Summer 2016
Its been a while since I've put together one of these picture series. In my file, I found a picture of the lean-to greenhouse in which we start many of our plants.
You can tell it is an old picture because the tomato plants at the far end of the table have this to show now in the garden.
I'm glad I could find this one ripe tomato, because they are so tasty that most get picked as fast as they ripen. There are signs, however, that they will soon get ahead of us and we can start preserving them for winter.
Before showing you more of the garden; I want to introduce our livestock.
Chickens, now 25 of them, are spending their nights in this coop built on an old trailer bed. They spend the days scratching around in the lower garden.
And Guinea foul, three are little here.
The first five are about half grown
The trick is to get them very young and raise them close so that they identify a person as their mother. Now they follow Claire everywhere.
So trained, they will come home from forays eating bugs in the garden and, eventually, from eating ticks about this property. Perhaps one day we will be able to take them to other places where ticks are a problem.
The more mature birds live in the Guinea Coop at night.
More on Gardens
Presently we are trying to keep up with the zucchinni from these two big leafed plants.
Among other plants growing are Beets,
Cabbage,
Brinjal (Egg plant),
Corn and Squash. Last year was the first that we got corn before the racoons did. Tim discovered the trick of planting prickly squash plants around the corn.
Also growing are peas (mostly finished) carrots, radish, chard, kale and beans. Potatoes, onions, leeks, herbs and others are not pictured.
From the food dehydrator in the background above have come nettle, lambs quarters, skapes, kale, kale chips, catnip and smoked brinjal "bacon", the latter thanks to our visiting vegan cheff Emma, seen here with a sod fork.
Meanwhile, on the construction front, our new residents Jim & Michelle have set up camp with a solar electric system, (we've had movie nights and Jim mowes the grass on pollution free solar power). They have also built pop-up gardens in the lower field and made a good start on raised beds for seasons to come.
Also new, are stairs connecting the cooking and eating areas of the Summer Kitchen.
And work is nearly complete on the supporting beams and the three trusses that will frame the Summer Kitchen roof.
For those of you waiting for the invite to help assemble the roof, you should get that note in the not too distant future.