Harvest Monday 4-30-12

Well I finally got to harvest something...some lettuce from our little backyard garden. I of course did not take a picture of it. I also planted some celery starts, along with beet and carrot seeds down at our little community garden plot. I checked it yesterday and the beets are coming up! I also have purple peas, kale, swiss chard, claytonia, and 2 types of lettuce coming up in the backyard. Lots of havesting to come! One thing I love about all this rain is the fact that I don't have to worry about watering as much. :)

Happy harvest Monday! We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions, where others show off there harvests!

The tulip festival 2012

Please note this blog is no longer updated. (Click here to find my new blog address).

pure beauty

ducky races

My silly little guy was giving me a slow motion kiss

driving the John Deere, sound effects and all

We had an amazing adventure...we headed off for the tulip festival this morning with my parents, hoping for no rain. It was beautiful, the little guy had so much fun. They have so much for the kids, ducky races, slides, bouncy house, tire swings shaped like tractors/horses, tractors, and even a train with the cars painted into cows! Its shocking seeing so many tulips in bloom at the same time and we were not even there for the craziness. It looks like a lot in the pictures and it is but there are still fields and fields waiting to bloom. The little guy had his first carnival (festival) food, a hot dog, us adults had brawts instead. He took a short nap in the car ride home and we spent the afternoon in the wood shop helping grandpa with his project. A great day!

Creating a Place to Garden

The future garden

While I'm up here in Portland I still want to be able to garden! I'm at my parents house and this is really the only place that gets good sun. Its kinda hard to see but there is a line curving around the back were it will end. Its a lot smaller then what I am used to but I think that's for the best. I can really focus my time on learning more. The soil up here in their yard is clay so we will have to dig out a lot of it and replace it with some good stuff for growing.

Its a big project and we are starting a bit late but I grabbed a 12 pack starter and will get some seeds started this week. I will be starting claytonia, spinach, kale, swiss chard, red romaine lettuce, and deertongue lettuce. They already have a raised bed full of strawberries (I'm so excited for them...yummy) and we will have our herbs in pots on the deck. I have a lot to learn about growing up here but I am excited for a new challenge. My mom helps run a small community garden so I plan on helping out there and learning from other gardeners.

I did actually get to harvest something this week! Just a few twigs of rosemary to make some homemade conditioner...hey, its something! We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday, a place for gardeners from all over the world to show off there harvests, check it out.

Portland's Winter Farmers Markets Brim with Cold Weather's Bounty

Check out this article: oregonlive.com-Cold Weathers Bounty I guess maybe I should start attending and reporting! :)

Harvest Monday 2/21-2/27 2012

lovely beet greens, we are still thinning.

More peas!

I love the beet greens, especially the color. We harvested a lot of greens (kale, chard, and spinach) without taking pictures this week. Most were blanched and added to the freezer. The others were added to yummy salads along with claytonia, mache and the last of the lettuces. I also decided to try and make our own spinach powder this week by drying out some of our spinach, wish me luck. I just remembered to add that we also had 5-7 radishes that we harvested this week.

Sadly we had a couple days full of wind and our peas were stripped from there trellis and snapped down in half. I picked the mature ones of the plants and I hope for the best but who knows if they will make it. Everything else in our little garden is perking up with the sun...I keep on the water since we still are waiting for the rain. I love sunny weather but know that rain is what is best this time of year...rain...please come!

I made it to the market this week so here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday Feb. 25th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, fennel and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, tangelos, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, limes and strawberries.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, spinach, escarole, swiss chard, aruglua and chicory.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, turnips, and many types of potatoes.

Others- many types of winter squashes, regular cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, red onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, sugar cane, savory cabbage, and asparagus.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 2/7-2/13 2012

Lil' guy likes to hold the basket.

We pulled more radishes (5 of them), a bunch of kale and some spinach. Next year I hope to be able to plant a much larger amount of everything for our fall/winter garden. We still have been able to harvest something every week but I would like to be able to harvest a lot more every week. I think this week we will finally be able to harvest a few purple snap peas!
Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday Feb. 11th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, Palestine limes and strawberries.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, spinach, swiss chard and pea greens.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, chayote, and yucca.

Changes this week: the addition pea greens.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/31-2/6 2012

Radishes, parsnips, and carrots

Kale, and beet greens

More root veggies! We needed to thin the root veggies again and instead of giving them to the girls like normal we kept them for ourselves. Even though they are still way to small, the parsnips and carrots tasted great. The doctor said the radishes were great too. I was surprised at how much I liked the beet greens. We sauteed them into some pasta with lentils, marinara and mozzarella cheese. It was amazingly yummy! We also had claytonia, spinach and chard added to a salad or two this week. Our fridge is on the fritz and freezes any veggies so we ate most of it right away and put the kale in the freezer for later.

We have 30 tomato seedlings already and plan on starting more soon, but I also started celery, and 4 types of peppers this past weekend. We are really looking forward to the summer bounty in our garden.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday Feb. 4th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, Palestine limes and strawberries.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, chayote, and yucca.

Changes this week: the addition of strawberries (can you believe it!?) and the subtraction of hachiya persimmons.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/24-1/30 2012

First Radishes!

Spinach and claytonia, to add to a salad

Finally something besides greens! I don't like radishes but my husband does, we were both excited to find these. I'm sure their will be more this week and hopefully some other root veggies. We of course had eggs, along salad greens but not a lot. Everything is slow growing but at least we are at the turning point. One of our fav bloggers (Rick at Stoney Acres) just posted about the amount of day light finally coming up to 10+ hours (read it here). I'm thankful for lessons learned. We have learned a lot, mostly with help from family, friends and other bloggers. Thank you all!

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 28th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, chayote, and yucca.

The same as last week with the addition of yucca.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/17-1/23 2012

Greens, greens, and more greens. We ended up with a lot of spinach and kale so we blanched and froze some for soups. All of our salad greens are still growing and I checked a radish the other day and they are finally getting close. I cannot wait to be able to start harvesting our root veggies. We also had some eggs but not a lot. We spent most of our time indoors this week since we are finally getting some rain.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 21th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, and chayote.

The same as last week with the addition of parsnips.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/10-1/16 2012

 This we harvested some sage, salad greens and kale. We also picked up some kale at the market to make kale chips , a yummy treat this weekend. So far we have really enjoyed our first fall/winter garden but we are looking forward to spring/summer.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 14th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, and chayote.

Pretty much the same as last week with the addition of rosemary, sage, thyme, pommelos, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers and the flowers are back!

We spoke with the man selling sugar cane about getting starts so we could grow our own and he was excited and helpful...he invited us to his farm, gave us directions and told us that in spring time he would bring us cuttings.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/3-1/9 2012

Not much to talk about this week when it comes to harvest, just salads (claytonia, mache, red romaine, deertongue lettuce) and greens (chard, and kale). The girls provided some eggs but they have dropped in their production the last few weeks and one was broody for awhile so she wasn't doing much but laying in a nesting box.

We also had our first Saturday of the year and one of our goals (check them all out here) is to make a detailed list of what our local farmers market has every week. We want to learn what other farmers are growing on our area, develop relationships with them and learn from them. Plus the public can learn how easy it is to eat seasonally.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 7th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, and chayote.

We were thankful and somewhat amazed at the bounty of our little town...it is January remember! The variety is wonderful and just proves that eating seasonally is really no big deal.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 12/27-1/2 2011/2012

baby artichoke with a little frost bite...I think they taste better this way.

We only really harvested this baby artichoke and eggs this week. Before we left for the holidays we harvested a lot of the salad greens, they are making a slow come back and we should have some yummy salads this coming week. We did a big thinning in the garden this week on our root veggies...the doctor had some of the tops of the thinning and the rest went to the girls. I really missed the girls while we were out of town and I'm so thankful to have great neighbors who will chicken sit. This week we plan on writing a post of our goals for the year...some are life goals and some are homestead goals.

We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions, check out what others around the world are harvesting.

Harvest Monday 12/20-12/26 2011

Kale, Swiss chard, and spinach

Salad greens...claytonia, red romaine, deer tongue lettuce, and mache.

The last harvest Monday of 2011! We just got home and un-packed the car. I of course came in a started writing. :)

We harvested only a bit this week since we left to spend time with family for the holiday. The weekend was wonderful and relaxing and we scored some awesome loot. We received a bee keeping book and heirloom gardening book, along with a bunch of other fun stuff...plus seeds! We also received a flip video camera...so you can look forward to how to videos! We will be hosting Christmas next year, so the planning starts now...

We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...go check out what others around the world are harvesting.

Harvest Monday 12/13-12/19 2011

Frosty flowers

The first pea!

An onion popping up under the straw

We didn't harvest much this week, just salad greens and eggs. I have been saving our chard, kale and spinach for a special meal. Yesterday I made sage cheese and ricotta cheese. Tonight I will be making lasagna with the fresh ricotta, chard, kale and spinach for dinner with a close friend. Have a happy Holiday weekend and...

Happy Harvest Monday! We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions, a place to check out what others around the world are harvesting.

Thanksgiving feast 2011

Better late than never...

Top left- corn, edamame, and sun dried tomato (from the garden) salsa.
Top Right- stuffing
Bottom left- Mashed parsnips and potatoes
Bottom right- Green beans from the garden (recipe below)
Photo by Mike Z

Everything...including the homemade chive/sage cheese, crusty beer rolls and the Cornish game hens we raised.
Photo by Mike Z

The Cornish game hens wrapped in bacon.
Photo by Mike Z

Candied pumpkin, with candied pumpkin seeds, dehydrated vanilla beans and creme fraiche.

Home made raw butter

Chicken stock from the leftover bones.

Thanksgiving is a time to bring in close friends and family to share a little something to show an appreciation for their friendship and help throughout the year. This year we hosted a renegade Thanksgiving, we invited those who had no place to go. This turned out to be one of the most satisfying Thanksgivings in recent history. The true meaning of Thanksgiving is to celebrate the harvest and bring the community together...that is what we celebrated this year.

Firstly, our plan was to use our own garden and poultry as the base for our modest feast. We planned ahead and saved some of our late summer crop. Believe it or not, freezing things like beans doesn't ruin them. They tasted like we had just made the harvest. That was the whole point; to give back to our little community with things that we spent the year nurturing, whether it be plant or fowl.

Without question the most difficult part was dressing the Cornish cross breeds. Leaving the skin on didn't work out so we skinned them. As a result I thought they would dry while roasting, but we solved that problem by flattening out bacon and wrapping the entire bird in it. We actually cut them in half, and the portion size was perfect. I believe in making each apart of the dish separately. So the stuffing and sides were not cooked with the birds.

We took the opportunity to use The One-Block Feast, by Sunset Magazine to influence the candied pumpkin desert, the creme fraiche, butter and cheese. We already shared the recipes for the mashed parsnips and potatoes, Cornish game hens and corn salsa on the blog.

So I've decided to let you in on an old German secret for presenting green beans...a staple during the holidays.

Steam the beans until just about perfect. Place in a saute pan with butter and finely chopped garlic. Saute until the garlic is moments from turning color, then crack saltine crackers over the entire dish and saute until some of the crackers looked toasted and golden brown. You only need to season with pepper if desired, the salt is in the crackers. This is always the first dish we run out of . It is a major hit.

The master chef (the Doctor) getting everyones plates ready.
Photo by Mike Z

Harvest Monday 12/6-12/12 2011

one little borage flower

We had lots of salads this week. We also had one with tomatoes! Crazy, they did not taste very good but they still gave us nutrition. Any more that ripen will go to the girls (chickens). We are still getting 4 eggs a day and I hope that continues. I cannot wait for our root veggies to be ready along with brassicas. We picked up 2 lbs of apples from the farmers market this weekend from our favorite apple farm that is only 15.5 miles from our house. We love there pink lady apples and get them every year to give as part of our Christmas gift. We are really lucky where we live because we can get almost everything locally.

Happy Harvest Monday! We are linking up with Daphne's dandelions, a place to check out what others around the world are harvesting.

Salad greens, a mix of claytonia, mache, red romaine, deertongue lettuce and chives

Some cherry tomatoes from our volunteer plant that is still producing

Harvest Monday 11/29-12/5 2011

Medium sized artichoke

We are still waiting patiently on our root veggies, garlic, onions, peas (I don't really expect to get much, maybe just seeds for spring), and brassicas. We were very surprised by the little artichoke and there is another even smaller one that we are trying to let grow a little more. We ate lots of salads this week along with eggs. I had an extra dozen eggs and posted to try and get rid of them. We now have a friend who wants to buy 2 dozen eggs a month! I'm excited about this because we really want to provide for more than just our family...this is the first step in the right direction.
We are linking up with daphnes dandelions for harvest monday!

Harvest Monday 11/22-11/28 2011

Not much to write about from this week. We were very busy making Thanksgiving dinner and only really harvested herbs for the meal and eggs. We were trying to let the lettuces have a chance to grow a little and this week will be full of salads and greens. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and I will be writing about it sometime this week. We hope you all enjoyed your holiday!

We are linking up with daphne's dandelions, so go check out other harvests from the past week! :)

Harvest Monday 11/15-11/21 2011

Little green pumpkin

We did not harvest much this week. I finally pulled this pumpkin and we are hoping it will still ripen up in the window sill. We of course had more salads this week, a mix of chard, kale, red romaine and deertongue lettuce. I forgot to mention last week that we harvested some tomatoes...they will be the last of this year because we finally pulled down the last 20 tomato plants this week. Pretty amazing to still have tomatoes in Nov. Our girls are giving us 4 eggs a day almost every day and on Saturday, my favorite girl South layed two eggs in one day. We are really looking forward to this coming week...Thanksgivings on Thursday! We had family in town this past weekend and family coming on Wednesday. I love the holidays!

We are linking us with Daphne's dandelions for harvest Monday! Have a great holiday week(end)!

Our peas are starting to get flowers...maybe to late?

Harvest Monday 11/8-11/14 2011

lots of oregano, set out to dry

four eggs a day pretty much every day

We also had salad this week from the garden a few times, a mix of red romaine, deertongue lettuce, red kale, and claytonia. The swiss chard is coming back nicely since its weird unidentified disease. We also harvest herbs for all our dinners straight out of the garden every night. Our mache is finally almost big enough to harvest a bit, I cannot wait to have some of it. We have one pumpkin still on the vine and I am holding off as long as I can to harvest it.

I posted a few days ago about how we were told by the county we have 30 days to get rid of our girls. I have been on forums and talking with neighbors trying to find a way around it. This morning I make the call to the county to find out exactly what are options are. We have a back up plan for our girls but I want to fight as hard as we an to keep them here with us. We have a neighbor (she is awesome and gave us a half gallon of raw milk, making butter and cheese today)  around the corner who can keep them with her girls for awhile if we need her to but I hope we don't get to that point.

It is really frustrating because our landlord is happy with them, our neighbors are happy and they are a part of our family. We are not allowed any other animals as pets but were allowed to get chickens so to us they are a pet. It will be hard to explain to the little guy (2.5 years old) where his little girls are. If anyone has any advice, it will be much appreciated. click for the latest update on keeping our girls

We are linking up with daphnes dandelions for Harvest Monday. It is were people from all over the world share their harvest from the week.