Friday, May 2, 2008

independence days - week 1


since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i don't.

1. plant something:
sat: out of town
sun: started weeding strawberries and asparagus
mon: transplanted basil
tue: planted 4 cauliflower, 4 green cabbage, 5 red cabbage, 2 brussels sprouts, 12 broccoli, finished weeding strawberries
wed: planted some nasturtiums, amaranth, borage, hollyhocks, calendula
thu: covered brassicas with row cover, finished planting onions, weeded horse radish, started weeding wheat feed, transplanted peppers, celery into larger containers
fri: planted 20# of potatoes with 2 little ones help, planted 5 zucchini, planted dill, parsley, cilantro, thyme, chamomile, wild tobacco, summer savory and chives, repotted holy basil and elecampagne, cut up last 20# potatoes

2. harvest something:
^harvested several wild morels found around our property and neighbor's property
^harvested some of our asparagus

3. preserve something:
^made 2 batches of violet jelly
^made and froze 1 lb butter

4. prep something:
^got several sustainable gifts for my b-day this week: marcato atlas pasta maker with several attachments, butter churn, pampered chef bread pan, another large cast iron skillet and dutch oven (you can never have too many!)
^secured a load of firewood from neighbor
^searched for milk goats, berkey water filter and refrigerator (for storing extra eggs and milk)
^started reading making your small farm profitable

5. cook something:
^wild morels and homegrown asparagus were on the menu this week

6. manage your reserves:
^placed coop #1 order
^started coop #2 order which will be placed once #1 comes in next wednesday
^purchased several bottles of everclear to use for tincture making

7. work on local food systems:
^fed and watered broiler chicks several times a day (they go through food like crazy).
^listed our eggs and meat on our local harvest online store
^separated seedlings to grow peppers and celery to hopefully sell to local restaurant and at market later this season

8. Compost something:
^every day, all our foods go into the compost bucket and get fed to the chickens who turn it into manure for the garden.
^i hold back apple cores, carrot ends and peels and a few other veggies scraps for goat treats
^the dog and cats eat most the meat/bone scraps (i feed fish scraps to the chickens for extra protein)

9. Learned a skill:
^tried out my new pasta maker (my daughters took turns hand cranking it)
^tried out my new butter churn (jaden tried cranking it but it was too hard for her)

2 comments:

Gina said...

Ooh, wish I could find the morels. I am hoping the rain we are getting today will bring us "morel" luck! I saw on the news this morning that it seems to be a banner year for morels around here too.

i was thinking about doing this challenge as well. I am horrible at keeping up with the posts on most challenges I try!!

you are doing a great job!!!!

Ron said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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