Chickie salad bar

Like everyone else around here, we have a very sad looking lawn indeed.  Quintessential of all Seattle lawns, it's crispy, yellow, and we haven't had to mow it in several months.  Though I don't personally care since I know it'll be back as soon as the rains start, the chickies aren't quite enjoying it as much.

Our ladies love the greens.  They love dandelions, clover, grass, and almost any other leafy green thing growing in the yard.  This also includes my lettuce and kale.  Unfortunately, my lettuce is also completely gone so I can't even provide them with the gross, bitter, overgrown stalks that they like so much.  I would also rather they not eat all my kale.

So last weekend, we took some steps to mitigate the situation and also provide our lovely ladies with their very own foraging space.  And no, we didn't just start watering the lawn.

First we took a trip to Skye Nursery and got a couple bags of cover crop seed.  We got a mixed bag that included ryegrass, clover, peas, millet, and some other stuff.  I also got a bag of buckwheat since I've read that chickies like that too.  We also got several bags of potting soil, chicken manure (ours isn't ready yet), and compost to help with the terrible soil situation in the chicken yard.  At home, we covered half the chicken yard area with a couple inches of compost and manure and raked it into the first inch or so of the dusty, sad excuse for soil that was back there. Then I sprinkled a nice layer of the seeds and raked those in as well.  A nice dousing of rainwater and we were all set to wait for sprouting.

I also planted a few portable trays so that there would be stuff for them to eat when their yard is regrowing.  These actually sprouted much quicker than the yard so they'll probably be eating from those in the next few weeks while the stuff out back grows enough to withstand some serious chicken trampling.

Let's talk a bit about why I feel so strongly about the ladies getting greens into their diet.  First of all, they LOVE it, so why not let them have it?  Also, they tend to eat their eggs less and lay more eggs when their diet consists of more than just their boring feed.  Greens also make their eggs healthier for us.  They are higher in Omega 3's and lower in the bad cholesterol, and the yolks are a brighter yellow when the ladies are able to eat more beta carotene.  From a behavioral standpoint, foraging is totally normal for chickens.  They do it all day long because that's how they would normally eat.  And foraging also provides them with extra protein from all the bugs and worms that are found along the way so their diets are more well rounded, resulting in healthier chickens.  Finally, the more stuff they eat that we can grow, and keep growing, the less feed we have to buy.  So in the end, it can be financially beneficial as well.  So there you go.  If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will. 

So we'll see if they like it.  It might take a bit for them to get used to, but they like green stuff so I have faith that they will thoroughly enjoy their very own salad bar.  I'm also planning on planting the seeds into my garden beds to help with replenishing nutrients that are clearly missing in this year's garden.

They're just itching to get out there!

And since you haven't seen a cute picture if Nikolai in a bit, here he is, in his new favorite lounging space. Maybe he wants to go on an adventure.

Gussy Beans! A Double Sunday Harvest

This might be my most exciting harvest this season.  Or EVER.

I should have planted more!

I'm obsessed.  They are so freakin' adorable.  When I opened the first pod, it was like laying my eyes upon 4 cute little kittens that all looked like my sweet little furry babies. I knew they would look like this but to see them for real coming out of my garden was almost too much to handle. And from the looks of the pods, you would never guess that the beans would look so unique.  Love love love it!  I will call them Gussy Beans.  Gussy Beans will make a delicious pot of chili in the fall.

Look closely...

See the resemblance?

The green beans just keep coming, though I think they are finally closing out, and I spotted some edamame emerging so that's exciting.

These purple dragon beans are just as interesting-looking as they sound.

Oh, and last weekend I pulled my garlic that I planted from cloves last winter since the plants were looking nice and dead.  The bulbil plants just shot up some nice scapes so I harvested those as well and gave them to a friend since I didn't want them.

Dilly Green Beans

Despite staggering the planting of the seeds, for some reason, my green beans still managed to get ready all at once.  Since I didn't feel like eating them, my sister decided we should just pickle them.  What a lovely idea, I said.

These are so easy, I'm afraid they're going to taste weird. They'll be ready in three weeks so I guess I can let you know how they are then.

We started with maybe a little over two pounds of beans. I sterilized 6 taller half pint jars, the lids, and the rings and kept them in the dishwasher to keep them warm.

We mixed the following to make the brine:

* 3 cups of water

* 1 1/2 cups of apple cider vinegar

* 2 cups of white vinegar

* 1/3 cup salt

* one clove garlic, peeled but kept whole

These were all mixed and brought to a boil.  In the meantime, the beans were rinsed and the ends were trimmed. Into each jar, we added a sprig of fresh dill and 1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes.  The jars were then packed with beans standing on their ends.  Once the brine was ready, we filled each jar up to a quarter inch from the top.  We screwed on the lids and let them simmer in a canning pot for about 12 minutes. Once they cooled, all the lids sealed well so we had a 100% success rate.

So now we wait.  I hope they're good...

Sunday Harvest

We'll be pickling those green beans. And I had Shawn pull the pumpuchinni plant because I hate it and it didn't deserve a place in my garden.  We replaced it with some cucumber plants that a friend gave us.

I'm so tired.

Holiday Weekend Sunday Harvest

Check it out! I have another damn pumpucchini plant. Why does this keep happening? I'm starting to wonder whether I got bad zucchini seeds because this plant was NOT from a seed I saved. Damn. So I picked them early, hoping the young squash will be somewhat more useful than the less-than-useless things I got last year.  I also got a real (yet weirdly shaped) zucchini along with some good sized carrots and a handful of green beans. The artichoke is almost ready...

I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday weekend. We went up to Vancouver, BC yesterday to see the Whitecaps make the Sounders look like a bunch of fools. But alas, we still had a fun day trip to Canada and ate lots of good food.

P.S.- Next time you're in Vancouver, be sure to hit up Stanley Park. Beautiful!

Hot Summer Sunday Harvest

Last year, I planted a whole bunch of onions, both started from seed as well as from starts. I planted them in every little nook and cranny that was available at the time. Most of these got shaded out by the many volunteer tomato plants that I let go to maturity.  I pretty much thought they were a lost cause.  I was kind of sad about it, but overall the garden did so well that I didn't care as long as I was getting food out of all the space that I had.  So I forgot about them.  I let the chickens dig around them to their liking, knowing full well that whatever chickens have access to, they will destroy beyond recognition.

Then spring came.  And so did the onions.  Back with a vengeance, they did.  They tried flowering, so I broke off each of the buds to encourage energy to go to the bulb, and just let them do their thing.  Some of them recently started getting these weird bulges growing in their leaves, so just out of curiosity, I pulled one up.  It had a pretty good onion attached to it so I pulled another.  Then I couldn't stop myself. I pulled 'em all.  There were 22.  Out of that, 20 of them had good onions or onion-like things attached to them.  Some are a little smaller than tennis balls, some about the size of a large marble. Maybe some of them could have used more time in the ground with their stems squished, but the temptation to pull was just too great and I like to think of them as reclaimed food that I previously had thought were lost so it really was a win all around for me.  The onions I started this year are sucking it up big time.  I just hope they're saving their energy for next year.

I also got several handfuls of berries.  I've given up on the strawberries, by the way.  They just keep getting half red, then robbed.  

The carrots are getting close.  My temptation to pull is getting stronger each day.  So I pulled 3.  It was way too much fun.

So happy about these.

I get about this much every day.

Yesterday, I made a delicious salad out of some carrots, peas, and a bunch of lettuce I pulled because it was starting to bolt in the hot weather. I topped it with a little sliced red onion and what a delicious 100% home-grown salad it was!

The ladies really enjoyed those carrot tops.

I also pulled my pea plants. I let a good handful of them go to full peas so I have seeds for next year.  My pepper and eggplant plants were needing a new home with better soil so I moved those over to where the peas used to be. I also had cilantro and shiso plants that needed to get in the ground so I put those there too.  Then I planted a batch of sugar snap peas where the other stuff was, since peas are less needy of really good soil.  (I did, however, add some compost to help them out.)

So now the peas are left in their pods and have been set out to fully dry on the vine. They should be hulled and dry by next weekend.  It was a hot day, but still really great to play in the dirt.

Happy hot summer day my friends!  Have a fun and safe 4th of July!  Here are some more pictures from today as a bonus:

Dragonfly hangin' with the 'chokes. Where's Gus?

Gus normally sleeps in a very compact ball.  But on a hot day like today, he prefers the sprawl method.

Sunday Harvest

2 words: garlic scapes!

(Not pictured: lots if lettuce and peas.)

This is about $4 worth of scapes. I did some research at the farmer's market and based on the prices, it looks like they're the "in" thing to eat these days.

So pretty and curly...

Have a great first week of summer everyone!