The joy of finding community

Over the last couple of months we have enjoyed the company of a handful of other homeschool families.  Though we may vary in our personal philosophies and backgrounds it is the desire to teach our children sustainable life skills that brings us together each week.  We have taken turns hosting work projects and crafts and built comfortable friendships along the way.  I am especially grateful for the shared wisdom and collaboration that is so generously passed around the adult circle.

Here is a report of what has kept us busy:

Potato digging.  I was told this was more fun than an Easter egg hunt.     

Fire roasting tomatoes.  The kids collected wood for the fire and assisted in washing and sorting the tomatoes.  

Dried apples.  We experimented with hanging them in the sun, by the fire and in a dehydrator.  

Compost building.  The kids helped with the garden clean up and learned about layering browns and greens.  The best part was dancing on it! 

 Seed paper.  The kids spent a couple weeks collecting seeds from their gardens and added it to a paper pulp mix.  After the pulp dried they buried them in flower beds and also gave some away as gifts.

Halloween play.  This was my favorite activity because it was completely inspired and directed by the children.  It was the vision and writing of an eleven year old girl and the enthusiasm of the other children that made this event happen.  The script, costumes, and stage were all assembled without the help of any adult.  They performed it in the tube of our barn on Halloween night and are already working on a spring sequel.

Meanwhile the older crowd spent most of the evening pressing apple cider.  With a nourishing pot luck and so much activity no one missed the candy and we all agreed it was one of our favorite Halloweens ever! 

Harvest lanterns.  Throughout the fall the kids have been collecting and pressing flowers and leaves.  We also gathered feathers and used beeswax and modge podge to stick them to the glass jars.

In celebration of Martinmas we had a warm potluck at the park and listened to the story of St. Martin.  When the sun had set we walked through the woods guided by our lanterns and quietly singing songs along the way.  Little George all stuffed in his snow suit insisted that we sing "lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way".  In contrast Maryanna was running yards ahead belting out the song "This little light of mine".  This was another evening to remember and hopefully repeat.     

  Everyone brings something unique to this group and what a blessing this has been to all involved.  I hope to report of many more great activities throughout this next season.

Garden report 9 - Abundance and Truth

The garden has spilled out its abundance over the past couple of weeks, every visit offers a basketful.  Sometimes that is a good thing and other times the we are not so sure what to do with it all.

This Hungarian heart tomato was a real treasure - 2 1/2 lbs!  There were others just as big with giant pecks and bites out of them, those sneaky chickens.  The rest were between 1 and 2 lbs each.  This is my new favorite variety and we were careful to save seeds from the best one.

I'm still trying to figure out the timing of tomatoes.  Each week there is more than we can eat but not enough to process.  My sister in law RayAnne suggested quartering them, drizzling with olive oil and broiling them with salt then pureeing them before storing in qt size freezer bags.  

The corn has served as the main course for lunch on several occasions and we were lucky to have two plantings that provided 4 weeks of good eating.  We picked up a chili lime corn seasoning at a local farm shop and it is yummy!

The green peppers were surprisingly gigantic this year.  I have not seen much more of the Hungarian hot peppers, and there is no sign of the ancho, red, yellow or orange peppers, I planted three of each.

The garden bouquets as arranged by Clara and George have been constant.  I have to admit out of all that grows on our property the flowers probably bring the most joy to me, the vegetables may nourish our body but seeing happy flowers in bloom out every window and decorating our table at every meal nourishes my soul.

Here is Clara's garden.  Aside from one cherry tomato plant it is all flowers.  She is not happy about the giant bugs it attracts but will venture out there with scissors anytime the table calls for a new bouquet.

Peter's sunflower house is towering.  It even towers over the weeds and makes the garden such a happy place to visit, not just for us but also birds and bees.

James' gourds are as expected, tidy without a trace of a weeds.  He has always been one to keep things simple and follow rules.  Last year's gourds are all dried and may be the source of focused crafting this fall.

The rest of the garden honestly looks more like a jungle and I'm happy that this Mexican sunflower pushed its way through it.  We collected its seeds from our neighbor last year, they were so tiny and in the mix we free casted over the hugelbeds.

Besides flowers there seems to be green beans growing everywhere, climbing up the sunflowers and even choking out weeds in some cases.  These ones are rattle snake beans and noted for their interesting pattern, but what makes them unique is also reason for the kids to refuse them.

This lofty patch is sorghum, or broom corn.  I wish I knew how to make brooms and I also wish I had a good reason for planting it.  It did very well and aside from feeding the seeds to the chickens I'm not sure what to do with it.  

I had high hopes for the hugelbeds but really they are an ugly mess.  It is hard to find much in them without doing damage to either the bed or other plants.  But next year we'll know for sure,  whatever wants to be permanently established there is still working it out.  In the future however, I'm keeping my "experiments" back towards zone 3.

I was most surprised by the effects of the southwest corner of the first hugelbed.  It had become the wind break to the rest of the garden and suffered much erosion because of it.  You can see not much grew there.

Here are the front beds.  They have been both productive and neglected.  For the first part of summer most of our meals came from this special spot in our front yard. But somewhere around mid July I experienced a huge aversion to most my favorites, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, cilantro, turnips and beets.  Instead, my tastes turned to German rye with cream cheese, pickles and sauerkraut 3 times a day!  Can you guess why?!  Paul said there was no need for a test this time around, I am growing baby!  And since this is a garden report I will not even attempt to give a sampling of the joy, misery, surprise, fatigue, blessing, peace, nausea and more debilitating nausea that I've been rolling with over the bulk of the summer.  I am hoping my appetite and ability to stomach food preparation will return before the first frost.  And with an arrival of my own expected mid March, I'm already considering what I've learned and what will be realistic for next year's garden.    

    

Garden report 8 - Hide and Seek and sometimes Eat

I need to confess I've been hiding from the garden lately.  A few weeks ago we experienced several days in the mid 90's and I simply burned out. Since then, even on the more recent beautiful mild days, I have not tended to garden like I should have.

I tried an experiment of not going to the grocery store and only eating out of the garden for a week.

We picked some beautiful food, peppers, basil, peas, broccoli, beets, turnips, cucumbers, lettuce, and kale.

We enjoyed some happy meals, mostly salads, stir fry and smoothies.  And without any meat left in our freezer or the meatiness of squash I believe we were really hungry that week.

I have become most grateful for farmer's stands and grocery stores this summer.  And I have become way more realistic in my expectations.  I will be satisfied even if we only produce %25 of our own food. 

The tomatoes were looking promising.  Lots of green ones but the nights have been way too cool lately for them to ripen.  We let the guinea hens loose on them hoping to catch those sneaky worms.

Clara has been hiding from her garden because of the "creepy bugs".  The weeds are as tall as both her and her flowers.  George snuck in there yesterday and picked three bachelor button flowers.  He whispered to me just before sleep, "mommy, I put flowers in your bathroom".  Sure enough in a tiny vase with water were those three bachelor buttons.  That was as sweet and satisfying as a bushel of ripe tomatoes!   

Here is a small sample of what the kids may find on a run through the garden.  They usually just leave it on the table but today I was handed a whole stalk of kale, roots and all.  I am happy that they are still having fun with - hide and seek - in the garden.
  

And so, not to feel so down on this year's garden, I celebrated our beautiful garlic harvest by braiding and hanging it in the pantry.  I have 5 of these lovely braids and a full bushel still waiting for my attention on a quiet afternoon.  We consume a lot of garlic in a year as do our animals, I am happy to report we may have actually closed the loop on that need.

Here is the garden view from the kitchen.  I may grow tired of toiling in it but I will never get tired of looking at it.
  

Looking back

Garden report 7

Garden report 7 - still hungry

The sunflowers have bursted!  What a joy it is to see them dancing outside the front window.

The garlic was harvested and now drying in the garage. 

James' birdhouse gourds are happy.

And it is a wonder to Maryanna how one tiny seed could grow so tall so quick.

The hugel beds have experienced success with beautiful basil and greens but for some reason the squash are now limping.  I'm seriously worried about the possibility of no zucchini this summer.

The black Hungarian peppers are most productive but again I do not know how to cook them.

Green peppers are beginning.  

The beets are tempting me to roast them.  The problem is we have no a/c and I have not turned the oven on in over a week.  Beet kvass?

I have been stir frying.  This is a mix of greens, broccoli, peas and mushrooms.  It was yummy.

Even the stir fry made the kitchen too hot so I pulled some turnips, and carrots, picked some parsley and found some purslane.  Mixed with olive oil, salt, honey and lemon juice this is one of our favorite salads.

The garden is producing yet still we are hungry.  I've been wondering about our ability to grow our own food and came to the silly realization that it is not a lack of food, it is simply my lack of enthusiasm in preparing it.  Who wants to sweat in a 90 degree kitchen over a hot stove?!  I need an outdoor kitchen for sure.

Looking back

Garden report 6

Garden report 6 - what's working what's not

I'm happy to report that the garden boxes were the best investment of the season.  It is so easy to hop out the front door, take 5 steps and pick lunch.  We are eating a lot of salad and sauteed greens.  It is nice that all this space needs is occasional watering, replanting and very frequent picking.  

On the west side of the house the snacking tomatoes are happy.  We have one cherry and one yellow pear tomato plant.  So far the yellows are the only ones ready to eat, the kids have been watching each fruit individually and brag out how delicious it was when they find one ripe. It has become kind of a game and I'm not sure I like it.

I have a beautiful hot black Hungarian pepper plant between the two tomatoes.  I'm not sure I know how to cook with it but is is pretty.

Along the side porch rests the brick pathway project that was suppose to be started and finished 3 months ago.  Besides that everything else is fragrant and blooming.

Along the back I've allowed the volunteer hollyhocks to remain where ever they please. 

We've cleared out a junk bed behind the garage and not sure what to do with that yet.  It is east facing and below the giant black walnut so I lost most of what was planted last year including rhubarb and tea roses.  All that is left is hollyhocks.

I actually have big dreams for this space as a screened porch/outdoor kitchen.  But with the pace of our brick pathway I'll have to maintain patience with this vision.

In the big garden we let some carrots from last year go to seed.  I'm not sure yet how to collect the seeds but I'll leave that to Peter since he is in charge of seed saving.  After reviewing how much I spent on seeds this year Paul offered to pay Peter for all the seeds that are collected for next year's use.

The romas are looking much more plentiful than last year! That is a good thing because we just used up our last jar of sauce from last year.  I think we need to double what we canned then.

The potatoes are blooming.

There are signs of grapes.  Unfortunately the two baby goats Spike and Greta have found their way into the garden and chomped down a few vines.  They are listed on craigslist right now for $75 each and if it happens again it might be edited to FREE!

Here is Clara's garden.  The cosmos is taking over and we look forward to some happy blooms.  I showed her how to mulch with grass and she kept at it until a giant dragon fly spooked her.  It was black and she asked me if "it was an evil fairy".  I promised her it was not but still she has not been close to her garden spot ever since.  

The corn is coming up.  We have a bi-color and a patch of broom corn.  

We've put nets over the blueberries and checking everyday for ripeness.  I'm afraid they will be much like the "snacking" tomatoes, eaten faster than they can be returned to the kitchen.

The hugel beds are producing very strong plants.  Peter has observed the kale there is almost double the ones from the front beds.  I do have concern about the squashes.  We have already lost 3 due to fungus.  It has been a wet summer and I'm wondering if the density of the plants is trapping too much moisture.  

Here are James' bird house gourds.  He refuses to use straw mulch because he thinks it is "embarrassing", he asked me why I can't just buy wood chips, "like normal people".  I remind myself that he is a teenager and will not try to figure out the reasoning behind that one.  This is his space and he can do as he pleases.

Across another hugel bed the Asian greens are going to seed and so we let them.  The sunflowers are just about to burst into bloom and it is a constant task of chopping down the emerging weeds.  For the most part though it is productive plants that are taking over.

Here is the pea tower.  It did not happen as planned.  The old fan guard on top was not strong enough to hold the weight and the bailing twine is disintegrating before our eyes.  Net year I'll look for an old bicycle wheel and use stronger twine.  The peas are producing it just just does not look pretty and failed to create a secret hiding place for the kids.

Maryanna helped me picked a pile this last week and as she was snacking and picking she lost a tooth.  It fell out then fell somewhere beneath her feet.  We couldn't find it so she decided to find two the biggest peas, drew a picture of what happened and hoping the tooth fairy accepts that in lieu of her tooth.    

This batch of heirloom Hungarian heart tomatoes could use some more support also.  I've got it on my list to get some heavy stakes for them.  

The best part of this report is that we are eating! Here's a sample from Charlie's baby bowl.  Rice, broccoli, pac choy, eggs and a sprinkle of bacon.  

p.s. one should always wear their glasses when picking and washing broccoli.  After a few chomps while still picking I discovered those sneaky worms.

Looking back on report 5