Sweet Potato plans for 2015

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

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In 2014 we grew Georgia jets, we got good results for our first year given the learning curve..

Once again my local garden group is doing a bulk order in of Sweet Potato slips, the company that we worked with last year is offering a number of new slips this year.

So keeping with the tried and got a basic understanding I ordered in twenty five of the Georgia Jets, they are the highest recommended for my area and they have a wonderful deep orange flesh.

Then I decided to play a little bit and ordered in ten of the Cuban Red Slips..

This is a red on the outside and white flesh on the inside, but with a sweet potato taste. They can be a touch trickier to grow, and if we end up with a milder summer, I might not really get much of a crop but like all gardeners, its a gamble

Somehow I am now also getting 25 purple slips now.

A combo of hard work, and luck 🙂

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New Seed Company to me

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

www.annapolisseeds.com

From their about page (Seeds for the People!

Our generation has collectively inherited an enormous wealth of diversity in our seeds. Nearly 1,000 generations of farmers before us saved seed from their best plants, making constant selections and breeding countless varieties adapted to their particular places and purposes. Truly co-evolution. Whether going by the names of heirloom, heritage or open-pollinated; these are the people’s seeds. They’re powerful and must remain in the people’s hands!

As agriculture became more centralized and homogenized in the 20th century, people moved away from the land, and our diversity of seeds began to be replaced by an agribusiness industry all about uniformity and control. Where once farmers and communities held full control of their seed, we’re now in an era of patented seeds and even criminalized seed saving.

But so many of our seeds are still here! We have in our hands all the abundance we need to thrive. So lets save seeds for our communities, lets collaborate with friends and neighbours. Lets re-localize, both our seeds and our lives. Lets learn to partner with our plant allies, and realize the near limitless beauty and bounty in our gardens and in nature. Lets reclaim our agrarian inheritance and lets save the seeds! )

This site has some truly different seeds to offer, all I can say is do not buy them out of some of the really rare ones.. save a package for me.. LOL

Ps, for my readers on the east coast.. this site is even a touch more exciting as a number of these plants have been either found suited or pre-landraced for your climate..

 

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Sunset.. just a touch more sunlight each day..

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

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Posted in Life moves on daily | 7 Comments

Mikes Worcestershire Sauce Recipe.

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I saw a mention of this recipe on his blog and asked very nicely if he would share it.. he was kind enough to do so.. Full credit and blog link to Mike 🙂 I do not often do a straight up blog post about a fellow blogger but I do so enjoy reading

http://lightningtreefarm.blogspot.ca

Mikes Worcestershire Sauce

  • 2 cups vinegar
  • ½ cup soy sauce
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp Ginger
  • 1 tsp Mustard powder
  • 1 tsp Onion powder
  • 1 clove Garlic
  • ½ tsp Cinammon
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ¼ tsp Allspice (or 1/8 tsp each of nutmeg and cinammon mixed)
Put all the ingredients into a pan and heat until it starts to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes. Cool, bottle and voila! A decent replacement for Worcestershire sauce. And, with no animal products used it’s considered to be vegan friendly.
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Turkey Veggie Soup Recipe

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Got some leftover Turkey then this is a great soup to use it up, I had cooked off a whole turkey and then we pulled it apart and bagged it up for the freezer, a lot less room once its deboned. This soup is good as a soup but as you will see in what has been added its also excellent health wise on a cold winter day!

I took out half of a turkey breast, and diced it up..

In my big soup pot, I diced one large onion or you could do two med, added in two finely diced garlic, and a half inch of fresh ginger grated, I cooked this till the onion was just coming clear, and then I added in six sliced big stalks of Celery, two cups of leftover mashed carrots, or about what would equal 4 good size carrots if peeled and diced. and at least two quarts of chicken broth. Add your diced turkey at this point.

I wanted this baby to hum on the flavour, to that I added in 1 tsp of basil, 1 tsp of  dried nettles, 1 tsp of dried dill, 1 tsp of salt and half a tsp of pepper, half a tsp of mustard powder and a pinch of all spice.

Bring to a simmer and cook for at least a hour, I simmered mine for at least three hours, twenty min before serving, I added in two cups of this little cut round pasta but you can use any kind you want.

Once it was allowed to cook it helps thicken the soup up..  and you might need to add more broth when reheating, we did..

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Current Seed list for 2015

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

BeNot in order, just how I am typing them in at the moment.

  • Squash- Golden Hubbard
  • Watermelon Sugar Baby
  • Waternmelon Early Canada
  • Brussel Sprouts- Long Island Improved
  • Kale- Dwarf Curled Scotch
  • Peas Alaska
  • Peas Lincoln Homesteader
  • Broccoli Munchkin
  • Aspragus seed viking
  • Pumpkin-Jack o lantern
  • Cantaloupe Delicious
  • Cucumber- Straight eight
  • Green onion Annual Bunching
  • Squash- Early crookneck
  • Tomato-Roma
  • Tomato Rainbow Blend
  • Beets -Early Wonder
  • Tomatillos
  • Lettuce – Red speckled
  • Lettuce Salad Bowl
  • ¨Popcorn- tom thumb
  • Popcorn-mais soufflé
  • Dill Seed
  • Cabbage- Early Golden acre x2
  • Lettuce- Iceburg
  • Basil- cinnamon
  • Chicoree-
  • Pea Sugar Snap
  • Pea Lincoln Homesteader 100 gram-
  • Beets-Golden Detroit
  • Peas Green Arrow
  • Corn- Rainbow indian
  • Garden Sorrel
  • Cucumber- Straight Eight
  • Carrot- Scarlet nanates
  • Raddish- Cherry Belle
  • Pumkin Zucca
  • Squash- Golden Health
  • Zucchini – Dark Green
  • Pepper- Mini Bell Mixed
  • Pepper- Early Cal Wonder
  • Pepper Jalepeno
  • Amaranth Red Garnet
  • Tromboncino Rampicante
  • Broccolo larose
  • Cavolfiore
  • Caulflower- Snowball
  • Bean- Orca
  • Bean-Hopi Black
  • Bean-Provider
  • Bean- Wild Goose
  • Bean- Cherokee Trail of Tears
  • Bean-Bird Egg
  • bean-Canadian wonder
  • Bean- Romano
  • Bean- Jacobs Cattle
  • Bean Black Turtle
  • Bean Saskatchawan Dry
  • Bean- Ireland Creek Annie
  • Bean Black Valentine
  • Bean- Little Fields Special
  • Bean Fall Speckled
  • Okra Clemson Spineless
  • Okra- Burgandy
  • A number of self-seeding plants in the garden, plus seed potatos that will carry over for winter, as well as landrace farmgal squash seeds and tomato seeds. did not include flowers, herbs or fodder seeds in this list.

O yes, there is many gaps in there and that means lots of seeds to order and or pick up at the seedy Saturdays!! Some things are already planned, some ordered some are coming from friends but it still leaves lots of room for buying as well

Posted in gardens | 7 Comments

Dang Geese Straw bale housing

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

I moved the geese this winter to two huge outside pens, providing a lovely enclosed three sided A frame wooden hut for them with straw bedding.. its huge, a full sheet of plywood in length, will they use it

NO!!

Its so cold right now I have been all grrrrrr but I do NOT want to give them a stall in the barn again this year, they did not like it, I did not like it etc

So as I glared at them and their lift a foot, hunker down in the open dumb bleep-bleeps

I put my thinking cap on and yesterday. they got  straw bale instant shelter built right where they want to bed down.

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Its pure function, nothing pretty about it, put up a solid back, two bales of straw for height with another piece of solid wood on top as a roof and the middle get some nice clean bedding to keep them off the snow.

After looking at it, I added in two more bales to create a 3 quarter wall in the front with a doorway..

So will they use THIS!

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Why, yes they will and very pleased about it they were! there now, I can stop worrying that they are cold and without proper shelter

If there is one thing a farmer figures out pretty quickly, if you are willing to lock up your critters, yes you can make them do things but when they are given a choice.. its all about making it work for them, cause otherwise, they will not use it.

 

 

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Baby is cold outside.. Bedding.

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Sometimes it really pays off to keep your ears open and to ask what folks are thinking about doing. in this case we are talking about Straw! aka warm bedding..

Normally I buy straw from the same supplier of my hay but he gave me a heads up that this year of 2014, he would not be growing anything, be it wheat or rye that would make straw for me to buy.. so I reserved and bought all he had left from 2013, which he was kind enough to hold for me in his good barn till I was ready for it here on the farm.. I am grateful for it, and I am hopeful that he will have my big square straw bales for 2015 again.

But I had also talked to someone else about being able to get my hands on some small square straw bales, a little tiny bit more in cost but so great for a number of uses, I had thought I would need 50 of them, but then when they had a good yield and I saw the quality, I booked 100 of them.. once I found out that I was getting nothing from my regular source, I asked and was told yes, that I could reserve 150 in total for my winter use.

So glad that I ended up with a secondary source that worked out perfectly, I was able to get them at the same place that I get my wonderful locally grown and ground grains..

In this cold winter weather, the keys to happy animals are threefold

1) Draft protection, they need to be able to get out of the wind..  be it fully in the barn itself, in some of the barn pens, be it in the lean to, which has wind block from three sides and one open side, be it behind the little barn, which is a much favorite place for both the horses and the sheep.. they loaf around in the sun but out of the wind..

2) Feed, yes, that is right, bet you thought I was going to say bedding but nope it is last on that list.. your animals need the right kind of feed for this cold weather, the horses need that hay in front of their face free feed and available 24-7, the hay and digesting it is how they make more heat inside..  yes a little bit of feed, fat is good for them each day as well but its hay that is important.. for the chickens its the hotter feed aka scratch.. that will warm them up, and the adding in of meat protein for them.

Veggie scraps are awesome for the birds, but they are a cooling food, when its Brrrrr baby.. for the hens they need protein, be it given by redworms, or mealworms or sprouted higher protein fodder..

Rabbits are different, you want to increase their ability to work well in the cold, you want to increase their fat intake.. throw a handful of boss on that feed or fat sunflower seeds or home save pumpkin or squash seeds..

3) Bedding.. the bedding is important to all of them, it is what keeps their toes and in some cases their whole bodies from having the cold come up from the floor be it ground or the cement floors in the barns. In most cases, they just lay on the bedding but not all.. give a rabbit a choice and it wants to make a nest, in the case of the pigs, if they get their way, you will not see a single bit of them showing, they will make their nest and be so covered that all you might see is steam and or wiggle in the bedding.

Deep bedding is my winter choice when ever given the possibility.. We will be topping up all beddings tonight as they say, today is the best day temp wise for the next couple days, its calm and not bad outside at the moment but the temps are to drop and drop hard for the next three to four days..

We are prepped to ideally have happy, healthy and content critters that just hunker down and give us grumpy face with fluffed feathers, and poofed fur..

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Butternut Squash, the landrace Great Grow out!

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Its going to be such a interesting garden year, one of the things that is new this year is the Garden 2015 page.. I will be linking all my garden posts onto that page, so instead of using the search feature, you just need to pop up to the garden page and go!

I have signed up to for some test growouts, for some rare seed growouts, and the great Dear Hubby Melon Landrace event, and just for fun.. the giant pumpkin local garden groups growout!

I love my butternut squash, I have saved seeds from those grown on the farm but can and do cross out, so its quite normal for me to also buy seed to grow pure strain as well.

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This is different, this is a landrace grow out..  wonder what a landrace plant looks like.. pop over to read this awesome interview done by Ottawa gardener

http://veggiepatchreimagined.blogspot.ca/2012/03/interviews-with-great-gardeners-farming_29.html

Now that you have a better idea of what landrace means, I have agreed to be a growout tester for a landrace butternut squash this year, I  have been given permission to also grow out both my own homesaved seeds and bought plants side by side.. after all it is a landrace program.. As I did not get any seed saved from this years crop, it will be coming from the bounty that was 2013.

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I believe there is around half a dozen of us or so that are involved locally, I think – I am one of the bigger growout in terms of plants wanted to grow and ideally produce.

I am giving up my main squash gardening space for this project, I am not going to put every single egg in the same basket and will be adding in a few squash plants here and there in other garden areas.

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My main squash area is being split in two.. one side will just be the landrace only, the other half will be interplanted.. the landrace, my saved farm seeds, and bought or gifted seeds..

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So here is my call out..  if any of you have saved butternut seed and are willing, send me some! I do not need much, five will do it 🙂 Pop them in a letter and send them my way to be part of the one growout area of lets mix them up..

Send me a note on the comments with your email and I will get back to you with some info.. and a big thank you on the blog 🙂

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Apple and Ella Update-Overview

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well I finally found local breeder to me, within 15 min on country roads that has reliable  litters of weaner piglets for sale all year round, he has been doing this for 20 plus years and I hope that means that he will not turn out to be a one trick pony and will instead become a steady source.  His setup is well done, most important, his piglets are healthy, clean bright eyed and bushy.. Ella came from this Gentleman and I have a friend that has piglets from him as well and they are all thriving.

Neither Apple nor Ella are staying on the farm longer term, they have a few jobs to help with the on the farm (which they will love because it fits right in with giving them a great life) and then they are off to freezer camp, not as BIG pigs but as the typical size of commercial butcher pigs, ok well maybe a little bit bigger, I am going to send them around 300 pounds or so, I do not like to see the pigs go at much smaller then that.

They will be offered as Farmgate Pork sales, they will be available in front quarters, rear quarters, half a pig or a whole pig.

They will be sent after the spring garden season,  and I reserve the right to keep them a extra week or two to be my piggy plows (but I figure anyone buying from me, knows that all those yummy fresh greens, bugs an worms are just going to create some amazing porkchops on your plates).

Due to the rising costs of.. well everything.. I am going to be asking 5 dollars a pound, that is for the finished cut and wrapped pork, if you want bacon or ham, you will need to pay the smoking costs above and beyond..

So lets get down to what the girls will be doing, what they will be eating, and why they will have the most amazing firm and flavoured meat you can imagine!

These girls have jobs!.. Right now their jobs are very simple, grow, , snuggle in straw, play with their toys and eat the house scraps.. what can I say.. winter jobs are pretty light LOL

But as soon as it starts to warm up they are going to be moved to the big barn, they are small enough that we have moved them to the small barn that is closer to the house for the winter, and they will get busy! turning that deep packed sheep pen bedding, allowing me to rake out that composted and turned goodness for my gardens..

Then as soon as possible, they will be trained to the electric fence and we are set up to have them out in the compost pack and pile.. they will be hunting for fresh roots and grubs, and hopefully not to many frogs or toads, cause I want them to stick around!

and then one day we will turn the corner and voila, it will be early spring and they will become garden pigs.. I love my piggy plows.. they will root up and turn the soil and turn the compost into the soil and so much more for me.. They will come down each day to spend the day in the sun, fresh air and garden and go back to their pen in the evenings to have a well deserved rest in a sweet pile of straw.

Now as to what they will be eating, for grains, its a mix of locally grown, harvest, dried and ground on the same farm of oats, wheat and barley.

I will be adding in, household scraps, leftover whole milk at times, red wiggler worms, extra eggs in the spring glut and I will be feeding sprouted fodder, normally barley but the reason for the sprouting is to increase their feed protein counts.

If there is enough interest in my way of raising pigs and pork, I will with a waiting list, get two more female weaner piglets in the spring, will be used to help dig a new pond area, feed all extra garden scrapes and will be finished on fall apples

At least monthly photos of the girls will be added to the blog so you can watch them growup and see what they are doing etc.

So if you are interested, let me know in the comments or at farmgal1800@yahoo.ca

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