We are enjoying discovering all of the photos on our Bushnell Trophy Cam. It’s so fun to see what’s going on when we are not looking, but it also allows us to plan and prepare better. We mostly have deer traipsing through the area, but are seeing the occasional fox. Both will be potential problems for us with our current and future trees and our garden and chickens once we move to the land in a few years.
Since my first crochet scarf, there has been a lull in my crocheting. Summer and fall are so full and busy with gardening, harvesting, canning, and so forth that I just didn’t get back to it. As the weather turned cold and I began to hibernate I started pondering my next crochet project. I decided to go with a double crochet beanie that I found on ravelry to match my new scarf.
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| My First Crochet Beanie |
This DIY FIFO can rack can save valuable shelf space. It only uses up 2 square feet of floor space and holds up to 120 cans. The concept is simple. You place the new can on the top shelf. The can rolls back, falls to the lower shelf and rolls forward. This way your cans always stay rotated without having to take them all out and place the new ones under or behind the old ones.
Jon and I are on vacation from work this week and decided to try our hand once again at making crab apple jelly. Last year was our first attempt at any jelly and it was a fail. Then we made it in November so we were worried that the crab apples were too far gone on the tree this year. There were more overly brown and rotten crab apples than in November, but still the tree was loaded down and Jon was able to pick about 1.5 gallons of crab apples from our ornamental crab apple tree.
There are tons of varieties of crab apples. Most people do not use the ornamental crab apples because they are so small and tedious to use, but they are perfectly edible and since we had them we thought we would put them to use.
Continue reading “How to Make Crab Apple Jelly | Canning Crab Apple Jelly”
After our visit to Century Farm Orchards, we went up to the land to plant and cage as many of our apple trees as we could before dark. Right now, we are planting a single row of apple trees along the long road that is the entrance to our land. As soon as we can get a patch of land cleared off (this has not gone as expected), we intend to plant our full orchard (3-5 trees at a time). The orchard will mostly consist of apple trees, but we also plan on peach, plum, and a couple of nut trees. We have already planted 5 trees at the house and 5 trees at the land. But still we are learning so much.
Apple trees like a neutral pH (meaning 7). Around here our soil is naturally acidic and a hard clay. Be sure to test and know your soil to determine if you will need to amend. For us, this means we will need to add lime to raise our pH. Most lime available in garden centers is dolomitic lime. Dolomitic lime also contains magnesium. Over time an overabundance of magnesium can block the absorption of calcium. However, our NC clay is so nutrient deficient it may take a decade or more for that to occur. So for planting we will use a granular dolomitic lime. When digging the hole, put all of the dirt into a wheel barrow rather than on the ground next to the hole. Once the hole is dug, mix in the soil amendments (for us 2 to 3 Lbs of dolomitic lime) into the soil (clay) in the wheel barrow with a trowel or shovel. When we planted our first trees at the house I was concerned that we had done them an injustice by using the clay from the hole we dug. I thought it would be better for the trees to use a bought better quality soil, but we were too cheap to do that. However, what we learned from Anne Stomp on our visit to Century Farm Orchards is that it is best to use the native soil from the dug hole. A tree’s roots will become trained to the soil that it is planted in. If store bought soil is used to fill the hole, once the roots grow and reach the outer edge of the hole they will stop extending and begin to grow around as though it was potted because it does not recognize the soil. This circular growth of the roots will be a problem as the tree matures because the roots will not provide a proper strong foundation for the tree. A shallow root system may cause the tree to be damaged or completely uprooted in a storm. Also, if the roots are not extending out to reach available nutrients and water beyond the base of the tree, it may become under nourished over time. It is therefore best for the tree to become accustomed to the native soil from the time of planting so that it will continue to extend its roots further developing a strong root system. I was relieved to know that we inadvertently did the right thing when planting our first trees.
Continue reading “Tips for Planting Apple Trees”
Here is a recipe for a chocolate staple at our house. We have a bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to chocolate. Rather than spending a few dollars on chocolate snacks every time we go to the store, we started making No Bake Cookies. Some people may call them Peanut Butter Delights or Preacher Cookies, but I have always called them No Bake Cookies, and I was proven right when Ann brought a pack home from the store a few years ago only to her dismay to realize they said “No Bake Cookies” right on the label.
This year Jon and I decided we were going to pick and cut our Christmas tree from our land. We usually buy a live tree. Now that we had 37 acres of our own, surely we could find a suitable Christmas tree!
We do not have any of the “fancy” firs or spruces on our land. We do have many a pine tree, but they are not any of the pretty shaped pine varieties. There is an overabundance of the “not so pretty” loblolly pines, but they just are not suitable for a Christmas tree unless you are trying to achieve a special Charlie Brown Christmas. However, what we do have that grows naturally and has a nice shape is the eastern red cedar.
With all of the leaves now fallen away from our fruit trees we needed to paint the tree trunks white. We did this for those that were already planted and those that were still in pots waiting to be planted.
Yesterday morning Jon, Sarah, and I went to the Century Farm Orchards Open House in Reidsville, NC. Their open house is every Saturday in November and February each year. This is a priceless and lovely family ran orchard that specializes in heritage varieties of apple trees. We signed the guest register when we first arrived. There were visitors from Georgia and South Carolina. We had no idea this was such a big deal. There were quite a few people there.
There were over 100 varieties of apples on display. We had heard of very few of them. We were able to taste test many varieties and sampled their apple cider. Over the course of the time we were there, I believe Sarah may have drank her weight in apple cider. We were taking notes on the varieties we liked. Bill even mentioned making “good” cider requires crab apples. We were immediately intrigued. We have an ornamental crab apple tree that we made jelly from. It was tasty, but those tiny crab apples were a test for the ole patience. He showed us a few varieties of crab apples that were golf ball size. We honestly did not know crab apples could be so big! I guess what we were used to seeing is the various ornamental crab apples. When we asked Bill for some suggested crab apple varieties for cider he deferred us to Anne who was nearby giving instruction on all things apple. We learned a lot of information on the history of certain apple varieties.
Continue reading “Visit to Century Farm Orchards and More Apple Trees!”
As we continue to add things we want to grow, and wanting more of the things we already grow in our garden, space is becoming a big issue. We fenced off a corner of the back yard for our garden to keep the chickens and the dog from digging up our produce and now we have filled up that little space with our annual crops and find that we need more space.
Last year, we almost tripled the size or our garden. We installed permanent fencing around our garden area because we have a line of pine trees that prevent us from expanding the current garden area any farther. Expanding the fenced in area, as we did last year when we went from a temporary movable fence to our current permanent fence, is no longer an option.
We decided that the next step in adding some more garden space was to install a couple of beds for our tomatoes and peppers. This would be a simple and easy addition to our gardening area.
First, we cut down a couple small but tall and straight pine trees from our land in an area that we are needing to clear any way.
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| Nice and straight logs for the edge of our beds. |