Gardening/Farming Statistic Notes 2011

We had two gardens in two different places this year.  One at the in laws tended by my eldest son, and the other here. 

Garden #1 (in laws)
tomatoes did excellent, planted 30 roma plants (2 died).  Received a good amount of tomatoes, but not as much as I expected. 
potatoes did not do good, received a paper box (lid) full of potatoes of golf ball size and smaller. 
green beans didn't do very well either (Kentucky Wonder); plant  bush beans next time

*commercial fertilizer and pesticides used

Garden #2 (home) planted in March

herbs died
cantelopes did excellent (produced approx 20)
watermelon, planted 3 plants (received 4 melons)
Mescullin, small patch, did the best of all veggies
potatoes - plants grew, no potatoes
jalapenos - did ok, would have done better if goats had eaten leaves off - twice
tomatoes - plants grew, no fruit production
cucmbers - planted six foot row, 10 plants (rec'vd 3 cucumbers)
green beans - prolific vines, handful of beans, goats ate twice
peach tree - first year, watered every other day

*used no commercial fertilizer, only manure tea and DE

Canned food:

20 quarts of seasoned tomato sauce
5 quarts of salsa
16 quarts of dill pickles (slices)
1 -  1/2 gallon jar of dill pickles (whole)
24 jelly jars of strawberry jelly
24 jars of bread and butter pickles
1 3/4 bushel of corn (frozen on the ear in gallon bags - 10 bags)
dehydrated small amount of oregano, basil, lavendar, thyme, mint

Plants to harvest on land:

mesquite beans (working on jelly, flour, coffee)
prickly pear cactus (pads and tunas)
mustang grapes

Animals:

Goats:  6 babies (2 bucklings, 4 doelings)
*Dolly died - kicked by horse
*Olympia died - kicked by horse, but died during delivery of kid (buckling died)
*Chamomile died - 6/25/2011 - accidentally shot
*Dakota died - killed by dogs

Chickens
2 chicks hatched by incubator
2 chickens killed (hen by dogs, rooster by storm)
Eggs produced so far:  160 approximately
One buff orpington hen broody, sat on clutch for 21 days, none hatched

Harvested 1 bullfrog for taste testing

Food purchased:

40 lbs of Wagyu beef 1/16th share
Azure order each month ($80)
Pasture raised broilers (20 to date from Green Hills Poultry in Yancey)

Working on second planting here at home garden

green beans (center of garden to prevent goats reaching)
pumpkins
mescullin
cucumbers

*ordering truckload of manure from feed lot

Around the Farm

Lauren asked me the other day if I considered her a "cowgirl".  I told her she could be a cow girl if she wanted, but I considered her a farm girl.  We don't work cattle ;-) but living in Texas and riding horses, she can be a cowgirl.

It has been busy here on the farm, and HOT!.  Tomatoes are in, and I am canning tomato sauce every other day (or thereabouts).  I think 30-40 Roma plants are a great number to plant, as I get enough to can...In the past, I've planted about 6 plants, and while I received more than we could eat, I never received enough to really can.
The potatoes Taylor planted are done, and the yield was lower than I expected.  I received about 1/4 of a brown paper grocery bag full.  Mine still aren't done, and I am not quite sure of the expected yield.  We will have several cantalopes, and a couple of watermelons ready, but Dandy (our Boer wether) got into the garden yesterday and ate all my green bean plants and jalapeno plants. 

One of our Buff Orpington hens decided to go broody and is sitting on 8 eggs.  I am so excited! It would be awesome if they all hatched!  Our previous two chicks are pretty big now, and we let them "roam" during the day.  They don't roam too far, but stay under the tree behind the container, and under the container itself.  When it's cooler they will wander further afield.  At night we lock them up in their cage outside. 

We purchase a 1/16th share of Wagyu beef, approximately 40 lbs of meat.  This meat is organic, hormone free, and pasture raised.  Along with my organic, pasture raised chickens in the freezer, we should have plent of meat for a while.  I am getting my monthly Azure order (about $100 of items). We stop by the dairy about every other week for milk, and then make butter.

I need to get into my routine of baking again.  I am almost out of bread, and we have no snacks in the house.  I made popcorn today because there was NOTHING else. 

We've been irrigating the fields using large sprinklers, and a huge PVC pipe that has been made into a 100 foot long sprinkler with about 4 heads on it.  It isn't making a HUGE difference, but it gives the goats and horses something to eat.  We've also been spending time cleaning up the land, organizing and throwing out trash. 

Lauren has started the second Course in her Cake Decorating Class.  This month they are working on Gum Paste and Fondant Flowers.  She really enjoys these classes. 

Today after church, we went to Michaels to complete one of their Father's Day crafts.  We did one yesterday too. 

It's been so hot lately, that we spend most of the afternoon hunkering down to keep cool, only going out in the early am and late pm.  This severely handicapps the amount of work that we can get done, but it's our only recourse in these high temps.

Off to make butter...