Stinging Nettles

Honest, it's nettles!

It's that time of year when we start picking and drying nettles, comfrey and other good herbs to dry for the winter.  We like to feed our hens nettles and comfrey as a winter supplement.  Both are packed with vitamins, minerals and protein.  So, for awhile, the porch looks like we are drying dope, but no, no, no!  It's nettles!

PS I don't actually know what those "other good herbs" might be but I bet that there are plenty of good things we could be feeding the hens in winter.  Do you have suggestions?

It's beginning to look like a real farm around here.

Farming Week - Day 9 (hmmm, this is a long week.)

Sunday, the sun is shining, at least some of the time.  I want to plant and I want to sing and I want to rest and I want to be ready for the coming week.

Rob and a Welsh Harlequin

- RC poultry care

- dishes

- dug a bed for okra

- lots of weeds to the chickens

- planted okra in the hoophouse

- hoed the corn and sweet peppers

- started weeding the onions

- farm visitors (yay!)

- delicious breakfast/lunch featuring our own vegetables and chicken

- blog post

- I seem to have hit my energy wall.  oops.

- Everyone left and now all I want to do is rest but I also want to plant a few more things first.

- planted okra, with some marigolds

- planted cherry tomatoes

- thunder and lightening so I am back inside.  Now the sun is shining.  This has happened about 6 times today.

(Forgot to post this one.  The last of my daily posts from the Farming Week.  It was a good week overall except for the need to do paperwork when I wanted to be outside.  That made me stressed and grumpy for a while.  And I missed the singing in Amherst on Sunday because of being so behind.  It's a constant thing, trying to find balance between work and play, friends/family and quiet time alone, outside and inside projects.  I just keep carrying on and I do best when I don't forget to pray.)

Farming Week - Day 8

Two week old ducklings

- poultry care
- blog post
- dishes
- picked a whole lot of spinach

Before picking spinach

After picking spinach (now it's a leek bed)

- raining hard off and on.  to plant?  to freeze spinach?  paperwork?
- RC moved the ducks into a bigger space.  They love it.
- made a fire in the fireplace (June 2!)
- set out plants - tomatillos, ground cherries, snapdragons, broom corn (for the flowers)
- weeded New Zealand spinach, chard
-fun supper with friends featuring our own kale, scallions, green garlic, cilantro, sorrel, mesclun, and freshly caught shad
- lots of fun talking to a young chicken fancier.  "Chickens are my favorite animal."

Farming Week - Day 7 - Gone Gardening

Snapdragons

- share clean up (cloths, buckets, cold paks, flower vases)
- paid bills
- ordered Tree Collards from Bountiful Gardens (I am really intrigued by these.)
- steamed eggs for "hard boiled" eggs It worked!  Easy peeling of freshly laid eggs at last!
- planted brussel sprouts, cilantro, dill, leaf fennel, plum tomatoes, small salad tomatoes
- found these guys:

Tomato Hornworm???
- set 9 eggs under the broody hen (exchanged for her golf balls, which she defended fiercely)  Hopefully, we will have chicks for the solstice!

- supper = our own chicken (Delaware) and our own kale and scallions

Farming Week - Day 6

- bath!
- poultry care
- dishes/hand washing
- pick the shares
- correct my accounting mistakes, surprisingly quick and easy!
- town, turned in papers, Yahoo!, saw a friend who gave me some tomatillos plants (Thanks, David of Rainbow Harvest Farm!), dashed home
- rushed about putting away the most dangerous items in case of young children coming over, prepped two salads and some radishes
- friends - eating - singing!
- I feel much better after that and a good night's sleep and looking forward to some quiet, if busy, days at home.

Farming Week - Day 5

- poultry care
- dishes/clean hands
- picked extras, emailed and posted, chilled the greens
- checked on the birds around 1:30.  They were fine but it was a long time since the morning.  I saved some hatching eggs but I may use tomorrow's instead because of the heat today.  Plus, I want more Welsummer eggs.  So far I have saved mostly green eggs.
- still have accounts and two forms to fill out and get notarized this afternoon.  There's still hope but I do not like working against a deadline.
- sold a bunch of kale and mesclun, a big sale for me.
- refrigerated vegies.
- checked for eggs
- Fastest account clean up and tax form writing I've ever done.  Now off to get notarized.  Luckily, it rained again while I was working so I didn't feel as bad about missing outside time.
- Note to self:  Never get so behind on accounts again!
- nice rain

PS  sorry about these boring, whiny posts.  Soon I will be on to actual farming, cheery writing, and pretty pictures.

PPS  Check out this sweet article from NPR about salad.  "Everyone says, 'Your food is so good,' " Lloyd says. "But it's the farmers who give me the products that make it good."  (Jordan Lloyd, chef and owner of the Bartlett Pear Inn in Easton, Md)