Early Summer Project: Strawberry Wine

The best season for fresh fruit is upon us and this year I want to try my hand at strawberry wine.  I started this batch of wine on the Fourth of July.  I wasn't able to get any fresh strawberries at the local farmers market, so I had to settle on three pounds of fresh strawberries from the local grocery store.

The recipe itself is quite simple.  First I put on a pot of water to boil.  I think I used about three quarts. Next I washed and cut the tops off of all the strawberries and then sliced them into chunks.  I mixed the strawberries with two pounds of sugar, some yeast nutrient and some acid blend that I bought from a wine making supply store.  Once the water was boiling I poured it over the strawberry mixture and stirred it until the sugar dissolved.  I allowed the mixture to cool until it was about 85 degrees at which point I added the wine yeast to the mix.  I gave it all a good stir and then covered it and put it in the back room to ferment for a week, stirring the mixture once a day.  At the end of the week, I poured the mixture through a strainer to remove all the strawberry bits, then transferred it into a one gallon glass carboy.  I topped it off with more water, then fitted an airlock on to the top and put it in the closet to continue fermenting.  Once a month I will rack the wine into a new carboy until the wine is clear.  Once it clears it is ready to bottle.  I'm sure it will be months before I even get to taste this wine, but I'm positive it will be a drink worth the wait.

Meat Chicken Update

The flock of chickens that I am raising for my freezer are growing steadily.  They are about 11 weeks old here and seem fairly happy.

The original plan with their enclosure was to move them every few weeks or days.  However I didn't plan on the weeds boxing them in so well, so the enclosure has been in a fixed position.  I would have liked them to be more free ranging, but I didn't give myself enough space to move the enclosure  without destroying part of the garden.  Before I start another batch of chickens, I will address this problem.  For now I decided they can stay in one place and I will simply feed them free choice weeds from around the garden.  Yes, it's more work this way, but it keeps my garden safe from destructive chicken scratching, and helps feed my flock at the same time.

The roosters in this flock have also started crowing in the mornings.  At first they sounded quiet and awkward and unsure of themselves, but as the days go on, they are finding their voices one by one.  I know that at least seven of them have been crowing and it generally starts around 5 am.  I am usually a morning person, so it doesn't really bother me, but they are pretty much right outside my bedroom window, so this is not something I want to put up with for a long time.  They are almost full grown as far as height, but they do have a little more filling out to do.  I am thinking that they should be ready for slaughter in another month or two.

There is this one chicken that stands out from the rest of them.  He is very friendly little guy and doesn't mind getting pet or picked up.  He is usually the first to greet me when I feed them in the morning. If he remains friendly, he may get to live for a little while and may father my first batch of home hatched chicks.  He isn't the fastest growing rooster, but he is the nicest so far.  Couldn't hurt to breed a little good personality into my lines right?  I know they will be mutt chickens, but I hope if I select for good traits then I will end up with something even better than today's current breeds.  I may keep the largest rooster from this batch around as well, to help diversify my lines in the fast growing direction.  I try to observe my flock for a few minutes every day, to help me choose the right ones to keep.  I still haven't decided if I am going to keep the hens from this flock for layers.  I don't really have a need for more layers, but I'm sure I will be able to sell the extra eggs.  I guess it will depend on how many hens I end up with out of the batch and how big they are at harvest time.  I think I will probably spread harvest over several sessions since there will be some that are ready before others - biggest birds going first of course.  Only time will tell, and there are only a few more weeks left for these birds before they go in the freezer.  I am looking forward to reducing my feed bill and having many delicious home grown meals out of this endeavor.

Garden Dinners

I think that one of the best things about growing veggies in your back yard is the garden fresh dinners.  You can't find anything fresher than what you pick in your own backyard and the farthest it will ever travel is to your kitchen.  Couldn't get more locally grown than that!

Tonight's main feature was a vegetable medley that I conjured up out of thin air (and dirt).  The summer crops are just beginning to be ready for harvest, so there isn't much in the way to pick yet.  That is the reason that I decided a veggie medley would be a good side dish for my steak dinner.  I could have just a little of everything and still have a filling meal.

Walking around the garden I found a handful of broccoli florets, five or six green beans, a small yellow squash, a couple of small onions, and a handful of small potatoes from a plant that was starting to turn brown.  I chopped them all into small pieces and fried them up with a couple chopped slices of bacon.  Made the most colorful side dish and was delicious to boot!

The garden salad I picked for my appetizer was also beautiful and delicious, but I was hungry and managed to eat the whole thing before I even thought to take a picture of it.  I made it with a variety of red and green lettuces, radishes, a white cucumber, and a purple carrot from the farmer's market.  I topped it off with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  It was magnificent!

I am so proud of my little garden and the fact that I can have a really good meal from right out my back door.  Now that harvest season is here I will be eating like a king for the rest of the summer, and probably using all of my spare time to preserve the harvest.  It amazes me that the seeds to grow all these meals only cost me a few dollars.  If I bought all of these veggies from the supermarket it would cost me so much more and still not be as fresh or as nutritious as what I grow in my backyard.

Replanting Spring Beds for Fall

One of the crops that is done for the year is my spring peas.  I was disappointed in the harvests from these plants, but I think that they were not watered enough and didn't tolerate the heat well.  I pulled up all the dried up peas and then weeded the bed thoroughly.  I removed the trellis as well, since the next crop wouldn't need it.

I had originally planned to till the beds as little as possible, but the soil was so uneven and cracked even under the mulch, that I decided it would help if I turned the bed with a shovel, mixing the mulch with the soil.  It didn't take long, since the soil wasn't compacted like last year.  In about 20 minutes, the three by ten foor bed was ready for planting.

I knew the drip irrigation wasn't working that well in this bed, so I fixed it my own way - by poking more holes in the line with a thumbtack.  Once I was sure that the hoses had enough holes, I laid them back down on the bed where I wanted to plant my next crops.  I decided to plant a row of turnips and a row of beets in this bed.  Both crops grow quickly and should be ready to harvest in just two months if everything goes well.  After I planted the seeds I sprinkled a thin layer of fresh grass clippings over the whole bed.  I start with a thin layer of mulch, so the seeds I just planted still get enough light to germinate.  Once they get a few leaves on them, I will add a deeper layer of mulch to help trap moisture better and to block out weeds.

Hopefully, this bed will be ready to harvest by early October.  The original plan had called for this bed to be planted with garlic in the fall.  If everything goes as planned, then there should be plenty of time to harvest this bed and plant garlic in it after the first frost.  If it works out, then I will count this as getting three crops out of one bed in a single growing season.  It will be a first for me.  I have spent the last couple of years trying to figure out the scheduling for rotating crops in a bed like this.  I think I may be onto something.

Happy Cucumbers!

The cucumbers are happily chugging along in this hot summer we are having.  I have trellised them twice now and they seem to be getting the idea.  The tops are already halfway up the chicken wire fencing I have stretched for them to climb, and they keep sending out side shoots into the paths.  They are starting to look like a small mountain of leaves.

I picked my first little cucumbers a few days ago and have been getting about two a day since.  In a week or so, I think they will really start coming on and I will be able to start pickling them.  There are two varieties planted here; one with small white fruits with black spines and the other with dark green fruits.  The green ones seem a little bitter to me when I eat them fresh in a salad.  I guess I will see how they hold up to canning. They seem like they would be better as large pickles, or spears.  The white ones are smaller and less bitter.  I think they will make good baby dills.  I can't wait to see the harvests I will get from this patch.  There are flowers everywhere!

Blooming Sunflowers

The sunflowers have been growing steadily in the heat as long as I keep them well watered.  I am happy to see that many of them are forming flower heads and they should start to really take off in the next few weeks.  One of them was in a hurry and made this beautiful flower.

Looks like I should have a lot of pretty flowers very soon!

Once these flowers finish blooming, I plan on saving their seeds to feed to my chickens this winter.  I will mix it with the corn and amaranth I grew as a supplement to their regular feed.  Home grown chicken scratch.  I'm sure they will love it!

Blue Lakes Hike

Summer is officially here when you can hike the high country again.  A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to do one of my favorite hikes.  Blue lakes is a hike that takes you to just under treeline to a good sized lake surrounded by jagged peaks.  It is a hike well worth the effort.  The first part of the trail climbs and climbs through a series of switchbacks.  We took our time getting up this part as it was in the 80's when we started and we were at about 9000 ft.

There were some nice waterfalls along the way.

Once we got near the top the trail leveled out a bit and the hike became easier.  There were plenty of wildflowers along the way.  There were also several groups of hikers that we encountered.  One of them included a group of campers that were using llamas to pack their gear up the mountain.  Sure was neat to watch them come up the trail.

Once we reached the lake, the view really opened up.

We enjoyed lunch by a waterfall and dipped our feet in the lake's ice cold water.  Sure was a refreshing break after the hard climb up the mountain.

The hike back down the mountainside was much easier even though the lower elevations were much warmer.  We took far fewer breaks, though occasionally had to stop to cool down in the shade for a few minutes at a time.   It was a nice long hike through some old forest and we couldn't help but notice how large some of the trees were on the way back down.  I was thankful for their shade.  All in all it was a day well spent and a beautiful day for a hike.