A little at a time

A little at a time we are getting the rest of the garden planted. We didn't have rain today and this evening after supper Rodger ran the disc and Jason and I planted the melons, watermelons, cantaloupes, punkins and cushaws. They are raising nine kinds of hell because I want to go ahead an plant the rest of the tomatoes and sweet potatoes that are in the greenhouse. Its plant them and let em make what they will or just toss em out to empty the greenhouse and shut it down. Seems to me the common sense thing would be to plant them and not spend too much time working in them, its sure better than the waste of tossin em out. Any way I guess later I can say I told ya so.
I went today to visit a friend of mine who has greenhouses and sells plants for local gardeners and their gardens. She has had a terrible season this year with all the wet weather. No one has gardens out. It has just been too wet. She still has seed potatoes that she has not sold. She has 3 huge greenhouses full of beautiful tomatoes and peppers, cabbage and lots of flowers and no one buying. This season has hurt all the farms and gardens here locally. I just hope we can have a decent garden and get enough to stock up our cellar.
I did pick up some rosemary plants while I was there and a few flowers just for pretty. I usually don't sow flower seeds as I mostly try to grow edibles in our green house.
We are forecast for more storms tonight so that should water my melon seeds in and get them started sprouting and hopefully off to a good start. The okra, eggplant and cukes I had planted are up and look great. The peas are blooming, beets are doing good. I guess the next dry spell we get it will be time to plow the garden and start the hoe work.  But that is all part of it.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A true statement

If there ever was a true statement this is it, if ya don't like Kentucky weather, jus hang around it will change in a lil bit. We got all the things done yesterday that we thought needed doin while the weather was nice. Well because we had more rain in the forecast for today. So kinda had my mind set on just hangin out here at the house knowing couldnt get anything done outside with rain. Well as life would have it, got up this morning and no rain. A nice sunny day, not too hot, just right for doing a few things outside. So out I go. Got my jars of chicken stock and canned chicken all washed off and ready to go to the cellar. Set those aside, an you know how scatterbrained I can be. I wondered off and decided it might be a good time to get the raspberries worked out and the rotted straw and compost put around them. I ran into Rodger on his way back from the orchard. He mowed the orchard yesterday and went to weed whack around all the trees this morning. All's well, cept he told me he chewed up one of my apricot trees. I knew it, he don't like apricots. But I know it was an accident. IF it don't make it I can get another one. So he says he will go help me with the berries. So hoes in hand we go to the field. He hoed out the raspberries while I picked the ripe strawberries off the new plants. And we hoed those out as well. On the drive back to the house I tole him to let me out so I could walk thru the garden to see if my beans I had to replant had popped up yet. They haven't yet and I'm a lil disappointed. But I do have some of em up which is better than none. Everything looks surprisingly good in the garden in spite of all the torrents of rain we have had this spring and summer. The tomatoes look good and healthy but I saw some of the Colorado potato beetles on them, I decided to go back to the end of the rows and start mashing bugs. Yeas I have come to the conclusion that is the best way to control them. Gosh I mashed a bunch of em and clusters of eggs too. Rodger suggested we do another walk thru the taters to see if the bugs were still bothering them. Yes they are but not bad. So down on m knees again mashin bugs. I really need a hobby. Here is a few things I have learned about the bugs. If you find just one bug on a plant, look for the egg clusters. That means they have already mated and one is still living to lay eggs. And 99% of the time there will be one bug already dead under the plant. Then if you find 2 bugs mating on a plant, you will not find an egg cluster. Just this lil bit of info helps speed the search along. This makes I think the 3rd time we have went thru the taters mashin bugs. AND this is the first time in years the plants have gotten this big without being stripped of their leaves. NONE of the medicine I have sprayed with in the past has worked. So as long as we can stand it I think this will be our best bet for tater bug control, mash em. So far, so good. Well after all this crap and now I can walk right cause my feet and hands keep getting tingly and feel funny. Not sure if its my blood pressure meds, sugar, just dunno. But we came to the house to get something to drink. We had planned on going back to the garden with the wagon and taking the rotted straw and compost for the raspberries. To beat all I was ordered to stay the heck in the house. Who do he think he is anyway? We got a snack and something to drink and were getting ready to head out to get the compost and straw and it started to rain. Just big drops at first, then heavy rain. Then slowed to only showers and I went to the summer kitchen to wash the strawberries and tote my chicken stock and chicken to the cellar. Then came the downpours of rain. We both were in the summer kitchen and ya would think someone had tossed a hand full of marbles on the tin roof. Made a bad racket for a while. We got HAIL! Not often we get hail for some reason, but today we did. Some of it small pea size and some the size of a good size marble. Not one of those quick lil bit of hails and over with. This went on for about 10 minutes or so. We were blessed it didn't destroy the greenhouse or hurt any plants here at the house. I doubt it hurt the garden either as the plants there are small enough to not be huge targets. So now we are walking on a sponge again. I guess the rain lasted an hour at most but it did soak everything. I finally got my canned stuff put away in the cellar and came in to fix supper.
I had soaked some shuck beans this morning and put those on to cook. It was just the 2 of us eatin, Jason is out somewhere. We had shuck beans with potatoes, fried cornbread, an hard boiled eggs for supper. So now am stuffed and am thinking serious about a nap.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I hate chicken and I need a nap

I bet ya never thought you would hear me say that. Well I don't really hate chicken I jus don't like chicken much right now. I have been at it since about 9 am first butchering chickens and now am sitting here in the summer kitchen cooking the bony pieces down for stock in the pressure canner. Then it all has to be strained and put in jars and processed. I have a bowl in the fridge that has the boneless thighs in it. Those will get raw packed in jars, covered with the strained stock and processed as well. Not hard to do at all , just boring time consuming stuff. The weather here has been really nice today. High in upper 80's, kinda hot when ya have to stand still and cut up chickens. Jason had to work today and that left Rodger and I to do all the butchering. If Jason had been here he would have had the task of cutting the chickens up. Ended up with 18 total in the freezer. I sure could think of better things to do than sit here and listen to the pressure canner. Things such as take a nap, mulch strawberries and raspberries, ya know, stuff like that. But it is all in a days work I guess. This means we will have lots of stock and canned chicken for different things this summer. I will be ordering more chickens this coming week to raise for butchering later. I think I am gonna order a batch of the frying pan specials, heavy meat birds,  from Marti Poultry farms and that way I can keep what ever pullets I want out of the bunch and butcher the rest. I have convinced myself that mixed breed hens just lay better than pure bred stock.  The laying flock I have now will be butchered off this fall when I have some replacements ready to take their place. But thats another day. Oh, if the world doesn't end this evening. Ok I was tryin to make a funny.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Fried green tomatoes

As I write this I am eating a plate of fried green tomatoes. But no they did not come out of the garden this summer already. I was digging around in the freezer today and stumbled on a bag that I had chopped an frozen last summer. I was happy as a pig in slop. So I decided to fry them up for a snack tonight after I got in from outside stuff. And boy howdy are they good. Good Lord willing this summer I am gonna put more baggies of chopped green maters in there. I like em when they just have a slight blush to em but not red ripe. Well if I cant have a fresh one from garden right now this will suffice. Here's how I do my fried green tomatoes.

About 2 cups of chopped green tomatoes with just a lil blush of color, sprinkle with about 1/2 cup cornmeal, 1/4 cup flour, salt and pepper and mix up really well. It will be a crumbly mix. Heat fat, preferably lard in a skillet till very hot but not smoking. Add the coated tomatoes and fry till they are brown. I stir mine so they end up for the most part in pieces. Plate em up and enjoy.
Hope this whets your appetite for fresh garden veggies. Now I am waiting on fresh ripe maters.
Not much happening here right now, still a lil wet for now. We didn't have rain today and the temps were nice. Suppose to be in the low 80's tomorrow so good weather to get some things done. Rodger and Jason got the yards mowed this evening and all the trimming done. So that is one job out of the way and the yard looks so much better.  Tomorrow is chicken killing day so we will be rather busy. I have my table set up and all my implements ready to do the job and make stock. Rodger wont be tied up with the chicken killing project long but I will probably be out there most all day and half the night. It does take a long time to make stock and then can it and some of the meat. But this will be the first canning project of the new season. But tomorrow night I know my joints will hurt like the dickens. They alas do when I over use em. But I keep plugging along.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The changes from day to day

It amazes me how the weather can change from one day to the next. Yesterday I had the heat on and couldnt seem to get warm and today I had to turn the A/C on for a bit. It is starting to warm up a bit and I am so thankful for that. Cold and wet weather does not do tender garden stuff one bit of good. The corn has a pale look to it from the cool and it also encourages flea beetles to eat on the new tender growth.  But today was rather nice even tho we did have some sprinkles earlier today it warmed up nicely. I am telling you I am a wimp. I didnt get out to do much till it was warmer this afternoon. I did transplant some of the stevia plants to the herb bed and kept 2 in a big pot in the greenhouse for safe keeping. Just to make sure some of them make it. I moved the thyme to the herb bed as well and planted some of the different varieties of tomatoes that I want to keep secluded for seed.  I had a few pots of flowers that I had started and now have those in pots to bring on the deck a lil later. The hyacinth peas are planted in 2 big pots that will sure need a trellis. Tomorrow I will need to get all my butchering stuff together to butcher on Saturday. I think this time I am cutting all the chicken up for frying and just canning the stock alone in jars. I made a rotisseri chicken for supper and decided to fine tune the chicken rice recipe that I had been using. We do like the rice a roni mix stuff and I can make it much cheaper. It is rather simple if you have your own good chicken stock. So I am sharing the recipe. This will make enough for 4 hearty appetites.

Rice O Roni My Way

1 cup long grain rice (long cooking)
1 cup angel hair pasta broken in 1/2 inch pieces
5 tablespoons butter
3 cups good chicken stock
3 bouillon cubes crushed
1/4 cup onion flakes
4 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon marjoram
salt to taste
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
!/2 teaspoon garlic powder

In skillet or heavy cooker brown the rice and pasta pieces in the butter till lightly browned stirring often. Watch this because it can burn rather quickly. Add chicken stock and remaining ingredients and simmer till the rice is done. If it gets a lil too dry before the rice is done add more chicken stock or water.
Serve with your choice of chicken, fried,  baked, or roasted.

You can substitute chicken soup base for bouillon if so desired. Or even add a lil bit the the dish to enhance the flavor. Enjoy! (This is very very close to the box rice a roni mix stuff only with more flavor an less salt.)

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Odd jobs done

Still too wet to do much in the garden. But at least we are finally getting some odd jobs done around here. After I got my herb bed extension done I was needing to get some kind of fence around it to keep the dog and cats from walking in there. Really hated to use any kind of heavy fence as it would make the place a lil unsightly. We still had a lot of the nylon deer netting left so we nailed short stakes/post around the bed and put a strip of the deer netting around. It is thin enough that it is nearly invisible from any distance yet it will be a barrier to keep the animals out. I would have used the same method in this bed as I do the others with exception this one is much larger and I don't have any woven fence wire to put on the ground over the plants. None the less it is secure and still looks ok.
According to the local weather the rain is due to end by tomorrow and it is gonna start getting warmer. I am so dang tired of being cold and wet. It hard to think of wearing a jacket on Memorial day. So am hoping that just maybe things will dry out a bit so we can plant melons and get the other field of corn planted. Not to mention the fact that I still need to mulch my strawberries. Not sure how much of that stuff will get done this weekend as I plan to butcher chickens on Saturday. They are huge and need to be in the freezer.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Too cold to garden

Our weather has went to chit, it is far too cold for anything to grow IF you can brave the mud to plant. I think we are in the midst of what we call "blackberry winter". It is no higher than 50 degrees during the day and low 40's at night and all with rain showers. Even with all the rain the garden stuff we have planted does look rather good. The corn came up pretty evenly, the green beans are up and doing good. The tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peppers that we transplanted last week look good. Rodger was in the field last evening and said it seems there are not any tater bugs on the taters right now. But I am sure they are laying down there under the soil just waiting for the sun to shine so they can chow down. As for garden stuff we have all the really important stuff planted. Still need to plant watermelons and cantaloupe and probably pumpkins and cushaws.
I was sitting here today and decided it might be a good idea to kinda draw a plan of where all the different herbs are planted in the herb bed.  As it is I have 26 different varieties of herbs planted, either plants and/or seeds sown.

chives-plants and seeds
parsley-plants and seeds
dill-plants and volunteer seeds
basil-plants
cumin-seeds
lovage-seeds
caraway-plants and seeds
calendula-seeds
sage-plants
savory-plants
marjoram-plants
lemon mint-plants
spearmint-plants
chamomile-plants
tarragon-plants
oregano-plants
bergomont-plants
echinecae-plants
borage-plants
horseradish-plants
thyme-plants
fever few-plants
stevia-plants
lavender-plants
stinging nettle-plants
comfrey-plants

I do think I pretty much have the seasoning part of cooking supplied for now. Unless I find something else that I can grow to use. Some of the herbs are first timers for me, most I have raised for years. The fever few and lavender are the ones that are not in the herb bed, as well as stinging nettle and comfrey. Herbs do sort of cover 2 aspects of gardening for me. They are really pretty plants, most of them flower in summer and for culinary use as well. Keeps me in the clear when hubby tells me I don't need any more flowers. "But hunny these are herbs". Cant help it they are pretty as well.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella