August went by without a single blog post. I’m sure I’ve lost any readers I may have had with such negligence. Let me try to regain some ground here with a farmstead update.
First, the bees. My hubby took up beekeeping this year and it has been a learning process. One of his hives is doing great and putting on clover honey like gangbusters from the blooming pastures all around us. This is their high-rise.
The bottom two boxes are their brood chamber, or main house, where the queen lays eggs, and new bees are raised. The three shorter boxes on top are called supers and that is where they are storing all that gooey gold. We’ll be taking those off and harvesting the honey sometime this month.
The turkeys are getting bigger every day. It looks like we have two big toms, or boys, and three hens. They are still teenagers and haven’t started making their distinctive “gobble, gobble” noise or flaring out their tails, but I’m sure we’ll get there soon enough. I love turkeys. They are very friendly, social birds. Whenever I go to their yard to check on them they come right over to the fence and peep away happily, keeping me company. They’re doing a great job mowing down their yard, which was a huge brushy weed zone before they got there. And I’m sure all that tasty green food will make them great eating come the holiday season!
We’ve still got five chickens, four laying hens and the one-eyed rooster. We’ve had an adventure filled summer trying to keep track of their eggs. They prefer to lay them deep in the blackberry thickets, far from the reach of a human arm. Luckily, Penny dogger is a great egg hunter since eggs bear a close resemblance to her favorite item on earth, the ball. To alleviate all the frustrating searching and lack of eggy protein, my dad fenced a yard for the chickies around their house. Now they can help out with brush clearing too! And stop pooping all over the walkway to the house, yuck-o. They don’t seem to mind so far, and our egg supply is far more consistent. Victory for the humans!
We planted a fall garden and have little carrots and beets coming up from seed. The cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and brussel sprouts seem to be preferred by the slugs and snails and have suffered from their feasting. I’m hoping they can recover and still produce some tasty treats for us. I’ve also got a healthy crop of spinach keeping us in salads and plenty of swiss chard. Pictures of the garden are on the way. Should I plant a bed of strawberries? Will we still live here long enough to enjoy them? The garden debates that keep me busy…
I’ve started canning season!! The farmer’s market and my in-laws garden are full of delicious fruits and veggies. So far I have canned peaches and roasted tomato soup. Today’s project is pears, and I’m planning to do whole tomatoes and apple sauce over the weekend. I’ve come into an abundance of eggplant (woo hoo!) and am going to try preserving it for the first time. My preservation guru and good friend Mrs. Burger advised me that the best way to preserve eggplant is to slice, bread, and fry is as you would for eggplant parmesan and freeze them that way. Then they can be thawed and assembled into the parm in the dead of winter when we normally can only crave eggplant. Stay tuned for pics and updates on my “putting food by” projects.
As usual, we’ve been eating like kings. Why would one go through life any other way? I can’t even begin to detail all of the mouth-watering dishes that have emanated from our kitchen this past month. From chili made with our landlord’s grass-fed beef, raised right in our yard and sold at the local Ray’s Food Place under the label “Pacific Pastures”, to gluten free chocolate chip cookies and homemade bread, we’ve been eating well. Last night’s BBQ feast is a prime example of what I’m talking about.
We grilled two chickens (the oh-so-delicious ones I raised earlier this year), a half dozen ears of corn from my in-laws garden, and a big dish of fresh, local veggies. Just when I thought I could eat no more….
The apple-cheese-crisp appeared. And then disappeared! Made with local gravensteins and pink pearl apples, this family favorite was easily demolished in minutes. It didn’t even stand a chance.
Hope you’re eating well this month!
