Abundance

We have been blessed with an abundance of tomatoes!

And among every ideal tomato is always that strange looking tomato with lots of bumps and bulges!

We have resorted to cooking most of them to make puree and to roasting the Romas for sauce this winter when there is more time. There do not seem to be enough hours in the day to pick all of our produce and process it!  In addition to tomatoes our baskets overflow with beans, okra, potatoes and peppers right now.  In order to have food until next growing season we try to put up as much as we can.  More varieties are planted and we are grateful they are not all bearing fruit at once!

Venturing Out

The young chickens were moved to the pasture recently, to their new Hen-a-bago home. We put fresh food and water outside of their door and then opened the ramp to the outside. There was a long hesitation among many of the chickens, particularly the Partridge Rocks.

The Rhode Island Reds were the first to leave the Hen-a-bago. There was a mix of scrambling down the ramp, tumbling off the side of the ramp, and launching themselves from the doorway out into the yard, flying for a brief moment.

The Partridge Rocks took a few steps out, and then would return, peeking out of the doorway, watching the Rhode Island Reds bravely venture into the new world.

Eventually, most of the young chickens made it out of the door and found the food and water.

Some chickens stayed inside and tried out the new roost.



We posted this video on our Facebook page, but just in case you missed it, we wanted to share it here too!
This is a video of the chicks in their new home.

A Finished Hen-a-bago II and The Big Move

The newest Hen-a-bago on pasture being inspected by livestock guardian dog, Sofie.

Our newest Hen-a-Bago was recently finished and moved out to pasture. The move was quite an adventure!
Here are photos of the move and all of the obstructions in the way! The Hen-a-bago II got hooked up to the tractor and Jan took control of the wheel.

Getting connected

 Everything looked fine as Jan pulled out with the Hen-a-bago II in tow.

 But then, as she rounded the large tree in the yard, the first obstacle came into view.

The small redbud tree was spaced just a little too close to the larger tree.

Jan did an excellent job of maneuvering the Hen-a-bago II, but it kept butting up against the larger tree and would not make the pass. 

 So Charlie had to cut the tree down!  (The little one, not the big one!)

We thought the gate opening would be the next obstacle, but Jan steered the Hen-a-bago II through smoothly.  Tight squeeze!

 The next obstacle was a small apple tree just on the other side of the gate.

 The decision was made to just drive over it since it will likely get cut down later. This is one of  our apple trees which has a cedar apple rust and we are going to try and replace the infected trees with varieties more resistant to cedar apple rust.

 Amazingly though, it sprang right back!  Fortunately, because it is the goats' favorite tree for munching.  I guess it's a red delicious. ;-)

It looked like there would be another obstacle, but the tractor and Hen-a-bago II fit through!

Once it was onto clear pasture, it was smooth sailing.

Whew!

Hen-a-bago II

Tools for the job

We began construction on our second Hen-a-bago!

Completed Hen-a-bago I on pasture

The Hen-a-bago is the roosting home for the chickens at night. It is on wheels in order to provide for ease of transporting the chickens to different areas of the farm for free-ranging, bug eating and fertilizing the soil.

Putting the floor and base together on top of the frame and wheels

The walls went up rather quickly!

Before we knew it, the Hen-a-bago II was nearly complete!

Dew on the Asparagus

Asparagus beds

With a warm day and a cool night recently, the dew hung off the asparagus in the morning as we weeded the beds. With the sun just cresting over the hill, the morning light reflected beautifully in the tiny droplets of water! What a simple pleasure for such a splendid morning!

Name Tags for the Goats

Jan with one of the tagged goats

Last week we rounded up the Nigerian dwarf goats in order to put name tags on them. We figured that since Sofie is our working dog, and the goats are our pets, they needed to have name tags!

Jan trying to coax the goats out of their collars

The biggest trick was rounding up the goats! It was a scramble--cornering the goats in their house, grabbing them, and holding them while they bleated! After a few bleats they calmed down and stopped wiggling. Eventually, Tawny, Simon, and Gabe all had their name tags on and seemed eager to be free to roam again.

Tawny

Simon. Simon, the youngest, has some growing to do; his tag hangs just above the ground!

Gabe, the blue-eyed one and the oldest

Okra Greens

We recently thinned out our okra in order to give them more space to grow. In doing so we were left with a large pile of okra greens. Rather than just compost them, or feed them to the chickens, we decided to investigate the cooking properties of okra greens. We found a few recipes and web pages which mentioned using the greens as a thickening agent for stews, soups, and other dishes.

Young okra leaves

However, we could not find anything about cooking the young greens, so we decided to experiment! Here at home, we sauteed them with onions as you would with other greens, and they were delicious! We also sent some greens home with a friend where she made a curried bean and vegetable dish with the greens and put it over rice. Her observations were that while the stem of the young okra greens had a slimy texture when you broke the leaves off, the greens themselves were very much like spinach. One of our hestitations with how much to use and how to use it was a warning we found which read "first to goo and then to glue!" Judging from our experiments, this must be referring to mature okra leaves. The young okra leaves did not act as a thickening agent. They have a pleasant taste, and were a great addition to our meals!

Recipes we found online:
Okra Greens and Corn Saute
Something Akin to Paella
Chickpeas, Eggplant, and Okra Leaves