixed vegetable jar, for future soups.  A GF banana blueberry bread was made.  I tried a new recipe from Kaihla Tonai,  Garlic Cucumber Noodle Bowl with Steamed Yams, which was so good, I kept thinking about it the next morning, and had it a second time during the week.  Though I'd liked ginger, I'd forgotten how good it can be, as due to a sensitivity J has, I haven't used it in our meals for around 10 years.  I used the potato option in place of the Japanese yams, cut the cucumbers thin with a mandoline, and left out the raw onions.  I was able to use our garlic and lettuce, but I'm hoping our lettuce and cucumbers will coincide in the garden, then along with our potatoes and garlic, I'll pretty much have the recipe covered with homegrown.  The YT video above has the recipe below it.   All laundry was dried on the line.

After running an errand for J, I ran by a feed and seed in that town, and picked up a few plants... two roselle hibiscus, which I hadn't had luck with starting from seed, a cardinal flower, and pink gaura, as well as the window box plants.  They were all planted on a cloudy evening, and ashwagandha seeds I was given were also planted.  Jars of usnea and astragalus glycerites were strained and bottled.  Though it's only been 3 1/2 weeks since I canned broth, I had another 4 gallons of veggie scraps in the freezer.  As Sunday looked to be one of the coolest days and nights in the forecast, I began simmering them on the stove.  I prefer to do it when the woodstove is going, but if I don't keep up during the warmer months, I'll have a freezer full of scraps.  I've shifted to having more raw fruits and vegetables, and less cooked food right now, so that's contributing more to the scrap bags, as well as the compost bin.  The update on the new water aeration and filtration system is that it's a success!  The water is still very slightly gray, but no odor that we can detect.  I'm very happy!

I planted the window box that J made the insert for at my shop window, with creeping jenny I dug up, plus calibrachoa and angelonia.   It's a bit bedraggled looking, but I'm hoping it will recover and fill in nicely.  I potted up the three marked down geraniums, and placed them next to the trellis at the driveway edge/start of path to the house.  Several of the black eyed susan vines are coming up along that same trellis, and at another one.  I'm hoping they'll be happy, and climb the trellises.  A batch of alfalfa sprouts were started.  Working on eating down the outdoor freezer, I pulled out two bags of butter beans I plan to cook soon, and a bag each of summer and winter squash from '18 that are being shared with the chickens.  The summer squash was mixed with chopped wild lettuce, banana peels, and garlic mustard, and mulberries.  Anything healthy I can give them to supplement their diet these days seems to be a good thing.  There is an excellent discussion on alternatives to store-bought feed here.  The pups were given something raw daily; sometimes dandelion greens, chard and stems, apple, etc.

This is the main garden from the handmade gate.  The garlic was harvested from the middle foreground.  Onions are beyond.  The right trellis is cucumbers.  The wood trellis barely peeking out on the left is the tromboncino and cucuzza squash.  Eggplant, peppers and basil are to it's right, with tomatoes beyond, and to the right in cages.  To the right of the cucumbers are potatoes, and the far right are sweet potatoes.  It's getting quite dry here.  We got a little sprinkle last week, but nothing measurable.  Plants are starting to wilt.  I used water from washing vegetables and orders to water plants.  The chickens were brought two huge watermelon rinds last week.  One day, I brought the last of one of the watermelons to them.  They may not eat all the green plants that chickens supposedly eat (ie: nettles and purslane), but they sure love some watermelon.  May your coming days contain good moments and good things to eat.