What did you do in the garden today?

[chickmom3941]

Oh man, I love connecting with ya'll on this thread in particular. You're all so upbeat and workin' hard! I really like that there seems to be a real appreciation for each other in the thread regardless of who they are. Not that I've been in here all THAT long but it seems to be the vibe I've gotten.
Most of my friends IRL are huge indoorsy nerds (which I am too, to some degree), so while we geek out over comic books and board games and video games and the like, very few of them share my love for being outdoors. It's nice to have people who share that interest to talk to.

I have to agree with you about this thread. I've only been on here a few days, and everyone is so nice and helpful. I live out in the country, so don't see people all that much, so it's great to be able to connect with people on here who share your interests (gardening, chickens, cooking/baking, and probably lots of other things, as well). So glad I discovered this thread!

 

[CapricornFarm]

Oh man, I love connecting with ya'll on this thread in particular. You're all so upbeat and workin' hard! I really like that there seems to be a real appreciation for each other in the thread regardless of who they are. Not that I've been in here all THAT long but it seems to be the vibe I've gotten.
Most of my friends IRL are huge indoorsy nerds (which I am too, to some degree), so while we geek out over comic books and board games and video games and the like, very few of them share my love for being outdoors. It's nice to have people who share that interest to talk to.

Welcome!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I have to agree with you about this thread. I've only been on here a few days, and everyone is so nice and helpful. I live out in the country, so don't see people all that much, so it's great to be able to connect with people on here who share your interests (gardening, chickens, cooking/baking, and probably lots of other things, as well). So glad I discovered this thread!

Glad you joined the party!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I let some of my squash get humongous so I can slice if up for my chickens..every morning I go out to cut one off the vine to slice up for them. If i have a few defective tomatoes..they get them To!

The chickens we had in TN got a lot of table scraps and they really loved it!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I'm pretty new here, and I have to agree. There are a lot of kind, caring helpful people on the site, but the folks who frequent THIS thread are super friendly and supportive. Great group!

How did your sale go? What can we call you besides Taote?

 

[CapricornFarm]

This thread is so active I can't keep up with it lol!

This morning I picked some peas, lettuce, and pulled up some onions. I think I waited too long to pick the peas as they are kinda tough. Will they taste better after they're cooked? I also discovered the rest of my kale was covered in little caterpillars. Into the compost pile...

Maybe you can feed the kale to the birds? Bunnies like peas, once they get big they just taste funny.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Taking a morning break, haven't had breakfast yet, and those baked goods got me Chicks out in the temp run, ALL of them! HE sleeping in this morning again. I try to get him to bed earlier, but he's set in his late night ways. So I just do what I can alone in the early mornings. Starting at 4-5am every day means I take a nap in the heat midday and still in bed most nights by 10pm. I've always needed my sleep.

I really hope we get the rest of the coop walls finished today. Ready to have those big chicks out 24/7 already!

Y'all are getting so much done! Nothing keeps you down! We got the best strongest ladies here! Impressive. Working smart and hard. Y'all are the best.

It is hard to change your sleep schedule when you are a night owl. When i was really down in FL, i woke up at 2 in the afternoon. Then i would read to escape life until about 4 am. I am trying to change my schedule, my alarm usually goes off between 9 and 10 am. It is really difficult for me to fall asleep before midnight unless i am a passenger in a car. Then i can sleep any time!
Got my poor lilac miniature bush planted at last, the guys graded the area around the cabin. The poor bush had so many roots there was hardly any room for soil! Today i plant to plant my pumpkins, since the guys filled in the low places in my garden! These guys are the ones making the pad for our storage buildings, and they fixed us up a circular driveway. We are making good progress.

 

[chickmom3941]

I let some of my squash get humongous so I can slice if up for my chickens..every morning I go out to cut one off the vine to slice up for them. If i have a few defective tomatoes..they get them To!

Do your chickens eat the whole squash, or just the seeds in the middle? It's nice of you to give them a nice big one every day. Our chickens are so strange - they don't like tomatoes, and most of them aren't crazy about watermelon, either. I've heard that chickens usually go bonkers over both of those! They do, however, love cucumbers, as well as leaves off of pepper plants, cabbage leaves, and our hostas. We have to use a lot of fencing so the stuff can grow, and in recent years we've moved the peppers into the greenhouse. We did plant a bunch of turnips this year. I made a deal with the chickens - I get the turnip bulbs, and the leaves are for them. I read that chickens really like the turnip greens, so we didn't fence off the turnip area at all - they can have at it. Hope they don't eat so many leaves that the bulbs can't grow - lol!

 

[Taote]

How did your sale go? What can we call you besides Taote?

Call me Jen, and I sold out : ) thanks for asking. My head hit the pillow around 3am and had to get up at 5:45.

I ended up making 36 dinner rolls (3 flavors), 1 round light rye loaf, 12 lavender caramel breakfast rolls, and 6 packs of lavender sugar cookies (wasn't going to do those but there were some people who said they were coming early to get them before I ran out so I went ahead and pulled that dough out of the fridge after all). Also made 4 peach blackberry buckles in individual tart pans. Oh and 8 mini zucchini loaves.

I'm super glad we sold out all of the bakery, but MORE excited to have sold out of specialty tomatoes (green zebra, black krim, and terra cotta). Very few of them were "perfect" and people were glad to buy them, esp. after getting a taste.

We sold all of the cherry tomatoes too, maybe 10 pints - a good mix of varieties. Plus some purple pole beans.

And also a lot of repeat customers buying summer squash / zucchini, cukes, and jalepenos.

So Yay! Our best one yet : ), but with a tiny bit of trepidation ... I'm a little afraid of people's expectations ...

People like and are coming to expect more and more bread and bakery. Kindof hard for me to pull off sometimes - if I have a bad day the day before a market and bring no bakery it feels like I would really be disappointing people.

Jen

 

[CapricornFarm]

Do your chickens eat the whole squash, or just the seeds in the middle? It's nice of you to give them a nice big one every day. Our chickens are so strange - they don't like tomatoes, and most of them aren't crazy about watermelon, either. I've heard that chickens usually go bonkers over both of those! They do, however, love cucumbers, as well as leaves off of pepper plants, cabbage leaves, and our hostas. We have to use a lot of fencing so the stuff can grow, and in recent years we've moved the peppers into the greenhouse. We did plant a bunch of turnips this year. I made a deal with the chickens - I get the turnip bulbs, and the leaves are for them. I read that chickens really like the turnip greens, so we didn't fence off the turnip area at all - they can have at it. Hope they don't eat so many leaves that the bulbs can't grow - lol!

Animals can be funny that way! I had some goats that refused to eat apples! But once they saw the other goats eating the apples, they wanted their share! Keep trying, they may decide they like things they reject at first.