Tomatoes are just around the corner!

I have hated tomatoes for most of my life. It wasn't till about 4 or 5 years ago that I had my first fresh of the vine tomato and I was shocked at just how amazing it was. So, tomatoes have become one of the fruits that I look forward to popping up in my garden and eating fresh off the vine. This week has been a bit of a pre-tasting with a small number of tomatoes ripening in my various gardens. I have to saw if you are just starting out tomatoes are an essential to every garden. Whether flower or veggie you must have tomatoes. They can be used in a billion ways and there is nothing as tasty as a fresh of the vine tomato. Basil is a great companion plant and you are halfway to an amazing Italian meal!

I have been snacking on fresh peas for the past month but the sun has finally reached the point of frying them all along with a lot of my lettuces. however a few have survived and we are still enjoying fresh salad. We also just received a good batch of pickle cucumbers from the farm I work at so we will be making pickles real soon.

Basic Dill Pickles

8lbs. 3-4" pickling cukes
4 cp white vinegar
12 cp water
2/3 cp pickling salt
16 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
8 sprigs fresh dill
8 heads fresh dill

Wash cucumbers, and place in a bowl of ice water. Soak for about 2 hours. Refresh ice as needed. Sterilize 8  1qt. canning jars.
In a large pot over med-high heat, combine vinegar, water, and pickling salt. Bring brine to boil.
Put 2 cloves of garlic , 1 head of dill, and enough cukes to fill in each jar. Add 2 more garlic halves and 1 dill sprig. Fill jars with hot brine. Clean jar rims and seal.
Process for 15min.
Store for at least 8 weeks before enjoying! Refrigerate after opening.

Fall, then Spring, then Summer....

It's been way too long so here is a very quick update. I came out of hibernation around February and began volunteering at a local urban farm called Growing Awareness to learn as much as I could and to just be a a part of something cool. They put me in charge of their demo garden and I started planting in the fall. early spring tons of good things like peas, swish chard, leafy greens, and kale, yum! The backyard also started to get a little more order as I planted at home what I planted at GA.
Our Chickens have been laying beautiful eggs. One lays about 9 a week and another lays these huge jumbo eggs. She is also the loudest and I can't blame her I'd yell too.

The newbie urbanstead has a ton of fun things growing all over the yard:
peas
salad mixes
carrots
leeks
onions
strawberries
watermelon
peppers
tomatoes
echinacea
beets
basil
mints
thyme
tons of wildflowers
chamomile
parsley
beans
cherries
pears
and I'm sure there is more I have forgotten.

I also started a job at a small farm, Red Tractor Farm, in order to learn more and make a little money to help out.

I have switched to a raw vegan diet which has messed with a lot of my homesteading recipes but has been great for always being in the garden and always having fresh food:).

And, I have started school again ( I wanna get some sort of agriculture degree at this point) which has been great but hard.

Anyway, that's the short bit. I will expound. I just wanted to catch everyone up.

Food Delivery Day

Today we received our first delivery from Los Poblanos CSA.  I had been told many things and we often buy their produce at the farmers market so I figured I should check it out.  I would tell you about the awesomeness I found online at their site but you should really discover it's greatness yourself.  I will say we will be saving money on produce and are now able to order almost all our food at one place and have it delivered to our home!  Anyway My fridge is full of freshness from the farm and there are only two things I had never seen before.  I will post later about what they are and how I can use them.

On a much sadder note my poor pumpkins seem to be dying and I can't figure out why.  I also found out today Los Poblanos does a u pick pumpkins which is pretty cool.

Anyway made some chai mix this morning so I enjoyed a nice hot cup of chai while I fed the girls some carrot tops...a little known fact is: if you store your carrots in the fridge with the tops on they will drain the carrots of nutrients and so the carrots don't last as long. So chop those tops off and feed them to your chickens!

Goings on around the Stead

So it's been awhile but I finally have a computer and thus I am able to write a bit more and update you all on everything that has been going on lately.
So since I left you last we have built our little coop in the backyard completely from things that we found or received for free from fellow freecyclers.  We had hoped to have a big coop raising party but then we realized we had no money to throw a party and so we decided to wait another week which would have been fine but apparently chickens are sort of like mutants when it comes to growing.  So we went out to check them Sunday morning and found they had all like doubled in size so we had to act fast.
They are enjoying there new digs though and I think it came out just fine for a free coop;)

The garden is doing very well.  We have a lot of cucumbers and tomatoes ready for harvest I have been harvesting pears all week and will be canning a lot of them for the winter.  I will post some info about canning when I start the process since I don't have a pressure canner I will be using the water bath pressure method which is just fine for acidic foods or even foods you add a bit of citric acid to. Overall as the weather is starting to turn a bit I realize that the garden experience this spring and summer has been mostly good.  I have learned a ton.  I now know when is the best time to plant tomatoes.  How to effectively burn a tomato plant to death,  How quickly squash bugs will eat your little squash plant, The awesomeness of the praying mantis, How to effectively freeze a tomato plant, Birds love seeds, birds are smarter than you think, Bees are our friends, good soil is the trick to growing anything, Albuquerque soil mostly sucks.

All together I killed garlic, a potato, 2 large tomato plants and a squash plant, some strawberries, and tons of beans and peas. I later realized something was eating them from underground (still unsolved).

I realized that those cool little snails are my hugest enemy and now pay Ash 5 cents for every one he finds.

Chickens are good for your health I wake up with the sun every morning to let them out and feed them and suddenly I have all this time to enjoy my garden and the nice breezy grey of the morning when I can read my bible or just enjoy the silence.  I have learned that the garden is frozen in the morning like it did all this hard work through the night and is taking in a deep breathe or praise for it's life. The chickens have helped me enjoy that and soon they will help me enjoy a fresh egg with it!

Oh the beauty or creation just passes us by way too much!

Finally with the Chickens!!

So we have been putting off getting chickens because we had hoped to be moving to Kentucky and then all our plans changed and we are staying here in Albuquerque and so I am moving forward with all my Kentucky plans here. So the first thing on my list was get the garden going which I have started and is slowing creeping over the whole yard I will take pics next time.  Alf actually suggested we get rid of our front lawn and plant veggies that is how much I have converted him to my crazy ways!! The second thing that needed to happen was chicken so we went this weekend and got our nice little flock of five.  They are in the super cute stage still and we are all having a blast watching them do their little chicken things like trying to fly and fighting over invisible things and straw.

I also finished my first self watering container and am planning a larger one very soon.  I am hoping to start the master gardener course here but am looking at the application and it is slightly intimidating so I will keep you posted.

I haven't been posting as much since Alfy has been doing webwork and currently has the run of the computer but he will be getting a work computer and I will be getting old betsy.  So I will post a ton more. I have so many things to talk about but for now just wanted to let you know what was up:)

I made toothpaste today. I will post the recipe some other day. Today however I found things in the garden and wanted to share.

What's in the garden

Well I got some more plants today from East Central Ministries since the weather has been wacky I've been keeping them in but I hope to plant in a few days. So our current plant lineup is:

tons of Lavender

Peppermint

Chocolate peppermint

lilac pepper

jalapeno pepper

garlic

patio tomato

strawberries

a larger tomato

some sad spinach and bok choy

that's just the edibles not counting the fruit trees and flowers that are popping up:)

I know we will miss out on most of this but I feel great passing it on.