How the gardens grow

We went around and took some pictures of the gardens this morning.  I hope you enjoy them.  We plan to do an open house some time in June, so you can come out to our farm and see the gardens yourself.  We'll keep you posted as to which day we plan to do this.

Paddock Garden

Sweet Corn

White Potatoes

Garlic and Lettuce/spinach

Radish

Lettuce...Needs to be weeded.  The light green lettuce is what you should be getting next week.

Fennel

Kale

Johnny and Lu Lu next to their blooming pansies

John and Lu's garden

Pasture Garden

Popcorn

Strawberries in bloom

Strawberry bed

Beets

Peppers.
Mini grasshoppers are eating holes in the leaves.
Josh said last night, "If it's not a drought, it's the pests!"

Here is a bean seedling that was damaged by the seed corn maggot

Healthy bean plant.  Thankfully they weren't all lost

Cauliflower under the rowcover

Tomato

 So we had some issues with our tomato plants before we transplanted them.  The seed starter that we used to cover the seeds couldn't support the tomato stems, so they kept falling over.  We kept transplanting them as they fell over.  (Once transplanted, they did fine.)  Anyway, it was always a discovery as we were sitting down to a meal (since our 'greenhouse' is in the dining room) and a quick fix was required.  We didn't label the tomatoes when we transplanted them, so it should be interesting picking them this fall.  I think we at least kept all of the cherry tomatoes together.

Broccoli

Vine Garden (pumpkins, gourds, squash)

squash that germinated before the seed corn maggots infested

cabbage

cabbage

peas

potatoes in front, then soup beans

asparagus patch, hopefully we'll be able to pick some next spring

Farm Funny's

(I wish I had a video to go along with my story, but Josh and I butchered chickens by ourselves this weekend.  I didn't have the time to get the camera.)

So Josh and I butchered our first batch of chickens this past weekend.  Last year we had help doing both batches (which was very necessary since I was 9 months pregnant during the first butchering and 2 weeks post c-section during the second one).  So it's been two years since I had to chop chicken heads (my least favorite job).  But the kids helped make it more comical.  Josh and I work together to get about half the chickens heads chopped and bled out, feathers scalded and plucked, and tails, feet, and wing tips cut off.  Then Josh starts to gut (once they've had enough time to cool).  I am then left by myself to do the first job on the rest of the chickens.  My goal is always to keep up, so he doesn't have to stop gutting to help be chop heads again.

Anyway...Josh was gutting and I was chopping heads while the kids (John and Olue) were watching.  Josh's job is boring to watch.  I have the live chickens next to me...They're more interesting.  I would catch a chicken, put it head first into the killing cones (they look like upside down caution cones) and cut off the head.  This way they can bleed out without jumping around.  They usually kick a lot.  So the kids are watching, I grab the next chicken to scald and am dipping it in the hot water.  The kids are creeping closer and closer to the chicken I just chopped because it's not kicking (like all the other ones have).  "I wouldn't get too close, Johnny."  (Lu Lu is a step behind him, like a good little sister.)  "This one's not kicking, Mom."  As soon has he said it, the chicken's legs started kicking like crazy and those two almost jumped out of their skin.  It made me laugh.  It still makes me laugh.:)

Don't worry....The kids still eat chicken (at least John does, Lu has never liked meat much...more of a veggie girl).

I thought I had posted one year the whole process of our chicken butchering.  I can't find it now.  I'll have to do that sometime.  We have a pretty nice set up and we're pretty time efficient.  Maybe I'll get the chance to take some pictures next time.  Josh's brother, Jared, and his new wife (come Saturday...we're pretty excited for the wedding), Stacie, plan to help us, so maybe I'll have a little time to wash up and take pics when we're in the middle of "chopping heads";)