Herbs- 2011

Here are some pics of this year’s herbs:

 

Wild Turkeys

At the end of June, we had a LOT of wild turkeys right outside the back of our house. Our oldest daughter, Lilly, took some video and a couple of pictures of them.

How Our Garden Grows: June 25, 2011

Our garden is growing GREAT!  :)  We have a ton of tomatoes and peppers growing.   We also have baby gherkins and plenty of cucumber, zucchini, and tomatillo blossoms.  The fence around the tomatoes and such, seems to be working like a charm.  I had given up on my canteloupe seeds, but all of the sudden two weeks later ALL of them came up.  Here are pictures of what is growing so far:

We were able to FINALLY get the beans and winter squash in. We planted two varieties of green beans, two dry beans and one lima.  We also planted  7 varieties of winter squash/pumpkins.  I got a ton of pumpkin a few years ago, which I canned and it was fabulous to have.  I’m hoping to get a good crop this year.  I had to take out my potatoes. They turned yellow and lost their leaves.  I think that putting the straw on them is what killed them. At least we got at least one potato per plant back, but it’s nothing like I was hoping to get from them.  It’s my first year doing them, so I’ll look up what I did wrong soon and remedy that issue next year.

Earlier this year we found one volunteer tomato plant, which Aggie dubbed “Vicky the Volunteer”.  :)  She’s a kook.  I was surprised that we even had that one, since the deer devastated our garden last year. I considered “Vicky” to be a lucky tomato plant indeed.  However, today Lilly was pulling up a few weeds and found a volunteer watermelon plant. I can’t remember the silly name she called it.  My children are definitely creative kids!

Berries

We have wild blackberries on our property.  They are bitter and thorny, but the kids always want to pick them.  So I oblige them, ending up with the worst of the snags. I kind of think that they would make one nasty jam.  In my imagination, I see it tasting like a blackberry version of orange marmalade, except more bitter. But the kids wouldn’t stop bugging me about it.  So we went out and picked some.  In an attempt to make it more palatable, I decided to make a mixed berry jam out of them.  I added some blackberries and blueberries from a berry farm about 20 min. away.  I’ve yet to taste this concoction, but it did set well.

When I was picking with the kids at the berry farm yesterday, I was talking with the owner.  She was surprised that I canned my blackberries.  I’ve heard that you can easily over-process them, so that they fall apart.  But last year I decided to try it, because I like canned berries for sweet breads and for an easy breakfast in yogurt. I only processed them for 7-8 minutes.  The jars sealed and we had little-to-none spoilage.  The berries still were plump, intact and firm.  So I did it this year too.

I bought some blueberries this year.  I canned them by the same method.  I’m looking forward to some blueberry crumble.

Square Foot Garden Mystery Solved

I had originally thought that it was the poor quality soil that was causing my plants to not thrive in the sq. ft. boxes.  However, I had a passing thought when I was walking by my boxes the other day that “perhaps” it wasn’t the soil, but the tops.  The plants looked burned, not like they didn’t have enough nutrients.  Maybe in a small way, it is the cheap dirt that I bought.  BUT I thought, “Why not take off the tops that the book guy told us to put on?”  So I did.

Three days later, sprouts are starting to grow again, but look healthy this time.  I’m thinking that the metal from the chicken wire tops was burning the baby plants.  I’m probably going to have to re-plant some of it, but at least I know now that things WILL grow in the boxes. That’s a relief.

For My Frugal, Green, Hippie Friends:

I was out walking with some friends on my property the other day and we saw what I think was wild grape.  Curious, I started looking around the internet for information on the wild grape varieties in Tennessee.  I was wondering if they were edible.  It turns out that they are, even the young leaves are.  While searching, I came across this video on it.

This man, “Green Deane”, has a whole youtube channel on how you can forage for food in your own backyard.  Call me weird, but I find this sort of thing very interesting, especially since living on our 6 acres.  I’m looking forward to learning more from his videos.

How Our Garden Grows- May 2011

Our gardening story is not a success story.  It’s a story of struggle.  And I kind of think that’s how it is supposed to be.  I would find it strange if we lived our lives breezing through every situation and having complete victory over every circumstance.  I really enjoy the ebb and flow of a life that is rooted in gritty reality. It definitely has it’s joys, but reality tells us that there are low points too.  My struggle with the garden here in TN has often been a low point.

Last year, after having another loss to my garden to the herd of deer living on our property, I was extremely frustrated.  We had spent hundreds of dollars on plants, fences and other means to keep them out.  But none of it worked.  The winter was used to cool my temper and get new ideas on how to prevent them from getting in.  I had tried EVERYTHING that people suggested to me. NONE of it worked.  So this year, I think that I may have come up with a solution that works.  (And we had a friend deplete the deer population a few does this fall and fill his freezer. Vegetarians and vegans are cringing, but such is the circle of life.  Too many deer is a big nuisance that I’ve experienced first hand. And when I say I’ll go on a shooting rampage, I really won’t. I’ve never even shot a shotgun in practice, let alone actually killed any animal.)

So, above is a video of “How Our Garden Grows” in May 2011.  I’m hoping that by August I’ll get my first set of tomato canning done and be able to tell you all about it.

A Video of Us

 

I made a video of all of us here at Laughing Thyme  Farm.  I love my “little” family.  We are blessed.  :)

Something New

I feel like I’m in a season of something new.  I’m not sure what it is yet and I’m not sure if this “new” thing is something good or not. All I have is this feeling like a lot of things are up in air, even though most things in my life are not.  Maybe it’s just that a few things are in a holding pattern, because of circumstances.  We’re waiting on this one thing to be done with so that we can go ahead and do this other thing.  I know I’m being vague, but they are personal matters that I’m not wanting to share yet.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Garden/Fruit- All of the boxes have sprouts growing up in them, except for the potatoes. I still haven’t planted my tomatoes.  I’ve been partly busy  and/or partly procrastinating. I need to do them soon though. (Like today.)

The grape cuttings that my dad gave me have been in the ground for over a week now.  They still feel green and a few feel like they’ve started getting some sort of support system in their roots.  But none of them have budded yet.  I don’t think all of them will make it, but I’m pretty sure that a couple will despite my not planting them with 3 knobs under the ground.

Family- We went to the zoo yesterday for the first time in a couple of years.  It was fun to walk around and do that.  We let Seany run around and he actually ran for about half of the zoo trip.  The other half he was put in his stroller while he managed to somehow stay awake.  He was even able to accomplish this without a nap.

The girls had been at a slumber party the night before.  They were tired, so on the way home every single one of the Kopp kids had crashed out.

Health-  A good thing about the zoo trip is that I wasn’t tired at all from walking there.  A couple of years ago, I was exhausted by halfway.  So at least I know that although I’m not overly successful in actually losing poundage, I am in better cardiovascular and muscular shape than I was then.  I just wish I would go down a size or two. (I’m routing for two.)

I ate more carbs over the weekend than I wanted to. So today, I am going to have to get back on track with that. I lost 4 lbs. last week, but I’m pretty sure that I gained a couple back.

Taters and Grapes

The kids and I worked in the garden yesterday. I filled up our two deeper square foot garden boxes with top soil and potting soil.  I let the kids plant the potatoes.  They thought that was really fun.  It’s definitely easier than sewing carrot seeds.  The potatoes we planted were Yukon Golds.

Then we tore up the old tomato garden since we are revamping it in order to get rid of the deer.  The kids picked up the vines while I took down the fences and dug up the posts.  The next step is to put down the plastic and put in the posts.  I might need to get the tomatoes planted soon though, since I plant them from seed directly into the ground.

This morning Eric and I got up early and planted a bunch of grape vines. My dad got them from his grapevine.  I can’t remember the variety.  It isn’t a common one, but I do know that they are smaller red grapes and very dainty.  We planted 14 vines along the edge of our property near the road.  We’ll also have to get posts for them soon.

I am tired, but I enjoy the outdoor work.  I’m definitely more of an outdoor chore person than an indoor chore person!