24 "Carrot" Gold

In Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden, despite his mother's admonitions and eats vegetables - lots of vegetables.  He almost gets caught by Mr. McGregor and was lucky to get out of the garden with his life.  He loses his jacket and shoes getting away and goes home.  He is in trouble with his mother.  Peter's obedient sibling bunnies get a nice meal of milk, bread and blackberries, but Peter goes to bed without supper.  He only gets chamomile tea to help him feel better.

Peter was attracted to the garden and so am I.  The difference is, it is my garden.  Eating vegetables from it doesn't make me sick, and when I leave my garden, I always leave with my jacket and shoes still on.  I don't have a problem with mischievous bunnies in my garden, thank goodness!  If I did, I probably wouldn't have harvested what Tricia and I pulled from the garden on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  I'm talking carrots.

My carrot crop wasn't as abundant as in prior years, but it wasn't too shabby.  We only pulled the fat, ripe carrots.  There are numerous carrots that will be maturing a little later, and we'll be pulling them up in a couple of weeks when they mature.  Let's take a look.  I normally look at the carrot tops to clue me in on which may be ripe.  This one below catches my attention as a potential carrot that is ready to pull.

Large carrot greens that are lying down instead of standing straight up

Next, I take my thumb and press it around the base of the carrot to give me an idea of the circumference of the carrot beneath the soil.  This one was indeed ready.  If it was small, I would leave it in the ground for later.

A fat Atomic Red Carrot!

Pulling carrots is a rewarding exercise.  There is gold lying beneath the soil!  Walking by, you'd never know it.  I firm tug reveals beautiful carrots that were, up to now, hidden from sight.

A healthy haul

Freshly pulled carrots with the greens attached are the picture of wholesome, healthy garden goodness to me.  As we pull them, we lay them atop the wood mulch that lines the garden around the rows of vegetables and in the walkways.

I always plant a variety of carrots, including Berlicum, Cosmic Purple and Atomic Red along with an Organic rainbow mix of red, purple, orange, yellow and white carrots.

The greens always look pretty, but they wilt quickly.  As always, we share the garden greens with our animals (not Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter), but our cows and chickens.  They love 'em.

Sharing the bounty

After snipping off the greens, we drop them in the produce harvest bucket. 

We took them to the back patio to clean them up.  This is done by pouring some rainwater in the harvest bucket, shaking them vigorously in the water to loosen the soil from the carrots.

Like a gold nugget from a mountain stream, we pull out a gleaming, beautiful carrot.

All cleaned up!

Once done, we have a nice bucket of carrots ready to eat fresh or blanch and freeze.

But we have another product too.  The once sparkling clean rainwater is now laden with topsoil.  We take our soil serious around here.  That goes back to the garden.  I swish it around and pour back over the carrots still maturing.

Carrot harvesting is a rewarding exercise.  I think, like Peter, I'll have a cup of chamomile tea and go to bed.

Those Crazy Cajuns

Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once. — Chris Rose

It was Saturday shortly after lunchtime.  Tricia and I have a tradition on weekends in which we'll put a pot of strong coffee on and sit outside and visit.  It was a perfect day to do so.  We took a break from burning a big pile of sticks in the pasture and sat on a concrete bench under the live oak tree to enjoy a cup of coffee and conversation.

It is nice to live in the country.  However, we looked north toward the blacktop road and saw... (gasp) a traffic jam!  What in the devil is going on?

Traffic Jam

A Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's cruiser turned down the road in front of our house.  Suddenly, loud music filled the air...

Tricia turned to me and said, "We didn't have to go to the parade.  The parade came to us."  We aren't big "Mardi Gras People."  A little too crazy for us.  We sat and waved at the revelers as they passed.  They were having a good time.  The floats were interesting and creative.  This one had Spanish Moss draping the sides along with palmetto leaves and a cabin on the back with purple, green, and gold flags flying.

This one was a simpler one.  American Flags and the Louisiana Flag waved proudly alongside the ubiquitous Port-A-Potty anchoring the float.

Revelers showing their Tiger Spirit...

Purple, Green and Gold draping hung from this float with an Acadiana Flag bringing up the rear.

This float was made with tin from an old barn with the phrase, "Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler!" on the side. (Let the Good Times Roll).  It looked like they were doing just that.

Some krewes had purchased old school buses and "tricked them out."  This one seemed to be almost dragging the ground in the back.  Perhaps their Port-a-Potty was full?

This float had "Maison des Cooyon Kajans" emblazoned on the side.  House of Crazy Cajuns!

This one was the Krewe De Bayou and their float looked like a house on the bayou.

The whole parade probably had about 20 floats.  Nothing fancy.  All homemade.  One observation that we saw was that the majority of the floats had Trump flags proudly flying.  I think Trump pretty much has the Cajun demographic firmly in his corner.

Finally, the last float passed by and the loud music faded into the quiet countryside.  We finished our coffee and walked out to check the mail.  I bent over and picked up some purple beads on my way back in.  Those crazy Cajuns.

Staying in Your Lane

Last year an acquaintance of ours offered to give us a rooster.  The rooster was purchased from a feed store as a baby chick and was supposed to be a laying hen.  However, as the chick grew and matured, it was discovered that the hen was not a hen - it was a rooster!  Roosters don't lay eggs and this person lived in town and didn't want a crowing rooster to wake up the neighborhood.  We gladly accepted the rescue rooster onto our homestead. 

He has grown into a regal-looking gentleman.  Most times that a new bird is introduced into a flock and its already established pecking order, they are ostracized, picked on, and bullied.  Sometimes this mistreatment ends in death.  Not in this case.  The old boy had lots of confidence from day 1, proudly patrolling the barnyard, putting the other roosters on notice and catching the eye of his new harem of hens.

Right before the sun rises, the rooster's crows reverberate around the country-side, alerting slumbering neighbors of the dawn of a new day.  The rooster struts around, keeping his hens in line.  He is the cock of the walk.  One afternoon last week I saw him standing on top of the garden fence and felt trouble was brewing.  I don't want the old boy in the garden, scratching in the mulch and eating our produce.  We once had a chicken that would sneak into the garden and eat the bottoms out of our homegrown tomatoes.  We put a fast end to that.

Saturday afternoon, the fence-sitting progressed to trespassing.  I cornered the curious cock and took swift action.  The bird is big and put up a fight.  His wingspan was quite impressive.

'Twas that impressive wingspan that enabled the old fellow to fly up to the top of the garden gate and then hop down into the garden.  This rooster needs to learn to stay in his lane.  We drew a 'red line in the sand.'

Before

You may be thinking that we killed the rooster, but that's not at all what we did.  I got some scissors to clip his wings.  By clipping his wings, he would no longer be able to fly to the top of the garden gate.  Snip-Snip, here.  Snip-Snip, there, and the job was quickly done!

After

Without those feathers, he would not be able to get in trouble by trespassing into the garden.  His wings were literally clipped.

Like the rooster, we can all step out of our boundaries from time to time.  A little encouragement to help us stay in our lane is much appreciated.  The old fellow's wings will eventually grow back and we will have to clip wings again, but for now, he is grounded, and he is in a "fowl" mood because of it.

The Happy Song

Psalm 40 

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

What do you do when you are in a really good mood?  How about when you've done something that you are proud of and want to celebrate?  Sometimes when things are going well, I'll sing along with the radio on a good song.  Sometimes, I'll whistle a happy tune while working in the garden or doing something I enjoy.  Although I've never played an instrument, and I don't know how to read music, I believe we are all called to make a joyful noise.  Everyone can do that, right?

As it turns out, everyone can.  Even a chicken!  Saturday morning was one of those beautiful days that you truly feel happy to be alive.  After many successive days of grey, gloomy, overcast weather, we were treated to a red-letter day.  I was doing some minor repairs to Clarabelle's feed trough in the barn and was about to start working on a gate that was sagging and dragging the ground.

That's when I heard it!  I call it the "Happy Song."  When a hen lays an egg, she commences to singing a little song.  I think it is to brag a little about what she's done.  After laying an egg, she gets up off the nest, pokes out her chest a bit and clucks and cackles.  "Look what I've done," she's probably saying.  When I heard the song, I grabbed my phone and walked over to see if I could capture the hen's lyrics.  This is the first time I've tried to post a video from my phone, so if it does't work, you'll have to use your imagination.  Click the arrow below:

The hen sings her song.  I think we all have a song to sing, too.

Psalm 100 King James Version (KJV)

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

A Quick Walk Through the Garden in February

Just a short walk through the garden tonight to talk about how things are going with the Back to Eden Gardening Method.  So far, so good.  Really, not much 'winter grass' this year.  The only thing that pops up is oxalis.  A couple of days ago I showed you the sugar snap peas.  Let's walk a few rows over.  Next week we'll look a few rows over from that.

First we have broccoli.  Nice, big heads of broccoli coming out of the garden right now.  We'll continue to harvest the little florets for quite a while now.  Tricia roasts the broccoli in the oven (with some cauliflower) in a little olive oil and minced garlic.  Scrumptious!

Speaking of cauliflower, here's a nice head of purple cauliflower.  Nice to look at and delicious to eat.

On February 15th, I planted two 15 foot rows of sweet corn.  I scraped back the wood chips from either side of some spinach that is finishing up.  I' allowing the spinach to go to seed so that I can save lots of seed from them.  We liked it.  The variety was Galilee Spinach, and it comes from Israel.  To the left, you can see the garlic and to the right, you can see several rows of carrots.  The carrots are about ready to be harvested.  We pulled a fat Cosmic Purple Carrot and ate it in a fresh garden salad Saturday night. 

I planted corn on either side of the spinach.  By the time I've harvested the spinach seeds, the corn will be up and growing.  At that point I will rake the wood chips around the corn to discourage weeds and preserve soil moisture.  I planted Stowell's Evergreen and Country Gentleman varieties this year.

In this row we have Swiss Chard - Rainbow Chard, to be precise.  First is a nice yellow-ribbed one.

And next we have a dark red-ribbed one.  Swiss chard is in the beet family but doesn't produce a big edible root like beets do.  We either eat it raw in salads or cook it like regular greens.  Lately, we've been cooking a mixture of turnip greens, mustard greens, chard, and Brussels sprout leaves.  It makes a nice side dish.

Finally, here is a pink ribbed chard in the foreground.  These are a cool-season crop and quickly fade away once the hot weather hits.  Until then it produces a multitude of leave to eat on.  When one gets eaten by a bug or damaged on the ground, we toss them to the cows, goats, and chickens.

Overall, so far I really like the Back to Eden Gardening method.  No more turning soil over.  It is pretty much no-till.  No more pulling up rows.  No more watering the garden.  Although you still have to weed the garden, it is not nearly as much as before.  Last year, I spent much time weeding.  The chickens always gathered on the outside of the garden fence as I'd throw the weeds over for them to eat.  Other than oxalis (fake clover) there's not many weeds to throw the chickens.  Our hens give the Back to Eden Gardening Method a thumbs-down rating!

Mickey Mouse Is No Longer in the House

Tricia was in the kitchen the other day and heard some rustling noises coming from the kitchen cabinets under the sink.  Uh oh!  She went and got Ginger, our cat.  I have to be honest, I am not a cat person.  Even though she is our pet, I've never really warmed up to her.  Cats are so independent and not very friendly.

However, Ginger was created for such a time as this.  Now was her moment to redeem herself and prove herself useful.  She was created to hunt and kill mice.  It is Ginger's big opportunity.  Tricia showed Ginger in and she smelled the mouse.  The cabinet was opened and the trash can tipped over, exposing a mouse that had come in.  Ginger quickly caught the mouse, batting it around with her paws in playful, but serious. motions.

Instead of killing the mouse, Ginger opted to play with it.  Sensing an opportunity for escape, the mouse darted out from between Ginger's paws and darted quickly underneath the dishwasher.  What a faux pas, Ginger!  Ginger is in the "dog house."

Looking closely under the sink, we can see where mice have eaten holes in the sheet rock around the receptacle on the bottom right...

Not only there.  Look above the white PVC pipe and around the water line.  More holes in the sheet rock!  Not good.  I don't want a mouse in the house.

If Ginger the cat wasn't going to do her job, we'd go another route.  We purchased some glue traps, dropped a dollop of peanut butter and put it under the cabinet.  The next morning we had achieved some success, catching this little mouse in the sticky trap.

What an ignominious fate for the stealthy mouse that had evaded death at the hand of Ginger the cat only to succumb to getting stuck in a glue trap.

Where there is one, there may be two.  We put more peanut butter in the trap and put it back.  A few hours later Ginger came back in the house.  Benjamin was sitting in the den when he noticed Ginger coming in carrying a glue trap with a mouse stuck in it.  Ginger was proudly showing off as if to say, "Look what I did!"  Actually the glue trap did all the work.

Sugar Snap Peas, If You Please!

Every year at this time I post the same thing - my favorite thing in the garden to grow and to eat.  That would be Sugar Snap Peas.  I have two 15 foot rows of them and they are five feet tall right now, trellising on some cattle panels that I have secured to t-posts.  They are so doggone easy to grow, and they are one of the most pleasing things to look at. 

Their tendrils wrap around the trellis to hold while they shoot upward.  Their bright green foliage is like a living wall.  They are growing on the same trellis that I had cucumbers growing on last year.  When they first spring up, you have to train their tendrils to attach to the trellis.  It is important to weave them in and out, so that they hold tight.  We've had years where strong winds blew them down, and they became a tangled mess in which it was hard to find the peas to harvest.  This year they are latched on tight.

Sweet peas put out beautiful flowers-and lots of them.  Honeybees zero in on the garden and buzz from flower to flower.

Those flowers quickly produce pods of peas - and plenty of them.  This is one of those things that you can pick right off the vine and eat while you're standing in the garden.  They are so sweet.  I like to snack on them before the peas inside the pods have matured.  The pods are crisp, tender and sweet as candy.  Now, you can buy pre-packaged vegetable trays in stores that have something like sugar snap peas on them.  You've probably seen them.  The flavor and freshness are NOTHING like the ones you can grow in your garden.  I normally purchase mine from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, but if you are diligent in saving your seeds year after year, you won't have to purchase many.

If you let the peas develop and mature, to me, they aren't as sweet.  At the end of the season, I do let some of them get mature and dry on the stalk.  I save these for seed for next year.  Sugar snap peas are prolific producers.  Growing upright on a trellis, the footprint is small and they don't take up much space and that means your yield per square foot beats most anything else you can grow.

We're out in the garden every other day, pickin' and eatin'.  Just as fast as you pick, more are coming.  They'll produce until it warms up. 

In addition to snacking on them raw, Tricia likes to stir fry them in butter where they are still slightly crisp.  She'll also add them to fried rice, stews and soups.

At this time, we're picking more than we can eat, so Tricia has been blanching them and then freezing the excess in quart-sized freezer bags.  We've found that by doing so, you can quickly cook them up as a side dish and they truly taste like you just picked them!  By the time the sugar snap peas have finished, I'll use the trellis for the two varieties of cucumbers that I just planted in seed pots this afternoon.

Making the Most of It

Our tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant that we planted from seed at the end of December continue to grow.  In previous years, we struggled with them getting long and "leggy."  We solved it this year simply by putting the grow light real close to the young plants.  It is high time to get them outside.  We need to harden them off to get ready for transplanting into the garden.  They need to get exposed to a little cool, a little wind, and definitely more sun.  How will we do that?  Temps are still too cold overnight, and we don't have a greenhouse.

Young Plants in the Foyer

Tricia had a great idea.  We have a chicken tractor that isn't being used to raise chickens in for at least another month.  We can use it to raise plants in until it is time to put them in the garden.  How will we convert a chicken tractor into a greenhouse?

We found a heavy-duty plastic tarp that allows sunshine in, but stops the wind while searching the Internet.  After quick measurements, we found one that matched the dimensions perfectly.  In two days it came to the front door.  We rolled it out and fastened it to the sides of the chicken tractor with zip ties.  This thing is beginning to look like a greenhouse!

We moved the plastic table into the greenhouse that we normally use to cut up our chickens after butchering.  Seemed only fitting while we are finding dual purposes for things.  The trays of plants fit on it perfectly.  The ends were closed it to keep out the weather and we anchored it to the ground so the wind wouldn't blow it over.  Grow lights were hung from the roof on a chain so that we could adjust the height. 

The garden hose nozzle was set to mist and we watered the plants.

At night the greenhouse is aglow with light.  This evening the temperatures dipped down into the 30's so we wondered what we were going to do.  We decided while we are using items previously used only for raising chickens, we might as well use the heat lamps that we normally use to keep the baby chicks warm in the brooder.

Ordinarily, on a cold night like tonight, I'd bring all the plants in since they would be in a cold frame on the back patio.  Tonight since they are protected in our new makeshift greenhouse, I'll take a chance and leave them outside.  If I can get them through another couple of weeks, I'll transplant them into the garden, leaving the greenhouse/chicken tractor vacant.  Then we'll order the chicks!