Saturday, February 4, 2012

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER

 Silas checking last years Squash
  

We had beautiful squash plants last year.  They started blooming and were loaded.  We knew we would have a bumper crop of squash in our little garden. Since Silas loves squash so much I was happy.
When the bloom falls off the squash usually start growing.  We waited and waited but no squash.  We have never seen that before. We have no idea what happened.  Beautiful plants and blooms but no squash.  Has anyone one of you gardeners ever comes across this problem?  Someone told us they were all male plants.  That was hard to believe.  We need an authority on this!

Silas is getting his rows ready for the spring garden.  He will
plant more squash. We still have cabbage and green onions in the garden.  I don't think he will plant more cabbage, although the
heads are beautiful.  We eat cabbage but not that much.  I have made coleslaw quite a bit and steamed cabbage a few times. Has
anyone ever frozen cabbage?  I did freeze turnip roots this year.
(We like mustard greens with the turnip roots cooked in them) You have to have cornbread with mustard greens. No getting around that.  Guess you know I was raised country style.


I googled turnip roots and there it was ~ exactly how to put them in freezer.  Not that we raised so many.  A friend from church
brought us two big bags of roots.  Gigantic ones!  I did not want to waste them so that is when I started a search.  I did put up mustard greens.  We had plenty of them.  We ate some, gave some away and put some in the freezer.  I am cutting up shallots and putting them in the freezer.  Also, I have a few chives.  

I use to buy the seasoning mix with onions, green onions, bell pepper etc.  I can not cook without seasoning.  But I found I save money by cutting up the shallots, chives and regular onion
mixed together in the freezer.  I did not put green bell pepper because one cost about a dollar and half.  We are going to give them a try in our garden this year.  


Oh, one more thing!  We have two short rows of strawberries that at blooming beautiful.  We see some fruit already.  My sister gave me about four plants last year.  I picked a few strawberries then.  We left the plants in the ground and they multiplied.  We wound up with a enough plants for a couple rows this year.  We are going to have more rows next year.  I am from strawberry country ~ not that I am a pro on how to grow them.  I just know the farmers use to put straw around the plants.  I picked quite a few when I was a kid.  I was always afraid of a snake.  Later, the farmers put a black plastic down ~ then put the plant through 
plastic.  That is what we are going to do this coming year.  

We are finally getting eggs from the hens we raised.  We are up to four a day.  We have nine hens so when the others start laying we will have plenty eggs.  They are so rich looking when you cook them.  Taste so much better than store bought eggs.  

I made my second batch of laundry detergent yesterday.  This sure does save money.  I guess we are looking for ways to economize like a lot of other people are doing.  

What do you do with roosters?  Silas and grandsons are killing roosters to go in the freezer.  Between us, we had an abundance.
Are they tough ~ are they good for dumplings?  Guess we will see!

Well, this is what is going on in our part of the world right now.  What are you doing?

Have a blessed week end,  be sure to go to church with your cup right side up.  Might ought to bring your saucer too.  



7 comments:

Maxine said...

Wow! You are busy!! And all good things. Enjoy--sounds delightful.

Thanks for your visit today; nice hearing from old friends.

Oh what lovely music!!! Think I'll leave your page up for awhile. :)

Karla Cook @ Roads to Everywhere said...

Hi Aunt 'Lene! We've been getting farm fresh eggs from a friend for awhile. I sure do like them better than store-bought. Been getting raw milk, too. So much more you can do with it when it still has the cream on it.

I'm thinking about trying to plant potatoes this year. Idaho's supposed to be THE place to grow potatoes, after all! My friend who has the chickens had a bumper crop of potatoes last year, which put me in the notion to try. But we won't plant much of anything till nearly June!

Deborah said...

Yes, you can freeze cabbage. Do you make cabbage rolls? They are easier to make when the cabbage is limp. I love cabbage in vegetable soup. The kids and I just made a big pot the other day. I'm trying to get everyone on a healthier diet around here!

Anonymous said...

Well Aliene - you and Silas have been quite busy and you're becoming real farmers there aren't you?

All your talk of cabbage, squash and eggs is making me hungry! lol

Like you, we're trying to economize. We're not planning on doing a garden this year though because we're considering moving. But I tell you... as good as you're doing, I wish we lived closer, we might pop in for a farm-raised chicken dinner.

Blessings and love to you my dear friend,
Deb

Nikki (Sarah) said...

I admire you for planting edible things. We've wanted to do it...and tried but the only thing we managed to get anything good was tomatoes. Have a great day out there. Hope it shines for you.

Anita said...

Aliene, I really enjoyed this post. It's amazing how self-sufficient one can be by living on a farm.
I love cabbage, and put it in my vegetable soup and my family loves fried cabbage.

Barbara said...

You stay busy indeed, I have deleted my blog but still check and see how others are doing, it just got to much for me with BB and FB and such, hugs