Well once again I have left way too much time between posts, Graphic Design School has proven to be all too consuming,considering that I have to live 4 days a week at my folks house to be closer to school. I have decided to give that dream up for now, all I really want is to be able to stay home and work here growing food and putting it up, spinning, knitting and any other adventure I can find to do. All of this to say that I should be able to post on a regular basis now since I will be doing most of my schooling online or close to home.
It has been a pretty busy summer this fall at our place. I have planted some of our fall/winter seeds and have been harvesting the produce that is ready. Yesterday I picked a few bunches of herbs for drying and canned turnips. So far this morning I have made bread and am waiting to pop it in the oven. Then I will be out in the garden continuing my planting, weeding, harvesting, etc;
Everything looks good in the garden except our beans, I think part of the problem is that it has been unseasonably cool here in Oregon this summer, this is the second summer that has been pretty cloudy/foggy and cool. I wish some of you folks in the mid-west and east could have some of our cool weather and we could get a few days of warm summer weather, granted I don't want anything over 90 degrees and even that is pushing the envelope for me since we really only get 1 or 2 days of 90 degree weather here a year and then it is unbearably humid as well.
The ducks are doing pretty good, however we are down from 5 to 3. One got taken in the middle of the day and one got sick and died. We are putting them in a pet carrier at night for now but the plan is to build fencing around our garden for them to live in. We tried keeping them in the garden (which is what we got them for to eat slugs) but they ate all of our lettuce and a-lot of our potato plants. A friend of mine had recommended the Indian Runner Ducks to keep in the garden for slugs but she forgot to mention that they would eat most of our garden. I should have known but I trust her on garden advice, this is the only time her advice hasn't worked so well for us.
On my to do list for this summer is to master the making of Kombucha and naturally fermented pickles. Kombucha is a fizzy drink that is a pro-biotic, it is made with tea and fruit juice as well as the starter. It is great for detoxing your body and maintaining a balanced gut for proper digestion, besides I love the taste! Especially the ginger tea blend. I am thinking that this will help my hubby with his cancer. Naturally pickled vegetables have some of the same healthful benefits. No vinegar is used in this process, you let the vegetables naturally ferment. I will be starting this soon and will post pictures and update you on the process and outcome.
Herbs drying:
I don't have much in the way of herbs yet, the garden is only 2 years old, I need a-lot more than this!
Once I get the garden planted I will take pictures of that!
