Applying Biochar to the Garden

Back in February, we made THIS POST to show how we were making biochar for the garden.  You can click on the link to learn how we do it and why we do it.  It is very beneficial for your soil.  Today I want to tell you how we inoculate the biochar and apply this to the soil.

A quick recap.  We start a big fire going with all the sticks and branches in the yard.  I did this back in February on a very cold day so it was NICE to stand by the fire and warm up.  Except, just when the fire is burning good and there is gray ash on all the sticks, you do the unthinkable on a freezing cold day.  You drag a water hose and completely put the fire out!

This stops the burning process and keeps it from turning to just ash.  When the coals are cool, I shovel them into a big tub.  I'll use a shovel to chop up the coals into 'nickel-sized' cubes.

I regret to inform you that I don't have photos of the next steps in the process.  I think I can describe it, though, but you'll have to use your imagination.  Now that I have a big tub of what is essentially homemade charcoal, it is time to inoculate it.  The microscopic holes in the charcoal needs to be charged with good bacteria to enrich your soil.

In order to do that, I'll grab a five gallon bucket of cow manure and scoop it on top of the biochar.  Then, I'll fill the tub with water and stir.  The biochar and cow manure mixture makes a slurry.  Now, we just let time pass.  I let the mixture sit in the sun and ferment for two weeks.  At the end of two weeks, I'll get my shovel and dig a trench about five inches deep between each garden row.  I scoop up the bacteria charged biochar and shovel it into the trench and then cover it back up.

Then, we plant rows on either side of the inoculated biochar trenches.  The plants will grow and their roots will extend and will feed on the the biochar.  I call it beneficial bacteria 'condominiums.'  We'll do this on alternating rows each year until the entire garden is seeded with it.

It is a long process and, to be honest, I'm not sure how you'd do this on a large scale.  But it works in our garden.  Biochar, amending the soil with tons of organic matter, incorporating compost, and earthworm population growth has definitely made our soil more healthy and rich with each passing year.  It was once compacted and had no earthworms, but has really changed.

Sowing Seed and Saving Seed

Another strong line of wind passed through today, bringing with it nine tenths of an inch of rain.  I walked through the garden and noticed the rain softened the soil to coax the Henderson Bush Lima Beans I planted out of the dirt.  I've got the itch to plant more as quickly as I can.  For the next two days, if it is dry enough, I'm going to be planting more beans, peas, squash of various varieties, and okra.  I hope to fill up the garden.

I do have a slight problem with space.  We have a couple of rows that I'm waiting on the seeds to be ready for harvest for saving.  Planting open pollenated heirloom varieties give you that option.  You can save the seed year after year from these.  You can't do that with hybrids.  Below you can see a full row of about seven different varieties of leaf lettuce.  We at SO MUCH lettuce this year.  The plants are blooming now and will soon have lots of seeds.  We'll save them, dry them, label them and will be ready to plant them again this fall.

And here is a row of monstrueux de viroflay spinach.  We'll be saving the seed from these plants as well.

The only problem with this is that I need the space that these plants are occupying to plant the spring/summer crops.  Not to fear.  I have a plan.  I will work up the row that was the walking path between the spinach and lettuce and plant into the walking path.  Once I harvest the spinach and lettuce seeds, I'll cover that with a 4 inch layer of wood chips and THAT will be the new walking path.  It serves another good purpose in that it rotates the land.  The walking path that was fallow this year will next be in crops.  The land planted in crops this year will next be a walking path.  

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills

 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.  Psalm 50:10 KJV

The LORD owns it all.  We don't have hills where we live.  We are in the flat, Cajun prairie.  There is not much slope to the land.  We do, however, have a manmade hill on our property.  A while back we had a load of topsoil delivered to the house.  It's always good to have topsoil to fill holes in the yard, to add to the garden and to build up low spots.

The load of topsoil came with a little something extra (lagniappe, you might say).  It came seeded with rye grass.  Tricia has been getting the momma goats out to come eat on the rye grass that's growing on the hill and today, she got Clarabelle out to feast on the rye grass.  Clarabelle was a happy old girl.  She has a mouthful of rye.

Clarabelle rushed to the hill and grabbed a big plug of grass with her tongue.  You'll notice something about Jersey cows below.  They have blackish-gray tongues!  Their tongues are coarse as sandpaper.  I guess that assists them in latching onto the grass and pulling into their mouth.

I happened by as Tricia was grazing Clarabelle on the hill and she asked me to photograph Clarabelle.  

Many trade magazines show the cows standing on a hill, and Tricia wanted to imitate that pose.

Clarabelle wasn't too terribly interested in posing.  She was more interested in skillfully mowing down the remainder of the rye grass.

A Requiem For The Blue Jay

In the last post we showed how we rescued a hummingbird from certain death.  Not all heroes wear capes.  In this post, we show that not all stories have happy endings.  We solemnly eulogize Mr. Blue Jay.  DOA March 25, 2022.

Mr. Jay, you flew so proud,
Your flights were strategic and your shrieks were loud,

A backyard bully, you swooped and taunted,

You courted mates, your skills were vaunted.

But on that fateful day you met our cat,

She pounced, you dropped,

And that was that.

Your remains were deposited on our door mat.

Alas, you lie on cold, hard stone,
Your eyes are closed, your last flight flown,

In your dress blues, you wear whilst dead,

A tufted feather upon your head,

The sky was the domain you ruled,

Your prowess was certain,

You could not be fooled.

Your strength was unrivaled,
You were regal and fat,
But you met your match when you met our cat.

Rest in peace, Mr. Blue Jay.

Catching A Tiger By the Tail

I didn't really catch a tiger by the tail, but something sort of close to it.  I'll show you at the end of this blog post.  Spring is really popping around here.  The azaleas are about a week away from their peak blooms, but they look really nice.  These are an old fashioned variety called, Formosa, I think.  When we moved here 21 years ago, we brought several azaleas from my grandmother's house.  Two of them died in a drought, but one held on and is happy and healthy.  This azalea is easily 50 years old, perhaps more than that.  I always like plants that have memories attached to them.  It makes it more meaningful to walk around the yard.

The colors of this flower are so vivid and bright, you almost need sunglasses to look at them.  These old-fashioned Azaleas erupt in blooms in early spring and then they are just green shrubs until next spring.  Some people don't like that about them.  They've developed some new varieties that are dwarf and/or what they call Encore azaleas because they bloom more often and for longer.

Although the flowers are gorgeous, when we put the animals in the yard to eat the clover (which we'll be doing in upcoming days), we have to be real careful because azaleas are toxic to livestock.  I'll be sure to put the electric fence around the azaleas to protect the cows from getting poisoned.

Azaleas aren't the only thing blooming.  The red lilies we have bordering the picket fence in front of the garden are in full bloom as well.  We transplanted them to this location last year and they appear to be happy in the new spot.

And then of course, the amaryllis lilies are not wanting the azaleas and red lilies to get all the glory, so they are blooming too.  The flowers are attracting the honeybees and butterflies and perhaps, other creatures, as well.

After walking around looking at all the flowers in the yard, I walked into the garage and was about to go inside the house when I heard a tapping noise.  I put my shoes back on and began to investigate to see if I could locate where the noise was coming from.  And then I saw it!  It was repeatedly banging into the window.  I quickly got our crabbing net and captured the frightened and confused creature in the net.  I reached in and grabbed it with my hand.  A Ruby-throated Hummingbird!!!

This little guy weighed NOTHING in my hand.  So small.  So beautiful.  I was trying to be very gentle with the bird.  I know it was shaken up and scared.  It had been repeatedly flying into the window in the garage.  I held him in my hand and walked outside.  You can see his ruby red throat and his body was an iridescent  green color.  I was attempting to get a better photo of him before releasing him.

But my little hummingbird friend had other ideas.  When I opened my hand to hold him more comfortably, the hummingbird flew quickly straight upward.  I watched him as he zoomed up through the canopy of the big live oak tree and into the blue sky.  That was a fortunate occurrence to be able to hold a hummingbird in my hand.  I know of only one other person - my uncle, who has done that.  I think that may have been my last opportunity.  That hummingbird, I'm sure, learned his lesson to stay out of our garage.  I hate to think what might have happened to him had our cat, Ginger, discovered his plight before I did!! 

Son of a Gun, We're Gonna Have Big Fun on the Bayou...

On Tuesday we had some mean thunderstorms blow through.  Strong wind.  Torrential rain.  Thunder and Lightning.  After a rain, I like to do what I've done since I was a kid - walk around and observe the changes.  You can smell the ozone in the air.  The grass seems greener.  You can hear the frogs croaking.  The rainwater is rushing through the ditch.

Our live oak trees are casting off the old growth leaves and are replacing with new growth and tassels.  The leaves were blocking the ditch, holding back lots of water.  I had my rubber boots on, so I started on the easternmost side of the property and proceeded to kick the leaves out of the ditch.  This relieved the back pressure and the one and a half inches of rainfall began to evacuate the property.

As I looked down, I spotted a pair.  The one on the left is a male crawfish and the one on the right is a female.  They were not happy to see me.

I picked them both up to observe them.  The old-timers always say that the thunder and lightning get the crawfish out of their burrows in the ground and bring them to the surface.  They're right!

When I picked up the female, I realized she was full of babies.  Her little ones stay secured under her tail.

Here's a little closer look.  There are dozens and dozens tucked beneath her tail.  She was very protective of her babies and was itching to pinch me, but I wasn't going to allow that to happen.  I set her back down in the ditch so that she could raise her babies.

Sure does make me hungry for some boiled crawfish with potatoes and corn.  Now that the price has dropped off a little, we'll have to go get some platters.  C'est bon!

Goodness and Mercy

Yesterday morning in Morning Worship, we sang the hymn, "Surely Goodness and Mercy."  It is such a happy, catchy, fun song to sing.  The hymn is based off of the Scripture Psalm 23:6 "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

I remarked that Goodness and Mercy would be great names to name sheep or goat twins!  Wouldn't that be the perfect names?  Just so happens, Mathilda is very pregnant with her first kids.  This morning at sunrise we went to the barn for our daily chores.  I put together all the feed and then I began to milk Clarabelle, the cow, as Tricia was feeding the chickens, opening nesting boxes and getting the goats in their places.  She said, "Mathilda is in labor!"

She updated me that Mathilda had feet poking out of her.  As she brought her into the barn and separated her in the stall, I could immediately tell that there were some problems.  Legs were protruding, for sure, but from the feet, you could tell that it was a breech birth.  Labor was not progressing and to make a long story short, Tricia timed Mathilda's contractions with pulling and was able to deliver the kid.

It was a female, but unfortunately, it was dead.  But, Mathilda wasn't done.  There was another kid coming.  Her labor was not progressing and Tricia had to assist with this delivery as well.  This was a male, and he was dead, too.  A very sad morning, to be sure.

The female, on the right, below, looked just like Mathilda.  The male, on the left, below, was spotted.

We are watching Mathilda closely after this ordeal.  She is very swollen from the stalled labor and delivery.  We were hoping to be able to be able to name these twins, Goodness and Mercy, and have them follow us all the days of our lives, but we'll save those names for later.  We'll have more twins come along in the future!  

Solitary Confinement

This is a mean little Aracuna hen that finds herself (once again) in solitary confinement.  There was a time when she earned her freedom.  Five months ago, she roamed the pasture and enjoyed the freedom of a free range bird.  Then, she betrayed that confidence and began to shimmy through the 4x4 wires of the perimeter fence in the garden.  That citation earned the perp hard time in the chicken tractor months ago, prior to getting the meat birds.  You can see the remnants of their feathers on the ground below.

When the meat birds arrived, she was put on parole, and put back in general population.

All went well - for a time.  And then, I found her in the garden... twice.  She was scratching at the dirt around the onion plants.  She was making quite a mess.  I caught her and through her back out over the fence and into the pasture.  Faster than you can say, "I'd like a spicy chicken sandwich" at Popeye's, she was back in the garden wreaking havoc and causing mayhem.  

She had proved that she was one of those recidivists, who, despite being given a second (and third) chance, could not handle freedom.  She's back in the slammer.

Until you learn your lesson, jailbird, you'll remain at Heartbreak Hotel.

A Full Moon Risin'

"I see the bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise" - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Those are the lyrics to a song that John Fogerty wrote in the late sixties in the midst of the following backdrop:  Times were uncertain, apocalyptic, even.  There was turmoil and chaos, protests and rebellion.  Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had just been assassinated.  There is a lot going on today, too.  I don't let it worry me.  Last night that song did pop in my head.

Last night about 10 pm on the patio, the whole backyard and pasture was lit up in light.  It looked odd, so I stepped out and saw a big full moon in the sky.  On normal nights I can't see anything.  There is little light pollution out here in the country, so it is normally pretty doggone dark.  But not last night.  I could see the cows and the goats by the hay bale.

Something caught my eye.  The moonlight was reflecting off of the fronds of one of our big palm trees.  I snaked around to get a photo of the moon and the palm tree together.

Now if the moon would have been a crescent moon instead, we'd be looking at a pretty good rendition of the South Carolina flag.  I like to look at license plates and state flags.  I've always liked the Palmetto tree and the crescent on South Carolina's flag.

South Carolina's flag is based on a flag designed in 1775 for their troops fighting in the Revolutionary War.  It is one of the earliest Revolutionary War flags.  The flag had a blue field with a crescent with the words "Liberty" on it.  In a battle in 1776, Colonel Moultrie raised the flag over the fort on Sullivan's Island defending it against a British fleet that had never lost a battle in a century.  The flag got shot down, but Sergeant Jasper ran out in the open and raised it again.  This heroic act rallied the troops and Charleston was able to be defended.  That flag was the symbol of liberty in their state and in the nation.

The palmetto was later added to the flag in 1861, because the fortress withstood attack from the British by laying palmetto trees over the sand walls to protect from cannon attack.

Yep, gotta admit.  That's a cool state flag.  Now let's go look at the moon and listen to some more Creedance!

Never Ending Broccoli (Okay, a slight exaggeration)

I just finished eating a big bowl of steamed broccoli with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning.  I grated some parmesan cheese on top to make it extra delicious.  As I enjoyed it, I began thinking about how we've eaten broccoli for months!  All from the same plants.  Broccoli gives you a lot of bang for the buck.

Cauliflower makes one big head.  You harvest that, and you're done.  I just clip the remainder off at the stem and toss the leaves over for the cows, goats, and chickens to eat.  Broccoli is different.  It makes one primary head.  We harvest that and eat it.  But broccoli is a determined plant.  It desires to produce flowers in order to produce seeds to continue its legacy.  Of course I'm humanizing the broccoli.  I know broccoli can't think.  But it is designed to continue the species.

Here is a row of broccoli after the main heads have been picked.

If you look closely, the broccoli will send out shoots that produce numerous broccoli florets.

You must be diligent because the florets quickly flower, but if you go out almost every day and pick the florets, you can pick a big colander full every other day.

We eat the florets raw in salads or snacking, and we also steam them or add them into soups or fried rice.  These broccoli were planted from seed in the fall and we're still picking from them after all this time.

I'm not exaggerating when I say, we've harvested more pounds of florets than whole heads.  It is truly a good yielding vegetable in the garden.  But, if you miss one day of picking - you've got yellow flowers EVERYWHERE!  After today's picking, I clipped one row up and tossed it over for the cows.  Time to begin making room for the spring garden.

How in the World Did we Begin Milking Cows?

If you've been following our blog, you know we milk cows.  We started down this path many years ago.  I know that I might have talked about, at some point or another, about the genesis of this decision, but for some reason, (perhaps to justify to myself), I'll attempt to explain again today.

To begin, I've shown below LuLu, one of our two Jersey heifers.  She's a pretty little thing.  She's healthy and playful and looks to be a great addition to our mini herd going forward.

To the left of LuLu on the other side of the bale, is Rosie.  That's LuLu's mother.  She's getting up there in age.  Clarabelle (not pictured) is the mother of Elsie (not pictured) and she's getting up in age as well.  Our intention is for LuLu and Elsie to replace Rosie and Clarabelle on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

LuLu was born on 6/14/21 and currently weighs 440 pounds.  Elsie was born on 4/7/21 and currently weighs 514 pounds.  About every other year, Rosie and Clarabelle give us calves.  When they are bulls, we raise them for a year and a half and then take them to be processed.  They provide meat for our freezer.  Grass fed, no hormones, no antibiotics, and about as natural as you can get, although not organic.  When the calves are heifers, we generally keep them, but have sold them on several occasions.  There is a good market for Jersey cows.  Their milk is rich, having the highest butterfat content in relation to other breeds.

So what made us start this?  Although I was raised on a farm, we didn't milk cows.  Tricia was raised in a city and certainly didn't milk cows.  Prior to getting cows, we got laying hens and daily collected fresh eggs.  It was always a great thing for kids.  I recall my children going out to the chicken tractor with a basket and collecting eggs.  It was a fun thing.  But milk cows?  Tricia and her quest for health, was the catalyst for this decision.  She wanted a milk cow and, well, I got her one.  Buttercup, who we always just called "Mama Cow," (with a calf by her side) arrived and was greeted with much excitement.  One day later after milking, or attempting to milk Mama Cow, Tricia cried, saying, "Can we do this, Kyle?"  Many years later, we're still doing it, so the answer was in the affirmative.

But let's go back and expand on the why.  We had a number of health issues in our family that Tricia researched in the area of gut health, and determined that drinking raw milk provides beneficial bacteria to the gut as well as other nutritive benefits.  Pasteurization heats the milk, killing off good bacteria along with the bad.  We didn't want to do that.  There are many people who are like-minded and seek out raw milk for the exact same benefits.

While we are talking benefits, let's talk about more of them.  Milking cows is a pastoral, peaceful thing.  Many mornings, especially cold, rainy mornings, we don't want to go out there and milk, but once you get out there, you are glad you did.  The cows are glad to see you.  The barn is cozy.  The routine is relaxing.  We hand milk, and that takes about 20 minutes.  When you sit on the stool and begin to milk, it is the PERFECT time to pray.  While the milk squirts in the bucket rhythmically, we talk to God, thanking Him, confessing our short-comings, and calling out our family member's and friend's names in prayer.

A family cow is a great way to teach kids responsibility.  They need to be fed and watered.  They need to be cared for.  Our kids showed livestock.  The nice thing about a dairy cow is that the cows are a continuous project.  You show the same animal year after year.  A bond is made between the child and the animal and a tenderness and sense of care results. 

Having fresh milk is a benefit in the kitchen, having fresh cream for coffee or whipped cream or butter making, having milk for drinking or making ice cream or sour cream, being able to make kefir or cheese, having the by-product of whey for lacto-fermenting.  It is a life long endeavor and we still learn things.  The book, "Keeping a Family Cow," was a great resource for us when getting started.  Living in a small rural town, there are many families that have dairy cows that are a library of knowledge when we have had questions or problems.

There are some drawbacks, to be sure.  Cows don't take weekends off.  Or holidays.  They have to be milked every day.  Vacations must be planned.  Excursions or day-long family events are always planned with the question, "Do we milk before we go or after we come back?"  We've milked many times very late at night.  Although it only takes 20 minutes to milk, you must come back to the house from the barn and pour the milk and sanitize the bucket and rag we use to filter the milk through.  Cows are hard work.  They can be stubborn and hard-headed.  They step on your toes.  They swish a urine soaked tail across your face from time to time.

Cows and calves sometimes die.  As they are around for more than a decade, you develop a sort of friendship with these gentle animals and it is hard when they die.  But that's life.  The positives definitely outweigh the negatives.  We try to live a simple life and milking cows hearkens back to the rural, family farms of times past, and I like that.

Our plans in the next several months is to wean LuLu and Elsie and, when they are breeding age, bring them and their mothers down the road to a neighbor that has registered Jersey bulls, for them to all be bred.  Then the cycle begins again!  It is a journey, for sure.  If anyone has any questions, post a comment below, and I'll be happy to try to answer them.

Spring Forward

Before going to bed last night, we set the clocks ahead one hour.  I don't like this change simply to the fact that you lose an hour of sleep.  I like my sleep!  Thirty something years ago, we lived in Houston and were attending Second Baptist Church.  Our pastor would tell us not to set our clocks ahead, but to come to church on Sunday Morning at the "old" time.  Then, when services were over, we'd all move our clocks forward together.  That saved that hour of lost sleep for one more day.

I saw this cartoon and thought it was appropriate.

The roosters, as best as I could tell were still crowing at whatever time they wanted to!

After doing the chores this morning, I walked around and checked out the garden.  I had to rush around on Saturday afternoon and cover all of the tomatoes and potatoes up with tarps and pots turned upside down to protect them from frost as we were set to receive below freezing temps - around 29 according to the Hour by Hour forecast.  I did see a pretty good frost on the ground this morning.  

When I uncovered everything, a few of the tomato plants looked like they had slight damage, but nothing major.  I think they'll do alright.  The other protective measure I took was prior to covering, I watered everything in real good.  The water in the ground holds heat and requires more energy to freeze.  Apparently, the protective measures worked!  We'll see for sure in a few days.

Now that colder temps are out of the way, I'll begin planting the spring garden in earnest.  I plant to plant corn, snap beans, cucumbers and squash this week.

A Random Memory from My Past

It was a very sad week as I learned that a childhood friend and classmate passed away at 55 from a heart attack.  We drove to the funeral home for the visitation and spent time with my friend's family and classmates and friends that gathered to mourn his passing.  What a tragedy!  Grayson and I were friends from as long as I can remember.  We grew up together, went to church together, spent the night at each other's houses, and went to school together.

Grayson was a gear-head.  If it had an engine and wheels, he could keep it running.  He had go-carts that he would race around his yard at break-neck speed, taking corners like Mario Andretti.  He built ramps and would, in Evil Knievel-like fashion, fly through the sky in his go-kart.  When he grew up, his profession was keeping the fleet of law enforcement vehicles in a neighboring parish running.  It was fitting.  He was always good at what he did.

In "big church," we'd flip through the hymnals randomly and try to count how many Fanny J. Crosby songs we knew.  We'd sing a song called "Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy, down in my heart."  The last verse said, "And if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack."  We would sit down like we sat on a tack and fly off the metal folding chair making a huge racket.  The volunteers in the youth department got more than they bargained for with us hooligans, for sure.  We got into trouble sometimes at church.  One time in the choir loft, during the hymn "Higher Ground," we decided it would be a good idea to add our own motions.  When it said, "Lord, plant my feet on higher ground," we pretended to dig a hole with a shovel and plant our feet.  You had to be there, but our faces were red from laughing so hard.  Our parents didn't see the humor in our antics.

As we stood around the funeral home and reminisced for two hours, we mined a depth of memories of Grayson.  We showed livestock together in 4-H in elementary school.  Sheep are finicky, sickly creatures.  It's been said of sheep that "they are born looking for a place to die."  We had great fun showing sheep at the parish, district and state livestock shows, but the actual shows were in the COLDEST part of winter.

Grayson had an answer for that.  He always had a number of catalogs.  JC Whitney, for one, to get Auto parts.  Crutchfield, for another, to get speakers, tuners, and amps, and the all-time favorite catalog, the Johnson-Smith Catalog.  In this catalog, back in the 70's, you could order all sorts of pranks like fake vomit, fake poop, and whoopie cushions.  It contained everything a kid could want!  I could be off-base, but I think it was from this catalog that Grayson solved the problem of being cold at livestock shows - the Handwarmer!

We all ordered them.  You would remove the cap, pour lighter fluid in the bottom until the cotton was saturated with fluid.  Then you'd light the coil and allow to burn until they were glowing.  At this point, you would replace the cap and place it in a red flannel bag with a yellow drawstring and place in your pocket or coat pocket.

Image Credit

It would stay warm ALL DAY LONG!  Grayson saved the day.  The livestock shows were bearable with the trusty Jon-E Handwarmer.  Somewhere in the attic at my Mom & Dad's house, tucked away in a box is my old handwarmer (and probably my brother's Millennium Falcon Star Wars spacecraft and action figures).  Both are probably worth a lot of money.  At least they bring back priceless memories of a great childhood.

As often is the case, you grow up, move away from your hometown and lose close contact with old friends and classmates.  You never, ever forget them, though.  It's sad, but we have many memories to dredge up and relish.  Grayson, old friend, may you rest in peace!

The People Are Hungry

Now it happened, when David had come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the people of Ammon, Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim, brought beds and basins, earthen vessels and wheat, barley and flour, parched grain and beans, lentils and parched seeds, honey and curds, sheep and cheese of the herd, for David and the people who were with him to eat. For they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”  

2 Samuel 17:27-29

I'm going to dovetail with yesterday's post for tonight's journal entry.  I strongly feel that the Bible contains infinite riches in terms of spiritual wisdom.  It also is chockablock full of practical information.   With all the talk of increased food pricing, it is wise to plant more and store more.  If you'll remember in the story of Joseph, there was going to be a famine in the land.  Joseph prepared in advance and was able to provide for their needs and those of others.  So we should PREPARE, PROVIDE and SHARE of the excess.

In the Scripture above from Samuel, we learn that the people were hungry.  Beans was one of the things that was grown to satiate their hunger.  Well, that settles it.  We'll plant more beans.  The first variety of bean I'll plant this year is a row of Italian Roma II beans.  These are flat beans that, to me at least, has the best flavor of all snap beans.

Tricia and I pulled back the mulch from an area in the garden right up next to where the broccoli is currently planted.  The broccoli is about finished.  We'll be cutting it down and feeding the greens to some cows and goats that come begging by the fence shortly.

The seed bed is perfect.  The soil is rich and loose, moist and full of organic matter and earthworms.  Healthy soil, good seed, and good weather is a good start for the spring crop.  The germination may be a little slow since we're still getting some cool weather. 

After this weekend when it warms up, we'll be planting Contender snap beans and then Blue Lake bush beans.  When I plant green beans, I recall being just a kid in elementary school and we'd have a class project in which we'd grow green beans in Dixie Cups.  Good memories!  

A Little Food Security

Last night as I was about to log in to journal, I couldn't get any WiFi.  The wifey told me that she was receiving texts from our Service Provider that internet service was out for maintenance.  Hmmm... This happens from time to time.  It always makes me cognizant of how interconnected we are and how important communication is.  Anyway, I decided to try again tonight, and voila!  We are live again.  

I promised a post on the thought that a lot of people are having.  What is going on in our world?  Due to my faith, I won't be fearful.  I won't worry.  I won't be anxious about things I have no control over.  I don't think things are falling apart.  I think things are falling in place.  I'm very interested in Bible Prophecy, and I believe that we're seeing things happen in fulfillment of prophecy day by day.  

My brother-in-law shared the following with me:

Commodity price changes over the last year:
Heating Oil    +90%

WTI Crude    +80%

Brent Crude    +79%

Coffee            +73%

Gasoline        +70%  (ha ha, this one has changed since this list was put together)

Aluminum    +70%

Nat. Gas        +69%

Wheat            +59%

Corn                +35%

Cotton            +34%

Lumber           +34%

Soybeans        +18%

Sugar              +15%

Copper            +13%

Gold                +12%

CPI                  +7.5%

We are truly seeing rising prices like we've not seen in our lifetimes.  With energy costs at record levels, increased costs of production and freight will trickle down to us in the form of higher pricing for everything.  While it will be difficult for everyone, my wife and I discussed the plight of elderly folks who live on a fixed income.  They will be in a pinch.  Fertilizer is in very short supply and will certainly reduce yields, resulting in diminished supply of food.  I'm a practical person for the most part.  When things like this happen, I ask: "What can I do?"  Are you like that?

Well, here's what I'm doing.  First, I'm praying.  Hard.  For a long time now, our country has shaken their collective fists at God.  We've reveled in sin, calling good evil and evil good.  We've indulged in every form of bad behavior imaginable.  Rebellion always leads to God's judgment.  If this is the case, I pray that God opens hearts to His Grace and Truth, and we repent.  I also pray for strength to make it through the upcoming storms that are sure to come.  He is faithful and He will provide.

Next, I am planting.  I am prepared to put in more crops this year than ever. I am planting more protein - peas and beans, and fillers like potatoes.  I planted more than I've ever planted before this year.  About a quarter of them are popping out of the ground with more to follow.  Here's a healthy Irish Potato sprout right here:

I've also been toying with the thought of working up more land in the yard to plant.  Everything grown in the garden reduces your dependence on the grocery store.  I often think about Victory Gardens planted during WWII.  Here's what wiki says about them:

They were used along with Rationing Stamps and Cards to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.

Even though I pray we will NOT be involved in a war, planting a garden still provides the benefits spoken of.  Gardening is such a hopeful endeavor.  As you see the young plants grow, you enjoy seeing the development and look forward to the delicious fruits of your labors. 

I will be the first to admit that I sometimes get so excited about gardening that I 'jump the gun.'  Below you can see the many onions that are growing.  They are very healthy.  Just to the left of them, you can see two rows of ten tomatoes I've planted with another three rows planned.  I stopped because I checked the weather forecast and see that we're expecting temps in the upper 20's this Sunday.  I'll have to wrap and cover the tomatoes so they won't be lost!

On the positive side, you can see our composting project and how it is progressing.  You can see the rich, dark compost I've layered around the onions and tomatoes.  As they grow, I'll put a 2 - 4 inch layer of wood chips on top.  

Finally, to make room for planting the spring crops, we'll need to harvest the existing ones.  Tricia is sitting beside a row of Bull's Blood Beets that will be maturing and ready for harvest shortly.

Once the cold weather this weekend passes, we'll be planting in earnest.  I had an old preacher that had a quote he would repeat time after time.  He was raised during the Great Depression.  He told the congregation that they had a big family and times were hard, but they grew what they ate and never went hungry.  He said they had great variety in their meals.  He said, "One day we'd eat rice and beans.  The next we'd eat beans and rice!"

Sunday Night Rambling

Perhaps tomorrow night we'll talk about the world situation and how it relates to FOOD.  What can you do to prepare at this late time?  Tonight, I don't want to talk about serious things.  I'd rather just relax and show you some photos and discuss things lighter in nature.

What you are seeing on the stoneware baking sheet below are sweet potatoes.  These are an heirloom variety that comes up every year in the garden.  They are called Golden Wonder and come from Tennessee.  A guy called "the barefoot gardener" (Jeff Poppin) mailed them to me, we planted them, and the grow every year alongside the existing Beauregard variety.

Each year we dig up over a hundred pounds!  We harvested back in October and still have some left.  We always eat the biggest first.  What we're left with now are the smaller ones.  We like to cut them in half, brush them with melted butter and bake them.  They are so sweet and delicious!  I expect to see the slips (sprouts) coming up in the garden for this year's crop any day now.  Usually by the time the existing crop is gone, the new crop is on its way.

I picked the last of the carrots from the fall crop this weekend.  I had picked all the Danvers variety (orange) last week.  On Saturday, I pulled the last of the remaining Cosmic Purple Carrots and Atomic Red Carrots.  Sounds kind of psychedelic, doesn't it?  They are pretty.  They taste like a normal carrot, though. 

The Cosmic Purple carrots are purple on the outside, but the interior is orange.  The Atomic Red carrots, however, are red through and through.  

As we switch the seasons from fall to spring, we had some work to do on preserving the crops.  We had a few heads of cabbage left and it gave us an idea.  We'd make Kimchi.  We hadn't done that in a while.  Kimchi is a Korean side dish made from cabbage, carrots, ginger, green onions, radishes, and garlic.  All of those items are shredded and mixed up.  Then salt is added and whey.  The mixture is pounded to release the juices and then packed tightly into quart jars.  It is set out on the counter for three days at room temperature.  It ferments and then is put into the refrigerator for long storage.  The longer you keep it, the better it tastes.  Here it is on the third day of fermentation before putting it in the fridge.

It has a tangy flavor and is a good, cool, side dish.  The fermented radishes we showed you In This Post are done now.  We've been eating them in salads and just as a tasty snack.  Tomorrow we'll tackle weightier subjects.

Big Gardening Weekend Ahead

 

The photo above is of our garden taken on March 1st.  In the foreground you can see a couple of broccoli that we're still picking florets off of.  We've eaten a bunch of broccoli this year.  Then you can see some dinosaur kale and some green kale.  Tricia has been juicing a lot of that.  Next are four rows of onions then a jungle of cilantro that is about to go to seed.  Then green onions, parsley, another row of broccoli, a few Cosmic red carrots, spinach, radishes and lettuce that is about to go to seed.  In a separate bed, I have some Irish Potatoes planted, but they've not sprouted yet.

This weekend we have a lot of work to do.  I will be incorporating some of the biochar we made into the soil.  We'll be picking a lot of the items I listed above and doing some planting.  Definitely corn, snap beans of several variety, a variety of cucumbers,  and several different types of squash.  If we have time, I'll figure out some additional items to plant.  Finally, we'll add more mulch to the garden (4 inches deep) to crowd out weed growth and conserve soil moisture.  It has been an unusually dry year so far.

Spring is upon us!  The weather is great.  Lows this weekend is 59 degrees and high of 82 degrees and it will be good to get outside and get our hands dirty.

Fresh From the Bayou

"We can skin a buck, we can run a trot line, and a country boy can survive." - Hank Williams Jr. 

Our neighbors are the Williams.  No relation to Hank Jr. that I know of, but they can indeed survive by living off the land.  With the expansion in the neighborhood we talked about in this post, they have decided to purchase some land further out in the country to escape the encroaching sprawl.  We pray daily for all our neighbors and our rural neighborhood.

The neighbors have hoop nets on Bayou Nezpique and catch lots of catfish.  They skin them and gut them and sell to local fish markets.  They bring some to us, too!  They brought us several 1 gallon ziploc bags of whole catfish.  On Saturday afternoon, I made a salt water brine and soaked the catfish for a couple hours.  Then I drained the brine and patted the fish dry.

I had an idea in my head.  We love to eat smoked salmon.  Catfish is not salmon (or maybe it is the redneck salmon), but I don't see why it can't be smoked.  I searched around and found a recipe.  I made up a rub and coated the sides of the whole catfish.  I got the smoker fired up to 225 degrees, filled the water bowl and set the largest catfish on the bottom rack.

And the smaller catfish on the top rack.  I added some pecan wood on top of the coals and closed up the top.

Smoke was pouring out of the top vent.  I kept my eye on the temperature and adjusted the vents to keep it steady.

After an hour, I checked the internal temperature with my meat thermometer and 'flake tested' it.  They were done!

We brought them inside and asked God's blessing on our meal.  The smoked catfish was delicious!

We are thankful for good neighbors and their ability to "live off the land."  You never know, that may be a crucial skill in our brave, new world...