Ketchup!

The garden continues to grow.

I have been lazy about lots of things that have to do with the garden. Along with the veggies weeds have found a welcome well watered home. The veggies don't mind so neither do I! I had big plans to weigh out everything and keep track but that has fallen by the wayside and I am just enjoying the garden as things come along.. maybe next year I will be more organized. We have had great beet, carrot and cucumber harvests. We have picked more cucumbers than I care to admit. It has been fun though and we will never have to buy grocery store pickles again! We have picked some beets but mainly eat them as they come along. I thought I didn't grow enough carrots but there are still lots in the garden and I can't remember the last time I bought them. Celery still seems to be plugging along. We have more kale than we know what to do with and the same with lettuce. Tomatos in the garden are HUGE. They are taller than me and have hundreds and hundreds (it feels like) of tomatoes.. they are just all green! We have been having lots of marine clouds every morning leaving little ripening time. I am hoping this week of sunny mild temps will do the trick. We have gotten a few though and they were beautiful and super tasty.
My dill has died and my parsley has gone to seed. A project to be dealt with. I forgot to water some catnip and some chamomile so their corpses are hanging out on my deck making it look oh so pretty.
The chickens are laying some great eggs. We get at least one or two a day. This weekend they were laying 2 each a day!

Berries!

I am so lucky to live in the Pacific North West and have access to the best berries I have ever eaten! We are right in the middle of an awesome blackberry season! Last year right when they ripened temperatures rose to over 100 degrees for a week killing them all off which was a bummer. I don't grow black berries because we don't want a yard full of black berries but luckily i work next to an abandoned lot full of them! This year I am saving up berries to make a black berry wheat beer called Berry Garcia (named after Jerry of course). The recipe calls for 8 lbs! I didn't realize just how many berries that would be! I currently have 3 lbs saved and that already fills up a gallon freezer bag! Plus I wanted to save some for the winter. I have so much more picking to do! I haven't even made a cobbler yet! Ahh at least they are free! I can't imagine buying as many berries ! Forging is good!

Nommy Dinner from the garden

A lovely salad with goods from the garden, including beet cakes, carrots, radish, lettuce, and scallions.

Before they hit the salad - The purple carrots are so pretty.

A proper carrot always crosses her legs.

Summer Time.

I have been busier than I thought this summer. It is so nice to have a yard that we can easily access. Our first apartment had a small backyard but you had to go a long distance just to use it... making it more of a hassle than enjoyable. Our second apartment had a small outdoor area but it was always filled with so many bugs. At our house now the deck is amazing. We sit outside and read often. I have coffee there on the weekends. I actually wish I was hanging out there right now.

I am surprised of how little work I do with the garden and how productive it has been. To be honest I get a bit lazy with long term projects. I did the planting with lots of coaxing from the husband. I weed way less than I should but luckily plants just want to grow! The tomatos are taller than me.. which makes them the biggest tomatoes I have ever grown (this is my third year growing them.) I harvested over twenty cucumbers the other day and there are so many more to pick! Lettuce is doing great, we eat beets all the time. The pepper plant just started getting babies and the lima beans are flowering! I am very pleased. We are already thinking about expanding the garden next year. I should probably get some fall seeds and start them soon! I'll probably put it off though.

Our first Egg! Thanks Helen!

Alice doesn't care so much.

"Yes, I know, I found it," says Joe.

Check it out I am so excited!

Meet the new chicks.

This is Camilla

and here is Esther

Is my She a He?

We have been increasingly wondering if Betsy is a rooster. We started noticing a week or so ago that we can hear her calling (for lack of a better word) when we pull the truck into the driveway. She has started to call, quite loudly at other times as well. It doesn't sound like a cock-a-doodle-do... nor any sound I can replicate. She doesn't have spurs.. but her facial stuff is getting sorta big.. but since we have never had chickens before have nothing to compare it to. We shall see how this turns out.

Visitors.

When we first bought our house our inspector told me it was an interesting location. He described my neighborhood as a mix of urban, suburbs and rural. It doesn't feel urban to me currently but there will be a light rail system that will pass near by in 2015 so maybe then. It is like the suburbs but I wasn't seeing the rural until all in one day we were visited by bees and a deer. The hubby is out the door before 6am and spotted a deer in the neighbors yard! My garden seemed fine so no need for a fence yet.
After work that same day I put my bike in the shed and went into the house. Just a minute later the husband was heading to the shed to grab a shovel when he runs back inside and said I must have disturbed something because the shed was a buzz. With some courage I went outside to see a swarm of bees take hold of our holly trees. They are pretty far off the ground and haven't bothered us yet... but I do hope that they find a home not in our shed or house soon.

3 Month old chickens.

The chickens continue to grow up to fast. They look more and more like adult chickens all the time. They are intensely curious and come out of their coop to greet new people or to scare away a stray bird that lands in the yard. Next month we will start supplementing their diet with oyster shells to get some calcium in them to prepare for egg production.

Herb Garden

I am loving having an herb garden. I grew some on pots outside of our last apartment but the production is no where near what the herbs have been doing at our new place. We have more than enough parsley, sage, and cilantro. Dill and fennel are really picking up as well. I can't believe the difference in sizes from when I planted them at the end of April. These have been my main harvests so far from the garden. Mint is going crazy. I cut ten stalks off from my mess of a container and you can't really tell.. I am attempting to dry them by hanging them upside down in a paperbag. It would be so nice to have my tea time everyday to be from the garden.

Yay for the second planting!

A little Lima beans still wearing his hat.

The Radishes Thriving

I am seeing much better progress with the garden after doing that second planting. Carrots germinated, lettuce and spinach and kale are growing. Beets are looking beet like. We even harvested enough radishes and greens for a salad this week. We are having a very very wet june. For example we got more rain last sunday than we usually do in the entire month. There is actually some sun in the forecast and I fully expect my garden to pick up the pace on production. The tomatoes I put into the ground seem to be doing great. I accidentally placed some of the potted tomatoes to close to a shed and they got a bit water logged. They are looking a little mangy but have started to flower. Hopefully they the sun will perk them up as well. I acquired a another 4 tomato plants from a neighbor with extra. Bringing my tomato total to 15 . Lima beans just started sprouting and I am dreaming of fresh lima bean puree already!

Garden Second Planting.

So. The first planting had mixed results. I don't know exactly what I expected but it was more for some reason. So I have curbed my harvest expectations and since it is only May I am ok with that. The beets germinated for the most part. I would say about 80 % or maybe a bit more. I filled in holes in my rows with extra seeds today. I got 0% germination on carrots and onions. I replanted the rows.. I am hoping I just jumped the gun and it was too cold for them or something. So I waited 3.5 weeks before giving up.. here's to another three more weeks before I scour some garden centers for veggie starts.

The greens are coming up well and the radishes are thriving.

So my new expectations are salads, with beets, and radishes ... oh and tomatoes.

I bought tomato starters from the farmers market. We have a nice mix of canning tomatoes, heirlooms, and cherry. We are doing 11 plants this year and they all seem to be doing fine despite some late frosts and an obscene amount of hail storms. One already has a flower!

On the bright side my expectations for herbs have already been exceeded! They are all growing so well! My dill is already a few feet high. Cilantro is going nuts. My herb planters already look full! Pictures to follow.

Other People's Blogs.

I often feel guilty about not commenting on other people's blogs. The truth is I usually read them on my breaks at work and for some reason this computer just won't let me comment. Then I don't schedule any at home time into rereading and commenting. I am reading.

All Fenced in.

aha- this picture makes me want to hang out with the chickens all the time.

Of course we choose the hottest day of the year to go ahead and build a fence. We have been talking about it all along but have been lazy getting to it's construction. We put the chicken coop on the side of our house. It created three walls to hold them, two being existing fences and the other is out house. We have been meaning to pen them in so that we don't have to worry about keeping an eye on them in the backyard where wondering cats often end up. Neither Joe or I had built a fence before. We bought those green metal poles and some hardware cloth. It took us a while to get the polls in the ground.. then to get the cloth attached.. then to figure out an easy solution to the door. Well we jumped all those hurdles and things looked great! Joe herded the chickens in while I started cooking up some dinner. He came in and told me to take a look.... and all the chickens were outside the fence! So it was back to the drawing board and we realized there was a big enough gap on the house side (it was where we had to move the poll a few inches further from the house than we wanted because of some buried cement) and there was a gap on the ground where there was a natural dip. With a piece of wood and some chicken wire we took care of it. The chicks should be happy being let out of their coop everyday not just a few days a week.
Besty is saying "Help Henrietta! I am trapped!" Or they are planning her escape from both sides.

There is the fence in its almost finished glory. The piece of wood swing around and meets the green pole by the house. It attaches there with some bungees.

The Garden.. Day 1.

The stars aligned and I finally planted some seeds! I am direct sowing everything except for the Celery. I just read the package and direct sowing the celery is not recommend.. so i guess I will try some small pots on a windowsill to start them. I suppose I am also not starting the tomatoes from seed either. I am going to wait until the mothers day plant date to get them in the ground. I picked up could cheapo plants at the grocery store and we plan on getting some heirloom varieties at the farmers market. I am going to have 11 plants. I thought this sounded like a lot until the neighbor came over and said he plants 26.. so now I am hoping it will be enough!

Anyway about the garden. I put in two types of carrots (purple and white). Radishes- a variety pack and some red meat. 4 types of onions.. Storage, Candy, Bunching and Scallions. Three types of beets -chioggia beets, Golden, and Early Wonder. Arugula, Romaine, Kale, Chard, Spinach. With the exception on beets these are all my staple foods. We just really like beets.

They next round of planting when the soil gets warmers will include cucumbers and lima beans.

I can't wait for something to germinate. It has only been one night but the suspense is killing me!

Herb Garden

I have always plotted that the garden that was already dug infront of our house. I looked into growning the herbs from seeds but that required starting them inside. Inside seemed complicated to me.. having lights and soil blocks and stuff i see people using on other blogs. Instead I thought I would spend the three dollars per plant and see how they yield throughout the year. If it is worth it to buy the herb this way then great i will continue doing so or if it is cheaper at the farmers market then next year I will let the farmers grow it for me. Some of them will be worth it as they are perennials so the cost of 3 dollars (or less will go down as the years go one - providing I can keep them alive)

So I got
2 parsley
2 greek oregano
1 golden oregano
1 fennel
2 chives
1 marjorium
2 rosemary (adding to the one I already had- I bought a big one on clearance. I hope it doesn't die.. a branch already fell off.. but it is more rosemary then I could buy at the grocery store for the price so it was a deal either way.)
1 curry plant
7 mint plants (two peppermints, two spearmint, 1 apple mint, 1 orange mint, 1 chocolate mint.
Roman chamomile (I also have german in seed form)
2 regular thymes
1 lemon tyme
2 dills
1 small lavender (for the husbands tea)

I can't believe I forgot basil! Unless I just didn't see it or it is to early to put into the ground?

Spinach Experiment.

Our garden patch needs to be rototilled before I use it. Our neighbors is in the shop so instead of spending money to rent one we will just wait and start the garden a few weeks late. I hope to have it in right after we get our last frost or around there. I was a bit to excited though so I tore some dead plants from planters I found last year and stuck 3 spinach seeds in one and 2 kale (or chard- I can'r remember at this moment). It is serving as a reminder that seeds will sprout if planted. I still can't get over that with so little work one can get yummy food. I planted the seeds a while back and it took them an agonizing 10 days to germinate. I figured they were dead the whole time and the whole garden thing would be a bust.. then they came..first two little leaves forming a V and now the first set of true leaves are there. (Did I make that term up? Well the first set of leaves that actually look like spinach are there). It is a small start but at least we are that much closer to a garden fresh salad , or sauteed greens or whatever our menu fancies.

Chicken Update.

My little babies are so big now. They are actually starting to look like chickens! I still can't believe it. We put them outside around April 1st. They were about 5 weeks old and I needed their room for human company. I mothered them though and insisted that the heat lamp go in there with them.. We left it on for a while but the nights have really begun to warm up and they always sleep tucked away under a their roost (they don't quite get it yet). We keep them upstairs when we are not home and give them free reign of the full coop when we are. When we are hanging out in the backyard we let them wander and eat bugs. They are pretty amazing. They can spot a bug, chase it, and pick it out of the air. Betsy is kind of stupid we think. When we let them out she just stays upstairs and stares. When I let them wonder the yard I have to phycially move her or she won't wander around. Helen is the clear leader and Henrietta is her little side kick. I wanted them in my site the other day so I have to move them one by one from the side of the house to the back yards. I moved Henrietta first and went back to get Helen. By the time I turned around, Helen in my arms Henrietta was making a b-line for me freaking out for Helen. I put Helen down and Henrietta ran straight into her. I guess it is her sign of affection. I brought Betsy over last, she got a lesser welcome. They have outgrouwn their waterer but I haven't made it to the Urban Farm Store yet to pick up a new one. That means I have to change their chick waterer like 3-4 times a day. It could be done more but I have work. So they have to deal.

Blood Orange Hefeweizen

Joe and I have been working our way through Extreme Brewing. The author is owner of Dogfish Head ( who always have the yummiest beer). Many of the recipes we have been trying are coming from this book. The book isn't perfect, in fact far from it. There are inconsistencies in the directions and ingredients. Overall though, the beers have been yummy. I had to try the Blood Orange Hefeweizen. I love blood oranges. Blood orange sorbet is one of my favorite foods (although I can never find it.. there are rumors that Whole Paycheck has some but I never go downtown... so I will continue to dream about it.) Anyway. This was the first beer that I really took charge on. Usually Joe does all the leg work and I hang out. There is a lot to do when brewing beer! It took longer than I though it would to brew (Joe did warn me but I like to make cooking mistakes for myself.) It takes so long to get three gallons of water to boil. It was an easy enough recipe as it only had one hop addition. I almost forgot to heat up the malt extract and threw it into some hot water last minute. Malt extract is like honey in its consistency and if it isn't warmed it is impossible to add to all the water you just spent forever getting to boil. It all worked out and it was done in time for Lost (a very important part of Tuesday evenings). The oranges are added after the boil. They are peeled and steeped in water for about 30 minutes. Then all the pieces and zest go into the fermenter. This beer fermented like crazy. I tried it at two weeks. It was good. At three weeks after bottling it was awesome! Hmm can't wait for week 4. I spent 37.28 on this beer and I gave it a slightly higher price tag since it is an unusual brew. So I prices the 40 or so bottles I got at 66 with a total savings of $28. Not to shabby.

The cat came back.

Yesterday I brought the girls out into the yard for a field trip. They peeped around enjoying some bug snacks. Then came the neighbor's cat. I could see the cat stalking them from under the fence which divides our yards. I shooed the chicks closer to me and away from the fence and resumed my reading. When I looked up again the cat was in the yard giving my chicks the stare down. I was so torn. I watch my cats stalk things all the time. They are so cute attacking their toy mice or bottle caps or whatever happens to fall on the floor. It was hard to watch a cat do what comes naturally when it was doing it to my chicks! I couldn't be mad but I was extremely uncomfortable. Of course all I had to do was stand up and take one step toward the kitty and it was off like a flash of lightening. I wonder if the cat will pose a problem with the chickens are full grown. With no rooster will they be able to defend themselves? Will I have have to be on edge the entire time they are in my backyard. Being a chick mom can be so stressful.

Million dollar view on the cheap.

Joe, my husband, and I grew up in Massachusetts. The biggest mountain in the whole state is Mt. Greylock. It is 3492 ft tall. It was big but you could drive to the top. Here in Oregon the mountains we see are so much bigger. They stand out in a crowd and they have snow year round. In a short walk around our neighborhood we can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens. This weekend I took some time and discovered a place in our front yard where you can look and see St. Helens. Mt. St. Helens is 8365 feet. (If you click on the picture to enlarge it I made an arrow to show where the mountain is.. you can actually tell it is a mountain in person.)

Outside Adventures.

Helen was obsessed with eating the pear tree blossoms.

Helen never wanted Henrietta to get any blossoms.

She would run up and steal then right from her beak.

They will have lots of outdoor trips this week as temps are expected to peak at 68!

Pumpkin Porter

We had a pumpkin left over from the fall and I kept meaning to make a Coconut Lime Pumpkin Soup. (Hmmm not to rush through summer but doesn't that sound good right now?) With some convincing I allowed Joe to use it for some beer. The process for brewing the beer was pretty much the same but instead of starting the beer out with plain water you use pumpkin water. This was made by boiling pumpkin chunks til they are tender then blending them. This bear also had some new additions for us ... spices. A pumpkin pie like combination of Allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.

The wort was a thick mess. Thicker than we were used to and it separated quickly.

We think we forgot some Malt extract. The beginning gravity reading was off from what the recipe said it should be. The theories we have are that it was not mixed enough when we took the reading or the pound of malt we missed effected the reading negatively.

We brewed the beer on 02/05/10 and the OG reading was 1.040 (should have been 1.078). We bottled it on 02/15/10 with an ending gravity of 1.013.

We paid 51.99 for the ingredients for this beer. It is higher than normal because we also bought some bottling caps, extra priming sugar, and a new hydrometer. The cost at the store would have been around 55. Leaving us with savings which is a plus but not really reducing our investment numbers as much. We are still 95.05 in the hole. This will all change when the barley wine is complete. (it is brewed and bottled- but it needs to bottle age for 3 months) We will have payed off the equipment by the time it's done. We'll keep chipping away with other beers in the mean time.

So if the numbers are accurate the alcohol content is - 3.5 %. If the reading was off because it just wasn't mixed up it would be 8.6%. A huge difference! I guess in the name of science I will have to drink a few in a row and see how it makes me feel. A sacrifice I know.

They grow up so fast.

Betsy and Helen going on a ride.

Betsy loves being lifted up.

Look how pretty!

Henrietta is shy and doesn't like to be held all that much.

Helen is soooo big now.

They are 17 Days old now.

Roasted Brown Ale.

We brewed this beer on 1/29/10. The starting gravity was 1.061 @ 71 Degrees.

To the wort we deviated from the recipe and added extra Perle hops with the bittering hops to boost hop profile as an experiment. Also we tweaked the recipe we used by adding .6 ounces of Cascade hops at the aroma addition instead of .3.

What that all means. I don't really understand because I haven't read all the beer brewing books that my husband has.. I should have him write a guest entry. What I do understand is that this beer tastes good. It has been at three weeks since bottling and the beer is really starting to shape up. It is smooth to the palate with a strong chocolate aftertaste. Yummy.

We bottles it on 2/13/10. It had an ending specific gravity reading as 1.019 at 69 degrees.

A home brewer can go to this website - Alcohol Content Calculator - and put in the starting and ending gravity and it calculates the alcohol content for you! I love technology.

This beer comes in at 5.5%.

We spent 39.45 on the ingredients for this beer and it would have cost us $56 dollars at the store. Saving us 16.55 and leaving us 97.08 in the hole after cost of equipment.

Seeds are here!

My seed order came in the mail the other day. So I am one step closer to a vegetable garden! Now if only we could get that plot rototilled!

Seed list

Celery- I got Red Venture Celery. I love the idea of getting vegetables in different colors than I am accustomed to.

Carrots - I have two variety that I will try. One is Purple and one is White.

Onions- Redbeard scallions, bunching onions, storage onions, and candy onions. We love onions. We went through 5 lbs last week! Can't wait to eat some straight from the garden.

Lots of Greens - Romaine lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Chard.. also tops from carrots, radishes, beets.

Radish - I got a variety pack and some that are red on the inside. These are mainly for Joe. I still have bad childhood associations with them. I will be that ones from my own garden will persuade me into liking them.

Beets - We love beets. We got a bright red early variety, golden, and chioggia. Yum I can't wait!

Beans - I thought a lot about beans. I am just trying out one kind this year. Lima. They are a bush bean for some reason needed to have something for pole beans to climb up seems intimidating. Maybe next year.

Cucumbers- A Pickling variety. Hmmm we made our very first batch of pickles last year. Hopefully 6 plants will produce enough for us.

Melon - There is a bed which is already raised that we just decided to use .. so why not try our hand at some melon growing.

Squash - Also in the new plot we will grow some butternut squash.


I didn't want to grow anything inside our first year. Again it sounds complicated. So only direct seeding for us. That being said we are going to have to buy some starts for somethings. Like tomatoes, and all of the herbs I want to start.

Also in that picture is a Garden Planner book that my sister-in-law gave Joe and I as a wedding gift. So far I have recorded our whole ornamental garden in it's pages. There is also a section to keep track of seeds, and a calendar of todos. It is the perfect gift as I love to be organized!

The Chicks

Henrietta - Helen - Betsy

They are to cute for words. I could watch them peep around all day.