Introducing...

Our French Angora Rabbits!

 Posie, a five month-old chocolate tort doe

Pinzey, a four month-old black doe

After having lived with us for six weeks Posie is settling in to life as part of our family pretty well and is curious and friendly; Pinzey still thinks that I want to eat her. I am looking forward to harvesting Posie's fur in December and learning to spin it into deliciously soft yarn!

No, the rabbits do not live in my kitchen.

Farming in September

The Monster Carrot! 1 Pound!

September was wet and nasty. We had massive flooding in our area but luckily, being that we live on a hill, we were spared. Unfortunately the wet weather has made my strawberries go to rot inviting a fruit fly infestation. I would have much higher yields and BEAUTIFUL large berries if it weren't for these horrible beasts who eat the ripe berries from the inside out. I can't find anything on the interwebs about how to get rid of them.

Meat: 4; We have decided to be done with the bird business; we didn't have the time anymore to dedicate to caring for them. We sold the other 5 birds to friends of ours who are happily enjoying their new pets.
Eggs: 70; Equivalent to just over 1 dozen large chicken eggs.
Produce: Food prices courtesy of a food co-op in New York State.

• Cucumber: 2 lb. 1oz.@ 2.49/lb= $5.13
• Chard: 2 lb. 5 oz. @ 3.74/lb =$8.65
• Radish: 2 oz. @ 2.31/lb= .29
• Paste Tomato: 18 lb. 6 oz.@ 1.02/lb= $18.74
• Strawberries: 3 lb. 9 oz. @ 4.70/lb= $16.74
• Green Beans: 1 lb. @1.44/lb= $1.44
• Sweet Pepper: 1 lb. @2.28/lb= $2.28
• Sungold Tomato: 13 oz.@1.51/lb= $1.23
• Principe Borghese Tomato: 7 lb. 5 oz. @1.51/lb= $11.04
• Spaghetti Squash: 15 lb. 7 oz. @1.07/lb= $16.52
• Brussels Sprouts: 5 oz. @ 2.13/lb= .67
• Carrots: 2 lb.@1.61/lb= $3.22
• Kale: 13 oz.@3.74/lb= $3.04
• Kohlrabi: 8 oz. @1.00/lb (local farmers market price) = .50

Grand Total: $89.49

Saving Seeds

Pepper Seeds in the "Sink or Swim" Test of Doom!

We are at the growing season's end here in Pennsylvania. In a few weeks we will be hit with the first frost (but when is truly the mystery). What you see here is my attempt to save some pepper seeds for next year. Saving pepper seeds is kind of a shot in the dark, though. Peppers are open-pollinated BUT they have been known to cross-pollinate with other peppers growing nearby, so I really have no idea if this will work. How does one save seeds, you ask? Well, that is different depending on what kind of seeds you are saving. I think just about everyone has saved pumpkin seeds so I don't really want to go into saving gourd seeds except to say that some varieties cross-pollinate with each other so you have to be careful which seeds you save (or grow in your garden if you want to save seeds from your squash). If squash is the in the same family, they will probably cross-pollinate. I guess I should also say that you should only save seeds from non-hybrid, non-GMO plants. You never know what you are going to get with hybrid seeds of the 2nd generation (maybe monsters!).

Peas and beans are the easiest to save. I call it the "lazy gardener" method. Basically you just forget to pick the pods until they get HUGE then you let them dry being sure to remove them before the first frost (and letting them dry out indoors) until the seed pods are tan and papery. Then you remove the seeds from the pods and let dry in a well-ventilated area for a few more weeks. Taadaa! Some people test their seeds to see if they will germinate at this point, but I don't.

Tomatoes are the really fun ones; you need to ferment them. I truly love lacto-fermentation so fermenting the seeds wasn't too odd for me. Basically you remove the seeds from the fruit and put them with their pulp into a container. If you don't have a ton of seeds, add a bit of filtered water to cover then put a paper towel or other breathable cloth (I use a coffee filter) over your container and let it go. Stir once a day for 2-3+ days and you should seed a white film/fungus form on the top of the liquid. This fungus eats the pulp making it easier to separate the seeds AND as a bonus, it kills any diseases that may be harboring on them. Once you have a nice growth of fungus you want to gently spoon it off and then rinse your seeds. At this point it is a good idea to do the "sink or swim" test. Put your seeds in a glass and cover with water. Viable seeds will sink, non-viable seeds aka "duds" will float. Spoon off the floaters and pour your seeds into a fine mesh sieve shaking out as much water as possible then let dry on a paper plate or other breathable surface.

Peppers are similar to tomatoes except I don't ferment them. I read that some people do but, meh. The "sink or swim test" as demonstrated in the picture above is really necessary for peppers and is a good idea for pretty much any seed before you dry it unless...

You dry it directly on the plant! With herbs in the umbellifer family (dill, cilantro etc.) I let the plants go to seed, dry out and then I cut off the whole plant and dry it indoors and collect the seeds after a few weeks. This is also a super lazy method but it works for me. 

Those are pretty much all the seeds that I have successfully saved. I tried lettuce seeds one year but those suckers are tiny. I have never had my kale or chard go to seed but when they do I will be ready for them.

Farming in August

This is what happens when you ignore your green onions.

 August came and went in a blur of frenzied activity. In the garden the tomatoes started producing in abundance which meant evenings spent preserving that harvest. I fear the coming of winter like the apocalypse and with that same determined self-preservation I will not waste a single tomato. Today I ended up giving some away because, let's face it, 48 pints of diced tomatoes, two quarts dried, and 10 quarter pints of paste is enough. Well, maybe not enough paste. Speaking of paste...

Oh! Squeezo! How I love thee! Best Thrift Store Find EVER!

 Praise the Squeezo food mill! This puppy made making paste uber easy. I used it tonight to get the skins off of steamed sugar pumpkins. In a few weeks it will make canning 48 quarts of apple sauce a relative cinch. Yes, it is a God-send, but a pain to clean the screens.

An August Day's haul: Chard, Kale, Tomatoes, Green Beans, Strawberries, & Zinnia.

I have also been busy blanching greens, freezing berries, making jam and fruit leather and just plain tearing-up the kitchen, homesteading style. Now for the talleys:

Meat: 2; Let this be a lesson to you all: Sometimes a female is actually a male. A poor, picked on, male. We did him a favor. Another female was the favorite and in quail circles that really isn't a good thing.
Eggs: 147 or the equivalent of 2.5 dozen large chicken eggs. I have actually been baking with these as an added deterrent to not eat sweets.
Produce: Once again, I am getting my prices from an organic food co-op in New York state.

• Strawberries: 1 lb. 4 oz@ 4.86/lb= $6.08
• Brussels sprouts: 6 oz
• Paste-type tomatoes: 23 lbs. 3 oz @ 1.02/lb=  $23.65
• Principe Borghese Tomato: 6 lb. 7 oz.@1.51/lb= $9.72
• Mortgage lifter tomato: 1 lb. 9oz. @ 2.50/lb= $3.91
• Cucumber: 4 lbs. 11oz. @1.50/lb= $7.03
• Sweet Pepper: 1 lb. 12 oz. @ 2.02/lb= $3.53
• Bunching onion: 1 lb. @ 1.93/bunch(1/4lb)= $7.72
• Kohlrabi: 3 oz. @2.86/lb= .54
• Green Beans: 2 lb @ 1.80/lb= $3.60
• Chard: 3 lbs @ 1.67/bunch(1/2 lb)= $10.02
• Kale: 2 lb. 10 oz@ 1.77/bunch (1/2lb)= $9.29
• Celery: 7 oz@ 1.27/head= $1.27

Estimated value of August produce harvest: $90.27!!!

Farming in July

Yeah, yeah, I know July is LONG gone but just for the record...

I spent a lot of time in the month of July trying to make my meat surplus shelf stable because my freezer was very literally overflowing. This is what a five pound bag of pig fat looks like, cubed and ready to be rendered (I did about 5 of these):

And this is what my kitchen looked like during the render-fest:

The crock pots were going 24/7 to render the fat; there are multiple methods to rendering but I found that doing it in crock pots was the easiest. In the jars you can see the finished product, still hot from rendering after being strained from what you see on the stove, which are "cracklins". What you can't see are my counters and floors covered in fat drippings. Kinda slippery. After rendering most, but not all of the fat in my freezer I got 3 jars of tallow and maybe 8 jars of lard? A years supply, yes indeed.

 In addition to the fat rendering I have been making and pressure canning bone broths to store up for all those cold winter soup-based dinners. NEVER THROW OUT YOUR BONES!!! Soon I will experiment with making pemmican from some beef that I dried. Wahoo! Experimental food!

Meat: 7; We culled our flock down to 11 birds and split them into two breeding groups.
Eggs: 187 equivalent of 3 dozen large chicken eggs.
Produce: The gardening lesson of the month was that used coffee grounds make great fertilizer and are often free! Also, Brussels sprouts are best tasting when they have had a frost making them a great fall weather crop. We planted ours in spring and noticed in June that they were already forming sprouts. If we let those sprouts grow to full size they would be tough and inedible. Not to be dismayed I read that by picking the sprouts when they are the size of marbles they would still be tender and the stalk would continue to grow more sprouts. It works and they certainly are delicious! When we get closer to the first frost we will stop harvesting these at marble size and let them grow to full size.

• Beets: 11 oz.@ 1.40/lb= .96
• Snow Peas: 9 oz. @ 3.40/lb=  $1.91
• Green beans: 2 lbs. 5 oz. @1.80/lb= $4.16
• Carrots: 1 1b. @1.20/lb= $1.20
• Chard: 4 lbs. @3.34/lb= $13.36
• Kohlrabi: 1 lb. 7 oz. @2.86/lb=  $4.11
• Cucumbers: 7 lb.@ 3.76!!!/lb= $26.32 Wouldn't you know that I grew a rare and sought after cucumber variety called 'crystal apple?' The regular cukes were going for 1.50/lb =$10.50
• Principe Borghese tomatoes: 1 lb. 6 oz. @ 2.13/lb= $2.93 This is a lovely cherry-type drying tomato
• Strawberries: 4 lb. @4.55/lb= $18.20
• Brussels sprouts: 4 oz.  Couldn't get a price on this because they aren't yet in season
• Kale: 10 oz. @ 1.77/lb= $1.11
• Peppers: 3 oz. @ 2.00/lb= .38

Estimated value of July Produce Harvest: $58.82 and that is without the inflated crystal apple cukes!

Bartering: This month I bartered my canning services for green beans from my mother-in-law and canned 20 pints in my new-to-me pressure canner. I was able to keep 11 pints. My friend also let me pick my favorite "sungold" cherry tomatoes from her garden for a split of the proceeds. I now have a quart of delicious dried sungolds. They taste like candy!

Farming in June

Look who is eating my dill: A Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

This is a little late but life is finally settling into a nice "routine" in our family. Sharing about my mini-farming is more for my record but I still hope you are amazed at I am how much so little space can provide.

Meat: 2 birds off to the freezer (we need at least 6 to make a meal).
Eggs: 130 from six hens; equivalent to two dozen large chicken eggs. We are finding that everyone loves these hard boiled. They are the perfect snack size!
Produce: Production finally started taking off in June. I used both Rodale's and a Farm Co-op in New York for the prices which seem closer to what we pay for organics here. FYI: A bunch of greens usually weighs about half a pound.

• Strawberries: 6lb. @ 3.53/lb = $21.19
• Lettuce: 1 1/2 lb. @ $5/lb =$7.50
• Bok Choi: 7 oz. @ $2.06 = $.90
• Kohlrabi: 1 lb. @ $2.86/lb. = $2.86
• Snow Peas: 1 lb. 5 oz. @ $4.40/lb. = $5.80
• Chard: 3 lbs. @ 1.67/bunch = $10.02
• Daikon Radish: 11 oz. @ 1.27/lb = $.87
• Kale: 9 oz. @ 1.87/bunch = $2.10
• Green Beans: 8 oz. @ $2.23/lb =$1.12  

Estimated value of June Harvest: $52.36

One of the best things about growing a garden (and buying everything else in bulk) is that I don't have to go to the grocery store or farmers market as often. Going out into the garden everyday to gather my small harvest adds up to a lot. Every day I would pick strawberries we might eat a few and then freeze the rest. Over a months time I had frozen enough to make a dozen half-pints of jam.While you can't do that with everything, often I can gather enough in 3-4 days to make a family sized side dish.

As far as bartering has gone, I exchanged 3 days of milking my friend's cow for one month of free milk. Pretty sweet deal, eh?

Farming in May

Hurray for Strawberries! The harvest this year has been wonderful! Here are out totals for May:

Meat: 0; we have two birds ready to go but we are waiting for our foster daughter to have her baby before we send them to "freezer camp." In other words, we don't want to traumatize the girl.

Our first two hatchlings

Eggs: 161 or the equivalent of 32 large chicken eggs.  I also sold two of my laying hens for $7.50 each.
Produce:  If you want to see the value of the organic produce you grow it is fun to check out Rodale's Organic Price Report which is updated often. I am using my current farmers market prices as well as the farmers markets in Philadelphia, all prices are for organic.

• Stawberries: 4lbs. 5 oz. @$4.59/lb.=$19.79 (and this is all in 4 days from 18 everbearing plants not including the 14 that I just planted that won't fruit until July).
• French Breakfast Radishes: 1 lb. 3 oz. @$3.76/lb.=$4.47
• Baby Bok Choi: 2.2 oz. @$2.25/lb.= .31, paltry? yes but they bolted
• Leaf lettuce and spinach: 1lb. 6oz. @Organic sells for $5/lb. at my local farmers market = $6.88
• Green onion: 1 (didn't even bother pricing this)
• Swiss Chard: 2.7 oz. @ $2.17/lb. = .37

Estimated value of harvest: $31.82

I was also able to harvest 5 gallons of worm castings. I am not sure the value on it but I traded a bag and two dozen hard boiled and peeled quail eggs to a friend for two gallons of raw milk. I love being able to trade things that I produce for things that I need. I really wish that I had more to trade!

A dozen chicks at a week and a half old, already feathering out.

Farming in April

 Garden in a box! Blueberries, currants and hazelnuts.

Two little quail eggs

April was a busy month for these mini-farmers. We put in a new garden bed and after reading Gaia's Garden decided to improve the backyard based on some of the principles of permaculture: more perennials! We have eggs going into the incubator tomorrow which means that around the 21st of May (my birthday!) we will be expecting chicks. Our six hen's so kindly gave us 120 eggs which amounts to the equivalent of two dozen large chicken eggs. Not bad for our first month.

I can't wait to get my hot weather plants out of my house and into my garden! This year we are planting 34+ varieties of vegetables and herbs, mostly from seed. Every time we go to a hardware store (or anywhere there is a seed display, for that matter) I often walk away with at least one more seed packet. It has become a problem! I don't even want to think about how much money I have spent on seeds this year. Saturday my organic gardening meet-up group is having a seedling swap so I may get to add even more varieties to my tiny patch. Every time I go out to my garden I wonder: "Where can I fit more in?"

In the garden I have french breakfast radishes, baby spinach and lettuce ready to harvest plus dill, thyme, oregano, mint, dill and lovage to use as needed. I really want some parsley. I am planning on keeping track of all I harvest out of our tiny plot because I want to measure how much a very small yard can actually produce. Can it feed our family? I certainly hope so!

Microfarming etc.

This last week has been a busy one for us. Spring (is it really spring?) this week meant tomato and pepper seedlings being coddled, a composter to build, MORE seeds to plant, birds to be ahem "processed", eggs to be collected, cages to be cleaned...Oh, did I forget to mention that we got birds? Introducing our Japanese Coturnix!

The birds are taking a bit getting used to but they are sweet and so fun to watch! I am loving this new way of living but I have no idea under what Eco-friendly term it fits under: Suburban sustainability? Micro farming? Urban Homesteading? In any case, our family is loving being able to produce more of our own food. This year is still a learning and growing year so I am not sure about how much we will produce but we have big dreams! Just this last week we put in more everbearing strawberry plants and we have blueberry, currant and American hazelnut bushes on their way. The front bed is just sprouting some radishes, spinach, bok choi, and swiss chard and I am hoping and praying for peas to come up any day now in the back. And we can't forget our friends the worms and bacteria: the worms are working hard turning our kitchen scraps into fertilizer and the bacteria are turning our veggies into probiotic food powerhouses. Life, living, is just so good!