Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Harvest Begins





As usual my pictures are out of order, but I give up on trying to fix them.
Please ignore the weeds around the bed, they are out of control, but I wanted to show the enclosure I made to keep the chickens out of the raised beds, I was going to cover the top as well but so far they have shown no interest in bothering the beds so I will wait and see. I was thinking that in the winter I will try covering it with plastic to make a mini green house for lettuce and spinach etc. It was really cheap and not to hard to make. Next time though I will cut all my pvc pipe in 2 foot sections and piece it together with connectors, if the sections are too long the pvc wants to bend and bow, I think shorter sections will be easier to work with and not as unstable.

I have been able to begin harvesting things from my garden and was able to make my first meal from the farm. I should have taken a picture but I did not think of it at the time. I had roast chicken, green beans and red potatoes all grown or raised here on my little plot of land. What a sense of satisfaction seeing my hard work return a yield. All of my kids are back home with me and along with a good friend have participated in one way or another in helping me keep it all going. I am so thrilled that my two grand-sons get excited when they see they find a big green bean to pick or that Logan the four year old snuck out and planted his own pumpkin seeds, imagine my surprise when they started coming up in the middle of my herbs.



Pictured are some of the herbs I have growing in the water trough raised bed, thyme, rosemary, basil, lemon balm, along with some of the green beans from another raised bed. Yes those are pumpkin vines threatening to take over the whole trough. I have a large plot of ground where I have been growing the potatoes, black eyed peas, tomato's, squash, peppers and a few other things. Additionally, I have two wood frame raised beds, I built this year. I have to say the things in the raised beds have grown so much faster and look so much better then my in ground plants. The soil here in Florida is so very sandy, it may take me years to amend it to my satisfaction, for my purposes raised beds are the way to go, great soil from the beginning almost no weeds and at a better height to work with. Well worth the investment of time and money to make them.I have lots of things getting ready to begin ripening, I can't wait to pick the first tomato.

I did not take pictures of the chicken processing, I did five white rock hens that I ordered from Murray Mc Murray, I let them live longer then I should have I think they ideally should be done at around 6-8 weeks to be the most tender. I procrastinated. If I am honest about the whole thing I will have to admit that I am not 100% OK with the killing of animals for my food purposes, I struggle with the whole thing a bit but keep coming back to either going back to being a vegetarian and give up meat all together or raise my own giving the animals the best life I can. For now I am trying to do the latter and hoping that I become more comfortable with the whole idea. The actual processing is not that bad for anyone thinking of doing it there are lots of places to find info, I am sure there are you tube videos out there. My only word of advice is to be prepared, have everything you need ready ahead of time. I used a deep fryer to have boiling water ready, a large table covered with a clean plastic drop cloth, a clean five gallon bucket a de-boning knife, an ax and a tree stump, I am sure every one knows it is not the most pleasant of events but when my five hens were all packed in freezer bags I was grateful for the experience. I am thinking about ordering another batch of 25 meat birds, but am not looking forward to raising another batch of chicks quite yet.



On a completely unrelated note, can anyone tell me how to get the blog spot to allow you to load more pictures?? If I have more then three pics and any text at all the blog program boots the pictures off. This post started out with three pictures and as I added text it bumped them off, to who knows where. It seems like I can type the text and then add the pics but then they all end up at the beginning of the post instead of spread throughout. Irritating!! I love seeing every ones pictures of their farms, kids, creative projects, cooking and critters and would like to post more of my own without having to create a post for every one of them. I am sure it is operator ignorance on my part lol, but I have no time to sit here trying to figure it out, there are baby goats screaming to be fed.










8 comments:

  1. Things are looking good! I`m not sure why you have that trouble with pictures loading, mine always works fine. Sorry to hear its giving you the fits!

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  2. Oh my, how wonderful, roast chicken, green beans and red potato's from your own garden. My goodness, the taste of fresh from the garden is the best!

    Fresh herbs....love them! Just saying fresh herbs sounds healthy!

    Your raised plot veggies look so healthy. With upcoming blackeyed peas,tomato's, peppers,squash (I love the very sound of these words)...the taste of country will be served up fresh at your table. This, my dear, is awesome!

    I am considering become vegetarian and eating only fish. At any rate I will cut back on meat consumption.

    Once upon a time, long ago, while living in a very small place in central Florida, my first husband had a wonderful country garden and he raised chickens....my girls and I could not eat them. However, the vegetable were a wonderful treat of freshness.

    I eat store bought chicken and now think if you are going to eat chicken it is much wiser to eat healthy chickens you have raised.

    Good job Laura! You are an encouragement to me!

    Happy Day! Wishing you a happy and safe Memorial Day.

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  3. I'm not sure how you compose your post, but I add pics first. I start with the pic I want at the bottom of the post and add that first then proceed to the top. Then I go back and write the text. If I have more than 5 pics I up load them first then add the rest. Hope this helps.

    Your gardens look wonderful! Love the idea of the pvc, insipiring. I'll have to give that a try! Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Laura!! What a wonderful milestone. I am so very proud of you and envious of your abilities. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

    As for the technical problems....arghhh! It is a challenge for me. c

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  5. Hi Laura,
    I wished I had planted more herbs. Yours raised bed enclosure looks good. I am having a time with my one renegade chicken that escapes daily.

    I understand about the unpleasant part of chicken processing. That is my weakness here. When I was young, Mama,Daddy, Grandma was always using that tree stump and we just thought of it as a way of life and a real good fried chicken supper for all of a family of 9+.

    I admire your hard work and drive. You are doing a great job.

    Have a wonderful weekend.
    Pam

    P.S. I use the Picasa album. I upload my photos to it and then they are in albums(that you choose and name). You can then decide which size photo to use and copy and paste the pictures as you want them in your blog.
    When you upload pictures through blogger they are automatically stored in Picasa.
    http://picasa.google.com/
    I hope that helped.

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  6. Beautiful! I'm envious, our garden is just beginning to break through the soils. Well.... the weeds are doing well, LOL!!! If we get a few more days of sunshine and warmth we'll be growing gangbusters!

    Isn't it fun to cook with foods you grew and raised yourself, it's a very satisfying feeling isn't it?

    Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing with us.Keeps life interesting and it also inspires me to do more and think differently then I typically do( that's good right, it means I'm learning still*wink*)
    Blessing from your weekend,
    Kelle

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  7. So glad to finally hear from you. I enjoy your posts and become worried when we don't hear, although I KNOW you are very busy. Your first home grown meal was great!! congratulations! You are offically a down home Homesteader and mini farmer via nurse!! Great job. Enjoyed your photos. I load my photos one by one. The last photo is loaded first, ending with the one you want first. I too have our daughter and granddaughter with us. They have been here a week and I love it. She will leave when the house that we bought is empty. Sometime around the second week of July. She is anxious, but we're not. We like having them here! Have a great Memorial Day! ...debbie

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  8. I'm liking that vegetarian thing.

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