New Fruits for the Farm

My mother and I (with kids in tow) took a trip down to Wapello, IA to visit the Red Fern Farm. They specialize in chestnut trees, but also have persimmons, pawpaws, hazelnuts, aronia, and asian pears. I took 2 hours of Tom Wahl's time but I just couldn't help myself. I was in fruit production heaven. He also let us try persimmons (a first for both mom and I) and hazelnuts. The hazelnut was really good but the persimmon i am undecided about. I did the little astringency test of taking a tiny bite and waiting about 15 seconds. I didn't appreciate the dry sand feeling, but did seem to think it had a numbing quality. It reminded me of sucking on a chloroseptic tablet that numbs your throat. It was very sweet and the texture was like a really juicy tomato without all the tiny seeds. I bet it would taste good dried like an apricot. Calysta didn't want to try it. Tom allowed me to bring a few home and I gave one to my dad and husband, Todd. He liked it but I don't think he loved it. All in all as a family we are undecided about persimmons in our lives. This doesn't mean it wouldn't be a valuable addition to the farm as far as a selling fruit.

The hardy kiwi and pawpaws were looking good but weren't ripe yet which was very disappointing to me. I have been staring at these fruits in pictures now for a couple years now and was really anxious to try them. I had read many posts discouraging growing hardy kiwis but after seeing Toms I am anxious to get them going. His were covered in grape to roma tomato sized kiwis. The 2 I bought this year from Gurney died, 1 was just a poor specimen (the roots seems damped off) but the other I killed. It dried out on a weekend when we were gone. I will try again next year.

We made a small purchase of 15 hazelnuts, 2 aronia, 2 korean giant pears, and 1 nijiseiki asian pears, and 3 pawpaw seedlings. It was great to see this plants in action. I had hoped for a medlar as well but Tom didnt think it would do well. So hopefully in a few years I will be posting about all the wonderful things i am going to do with all the new non-traditional fruits.

Low Carb Diet Days are Upon Us

Well the time has come. I am out of excuses and frankly my tubby frame is more then I can handle anymore. I have officially stopped pumping breastmilk and so the fear of losing my milk due to dieting is no longer a valid excuse. So low carb here I/maybe we come.
Why low carb? I don't know, it seems to work for me. I don't like calorie counting. It is exhausting and frankly I do better with an all or none mentality versus the "control" one. Anyone who knows me knows I go overboard with everything. Also low carb seems to suit my body. I have a feeling I am a little insulin resistant or something because eating lots of carbs really wears on me. Some people feel exhausted doing low carb, but I think they might be doing it to excess or not eating enough. I don't completely fall into one low-carb strategy or another (ie atkins or south beach). I don't tend to limit vegetables (potatoes are a starch in my book) and I avoid things that are white unless it is yogurt or sour cream. So ultimately we eat a vegetable and meat for dinners. This includes stir-fry, kabobs, steak, lots of grilled stuff, fish packets, and lots of different entree salads. Dessert is a huge weak spot for me so thank god I recently discovered brownies made from black beans and the old standby's of cheesecake, fruit yogurts, creme brulee, mousse,etc. If it weren't for stevia I would be destined to fail from the start!!

The Fruits ( and Veggies) of Our Labor

Well, it is that time of year where the garden is starting to reward the immense amount of labor we put into it. And best of all...I have cucumbers......lots of them and several varieties....pickle cucumbers, chinese thin, and lemon.....Considering my previous years failure, this is very exciting. Spicy pickles here we come!!!

We also have zucchini and yellow summer squash coming in. Every year I try to find more interesting ways to use it. Yesterday i cubed it and put it in shrimp fried rice. It was really great. I bought a few new cookbooks at Sams club that incorporate zucchini and eggplant for new ideas, mostly ethnic dishes.

I also am getting just a few early small roma tomatoes....just a tease....

Nanking Cherry Bushes

When I got home today, I noticed small red berries all over the nanking cherry bushes. I purchased them from Gurney's when we first moved here about 3 years ago. This is the first year they have fruited. The fruit are suprisingly good. The first few fruits that showed up last week were damaged by a fruit maggot and as you can imagine I was pretty grossed out.

Today the fruits today were much better, no maggots for one and very plump. They were also suprising sweet, but not as sweet as a "sweet cherry". They are about the size of a dime and extremely prolific. I can't wait to have nanking cherry wine in the upcoming years.

More laundry Soap

Well..we are out of laundry soap again. The good news is I don't have to wait for the next annoying trip to the store (hate shopping) where i get to lug 2 or 3 large gallon containers. Instead, I just go under the sink and pull out a trusty bar of Fels Naptha. It is getting to the point where making laundry soap is only taking me about 15-20 minutes and most of that is just waiting for the soap to melt.
For those who haven't seen the recipe it is easy as pie and literally so cheap.

1 bar Fels naptha
2 Cups of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda ( not Baking soda!!)
2 Cups of Borax
All you do is chop the soap into small pieces. I used to be very fancy with this and use a cheese grater and even my food processor one time, but really I am lazy now and just use a steak knife. I find if you just shave the bar into pieces it is just as effective and the knife is easy to clean.
You add the soap pieces to hot/boiling water on the stove. I just use maybe a half a gallon in a large saucepan. The amount doesn't matter just leave head room in the pot as it will boil over if you boil the water to hard. Stir the hot soapy water on occasion and once melted pour the mixture into the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket (with a lid..drowning hazard for little ones). Add the Washing Soda and Borax. The fill the bucket quantity sufficient to within an inch or so of the top of the bucket. Stir the mix well. About every few hours I take my hand to the bottom of the bucket to mix up the solids that like to settle out. Once it starts to cool it will start to gel, this can take up to 24 hours, but i find using the extra dry ingredients (original recipe was for 1 cup and 1 cup) it seems to set up faster and have a better consistency.
I use about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup in our top loader and my mom uses no more then 1/4 cup in a front loading high efficiency. It costs pennies a load! and works great.

The summer Fruit is Coming In

We have strawberries. And not just a few, but are picking about a gallon a day!! I mean my entire intent when I planted these beds three years ago was to have more strawberries then I needed, but I didn't actually think I could accomplish this. Gardening observations: Honeoye--small, flavorful berry, cookie cutter shape and freezing. In all fairness to the honeoye plant they are extremely crowded in the bed and I should have thinned the plants. Second bed has Allstar plants. They produce well with good size berries, more irregular shapes, but they are also spaced more appropriately. The problem is when they are spaced accordingly the berries can be seen at a distance and then the peacocks help themselves to the patch. It would be one thing if they ate a few berries, but they just pick at the berries and damage the fruit. If they weren't so beautiful I would be mad. I love that the junebearing are so productive and I am giving berries away as well as freezing them. And let's not forget that Calysta eats her body weight in strawberries each day. I would like to plant a bed of everbearing so in July and August when i am hungry for fresh berries...they will be there.

Nanking Cherry Bushes...planted 3 about 3 years ago. They are covered in little crimson delights. They cherries are smaller then a regular cherry with a slightly tart flavor. The first berries to ripen seemed affected by some little maggot. Gross! But the berries ripening the last few days are not. I think they berries started to ripen faster then the fruit maggot could eat em! Overall, very happy with how these plants are coming along. I bought them from either Gurney or Henry Field (same difference in my mind)

Today, Calysta picked the first red raspberry. Apparently, they are also coming soon!!!!

Another day on the farm and trying to save $$

Yesterday it was just me and Logan while Todd was at work. We started bright and early picking up the first load of arborvitae from Menards. Anything to slow the wind down on top of this hill. I purchased 16 Emerald green arborvitae. I love the symmetry of arborvitae. They remind of some beautiful garden in the country in Rome....
I also tilled up half of the "hog"garden. So aptly named because it used to be a hog building before we pushed it over and took out the old concrete floor. The concrete sides make a great raised bed and I filled it up with horse poo. I planted 4 varieties of cucumbers, including an yellow heirloom variety that looks like a lemon. As long as we have lived here I have failed to produce a reasonable cucumber. I thought I had a bacterial wilt or pests, like beetles. Alas, I think it is because I was trying to trellis them like I always did in my backyard in Nevada (Iowa). It blows so hard here, I think it was damaging the plants..one day alive and doing well....next day dead and dried out. So this year I have devoted a huge area to cucumbers and just letting them sprawl...Here is hoping for spicy pickles to can this year.

In my ever determined attempts to save money, I also made more baby food tonight..peas... now that I am using the blender it is even easier. The food processor just left little gritty pieces and he didn't like it. We also have been having these Jimmy Dean sandwiches for breakfast in a hurry that I got at Sam's club. Tonight, I made our own with egg patties, sausage, a piece of cheese, and layered it nicely on an English muffin. i wrapped them in freezer paper and in the freezer they went. This is just one more reason I need a nice new huge upright freezer. hint, hint Todd..lol....

First Shot at Blogging

Well, i have never blogged before, but here we go. I guess this is nothing more then an online journal. Although I have never written in a traditional style journal more then a few days.

So as usual my days off this week were devoted to the farm and kids. Todd is working on tearing down an old aluminum corn crib. Had it been decent looking or traditional in any sense I would have covered in it some sort of vining fruit. He also took down this terrible ugly fence that was used as a windbreak to the west of the horse barn (former cattle shed). We have purchased 16 6' emerald green arborvitae to go in a double row where the fence once stood.

In the Garden....Kiwi's are planted...1 male and 1 female...the problem is Calysta removed the labels and I have no idea which one is which. They are dioecious and require at least one male to several females. I planted them so they can spread up the concrete block silo....if that isn't strong enough to hold them up then I have nothing that will. In about 5-7 years I will be cussing myself for doing this when i can't pick the fruit. I have an enormous fear of heights and even standing on small step ladders is cause for a panic attack. I also have 4 Saskatoon berries from Henry Field that are getting planted on the Northwest side of the property. Saskatoon berries are native to the north and were consumed by many Native Americans. Apparently, they look like blueberries but have a more "nutty" flavor. We shall see. I wouldn't mind have an entire hedge of these blocking my view of the corn/ hay to the north.

Yesterday, I had a boxer relinquished by the owners. They brought the dog in for a second opinion and unfortunately didn't have money for diagnostics. The other clinic had already tried treating without diagnostics and it didn't go well, so as I second opinion I wanted to do what needed to be done and no more guessing. I got "lucky" after normal bloodwork and non-diagnostic lymph node enlargement on the chest rads, I managed to find cryptococcus organisms in a lymph node. It will take months of fungistatic drugs to get her well.

As quiet as the house is, I am missing Calysta who is staying with her "nammy Pat". I laugh because it wasn't so long ago she referred to Todd's mother as "Pack nammy". Hoping she has a great time and yet wishing her home soon.