Gardening...

From this: To this (and they got even bigger than that!): To this: Lightly steamed with a little salt and pepper...
Our cabbages grew enormous!

I'm afraid we won't be doing much gardening this year....I may put a few plants out, but I have to rig up a good little fence up around it if I want anything to survive. The goats will eat it all or the dogs will dig it up!

This was some produce from our winter garden a year ago. Little Man and I loved the broccoli we grew...who knew it actually tasted like it did; sweet and not bitter at all. We all loved the cabbage.

I would like to put some bell peppers in, some cukes for relish, and we also grow some seriously yummy huge canteloupe. I plan to go to a local farm and pick tomatoes to can and blueberries since we can get them for a $1 a pound! I made so much jam last year, but it's almost all gone!

I will plant the big garden again, but that area has housed the pigs and now calf. We need that meat for the freezer and we're very glad that we're doing that since the prices of meat has really gone up.

Any suggestions on generators? We're purchasing that next. I will not raise all this meat and then lose it all during an outage!

Buy Locally!!!!

Well after having yet another nasty, mealy, store bought, supposedly 'Vine-ripened' tomato, I'm done! I am soooo ready for summer to get here so I can get some real ones. That tomato was so bad, I ended up throwing it to the chickens...chickens will eat just about anything. Of course they devoured it like they were starving...like I hadn't just fed them less than 30 minutes ago. I swear they have hollow legs or something.

I popped back onto this site Local Harvest. They have listings of farms, CSA's, farmer's markets, etc in your area with a listing of the goods many places offer. Driving an hour for some tasty organic/naturally raised beef is so worth it. Besides, for my kids, since we homeschool, taking a drive out to someone else's farm is just another field trip!

Since I'm not planning to put a garden in this year due to some other plans we hope to have going and being that the garden area is currently being occupied by the Hereford calf, I was on there looking for a place that sells organic produce. I found a local farm nearby and can't wait to head down their way later on this summer.

Buying locally is great! Your assured to get fresh produce, you can see how it's been grown, your supporting local business and making new friends...what could be better than that. You'll be eating better too. I'd like to start selling the lambs we've started raising. I only have two ewes, but they have given me a wonderful start! We also found that we love lamb home grown...that store bought stuff is way too strong for my tastes and who knows what's in it unless you buy organic, which can cost you a bit, but I still recommend buying the best you can. After all you are what you eat.......