Clearing the beds.

We cleared one of the from beds this week. We will be clearing the others soon as well. It's sad to see it all go, but it's time to prepare them for next year's planting. 

Oops!

The "last of them" pic from the other day was suppose to have the potatoes not the tomatoes!  Sorry family. 

Unless I have already sent this one too!  Then I'm really losing it!  

Toms

Here are a few of the tomatoes that are left. We have had an excellent crop this year!  

This week

I know I've slacked off on the photo journal this week. It's been busy and I'm exhausted. I know this is cheating, but I'm doing it anyway! 

Here are a few pictures of our fun jelly making session today. We used a couple of grocery sacks full of Grandpa and Grandma Grape's (Smith's) grapes. It is such a tasty and perfectly sweet jelly. It was so delicious Evan was caught stealing spoonfuls! 

Here's the last of them.

Yesterday- FINALLY!

It's SALSA!!

Yesterday & Today

Here is our mouser cat.  Her name is Tina. Her purpose is to catch, kill, and eat mice and rats that invade our yard.  

These are jars of grape juice canned with Grandpa & Grandma Great's grapes. This juice is fantastic! 

Goodies

Here are a few cucumbers and a giant zucchini.  Some farmer friends passed them along. They also raise chickens, trap, hunt, fish, raise rabbits, and taxidermy their own kills right in town!  They are inspiring!  We paid them a visit while we were in the valley this past weekend. I can't wait to try them! 

Eating a rainbow!

These awesome, colorful, yummy carrots were pulled and eaten with dirt still on them! Haha "A little dirt don't hurt"...I've actually heard Chacha say that! There are a few still out there and we will be harvesting them soon. The rabbits enjoyed eating the tops.  It was nice not to have to let them go to waste. 

It's almost time!

We are another vegetable closer to salsa! 

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

One of the last strawberries of the season. Very sweet.  Very red.  Worth the wait. 

Our first taste of the corn we grew. It was so sweet and delicious!  Thank you Gary for advising us to only pick when we are ready to eat it in order to retain the natural sweetness of the plant. We appreciate the tips!  Everyone is welcome to pass them along! 

Jen has been begging for some salsa.  We are another small step closer to filling her order! 

Last one. I promise.

Check out these feet! That's Chacha's hand not Tilly's.  

They're in the freezer waiting to be made into delicious broth.  

Daily update

One egg. 

These girls must have found a secret place to lay their eggs because they have slowed down. I checked the usual spots and have come up short. Not exactly sure what's going on. 

More chicken!

I know these raw chicken pictures are getting old, but it's such an exciting feeling to see all of the meat from these birds ready to cook!  Ten pounds of meat from two crowing roosters!  Amazing, and extremely quiet now. 

Oscar's DD's

Giant chicken breasts! 

Lost & Found

We've missed a few eggs these past few days. We couldn't figure out why our girls stopped laying. Then, we found their stash in the chicken tractor! 

Harvest Fair!

Today marked the 26th year for the Seattle Tilth's annual Harvest Fair!  We were invited to share our Oscars (broilers) and help educate those attending about the importance of knowing where your food is coming from and how easy it is to raise chickens for meat right here in the city. We were given advice, gave advice, played, danced, and networked with other urban farmers!  It was a long day. It was exhausting to explain the process with every person that walked up. The girls created a display board that said what breed our birds were and a few facts about chickens and broilers. A lot of people read the board and a lot of people were surprised at what they learned. Good job girls!  

The hardest part of the day was being set up right next to the GOATS!  As many of you know, Matilde wants a goat more than any other pet, so being next to them was tough. She would sneak off and I'd panic for a second and realize she was watching the Eloise and Snowflake. She said (more than once), "I'm gonna get a goat, and I'm gonna name him Douglas!" We saw a lady get squirted by milk, so of course she ran over to check it out. When all of the sudden she was squirted too!  The owner was milking Eloise and pointing the teat right at Tilly!  It sprayed a stream of milk from her feet up her leg and on her face!  Tilly was waiting with her mouth open and screamed with excitement when she was hit!  She ran off laughing and told her papa what had happened.  She is such a goof! 

It really was a fun day, and all of us enjoyed being a part of it!  

Ding dong!

Daily update

71 and stormy!!! Thunder, lightning, and a projected .5in of rain per half hour! 

Today, we are dinner for under three dollars!  We used veggies from the garden, meat from chickens we raised, peaches grandma r canned, and it was tasty!  

Condiments

Today, I tried my hand at ketchup. I made three different batches.  The first had a tbsp and a half of cider vinegar and it was extremely vinegary for our tastes (the jar on the right). The other two batches I left it out and it was much better. I added a little more sugar and spices to give it less of a strong tomatoey flavor. Evan and Matilde both liked it. Andy? I'm not convinced he liked it.  Me? I don't even like ketchup! Hahaha 

It was a fun experiment and a yummy way to use up a large surplus of tomatoes. 

This weekend

SAT Celebrate local food and urban farming, activities for all ages, minigoats, chickens and honeybees, organic farmers marketplace with produce, plants, books, garden supplies, crafts; live music, food vendors, educational workshops, community organizations, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, kids parade at noon, Meridian Park, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle; free, donations appreciated (206-663-0451 orseattletilth.org/special_events/harvestfair2013 ).

Sneaky, sneaky

These Donnas sneak in unnoticed and peck away at the floor. I was cooking and baking and listening to music when a pecking on the wood floors grabbed my attention. They think they're indoor chickens! 

Daily update

77 and rain is expected this evening. 

2 eggs. Slackers...

A trip to the farm store today to buy chicken feed, chicken scratch, and rabbit feed. Total was $56 and change. 

The yard is overrun by flies and its driving us bananas. I can't seem to gain any control of the situation. The store bought traps attract more than what are there but kills them. The homemade traps just look weird and do absolutely nothing to kill them. The diatomaceous earth doesn't seem to work either, however, I am not exactly certain Andy is using it as regularly as he should. 

Canning fun

I decided to try again with some canning. The tomato sauce didn't seal properly but it didn't leak all over the water bath either.  It wasn't until I took it out to let it sit that it started to ooze out. Andy noticed the ring was slightly bent and after removing it we noticed the seal had the same bend. So that was a bust. 

The second attempt was to use the Oscar carcass to brew up some ever useful pints of chicken stock. It yielded five pints.  I can't wait to use it in a recipe!  

I also dried tomatoes to use in ketchup and I dried the skins (of the five pounds of tomatoes used for the tomato sauce) to make a powder. I can add the powder to water to make fresh paste anytime I need some!  

Daily update

81 seems to be the norm lately. 

3 eggs. 

So today I was startled awake at 6am by a VERY loud "QUI-QUI-RI-QUI!!!"  About five of them to be exact. Then nothing. Quiet. One of those sneaky little broilers that we saved for the harvest fair grew into a freakin' rooster!!  We caught up with the neighbors and explained that it would only be noisy until Saturday. The fair runs until 4pm and when we get home, we will process that fatty into my freezer!  We just have to endure five more mornings of early morning wake up calls. It's like a REAL farm but without the cows, goats, sheep, dogs, geese, or acreage.  HAHAHAHAHA 

Boo-ya!

This is my favorite part about gardening:  harvesting something larger than your fist (and more than a buck at the grocer) that your started from a tiny little seed!  It's miraculous.  

Daily update

High of 81 four eggs.  

Nice day today. All is happy and well. 

Country Skills

KAlong with farm animal life lessons, we here at El Gallo Blanco Farms feel that basic crafting skills are an important part of life.  She has had fun learning to sew and embroider this summer. If you have any tips or tricks for her, please send them over!