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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Eat What Your Garden Grows

We are fortunate here in the deep south to have almost a 4 season growing season. We truly only have a couple months out of the year where nothing will stay alive without protection or lots of water. However, we do have limited time in which to grow certain crops. Lettuce varieties only do well for a couple months out of the year in the spring and then again in the fall. They can't tolerate our heat and they don't tolerate frost very well. There are some varieties that last longer than others, but typically May is the last month for any lettuce to taste decent at least and even then it is iffy. So what am I trying to get around to? We love salad and eat it several times a week. While we have done well in the past with eating what was in season we truly missed our fresh green salad. Last year I used cabbage leaves instead of lettuce and over the winter I started thinking.....hmmmmmm. If I could use cabbage leaves and still get my salad fix could I use other things as well. So this year I have really put this thought to the test since our lettuce has been pretty much done for the past month. Broccoli plants actually last a good while in the heat, especially if grown where they get some shade. They don't make heads very well, but they do have loads of greens. And those greens make a great salad. Kohlrabi greens are also great in salad. When the spinach is done turn to swiss chard for a spinachy taste. Kale is a nice green to add to that salad mix also. And guess what collards last throughout most of the hot summer down here and are a great salad green. Now mind you if you are an iceberg lettuce eater you probably won't like these salads as they are full of robust flavor. These greens do have a mind of their own and they certainly don't mind telling you in flavor who they are. The bonus of this is that they are absolutely loaded with vitamins and minerals. Tomorrow's lunch menu....a rabbits chef salad made with broccoli and kohlrabi greens. One last thought on salads is that there are many herbs growing in the heat of summer that are fabulous to add in smaller amounts to your salads...lemon balm, basil, oregano, mint, parsley, cilantro, dill and others. Adding herbs to your salads not only beefs up the "green" part of the salad but packs a whollop of delightful flavors. So don't be afraid to experiment with your plants and substitute something that is growing for something that isn't growing. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Cheap Jelly

Fruit is expensive, but there are some cheaper ways to make delicious jelly and those ways are probably all around your yard. Typically we like them for their beauty or look at them as weeds, but edible flowers abound and cut out part of the jelly making cost. Yes you can make rose petal jelly, clover jelly, honeysuckle and dandelion jelly. In the fall you can harvest rose hips and make rose hip jelly which is full of vitamin C, even more than an orange. Domestic flowers like pansies are edible also and make a beautiful jelly. Make sure your flowers are edible and then pick them. The smellier they are the better the jelly. Then you boil the flower petals in about 4 to 5 cups of water. Then let it sit and cool overnight. After it sits, strain out the petals and bring the water back up to a boil adding about 4 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Then add your box of pectin and bring to a rolling boil keeping it there until you get to the gel stage. Then jar up your jelly and process in a water bath for 20 minutes. Yummy and beautiful too. Can't get any cheaper than that for jelly and it really stretches your fruit jelly and jam supplies, therefore stretching the budget. Blessings, Kat

Hay baling by Hand

I said in one of my last posts that I would talk about baling small acreage by hand. By small acreage I mean less than an acre. I have a neighbor/friend that doesn't have livestock anymore so she let me know that her former pastures were getting pretty tall and did I want the grass for hay. I told her absolutely yes. So she called when she bush-hogged and then the haying by hand got started. The first thing that needs to be done after the grass has been cut is to let it cure in the sun for 24 hours. After that the hay needs to be raked and turned into windrows. A windrow is simply a long row of hay that has been raked together. Two things to keep in mind when you are raking; 1) don't let the windrows get too thick with hay or they won't dry, and 2) make sure you are turning the grass or the bottom will not dry enough. Once the hay has been raked into windrows then it needs to cure in the sun another 24 hours. Mind you when I say 24 hours that is good strong hot sunshine. Depending on where you live and if the days are cloudy you might need a longer curing time. You just really have to play it by ear and sample your hay to make sure it is dry but not overly dried. Since we had several good days of strong hot sunshine 24 hours was great for us and cured the hay well without over curing it. Once the hay is cured the rake it into piles and find a square box the size you want. We used the bottom of one of those plastic doghouses. Lay your baling twine (doesn't everyone save their's?) longways in the box and start packing in your hay. Stand on it to pack it down good an tight. Now remember it won't be nearly as tight or well packed as a baling machine would get it. Once the box is filled with well packed hay, then you pull your twine as tight as you can and tie them. Now you have a square bale of hay that will stack relatively easily in the barn. If you are doing this on your own farm you can even skip the baling step and just stack the loose hay in the barn. That is what many of the old farms did. Some of them even stacked in the field and had such a tight stacking system that the hay would shed water when it rained. However, stacking wasn't an option for us since we had to transport the hay home. That is it. It is a simple process, but make no mistake it was hot work. I was exhausted after those three days of working that hard. It is a good thing to know how to do though because even a suburban backyard can be hayed this way to feed rabbits if things get tight. And believe me when I say things are getting tight. We got about 25 bales in the barn. So that is that much hay that we don't have to buy. We will probably get at least another crop before the end of summer so we will hay again. Blessings, Kat

Monday, May 23, 2011

Missouri Tornadoes

Yesterday, tornadoes ripped through Joplin Missouri. I am not sure yet as to the extent of the damage or if there will be relief efforts. Please pray for the people of Missouri. Blessings, Kat

Thursday, May 19, 2011

What's Going on Around Here

Wow things have really been a little crazy around here. Three days ago, Sugar kidded with twin doelings. All went well and it was an uneventful birth other than being a bit on the chilly side. Go figure! Our weather has been nuts. We had about 2 days in the 90s, then the temperature dropped and the past several days have been in the 70s with lows in the 40s. Folks, we are in the deep south in mid May. This is late February weather for us. Not complaining mind you as I am not thrilled to see 90s and 100 degree weather anytime soon. We cut hay a few days ago and yesterday I raked it into windrows. I raked it by hand and today I am a little sore. Today we will bale it, again by hand. I will be doing a post either later today or tomorrow about baling hay by hand. It is hard work and not something that I particularly look forward too. However, when you are only cutting and baling about an acre then the equipment is simply not worth the cost. It took me two hours with a rake to rake up the windrows yesterday. By the time I hooked up the equipment and raked then I still would not have saved much time, although I would have saved some wear and tear on my muscles. Who needs to go to a gym when you live the life we do?! The garden is going crazy and as soon as I get this hay baled today then I have to start putting up vegetables. The pole beans are loaded, sunflowers still need to be thinned, the cabbage needs to be harvested and put in the freezer and I have radishes that are probably too big now to be enjoyable. The carrots are ready to harvest and the seed pods are filled out on the turnips and collards ready to be dried and put up for fall planting. Then I can pull those final plants and plant something else. The tomatoes are growing well and will probably be producing in a few weeks. The broccoli is about finished but there are some small heads to be harvested and then the broccoli greens also to put up. The pepper plants have doubled in size and are flowering now. I did get herbs dried and put up the other day, now to harvest some more herbs and put that in the freezer. The squash plants are huge, flowering and have tiny fruit on them. The garden looks like a jungle but is going like gangbusters. The next few days are going to be nuts getting all of this stuff put up. We also have rabbits that need butchering and a goat that needs butchering. Unfortunately there are just not enough hours in the day. Well, I had better get moving as this hay won't bale itself and it is supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Feed Situation-Livestock

Last week I was low on feed wheat so I went to my local feed farm (I buy my feed right off the farm). They don't grow all the feed that they sell, but what they don't grow they buy from local in state farmer's that do. Well, I got bags of feed wheat came home and opened the first bag and found......mold!!! I opened another bag hoping the first was just an anomaly and found mold again. It was very obvious that this wheat had been stored for a long time and was the scrapings of the silo. I took all the wheat back and told "Dan" about the mold. He apologized and explained that he was having a hard time getting feed wheat and didn't know when they would be bringing any fresh wheat. So I got oats as there is not much of a difference in nutrition. However, this brought to the forefront something that I have been studying for quite some time....alternative livestock feeds. Not only is the price of feed rising at a tremendous rate (50% increase in the past 6 months, some more than that), but what happens if there is no feed products to be had. The rabbits are pretty easy since most of the year I can pick weeds and such to keep them fed and going along with veggies from the garden. In fact that is mostly what they eat anyway and only get a significant amount of grain during the production months. The chickens too are easy since I don't feed them anything but kitchen and garden scraps now. But then there are my goats and the horses. The horses especially. During much of the year the goats have plenty of browse and the only ones getting any extra in the form of purchased feed are the milkers and those in the latter stages of pregnancy. Anyway, in the olden days of farming turnips and mangel beets were livestock crops. During the winter Victorian farmers typically would feed the wheat chaff and grind the wheat stalks. Not much nutrition in that but it kept their stock alive through the winter. In the south it was common to grow corn for winter stock feed and I can remember my grandfather talking about when he was a boy the mules got corn and then they would grind the cob and they would eat that. So I have been experimenting and starting to train my stock to eat something other than store bought grain. I had a bumper crop of turnips and collards this year. I have one horse that loves both, one horse that will eat them a little bit and one that looks at them like they are a pile of manure and walks away. The goats will nibble at them but are not real interested. Now I have a bumper crop of broccoli, but it got too hot and so no heads on the broccoli. I have harvested all the leaves and stems and put up as much as I wanted. Now, we are experimenting on chopping the stems and the large leaves to see who will eat that and who won't. We have doubled our sunflower production. Sunflowers provide a double benefit. They usually must be thinned and so the thinnings can either be dried for winter feed or fed green for feed now. They grow quickly and are hardy. They produce seeds high in protein and essential fatty acids. The seed heads can be dried and stored for winter feed, don't forget to save some for planting next year. I don't have a critter around here that will turn up there nose at sunflowers, seeds or plant. Everyone will eat them. So I just planted another patch and when the first is ready to harvest then I will plant right behind for a fall harvest. Sweet potatoes and squash are two other crops that make great livestock feed. Sweet potatoes tolerate even the poorest soil, in fact it seems they prefer that. The vines are highly nutritious providing both protein and calcium. The potatoes themselves are loaded with vitamins and minerals and they store very well. We will be increasing production of these as well. Beet greens are loaded with all sorts of vitamins and minerals while the roots are a good source of phosphorus. We will be planting more this fall. We won't be increasing our corn though since we only feed corn in the winter to the horses. Ruminants simply shouldn't be fed corn since it is like feeding them sugar and changes the acidity of the rumen. But horses can definitely use the extra calories simply to keep warm. Corn doesn't have a lot to offer except in the way of energy. We don't feed it in the summer and only use that for winter. Things might change though if the feed situation gets desperate. So my point of this whole post is to take a look as see what you can do to feed your livestock and what you can train them to eat. And yes, you will need to train them to eat alternative or old timey feed crops if they are used to nothing but grains or commercially prepared feeds. Hopefully, these ideas might get you started on your way to producing your own alternative feeds.It might be time for us to think about fencing off that acre for wheat production. It looks like it might come in handy. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Not the Way to Start the Day

Well today was not the way to start the day. I thought things were a little odd when I entered the goat barn and everybody was outside already. It was still early and normally they are still snoozing. Not today though, everyone was outside. Then I saw why. One of my does that was not due for another few weeks had kidded in the night sometime and the baby was dead. I don't know if she was stillborn or died after birth, but she was a beautiful little chestnut doeling. The mother is a first freshener and so maybe just might have had that FF dumbness about her and not known what to do. It wasn't something that I could foresee coming and so can't beat myself up too much about not being there. I pray that this is not how my kidding season is going to go. Strawberry was a little upset much not really too bothered about the death of her baby. She has been terribly upset at the whole milking thing though and since she is terribly tight in the udder I have been milking her as much as possible several times a day to relieve the swelling. Hopefully, I will get her settled into a routine before Sugar kids. Well, I pray everyone has a great mother's day! I guess I had better get to the barn and get started so I can get cleaned up for church. I am teaching Sunday school today so I must be there for that. Blessings, Kat

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Future of Food

I really don't like being the bearer of bad news, but I would be remiss if I said nothing of what has been coming along the internet waves for several weeks now. The future of our food supply is in dire straights. With Russia losing much of their wheat crop to drought and fires, China desperately trying to save their wheat crop by diverting water from towns, Australia's (3rd largest exporter)sugar industry being damaged and destroyed by the tsunami and flooding, now the middle of our country and its crops destroyed by either drought/fire or flooding. While I don't particularly care too much about industrial agriculture I do realize that much of the population relies on it for their food. So maybe it is time to warn those folks that the future of their food supply is looking quite grim. Beef producers in states like Kansas are starting to talk about slaughtering their herds because there is nothing to feed them. The tornados in Alabama have destroyed many of the commercial chicken houses and killed millions of chickens. Alabama is the largest chicken producer in the country. Now might be the time to back away from industrial agriculture and look to your own backyards, whether you grow it yourself or purchase from a small farmer near you. Not only would this be the much healthier alternative, but it might get to the point where it is your only alternative. If you haven't started learning about your food and its production, now is the time to get busy. I don't grow everything I need, but each year I vow to learn something new. This is my second year growing sugar beets to render my own sugar. Last year I planted at the wrong time for my area and got about 10 pitiful looking excuses for a sugar beet. I rendered it anyway. This year my sugar beets are looking better, but not enough to supply me through the year. Last year I could sweeten a cup of coffee or two with what I rendered, this year I might have enough to sweeten a gallon of tea. The point is even though I am not there yet and might have several more years of learning this sugar beet thing, I am getting there little by little and at least I am being proactive about the future of my family's food supply. This year my new addition to my skill set is growing hulless oats. These are oats that grow with no hull so they are easier to process than trying to get the hard hull off the oat. I have a small patch and by no means will I have enough to have oat flour for much more than a couple loaves of bread. It is a start though in my education. Another advantage to learning things, even though one family certainly cannot provide everything that they need, is that these skills can be passed on to friends and neighbors. This builds a community with a wide variety of skills and the ability to work together for the benefit of all. For instance, if I learn how to grow, harvest and process grain I can pass that knowledge on to one of my neighbors that has more land than I do. She can grow the grain and I can give her milk and eggs. But if no one knows how to grow the grain then eventually there might not be any milk or eggs. So learn what skills you can that you can share with others because folks.....the future of food is looking pretty dim unless we explore our alternatives. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Bio-intensive gardening

These pics show why I will never row garden again. My garden is producing and producing, currently feeding 3 families with plenty to put up in our family and more to give away. Just cannot beat bio-intensive techniques. Take a look!


This is the early spring garden with salad greens, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs, carrots, radishes, and two types of cabbage. We have harvested and harvested from here and still going.

Turnips, collards and kale. There was spinach on the far end but that has all been harvested except for the few plants going to seed. The yellow in the middle are the turnips going to seed after we have put up tons, given away tons and sold tons. The collards are still going strong.

These are just one of our blackeyed pea patches. These will not only supply human food, but livestock food for the winter.



One side of the big garden with tomatoes, okra, peas, bush beans, cucumbers, peppers, onions, sugar beets(growing under the other produce), radishes, and mesclun.

The other side of the big garden with pole beans, sugar snap peas, sweet potatoes, squash, more squash, collards and turnips, kale and again sugar beets growing under things like the pole beans. Eggplant will be going in also along with another trellis for cantaloupe. The big corn patch is still a row garden and currently growing sunflowers (livestock feed) and pencil cob corn. I also have a patch of hulless oats for humans along the fence, a patch of wheat for livestock, and a patch of bahia for hay.

The brat pack. These are our new white pekin hens. They are awesome at bug control and Bubba and Earl are very happy to have some girls in the garden.

The view from the other end of the large garden.

Pole Beans and sugar snap peas on the end. The peas are about at the end of their time. The vines will be fed to the livestock.

The reason that you see the pathways of the garden areas left in "weeds" is that many of those weeds are harvested for rabbit food. So we leave the paths as they are which cuts down on the summer feed bill. Hope your gardens are coming along in whatever stage you are capable weather wise. Blessings, Kat

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Collards, Collards, Everywhere.....Collards

I didn't think I planted that many collards, but I am swimming in collards. This could be a good thing, but then maybe not. I have to be really creative in how I use collards because my family really doesn't like them cooked the traditional southern way. I love them like that, but can only eat so many collards in a year. I have dehydrated some for use in breads and soups and now I am freezing some for use in casseroles. I of course have already canned a ton of them. I have sold some and given some away. Guess what, I still have more collards. The garden is really doing well this year and for the first time ever I have gotten green peas. I harvested some yesterday and used them in a pasta salad that I made. I was so excited. I don't know how long they will last, but the plants seem to be holding out in this heat and still blooming. So maybe I will get a few more before the plants kick the bucket. The pea plants will then be dried and used as winter feed for the rabbits. The pole beans are already over six feet tall. Let me tell you folks, bio-intensive gardening beats row gardening hands down. Truly I simply can't keep up with the things that need harvesting. Right now it is turnips, collards, kale, and peas. Of course, there is also tons of lettuce. Unfortunately though it looks like my broccoli is going to bolt with itty bitty heads, so doesn't look like I will get any of that unless these cool nights hold out a little longer. Well, time to get back to the kitchen to get this batch of collards in the dehydrator before I have to go to church. Blessings from the farm, Kat