Providing Our Food

Meat Birds

There is nothing quiet as tasty as know where your meat come from.  This year we are again raising meat birds and I have to say these dinners will worth every ounce of time, food, love we put into raising them. 

Pruning Apple Trees

We will not be doing much growing here in January but it is the time to get our apple trees pruned.  Ours had grown out of control before we even owned the property and after 10yrs of neglecting them well we need to act fast.  Now was time to take them back!

     

Garden 2016 Planted

We were way behind this year but as of yesterday we finally got our garden planted.  Only minor additions to the garden this year as we finally have it all as we want it.  Next year maybe we can add fruit other then apples to our yearly harvest?

His 1st Fish

So I'm not certain we can consider this as "growing" our food or if it should be on the critter page but it was definitely food from right here at our home.  I think fish has become a regular at the dinner table for the Big Guy after this day though.

Fish for dinner for ever as the Big Guy is now a fisherman....read more here

My Green house
For years and years I have wanted a green house, now the question is not when any longer but what to plant first.

Find out how we made this dream a reality here

Garden's End

The gardening season has come to an end here.  It is so sad to look at an empty garden after all the hard work and beauty that was in it at one time.  Now what to do with our "dead" plants and empty "plots"....

....How about turn it into a cemetery!!!  The fence was already there so we just removed the bright and colorful signs and replaced them with a few dollar store items (free from my sister who didn't use them any longer).  The ghosts are just broken branches and trash bags filled with "dead" leaves.  We used a marker to make the faces and instant ghosts....BOOOOOOOOOOO

The tombstones in the garden have a bit of a story behind them...I made them the first year we bought the house.  Since I never had much area to decorate for Halloween and all of a sudden I found the few decorations I had looked out of place in such a big space.  I used them the first year and when I went to use them the second year my oldest (2yrs at the time) was so scared that real ghosts would come out of them I had to take them down.  We stored them in a small storage area under the house.  The next spring we built a new porch and framed in the house but never remembered to take them out of storage:(  They remained in there for the next 4 years only to find them accidentally when we were replacing a board on another construction project.  Thankfully my daughter is now old enough not to be scared and the worked great for the garden.  I only wish I would have put vegetable names on them.

  

 

The Real Reason For The Garden

We have had some sort of garden since the first year Thad and I were married.  The first year was just cucumbers and tomatoes and we had tons of them that year.  It was pure joy keeping track of how many of each we would harvest each day.  We had over 200 cucumbers that year but every time we would pick one it was like we were picking our first.  Seven years later, we have moved to our home and have three great children.  Every year we make an effort to have some sort of garden to share that same joy with our children.  They have had lots of fun in the garden since they have been babies from eating dirt to picking their first ripe vegetable but this year was the first year I have noticed so much excitement in them.  Maybe it is because they are all older now and they all could help with every aspect of the garden this year.
The kids have been fascinated with the garden this year right from the beginning and putting the manure in to planting the seed and even picking the occasional ripe pea.  Last night however was the first time I we were actually in the garden all to once harvesting anything that was ripe.  Just listening to the kids excitement was worth all the time and effort we put into the garden.  They were picking everything they could get their hands on, smiling and giggling the whole time.  It was so much joy for me to be listening to them so excited.  The most exciting moment however other then picking the only ripe tomato was that they were just as thrilled to be eating the same things they picked in the garden for dinner.  As a mom it was just as rewarding to know that they were happy eating food that was not only healthy for them but also safe from all chemicals.
Even though it can be a lot of work especially this year with the dry spell we have a garden filled with fun and laughter but most of all love.  I wish the world could share in the same joy we shared last night.

 

 

GARDEN PROGRESS 7/20/12

Well I have been meaning to keep everyone updated with our garden as we were growing it but we spent so much time with just watering it, tending to animals and just enjoying our summer that we haven't had time to blog about it.  I will try my best to get everyone up to date as we just ate our first food from it two days ago here are some photos of our progress so far this year.

Above is two months worth of growth in our garden we are finally starting to get to crops other then the leafy greens.  

We have already harvested all our our spinach.  We did the new popular pallet planting for our spinach and it worked out great.  There were no weeds to pull at all.  We had spinach in so many salads that we were actually sick of eating spinach.  I could bare the thought of wasting what we had left growing still so for the first time ever I canned some.  We waited over a week before I let Thad try it.  He said it was delicious so we are planting more to harvest again before fall comes as I only ended up the 3 small jars after we had already eaten so much of it.

Aside from the garden by the house we also have a patch of sweet corn and two potato patches.  The corn was mostly eaten by crows as soon as it started growing but the potatoes are growing nicely.

One of our two potato patches.  Last year we only had this one and had enough potatoes to last through Jan.  We also saved all the small potatoes that started growing and used them as seed potatoes this year. 

A small row of corn we planted along the driveway with the seeds that wouldn't fit in the big patch.  We were lucky we did as most of the corn we planted in the big patch was eaten by crows before it had time to grow.

What is left of the corn we planted in the corn patch.   It is growing nicely but unfortunately there is not a lot of it left.

We planted pumpkins last year where we planted the corn this year and surprise, surprise one pumpkin plant decided to grow this year.  We had planted more pumpkins but the chickens decided they needed to eat them the day after we planted them so this is a welcome freebie this year.

 ALMOST A GARDEN

Finally!!!  Today 5/24/12 we started to plant the garden.  Yes we should have been all set to plant but as every May we are behind.  We did actually plant earlier then we usually do as in Upstate NY you never really plant till Memorial Day or later pending a late freeze.
We had rototilled the garden last week thinking we would be all set when we had a few minutes to put the seeds in the ground.  Then this week we decided we needed more Manure to fertilize the gardens.  So we set off for my sisters as her father in law has 2 older cows he keeps as pets.  They have been piling the manure in the same place for years so there is some really great fertilizer there. 
With all the rain we received last year any rain this year makes a swampy mess so we ended up putting the manure in 5 gallon pails, then lugging it up a bank that was so swampy I don't know how we kept our footing, in through their old rickety barn and out to the truck.  Trip after trip till we had enough.  I will admit Thad did most of the work as the 2 cows are in the pasture with the pile and short little 5ft me and two HUGE cows made me a little nervous.  That is the exact reason we haven't gotten some of our own cows.
We still need a fence around the garden as our chickens showed us tonight how easy was for them to find the new dirt to dig in.  Thankfully it was before the seeds were in it.  That and our cat seems to think that as soon as we rototill the garden its a free for all litter box so hopefully soon the fence will be up.
The garden will be growing yummies real soon and I cant wait.....

Mother Natures Own Garden

We love the though of collecting/harvesting all mother nature has to offer us.....Yet as it is only mid May when I'm making this page we have not yet begun to garden.  Even the strawberry plants just started blooming as they know what could still come.  Here in Upstate New York it is sort of a golden rule not to plant till at least Memorial Day and pray we don't get hit with a frost as its still a possibility here.

Some wild strawberries that decided to take their chances on blooming 2 weeks ago.....We had 3 days of freezing temps and rain and more cold after these bloomed.....Now we are waiting to see if any survived?  As of yet not 1 strawberry