Living the slow easy life

So today is day 31 of bunny gestation period and Flopsy was sitting in her nest. She is arranging the straw and appears to be pulling out her fut to make a nest. She is very lazy today we can only hope she is in labor and we will soon have baby bunnies. However, we shall see what happens next.

Yesterday we did some clean up and planted a couple of Buford Hollies around the house.I'm really focusing on simplifying so anything we do not use is going to the dump or to Goodwill. So we've been filling up the

back of Wayne's truck.

I am procrasting on the garden but we have to get this thing under control. Since the twins got here we have not been in the garden. I was surprised to walk out there and find onions, okra & banana peppers were still surviving and producing. I really need to mow between rows and weed the back corner where we grow things in rows and weed out boxes. Sometimes I wonder if life will get back to normal around here?

We have 50 chicks arriving on Wednesday, So Parks will be busy preparing the pool with bedding, food & water and the lights this weekend. We even have a few things to do for our bees too. We still have some more planting to do today, a Camellia and more Hollies (which were on sale!). The garden is over run the bunnies are not producing and my mind keeps drifting to a milk cow or goat. Maybe if we get a goat they can eat all the grass in the garden? Hmmmmm.....

It seems there is always a little something to do around here.Which is good because idle hands are the devils workshop!

Rooster Hill!

Our First Farmer's Market

We had our debut at the Navasota Farmer's Market this week. Boy howdy did we really learn a lot. Since we had to get up really early in the morning and I had not planned well I did not have my trademark list. That was a mistake so I now have list to remember the little things like Chairs!!!! Because, if you plan on being somewhere from 8-1pm you may want to sit down occasionally! I also wrote a very long list of things to do for our table itself to improve the presentation. Another issues is we were late because all of our things were not well organized the night before. Our location on the strip as a result was not very good  because many folks did not even make it down to us! I also noted that I lingered at tables that were cute so the 'cutisfication' of the Roosterhill table is also going to be under way. Finally we need to have everything well and cutely labeled for our customers.

 We have some plain jams that need to catch folks eyes and we need to highlight our special Candy Jam. So in the next few weeks I will reveal my Farmer's Market lists, new labels and our new look. We are blessed that Charlie Apel created a really cool logo for us and now I just have to use it.  Right now we are planning on going bi-weekly to the market, however, we are going two weeks in a row so we can be at market at the same time as our dear Stephanie. 

This week we should also have habanero jam as well as habanero hot sauce! But remember you do not have to go all the way to Navasota to enjoy our products we do have in town delivery to BCS available on Tuesdays.

Seed saving

As I am trying to become self -reliant I am picking up the new skills, one of which is seed saving. So while I was at Homestead Heritage I picked up a little book on growing seeds called "Growing Garden Seeds" it was $2.40. The people at Homestead are serious about self reliance and the gentlemen behind the counter informed me he has been using it for years and still hasn't had to buy another book on seed saving.

So with the help of this book I was able to save my own cream peas and okra. One important thing about saving seeds is that you have to make sure that you do not purchase GMO seeds because they are unable to pollinate...in other words you will not be able to grow anything! I am buying more of my non GMO seed from Homestead Heritage so I can start to save more of my seeds and perhaps even sell some.

So if you are interested in seed saving this is the first book I would buy. It has been very helpful and think you might like it too.

Planting Tomatoes

It takes a lot of work to plant 40+ tomatoes and it took us into the night. I learned a lesson about tomatoes last year, which was it is hard to can 20-50# of tomatoes at a time. So I planted Early Girls for the early season, Roma's & Carnival for the mid season harvest and Brandywine and Beefsteak for the late harvest. I also planted Roma's specifically so I could make paste out of them for spaghetti sauce. My goal this year to have enough spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes and paste. I am also going to try to save my tomato seeds so I can start my own tomatoes next year. I hope you enjoy your tomatoes this year.

When people find out you like to garden they start to bring you things. With the hope that you will be able to make it grow! I know it doesn't look like it but these are blueberry bushes. These blueberries are going to be a project because they hate our soil so I have to make special planters for them. Which will be filled with mostly peat moss. They also do not want too much salt in their water. But it looks like our water is okay. Two of the plants I purchased prior to receiving this generous gift are already budding. The man at producers said I should clip off the buds and encourage a much bigger crop for next year. Silly man....we are talking about blueberries here! I can already taste the blueberry pie, pancakes, muffins yummmmmmmy!

Growing Carrots

This is the first year we have grown carrots successfully. Now we have grown a lot of super sweet garden carrots. It is difficult to grow carrots in clay soil. So most people around here grow fat short carrots. But by introducing our square foot boxes we have grown 6"-12" long carrots. I also learned a lot about growing carrots. I know it seems like in the gardening books they are constantly pestering us to thin out the plants. The more I garden the more essential I see that the plants have enough space. Now spacing will differ according to how you garden from traditional row garden, french intensive or square foot but make sure you pay attention to the plant spacing and thin them!

Planting Potatoes

Pearson & Ms. Stephanie are planting potatoes in our new square foot gardening boxes. We are planting red & yellow potatoes. We will have 3 boxes square foot boxes full of potatoes when we are done.

Customer Update: What is in the ground

We are currently taking orders for our October & November deliveries. You must prepay by either handing or sending me a check and you can pick your desired delivery location & time. Deliveries will be fulfilled on a first come, first serve basis. To place an order simply fill out the order form on the side bar and mail us a check. Your order is considered complete upon receipt of the check.

We always have a couple dozen extra free range yard eggs.

So what's in the ground ...........

Estimated for mid October delivery:

1. Okra
2. Pumpkins
3. Lettuce (leaf varieties)
4. Turnips
5. eggs 3.35 dozen (no antibiotics, free range)

Estimated for November Delivery

1. Tomato cherry & salad size
2. Carrots
3. Radish
4. Kale
5. Lettuce (variety) estimated for mid October delivery
6. eggs 3.35 dozen (no antibiotics, free range)

After November

1. Brussel Sprouts
2. eggs 3.35 dozen (no antibiotics, free range)

Look for some posts on our new gardening method and monitor the results!

See you soon!
The RH Garden Girls + a boy

Our Garden...

Well, I have to admit I love the garden so I guess I am a garden girl. The only thing about the garden is it's a lot of work. We are currently experimenting with square foot gardening. As we have been shamed by the Dervaes at Path to Freedom , as we have 5 acres in comparison to their. These people are some vegetable growing & energy saving fools! You know we are all about it...they are growing their veggies in raised boxes and harvesting 1,000's of pounds more then we are in about 2X the space. So more boxes are going in this weekend with turnips, chards, carrots & lettuce. We will add a box a month until we have filled the area this is kind of mammoth undertaking because our garden is 2500 square feet.

But as I have gone crazy anyway...I smush bugs with my fingers. I look up organic treatments (don't tell my friends!) for stuff because we eat the food straight out of the garden. And I have been permanently scared by "Fastfood Nation".

So here are some pictures from the garden. Right now we are still getting plenty of food from the summer garden. In fact we are over run with butternut squash & okra (1/2-1# a day) so we are selling the extra to help pay for the fall garden. Hey, we might turn a profit just yet!

We also have a few pumpkin vines. Which seemed harmless when we planted them but now we are going to have a lot of pumpkins. I did make a mistake with the pumpkins I let them climb up the fence because the blooms look so pretty from our room. Well now some are growing on the fence and they are trying to break the fence. Regardless of the fencing situation we should have PLENTY pumpkins for sale in October - November. These few pumpkins are sort of a training ground for growing a lot of pumpkins and watermelons for next year. Both vegetables are known for being a little bit tricky to grow. But isn't this baby pumpkin just beautiful? I just hope that she and her cousins don't break my fence!

RH Farm

Where to eat local in the Brazos Valley

We plant a garden and eat as much of our own food as possible. This is not possible for all families due to neighborhood restrictions, health and desire/ability. Our garden both saves us loads of money but it also allows us to eat nutrient dense home grown veggies. For those of you that can not garden the next best option is to eat local.

We are trying to comple a list of places to eat local in the Brazos Valley. If you know of any place please let us know so we can add it to the list. Eating local supports local family farm and is better for your family. Eating the foods with the pollens from the local area can reduce allergies and locally produced foods are fresher. I hope you all look into local foods in your area!

See the sidebar on the left hand side with our current list of local offerings.

RH

Eating off the land

Okay we have crossed another plateau in our homesteading journey. This weekend Wayne butchered our first chicken. We of course consulted our local country living expert (cowboy) Brian who assisted with the butcher & skinning. Yes, you can skin a chicken instead of plucking him if you do not need the skin for cooking. This chicken was an 'egg eater' and she was about 2 years old she is going to be a casserole thus no skin required.

Additionally, our garden is doing really well. Right now our garden is only about 18x18 ish so our rows are about 15' long. But the Lord is providing abundantly through the garden. Our friends the Benavides introduced us to turnips. And we have been growing them the past few months in fact I planted some more to replace the ones we've already harvested. 5 quarts of turnip greens which since I saute them they will provide ample food for a large side or a 1/2 main. I am going to look up how to freeze greens because we will probably end up with 10-12 quarts of greens. The 2 quarts of turnips that will also provide 2 large sides or two 1/2 mains I expect to end up with about a total of 5-6 quarts of turnips. We are also harvesting: green beans, okra, Swiss chard, maybe squash & black eye peas. We are getting ready to plant Spinach, lettuce, beets, carrots, radish. We are slowly starting to work on the site for the new garden which will be about 75X125 and should be large enough to supply our family with all the veggies we will need and maybe even some extras!

Also, most of our young birds are now laying. We are getting about 11 eggs a day again! The birds really seem to like their new feed and the egg production has been pretty consistent. We expect to get 13 eggs a day by the end of this month and about 17 eggs in November. I am not sure how the hens will lay as the days become shorter but we are hoping for the best. So right now I have 3-18 counts ready to be sold plus 18 in the fridge for us!

We'll let you know how the bird tasted as soon as we have some casserole!

Living Simply

RH