Utah!

[La Casa de Pollo]

My garden was kind of an exercise in disaster this year. All of my tomatoes that I started died.  Then, I had a whole bunch of volunteers come up where I'd planted the potatoes. Since the potatoes were starting to die off already, I decided to let them go. And then they went crazy.  Then, we discovered that I hadn't done a thorough job of harvesting the potatoes last year, and this was made even more exciting by the tilling we'd done. So, I had a ton of potatoes come up where I'd wanted my tomatoes to go. But since all those tomatoes were dead, we just let the potatoes go. So, it's kind of an easter egg hunt to find the potatoes, since nobody is where they were planned.  I plant adirondack blue potatoes, so they're a lovely dark bluish/purple. Sooooo gorgeous.

I only had three chicks in this tank, and my other two were really sweet to the sizzle, but they were starting to really dwarf her. I'm wondering if there was maybe some heart condition, or failure to thrive, or something.

OOoo! I want to find some of those to try. I have seen them, they are yummy looking If you have a good place to buy seed potatoes let us in on the secret...the nursery I get mine at does not have them.....

Funny your description of your garden, it sounds like when you tell your kids to pick up their things, and where to put them, and they just keep showing up in the wrong place....haha. I plant tons of tomatoes---I canned 86 quarts this year! No kidding! Not including all the spaghetti sauce and other stuff we made with some of them, and shared with friends and neighbors. I am totally sick of tomatoes by this time of year....but then really glad I did it later when I get them out to use. I usually plant 24-28 plants of Big Beef and Beefsteak. My potatoes did awful this year, tomatoes went crazy. Weird?

 

[the-bird-man]

you people who love gardening should look up "mountain valley seed co" they are local and have tons of different seeds of all types and they are also where most of the green houses and garden shops around here get their seeds that they plant to sell in the starts. if you have seen the veggies at ifa, almost all of them are mountain valley seed stock. my all time favorite cherry tomato comes from them, its called "sun sugar hybrid" and it is like a drug i tell you and produces so much. its a little orange cherry tomato with great flavor, its like candy and looks great in salad. i bet you will find the seed potatoes you want at mountain valley seed co. plus you would avoid the middle man

 

[auntie hattie]

Alright guys i need help because I have no idea what is going on with my Silkie! She is still doing fine. Don't get me wrong I am thrilled about it but I can't figure out why she is so swollen and big bottomed. Could she have just gotten fat? She still hasn't laid an egg. She isn't molting. Maybe internal laying? She hasn't got any bigger or sicker. I really don't know what the deal is. Any ideas?

Sphinx sorry to here about your fizzle.
Red good luck hauling your turkeys to there new home. I'm sorry you won't be able to enjoy them anymore.
Lisa 86 quarts!! Wow! I gave all my canning stuff to my daughters and daughter in law to share. I've missed having it a few times but only a few. :

 

[pawtraitart]

I just scored 700 lbs of wheat!!!

Wow, that is quite the score!! Congrats!

 

[RedIII]

Brad, so next time I get a sun sugar tomato plant and I get asked what it is, I'm going to say, "Drugs."

They really are good. I've been getting them for the last few years. It really would have been nice if I could have tasted more than a few before my chickens devoured them, though

Hattie, glad your Silkie is hanging in there, but that makes me worry, too. I don't know what the symptoms of internal laying are, but I still worry about some kind of infection. She's eating and drinking and pooing normally, right?

Sphinx, awww I'm sorry you lost your sizzle

You are not allowed to lose any more chickens for a while, ya hear?

Lisa, do you free range your chickens? How do you keep them out of your tomatoes?

Someone posted a link a page back that looked very interesting. I can't remember who it was, but thank you!

I have a suspicion that my oldest Icelandic pullet is getting ready to lay. She's the one I got from Cynthia

She's been plenty pink in the face for a while now, but yesterday she accepted some crushed eggshells from me as a supplement. I also caught her coming out of a thick rosebush cluster where no one else really ventures. When I looked inside, I could see what looked like a nest someone had been working on in the leaves. Ohhh, that would be so exciting if she started laying. She'd beat my Leghorn to the punch!

 

[Sphinx]

Lisa, I'm happy to give you some potatoes that you can use as seed potatoes. I bought my potato seeds 6 or 7 years ago from Tucker's Taters, and I always hold back the smaller ones as seed, and they've done really, really nicely. I'm so impressed with your bottling tomatoes. I usually make a couple huge batches of pasta sauce to freeze, and some fresh salsa, and then share the rest or feed them to the birds. Here's some fries I made with my potatoes:




It's exactly like my garden was my kids with how it all came together!! I'm laughing my head off now that you mention it.

I don't care for fresh tomatoes, but the last couple of years I've had Cherry Chocolate tomatoes (or chocolate cherry?). They're an heirloom, and my dh loves them. We've had those sun sugars, and they've been a hit, but they're so boring because they're plain old red. LOL I love my veggies to be unusually colored (for examples, go see my "food" album on facebook). I had all kinds of fun heirlooms a couple years ago; I think that's why they were so good to come up on their own for me this year. I had black krim, and some yellows and stripes and oranges... it was a lot of fun. I gave Sundance some of my chocolate cherries, and she reported that she liked them.

MadChicken, congrats on all the wheat- that's awesome!!

Hattie, I have no idea on your silkie. That is so odd.

I "caught" my speckled sussex in the nest box again, so I think she did start laying a week or so back and I didn't realize it. Her eggs are more tan than brown, and I realized I've been seeing them for a while.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Sphinx, I would love a couple of those spuds! Just enough to grow me a plant next spring....to get more for seed the next year, then I would be set! Thanks!

I did heirloom purple tomotoes this year....quite a few, and made marinara, the taste was not much different but the sauce was darker....the plants did not produce as well as the other kinds and the kids would not eat them so I may give up on purple...I like the way the striped ones look, might have to try those!

Red, I do free range my girls, but it is here and there...supervised...lol. When my tomatoes come on, they are in several spots in the yard so I limit their time out a bit more from the first of August until I am done harvesting. The biggest problem I have with my girls is they way they run to the flower beds and dig in the mulch and kick it all over the grass. They make such a mess, we have quite a few border beds, and that is their favorite spot. I wish they would hang out on the grass, but that is usually the last place they want to go. I bought some t posts and orange netting, and tried making areas on the grass where they could hang out and eat the grass, but it was a lot of work, especially with 30 chickens. When we mow we give them quite a few fresh clippings, they like that alot. Mostly I let them out and send my son out to babysit, it last 1-2 hours while he jumps on the tramp and chases them around, then they go back in the run. The run is a lot bigger now, so they do not seem to fight to get out like they did before.

Hattie, hang in there with that silkie! At least she does not seem to be hurting, that is definitely a good sign

 

[the-bird-man]

i am a tomato nut. i normally will plant around 17 plants or so. i am a huge fan of beefsteaks and then i always do the sun sugar. sun sugars are golden orange actually. maybe you are thinking of super sweet 100s sphinx? i do not like the super sweet 100s as much. and i have been needing to try those cherry chocolate tomatoes.

 

[jed2012]

Cynthia, I have found three eggs on the ground in the last three days. One was the Wyandotte egg that Lisa put the picture up of (thank you Lisa!) one was the brown speckled egg, and one was a small, pretty light brown egg, almost cream in color. It may have been from my BO, but the shape isn't right. I had wondered if it was my Leghorn/EE mix. I will be watching to see who gobbles up the calcium I put out for them, and who is doing what in the mornings.

Madchicken, my girls eat the seeds whole. And what they can't eat, the turkeys clean up. It works out pretty well.

So, I feel bad. The wild turkey that I have gave me the slip tonight when I went to put stragglers away. My brother came outside to help me get her. We had her against the fence and pounced one after the other, but the problem was, each of us got a fistful of tail feathers, and no turkey........so now I have a turkey with no tail. She's been growing in a bunch of feathers lately and is looking so much better than when I got her. I was shocked at how easily her tail feathers came loose. So kids, if you have turkeys, do NOT grab them by the tail. All it produces is an embarrassed turkey, and it makes you feel like a jerk

And yes, we did eventually get her. She'll be getting lots of protein treats for the next little while.


Yup, that was me! That was quite a surprise to have a chicken neighbor walk up out of nowhere like that, but fun to chat

Sounds like you've got quite the flock, yourself. Good stuff.

lol

 

[Daloorashens]

Yum... loving all this talking about gardening and tomatoes,,, Those spuds are AWESOME sphinx!! I might have to grab a seed spud from you, too... (and sorry about your little sizzle, does sound like something was wrong with it, tho)

The sunsugars are golden yellow/orange and they are DELICIOUS!! I love them in salad and I have put them in salsa... yum!! I think I planted around 20 this year.. I did the Celebrity this year, they did decent, the sun sugars always do awesome, tho.... I have been blanching and freezing all my tomatoes and my mom and I will can them as soon as it is too cold to go out. I grew some heirloom corn this year, actually I have the last few years.. I have Blue Aztec and a green one and some decorative, the blue is really pretty, but because I don't cover the heads, they get cross-pollinated, but it's still pretty!!

Hattie... and your poor girl, too.. wish we could wave a magic wand from long distance and make her all better for you!!

Oh, and Mad chicken... are you going to start growing some fodder with all that wheat??