Saturday, August 31, 2013
Canning, Canning and More Canning!
It's a good thing I have an actual three days off this weekend. I have a lot of canning to do. Last Sunday we got a dozen jars of Bread and Butter pickles made and they are already delicious! I went out today to pick some more cucumbers and found one I missed last time..oops! The squash that ate Wisconsin is still growing and I think Chaos can see it grow because she growls at it now. I had to do a mercy killing of some of the stalks just so I could find the squash to pick it, but the butternut ones are growing through (and over) the cucumber fence and the watermelons, but then I have cucumbers and watermelons in the squash and and watermelons also on the cucumber fence. What a mixture! Thought I'd check on the tomatoes to see if I had any ripe yet, as they got a very slow start, but it looks like they might be taking off now so I'll keep my fingers crossed that we won't get a frost. We usually do about this time of year. I stumbled upon the carrots that I didn't realize needed dug, but I dug them in a hurry when I saw how large they were. No wonder the Rabbits are after them. I have included some shots below of the produce.
Look at the size of those carrots! I do think I should plant them further apart next year though.
Basket of goodies: cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. I need to dig those next.
I guess I missed this one. Ummmm... how am I going to get that out of there? Hubby says to just pull it. It skinned it up some, but it came out. Going to make some more pickles out of this.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Seriously, Cops Need to More Education on the War On Drugs
This year has been either a funny year or a sad year, depending on your point of view, for police everywhere in regards to people attempting to produce their own--FOOD! Earlier this year someone was raided in Illinois by the cops because a neighbor reported they were cooking meth (methamphetamine) in their yard, out in the open for all to see. They were boiling maple sap to make syrup. Then I see an article from 2002 from Texas, albeit they appear to still have not learned the difference, where cops raided, pulled up and burned someone's okra patch because they thought it was marijuana. Now, I see a tomato farm (also in Texas!) has met a similar fate. What is going on? Is it a war on drugs, or a conspiracy to make sure people get all their food from the grocery store? And, just were in blazes so they think their food comes from; thin air?
See the articles I mentioned:
War on Okra: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/766790/posts
Garden of Eden Raided: http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/08/15/Texas-cops-raid-farm-for-mariuana-only-find-tomatoes/1401376601319/?fb_action_ids=677794512248742&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%22677794512248742%22%3A618968541481378}&action_type_map={%22677794512248742%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map=[]
Maple Syrup Raid: http://www.10news.com/news/watercooler/illinois-syrup-operation-mistaken-for-meth-lab02152013
See the articles I mentioned:
War on Okra: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/766790/posts
Garden of Eden Raided: http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/08/15/Texas-cops-raid-farm-for-mariuana-only-find-tomatoes/1401376601319/?fb_action_ids=677794512248742&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%22677794512248742%22%3A618968541481378}&action_type_map={%22677794512248742%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map=[]
Maple Syrup Raid: http://www.10news.com/news/watercooler/illinois-syrup-operation-mistaken-for-meth-lab02152013
Busy Time on the Farm- and Why Deer Season Can't Come Soon Enough!
These days it is really hard to get the chores done as I am having to work six nine and ten-hour days a week off the farm and my husband has ten to twelve-hour days at his job. We somehow are getting it done, a little later than it should be, but it is getting done. We bagged up our first crop of alfalfa hay to make silage in individual bags. These are not cheap, even though the bags are re-usable, so you can imagine how put out we are with the deer that they are using those bags for practice butting heads and are tearing holes in them as a result. The holes lead to excess air getting into them and thus rots the silage, ruining it. We have special tape for the holes, but if not found soon enough, it will be too late. We did get about three hundred small bales of hay for the mow and I don't know yet what the final tally is of the round bales of dry hay from the second crop.We should have three crops of hay, but with the lack of rain, it's just not going to happen.
There are fifty silage bales we do not need ruined!
My apple trees are loaded this year, and even though I did prune them back, the limbs are still extremely heavy so between the deer having a snack- grrrr- and the wind, my limbs are breaking off or attempting to do so. We need rain to help them fill out too, or they will stay small rather than being the fat, juicy apples they have been in the past. Also thanks to the deer, I have lost two of three plum trees we planted in honor of our son joining the Navy.
Damaged apple tree thanks to the deer. Hunting season can't come soon enough this year!
Our corn is nice and tall, but not filling out all that well thanks to the lack of rain; same goes for the soybeans unfortunately. I understand that due to all the rain we had in the spring and the extremely long cold season, many farmers throughout the Midwest weren't even able to plant this year, and crop insurance doesn't help if you never got it planted in the first place. Wisconsin is in the top three states for not getting to plant. We are right in the heart of the worst hit area. Another problem with the corn for us is, you guessed it: the deer. The way my husband explained it, the silks on each ear is attached to the kernels (one to one) and the tassels on top of the plant pollinate the kernels via the silk strands as well as the rain going through them to help fill out the kernels. The deer keep eating the ends off my corn destroying the silks and therefore ruining the corn ears, if they don't just outright eat the corn- stalk, cob and all. Are you seeing a trend here? The critters are not helping my soybeans either!
We do have the squash that ate Wisconsin! In my raised bed I planted okra (does not grow well in Wisconsin), yellow crook-neck squash, butternut squash, cucumbers and watermelon (also does not grow well this far north). Yesterday I picked a bushel of cucumbers and now I will really have to bust my you-know-what to get the pickles made since I am at work so much and have very little time. I also got a half bushel of yellow squash. Somehow I have more plant than squash. I'm not kidding. I took a picture last week (see photo below) and this week we got about a quarter-inch of rain and it got even bigger; as in waist high! I push the leaves aside and call out: "Anybody down there?" when I'm looking for squash. The butternut has grown across the garden too in all four directions and is now mixed with the cucumbers and watermelon plants and through the yellow squash and okra, and is growing over the logs and into the yard all four directions. Composted cow manure, even years old, is something else. I'm thinking of top dressing my regular ground level garden and tilling it in this fall. I'll have to spray it heavily with Round-Up to keep the weeds out, but it should rejuvenate the soil nicely for next year.
The squash plants that ate Wisconsin!
Update on Night Shade
I got a call the other day from the folks who sold us the sheep we used to have. They had previously bought hay from us but distance and gas prices made it prohibitive to get more. They bought hay from someone closer to them and had spread it out in their sheep pen for the animals to eat. The farmer who made the hay either didn't know about night shade or didn't care. This year it sprouted up in the sheep pen and took it over and now they have lambs and some of their prized rams dying left and and right. They were just pulling it up and throwing it in the woods adjacent to the pens. Yikes! I told her to get it out of the woods immediately and burn it, being careful not to be near the smoke and get it or the animals out of that pen. If there is too much to pull up- and it sounds like it might be- they need to spray it with Round-Up or the generic equivalent, and not the ready mixed stuff either. You can buy it in concentrated form and mix it yourself, which is what we do, and then double the recommended amount of the chemical to do a really good job. As directed it will work for spraying crops, but if you are trying to get rid of night shade, you're going to have to double it and kill it good and dead, and then apply again when it starts growing again, because it had already gone to seed (the berries) and they will regrow. Of course nothing else will grow in that pen for a while, but when the night shade stops coming up, you can quit spraying and a few months (I think it's twelve weeks for gardens before one can plant tomatoes which are related to night shade) replant with a good quality grass seed and keep an eye out for that deadly weed.
How is your garden doing this year? Is the lack of rain ruining it? Or too much rain? I had better get busy now. I have pickles to just waiting to be made!
My apple trees are loaded this year, and even though I did prune them back, the limbs are still extremely heavy so between the deer having a snack- grrrr- and the wind, my limbs are breaking off or attempting to do so. We need rain to help them fill out too, or they will stay small rather than being the fat, juicy apples they have been in the past. Also thanks to the deer, I have lost two of three plum trees we planted in honor of our son joining the Navy.
Our corn is nice and tall, but not filling out all that well thanks to the lack of rain; same goes for the soybeans unfortunately. I understand that due to all the rain we had in the spring and the extremely long cold season, many farmers throughout the Midwest weren't even able to plant this year, and crop insurance doesn't help if you never got it planted in the first place. Wisconsin is in the top three states for not getting to plant. We are right in the heart of the worst hit area. Another problem with the corn for us is, you guessed it: the deer. The way my husband explained it, the silks on each ear is attached to the kernels (one to one) and the tassels on top of the plant pollinate the kernels via the silk strands as well as the rain going through them to help fill out the kernels. The deer keep eating the ends off my corn destroying the silks and therefore ruining the corn ears, if they don't just outright eat the corn- stalk, cob and all. Are you seeing a trend here? The critters are not helping my soybeans either!
We do have the squash that ate Wisconsin! In my raised bed I planted okra (does not grow well in Wisconsin), yellow crook-neck squash, butternut squash, cucumbers and watermelon (also does not grow well this far north). Yesterday I picked a bushel of cucumbers and now I will really have to bust my you-know-what to get the pickles made since I am at work so much and have very little time. I also got a half bushel of yellow squash. Somehow I have more plant than squash. I'm not kidding. I took a picture last week (see photo below) and this week we got about a quarter-inch of rain and it got even bigger; as in waist high! I push the leaves aside and call out: "Anybody down there?" when I'm looking for squash. The butternut has grown across the garden too in all four directions and is now mixed with the cucumbers and watermelon plants and through the yellow squash and okra, and is growing over the logs and into the yard all four directions. Composted cow manure, even years old, is something else. I'm thinking of top dressing my regular ground level garden and tilling it in this fall. I'll have to spray it heavily with Round-Up to keep the weeds out, but it should rejuvenate the soil nicely for next year.
Update on Night Shade
I got a call the other day from the folks who sold us the sheep we used to have. They had previously bought hay from us but distance and gas prices made it prohibitive to get more. They bought hay from someone closer to them and had spread it out in their sheep pen for the animals to eat. The farmer who made the hay either didn't know about night shade or didn't care. This year it sprouted up in the sheep pen and took it over and now they have lambs and some of their prized rams dying left and and right. They were just pulling it up and throwing it in the woods adjacent to the pens. Yikes! I told her to get it out of the woods immediately and burn it, being careful not to be near the smoke and get it or the animals out of that pen. If there is too much to pull up- and it sounds like it might be- they need to spray it with Round-Up or the generic equivalent, and not the ready mixed stuff either. You can buy it in concentrated form and mix it yourself, which is what we do, and then double the recommended amount of the chemical to do a really good job. As directed it will work for spraying crops, but if you are trying to get rid of night shade, you're going to have to double it and kill it good and dead, and then apply again when it starts growing again, because it had already gone to seed (the berries) and they will regrow. Of course nothing else will grow in that pen for a while, but when the night shade stops coming up, you can quit spraying and a few months (I think it's twelve weeks for gardens before one can plant tomatoes which are related to night shade) replant with a good quality grass seed and keep an eye out for that deadly weed.
How is your garden doing this year? Is the lack of rain ruining it? Or too much rain? I had better get busy now. I have pickles to just waiting to be made!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Deadly Nightshade
Well, I want you to get a good look at the plant below:
Chances are if you have some ground that has been neglected or ignored, such as an old garden spot, or a field you don't normally mow anyway, it's there. This plant is called nightshade (it gets berries on it from the blooms) and it is extremely toxic. The berries start out green and then then turn black. Several years ago when we lived in Missouri we lost a couple cows and when we opened their mouths to see if they ate something (before we did a dreaded necropsy/autopsy by actually opening them up) we found several leaves of nightshade in their mouths. It only takes a few leaves and the berries are worse. Last year I had several sheep die on me and one I saw dying. It was very sad to watch but he went so fast I didn't have time to call a vet (not that I have ever heard of a cure for nightshade poisoning). My son asked me if I had checked the pen for nightshade, something he knew was there growing around the silos but I didn't. We just barricaded them to keep the sheep from getting behind the silos, but they jumped it and went in anyway. I found the half-eaten plants and knew he was right.
When you mow your rural lot or yard or even weed your garden (I found some in mine this year for the first time), before you get the bright idea to be helpful to the farmer next door and feed the clippings to his animals rather than composting, please ask their permission first. If you see nightshade on your lot, don't give it to them, and in fact please do pull it up by the root- using gloves you will dispose of. You'll notice I am touching this one and I thought afterward how stupid that was and immediately washed my hands. If they mature and go to berries, the birds will plant them for you. If you burn, don't be anywhere near the smoke (or your pets) as this is also toxic. I'm not sure of the toxicity to humans, but I wouldn't chance it. By the way, nightshade is related to the tomato plant, so don't give that to them either.
Thank you from a farmer!!
Chances are if you have some ground that has been neglected or ignored, such as an old garden spot, or a field you don't normally mow anyway, it's there. This plant is called nightshade (it gets berries on it from the blooms) and it is extremely toxic. The berries start out green and then then turn black. Several years ago when we lived in Missouri we lost a couple cows and when we opened their mouths to see if they ate something (before we did a dreaded necropsy/autopsy by actually opening them up) we found several leaves of nightshade in their mouths. It only takes a few leaves and the berries are worse. Last year I had several sheep die on me and one I saw dying. It was very sad to watch but he went so fast I didn't have time to call a vet (not that I have ever heard of a cure for nightshade poisoning). My son asked me if I had checked the pen for nightshade, something he knew was there growing around the silos but I didn't. We just barricaded them to keep the sheep from getting behind the silos, but they jumped it and went in anyway. I found the half-eaten plants and knew he was right.
When you mow your rural lot or yard or even weed your garden (I found some in mine this year for the first time), before you get the bright idea to be helpful to the farmer next door and feed the clippings to his animals rather than composting, please ask their permission first. If you see nightshade on your lot, don't give it to them, and in fact please do pull it up by the root- using gloves you will dispose of. You'll notice I am touching this one and I thought afterward how stupid that was and immediately washed my hands. If they mature and go to berries, the birds will plant them for you. If you burn, don't be anywhere near the smoke (or your pets) as this is also toxic. I'm not sure of the toxicity to humans, but I wouldn't chance it. By the way, nightshade is related to the tomato plant, so don't give that to them either.
Thank you from a farmer!!
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