Vegetable Gardening - In Containers!

May 31, 2009 - This post is for all of you who have told me that you would LIKE to grow vegetables, but you don't have space for a garden. We had a lot of extra plants this year and nowhere in the garden to put them - so for once I understood your problem... what to do?

Luckily, we have a little deck out of our one room house, and I quickly realized that a few vegetables were all it needed to make it my new favorite room! So I picked up a few cheapo pots and a couple bags of potting soil and here's what I ended up with -

Sooo easy, cheap, and hopefully, fruitful! This is my first time trying vegetables in containers, but I will keep you posted on how it works, so that you can all try it next year. Surely you can find one sunny spot out your door for one precious tomato plant??

Of course, if I was going to enjoy this new space, we needed a table and chairs, so that was my next, slightly more expensive, task. But it makes me soooo happy on warm sunny mornings! Plus it now doubles as my outdoor potting area! :)

Yes Please

May 16, 2009 -


I'll take one FAT pile of that arugula with my supper.

Too Big!

May 16, 2009 - I never anticipated having this problem - many of our plants are getting too big for their own good - These tomatoes are sooo ready to go into the ground, but the ground is not ready for them! Did I start them too early? Did we treat them too well?

We've had no choice but to put things in the ground early and just keep our fingers crossed that it's not too cold for them. We've rearranged what's going where in the garden beds because these tomatoes were supposed to go in the row that currently has our peas and spinach - which aren't even ready to harvest yet, let alone dig up. So far we're making it work, but jeez! Who would have thought THIS would be our problem.

Little Garden Helper

May 16, 2009 - Today Joe and I went over to the garden to do some work, and we were lucky enough to have a little garden helper! Who knew our neice Natalie was a natural in the garden!

To Our Friends At Creekside

May 16, 2009 -

Our friends at Creekside posted a comment the other day asking for a construction update - probably because we're never at the property and the 'site' hasn't moved past the final stages of demolition in the past several months... I'm sorry for the lack of house-building info lately, but honestly it's just because there ISN'T any info!

Yes, we are still building a house. Yes, we would like it to happen this year. No, there is not a foundation contractor about to show up on our property next week.

This house is very special and important to both of us, so it's not something we could really jump into too quickly. Last spring I was hugely optimistic about what we would accomplish right after we bought the property. But over the past year, our ideas about what exactly to build have changed a million times. Maybe we're just waiting for one idea to stick long enough for it to feel right? As you might already know, Joe and I are not huge consumers. We want this house to last us for a good while and we want to be happy in it. So we're thinking everything through. Plus, there's always so much going on! At the moment, I'm not quite sure how anybody gets a house built and has a life at the same time...

The latest house designs have been either timber frame or prefab. Deciding whether or not to put in a basement has been a HUGE issue. We currently have a lovely sunny loft in the middle of the house. We'll have one bedroom, a bathroom, and a spacious office on the north side of the house; kitchen, dining room, and living room on the south. Huge windows on the south side for passive solar. Hopefully a deck? But very few things are set in stone.

I promise we'll build our house, and when it starts happening, I'm going to document every last bit of the process. We can't wait to live there, enjoy the feeling of living on our OWN property for once, put in some permanent gardens and chicken coops, and hang out with our very cool friends at Creekside. :)

If You Have to Drink Soda - Drink This

May 16, 2009 - I've been trying to avoid soda for years. I used to stay away from it because in order to stay my ideal weight, I've always had to be calorie conscious. We all know that if there's one way to add extra calories to your diet, it's to drink a soda every day. I'm not a health freak though, so when I occasionally had a desperate craving for soda, I reached for the regular, not the diet. Diet Soda was a thing my mother never let us drink. Of all the things she cares about, this one she made very clear. Aspartame would kill you. She put the fear of aspartame in me at a good young age.

A couple years ago, however, I became aware of high fructose corn syrup. And when I became aware of it, it became equally, if not more terrifying to me than aspartame. I truly believe that HFCS is what has made America as fat as it is. This created a huge dilemma for. You see, sometimes I just REALLY like a soda. With pizza, for example, it's the only natural complement. So what's a girl to do when all the sodas on the market have one poisonous substance in them or another?? Half the time I'd opt for regular, the other half for diet. Either way, I was completely guilt ridden and regretted my decision after it was consumed.

Enter Blue Sky sodas made with cane sugar -

It's not the only soda brand available without HFCS, just the one that I happened to pick up at my very own local Hannaford. I brought home a six-pack, just to try out and see if in a pinch, it could fill in for a Pepsi - it totally passed the test. It tastes cleaner somehow, and doesn't leave my body feeling gross the way Coke and Pepsi do. It doesn't have caffeine either, which is a good change for me. As much as I've read about why HFCS is bad, I've also read that substituting other sugars isn't any healthier. So I realize that this product is still not a 'healthy' choice - sugar is still sugar. But at least human beings have been consuming cane sugar forever, so I have a little bit more faith that, in moderation, it's not going to kill me. Plus, we all get enough corn in our diet - it's in literally every processed food that we eat - so to kick one corn product from my diet makes me a happy girl.

Needless to say, I've decided to keep just a few of these sodas on hand for any time one of my 'soda cravings' pops up. Now I can treat myself to a sweet carbonated beverage with a little less guilt, and I'm that much closer to being completely high fructose corn syrup free!

Birthday Bliss

May 11, 2009 - Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday and it was perfect. It started with a long walk with my husband, followed by eggs and morels for breakfast (Joe had a few left hidden away in the refrigerator - I got my last nibble after all!) -

Then we went to the first farmer's market of the season where we picked up some fresh spinach, mushrooms, and some local cheeses. Next we went shopping for my birthday gift - a reclining lawn chair so that I can sit outside and read in the sunshine - heaven!

And then it was time for a huge lobster dinner with my whole family! I couldn't believe that everyone came, what with it being Mother's Day and all. But apparently all you have to do is say the word lobster and people show up!

Here's me sporting my "Me Me Me" pin which I gave to my mother for Mother's Day and she ceremoniously gave back to me at 5:30, when the attention was turned to me -

And me putting together my birthday pound cake with strawberries and butter cream frosting -

It was a fantastic birthday - thank you to all my family and friends who spent the evening with me or called/wrote to wish me a happy day.

And a huge thank you to my wonderful husband, who treated me like a queen all day and cooked my morels and lobster for me!

The Moral of Morels

May 9, 2009 - I have found a new obsession. The morel mushroom.

A few days ago I was at home in quite a funk - it had been raining for days on end and I was beginning to wonder about the meaning of life (such is the nature of my dependency on sunshine). Joe called in the middle of my sulking to let me know that he was in the woods hunting for morels - he had run into a friend who was generous enough to share his spot with him - that's an opportunity you never pass up. Besides, it's always suggested that you take an experienced mushroom hunter with you when foraging for wild mushrooms for the first time. As we all know, there are a lot of mushrooms that you DON'T want to eat.

Anyway, when Joe came in the door with a bag full of this luxurious delicacy, I was completely uninterested. My lack of enthusiasm didn't hinder his though, and he immediately cooked some in a huge puddle of butter. I acted all cool and collected as I took my first taste. Not bad. I casually asked for a plate of my own and the more I ate, the more I realized how unique the flavor was - how earthy, and meaty, yet delicate the mushrooms were - but I didn't let on how much I liked them or share in Joe's excitement like I had over the ramps. When I decide I'm in a bad mood, I tend to be firmly commited to it - one of my least attractive qualities.

The next morning the mood had STILL not passed, and Joe enjoyed the true breakfast of champions - ramps, morels, and fresh eggs -

I was in a rush to get to work and passed on enjoying this ridiculously rare treat of a meal.

A few days later, when I was good and ready to be more excited about morels, Joe and I went out looking for more. Thing is - they're not exactly easy to find. Plus, we're definitely towards the end of the season, if not past it. We went home empty-handed and chances are, I won't get another taste of morels until next spring - and even then - only if we're lucky enough to find them again.

And so I've learned a very hard lesson. I missed out on enjoying an extremely seasonal treat because I was grumpy. I didn't embrace the splendid moment that was right in front of me until it was too late. Morels don't wait for moods to pass. But don't worry. Next year - when the morels are ready, I'll be ready.

Another One of His Many Skills...

May 9, 2009 -

This was Joe's birthday gift to my grandmother -

Rock balancing is something he's been doing for years. These are temporary scupltures, as there is no glue or adhesive involved. He literally balances the rocks on end. Ask him about it sometime... it's pretty cool.

Caged Bird

May 9, 2009 -

Aren't you normally supposed to build the bird cage from the outside in order to avoid these situations? Guess I have to rescue that crazy husband of mine again...

Just kidding of course. You can tell by this big old grin that he's thrilled to be inside the new chicken tractor he's building.

This contraption has been in the works in our driveway for a few days now. But today it looks like it's getting closer to completion. I'll take a picture once it's finished and let you know how it's working out.

May Madness Begins

May 3, 2009 - May is the month that make all others seem like a walk in the park. In my family, May is full of family gatherings - it all starts today with my grandmother's 80th birthday party(HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!), with Joe's grandmother's, mine, my sister's, and my sister-in-law's soon to follow. Throw in Mother's Day, and you have a celebration for almost every woman in my family all in one month.

So it was never convenient for my personal life that May also happens to be the month that everything happens in the garden. May is when all the plants we have left in our greenhouse, as well as all the vegetables that will be direct seeded after the last frost, go into the prepared garden beds. It's the month that the weeds start taking off and the month that all the seedlings are particularly vulnerable to drying out, and therefore need to be checked on daily. Suffice it to say, things will probably get a little hairy around here in the coming weeks. So for today's post I'll give a general update on all things Zen Acres, so that we're all up to date before the madness sets in.

For starters, the plants in the garden are doing exceptionally well. We've had fantastic spring weather with lots of rainy days. This time of year I pray for rain during the week (so that I don't have to water before I go to work for the day) and pray for sun on the weekends (so that I can work outside and soak up the rays). So far, mother nature has been cooperating quite nicely.

The peas are looking happy -
All the onions have sprouted (we'll be harvesting every other plant to eat as spring onions, leaving more room for the others to grow nice fat bulbs) -

And the broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale has all held its own quite well since it's transplanting two weeks ago -
The arugula could not be any happier. Doesn't it look like a soft comfy blanket? If the patch were bigger, I might be tempted to lay down on it...
Last weekend I transplanted all the tomatoes out of the 4-packs which they were quickly outgrowing, and into individual peat pots. Here's what they looked like immediately after the upgrade - If you know Joe very well, you know that whatever space he is given, he will immediately fill it up. Plants are very much like Joe in this way... you give em more space, and they take it. Here's what the tomatoes look like today -

It was the same case for the basil, which doubled in size after I gave each plant a bit more room -

The peppers are the most impressive to me. Last year our peppers did horribly. There were a lot of reason for this - none of our plants started out particularly impressive, as they didn't get nearly as much sun as they would have liked since we didn't have a good green house set up. But we also did our pepper plants an injustice last year by interplanting them with the tomatoes. The tomatoes took off so fast that they threw all the little pepper plants in shade and then proceeded to strangle them with their unrestrained vines. I swear, our pepper plants this year are already as big as they ever got last year -

And how about the chickens, you ask? The babies are doing GREAT. They grow so fast and although they're voices haven't changed yet, they're definitely acting like grown chickens, running around the yard all day eating bugs, seeking cover when hawks circle in the sky, and quietly roosting at night. They demand more space by the day, and Joe has a hard time keeping up with them. Here is the latest day time arrangement, which seems like it should last a good while -
At night they go into a section of the coop for the big hens, which is not shown here. We still keep them separate, but I have a feeling that integration is imminent.

Speaking of the hens, they are producing like crazy - We get between 7 and 11 eggs a day out of our 12 birds. We're selling them to friends and family for $3 a dozen (if you're interested, do let us know!) and we eat a whole mess of them ourselves. We probably eat between 2 and 3 eggs every day of the week. Fried, scrambled, hard-boiled, deviled, baked in custard - you name it, we eat it. Free range eggs are much healthier than eggs from caged hens, so we don't restrict ourselves. They are higher in omega 3's, lower in cholesterol, and higer in vitamins. Check out this Mother Earth News article to read about why you should be buying your eggs from people like us - http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx

We've had a few problems with keeping our birds safe lately. It's a very delicate balace the free-range chicken farmer has to find between keeping the birds safe and letting them live a happy and free life. They are prey, after all, so there are a lot of animals wandering around who would just love to eat them. You expect to encounter issues with foxes or other wild predators. But surprisingly we've had most of our problems coming from neighboring dogs. While Joe and I are quite fond of dogs, we do believe that dog owners should be responsible for keeping their dogs from eating our animals. Last week we had an attack that left two of our hens wounded. They seem to be recovering, but it's always a bit stressful to come home to piles of feathers all around the yard. I am always tempted to keep the birds safe by keeping them caged. But Joe always stands up for their freedom. Besides, we've heard many stories about wild animals making their way into a chicken coop, at which point the chickens cannot escape and a mass slaughter ensues. A case can be made that the flock is more likely to survive if they are loose and able to scatter, run, and hide.

We haven't quite made up our minds on how to best handle these issues. Joe's working on building a chicken tractor that would keep them confined, but still on the grass. One day we'd like to get some dogs that we would train to protect the flock. But for now, our chickens are still wandering freely about the yard, scratching and rolling in the dirt, or sometimes just lounging in the grass -