Rutabaga... Easy to grow and yummy when cooked

I planted Rutabaga for the first time.  They did wonderfull!!  They are an easy to grow root crop and the root bulbs are easy to cook.  The goats love them too!!!  I pulled some of mine yesterday to thin them and this is what I got

Now the big question... What to do with them!!!

Okay so I peeled them and then cut them into cubes.  Doused them with olive oil, added some italian seasoning and some garlic salt then put them into the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes and this is what I got

Even the picky kid liked them! 

Johnson Grass in the garden

I had about 2 weeks that because of things going on I did not get out into my garden to weed and with my oldest working she could not come and help me.  Now I have a beautiful garden, if you can find it under 3 foot tall johnson grass!

You can see the stand of grass in the back ground.  I have mulch (wood chips) and cardboard down on about half of it and that has definately helped but there is atill a LOT of grass and weeds.

The trailer is how much grass came out of one row

My daughter is coming over today to get busy on finding the rest of the garden!!!

If anyone has any wisdom in how to battle and hopefully defeat this stuff please let me know!

Spring time on the Farm

It is Spring which is a very busy time.  We have started getting our garden out but Jack frost keeps interfering.  He has not looked at the calendar and realized he needs to go away!  I have Soda Bottle greenhouses over my tender tomato and pepper plants.  The town next to us sells mulch for one dollar a truck load we just have to load and haul it.  Next week we will be going to get five loads for the garden to keep the weeds down.  Plus my son-in-law has been saving large sheets of cardboard from his work to put under the mulch to further fight the weeds.

We have 4 additions to our milk herd

The incubator is running constantly and I have hatched so far 57 chicks and 18 ducks, currently there are 41 Guinea eggs in the incubator.  Soon the first batch of Chicks will be headed for the freezer.

Three ducks are setting on their own nests and so are 3 chickens.  I really thought the black sex links would not set so I bought some baby bantie's.  Then 3 decided to go broody!  Yeah!!!

The rabbits are producing and we are able to have bunny dinner frequently.  We have eleven in the grower cage right now.

Spring is in the air for the pigs and Monster should have her piglets in 3 months.  Husband pig is much smaller than monster but he somehow managed to do his duty!

The Turkeys are growing and the brooder is full of baby chicks

 

 

Cow is getting big

free seed starting greenhouses

I feel spring coming on and sure enough it is time to start the seeds indoors for this years garden.  I wanted to share an idea that I had for a FREE way to make green houses to start your seeds in.  This will also work for a way to grow things like lettuce indoors during the winter.

I have a friend that works in a food pantry and free meal program at her church.  They get lots of cakes donated from the local stores.  She has been saving the plastic containers the cakes come in.

 I turned one upside down and then set another on top.

I bought some small jiffy pots off of eBay.  They were $42 for 500 pots which should be plenty for starting seeds for several years.  I soaked the pots in some hydroponic solution.  The pots are small but I figured the solution would give them the nutrients needed to start good strong plants.

I then used wood sticks and dowels to make floating dividers to divide up the pots.

Then I wrote on the container what was in each row

I am only planting heirloom varieties this year.  We have never saved seeds before but that is our goal this year and also enough produce to sell at the farmers market and put up a years worth of food for our family of 9 (kids and grandkids included).