Planting is in full swing!

Longer, sunny days allow me to get 2 or 3 good planting hours in right after work. I've been dashing out of the office at 4:30 PM (which is my regular leaving time but it rarely happens) and I work until sunset which is now around 7:45.
The tilling went beautifully. We have nice dark brown soil and I am amending with worm castings and composted chicken poo.
Last night I planted radishes, spinach, turnips (3 kinds) and carrots (3 kinds). The night before I planted 3 kinds of potatoes and 2 kinds of onions. The night before that (Monday) I planted 3 kinds of bush beans, red onions, ever-bearing strawberries to fill in the existing berry patch and radishes.
This Saturday we plan to plant the new Macintosh apple trees and peach trees that Steve just bought. The peach trees already have small fuzzy peaches on them.
Now I have about 60 square feet of garden left. I am not even half done.

Windy but very productive day!

After a busy weekend of meetings I had some time on Sunday afternoon to help Steve with his new project. Our 27 baby chickens are not babies anymore and they needed a new chiken run to play outside. We cleaned out the area between the big horse barn and the chicken coop. It was our temp storage place for extra wood. After hauling all the wood into to horse barn we started enclosing the area between barns for the chickens. By 7PM we had a beautiful area for the new chickens to run, scratch and play during the day with a door directly into the coop and an outside door for easy pen cleaning. They are happy campers and can now suppliment their diet with all the bugs available! Yummy!
I also planted 25 more, ever blooming strawberry plants, 2 raspberry, 2 blackberry bushes and more lettuce.
Tonight I will plant beans, radishes and peas. I hope to have at least 5 types planted by the weekend and finish up after Steve finishes tilling. Planting season is busy!

It's Asparagus Season!!!

I really could be out there picking asparagus everyday.
My 3 year old patch is about 60 feet long by 4 feet wide. This is our first spring to cut spears for eating and we are having asparagus with almost ever meal.
I will start freezing some and then work on a really good Cream of Asparagus soup for the winter months, because I could really see us getting a bit tired of having Asparagus with every meal. I'm not complaining now, but now I see how it can get a bit boring after awhile.
Roasted, tossed with garlic salt and toasted sesame oil is still my favorite! It's like candy!
Photos to come.
Also, Strawberry blossoms a plenty! This is early!

Great Start to the Week!

Sunday after mass, the temps were already reaching 75 degrees. The high was planned for 85 so I had to get my chores done quickly. Two hours spent shoveling chicken poo out of the babies chicken coop, shoveling new hay in the babies coop and adult hen's nesting boxes, lead to an hour of digging up Day Lillies since they were growing in a very inconvenient spot, right in the middle of the lawn (very hard to mow around). I gave the Day Lillies to Sue next door to decorate her side of the barn. She doesn't have free-range hens that eat all her flowers, like we do.
After showering off all the poo, we had dinner Alfresco! With a gorgeous purple sunset, chilled glasses of wine and my favorite chicken recipe of Bobby Flay's, chicken with lemon, cumin, parmesean cheese and a fabulous mango sauce on a bed of cilantro pesto mashed potatoes.
Yummy!

I also came up with another dandelion salad, even better than the last one. This one is adapted from my favorite Mediterranean salads with sliced oranges and olives. Pick your dandelion greens before the plant blooms. Baby greens are best.

3 cups baby dandelion leaves, washed and cut in half.
3 small oranges, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
1very small red onion, sliced thinly
1 cup green olives with pimentos, sliced
5 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt & pepper to taste

In a platter, lay greens on bottom and layer sliced oranges, then red onion slices and top with sliced green olives.
Wisk dressing ingredients together and drizzle over salad. Let set about 5 minutes to meld flavors and spoon onto individual plates. Enjoy!!!!!!

By the time Spring is over, you shouldn't have any dandelions left in your yard! Send gifts as thank you's.

Spring salad tonight!

After spending a warm spring day in the garden, transplanting my swiss chard and collard green plants that did not die over the winter and fertilizing the lettuce and beet beds I scanned the edges of the garden fence and noticed how plentiful the dandelions were. Even the dandelions benefited by all that organic fertilizer in our garden. The leaves were tender but very plentiful so I picked a basket full for a salad with dinner.
I was thinking of a sweet maple blasamic dressing to balance the bitter greens.
The dandelions were not bitter at all but crisp and tart. What a treat from a weed!
Spring Dandelion Salad
Salad ingredients:
4 cups, tender dandelion greens washed & torn in half
1 large stalk celery washed and thinly sliced
two kiwis peeled and sliced then halved
1 small granny smith apple peeled and chopped
Dressing ingredients:
equal parts:
Balsamic vinegar
Maple Syrup (the real stuff)
Olive oil (extra Virgin please)
Fresh ground black pepper
Mix all salad ingredients together except the kiwi. Wisk all the dressing ingredients together except the black pepper. Place salad on 4 plates, top with kiwi slices, drizzle with dressing and add black pepper before serving.
So get out there in your lawns and dig up those tender greens while they last!

March 6th and 71 degrees!

With the crazy weather we've been having and early tornados here we decided to get all our tree trimming done. The pecans, pear, apple trees and flowering shrubs are now trimmed and all broken limbs removed. This took several hours under windy conditions. Next time I am wearing a face mask. I got whipped in the face countless times by branches waving in the wild wind.
We trimmed the overgrowth around the pond and removed a few dried stumps to make more room for the water we will no dfoubt get in the spring rains. The malard duck thought this work was interesting and kept swimming by to observe. She's very happy living in both locations, our pond and next door with the boys. She visits our pond during the day and spends the night next door with her beau. Hussy!
For dinner I used the last bag of frozen tomatoes, my home made ricotta cheese, swiss chard, of course and made lasagna layering the chard with the cheese between the noodles. The fresh marinara sauce was outstanding, heavy on the garlic. Yummy!!!! What a treat!

Baby Chicks on the Move!

As I drive around our community I see all the baby cows curled up in the tall grass. A sign that spring is here. 65 degrees yesterday, made a perfect day to move the baby chicks out to the big chicken coop. Steve built a great area for them, separate from the mature ladies, and they are having a blast testing their wings and trying to stay balanced on their roosting pole. The photo at left was their brooder (much too small now). Our mature hens love their new nesting boxes and additional roosting pole that they have all started laying eggs again. We are thrilled. Spring is indeed just around the corner.

Our one lonely female mallard (who moved next door with the males) comes back each morning and quacks up a storm in case any old friends show up.

Steve has begun to plow up the garden. In a week or two I will mix up our first organic fertilizer to add to the soil and begin forming our rows. The fall-planted garlic has already peaked beyond the winter mulch. I can't wait to plant.

Cheese making is coming along, but I need more practice. I can't seem to keep the temps consistent so my curds are not as strong as they need to be. I'll keep trying, becuase Ricotta and mozzarella are good at any time!

In the nice weather on Saturday, we walked up to our back stables to check on our newest addition to the farm, a black and white calico ferrel cat who sneeks down to our deck at night to check for water and food. We noticed the fox den was clean and well used. Time to blow the family out. They fed on our birds for too long last year. Time for a bit of extermination! I just have to find out what to do!

Never a dull moment and always something going on. It's heaven!