Progressive Pioneer

Home Brewed Vinegar

With all those apple peels left over from the apple grunt, I decided to finally try my hand at making vinegar.  I've been itching to do this for awhile and finally emptied the enormous bottle of rice wine vinegar we had, so I had the perfect container for it.

I combined the instructions from Wild Fermentation and The Herbal Home Remedy Book.  This meant that I put the peels, water and evaporated cane juice in the jar and added a bit of Bragg's apple cider vinegar (with "the mother") to get things started right.  And that was really all there was to it!  Now we wait...

It's been about a week and there's some definite bubbly action going on.  It also smelled initially like sweet cider, but is now smelling more like a sweet wine with some acidic notes.  I'm exactly sure how I'll know it's done, I suppose when it smells like vinegar and not like wine.  At some point I'll strain out the juice and removed the peels, then let the liquid continue to vinegar-ize until it's nice and zippy.  I can't wait to have our own home-brewed vinegar.  We've also got a fresh pineapple sitting on the counter that may be destined for a batch of pineapple vinegar!

Hometown Seeds

I got the coolest thing in the mail last week from Hometown Seeds; a sealed package of non-hybrid, emergency survival seeds that keep for up to five years (ten if frozen)!  Talk about some brilliant food storage!  The whole package is only thirty-odd dollars (on sale from $50) and you can plant 3/4 of an acre worth of food with it.  And, of course, all the seeds are non-hybrid, non-GMO so you can save the seeds and continue the whole storage/preparedness/self-sufficiency thing.  But I just love that someone else figured out which are the best varieties and put it all together in a little kit (I love kits!) that you can simply tuck in the back of your freezer for a few years for some peace of mind. 

I, of course, opened ours right away because a) the curiosity was killing me, and b) we're going to plant a lot of them this year anyway and then save the seeds.  I wish we had room for corn though... maybe we'll give those seeds to Clay's brother and sister-in-law. So, here's what spilled out of the shiny, silver package; Golden Bantam Sweet Corn, Lincoln Peas, Champion Radishes, Spanish Onions, Beets, Tomatoes, Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach, Golden Acre Cabbage, Swiss Chard, Paris Island Lettuce, Scarlet Nantes Carrots, Peppers, Butternut Squash, Cucumbers, Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, and Black Beauty Zucchini!!  That's a whole garden's worth!

The seeds came with a whole packet of information about the seeds; they were chosen because they do well in short season climates (and thus would be fine in long season ones too), are easy to grow and are adaptible for most regions.  They quote a study that says that with $30 worth of seeds you can grow $600 worth of vegetables; that's a way better return on your money than playing the stock market!  The packet gives tips abot soil modification, moisture, planting times, harvesting and saving the seeds and even nutritional info about each of the veggies. And it's all really simple and basic, no frills, nothing fancy, just good, honest seeds.  I love it and I can't wait to plant some!

Herbs 101

I went to a fantastic class on using herbs for health this past weekend.  The class was free (though you could pay extra if you wanted some materials) because the woman teaching it is all about empowering moms to care for their families naturally.  I really do feel so empowered when I learn about simple things I can do to keep us healthy.  I feel like there can often be a lot of fear in our culture about taking your health into your own hands, but who else knows your body better than you?  Or understands the subtleties of your children's health better than their own mama?

She talked about whole health (the mind, body spirit connection), the benefits of herbs and how to incorporate them into your regular health care.  She gave us a whole list of "substitutions" for common over the counter medications, things she uses in place of pain killers, cough syrups, allergy meds etc.  I can't wait to start growing more medicinal herbs this summer.  I get so excited about this kind of stuff!  And I love thinking about how our bodies and the natural world are designed so brilliantly and work together so well.

There's a class at the end of the month about making herbal remedies.  The class is free, but you can purchase all kinds of fun stuff like salve kits, encapsulation machines, tincture supplies etc.  I'm can't wait!  Maybe I'll see you there:)

All images from Mountain Rose Herbs, a great source for all sorts of raw ingredients.

 

Garage Tomatoes

I know it sounds crazy, but we just harvested the last of our tomatoes!  I'd actually kind of forgotten about them once we pulled them up before the frost and put them in the garage to ripen as much as they could.  But since Clay was full-speed ahead on sauna building my tomatoes got kicked out of the garage.  So here I am in all my Saturday morning splendor, slippers and all, harvesting tomatoes in the chilly morning air from half shriveled vines.

I pulled off the ones that had ripened; it was actually a surprising amount.  When Clay pulled them up he harvested the ripe ones, so all these ripe tomatoes are new.  The protection of the garage was apparently just enough to keep them from freezing at night. 

Once all the good tomatoes were harvested and the yuckier ones donated to the chickens, the vines were cut off the cages.  Those will be stored in the rafters of the garage until spring when we start the whole process over again.

The ripe tomatoes I cut up and put in the freezer.  They'll be good in soups and sauces. 

I didn't have the stamina for another round of canning; it's too late in the season for that.  But I did get excited about trying a new recipe I've never done: Fried Green Tomatoes!  

I rolled up my Yankee girl sleeves and dug into that Southern specialty recipe.

It was pretty straight forward, although I have a feeling that were a true Southerner to make it they would know a few tricks and just have that special something that would make it extra delicious.

The flavor was really unique, I couldn't really compare it to anything else.  We had it with a little garlic mayonnaise and it was pretty good.  I think I need to take a trip to the South and have the real thing though:)  Anyone have any good green tomato recipes?

PS Halloween costume picture is up:)

Seed Saving

It's that time of year, when the brittle husks begin to break open, scattering seeds to their fate.  For a lot of the seeds in our garden that fate is to be carefully collected and stored in little white envelopes until next spring.

I cut dry, brown heads of dill and snipped the seeds off.  I don't worry too much about extracting the individual seeds.  It will be just as easy to do that in the spring right before I drop them into the ground.

It's amazing the diverse ways plants come up with to protect and scatter their seeds.  I love these roquette pods.  Each pod is divided by a translucent membrane with seeds clinging to either side.  They looked so pretty held up to the light.

Fresh basil is one of my absolute favorite smells; it puts me right into a swoon.  But I hadn't before experienced the smell of basil seeds.  It's such a delicious, rich, autumn-y scent, so different from the vibrant, fresh, young leaves of the early summer plants, but no less intoxicating.  It sums up all the good earthy, smoky, cozy feelings of fall.  I'm wondering if I could use the seeds in cooking...

These I just rolled around in my hands to loosen the seeds and remove them from the stems.  But again, I didn't worry too much about freeing them entirely from their pods.  It would have been too labor intensive.  So, they'll spend the winter snuggled in their little shells waiting for a spring day warm enough to plant and to start the cycle all over again.

Even though we didn't love the taste of the New Zealand spinach, the vibrant hot pink was such a welcome burst of color in the predominantly green garden that I think I'll plant it again just for a little visual variety.  They were particularly dramatic when they went to seed and shot up as brazen pink spikes.

 

I've heard that when you save seeds those plants get acclimated to your little microclimate and are more resistant to the bugs and diseases in your area.  I wonder how snail resistant I can get ours to be...

Honey Harvest

The honey making season is drawing to a close.  We see fewer bees swooping in and out of our yard and they're beginning their work day later and later, following the sun's lead.

We've been finding quite a few bees on their last legs (or worse) in the grass.  Apparently the queen kicks the drones out for the winter.  Too many mouths to feed and there's no baby-bee-making in the cold winter months. 

Aaron and Annette came over and collected the last of the summer's honey, leaving two boxes for the bees to eat over the winter.  They used their smoker, cleaned up the tray underneath that catches some sort of moth, I think, and pulled out trays and trays of dripping honey comb.

It's been such a treat hosting the hive and being able to observe how to care for it.  Hansen Hives is thinking about offering bee keeping classes and hive maintenance services and I'm really excited about both ideas.  I'm totally taking the class if they offer it and depending on whether or not I'm ready to add yet another project/hobby to my life I may consider the hive maintenance.  Considering how much honey we use in cooking, tea and just eating off spoons, it would probably be worth it.

We tasted our first jar of backyard honey and it was mind blowing!  I kid you not, it was the best honey I've ever tasted!  And it made the Costco honey in my cupboard taste like corn syrup (actually, now I'm kind of worried that's what it is...).  I'm excited to see if Clay's allergies are better in the spring if he's eating local honey.  I've heard it helps.  Sam has developed quite the honey addiction.  Every time I open the cupboard and he sees the jar he says, " 'unny, spoon! 'unny, spoon!"  And if I'm feeling indulgent he gets a nice, sticky spoonful of honey.

Chickens' Evil Plot Foiled by Egg Catcher

We feed them like queens; fresh greens, grain, left over salad, baked potatoes, homemade bread, cornmeal cake and every tasty thing a chicken could desire.  We build them a chicken palace complete with roost and cozy laying boxes.  And what thanks do we get?  Certainly not eggs!  Half the time they snacked on them themselves!  Totally grossed me out at first.  We tried checking the boxes religiously, stuffing it chock full of hay and sawdust and Clay even crafted a decoy egg out of wood so when they pecked it they'd get discouraged.  But, nothing worked.

Enter, the egg catcher:

Clay built them some new nesting boxes with slightly slanting floors and I crafted some "egg nets" out of cute fabric and ribbon.

We tied the four corners of the nets to angled nails beneath each nesting box.

And gave it a few test runs with the wooden egg, which after its failed job as egg decoy became a toy for Sam.  It worked brilliantly!  The egg rolled gently down the sloped floor and through the hole, landing cradled in the flowered net beneath, and out of the reach of bored chicken beaks.

Meanwhile, Nellie and Rockefeller dug holes in the flower beds to nestle in and Sam kept them company.  He calls Rockefeller, "Rocker" and dotes on both of them.

End of Season Pesto

Just before this cold spell, complete with thunder and rain storms (which I love!) and even the occassional freak snow flurries, Sam and I gathered the last of the basil.  Sam also picked a few lemon cukes, see them tucked in there among the basil?  He loves harvesting, as many a green tomato can attest!

Whizzed up in the cuisinart with a little olive oil, Parmesan and walnuts it should provide a delicious burst of summer on the tongue come those long, cold winter evenings. 

I packed the pesto into little canning jars, leaving a bit of extra headroom and stored them in the freezer. I left out a lot of the olive oil and will add it when I mix the pesto into the individual dishes.  This way I saved a little freezer space and can adjust the amount of oil in each dish.  Clay doesn't like very much oil.  I on the other hand, hedonist that I am, like my noodles swimming in it!

The smell of pesto is so intoxicating.  I stood over the blender in an absolute swoon as those delicious smells wafted out.  I'm already dreaming about angel hair and pesto, pesto pizza, pesto bruschetta.... mmmm... 

Saving Some Summer for a Winter's Day

I love harvest season.  Some things, like a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato, can only be enjoyed in their own season.  But others can be preserved and treasured when green and growing things have long since retreated into their winter slumber, tucked beneath a snowy blanket.

We discovered some sort of minty plant, lemon balm I think, growing on the side of the house.  Throughout the summer we used it in drinks and salads.  Sad to see it fading at the end of the year, I decided to gather as many leaves as I could and string them up to dry.

I just used a regular needle and thread and strung the leaves along the length of string, leaving a bit of space in between them such that air could circulate as they dried.

The garland was hung in the spice cupboard (which used to house one of those old fold-down ironing boards) and left to dry.  After only a few days it was nice and brittle, ready to be moved gently into a jar and stored for winter tea. 

Coriander Harvest

Harvesting these coriander seeds put me right in the mood for fall.  I love harvest season, pumpkins, spices, the smell of dry leaves, that crisp autumn air, things baking in the oven and jars lining the pantry shelves. 

I love that you can use the leaves (cilantro) and the seeds (coriander) of this plant.  We have more seeds on some of the other coriander plants, but this one was just already dried up and ready to be harvested; I couldn't resist.

The flavor of the seeds is really delicious, more multi-dimensional than store-bought coriander.  I can’t wait to add it to some Indian dishes or crack some to sprinkle over the tops of loaves of bread.

Thompsons on Utah Stories

There's this great little publication here in Salt Lake called Utah Stories that focuses on local, relevant news.  We were recently interviewed for their "Rage Against Conformity" series (the poster family for abnormality- that's us!)  When they came over to film they saw some of Clay's art and asked him to do the cover illustration.  I'm so proud of him, I think it turned out awesome!  Recognize anyone familiar?

You can watch the video on Utah Stories, here.  It's pretty weird seeing yourself recorded, but I'm trying not to be too self-conscious about it.  I really like how he put all the clips together, he shot a lot of video and I think he did a great job whittling it down and telling a story.

Homemade Vanilla Maple Yogurt

I followed the instructions in Wild Fermentation, except for the heating the milk part.  Because we'd purchased raw milk I wanted the yogurt to also be raw so we could benefit from all those good raw enzymes plus the healthy probiotics.

I tried a few different techniques, one was heating the milk on the lowest flame on the stove, whisking it constantly, hoping it wouldn't get too hot.  That one didn't seem to work so well.  The best technique was simply running really hot water in a big silver bowl in the sink and setting the quart jars of milk in it until they were warmed through.  About the temperature of a nice hot water bottle you'd take to bed on a chilly evening. 

I tried keeping the jar warm by snuggling it in a cooler surrounded by warm towels, but that didn't work as well as heating up the crock pot to just over 100, turning it off and keeping the jar in there to do its thing.  The thick ceramic pot held the heat really well.  And I still cushioned the jar with towels.

I was pleased to discover just how easy making your own yogurt is.  Once I'd figured out the best technique I did a couple more jars throughout the week.  It couldn't have taken more than ten minutes of hands-on time.  All you do is heat up your quart of milk in the bowl of hot water, then stir in a tablespoon of yogurt with live cultures (once I had my own, I just saved a bit from each previous batch for the next one).

Then let it sit for about 16-24 hours.  The climate in your own house will be unique and you'll figure out the optimal time for your yogurt.  Mine took a little longer than the book said.  I usually start it in the evening and let it sit overnight.

Once the yogurt was all thickened up I mixed in a little vanilla and maple syrup to taste.   

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it was seriously the best yogurt I've ever had!  It must be something about the excellent goat milk and not having any additives like stabilizers, gelatin or one-dimensional-tasting sweeteners.  While the ingredients were so simple, the taste was complex and delightful.  Yogurt making is definitely going to become part of our routine now that I know how simple it is.

Welcome Home Gifts from Nellie and Rockefeller

We were surprised and delighted to find five eggs in the nesting boxes when we returned from Yellowstone.  These are the first eggs that Nellie and Rockefeller have laid!

They were so cute and tiny.  That's Rockefeller's blue egg there next to a store bought one I had in the fridge, and I don't even buy the extra large ones! (I feel too bad for those poor chickies squeezing out such unnaturally humongous eggs!)  It didn't take long to put those eggs to good use.  I made delicious blueberry pancakes, adding one extra egg since they were so small.  I was amazed at what a rich color the yolks were.  I guess a steady diet of greens, bugs and compost scraps will do that!

They still haven't been laying regularly though and a reader suggested placing decoy eggs in their nesting boxes.  Apparently it makes them broody and they lay more.  Sam and I collected a few egg shaped rocks to tuck in there.  What do you think?  If you were a chicken, would you be fooled?

Putting Up the Harvest

I set my canner on the stove so I see it regularly and am reminded to do small batches of canned tomatoes before it gets too overwhelming.  I actually kind of geek out about stuff like canning and food storage.  I just loooove to see all those happy, bright jars lined up on the shelves.  And I get such a contented feeling knowing I have a full pantry. 

This is actually the first year I've canned tomatoes; I've never had enough to can!  I'd only done jams before this.  So, with a quick call placed to Clay's mom, I got started.  Turns out it's really simple; 1tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of salt, stuff in the blanched tomatoes sans skins until it's full, put the tops on and pop them in the boiling water for 45 minutes. 

I love the colors.  The heirloom tomatoes we planted are such a rainbow of different hues.  I think a lot of our plants actually cross-pollinated because we got quite a few surprises.  "Who planted yellow Romas?"  "Since when are zebra tomatoes as big as beefsteaks?!"  But, regardless they all still taste amazing. 

It'll be great to open up a jar of these bright, summer colors in the cold of winter.

Saurbeets (Like Saurkraut, but with Beets)

I've gotten all excited about healthy microorganisms.  First I read this book, and most of what he said made a lot of sense, but the ideas about how our modern diet is so lacking in beneficial bacteria really stuck with me.  So then I got this book out of the library and it's RAD.  It inspired a trip to the thrift store in search of old crocks.  I then embarked on my first adventure in using fermentation to preserve foods with the help of beneficial bacteria and fungi.

First we gathered up a bunch of beets from the garden, Early Wonders and Chioggias. 

We washed and peeled them, saving all the scraps for the grateful chickens. 

I buzzed them through the Cuisinart into shreds, and added salt and anise seeds that I had roughly ground up.

Then the shredded beets, salt and seeds were pressed into this crock that we thrifted for about a dollar, and I set a plate with a jar of water on top of the beets to keep them pressed down.  Over the next day or two the brine was expressed from the beets and I added a little bit of extra salty water to keep the level above the plate.  It should take between 1 and 4 weeks for the flavor to fully develop.  You can snack from it as it's "brewing," and then once the full flavor is developed you pop it in the fridge to slow the fermentation and it stays in there quite a long time.  I snuck a little taste after about a week and it mostly just tasted like salty beets, not too much "saur" going on in there yet, but I'm excited to see what happens in the next few weeks!  Stay tuned for more adventures in fermentation; I've got plans for pickles, yogurt, and maybe fruit kimchi!

Garden Plots and Plans

This past weekend finally saw the last of the seedlings snugly tucked into their garden beds.  Clay did the heavy lifting of breaking up the sod and preparing the beds and I mapped out where everything would go and arranged it all just so.  Of course, I've probably squeezed way too much in, as usual.  There's a deceptive amount of space in a spring garden.  By July it will be a big green mess of chaotic veggie goodness.  But I like it that way.

We used the book Great Garden Companions as a guide for where to plant what.  We had so many seeds to choose from, thanks to the seed swap, and so many interesting heirloom varieties.  Wherever I could I snuck in an extra row of greens or beets.  And in any left over space I scattered alyssum and marigold seeds as a nice home for friendly bugs and a pretty splash of color among the green.

Our seedlings that Clay grew in his studio were just aching to stretch their roots in some good, deep soil, out of the confines of their recycled rice milk boxes, I just know it.  This little heirloom French squash is now living in the green strip between the road and our sidewalk.  We ran out of room in our three front lawn beds!


I lined one side of a bed with lobelia and pansies.  Soon the lobelia should spread and sprawl along the edge of the walk.  The rest of this bed has herbs and cucumbers.  But every garden, even vegetables gardens, can make room for a few flowers!
By the end of my planting I'd made so many changes and squeezed in so many extra plants and rows of seeds that my plans turned nearly indecipherable!  I loved mixing and matching the plants with those that make good companions; alyssum under the peppers, cilantro around the tomatillos, parsley with the tomatoes...  I've been watering religiously every day, keeping my little seeds damp.  I can't wait until they start sending sprouts up!

Recycled Compost Bin

Clever, industrious Clay took apart the gate to the backyard (which we'd been meaning to replace) and built this compost bin.  I'm glad to finally have a place to corral our little backyard science experiment, as last week I had to disengage Sam from fighting with the chickens over a piece of moldy bread I'd tossed out.  Yuck!  The chickens are welcome to it, Sam, not so much.  In fact, I love it when the chickens dig around in the compost; it's such a brilliant act of recycling and repurposing; those table scraps are going to turn into delicious eggs come fall!

Adopted Duckling

I was driving down 39th South the other day, when I saw, smack dab in the middle of three lanes of traffic, two tiny ducklings!  I pulled over and saw one dart behind a fence.  I was able to coax him out and into an empty Gorilla Crunch cereal box from the car.  When I arrived at my sister-in-laws she had some people over who, strangely, also had a baby duck.  They'd found it abandoned by its mom near their office building.  This little guy also seems to be an orphan; there was no mama duck to be found.  I also couldn't find the second little duckling, which is sad because ours would probably like a friend.  Hopefully the chickens are welcoming.  And I imagine he and Sam will become fast friends before long.  Currently he's pretty petrified of us, although he's getting calmer when I hold him.  He's the tiniest thing, he even squeezed through chicken wire!  And his wings are just little tiny winglets, covered in the softest down.  Does anyone know anything about raising ducks?  We got him some feed at IFA, but I'm going to have to do some research.

Any ideas for good duck names?

Backyard Farm

The conference last weekend was wonderful.  One of my favorite parts was simply being in a room full of like-minded women.  I saw so many babies snuggled up in slings and moms nursing their little ones.  It was so lovely to be in this environment; there was a tangible feeling of support and camaraderie. 
One of my favorite speakers was Vernie Demille.  She runs an organization called MiniAg that helps families become more self-reliant by turning their backyards into mini-farms.  She spoke on gardening with little children; I couldn't help but smile, listening to her charming ideas and uplifting perspective. 

She first spoke about how we can let go of so many of the stressful things about gardening (weeds, bugs, weather, failed crops etc.) when we think of gardening as a partnership with God.  Just look at the big picture (and don't get frustrated when beetles eat all your potato plants), and forgive everything that's beyond our control.  Sounds like a pretty relaxing and enjoyable approach to me.  I've noticed that when I regularly spend time in the garden, the feeling of being centered and grounded follows me into other areas of my life.
All of the talk about bettering ourselves through gardening was indeed uplifting and inspiring, however, I have to admit, the part I got really excited about was when she started talking about pole bean tipis!Vernie had all sorts of delightful ideas for making gardening magical for your kids.  Her main point was, make it somewhere they want to be!  Her ideas for child-friendly gardens ranged from bean tipis to growing unusually shaped, colored and sized veggies (like purple carrots and yard long beans) to pizza gardens, grape tunnels and sunflower houses.  I don't know about you, but I want a sunflower house of my very own too!

images via here

Arrival of the Bees

Aaron and Annette rolled up with their station wagon full of bees.  We were only one of many stops that day.  You know how when you get a bee in your car you kind of freak out and pull over to shoo it out the window?  Yeah, they don't really worry about that.  Each of seven boxes held about 6,000 bees plus tons of loose bees just buzzing about the car.
This is what 6,000 bees in a box looks like.

The queen is in her own special box, which is plugged with a piece of candy.  They put the queen box in with the workers and by the time they've freed her by eating through the candy they're all used to each other's scent and are one big, happy royal family. 

This was the craziest part.  They just shook the bees right into the hive.  When they don't have their own hive or queen to protect they're relatively calm.  The interesting thing is that they're thousands of individual creatures acting as one.  They seem to have some sort of collective consciousness.

While the bees acclimated to their new home there was a lot of buzzing and flying around the yard, hundreds of bees, in fact.  But I found it oddly soothing to be in the midst of this swarm of bees.  They weren't aggressive and their humming was rather peaceful.

Return of the Prodigal Chicken

 Nellie, our Plymouth Barred Rock, gave us a scare recently when she disappeared.  I was in the den, at the back of the house, when Rockefeller (the brown Araucana) looked in the back door and began peeping at me frantically.  I went outside to see what was the matter.  I couldn't find Nellie anywhere and Rockefeller was beside herself.  Those two are inseparable; they're never more than a few feet away from each other.  Nellie's the dark patch under the plant in the photo below.
We went around to the neighbor's houses and left "missing chicken" notes on the doors where people weren't home.  I was hopeful that she hadn't been eaten because there were no loose feathers or other signs of a struggle, but I wasn't terribly optimistic. She's only a couple months old.
As Sam's bedtime was nearing and the dark was falling I was feeling less and less optimistic and more and more sad that we had lost one of our chickens.  As a last ditch effort I decided to put Rockefeller back outside, but in her covered box, in the hopes that her incessant, woeful peeping (she hadn't stopped since 2:00 when Nellie went missing) might help Nellie find her way back if she was still alive.
Several times I thought I heard Nellie peeping, but each time I went to check it was only Rockefeller.  Then I thought I heard a call and answer pattern of peeping.  I thought, surely I'll just be disappointed again, but I went to check anyway.  And I distinctly heard Rockefeller calling and an answering peep from behind the recycling bin!  I went and scooped Nellie up and reunited her with an overjoyed Rockefeller.  They slept nestled snug in each other's feathers all night long.
Look for us on Wasatch Garden's Tour de Coops at the end of June!

We're All A-Buzz

Annette and Aaron of Hansen Hives came over today to drop off our new beehive. Sam and I watched eagerly as they unloaded each piece and assembled the hive in a back corner of our little yard.  Annette explained the purpose of each part as she put it together.

Nellie and Rockefeller

Our two baby chicks have been named, which means that they are officially not eating chickens. The brown one is Rockefeller and the black one is Nellie. Rockefeller is an Araucana and will lay greenish-blue eggs.  Nellie is a Plymouth Barred Rock and will lay lovely, brown speckled eggs.  Sam is completely enamored with them and spends hours a day watching them in their box.  I have a feeling they'll be closer to pets than farm animals, with all the love and attention they get from Sam.  I've noticed they're less skittish around him.  I think they're used to him already.  It's interesting to me how humans are born with a natural affinity for animals and the outdoors.  Caring for animals seems to be written in our genes.  It warms my heart to see how happy the baby chicks make Sam.

Seed Swap Follow Up

Clay started some seeds (all free from the swap!) a few weeks ago and tonight they were ready to transplant! There's something so exciting about the awaking of a seed.  It makes be believe that spring really is on its way.  We started a few herbs (basil and cilantro) and some decorative kale. The seedlings got new homes in old rice milk boxes. Then we planted some tomatoes and peppers in special trays we got. I think I'm most excited about the tomatoes; he planted some really neat heirloom ones: Purple Cherokee, Potato Loaf, and Black from Tula.

Seed Swap

We went to this wonderful seed swap on Saturday. It was so great to see so many people gathered together exchanging resources.  I couldn't believe people were just giving away seeds for free! Everyone brought seeds they had saved from previous seasons or leftover packets of seeds. There were some amazing heirloom varieties that gardeners had meticulously harvested, dried and saved.  I hear there's a whole art to it.  Put that on my list of cool things to learn!  We shared some of the mystery seeds some friends sent us from Korea and came home with a whole garden-full of exciting seeds to try. We can't wait to start some seedlings and get our garden going!