End of Summer Garden Jump Start

With all of the crazy weather and in and out internet service, I went to work to get caught up on Saturday. It was a good thing, because despite the hour and a half on a Saturday afternoon spent away from the many things at home calling my name, I am caught up for the first time since the semester began. THer ewill be plenty more for me on Tuesday when I am in, but I will definitely feel better without the leftover list awaiting me!

On my way ther, I stopped by the local aquaponics store for some items I needed to add more capacity to the water harvesting project. I found a different solution to bulkheads, which will be a second prototype to compare, which I think will be interesting, and I will show that when I get more done with that tomorrow. 

On the way in the door, however, I saw some new organic heirloom plant starts, and couldn't help myself. Many of you will recall the project we have had to get the feeders up off the ground to reduce waste and keep pesky rodents out of the feed and away fro the livestock. The project has been successful and positive, but the mice were then hungry, and with my garden in containers and my plant starts ion the table on the back porch, they went straight for my plant starts and the main garden, devouring everything they could get to. It will be a bit before I can get the greenhouse rebuilt, even though I have been collecting the materials and creating plans. 

Out lavender was diminished some by age and other factors, so I was so excited to see lavender, peppers, lettuce starts and more!  I did my best to exercise restraint, but gave in to two lavender plants, and a few heirloom peppers, lettuce and broccoli. I think this photo shows as much restraint as it does bounty!

Sunday night during evening chores, I started on the additional water capacity, and then when it was too dark to do more, I took the lavender out front for a little foodscaping...

I had planned to get to these planters once the monsoon had brought consistent rain, but it never really did, being mostly family with a few days of overload until the last week or so. So I just never really got to it. This planter was rather overgrown with dead stuff! 

Hard to see in this photo, but there was a little green with a lot of dead stuff here. The green were fun little flowers that actually looked rather good in that planter, and might still get some little blue Marguerite daisies for the cute little goat pot. We will see.

This planter has housed more solar lights than anything else in recent years.

I cleaned out the dead stuff in this one, and added a little soil conditioning/ amendment so that I could decide about those daisies...

This one got fully cleaned out and some lavender. While for years, I enjoyed blue and white everything out front, I really needed a good spot for the lavender and better use of the planters for hte food and medicinal plants!

This one brought the second lavender plant and more soil amendment. 

Well, here is to hoping they flourish and bear seeds for lavender! Now back to finishing off an order, rigging a jack to finish the kids bathroom and having the additional rainwater capacity finished today and the other starts in fortified surroundings before the storm is due in! 

Hope you all have a truly blessed week!

Some Exciting News and a Product Update

Some fun and exciting news. .. 

Today, we will be be delivering some product samples to a local honey company! We are sure hoping that the products do well for them, and that this becomes a lasting partnership. That makes this That makes this a good time to answer some questions that we get a lot, just for your information!

These are stick lip balms. This version is a Chocolate Hazelnut Honey variety. The ones in a stick are a little harder than those in a tub, but generally the same ingredients, We have a host of different kinds that we can make, but usually make them to order. What you see here has honey, beeswax, cocoa butter, hazelnut oil, dutch cocoa, glycerin and vitamin E.  Good stuff. Some of our best sellers are actually tub or glass vial roll-ons. We do a lava lights one in many flavors, and some with chocolate cherry, chocolate mint, mocha, etc. If you are looking for a flavor you love, or specific essential or extract oils, let me know, I may just have a great recipe.

This basket happens to contain two types of soap and some lotion bars.

The soaps, because this is for a group that specializes in honey are two types of our oatmeal, goat's milk and honey recipe. The oatmeal serves to calm and cool sensitive skin. The goat's milk is tremendously nourishing, and goat's milk, as it is close in composition to human breast milk, is better utilized by our skin to nourish and repair it.  The honey is great for those with sensitive skin or acne or rashes. Surprising, but true! There are a variety of oils used, including cocoa butter, and several others. Specific recipes can vary a bit by the requests in a given batch. Don't hesitate to put in a request for a whole small batch just for you! This basket has a plain (unscented with essential oils) version as well as a holiday spice variety, which has clove, cinnamon, orange and nutmeg essential oils mixed in at trace to help get you ready for the holiday season. I even threw in one peppermint soap. True peppermint essential oils are outstanding for opening up the sinuses when you have allergies, and the good stuff won't set off those of us with sensitivities to chemicals. Some folks like the spearmint or eucalyptus for this, but the peppermint is the most popular these days.

What can I say about lotion bars? GOOD STUFF! Typically, lotions take some wonderful oils and do a few things. The first, the frequently use alcohol so that it evaporates and make you feel as though it is soaking in, though it is actually drying your skin. Second, they almost always thin the oils with water, then thicken them with corn starch derivative to keep them thick as well as oodles of preservatives. Since it is the chemicals and preservative that my family cannot handle, and I take issue with genetically modified corn, we take a different approach. We begin with local beeswax, filter it an extra time, and then add pure cocoa butter, and a variety of pure oils and butters, essential oils for aromatherapy and vitamin E for a natural boost to the skin and to help with shelf life. Again, oils can vary greatly. While coconut oil is a fantastic base, some folks who have sought us out because they know we are glad to individually formulate cannot have that, or cannot have another oil. So these recipes vary some, and we try to keep a couple different recipes in stock.

I know, that is a LOT of information!. But feel free to ask ANY questions you may have. That is why you would work with a small local company that specializes in serving the individual needs of the customer in a natural way that supports the health of the customer and sustainable agriculture!

National Egg Day 2014

Today is National Egg Day! So what does that mean? Oh, I don't know exactly, except that we seem to have a day for everything in the declaration of some group somewhere! But as I thought over the course of the day about what I could post- a photo of a colorful egg basket, some of our different sizes of eggs, or double yolk-ers, etc, I came across the following meme on Facebook:

Honestly, they have a point. 

For some reason, we want the commodities to remain the same, while we are willing to pay more for luxury goods and convenience items, giving less importance to how things are raised or produced.

You often see me say things like "Vote with your dollars." This merely means that by the choices you make in your shopping, you are voting for specific ways of raising animals and growing food.

This applies to gmos, pesticides, hothouse foods, seasonal foods, and the feed used with livestock. It looks at buying local, and noticing how animals are raised and treated, as well as demanding the feed to be in accordance with your values. If you are looking for organic, non gmo veggies, are you looking for non-gmo feed for the livestock? 

Or maybe that doesn't matter, but when you look at the cost of eggs over time, and the inflation against the cost of other commodities across time, and consider how many of those commodities have extra things added now to keep the prices artificially low, we must think hard about whether we like those prices more than the original product, and whether the cost of those prices in terms of long term health care costs are worth it.

Also, when choosing to pay more for an item, like pastured eggs, or organic or cage free, understand the meaning of the term. While there are many folks who provide local fresh eggs to the markets, there are a few different price points, and also some are kept in different environments or fed different feeds. Then decide for yourself what is right for you and your family. Not sure what they are? Check out the meanings in this blog post here:

http://ourpatriotsdream.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-about-our-flock-management.html

And, for your reference, here is a commodity retail price sheet. Have fun, and I welcome your comments and thoughts!

Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890–2011

Prices below are in dollars or cents.

Year	Flour (5 lbs)	Bread (lb)	Round steak (lb)	Bacon (lb)	Butter (lb)	Eggs (doz.)	Milk (1/2 gal.)	Oranges (doz.)	Potatoes (10 lbs)	Coffee (lb)	Sugar (5 lbs)
2011	$2.75	$1.48	$4.69	$4.82	$3.67	$1.95	$1.86	$6.00	$7.35	$5.65	$3.51
2010	$2.36	$1.41	$4.41	$4.77	$3.63	$1.47	$1.66	$6.00	$5.79	$4.16	$3.11
1970	58.9¢	24.3¢	$1.30	94.9¢	86.6¢	61.4¢	65.9¢	86.4¢	89.7¢	91.1¢	64.8¢
1965	58.1	20.9	$1.08	81.3	75.4	52.7	52.6	77.8	93.7	83.3	59.0
1960	55.4	20.3	$1.05	65.5	74.9	57.3	52.0	74.8	71.8	75.3	58.2
1955	53.8	17.7	90.3	65.9	70.9	60.6	46.2	52.8	56.4	93.0	52.1
1950	49.1	14.3	93.6	63.7	72.9	60.4	41.2	49.3	46.1	79.4	48.7
1945	32.1	8.8	40.6	41.1	50.7	58.1	31.2	48.5	49.3	30.5	33.4
1940	21.5	8.0	36.4	27.3	36.0	33.1	25.6	29.1	23.9	21.2	26.0
1935	25.3	8.3	36.0	41.3	36.0	37.6	23.4	22.0	19.1	25.7	28.2
1930	23.0	8.6	42.6	42.5	46.4	44.5	28.2	57.1	36.0	39.5	30.5
1925	30.5	9.3	36.2	47.1	55.2	55.4	27.8	57.1	36.0	50.4	35.0
1920	40.5	11.5	39.5	52.3	70.1	68.1	33.4	63.2	63.0	47.0	97.0
1915	21.0	7.0	23.0	26.9	35.8	34.1	17.6	n.a.	15.0	30.0	33.0
1910	18.0	n.a.	17.4	25.5	35.9	33.7	16.8	n.a.	17.0	n.a.	30.0
1905	16.0	n.a.	14.0	18.1	29.0	27.2	14.4	n.a.	17.0	n.a.	30.0
1900	12.5	n.a.	13.2	14.3	26.1	20.7	13.6	n.a.	14.0	n.a.	30.5
1895	12.0	n.a.	12.3	13.0	24.9	20.6	13.6	n.a.	14.0	n.a.	26.5
1890	14.5	n.a.	12.3	12.5	25.5	20.8	13.6	n.a.	16.0	n.a.	34.5

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2., Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011

Read more: Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890–2011 | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0873707.html#ixzz33dzDqbxO

A Late Spring Update on the Sprout and Fodder Project

Yesterday, I was out working on chores while Bailey was walking her goat, when I found her chatting with a neighbor. It turns out we all have quite an interest in organics and grass fed livestock. We were talking about this project, and whether there was a way to use something similar, on a larger scale to raise grass fed livestock. That is still beyond either of our leagues, but it reminded me about this update I had begun earlier in the week...

On Thursday, this was the growth in one of the barley sprouting trays.  While the sprouts were tall, they seemed rather sparse in the tray,to my eye.

This was the growth in a tray of sunflower seeds begun the same day, though I didn't remember the day I had begun them. While the sunflower sprouts are shorter, and behind in growth cycle, they seemed thicker to me, sparking a talk with the kids.

Wyatt pulled a sprout or two from each, and laid them on the counter. The sunflower sprout is measurably thicker, and while it looks as long as the barley sprout, it is one of the very few tall sprouts from that tray. Some of them were still barely sprouting.

We talked about the trays starting on the same day, and I hadn't written down when the day was. We also talked about how I hadn't exactly measured how much I had used. I knew it was somewhere between 1.5 and 2 cups, but not if they were exactly the same.

Could that have had an effect? Well, we decided to go about it a little more scientifically, and began prepping the next two trays to start for the next cycle.

I started with two identical canning jars.

I measured two cups of sunflower seeds.

Into the jar they went.

Then two cups of barley.

Into the jar they went.

Then the seeds were rinsed and went in to soak on the counter.

When they were ready, they went into the trays on Friday,  We will weigh and measure the feed we gt from them, and share what we learn! Have you done similar experiments? What have you learned? Any other tricks to share?

Our First Polish Egg!

On Saturday afternoon, when we returned from town and got started with chores and feeding and changing waters, we found a new surprise int he Polish temporary pen- 

our first egg from these new friends!

It was tucked safely int he incubator with a couple eggs from the Light Brahmas, to hopefully see them hatch together. As this is their first egg since they came here, likely their first eggs wince the cooler months, the likelihood isn't all that great that it is truly fertile, but since the Polish project is all about seeing what we can hatch for the youth of the 4-H club for next year, we will try anyhow!

We will keep you up to date as we candle and watch for hte hatch. Have a great week!

Sprouting Project, Side by Side Barley and Sunflower comparison part 2

The last I share photos on this topic was Thursday. For those of us working to learn all that we can about being able to afford to feed our livestock and produce food organically, with out soy, corn or gmos, the more we see of the process, the better.

Therefore, I am taking nightly photos of the identical bins that I started together, two of sunflower, tow of barley. The photos in the last edition of this series were from Thursday, so here is what has happened since...

On Friday night, there were clean thick short sprouts on the Sunflowers. While not much more than the day before, more of the seeds had the sprouts.

Also on Friday, lots of the thin shoots sprouting off the barley were filling in, up to and even over an inch in height. Lots of filling in to do, though!

On Saturday, the little sprouts were curling around the sunflower seeds.  Rather cute, really, but not much in terms of getting feed ready!  I have limited space, the longer the fodder takes, the more fodder containers I need in the setup.

The Barley is filling in, and was standing tall over an inch in height.

This was a few hours ago, with the sprouts beginning to stand up in the sunflower bins, more grasses filling in and height growing in the barley bins.

These are the four bins stacked together. I wish I knew the proper recipe for how thick to make the seeds in each fodder tray, but since I have not found that anywhere,  I am still experimenting! (If you happen to know, please share so we can all learn!)

Well, I am learning as I go, but certainly improving.  All knowledge is welcome, the more we share with others, the better we all do, and the more we learn from one another!

Frozen Tomatoes?

When the big freeze came along, a few weeks before Christmas, I bought all new frost cover for the container gardens. I have been stockpiling windows from craigslist, but don't have enough windows or time yet to work on building the new greenhouse, so I dug my heels in and said "This is the year I don't lose my tomatoes int he container gardens."

I think this is well foreshadowed- EVERYTHING FROZE.

I tried hard, and hoped, but the leaves shriveled up like they do once frozen.  Honestly, I think there is a chance the Pichu Fruit has made it, but only tome will tell on those. But Bailey went out and harvested all she could find of the tomatoes and pichu fruit, and told me that the good news meant the herbs were still holding their own and the peppers were taking a stand.

So much for the fancy frost cover.

Over the weekend, while the kids were outside working on a history project, I got to pulling hte dead tomato plants out  I had put it off as long as I could and the porch looked awful.  As I did, I found a few straggler tomatoes that somehow were sitting on the porch.  Certainly not bright red, but ripening.

I sat them on the counter.

This afternoon, as I was loading up to head for the farmers market, I held them out to the kids sitting at the table working on schoolwork.  "Care to be a taste tester?"  Wyatt eyed me suspiciously, but will do anything to take a break from math, so he took one, as did Bailey.  (I am pretty sure just about anything beats the studying for the Chem test.) 

They both agreed they needed a little more time to ripen, but otherwise were just fine. In other words, maybe I should have left them on the counter for a bit first.  We are all spoiled enough to like ours vine ripened, of course.

Frozen tomatoes could be just fine. Who knew? 

So tell me, have you ever had tomatoes survive a big frost? What frost cover works for you, too? I will get to building that greenhouse, bit it is a bit late for now!

Our first fodder feeding...

This morning, we fed fodder with the morning feeding. We used the sunflower seed sprouts that I had been working on sprouting. Since the kids and I each have certain pens we work with, and there were eight littler boxes ready to go out, we divvied them up- 2 for the big pen, two for the A pen, one for each the grow put pen, the Brahmas and the Buckeyes, and one between the two little bantam/ show pens.

Here is Wyatt showing off one of the boxes whose lid we could not keep on...

This is the root system coming out the bottom...

The tops of the stacks...

Some of the ladies in the Big Pen checking out the treats...

One of the Buckeye hens...

Some of the friends checking out the sprouts together. 

I am really looking forward to seeing how this plays out- one day at a time. So far nowhere near enough to offset too much of the feed, but fresh food for a portion of it anyway!

More with the Sprouting Project...part 6/7...

Hello, all! Remember that part where I said that the chickens would get their first round of sunflower sprouts on the first of January? Well, today is the third. In the end, I ended up in bed hurt on Wednesday afternoon, and Wyatt didn't take the sprouts out without me, instead gave out some yummy treats and topped off the food.  I snapped these photos as bit later, as I was working on expanding the system. There is also now another stack of larger boxes, we will see how that works out!

These are the ones I had just started, see the little white sprouts?

This was one of the boxes almost ready to feed, as of Wednesday night...

These are the seeds sprouting int he open topped colander. Notice how the seeds are still visible, but they are getting thicker?

This is the same colander, this afternoon (Friday).  The seeds are now really deep and interspersed with sprouts.

This is the same set of sprouts, but closer up. I tried to get a better view of the sprouts from the side, but at least you can see the grass shoots.

This would be the top of the middle row you saw int he first photo.

And these are the new seeds we started on Wednesday. Some folks are telling me that the sunflower seeds grow slower than some of the other types of seeds when it comes to sprouting and growing them to feed to livestock.  I have barley due to arrive at the coop on Monday, so I will enjoy seeing how they do side by side!

Well, we have agreed that we will feed the sprouts for morning feeding before I head to work tomorrow, since the kids we be home to see how it goes.  I will do my best to share photos! If any of you have tried the sprouting what have you earned, do you have any tips for the rest of us, and have you tried putting the soaked seeds into a "salad bar" type growing situation for feeding in the pen?

The Sprouting Project Part 5/6

Sorry I missed yesterday's post.  So here we are, six days after I started the first sunflower seeds in the prototype fodder system. Today I added the top right box, as well as the entire left stack.  Tomorrow, I believe the chickens will be celebrating the New Year with their first taste of the sunflower seed fodder sprouting project!

These are the seeds I just started today...

These are the ones which now reach tot he top of the box!

And these are the seeds sprouting in the open topped colander.

I also purchased a few larger boxes to try, depending upon how it all goes tomorrow. We shall see!

The Sprouting Project, part 3/4

Sorry, I got a little behind last night. Trying to keep this project up and going. Funny, seeing the posts from others made no sense to me looking before, and when I saw this prototype design in someone else's video post, I thought it made for a good way to discover without spending too much.  So I am trying to log the things I am experiencing and learning so that others can learn, and so that I can remember.

Did I mention that I had a hard time finding seeds? Yup, I really did. I ended up with the prototype system ready and no seeds until I decided to try sprouting the sunflower seeds while I tried to get seeds from the coop. The hard thing for me with coops is how far they all are from me, and trying to order where I can pick up with little notice on some one else's time frame. But we are part of a coop for the feed we purchase, organic and soy and corn free, so my friend talked me through this other coop to get the seeds to sprout and I picked up some oils at the same time so I could work on restocking soap. We shall see how it works.

These first couple photos are from yesterday.  This one is the top right box int he stack. Yesterday would have been day three (counting the start day as day 0), and while it seemed like there was a root mat developing, the seeds were still very loose when I pouted the water in.

These are the seeds in the open colander. You might remember I did this because I soaked too many seeds for the prototype system- Oops- and refuse to waster them.  These are still growing far slower than those in the enclosed system.

This is the prototype system, There is a reservoir in the bottom box of each stack, with a hole cut int he top. The box above has drainage holes, and sits atop the ledge where the cutout is.  This continues on up, with the top one having a full lid. THey are watered three times a day, on average.  Not sure why, but the one on the top right seems to have the most developed root base, and is growing a bit faster.

This is the open colander in the sink as of tonight. Charlie asked if I was growing worms...

This is the top right box, which has a good solid root base tonight, and a fair amount of new green shoots and sprouts.

This is the top left box, seemingly developed at about the level where the top right one was as of this morning. Funny, since I set up all of them at the same time.

Well, that is about hte size of it. I am figuring I need about 6 of these per day as a feed supplement, so I have a lot to figure out, might get more boxes to start another wave tomorrow, not sure if I will have time. If you have any advice or experience to share, I welcome it! The more we learn and share, the more self-sufficient we can be!