More of our Presenters...

With the 2016 Spring Gathering a week from today, I guess I better get some more introductions made.  Not everyone has had time to get me their detailed information, so I will include what I know about them.

 

Jasmine will be presenting information on Growing, Preserving and Using Herbs.  Jasmine and her husband are looking forward to the day when they leave the small town they live in for a home in the country.  Jasmine began learning about herbs and their uses at an early age, and her interest and knowledge has expanded over the years.  Her website, Thyme and Timber, is a wealth of information for both beginner and experienced herbalists.  You can also follow her on Facebook at her Thyme and Timber Facebook Page.


Lance has an variety of experience growing all types of plants.  According to Lance, "I have been doing some type of gardening my whole life."  Lance has run landscape crews, has been a nursery salesman for several years off and on.  He has worked with soil scientists and Horticulturists.  Lance feels that basically anyone can grow food with chemicals, but Lance prefers to test out different soil mixtures with different plants and keep things all natural.  Lance and his wife Cynthia live on a small acreage with their children and have been key in organizing and developing the Ash Grove Farmers Market.  You can also follow them on their Facebook page, Mossy Rock Farm.  Lance is planning a great presentation on natural soil amendments to get the most from your garden plants. 

Caleb is a remarkable young man who is self-taught in many areas of homesteading and primitive arts.  He is currently focusing on blacksmithing, from which he makes knives and other tools.  He also enjoys repurposing other metal objects, such as railroad spikes into usable items.  Caleb's latest endeavor is turning some of the slab wood, which is a byproduct at a local sawmill into gorgeous slab bowls.  Caleb was homeschooled by his remarkable mother, and his ability to research and work independently shines through in the skills of this young man.  As one of the older siblings in his large family, his younger siblings are guided by Caleb in many ways.  He is true pioneer in the interests he pursues. 

 

Tina, and her family raise calves,

goats, ducks, rabbits and other animals on their farm.   She will be teaching us how to raise our goats naturally.  For every problem, there are natural treatments, and Tina has extensive experience in that area.  She plans to share her knowledge in treating common illnesses without resorting to chemical and synthetic medications.  Tina will also be sharing the benefits of having goats on your farm/homestead.

Whitney is a stay-at-home mom to two wonderful little boys, and contributes to the family meals by offering butchering and processing of small animals on the shares.  It is a win-win situation for her customers who know she uses humane and sanitary methods, just as she does for her own family.  They get the delicate process of dispatching completed, and give her a share of the final meat for her family.  Whitney processes all types of small animals and plans to demonstrate the process with quail, chickens, rabbits and a turkey if one is available.

 

We hope you will join us for the day.  The presentations will begin at 9 and run until 4:15.  Our location is on our farm near Miller, Missouri.  You will need to bring lawn chairs, and a picnic lunch, if you would like.  Other items you might find useful will be a notepad and feel free to bring your camera.  More details are found here.  We look forward to visiting with you.

Thinned Mint, Anyone?

The past week has been another roller coaster around the homestead. We've worked in the garden, planted in the greenhouse, begun work on re-doing pens in the barn for the animals, worked in the rapidly growing herb bed, marked our queens in both our bee hives and added supers for honey stores, and made a trip to the ER with our son.  All the while we have begun planning a 2016 Spring Gathering for local homesteaders/self-reliant persons/farmers etc.  We are excited about how well it is coming together and I will be doing some individual posts regarding the event, presenters and schedule for the day.

Yesterday, I worked in the greenhouse and herb garden.  I have always wanted mint....and now I have MINT....three kinds....fast growing....oh-my-goodness-mint!  The best advice I have for anyone growing mint is do not be afraid to pull up the runners and dispose of them!  Mint is prolific, some even say invasive!  My Homestead Mint is a very hardy variety and yesterday I thinned at least a bushel basket full.  I pulled it, roots and all, and know that I will be doing this regularly.  I planted it in a buried container initially, to help contain the roots, but it still sends out runners and likes where I put it enough to spread like wild fire.  I don't say all this to discourage anyone planting it, in fact just the opposite, I encourage everyone who wants any kind of herbs to grow mint.  Mint is an easy herb to grow and has many uses.  Success is almost assured, but you do need to be aware of its prolific nature when choosing the planting site and be prepared to spend a bit of time to keep it controlled.

In trying to keep the mint from taking over the other 10 or so herbs I have in one bed, I spent the day yesterday pulling the runners.  When I found myself with no less that a bushel of pulled mint, I began to think of what to do with it.  No way did I want to just burn it, or waste it.  I wasn't sure about feeding it to the rabbits or chickens, so I decided to make sure it was used for human consumption until I can confirm its safety for my animals.  I had always thought of harvesting herbs as a one time thing, much like corn or green beans.  You pick it, process it, and your are done.....with herbs though, you can harvest all season long.  Each type has it's ideal time, and depending on the intended use, you may choose to harvest certain times of the year for specific processes, but you can harvest it any time.  I'm not an herbalist, and am just learning much of the basics about herbs and their uses, so I won't give specifics that I may or may not be accurate about.  I encourage you to do some research.  It is fascinating.

After thinning out the herb bed and removing all the wondering Mint, I selected some nice healthy starts and potted them into cups, with large holes drilled for drainage.  I made sure to choose plants that had large root systems.  These will be offered for sale for $2 each as soon as I am certain the roots are strong and the plants are growing.  I will also be starting, sage, lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, and others as time allows.

After potting,  I pinched each plant back  to encourage new, bushier growth.  Each place that was pinched back should send out 2 more shoots.  I used to avoid pinching back plants.  It just didn't seem right to pinch them back after they had worked so hard to grow. Now that I understand exactly how the plants grow, and how pinching back encourages healthy, bushy plants, I find it much easier to accept this part of the growing process.  The end results are much stronger, healthier plants that produce more.  I also saved all the leaves that got pinched off and added them to my extract, so nothing was wasted at all.

After pinching all the tops, making sure the starts got a good drink of water, the top leaves were saved for washing off and making my first start of mint extract.  I took the rest of the plants I had thinned into the Canning Kitchen.  I removed the roots and washed the stalks and leaves to remove any bugs or debris.  The stalks were then stripped of the leaves and discarded.  When I got enough to pack tightly into a quart jar, the leaves were packed tightly and covered with Vodka.  After making sure the leaves were all submerged below the surface of the liquid, and air bubbles were removed, the jar was tightly capped and was set in a dark cool place to set for several weeks.  Most people who do extracts recommend colored jars/bottles to avoid breakdown from the light.  I don't have a good selection of blue or brown glass jars or bottles, so I am using a cool dark corner on one of my canned good shelves for now.  Hopefully this will get me by until I can get some more appropriate jars.

I then set out to clean the rest of the mint.  Prep it for the dehydrator so that it could be dried for tea.  I dumped it in the sink, cut off all the roots, washed and rinsed it and laid it out on one of my drying screens to drain. 

These drying screens are invaluable to me.  I made them to store my sweet potatoes over the winter, but have many other uses in the canning kitchen.  I will be making more very soon.











There are couple different schools of thought on the drying process.  Some require stripping the leaves prior to drying, others allow the leaves to remain on the stems.  If you bundle the stems and let them air dry, the stems are necessary to tie to.  I chose to leave my leaves attached to the stems for the dehydrating process.  I will remove the leaves as I crumble them for tea.  This works best for me and they seem to be removed faster after they are dry than removing the leaves when they are green.  With my dehydrator, the mint will be completely dry overnight, even with the stems.  If you are drying in the air or sun-drying on a rack, it might be worth the effort to remove the leaves so that you are not retaining moisture in the stems.  When dry, the mint has a beautiful blue/green/brown appearance.  I will eventually mix my leaves with lemon balm, chamomile, and other herbs for various flavored teas.  I am excited to experiment with various flavors and see what I can brew!

I know my ancestors did not have the benefit of electric dehydrators and had to utilize the sun, air and other means of drying.  By being a Modern Missouri Pioneer and using my dehydrator I can do in a few hours what it used to take weeks to do.  This should allow me the time to experiment and come up with some tasty teas for both summer and winter.  Many of the herbs I am considering, have medicinal properties as well as wonderful flavor.  These teas, tinctures, extractions, decoctions and infusions can be used in combination to boost our health and treat illnesses, all naturally.  They can be used in making salves, lotions and soaps.  The possibilities are nearly endless.  I've only just begun to learn.

I'm sure my son, would love it if I could grow a plant or whip up a medicinal that could repair bone and replace teeth.  He had a mishap a couple of days ago.  While working on a ladder, he leaned one way, the ladder went the other and after the air conditioner effectively removed two of his front teeth on the way down, his right arm "broke" his fall, literally.  He will be laid up a while, recovering from both orthopedic and oral surgeries.  The lessons learned are many, not the least of which is remembering that that little sticker on the top of a ladder that reads, "NOT A STEP" it is really important to pay attention to. 

Everyone be safe when working outdoors in the Spring.  It only takes a moment to do things safely, and it may take weeks or months to heal up if you choose an unsafe method that you think is faster.  Sorry, Son, but you gave me a teachable moment....and you did photobomb my phone last week!  I love you!

Greenhouse Progress

The weather the last few weeks has been remarkably warm and spring-like.  While the weather is much enjoyed, it comes with some anxious anticipation.  The earlier Mother Natures brings on Spring-like weather the more worried I become that there will be that late frost that will snap, getting the peach and cherry blossoms among other blooming plants. 

Spring Fever is also harder to deal with as the Spring temperatures climb and the temptation to plant the garden gets strong, even though the mind knows that it is too early.  So until the weather is truly stable and warm enough to plant, we have been working on some projects and taking care of the babies that have arrived or been added.  We have never been known to quickly complete a project....and the greenhouse we started a year ago, had been placed out of the way as the summer got busier last year.  We decided now was the time to get it closer to reality.

I am hoping to get the door on in time to start some plants for the garden, but if not, at least we are getting closer to being able to grow greens for salad all year long, by getting the green house closer to finished.  We opted to go for a corrugated PVC covering rather than plastic, for durability and longevity. 

We moved the frame to the location selected.  It is not far from the back door, close to a water hydrant and in full sun the bulk of the day. 

We began by attempting to attach the PVC sheeting horizontally.  We quickly realized that this plan would not work well, as there would not be enough tension to prevent them from being loose.  This would allow the wind to create movement that would eventually cause damage.



We removed the PVC pipes and drilled and screwed two by fours to the frames, evenly spaced to allow for adequate securing the corrugated PVC to the frame.  The corrugated sheets were then attached to the 2 x 4's with washered tin screws.  Papa and JD surprised me when I was at work one day and put the sheeting on, so I don't have pictures of that process.






Here is a nearly finished front.  We need to build and attach the door.  We also need to cut a window in the back that can be opened out for ventilation and to control the temperature in the summer time.  In addition to that, we will be making the raised beds and a table for starting seeds.  Hopefully this will be completed in the next couple of weeks.  We may not have time to get our own cool weather plants started, but we may still have time to start tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc.  We are looking forward to putting this project to good use.  We have invested a bit more than we initially expected, but it should give us years of productivity, and spread over the last two years, the $400 we have invested has not hurt the budget too badly. 

 The learning process we will have will be enjoyable and at times frustrating.  I have recently learned that for each layer, we can gain a zone.  With that said, being in zone 6 (b), by having the greenhouse, we jump to zone 7.  If we add a hoop and plastic over the raised bed, it will increase to zone 8.  This idea becomes intriguing and I will be experimenting with a layer or two of plastic inside the greenhouse as we get further experience.  Until then, I am excited to be able to do more of our growing and seed starting without being dependent on purchasing them from franchise stores or local commercial greenhouses. 

No Till Gardening

We have used several gardening methods in the past and this year we decided to go back to the one technique that proved to be the easiest to care for and appears to have provided the absolutely best harvests we ever had.  Two years ago we used a mulching technique that kept weeds at bay and then provided the best garden spot we ever had last year. We planted corn in that area and canned 110 pints, froze 20 dozen ears and gave away corn to several friends and family. Unfortunately we did not continue with the mulch, so we are doing quite a bit of work this year to catch up.  After this year, we should be set for the easiest and best gardening ever.  There should never be a need to plow or till the garden again, watering should be minimal, and weed control should be easy to maintain.  We have read the book "Lasagna Gardening" by Patricia Lanza and watched the video about Back to Eden Gardening which explains the gardening technique developed by Paul Gautschi.  I don't know that we are specifically following either exactly but using some parts of each.

This is what the area looked like in early spring. We planted in half barrels last year and decided that this technique is not for us. The watering requirements did not fit our schedules and we still had weeding that required much bending over. Considering that, we decided that going with mulching was best for us.  Many people are happy with barrels and other raised bed options. Isn't it wonderful that there are so many ways to provide for our families so that each of us can utilizes what works best for own families.

                                             

The beginning of prepping for this year, involved weeding out the barrels, raking out any roots missed by pulling the weeds. The composted soil is now ready to be layered into the garden.

We gathered mulch and additional compost and had piles ready near the garden site.  The mulch was free from the city close to where we live. It is from the chipping of brush that is cleared from the roadways each year. After the first year of decomposition, it is safe for our garden and in years after that it breaks down into nice black dirt that the worms love and the plants thrive in.

The compost is free from friends near us who own horses. They pile the manure outside each time they clean out the stalls in their barn. We try to get it after it has decomposed for a couple of years. It is great compost to add natural nutrients to the garden.

The last item to get together before the actual work begins, is a collection of paper feed sacks, cardboard, cardboard boxes, newspaper, etc. These are all free and friends are usually more than willing to give their "trash" to you and  are layered on top of the ground.  These work as the initial weed barrier to prevent the grass and weeds from coming up into the new compost/mulch layers. I will explain the wooden trough you see in the above picture in a bit.

Due to the weight of the barrels full of dirt, we found that dragging them into position with our UTV was the easiest for Papa and me.  The feed sacks were held in place with a few rocks until the weight of the compost could hold them in place. When you live on top of a hill, you get to enjoy a breeze all the time, but you also have to contend with things moving in that breeze so something to hold down the edges saves a lot of frustration and maybe even some ugly words!

This what the deep layer of compost looked like before any mulch was added. Let's take a look at the mystery trough on the right side of the garden area.

Papa built this box as a trial this year to plant some onions in. It was secured on top of the feed sacks and filled with compost. This will give the onions several extra inches of compost and will hopefully result in larger onions for the winter.

If there were any question of how fertile and healthy this compost/soil is, I think the size of this worm settles any question at all! 

Finally, a deep layer of mulch is added. It is hard to see in the picture just how deep this all is, but it is well above the head of the rake which is several inches tall.

This is what the rows of cool season plants looked like when first planted in the original area.  

Another friend brought some of these wooden pieces to me. They are bottomless, and hinged. The store nice and flat and don't require all the extra water that our old barrels did. I'm trialing potatoes, beets and carrots in them.  I'll update soon when we see how these vegetables are growing in them.

As long as we stay up on adding layers of mulch, we will not have to go through all this extra work again, and the weeds are few and far between. The weeds that do find their way into the garden are easily pulled and tossed.  The last layer of the process is one I didn't get pictures of. I added a layer of rabbit manure from under our rabbit pens.  This give the plants a nice compost tea drink everytime it rains or we have to water.  This process of the deep layer of mulching keeps the ground from drying out.  We have been blessed with rainfall so far this year, at times even more than needed.  One additional advantage is that the ground does not get muddy or soggy.  It might be a little spongy, but I can walk into my garden after a 6" rain with no fear of leaving footprints or even tracking mud into the house. 

This technique uses free and natural materials.  We did use our UTV to drag barrels and Papa used the tractor to move compost and mulch. The benefit of being a Modern Missouri Pioneer with this is that it saved some manual labor, aching backs and potential blisters. However, nothing about this technique relies on modern conveniences and could easily be done off grid with just a little extra labor.

  
Since the "big" garden area has been composted and mulched in years past, we decided to just till the weeds under and put on a thick layer of mulch to prepare it for the coming season. We will plant our corn, squash and pumpkins in this area this year and maybe change it up next year.  So far the weeding has been minimal and the corn and squash are growing great.  I need to take some more pictures and show some progress shots.  We planted our corn in intervals this year.  We planted five rows, waited two weeks, planted 5 more rows, waited 2 more weeks and planted 5 more. The plan is that we will not have all the corn ready to pick and process at one time.  So far, all of it looks good, except the last 5 rows. The germination of these seems to be inconsistent, and while it seems to be coming up well at this point, the germination has been very spread out.

The following pictures are some shots I snapped a few weeks ago in the garden. I'll take some more this week and do some current shots. 

Happy gardening! Hopefully each of you is having great success. The weather has been more cooperative than usual in SouthWest Missouri this year. :-)