Glorious Fruit Abudance!

Peach Pie, yum...

Yipee!! Tons of gorgeous, beautiful tasty apricots, apples, plums, pears, cherries, etc. this year to make jams, crisps, cobblers, sauce, and of course, pies! Our fruit trees bloom in succession here in the high desert, beginning with apricots and ending with apples. Most years, we get a late frost that kills the blossoms, which means no fruit that year. Every 4-5 years, we have a warm spring and then we get fruit and this is one of those bonanza years!! I picked 26 lbs. of plums from one tree on my land, my hands are still stained purple from pitting those beauties. I've made 60 jars of apricot and plum jam and of course,  a few pies also..... Here' a pie from some Colorado peaches that friends gave me!

The organic vegie garden is in!! Whahoo!

My large organic vegetable garden is all planted with corn, beans for drying, green beans, 300 onions, carrots, turnips, radishes, cabbage, greens, summer and winter squashes!! In a couple of weeks, I will plant the very tender tomato, eggplant and cucumber seedlings. This year, I tried the "three sisters" planting of a corn and pole bean seed in the same hole with winter squash around them. The pole bean grows up the corn stalk, both using the corn for support, and in return strengthening the corn in the wind. Also, corn is a heavy feeder and beans replace nitrogen back into the soil. The winter squashes (this year, Ambercup and Buttercup) are a live mulch.
Also, I've been reading The Findhorn Garden book: I LOVE their spirit of cooperation with nature. For instance, I'm not killing my gophers, who provide the service of aerating the soil. I do use gopher sticks that are metal 8" poles that go into the ground and emit a sound that annoys the gophers. The gophers and I dance around the garden that way all summer. Yes, they eat some of my plants but I just plant extra for them. I don't want to spend the whole summer killing gophers as when you kill one, another fills their spot.
Last Fall, I fed a hungry bear that came to my porch and ate dried dog food before it went into hibernation. It clearly didn't want any trouble, it was starving from last year's drought. I'm glad I did. And the bear hasn't returned this year. Can't do bees though, now can I?!

Chicken Tips

I live next to a wilderness area, had a bear come 6 times to my porch last Fall. I haven't lost any of my 10 Gypsy Chicks yet and here's some tips I found helpful...

 My son, Keith Yohai, built me a rock solid fortress, there is the hen house and the chicken run, together it makes the total chicken coop. Poultry netting (chicken wire) is too flimsy but you can get a roll of stucco netting for about the same price. The lower the number of the gauge of the wire, the stronger it is. Stucco netting is #17 gauge and easily twice as strong as chicken wire. Also, dig a trench a couple of feet down at the fence line and angle it away from the fence. Put the stucco netting wire into it. It discourages wild animals from digging down under the fence.

I was going to build a conventional hen house but it was too expensive. I saw online hen houses that were off the ground. It turns out that for so many reasons: safety, ease of cleaning, chicken warmth and comfort, it is great to have it off the ground. I can also store hay and feed underneath it.

We had a really strong, double walled, insulated dog house that Keith had made, but the dogs liked lying on the covered porch better. So, Keith made a 3' high "table" and we set the dog house on top of it. The chickens love going up the ladder to roost at night! It's so warm in the winter I don't have to heat it and it keeps animals from being able to dig into it. Plus, it's very easy to clean!  I got a piece of cheap linoleum to put on the floor (keeps the wood dry). There is a convenient waist-height door on one side of the hen house where I can sweep the straw from the hen house into a big plastic bucket and take it to the compost heap. Keith added nesting boxes onto the outside of the dog house/now hen house and I can lift the lid and reach in and gather eggs. Inside the hen house are 2 wooden perches 2 ft. up from the floor. Keith put wooden blocks on either side of them so I can lift them up to clean. I have a 6-12" layer of pine shavings (the mites don't like the turpentine smell from the pine shavings) and straw on the floor.

One other tip: we put a tin roof on and I highly recommend that if you can afford it. It keeps it dry in the outside chicken run, keeps the flying predators out, and provides shade. I keep a plastic chair inside the chicken run so I can go hang with the "girls". When I sing "Summertime" to them, they get really peaceful and then start singing with me. Hysterically funny, I've gotta make a video of it someday...

Arise the Film

Lori Joyce has made an amazingly uplifting and empowering film about women all over the world (Kenya, S. Bronx, India, Pakistan, Denver, Ecuador, etc.) healing the earth and thereby also healing their families, communities, the whole planet! The women are shown planting trees in Kenya to raise the underground water levels so they can plant crops. In India, they send women to go to the Barefoot College to learn solar so they can return home and create solar lights in poor rural villages. In the South Bronx, a woman transformed a dump to a beautiful, safe park for children to play in. Urban farming in Denver, and lots more. This film is a MUST SEE!!!
I am humbled and honored that Lori contacted me and asked to have my painting, Sunflower Days, in this film.

Arise the Movie Trailer - YouTube
► 2:35► 2:35	www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1MCAzQMmjE

My First Egg!

My chickens are starting to (finally!) lay eggs. This was the first egg and it was delicious! It was an abundant garden this summer and I just have to (rather proudly) share what I have harvested and preserved: Zucchini bread; green tomato jam; frozen green beans, corn, swiss chard, pesto; dried corn, chicos, cranberry beans; onions, garlic, all the herbs, sunflower seeds; ambercup winter squash; sun dried tomatoes packed in oil; and from the Farmer's Market honey and potatoes. Wahoo!!!!

Green Tomato Jam

Green Tomato Jam
4 lbs. of green tomatoes, chopped
2 lbs. of powdered sugar
3 lemons, sliced very thin and quartered
In a large bowl, alternate layers of the chopped green tomatoes and powdered sugar. Put in refrigerator for 24 hours, stir. In a large kettle, bring to a boil and then simmer the green tomato and powdered sugar mixture for one hour. Skim off any foam. Add lemons and simmer for one more hour. Sterilize jars and lids and fill the hot clean jars with the hot tomato mixture. Fasten lids and put the tomato jam upside down on clean towels. Leave upside down for 30 min., or until when turned upright, the jar lids are sealed. When you tap on the top of the lid, it shouldn't give at all and be tight. Enjoy!

Summer Bounty

The rains came and my Russian Mammoth Sunflowers grew 9 ft. tall. So did the corn! Lots of produce this summer, hard at work preserving food right now. Mostly freezing (30 loaves of zucchini nut bread and lots of vegies) and drying herbs, chives, etc. Chickens love the extra goodies from the garden and I made a pallet compost bin to put in all the chicken waste and garden scraps. Full circle now: chickens feed the compost bin that feeds the garden that feeds us, love it! Chickens should start laying any day now, too. Kitty likes eating my organic Swiss Chard!