What a great day it was!
Two young fellows from the closest town, Elk Point, were here helping clean the yard after several contractors and just the farm debris too. They were good workers and put in a straight 7 hours. I am grateful for their help (paid, but nonetheless, help). We got a lot done. Everything from the contractors was picked up and the first load was hauled to the dump. On Tuesday I will make a second trip and hopefully that will do it.
Tomorrow the geese are getting picked up to get butchered. It is a hard decision who to send and who to keep. I would love to keep half of them, but I do not need 10 geese, so I think 5 will do. There are three Sebastopol's, one from this year's hatch and the two original ones, male and female, that I flew in from Ontario. But there are such beautiful crosses that it breaks my heart to eat them. I have tried to sell them on various sites, with no luck. Good bye beautiful geese.
After the clean up, which I was a part of all along, I did the chores and then harvested some of the garden. There are at least 20 spaghetti squashes and only a few immature kabocha squash, my favourites when they are ripe. We have had two light frosts and the squash vines are all black, so I doubt there will be much more growth. I harvested a row of potatoes, but some varmint has been eating them. I suspect mice, because the dogs do not really let many things come into the yard. They have a strict sense of order of where critters should be and their yard is not one of those places. I also picked a small patch of the squaw corn, a dense lovely multicoloured old variety, mainly for grinding and flour, but fine when eaten fresh at this stage too, though a bit chewy. The last cucumbers were harvested. The crop was poor this year. The first seeds were scratched up and eaten by the chickens and the second ones were too, except for about three plants. I will have to turn on the electric net fence next year!
Yesterday I made a gallon of red sauerkraut, some with jalapenos and some not, pickled turnip, pickled Daikon radish, dill pickled cukes, honey garlic and I meant to do some green tomatoes today, but ran out of steam. After harvesting the squash, potatoes, corn and a few tomatoes, I made supper from the squash and potatoes and decided to wait until tomorrow to pickle the green tomatoes. All the preserves are fermented, that is lacto fermented with only salt as in the kraut, which is a dry ferment, and salt and water brine, which is a wet ferment for the rest of the pickles. Green tomato pickles are a wet brine ferment too. Once the pickles are fermented to a crunchy fizzy sharp bite, the lids are screwed on tight and the preserves are put somewhere cool and dark, only I don't know where that is. If I use the wood stove in the winter, the basement is cool and dark, but if I use the furnace it is warm and since I am installing a sink and counter down there, I will want it warm when I make soap and sew and stuff. I guess I will have to figure it out. The porch is cool, but it froze last winter. There are new windows so perhaps it will be cold this year, but not frozen!
Tomorrow two cleaners are coming to do the rest of the bed and breakfast house and then I can finish the decorating and call for the inspector. Yay!! I have about 20 boxes left to unpack and hopefully the grand reopening will be on time for September 31! Keep your fingers crossed.
There is a lot more to harvest and put up too. Last year there was well over 100 pounds of potatoes. I bet there will be at least 30 pounds of carrots, possibly more. Some herbs are already drying, but there should be another harvest of parsley and thyme. I am thinking of freezing the kale and swiss chard for the winter, though I like fresh, but fresh organic here is anything but fresh and my organic is much more organic than any store bought products. I am missing some dehydrators too. Only 1 out of 5 came back and they said they have nothing more.
I am thinking of increasing the garden size next year to sell market garden produce at the farm gate. I wonder if people will stop? It is not like it is at home, where roadside stands can run on the honour system. I did try that with eggs and not only the money can and money was gone, but so were the eggs. Hmmm. What do you think? I won't have the extra work of setting up the bed and breakfast next year, so there will be way more time! I am looking forward to that!
More harvest tomorrow. Stay tuned for the green tomato fermented pickles and recipe. Til then....
Two young fellows from the closest town, Elk Point, were here helping clean the yard after several contractors and just the farm debris too. They were good workers and put in a straight 7 hours. I am grateful for their help (paid, but nonetheless, help). We got a lot done. Everything from the contractors was picked up and the first load was hauled to the dump. On Tuesday I will make a second trip and hopefully that will do it.
Tomorrow the geese are getting picked up to get butchered. It is a hard decision who to send and who to keep. I would love to keep half of them, but I do not need 10 geese, so I think 5 will do. There are three Sebastopol's, one from this year's hatch and the two original ones, male and female, that I flew in from Ontario. But there are such beautiful crosses that it breaks my heart to eat them. I have tried to sell them on various sites, with no luck. Good bye beautiful geese.
After the clean up, which I was a part of all along, I did the chores and then harvested some of the garden. There are at least 20 spaghetti squashes and only a few immature kabocha squash, my favourites when they are ripe. We have had two light frosts and the squash vines are all black, so I doubt there will be much more growth. I harvested a row of potatoes, but some varmint has been eating them. I suspect mice, because the dogs do not really let many things come into the yard. They have a strict sense of order of where critters should be and their yard is not one of those places. I also picked a small patch of the squaw corn, a dense lovely multicoloured old variety, mainly for grinding and flour, but fine when eaten fresh at this stage too, though a bit chewy. The last cucumbers were harvested. The crop was poor this year. The first seeds were scratched up and eaten by the chickens and the second ones were too, except for about three plants. I will have to turn on the electric net fence next year!
Yesterday I made a gallon of red sauerkraut, some with jalapenos and some not, pickled turnip, pickled Daikon radish, dill pickled cukes, honey garlic and I meant to do some green tomatoes today, but ran out of steam. After harvesting the squash, potatoes, corn and a few tomatoes, I made supper from the squash and potatoes and decided to wait until tomorrow to pickle the green tomatoes. All the preserves are fermented, that is lacto fermented with only salt as in the kraut, which is a dry ferment, and salt and water brine, which is a wet ferment for the rest of the pickles. Green tomato pickles are a wet brine ferment too. Once the pickles are fermented to a crunchy fizzy sharp bite, the lids are screwed on tight and the preserves are put somewhere cool and dark, only I don't know where that is. If I use the wood stove in the winter, the basement is cool and dark, but if I use the furnace it is warm and since I am installing a sink and counter down there, I will want it warm when I make soap and sew and stuff. I guess I will have to figure it out. The porch is cool, but it froze last winter. There are new windows so perhaps it will be cold this year, but not frozen!
Tomorrow two cleaners are coming to do the rest of the bed and breakfast house and then I can finish the decorating and call for the inspector. Yay!! I have about 20 boxes left to unpack and hopefully the grand reopening will be on time for September 31! Keep your fingers crossed.
There is a lot more to harvest and put up too. Last year there was well over 100 pounds of potatoes. I bet there will be at least 30 pounds of carrots, possibly more. Some herbs are already drying, but there should be another harvest of parsley and thyme. I am thinking of freezing the kale and swiss chard for the winter, though I like fresh, but fresh organic here is anything but fresh and my organic is much more organic than any store bought products. I am missing some dehydrators too. Only 1 out of 5 came back and they said they have nothing more.
I am thinking of increasing the garden size next year to sell market garden produce at the farm gate. I wonder if people will stop? It is not like it is at home, where roadside stands can run on the honour system. I did try that with eggs and not only the money can and money was gone, but so were the eggs. Hmmm. What do you think? I won't have the extra work of setting up the bed and breakfast next year, so there will be way more time! I am looking forward to that!
More harvest tomorrow. Stay tuned for the green tomato fermented pickles and recipe. Til then....
Zucchini, spaghetti squash, potatoes, cucumbers, and corn with a few green tomatoes and a few runner beans. The beans are only getting established now. Some things will have to be started indoors if I am ever going to get crops from them, beans included.
You can see the tooth marks in the potatoes. There are small slugs this year too, but the guinea hens have been eating those. I should let the ducks in and they would be gone! Whatever did this prefers the red potatoes and does not eat the white ones.
You see, there is light at the end of the tunnel! or driveway, anyhow.
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