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Archive for the ‘heirloom fruit’ Category

I’m always amazed by the sheer volume of raw food it takes to make sauce of any kind.  Our Yellow Transparent apples finally started to ripen.  I didn’t get them thinned (like I ever do) so they are small to medium, and plentiful.  Usually I like to make chunky applesauce, but I don’t like to peel [...]

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I’m dating myself again, I like Ted Nugent, too.
Ahhh, fruit what can I say?  Everybody likes fruit in one form or another.  We eat a lot of fruit.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner, it seems like we never have enough.  We buy extra fruit of different kinds that don’t grow well here, like apricots, nectarines and [...]

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My Mom, ca 1920
 
I found this photo in one of my Mom’s purses after she died.  There was no date on it, but unlike ALL of our other old photos, something was written on this one - JUST A SNAP AT CHERRY TIME.   It was such a tiny picture, measuring 1″ x 2″, it enlarged nicely to 5″ [...]

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In spite of the weather, which is uncomfortable and aggravating but by no means as serious as the weather in the Midwest and East, the garden is slowly emerging.
Harris Model OP parsnips, roots for the dairy cow and for seed saving.

It’s hard to believe these little guys will be here feeding us, and the milk [...]

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After the big letdown with Jetta’s calving,  I was kind of glad that it rained most of the week.  I just didn’t feel like planting any garden.  We let Jetta lick and clean her calf, and eat the placenta.  The amniotic fluid on the calf, contains natural pain inhibitors, and eating the placenta helps prolong colostrum [...]

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While chained to the stove today, I was able to do other tasks that might come in handy if “someone” has her calf!  Ooops - I’m talking about it!
♥  Boiled a kettle of potatoes in their jackets for hash browns, these will keep in the fridge for 4 or 5 days.  Very handy, just saute [...]

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One of my favorite things is to lie in bed at night and listen for the “Kerr-plink” of my canning jars sealing.  The rhubarb is starting to bolt, so it was fish or cut bait.  A quick inventory told me that I still had rhubarb in the freezer from last year and canned rhubarb sauce [...]

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JETTA UPDATE:  Still waiting…
 
The garden of last year is a dim memory except for my hieroglyphic garden notes, and a few choice and not so choice tidbits.
Jonathan (old style), picked October 2007.

These were stored on the north side porch all winter.  Sunlight never reaches this side of the house, so the temperature does not flucuate very [...]

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View out my kitchen window today.

My rootstock arrived yesterday, so when the weather breaks, I can plant it out to break it’s dormancy before grafting.  I scored some cuttings I had been looking for at the  Home Orchard Society  scionwood exchange that was held early in March.  I picked up cuttings for Interlaken seedless grape, Vern’s Brown Turkey [...]

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Here is a sign of spring in our area, Delphinium Trollifolium locally known as Staggerweed, or poisonous larkspur.  This plant is really the only poisonous plant that grows near here that the cattle have no aversion to.  It is one of the first green things in the spring and is readily grazed by cattle.  Horses [...]

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No garden would be complete without fruit.  Here’s a list of what grows easily here in our garden.   We eat as much as we want, and just keep track of what we put by in the freezer.
BLUEBERRIES - We have 15 bushes - These are made up of plants from my husbands place when he [...]

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Scion wood and Cottonwood

    HOMESTEAD PROOF, Question 28.  Describe improvements and give value of each.    “…3 beehives - $10.00, fruit trees - $25.00.   Information filled out by my grandfather January 1889.
   WHEN TO GRAFT FRUIT TREES:  “…when the leaves on the rootstock or tree are the size of mouse ears.”  from the old-timer who taught me - it’s fun and easy to [...]

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