Saturday, July 21, 2012

Saturday Farm Journal











On Thursday, with the help of the son of a farmer from church, the broilers were slaughtered, processed, and placed in the freezer. The whole chickens varied in estimated weight from 5-7lbs. We decided to go ahead and stop growing them at 8weeks because the largest broiler died one evening and another good sized one became lame. We ended up with eleven chickens in the freezer for a total of (averaged and estimated) 55lbs of chicken. Not too bad for our first time. Next year we will be doing more, and possibly getting a few turkeys too.

The ducks have been moved to their permanent home. All eleven of them. At first we kept the two batches apart with fences until they were accustomed to each other. Now they get along just fine with only a little bit of dominating pinches now and again. 

We have been eating a lot of blueberries. Every two days we spend two hours picking everything that is tinged red. Once inside they are all blue within a few days and then we freeze them in gallon sized bags. I have already made Upside-down Blueberry Cake and will be making it again tonight to take to a family gathering. I will be sure to take a few photographs and put the recipe up on our other blog after this week-end.

The garden is doing great. Mom has been spending a lot of time each evening weeding, when she isn't picking blueberries. This past week she weeded some tomatoes and potatoes and Dad hilled them. I weeded some tomatoes and peppers, and staked a few tomato plants. We ate green beans out of the garden on Wednesday, they were so yummy. Next week I will be making Green Tomato Relish, since we ate up the last jar a month ago.

Last weeks lists:
  • weed: cabbage and tomatoes
  • water if it doesn't rain
  • continue to watch for bugs
  • replant cucumbers
  • move layers outside and Peking ducks to house
Next weeks list:
  • weed: cabbage and tomatoes
  • stake tomatoes
  • pick tomatoes
  • make relish
  • pick blueberries



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