Tag: self-sustaining

Beans!

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This year we planted dragon tongue beans, pinto beans, and top-pick crowder peas. The seed packet for the dragon tongue beans said they could be picked early (green) and the shells are similar to a green bean or left to dry and pick after the bean is fully mature similar to the pinto bean. We opted to let them mature and dry and pick them like pintos.

This is what we got. It is just about enough for one good mess of beans. I am grateful as we did not even know if we would get any harvest.  The shells have purplish striping. Some shells are darker than others. We were curious to see how they taste.

Dragon Tongue Beans
Dragon Tongue Beans

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Zucchini, Laserdiscs, and Meat On Sale!

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The kids may riot soon if we force them to eat any more zucchini! To be quite honest Jon and I are getting a bit tired of it too and I love fried zucchini! It blows my mind how much produce can come from 8 plants. So, now we are going to take a little break from the eating of the fresh zucchini and just freeze it.

 

 

Which brings us to our next dilemma. Where to put all of this frozen bounty? We decided that we needed a pantry, but where?
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Gigantor!

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Now, that’s a zucchini! It was so big that we named it Gigantor!

Gigantor is so big intentionally. We were trying to let it grow enormous so that we could get some good size seeds out of it to use for next year. When I cut it, the seeds were noticeably bigger, but amazingly still nowhere near the size we had expected. They were quite a bit smaller than the seeds we had purchased and planted.  So, we just decided to slice ole Gigantor up and freeze him. He even got his name on the freezer bag!
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Off to a Good Start…Mostly

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Our first garden seems to be off to a good start. The corn is a little sparse and our carrots and onions were planted too late, but the beans, lettuce, and zucchini are looking good. We’re still not sure about the broccoli. It may have been planted too late as well.

Those 3 little flower pots in the corner are where we planted our pepper seeds. Yeah, I see why our oldest shook his head and all but laughed at us. They started to grow just a little (very little), but they have all mostly disappeared. I think bugs ate them or something.

You can see how all the grass is trying to grow back up through the garden as we didn’t get it tilled good enough, but all in all we may actually have some sort of crop from this!

Apple and Peach Sticks Finally Arrive

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Finally, our other order of trees and raspberry vines came!  We ordered this list of trees and raspberry vines below on April 25th.

  • Belle of Georgia Peach Trees – Dwarf avail. (Tree Height: Dwarf 2-3ft (grows 40% normal size))
  • Elberta Peach Trees – Dwarf avail. (Tree Height: Dwarf 2-3ft (grows 40% normal size))
  • McIntosh Apple Trees – Dwarf avail. (Tree Height: Dwarf 2-3ft (grows 40% normal size))
  • Granny Smith Apple Trees – Dwarf avail. (Tree Height: Dwarf 2-3ft (grows 40% normal size))
  • Yellow Delicious Apple Trees – Dwarf avail. (Tree Height: Dwarf 2-3ft (grows 40% normal size))
  • Gala Apple Trees – Dwarf avail. (Tree Height: Dwarf 2-3ft (grows 40% normal size))
  • Heritage Everbearing Raspberry
  • Latham Red Raspberry

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Pinto Beans Starting to Grow

Running the Well Dry

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When we arrived home from our weekend trip to Chimney Rock, NC you know the first thing I do is head straight to the bathroom.  It is only a few hours drive, but still my bladder can barely hold…LOL! But when I go to wash my hands there is no water. Oh my!

Then of course I realize that the toilet has flushed, but it is not refilling.  Of course I go check the kitchen sink and yup….no water there either.  So, I tell Jon, and we start checking the breaker box.  All good there.  Then it dawns on us! We asked our son to water the garden in our absence.

So, we go check the outside water spigot and sure enough it is still on.  I quickly turn off the breaker to the water pump so the motor doesn’t burn up (if it hasn’t already).
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How I Got My Garden…Finally

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My wife had for some time, been telling me that I could not have a garden. She would say “not as long as you are working 55 hours a week and taking online classes, cuz I ain’t gonna be the one doing all the work. So, we began discussing growing herbs in pots, or maybe a raised bed. We talked about this for most of the winter.
Then spring came. She decided that having a row of fruit bearing bushes would be nice. We decided to put them along the edge of where the garden would be, when I was allowed to put one in. So, she ordered a couple blueberry bushes and grape vines. We picked up two blackberry bushes at Lowes the day before the other bushes were set to arrive.