In the Garden
After that, I cut up some yarrow flower heads...
Last week, I made a dust bath for the replacement chicks and put some of the herb mixture on top to encourage them to explore the dust bath.
This year all my family got a "Make Your Own Grape Soda" kit for Christmas. It was really grape flavored kombucha. I thought it would be a fun activity for my nieces and nephews to make.
I started making kombucha for myself a few years ago in an attempt to reduce my Diet Coke habit. Kombucha is fermented tea that originated in China or Japan. It is made by adding bacteria, yeast and sugar to tea and allowing it to ferment. The bacteria and yeast is a living symbiotic colony and is called a SCOBY. Some bacteria gets into the kombucha and provides probiotics in the drink. The tea is also rich in antioxidants and other nutrients. There are lots of benefits to drinking tea.
I have a a continuous brew system. I take out the brewed kombucha from the bottom and add fresh sweet, tea to the top each day (the sugar in the sweet tea helps to feed the SCOBY). Then, I add flavoring (which is usually left over jelly/jam) and put the kombucha through a second ferment in a closed bottle to make it bubbly. Here is a pic of my set up. I keep it on top of a water heater so it stays warm.
Every 3 months, I clean out the whole system and re-start it. I cut up the SCOBY and usually just feed it to the girls. They love it!
This time, I cut the SCOBY up and distributed it to my family in their Christmas gifts!Here is another gift I gave out this past Christmas. Eggnog truffles! I thought they looked cute in the little egg carton!
Did you make any homemade gifts this past Christmas? I have already started some for this next Christmas but need some ideas for 2022...
~Denise
Joshua got COVID. We got the call last Wednesday from his counselor. He was put into their quarantine unit for 10 days. We were told that he was not displaying any symptoms. I guess a couple of the teachers tested positive over the weekend and so they decided to test all the boys and Joshua was the only one in his unit that tested positive. We were also told that he could still call us but we have NOT received any phone calls from him. We were really looking forward to talking to him on Christmas! We were also told that IF he did develop symptoms, someone would call and let us know and we have not had any calls saying that things were worse. I guess Joshua was actually happy about going to quarantine because there is no school there and they get to play video games all day.
On a positive note, he continues to do great with school and his treatment at Benchmark. He is really maturing and is looking forward to completing high school a semester early. He wants to graduate in January 2022 and come home at that time. Yes, that is another year. He continues to work on his therapy goals. This is NOT his favorite thing for him to do but he is trying hard to get it completed. I did get a call from Telligen last Wednesday (Telligen has contracted with the state of Idaho to provide mental health services) asking about his discharge date of May 2021. Mark and I were busy with egg deliveries so I did not have a chance to answer the phone and this information was left on a voice mail. SO, I am not sure exactly about what is going to happen with this situation (May 2021 vs January 2022 discharge) but I will keep you posted when we know more...
I ordered my garden seeds for next year in September. I just didn't want to take any chances with there being any seed shortages. We added another raised bed to the garden this fall and filled it with chicken/duck compost! We usually make one new raised bed each year. Last year, we made one for the strawberries. I am REALLY looking forward to some strawberries this year! Finally! I have tried raising strawberries for the past 3 years and have not had any luck but I know that they are finally going to make it! The new raised bed is on the right in this pic...I am going to put broccoli, cauliflower, and potatoes in the new bed!
I am trying to do more seed saving. I kept some seeds from these sunflowers. These were all volunteers that grew in the garden! I have already fed these to the chickens and ducks...after I saved some seeds, of course...This is going to be a list of the items I put up this past year. It is really just for me but I like to put it in the blog so I can refer back to it year after year. I just finished canning right before Thanksgiving! I didn't think the garden was going to do well but I was pleasantly surprised by everything that I got put up. I did have to buy some hot peppers this year because mine were just really lagging. Also, there was no corn, broccoli or cauliflower to freeze this year. Other than that, I think we did pretty good. I bought a shelving unit and put it in a closet in the basement and loaded it up with quart jars of food (the pint jars are in a different storage area).
1. Be flexible with your business plan. Our entire business plan revolved around selling at the Moscow Farmers Market. With the COVID-19 taking over in the early spring, the start of the Market was delayed and completely reorganized to allow for social distancing and we were drowning in eggs! Doing a delivery route was Back up Plan #3 but it became our main selling strategy. The bonus is that Mark LOVES doing the egg delivery! It allows him to have a more active role in the business. Having an online storefront was not even ON the business plan and now we have one! In fact, I was terrified at the idea of a website to sell eggs but we HAD to put one together to be a part of the Motor-In Moscow Farmers Market and now I love it! Also, we are getting everything lined up so that we can sell the duck eggs at an actual storefront, the Moscow Food Co-op! AND we provide eggs to a local farmer for her farm stand! Grateful for new opportunities that turned out to be successful for the egg business!