Weeding, Weeding and More Weeding

My vegetable garden has completely exploded in weeds, it was virtually a sea of green. As the weather has been cooler the last two days, I did some very serious weeding. The garden is still horribly overgrown, but at least I can see most of the rows now! I'm letting several of the radishes and spinach plants come to seed so I can harvest them for next year.

Butternut squash is doing amazing. The radish on the side of the photo are coming to seed.

Iceburg lettuce and red lettuce. The lettuce that is out of the rows is thanks to the darn chickens scratching in the garden. Little troublemakers!

Acorn squash and Broom corn

Giant Hogweed

The topic of Giant Hogweed came up on Facebook today, which reminded me of an article I wrote on it a couple of years ago. Giant Hogweed is a seriously dangerous invasive species of plant that can cause serious burns to the skin and even blindness.

Read my article on Giant Hogweed  

Radish Relish and Crazy Chickens

So, I tried making the radish relish (recipe on previous blog post) and it turned out surprisingly good. I think perhaps its a bit sweet and if I make more I'll drop the sugar down a tiny bit. It took one cup of sugar, I'm thinkin' 3/4 cup would be better

Boil down the radish relish

The recipe (on the previous post) made one jar of relish. I think I'll make more up during the week - enough to last the year and perhaps for gifts

The chickens are in fine form today. I had the door open waiting for company and they started literally knocking on the door. I always imagine them saying "Hey, stupid blonde lady, we know you are there, bring us food!" :)

Radish Relish Recipe

So, I found an easy radish relish recipe... not sure how well it will work, but figured I'd give it a try. I've never had radish relish, so not sure if I'll like it, but I'm always willing to give new food a try!

I got the recipe from http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/2026/radish-relish-recipe/. They seem to have a crap load of good recipes on the site.

Radish Relish Recipe

It was submitted by Susan Howard

Makes about 1 and half pounds of radish relish.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of diced radishes
• 2 ribs of diced celery
• 1 large onion chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dill seed
• ½ teaspoon celery seed
• 1 cup vinegar (I like to use cider vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons horseradish (this is optional)

Directions:

Throw everything in the pan and boil until thickened!!

More Radishes!

Good Gods! The radishes are growing faster than can be eaten! Crazy! I'm doing some Googling tonight to learn how to make radish relish and how to dehydrate them (as they don't freeze well). I think the last month's weather has been great for them - as its been a bit cooler.

The radishes are huge! the largest one was 4 and a half inches long and two and a half inches wide.

I found the hens really like cooked radish too, so they are helping eat them all :)

The Silver laced Wyandottes are about eleven weeks old now and are growing quickly! I have started letting them out of their cage when I am outside. The Golden Comets are still being pretty mean to them, but the other three hens are pretty well ignoring them now. Just a couple more weeks and they should be big enough to join the big coop and free range unsupervised.

First Harvest

June 12 and i'm already getting fresh veggies from the garden! Today I harvested a pile of radishes!

There are tons more radishes in the garden just waiting to be harvested! Next week, I'll have to plant more radish seeds! 

Loblaws orders GMO-free labels removed

Everyone has their own opinion on GMO foods, I respect this. However, by forcing the removal of GMO free labeling, Loblaws is preventing people from making an educated decision on what they eat. That's not right! We the people, have the right to know what is in or not in the food we eat and feed our families!

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/loblaws-orders-gmo-free-labels-removed/article4149208/?service=mobile

You can write Loblaws an email at: customerservice@loblaws.ca

Please share with friends!

New Chickens

I got two new chickens today. They are silver laced Wyandottes. They are only seven weeks old, so are soooooo small and cute! The youngest hens I've gotten are six months old, so this is a new experience for me.

Due to their small size, they'll have to stay in their cage for at least a week or two. They won't start laying until they are 5-6 months old. I did some googling today and found that chickens this young cannot have laying feed (which the other ladies eat) as it has too much calcium, so I'll have to run to the feed store and get them some different feed tomorrow.

So, now I have seven hens, one New Hampshire Red (Poppy) that is about two years old, two Rhode Island Reds (Red and Baron) that are about a year and a half old, two Golden Comets (Daisy and Marigold) that are about eight months old and the two silver laced Wyandottes. I'll have to give the new girls names!

I look forward to watching the new ladies grow, it should be an interesting and educational experience!

The garden is growing!

My garden is doing wonderfully! There are tons of veggies coming up! So excited!

Acorn squash

Radishes

Pole beans

There are also pumpkins, cucumbers, carrots, corn and a bunch of other great stuff coming up!