Our chicks have come!  We were worried they’d be delayed because of the cold, but they arrived this morning, and we picked them up at the feed store this afternoon.

Because of a raccoon and a freak illness, we are down to 4 hens: 2 black Australorps and 2 Speckled Sussex.

To our flock, we hope to add these heritage breed girls: 2 more black Australorps, 2 Auracanas, 1 Delaware, 1 Buff Orpington, and 1 Faverolle.

We’re big-time Australorp fans, but are always up for trying new breeds.  The Auracanas are to replace our beloved Nudge, who fell victim to a raccoon.  She was such a prolific layer, 6-8 extra large green eggs/week at her peak ,we figured we needed two regular auracanas to make up for her.

I originally wanted some Welsummers (for their lovely chocolate-colored eggs), but none were coming in the same week as the Australorps, so we decided to try some other heritage breeds instead.

Everyone is so excited to have these puff balls in our breakfast nook, and can’t wait until they’re old enough to the join the flock (just in time for our shipment of ducklings to arrive!)

For tonight, we’re off to a Girl Scout Thinking Day event, and then it’s a frantic clean-up in preparation for tomorrow morning’s visit of volunteers from our church, who have generously offered to help us spread compost and mulch and plant peas in the garden.

If your weekend is as bustling as ours is going to be, we hope you get a little rest in there somewhere!

We’re back!  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in over two months!  Morning sickness is finally (mostly) gone, and life is getting back to normal a little bit.  So, let’s call this a fresh start, shall we?  We’ve decided to make a concerted effort to use this space to document and reflect on what’s going on in our lives,  especially our lives in the garden.  We’re still knitting, baking, homeschooling, spinning, making crafty messes, but the focus of our service at this point is the BCS Teaching Garden, so expect to see and read all about what’s growing in our yard.

The garden year is just kicking off – in the past two weeks, our friend Scott added wood-and-wire gates so the chickens and children can safely roam the backyard.   We planted several more dwarf fruit trees, as well as more currants, blueberries, silverberries, huckleberries and thimbleberries from One Green World (and boy, it’s doubly hard work when your pregnant!).   The planting plan for the year is all set, we even managed to seed the eggplants this week. (Although, we’d better get the grow lights set up before they germinate!).

Earlier this week, the free load of wood chips I ordered from the power company finally came (the order had been placed in early October, but better late than never!).  Your electric utility is a great source of FREE wood chips for mulching garden beds and paths.   All of the trees they trim out of the power lines are chipped up and thrown away.  If you call and place an order, they will gladly dump them in your yard instead.

You can see how large the load is compared to my two year-old – it’s a very large truck and it dumps a lot of chips.  It may seem like you could never use that much mulch, but we have gone through 4 loads so far on our 1/4 acre, and from now on, will probably use about 1 load a year to keep paths and beds replenished with mulch.  We could never have afforded to purchase that much mulch, so this is a great economical choice for us.

If you’re interested in mulching your yard to conserve water, suppress weed growth, reduce muddy patches, and add biomass to your garden, now (before the growing season gets going) is the time to place an order!

A few tips/tidbits of info when ordering chips from the utility company:

1)If you’ve never had a load delivered from the power company, please be aware that this is NOT the neat, uniformly shaped pieces of wood you might get when buying bagged wood chips from the garden center.  It is chipped-up tree trimmings, and it will include large pieces, twigs, possibly leaves, pine needles, and chips of several different species.

2)If your yard is like ours, you can make it work no matter what they bring you.  If, however, you need mulch specifically for plant beds, it’s good to check that a load isn’t 100% before they drop it on your driveway.  Pine is far too acidic to mulch beds, unless they happen to be blueberry or currant beds.  It does, however, work great in pathways.  Our first load was almost all maple – and we used it all on planting beds, and waited for a less-perfect load to mulch the paths.

3)If you want mulch free of leaves, order chips in the winter, when deciduous trees will be bare.  Chips full of leaves are more difficult to shovel and spread, and don’t look as neat.

4)If your load has long sticks as this load did for us, put them off into a pile and use them for pea brush and other plant supports.  Or, place them underneath the cardboard when sheet mulching a new section of yard.  Over time, they will break down and add biomass to the soil.

Next up: seed starting!

Blessings on your as you start your garden year,

Angela

Temperatures have been dipping down into the low 50s and high 40s at night, and there’s been a crispness to the air that says Autumn is on her way here. 

Many plants are waning, having set seed and beginning to shut down for the year.  So, this afternoon, in the bright sunshine, we cleaned up many, many wheelbarrows full of biomass for the compost. 

Cosmos and sunflower stalks have to be chopped into small pieces to break-down well, but the chickens feasted on heads full of sunflower seeds. 

Most of the sunflower seeds were set out to dry on the picnic table, so that the chickens can have them for snacks throughout the winter, and we’ll have seeds to plant next year.

As we pulled up spent flowering plants all over the yard, we carefully collected their seeds as well, so we can replant them in the spring, and share them with friends:

Calendula seeds, still in the seedhead.

A bucketful of nasturtium seeds, in various stages of drying out. 

Coriander seeds.

Sadie’s Horse Beans (a rare heirloom similar to a Scarlet Runner Bean, but with immense beans – I purchased them through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds many years ago, and have been saving the seeds each year.)

The patches of amaranth are almost ready to harvest as well – there isn’t enough for chicken treats this year, but we’ll save the seeds and plant a large patch next year just for the hens. 

We’ll continue to harvest green beans, summer squash, tomatoes and tomatillos as long as the weather holds, and look forward to bringing in the winter squash, kale, chard, leeks, and some remaining herbs. 

Are things winding down in your garden?  Or still going strong?

The tomatoes are starting to ripen!  Can’t wait to take them in to BCS on Friday!!  Families have been asking for the last month when we’d have fresh, ripe tomatoes.

90 percent of the tomatoes are still green, including many gigantic beefsteaks, like this Brandywine (look at that sucker in my hand! HUGE!).  If you’ve got a moment, say a quick prayer that they’ll all ripen before the cooler weather sets in, or I’ll be sending out lots of green tomato recipes with the week’s harvest (green tomato chutney, green tomato pickles, fried green tomatoes…).

The first of the tomatillos are ripe as well – these are the DeMilpa, which have  a purple blush, and regular old green tomatillos mixed together.  We have ten tomatillos plants, so there will be many MANY pounds of tomatillos to harvest in the next two or three weeks.

How to use tomatillos?  Well, there are several uses, but after removing the husk and washing these sticky little cousins of the tomato, I like to make them into the best salsa verde ever:

Larksong’s Super Simple Salsa Verde (this is sort-of a recipe – just wing it!)

Two to four double- handfuls of ripe tomatillos, husks removed and washed (how many did you pick in the garden today? Use what’s on hand…the amount is flexible!)

(optional – if you like it spicy!  I leave it out for the kids) 1 small jalapeno, whole

3 or 4 cloves of garlic (add more or less, to your taste), crushed

lime juice, to taste

sprinkling of sugar

flake sea salt.

Directions:

1)Line a broiler tray with foil, and oil very lightly.  Place tomatillos (and optional jalapeno) on the tray and broil, checking every 1-2 minutes, until blackened.  Remove tray, and with tongs, flip tomatillos (and jalapeno) over.  Place back under the broiler until all are blackened on the other side.  Remove from oven and let cool.  (Remove stem and seeds from jalapeno and slice, if using.)

2)Toss whole tomatillos and any accumulated juice into a blender with the garlic (and optional jalapeno slices – sometimes it’s best to put in half at first, so you don’t get it too hot).  Blend, then add sugar, lime juice, and salt to taste, blend again to incorporate. (My kids like a bit more sugar, and depending on the source of your tomatillos, they may be pretty acidic and not need much extra lime juice – so just taste as you go!)

3) Serve!  Enjoy!  Make lots, because it goes fast!

Ah, summer dinners in the backyard…

Here’s one of my favorite summer dessert recipes – we’ve been making a lot lately, with whatever fruit we have on hand:

Larksong’s Farm Stand Fruit Pie

For the filling:

5 peaches, peeled and sliced or 10-12 apricots sliced

4 big handfuls of raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup white sugar

For the crust:

1 3/4 cups unbleached flour

1/3 cup cornmeal (I like Bob’s Redmill’s medium grind.  If you use their blue cornmeal, the crust will have a pretty lavender color.)

1/3 cup white sugar, plus 1 Tbsp for dusting the crust

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, grated with a box grater on the large setting

1 egg white

1.  In med bowl, combine all crust ingredients, except egg white, using clean hands to evenly distribute the grated butter.  Slowly add 4-5 Tbsp ice water, one Tbsp at a time, until nice dough comes together.  Shape into a ball and place in the fridge while preparing filling.

2.  Prepare fruit as necessary, and then, in a large bowl,  combine all filling ingredients, and toss gently (so as not to crush berries).  Make sure no lumps of cornstarch remain.

3.  Preheat oven to 425 F.   Lay a large piece of parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsp of cornmeal.  Remove dough from fridge, and carefully roll out on parchment into a round approx 14-15 inches.  Dough will be fragile – take care in handling it.

4.  Mound fruit filling (using a spatula to scrape out any fruit juice/sugar remaining in the bowl) in the middle of the dough, leaving a 2-inch margin all the way around.  Carefully fold edges up over the fruit – leaving a large opening in the center.  Take care to seal any cracks.  Crust should have a rustic appearance – don’t worry about getting it perfectly round!

5. Carefully transfer parchment to a large, rimmed jellyroll pan (this will prevent any juice that bubbles over from spilling out and burning onto the bottom of your oven!!)  Brush outside of crust with egg white and sprinkle with additional Tbsp of sugar.  Chill for 20-30 min.   Then, bake at 425F for about 45 min, or until crust is golden and fruit is bubbly.

Enjoy! Excellent served warm with whipped cream or ice cream.  Leftovers make great breakfast the next morning!

A few quick shots from the garden this evening at sunset.  It’s changing so much every day – the paths are disappearing, the dahlias have begun to bloom, and there will be the first of the pole beans to harvest by the end of the week.

The beautiful blue-green foliage in the lower left of this front-yard shot are squash vines from some delicata seeds that Firecracker saved from a soup we made back in January and then planted (wherever she had the whim!) in April.  They have set several squash on fairly compact vines.  Delicatas are some of my favorite eating squash, but we had never grown them before – I had no idea their leaves were so handsome, as well.

This is a Golden Hubbard, which is larger than a football at present, but will grow much larger and weigh about 15 lbs at harvest time, with deep orange skin and flesh that is perfect for soups, stews, and baking.  (But look how much it’s grown since I photographed them less than two weeks ago!)

Oh, the tomatoes!!  Just a few of the smaller slicers have begun to ripen, but most of the plants are loaded with green fruit.  We’re holding our breath an in anticipation of fresh tomatoes!

This is a shot in the backyard, where the summer squash have finally caught up and filled the beds – the patti-pans in particular are really cranking out lots of fruit.

The little rhubarb crown I acquired in March when I traded a fellow permaculture-hobbyist in exchange for some pear butter has grown enormous!  I was told I shouldn’t expect any harvest-able ribs for two to three years, but I had more than enough for a batch of sour cherry-rhubarb jam.  When it’s in full production, we’ll have lots of deep-red rhubarb to deliver to BCS.

The Royal Burgundy bush beans are still blooming and producing really well.  I love their purple blossoms!

This is one of my favorite corners in the garden right now – up near the front steps, with  some of the poppies still blooming and a big patch of thyme and rosemary right behind, there – Buttercup squash spilling out of the coldframe (which once held baby artichokes and summer squash).  They’ve begun to wrap their way up the artichokes (on the left) and have set several beautiful green fruit, which will ripen into what many cooks and gardeners consider the finest-tasting squash in existence.

And I think that’s it for tonight!  Happy gardening!

It’s late July in the BCS Teaching Garden @ Salt of the Earth Urban Farm!  The pumpkin vines have taken over!  The runner beans are finally climbing their poles, and we have summer squash setting on every plant!

The garden is really changing – we pulled all of the garlic and shallots from our family beds and will expand the Teaching Garden this fall (we’re planting fava beans there).  All of the peas are gone, and this week, we’re sowing fall crops like rutabagas, beets, and cauliflower, in their place.  The peas in the front yard will be replaced with leeks and a fall planting of broccoli.

Look look look!!  There are about two dozen little Golden Hubbard winter squash that have set in the front yard!   The vines are attempting to migrate out into the street, and I have to turn the vines back toward the house every morning.  (Yes, I have paint all over my hands – I was painting trim (ugh) upstairs right before taking photos.)

The center of the backyard is really taking off – our family bed of potatoes is almost finished, and we’ll be replacing it this fall with a few fruit trees.  The BCS potatoes  (planted a little later) are growing nicely, and volunteers have been mulching them every week with more straw.  The cold-stunted summer squash there are finally catching up -

Patti-pans, crooknecks, and zucchini are all setting fruit!

And, after much babying and coddling, and swaddling in plastic during our bitterly cold May, the tomatoes have decided to show their gratitude.  The plants are loaded with little green fruit, and a few cherries are already turning red!!

What exciting changes are taking place in your garden this summer?

Little Hen’s new favorite jam:  Black Currant!

I’ve always loved a little Cassis in my hot tea in the winter, but this is the first year we’ve tried jam made from these relatives of the gooseberry, which have a distinctive, smoky/ musky flavor.

Black currants are full of pectin, so they are perfect for jam – all you need is currants, sugar, water, and a little lemon juice.  (Although, next time, I think we’ll try adding some cardamom or cloves, as Sarah@ UrbanMamas suggested).

Here’s what we did:

Sterilize jars, wash lids and rings and get them hot.  Have canner going and almost up to a boil.  Then, you can start making the jam –

In a heavy bottom pot, bring to a boil:

2 1/2 cups water plus 5 heaping cups black currants, stems removed, and washed (that’s how much we picked).  Reduce and simmer 15 minutes, crushing berries against the side of the pot.   (Berries should be soft and well cooked.)

Add in 6 cups sugar + 1/4 cup of lemon juice and return mixture to a full boil.  Continue to boil until you have reached the setting point (22oF) (check often – mine took about 15 min – you don’t want to over cook!).

Remove jam from the heat, and continue stirring once a min for 5-7 min (this helps distribute any berries so you don’t have floating fruit).  Pour into hot, sterilized jars, place lids and rings on, and process 5 min in a hot-water-bath canner.
Enjoy!

A bit late, but here are some pics from our drive out to Sandy Farms last week to pick sour cherries.  (A big thanks to Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen for letting me know about the good cherry picking there!)

This was the first time I’ve cooked with sour cherries, and we made sour cherry + brandy jam, and sour cherry + rhubarb jam.  Both were delicious!  We also started some cherries in brandy and some in vodka, for liqueur making next month, and froze a LOT of cherries for pies this winter.

It seems like the girls and I have been pitting cherries endlessly, but we’ve enjoyed the fruits of our labors -

Not much says “summer” more than a rustic cherry pie (with cornmeal, butter crust), hot out of the oven!

The early morning was spent preparing a big batch of Hood River organic cherries for the dehydrator.   We ate oodles fresh, and what is left will go in a batch of  sweet cherry brandy (makes the best fruitcake for Christmas).

If you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tip, and these, for how to remove cherry pits.   I like the way the cherries dry better when they’re sliced fully in half, but I do pit them when making brandy, pies, feeding them to the children.

Later this afternoon, we’re going picking for sour cherries (more on that tomorrow).  I’m excited to get some locally – I’ve actually never cooked with them before, and hear they make excellent pie and jam.

I really like preparing stone fruit for jam, drying, etc.  It’s such a rhythmic, meditative process.   Gives me time to think, pray, while slicing the fruit, removing the pits to a separate pile.  It reminds me a bit of traditions that use prayer beads.   It’s a very peaceful thing, really.