Illinois...

[Molpet]

I have ate them but they make me gassy . Not stinky but still .

When do you harvest them? After they die back?

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Another fun place to visit with kids is Blackberry Farm.

My kids LOVE this place. Sad we missed the free days this year.

 

[BReeder!]

When do you harvest them? After they die back?

Some quick online research trells me to "harvest after first frost when the plants begin to die back (around late autumn—November in the northern hemisphere)". We are zone 5, not just in the northern hemisphere but a fare ways north. I imagine October is the likely harvest time.

I plan to harvest mine when I harvest the parsnips (although I already sampled 1 of those) and the last of the kale and brussels. It will be a but cool, but it should all be sweeter then.

 

[Molpet]

last of the kale and brussels

They get sweeter after the frost and will keep in the garden well below freezing..... Unless the deer come and eat them down to the ground, which happened last year for the first time. The kale came back this year. I was wondering if it would since the deer dug down and there wasn't any snow cover

 

[BReeder!]

They get sweeter after the frost and will keep in the garden well below freezing..... Unless the deer come and eat them down to the ground, which happened last year for the first time. The kale came back this year. I was wondering if it would since the deer dug down and there wasn't any snow cover

Kale comes back in zone 5?! Oh, I will have to see if this happens here. Mine are planted in a 2ft tall raised bed though so they will likely freeze solid. Wondering if I should see if the brussels return too. Could be an interesting test.

 

[Molpet]

Kale comes back in zone 5?! Oh, I will have to see if this happens here. Mine are planted in a 2ft tall raised bed though so they will likely freeze solid. Wondering if I should see if the brussels return too. Could be an interesting test.

I have some kale that dies and some that comes back. The 2nd year they throw up a flower and the leaves get different looking then. The flower bud tastes like broccoli and the different leaves don't taste good. When they give up on making seeds, some die and some go back to looking and tasting normal. I plant the seeds sometimes, but usually I am thinning the new crowded self sowed plants.

Eta I don't have raised beds and I didn't try to overwinter Brussels

 

[SnootyHen]

Does anyone have a local source for good quality well-raised chicken and beef? I'm sick of only picking between the tasteless steroid chicken from the grocery and paying an arm and a leg for "cruelty free" stuff that isn't really cruelty free but is just more expensive and maybe a little less growth hormones. I miss the taste of real chicken but my ladies are in the prime of their laying days and not ready for the freezer.

 

[Kellow1]

Hi, I'm from central Illinois near Peoria. I have backyard chickens. Looking for an LGD like a Great Pyrenees or some kind of shepherd mix..

 

[Kellow1]

Does anyone have a local source for good quality well-raised chicken and beef? I'm sick of only picking between the tasteless steroid chicken from the grocery and paying an arm and a leg for "cruelty free" stuff that isn't really cruelty free but is just more expensive and maybe a little less growth hormones. I miss the taste of real chicken but my ladies are in the prime of their laying days and not ready for the freezer.

This is why I raise my own chicken meat! I know exactly what goes in. The cornish-cross only needs about 6-8 weeks to be ready to eat.

 

[SnootyHen]

This is why I raise my own chicken meat! I know exactly what goes in. The cornish-cross only needs about 6-8 weeks to be ready to eat.

My neighbors would probably turn me in if I got any more. LOL! I have 12 layers and I am only supposed to have 4.