tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6428191542885475292024-03-13T23:10:16.557-07:00Thompson's GardensStephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-83724663915473808472024-03-05T12:05:00.000-08:002024-03-05T12:05:51.639-08:00First parsnips of the year<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The way I’ve always grown
parsnips, is the way my parents have always grown parsnips, which is the way my
grandparents have always grown parsnips.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We plant them in the spring, let them grow, then leave them in the
ground over winter.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The next spring,
once they start to regrow, we dig them up.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think the cold, and then the process of regrowing breaks up the
starches and makes them sweeter, but don’t quote me on that.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think I looked up the reason one time, but
since it’s not something I thinking about all that often, I don’t really
remember.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anyway, a couple of weeks
ago it was warm and I checked our parsnips but they hadn’t started
regrowing. It then got cold for a couple
of weeks, but the last few days have been warm.
Today, my mom said, “Why don’t you pull a few parsnips and we’ll have
them for dinner.” So I went and dug a few parsnips which were starting to
regrow.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisR4Sg68BpOGlVH0RYDYiCesSwBP8XPw1M36knaegh5JYbG_zduR8xZKFB85pCcewDXE8QvWLYWToqqa1SsijsE_XAyAPVvoSq4f9E-widNYMJEqFu1TfHrqAlpo2Os2igWcAJdPGhnKspJf5EL3725buZ_y7EjNDtLto6NskBJZ4A81TEytWpDtkxcoQ/s2150/Pars1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1797" data-original-width="2150" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisR4Sg68BpOGlVH0RYDYiCesSwBP8XPw1M36knaegh5JYbG_zduR8xZKFB85pCcewDXE8QvWLYWToqqa1SsijsE_XAyAPVvoSq4f9E-widNYMJEqFu1TfHrqAlpo2Os2igWcAJdPGhnKspJf5EL3725buZ_y7EjNDtLto6NskBJZ4A81TEytWpDtkxcoQ/w400-h334/Pars1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Here is them after the
dirt was washed off of them.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m not
sure what happened to that one in the middle.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZnoknQ8O9UHTihhE0DWvq4K40lwzVWItkdfaBDOo__h-7uzpN2tzhMBa3TfQslH-0XFWxfbnhANs_iKVAkFLwCZD1qEUdXNZP4Y4rGa-zAA_5EQyHbwURQOtJ2nfA6o4VIyFTA7RPkJ4Culx-vClfcHYkn7-oy2fUncBbPvS68SEsQloR_9FkLQJXW-E/s3172/Pars2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3035" data-original-width="3172" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZnoknQ8O9UHTihhE0DWvq4K40lwzVWItkdfaBDOo__h-7uzpN2tzhMBa3TfQslH-0XFWxfbnhANs_iKVAkFLwCZD1qEUdXNZP4Y4rGa-zAA_5EQyHbwURQOtJ2nfA6o4VIyFTA7RPkJ4Culx-vClfcHYkn7-oy2fUncBbPvS68SEsQloR_9FkLQJXW-E/w400-h383/Pars2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I got busy doing
other things, and my mom peeled and … rectangled them?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">They’re not cubed.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Right now, they’re floating in some water
waiting for dinner time.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe I should
have waited on this blog to add a picture of them fried up in some butter.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I guess I’ll save that for if I ever doing a
cooking post.</span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-40434399040553704092024-02-29T13:13:00.000-08:002024-02-29T13:13:41.364-08:00Garden roundup for February<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">During the month of
February, our chickens laid 75 eggs, which – even with two fewer days – is more
than the 67 laid in January.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Unfortunately,
17 of these eggs were damaged.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">At first,
I thought it was just that a few hens weren’t eating their oyster shells, and
while that might have started the problem, I think at least one hen is eating
eggs.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I don’t know if, with the cold and
snow, there aren’t any bugs or worms for them and their feed isn’t protein
enough.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It did seem that when it was
really cold every day there was one or even two eggs ate, but it has been
somewhat warm this last week or so, and some eggs have been eaten but not as
many.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We’ll have to see if warmer
weather will break them of this habit.</span></p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The only other garden
thing was I potted a few more onions that had started to sprout. Last year was a pretty good year for onions,
and I had two dozen or so nice big ones.
I hung them up to dry, and I thought they had dried enough, but earlier
this month I went to grab one to use and most of them were starting to
rot. The smaller onions – that I figured
I’d plant this year – are holding up pretty good and getting used. I guess I’ll just have to be extra certain to
dry any big onions I get in the future.</span>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-22148092857484479722024-01-31T22:10:00.000-08:002024-01-31T22:10:42.845-08:00Garden roundup for January<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In January, our chickens
gave us 60 eggs.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Well, they laid 67
eggs, but seven were damaged in some way so they didn’t make it to the house.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The only other gardening news
I have for this month, is I found three onions that had sprouted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I put some potting soil in a pot and
planted them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is something I’ve
done a few times in the past, but I haven’t had too much luck with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last year, I was able to transplant a potted
onion into the garden, but that was when the onion held on until late-March, or
April before it started to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found
another onion growing back in November, or December, which I planted, but I
think it’s mostly dead now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll have
to see if any of these make it to warm weather to be planted out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-59707253833552221642024-01-12T17:55:00.000-08:002024-01-12T17:55:04.379-08:00Garden Roundup for 2023<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’ve been meaning to post
this for a couple of weeks now, so I’m just forcing myself to finally finish
this, so it’s probably a bit rough.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">#<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I only started keeping
track of how many eggs we got each day at the end of May.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But between then and December 31, our seven
chickens gave us – assuming I didn’t miss some – a total of 598 eggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is almost 49 dozen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We used some of them, but we also gave some
out to family and neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I even sold
a few dozen to co-workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Besides keeping track for
the whole year, I should also keep track of how much feed we buy for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I can figure out how a dozen of our eggs
costs versus store bought ones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">#<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For the last several
years, my mom has kept track of how much we freeze or can on a legal pad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’ll have green beans, and every quart we
can she’ll add a tally mark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She tries
to keep up to date, but I think she misses some things, or double counts
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even though I help her most
of the time, some things on her list I don’t remember canning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So in 2024 I’ll try to do my own list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But reading her list as best I can, this is
what we froze in 2023: 25 bags of blueberries (1 bag makes 1 pie), 15 bags of
sliced apples (1 bag makes 1 pie), 7 bags of grated zucchini (1 bag makes a
couple loaves of zucchini bread), 2 bags of rhubarb (I think 1 bag makes 1 pie),
10 bags of parsnips (1 bag is probably worth 2 meals), 2 bags of broccoli, 4
bags of green peppers, and 9 bags of peas, although some of the peas were later
canned with some other stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I
think all the green peppers we used for spaghetti and pizza sauce we from 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is what we canned in
2023: 9 pints blueberry jelly, 5 pints grape jelly, 3 pints mixed berry jelly, 3
quarts and 8 pints of applesauce, 1 pint of pears, 6 pints of green beans, 2
pints of mixed vegetables, 1 quart and 15 pints of sweet corn, 9 pints of
tomatoes, 15 quarts and 1 pint of spaghetti sauce, 1 pint and 9 half-pints of
pizza sauce (1 half-pint is enough for one pizza), 18 quarts of grape juice, 5
pints of beets, and 19 quarts of potatoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We also bought some items
to can, such as 6 quarts of pears, 5 pints of peach jam, and 7 pints of strawberry
jam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also froze two containers of
sliced strawberries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">#<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">2023 was a busy year, but
we’ll have to see what we do in 2024.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-86932236207773042812024-01-01T13:10:00.000-08:002024-01-01T13:10:58.580-08:00First egg of the year!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZI9TtlTF4OXWTa602d_IByd58LbqTcrJ4F75ZHgn5x7a9DzuaND9dfaAVH9aACCueLADhwpKtihFmjQcB26X30bxsuwhnSOSndSelB4t9GbygAtD-mN2cCtMhWgnG8j1mBtabuJqLiy1hkPkzJ-R0cW1rfSDRgDEyjnLdRaK37BiXPUJaVwOY_DcEqk/s3211/24Egg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2729" data-original-width="3211" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZI9TtlTF4OXWTa602d_IByd58LbqTcrJ4F75ZHgn5x7a9DzuaND9dfaAVH9aACCueLADhwpKtihFmjQcB26X30bxsuwhnSOSndSelB4t9GbygAtD-mN2cCtMhWgnG8j1mBtabuJqLiy1hkPkzJ-R0cW1rfSDRgDEyjnLdRaK37BiXPUJaVwOY_DcEqk/w400-h340/24Egg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unfortunately, the second
egg broke so this one was covered in yolk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s one hen that gets picked on, and I don’t know if the other hens
aren’t letting her eat the oyster shells or what, but it seems like every other
day or so there will be a broken egg in a nest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I don’t think any are eating the eggs, so I think it’s all just the
shells being thin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When I got this one,
there was another hen on another nest, and when I went out later there were two
unharmed eggs there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, “four” eggs
from seven aging hens in the middle of winter, isn’t too bad.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-85036914423140083002023-10-01T00:39:00.005-07:002023-10-01T00:39:39.252-07:00Garden Roundup for September 2023<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">During the month of
September, our hens gave us 97 eggs.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">From
our garden we got 1 zucchini, 1 watermelon, 2 cabbages, the last of the corn,
the last of the tomatoes, the last of the peppers, the last of the shell beans,
as well as a couple buckets of potatoes.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We also picked a couple buckets of grapes, as well as a few black
berries and red raspberries.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We also
picked several buckets of apples.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most
are for pies, but one tree makes good applesauce.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The only thing left to
pick are some cabbages, maybe a zucchini, most of the potatoes, and some
apples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The earliest frost date for here
is in the first week of October.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
forecast only shows it getting down into the 40’s for the next week or so, but
most things are dying back and getting ready for winter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since not much will happen in the garden for
the next few months, I think I’ll hold off on these monthly updates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll do a roundup for the year, and then
start these up again next spring.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-89419493354628011272023-09-14T01:35:00.003-07:002023-09-14T01:35:12.145-07:00Garden Roundup for August 2023<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I wanted to get this out either
on the last day of August, or the first few days of September.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">But one thing after another kept coming up,
and I kept putting it aside.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There were
a couple of things I wanted to talk about, but I’ll save them for another
post.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This will just be a super quick
rundown of what we harvested in August.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For starters, we got – if
my count is correct – 68 eggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stuff
harvested from our garden included: lettuce, just about all of our onions, 14
zucchini, a few peas (most of the plants are dead but a few are still kicking),
a couple dozen tomatoes, some broccoli, some green beans, some shell beans, a
bucket or so of potatoes, some cucumbers, a couple heads of cabbage, a couple
dozen ears of corn, all the beets, and some green peppers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve also picked a few red raspberries and
blackberries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also cut off the one
sunflower head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The deer ate most of the
ones I planted, and I only got one good sized head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I leave them to dry, and then sometime in
winter I’ll hang them out for the birds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The last item to mention are the apples, a few yellow transparent and a
couple buckets of MacIntosh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If I can get around to
it, hopefully soon I’ll have a post on why I think it was a good year for
onions and beets.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-14259414605212779562023-08-03T18:04:00.004-07:002023-08-03T18:04:34.166-07:00Garden Roundup for July 2023<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This roundup is late, and
will be brief, because I was sick for a good chunk of July.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">A stomach bug tripped me, and then like four
or five other things dogpiled on.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
fine, the only issues I have left are a cough, and I tire easily, but I don’t
know if part of that is from the heat, or just that I haven’t done anything for
three weeks.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anyway, in July we got
about 87 eggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say about, because for
a week or so I didn’t collect the eggs and didn’t care to ask how many we got,
so that’s a rough estimate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first patch of
lettuce started to go to seed, but the second patch is up and I’ve started
picking from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our peas produced
pretty well this year, and while some of the plants are dying, others still
have blossoms, so I don’t know how much longer we’ll get peas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve also picked some red raspberries, and some
black raspberries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We got swamped in
blueberries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even with pies, and putting
them in cakes and cereal, and letting neighbors pick as many as they want, I
think my mom said we have 25 quart bags in the freezer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one of my sisters has 17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are still some blueberries left to
pick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">New things we’ve picked
in July: blackberries, tomatoes, several nice heads of broccoli, and zucchini.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got 19 zucchinis, most of which were
smaller sized, but three we missed and will be ground up for zucchini
bread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Also, I had put a couple
of potatoes in containers, just to see how they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were starting to die, so I pulled them
and got some pretty nice potatoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-72116394321950117232023-06-30T19:26:00.003-07:002023-06-30T19:26:20.920-07:00Garden Roundup for June 2023<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m still trying to
figure out what to do with this blog.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">One
thing I figured I could do would be monthly roundups of what our farm/garden
has produced.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If my tracking is
correct, in June our chickens gave us 132 eggs.
Which, is far more than we can use.
Most of them we give away to family or neighbors. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In June, I’ve continued
picking leaf lettuce. It seems like
every three or four days I pick enough for three or four sandwiches. I don’t know how much longer this first patch
will continue to produce, it’s starting to get a bit ragged, but a second patch
is already growing. During June I’ve
started to pick red currants, red raspberries, wild strawberries, and
peas. And just today, I picked our first
black raspberries and blueberries of the season. I don’t know if our late frost messed up the
currants, or if the birds don’t have anything else to eat, but I’ve pretty much
picked them clean and only have maybe a cup.
Some years I have ten times that without seeming like I picked any. They’ll likely just get mixed in with the red
raspberries – which we might get more of, there’s a couple patches out in the
farm I need to check on – and some black raspberries to make some jelly. We don’t have that many strawberries, and I’m
not sure what we’ll do with them. The
black raspberries and blueberries are loaded, so we should get a lot of them. The peas have just started producing, so we’ll
probably get a bunch of them over the next month or so.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Finally, we’ll probably
a week or so away from our first zucchini.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">And I also just noticed today our beans are starting to bloom.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So we’ll be picking green beans before the
end of July.</span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-11324999348913269602023-06-01T21:51:00.003-07:002023-06-01T21:51:29.840-07:00First harvests of the year<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So the point of this blog
is to show what we harvest from our garden/farm.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">But as evidence that I still have a lot of
bugs to work out of the system, I completely forgot that we’ve already had some
harvests.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Aside from eggs – which right
now we’re getting about four a day – the first garden harvest this year was
back in February, when I pulled the parsnips from last year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way we’ve always done parsnips is to let
them grow all summer, and leave them in the ground over winter and only dig
them once they start to grow again next spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is a reason to do this, but I don’t feel like looking it up right
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this year we had a warm
February and they started growing again early.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So I dug them up, and we had some for dinner, gave some away to my
siblings, and froze five or six bags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The second thing we
harvested was some rhubarb three or so weeks ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have two rhubarb plants we planted last
year and one, for some reason, is only about half the size of the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad picked it the rhubarb, so I think he
only picked from the bigger plant to let the smaller one grow some.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was harvested then was turned into a
pie, and my dad pick some more this week which was froze to be made into pie in
the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The last thing we’ve
harvested is some leaf lettuce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I picked
enough for a sandwich about a week ago, three or four sandwiches worth earlier
this week, and it looks like I’ll need to pick some today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s our harvests up to
the first week in June.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This month I’ll probably
also start picking red raspberries and currants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may also get some wild strawberries,
although where I usually picked them is now a corn field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we’ll see.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-17226362595534214662023-05-25T19:06:00.000-07:002023-05-25T19:06:20.371-07:00Garden mistakes I’ve made this year<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The weather here was
pretty warm in April, and I wanted to get a head start on the garden.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So I went ahead and planted some zucchini,
watermelon, cucumber, and cantaloupe seeds in pots.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">They came up and were doing well, and the
weather got cold.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So they stayed on the
porch, and got a bit leggy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">But then the
weather warmed, and I got the garden worked up, so I transplanted them and
mulched them in good.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">There were a
couple of nights it was going to get into the upper 30s, and I worried, but
hoped that with the mulch they would be okay.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">But then I noticed half their leaves were brown.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I kicked myself, and worried, but hoped for
the best.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then, on our last frost date,
we got frost.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I debated on doing
something to cover them, but I’m a night owl and don’t usually get up till
noon, and they were half-dead anyway.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So
my seedlings died.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">My onions, peas, and
lettuce pulled through without issue, and the couple potatoes that had come up are
recovering.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It did take a long time for
my beans and corn to come up, but hopefully that was just because the ground
wasn’t overly warm.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The beans are finally
coming up, and the corn is a bit hit or miss, but that might just be because it’s
old seed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My plan had been to
transplant in the seedlings, then wait some weeks before direct planting more
seeds, to spread the harvest out some.
So I left spaces for where these new plants would go. Now a week or so before the frost, we had
some old eggs that needed to be gotten rid of.
And I figured I’d bury them in the garden. I dug a trench about where some tomatoes will
go and buried most of them, but I also buried some where I was going to direct
sow the melons and such. We have about
six inches of soil, then a clay layer. I
dug down into the clay layer, dumped in the eggs, broke them, dumped some
compost on top, then covered them over.
And I put a marker to know where to plant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>After the frost, I needed
to replant stuff, but since we don’t have the longest of growing seasons, instead
of planting one hill, then waiting some weeks to plant another, I figured I’d
replant over the dead seedlings and in the new spots. So I did that, and watered everything in
good. Then a couple days later I went to
the garden to see something had dug up the old eggs. I cursed, but got more compost and filled in
the holes, and replanted the seeds again, only for the next day to find they
had dug everything up again. Apparently,
they left an egg or two, or hoped the eggs would refill. I really cursed, but left the holes
open. The next day it rained for most of
the day, and the day after that I had to work.
But the next day I went to the garden and nothing else seemed to have
been dug up, so I filled the holes in again.
It’s been three or four days since that, and the spots where I’m going to
plant the zucchini and such haven’t been dug up, and the tomato trench has had
a couple, half-hearted digs. So
hopefully, that’s all done with. Now,
the issue is do I replant the seeds again.
I don’t know if whatever dug them up also snacked on the seeds, but with
my luck if I replant, I’ll probably end up with three zucchinis coming up in
one spot.</span>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-43092202274200615862023-04-11T07:30:00.001-07:002023-04-11T07:30:00.163-07:00First outdoor planting of the year<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was going to call this “First
planting of the season,” but I did plant some potatoes last fall as a bit of an
experiment.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">And I had planted some seeds
in pots, but yesterday was the first time I planted something outside, this
year.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was also going to start by saying
I planted seven things yesterday, but there are some grey areas, so I won’t try
to number them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">First off, we are still
about a month away from the last frost date for this area, but there’s also a
week of good weather, which is rather rare this time of year, so I wanted to
get something done. But I will have to
keep an eye on the overnight temperatures.
Also, our garden is damp, but hopefully it will dry enough this week
that I can at least start on working it up.
We do have some small, raised beds, and that’s what I planted into.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There were three very
simple things I planted: a short row of leaf lettuce, a couple of daisies, and
a couple of marigolds. These were all
planted from seeds. Everything else I
planted were onions, which is where some of the grey areas come from.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">First up, I think last
fall one of my nieces sold boxes of fruit and vegetables as a school fundraiser
for something. In one of these boxes
were some nice, fist-sized onions. One
day, a couple of months ago, I noticed that one of these onions had
sprouted. So I got a pot and planted it,
and stuck it in with all the houseplants.
It grew, but I don’t think it was getting enough sun, so I planted it
outside. Hopefully, it’s the right type
of onion for this area, and we’ll get something from it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We normally plant onion
sets, and that’s what we did last year. I
gathered our onions, dried them out, and put them in a mesh bag hanging in our
cellar. A month or so ago, I noticed
that one of them had sprouted, so I put it in a pot. It grew and I transplanted it yesterday. But there were also twenty or so bulbs from
last year still in the cellar. Either we
didn’t use as many onions this winter, or the fundraiser onions were more than
enough. So I just planted the rest of
them as a new set. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, as I said, we
normally plant onion sets, but I was curious about trying onion seeds. So I got a pack some time ago. Wanting to get a head start on them, I planted
some in pots back in February. I also
wanted to try biodegradable pots made from cardboard rolls, so I made a dozen
of them and planted onion seeds. But,
either the seeds aren’t that good, or I didn’t water them enough, or it was too
cold on the porch, or something else, or some combination, but only four plants
sprouted. So I planted those four, along
with the other pots in case the seeds were just waiting for better conditions. I also direct sowed some of remaining onion
seeds. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I guess this is another
grey area. In two of these cardboard
tubes, some non-onion seeds grew. I’m
not sure what they are, but I planted them to see what they become. And incase the onions I did plant in them
ever come up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So that’s the
beginning of my 2023 outdoor gardening. </span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-642819154288547529.post-72035488468640476382023-03-06T22:12:00.000-08:002023-03-06T22:12:12.589-08:00So what’s the point of this blog?<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">My name is Stephen L.
Thompson.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I grew up on a small farm in
northwestern Pennsylvania.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">After
college, I moved away for work, but in 2011 I moved back.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part of it was to help my parents around the
house and farm, but also because living with my parents is cheap.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Instead of working five days a week, I can
only work two to pay for car insurance and Netflix, and hopefully spend the
rest of the week writing.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you’re
interested, you can learn more about my writing on <a href="http://oneoveralpha.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">one of my other blogs</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve always had a garden,
growing the basics: potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’ve always figured myself as more of a
gardener than a farmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I first
moved back, my dad and I mostly split the work in the garden, but over the last
few years I’ve taken over more and more until I basically do all the planting
and harvesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He still runs the
rototiller through on occasion, and hauls water for it when it’s dry, but it’s
pretty much become my garden.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To learn new tricks, I’ve
started following several gardening YouTubers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably the biggest influence for me being
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@REDGardens" target="_blank">RED Gardens</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main reason being they
track all the work that goes into their gardens as well as all the produce they
get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found that interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The closest to that we’ve done is each year
my mom keeps a list of how much stuff she cans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But that was mostly to just be able to say she canned 150 jars, or
whatever, that year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We never even
tracked when we planted stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had
always been whenever the ground was ready, and we had the time, we planted, and
we harvested whenever stuff was ready. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But as I took over the
gardening, and from watching a bunch of YouTube videos of gardeners talking
about how many pounds/kilos of stuff they grew, I started wondering how much
food we actually grew on the farm each year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s the garden, but also apple trees, and blueberries and
blackberries, and eggs from our chickens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For the last couple of years, I’ve started keeping some track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mostly it’s when I planted stuff and when I
first harvested them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last year I also
counted how many zucchinis I picked: 128.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Somewhere along the way, I got the idea of starting a blog about what we
produced on the farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’m better with
words than talking, so a blog is more my style than a YouTube channel.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the ultimate goal is to have short
posts along the lines of, “I picked the first raspberries today,” and the post
would just have a picture of three raspberries in my hand with the caption
“They were delicious.” These would be between weekly tally posts of, “I picked
ten zucchini, six tomatoes, got 29 eggs, and pulled some potatoes for supper
one night.” I’d also do special posts on how I compost, or have recipes, or
whatever I can think of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point of
this blog would be to let people know what can be done with a garden, and to hopefully
connect and learn from other gardeners.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s the ultimate goal
of this blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, as I’ve found out for
the last couple of years, I don’t know how to organize everything to make it …
coherent, useful, good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that’s my
2023 plan for this blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve taken what
I’ve learned from my organizational failings, to have a new – hopefully better
– system to try this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If everything
goes okay, then in 2024 I’ll try the weekly updates of what we grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe 2025.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll see.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen L. Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08165822376466316865noreply@blogger.com0