Garden Living; The Best Leafy Greens For The Garden

Garden Living

The Best Leafy Greens For The Garden

yuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy I’ll 

Swiss Chard and Kale, and even Beet Greens

We prefer swiss chard in our Maine vegetable garden for many reasons. It is so much more desirable then spinach due to its size and much tastier then bok choy.  

1. The large leaves make it easy to harvest.  Making a full meal of spinach leaves takes an exhaustive amount of time, not so with Swiss chard or beet greens. 

2. Both kale and Swiss chard are very hardy plants and we continue harvesting these leaves into winter. 

3. Sautéed with some garlic and onion, Swiss chard is delicious and the kids are even asking for seconds. 

4. It’s a very colorful veggie choice with a rainbow assortment of stem colors making it beautiful both growing in the garden and cooked on your plate.

5. Swiss chard is packed with vitamins K, A, and C as well as magnesium, potassium, iron, and fiber. 

The nice thing about growing beets is being able to enjoy the whole plant.  We eat the beet greens when the plants are still fairly small and enjoy a nice red beet at the end. 

 Beets stain everything red, so they are a colorful option full of fiber and folate (vitamin B9).  Later on we harvest large beets; they are a sweet vegetable.

A big bowl of chopped kale ready for the pot.  One of my favorite recipes from my Portuguese family; kale soup is simple and healthy.

We decided to can the soup so that it won’t take up precious fridge space and it will be ready to share on a cool Autumn night.

 Spring Cleaning on the Farm

Best fertilizer is the one you got.  Justin brought a couple truck loads of the sheep manure and many bucket loads of chicken manure to the garden.  A smelly job, but good for the earth.  

We found a place for the ladder.  AKA we gave Pepere Larry a couple extra odds and ends to fix up after he put up the new upstairs door.

He made the little door to match the large lower door.  It lets in a good amount more of light into the workshop  upstairs.  

The barn so far this Spring 2021.  If you do not remember what it looked like before, check out the post on The Barn; The finishing touches.

The roosters are not getting along this year as they had previously.  We have four beautiful and family friendly roosters.  It as a difficult discussion, but we have decided to give away Angus and Carliss to separate homes.  We’re hoping Jupiter and Cameron can share the rest of the space.  Please let me know if you’re interested in adopting a free rooster.  These are the two pictured above: Angus is above Carliss.

A full flock photo.  The boys are up front Lambert and Boston.  Ivy with her bell bottoms is behind them.  Nala and Natalie the Katahdin ewes to her right and the Southdown ewes to her left and in the back.  Do you know what got them to line up perfectly like this?

Yes.  They were meeting our new dog Boomer for the first time.  He sounds like his name, that’s why they all startled together. Boomer is a two year old hound mix that we adopted from the Portland Animal Shelter.

Justin has also been clearing out a new patch to the left of the barn.  This year we’ll probably have turkeys there. You can see the new open space and the large pile of lumbar up front.  I’m excited for the turkeys because we’re getting a heritage breed.  So they will be ver pretty.  Well also keep a few for breeding.  Expect lots of photos.  This spring we’re also getting some meat birds; it’s been a while since our last set.

I love early Spring flowers, it just really solidifies spring for me.  Happy Easter everyone!

Alexia made me these flowers from egg cartons and pipe cleaners.  She envisioned this craft on her own.  It was a great birthday present.  Save your quarters, she’ll be making a few bouquets worth for craft fair season.

Ivy our Little Lamb

 Introducing Ivy our Little Lamb

Our Castonguay This’N’That Family Farm just had some great big learning experiences with the lambing process.

Alexia was there at 11:30 at night on Saturday, February 20th for the birth and the newborn care of little Ivy.  Along with myself and husband, Justin.  This photo is right after we cleared her nose and dried her up after birth.  There is a red hue because the heat lamps are on.

We are definitely exhausted from the checkups and the labor and delivery, but we are also so thrilled to have a thriving baby lamb in our barn.

I wanted to share with you all as soon as possible the good news of her birth.  She had a quick check the next day by the farmers who we got her mama from and she is 12 pounds.  Note: (we need a little scale).

For a baby lamb, that’s great.  She’s staying warm with her little sweater: hand knit by Ann Salisbury for our youngest son. Thank you Ann; he grew out of it just in time.  We have two warming lamps set up over the pen and she is drinking her milk very well.

The Southdown sheep Mama named Dolly, or as I now like to call her: the Dolly Mama, is doing a great job caring for her newborn lamb.

Lambs have the highest risk of death in the first 48 hours after birth, so we are checking on Ivy and Dolly often.  Our other Southdown sheep Rosie, lost her baby and we are doing everything possible to give Ivy a better chance despite the freezing temperatures!

At the time of this writing, we are just about the 24 hour mark and she is going strong. I am going to use the information we gained from this experience to put together a learning post about lambing from the early signs to the newborn care.  There will be videos and one small graphic clip of the delivery.  

Link to video of Ivy on Pinterest 

Here is one snippet of a video of our lively little Ivy... I’m working with tech support to have it show here, but it takes a while... in the meantime try this link.

Having six of my own babies, definitely helped me connect with our laboring ewe and new baby.  The pediatric experience helped too, but I’ve never been part of a delivery team, so this angle of birth was different.

The other sheep in the flock showed their concern for Dolly during labor and seemed to support her.  They were also interested in meeting little Ivy, especially after she started bleating.  Rosie had been doing well since her loss, but the addition of Ivy has brought on some sadness; she understands now what she lost.

It was such a thrill to be there to help this ewe and newborn lamb.  Come back again soon to get more updates on our newest friend and more details of our busy night.

While you are here, please mark yourself a follower in the top right corner of the blog!  And if you have any thing you want to share, comment below; we want to hear how far our backyard farm life is traveling and we want our readers to see too!   Comments are screened before showing up on this blog.  Check back in a couple days and it will be up.

What’s Two More?

I wasn’t born a farmer.  I didn’t dream of being one when I was a little girl.  It didn’t cross my mind while I was making my way through college.  It started as a slow growth like a seed being planted in the earth. First the large vegetable garden, then some blueberry bushes, and wouldn’t chickens be nice.  Our little seed of a farm grew to a seedling when some  years later  pigs seemed like a good addition, as they most certainly have. Now we have this growing herd of sheep.

Rosie and Dolly the Southdown sheep have joined our family farm.  They were both very shy their first night. We are expecting little lambs this February because they have been bred.  We can’t wait to update you when that happens.

It took a while for the new sheep to get friendly with our two Katahdins, but they did not fight or get aggressive as we expected.

They spent a lot of time in separate parts of the pasture.

Now they all spend more time together and are beginning to act like a herd.  

Justin’s staycation this October has been very fruitful.  A whole new pasture has been born behind the barn.  The sheep will have a pen in the big warm barn this winter.

Thank you for checking out our new additions and while you’re here, mark yourself a follower of our Castonguay This’N’That Family Farm.

Welcome Dolly and Rosie!

Garden Living; Peas In a Pod

Garden Living; Peas In a Pod

How we grow and process our peas

Seedlings in the garden:

 

• We put up our posts and fencing first; you can also use a trellis.

• We plant 2 rows of peas, one on each side of the fence 1 inch apart and 1 inch deep.  

• Weed early to give your plants a chance to root.

Caring for the pea plants

Chicken Breeds; The Unique Ones and the Dependable

Backyard Chicken Breeds

The Unique Ones and The Dependable in our backyard

A chicken yard is certainly more fun when you have some handsome hens scratching around.  We really enjoy a spunky looking chicken; they hold a special spot in the flock and our hearts.  Most people begin raising chickens in their backyard for the fresh eggs. It doesn’t take too long to realize how much fun chickens really are and how it’s so easy to start raising chickens just because you love them so much.  We have always had the “feather foot” here or the “puff top” there mixed in with our more practical breeds. Since we live in Maine, we choose weather hardy chickens and good egg layers.  This year we added a new group of chicks much different then our past flocks.  Thanks to another backyard farmer, Glamour Chickens, we have introduced a fun variety of beautiful breeds to our farm.

The photo below shows the chicks on their arrival day to our farm. We were so excited to see how these girls looked full grown.  You can keep cruising down this blog to see more pictures, but the video above shows you how each chicken matured in a video format.

Serama-Cemani Mix this one is named Carless

 

Silkie-Sultan mix “Sulkies” named Angus and Isabelle

All of the chicks came with little bands on their feet to help with identification of breed and gender.  We clipped them off easily once they moved into their new coop.  These two chicks are Angus and Isabelle.. see below for their updated look a couple weeks later.

Lavendar Orpingtons

We did get a few of these birds.  They are very dependable egg layers.  As full size hens, they will be gray with a hint of lavendar.  They are a particularly popular breed of laying hens and average 200 medium sized eggs that are light brown in color. The one featured here is named Morgan.

There is also an Aracauna in our flock.

These young chickens are already getting up on their third floor perch by the fresh air.  I’m pretty impressed that these younguns were able to do that. And look at these photos below; Alexia made a swing for these new fancy chicks to play with.  They seemed to enjoy their first time giving it a try.

Jupiter is an Ayam Cemani Sizzle mix 

This baby chick is very unique and should grow up to be a curly dark hen. 

Angus Napping by Alexia

Inkie the Sulkie reminds me of the birds in Rio. Photo by Acadia.

Fuzzy Mozart: photo by Acadia and entered in 4H exhibit hall.

Fuzzy Mozart and the other chicks take a trip outside their coop and around the backyard

Jupiter up on the tower of the play set.  He was contemplating jumping off, so this photo shoot was cut short

Carless on the upturned wheelbarrow, such a natural place for a chick to hang out at the farm.

Fuzzy Mozart, getting a little blue on her cheek

                      The twins Abigail and Isabelle, we tell them apart by the color of their beaks.

Angus going for a walk.

Check back on this post... I’m sure you’re as interested as I am about how these girls will look as they age.   This year, the kids have been excited to meet this fun flock of girls.  They are such a great addition to the farm.

Cameron is a rooster strutting his stuff.

Jupiter, not all black anymore. He’s our feisty rooster!

The many nameless, Lavendar Orpingtons.  Only Morgan is named, she is plumper then the rest.  I’ll catch you a photo of her later and add it.  Morgan sleeps on the grain barrel at night.

Fuzzy Mozart all grown up: what a little fuzz ball she is.

Inky and Isabelle 

Cameron

Carless, we think is also a rooster.