A Tale of Two Garlic

We inadvertently demonstrated the effect of pressure treated boards on garlic. Last year Jed made three raised beds for me to play with so that the birds wouldn't get into them. Last season we cleared out the duck pond and moved all that "mud" into the two small raised beds (by small I mean 3x12ft) and then layered them with topsoil. These two beds we used to plant our garlic. This year we tried out a variety called Spanish Roja that the local farm supply stocked. Approximately 70 cloves went in to each bed in October. All were planted about an inch down into the soil and covered with about 3 inches of straw. Both were watered at the same time, weeded at the same time, and mulched at the same time. The only difference was that one bed was made using old boards, and the other was made using old pressure treated boards. I wish I could have taken a picture when the greens were growing to show the difference.


It was immediately obvious that the pressure treated bed was not doing well. Of the 70 cloves that we planted in each bed, all of them grew in the plain board bed while only 11 grew in the pressure treated bed. We planted another 70 cloves into the pressure treated bed hoping it was just a bad batch we put in there. Once again, most did not sprout and in total we had only 22 garlic grow.



Around the time that they were mature we placed the baby chicks in with the failed garlic bed and they, of course, ate and trampled all the greens. Not much of a loss as the garlic had technically finished growing.


As the last of the greens in the good bed finished falling over I decided to harvest the garlic this weekend and since I was unable to take a picture of the greens to compare them I thought I'd show you a picture of the harvest for you to see the results. The first image is of the sad garlic in the failed bed when I first put the chicks into the bed. The second image shows the big braid of garlic from the good bed followed by a picture of the small heads of garlic from the good bed, and I did not picture the smaller heads that I put straight into our garlic drawer. The last picture is the entirety of the harvest from the pressure treated bed. (Ivan is helping)

The lesson learned from this experiment was that no matter how old the pressure treated board is that you are trying to use in your garden, it seems as though it will continue to leach out chemicals while it is in use. I know many people say that it is safe to use pressure treated boards as edging for your garden and that it won't affect your plants, but the garlic seem to tell us a different tale. I don't know whether to try planting legumes in the same beds to see if this effect is true for more than just one crop or to skip the trial as I'm playing with things that I and my family will consume. Knowledge is power, but formaldehyde is not something I want my food to play with when my family is involved.

And also, for companion planting - garlic and peas do not grow well together. The growth of the garlic is stunted. I did not notice a decrease in productivity in the peas.

Our wish list

Some of you may have noticed the new wish list on the right hand side of the blog. This was an addition the sprung from the suggestions of more than a few people, friends as well as casual readers. People had been asking us what they could do to help and/or what we needed and after a fair bit of talking Rosie and decided that we would add a wish list for the homestead.

So why would anyone in their right mind want to gift us something from the wish list? Well other than the warm fuzzy feeling you get from supporting your local farmers we will make sure you get some of the goodies related to your gift. If you stumble across a good wine corker you can rest assured that you will be getting some hard cider and mead from our next batch. If you are able to drop off some t-posts or cattle panel, you are sure to receive some meat from the next slaughter and eggs at our next meeting. The list goes on and on.

Often Rosie and I feel overwhelmed with all we do; taking care of our Son (11 months soon), working full time jobs, running a working farm, teaching classes, historical re-enactment, and maintaining relationships with our friends and families. It is not uncommon for us to work 16-20 hour days 7 days a week. At times we receive help from our friends (Lisa and Shawn, Kim, Melody, and Brigid) and that help can not be valued enough but for any who wish they could be a part of this grand experiment that is The Homestead, the wish list is a great way to put your toes in and test the awesomeness that is the modern self sustaining farm.

Mexican Cheese - grandma's recipe

My grandmother is known for her cheese in her part of Guadalajara. My grandfather has stated that he has never had any cheese better than my grandmothers. =) So when my Nina was visiting a few weeks back we stayed up and made Mexican cheese, Panela, and Requeson. Here is the recipe for the Mexican cheese and I'll add the others as soon as I get pictures.

Basic recipe: For 1 gallon of milk you'll need 2 Tbsp of cold water and a rennet tablet.

1. Heat milk to 110 degrees F
2. Dissolve one tablet in 2Tbsp of cold water
3. Stir dissolved tablet into warm milk
4. Let milk sit until you achieve a clean break (when you can tell that the milk has turned into a large chunk of proto cheese)
5. With a knife/large spoon cut curds into large pieces (about 1 or 2 inch chunks) to allow the whey and curds to separate
6. Place a plate on top of your curds to help draw out the whey
7. Pour whey into another container to make Requeson
8. Continue drawing out whey by pressing down on your curds until most of the whey is out
9. While holding the curds with your hands pour out the remaining whey into your container
10. Now you can make Panela (future post)

11. Put the remaining curds through a hand cranked mill adding a little salt as you put additional curds in
 

12. Once done place in a bowl and mash the ground curds with your hands until they are all well blended

13. Shape into rounds and eat or refrigerate

Luscious landscaping

I recently met someone who thought that horticulture was a waste of a major at a University, I find that sentiment to be pretty sad. When asked what I thought they were good for, I responded that I love luscious landscaping and I've met a lot of horticulture majors that advocate it. I had to elaborate on what luscious landscaping was because they were under the impression that it was just good foliage.

What is luscious landscaping you ask, well it also goes by the term "edible gardening." And honestly, what more do you need to realize that it rocks?

When we were planning out our front yard and the layout of the back yard, I really wanted everything to serve a purpose. Yes, there are many beautiful trees, plants, bushes, and such, but how will they help me on the homestead if they do not provide anything? I wanted to have my plants to be functional, beautiful, and above all - edible. We do have a few shade trees, but their branches can be used to make hurdles, or spear shafts, or many other medieval functions.

For example, in the front yard our fencing is covered with grapes and berries, our tree provides shade and almonds and soon apples from the small tree. The borders provide herbs and strawberries, the beds break up the open area and provide veggies and fruit that can be picked and eaten in the shade of the almond tree. I guess in a way I find edibles to be beautiful and as such I strive to share that beauty. At the moment we have peas growing like mad and their flowers look lovely as well as let us know that we're going to have a bounty of peas to enjoy. The plants and trees bloom and let us enjoy the beauty of their blossoms, the fragrance of their blooms, and the beauty of their fruit. What more can you need in any landscape?

Our front yard is covered with splashes of white, pink, red, purple, and yellow flowers as the fruits and veggies start blooming. I know that it's not the conventional huge yard for Ivan to play in, but he'll enjoy eating healthy food while playing in his trees. I couldn't ask more than that. So when you are thinking about gardening this year, if you are used to planting annuals try planting some veggies to lighten up your flower bed and to provide you with a little bit of produce. You'll enjoy the beauty and the food.

Homesteading with a baby - diapers

I realize that it's close to a year since Ivan joined our home and we have not really posted anything baby related. One thing I wanted to talk about is how awesome cloth diapers are for the homesteader. You will need a clothes washer to make it go by faster,but you can even wash those by hand.

My mom used cloth diapers on us so my first experience was washing Lucy's diapers. I recall scrubbing them on the steps at my grandparent's home. I next looked into modern all in one diapers when I was working for my previous employer, Naomi. For her children we used primarily G-diaper for when they were tiny and then BumGenius. They worked well but had a tendency to have the velcro get gunked up.

I was able to find an assortment of some 30 something cloth diapers on craigslist and brought those home. As Ivan was born prematurely we were able to use conventional cloth diapers. The amusing part is that someone brought us some as a gag gift but they ended up working marvelously. As he came home tiny we used a standard three fold diaper and tied it around the waist where the three sections met or we held it closed with a three section holder. As he grew we moved on to a larger three fold diaper, which worked well for him for many months. As he got big enough to start wearing his all in one diapers he started with TinyTush diapers as well as FuziBunz. My brother Juan and his family also gave us a FuziBunz all in one that has worked really well as you can alter the size of the diaper with new elastic bands along the legs to allow for a change of size on the leg openings as well as the overall length that is standard for most all in ones. We've only had issues with older FuziBunz and having some of the snaps break off, but we should be able to contact the maker and have them replace it.

And now for the reason that I'm even writing this post: How the diapers differ and why we recommend them.
Pros: Less costly, less garbage, less smell, just as easy to change, and you can use them for multiple children. Cons: I don't consider this a con but people might - will need to do laundry daily or every other day, if you are traveling you'll have to carry the dirty diapers as well, and you'll need to change the diaper more often.

Cloth diapers are not disposables, please do not try to use them as such. I'm met people who try to leave cloth diapers on their babies for hours and then complain that their children have rashes. Think of it this way, if you happened to have wet or dirty underpants, would you want to wear them for hours? Actually, don't do that with disposables either, that's just gross. Disposables use a re-hydrating gel to "lock the moisture" in, cloth diapers use fabric to contain the liquid, but like with a towel if it is squeezed or rung then the liquid escapes. Babies have tiny bladders and will empty them frequently, watch for signs that your baby has urinated and change them as soon as possible. Most babies have some tell tale signs that they have used the restroom. Look out for these and this might also help you when it comes time to potty train. We are not there yet, but we've managed to get him to urinate into the toilet already.

As we live on a farm, we have a tendency to do laundry quite frequently anyways so that just fits into our schedule. We've dried his diapers in the dryer so far, but will start hanging them up out in the sun fairly soon. The dryer does use up a lot of LP but it's just one year and that's totally worth it to have clean baby clothing quickly. The sun will also help kill off bacteria and help air out the diapers. I'm looking forward to being able to dry everything out on the laundry line again. And while we're talking about laundry, please wash your dirty baby diapers frequently. I don't think I would let them go for more than a day since I don't want bacteria buildup on them, I don't want them to pile up, and we have only enough diapers to last us two days and thus I would have to wash them that frequently. Also, if they poo, you can wash them out in the bathroom so that you don't have caked poo that you place in the washer. Don't worry, it's not going to kill you, you can do it. It will also make your laundry pile not smell so bad. We've found that if Ivan eats home food his poo is normal and it pretty much stays self contained until we place it in the toilet to flush. This helps not have to deal with smeared poo when we're changing him and when we have to wash the diaper.

This post has gotten long enough, but I also wanted to say that if you just pay attention to your child when you will be able to tell if they have an issue so that your little one doesn't have to deal with a rash. I've met people who let their baby's rash get so bad that it bleeds (The quote was, "Oh, that's not bad. She's not even bleeding.") and that is insane. If you do not want anything like that happening to you, do not let that happen to your child. As adults we are the protectors of our little ones and as such we have to make sure that they are healthy and clean(ish).

Sorry if this post sounds a bit rant like, but it was actually supposed to show the positive advantages of using cloth diapers on the homestead. =) Hope that helps.

Meat Birds

I just realized that we tend to post little blurbs on FB but have not fully finished uploading any of our posts on here. I'll see how many Ivan lets me update before he wakes up.

We're trying something a little different this year with our birds. We actually ordered 50 large breed chicks from Murray McMurray and only had one die so far. *fingers crossed* There have been some interest in meat birds so we thought we'd give it a try. We have birds we wish to cull from our flock, but as they are a lot older we have a tendency to only be able to stew them for them to have any texture that resembles meat. We started them in the house and they have now moved to my failed garlic bed, but as they are growing like mad we're going to have to move them to a bigger area fairly soon. They mature slower than the hybrids that are bred specifically for fast meat birds but they do seem to be filling in fairly quickly. They are about to be a month old but most are already feathered out and some are showing some nice meat production already. They go through food like mad, downing three quart jars full of food three times a day. With this huge food intake they also go through about two gallons of water a day. This of course means tons of lovely poo for my garden. We'll see about moving them around the gardening quadrants soon to see if they can eat some of the grasses down for us to plant. We'll keep you posted.

A better lambing season

As many of you know, our lambing season had a horrible start: 3 stillbirths (one was partially eaten by neighbor dogs) and one dead 2 day old lamb. It took its toll and left us pretty depressed. Luckily, the Navajo-Churro sheep had a much better show. Darth Sheep gave birth to twins on March 15th. That gave us a male and female lamb for eating and for raising/selling, the other NJ gave two male lambs a few days later. Of course with our lambing luck the second NJ refused to accept one of her lambs and by the time we realized this he was pretty cold and not doing too well. Though it was a long night for every one the abandoned lamb survived and is now living in the house and answers to the name of "Derp", an indication of his humorously low IQ. Really, he is that dumb. With the help of some children (and adults who fall for his cuteness) Derp has now outgrown all the other lambs due to his nearly constant supply of milk.

So in all we have three male lambs to eat (meat babies according to Rosie) and one female who we are undecided about, we may keep her or sell her or eat her.

So while our sheep population is growing we are looking to reduce our goat population. Our goat count stands at 2 adult females and 2 young wethers (castrated males). We will be eating the two males and probably selling one of the females leaving us with one goat for cheese and the occasional meat baby.

Our chicken flock is about to undergo a reduction (tonight) as we are ready to cull out some of the hens who are not laying enough and who do not have the traits we are looking for. More specifically we are going to be culling the remaining Polish, Buttercups, and perhaps a few others. This Friday for workshop dinner we will have smoked whiskey glazed chicken on the menu. We feed our farm hands well.

One of the lessons we have learned the last few years has been how to achieve a better balance of livestock on the homestead. We need fewer fowl but more milk producers, fewer goats but more sheep. Trying to achieve a better balance will allow us to not only have happier animals but to have fewer animals producing more food for our family. Also having a better balance of animals leads to less impact on our native flora, leading to healthier plants and better soil. Some of the worst soil you will ever see is in areas where too many animals have been packed into too small a space (ever drive by a feed lot?) As strange as it sounds more animals does not mean more food and a better life. If we where in the business of selling livestock perhaps we would be more willing to pack more fauna on our property, but as our goal is to be as self sustaining as we can there is simply no need to keep a large population of any one animal. For our readers who are looking to start their own homestead or just want to add a few chickens to their yard for eggs, our suggestion for you would be; Start Small. 3 chickens is a good number to start with, no reason to buy 25 chicks your first time out. One pigmy goat can produce an impressive amount of milk if treated right, no need to bring home the whole herd. Animals are a great addition to the urban homestead just make sure your not turning your back yard into a feedlot, you and your animals will be happier for it.