Chickens in heaven

Incredible Hulk and Superman worked hard all morning on our latest project. They had to put up a temporary fence around the area we cleared and bordered. We hope when plants are growing in there that it will soften the hard edges of the fence, but it is really a necessary evil. Many people, like me, believe that there are no straight lines in nature...but we have to do what we have to do!



The need for this is to keep big white dog out and hopefully be a deterant to the chickens who, before the fence was finished, thought they were in heaven. As we added 15 bags of manure to the soil they decided to de-worm the ground for us. It was terrible to watch all those lovely earthworms be slurped up like spaghetti...but they were having such a feast I didn't want to stop them.



Oh...and Superman rewarded himself with a new toy....



While they were busy we banked up potatoes, planted more, weeded both gardens, watered all the baskets, picked spinach, planted spinach, picked strawberries, fed the lemon tree and granadilla's some Epsom salts (they were looking yellow).

We planted cucumbers and chillies, sorted out the seedlings waiting to be planted to get the strongest ones to grow and turfed the rest.

All in all a productive day! Now I need to watch the new area to get to know the sun and the length that it shines on certain parts before we plant it up.

In the words of ABBA....

Here I go again...my my!

In April 2008 we started on our first area. This remains the main all year round production garden with planned raised beds and gravel pathways. This is also where we house our 6 chickens.

That same December we cleared another area down the side of our house which is a summer patch as in winter it gets very little sun.

This past week we started working on the 3rd area. Below is a picture of what our front garden looked like when we started the first area...but as the White Stinkwood grew to more lofty heights, this towering giant of a tree and the shade it casts gradually killed the lawn. Add to that "big white dog" and children with their bikes it started to turn into more of a desert.



Superman and I have been pondering this problem for a while. How to make sure that our front garden looks neat but where we can have some flowers as well as use it for more food production.

The result is more raised beds for flowers with veggies planted in between.

We will plant our permanent vegetables like rhubarb and asparagus here too.

So Superman, Robin and the Incredible Hulk got stuck in on Monday with digging up the root mat, loosening the soil, sieving all the earth, making wooden borders and creating gravel pathways. We did get a labourer friend in to help us too.

Now we need to add lots of manure, compost and topsoil to make it a viable option.



Thereafter we have one last job to tackle...removing of the non-indigenous trees along the wall of our property and replacing them with fruit trees.

Nurturing my cabbages

After a season of nurturing my cabbages we are starting to eat them daily. I had to hand pick off many many white cabbage moth caterpillars to allow the cabbages to grow without holes...as well as spray them with my vinegar mix.

But the hard work was worth it. Here are my 3 most easiest cabbage recipes.



For small cabbages, peel off outer leaves, cut in half, boil in a little water with a teaspoon of beefstock and when done sprinkle with grated paremezan.



For large red cabbage, wash and shred finely. Fry some onion in butter and then add cabbage. Peel and chop 1 apple and add. Add 1 tablespoon of baslamic vinegar then reduce heat and allow to gently cook in its own juices.



My simple coleslaw which is great on crusty bread....



Wash and shred your cabbage, add a good dollop of home made mayonnaise.

My new toy

I have wanted a vacuum sealer for a long time. I was hoping to buy one towards the end of summer to use for my corn and beans that I hope to freeze.



Then Superman came home with 7kgs of tuna...and that was a good enough excuse.



Once it was all trimmed we made the bags with the seal function.



Sealed them up and put them in the freezer, bar for a steak for each of us which once cooked slightly we eat with my fresh salsa. Simply chop 2 tomatoes, a bunch of coriander, 1 onion and 1 red pepper and mix. I serve the chili seperately for tender mouths!



I like my new toy, I am sure it will come in handy in Autumn too.

The Lazy Homesteader

After a long MTB ride this morning my energy levels were low so while I needed to dig and weed, I chose to take the lazy route....



I picked 200g of strawberries....



I picked 400g of spinach....

I picked 1 head of cabbage and 1 cauliflower....

Then Incredible Hulk and I planted his sunflowers...

Followed by feeding all the strawberry baskets and granadillas with Kelpak.

I also drained a bucket of worm juice off the wormery and fed it to my orange and lemon trees.



Then we called it a day :-))

I wish I had....

I have said this a few times over my veggie gardening year. The first time was that last summer I said: "I wish I had planted more corn", in winter I said: "I wish I had planted more cauliflower and cabbage" and now I am saying: "I wish I had planted more peas."

Last evening I took the last pods off our plants. They have only a few flowers left. We never planted enough to freeze for Summer, but mainly ate them as undeveloped pods in salads.



One of the mistakes I made last year was to try to grow all sorts of vegetables, but this year I have changed my approach to grow LOTS of what we eat and like. So while I do have a few brinjals, and beets and other smaller crops, we are rather going to be focussing on the "big ticket" crops.



Next winter I will aim to plant at least the front half of all 6 beds up with peas. This spring we are planting all the back beds with corn in 2 - 3 week spaces between planting, and all the front beds with potatoes with the same time intervals.

After the potatoes and corn are harvested at the end of winter and autumn we will sow the peas. I will have to feed the soil where the corn grew and plant my broccoli , cauli and cabbages there.

A much more simple plan, but I think one that will yield the most for our freezer.

They didn't last long

Remember those strawberries that were hanging yesterday? Well, they are gone gone gone!

We had about 15 strawberries of various sizes that ripened and ended up in our tummies!



We had them as a topping with our breakfast oatmeal waffles...a great alternative to the unhealthy normal ones.

Here's how to make them:

Grind up enough oats to make 3 cups of oat flour
Mix with 2 teaspoons of baking powder

Seperate two eggs, beat the whites til stiff,

Mix 2 cups of milk with 2 tablespoons melted butter and the egg yolks.

Mix the milk mixture with the oats, then genlty stir in the egg whites.

Cook in waffle machine. Serve with freshly plucked strawberries, homemade yoghurt and maple syrup. Yum!