And then Some.

Some dry weather we've had here lately. Typically, I don't write about dry weather. But not because I don't like dry weather necessarily. Because it just doesn't happen often. I live in a swamp. Well, technically I live across the street from a swamp. But one thing about swamps is, they really don't like to be dry. 

Because it's been a good 6 weeks or more without any measurable rain the bogs are all dry. The most amazing thing happens when you dry a bog. It's flammable. Seriously. 

So the past 2 weeks my home has been surrounded by wildfires. We spent an entire week packed and ready for mandatory evacuations. Luckily that never happened to us, but across the street it did.

It's truly unnerving to look out your widow to see this sight. I could actually see the flames for 2 nights, and I didn't sleep much either. Now we wake up to the smell of fire every morning and as the morning warms and the breezes kick in the haze lifts. It's not so scary any more but we all know it wouldn't take much for this to happen again.

I am so thankful for my wonderful life, for my home and children. Believe it or not thousands of acres burned and no homes were lost. A few outbuildings, but no homes, and all humans remain safe as well.

Hope you are all safe.

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.29.13

I can't believe I almost missed it!

 

It's Harvest Monday y'all! ;-) I don't know where all my pictures went this week. I only have 2 to show you. But one of them is mighty impressive. Well, at least to me anyway.

 

My shelling peas? They are blooming profusely because our nights are still cool. Problem is our days are now hitting 90* regularly and they just don't like that. At all. So they are past there prime. Taste is down, toughness is up... I'm thinking I'll have to pull the vines soon. Problem is those darn blossoms make it hard to just yank the vines. LOL. Must do it soon. I know that the peas they are producing are inferior and all I'm doing is creating a mess. Something else could be growing there. Good bye peas. See you again in 7 months. *sigh* The snap peas aren't far behind. :-(

One harvest this week:

Oh, yep. That reminds me. The strawberries are still hanging around. They seem to be shrinking these days. I'm also still getting a handful of blueberries each day. I'm having a hard time measuring them though. Only a few make it into the house... It's like the Bermuda triangle out there. Somewhere between the bushes, the garden and the house. *Poof* they just fall off the radar. The mulberries are still coming by the buckets, but I stopped picking them. I hate them right now. I despise the suckers. I...OK I love the tree, I just don't like it right now.

 

BUT! The cauliflower beast has been harvested. I have harvested a few small (normal for me) heads as seen in the above picture. They usually get to be you know- 3" or so but not this one!

This one weighed in at 4lbs 7oz! WAHOOO!!! I made a cauliflower pizza dough... well I should restate that. I TRIED to make a cauliflower pizza dough. It didn't turn out very well so I scrapped it off the pan turned it over and baked the crap out of it and made it into crackers instead... AWESOME flavor. Oh MAN... <3 serious cauly love here. 1/3 of it will be mashed cheesy cauliflower (like mashed potatoes) and the last third is destined for butter and salt and pepper and steaming.

 

YUM.

 

I've been spending a lot of time int he pool and even went out to the beach this weekend. It was relaxing and Oh so nice to get away even if only for a single day. Now it's back to the grind!

 

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Roselle Tea

I know I've mentioned roselle tea here a few times over the last year or so. It's truly one of my favorite things. You may have heard it called hibiscus tea. You may have had a taste of it in the tea "Red Zinger"

 

I'm still harvesting fistfuls of roselle from my single plant but the frosts are beginning and I'm not a happy camper. I wish that I knew more about canning and could assure myself that storing a syrup into the summer would be O.K. But I'm only a novice to the canning scene - and a real wannabe at that. I've only really made freezer jams and butters. I just don't trust myself to store something in my cupboard for months on end. Part of that is our conditions here. It's hot and it's humid and that my friends is a recipe for disaster. Don't get me wrong. I do make my own syrups and things. It's just that my family uses them up within a week or 2 and I've never been able to make a large enough amount to have to worry about canning/jarring and preserving for the long term storage.

 

To get to the point? Right now I am wishing that I had the knowledge base that would allow me to do so. I'd love to put a bottle of this away for later. The roselle does not bloom until fall and only for 2-3 months until the first freeze. Next year I intend to have more plants - but I intended that this year as well.

 

Here is how I make my roselle tea:

Gather roselle (This can be bought online or fresh in a whole food market as well)

 

If you are making the tea fresh slice in half and remove the seed cavity - if you want to make a syrup leave the calyx whole (the seed cavity has loads of pectin and looks just like mini okra) If you have purchase your roselle this also give you the opportunity to inspect the roselle for any insect damage or any rotting parts that might be unseen otherwise.

 Place the pitted roselle in a pot with enough water to cover them on the stove and bring to a rapid boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from burner and steep for an additional 20 minutes, up to overnight to bring out the full flavor of the roselle.

 At this point the roselle has a very jelly like consistency. Strain the calyx out of the water and squeeze though a sieve or cheesecloth. Be forewarned! The roselle is also used for food coloring in other countries. If you use cheesecloth you WILL have a beautifully died red/hot pink cloth! I often use coffee filters but they rip easily. (You really should squeeze them to get the best flavor) If you have a jelly strainer this is perfect!

Because I make this so often I am comfortable adding my sugar without tasting it. I like to add it while the roselle steeps. This allows the sugar to melt completely away without stirring and becomes a part of the flavoring itself. Much like a light simple syrup. If you have never had the tea before I suggest waiting until it has cooled and you are making a glass to add the sugar to get an idea of what you will enjoy. I don't like much sugar personally.

 

Once it is strained you can add an accompaniment. My kids enjoy adding citrus to their tea. Actually they think the best way to drink it is to drink 1/2 roselle tea and 1/2 lemonade kind of an 'Roselle Palmer' I suppose. LOL.

 

This may look like a lemon, but it's not it's a Key Lime from my little tree. I enjoy a splash of lime with mine the most. But, I do also enjoy it in regular tea, with pomegranate, strawberry, lemon, a dash of honey. I don't think there is a combination I have found yet that I dislike!

 

I do have to say if you like an iced tea make sure it is thoroughly iced! Don't try to drink it luke warm first. This does not have a leafy green tea taste. If you want to impart that taste you can brew it the same way and add a couple of bags of your favorite tea as it is steeping. Otherwise if you have a roselle hibiscus plant, you can steep a few of the hibiscus leaves with the calyx. The leaves are just as good for you as the rest and will give the tea flavor that one would normally associate with a green or black tea in the background of that fruity, tangy flavor of the roselle.

 

So, while I am mourning the impending loss of this drink I am still enjoying it while I can. It's an incredibly healthy drink. Good for your liver, kidneys, lowers cholesterol - all kinds of good things. If you end up with too many of the calyx you can try chopping them and adding a tangy bite to your salads, too.

 

Drink up!

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~



Harvest Monday 11/05/2012

November Harvest. It's hard to believe, but it's true. This years harvest are a bit different. I'm not as active int he garden.

But, what I am harvesting is typical time wise for Florida.

Roselle is day length sensitive so even if planted early the flowers don't produce calyxes until October and until the first frost. I get the feeling this year will be early for us. It's been unseasonably cool so far already.

While one of my bushes has failed to mature and one died entirely the other has made up for it. Next year I won't actually need to plant them, but I will. Because I want them in the front bed as well. They are invasive if you leave them to their own devices and to me, that's just fine! I love this stuff. It's good in salads, as a tea hot or cold and it's so very good for you! As an added bonus I found out this week that the seeds are VERY good chicken food! *BONUS* 8oz Roselle calyx

Sweet potatoes were harvested this weekend as well. I left one plant in the ground and took out the other 2 (or 3?)

3lbs 3oz Porto Rico sweet potatoes

Yes, they are PINK. Very pink.

Inside right now is light yellow. As they age they would turn to the familiar orange, but I know me and there is about zero chance of that happening. LOL. These are destined to become sweet potato fries with a raspberry sauce. My absolute favorite!

20 eggs also graced my harvest tally this week. Love my girls!

I don't have much else in my garden now just a few lettuce seedlings and beans, and 4 or 5 mustard's. I'm getting ready for a massive overhaul. I couldn't stand the idea of planting it and then tearing it all out again when we brought in new soil. It's made me somewhat depressed about the garden but I know once the new beds (same ones, just taller) are in I'll feel a lot better. Meanwhile I'm concentrating on other projects like the walkway and other things.

Linking in with Daphne's Dandelions for today's Harvest Monday. Better late then never. ;-) Thanks Daphne for always hostessing such a lovely display form around the world!

See you soon!

Barbie~



From Chick to Hen.

When exactly does a chick turn into a hen? At a year of age if of course it's a she. Well the teenage era she is called a pullet. This time is when the hen is capable of laying and is becoming sexually mature. They are filling out adding their adult plumage and generally this is the time when their systems get going as well.

Most chicks start this process somewhere between 18 - 24 weeks of age. At this point a most people have a hard time telling them apart from adult birds.

One of my (not so) little hens Dusty, had a false start at around 20 weeks of age. She laid a single perfect egg. WOW! Small (as most pullet eggs are, but perfect. About a week later she laid another but this time it was very thin. A few days later she laid 2 and both were very soft. Neither of them were in the nest and both were broken. These are sometimes known as rubber eggs. Chickens can be culled (nice word for made stew out of) for continuously laying them. She laid 2 a day for another week and then...not. another. egg. Time passed and I was very concerned about her.

Was she egg bound?  I tried soaking baths, apple cider vinegar, adding extra protein, extra calcium, all sort of things. You see I was not concerned about the eggs. This particular bird is my girls pet. The other birds are egg layers, but this one? Not so much. This one is much more of a pet. She's a lap bird. I wasn't sure just how long she could go without laying again. 1 week went by and all was well. 2 slipped by and this was when I started to worry and the home remedies began. 3 went and that is when I started to think that I should possibly start looking for a replacement. Turns out right now isn't a good time to buy this type of bird (a Brahma) all the hatcheries are sold out!!! But, in my search I also noticed something else. She's not acting sick. After 3 weeks of not laying if she had a problem that was keeping her from laying she should be showing signs of some kind of illness. Upon further inspection I found that a few of her wing feathers had been replaced. Crazy chicken was MOLTING! Pullets (young chickens) aren't supposed to molt like that. But, she's a very heavily feathered bird and it is summer in Florida after all. Who could blame her? 4 weeks. Still no egg.

Then, just as I'd given up seeing an egg until Spring guess what I got? What?! You know the answer to this because I posted about it already! 4 out of the last 5 days I've had 3 eggs in the nest. I'm proud to say that the 5th day the third egg that was missing wasn't Dusty's egg.

How can you tell when a bird is getting ready to lay an egg? There are a few ways to tell, but the easiest way to tell is by looking at the development of the comb, ear lobes and wattle.

This is dusty:

Let me restate that. This is Dusty, NOW. Now that she is actually mature enough to lay regular edible eggs. On a regular basis.

Here she is at 18 weeks of age. Just prior to her false start:

You will notice that she had almost no wattles at all and no real comb. There are no ear lobes present at all. In addition to all those things (since not all chickens have combs or earlobes that stick out) the skin that can be seen is pink. This is a sign of one of 2 things. Either she is sexually immature and not ready to lay eggs or she is ill. We know this little ladies age and breed and can easily distinguish that she is simply young and ill equipped to lay just yet. But, she tried to lay only a few weeks later anyway. No wonder it led to disaster. Here she is 3-4 weeks later when she was laying rubber eggs, right about the time she quit laying:

She has little bitty wattles, some ear lobes and she is starting to grow her comb - but compared to what she has now, only one month later? What a difference. This girl has really stepped into her maturing while she took a little time off. It looks like that false start was a good time for her to rest her system up. Good thing. It's officially Autumn this weekend. That is when most hens start to slack off and since she's just coming into lay she should continue to lay all winter she may have a lazy day here or there but our weather is pretty warm here so I'm betting she'll keep laying 5 or 6 days out of 7.

It's the feathered feet that gave her the name. Can you see them there? I actually give her bathes! She has her own tub and she's the only chicken I bathe. Spoiled I tell you. Spoiled! The other 2 are Campbell (Barred Rock - think about it... Soup is good food!)  and Blondie the Rhode Island Red.

More stories later, but I thought I'd post this here. I can't tell you how many times I've searched and searched for people out there that had stories about their pullets going 4 weeks, or laying 2 rubber eggs a day looking for the outcome and couldn't find anything. So hopefully someone who needs this info will find it and they, too will watch as they figure out that their pullet just wasn't ready yet to lay that first egg.

Maybe it was just 'peer pressure' or group hormones because of the other hens. I mean women cycle together I'd imagine that animals together might as well, no? Possibly. And, if so her body just wasn't ready yet. Good for her to have gone for a mini-molt instead. She looks marvelous and will have a great warm layer to keep her warm for winter. *cough* Well. The nights can get cold and I have no intentions of heating the coop after all they do carry their own down blankets. ;-)

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Day 5.29.12

It's not Monday. So, I'm late - again. Hey,  it was Memorial Day so I had plans. Plans that got blown away by Sir Beryl. Good thing we decided not to go anywhere. Turns out that there were a much greater number of downed trees and my parents had no power up in (North of) Jacksonville for 24 hours at last count.  No fridge or freezers and that also means that their 7 (yes, SEVEN) dogs that have the invisible fence to keep them on their five acres would have been roaming free out in the storm without someone there to start up the generators. Not to mention that the picnic and all the other outdoors activities like camping we had planned wouldn't have been so fun in 45 mile an hour winds. We were only planning on going to Ocala after all. Not all the way to Jacksonville. Silver Springs State Park is what we had our eye on.
Oh, Well. Next weekend we'll have a condensed version of the same thing.

Instead I welcomed a gardening friend over to see my mess and our kids enjoyed some watermelon while we enjoyed some conversation. It was a good distraction from thwarted plans and picnics gone awry. I sure hope their plans held out and Illuminations was still wonderful for them! Thanks, Tina for stopping by. Next time hopefully the lawn mower will be up and running and my grass won't be trying to attack your ankles! Troy found a treat for Nick and is waiting to see him again, too. :-D  The pool is back and ready for action. ;-)

I spent yesterday evening cruising the garden not really expecting to find much to bring in but to my surprise I did. And, I found quite a lot!

I had a roma and a bush tomato damaged from the storms, so those came out. There are a few of the tomatoes in this picture, but most of them didn't make the cut. I don't think they'll ripen so they aren't here to be represented. If they do I'll show them later. But these four all were starting to blush so they are here. A few more carrots - that large one weighed 6 ounces! The first eggplant of the season (THANKS RICK- that is from your baby long purple plant from the swap) 2 cukes some broccoli, strawberries, purple podded beans and dragons tongue.

This is the haul from earlier in the week. A key lime, a few carrots, cucumber, zucchini, green garlic, broccoli, and below 4 pounds of onions out of the main bed of alliums, I pulled them because they were starting to multiply by division more and more. It's getting hotter out and that means less likely to bulb at this point and I don't need this many green onions for my cooking. I do after all still have this many onions in the garden still. Bummer year for the onions. But, again Florida is a huge give and take State.

There is no guarantee when you garden here. The sun is extremely low, extremely hot and it makes for quick crops, and that is good and bad. The downpours and humid conditions are hard on the plants and certainly perfect for making mold and mildew. It's an evolving process and an ongoing experiment. I'm always faced with the next question. These onions are one of the prime examples of how gardening here changes every year. Some years I get great big onions and some years it fizzles. But this year I got great lettuce and some years I get none. Go figure. Same with the carrots. I'm still getting them and it's already 90 degrees out regularly. Normally the carrots are done and gone by late March. Here it is going to be June and I'm still pulling and picking them. :-D 

I roll with the punches as every gardener does. My garden looks bear right now to me. I'm waiting for some cowpeas to come up and the old spring tomatoes will be going out - while the new fall tomatoes will be growing and waiting their turn to get into the garden. I still haven't found a good determinate/semi-determinate variety for me/this area. I feel like this is a struggle I will always deal with in some form or another. Maybe I'll just go by a crate of the suckers! Maybe, like the carrots I'm just missing something that i haven't found yet.

Oh, I did learn something kinda new this weekend while I was cleaning up around the place. Will share tomorrow. ;-)

Gotta get ya back here some how!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.2.12

Welcome back to Harvest Monday! :-D

It seems to be always Monday here. I guess that is a good thing because it means I'm usually sharing my gardens bounty. I love that! Linking into Daphne's place for the party. Don't forget to stop on by and check out what people are harvesting all over the world!

This is April and true to nature it started just as it should have. I got rained out of my garden, and gladly so. It was a real toad floater. If I'd have had my camera (and I'm so glad I didn't because it would be ruined now) because I really had a toad float up in the pea patch that I had just turned. I'm glad he wasn't hurt! We were in pretty desperate need of rain so I was glad for it, but my cucumber trellis fell and took out my cukes so I'm not happy about that.

Well, with no further ado - Here are the pictures that I remembered to take this week.

 Haricots Verts  & Cherokee Yellow Wax Little bitty strawberries now and great big blueberries, and they are finally starting to come in handfuls instead of drabs, just as the strawberries are fading into the background. Good timing! A beet, cabbage, onions, rosemary

 More wax beans, cukes, mulberries, snap peas, broccoli, strawberries, blueberries, My! What a week!

A Alittle shirtvesting went a long way, but is unfortunately the very last of the snow peas. This was what I took off of the vines as I turned them under. In their place was sown derby bush beans.

Last but not least MINT > OH YUMMO. This handful of mint graced a nice pot of cocoa. MMMMmmmm... and some for drying.  'Cuz that much in cocoa would make my lips numb.

I'll be back soon. I've got a little project to share.

'Till next time!

Barbie



Harvest Monday 3.26.12

Well, this post was started hours and hours ago but something interfered. What was that? Oh, yes- WORK. PHTHTHTHT> :-P

The harvest was another good one. I keep thinking they will slim down again soon and yet they march on!

The first for this week? The first green beans of the year.

The first BLUEBERRY that wasn't stolen by the blasted birds.

The strawberries are getting much smaller now, and not setting as frequently. It's about time to chose what plants to save for summer and they haven't even set forth the runners. Very odd!

A few more cucumbers. 4 this week, and some chard as well.

Broccoli side shoots, snap peas, and snow peas, a few english peas, loads of lettuce and spinach that wanted to bolt, a few onions, a whole colander of mulberries and yes even the sour cream was in my harvest this week, though not from the garden. It was a trade. :-) Freezer Jam for sour cream.

Oh bother. Work has been one massive distraction after another lately. I mean that is what it is after all, but I don't like when work interferes with my personal life on my personal time. Of course right now my personal time (lunch break) is on work time - but this is legit personal time after all. Between the Captain of the Port and the general Coast Guard visits things are really heating up down here getting ready for the AUGUST National Republican Convention. It's hard to believe that preparations are already underway, but they are. I must return back to the desk now. Sorry it took so long to post. I hope you are all having a wonderful day. It's beautiful outside!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 5.16.11

Wacky Week! It's Harvest Monday again, and I'm still joining in the fun over at Daphne's place. If I didn't I think she might come looking for me. Nah. Probably not - but I would miss seeing everyone else's posts!
This weeks harvest? I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I took the tally - but left it sitting on the kitchen counter.
I'm thinking me and weighing my prizes isn't going over so well. LOL. Oh, I started with good intentions. I did. I just have some of the worst follow through. Maybe I'd be better off to just keep it on paper. So far that is what is actually get kept track of. Then again it doesn't get added together unless I bring it to my own attention and post the total here. Such a catch 22.

The first ear of corn came in. Oh - YUM. I wish it was easier to grow good corn here. What I believe is the last of the broccoli and carrots are here.

More zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, Cilantro, peaches, blueberries, green beans and kidney beans 

 



So a very diverse picking this week. It won't be so diverse next week. The carrots are gone, and I've left a stalk of broccoli to flower hoping to attract some bees or wasps, or anything that flies that can pollinate.
The weather has been wild this week and believe it or not cool. But the crazy winds have taken out all my sunflowers and most of my beans, and corn. Some of my tomatoes stalks are broken and citrus pups are falling. Usually our wild storms are late summer and after the larger less sturdy plants have produced their finest crops. So it was  quite a shock to find my peppers snapped in half and all the damage done in the last few days.
The rare tree sale was a good time, though I missed meeting up with a comrade and wished for a bigger budget while I was there. This week is the middle of the month so stay tuned for my mid month update!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest...Tuesday?

Well, it’s not Monday but here are a few pics of this week’s goods from the garden. It’s been decided that starting with the fall crops that I am planting now I will measure what I bring in to try to keep a tally of the types of veggies and fruits, the days to harvest and the weights of harvests. I’d like to get some true comparisons and see what types of veggies do best for flavor , vigor, production. Right now production is key because we will be stocking an entirely empty freezer. But, next year I believe that flavor and production will be a battle. J

These pictures actually span about 10 days. The Sunflower was brought in and dried first. The carrots are pathetic, I just needed the room and finished clearing out their space. Loads of okra, some PEPH trailing in still, the new plantings will be putting on soon as well so I expect that harvest to ramp up this month Tobasco peppers come in 10 or 12 at a time every couple days, and a cucumber every few days as well. Sometimes they go into our salads and other times fridge pickles. J

Speaking of freezer… So my freezer is on the fritz. It’s an oldie, but a goodie. It’s an old 6’ stand up with the wire shelves that have the refrigerant run through them. We bought it not long after we got our first house, and subsequently boat. Original purpose for it was bait, fish filets, crab. It’s been repurposed a few times now. I have fixed it twice on my own. Once was a simple reset fuse thing, and the other was a problem with the seal. This time I’m just not sure. In 4 months it’s completely iced over. The freezer used to vacuum seal when I closed the door and for the past 2 months it hasn’t been doing that at all. Then the past 2 weeks it started doing it again! I don’t know what to think. I know the freezer is somewhere between 12 and 15 years old – I know we should probably just go and get a new freezer lest we lose everything at once. It’s happened before. Twice. Once fully - completely stocked, with venison, beef, chicken, veggies…it was devastating. I can’t imagine that happening again. Thankfully it was due to a hurricane and not the freezers malfunction but still! Ah, but there is this extremely frugal side of me that says just defrost it again and see what you can do with it. I’ve also recently heard that a ‘frost free’ freezer won’t keep meats and veggies nearly as long. I need the dependability of keeping our meats for a year. We hunt only in the winter for deer, and while we might take a hog in the summer we certainly do not count on it. It’s just to blazing hot to be sitting on stalk. We don’t have our dog anymore so we can’t go to the pigs, we have to wait for them. We tend to also only purchase large quantities of chickens in the fall/winter as their production slows down so we are able to swoop up 40 chickens for $60 or $70 – cleaned! So anyone with info on the whole freezer thing- I need help! LOL

Ah, that brings up something that I’ve been longing to do. My old crab traps are long gone and I didn’t really realize that I missed them until now. Actually the ocean itself. That salt air, the sticky sweat, the slime of the fish, the stench of the mud…. Oh so delightful. It’s time for these old memories to be made with my children. At nearly 4 years old the twins are well past due for the first squeals of delight that a blue crab scuttering away bring. Of course I’m well aware that with that comes the inevitable screams of terror when after telling them for the millionth time not to get too close they get a finger pinched and it scares the living daylights out of them… teehee. Yes, these are the memories I want to make with my kids. We’ve found a nice little fishing spot this summer that we frequent. It’s time to expand their horizons a bit more. I’m thinking this fall we may just need to make a little trip out to hangover island. It’s time to do some good old fashioned camping, FLORIDA style! :-D