Annie, you the Superwoman!

If one in 100 in this country could be as independent, productive and resourceful as you are, we would not be in such terrible economic shape.

dcarch

I'm harvesting chard, kale, spinach, masses of herbs, salad leaves and soon will have mangetout peas and french beans, sprouting broccoli, cabbages, ...I don't grow a lot but I love my fresh greens!

I am staying on a 10 acre property in the Shenandoah Valley. I get to harvest from her small garden plot this whole month ! What a treat for a non-vegetable gardener. Lots of kale, spinach,chard and mixed salad greens. Her potato plants are getting wonderfully large as are her turnip and beet plants. I have cut some of the turnip and beet tops to eat. Her tomato plants are loaded with small green ones. Herbs are all full. Cabbages are getting big. Squash hasn't set flowers as we are still getting pretty cool nights here...low/mid 60's. Bean plants look small to me and so do peppers and no blossoms yet. I think that is it :) Annie your chickens and turkey look GREAT !! What kind of grill is that ? How long does it take for the turkey and the chickens ? c

Beautiful bounty! A true sign you are working for your supper Annie. ;-)

For as late as the gardening got started this year (we had snow May 2nd), there are so many things already done as the hot days of summer approach. I picked the last of the lettuce and spinach Sunday because temperatures are getting near 100-degrees F. Now I have to wait for the fall crop. I love my fresh greens too islay_corbel. The radishes are long gone. Need to pick beets, broccoli and kale today. Pea pods are coming out of my ears. I keep a recipe file just for using pea pods....... They make a good snack, too.

Should get my first cucumber this weekend, which is good because I've started making Sassy Water occasionally as something different to drink (link below) and that takes a cucumber each time I make it. A friend served me a glass and I was hooked. I tuck a couple Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion Tea Bags in occasionally for a little different taste.

I may have a tomato by the 4th of July. When my sister lived in Indiana we always had a challenge to see who would get the first ripe tomato by the 4th of July. Now she lives at the tip of Texas so all bets are off (LOL).

I wasn't sure the potatoes would survive. I planted them March 15th and we had three late snows and one ice storm after that, but the plants are beautiful. What weird weather we've had this spring!

The farmers should be cutting wheat next week around here. Nothing more beautiful than wheat harvest.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Make Sassy Water

I'm in SC, on the border of zone 7 and 8, about 20 miles east of Augusta GA. The only thing I have gotten out of the garden so far is a few radishes, but yesterday I got the first cuke ('Green Fingers' variety from Renee's Seeds). Lots of green tomatoes, but one is beginning to redden ('Druzba'). I've planted 3 varieties of pole beans; they've all flowered, and the 'Musica' variety has set fruit and the pods are fattening up.

The most vigorous tomato vine so far in my garden is a 'Marianna's Peace', but the Cherokee Purples are looking pretty good now too.

Annie - that is the kind of rhubarb I have. The old fashioned type instead of the strawberry rhubarb. After years of searching I finally found someone selling the plants last year. Agnes is almost 90 and is selling off plants from a farm that has been her family since 1858. Everyone else sells the strawberry rhubarb which is more popular I suppose for the color.

I also got some strawberry plants from Agnes that produce tons of berries all season.

I agree - baked in something both types of rhubarb do taste the same. Raw is another story. Yes - I eat raw rhubarb!

Annie, what can I say? Those little turkeys don't know what is in store for them, that's for sure! I love, love turkey. A large turkey breast on my gas grill takes about 3 hours--low and indirect. Not truly smoked, but there is always a pink ring and the taste is wonderful!

You've been a bad influence. After seeing your rhubarb, I picked some up at the store. Maybe a pie, but the cake looked good too.

You are an inspiration for all of us.

What's most gratifying is that your birds are well cared for up until the end.

Beautiful harvest, Annie. Isn't it wonderful to be able to produce your own food? I haven't done it much this past year because my life has been too crazy, but I look forward to doing so again.

Sally

Scapes! You are a couple of weeks ahead of me. I just spotted the first ones peeking out.

We have the old fashioned rhubarb, too. It does much better for me...bugs like the red ones I put in.

I just got the last of the garden planted last weekend and tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos are going into the hoop houses today. Peas and kale are up, carrots are starting to break ground and I got a handful of asparagus a couple of weeks ago. This is early for us. We kept greens going in windowboxes in the greenhouse last winter and I think I'm going to leave them there. Maybe I can avoid the bugs decimating them.

Pretty chickens. We smoked a (storebought) chicken last weekend and I tried salting it. Wow it came out good.

Haha. As a young university student in Rome, we were dropped off one by one all along the countryside to stay with a host family for a few weeks to improve our language skills. (mine not so good). But i did learn how to ask in Italian, "...and who are we eating tonight?" ...all their animals in the barnyard out back had funny italian names, lol.

We often have two turkeys at thanksgiving and smoke one of them. Makes wonderful stock.
Hey! What happened to my scapes? None this year...hmm. A few weeks ago week smoked three different meats and stuffed the chickens with wild thyme and chives. Love the free yard herbs. Never thought to stuff with garlic scapes!

Still just rhubarb in the elevations of the Catskill mountains. Just putting in tomatoes now. I'm used to it and will have an abundance of produce soon. I always over do it but have plenty for the senior center when everything ripens the same week despite my attempts to plant in succession...

oops double post...

This post was edited by sleevendog on Fri, Jun 14, 13 at 11:03

Annie, You rock! Just yesterday I was just bragging about you to the HG, now I have pictures to back it up.

I have been a slouch this Spring. Herbs and lemon grass are all I have going.

Beachlily, Dad used to tell me that no one is completely useless, some of us can always serve as bad examples. (grin) Bake that cake. Or pie. Or whatever, it's all yummy.

Cathy, there were years I only had herbs too, it happens. I guess the HG doesn't garden? (grin)

Thanks dcarch, but I'm doing what I enjoy, that makes it a lot easier.

Katie, I'm not far ahead of you, the scapes I cut were from "Music", but the ones from you are just now starting the scapes, along with the elephant garlic. I'm excited to see how "your" garlic is going to be this year.

sleevendog, only hardneck varieties of garlic have scapes, so maybe you have a batch of softneck varieties this year? Or maybe they're just late. Like you, I manage to stock the entire Senior Center with my overflow every year, they love me there and I can just leave whatever I have and they're ecstatic.

Sally, my birds are, indeed, treated humanely, fed well, allowed to be birds, protected from predators, happy and comfortable. You'll like to hear that one of them may escape the inevitable, my great-nephew Noah has asked me if he could keep one as a pet. I told him to wait until they got bigger and got personalities and then choose, so he doesn't pick the biggest, grouchiest one!

Annie

Annie1992, so envious of your garden, your chickens, your cows etc. Wish I had the space to do half of that at least! We don't even have room anymore for a vegetable garden. Have to grow what I can out of a container.

Your rhubarb cake, chickens etc look SO good!

Nothing beats fresh, home grown, local! You're so lucky!

Annie, your pictures are making me drool!
Especially that rhubarb cake.

But I'm a bit confused by the term "old fashioned'
some have used for the green variety.

My mother had rhubarb on the farm I grew up on,
And it was very VERY red!
That was in the '40s & '50s.
In fact, I'd never heard of green rhubarb before
I saw it here on the CF.

And now I am really REALLY hungry for something, anything,
made with rhubarb.
Problem is finding it around here.
Occasionally one of our stores has it in the frozen food section.
Don't think I've ever seen it fresh.

Oh well. . . . . . . .

Rusty

Grainlady, Grandpa used to tell me that I could plant potatoes and peas on Good Friday. This year there was still snow on the ground in places, I've never tried to plant them that early. Yeah, I'm a risk taker but not that much, LOL, I'll wait until August to have fresh potatoes I guess.

Rusty, the old rhubarb at Aunt Lulabelle's is red and it's been there my whole life. I planted mine several years ago and it's the green stuff. I thought all rhubarb was pretty much old fashioned, I'm amazed at the number of people (mostly younger) who don't even know what rhubarb is or what to do with it.

ssomerville, I am very lucky. Before I bought the rest of the farm 18 months or so ago, I didn't know whether I was going to be able to continue my garden or my horses. I always gardened at the farm when Dad was alive, he encouraged it because it got me out there more regularly and he reaped the benefits of fresh produce. I kept my horse there in return for work in the hay field, and then I kept cattle there in return for financing the hay field, LOL.

When Dad died, I was pretty sure my stepmother wold lose the farm to the bank. I took a home equity loan on my house and bought the first 40 acres and paid the place off. Within 9 weeks, she had a mortage on the rest of it and soon she couldn't pay that. When she had to go into a senior apartment/assisted living situation, Elery dipped into his retirement and we bought the remainder. So, we've paid the farm off twice now. So yes, I'm lucky, although every now and then I shake my head and think I should have just let the bank take it.

Annie

Annie1992, I think you made a great decision in keeping the farm. (Even if you did pay for it twice). Nothing more valuable than land. Plus now you get to enjoy it over and over.

Have you ever thought of moving and living there, now that you own it? Just curious. :)

Well, yes, that is the grand plan.

But Elery had a house in Jackson, where he worked, and I have my house in White Cloud, where I worked. Then I retired and Elery retired shortly after. We figured his house would sell more quickly, so we spent a couple of months fixing things there and put it up for sale. It was on the market since last fall, we finally just sold it. Now we're working on mine, and it will also go up for sale. I'm not optimistic about how quickly a house will sell in White Cloud, it looks like the whole town is for sale right now.

So, we have to decide whether to take advantage of the low interest rates and go ahead and build on the farm while this house is up for sale, or wait. Eventually, though, we'll build at the farm and live there and I can be where I really want to be.

Annie

Annie, I wish I was a lot younger so I could do all you do. Your grilled turkey looks so yummy and I practically drooled at the sight of that cake. I have some fresh rhubarb, the strawberry, in the fridge and some fresh strawberries so now its a question of rhubarb cake, or strawberry rhubarb pie or jam. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Didn't get my garden in as early as I wanted this year because of too much rain, then as soon as I got some things in, no rain. I've gotten two small handfuls of strawberries off the plants that I put in a raised trough on top of the cross lumber between the support lumber on the garden fence this year. The carrots, beets and spinach just never came up. Got some yellow squash that are blossoming and waiting on the cukes. The white potatoes are doing well, but I just got my sweet potato slips, that I grew myself, in the garden yesterday. I have most all of my tomatoes in and, blush, blush, 97 bean plants. Needless to say, they are several different types of beans. Didn't get my Dragon's Tongue, Ying Yang or black eyed peas planted. Still have a lot of things I want to put in and will do second plantings on some other things. There's just the two of us and DH is wasting away from an illness that prevents him from eating much or keeping down what he does eat, but any extra produce will go to our local soup kitchen, Mother's Cupboard and the St. Vincent de Paul Society to give to those in need. Oh, I did forget that I have enough lettuce to supply the entire county as well.

Annie1992, Hopefully you won't have to wait to long to be where you really want to be :)

bcskye, your garden sounds like it will be wonderful, once all your veggies come into harvest! Sorry about your husband's illness. What a wonderful thing though to do all that work on your garden and then share the bounty with the soup kitchen and others. I'm sure they will really appreciate the fresh veggies!

ssomerville, Ashley grins and calls it "living my farming dream". LOL It doesn't seem like as much work as it sounds like, because I love to do it. I'd far rather clean calf pens and plant raspberries than vacuum rugs or wash windows. Planning a barn is second nature but picking paint for the dining room is a chore. The girls and Elery laugh at me...

Madonna, the garden sounds like it's all it needs to be, and there's always next year, second plantings, or the farmer's market, it's all good.

I'm sorry to hear about your husband, he'll be in my prayers for good health.

I didn't plant spinach but it looks like I'll have a ton of kale, come on up!

Annie

Annie, your photos are indeed drool-inducing. I have hens, but we have not tried meat birds yet. I am thinking we will, though.

We have had a wet spring and I have a new boss at work :( so my garden is way behind schedule. I am eating some lettuce and spinach, kale, and rhubarb. I finally have my potatoes planted, my snap peas are flowering, tomatoes are blossoming, peppers budding, and a second crop of bok choi is beginning to grow. I still need to get my leeks transplanted, and sow more seeds -- beans, pole beans, and succession planting of other stuff.

It it a weedy mess, though, a result of traveling all summer last year. I tried to grow a few things, but should have bought a csa share and planted a cover crop! Thanks for sharing, I wish I could drop by at dinner time!

Jabel, I wish you could drop by too. I know there are those days/weeks/years when things just get away from you. A couple of years ago I didn't even have a garden at all, the first year that happened in at least 4 decades. It just happens.

Bok choi? Mine is growing. Last year it bolted when it was about an inch tall, maybe this year will be better. (fingers crossed)

As for the meat birds, be prepared. They aren't smart and they eat and drink copious amounts, resulting in constantly messy pens. They were definitely a chore. I'd do it again, but this year it's turkeys and I only have two spaces for poultry. One is occupied by Bud and Makayla's laying hens, so only one extra bird per year unless I build yet another poultry enclosure. I can't let them free range any more, I don't worry about hawks, coyotes or bears, but every neighbor in the township has dogs that run all over. Some are waiting in the morning when the chickens come out of the coop!

I'm considering building a "tractor" that I can move and grow geese next year, I've never raised geese....

Annie