Made with homegrown, homemade
- Pizza sauce
- Mozzarella
- Pork sausage
- Green peppers
- Onions
Wow.
November 5, 2016
Pizza Doesn't Get Any Better Than This
Made with homegrown, homemade
Wow.
November 3, 2016
Little Things on the Little Barn
There seem to be scores of details to finish up on the Little Barn. First up, windows!
They are made from metal panels from the old roof, the one we replaced last July. I'm really happy with these, and once Dan finishes with the latching system I'll show you all the details (click here for that post).
Latches for the Dutch door was another project. On the outside:
And from the inside:
Latches for both top and bottom of the Dutch door are the same.
Also a way to hold the top half of the door open.
Some days it gets really windy, so the hook is helpful to keep it from slamming shut.
Ours is what might be called a pole barn. Basically this means the posts are buried, either with concrete or on a sunken pier. The outer wall is plywood. Because of the slope of the ground, there were some pretty big gaps under the bottom of the plywood in some places. Dan had an idea for covering those gaps by using cement board.
Also on the inside, I now have a work table.
It was made out of our old front door!
The work bench will be used for things like chopping greens and herbs to be dried and added to the goats' feed (a post about that here).
Today Dan is finishing up some of the trimwork on the back of the barn. Still on the to-do list are a drying rack for those chopped greens and herbs, a new hay feeder, and I need to finish painting. The little finishing up list seems to go on forever, doesn't it? The main thing is that we're enjoying using it.
They are made from metal panels from the old roof, the one we replaced last July. I'm really happy with these, and once Dan finishes with the latching system I'll show you all the details (click here for that post).
Latches for the Dutch door was another project. On the outside:
 |
| There just happened to be a gap in the door trim. The drawer pulls were discards from a cabinet. |
And from the inside:
Latches for both top and bottom of the Dutch door are the same.
Also a way to hold the top half of the door open.
 |
| The little solar panel is for my barn light - details here. |
Some days it gets really windy, so the hook is helpful to keep it from slamming shut.
Ours is what might be called a pole barn. Basically this means the posts are buried, either with concrete or on a sunken pier. The outer wall is plywood. Because of the slope of the ground, there were some pretty big gaps under the bottom of the plywood in some places. Dan had an idea for covering those gaps by using cement board.
 |
| This is how it looks from the outside. |
 |
| Inside, strips of hardi-backerboard are held in place with scraps of plywood. |
Also on the inside, I now have a work table.
It was made out of our old front door!
 |
| Old front door replaced December 2014. |
The work bench will be used for things like chopping greens and herbs to be dried and added to the goats' feed (a post about that here).
Today Dan is finishing up some of the trimwork on the back of the barn. Still on the to-do list are a drying rack for those chopped greens and herbs, a new hay feeder, and I need to finish painting. The little finishing up list seems to go on forever, doesn't it? The main thing is that we're enjoying using it.
October 31, 2016
Amaranth Harvest and Other Seed Crops
Here is my amaranth harvest for 2016.
That's it. One small head of amaranth seeds. But even that was a surprise, because I thought the entire planting was bust. I planted a large bed of amaranth last spring, but that was before our two months of upper 90s and no rain. After we finally got rain, no amaranth grew and the little plot was soon overgrown with everything I didn't plant.
Amaranth is usually easy to grow and relatively heat and drought resistant. Both greens and seeds are nutritious as human food, but I especially grow it for animal feed. It is rich in protein, calcium, copper, and is a good source of lysine, an amino acid (which makes it a good protein balancer for corn, which we also grow but is low in lysine).
Both chickens and goats will eat the seed heads, which require virtually no processing. I store whole heads in large trash cans and toss them to the chickens who peck the seeds out. For the goats the heads can be chopped or the seeds roughly stripped (I just pull the head through a gloved hand). If the stems are chopped or broken to small pieces the goats will eat that too. Leaves can be fed either fresh or dried (which I add to my DIY mineral mix). The stalks can be chopped finely and fed as bulk in a homegrown feed mix.
The one plant that made it was stunted and pretty much hidden in the weeds. I didn't notice it until we were getting ready to turn the goats into the garden. Like my lone hope sweet potato I'm considering it a seed crop and am grateful for at least the one head. It will give me a lot of fresh seed to plant next spring, when I can hope for a better year and an abundant harvest.
Three other seed crops have been field corn,
cowpeas,
and cushaw squash.
Of the corn I planted only a small patch for the purpose of getting next year's seed. We knew the goat barn would take up all of our time and so chose not to plant our usual quarter acre of corn. Corn seed is only viable for a year or maybe two, so being able to have fresh seed next year was important.
The cowpea harvest would have been more abundant if we'd gotten good rainfall, but at least I have some. Like the corn it feeds us plus our critters, so it's something I like to grow every year.
The cushaws were volunteers! In the buck pasture of all places. I fed rinds, pulp, and seeds to pigs and goats, who both had access to the buck pasture. I'm guessing they spread the seed in their manure. Even while the pasture was drying up I watered these vine's with leftovers from the goats' water buckets. They are small for cushaws, but will provide a good amount of winter squash eating for Dan and me this winter (with more rinds, pulp and seeds to feed).
On the bright side, this year we were plentiful in blueberries, figs, apples, pears, almonds, acorns, and pecans. Strawberries, peaches, raspberries, and elderberries weren't record harvests, but I got plenty for pies, jams, jellies, and ice cream.
Winter gardening may be a bust this year too. We've only gotten a quarter inch of rain in the past two and a half months, so my garden soil is either powder or hard as a rock. Hopefully things will change soon.
So how is everyone else's harvest doing? Do any of you have a fall or winter garden in the works?
 |
| A small Golden Giant amaranth head. |
That's it. One small head of amaranth seeds. But even that was a surprise, because I thought the entire planting was bust. I planted a large bed of amaranth last spring, but that was before our two months of upper 90s and no rain. After we finally got rain, no amaranth grew and the little plot was soon overgrown with everything I didn't plant.
Amaranth is usually easy to grow and relatively heat and drought resistant. Both greens and seeds are nutritious as human food, but I especially grow it for animal feed. It is rich in protein, calcium, copper, and is a good source of lysine, an amino acid (which makes it a good protein balancer for corn, which we also grow but is low in lysine).
Both chickens and goats will eat the seed heads, which require virtually no processing. I store whole heads in large trash cans and toss them to the chickens who peck the seeds out. For the goats the heads can be chopped or the seeds roughly stripped (I just pull the head through a gloved hand). If the stems are chopped or broken to small pieces the goats will eat that too. Leaves can be fed either fresh or dried (which I add to my DIY mineral mix). The stalks can be chopped finely and fed as bulk in a homegrown feed mix.
The one plant that made it was stunted and pretty much hidden in the weeds. I didn't notice it until we were getting ready to turn the goats into the garden. Like my lone hope sweet potato I'm considering it a seed crop and am grateful for at least the one head. It will give me a lot of fresh seed to plant next spring, when I can hope for a better year and an abundant harvest.
Three other seed crops have been field corn,
 |
| Truckers Favorite open pollinated corn |
cowpeas,
 |
| Ozark Razorback cowpeas |
and cushaw squash.
 |
| Cushaw winter squash, harvested from an unexpected place. |
Of the corn I planted only a small patch for the purpose of getting next year's seed. We knew the goat barn would take up all of our time and so chose not to plant our usual quarter acre of corn. Corn seed is only viable for a year or maybe two, so being able to have fresh seed next year was important.
The cowpea harvest would have been more abundant if we'd gotten good rainfall, but at least I have some. Like the corn it feeds us plus our critters, so it's something I like to grow every year.
The cushaws were volunteers! In the buck pasture of all places. I fed rinds, pulp, and seeds to pigs and goats, who both had access to the buck pasture. I'm guessing they spread the seed in their manure. Even while the pasture was drying up I watered these vine's with leftovers from the goats' water buckets. They are small for cushaws, but will provide a good amount of winter squash eating for Dan and me this winter (with more rinds, pulp and seeds to feed).
On the bright side, this year we were plentiful in blueberries, figs, apples, pears, almonds, acorns, and pecans. Strawberries, peaches, raspberries, and elderberries weren't record harvests, but I got plenty for pies, jams, jellies, and ice cream.
Winter gardening may be a bust this year too. We've only gotten a quarter inch of rain in the past two and a half months, so my garden soil is either powder or hard as a rock. Hopefully things will change soon.
So how is everyone else's harvest doing? Do any of you have a fall or winter garden in the works?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)