The Buzz This Spring

It is still chilly at night.  We have a fire burning in our fireplace most every night to keep us warm and cozy.  However, spring is right around the corner.  There are telltale signs everywhere.  The first is our column of bees.  As soon as the sun comes out and it warms up just a tad, the honeybees become very active.  They exit the column and fly off to find flowers.  They return with a large yellow bag on their back legs.  The bag is full of pollen that has a bit of nectar to make it sticky.

Normally the bees leave during the hot summer.  It must get really hot with all of them packed into the hollow fiberglass column.  This year, however, they stayed all year.  We enjoy having them here to provide pollination in the garden and for our fruit trees.

The blueberries are blooming like crazy right now.  Looking forward to another big year of blueberry production.  I do notice that one of our bushes looks like it might have died, though.  If so, we'll need to replace it.

But the blueberries aren't the only things blooming.  The navel oranges are, too!  This past fall we got ZERO oranges.  The very hard freeze that we got last March knocked the citrus back.  It killed some trees.  What trees didn't die were severely injured.  No blooms and no fruit last year.  This year the navels are blooming.  However, the tangerines and grapefruit have no bloomed yet.  We'll see what happens this year.

A beautiful day gave us the opportunity to go to the church and do a little weed-eating around the flower beds.  We recently did some work there and spread some fresh dirt that apparently had rye grass seed in it.  The rye grass is tall and green.  We raked up all the grass and put it in tubs and dumped it over the fence for the cows to eat.  Boy, were they happy!

I stood by the navel orange tree and marveled at the cows' ability to devour all of the grass we brought them.  They are eating machines.  While I watched, I noticed the honeybees had located the blooms on the orange tree.  The bee was busy as... a bee.

Ten feet to the south and east another bee was busy gathering pollen from the flowers of a gigantic turnip that we are allowing to go to seed.

Spring is on the way, and we can't wait to get in the garden and start planting all of the spring crops!

Making Biochar for the Garden

It was chilly and building a fire sounded nice.  I also had on my to do list to make some biochar for the garden.  Two birds.  One stone.  We have a BUNCH of tree limbs from all the storms that are piled up in numerous piles.  I gathered some up into a pile away from the hay bales and trees and lit it up.  I kept piling the branches on the fire.  The coals were glowing.  The fire was kicking up some real nice heat.  While the north wind blew, I huddled by the fire,  The hens scratched the ground where the big pile of branches used to be.

I let the branches burn until everything was grey ash with coals underneath.  Then, I got out a water    hose and stopped the burning process quickly.

The coals smoldered and I kicked through them and sprayed them down, saturating them with water until they were cool.

This leaves you with charcoal - just like the hardwood chunk charcoal you can buy at the grocery store for barbecuing.  

Let's look just a little bit closer.  If you could see this under a microscope, you would be able to see that the charcoal is very porous.  There are millions of microscopic holes in the charcoal.

These little holes can be beneficial bacteria condominiums.  Let me explain what must happen to get to that point.  You must inoculate the biochar with bacteria.  Here's how I did it.  I took the charcoal I had just made, poured it into a big blue tub and chopped up the charcoal with a shovel.  Then I went to the barn and got a 5 gallon bucket of cow poop.  I poured the cow poop in with the charcoal and filled the tub with water.  Now I had a biochar - cow poop - water sludge.  I stirred up this concoction like a 5 star chef in a restaurant might do.  What I'll do is allow this 'brew' to ferment for a couple of weeks.  Then I'll dig a trench and bury it in the garden.  The 'charged' biochar will provide tremendous benefits to the soil.

This was first discovered in the Amazon.  The pre-Columbian Amazonians made this.  Its effects are good for the soil and good for vegetative growth.  It can reduce soil acidity and increase soil fertility.  I've got more piles to burn and thus, more biochar to make, inoculate and incorporate into the garden soil.

Popeye Would be Proud!

We plant two different types of spinach in the garden - Galilee Spinach (from Israel!) and Monstrueux De Viroflay Spinach (from France).  The Galilee Spinach has already bolted and I'm waiting for the seeds to dry so that I can plant again this fall.  The French Spinach is still producing and producing well, but with several days approaching 80 degrees, it won't be long until it bolts as well.

With that in mind, I picked a big colander full of the leaves and packed them down.  I wanted to get all the leaves I could before bolting.  I'll try to get another picking off of it, but we'll see how that goes.  The leaves are dark green and healthy.  There is no pest damage to speak of on the leaves.

Now, we've been eating fresh spinach salads for a while now, and we enjoy it that way.  We also make a Creamed Spinach side dish that is a copycat of Ruth's Chris Steak House recipe.  We'll make that next.  Tricia wanted to try a spinach quiche with a twist.  The crust is made of sweet potato.  Turns out we still have some sweet potatoes that we harvested over the fall.  They've stored well.  Tricia sliced and baked the sweet potato, lined the pie dish, poured the spinach and egg and topped with cheese and baked.  Voila!

Looks rich and delicious!

And as it turned out, it was.  Now, I'll admit, I would rather a regular crust, but I love sweet potatoes, too.  I would think vegetarians would like this.  I'm definitely NOT a vegetarian, but it was good.

The final thing we did with our 'spinach-fest' was a good ol' Cream of Spinach soup.  Tricia had just made some fresh chicken broth from one of our chickens and that was just what we needed for this dish.  Creamy, spinach-y, and it was kinda cool last night so the soup hit the spot.

Popeye the sailor man would be digging our meals this week!

A Day Hike To Louisiana's Grand Canyon

Last Saturday was the perfect day.  The air was cool and crisp.  The skies bluer than blue.  The sun sparkled brilliantly.  We had plans to go hiking.  The weather certainly cooperated.  We packed up and headed north for 68 miles to our ultimate destination.  We've hiked the Smokey Mountain National Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We planned to hike on a few trails in Louisiana's Kisatchie National Forest.

The turnoff to get to the park (and hike) was at Historic Camp Claiborne, named after Louisiana's first governor.  Camp Claiborne was the site of the 1940 and 1941 maneuvers in which 500,000 soldiers mobilized to train for ultimate deployment in WWII.  Hard to believe, but Camp Claiborne was once the third largest city in Louisiana.

A more interesting (to me) and personal tidbit about Camp Claiborne is that its construction is how I came to be.  You see, my grandfather, a Norwegian farm boy from South Dakota, was sent to Camp Claiborne to train.  South Louisiana must have seemed like a foreign land to him.  He was ultimately deployed to the European theatre of the war where he took part in the Battle of the Bulge.  But let's rewind a bit.

While he was training in Louisiana, my grandmother, from nearby Oakdale, Louisiana, went to a dance that was put on at Camp Claiborne, like the one in the photo below.  The rest, as they say, was history.  They were married and later my mom was born and then my uncle.  Upon returning from the war, they settled in Louisiana where my grandfather owned and operated a grocery store called the Kinder Supermarket.

So, it was quite an adventure to hike through the woods where my grandfather, some 80 something years ago, walked and trained!  My bride, my oldest son, Russ, and I first hiked the Wild Azalea Trail.  A small part of it, at least.  It is 23.9 miles long.  Tricia was concerned about ticks.  I pointed out a wild bush called the Wax Myrtle, that is supposed to be a natural tick repellant.  My enterprising bride fastened some wax myrtle twigs to her shoelaces to ward off wayward ticks.  Russ and I laughed until our stomachs hurt!

The tall Longleaf Pines rose above us and the wind blew through the needles.  We were all alone on the trail.  It was peaceful, serene, beautiful.

There were magnolia trees and pines and holly trees.  We'd like to plan another trip when the dogwoods and wild azaleas are in bloom.

The trail is rustic, but navigable.  Tricia walked ahead with her head on a swivel, scouting out ticks and snakes and Louisiana Black Bears.  

We each found walking sticks.  They really help.  Russ read from a National Forest Information Board to try to get our bearings.

Hiking will cause you to work up an appetite.  We had packed some trail snacks.  We sat in the pine straw beneath that sign and ate like kings.  Actually, we ate King Oscar Sardines (Mediterranean Style), radish dip and crackers and energy bars.   

The next trail we hiked was only 2.4 miles.  It was called Tim's Canyon.  It was beautiful.  It is a trail that is also a horseback trail, so you had to watch your step a little, but it goes through the woods until it comes to Tim's Canyon.  The 'canyon' is a pretty deep canyon that looks carved away by water, although it was dry at the bottom.  Note the big pine tree that fell across the canyon in the upper right of the photo below.

Despite Tricia's urging, I couldn't resist and had to cross it.  It was a long way down!  The long proved to be sturdy and strong, however.

The rest of the hike was on a dry, sandy creek bed.

It was a great day to spend outdoors, enjoying beautiful surroundings and good company.  We'll do it again!

Small Town Rodeo

We live in a town that has a population of about 12,000 people.  It's plenty big for us.  Driving through town the other day, we saw on the town marquee that the Rodeo was coming to town on Friday and Saturday night at the Jeff Davis Parish Fairground Arena.  What fun!  We had gone to it before and had a good time, so we decided that we'd go again.  It is put on by the Cajun Rodeo Association.  

We arrived shortly after seven and the rodeo started at 7:30.  The stands were packed with people!  BBQ pits were stoked and the concession stands had burgers, fries and other goodies.  We took our seats and got ready for the greatest show on dirt.  The announcer had everyone stand and take off their hats and led us all in prayer, thanking God for the freedom that we enjoy.  We remained standing for the grand opening as Old Glory was paraded in on a white horse.  Proud Americans stood for their flag and their country.  Patriotism is far from dead.

Then the events started.  Ranch Style Bronc Riding and then tie-down roping.

Then there was Chute Dogging, Breakaway Roping, and Barrel Racing and Buddy Barrel Pickup.

Then they called all the young kids out of the stands for an event called "Mutton Busting."  They had sheep in the chute with a rope around their backs.  Kids would mount the sheep, they'd open the gates and the sheep would dart out of there with the kids hanging on for dear life!

This young man lost his cowboy hat but won the event.  The clowns raced to catch him, but he needed no help.  He was in it to win it!

Some fell off the bucking sheep, but they quickly dusted themselves off and got back up.

Two and a half hours later they got ready for the final event.  Bull Riding!  I find it interesting that a banner advertising our slaughterhouse is on the chute.

The chute was opened and out came the cowboy on a bucking bull.  He rode it for eight seconds!  The clowns bravely distracted the bull while the cowboy safely jumped over the fence.

There were plenty of young people involved, guaranteeing that this fun will be passed down to future generations.  We drove home grateful for a fun evening of country-style entertainment.

Seed Shortage Looming on the Horizon

We just received our 2022 Seed Catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  We always like to purchase our seeds from them as the seeds are heirloom and open pollenated (non-hybrid) which means the seeds can be saved and used year after year.  You can't really do this with hybrid seeds.  I like to sit down, do a seed inventory, and then purchase seeds for the upcoming year.

Another reason I like Baker Creek is that the catalog is like a coffee table book.  The artwork is beautiful and put together with such artistry that it makes you want to buy everything.  I guess that is kind of the point with good marketing, right?

We also received an email from them on February 10th.  I'm cutting and pasting an excerpt below:

Seed and paper shortages update

​Dear Gardening Friends, 2022 has been a year of growth and challenges for our company. Thanks to you, we have had the largest volume of January sales in our company’s history. We want to make you aware of the current challenges we are facing:

1) Unbelievable demand for seeds is causing national shortages. Our growers and our in-house production team are redoubling their efforts to produce more rare seeds, but global demand is causing many items to be temporarily unavailable. We apologize that many popular items are again selling out.

2) The volume of orders have been a challenge for our packing and fulfillment teams, who now work 24 hours a day in three shifts. We are working harder than ever to ship a record amount of orders, and we apologize for any delays you may have experienced in the last month. 

3) Global paper shortages will greatly affect catalogs this year. We expect the paper costs for our 2023 catalogs to increase by 110%; we also face the possibility of having a supply shortage. The cost of seed packets, paper mailers, etc. is also quickly rising, and supplies are very short. We are currently out of both of our seed catalogs and copies for 2023 will again be limited!

4) Due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, about 20% of our staff has been on paid leave for part of the month of January, causing staff shortages and other issues. But through all the craziness, we have been blessed to have such wonderful customers, friends and staff members who have helped in so many ways! 

This is me again.  So, we learn the supply of seeds has diminished, resulting in the inability to fulfill orders, shortages of paper is increasing costs, and it is hard to staff positions to get work done.  We are living in crazy times.  I've always tried to save seeds such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc.  Last year I had great success saving spinach seeds.  Some are hard to save, some are a little easier.  I do have old vitamin containers stored away with seeds I've saved along with the dates.  One thing you have to be careful for is as the saved seeds age, some of the germination rates fall off.  This means that you need to plant a little more to make up for those that don't germinate.

Below you can see a big turnip that is going to seed.  It came up volunteer from last year.  I've had my eye on it, wanting to feed it to the cows on those cold days, but, to the cows' chagrin, I defeated the temptation.  Now it's going to seed.

I'll collect the seeds off of it once they are mature and save for next year.  All of our turnip crop was decimated by the freeze this year when I was unable to cover them up.  One neat thing you can see is that a honeybee from our bee colony has located the flower.  It is a great thing to have bees to pollenate.

If you haven't saved or ordered seeds, it might be a good idea to make an order to ensure you have some on-hand when you need them.  Won't be long now before we'll be planting.  Temperatures will be in the 80's this week!  Happy growing, everyone.  Get out there and get your hands dirty.

Let's Get Greauxing

Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.  Amos 7:1

Amos was the first prophetic book of the Bible, written in 750 BC.  Can you imagine?  That was a long time ago.  In the first verse of Chapter 7, we learn that they were making hay to feed their livestock.  As modern as we claim to be, we're still making hay like they did 2,772 years ago.  To clarify, they didn't have hay balers and tractors, but they were making hay.

When it came time for us to purchase hay this year, we did what we always do.  We purchased about 75 square bales of some good bermuda hay from a neighbor down the road.  You can read about that adventure HERE.  But we also roll out round bales, too.  I purchase those from another neighbor.  When I called him, he had bad news for me.  Covid and broken down tractor and baler prohibited him from making any hay.  Fortunately, a friend made hay and he delivered 8 bales to me.  Good, barn kept hay.  You can see the seven I have lined up next to the gate.  You can also see the animals circled around one of the bales that I rolled out.

Cows eat grass and hay, but we (the humans on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm) give them a run for their money in consuming vegetables.  Lately, we've been enjoying cabbage, kale, spinach, parsley, broccoli, cauliflower, and plenty of carrots and lettuce.  Here's a patch of carrots we've been pulling:

The carrots are fat and sweet.  We've been oven roasting them with olive oil.  Delicious!

We also have been eating them in salads.  We're expecting temps in the upper 70's next week, so the lettuce will be turning bitter soon.  You might be thinking those are beets in the colander, but they are actually Cosmic Purple Carrots.  They have a purple "wrapper" but the interior is orange.  I'll have to show you our Atomic Red Carrots.  They are red all the way through.

Spring is on its way.  In fact its right around the corner.  We planted over 100 seed potatoes the other day.  Next week I anticipate putting in a lot of other spring crops.  If you get a chance, pick up some seeds and start growing!  Food you grow at home always tastes better.  Let's Greaux!!

The Hunter and the Hunted

We have a cat, and her name is Ginger.  Ginger is fat.  She is an outdoor cat, but likes to come in.  She knows the window to our bedroom and will meow by our window to be let in.  Early in the morning when she sees the light go on in our Sun Room, she'll meow by that window to be let in.  Tricia opens the door and she'll go sit on her favorite chair and sleep for the better part of a day.  Ginger is lazy.

I am not much of a 'cat person.'  I'm not mean to Ginger, by any means but not a whole lot of warmth between us, either.  My wife keeps reminding me of the good things that Ginger does.  As if to put an exclamation mark on that thought, the other day Ginger proved her worth to me.  Our fat cat came around the corner in brisk pursuit of something.  She pounced into the Louisiana Iris that grows alongside the patio like a tiger chasing an antelope.

She brought out a mouse and paraded in front of me to show off her skills and prowess as a hunter.

She sat down and let the mouse go.  The mouse ran away, but Ginger was quickly on top of the mouse, toying with it with her paws.  She played with it until she got bored and killed it.

Ginger dismembered the mouse and left what she didn't eat by the back door.  We always have to be careful when stepping out so that we don't step on remains of Ginger's prey.  Okay, I'll be honest and admit it, Ginger > mice.

What to do With All These Radishes?

We grow French Breakfast Radishes in the garden.  Radishes are one of those crops you grow that is one of the fastest maturing things I can think of.  We cut them up in salads and we also enjoy them in a radish dip we make.  I highly recommend it.  The recipe is from a blog post back in 2017 you can see by clicking HERE. 

We still have a bunch of radishes in the garden.  We'll make another dip or two, but wanted to try our hand at lacto-fermenting some.  We have used lacto-fermentation in making Sauer kraut, kimchi, pickles, and gingered carrots.  Now, we'll do radishes.  This afternoon we picked a colander full.

We washed them up and scrubbed the dirt off of them with a stiff-bristled vegetable brush.

We wanted to see how much we picked.  A hair over 2 pounds.

I cut the bottom root off as well as the top.  In probably an unneeded step, but I like to follow directions, I peeled the radishes with a potato peeler.  By the way, I want to give credit, we're using a recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon coupled with one from The Survival Gardener's Blog.

We cubed up the radishes and packed them in wide mouth quart sized jars.

The recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon of salt, 1/4 of whey and then fill with water.  A little backstory on the whey.  We make the whey as a byproduct of making kefir yogurt.  Whey is what drips off, leaving the curds behind.  Whey is a natural preservative.

The whey and salt and water are added and thoroughly mixed to ensure the salt dissolves.

Then the mixture is poured over the radishes in the jar until it fills.  You want to make sure the radishes are beneath the surface.  To accomplish this, you'll need a follower.  We don't have any followers, but we improvised.  In the jar on the left, we used a crystal napkin ring to weight down a pint size lid to hold all the radishes under the fermenting liquid.  A few cubes escaped.

For the jar on the right, I used a leaf of cabbage torn a little larger than the size of the jar to push all the radish cubes down.  This worked much better!

We'll allow to sit at room temperature for five days and will then place in the fridge where they'll last for months.  Anxious to try them!  They are supposed to be tart and tangy.  We'll report back if we were successful (if they are tasty).