Daffodils, Crocus, little buds on the redbud and lilac.
We’ve been eating wild greens for well over a week now, thank the Mother! I
have so missed them. Yarrow and cinquefoil abound. In the herb gardens I can
see tansy, motherwort, wormwood, catnip, hyssops, sage and on and on.
We got my first order of trees for the orchard last week and
got them all in. It had taken me a while to get them but I think they’re fine.
All still had wick :) So Nik planted 3 each Pecan, Pawpaw, Black
Cherry, Service Berry & Beauty Berry. The blueberries and thimbleberries
will be here soon.
I have decided to start seeds much later this year than
usual. Much too late for peppers or tomatoes. This will be the first year in a
great many that I have not started my own peppers and tomatoes. But things go
as they should. I will look to trade or buy pepper and tomato plants this year
instead.
I will also be looking diligently for strawberry plants
again. I bought some pretty expensive ones year before last but they didn’t
come back after winter and that year was fairly mild. I hope to find more Ozark
Beauties. I grew them for years and love them. They’re prolific and hardy.
I started another batch of mead yesterday. This is a sweeter
batch and with pumpkin spices, for fall and Samhain.
A gallon of mead can be made for about the same cost as a
good bottle of wine. In comparison you get twice or more the mead and you know
exactly what’s in. Plus you have the pride of having made it yourself.
I’ve never made wine except by accident in the process of
making pear vinegar once. But I intend to try this fall when we have an
abundance of fruit.
The mead, which has always been my favorite fermentation,
will be very self sufficient when I can get bees going and producing honey to
share with us (a few years). Wild yeasts abound and are what was used for 100s
of years for mead making. But I have not yet figured out a self sufficient
source for the citric acid needed. Apparently oranges were used even in
medieval times? Seems odd to me that oranges would be so easily come by in
medieval Europe . I’ll not give up my search tho, there
must be something in the Ozarks to take their place.
We have another 5 dozen eggs in the incubator. 1 doz each
Barred Rock, Buff Orps and Ameraucana plus 2 doz, what I believe are, Black
Australorps. I thought I was getting Black Orpintons, which I Really wanted,
but Australorps are fine. We’ve had Australorps before and they were good
layers. Hopefully by fall we’ll start getting our own eggs again and soon after
having extra to share with the local food pantry and to sell. It’s strange
being without chickens but things always happen as they should.
1 comment:
Nice update Jewel. I can't wait til I get down there again in September to be working my land. Hopefully I can visit, I will be down there til Thanksgiving. I'm thinking of starting my own blog as well.
- Tobit
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