It's been over two weeks since I last posted something, which I think is the longest gap between posts that I've had. Sorry about that. I've been pretty busy at this end. We had a very Special Event a couple of weeks ago, and the preparation for that was a little overwhelming. The week after we had some pretty bad storms in our area. Storms mess with our satellite connection and we either lose our internet completely or it is too flaky to use, especially uploading information for my blog.
I'll be back soon with some more details about the Special Event and maybe even a few photos. I also have a few flood photos to share. And, of course, I'll have more time for farm life stories. So stay tuned as they say.
Meanwhile, here's a recent photo of the puppy. She's growing.
I wanted some vegetables for long term storage. I was going to buy them until I saw how expensive they are. So I decided to try dehydrating some frozen vegetables. I had read somewhere that this was an easy and much cheaper option. I had a bag of green beans, sweet corn, and sweet peas. I also had a handful of hydroponic jalapeno peppers that we weren't eating.
I put each vegetable on separate trays of the dehydrator. What I didn't realize was that once they were dried, they would be so small they would fall through the cracks. At least I'd thought to put the jalapeños at the bottom.
When they were dry, I spent awhile separating the vegetables. Then I put them in separate jars and labeled them.
I haven't had much luck growing strawberries with the hydroponic method. After two seasons of taking up space, I decided to move the best of the plants over into the raised beds. Since half of one bed is taken over with asparagus for the foreseeable future, I decided to put the strawberries in the other half.
This half was previously completely covered in weeds and grass, so over the summer I had it covered with a plastic sheet in hopes of eliminating that growth. The method was fairly successful, but I still had to pull a few weeds around the edges. I added a bag of rich compost that I had, along with a wheelbarrow full of chicken enriched wood shavings from the coop. Guv'nor helped turn it over for me.
I planted about a dozen strawberry plants with their roots, some bigger and healthier than others. After about two weeks, about half of them withered up, and only a few have survived. I keep watering them each day, so we'll see how they do.
We have another big Event coming up soon. So a few weeks ago I decided to plant lots of lettuce, hoping it might all be ready in time to provide a nice fresh salad for the dinner. I bought six trays of six starters of Buttercrunch lettuce from the organic garden center and planted them in the hydroponic stands. A few weeks later I bought red romaine starters. I also tried planting a few from seed, but only two small plants have survived, which won't be ready in time. They're growing nicely even though we haven't had any rain and the weather has been fairly hot. The pump on the timer gives them regular watering.
Here's what they're looking like, four weeks later.
