Homegrown Goodness

Things are growing like mad for us this year, and what a relief that is! We're running like crazy as always, but that's the way we like it, most of the time.

So, here's what's doing on our three little acres.

The garden is almost entirely planted. Parsnips and eggplant will get transplanted this weekend, and we're aiming to get the corn in, too. Sweet corn, popcorn and dent corn, hopefully. After we get a couple more beds in, we have cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts to transplant as well.

As we've mentioned in previous blog posts, we've gone with raised beds to help combat the long cold spring. It's working wonders, and we've blossoms on peppers and tomatoes already, which is much better than last year. Of course, last year was a very cold, soggy one!


Here's our first pepper blossom. This is on one of our Jimmy Nardello pepper plants. Nardello's are a frying pepper and delicious!



This is the first of our okra sprouts. We've actually never tried growing okra before(or eating it, for that matter), but decided to after watching a show on it. We hope to at least pickle these, but we've a few recipes to try to see if we can conquer the infamous okra slime!



We don't have it fenced in yet, but this is the majority of the garden(we've one more bed to go for this year, at least). In the far left bed we have planted some cutting lettuces, spinach, chard, some head lettuces(you can't really see those), and Kentucky Wonder Pole beans. We ended up having to replant the beans, but now all of them are up and doing wonderfully. The first bed in the middle is our tomato bed. We have speckled roman, blue beech, and rutgers tomatoes in there, all three of which are paste tomatoes. Behind that is the root bed. Turnips, beets, and radishes, as well as some snap peas and a new bean for us, a purple pole bean. Those are all doing phenomenally well.
The first bed on the right has our peppers(two different bells and some nardellos), and will also have our eggplants(Diamonds and Rose Biancos) and possibly some edamame. Behind that is another root bed. Already there are celeriac(Root celery) and the rest of it will be planted with parsnips. You can't really see, but along the fence behind all the beds is an asparagus bed.

The strawberry tower is working fantastically. We've berries all over this puppy, some all filled out and working their way from green to white, soon to turn pink then red. We can't wait for those first berries :)



Can you spot the gooseberry in this picture? We transplanted our poor little bush this year, and it's coming on strong now. There are two berries on our little thorny gooseberry - one for me, one for Mike ;)


We have 25 red raspberry plants in this year that are coming on strong, but were we surprised to find some volunteer berry canes popping up around the property! We don't know what they are yet, but we're looking forward to finding out!


We did discover yet another benefit to having more than one bathroom in the house. 26 day old baby chicks arrived Tuesday, and after a long trek via truck, bike and air Mike settled them in the downstairs bathtub! The difference in their temperment is distinct, and they're doing well.



As for the rabbits, we've three litters in the growout cages totaling 22 fryers. I think we'll be butchering the oldest six in a couple of weeks, then the balance a couple of weeks after that. We will be culling a couple of our does when we do the first butcher, however, after hemming and hawing for weeks about it. We just don't need to have five breeding does.



And don't you know we work everyone around here hard? Willow just had to stretch out and take a nap the other day. You know, watching her dad work so hard is just exhausting!

The three day weekends

Well, Memorial Day is here at last! Mother Nature has gifted us with a gorgeous weekend, and we're taking advantage of it here. Yesterday was devoted to some necessary, though rarely enjoyable tasks.

The morning went to butchering rabbits - yes, even on a holiday weekend that has to be done! Thirteen rabbits, all of them with beautiful pelts and nicely sized. After than I ran into the Village for a much needed haircut, then back home to tackle the rabbit once more! All of the meat is now parted out and more than half of it is wrapped and in the freezer. I think I'll try to get the remainder done later today.

Mike's knee is healing, and he's been getting around without crutches since Monday. Some days are better than others, but on the whole the knee is better than before the surgery. Wednesday is the followup visit, and we'll find out where we go from here. Otherwise, he has exercises from the physical therapist with a couple more weekly visits before he's free to proceed on his own.

We had a wonderful dinner last night. Mike grilled up some chicken and rabbit - and we were both thrilled to find out that my treatment of both of them addressed the worry of overly dry meat! A little oil, my special spice mixture and Mike's careful grilling turned out mouthwatering spicy grilled skinless chicken legs and thighs and lean rabbit quarters. Yummy. Accompanying that was the first pasta salad of the season!

Tomorrow we're going to be grilling out again - brats this time! We picked up a watermelon, and a friend might be coming down from Buffalo to hang out for a bit with her dog. Pollux should love that!

On to some farm news.

On the poultry front, we have 25 day old chicks coming in a couple of weeks. We're getting 11 Barred Rocks, 11 Golden Laced Wyandottes, and 3 Delawares. Here's what will be populating the chicken coop here shortly.






Initially our intention was to get the 25 and perhaps sell most of the pullets once they reached laying age. Well, tragedy struck last weekend, the day after Mike's surgery. A fox and her litter wiped out all but three of our hens. We thought we had lost the entire flock - no one heard a thing until the the last Buckeye squawked and drew out attention to the goings on. Needless to say, neither of us were happy. We're going to be taking a trapping course this summer and over winter we will take advantage of the fact that we are permitted to trap on our property. The predator pressure has been increasing, with raccoon, opossum, coyote and now fox all sighted in our yard.

Starting next week, we're going to a schedule of four 10 hour shifts at work. So, for the duration of the summer, I'll have three day weekends! I'm positive that the long weekends will more than make up for the long days.

Today we're hoping to get the tomatoes and peppers transplanted into the garden, as well as some more seeds planted. We're going to give okra a shot this year - the seeds we picked up are merely 56 days to harvest, and the plants produce until frost! We've a few different recipes to try, and hopefully this is another vegetable to add to our garden permanently.

Well, time to make some blueberry pancakes and get going today!

A pictoral walk through our place

Mike and I took advantage of the explosion of foliage and color last weekend to take some photos as we did our walk through, check on our plants and trees. I thought I'd share the shots!

The first three raised beds for the garden. We took out the pool(way to expensive to upkeep, especially with the lake a mere two miles away) and will fence this in one the remainder of them are built and filled. We have beans, snappeas, beets, radishes, turnips, swiss chard, spinach, mesclun, and lettuces in already. The bed in the foreground will be devoted the tomatoes - we're trying five different varieties this year.


The strawberry tower is coming along wonderfully! These two sides are planted with Tribute strawberries and the opposite two are planted with Ozark Beauties. We have blossoms already coming in, and I think we need to pinch those off to let them get a bit more established.

This is one of the three quinces that were here when we bought our house. We got a couple of fruit off of them last year, but they are jut gorgeous in bloom!

This is one of our raspberry plants. The coloring on the leaves is just breathtaking. We planted 26 starts, and 25 of them are showing new growth. We won't get raspberries this year, but next year...yummm!

This isn't the best shot, but those tiny blossoms are on my currants! My Gramma Jean gave us five rooted cuttings last year, and these babies are just taking off! Can't wait to get some berries this year :)


This is a Black Lace Elderberry. It is extremely ornamental, and Mike planted it below the kitchen windows. It should grow in to create a breathtaking showpiece.

I just love this shot. The foliage of the Peashrub is wonderfully textured, and I love the fact that Mike was able to catch the raindrops clinging to the leaves.

This is one of our two Carpathian Walnut trees. We planted them in the backyard to provide shade, and they're coming on wonderfully.

Isn't this a beautiful shot? this is the Wolf River apple tree(at least, we think that's what it is) that the previous owner planted. Its in full blossom this year, so we might just get some apples!

And this is a cluster of blossoms off of our 4-on-1 apple tree that we planted last year. And is also the reason we might get some apples off the wolf river. It's nice knowing we have a tree that will pollinate that one! We'll have to pinch these off once the blossoming is done - the tree is definitely too young to be letting fruit.


So there you have it. A walkthrough of what we have growing here this year.

Spring is here.

Spring has arrived in glorious fashion. The rising sun spreads a carpet of exploding dandelions across the lush green lawn, blossoms blushed with pink cluster on the apple trees, and the crab apples erupt like fireworks along the roads.

It is gorgeous and affirming, that once again we have made it through the winter.

The chickens scratch amidst leaf litter, announcing their finds with happy chirps and warbles. The rabbits have nests full of babies. A robin has a nest atop a post against the barn and scolds me daily as I go about my chores. Soon she'll be feeding babies from the bugs she finds in the yard.

The trees have finally donned their leaves. One can no longer look deep into the woods behind the house, between naked branches and trunks. Instead a brilliant wall of leaves has filled in - beech and poplar, oak, maple, cherry and birch. The canopies dapple the ground and sing as the wind moves through the leaves.

Soon, soon, vines will climb the trellises in the garden. Beans, snappeas, cucumbers. Seeds unfurl leaves and grow their roots.

It is spring, and I am renewed.

Spring is here.

Spring has arrived in glorious fashion. The rising sun spreads a carpet of exploding dandelions across the lush green lawn, blossoms blushed with pink cluster on the apple trees, and the crab apples erupt like fireworks along the roads.

It is gorgeous and affirming, that once again we have made it through the winter.

The chickens scratch amidst leaf litter, announcing their finds with happy chirps and warbles. The rabbits have nests full of babies. A robin has a nest atop a post against the barn and scolds me daily as I go about my chores. Soon she'll be feeding babies from the bugs she finds in the yard.

The trees have finally donned their leaves. One can no longer look deep into the woods behind the house, between naked branches and trunks. Instead a brilliant wall of leaves has filled in - beech and poplar, oak, maple, cherry and birch. The canopies dapple the ground and sing as the wind moves through the leaves.

Soon, soon, vines will climb the trellises in the garden. Beans, snappeas, cucumbers. Seeds unfurl leaves and grow their roots.

It is spring, and I am renewed.

Springtime at Three Lil' Acres

Well spring has arrived in startling fashion here in Western NY, and we're double-timing it trying to keep up. Over the past two weeks we've planted:
~Two apple trees
~Two pear trees
~Two Plum trees
~A sweet cherry tree
~Two heartnuts(one a seedling, one grafted)
~Three PawPaws
~One seaberry(more on the way)
~One Elderberry bush(more of these on the away)
~2 blueberry bushes
~50 willow starts(for a living fence)
~100 strawberry plants(two different varieties)
~25 asparagus plants(all male, so all will produce spears)
~25 red raspberry plants

We've also transplanted the peach tree, peashrub, cranberry and gooseberry to more suitable locations. Still to come are more seaberries, more elderberries, a corkscrew willow, and a buartnut.

Yes, we're planting like mad! And thankfully we're almost done with the permaculture additions for the year.

Last weekend was a busy one. I took Friday off, and it was devoted to the strawberry tower. After losing most of our strawberries(and plants) to deer and rabbits last year, when Mike found a plan for a strawberry tower, we were both gung ho to go that route this year! It took alot of scratching of the head to figure out all the angles, but we finally got it! So, Friday morning we moved it out to its permanent location and filled it with dirt and composted rabbit manure. That evening, after the heat of the day had passed(and yes, surprisingly, it was warm enough in April to be concerned about that!) we got the 100 strawberries planted.


Pretty cool, huh? They've been in for five days now, and are leafing out wonderfully! So far we're really happy with the way it's shaping up, and a nice side effect of the tower is that the base is merely 28 inches square, which makes fencing out chickens, rabbits and deer very easy and economical. Oh! And we're proud to say that all of the materials for the tower, like our coffee table, are recycled from pallets!

Today we're working on the garden. So far we've three 11 foot by 3 foot beds built and ready for dirt - that's next on the agenda, that and fencing the chickens out of both the new garden area and the asparagus.

Yes, I've taken today off, because we've a lot to get done in the next two weeks. On May 14th Mike is going in for knee surgery. It turns out that he did a lot more than just tweak his knee back in January, he tore the meniscus. That's the pad of cartilaginous tissue that acts as a shock absorber in your knee. He'll be laid up for six weeks after the surgery, so we're trying to get as much done between now and then as possible, so that hopefully it's just a matter of watering and weeding while he's recuperating.

So, that's that! I'll do my best to post pictures of the garden this weekend, but I can't promise anything at this point.

A visit to the fields of Iceland

Okay, okay, so it wasn't Iceland, but fields of Icelandic sheep! It was cold and windy, however.

Last weekend we made a pilgrimage two hours east to visit Hearts Ease Farm and spent the afternoon learning about Icelandic Sheep.



I started researching this breed of sheep a couple of months ago when the discussion arose once more of what type of livestock we thought we might succeed in raising on our three acres. Cows require too much space, and goats are notorious for climbing their way out of any fencing they encounter - not to mention neither of us are certain we like goat milk(or meat, for that matter). So, the conversation turning to sheep - we know we like sheep cheese(see below) and wool is always handy.

So why were we drawn to the Icelandic sheep? Well, they're a multi-purpose breed, of course! You certainly didn't expect anything less from us, right?

They are by nature a meat breed - lambs born in the spring are ready for butchering in the fall. They are also thrifty eaters, gaining weight easily on good pasture, as they are a hardy breed developed on the scant pastures of Iceland. It is said that even people who don't care for lamb like Icelandic lamb, as the meat has a unique flavor and texture. Wendy and Frances, the shepherds of Hearts Ease Farm, were kind enough to send us home with a leg of lamb, and we'll be cooking it up this weekend - hopefully we like it!!

They are also a breed than can be milked. While they won't produce anywhere near the volume of milk given by the dairy sheep or goat breeds, they would still allow us to produce our own milk on the property. Cheeses made from sheep are varied; pecorina, ricotta, manchego, Roquefort, and more.

And, last but not least, they're a fiber sheep. While I could go on and on about the dual layered coat, the fineness of the wool, and the many many natural colors, I'll save that for later ;) Suffice it to say, this third aspect is one that we will make full use of as well. Icelandic wool is very highly prized, and we're hoping that once we make our stock selections, we'll be able to take full advantage of the many uses.




So...back to our visit. The sheep had already been sheared the weekend before, so we saw these ladies in their underwear. Still, they were beautiful animals, with well shaped udders, and most of them VERY pregnant! They were inquisitive, a few were downright friendly, and all of them were quite comfortable with us standing around staring at them.

Oh, and we were able to see some babies too!

And so, without rambling further, here are some shots from our visit.

These two were quite playful, bounding around all over!

This little one was born the evening before(if I remember correctly, and was quite adorable). He(I think he was a ram) was one of three lambs born to this ewe, though she lost the other two.

These two were very very cute, and quite sleepy. They stayed all tucked up together most of the time we were there.

Stay tuned - later this weekend(or at the latest next week) - for a rabbitry update!