Some fall décor with a couple of our pie pumpkins
Haven't posted in a while. This year has been a pretty busy one both here at home and with work, especially for Aaron who had to do some cross country travelling for his job. Here on our mini farm we have pretty much wrapped up another season. The gardens have been rototilled with the kale left as the only crop in the ground.
Since our last blog post, we did loose another cat. Brown got hit by a car on September 5th, so now the only original offspring from Momma Fat that remains is the female, White. White's 2 kittens are doing really well and get along with the chickens pretty good as well.
Brown. 2015-2016
Compared to the last 2 years, this year's garden was kind of a flop. Not everything came up which was partially due to planting late (second week of June), when normally it should be done around the 3rd or 4th week of May.
This is our first year with the new greenhouse and we have found that though the bell and hot peppers worked a lot better in a greenhouse, the poblano peppers performed better outside in the ground.
Here is a synopsis of our garden for 2016:
Peas: First crop did not come up. Too hot for second crop
Beets: Best crop we have ever had. Not even a Leafminer found in the leaves this year
Green and Yellow Beans: Okay crop. Got enough to pickle and pressure can, though we had to save them from weeds and grass when they were just coming up.
Shell Beans: Out of the 3 varieties we purchased this year, only the solider beans dried okay on the plant. The other varieties had more rotting on the plant.
Shell beans for a last go in the dehydrator.
Roma Tomatoes: Best crop in 3 years as we did not get late blight for the first time ever
Beefstake Tomatoes: Best crop in 3 years as we did not get late blight, though some tomatoes were almost too soft before ripening.
Celeriac: Did not even germinate after trying to start seeds in the basement
Kale: Great crop! Just had to wash off the Cabbage White caterpillars
Broccoli: Great crop! Spraying for cabbage white caterpillars were timed correctly
Leeks: Great crop this year
Cabbage: Only half of the crop came up this year
Swiss Chard: Great crop
Carrots: Best crop we have ever had! Carrots stayed in the ground until late September and were huge and remained sweet, not woody.
Potatoes: Only half of the crop came up. The ones we cut in half before planting were infested with maggots and thus did not come up.
Dill: None of our dill from last year came back up this year
Asparagus: 2nd year of this crop. Looks great so far! Next spring we will be able to finally eat some!
Zucchini: As usual, we got more than we needed
Acorn Squash: Good crop this year, though many of them were small
Butternut Squash: Great crop this year
Pumpkin: Good crop. Fewer than last year but enough to pressure can for making pies.
Onions: Horrible crop this year. Over half were lost due to rot.
Garlic: Horrible crop this year. Hardly any came back up after the winter.
Strawberries: Great crop this year with just enough to can for jam - need to plant one more row.
Raspberries: Excellent crop this year for jam
Brambles: Excellent crop this year for jam
Our chickens continue to remain healthy and produce 14 eggs per day on average. As for the fruit trees, only the Royal Gala produced a few small apples for us which tasted great, but they are all still young trees so this is a continuing work in process.
As we enter November, the days are still comfortable to work outside with light clothing on, so we are beginning to clean up the property by cutting back sumac and mulberry trees, and placing another sheet of plastic over the greenhouse to create an airspace between 2 layers of plastic to make it warmer inside.
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