I'll get to work...eventually

I was going to work on my intro to psychology final, but two 7 year olds, a sick 1 year old and a feisty 2 year are currently making that impossible. I still have, what, 26 hours to do it?

Weeded the garden a little bit of the potato patch today, mostly just getting grass out of there. I’m really itching to plant something more…the little patch of bare dirt where our tomatoes will go is sooo bothering me.

The local power company came by yesterday to top our ornamental cherry trees for being too close to the power lines. They have also stated they will rip out the alder trees which are in the far corner of the lot. I didn’t plant them, they just kind of…grew there, but I loved it because Max called it his “secret place” and they would play in there all last summer. So, now it will be gone. We are going to plant our pie pumpkins in the spot.

Here is how baby potatoes sprout, by the way.

One potato, two potato

I’m not sure I did the right thing by taking out the weed barrier and loosening up the volcanic rock underneath. I suppose time will tell.

The fence is finally up around the root garden and the potatoes are in. This year I planted four varieties, French Fingerlings, Chieftain, Baker, and Red. I’m trying the “straw” method where you basically throw the potatoes onto the ground and cover them. I’m excited to see what our yield will be.

 Speaking of the chicken proof fence…turns out, it’s not so chicken proof after all, so we had to put a piece of wood between the 2 inch gap at the back. Who knew chickens were like cats that way?

So, planting season is finally underway. I feel like all I have been eating for the past four months are carrots, potatoes and chard.

Almost there!

I finally got all the edging stones up from the former ornamental garden.  I can't believe it's taken me over 2 years to recondition this little piece of dirt on the side of my house!  There is still some of that
"weed barrier" and volcanic rock in there, but I think I got most of it out.

I've reconsidered the rototiller, there are so many worms and caterpillars under there, and the soil is so black and earthy, I just don't want to kill it all just because the volcanic rock annoys me.  So I'm just going to hoe it...sigh...


St. Patrick's day is almost here and I have to decide which potatos I want to go in.  I'm pretty sure I want fingerling potato again, they were so tasty last year.  I'm also going to go with some bakers and perhaps some Yukon gold and red.  With the expansion of the garden I can increase my potato selections.

Doesn't look like we will get the raised beds in this year, since we are going to allocate the money to large composting (too...much...hay...) bins to handle the chicken waste.

Coming out of hibernation

Well, it's been a long winter, but the ground is workable again.  I spent about 10 hours in January getting rid of the last of the ornamental garden by the side of the house, mainly with a hand ax and some hedge clippers.  I know there are many more efficient ways of doing this, but with toddlers running about the yard, I can't really run power tools.  Anyway, it's done.  Still need to borrow a rototiller this weekend and just kind of mix everything up.   Then we need to fence it with chicken wire.  I'm planning on cutting down several of the Red Alder trees that have sprouted up in our yard to make fence posts.  I figure if they are going to grow in my yard, I might as well use them for something.

A Betime Story (from 9/11/07)

One day, Mommy and Daddy and Maxwell got into their car and drove to Aloha, Oregon to meet an inspector for the house they wanted to buy.  This house was very important to the family, because it would mean that they would have a yard and could try to grow their own food and maybe even have some chickens that would lay eggs!   Also, they really wanted a hot tub.  Mommy was so happy to see leaves on the ground that she started talking about where to make the leaf pile that would turn to mushy compost for the next year.

 

Maxwell was pretty bored until his new friends from next door, Maia and Mike, came home from school.  They had a momma cat and two tiny black kittens that Maxwell loved.  Maxwell went over to their house and played on the trampoline.  Then, Maia's mother gave Maxwell a banana which he didn't tell his parents about until bedtime.  Maxwell's Mommy called him back to the new house and soon his friends were at the door.  Maxwell and his friends looked around the backyard at the new house and poked sticks into the pond until Maxwell's Dad yelled at them to get away from the water.  Then, Maxwell found a tiny ladybug magnet and all the children chased it around the yard.

 

Maxwell's Mommy discovered that the apple tree was actually a cherry tree but she wasn't sure what kind.  Daddy discovered a leak in the wax seal of the toilet in the master bathroom (luckily, they happened to be researching was seals while engaging in their futile attempt to tile their bathroom at the condo) and demanded that the sellers fix it right away.  Mommy also discovered that the yard was maintained by a million billion toxic chemicals and told Daddy to take a good look at the lawn, because it was never going to look that good again.

 

How to Make Pumpkin Pie (from a pumpkin!)

Well, it was the last item of our farm share, but come Christmas it was time to make the very last pumpkin pie of the season...sniffle.  Anyway, here are some instructions, I culled them from several sources so I claim nothing is actually either original or mine.

Ingredients
1 pie pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
one half teaspoon ground ginger
one half teaspoon salt (optional, I don't use any)
4 large eggs
3 cups pumpkin glop (ok... "sieved, cooked pumpkin")
1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk (I use the nonfat version)

Start with a 6" to 8" pie pumpkin and a full deep dish 9" pie plate. You will have enough to fill the pie and then some left over for muffins or mini pie or whatever.

Step 1: Wash pumpkin with water (not soap, unless you want soapy pumpkin pie). Split down the middle. Scoop out seeds.

Step 2: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put each pumpkin side down flat on a cookie tray covered with aluminum foil. Cook for 45 minutes or until soft. Alternately, you can cook at 450 degrees in a baking dish with ½ cup of water to keep the flesh moist. Peel flesh from skin and put into bowl. Puree using a food processor or blender.

Step 3: Mix in:
1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
one half teaspoon ground ginger
one half teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
3 cups pumpkin
1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk

Step 4. Pour into crust

Step 5. Bake at 425 F (210 C ) for the first 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 F ( 175 C ) and bake another 45 to 60 minutes, until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out
clean.

Step 6. Let pie cool…the longer you let it cool, the tastier and firmer the pie. We cool ours for a day.

The joys of cleaning the chicken coop

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question where a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in the things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech

These wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast, and until science disclosed the drama of where they come from and how they live. The whole conflict thus boils down to a question of degree. We of the minority see a law of diminishing returns in progress; our opponents do not.”

-Aldo Leopold

The Sand County Almanac

I think I’m at the point where I’ve just had too many classes on food and the environment, food and big business and just on food to sit quietly anymore.  This morning my husband and I were trying to find a recipe for chicken and dumplings, preferably in the crock pot. Every single recipe involved biscuit mix and boneless, skinless chicken.

What the Hell?

Have we really forgotten chickens have bones and skin? Has it been so long since our ancestors made biscuits about of a bit of flour, some butter and some baking soda on the trail?

The whole thing would depress me terribly if I hadn’t spent my morning prying frozen chicken poop off the coop floor (it’s 12 degrees this morning) while my chickens complained and pecked at my boots. Somehow, collecting a couple eggs after cleaning the coop and whipping up some french toast made me feel so much better.