Wood Ash Use in the Garden

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

As my regular readers know we have had a bad ice storm and then a very strong wind storm, I have so many small, med and even huge limbs or tree’s down between the two storm.  I have been doing a fair amount of burning but its been a mix of all kinds of yard -garden stuff.  I cleaned out the burn pit (which is a hot water tank cut in half, waste not, want not 🙂 and I did burning for two days of hard and soft wood for very clean ash and small charcoal bits for garden use.

Wood ashes contain potassium, some phosphorus and magnesium. Nutritional value varies according to the species of wood, according to Dr. Gary F. Griffin, an agronomist with the University of Connecticut Extension Service (6/6/81).

For example, ashes from such hardwoods as maple, elm, oak and beech contain a third more calcium plus more potash than the ashes from softwoods.

Phosphorus content usually ranges between 0.8 and 3 per cent, potassium from 2.8 to 8.6 per cent, calcium from 14 to 28 per cent, magnesium from 0.8 to 2.8 per cent and sulfur from 0.3 to 0.5 per cent.  Poor man’s lime to a point but its frugal. I can’t make lime on the farm the same way I can make a very clean wood ash

Due to the lightweight of dry ashes and their total neutralizing power, it would take a considerable amount of ash to make the soil too alkaline for good crop production.  I have always been told 1/4th inch to 1/2 inch of ash in regards to thickness for spreading.. think of it as a light dusting.

The ash must have been kept dry before use otherwise the water or rain will have leached a lot from it. I wanted this ash to sweeten my tomato growing areas for this year.

The addition of ash did confer some benefits—those plants were larger and grew fruit with significantly higher magnesium and potassium content.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/p-is-for-plants-human-urine-plus-as-2009-09-04/

I did a light spreading of my ash and then worked it in well into the soil itself.. There will be close to a two week rest between applying, tilling in and turning the cover crop under before the tomato’s and peppers will be planted out.

Do you use wood ash in your garden?

Readers Comments- I wanted to share this advice that came in on the comment section.

I do on occasion toss it in my garden beds – but the main use on my farm is as an anti-slip on ice. When we get that freeze/melt/freeze thing going – the horses and the cows tend to be very nervous – they know they have poor footing in some areas. I just spread it on their regular paths and feeding areas. A friend had an issue last year – her cows wouldn’t come in from the field – in their heads they were trapped surrounded by ice – and it was all white. I told her to make them a ‘road’ using ashes. Not only were they happy not to slip on it, they could ‘see’ the road. Worked well.

Check out her blog 🙂 Amazing Writer..

https://bjerkesbonelesschickenranch.wordpress.com/

Posted in Garden, homestead | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Tree Hay an Tree Fodder

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Sometimes you read or see something odd and it just clicks.. Tree hay for me clicked.. I mean I had been pruning out tree branches I didn’t want, I had been cutting an feeding little tree’s for years to the sheep and goat flock. So when I watched a video that Tree Hay was used in Europe for many years with pollard trees.. it made so much sense and then when I read more, dug deeper and joined a tree hay group. I saw how it was used in other counties in different ways both as fresh and as dried.

When I first watched a video on pollard tree’s and taking up to 50 percent of the branches to dry them for winter use.. I just went WOW..  This can add so much more feed on my smaller property.. Its fodder growing both the food forest and more important to me.. in the pasture.

You see I have a good amount of tree’s in the pasture that can be big pollard tree’s, they are big enough that they have straight trunks as the goats and sheep took off all the limbs below their eating range.. I can top out the tree’s and now I have both shade for the livestock, a tree belt and a productive way to use the tree greens themselves.

I plan to use the pasture cut branches as they do in the drier climates, cutting them for fresh fodder in later july and into early aug. I plan to use the pollards in the food forest for making the to dry tree hay..  They can be cut much smaller and lower to the ground as they will not have the livestock pressure on them, plus I do not need them to act in any way as a shade tree..

They are not really in full leaf yet but that is not stopping the flocks from being delighted with what they are getting, they only thing they leave behind is the non-green wood.

Ideally, you are doing your main cuts while the tree is dormant.. you want the tree to split into two or three strong ways.. each one of those will then produce lots of branches off each one of these off-shoots.

This is the wild mess that just happened from the last time. I got the splits but I also have growth all over the place..

Ok, I am hoping these photos still show what I am trying to.. the first one is before I trimmed it, the second is what I want for my summer growth. I will see if I can keep taking photos of a couple of the same tree’s over the season to show you how its going.

I got three five tree’s done this morning.. I will be doing three to five each day for a few weeks I am sure to get them all done. It will be a big job but its going to be so worth it!

I have a few willow tree’s that are being transplanted into the food forest that are only being put in to be grown into very heavily pruned fodder producing tree’s.. they are considered one of the best..

I have a lot of Norway maples on the farm.. they are have been used in the more northern climates for many years and they will have to do 🙂

 

Posted in Food Forest | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Striving for Victory – Dig for Victory

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I just adore the year long challenge that my fellow Canadian blogger has taken on, and I have been waiting for the announcement of the victory garden.. I have a little copy of the official victory garden and how, what to grow and I am very interested in learning more.. I will be joining them in the garden part. I have been reducing energy costs and I already shop second hand most of the time. I do not want it to take away from the may challenge. so I will not be talking about it more then once a week max

craftytadpole's avatarhip roof barn

My apologizes for taking so long to post May’s Striving for Victory Challenge.  In my defense, the sun was shining and it was time to get busy in the garden.

View original post 489 more words

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Top Ten Reason’s to Grow Radish in your Garden!

Posted on May 7, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

radish greensFarmgal’s Tip of the Day.. When your hubby brings you in fresh garden Radish’s and they are so hot, I mean WOW heat hot.. to eat fresh.. what to do.. the answer is easy, cook them.. you can toss them with some good olive oil and sea salt and roast them, or you can slice them up and stir-fry them with other veggies. you can grate them into soups, stews or salads to make the heat meld with everything.

 

Today we are going to talk about radish..  O yes, it seems so lowly.. but its not.. its a plant that just keeps on giving and we are in major expanding mode on it to boot..  I think it will be easier to break it down into parts..

1) One of the earliest things to be planted in the gardens, right along side the first spring peas but will be certain to get a harvest sooner.. Planted though out the whole growing season, they will do well, can be used as a marker system for slow to sprout seeds, by the time the slower are up an needing the space, the radish are out.

2) Do not forget that there are short growing radishes (what we are use to in the store but that there are many long season radish that are more like a carrot or turnip in shape and that there is even winter keeping radish.. yes you read that right.. big, long slow growing keep radishs that can be held over in the root cellar for winter use

3) Greens, o boy the greens.. yummy tender greens for salads, bigger and spicy greens for mixing in anything you want, veggies, meat with greens, soups, or stews..  Or how about a yummy radish green mayo for a burger or Radish Green Pesto for a pasta dish.. So Good!

4) The seeds, If you have never collected seeds or if you are still paying though the nose for winter Sprouting seeds, you need to give Radish a try.. they grow out a nice clear pod that is easy to find, filled with lots and lots of tiny black seeds, those seeds will give you fab sprouts or micro greens at a tiny fraction of the price at the store sprouting prices.

5) the pods, fresh baby pods can be added to stirfries, or pickled, Pickled Radish pods are delightful indeed.  I must do a post on just that with a recipe or two on how to use them..

6) Trap crops.. Radish even if you are buying the seed are cheap to buy, active and easy to grow and they make excellent trap crops in the garden.. O yes, please think of your cabbage, carrots and other things that the bugs tend to love and throw some  radish around them as a trap crop. Those radish that were trap cropped, where also allowed to go to flower and then seed.. acting as a triple threat and reward, only in one place did I pull the plants, burn them, they were covered in eggs and replant it right back out in radish..

7) Green cover crops, Radish is a excellent green cover crop, basic wide scatter on a cleaned bed now in april, let it grow about two or three inches high keeping the weeds down, chop and turn under and replant the bed in a warm weather crop.

8) Do not limit yourself to eating radish fresh, it is excellent roasted, its lovely in soups and stews and it cans up into a delightful crisp winter treat as a side dish..

9) Fodder, Radish greens and are excellent for pretty much any critter you want to feed them to.. be it your chickens, rabbits, pigs or sheep, even my horses get in on the action, its adorable watching them eating up that radish greens and then the look as they get to the radish itself, but they never turn it down.. even the super hot ones are eaten with gusto

10) They are FAST, I mean really, what other plant do you know that can go from seed to table in 30 days and in ideal conditions.. 28 days..  Rock on Radish.. Rock on!

Now, What do you say. I say, run to the store and pick up five or six more packages of basic radish for green crops, for seed use or for trapping rows in your garden, but also hit the Asian area of the seeds and be brave, pick up a winter radish as well! Give it a try, they can very different flavours, some are more mild, some are so funky in color.. how about a lovely green and white radish, or a white skin with a pink middle or a lovely purple radish in color or pure white..

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Rabbits Manure

Posted on May 7, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I raised meat rabbits on the farm. I got my rabbits at the first small animal and bird sale I could find the very first spring on the farm.  They have been with us the past 14 years now. I range between three breeding does with one buck to six breeding does with two bucks and anywhere in between.

One of the things should never overlooked on the returns for keeping rabbits is their manure. If you garden, its outstanding manure. Its a cold manure in the sense that you do not have to compost their little pellets before use in the garden.

From my reading it would appear that it is Typical N.P.K. analysis of 2. 1. 1.  It can be used directly by just taking the dry rabbit poo and putting it on top your soil and then lightly mixing it in and just going from there. I am willing to do this in my flower beds and in my gardens in the fall so that it will have the late fall and winter to break down.

I personally do not do this directly in area’s that I will be growing my fresh eating plants. I prefer to do a quick compost of the poo before using it in those garden beds, or if I need it faster, I make a bucket of manure tea.

Because I have outdoor rabbit hutches that are year round use, I have quite a pile of a mix of rabbit poo, straw bedding and bits of hay. The straw is from their back sleeping area’s but they always get some thrown out and down.. The hay is because I give them free choice hay in winter to snack on daily. plus they are messy creatures and there is costly rabbit feed in there as well..

This means that these piles are self composting in place, filled with worms and in the spring I will let the chickens dig in these to help make the top loose and workable and I then take it away to finish composting it and then let the chickens back again..  It does take a bit of time but done daily, it adds up to a good amount of workable compost in a pretty fast time overall.

So lets get back to the manure tea. I take one of my six gallon buckets. I added in two big shovel full of the premixed by the chickens of the composting rabbit poo but also took the freshest that day rabbit poo (I want that fresh poo because its loaded with microbes) Then because I could, I took out two shovels of one year composted chicken-duck compost. That pile had been done over the summer and late fall and had been composting out for six to eight months give or take.

Both of these are very rough composts and compared to what I see on the net, would have everyone in bit of.. but its not ready.. and that is my point in this post.. at least for the rabbit compost or the direct rabbit poo.. its always ready!  Its normal for the poo pellets to float when freshly stirred. they will break apart quite quickly as it works its magic.

I added four gallons of rain water to the bucket and gave it a stir.. I stirred once a day for three days and then strained it.. all the bits went back to the compost pile.. the liquid was  split between two five gallon buckets and then topped up with water to the four gallon point in each bucket and used on my berry bushes.

If you have rabbits on the farm, I am willing to bet that you use their poo in your gardens already but have you thought about it as a way to make a little extra money?

At least locally, a 3/4th filled mix of raw rabbit poo manure blend is worth ten dollars when picked up at the farm. Its a good little seller to the local gardeners in our local towns and city.

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, rabbits | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

What do you use clover for?

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I like clover! I like white clover and red clover, I can remember as a small child the pleasure on a warm sunny summer day to pick big fluffy heads of the most wonder purple and sucking on the sweet at the bottom of each tiny flower nub..  I have never been quite sure why red clover is called red, as the flowers are purple to my eye..

Clover in the pasture was a good thing, clover pulled and tossed to the chickens or given out to grandpa’s rabbits, would make critters cluck and coo or nibble in the most happy way.. but my mother never used clover in the kitchen that I am aware of.

Credit for the first time I had homemade clover tea goes to Miss T back when she was my roommate just as I hit my 20’s,  and I have never looked back, I missed clover something fierce when I lived in the artic and there was none.. no clover flowers for years in my life, I traded them for a different world view and culture and don’t regret it, it has helped make me who I am.

But now that I am back on a farm again, I seek out and grow my clover patches, some white, some red, some a mix of both, I use it as a green cover, I use it for bird feed, and for six months of the year, some is picked for the rabbits daily greens, I dry the flowers for my own use and I make at least a batch  or two of clover flower syrup. This is special to me, no using it one pancakes or icecream or as a meat glaze.. not this one..

Its used for when I have a cold, I mix up a couple tbsp of this with hot water and sip away., its a wonderful  sweet flower with nutty undertones

This is a basic flower syrup but I have a few helpful hints to make sure it turns out the best possable for you.

  • Pick your flowers early in the morning, and be picky about them, you want young just coming out flowers with no damage or brown on the bottom of the flowers. yes it takes time to hand pick the flowers and you will need a good size patch of them.
  • Pick your flowers when they are dry, not wet from rain or dew
  • Pick only from patches you know have not been sprayed
  • Don’t overpick your patch, no more then half at any given time.
  • Use good quality water(I know, I know this one seems basic, but not everyone has the right water in their home wells to make good canning products!)

Clover flower Syrup Recipe

  • 4 cups of flowers (all Red, all White or a mix of both)
  • 2 cups of water

Put your flowers after carefully checking them over, and removing any green leaves or stems or brown spots on the flowers into your steel pot, cover with water and bring to a slow soft simmer for 20 min by which time all color should have leach out of the flowers, and you will be left with a very pretty yellow fresh flower tea.

Measure out your water, it should be two cups, if you want to use it right away, just bottle and cool and add honey or sugar as you use it, if you want to perserve it for winter, its a one to one rato is what I use.

So back into the cleaned steel pot goes the two cups of flower tea and two cups of sugar, bring to boil and simmer for two min, and then jar and process the pint jar for ten min and cool and store in a cool, dark place.

So you make clover flower tea? Do you dry clover? Do you make syrup and have a favorite way to use it?  Do you grow clover as a ground cover?A green Crop for the garden? or how about a big old patch for your smaller barn critters?

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, Food Production and Recipes | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

31 Day Self Reliance Challange Week One Overview

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

 

Week One Overview

Well, its been a busy week here on the farm, we have been working on the house, the yard, the gardens. We had company come and visit the farm and we had the STORM. The weather this year so far has been quite the challenge in many ways. So much snow, the ice storm, now a major wind storm. A very long slow start to spring and then suddenly summer heat!

Things that we got done over the past week.

  • Butchered out the grow out rooster pen
  • Dried a full load of early spring stinging nettle for later use in the year
  • Cleaned up in the Main Garden
  • Worked on spring cleaning in the house itself -Purged just over 50 items that we do not need on the farm, some went to the garbage, most went to the local second hand shop for a second life off the farm.
  • Made Bread twice this week, once for the household use an once for company
  • Went though three pantry shelves and did a full clean and check on items

Some of my favorite posts over the past week from the fellow bloggers

www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2018/05/how-to-harvest-and-use-curly-dock.html

I had shared a dock post this week on how to make a lovely cream sauce with it, but I really enjoyed reading Lisa’s much detailed post on ways to use Curly Dock.. Do check it out.

On the food front, I really enjoyed Nancy’s post on Roasted Tomato Soup

https://nancyonthehomefront.com/roasted-tomato-soup-with-spinach-pesto/

I am interesting in trying it with fresh spring greens in the pesto part.. it just sounds yummy!

My official week one favorite post that got me working on my spring cleaning and check in the pantry came from Candy’s Farm House Pantry Post.. A great overview on “Basic Food Storage” www.candysfarmhousepantry.com  Basic Storage

I enjoyed reading all the blogger post goals for the challenge and I look forward to sharing different bloggers posts that I liked reading over the coming weeks 🙂

We would love to have you join the challenge and share your own steps to self sufficiency . Follow us and share your self reliance methods, tips, goals, and dreams! Be sure to visit the other bloggers and read about their self reliance journey! You can follow along each members blog or other social mediums be it Facebook, twitter or more.

If you would like to join in this challenge, please go here to fill out the form on her site

Please check out this outstanding bloggers that are joining in the challenge. More might join as we go along.

Lisa Lynn – The Self Sufficient HomeAcre

Maria – Maria Zannini

Frank – My Green Terra

Shawnalee – Homegrown Self Reliance

Ashley – Practical Self Reliance 

Candy- Candy’s Farm House Party

Robin- A life in the wild

Kathi – Oak Hill Homestead

Nancy- Nancy on the Homefront

AnnMarie- 15 Acre Homestead

And myself.. Just another day on the farm 🙂

I will be writing new content for this challenge. However I am also going to bring out of off my most popular homesteading and related posts over the blogs seven plus years history. We are asked to do a one week round up and sharing of other blogs favorite posts, I am looking forward to getting to know these new bloggers. We never stop learning 🙂

 

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Coltsfoot-Flowers and Flower Stems

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

The first flowers of spring locally have arrived, our Coltsfoot is up and in full flower, the flowers rise out of the ground on them stems coming many weeks before the leaves will show themselves.

I picked a full cup of tightly budded flowers to make a lovely homemade cough syrup to help with my cold, I washed the flowers with luke warm water, giving them a good rince and then packed a full cup of them into a liter glass jar, and filled it with 2 cups of fresh boiling water, and let it steep for 20 min (if you are using dried flowers from a health store, I would let it steep 4 to 8 hours) but as I am using fresh, I don’t feel the need to let it steep that long.

I drained my Coltsfoot flower tea though a strainer layered with cheese cloth, and into a steel pot and at a VERY low simmer, I reduced it by half from two cups to one cup.

Measure your liquid and match it with raw local unpasturized honey into a pot and bring to a boil, and then pour into a clean hot glass canning jar, let cool till room temp and then store in the fridge,  I personally don’t use more then six tsp per day and only use for limited time.

If I wanted to make this to keep for later use in the year, I would also add 1/4 cup of high quality vodka to help in the preservation. If you want to make this into cough drops, you must used the sugar instead of the honey to do so, follow any basic Candy recipe using the reduced tea as the base liquid.

I personally find the taste to be very reasonable, its got a flowery hint to it, with a slight bitter.

This plant has mixed reviews, some folks don’t think it should be used at all but on the other hand it has a history of medical use in China for 2000 years and now has many recent studies in that country backing that its very good for helping in regards to colds and sore throat.

So, I am not going to recommend it as safe, but instead use with care and do your own reading and decide for yourself on if you are comfortable with using small amounts or not! Please do not eat raw! I only use it when cooked and only in small amounts.

http://www.herbal-supplement-resource.com/coltsfoot.html

Do any of you use Coltsfoot? and if so, how do you use it?

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, Herbs, Personal Care, wild foods | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Storm possable

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks, they are calling for a quite nasty storm already hitting much of southern Ontario and heading my way, high winds up to 110 km an hour, hail, rain, possible flooding, with high risk of things being blown over, down etc leading to power outages.

just in case I go missing over the next few days if out of power, I am setting up auto posting of some popular blog posts. Everyone local, stay safe.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 8 Comments

Sunchokes

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

As promised here is the full sunchoke blog post 🙂 that was talked about in my newly planned Fodder garden

Just another day on the farm's avatarJust another Day on the Farm

Yesterday in the bitter cold, we dug up a few plants worth of Sunchokes.

P1060351

Qouted from this site

Sunchokes, the vegetable formerly known as “Jerusalem artichokes,” are the tuberous roots of a native North American plant in the sunflower family — neither from Jerusalem nor related to artichokes — originally cultivated by Native Americans. The Oxford Companion to Food says that the plant was noted in writing as early as 1603, when Samuel de Champlain (the same guy Lake Champlain is named after) described the root as tasting “like an artichoke,” ostensibly starting the naming confusion that has plagued the vegetable since its European debut.

Things get even weirder, etymologically speaking, because in much of Europe, the vegetable is known as topinambour (or some variation), a corruption of the name of an indigenous Brazilian tribe that was on “tour” (I won’t even comment on that one) in France at the…

View original post 636 more words

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments