A Walk Around the Homestead

It's been a month, so I figured it would be a good time to take another walk around the homestead.  The point of this blog is to be a digital record for me of what I did when (an online garden journal, so to speak), and it's already proving helpful.  For instance, I've heard over and over again how this has been another warm spring.  But it's felt much colder to me this year.  Sure enough, looking over last year's posts, I can see that things were WAY farther along than they are this year. 

 I gave the roses a good pruning.  I still don't have much of a clue what I'm doing, but I haven't killed them yet.  I did learn that I need to fertilize them monthly.  I didn't last summer and they were much worse for the wear.

The daffodils and crocuses are out, and the tulips and hyacinth are poking their noses up, too.

 The peach tree has been pruned and the buds will be opening soon.

The catnip I planted last year hasn't grown much, but it stayed green the whole winter long.  Hopefully this will be the year it takes off.  Max will appreciate it.

 I tore out a ton of chocolate mint and potted it up.  They will be distributed to friends and taken to a plant swap later in the month.

This is the Tom Thumb lettuce I winter sowed.  It's just popping through.

 The anise hyssop is also sprouting.  Last year at this time I had a ton of plants.  Granted, I sowed them earlier, but right now it's just the lettuce and the anise hyssop.

I transplanted the chamomile into one spot in the garden.  It self-sowed last fall and I wasn't completely sure it was actually chamomile, but I've done a lot of research and eliminated all the similar weeds.  And I also discovered that it doesn't like the heat, so it will sprout in the fall and live all through the winter.  It'll die in the summer, and then come back in the fall.  I didn't get ANY flowers last year to dry for tea, so hopefully that will change.

The chicken coop is coming along!  It needs another coat of paint, then Stephen can attach the roof and the screening around the sides.  He's rigged up a handy coop door that we can close from the outside to keep the girls protected at night.  I anticipate he'll get a lot of that done this weekend while I am at a 2-Day Intensive Chicken-Keeping Workshop.

Abby has started crocheting and left out the scarf she's working on.  Of course, Max found it and is currently sleeping on it.  He got irritated with me when I called his name and made him look up to snap this picture.  She's learned all the basic stitches and is really doing well!

I'm looking forward to seeing the garden come alive during the month of March.  I've been planting peas and carrots and radishes and will continue to succession-sow them.  I've even planted the potatoes that were sprouting in the pantry, so we'll see if they produce.  Since I'm not planting broccoli or cabbage this spring (they take up so much room, and are so cheap to buy from local farmers that it's not worth taking up the space), I have more room to plant other things.  I'm hoping to get many more carrots, since they aren't so easy to find locally and since they dehydrate so nicely for use in soups and casseroles.  I'll also be planting more beneficial flowers this year, especially since the chickens will like them so much!

Convenience Canning

I'm not going to lie.  Canning involves work.  And time.  And money.  But it also saves work.  And time.  And money. 

It's been so nice this winter to be able to pop open a jar of veggies, heat, and eat.  Big deal, right?  Most people do that on a regular basis.  Except I can tell you the farm where my vegetables came from, and I can control the sodium in them, and they aren't stored in BPA-lined jars.  And I didn't have to spend time wandering the aisles of the grocery store.  My average weekly shopping list this winter has consisted of only a handful of items.  I rarely spend more than 10 minutes in the store.

It's also been nice to pack the kids lunches.  I've been opening a quart of applesauce and dividing it into 4oz canning jars.  Then I pop them in the freezer and every morning I put one in each of the lunches.  By the time lunch rolls around, the applesauce is thawed and everything else has been kept cold.  While their classmates are popping open a cup of Mott's, mine are unscrewing a jar.  A reusable jar that doesn't need to be recycled with a lid that doesn't need to be thrown away.  Applesauce that doesn't contain High Fructose Corn Syrup... or any added sweetener at all, for that matter.

So yes, canning is work.  But the benefits are worth it, and I've been reaping them all winter long.  In another 2 months, it will be Strawberry Season and it will be time to get back to work.  I can't wait.