Homesteaders

[mi2bugz]

Awesome information! Thank you!

I will search for the canning thread also.

Thank you again .

 

[rancher hicks]

I have grown garlic for several years now, it's really easy! As Rancher said, if your beds are nutritious, just plant & watch it grow. I usually plant a couple of types for variety, my preferred source for bulbs is Johnnys' seeds or your own organic. Just be aware that store bought non-organic garlic is usually treated with a growth inhibitor so that you can't grow really great bulbs, hope that helps, Sue

I buy my garlic at the Farmers market here. I buy from different vendors to try to get a variety of kinds. Yesterday while planting I was disappointed to fine some had small cloves. Try to buy large cloves to get larger bulbs. These small ones were planted but I will have to buy more and plant more if I'm to get enough for next year.

I"m always learning and I learned this year that soft neck varieties do not produce scapes. I also learned that you can use the scapes for pesto. I had them grilled once in a restaurant and they tasted like asparagus. I should have asked how they were made.

 

[kentuckychicks]

Awesome information! Thank you!

I will search for the canning thread also.

Thank you again .

Good luck sweetie! Most people I say most now that can garden or have livestock are more than willing to help you out. A lot of people will let you come help to get hands on experience too. Not sure your situation but post on face book asking if anyone of your friends can ask at your church and sometimes our local extension office has classes I've never been to a class. Search the internet and try to stay on sites that talk about sanitizing your jars and FDA approved recipes at first those people usually stress safe canning procedures and that's what you are looking for.

 

[rancher hicks]

I have a older friend that planted a fig this year so I'm going to keep using my money on tried and true fruit options and just watch hers for the next two years! Cheating it seems like but hey you gotta do what you gotta do!

do you know what kind of figs they grow there?

I'm thinking of putting in some raised beds for garlic and asparagus. Just need to pick a spot And get the hubby on it lol I will say he made my daughter an amazing strawberry planter box out of old 4x4x4 shipping crates he snagged at work! It's a four foot square under a three foot square under a two under a one. We took an old 6 inch round piece of PVC pipe and drilled small holes all up and down it left a cap on the bottom end and stuck it through the center of all the boxes and when it rains the strawberries only hold so much water so to pipe starts filling up as a reserve water source. Or your can just stick the water hose in the pipe and tada easy for my daughter to do and her strawberries exploded this year!!! She got strawberries out of there from spring to frost! I'm thinking I need at least 20 more!!

We have clay soil so I'm adding compost and leaves like a crazy person trying to help it drain better. It was forever before it dried up enough this spring to till! So I'm thinking more raised beds for two cold weather crops instead of just the fall one.... I have my worm bins working over time to keep up with the summer harvest though.... Need to look into expanding their operation but they are work horses! Only been doing worms for two years though. My husband thought I was crazy when I brought ten lbs of worms to live in my laundry room! Rofl

I find that some fruits aren't worth the trouble growing unless I intend to use a lot of it. Figs I can buy because I'd only need a pound or so. I also like to plant things not commercially grown, like the Crap Apples I want. I just can't decide what variety of tree to plant.

My free pears, unwashed. I don't do a lot of them so I have enough. Most jam recipes only call for a couple of pounds. I'll have to peel them of course but they were the right price.

If they don't turn out good I'm out no money.

Of course I have to wait for them to ripen. Pears don't ripen on the tree like other fruit.

 

[kentuckychicks]

It seems I always have a project that I want to learn more about! It's never like I'm done lol. My husband goes to Japan a lot for work and they have a kaizen concept there. It's basically in laymans terms nothing is ever perfect. Try to make it better then after that look how you can improve it some more! It's constant. Thanks for the garlic advice! I've wondered about planting the elephant garlic....it's huge! My local farmers market actually has less variety than my backyard so no garlic. I'm confused about the planting and harvesting times. You plant it in the fall then harvest in the spring or summer? How do you know it's ready?

 

[kentuckychicks]

Crap apples!?!?! Rofl Is that like crab apples?!?!

Free pears! Score!!

I like to try to do BIG batches of things! If we don't eat it one year (that hardly ever happens sigh) then I don't have to do it again the second year and can focus on bigger batches on something else. We do then to put away more green beans , tomato and spaghetti sauce than anything else but I like to do jams preserves and jellies. They make really good Christmas presents or house warming gifts. Even if I have the trees and the fruit is rotting on the ground is there is I need it! There's always compost too!

 

[Raech]

It seems I always have a project that I want to learn more about! It's never like I'm done lol. My husband goes to Japan a lot for work and they have a kaizen concept there. It's basically in laymans terms nothing is ever perfect. Try to make it better then after that look how you can improve it some more! It's constant. Thanks for the garlic advice! I've wondered about planting the elephant garlic....it's huge! My local farmers market actually has less variety than my backyard

so no garlic. I'm confused about the planting and harvesting times. You plant it in the fall then harvest in the spring or summer? How do you know it's ready?

This is my first try at garlic, but this is what I found. "Once the tops of your garlic plants start to die back, you know it’s time to harvest." in the late spring/early summer they are ready. "When to harvest garlic is a judgment call, but basically it’s ready to go when the lower leaves start to brown. About the only way to be sure is to actually dig a few bulbs and slice them in half. If the cloves fill out the skins, it’s time" I went on ABOUT.COM and typed in when to harvest garlic and that's what it said. And the best part is you can get a couple harvests done a year. Plant one bed in the spring and harvest in the fall plant another that fall and harvest in the spring. Your not supposed to plant it continuously in the same bed year after year due to a disease or pest reason. But you can plant anything around it, we are doing tomatoes in the pots that the garlic is in right now. And then a flour bed of carrots and green onions and Walla Walla onions, with a couple more tomato plants as well. You plant before the first frost, cover with mulch and let it go all winter. Mine are around 4 inches tall right now.

 

[rancher hicks]

Crap apples!?!?! Rofl Is that like crab apples?!?!

Free pears! Score!!

I like to try to do BIG batches of things! If we don't eat it one year (that hardly ever happens sigh) then I don't have to do it again the second year and can focus on bigger batches on something else. We do then to put away more green beans , tomato and spaghetti sauce than anything else but I like to do jams preserves and jellies. They make really good Christmas presents or house warming gifts. Even if I have the trees and the fruit is rotting on the ground is there is I need it! There's always compost too!

Sorry about that but yes Crab Apples.

Now to Garlic. You can order some and them save some of yours for the next year. Here we plant in the Fall and harvest in the Summer. You harvest it when half the leaves/green turns brown. If you plant the Hardneck variety you cut off the "Scapes" which are really the flower head. If you leave them they will go to seed and garlic takes a long time to get a decent bulb if you grow it from seed.

If you do plant the trees and don't use the fruit you can always offer it for sale to others as pick your own. Even a few dollars is better than letting it go to waste.

Apples here are going for 80 cents a lb. at one pick your own place and $1.79 a lb. for individual varieties in the store. Wegmans sells the family pack of some for about 75 cents a lb. Beacon Skiff if you google their site charges $1.35 a lb. pick your own.

 

[kentuckychicks]

Garlic is on the list!! trial and error lol

I hasn't thought about selling my fruit but I for sure won't have Apples my children can eat their weight in applesauce lol

My newest project is a rescue five day old goat. I pick it up tomorrow! I know nothing about goats! The owner had a bad stroke and the doe stepped on the baby and is refusing to take care of it. So I get a free baby goat because the owners son is not into farming. Looks like I will have a goat in my laundry room the next couple of weeks!

 

[rancher hicks]

I wish you well with your new acquisition.

You must show us pics.