Brushing Up on Chickens
I’ve read countless books and articles throughout the years about keeping chickens, though I’ve never actually had chickens. Since it will only be a little over a month until I have them, it was time to brush up on my chicken knowledge.
Earlier this spring I requested Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard from the library and it arrived last week – perfect timing.
It provided the perfect refresher course in chicken husbandry with a permaculture twist that most other books don’t have. Since permaculture is something I try to practice in my garden, I really appreciated this aspect of the book.
I’m sure, like most things, having chickens is a learning experience and most of the knowledge you need will come through experience. Now I just have to decide what new area to study and learn about, goats, cows, pigs – all things I hope to end up with someday.
What skills have you been reading up on recently?
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Quick Healthy Eats
With all the activity going on around here, there’s not much time for cooking. That doesn’t mean we’re not eating healthfully. Besides our health, one of the main reasons we eat healthfully is because it gives us more energy and helps us accomplish more during the day. I know that when we’re as busy as we are now I can’t afford to slack on the food front.
Over the years, I’ve developed a few ways to eat healthfully without spending tons of time, see this post about maximizing time in the kitchen. The best way I have found to save time is to make double or triple batches of everything to freeze for quick meals. This week we’ve had an abundance of zucchini, so I made a few batches of zucchini noodle lasagne. Luckily I had some canned Roasted Tomato Passatta in the pantry, so it only took minutes to make a few pans for the freezer. (passatta recipe from The River Cottage Preserves Handbook
The best thing about lasagne is that it only takes a few minutes to prepare and it spends the majority of the time in the oven while you can be doing something else. It’s also fantastic as a leftover, I always think it tastes even better the next day.
A few people have asked about the containers I use. I like the Pyrex Glass Rectangular Storage Containers because I can use them for baking, storage and freezing. I use the 6 cup one to make our lasagne so we don’t end up with a huge tray since there are just 2 of us.
Vegetable fajitas are one of our other quick meals. Generally I make up a big bath of of tortillas and keep them in the freezer. Then we sauté whatever vegetables we’re harvesting from the garden and sprinkle them with cheese and spices. Sometimes there’s meat, sometimes not. If we’re lucky, there will be guacamole for the top!
I’m also planning on making lasagne up to eat during the move. The day we’re moving everything into the house in Maine, it will be handy to have a hearty healthy meal fresh from the oven. This weekend I’ll be making up a few trays to put in the freezer to keep everyone well fed during the move.
What’s your favorite quick healthy meal when you’re busy?
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A Different Kind of Packing
Over the past 6 years I’ve been collecting a wide variety of plants of all colors, shapes and sizes, some of them rare, many of them nurtured from tiny seeds. Many of the plants from my collection will be moved to Maine via cuttings, seeds and a few as potted plants.
Over the past month I’ve been taking cuttings of the hydrangeas in my collection that I won’t be digging up. Most of these have been gifts from Mr Chiots. I have close to 30 different varities in my collection, they range from mature shrubs of 10 feet to tiny first year plants with just a few leaves. There are 10 or so that are small enough to be dug up and potted to make the move. The larger ones are moving via cuttings.
I’ve also been saving seeds for a wide variety of plants that have proven themselves to be great specimens. There’s a stunning yellow/green foxglove that is very hardy and quite lovely, as well as a regular tall purple foxglove that has seeded down every year and managed to survive our coldest winters. My black hollyhocks will also travel by seed to Maine, along with a beautiful pink hardy hibiscus. My collection of herbs will be also traveling by seed as well, catnip, greek oregano and a few others.
There’s even a master list of all the plants I want to take so I don’t forget any. Luckily if I do miss any of my favorites I can probably find seeds or plants in Maine, though I’d much rather have a descendant of one of my plants here. My mom has most of the family heirloom plants so I don’t have to worry about getting those this year, I can get starts from her next spring.
There are plenty of plants I wish I could take but can’t. Many of which, I’ve nurtured from tiny cuttings themselves to the grand specimens they are today. My ‘Limelight’ hydrangea is one in particular, I planted it 10 years ago when it was a mere 4 inch tall stick. I’m also sad to be leaving the boxwood hedge I planted last year. Hopefully whoever ends up gardening here in the future will have always dreamed of a box hedge like I did.
Have you ever moved plants from one home to another? If you could only take one single plant which would it be?
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It’s Blooming!
A few weeks ago, I noticed my Echeveria Peacockii Succulent was getting ready to bloom. I’ve been carefully watching and waiting for the blooms to open up.
It really is quite lovely and interesting. It’s not just a pretty face, I notice that the hummingbirds are always flying around it enjoying it’s nectar.
I sometimes wonder if the hummingbirds love plants like this in northern gardens. No doubt they enjoy echeverias when they’re spending the winter in tropical regions. Maybe for them it’s like it is for me when I savor a Colombian treat that reminds me of my childhood in South America.
Are there any foods/scents that bring back memories of a different time/place for you?
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Quote of the Day: Van Gogh
“It is in looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper understanding.”
Van Gogh (found in Provence: A Country Almanac)
I’m an observer, especially when it comes to gardening. I think patient observation is one of the most important skills for a gardener to have.
When you slow down and spend time simply watching how things work in the garden you can learn a lot because things aren’t always what they seem at first glance. The area I’ve gained a deeper understanding by doing this is in the insect world.
The more I stop and watch, the more I see it as a complex system where each insect is a piece of a giant puzzle. Removing one of them, no matter how pestiferous, leaves the puzzle incomplete.
You might notice a “pest” one day and be distraught. If you are patient and keep a close watch, you will most likely see a predator move in. If the predator does not appear during this cycle it will probably appear during the next. You will also have gained a better understanding of the life cycle of that insect.
Our gardens are really a very complex system, the more we sit back and observe the more this comes into view. Every bird, insect, plant, and microbe is an important piece in the web of life. Even we are pieces, hopefully ones that fit in perfectly! What we choose to do and refrain from doing in the garden can make a big difference in what the final picture looks like.
Is there anything you have noticed in the garden because you took time to slow down and spend some time observing?
