I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
Welcome to Farmer Friday, a recap of the past week here on my little farm. Egg production is still down due to a majority of the flock being senior ladies that quit as soon as it gets hot. Waiting to see how many pick back up when it cools off and who needs to meet some dumplings.
Salting the cheese curd
Some clabber cheese
I made cheese this week, experimenting with clabber. That is the technique of filtering warm raw milk into a clean jar and capping it lightly. You leave it out on the counter to begin to sour or clabber. I started with 8 ounces then the next day poured it into a quart jar and added more warm fresh from the goat milk. The day after I added that to about 2 1/2 gallons of milk, some fresh, some from the fridge. Warmed it up and let it sit about an hour, then warmed it up to 90F and added some rennet. After draining and salting the curd I pressed it in molds overnight. It's very much like some Queso Fresco I've had.
Soap in the freezer makes it easier to unmold
I've made several batches of Goat Milk Soap this week.
Goat Milk Soap with Lavender essential oil
I also finished cutting bars of soap made earlier in the month. My soap is super fatted and can be a little sticky when first unmolded so I let it sit to firm up then begin cutting individual bars. Altogether it has to sit and cure 6-8 weeks after making. That is so the bars harden up and don't melt away when you use them.
Making Goat Milk Lotion with Prickly Pear juice
I made some Goat Milk Lotion with prickly pear cactus juice. Prickly pear is supposed to have healing properties similar to aloe vera.
Sonoran Desert or Colorado River Toad
I have quite a few poisonous toads hanging around. So far Digger has not tried to eat one, just barks at them.
Some peaches from Nida's Peach
I had to pick the peaches, even though they are not soft ripe yet, the birds and squirrels were just too much.
Harvest 8/30
All ready to go to the Globe-Miami Farmers Market
This week's harvest included cucuzzi gourd, tomatoes and Japanese eggplant.
Tithonia aka Mexican Sunflower
A lot of other things went on this week, yard clean up continues, the triplets broke their mineral feeder and I had to fix that.The cucuzzi gourds are taking over the trellis by the house and trying to expand their territory while the pumpkins in the back garden are trying to take over the world. Even more things in the video!
If you are new here, I'm recapping 2023 as one post per day. This is September. I started working on putting a solid roof over the girls pen instead of tarps.
A Colorado River Toad stuck in the squirrel trap.
I don't think these were the same two toads as this one looks much bigger. These are poisonous to any animal that tries to eat them, they have poison glands on the back of their heads.
I went to fill a chicken water and when I brought it back in discovered this king snake under the cinder block. Since it didn't move at first I wasn't sure if it was stuck or what.
Did you know all the baby scorpions ride on mom's back?
Bianca, Queen of the Coop. Sadly I lost Bianca recently but she lived to be about 14 years old and was a great broody hen.
This coyote comes in close, right to the fence some evenings to tease Digger Dog.
I discovered that I still have root knot nematodes in at least one area. These things suck big time and I am sooooo over them!
The tomatoes are still coming in.
I cleared out the cucumber vines from the small raised beds to get ready to plant fall crops.
