Blight

I know I touched on the blight in my last post, but it has really been eating at me.

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This year Jeremy, Mom, and I took on gardening. This is not a new task, but we took on some new ideas and steps. We wanted tomatoes, lots of them! Tomatoes were going to be diced, crushed, made into plain sauce, spaghetti sauce, canned and frozen.

There were romas, heirlooms, cherries, and now, we have none. Just the other day we checking out the plants looking for green fruits. It was so exciting to find them, small ones at first, then big ones, clusters of them, cherries and heirloom uglies, we couldn't wait for them to start turning yellow and red and orange.

Blight hit. It hit hard. It took out ALL of our tomatoes. We had them planted in several different locations, up at the house, down the hill, and by the pond, not even "close" to each other, and yet they were all destroyed.

It was very sad. We had to pull them all. Because blight is a spore, we can't burn them, it will spread the blight to others. We can't just compost/bury them, because that won't necessarily kill off the spores, and it could get reintroduced next summer. We have been working so hard to help lower our dependency on corporate farming, as well as finding ways to help keep things out of the landfill. With no tomatoes to put up, and the only way to get rid of the blight and the plants is to bag them up and take them to the landfill.

Camping & Tomato Blight

Friday after work, Jeremy and I took off for a weekend of camping at Stillwater State Park at Lake Groton. The trip was fantastic! Lots of paddling, fishing, relaxing, good food, and even greater company!
We took Sammy (Dad's dog) for the weekend, as Dad and Deb were going away as well and couldn't bring him with them. Sam had such a good time, he was acting just like a puppy.
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Yesterday I went up to help Mom with the gardens for a bit and we had to finish pulling ALL of the tomato plants. The late blight hit them, and while we were able to salvage some of the green tomatoes for Mom to make green tomato relish. It was incredibly sad. We started the plants from seeds and were really enjoying the process of watching the seeds grow into seedlings, into plants, putting them in the ground, and watching the fruits begin to grow. Probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do gardening.

Thinning out the garden... YUM

This past weekend Jeremy and I spent time with Mom working on the gardens. We managed to get a fence up around one of the gardens as the chickens just would not stay out of it. We had to plant the squashes a 2nd and 3rd time because of the chickens getting into it! We had just the right amount of fencing to enclose it, which was nice to not have to try to figure out what else would keep them out. The rest of the squash got planted so hopefully we don't have to try to replant everything again.
Once that project was done it was time to break for lunch. We had some fresh greens from the garden, we thinned the carrots, onions, parsnips, beets, chard, and lettuce, along with lettuce from the farmers market, egg salad with eggs from Mom's chickens, and homemade pickles! Even the bread we used to make the sandwiches was made just one town over. It felt so good to be eating locally. Holy YUM!

Planting Potatoes & Making Scarecrows

Finally getting some pictures from our gardening adventures posted! We spent one afternoon making scarecrows for some of the gardens. It was a beautiful day and they came out great. They really added to the gardens, making them feel ready for all summer has to bring.







Another project was planting potatoes. We have never planted potatoes before so this was an experiment. Newspaper, hay, and pro-grow were all needed to start the potato beds. So far so good, although we need more sunshine!

Baby Chicks and Sweet Pickled Watermelon Rind

About two weeks ago the hatchling that was beginning to stretch its legs in the big bad world was killed! My moms dogs got ahold of the chick and played with it, ultimately ending its little life. It was really sad, and Mom was super pissed at the dogs, which I totally can't blame her for.
Sweetie, momma chicken, is sitting on a new batch of eggs, so hopefully we will get another baby chick or two.
This past weekend was also the arrival of our meat chicks and a few new layers. There were 35 chicks in all, 10 of them going to a friend of Mom and Lynda's.
On the other end of the spectrum is the garden, which is getting closer and cloesr each day to being fully planted. There is only 2 gardesn left to plant, the other 4 are completely planted, along with the seperate potato patch! YAY!
The strawberrys look awesome, we layed down newspaper and hay in between the rows to help keep the paths clear. As they have started flowering, we are pinching all but a few buds this year so that the energy is spent on the roots and the offshoots.
It was a busy day as Mom and I also prepped watermelon rind to make Sweet Pickled Watermelon Rind. She had two bags of rinds to be trimmed, and it was perfect for making a half batch. All of the fruit, the pink, had to be trimmed away, as well as the green part of the rind. We set them to soak in a salt water brine over night.
The next day at work, Mom surprised me with a jar of the pickles. She finished them Monday morning and boy were they super tasty!!! They were a little less sweet than what I buy in the store, a bit more clovey/cinnamony, but oh soooo good. I can't wait to wrap them in bacon for an appetizer, dice them up and serve over a baked potato! YUM.

Tomato Plants

I cannot wait to put them into the ground and watch them GROW!

Baby News!!!

With so much spring in the air, it is the perfect time to announce the new life that has crept into existence!

I can't wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl, although I am really pushing for a girl.

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WE HAVE A BABY CHICK! Mom has a chicken that has been sitting on a few eggs for a while now. At least one egg broke, 3 eggs either were never fertilized or got too cold when she got off the nest one day, but there was one little egg. One egg was fertilized, never got too cold, and was ready to meet the spring.
It's little cheep cheep cheeps were so cute, and while Mom was struggling with how to handle food and water, it was so busy exploring its little home. In the past, when chicks come through the mail, she always picked up the chicks and one by one dipped their beaks into the water and food. She wasn't sure if she should do that, if the chick would figure out how to eat and drink on its own. Moments later, after watching the mama chicken eat and drink, the little chick was drinking water and eating food. It was amazing to watch the chick learn to eat and drink without human help.

Plants

My plants are all starting to look so good. One of my trays of lettuce got too tried out, there was water in the bottom, just not enough. Other than that, I have mesclun mix looking vibrant and yummy. My roma tomatoes are starting to poke up, moved them to a more well lit spot. My heirlooms have been moved into the living room to get more natural light.
The peppers and eggplants have a little bit to go as they were started later than the tomato plants were.
I am getting so excited to be putting things into the ground, making use of what we do get, and knowing what works well and what doesnt.
Out of the tray of heirloom tomatos, only 2 seeds that I planted didn't grow!!!

I am going to try to take a picture with my phone when I get home, see how it turns out :-)

I have been trying to eat a healthier diet as of late, and my new FAVORITE snack has become Chobani greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey. It is creamy and yummy! I have also fallen back in love with the peanut butter and banana snack. The things that you grow up with, and forget about!

Mucking

This weekend was spent house sitting at Mom and Lynda's while they went to the Cape. They had the dogs, so it was a matter of keeping the kitties and horses fed, and making sure the chickens got in each night.
Jeremy and I had planned to try to get the garden beds weeded and turned and ready for planting, along with a load or two of manure to each location. That got waylaid when we decided to muck out one of the horses run-ins. During the winter, Cupcake gets closed into the run-in because Iris bullies her away from her food. Between the snow and freezing, it is difficult to clean out daily, so in the spring, Mom mucks it out, laying lime, sand, and fresh sawdust.
Since the run-in was where we were taking the manure from, we decided to just keep going and muck out the entire space. It took us a little over 2 hours to clean out, lime, and sand. Mom said she would get sawdust when she got home to put down.
After hoeing out, before lime and sand.



Today, we were supposed to tackle the garden beds, but with the temperature in the 20's and SNOW, it has to wait for a bit warmer of a day.

We celebrated April birthdays yesterday at Dad's and had a great meal. Spent some time with Jeremy's sister and her kids, and didn't make it home (Mom's) to go to bed till midnight! It was a late night, and I am glad we stopped at Mom's before we went to his sisters to feed the animals.

Today was brunch with Jeremy's parents at The Steakhouse on the Barre-Montpelier Road in Barre. The food was ok, nothing great. Then we had an awesome Sunday drive home.