Homesteaders

[KlopKlop]

Quote:
Saving this recipe.. You bake at how many degrees and how long?

I make them into 3oz balls and bake at 375 for 35-40 or until they start to brown. You may have to adjust the flour up or down depending how wet your squash purée is. I start with 3 cups and then add more flour as needed from there. the dough should be soft, smooth and slightly sticky

 

[Loc20chick]

I make them into 3oz balls and bake at 375 for 35-40 or until they start to brown. You may have to adjust the flour up or down depending how wet your squash purée is. I start with 3 cups and then add more flour as needed from there. the dough should be soft, smooth and slightly sticky

Thanks.

 

[henless]

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! That roll recipe sounds yummy!

I no longer have to worry with my 2 cockerels. I put an end to their shenanigans this morning and they are resting in the fridge. Peace reigns in the chicken coops today.

 

[rancher hicks]

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! That roll recipe sounds yummy!

I no longer have to worry with my 2 cockerels. I put an end to their shenanigans this morning and they are resting in the fridge. Peace reigns in the chicken coops today.

Resting in the fridge? Why is that?

 

[rancher hicks]

Now in other news I've been ordering catalogs getting ready for spring. Some companies were easy to order from others not so much.

One company gave me the choice between a paper copy and a CD. I chose the CD, which I thought was a good idea. I thought now if I had the CD I could recycle it as a deterrent for birds. Rather than burn the paper catalog. Though the ashes are usable too I suppose.

Crane Hill or something like that is no longer publishing a catalog and was I thought that was sad. I may forget them and didn't even know they sold seeds and farm stuff. They didn't even offer a newsletter.

My point is Winters here are a time for mapping and planning the garden in spring. As you've seen I'm already with some beds to plant come May or sooner. Too it's a time to plan which if any NEW fruits or perennial things to add for my Homestead.

I weeded out the wild blackberries in hopes they will spread and I'll get enough for at least one batch of jelly. There are other spots of blackberries that I hope I can clear out and induce more production. I have a friend with fields of blackberries but this year got none. His are large and very seedy.

I did find a Potato catalog and that I will be looking forward too, since I plan to plant potatoes next year.

My plan is to make a 4x8' raised bed, with perhaps 3' square frames/boxes that will be stacked on one another as the potato plants grow. Putting the 3' frames/boxes to one end of the bed. Then come harvest time I can just unstack the 3' frame/boxes and pull the soil into the other side of the bed. Can you imagine it?

Anyhow the Potato catalog will come in handy I think. I hope to grow enough for at least part of the winter supply.

I could also use a good evergreen catalog because I'm cutting out those horrible Buckthorns and want to replace them with evergreens of any kind. We have a strip of woods about 75' wide by just over 600' that I intend to just leave wooded. I hate to see places plowed down and left treeless. My neighbors just did that and it might be fine if they plant something, but just lawn to me is a waste of real estate.

I see my neighbor down the road on his rider mowing and I think, what a fool. He could plant it with something useful.

Well folks I'd be interested in seeing pictures and plans for your spring gardens and new additions for 2016. Of course I'm in NYS and we get snow but your dreams and ideas might be usable. I'd also be interested in your potato planting ideas for small holders like me.

Love ya,

Rancher.

 

[Talithahorse]

Wow, you really start early with the gardening. If I started wishing and dreaming this early I would go nuts by time I was able to work the ground (and I live in the south... school, not weather is what interferes with my gardening). I spend the winter pouring over ways to declutter and simplify my life. I love watching and learning about tiny house living, not because I want to live in 200 square feet but because when I apply the methods it makes my house live so much bigger and more efficient. I also really get into baking during the winter. But I suppose I should be thinking also about the garden and yet another siege on my plot of ground where the evil grass always takes over and overruns my poor tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. Heck my grass is so gregarious that I even have to mow such things as the horse paddock, the chicken run and the cow pasture. Well someday grass......I will prevail.

 

[rancher hicks]

Wow, you really start early with the gardening. If I started wishing and dreaming this early I would go nuts by time I was able to work the ground (and I live in the south... school, not weather is what interferes with my gardening). I spend the winter pouring over ways to declutter and simplify my life. I love watching and learning about tiny house living, not because I want to live in 200 square feet but because when I apply the methods it makes my house live so much bigger and more efficient. I also really get into baking during the winter. But I suppose I should be thinking also about the garden and yet another siege on my plot of ground where the evil grass always takes over and overruns my poor tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. Heck my grass is so gregarious that I even have to mow such things as the horse paddock, the chicken run and the cow pasture. Well someday grass......I will prevail.

Well now you've got to start with the cardboard mulching. I collected some more boxes at BJ's today. You won't get all the weeds but it will keep things in check and that's the most important thing. Newspapers are good too. These are tucked under the chicken wire so they stay put. The cardboard breaks down of course and is replaced the next year or you can just keep laying it on. You get the idea. Too, I place the cardboard all winter long in areas I want cleared. The snow weighs it down and when it melts it get wet and stays put. Even without raised beds you can lay it between the rows. It's not good to till for weeds as it dries the soil and also kills necessary organic organisms.

 

[henless]

Resting in the fridge? Why is that?

My English Orp cockerels were getting more aggressive. I was tired of having to watch my back every time I went into the coops.

 

[KlopKlop]

Well now you've got to start with the cardboard mulching. I collected some more boxes at BJ's today. You won't get all the weeds but it will keep things in check and that's the most important thing. Newspapers are good too. These are tucked under the chicken wire so they stay put. The cardboard breaks down of course and is replaced the next year or you can just keep laying it on. You get the idea. Too, I place the cardboard all winter long in areas I want cleared. The snow weighs it down and when it melts it get wet and stays put. Even without raised beds you can lay it between the rows. It's not good to till for weeds as it dries the soil and also kills necessary organic organisms.

I second the mulching with paper or cardboard! I have very tenacious creeping charlie and clump grass. I used news papers in thick layers around the raspberries and comfrey i planted this year with great success. I have started saving my newspapers now for next year's garden. I have canada thistle in there something fierce! it was a daily battle to stay ahead of it this year

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I use a method much like @rancher hicks. We live only an hour or so apart. I do raised boxes for a good portion of my smaller stuff surrounded by paper feed bags to smother everything I don't want. I do the larger plants in rows seperated by ,again, paper feed bags. Corn I plan on next year doing a bunch of, 50 stalks was not enough this year. Potatoes I am going to try in hay just as an experiment as well as doing a standard 4ft high potato box. The paper can be left as it is not in areas to be planted there for don't need tilled. Don't walk where you plan done till where you don't plant.