Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky

When we were at Bernheim Forest this spring, we spent some time looking in the gift shop there. Being a home schooler I am always looking for good books or materials to make learning fun. While there I came upon the book Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky.by Thomas G.Barnes and S. Wilson Francis. It intrigued me to see full colored photos of native Kentucky wildflowers. I was not able to purchase the book at the time but jotted down the name and authors.

About a month ago my husband and I were on our early AM Saturday excursion to the downtown Lexington Farmer's Market. We went by a table which contained the exact same book I saw at Bernheim. What great luck, the author was there doing a book signing. Chuck and I spent some time talking with the author. He told us that he had spent many years traveling across the state taking the pictures in the book. He also had a book there which he has just recently published which not only talks about the wildflowers but techniques and places to photograph them. I had a hard time deciding between the two but finally chose the original book I saw at Bernheim. He then signed my new copy.

Since then, I have had time to read through and enjoy the book. Wildflowers are divided by seasons in which they bloom. The binding of the book is colored according to flower color to make it easier to find the flower in which you are looking to find. Each entry then contains a brief description of the flower and plant. It also lists the habitat and region that it is usually found along with the frequency that it occurs from common to rare. At the end of the book, it lists the plant families along with the species within that family found here in Kentucky.

If you live in the Kentucky region, this is a great reference book to have with you when exploring our many natural areas. I would highly recommend it. It can be found at many local bookstores.

Strawberry Bread

This was a hit at my sister's 40th birthday party over the weekend. Here is the recipe for all of you who requested it.

Strawberry Bread
3 cups flour
1 Tbls cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups fresh cut-up strawberries (or 10 oz frozen thawed and drained)

Put first three ingredients in large bowl. Stir together. Stir together next three ingredients in medium sized bowl. Combine wet ingredients with dry one. Stir just until moistened. Gently fold in strawberries. Pour into two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

You can make these ahead of time and freeze it. You can also make this using the same amount of raspberries.

Fruit Harvest

Two years ago, I redesigned our landscape and put in a more edible landscape plan. Instead of ornamental trees I put in dwarf fruit trees. I replaced and added foundational bush plantings that bear fruit. We installed two tiered strawberry beds along with a grape arbor and raspberry patch. I was able to squeeze quite a bit of fruit into our landscape. This year when we lost our maple tree, we replaced it with apple trees which will provide shade along with apples.

In our medium sized suburban yard I have a raspberry patch, 2 kinds of grapes, asparagus and rhubarb patch, 100 strawberry plants, 2 gooseberry, 1 currant, 3 cherry, 7 blueberry and 3 blackberry bushes, 2 pear, 1 nectarine, 1 plum, 1 apricot, 2 cherry, 1 almond and 1 peach tree and 2 semi-dwarf apple trees. This year the berries and some of the dwarf trees have started to bear fruit in their second year. I will never get huge crops off of them like I would if I could plant a larger grove of semi-dwarf and regular size trees but I still get enough for our family to eat fresh. The fruit is organic and freshly picked.

I never thought I would be able to produce so much fruit here at home. This year, we have started to benefit from our landscape redesign. Everyone should be able to include fruit in their landscape. It just takes some creativity. 

Busy Times

Sorry about the lapse in posts. It has been a very busy time for us. Last week was Vacation Bible Camp at our church. We offer an all day program with VBS in the AM followed by a day camp atmosphere in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun but took a lot of time.

Thursday, I headed to Ft. Wayne to spend time with the family. We celebrated my sister's 40th birthday in grand fashion with a princess party for friends and family. Good time was had by all. Sunday, I was able to spend part of the day with my Dad for Father's Day and then the other part with my husband. It was nice to be able to spend time with both of them on their special day.

Yesterday, I spent the day recuperating from a stomach bug. Today, I made chocolate goat milk soap with a good friend, Colleen and daughter Mary. We then went to Richmond to spend the afternoon with our friends on their farm for the rest of the day. Busy but fun times.

I will be posting this week but will have to take a break next week as we travel to Iowa where I will not have internet service. I will catch you up on our garden news tomorrow. 

Be Grateful

This was one of the challenges that I read in my daily devotional this morning. I always return to this when I get caught up in the trials of my life or are feeling sorry for myself. Being grateful is what simplicity is all about. It is looking at what you have, being satisfied with it and giving thanks for them. I have so many blessings and yet at times I feel myself dissatisfied. Listening to Mary and the rest of the youth tell their stories from the week of tornado clean-up they did last week, reminds me once again how truly blessed that I am. We have so much but yet I still get a case of the "poor mes" on occasion. True joy is finding peace with where you are in life and making the most of it. The "if onlys' never truly get you there. Take some time today, list out your many blessings and thank God for them. It will truly help you live a life of simplicity. 

Mary's Return

Mary and the rest of the Word of Hope Youth Group returned last night from their week long mission trip in Pisgah, Alabama. While there they did tornado clean-up. Mary was exhausted but so excited about the week that she had just experienced. She was so moved by the people she helped, not because she was helping them, but because of how wonderful the people were to them. She said they were so grateful for their help but she wishes that they had had time to do so much more. I am glad that she has had this experience as it has made a big impact on her. It reinforces how unimportant "things" really are in the big picture and to remember that they can disappear in a matter of minutes. What remains important are the friends and family who surround you. At the end, people will not remember how many things you had but what kind of person you were while on this earth. 

Nutritious Eggs

Mother Earth News in their April/May 2011 magazine has a great article titled Backyard Chicken Basics. I would recommend it to anyone starting out with backyard chickens. Here is a link to the article Backyard Chicken Basics . What I wanted to share with you in this post was their statistics of the increased nutrition found in a backyard egg from chickens eating bugs, greens and other veggies than the typical egg found at your local grocer. Here are the comparisons they shared of backyard vs. store.

1) 1/3 less cholesterol
2) 1/4 less saturated fat
3) 2/3 more vitamin A
4) 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
5) 3 times more vitamin E
6) 7 times more beta carotene
7) 4-6 times more vitamin D

Most of all, backyard chicken eggs just taste better. If you would like the benefits of backyard chicken eggs but don't want to raise chickens yourself. There are some alternatives. In Lexington, you can purchase them from several farmers at the Farmer's Market or Good Foods Coop also carries them. If you don't live locally, check out your local Farmer's Market or ask at your local health food or coop store. It will be worth the effort. 

Chicken Wrangling 101

If you had been around my house yesterday morning, you would have been able to watch me chase a 10 week old Buff Orpington around the yard. When I went to lift up the roof of the coop, she was waiting for me. Before I knew it she had jumped off the perch and into the yard. The chase was on.

She darted among the two coops, grape arbor and garden plants. I was trying not to chase her accidentally into the hedge near by as the large dog behind us would have enjoyed a chicken dinner on us. She was slick and darted to the left or right the minute I got close.

Finally, I had to go get Makenzie because Mary is gone this week on her mission trip. I told Makenzie to stand between the narrow opening between the two coops. I told her not to move. I then chased the chicken into the narrow opening. She was blocked from both directions. I grabbed her and put her back where she belonged.

The good thing about chickens is they will usually not venture far from the others. The only problem is there are too many other animals prowling around here to leave one out of the fenced in area. I'll be watching better this time when I open the coop. 

Cilantro

Cilantro is not something that my family grew when I was a kid and learning how to garden. I really like cilantro in my Mexican dishes and salsa but it took me a while to figure out how to grow it in Kentucky. I kept asking and experimenting until I figured it out. Here is a quick synopsis of what I learned through trial and error. 

My first attempt was trying to buy plants and transplant them. They almost immediately went to seed. I talked to friends and did some research. What I found out was that cilantro does not like to be transplanted and will almost always go quickly to seed when it is planted this way in the garden.

My next attempt was sowing seeds. I put it out in time to be ready when my tomatoes were ready so I could use it for salsa. It never seemed to do well. I then found out that it does not like our hot summers. Next, I tried it in the fall with some success. This year I did a spring planting of it and it did very well.

You can cut cilantro for a while as long as it stays cool. I did not do a good job of that this year. When I went out to look at it today, I realized that it was starting to flower which meant that it would be going to seed soon. I pulled all of the stems out and spent the morning stripping off the leaves and putting them in the dehydrator. After it is dehydrated, I will put it in a container and store it in the freezer. I will take some out as I need it through the year. It did not all fit in the first load so the leftover stems are sitting in a cup of water until the first batch is done. Cilantro will keep in a glass of water for a few days.

I am glad that I have finally been able to grow cilantro. I use enough of it through the year that I will also be doing a fall planting of it. Hopefully, it will also turn out well. 

Watering Efficiently

We have not had rain here now for almost 1 1/2 weeks which is a big change from this spring. We were only 7/10 of an inch away from the wettest spring ever here. Watering time has arrived especially since 90 degree temperatures seem to have arrived early. Here in Lexington we have to basically pay double for any water that we use. We pay a sewer fee based on the amount of water that we use whether it goes down the sewer or not. I have been working on cutting back on water usage for a while just due to cost but conserving water is also important. Here are some things that I do or am aspiring to do.

1) Install a rain barrel. My husband keeps promising me one but has not quite gotten around to completing this project.
2) My daughter has a small plastic pool she likes to play in. I water all of my potted plants out of it.
3) Leftover water in chicken and rabbit waterers goes on plants when I am dumping it out to put clean water in them.
4) I save cooking water as well as water from the tub and shower as I am heating up the water. I use this to water plants later.
5) I only water my garden 1x weekly and make sure it gets a full inch of water. This allows the roots to grow deeper and sustain the plant better.
6) I mulch around all plants with either wood chips (flower beds) or straw (garden).
7) I use native landscaping plants as much as possible. Once established they are very drought tolerant and require minimal care.
8) All of my annual flowers are in pots spaced throughout the yard. This allows for easy watering.

Hope some of these hints help. We have a long way to go here but each summer we get better at watering more efficiently.

Country Fair

One of the local Catholic churches here in Lexington has a country fair on their grounds. It has become a pretty big event. They have midway rides along with food booths, bingo and bands. We have not been for a few years because of our schedules. This year, we were in town and went last night with friends (leaving the children behind) and then with our youngest daughter Makenzie this afternoon for Children's Day.

We love going to festivals and carnivals through the year. Last night, Chuck and I even rode a few rides. Something we have not done for a while. Usually we go to these things to look at the booths, people watch and listen to the free music. Today, we let Makenzie pick out a couple of rides to do and we ate some ice cream at the end. The rest of the time we just had fun walking around looking at all of the sights.

Now, is the time to find out when your local fairs and festivals are this season. They can be inexpensive entertainment and usually your dollars support a local group or town. 

Garden Lunch

As I was eating my lunch today I realized that all of my side dishes came from our garden. I love when the produce starts coming on and we can eat it. I had strawberries. These are coming to an end but will probably have another smaller crop of them later in the summer. I also had sugar snap peas. These are just coming on and Mary picked a large quantity of them last night. I also had the first kohlrabi of the year. It was still a little warm from the sun outside when I ate it for lunch. When I was outside before, it looked to me like the raspberries are ripening and there may even be a few ready to pick. I will have to check them later. Love the taste of fresh raspberries. 

Today, I had to water for the first time this year. We have had so much rain this spring, it seemed unbelievable that I actually had to water the garden plants but we have not had rain for over a week now. From what the weather man says, it may be a while before more rain is in the forecast. Oh well, I am enjoying seeing some sunshine finally.

Hope you are experiencing harvesting your first garden produce of the season. It is always fun and satisfying to me to eat food that we have grown ourselves. Happy gardening! 

Mom's Surgery Progress

Things are calming back down here. My Mom is home from the hospital and doing well. Got to talk with her for the first time since this all happened today. She is sounding pretty good although she is very sore and probably is looking at a six week recovery period at least. We are replanning our trip to Iowa. It will probably be in a few weeks. Life is looking better.   

Change in Plans

Surprising what a difference 24 hours can make. On my way up to meet my Dad at my sister's in Lafayette, I received a call from my other sister. My Mom was in the hospital and they were preparing her for emergency surgery. She came through surgery well and is going home today from the hospital. She has a little bit of a recovery ahead of her and is not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds for six weeks which will be hard for her during the busy gardening and canning season. I will be going up to see her soon but am glad all is well.

Iowa Bound

I am heading out to Iowa again for a few days. My Dad, Makenzie and I are going this time. It should be a relaxing trip. The weather is not supposed to be too hot and the fishing should be good. I really enjoy going out there. It is so peaceful. His house sits 1/4 mile off the road and is surrounded by fields. I will not be writing on the blog again until the middle of next week as there is no internet service there. I'll write when I am back. Hope you are enjoying the beginning of June and probably summer plans.