Farm Fresh: First Summer Veggies

Harvesting is ramping up.  I gathered a big bowl of our elderflowers and made a delicious anti viral syrup with them. 

Elderflower syrup steeps for at least 24 hours and then I store it in the fridge. 

I made two berry rhubarb pies for hubby's Father's day dessert.  All the fruits were grown right here!

I processed 5 of our cabbages this week. I made a gallon of purple kraut and cabbage salad for our dinner one night. 

The peas are done for the summer. We pulled off the last of the pods and put the vines in the compost. 

They will be immediately followed by pole beans -- a variety called "Lazy Housewife" which I get a kick out of.  I think they're called that because you can eat them fresh or dry them.  So if you don't harvest them in time, you'll still have some  to store for winter eating. 

Our first tomato was a yellow variety! And a few of the white cherry tomatoes. 

I made myself a delicious tomato basil sandwich for lunch that day! There's nothing like the first fresh tomato of the season after a long winter/spring without them. 

We also replanted our sweet corn. We made a new temporary fenced area inside of the fenced garden.  I think our ducks ate the first round that we planted. 

My zinnias and artichokes are coming in well.  There's a good number of basil and hot pepper plants mixed in there as well. 

Deer have been nibbling things along the backside of the high tunnel, my cucumbers and Jerusalem artichokes. 

First cucumber of 2021!

Family Fun: Father's Day, Imprinted Duckling, and Chemistry Lab

 Our fifth batch of ducklings hatched in the incubator -- that's over 100 so far this summer. Most have already been sold.  One of the ducklings in this fifth clutch hatched earlier than her fellows and seems to really like us.  We think hearing our voices might have helped her imprint on us to a certain degree.  

The kids call her Penny.  They have been carrying her around for days.

She especially likes to be on shoulders and in the crook of a neck. 

She snuggled with brother S while he had a tummy ache.

Here is the requisite toddler spaghetti picture for Baby A.  Homemade noodles and sauce. He loved it. 

The kids made hubby his Father's Day breakfast in bed with no help from me.  Waffles, smoothie, and Lucky Charms.  He got to read his book most of the day and nap.  I did his kitchen chore for him.

I finally painted the kitchen ceiling. It's been driving me crazy for the last four years. Ever since I tried to scrub it during my first Spring cleaning and found that it was flat paint and even un painted plaster in some places.  

Now it is a nice washable semi-gloss. About 75% of the time I spent working on it was preparation - gathering supplies, plastering holes (patching a spot where a leak had come through), taping edges, hanging drop cloths, and covering the floor with brown paper.  I used our extender pole for the roller part. That was a life saver for my neck after cutting in with the brush.

We have been studying Chemistry for the past couple months. We had a pH meter from checking our well water so I decided it would be a fun lab experiment for the kids to check the pH of various liquids. 

We received a delectable box of goodies in the mail from my French host sister. 

Baby A stuffed the madeleines in his face as fast as he could.  I think he liked them!

Farm Fresh: Berries, Ducklings, Silver Kits, and Tomatoes

 

Baby A has been enjoying all the summer berries: wild black raspberries, blueberries, and saskatoon berries. The strawberries were plentiful, but have started to taper off now. 

We harvested about 2 quarts of black raspberries in one night. 

I made stinging nettle tea with fresh yarrow, St. Johns wort, and hibiscus.

I also made quiche with lambsquarter in place of the spinach.  Lambsquarter is even more nutritious and is a weed around here. 

The Silver rabbit kits are growing and just starting to open their eyes.

My tomatoes are growing pretty well too. Pruning them for a single string trellis has made them very tall. 

My LGD girls killed another ground hog for us:

The kids are continuing to do a great job helping watch Baby A and also working on garden chores daily. 

We bid farewell to a dear animal friend this week. Big Daddy Trevor passed quickly.  We had a burial and prayer for him. It may seem ironic that people who eat meat rabbits would also bury and pray over one. We respect them all. Trevor was exceptional though. He was a 4 year old sweetie who loved to be petted and had become not just a breeder, but a friend.

Four mama muscovies have hatched ducklings now. There are about 25 ducklings in the high tunnel and fenced garden.  They have been nibbling on the lettuce.  I am not too annoyed since it's just about to bolt and there is plenty to go around. They ducks in the high tunnel have eaten the lower leaves off my pepper plants, which I am VERY mad about.  But it's more the big daddy ducks than the ducklings doing that. 

The ducklings are small but fierce - eating big cicadas and worms from the compost pile. 

Mama duck with her babies in the rain.  Watching the mama ducks has shown that they are a lot sturdier than I thought. 

Big Brothers are the best. And Baby A is in LOVE with being read books --especially ones about animals and vehicles. 

Farm Fresh: May on the Farm

May was a beautiful month -- warm temperatures, good amounts of rain, and happy productive plants.

Peonies, choisya, roses, and lilacs bloomed in succesion. 

Three of four mama muscovy ducks have hatched their ducklings -- 22 ducklings hatched and are being cared for by their mamas.  Two of them (Perry and Blondie) are in the fenced garden together. One is in the high tunnel (Sunny). That keeps them semi -corralled, but gives them plenty of room to roam. We bring them food and water daily, but the mamas are in charge of sheltering, warming, and teaching them what to do. 

 

Brother S and Miss L were assigned to weed a corner of the garden (the elecampane area) for their daily garden chore. It was hot and sunny.  They brought some shade with them. Innovative weeding. 

Strawberries! This has been our best strawberry year yet! Our plants are growing happily and there are so many strawberries. The first week was only a pint or two a day. Now we are getting at least a quart each day. 

The kids made strawberry shortcake one day.  Big sis A made the biscuits and Daddy bought them some whipped cream to go with it.  I also think it's delicious with yogurt. 

The Silver Rabbits did not do well on their first litters. It was a debacle and none of the 12 survived.  This time all 4 mamas made nests.  Two of them put their babies in the nest box.  Two of them seem to be feeding their babies. One mama is ignoring her kits.  Luckily there are only 2 in that litter.  I pulled them out today and put them in with a different litter to give them a chance.  They are pretty thin. We'll see whether they make it or not. 

This mama is named Cream Puff.  She's our favorite.  So pretty and her babies are looking fat. 

She has one fawn (same color as her) and four agouti (brown) babies (kits). 

Baby A scored his first taste of chocolate. It was a hit. 

Fat toad. The ducks are getting fat off the cicadas too. 

My poor little trees! This is just part one of the cicada damage.  The female has laid her eggs in these lesions and the nymphs will burst out and kill the branch in a couple weeks. 

Possible albino cicada

We celebrated Memorial day with a family from outside our pod.  They are all fully vaccinated so it was safe and very fun to hang out and chat with friends. 

The potatoes just started blossoming -- which means we could try to harvest some new potatoes if we wanted.