Farm Fresh: Refrigerator Pickles, Drying and Harvesting Herbs, Rat Update

Miss L made me a card. She thought it would make me happy:

 The rats have been on our minds. On Tuesday our pest control guy came for the one month follow-up check to see how things went with the bait boxes. I was a little worried when the first few stations showed only nibbles or no activity. Then we came to the two boxes by the rabbit tunnel and white chicken coop. BOTH EMPTY. Completely empty. He said that each bait box contained enough poison for 30 rats. That means they ate enough to kill 60 rats. I hope that finished them off.  He added some more poison and closed them back up. 
Our neighbor has been telling me he has troubles with rats as well.  I double checked with the pest control guy about spill over from the neighbors' property once we finally get rid of them and he said they won't come down to our farm. They don't travel once they find a good food source. Such a relief to know that the poison is working and we are finally coming to the end of the rat saga.  I went from being a total skeptic about paying for pest control to feeling that it was completely worth the money.

Monday's harvest:

 I made refrigerator dills -slices and spears- for the first time this week roughly according to this recipe. I used garlic scapes instead of garlic cloves, fresh dill from the garden, and multiplied the recipe by 7 to make gallon jars instead of pints. 2 days of soaking in the fridge and they are delicious deli style dill pickles.  Since we have so many cucumbers coming from the garden I also put them in my sauerkraut.

Harvested more bee balm and yarrow this week.

 I only have 3 window screens for drying, but it goes fairly quickly in the dry heat of the attic. I cleared off and processed a bunch of stinging nettle to make room for the yarrow.  To process dried nettle, I just take the leaves off the stems and pulse them in the dry blender for a few seconds. That helps them fit in jars more evenly and compact. I will use the dry flakes for making soups and stews.

 I also used some of the fresh bee balm to make an oxymel for sore throats and colds. The recipe is very simple: equal parts bee balm (leaves and flowers), honey, and cider vinegar.

When the kids had their mid summer Easter egg hunt they found some guinea eggs. I knew they were old, but thought I might as well incubate them and see whether any would hatch. We only got two keets out of the batch, but better than none. 

The dogs have a lot of funny hiding places for various weather conditions.