Take Stock and Learn
Now that the summer is starting to wind down, it’s time to start looking at your 5×5 Challenge Garden to see what you want to change and what you’ll keep exactly the same. When I look at my garden I notice it’s a bit over planted. Of course I somehow ended up with 3 zucchini plants instead of the 2 that were in my plan, so that is what caused most of my problem.
The sowing of lettuce was perfect, when I harvested it, there was plenty of room for the beans to expand and spill over into that space. Overall, I’d give my garden 4 out of 5, I’m very happy with the layout, the plan and how well it did. My zucchini plants are still going strong and providing lots of food for us and for the pigs.
What worked and what didn’t work in your garden this year? What changes are you going to make for next year?
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Fresh Seeds
Earlier this summer when I planted my fall carrots I decided to to an experiment. I’ve noticed that fresh seeds often germinate faster and much better. Even though many seeds will technically store for many years, germination rates will often go down each year. When you’re planting fall crops, a week can make the difference between a good sized vegetable and a baby vegetable.
This first image is a row of carrots planted with fresh seed I purchased this season. The following photo is carrot seed that is two years old. Notice the difference in germination. The fresh seed germinated very quickly, after only 5 days. The older seed had spotty germination and some of it is just now germinating, two full weeks after the first photo.
I’m thinking from now on, I’ll focus on making sure I have fresh seed each season, at for fall crops when time really is of the essence. I’d rather spend a few dollars on a pack of fresh seed than wait two or three extra weeks for germination to occur. I’m already weeding through my seed stash culling the older seed, they’ll be sprinkled in flats this winter and grown as greens for the chickens. Some seed are fine with longer storage, like tomatoes, those I’ll continue to save.
Have noticed differing germination rates for fresh seed?
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Lobstah for Lunch
Just in case you didn’t listen to last week’s Cultivate Simple, we’re on a 2 week break. We have visitors here this week and there’s something else going on next weekend as well. As you can imagine, with visitors from out of state lobster must be consumed. Around here, nothing goes to waste. That’s the beauty of having chickens, pigs, and dogs around. When we were done feasting, the dog, chickens and pigs feasted as well.
Having animals is like having instant composters, they turn extra garden produce and kitchen scraps into eggs, bacon, or protection in the case of dogs. We also love that feeding these kinds of food to the animals makes them happy, you can really see a deep happiness when you bring out lobster scraps!
Do your animals have a favorite scrap?
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Quote of the Day: Manny Howard
The Farm will remove me from the consumer loop. The locavore’s dilemma is that, for all this thoughtful action, he’s still a consumer. The Farm will put me one step deeper, make me the producer. Once food is tied to work and not money, even -worst case- its scarcity will teach the family something.
Manny Howard from My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm
Yesterday was the day for a few of our broiler chickens to become food. It could certainly be easier and cheaper to buy chickens from a local farmer already processed and ready for the oven, but we choose to do this for ourselves. We also slaughter them ourselves, right here. It would only cost me a few dollars to have a local processor do this task for me, but then I’d have to drive the birds to their location. I also wouldn’t be able to retain the feathers, blood and some of the offal. It also gives me the ability to know exactly how the animal lives and dies, if I’m going to eat meat, I want to make sure it’s raised responsibly.
We also like to raise and slaughter them ourselves because we can use the entire animal. While they’re growing they mow our grass and provide valuable manure for our soil. When slaughtered, the feathers get composted as do some of the entrails. The blood also makes a great addition to the compost pile, or you can dilute it and water plants with it as it’s full of nitrogen.
Our neighbor brought up his old rooster for us to process as well, he wanted someone to get some use out him. He will sustain the resident Chiots for a few days.
Another reason we do things like this for ourselves is because it teaches us what’s involved in making our food. It’s very true that the more you have to work for your food, the less of it you will waste and the more you appreciate your food. Not a feather from these birds will go to waste.
Has growing your own food made you appreciate more and waste less?
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Best Harvest Ever!
I’m a lover of onions and can never seem to grow enough of them. Over the past couple years, I’ve been augmenting my bulb onions with other alliums (read my post about alternative alliums here). Even so, I always run out of onions and other alliums and end up buying a few at the farmers market. This year might be the first year I don’t have to.
The main crop of storage onions was harvested last week, here’s a look at what I have to squirrel away in the larder. They’re drying in the upstairs of our garage where it’s nice & warm. It’s quite impressive I must say, I’ve never had enough space to grow this many onions. If you can believe it, this is only 3/4 of my crop, there are some still growing in the garden to be harvested in a few weeks.
The main varieties I grew were: Copra, Australian Brown, Sedona, Cortland, and Redwing. I had seeds for Ailsa Craig, but somehow they didn’t get started, I guess the seed packet got lost in the shuffle. I also started seed for a red torpedo onion, which never germinated.
I already have a long row of leeks in the garden for next spring and three different kinds of bunching onions as well. The perennial leek bulbs will be planted soon, along with the potato onions and shallots as well. Little by little, I’m achieving allium independence – which is a beautiful thing if you consume as many alliums as we do. This large crop of onions will save me a good deal on groceries, looks like I can buy more of my favorite chocolate (which happens to be Taza).
Do you grow alliums in your garden? How many different kinds do you grow?
