Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Okay that is a different story all together. I too have learned to grow some strange things and love love love them. I love the Chinese long cucumbers for eating so much more than the kind most people grow. I didn't grow any this year cause my Chinese friend promised my plants but never delivered, I would have definitely gotten seed and planted a few just for myself. I grow pickling type cucumbers for the birds to eat both because they are productive but because if I do get an urge to make pickles they are the best to use without a lot of seeds and don't get large.
I have a wide variety of tomatoes this year, some of them heritage just to see what does better here than others. I'm really not into the heritage tomatoes so much because regardless of what people want, those newer hybrids are much more disease resistant and I fear getting all those blights and stuff heritage tomatoes are prone to. I just want a nice tasty tomato.
I've had the Chinese yard long beans and the purple podded peas before because my Chinese friend also grows those. Worst problem is providing trellises for them.
I too, enjoy anything that is different from the norm. I think we all need to diversify our tastes and learn to eat new things and new flavors.My DH isn't so on board with that idea, so new things just happen to be included in food I'm cooking and he learns about them after he eats them. Sometimes that still doesn't work. Even if he eats like it's the best thing he has ever had he will decide later he doesn't like it cause it's something uncommon to him.

 

[Trish44]

Okay that is a different story all together. I too have learned to grow some strange things and love love love them. I love the Chinese long cucumbers for eating so much more than the kind most people grow. I didn't grow any this year cause my Chinese friend promised my plants but never delivered, I would have definitely gotten seed and planted a few just for myself. I grow pickling type cucumbers for the birds to eat both because they are productive but because if I do get an urge to make pickles they are the best to use without a lot of seeds and don't get large.
I have a wide variety of tomatoes this year, some of them heritage just to see what does better here than others. I'm really not into the heritage tomatoes so much because regardless of what people want, those newer hybrids are much more disease resistant and I fear getting all those blights and stuff heritage tomatoes are prone to. I just want a nice tasty tomato.
I've had the Chinese yard long beans and the purple podded peas before because my Chinese friend also grows those. Worst problem is providing trellises for them.
I too, enjoy anything that is different from the norm. I think we all need to diversify our tastes and learn to eat new things and new flavors.My DH isn't so on board with that idea, so new things just happen to be included in food I'm cooking and he learns about them after he eats them. Sometimes that still doesn't work. Even if he eats like it's the best thing he has ever had he will decide later he doesn't like it cause it's something uncommon to him.

I'm really lucky because my DH & I both like to try new things & he doesn't mind trying them. His dad was one of those that only ate "meat & potatoes" & when he was alive when the family all went out to eat you could never go to eat any kind of ethnic food or anything different so we always ended up at a darned buffet so he could get what he wanted.

 

[HEChicken]

I also am fortunate that my DH will try anything and he almost always loves what I cook even when I don't think it wasn't that great. However, my neighbor and her family are the meat and potatoes type who don't like to try anything new. They literally eat a steak, mashed potatoes and green beans for just about every meal. Sometimes they throw in some sweet corn. Occasionally they have a hamburger instead of the steak. We went halves on a steer last year and while we've used a few packages of the meat, they've already gone through theirs and ordered another. We will stretch ½ pound meat to a whole meal for 4 people with leftovers to heat up the next day while they eat ½ pound of meat per person per day.

I would just get bored with eating the same thing day in, day out and like to try new things. Mostly I google the ingredients I have and the word "recipe" and come up with all kinds of different things to try that way. Unfortunately what that means is we'll have something we really enjoy and a few weeks later I'll think I should make it again but can't remember what it was or where I found the recipe! I try to bookmark the things that really turned out well - but then I wind up with a bunch of bookmarks to search through as well.

I do grow all heirloom tomatoes and haven't had any issues with disease or blight. One thing you do have to do though is rotate where you plant tomatoes because fungi will remain in the soil or mulch, ready to infect them the following year if you plant in the same place each time. The other thing you can do is trim the bottom branches up to about 12" which will keep the leaves from having contact with the ground and that will also help to avoid blight. I love harvesting tomatoes that are all different colors - Purple Cherokee, Black Krim, Green Zebra, Orange, Yellow, Red, some long and narrow, others small and round, and others whoppers of a pound or more each. Each year I move the row of tomatoes down one from the year before. I have a t-post at each end of the row and a cattle panel spread between them and train the tomatoes up the cattle panel. So it supports them without the need for tomato cages (never did find a tomato cage that works worth a darn) and it is easy to pick them from either side of the panel. So, every year I have a choice between pulling out the t-posts and moving it or just putting in another cattle panel. So far I've left them and over time, I'm winding up with more and more of the garden accessible to growing stuff on trellises. This year I am growing Apple and Lemon Cucumbers on the trellis that supported the tomatoes last year. The tendrils easily grab the cattle panel and wrap around to support it and I just train the branches up and along the panel as it grows.

 

[sharol]

You are correct. I am actually not doing the 3 sisters per se - just basing my idea of growing the peas up the stalks on that method. I've been saying peas all along but in reality I'm growing a variety of peas and climbing beans. Its all an experiment and it may turn out I can't grow the peas this way. However I have some open space where I already have trellises so if the peas (and beans) don't do very well over the summer, I may try planting a few more for fall under the trellises and see if they do any better. And if not....there's always next year

How about using the dry cornstalks for support of the peas in the fall crop? That might work unless they have blown down before that. I don't plant corn because I don't want to attract any raccoons, but if you already have the stalks going....

 

[HEChicken]

How about using the dry cornstalks for support of the peas in the fall crop? That might work unless they have blown down before that. I don't plant corn because I don't want to attract any raccoons, but if you already have the stalks going....

I hadn't thought about that....its an idea for sure.

For some reason, I've never had an issue with raccoons in my garden (or elsewhere on the property). The garden is fenced but I'm sure a raccoon wouldn't have any issue climbing in my fencing. My neighbor has been gardening in the same spot for 20 years and has never mentioned having a problem with them either (and her garden is 90% sweet corn). The other thing we've never had a problem with is deer, which is really weird because they are all around us. Only a few days ago, as I was milking I looked up to see a doe walking down the road in front of our place.

 

[sharol]

First, a little background. A year ago I got English Orpington hatching eggs from @chicken danz . They were a variety of colors, and of the hatched chicks, I saved a magnificent Jubilee rooster, 2 Jubilee pullets, 2 black pullets, 2 lavender pullets, 1 white, and 1 mottle pullet.

This summer a couple of my hens went broody, so I gave them orpington eggs (all with the Jubilee father but from different hens). I saved as many of the Jubilee eggs as possible hoping for some pure color chicks and ended up with 8 Jubilees out of the 20 or so chicks that hatched.

This chick I had identified as a Jubilee, but it is obviously not. I may be a jubilee/mottle cross. I also thought it was a male, but its comb is more like the obvious girls in their little flock. What do you guys think? I know the dark red is a boy color, but the stance and shape of the bird makes me think I may have a very pretty pullet.

I brought these guys in to the brooder (yes, way too crowded) so that the Campines could use the coop during the storm and took advantage of the time to take these pictures.

Best overall picture.


This shows Her (I hope) stance.




This is the truest for color

 

[Trish44]

I hadn't thought about that....its an idea for sure.

For some reason, I've never had an issue with raccoons in my garden (or elsewhere on the property). The garden is fenced but I'm sure a raccoon wouldn't have any issue climbing in my fencing. My neighbor has been gardening in the same spot for 20 years and has never mentioned having a problem with them either (and her garden is 90% sweet corn). The other thing we've never had a problem with is deer, which is really weird because they are all around us. Only a few days ago, as I was milking I looked up to see a doe walking down the road in front of our place.

Raccoons like wooded places & a water source, you don't have that many trees at your place other than the hedge row. We have them at our place & those & possums were the reason I had to get my GPs besides the other predators. I had losses from both before the dogs got here. We have lots of trees on our property & the neighbors across the road have a good sized pond that draws all the predators. He has seen bobcats there at his pond & we have coyotes all around as well as foxes. We had deer all over our property before the dogs came, they were right in our front yard. Of course that brought the deer ticks along with them & we had those really bad till the dogs started keeping the deer out. Now we have more fences up too so that keeps them out a bit more too but they're afraid of the dogs. I had raccoons really bad at my place outside Derby too because there was a wooded area & creek there. There was only a small amount of water unless it rained a bunch at once & then it became a roaring stream that would sometimes flood other places. I was uphill enough to not have that problem. When my late husband was ill with cancer I was up in the middle of the night one night checking on him & walked to the front door to look out. It was nice enough I remember the inside door was open so I looked out the screen door & on the front porch was 5 of the fattest raccoons I have ever seen, they waddled when they walked. I had been wondering where all of my cat food had been going.

@sharol I think that chick is too young yet to tell for sure. I raised a Jubilee chick last year hoping for a pullet & I kept thinking it was a pullet for a long time & eventually it turned out to be a rooster. Those big birds mature slower than smaller ones so it takes longer to tell sexes. I'm in the same situation here with Jubilees I'm growing out to try to get a couple more pullets.

We've been getting rain here like crazy, I sure would share it if I could send it on. It has cooled things down a bit but it's so darned humid it's still a steam bath to go outside & do chores, besides all the mud I have to slog around in.

 

[chicken danz]

@sharol I'm on the fence about that bird. Whichever, it is obviously a cross between the mottle and the jubilee and just gorgeous. Wow. It looks a bit pullet like except in the 3rd picture where it looks like a cockerel. Judging from the the colors though, I would guess it to be a cockerel strictly because the red comes out on them when it doesn't come out on the pullets. I guarantee you if you could breed both sexes in that color pattern you would have a a hot item. Almost a Mille Fleur Orpington. I sure wouldn't slate it to be a butcher bird even if it is a cockerel. Someone would buy him for sure for yard art if nothing else.
I didn't know any place on earth existed without raccoons. We don't have a problem now but years ago we did. Even when I didn't have chickens or anything around here. I could tell when they got the corn and when the deer did by the direction it was pulled from the husks. I hate coons and they can be dangerous as well. Thank goodness the dogs keep them in check. It's about time for their yearly invasion cause the corn is starting to tuft up. That means the dogs will be working in the corn field a lot.
We're finally getting some "rain". It's sprinkling which is better than pouring since the ground is so dry. It just needs to do it for several days in a row if it's not going to come down any faster than this. I don't even think I'll mind feeding in the rain just because we need it so bad.

 

[sharol]

@sharol I'm on the fence about that bird. Whichever, it is obviously a cross between the mottle and the jubilee and just gorgeous. Wow. It looks a bit pullet like except in the 3rd picture where it looks like a cockerel. Judging from the the colors though, I would guess it to be a cockerel strictly because the red comes out on them when it doesn't come out on the pullets. I guarantee you if you could breed both sexes in that color pattern you would have a a hot item. Almost a Mille Fleur Orpington. I sure wouldn't slate it to be a butcher bird even if it is a cockerel. Someone would buy him for sure for yard art if nothing else.

Yeah, that's where I am on it too. I want to keep him/her if only to see how it turns out. I'm imagining this gorgeous pullet with mottle color distribution, but with red mixed in with the black and white. It is going to be interesting in any case. That is part of the fun.

I have 2 nice black (sort of) cockerels. They both have some white on their chests, so they will be butcher birds, but they are really pretty now that they are past the awkward teen stage. And of course the one mottle cockerel will probably be a butcher bird to unless someone wants him. Oh well, we will eat lie kings.

 

[chicken danz]

Yeah that's why I had to buy another freezer. Too many birds that I had to grow up to see how they turned out. LOL. I keep thinking some chilly day later in the year I may just cook several of them down and package the meat and broth so I can use them quickly for recipes this winter. I did that with some last year and it really is convenient and uses less storage space. I've cooked several at one time and taken the more desirable meat and broth and packaged it , and then taken the fatty or darker meat and packaged it separately and use it to make dog food. I get a lot of mileage from those roosters that way. I had guests one day without warning. I simple bag of chicken and broth put on to boil, a few spices and some noodles and we had chicken and noodles fit for a king in no time. I use a lot of it for soup and I do love love love chicken based soups in winter particularly. I could actually can some of this as well but really prefer to just freeze it.