Weather Dilemma: Starting Seeds

Yes, I know it's  still February 

It's been a crazy winter weather wise this year. Part if me wants to go ahead and start my early spring seeds, but another, sager, part says hold off for two weeks because winter is far from over. Our last frost date is in April.

I like to plant English peas, potatoes, and assorted cool weather crops in the ground by Easter, April 12th. Which means I should go ahead and sow transplants now. But experience has taught me, in the NE GA mountains, that a hard freeze with snow lasting several days will occur around the end of April and the beginning of May.

That's for a normal year. But this winter has been far from normal. We've had a few freezing cold days and nights, and only seen snow flurries a handful of times this winter. It actually snowed yesterday for the first time. Total accumulation was predicted at 2", but here on the homestead we got 8"! With the highs today being in the 50s again, it'll melt and it will turn to ice by morning, but even this is different than previous years when there was snow on the ground and ice everywhere. It's been too warm. Nights may be in the 20s, but the daytime highs have been in the 50s or more. It's almost like I'm living on the east GA coast again. The insect population is going to be horrible this year with not enough freezing weather to kill them off. For organic or chemical-free gardeners like us, this is bad news. It's going to be a constant battle against them to get a decent harvest.

Do I chance it? I may delay starting my seeds inside another week. Just to be safe. I can always start making the starter plugs of "soil" this week. These transplant plugs will be inserted into larger soil blocks after their first true leaves emerge. After all, there's no real nutrition available in seed starting mix and once the true leaves form, they'll need the compost boost to grow into healthy plants/ transplants. I'll not only be starting vegetables, but bug deterrent flowers and herbs. Think several hundred plugs/transplants. I'm planting for a year's worth of harvest and self-sufficiency.

This is the main difference between my ideal garden and Mel's. Mel's garden is strictly fresh eating ig we get anything. While I have nothing against this type of gardening, but I believe in planting enough plants and staggered plantings to do both. So while she will start a dozen or so seeds, I'll start 30-50. I may not plant all fifty, but choose the healthiest plants of the bunch for our main vegetable patch.

The not so robust transplants won't go to waste, They'll find homes in other areas like among flower beds and new planting areas. They may not produce as well as those planted in the main garden, but they'll do their job of breaking up and feeding the soil for the next planting season. You might have guessed that I don't follow recommended guidelines for plant spacing either. I'll companion plant the dickens out of the space I have. With so little space available to grow vegetables in (about 1/8th of an acre), I have to to get the harvest I need. I cut the standard spacing by half. But in planting this way, I'm able to grow more with less.

For example, when I plant my potato barrels, I'll grow dill in the same pot. The dill deters potato bugs. In my asparagus patch I'll grow parsley and beans or peas for a complete ecosystem. I can harvest three times as much from the same space, but there is another reason for companion planting this way. Asparagus is a perennial root. They are also heavy nitrogen feeders. Parsley deters asparagus beetles. So the beans and peas feed the asparagus. The parsley provides ground cover, works an insecticide, and provides us with plenty of herbs. Parsley is also self sowing so you plant it once and it keeps coming back year after year. So after I cut a few stalks this year, I'll sow a packet of parsley seeds to fill in bare patches and plant my green beans or peas between the stalks. It also cuts down on weeds I have to pull. I'd say it's a win-win scenario.

So my dilemma is solved. I'll sow my seeds indoors next week.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Even Mother Nature Failed Us This Year

We've got a slew of wild blackberry thickets on our property. Considering over an acre and a quarter is still an overgrown mess, this is far from surprising. They are good for about five-gallon bags a year of this juicy, succulent fruit.

We only harvest five gallons worth because that's all we need for a years worth.  Mel eats as much as she picks. Actually, more as she heads to the creek and none get in the bag. I'll grab a few and bag the rest. Who can resist popping a few in your mouth while picking them, right? That's the beauty of organically grown or wild foraging your food. The other problem we have trouble getting to them all the thickets are so thick. Remember, this property was abandoned for seven years before Mel rescued it. Well, the birds eat well and the seeds, from those berries that drop, replant themselves for even a thicker thicket next year.

As we've clear the property of undergrowth, foot by pain painstakingly foot, we leave strategic areas for blackberry patches. Those on the way to the creek, along the driveway, around the orchard, and patches by the chicken houses are left to grow and flourish. Why only those areas, you may ask? Well, they are semi-contained and easier for me to get to for picking and Mel can snack on while traipsing our property. Of course, there's the untended land that we haven't even bush hogged yet and the ravine is impossible to bush hog... it's too steep of an angle. That's another purchase we need, way down on our "to purchase list," a bush hogger attachment and a bigger tractor to do it with. It'll save our friends up the road to do it for us. Not that they mind doing it. We ply them with food and goodies... to eat and take home as a form of payment.

But this year, even Mother Nature failed us!

I've lamented about our garden and orchard for months now, but Mother Nature has always provided. This year, I watched for the tale telling signs of  the whitish cream colored blooms heralding the season. All spring and summer long, I waited except there was no show of blossoms. No flowers equals no berries. Discounting hospital stints,I might have missed it. I actually walked the driveway looking for fruit. None, nada, zilch!

 So much for making Mel's Triple Berry Delight jam I make for her each year. No blueberries (homegrown), no raspberries (homegrown), no blackberries (wild homegrown) equals no jam unless I purchase the frozen varieties. I refuse to do this just on principle alone. Well, she's just got to ration what we've got after thinning and recanning  the jam out a couple months ago. Not that she'll like it much. She wants what she wants when she wants it. Not that there's not other jams and jellies she can't eat. The strawberry jam and orange marmalade are mine and mine alone because she doesn't like either.

Regular prepper's pantry

So, our bad year for harvesting has gotten worse. Oi veh! It's just a bad year for us and we are praying for a better year next year or we'll be back to buying produce. Such is homesteading organically. You have great years, not good years, and failures. You've just have to roll with the punches Mother Nature doles out. In the great years, you put up enough to cover the not so good and failure years to carry you through. As we said once on a YouTube video Tea Time, We aren't preppers in the conventional sense of the word. We are self sustaining preppers. We prep for a failed season or two not ten or twenty years worth. That's just insane.

We may eventually reach the five-year pantry, but we'd have to clear another half-acre and build the soil up some. It would involve cutting down more trees, pulling up stumps, tilling up the hard clay soil with adding about an easy ton of compost, and waiting for the new planting area to mature (a season or two). But, we could plant upland rice in the area while we wait, thanks Leigh for the research and trial, or orchard grass for the bunnies to speed up the ground breaking up/ maturation time. But mainly we have to have a couple great harvesting years with Mother Natures cooperation.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Why We Keep a Prepper's Pantry

I wasn't a hoarder as a prepper before my stroke. I never bought more than a year's worth of anything, except for paper goods but that came in handy post stroke. I could make my own laundry, bath, and dishwasher soap if I needed to in a pinch. In fact, I still do many of the things I wrote about in my book living post stroke. I actually challenged myself after my stroke to find ways that I could still function with adaptation.

So today, I'm living on a homestead eeking my way towards being self sufficient. Mentally and physically, I'm a lot better off for it. That brings me today's topic, why I still keep a prepper's pantry.

I watched a YouTube video of a large family mom creating a month's worth of freezer meals. She ended up creating 42 freezer meals in about sixteen hours. It was fascinating to watch. Watch for yourself here. All the time I was watching her I kept a watch on how much trash she generated, and how much time and money she wasted. With a garden and precanning ingredients, she could have saved hours of cooking. Granted, she just went shopping and picked what needed while I spent almost six months growing, processing, and prepping my ingredients, but to each their own.

I also make most pastas except for formed shells and macaroni. Grind my own flour. Make my own sausage and butcher carcasses of meat down to the minutest form. But again that me being self reliant, and knowing where my meat comes from. For this endeavor, I went "shopping" in my food store pantry. I used my handy dandy shopping cart to help me carry in all that I needed.

To prove my point and down sizing the recipes for two servings versus twelve,  I replicated her menus sort of. I added quite a few whole meat meals and seafood dishes. In Operation Empty the Freezer last summer, found me canning meats, spaghetti sauces with ground beef and turkey. I'll make and keep  about 2 cases (24 pints)of chicken, beef, turkey, lamb, vegetable, and pork broth on hand. They are the by products of eating real, whole foods and butchering your own homesteading efforts.

So what did I put in my freezer for a month's worth of meals?

Panned meals (32)
3 beef spaghetti bakes
3 beef lasagnas
2 beef and lamb meatballs with duchess potatoes
3 green chicken enchiladas
3 seafood stuffed pasta shells in a beurre blanc sauce
3 pork chops  with stuffing
3 seared lamb chops over Mediterranean couscous
3 beef burritos
3 cheese and spinach ravioli with meat sauce
3 grilled chicken thighs over yellow rice
1 shepherd's pie
2 chicken pot pies
Bagged meals (10)
2 shrimp and smoked turkey sausage jambalaya
2 shrimp lomein
2 grilled chicken and vegetable stir fry with rice
2 marinated London broil with roasted vegetables
1 chicken marsala with rice
1 herb marinade lamb shoulder with peas and duchess potatoes

For a total of 42 meals! Want any of the recipes. Just let me know.

The difference in what was produced... I made my own ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, sour cream, and yogurt from locally sourced pasture fed cow's for milk. All the beef, lamb, and pork which we didn't raise were antibiotic and chemical free. 80% of the seasonings and blends used were done by me. Total time to put it all together was 5 hours after raiding my prepper's pantry. Of course, that doesn't include time and labor to procure and process it all.

 I also included desserts (4 total-cheesecake, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies,  peach and apple turnovers) and breakfast menus (waffles with sausage, pancakes with bacon, crumpets, and french toast) to my freezer which added another 2 hours. Plus, there's always the fall back of granola, or grits and eggs for breakfast too.

With possibility of surgeries, injuries, blah days, and who knows what days ahead, it's nice to know that these meals are available when Mel or I need them.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Jo

A Cockeyed Garden Plan for 2019

Mel set the garden plan for this year and I let her. So I shouldn't complain.  I must admit it's beautiful, but I fear not highly productive.

First thing I noticed is there's not enough planted for continuing to be self sustainable in any of the vegetables planted. This is a real bummer, to me, because last year I grew enough to cover our needs 100% in green beans (actually 2 years worth), corn, and tomatoes.


Observations (complaints)
1) While it looks like I'll be able to ferment my kimchi and sauerkraut, we may not have the expected yield. She is planting these brassicas in the spring when the cabbage worms are at their height of their reproductive cycle. This is worrisome and added vigilance. Thus a reduction of usable harvest. While I plant these is the fall so I have a full summer harvest of all the other vegetables that go into my kimchi like ginger, peppers, daikon radishes, and garlic. By planting my napa cabbages in the spring, I may not have enough of the other vegetables ready. Napa does not hold well.

2) The pathways are too narrow. When I asked her about it, she said she made the pathways one foot wide! Can you maneuver around full grown plants with only 12" of footing? It should prove interesting. Each garden bed allows for a 3'x 4' long allotment of plants. She'll have to take care of it all this year. I find it's difficult to maneuver in 3' walkways. I guess I'll just piddle around with the elevated raised pallet garden beds of herbs this year. Just as well with my surgeries.

3) When I look at the transplants seedling. I asked for 20 Roma tomatoes, she started 10. She did that with everything I suggested. Sigh, oh well, it will be a light canning season for me, but more trips to the grocery store. Grocery store= more $$ spent. It's only money, right? God save my pocketbook. I don't know where she expects the money to come from.

Our money tree died. If you play Sims 3, you know what I'm talking about. Every day you can harvest a couple hundred buxes off this tree when fully matured. I've often wished for a real life equivalent of this, but there isn't, is there? Also when this tree matured it would drop a seed to grow another one. You could plant a whole orchard in them. How cool is that? It's nice to dream.

Y'all have a blessed day. I know we will!

Jo

Amish Store Purchases and Plans for Growth

Thirty cases of pint canning jars that I went to North Carolina to get a couple of weeks ago are now washed, put back in their boxes, and stacked into their respective spots in the storage building.

Plus, the food grade three-gallon buckets are washed, and filled with the GMO-free flour, wheat, and raw sugar I bought at the Amish store also from my trip to North Carolina. My van was packed coming home, but not as packed as last time when I brought home sixty cases of jars, but I did buy more flour and sugar this trip.

All thanks to one of our Cockeyed Homestead YouTube subscribers. Who lives near the Amish store. She opened her house to me and let me stay. Thank you, Ellen! Another subscriber I tried to meet on this trip had a family emergency. Maybe next year, Marie. I'd really love to see your homestead operation.

In a year, we used 40 lbs of sugar. It was used in baking, canning, and wine making. So I bought ten extra pounds to make even more wine with. At $0.88 a pound, I thought it was a bargain.

By picking up my Clear-jel also, I have all I need except for the produce to make my cream of chicken and mushroom soups for the coming year with plenty of Clear-jel for my pie fillings too. The base ingredient (thickener) for all my canned goodies that are yummy in our tummies. I'm still hitting the reduced price section for mushrooms and dehydrating them. If there is a lot of them, six# or more, I'll can my cream of mushroom soup. The chickens for the cream of chicken soup are awaiting slaughter. They'll be pressure cooked to make them tender. Now, all I have to do is wait until my onions and celery are ready to harvest for both.

I still may have to buy more sugar for the wine making though. It all depends on our Muscadine and Catawba grape harvests. I plan on setting aside a few pounds for fresh eating and jellies. I might even try canning some for winter munching. The rest will go into the 5-gallon recycled water jugs for wine. It might make an interesting flavored vinegar if the wine turns too. We've been saving Mel's wine empty wine bottles for a year now to put the wine in once it's finished. I may play with blueberry, apple, blackberry, and raspberry flavored wines also. It all depends on the harvest. I missed the dandelion harvest due to rains and busyness of planting the garden this spring. There's always next year.

In the store, I went up and down each aisle as usual. But as I expected, there wasn't much "new" or exciting to pick up. Not that I was shopping for anything else. So now I've checked off three items that I'd need for a year of baking, cooking, and canning.

No trip would be complete without a trip to their version of thrift stores. I love a good bargain, don't you? I told Ellen that I was looking for another fermenting crock. A good size crockpot bottom is what I normally use. While I had two, and bountiful harvest would overwhelm them. We found one without a lid ($3). I put in my basket and traveled down the aisle. I saw another crock on the top shelf. I thought it was a cookie jar. It was too heavy for me to lift one handed so I pulled off the lid preparing to lift it by the rim. Ellen came to my rescue and lowered it down for me to get a better look. It was a complete German fermenting pot. The same one pictured. Brand new it sell on Amazon for $59 plus shipping. My price at the second hand shop...$10.

Now, if I just had a solution for our milk consumption, we'd be set. Yes, I know we need goats. A cow, even a miniature one, is an impossibility. I've researched it. We are still not set up for housing and caring for goats. I refuse to buy any animal unless we are knowledgeable about the animal, had everything in place for the animal, and an outlet for any extra production (like milk, cheese, butter) from that animal. It's just a smart way to do it.

I'm still a firm believer that an animal pay it's own way on our homestead. Either in production we can use to replace a grocery item, or for straight cash sales in babies, or products like our rabbits and chicken do. On such a small homestead with a limited resources, this is an important consideration. The fact that we'd need multiples because they are herd animals is also part of this consideration. They will also be a huge outlay of initial cash for them and creating a habitat for them. It isn't in the budget for this year even though it was on my 5-year plan for this year. I'm running at least a year behind schedule with Mel being out of work.

I'm also still researching mini angora goats (Nygora or Pygora). They would give us triple bang for our dollars in meat/for sale, milk and fiber. So long as I'm in research mode, there won't be a purchase.

Well, that's it for this week.

Y'all have a blessed day!