Summer Has Arrived in Wisconsin

It was almost spring when I last posted and now it is almost summer. I can't believe an entire season has flown by. I stopped posting when life became crazy with our first lambing experience. We added 15 lambs to our flock this year and we definitely learned a lot. We had just about every lambing disaster that a shepherd can experience, from nutritional deficiencies to prolapsed uteruses......sigh. But we know how to make things better for our second year.

The garden is now in full swing. I am now planting more seeds for succession planting in the near future. So much to do....so little time.....I'll try to get caught up on what's going on in the next few weeks.

Winter Squash

Spring has definitely made its way to Wisconsin and that's wonderful! A friend of mine planted many early spring garden vegetables last weekend, but my ground was still frozen solid. This week still took our evening temps downs into the 20s, so the ground still hasn't thawed too much, but I have many seeds underway in the house and even moved 8 flats of seeds outdoors into my little cold frames by the garden.

I will be starting my tomatoes very soon so that is very exciting....they are my favorite veggie. I also now have to decide what I will plant in terms of winter squash. I got a little carried away this year when I discovered the Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds Company. They carry so many heirlooms I'd never heard of before that I had to get several varieties and I had already placed my order to Fedco and Seed Savers. I will list the varieties I have.

I had some Delicata seeds left from last year.

From Seed Savers:
American Tonda
Gutaemalan Blue

From Fedco:
Blue Hubbard
Burpee Butterbush Butternut
Squisito Spaghetti

From Baker's Creek:
Shishigatani (or Toonas Makino)
Sweet Dumpling
Kamo Kamo
Vegetable Spaghetti
Pomme D'or
Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato
Musquee de Provence
Australian Butter
Galeux d'Eysines

I know that in order to be able to save seeds from this year's planting that I will either have to only choose a few varieties and plant them far apart or else I will have to do some hand pollinating (that's what I will most likely do). Plus I have the added benefit of helping a few other gardeners and we can use one variety in their garden and then we will have pure seed to save.

Keep coming spring!!!

Chicken Delight

I lost my Cuckoo Maran Rooster as I mentioned in my last post. But yesterday as I was talking to a friend, I asked her if she was going to be ordering from the McMurray Hatchery anytime soon and coincidentally she was planning on placing an order today.

So she tacked four straight run (will contain an assortment of males and females) Cuckoo Marans onto her order for me. Yippee!!! I'll be getting a new rooster and a couple new hens, so I'm happy. They will be coming in April about the same time that my order of Barred Rock Chickens are coming so they will all be raised together....JOY!

I will have to make sure and tag the Cuckoo Maran's legs as they look VERY MUCH like the Barred Rock Chickens and I know I won't be able to tell them apart once they get bigger.

I am trying raising the Barred Rocks as my main meat bird this year as they are a heritage bird that is listed on Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste. What is Slow Food USA? Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world.

The Ark of Taste is a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates. I am happy to report that I am currently raising several of the items on their list and will soon be adding even more!

Raising animals is a lot of joy and I am glad I have something to be happy about after such calamity in the chicken coop.

Calamity in the Chicken House

Last night we had our first real calamity raising chickens. Our son was in charge of closing up the coop at nightfall because I was not home. However, he forgot to do it and by the time he remembered he went out and discovered 5 possums in the coop and our Cuckoo Maran rooster, Coke, lying dead on the floor. He rushed in the house to call me. By the time he got back out to the coop the possums were gone. So we had our first loss due to predator issues. It's a good thing our son passed hunter safety a few weeks ago because he can definitely work on eliminating this large population of predators.

We still have our rooster, Cocky, who is an off-spring of our original rooster, LeRoy. But I am very disappointed about the loss of Coke. I was planning on isolating him with the five Cuckoo Maran hens we have and hatching out more purebred chicks. I love these chickens because they lay very dark brown eggs and it broadens the spectrum of colors of our chickens' eggs. A new Araucana rooster will be coming in early April that I plan to breed with our three Araucana hens for more purebred Araucana chicks, so I still have that to look forward to. Araucana eggs are also delightful as they can range in color from greenish to bluish to pinkish and they are so pretty along side the light brown and dark brown eggs from the other chickens.

I guess I'll have to take a picture of a typical dozen eggs we get so you can see the large color range.

Say a prayer that we get the possums before the possums get the chickens.

Fixing Heisman

Today is the day Heisman was fixed. My friend, Jodi, came over and showed me how to band his tail and his reproductive unit and we gave him his first dose of cd&t. This was all very helpful to me as I had never done it before and soon I will have about 30 lambs to do this for. We plan to keep Heisman as a whether and knew we would not be breeding him. We have a ram for our next year's breeding program and Heisman is not the breed we want in our offspring...although he is darling. So fixed now he is.

How to Start Seeds under Grow Lights

March is FINALLY here. In Wisconsin March is the beginning of starting seeds under grow lights. Today I moved all the stuff out of my storage area and set up my grow lights for my seed starting. For two months I have to find another place to put my extra stuff so I can set up the growing area (it's a good excuse to weed things out of storage as well).

So far I have started many new herbs, celeriac, celery, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and onions. By the time I am ready to start the peppers, tomatoes, gourds, and other crops this first batch will be going in the ground.

I have always used regular fluorescent lights in the inexpensive shop light fixtures you can get for about $5 at home improvement stores. I know experts recommend that you replace the bulbs every year, but I don't do this and I've never had a problem getting my plants off to a great start.

I always use Jiffy potting soil and cut expenses in the area of planting containers. Often I cut off milk jugs and use the bottom to start seedlings. Then I take the best seedlings to transplant into small containers (like yogurt cups or homemade paper pots). I also start seeds in the little starting packs that fit nicely inside a liner pan. If you are careful you can save these each year and reuse. Be sure to wash them well and it is a good idea to use a little bleach to disinfect them.

I water the seeds well, then cover with saran wrap. When the seeds begin to sprout I remove the wrap and make sure to water from the bottom (some plants will dampen off if the soil is wet at the base of the plant....yes....this has happened to me, so I know from experience....water from below).

Place the lights as close to the soil as you can and adjust slightly higher as needed when the plants grow. It is important to keep the lights close to the plants! That's really all there is to starting seeds inside. Sometimes I also start a few flats of seeds by a window. I haven't had any trouble doing that, but the plants do tend to get leggier than if they are under grow lights.

Yippee, spring is almost here!

I'm Crazy About Heirloom Tomatoes

Now I know I'm crazy. I went through my seeds this past weekend to start getting organized because it is time to get planting. I went to the garden center yesterday to get my jiffy potting mix and some trays for starting. I planted 3 kind of heirloom onions, celeriac, and cutting celery. In two more weeks I'll have lots more to sow and in a month my basement will be overflowing with seedlings.

About the tomatoes however......I have been collecting seed from my favorite tomatoes, Rose, and Federle for several years. This year I wanted to try other varieties as well, so I ordered more seeds from Fedco, Baker's Creek, Seed Savers, and I got a lot of free seeds from Wintersown.org. Now that I have compiled everything I ordered I see I must have been nuts. Have you ever gone grocery shopping while you were hungry? You know what happens. You buy too much! That is what has happened to me.

I have 27 different heirloom tomato varieties. Now 27 plants is more than most even think to plant in their garden, so having that many varieties is pretty crazy. But we love tomatoes and I usually put in at least 40-60 plants in a normal year. Because we have 7 mouths to feed we need more than an average amount of food to get us through the winter, but this year I am trying to grow almost ALL our food. So with tomatoes that means enough for spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, chili, beef stew, ketchup, juice, and more for an entire year. I will probably plant 100 plants. I guess if I end up with too much the kids can sell the extras at the local farmer's market near us.

Here are the varieties besides the Rose and Federle that I am going to plant.
From Baker's Creek:

• Rev. Morrow's Long Keeper (plant in June and harvest later - keeps through December)
• Aunt Ruby's German Cherry
• Dad's Sunset
• Ananas Noire
• German Red Strawberry
• Millionaire
• Paul Robeson (very excited about this one)
• Hawaiian Pineapple
• Riesentraube
• Carbon (excited about this one too)
• Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge (can't wait to see and taste this!)

From Seed Savers Exchange:

• Black Sea Man (PL)
• Wisconsin 55

From Fedco:

• Cherokee Purple
• PineappleAunt Ruby's German Green

From Wintersown:

• Green Sausage
• Chocolate Cherry
• Speckled Siberian
• Black Cherry
• Tumbling Tom
• Tennessee Britches

From P and P Seed Co:

• Phil's Fantastic (supposed to be very large!!!)

Heirlooms from the local feed store:

• Red Cherry Large
• Red Oxheart
• Brandywine Pink (PL)

Out of all these seeds, the only plants I need to really worry about cross pollinating are the Brandywine Pink, Black Sea Man, and the Rose. Each of those plants is a potato leaf (PL) variety which means that the stigma sticks out of the anther cone. In regular leaf tomato plants the stigma does not stick out of the anther cone so cross pollinating does not readily happen. There is a lot of conflicting information regarding tomatoes and cross pollinating, but one article that I like can be found here.

Based on my own experience growing tomatoes for over 20 years I really haven't encountered any crossing between regular leaf varieties, only potato leaf varieties. So I will follow the seed saving idea of bagging with tulle that I have on hand for the seed I plan to save. I will probably bag the regular leaf varieties that I deem desirable enough to replant again next year just to make sure the seed is pure, but I don't really think it is necessary.

Okay, now you know I'm nuts about gardening, nuts about tomatoes, and just plain nuts. But I'm excited to try these tomatoes!

Heirloom Apple Trees

I plan to graft many different heirloom apple trees this spring. Grafting means that you take a dormant 1/4" diameter branch off a tree whose variety you wish to grow and graft it onto a rootstock. Growing apple trees from seed doesn't give you a very good tree, so people have been grafting fruit trees for a long long time. The cut from the piece off the tree (scion wood) has to match the cut on the root stock and then be sealed with putty and tape so oxygen can't penetrate the cut. I have found some cool videos on Youtube demonstrating this. You can view one here.

The varieties I will be grafting on M26 rootstock are:

Early Strawberry Origin: New York 1800 Ripens: Jun/July Zone: 3 - 6 It is very similar in appearance to another early apple, Early Red Margaret, with the two often mistaken. Fruit is medium sized and often has unequal sides. The smooth, thick skin is light greenish-yellow with fine stripes and splashes of bright red. The tender, crisp, juicy flesh is white and often stained with red when eating.

Oriole Origin: Minnesota 1949 Ripens: July/Aug Zone: 3 - 6 Yellow skin, striped red. Parentage: Yellow Transparent, Liveland Raspberry. An excellent quality dessert or cooking apple. Tree is extremely productive, and extremely to very hardy.

Yellow Transparent Origin: Russia (Europe 1870) Ripens: July/Aug Zone: 3 - 6 Medium to large fruit with transparent pale yellow skin. Crisp, sweet and juicy, but has a very short life after ripening on or off the tree. Often picked in a greener stage for cooking. Excellent for sauce, pie and drying. Bears very young and heavily. Thin for best size.

Sweet 16 Origin: Ripens: Sept Zone: 3 - 6 Uniquely flavored sweet, crisp apple with good storage qualities.

Pink Pearl Origin: California Ripens: Sept Zone: 3 - 6 A pink-fleshed, pearly-skinned apple that is not just a novelty, but a good tasting apple with firm flesh. Tart to sweet-tart, depending on time of harvest. Blooms very attractive. Makes pink applesauce and attractive fruit tarts. An Albert Etter introduction.

Golden Russet Origin: New York prior to 1845 Ripens: Oct Zone: 3 - 6 An old American cider apple, also good for eating and drying, and attractive for a russet. Tree medium to large, fruit medium to above. The sugary, dense flesh of this apple is the essence of the European reinettes.

Melrose Origin: Ohio 1944 (Jonathan x Delicious) Ripens: Oct Zone: 3 - 6 Large, homely fruit with yellowish-green skin streaked red with russet spots. The flesh is firm, coarse, sweet, juicy and creamy white. One of the best keepers of all time, whose flavor improves in storage (best after Christmas). Very good for pie and baking. Should be grown in full sun for best quality, susceptible to scab. Bears well every year.

Golden Noble Origin: England 1820 Ripens: Zone: 4 - 7 Very handsome pure yellow fruit with creamy white flesh and excellent texture. One of the best cooking apples with high acid and an extremely good fruity flavor. Trees are upright, spreading and moderately vigorous. A special garden tree because of the clear yellow glow of the apples in green foliage. Partial tip bearer.

Golden Russet Origin: New York prior to 1845 Ripens: Oct Zone: 3 - 6 An old American cider apple, also good for eating and drying, and attractive for a russet. Tree medium to large, fruit medium to above. The sugary, dense flesh of this apple is the essence of the European reinettes.

Sierra Beauty (This one I ordered the TREE)Origin: California Ripens: Oct Zone: 3 - 6 Large, handsome apple with thin green and yellow skin, striped or blushed red. A favorite apple from Boonville, CA. Juicy, very crisp and tart. A good seller in farm markets and an excellent keeper. The tree is compact.

Hudsons Golden Gem Origin: Oregon 1930 Ripens: Oct/Nov Zone: 3 - 6 Fruit conical, elongated, yellow russet. Perhaps the finest eating russet with crisp breaking sugary flesh and distinct pear flavor. Quite disease resistant to apple scab, powdery mildew and somewhat resistant to fire blight.

Trees I have already ESTABLISHED (had a couple fruits on them last year):

Honeycrisp Origin: Minnesota 1991 (Macoun x Honeygold) Patent #7917 Ripens: Sept/Oct Zone: 3 - 6 Skin is mottled red over yellow. The flesh is very crisp and is excellent for eating. Good keeper - up to 5 months. Topped with McIntosh and Delicious for fresh eating in taste tests.

Gala

NORTHWEST GREENING Nice older tree in my orchard. Similar to Granny Smith in color & flavor. Excellent cooking & pie apple ripening in LATE September - EARLY OCTOBER. Large green apples are crisp, sweet-tart and Excellent keeper. Trees are resistant to blight & rust. STORES ABOUT 2-3 MONTHS. ANNUAL BEARING

Apples Trees and Thinking of Spring

Just two weeks ago we had a false sense that spring was approaching as our temperatures were in the 50s and our snow melted. But.....winter is still here as we now are in the midst of accumulating 7 more inches of snow. One of things I love about winter is dreaming about spring budding forth, summer crops growing and the bounty that follows.

Yesterday I made progress with the apple orchard in a practical way. This summer will be our 8th summer on our 15 acre homestead. Until this past year we really didn't realize the full potential of having a homestead -- primarily because I had 3 more children and there is only so much time. Now with the youngest 3 1/2 it's time to ramp things up. Our apple and pear orchard in the back yard has definitely seen better days. I evaluated that three apple trees must be cut down, another one still has a nice enough base to graft onto, and the rest we'll wait and see another year.

So I ordered 18 sticks of scion wood, 30 rootstocks, and one tree ready for planting. I ordered from Maple Valley Orchard because they specialize in heirloom varieties that are no longer widely grown and also because they are located in a colder zone than I am (hopefully the trees will survive our frigid winters). Tony, the owner, was Sooooo helpful helping me pick varieties and also giving me an education over the phone on successful grafting. I plan to demonstrate grafting with our local homeschool group in April, so hopefully I'll get enough practice on water sprouts and new lilac shoots to get good at it.

The plan will be to get many new trees planted and established. I would also like to set an area aside just for future apple tree propagation . Many of the varieties I selected are for storage (to help with food through the winter) and the rest are for fresh eating, baking, and cooking through out the entire season (June/July through November). I can't wait to get started!

I will list the different varieties I am starting in another post. But for now I'm going to enjoy watching the snow by the fireplace.

Heisman is here!

The past week was a little crazy adjusting to a new little baby around. But he is growing and doing well enough that he will be going out to the barn to stay very soon. He goes out with us to do the chores and I think he is eager to be outside.

Heisman is a southdown ram lamb. Another sheep person didn't have time to care for this little fella, so we took him in. We aren't planning to use him in any part of our breeding program so he will become a whether soon. I didn't really need the extra work right now, but I really wanted the experience of caring for him as we have 17 ewes that have been bred and this is our very first time having lambs. So I figured it would be easier getting experience with just one little guy than when I have 30+ lambs in the barn very soon.

I am learning homestead life as I go. I am fortunate that I have an adventurous spirit and some good friends who are learning as they go too. But sometimes I think it would have been nice to learn these things as I grew up (like my grandma did). You can only learn so much from reading a book. I do better with real hands-on training.

I will certainly be more prepared for my own lambs that I would have been if Heisman hadn't come along. I need to get a few more supplies like stuff for tube feeding and colostrum powder and extra nipples for bottle feeding. SOOO glad I did this!

Raising a Bottle Lamb

It looks like we are going to raising a bottle lamb. I am thinking we will be picking him up tomorrow so that is exciting. My friend knows a friend who doesn't want to keep him, so we will be the lucky recipiants. I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Lamb Leg Red Wine Recipe

We just ate lamb leg for the first time. It was unanimous. We all loved it. In fact I should have taken a picture of it....it looked sooooo good.

I grew up living in the country on a couple acres, but my family never raised any animals other than a pet dog and rabbit. When I think about it I kind of wonder why we didn't.

This lamb leg was small from one of the whether lambs we had processed this fall. When we told our families we were raising sheep, they all said yuck about the meat, but I doubt very much that they ever even tasted any kind of lamb meat. The leg of lamb roast we ate tonight would be considered real gourmet fare. Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup red wine
4 cloves minced garlic
1 t thyme
3 T minced fresh rosemary
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 T extra virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a ziplock plastic bag along with the lamb leg and marinate. I put the lamb in the refrigerator and marinated all day. Before I baked the leg I rubbed it liberally with plenty of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I baked it on a small rack in my roasting pan and because I couldn't find anything on-line that was consistent with how long you should cook your roast I cooked mine until a thermometer read 140 degrees in the center. I wanted the meat done a little more than medium rare and I have to say it was perfect. I had a bone-in leg so that usually needs a little more time than a boneless leg. One of the directions I read said to start with a hot 425 degree oven for 20 minutes and then turn down to 300 degrees so that is what I did and I have to say for my very first time I was delighted it turned out so delicious!

Garden Fresh Nutrition in Winter

Want some fresh grown garden nutrition in the middle of winter? How you ask? Simply by sprouting some seeds in a glass container. In the past I have sprouted beans. I love beans. This time I bought a bag of alfalfa seeds to sprout. Alfalfa sprouts are high in antioxidants. It only takes a couple of days for them to really get going, so I think I'll start another batch today and then by the time I'm finished eating these guys the next ones will be ready. If you would like some nutrition information on sprouts you can check out the Good Sprout News.

It's All Too Much on Ground Hog Day

It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh, the professional organizer from TLC's hit series "Clean Sweep, is the current library book I'm perusing. I'm definitely not the packrat that I see in the homes on television, but I do have my own short comings.....namely lots of good books, educational toys, clothing (all from garage sales and on sale), and craft supplies. I guess when you add it all up......it stinks. It doesn't matter how much space I have, I fill it up. I guess I picked up this book so that I don't have to be the army sergeant any more when we have company coming over. And yes.....we do like to have company over. In fact I love to have company over....I just hate the hassel of the last minute hide it routine.

So.....big sigh.....I guess I am like most evey other American I know......we have too much stuff! It's time to purge. I mean really purge. You know, it's not like I can't pick something up at a garage sale if I find I miss it or really want one again. So even though Punxsutawney Phil said we have 6 more weeks of winter left, my spring cleaning has to start today. I will be too busy this spring to do it then.

So on to work! Happy Ground Hog Day!

It's Time to Wake up America!

I accidentally (or maybe it wasn't a coincidence) ran across this web page while I was checking into the safety and reputation of Seventh Generation Cleaners. I clicked on this link that advertised Five Food Films that Deserve an Oscar. Now I have already watched one of these films and ordered one other, but three of these films were totally new to me. I can't wait to order them from the library, or net flix, or I'll purchase them.

When I was first married, over twenty years ago, I gave a donation to a door to door person who was fund-raising for Green Peace. When my husband came home he was horrified that I would give a contribution to such an extreme organization. I mean this organization supports saving the whales and owls. They are tree huggers. They picket and protest. They try to save the planet. Really.....they are doing what we have the right to do in America. But most Americans don't exercise their right to stand up for what is just and what is right. We fear our government and big businesses and as a result big agri-business has taken over our entire food industry with the help of our federal government. They are in the process of taking over the entire world food supply too.

I do tend to have a tree hugging instinct. The basic difference between me and many other tree huggers, however, is that I worship the Creator, and not the "created." I marvel at the diversity and beauty of this incredible world our Lord God created -- every single day. It could be the reflection of the sun off the shining snow, or the incredible palette of colors in a sunset. There are so many marvels each and everyday! But I also feel this deep need to protect and preserve this beautiful world the good Lord has made.

So I would encourage you to watch these Five Food Films that Deserve an Oscar. Not only will you be awakened to what is being hidden from the American people, but I guarantee you will feel the moral outrage that I do that we are being subjected to poisoned food and a one world agenda for total control.

It's time to wake up America!