They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
Tuesday: the last full day before Pierce Co Fair starts. It was also a Monday, because on Monday we were too busy to Monday, due to baking for fair, and taking stuff to fair grounds for turn in, and decorating at the fair grounds. But Monday is the sort of thing that cannot be indefinitely… Continue reading Elderberries, beans, crabapples
Last week was the first elderberry picking of the year. I did a second picking Monday morning, early. The dried elderberries from last weekend are done, so we transfer them into a bowl and put the next batch in. The previous batch yielded almost a quart after drying. We found that if the clusters are… Continue reading Elderberries, Basil, Baking and Brewing.
Oh, and also some buckwheat. This buckwheat was planted back at the beginning of July. It has been watered regularly and is now 3-4 feet tall. A decision has to be made at this point. Once the flowers are formed, the protein content in the stalks and leaves is at its maximum level. If cut… Continue reading Blackberry Wine, Mead, and Liqueur
The Summer harvest is just beginning! On Monday we did another picking of raspberries (pretty slim pickings, at this point) and we did our first picking of beans. Ellie bet Uncle that he would not find any beans on the west side of the beans. She bet him one scone for each bean that he… Continue reading Summer Harvest
It was a clinic weekend, so busy, but... Our new hens, the ones we started in February are laying! Egg production is starting to come back up again. And at least one of them prefers finding her own nest rather than using the ones we so lovingly built for her. 10 eggs in the stack… Continue reading Clinic Weekend
Last Tuesday (July 28th) The three older kids were all at VBS, so it was just Daddy and Winnie for a few hours. We picked blackberries. Winnie loves being the only child. She chatters away, all the thoughts that come into her little head. Every other sentence is, "Daddy, I really love you!" She is… Continue reading Blackberries
None of our cabbage is ready yet. We were super busy in the late winter and early spring, and the long varieties of cabbage probably still have a few months to go before they fully head out. We did get some very nice cabbage heads from Dude, though. She planted cabbage for the first time… Continue reading First batch of Sauerkraut
A few months ago I watched a video in which John Lovell (a.k.a. the War Poet) interviewed a local farmer who has developed a method for keeping his farm productive with minimal water in the middle of an historic Georgia drought. The video is worth a watch, not because it has anything truly groundbreaking in… Continue reading Hugel beds
The Asian plums are coming in strong right now. Our golden yellow plum is having its best year ever right now. Mommy took a peck of plums up to Swiss Kids Kamp every day, and still we have only used about a third of the plums on the tree. We need to make some jelly… Continue reading Plums
Finally got to harvesting the wheat last week, on Friday. This was a few weeks overdue. It really was ready in late June, early July. The optimal day, with that magic combination of nice weather, not too hot, no rain, and time to get to the job, with nothing more pressing that needed to be… Continue reading Gleaning the Wheat
Little Farm in the Big City 