Oregon Berry Tribute

I would venture to say that the berries are the best reason to live around here. We withstand the long rainy Winters and Springs and Summers even just so that we can go and pick berries fresh off the bush or the vine. This season is no different.

Below are a peek into what I have been harvesting from my garden:

Ok, so the ice cream is not from my garden.

July Garden

Wow, the last two weeks have flown by. I am not sure what happened, but it is July already!

The homestead is shaping up for summer production:

Summer squash are already 4" high.  The cucumbers are starting to grow on their bamboo trellis.  The potato's are huge and spilling over their bin.  The broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage are thriving.  Second seeding of carrots and beets are coming up.  The tomato's are growing, but slowly.  I have a small black bug issue, more on that later.

The hugelkultur is finally starting to look like I planted something.  Although I have some carrots and beets growing in the lawn....results of the multiple chicken marauding adventures.

There are beets, carrots, kale, arugula, chard and a few volunteer squash and ground cherry tomato's growing haphazardly... I just planted three more kinds of kale and chard and installed the soaker hose.

Moved the netting over the blueberries.
Because of this:

The birds have been munching on all the berries as they ripen!  But not anymore.

The herb garden is thriving finally.  The borage is attracting pollinators as expected.  Chamomile, sage, oregano, fenugreek and calendula are growing nicely.

My pear tree is doing well, there are about a dozen little pears growing.  Which is a lot less than what started....I am still not sure what happened to them.  Squirrels?

The girls enjoyed all the weeds I threw over into their run. Everyone of them kept their eye on me today waiting to see if I threw them any raspberries.  Which of course I did, along with a few unlucky earth worms.

The raspberries are going nuts.  I have collected over eighteen pints of them so far, and there are SO MANY still ripening every day.  My mom is coming over tomorrow to pick some more!

Now We're Cookin' with Gas

Now this is more like it:

Four burners, baby.  All going at once.

Life is good.

Made strawberry and raspberry jam last week on my new four burner gas cooktop.  Raspberries were picked the same day from our garden.

I make jam without pectin and with honey in lieu of sugar. I generally follow the way that Rachel at Dog Island Farm makes her preserves.  But instead of 2 parts fruit to 1 part sugar, I use 2 parts fruit to 1/2 part honey. Just boil the fruit and honey (add lemon juice if needed) until the foam goes away and it thickens to about the consistency of maple syrup at room temperature. Then pour into sterilized jars, wipe the rim clean, screw on the lid and can in a boiling water bath for ten to twelve minutes.

June Harvest

The berries in our garden are coming on with gusto!

Berries and eggs in the June garden

This was what I picked last night. There were more raspberries out there but I was stung by a honeybee while I was moving some raspberry canes around to I get at berries in the middle of the patch. I have not been stung by a bee since I was a teenager, and at first I thought a thorn had stuck me a little deeper than usual. It was a honeybee and she just happened to be where I placed my hand, poor girl.

FYI, the baking soda paste sting remedy really works, in minutes it had pulled all the venom out. There is a little redness and a bruise sensation but other than that my hand feels fine.

Friday Farm - Strawberries

Yep, your eyes are seeing the same thing I am seeing. STRAWBERRIES.  Ripe, on May 31st in Oregon!  Shocking and true and delicious.
I ate the juicy one closest to the camera last night.  Along with the first raspberry.

I did not share.

Garden Do-Over

The hugelkultur bed was re-planted this weekend.  It is heavily laden with a few varieties of carrots and beets, arugula, kale, chard, spinach and collard greens.  The collard greens, arugula and chard are new to our garden this year.

This was re-build No. 3, will see how it goes. The chicken fencing is now over six feet high, and so far it has kept the ladies in check....but you can see them pacing the fence line here. That big pile of dirt is too much for them---they think they need at it!

The broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage starts also went in the ground.

The brassicas are on the right in the photo above. On the left in front is the artichoke that the chickens destroyed earlier this year, but it is recovering just fine, maybe I will actually have artichokes this year. The potato bed is behind the artichoke and you can see the raspberries fully leafed out behind them.

Here is a closer look at the potato bed.

Despite being dug up a few times by the aforementioned chickens...they are doing just fine. More soil and straw has already been added to their pile.

The herb bed also seems to be recovering and there are quite a few little sprouts emerging. The corn, squash and beans will be sown later this month.

Are you planting anything new this year?

Friday Farm - Raspberry Wine

The Hubs and I broke open a bottle of the raspberry wine I started over a year ago.  You can see my post about it here.

The flavors are amazing.  It is light, crisp and very dry, but the raspberry flavor comes through strongly in the nose and in flavor.  It almost seems like a sweet wine because the raspberry is so intense. I think it will continue to improve over the next  few months, so I will not be drinking them all at once.  I need to start another batch...should have done it six months ago!  There are plenty of raspberries waiting in the freezer from last summer.

September Bounty

I came home from work today and immediately went out back to collect what I thought would be a few more tomato's.  This is what I found:

A bit more than a few tomato's.

Yellow Patty Pan Squash
Raspberries, second round this summer!
Lots of toms - Cherokee Purple, Oregon Spring, Caspian Pink, Brandywine, Flame, Amish Paste, Sweet Baby Girl, Yellow Pear
Purple Podded Pole Beans
Trofero Filet Bush Beans
French Cranberry Bush Beans
Zucchini (on the left...a little out of hand in size)
CUCUMBER on the right side....way out of hand in size

For your enjoyment, the girls and I had a little photoshoot last weekend:

Pepper in mid speech about how unbelievably hot it was.  She says this is not her good side.

Red staring me down and looking quite prehistoric.  Don't tell her I said that.

I took these with the app More Lomo for the iPhone.  There are quite a few amazing and FREE photo apps available.  I am actually enjoying taking photos with my iPhone more than my DSLR because of all the fun apps.  Any of you have a favorite?

September Garden

The garden is starting to show the signs of autumn.  The tomato and squash plants are starting to brown in spots...I am just hoping more will ripen before the cool weather comes back to us.  We are in our 4th or 5th week of 75+ deg weather, finally!

Those are the volunteer squash that I unwound from the tomato's and strung out into the yard.  The chickens seem to mostly ignore the squash for now.  They are in some of these shots because they think that every time they see me I might just give them a treat.  Aaaand...I usually do.  They got a few yellow pear tomato's, a half eaten raspberry and few of the last blueberries today.  You can see a little orange pumpkin up close and a couple winter squash farther away.

Then here is another angle of the garden and you can see the coop in the background.  Those are marigolds growing in the front from seeds my Aunt gave me.  I sprinkled those seeds all over the place when I planted my starts, and there are little clumps growing all around the tomato's, it is very pretty.  I plan to add more flowers and herbs to the garden next year.

That is an artichoke growing there as well, but so far it has not produced any flower heads.  The raspberries are just starting to put on their second round of berries.  I will have to start another jug of country wine!

The Why

After reading this post on Dog Island Farm and viewing the linked video of Esperanza of Pluck and Feather, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you some of why I am pursuing urban homesteading.

I was raised with an urban garden, in fact all of our family had gardens.  My parents planted it every year, and included my sister and I in their efforts.  I helped to plant seeds and watched my Dad get the rototiller out to get the soil ready.

Pumpkins from our backyard garden, 1979.  The raspberries
growing along the back fence are still growing in our garden today.

My grandmother had a garden and raised chickens, ducks and geese at their beach front property that we visited nearly every weekend when I was a child.  I remember harvesting potatoes from the sandy soil and eating them raw where we stood.

Me at my grandmother's coop, 1982

My Aunt had a large garden at her property in the hills of SW Washington and a greenhouse where she started her plants from seed every year.  I hated having the job of taking the compost out to the bin near the garden.  Now I make my daughters do it!

As long as I can remember we had rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries and black caps (black raspberries) growing in our back yard.  We tried growing strawberries, but they never produced so well, so my mom would take my sister and I to pick strawberries in the fields on the outskirts of town.

For me, planting the garden, harvesting our food...preserving the harvest, brings me closer to my family, to our farming roots back in Iowa.
However, we also do this for the financial payback.  We want to eat organically and this is a way of accomplishing that goal in a cost effective way for ourselves and we do not end up spending our paychecks on food from a high end natural foods store.

My sister and I "helping" make applesauce, 1975

Most of it seems to come naturally to me, but it is really because that is how I was raised.  We re-use, salvage and re-commission everything we possibly can.  We scout garage sales, craigslist and our local Rebuilding Center to find items we need..they are either really cheap or free!  I like to think it makes my grandfather proud and my mother feel like she finally has gotten through to me!


Re-using spice jars to hold seeds for next year's garden, re-using apple juice glass jugs to ferment wine, using old tool handles and branches to stake and hold fencing in my garden.  We also frequent the farms surrounding the city to pick items we do not grow ourselves, and dig enough razor clams to fill our freezer for the year each Fall and Spring.

Cleaning clams at my grandparent's beach house, 1976.

Teaching our children how to plant, how to tend the chickens and our garden, and visiting the local farmers markets enables them to understand that their food does not just come from the grocery store.   They begin to see how our lives are linked to our community and the need to preserve farmland and open spaces.  As an added bonus for us, our kids are at an age where they are beginning to understand how quickly a dollar disappears.  They actually prefer to shop at the local re-sale stores and Goodwill...they have found their dollar goes much further.   Apparently I am getting through to them too.

Wine Making

I love wine.

I really love wine.  I am not a snob about it....I am quite happy with a $4 bottle from TJ's, but I do love a good wine when I can get one....and really despite what you may think, most anyone can tell your basic table wine from a Good One.  Living in the Pacific NW has its advantages.  One of which being a plethora of vineyards and wineries within an hour's drive.

But wine is not a cheap love....so I have wanted for years to learn how to make my own.  I have a TON of raspberries that grow in my garden, I even saved a lot from last years crop in the freezer for this specific purpose.  I finally just jumped in and started my own Pollo Loco Homestead Raspberry Wine in April!


Shown is actually two versions.
The dark one on the end is a country wine, only takes about a month to finish.  It was good, but a bit too sweet for my taste....but after adding some sparkling water and ice, it was fantastic.
The lighter color jugs are in it for the long haul.  They will take 9 months to a year or more to finish.  The hubs and I have racked this one already and will again soon.  Then a few months later we will bottle it.  I plan to try a bottle around the holiday's this year to see where it is at, I will keep you posted.

I followed this process to make the 12 month wine...from one of my favorite blogs, Chickensintheroad.  I feel Suzanne and I are very much on the same page about a lot of things, I will reference her blog again.

You really do not need a lot of fancy equipment.  I used a large re-purposed ice cream tub (Tillamook Cheese Factory sells them for 50 cents!) for the initial fermentation and re-used apple cider jugs for the secondary fermentation (my sister loves organic all natural cider--it is usually only available in the glass jugs, she saved hers for me).  I plan to use wine bottles I am saving when it comes time to bottle.  The only things I needed to buy were some air locks, some tubing for racking, wine yeast, acid blend and I went ahead and bought a $6 hydrometer so I could know the specific gravity (relates to the alcohol content) of the wine.

I plan to try a mint wine next, as I have a lot of mint taking over a corner of my garden currently.