Seed Catalogs

With all the freezing cold outside (and trust me; it is freezing cold outside) the thing that helps save my sanity is the flood of seed catalogs I get every winter. (Odd considering I usually hate junk mail.)

The good old fashioned seed catalogs 1) Remind me what growing things look like, as opposed to all the white frozen stuff around me. 2) Causes me to think about experimenting with varieties of vegetables I haven't tried before. 3) Offer help with problems I have growing things.

Case in point: a good many of my neighbors seem to be able to grow strawberries and blueberries. I have spent a shameful amount of money trying to do likewise to no avail. I have yet to harvest a single berry; just a lot of dead plants. (hangs head in shame)

We received a nice big seed catalog from the Jung Seed Company (No, I am not affiliated with them in any way!) and my husband got to it first. He suddenly says, "Hey, I think I found your problem." (This could cover so many things!) I raised an eyebrow. "What?" He smiled. "Your dead blueberries," he elaborated, and handed me the catalog. 

Now, aside from the numerous seeds and plants offered in seed catalogs, they also offer tidbits about why one might be having a particular problem and of course the products they sell to remedy the situation. We had our farm soil tested last year and they all had pretty much the same result: our soil is neutral, as in, not acidic at all, especially around where I plant our food. Blueberries need acidic soil to grow. Well, I'll be. I have some work to do this spring and I will be getting the suggested products either from the catalog or locally if I can find it. Quite frankly, plants seldom survive the journey from any company to our farm anyway (like sweet potatoes-ahhh!), but the seeds and other products do well and if not available locally, I will go to the catalogs.

                                                   

                                    

            Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

             Stock Photo - image ID: 10090261

What I have started is my own gardening book of sorts and you can too. Peruse the catalogs for the types of produce, flowers, bushes, trees, etcetera, you prefer and see if they have growing tips and troubleshooting tidbits. Cut them out of the catalog and put them in a binder by category. That way you can find them easily when you run into something with your plants. This is fairly inexpensive –you still will need a binder and something on which to collect the articles. Print off articles you may find online or cut out agricultural articles in magazines and trade newspapers (I have done this for animal health) and add them to your binder. You can also obtain leaflets from your state's university extension service. It is way less expensive than buying an entire book, or books, just for one or two problems and you have what you need at your fingertips. 

Now, if someone could just help me with those strawberries! 

Just Like Zikan's

There is no getting around it; when you live out in the country, as I do, when you go shopping, you get enough to last a while. There is a store in a spot in the road town nearby however, and though it's not a big box store that can get the super low prices, you can still completely survive using it.

The other night my husband was looking for a can of olives. I have a habit of buying extra items when I go grocery shopping, especially baking ingredients since he also has a huge sweet tooth. This led to his using the at-a-glance method when he looks for anything in the cabinets because he can just declare it not there and I'll find it, which I did. I reached in behind all the baking supplies and pulled out the can. "Just like Zikan's!" I said. He laughed.

What is Zikan's? Think of the general store in all the old westerns you ever saw. It is jokingly (and lovingly) referred to as the Catawba Mall. They sell everything you could possibly need. In one side is clothing, chore boots, baby clothes and items, cloth, sewing notions, cleaning supplies, groceries, even a small old fashioned meat counter. The other side and the basement has everything else: fan belts, small appliances such as radios, coffee makers, waffle irons and the like, dishes, glassware, cutlery, utinsels, pots and pans, paint, plumbing and electrical supplies, sporting goods, bicycles, stove pipe, mops, brooms, buckets, nuts, bolts, nails, tools, garden supplies, fans, small farm supplies like fence wire and insulators, chicken feeders and waterers, even hunting and fishing licenses and gear. There is not much this place doesn't carry and has for more years than I've been here. Considering how much they have, the building is not that large, so they stock things in front of and on top of other items. All you have to do is ask and they can reach, unseeing, into a pile and pull it out. Very few times I've gone in there and they were out of something or didn't carry it at all. Thus the joke, "See, just like Zikan's!"

I'll tell you what; you can shop the Wall-Marts of the world all you want, but if you really want that hard to find, unique item, you need a store like Zikan's.

Wintertime Preparedness on the Farm

The calendar says today is the first day of winter. I wonder who thought that up- it's been winter here for weeks. The snow is very deep and of course it is very cold. I live in northern Wisconsin, though, not Hawaii (although that is a dream of mine someday) so snow is expected, if not appreciated.

                                            To give you an idea of how deep it is already.

Most people know to keep gear in their car in the wintertime such as cat litter for traction, a shovel to dig out if necessary, a blanket, a spare pair of socks (important to keep your feet dry and warm), some food that won't ruin like nuts or granola bars, and water. A small board is also useful in case you sink in and need to put it under the tire to help you drive out. But are you prepared for just going outside? Case in point below.

Last year we had issues with the waterline freezing and we had to get a water tank to go get water for the cattle. Unfortunately, the tank was frozen to the ground and had about ten inches of snow around it. We had to get that tongue unstuck and attached to the truck, but I had the wrong gloves on. I was wearing leather chore gloves instead of insulated gloves and let me tell you, frost bite is not fun. I didn't have it severe enough to loose fingers, but it was excruciating when my fingers started to warm up and now I have issues with pain in my fingers when they get even a little cold. I'm lucky I didn't get it on my face too, because I wasn't exactly wearing the right protection there either. I was wearing a large knit scarf, however, and that is probably what saved my face.

Now when I go out in the cold to do chores, or hunting, and it is cold, as it has been here since early to mid--November, I gear up. The tractor we use for feeding hay has no cab and so we are exposed to the elements. I wear a mask to protect my face, along with a hooded coat, and if I am wearing a hooded sweatshirt, that hood is up too. I also wear some seriously insulated gloves. The kind I have is actually for hunting. They have individual fingers, but the ends are cropped off so that one can pull the trigger and get a good grip on the weapon. However, they also have a thick mitten covering that folds back out of the way to keep the ends of the fingers covered when the fingers don't need to be exposed.

                           A good stocking hat is needed when exposed to the cold to protect your face.

 Gloves are important to protect your hands at all times.Thin leather gloves are NOT appropriate in freezing weather. If your gloves get wet, change them immediately.

One problem of course with wearing all the gear is that when turning to back up the tractor, the hood gets in the way and I end up pulling it down so that I can see where I am going. That is where having that stocking hat helps tremendously.

During hunting season we had to have all orange clothing, so I had the insulated coveralls, the scarf (close enough to orange), a knit hat, a billed hat (I attach a clip-on flashlight to the hat), and the hood of the coveralls to protect my head, and the gloves for my hands. I have some thick insulated coveralls that look like overalls and a big coat for farm chores. Because of their color, which is brown, they were not a good idea for any out of doors activities during hunting season.

It was very cold- below zero- during hunting season, but I was warm in my insulated clothing. I wondered if maybe I had on too much, but I never broke a sweat, and it was a quarter mile to my hunting blind walking though a good four inches of snow. Always carry water with you when you will be outside for any long periods of time during the winter. The air is dry and you need to keep hydrated. As an asthmatic, the cold air is dangerous for me to breathe and water can prevent the dry air from causing me to cough and inhale more freezing air into my lungs. On a lighter note: being bundled up like this also caused my glasses to fog up and then the fog froze. It's a little hard to see that way!

Always let someone know where you will be so if you get stuck or stranded somehow, even on your own property, they will know where to look. You should let them know approximately how long you will be gone as well. I know from experience that just because you have a cell phone, does not mean you will have a signal to call for help. Stay warm and stay safe.

Boy is it Wintertime!

Living in the country the way I do one really knows it when winter hits, whether the calendar agrees or not. This morning it was -17 when I got up, and the wind is blowing. There are several inches of snow that has accumulated over the week out there and somewhere in the middle of it is at least a quarter-inch of ice. It froze the barn door shut. Now that will be a trick getting open!

As I might have mentioned, I work off the farm as well as on the farm and I have to drive thirty miles to get there (sixty round trip). Let me tell you it is no fun driving on the ice. Even though I am going slow (really slow) my car with brand new tires does not like to stop and it is all over the lane. The wind was so hard the other day it created high drifts in our driveway that I had to just stomp on the gas to get through because I knew, unfortunately from experience, that if I went slow or stopped, my car would be there until the tractor dragged it out of the drift. I'd hate to think how high those drifts would have been had that driveway not been plowed out the day before.

With weather like this it makes me appreciate that I have put up so much food from my garden. Homemade soup made from ingredients I put up seems to taste better than commercially canned soup, but then I really don't care for commercially canned soup anyway. Baking bread and pie also helps to warm the house and fills the air with delicious smells.

It seems like a good day to work on my book or read one. I have also done quilting and worked on projects for Christmas gifts during winter months, and I have discovered a lot of people around here do that too. The embroidery and knit projects done over the winter is often offered up for sale at the farmer's market come spring and summer. I have seen some fantastic works for sale and when I asked when they had time to do them, they said over the winter when they didn't want to go outside, except to feed the animals of course.

What are you doing this winter to stay warm and occupied?

Apple Butter Making Days

We have a bumper crop of apples this year in spite of the weather. My dear husband has been picking the apples for me since I was working six days a week. He hasn't even scratched the surface of the apples as he just more or less stood in one spot and picked basket after basket. We, so far, have ten quart bags of apple slices for pies and such in the freezer, two quarts of applesauce frozen (I'll some later), a couple pounds dehydrated for snacking, and eighteen pints, and eight pint-and-a half jars of apple butter. I actually am thinking of making more! I am going to can some applesauce. It is really good for baking, not just eating (hot with butter and cinnamon) or cold. I also have four quarts of juice. We are eating them as fast as we can but I think we may get tired of them. Man, they are good though.

                                                  Really big apples from our trees this year.

   Two batches of apple butter simmering. It takes hours to cook it down to desired thickness. It must be stirred nearly constantly. Sure smells good!

Jars of yummy apple butter. Look out biscuits! Yes, those are Blue Ball Mason jars in the front. And the Dehydrator is running in the background. Apples are everywhere!

Canning, canning, and More Canning!

For such a bad start to the gardening year, I sure got a lot grown to can for the year. We had a hard frost the second week of September and when I was not at work, I had to finish canning the veggies. I don't know how the apples survived the frost, or the butternut squash, but I have to pick that next and put it in jars and the freezer. This is the first time in years I have had to buy more canning jars!

I tried to do a panoramic (sort of) shot, but I don't have that function on my camera, so some of it got shot twice. I also have zucchini and green tomato relish that gone done after the pictures were taken. I'm  not sure where to put them, or the apples and butternut squash, since, as you can see, the shelf is quite full now. At least they have a cool basement to be placed in. We butchered a cow and all my venison from last season had to be canned, so they are in the first picture. then bread and butter pickles. The second one is dill pickles, yellow squash, corn and some sweet potatoes. The third is corn again, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and strawberry-rhubarb jam. The zucchini will probably be put before the jam (I'll have to move the jam). I do have a small shelving unit next to those shelves which is used for storing stuff that can totally be tossed, so I'll probably toss them, and use it to put the rest of the goodies on. No, if can just find a nice BIG bag of white potatoes (mine didn't do so well!) I can can those too, just so I have them. Busy, busy, busy.

It's time for the corn to be harvested and the soybeans will be close on too, if, as suspected, the heavy frost didn't ruin them. I've seen a lot of fields that are black because of the frost the beans are a total loss. Ours hadn't had a chance to make beans yet, so we aren't sure how they came out. Only time will tell, but they probably won't do much. Who needs a casino? I'm a farmer. We gamble every time we put a plow in the ground and plant something.

Why I Buy American

There has been a campaign for Americans to buy American.  I am a big cheap skate- there's no getting around it, but when I can, I do buy American. I was in the store the other day doing some shopping and I was looking for shaving cream for my husband.At Dollar General they had a store brand completely comparable with Barbisol, right down to the size of the can, and there's was $.35 less. Do you know why this cheap skate paid extra? The store brand was made in China and the Barbisol is made right here in the United States.

I also went to Wal-Mart. They used to have an entire campaign around their goods being 'Made in America' and one day they just stopped. I wonder why? I happened to need canning lids. I am canning a huge amount this year and had run out of lids (the flat part that seals the jar for those who don't know what I'm talking about). They were all out of my trusty Ball and Kerr lids so I got their brand (Mainstays), which was actually pretty cheap. I got three packages that comes out to thirty-six lids. Of the thirty-six I used thirty. I tell you what, I have never, ever seen lids buckle before; one even did it when I screwed the cap (ring) onto the jar before I even put it in the canner. I replaced that one with a newly sterilized one and put it into the pot and secured the lid and commenced to pressurize the canner. I kept hearing a whistle I couldn't account for. This was the second time in two days I had heard this. I finally figured out what it was when I opened the canner and found for the second time in two days, jars with the lids bulged and literally buckled underneath the ring. What the???? I looked at the box and, you guess it- Made in China! I will never buy anything else but Ball or Kerr lids again (unless I get where I can afford those nice Tattler Reusable lids. They are expensive and you occasionally will have to replace the rubber ring, but they are reusable, so in the long run, they end up being less than the other ones and there is less waste. They are also made in the USA!) Now, however, I am worried about those other twenty-eight jars of food that did seal. Will they stay that way?

Has anyone else noticed how much the quality of clothing (including your socks and undies), linens, and other goods went down hill once they were no longer made in the USA? China has now been approved to export chicken products to the U.S. Excuse me; this is the same country that stretched out the pet foods they sent to us with Melamine and it killed our pets with painful deaths. They even put it in infant formula sold to their own people for their babies. Why on Earth would I buy food made in China? Watch out for your chicken nuggets! I understand Smithfield Foods has been bought out by a Chinese company. No more Smithfield hams for me. But then, I like to grow my own anyway, so I guess I'll get those pigs sooner rather than later.

Buying goods made in America means we are supporting Americans by saving their jobs, and by doing that we are improving our economy and the quality of what we buy. Why would you buy anything made anywhere else if you had the choice?

FYI: I am not being paid to put Tattler Reusable Canning Lids on my blog!!