Welcome to the Farm (Yard)

It has been getting downright homestead-y around here the last few months. There's much too much to describe, so I will sum up, with pictures:

I tried canning for the first time -- delicious apricot jam with fruit from our neighbor's tree. Success! I just wish I had made more, because I'm almost out. I opened my last jar the other day, and it was amazing to taste and smell the intense, sweet apricots months after they've disappeared from the trees. My gallon bag of frozen apricot halves is long gone -- the whole family loved eating them just like popsicles on a warm day.



In June we built a vegetable garden in the backyard. We needed the tall fence to keep our dogs out of the plants, and that actually provided some great inspiration to make the most of a small space.

 

I created a simple design for the garden, and my husband built it, complete with an A-frame to support vertical plants. Our daughter loves to help when she can, and I love to see her learning from a young age where her food comes from. (The trick is to get her to wait until the food is ripe before she picks it and eats it right there in the yard.)

 

Our first season produced green beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, some tomatoes that are just now ripening up, and some surprise melons that must have come from our compost pile.

The biggest development in our little farm-yard: in August we got five fluffy little chicks. It has been an adventure so far, but they are charming and amusing creatures. They should start laying within a few weeks, so we'll have fresh eggs for Christmas. 

 

Growing my own food has been a steep learning curve -- but there is nothing I love better than to learn about things that I value. It has been wonderful digging into my grandparents' recipes, talking with my parents about their ranching days, and knowing that my own kids will have a connection to their environment and to their heritage that too few people do.

And, I've been enjoying learning new ways to use up all the bounty! Coming up next: pumpkin recipes, and attempts to make use of the copious hachiya persimmons on our huge tree. (If you want some, come and get them!)

I hope you and yours are enjoying a happy harvest time, and a rich Thanksgiving. I am thankful, indeed.