Finally finished planting the Spring Garden

At last I finally finished planting.  We've been slowed down with rains that have kept the soil a muddy mess.  Some of the things I planted like corn and squash is a little sick looking and need a few days of sunshine.  I put my order in for that.  We'll see what happens.  I may have to replant some of the Stowell's Evergreen Sweet corn.  The last two items that I'll put in the garden are a second variety of corn called Country Gentleman and two varieties of okra - Clemson Spineless and Burgundy.  Clemson Spineless is your normal green okra.  Burgundy okra produces a burgundy colored pod.  It turns green when you cook it though.

Country Gentleman corn is the second corn variety I planted.  It is an odd corn as the kernels don't grow in rows.  It is kind of unconventional and unorganized - a kindred spirit, I suppose.

So in between rains as the soil dried up somewhat, I pulled up several rows and planted the Country Gentleman corn.  I used a broom handle to poke holes that you can see below and just dropped in the seed corn and covered it up.

Planting corn

Then it was time for okra planting.  I've saved seed over the years and have found that okra seed last a long, long time.  I still save some each year, but try to use the FIFO method (first in, first out) of using my seed inventory.

My okra seed bank - paying dividends

Next, since I want to jump start my okra, I soak the seeds overnight in water to soften them and make them germinate more quickly.  You don't have to do this.  Okra is a very easy and forgiving crop.  Most times I just put them in the ground and they sprout fine.  One note, if you plant different varieties and do this, leave your labeled container nearby so you know which seed is which as both varieties of okra seed looks the same.

 

Soaking seed

24 hours later, it is time to plant.  I enlist my helper, Benjamin to drop the okra seeds in the furrow I've made with a broom handle.  It is good to get your kids involved in planting as they see the gratification of (literally) the fruits of their labors. 



Benjamin sowing okra seeds.

Here is a close-up of a swollen okra seed right in the dead center of the photo.  I'll cover it up and it will be sprouted in a few days.  Planting is done!  Other than the melons that I'm planting outside of the garden so they can stretch out and vine, I am finished planting.  Hooray!  In the past I've tried to put the melons in the garden, but the vines created a jungle, making it hard to walk amongst the rows.  The new idea is to plant the different melons in the yard.  It will allow them room to spread out and result in less mowing for me!!  There is a method to my madness after all. 



Okra seed about to be covered with soil.

Once we finished planting, the boys went and caught Annie, our baby Nubian goat, as she was jumping on a round bale of hay.  She is a cute little thing and very playful.  The boys like her.



Russ, Benjamin and Annie

Russs held her up in a pose.  Hmmm...  That is a familiar pose.  Where have I seen that before? 

Oh yeah!  The resemblance is uncanny, don't you think?  Just joking, Russ!

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

Actually it's not even May yet, but the flowers are out in full force.  Admittedly, I'm not much of a flower gardener.  That is more Tricia's thing.  I like to grow things you can eat.  I took some pictures last week of the yellow, pink and white roses along with some yellow lilies that were blooming.  Here's some more flower power:

This is a peach colored hibiscus.  I've read that you can make tea from the flower petals.  I'm going to search the Internet and see how you make it and try it out.  It sounds interesting.  I see it in the Latin section at the grocery store.

Hibiscus



Pink rosebud

Pink rose in bloom

In the flower department, #1 on my list of fragrant flowers is any citrus bloom.  Here is a close first-runner up: Confederate Jasmine!  This jasmine is blooming right now and provides air freshener for the whole 5 acres.  The scent just wafts through the breeze, providing a lazy, Southern scent.


Confederate Jasmine in bloom

This Confederate Jasmine was grown from a cutting from my grandmother's house.  We affectionately called her "Bumby" and she was something else, I tell you!  After she passed away, I went to her house and took some cuttings that I nurtured and was able to get growing at our house.  It has taken over the fence surrounding the air conditioning units and provides an almost daily reminder of Bumby.  She had this growing on a bird house in her side yard sort of near her clothes line.  When you would go out in the yard by this bird house angry Blue Jays would dive at you.

Here's a close-up were you can see numerous buds in the background about to burst forth with both visual and fragrant niceness.

 This flower is an Amaryllis and comes up year after year from bulbs.
 

Amaryllis

We keep them in a terra cotta pot by the side entrance.  The only problem is that the blooms are so heavy, the stem can't hold them up and they will lay down if you don't lean them on something.  Here they are leaning on the column that contains the honey bees.

Here is a hibiscus that is more of a reddish color.  The hibiscus are much more happy and healthy this year.  We actually planted them in the ground and will dig them up once winter approaches so they don't die off with the freeze since they're tropical.
 

Reddish hibiscus

These were growing in the garden and they are the flowers to a different type clover.  They actually make pinkish-purple flowers as opposed to the white ball-type flowers that White Dutch clover makes.

 The neat thing about these are that they grow wild and need no tending to.
 

Pink Clover in the garden!

These next flowers are some of my favorites.  They are called purple iris, I think.  Back when I was farming, I spotted these growing in a ditch off of a gravel road by an old home place.  I took my shovel out and dug up a couple of them and planted them in a low-lying area on our property.  They have taken off and have multiplied.  I can't explain to you how pretty they are, so I'll just show you.


Purple iris

Here is a close-up of the Purple Iris:

Last, but not least I'll throw in another flower.  Can you guess what kind it is?  (Answer below)

These are blooms on our potato plants.  Once potatoes bloom, the growth shifts to producing potatoes on the roots underground.  I'll keep an eye on them.  Once the vines begin to die back, it is time to dig them up.  Fresh green beans cooked with some new potatoes and some bacon...  Wow.  I can't wait.

Bridge Building

A few years ago we had some nasty hurricanes that moved through the area.  We've become kind of used to the drill where you secure everything that can fly off in high winds and then evacuate.  I remember using a chain and some ratchet straps to tie down our trampoline to a couple of trees as I didn't want it blowing into the neighbor's home and damaging their property.

Once the storm passed and we returned, the trampoline was still secured to the trees but it was a crumpled, mangled mess that wasn't good for anything except finding a big dumpster to throw the trampoline remains into - or so I thought.  As I started looking at it, I had an idea.  If I attached some pieces of treated 2 X 6's to pieces of the arched trampoline skeleton, it would make a nice arched bridge.  So that's what I did.  I made a bridge that goes over a small drainage ditch that leads into the pasture.  It is strong and will support me and a 900 pound cow.  It worked out so well, I went 'dumpster diving' and rescued pieces from someone else's damaged trampoline to use later. 

I've had those pieces stacked by the wood pile and today, we'll make that second bridge.  You can see the trampoline pieces below along with the 2 X 6's.  What I'll do is turn the bottom frame clockwise until the straight pipe forms a right angle with the arched piece at the top.  That may a little confusing, sorry.  All you want to do is position the pieces so that there is a straight pipe on either end and the shape is like a square.  This will be the frame of your bridge support.

Pieces of the bridge

I've purchased a box of 2 1/2 inch screws with bits in the end that will drill through metal, but first I'll lay out my boards on the bridge support and drill pilot holes.  You can see how I have moved the board so that it leaves a gap.  I want to be sure that the holes are centered on the arched trampoline frame.


Drilling pilot holes for the metal screws

Now I'll simply use my drill to screw the metal screws in flush with the 2 X 6's.  This is a very easy project - even for a novice carpenter like me. 

Screwing the boards down to secure them to the bridge frame

And that's it!  We're done.  Here is a side view of our new arched bridge leading into the garden.  You can see the old "bridge" that we used to walk to the garden in the foreground.  There were a couple of problems with the old bridge.  First, if it rained a lot, it would float down the ditch and we would have to run and retrieve it.  Then, it was just a flat board and if it rained enough, you'd still get your feet wet or muddy crossing it.

New Bridge

Here is a top view.  I think it turned out nice, proving that you can make something useful and nice out of some old junk.
 

Our new garden bridge

Bridge building will work up a man's appetite.  Might as well try out the bridge and go pull some carrots and beets for lunch!


Healthy veggies for lunch



Cabbage Harvest

I went ahead and harvested the rest of the cabbage in the garden even though the heads weren't as big as I would have liked.  I needed the space for tomatoes and okra.  I picked all of the remaining cabbage and pulled off the outer leaves and fed them to the cows.

The rest of the cabbage

In an earlier post, we showed how we made sauerkraut.  Today we'll show a couple of other things we do with cabbage.  With three of the heads we washed them up.

Washed up cabbage heads

Today we're making a deliciously simple dish we make quite often - Cole Slaw.  We put the cut up cabbage in the food processor and shred it up.  We add some pecans and almonds as well for a twist.


Shredded Cabbage

We poor it into a big bowl so that we can stir the remaining ingredients in.

Shredded cabbage and pecans/almonds

My bride then adds some cracked black pepper and kosher salt.

Next, she adds a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

And then she adds several spoonfuls of homemade mayonnaise.  That reminds me, in a later post I'll show how Tricia makes homemade mayonnaise.  I'm not a mayonnaise guy.  I've never really liked it, but this is different and good.

Stir it all up and put in the fridge for a little while to let the flavors come together for a bit.  Then enjoy!


Cole Slaw

For the rest of the cabbage, Tricia washed it.

She shreds all of it in the food processor...

She had a lot once she was done.  Some of it we'll bag up and keep in the fridge to make more cole slaw since we all enjoy it.

Then the rest of it was blanched, bagged in gallon freezer bags and put into the freezer.  We'll pull them out and cook as we need it for a side dish.  That does it for the 2013 cabbage crop.

From "Scaries" to Berries...

Cough, cough...  AAAACHHOOO!  Excuse me.  Springtime is beautiful.  Cough, cough.  But the pollen in the air gives me fits.  It seems like there is a blanket of pollen on everything.  Take a look at the hood of Russ' truck.  It is actually a red truck underneath the yellow coating of live oak pollen.


Russ' yellow pickup truck

Okay, enough complaining.  Cough, cough.  Speaking of pollen, as I walk up to the side entrance of our house, I see that our visitors are back this year.  If you look closely in the next two photographs, you can see that a swarm of honeybees for the second year in a row, have made their home in one of the columns that supports the roof over our side door.  This is the door most people use to enter our house.  They fly up to the top of the column and with legs filled with pollen, climb into the space between the top of the column and the roof.  Their hive is inside the column, with a large honeycomb that I have no way to get to.

My beekeeping friend says I should cut a hole in the column and rob the honey, but a big hole in the column is not aesthetically appealing, now is it?  I think for now, I'll leave them alone.  They haven't bothered anybody and we just sort of ignore them.  As long as they don't sting us, they are beneficial as they will pollinate our garden and fruit trees.  That's a plus, right?  Also, I look at having a bee hive at my back door as somewhat of a discouragement to salesmen, census takers, etc.  If only I could train the bees to be discriminating.  I don't want them to chase off our friends and family:)


Our "Watch Bees"

Here are a couple in flight with one honeybee coming out and one going in as well.  Yes, I need to pressure wash the house and repaint the columns.  It is on my list, I promise. 

Not Killer Bees

Along with "friendly" animals in the insect kingdom, we have some "not so friendly" ones as well.  On the gate that leads to our pasture, I captured a shot of a caterpillar that most people in Louisiana call an asp.  They fall out of the live oak trees and usually on your neck.  They are supposed to sting you, although I've never left one on me long enough to find out. 

When I "googled" it using the name asp, I get a lot of things, but not a picture of the caterpillar in the photo below.  Actually, according to a caterpillar identification website I found, this thing turns into something called a tussock moth and will sting you and leave you with a painful rash.  Okay, I'll steer clear or squash them.  They're not beneficial to the extent that our friendly bees are.


Tussock Moth Caterpillar waiting to sting me on the gate to the pasture

Let's close with some good stuff.  Russ, Benjamin, and I went to check on the progress of the dewberries growing in the ditch on the property by our mailbox.  Bingo!  They're ripe.  Go get the bucket, boys!  In a previous post: http://ourmakersacresfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/02/making-homemade-dewberry-jelly.html we showed you how we make homemade dewberry jelly with these berries that grow wild and run along ditches and fence rows.


Ripe Dewberries!

Houston, we have a problem.  The dewberry crop was not as plentiful since the farmer plowed the land last year.  He hadn't plowed in several years and by plowing, I think it killed a lot of our dewberries.  We'll have to see if we can get together with my family and go to the farm in Oberlin and pick blackberries to supplement.

Here's all we got after picking for about 15 minutes:


Slim Pickins'

Maybe another issue affecting the low yield of berries was the fact that Benjamin didn't put a single berry into the bucket.  They all went into his mouth!  They're meant to be enjoyed.  What a blessing - a crop you don't have to plant or care for.

Urban Chickens

"If you love something set it free.  If it comes back to you, it's yours.  If it doesn't, it never was"

Well two of our hens ain't coming back...  I guess they were never ours.  Let me explain.  My brother lives in the middle of New Orleans-not on the outskirts of the city-right smack dab in the middle.  Neighbors on either side.  A sidewalk out front, for crying out loud.  But he has a box of bees in his backyard, a garden, a compost pile, and now...  Chickens! 

I got a call from him asking me if I had 2 hens that I could spare because he and my sister-in-law wanted fresh eggs.  Believe it or not, New Orleans has a livestock ordinance that allows you to keep chickens in the city as long as you abide by certain restrictions.  Part of the ordinance says this "...It shall be unlawful for any person to keep a hog or to permit one to run at large."  If my brother's urban farm expands to hogs, I'll have to brief him on the legality of letting them roam at large.  

They say the chickens come home to roost.  These will have quite a journey to come back to Jennings.

So my brother showed up on Saturday with my mom's turkey cage in the back of his truck.  My mom is not a turkey farmer, although she'd probably tell you she raised a few!  (Ba dum bum)  No, this cage never held a turkey and was a merely a "conversation piece" in our home.  My bro somehow now holds title to this artifact and put it into its intended service.  Why, you can see in the photo below, after we loaded up the Barred Rock Hens for their Excellent Adventure to New Orleans, they promptly christened Mom's cage.  

Time to get this party started.

So as my brother headed out of our driveway with hens in tow, we bid them farewell and wish them the best.  They've lived a sheltered existence here on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We hope they will develop the 'street smarts' they'll need to make it in the city. 


Experiencing the empty nest syndrome...

We got a call later that afternoon and learned that after being in NOLA for only twenty minutes, one of them laid an egg.  So I guess they're transitioning well...

Strawberry Milk

Do you remember this stuff?

I used to drink this as a child.  It was so sweet.  It made your milk turn pink and was sort of like drinking liquid candy for breakfast.  All you had to do was put a spoonful of it in a cup of cold milk and stir.  I recall the pink sludge at the bottom of the glass that remained if you didn't stir it long enough for it to dissolve.  You'd tilt the glass up to try to get the pink sludge to slide into your mouth, but eventually opted for the long spoon to scoop it out and eat it.  How many cavities was the pink rabbit responsible for, I wonder?  The worst part about Strawberry Quik (besides the pink rabbit) are the words "Artificial Flavor" on the can.

Well, we solved that little problem by making our own Strawberry Milk, but with only all natural ingredients.  Believe it or not there are only 3 ingredients, they were grown locally, and you can pronounce them all!  The other day I showed you how we purchased a flat of Louisiana Strawberries:

First all natural ingredient

Tricia bought a nifty little gizmo that we've been using everyday to make smoothies.  Normally these contraptions are purchased, used a couple times and then placed in a back cabinet somewhere and never see the light of day again.  This single serve blender where you drink right from the container after adding a ring to the top might have staying power, though.

Add 8 ounces of ice cold raw milk (either cow or goat) to a blender:


Second all natural ingredient

Add 8 - 12 fresh strawberries to the container: 

Strawberry Fields Forever

These whole berries will be in a pureed state in just a moment.

Next, we add some local honey.  This honey was contributed by my brother.  He's a new beekeeper and robbed his hives and shared some of the wealth with us.  A tablespoon of the fruits of Kristian's bees' labor should do the trick:

Adding our third all natural ingredient

Put it in Tricia's new contraption, turn it on and watch your milk turn from white to pink!

Puree until you can't see any fruit chunks spinning around.

Turn it over, add the ring to the top and get ready to enjoy some REAL, delicious Strawberry Milk!

Strawberry Milk - done right

This Strawberry milk made with all natural ingredients (and no pink bunny) allows you to enjoy a delicious healthy beverage.  If there happens to be sludge at the bottom of the glass, it is only pureed strawberry chunks and honey and you can feel good about getting every little bit out!

Cheers!