Okies in the BYC The Original

[Greybear23]

Hi Coral, You might consider planting Clovers and Vetch in wide strips and putting up electric fences to seperate them and then let your sheep craze them in rotation to harvest and at seasons end maybe hand harvest with a weedeater and sun dry and store it in a barn to supplement your winter feedings, you can also improve your soil fertility by strip rotating and grazing on good grass and strips of clovers. This can start out as a small project with three foot strips and work up to entire fields rotating them for your animals to enjoy, you could consider some Chicken tractors on your strips to harvest them also!!!! LOL I know I have created a lot of extra work here for you to think about!!!! Just the way I think of things, I like to try to take care of the soil and utilize it as best I can, and the animals sure don't seem to mind when you draft them into the harvesting and tilling part either!!!! Have a wonderful day!!! Lynn

Quote:

 

[Greybear23]

Black eyed peas, crowder peas, green beans, pinto beans and just about any other kind of bean or pea would be great to integrate into you gardens as a cover crop or a grazing crop or to harvest food and then hay out the plants for winter feed for those who may be interested in improving their garden soil and adding to their homegrown feed larder!!!! These do not need to bee huge patches, simple wide rows and strips would be easier to harvest and do wonders for your soils..... Think Chicken tractor width!!!!! Lynn

 

[Greybear23]

WELLLLLL !!!!!! Now I feel like Monty here!!!! LOL Talking to myself!!!???!!!! HELLOOOOOO Anybody out there!!! LOL It's OK, I know your all busy here today, just funnin ya! I am taking it easy today and relaxing and PLAYING on the computer... Incase you couldn't tell!!!!

Lynn

 

[Greybear23]

Something I have been considering starting, for me and the Chickens!!!! Lynn

Meet the Colonial Garden

In their book Dooryard Garden: Colonial Herbs, New England Herb Society of America members Jane O’Sullivan and Rhonda Haavisto write that most New England colonial gardeners situated their gardens on a southern exposure to take advantage of the warmth and full sunlight, both essential to raising healthy herbs. Fences encircled gardens to keep livestock and animals away from precious plants. What would you find growing in the Colonial herb garden? According to Viancour, the following five herbs were found in the average Colonial garden. These multitasking herbs will work just as hard in your home as they did in the Colonial home, making them useful and beautiful additions to your garden.
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) garnishes many a restaurant plate today, but in Colonial times, cooks seasoned food with parsley and prized the herb as a health tonic. Viancour also believes parsley was used as a dye, producing a green color. A little parsley goes a long way, so for most modern home gardens, one plant provides sufficient fresh parsley to enjoy in culinary dishes as well as for drying and storing.

Sage (Salvia officinalis) enhances the flavor of game meats and stews, two staples of the era. Sage was also used historically as a medicinal herb. “Sage has known antimicrobial properties and it is anti-inflammatory,” says Keri Marshall, N.D., medical director at Gaia Herbs. Marshall says a controlled clinical study using a placebo, double-blind methodology indicated a commercial throat spray made with sage was effective in treating acute viral pharyngitis, thus giving an intriguing glimpse into research that backs up Colonial belief.

Today, sage is grown more for its culinary and ornamental use. It is not recommended that home gardeners harvest and use sage for medicinal purposes. To grow sage for ornamental or culinary use, you’ll need bright, full light and well-drained soil. Harvest leaves sparingly the first year for a bumper crop the second.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) provided a tasty accent to lamb, game, and stew dishes and was grown as a culinary herb. As the herb of remembrance, rosemary was added to wedding cakes or puddings. Rosemary needs full sun and warm temperatures. It prefers well-drained, alkaline soil. In northern climates, remove rosemary plants from the garden, replant in pots, and keep indoors until all danger of frost is past to keep snow and ice from killing rosemary plants in the

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris), as well as lemon thyme, adorned the Colonial garden. Thyme flavored foods and added another herb to the Colonial family’s medicine chest.

Thyme requires sandy, dry soil and can be tucked among rocks and in spots in the garden in which few other plants flourish. Give it full sun and tend it carefully, and soon thyme will cover the area.

Lavender. In an age when strong and unpleasant odors were common, sweetly scented herbs were prized. Lavender (Lavandula spp.) was often used to scent clothing. Dried lavender would be tucked among stored clothes to refresh them by infusing the garments with their scent. To grow lavender in the home garden today, start plants from seeds or cuttings, or purchase plants at your local nursery or garden center. Lavender needs full sun and well-drained soil. It’s easy to dry and the dried herb may be used in sachets or potpourri

Bee balm (Monarda didyma) also played an important part in Colonial history, serving as a tea substitute after the Boston Tea Party, when black tea imported from England was difficult or impossible to obtain. Bee balm is medicinal, too, since an active ingredient, thymol, also found in thyme, offers antibacterial and antimicrobial benefits and is added to many modern commercial mouthwash preparations.
Other herbs served dual purposes in the Colonial household, too. Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) was grown for its pleasing scent and yellow hue for dying.

Mint (Mentha ×piperita) was grown for its refreshing scent and culinary purposes; mint tea remains a popular herbal beverage today. The humble woodland violet (Viola odorata) not only graced the garden with cheerful flowers, it added a sweet scent to water used for washing. Kathleen Halloran, one of The Herb Companion’s contributing editors, outlines how to create your own Colonial garden. Halloran adds wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) to the list of Colonial favorites. Wormwood is a perennial herb that is perfect for the garden—it can produce a mass of silvery-gray aromatic foliage, which makes a great background against which to show off other flowers in the garden. Feverfew, the seeds of which would have been brought over on the boat from the Old World, has knee-high, cheerful perennial flowers that are the source of a potent traditional headache remedy. Flowering yarrow found its way into Colonial gardens for its usefulness in treating wounds.

Check out our coverage of Colonial Williamsburg on Page 52 and our plans for your own Colonial garden on Page 48 for inspiration and ideas. You can also visit Mount Vernon or re-created gardens throughout New England. As far as using Colonial herbs, keep in mind that medicinal herbs must be used with care and preferably under the guidance of a naturopathic doctor or herbalist. It’s best to use a standardized product from a reputable company rather than harvesting your own backyard herbs, which may vary in quality and strength and cause potential harm. Be sure to tell your doctor if you use any herbal extracts, since some may interact with prescription medications or cause potential side effects. The herbs found in the gardens of Colonial America would be equally at home in your backyard today.

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

Sounds good Greybear! We are haveing the kids over tonight for supper and then watch the Okla ball game! Blackeyed peas(with a dime in the bpttom of the pot) kraut,hog jowl,mashed potaoes and gravy and a strawberry birthday cake for the daughert.She was the New Years baby for Tulsa 36 years ago!
Heard the death toll has climbed in the tornadoes in Ark/Okla. Such a terrible thing to start the new year. We must all give thanks for what we have and know it can be lost in the twinkling of an eye!

I guess my all time favorite breed is thw aracunna bantam. I refuse to call them Americanna bantams! The firts ones I saw that were aracunnas way back there look just like what I have now so I am sticking to it!(yes a wee bit stubborn).My favorite pigeon breed is the flying roller.

 

[banjoejoe4783]

okla-i love my americuna batams as well i call then ameracuna becuas that is what they where call when i firts saw them and have had aracunas the tufed and rumpless dont like them as well

 

[Greybear23]

AAAAAHHHHH Wayne!! Sounds like a wee bit of Irish Blood may run in your vains too!!!! LOL I truly am sorry to hear of all the turmoil with the Tornadoes! My heart goes out to all those involved and YES I truly am greatful for all we have, little it may be but it is ours and we have worked for it!! So true though, it can all be gone in the twinkling of an eye!!!! Now!! Do make quilts or just like them??? Lynn

 

[buffalogal]

Quote:
Hoppin'John, sweet potatoes, broccoli and some kind of meat for DH. Cornbread sounds good, but if we have bread, will probably go with biscuits. maybe cornbread tomorrow with the leftover BLP?

 

[Greybear23]

Hey how bout some Johnny cakes or Hoe Cakes as we call um !!!! East to make and OOOHHH So good !!!!! Great for soppin up BE Pea juice!!! Or with a slab of ham in between!!! I do love to cook and was raised in the south with good ol rib stickin foods, give me Ham, Hoe Cakes and gravy and I am good!!!! Lynn

Quote:
Hoppin'John, sweet potatoes, broccoli and some kind of meat for DH. Cornbread sounds good, but if we have bread, will probably go with biscuits. maybe cornbread tomorrow with the leftover BLP?

 

[Greybear23]

Hey!!! Just watched the Owasso High School Band in the Tournament of Roses Parade!!!! Whoooo Hooo you go OWASSO!!!! Any of our BYCers from Owasso, these kids did an excellent job in the parade!!!! Lynn