today's harvest

Skippy in T-shirt on Emily's quilt

Skippy is looking very handsome in his T-shirt. He's wearing it to protect his surgery site. He got 6 stitches in his back where a suspicious lump was removed. It was an ugly lump - I'm glad its gone. The surgery doesn't seem to have bothered Skippy much, but I am keeping him quiet for a week - no running or jumping or playing.

Skippy is sitting on a quilt that a reader of my blog, Emily Lewis, hand quilted for me. She did a really beautiful job! Her website is: Emily Lewis Quilts. There's a picture of my quilt on her site. She finished my quilt in March of 2013, I remember. I remember I got a notice to pick it up at the post office, but couldn't get there for two days because of the house arrest in the Watertown area after the Marathon bombing. What a time!

new chickens

I just picked up my two new chickens at the post office. They (McMurray Hatcheries)shipped them much nicer this time, in a box twice a big as last time (for 3 chickens last time) and this box had a divider between the birds. I got two pullets (hens 15-22 weeks old). A Barred Rock (black and white) and another Black Australorp.

I was warned by Linda not to put them with the full grown birds right away, but to use a dog crate at first. SO I am using one of Skippy's crates for them. I expect to keep them in there a few days, then put them in the coop with the big birds.

So far, they are getting along great. They are cooing to each other and the big birds are staying near the crated young hens. My big hens have been pretty skittish and stay in the woods under cover when they go out of their coop now. I am not letting them out as much as before as I'm skittish too.

today's harvest

red sauce

My tomato bowl filled up again today, so time to make red sauce.

When I make red sauce I peel, seed and chop tomatoes, then simmer about an hour. More detail: I boil a big pan of water and then put a few tomatoes at a time in it for about 1 minute till their skin starts to split. Remove and cool. Then peel skin. I squeeze out as many seeds as I can, then chop the pulp. I put all tomato pulp in a big pan and simmer, stirring occasionally till it is as thick as you want it. Usually about 1 hour of simmering.

My mom has extra tomatoes too this year (what a great year!) and wants to make sauce, but my skinning and seeding steps seem to much work. (They go fast for me since I have a routine.) My brother said to whirl the tomatoes in a blender and then boil them down. She thinks this sounds easier than peeling them all. My brother said the blender is good enough so you don't have pieces of skin. What do you think? My mom will try this sometime this week and see how it goes. I am looking forward to her report.

I have tried before to just core the tomatoes and cook them down. Can't get any easier. I cut them in half, thinking I'd pull out as much skin as I could. Here's a post I did on this: short-cut red sauce. It was a really really delicious sauce with lots of tomato varieties also squash and carrots added, but I ended up taking a lot of time trying to remove the skin and wasn't successful at taking out much of it so I ended up pureeing it.

After reading my old recipe, I think I will add some summer squash and carrots to my red sauce tonight.

today's harvest

garden in the rain

I went out in the rain today to check my garden. I got totally soaked because I couldn't just check the garden fast as I had planned. Once there I had to weed and take pictures. I only had my cell phone, so they aren't the best photos. Skippy and Suzie came too and played while I wandered in the garden. We all got soaked.



The photos remind me of things I need to do in the garden.
- The old pea vines need to come out. I'm waiting to do this until the fall seedling are ready to go in. I want to remember to get row cover ready to use for any Brassica's I plant as the cabbage worms are terrible here.
- The soy beans are ripening fast. I am keeping my eye on them as last year I waited too long to harvest. Getting the salt ready for fresh edamame!
- Lots of pretty eggplants coming along. I need to plan some eggplant recipes.
- I am thinking about whether to spray the popcorn tassels for corn ear worms. Its my first popcorn harvest here and I don't know if these are a problem. I guess my tendency is to not treat until I know I need to.

popcorn silks

It is amazing how fast corn grows. Just a few days ago the tassels started showing and now full size tassel and silks.

ordering pullets

I'm ordering a couple pullets tonight. Another Australorp and a Cuckoo Maran. From McMurray Hatchery. For arrival next week.

lost chicken

My black chicken disappeared today.

The three chickens were out in the side yard, foraging, and I was in the front yard setting up some agility equipment for my dogs. I heard chickens Ginger and Bertha squawking so loud that I came over to see. It was just the two of them so I went to look for Penny, the black Australorp, my favorite. Usually if there's squawking, it's one chicken who got separated from the other two. I've watched before as one chicken squawks, the other two will mosey on over to her.

But that wasn't what happened this time. Down the hill I found a pile of feathers. Further along, another pile. One last feather by the woods near my vegetable garden. I looked in the woods but never found her. I worked in my garden a couple hours after that, hoping Penny would show up but she didn't.

I think it must have been a large animal to carry off a full grown, 5-7 lb chicken. I've seen a small coyote in our yard and a fox. My husband saw a big coyote. I'm told the big coyote has been seen by neighbors walking down the road. I suppose it was him who got my chicken. It was midday, broad daylight, about 2 pm.

corn is tasseling

My popcorn is tasseling! Also the pointy tips of ears are showing! I knew they would pop out any day now.

fall planting

Half of my lettuce did not sprout, so I have replanted it. Instead of just replanting the lettuce, I planted another whole tray of seedlings. How could one have too many?

tomato soil test day 7

Looks to me like the "sub soil", the soil underneath my beds may be the problem. I did a soil test on this prior to plating and knew it was lacking in nutrients: pH 5.9, P very low(1.6), K low (63), Ca very low (500), Mg low (46), Sulfur good (14.2).

Maybe its not a toxic chemical in the soil or a virus, but could be the lack of nutrients? I fertilized once this season with granulated GardenTone, but think I will try a few treatments with a liquid compost tea or fish emulsion to get down into the lower soil where the roots are.

soil test results

This is the test result at day 5. Seedlings are sprouting in three of the four soils: tomato bed, compost and greens bed. I'll give it more time before I make any conclusions.

today's harvest

Beans, beans, beans! Plus a few beets and broccoli side shoots.

I need to find a good recipe for dilly beans....