A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment.-American Proverb

Sharing Knowledge

Many of the arts necessary to live a more sustainable life style are rapidly disappearing in our materialistic world. Much can be learned through books and the internet but they still don't replace having someone actually walk you through the steps and be a resource person. If we are going to spread the word of living a sustainable life style we also must take the time to share knowledge with people who are just starting out. That is how the mission spreads to others.

Sharing your skills is easy. I am very open about our lifestyle. I do not force it on others and make them feel like they have to do it. I do, however, share my everyday happenings with others. When our fruit all came on at once I talked about what I was canning that day. I had extra fruit so I shared with friends so they could taste how much better it tasted over store bought. I share antidotes about our backyard chickens. I talk about my garden and share extra produce and canned goods with others. I will give people a few eggs if they stop by to see the chickens. When people ask me questions, I answer them. I feel people can sense the passion in me with what I do.

The last step is being open to share your knowledge. Take the time to answer questions of those who are starting out. On Wednesday night, I invited a friend over who was interested in learning how to can. We made plum jam together and I shared what we made together with her. I gathered an order of baby chicks this spring from people who were interested in starting backyard flocks with just a few chickens. This allowed them to get the breeds that they wanted as well as the number of chicks they wanted. Two peoples' chicks I raised through the brooder stage. The only charge I did for this was the amount it cost me. Two new people started backyard flocks this year because of this.

I encourage you to share your knowledge with those who want it. Be open about your lifestyle. Help others get on the sustainable living band wagon. It will only help all of us as we take better care of the earth. 

Rooster

Even though we pay to make sure we have just hens here at our house, we have acquired a rooster. Sexing baby chicks is not always an exact science. A couple of weeks ago. Mr. Rooster started his pathetic attempts at crowing. It sounded much like the adolescent boys as their voices change. His crow has gotten stronger over the past few weeks though and now he is sounding more like the male rooster he will be someday. His pretty tail feathers are starting to grow in and they are beautiful. He is starting to herd the hens and "protect" them from us. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to have roosters within the city limits so he will eventually have to meet an untimely death. We are hoping though that he does not get too obnoxious before it is time to butcher the rest of the chickens. Today as he was crowing, my husband told him that if he was smart he would be a little more subdued about his crowing or his time would be coming sooner than later. We shall see how it turns out but in the meantime it is fun to watch his adolescent ways with the hens in his enclosure. 

Blessings

Today, there was a family Bar-B-Q at the camp Mary is working at this summer. We have all been looking forward to this day to spend time with Mary and share in her experience. She called us her entourage today but I could tell she felt very loved and supported by all her family who came for the event. All in all there were 10 of us that came just for the day. We traveled between 1 to 4 hours one way to spend the day with her. It reminded me how truly we are blessed by the loving, supportive family that we have. My children are privileged to have these people in their lives as well as I have been. Many people do not get this luxury.

I also visited with old friends from when I was a camp counselor. This was an important part of my faith and values formation in my late teenage years. As I sat and caught up with these people I realized that the circle had come full round. They now serve as administrators, board members and camp supporters. They have already touched my daughter's life in the few short weeks she has been there. Like me in years past, they putting their footprint on my life.

All in all I realized that even amid the storms of this life and the sometime detours on paths that were not so good for me that all of these people anchored me and I was always able to return to my roots because of their influence in my life. They had helped me hold fast to my values and life choices. I realized today that I am so truly blessed to have had these wonderful people in my life and I am glad that my daughter also has them in her life.

Fruit Production

We have harvested all of the fruit crop except our blackberries. They will be producing for quite a bit of time yet. Our grapes look good and are getting bigger. Our strawberries are starting to bloom for the next round. I have spent the week catching up with other chores after our massive canning sessions last week when a bunch of the fruit came on at once. Now, I am enjoying the quick break before my tomatoes start coming on. Today, I harvested my first cherry tomatoes and boy did they taste great. The bird netting seemed to work in protecting our crops from the birds. Even with all the work last week, growing fruit can be very rewarding. It tends to be more expensive and it cannot be beat eating it fresh off the vine. Hopefully, if you are not growing fruit currently you will give it a try.

Can Good Organizing

Today, with a couple of  helpers I got our can goods organized for the season. I usually try to do this in the spring but things were just too crazy for me to get to it. Step one of my organization plan begins when I actually make the can goods. Along with marking what is in the container, I also put the month and year on the lid. Next, I put all like products together on the basement shelves were designated for can goods only. For example, all the fruit products are in an area and all the tomato products in another area. In the spring I move all uneaten can goods from the previous year into the cupboard upstairs that I have set aside for this. My family knows that these are to be used first. Lastly, I count how many of each product I have left over. This tells me how many I should make for this season. These simple steps help me keep down wasted products and also keeps things organized so they are easy to find. How do you organize your can goods?

Necessity

One more picture from facebook to share. This one makes you think about what really is necessary in life.

Real Riches

One of my friends posted this on facebook today. I had to share it on my blog. It is so true and yet how soon we all forget.

Summer Fruit Harvest

The summer fruit harvest continues at our home along with a few vegetables. We are now getting cherries, apricots and blackberries. The raspberries and peaches are pretty much done for the year.  I have been making lots of jam including berry (combo of blackberry and raspberry), cherry and apricot. I am going to try to can apricots tomorrow. I loved canned ones from the store and decided to try to can my extras. It appears easy and very similar to canning peaches. The best part is you do not have to peel them just pit them. Will see how it goes tomorrow.

We are also starting to get the first of our late spring and early summer crops. We have eaten our second head of fresh broccoli. There is nothing like cutting it off the plant, cooking it slightly and then eating it. It is so good. We are also getting kohlrabies, onions and potatoes. My cilantro is going to bloom soon so it is time to harvest the plants and dry the leaves. That is on the agenda for tomorrow. It is really smelling and tasting good around here. I love when the fruits and vegetables start producing. Hope you are enjoying produce from your garden. 

Abundant Fruit

This year has been a banner year for us for fruit. We seem to have everything ripening at the same time this year. Today, Chuck and I picked raspberries, apricots, cherries and blackberries. We spent quite a while this afternoon getting all of the fruit picked. It has been so much fun picking our own fruit from our trees and bushes. Now, it comes time to either eat or preserve all of it. That will be my job for the evening and tomorrow. In the meantime, I am enjoying the wonderful smells of fresh fruit from my kitchen. Yum! Yum!

Edible Landscaping-Getting Started

With my large fruit crop this year, I have had several people ask me how to get started with edible landscaping.  The first thing I did was research. I looked at what best grew down here and the kind of light that it needed. Next. I assessed my available space and landscaping. It was easy for me to widen my beds to add more plants. Next, I decided on what kind of things I really wanted to have.

The next step was plant placement.. This was the most complicated step. This took in looking at lighting and spacing along with plant needs. One way to do this is to get graph paper and lay it out on paper. First put in the current landscaping that you are going to keep especially trees and bushes. Next,  put in plants you want to plant. I started with the bushes and trees and went from there. I am a visual person so my next step was to lay it out in my yard using different things laying around the house. First, I put flowerpots where I wanted to plant fruit and nut trees. I visualized them there at different times of the day to check sunlight. It also let me see if I was going to like the arrangement.  After I was satisfied with tree placement I put the larger plants in such as fruit bushes and permanent herbs. I used the same procedure with this.

After I was satisfied with all of this, I developed a long term plan. I looked at varieties of plants that did well in our area. You can get this information from your local extension agency. Our state has a website that you can go on to obtain that information. Many fruit and nut trees need two varieties to pollinate each other. I also looked at this information. I also looked at what our budget could afford. Each year for a few years, we would dig up an area and I would put the trees and bushes in designated for that area. The next year we would repeat the process until all the beds were completed.

The last part was interspersing perennial plants within the landscaping. I intermix many flowers and herbs within my beds. I have also left large areas open with borders of flowers around them for annual vegetables. Good ones for this are squashes, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and other similar plants.

We live in an addition within the city limits. You may ask how my neighbors like my edible landscaping. I would tell you that I have people stop and tell me how beautiful my beds are all the time. They are usually surprised to hear that many of my plants in them are also edible. I will try to post pictures later of some of the areas. to give you some idea of what it looks like.  

Currants

A couple of years ago, I planted a currant bush at our house. It is a fruit we never had growing up and it tends to not be listed in cookbooks as much. This year the bush has produced a large amount of fruit so it has left me searching for what to do with them. They are white currants and most of the recipes I find are for red or black currants. After an extensive internet and canning book search last night I came up with a couple of recipes. I will let you know how they go and taste. If they work out I will publish the recipes on my blog. If you have any favorite white current recipes to share please leave them in my comments section on the blog. 

Fruit

Our peaches and raspberries are prolific this year and we seem to be winning our war against the birds with our raspberries. We have been harvesting 1-2 pints of berries every other day. They are mostly are black raspberries as that is our established patch but we getting a few of the yellow ones as well. They both are so sweet and delicious. We are also getting all kinds of peaches off of our tree out front. We have been picking a large strainer full every couple of days. There are many more to go. The currants are all ripe as well.

The next in line for ripening are the apricots and the blackberries. The apricots are very close. I had one yesterday. It had good flavor but was not quite ripe enough. The blackberries will probably be ready in another week or so. Our pear and plum trees do not seem to have fruit on them again this year.

Growing our own fruit is so much fun. We put in this new edible landscaping about 3 years ago. This is the first year that we have seen regular crops from our trees and bushes. Not only does the fruit taste good but it also saves us a lot of money. We have even had some extras to share with family and friends. 

Transitions

May was a month of some major transitions for me. My oldest daughter graduated from high school and is now living and working four hours away for the summer. In the fall she will begin her college career. We are now a mostly 3 person household versus 4. The other major transition is for the first time in 23 years we now have family living close by. Over Memorial Day weekend, my youngest sister moved to Lexington. It has already been nice having her so near by. Although both of these major transitions are good, they do not come without some stress and work but I will treasure each one though.