August days

The kitchen garden has reached it's peak capacity. The pumpkin is taking over the lawn, the tomatoes are  knocking over their supports, the cabbages are getting fat, and we're over run with broccoli.

Very pointy egg this morning from my aged Araucana hen.

Such a  good apricot year!  I managed to process 40 lbs before I made myself sick eating too many.

Heading to the root cellar with the latest apricot jam and dill pickles in the wheelbarrow..


Buck and Mike have the right idea.  Napping away the hot afternoons in the cool living room. 

Preserving my Garden

Two weeks of rain and the everything has greened up. Looks like Spring again. Expect for the shortening days. I had to turn the farmer light back on and light the pilot on the furnace. The wood shed is filling up again. The freezer is getting full and the root cellar is stocked.
It's been a good tomato year, so good that I broke out in hives from eating too many.  There's a never ending pot of tomato sauce on the stove and the oven is full of trays for roasting. Another gallon of red sauce just came out of the canner.

Note to self : get more quart jars

Magnetic Lid Lifter = my new favorite thing in the world.  It's a magnet on a stick. Stupidly simply and completely brilliant.

A thankful 4th

Today has been one of those perfect summer days I dream about in January. Clear blue sky with  just enough breeze to keep it from being too hot.  The garden is starting to produce; we have fresh lettuce  and strawberries. The roses are is full bloom, perfuming the yard.  The goats are getting fat out in the pasture.  

My bee stung hand has finally deflated. The last six days I was chained to an ice pack while my right hand looked like a catchers mitt. Stupid Yellow Jackets. So I'm really thankful for a fully functional right hand!  

And the goat milk ice cream that's churning away in the kitchen.  

Hope all of you have a Happy 4th too!!

Foxy-hawk; Holly-glove

I think this foxglove must have crossed with a hollyhock. At least the top blossom did, the rest of plants seems like a regular foxglove. Who knew that was even possible. 

Strange fruit

I've been meaning to roast this winter squash for a while. But it was keeping so well , since last fall, that I just never got around to it. I guess it got tired of waiting. This is a Galeux D'eysines Squash, an old French heirloom variety known for it's excellent taste if not beauty. I don't particularly find a flesh colored squash covered in warts all that attractive, but it's what's in the inside that counts, right.

Well upon cracking it open this Sunday; it turns out the squash has not been waiting so patiently. The center is absolutely full of sprouted seeds! Who would have thought a seed could germinate and sprout inside a sealed pumpkin.  After some emergency Google-ing I discovered this is not the result of some localized radioactivity but the result of the squash being too warm while stored. This is in fact the normal way a pumpkin or squash will reseed in the wild. The seeds germinate inside the fruit to keep animals from eating them. The green shoots will eventually break through the outer shell.

Who knew pumpkins were so very clever.

Fall is creeping in

The morning temperatures are have been going down. Socks have become necessary again. There has even been small pockets of frost along the valley. The hoop house is once again shrouded in plastic and the squash vines are sporting row cover. The garden looks ready for Halloween.

During my accidental blog vacation, we've made three batches of jam, 2 flats of apple sauce and eaten a lot of zucchini. This is first year the grape vines have really produced.. Even with eating them by the handfuls, there is enough for juice and raisins. The constant drone of the dehydrator is background noise for the bubbling of never ending pots of tomato sauce.  Tonight, I think I'll make meat balls. 

Weekending

Baby Robins in the grape arbor.

new baby

old baby

Zucchini - Zucchetta Trombolina 

The weekend seemed to fly by. Lots happening in the gardens, new arrivals, and friends dropping by.  Mrs Brown has been setting again. (I remembered to write down when she started this time.) On Saturday her first egg hatched. She has abandoned  one of her other eggs but she's still on the nest with a blue egg. This will be the last batch of eggs sired by  Mr Fancy-pants. He had been getting more aggressive with us this last year and after one more round of rooster golf, he took a short walk to the woodshed. The chicken yard is much quieter these days.

In the garden, harvest time is upon us.The zucchini is going nuts and we dug the potato bed with some help from Bucky. The potato plants hadn't died off all the way but a mouse had taken taken up residence. So it was either dig them now or loose the crop.The mouse seemed to have a preference for the Yellow Fins , he mostly left the reds alone.  As it was the harvest weighed in at 25 pounds!!  I can't fault the mouse for his excellent taste, the yellow fins are marvelous.

wordless wednesday

Summer time in the garden

Wordless Wednesday - gratuitous flower edition

What a little rain will do.....

Two weeks of nearly solid rain and garden is going nuts. The columbines are in full flush and the roses are just starting their show. Things in the vegetable garden are popping and the vines are setting fruit. Even the lawn is sprouting mushrooms.