I Know, I Know!!!

Woah now, no hate mail please!!!  I know it has been way toooooo long since I posted. With work, church, garden, chickens, b-days, house, trips, and what the heck lets throw in the hubby too, it has been BUSY!!!!  I almost don't even know where to begin. Ok, here goes.

GARDEN

Didn't get everything out of the garden that we had hoped for but overall it was a success. As usual we learned a ton which can only help in the long run. The following list is everything we planted and how it turned out.

Asparagus- plenty to keep us happy
Corn- did fairly well for selected strain, we let it dry due to cob size and will use for parched corn
Beets- good harvest, picked them a bit early
Yams/Sweet Potato- tops eaten by animal most of season, upon harvest were small in size but edible
Carrots- good yield for amount planted
Cantaloupe- demolished by CHICKENS (little buggers)
Zucchini (3 varieties)- did amazing
Squash (2 varieties)- did amazing
Watermelon- fair (planted to late)
Bell Peppers- half did nothing, other half did great but we're extremely late for harvest
Jalapeños- good harvest
Green Beans- great harvest
Half Runner Beans- good yield, should have trellis to vine, hard to pick
San Marzano tomato- great harvest
Tomato- multiple varieties; did OK
Kohlrabi- great harvest
Peas- good harvest, need to plant more next year
Greens (including lettuce)- amazing harvest
Herbs- (sage, onion chives, garlic chives, basil, thyme)- all abundant, my basil plants were BUSHES!

Here are a few pics I took throughout the season.

Asparagus and Herbs

Garden/New Grapevines

Squash/Zucchini

Basil

Cabbage/Tomato/Cantaloupe

Peas/Watermelon/ Sour Cherries

I am proud to say we used, canned, or gave away most everything we had from the garden.  We canned green beans (regular and pickled), tomato, beets, and made jelly with the sour cherries.  We froze cabbage, jalapeño's, basil, and bell pepper purée. I am sure there are tons of info I am leaving out but my memory is failing me at the moment!!

I will continue updating on the past few months as time allows. Maybe the next update should be CHICKENS!!!!

Enjoy!

Bluescreek Farm Meats...TOPS!!

Most of you know that Nicky and I really like to eat good. We often prefer to eat as fresh and local as possible. The main reason being we know where the food came from. And to be honest most of the time the flavor and nutrition value increases as well.
I have spoke about our garden and chickens (eggs and meat) but there are some things we don't have on our little homestead.  Beef, Lamb, and any other large animal that requires a fence!!!  Hopefully one day we can have some if not all of those but for now we have to buy it if we want it. We long decided that we would prefer NOT to buy mass packaged meat if we can keep from it.
So long story short... we buy from a local farmer that has a small shop in Columbus called Bluescreek Farm Meats.

If you want the best then thats where you go!! BUT more importantly they are more than willing to teach you about the cuts of meat and to even give you recipe help if you need it. I recently discovered a blog that one of their butchers started and I wanted to share it with you today.

His name is Tim and the blog not only offers knowledge but a ton of pics as well. The blog is called Fishmonger vs. Butcher.  I think many people would explore other meats and cuts if they knew more about the meat itself. You can also check them out on Facebook.

Below are just a couple cool pics from the farm!!

This is Dave the head HONCHO at Bluescreek...that is when his wife, daughter and son aren't around!! Good People!

And this is just a DARN cute cow!!