Harvest Monday

More Japanese eggplant & a lone Lemon Spice Jalapeno

Harvest Monday is a lovely blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres Thanks Dave! Not a lot to harvest this week, some Japanese eggplant, one or two jalapenos, a few other things.

Honeynut squash

Honeynut squash

Most of the Honeynut squash were ready to pick. There are still a few solid green ones out there, I don't know if they will mature properly or not because the vine looks mostly dead. But I was very happy with the ones I got. A few still had green stripes but their skins are hard and their stems are hard and dry so I think they will be fine.

Cucuzzi

More cucuzzi. The vines have gone crazy. I was thinking of beginning to chop them back, thinking it would cool off soon but we are still at the 100+ mark. I have been selling a few of them at market. Of course no one here has ever heard of them so I have to educate them. Many of those that have tried them have been coming back for more, saying they liked them, so I will probably grow some next year, just maybe in a different spot.

Fresh raw goat milk

The goats are doing well. Bambi is still at her steady 6 pints a day. Esmarelda was hitting 12 but then she came into heat which dropped her to about 8 for a couple days. It's coming back up though since her cycle is over. 

chicken eggs

While egg production is no where near what it should be for the number of birds I have, the 7 new girls are now all laying regularly. As soon as the weather cools down I will be reducing the flock quite a bit. There are too many old nonproductive birds out there, they are not even breaking even on their feed bill.

I do have a couple of Legbars which lay blue/green eggs of good size. Those girls are only about 2 years old and they are laying right now. I have been keeping their eggs back because I would like to hatch some. Birds that hatch now will start laying in spring and fall hatched birds tend to be bigger than those raised when it's warmer. They will also lay most of the summer when the older birds quit to molt. I used to do a fall hatch regularly but haven't in a few years. I'm actually not positive I have the time and energy but going to give it a shot. Worst case scenario I get overwhelmed and either find someone to raise the chicks for me or sell them off. Time will tell.

Harvest for the week of September 30th

Eggplant 1# 9 ounces

Cucuzzi 8# 12 ounces

Eggs 46

Milk

Bambi 5 gallons, .5 pint

Esmarelda 9 gallons .75 pint

Harvest Monday

Japanese Eggplant

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres The summer garden is winding down and the fall garden is not yet started to any degree. It has been too blasted hot. We are back up to 100+ this past week, so I seriously doubt there will be any fall tomatoes other than a few cherry types. The heat is also slowing down bed prep and seeding of fall crops.

Eggplant & Jalapeno

Cucuzzi

There were a few eggplants and jalapenos and a lot of cucuzzi. A lot of my market customers have tried the cucuzzi and have come back for more so I'm happy for that.

The milk explosion continues

Egg production is still low

Esmarelda is still giving me 11-12 pints of milk a day and Bambi is still on her steady 6. The last new pullet has started laying so that makes 7 new steady layers. But most of the old girls quit when it got hot in the summer, then they started molting. Most of them are going to freezer camp as soon as it cools off enough to do that because I'm in the red every month for feed. 

 There are a couple of Legbars laying nice size light blue-green eggs and I'm seriously contemplating hatching chicks from them. Chicks that hatch in the fall tend to start laying in spring and lay well over the summer when the older hens quit and I have the biggest market for eggs. I'm still at war with myself over it though, will I have enough time and energy to raise them well. I don't know, I'm going to think about it some more before I actually do it. And I'm going to check with some 4H families if they'd like to hatch and raise chicks until they are big enough to sex, in exchange for some of them. I would pay for their feed in exchange for their doing the work.

Harvest Monday

Japanese Eggplant & a lone tomato

Welcome to Harvest Monday, kindly hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres I was just checking out his lovely pepper harvests and hot sauce making! Around here vegetable harvests have been a bit thin. We've had a lot of days with high UV radiation this summer and once the sun comes over the hill in the morning I just can't stay outside and work. So a lot of things that should have been done didn't happen. So looking forward to cooler weather, although I'm not looking forward to actual winter.

Some peppers but I forgot to weigh them

There are a few peppers here, some cayenne, shishito and the yellow jalapeno Lemon Spice. I did forget to weigh them before stuffing them in a jar.

Fermenting peppers

I am experimenting with a lot of things this year. These fermented peppers I'm doing with Himalayan pink salt, that's why it's pinkish.

About 8 ounces of small tomatoes

Some became lunch

I had a bigger tomato ripening on the counter so it and others became lunch; sour dough toast from a local baker, tomatoes with basil and basalmic vinegar, both with a dry crumbly homemade goat cheese.

Cucuzzi

The cucuzzi were again the biggest harvest this week, 18 pounds and 4 ounces. Eggs continue to be down, with mostly just 6 new pullets laying. This weeks count was 37, not nearly enough to pay their feed bill.

Milk production is way up because Esmarelda's kids are weaning. Esmarelda gave me 8.6 gallons and Bambi gave 5.4 gallons. I've made several batches of cheese, with most of it going into the freezer for the time when I dry Bambi up. I'm planning to breed her this fall and will dry her up about 2 months into her pregnancy. I'm planning to milk Esmarelda until next fall when I'll breed her again. A lot of goat owners don't do extended lactations. I'm not sure if they don't realize it's possible, if they have a good market for selling kids or what. I don't really need to have a bunch of kids, most people near me want cheap or free or do not care about the fact that these girls are purebred, registered Nubians from good, productive bloodlines. So breeding every other year or even two suits me fine.

Thanks again to Dave over at Happy Acres for hosting the Harvest Monday blog hop. I encourage you to stop by and go see all the other harvests from different places in the world.

Farmer Friday

baby cucuzzi, an edible gourd from Italy

The Cucuzzi is running rampant and putting out gourds like crazy. I've been taking them to the farmers market and have had a few adventerous folks buy. Some have come back for more. Too bad the goats didn't care for them!

Maximillian Sunflower

I don't have nearly the flowers this year that I've had in the past but there are a few. The Maximillian is a periennial sunflower.

egg production is still low

Still not a lot of eggs. I have one pen laying thin shells despite using all the usual remedies. I also suspect an egg eater in that pen.

Pinto Bean doesn't feel good!

Miss Pinto Bean was showing signs of summer or silent pneumonia so I have been having to give her antibiotic shots. I caught it pretty early so hopefully she will kick it quickly.

Esmarelda

Esmarelda's milk production has jumped off the charts. Usually she gives me 2-4 pints milking just in the evening with her triplets with her 24/7. On Monday night she was huge and milked half a pint short of a gallon. On Tuesday night she at just over 9 pints. So I made the decision to start milking twice a day to keep her more comfortable and to help prevent any issues like blown teats or mastitis.

Prickly Pear Icecream

In my ice cream recipe I replaced the 1 1/2 cups of milk with prickly pear juice. It is not as creamy smooth as my regular vanilla but still was very yummy. This video below includes the recipe in the description,  you may have to watch it in YouTube.

A tiny baby lizard

faucets need new washers

Both my kitchen faucets have been dripping but the hot water had begun leaking so bad I couldn't even tighten it up enough to get it down to a slow drip. So I had to take them apart and replace the washers. Not hard, really but I did have other things to do.

trial batch of goat milk shampoo bars

early morning visitor

Friday harvest

Most of this weeks harvest was cucuzzi gourds and Japanese eggplant. And a lone yellow zucchini

Nida's peach

The peaches I picked a bit early to save from the squirrel and birds have been sitting in a flat in the living room where they would be cooler than the kitchen. Some of the bird pecked ones started rotting so I rinsed off all the good ones with a little vinegar water and put them in the fridge. They were getting soft ripe.

Never ending dishes when you do your own dairy

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a wonderful week. Don't forget to stop by next week for Harvest Monday, where I total up all the things I harvested during the week.