gardening – two branches homestead

backyard chickens, chickens, duck eggs, ducks, farming, gardening, raising ducks, raising turkeys, turkeys

Beginning Homesteading Its All About The Birds

November 2, 2018 twobrancheshomestead

When we first moved to our first and only home 23 years ago the first thing we did was plant a garden. We always loved to grow things and as time went by the garden expanded, but something was still missing. One day while visiting a friend, we realized what was missing. He had a beautiful flock of laying hens free ranging in his yard. As we talked with him they scratched and ate, he even gave us a few eggs to take home and try. When we cracked them open for breakfast the next morning,and saw the beautiful yolks, we knew it was time for us to take the leap into chickens and homesteading.

Laying hens are an inexpensive and easy way to raise your own food, even in a small space. We converted part of our shed into a coop, and built a run made of wire that we salvaged from a friends junk pile. The inside of the coop was 4’x8′ which was plenty of room for 6 birds, nesting boxes and a roost. The run was 8’x8′. Predators are always an issue so we were sure to bury a few boards along the edge of the run. Now comes the fun part, ordering chicks!!! We chose various breeds that were all good brown egg layers. We ordered them through our local feed store, this limited our variety, but saved us on shipping, which can run as high as 35 dollars. Ordering straight run chicks is like playing craps so be sure to order chicks that are already sexed, so you do not end up with roosters. When the chicks arrive they will need to be put in a brooder, which is really just an enclosed space with a heat lamp. When you pick up your chicks the bonding will begin immediately.

We found ourselves spending lots of time with them. Sometimes we would even hold them while we watched T.V. We put our first set of chicks in a brooder in our sons room to keep them safe. This was a huge mistake, although they were safe they began to smell, and made a lot of dust . This was not our best parenting moment, we knew when our son started sleeping on the couch that it was time for them to go to the garage. After about 8 weeks, we moved them to the coop with a heat lamp. It takes 20 weeks for most hens to start laying eggs, which is an eternity when you are a new homesteader. We would run out and check for eggs every morning like kids on Easter morning. Finally we were rewarded with one tiny egg, and then another, and another. Soon our whole flock was laying and we were now raising our own protein for the first time.

In the beginning we ate egg after egg, but over time we couldn’t keep up with our girls . So we started giving eggs to family and friends. Our chickens provided us with so many lessons and adventures. One sunny summer afternoon we finally let the ladies out to free range under our watchful eyes, and with a glass or two of wine we watched them scratch and eat bugs just as we had always wanted. As the sun set the girls put themselves to bed. I remember Tracy calling me at work to say the chickens were in the garden. I came home to her in a pair of welding gloves trying to pick up chickens. Or when we decided to have a rooster and she was fighting it off with a rake. (if you read her previous blog, “Adventures in Homesteading, a not-so-country girl’s perspective, you learned that she is not a bird person!)

From this simple beginning our homestead grew and we eventually built the girls a new coop, that was a beautiful addition to our yard.

They say chickens are a gateway animal, and they are right. Most birds are similar to raise and soon after the chickens we ventured into ducks. If watching chickens is like reading a good book, then watching ducks is like tuning into a NASCAR race. They are so full of sounds and energy. They lay more eggs than a chicken. We love to herd the ducks back into the coop at night, its as if they share one brain and move more like a school of fish than a flock of ducks. Plus who doesn’t love a “duckface” selfie.

After ducks the next logical step was turkeys. How could we resist raising our own thanksgiving dinner? We raised the turkeys separate from the chicken, but it wasn’t long before we realized that even the fattest turkey can fly.

The turkeys loved to escape and feed with the chickens. Seeing a 20 lb bird walking in your yard can only make you smile. Tucking a turkey under your arm is a little different than doing the same with a chicken, whether you have welding gloves on or not. Raising birds has so many benefits eggs, meat, entertainment, tick control, and don’t forget all that manure for the garden. We couldn’t imagine our homestead without the birds and their noises. Our homestead adventure started with a simple visit to a friends house. Who knows where yours will start, but when it does don’t forget the birds.

Homestead Harvesting, When the Real Work Begins

August 26, 2018December 9, 2018 twobrancheshomestead

As summer begins to wind down and the warm days of August begin to get shorter, we are blessed with the fruits of our hard labor. Plans made in February have now come to fruition. If we are lucky, large bags of produce begin to come in from the garden. In some years we have failed crops, which have turned into lessons. This time of year is a busy time and it is easy to see why our forefathers would have a party or festival after harvest time ends. A few times of year will test your resolve as much as harvest season, that is why it is important to not only have a plan, but to posses the skills needed to make the most of your harvest. Another consideration is space for your freshly grown food. Early on we would often run out of freezer space and/or mason jars. This is why it is important to think about the harvest early as you would when planning your garden.

Over the years we have learned how much food we really needed for the winter, we found it best to package our food so that we know how many meals are in each freezer bag. Too many years we were down to only beans by February. There is one of those lessons learned!

Early on in the summer, kale, spinach and lettuce begin to come into the house. We blanch and freeze the kale and spinach (see our previous blog on freezing kale). We try to keep it in meal sized bags because it can be hard to break apart once frozen. Sometimes we freeze it in ice cube trays in order to make smaller servings, each cube is perfect for an omelette in the morning.

Later, onions and garlic are harvested they are laid in the sun for a day or two, then hung in a cool place to cure. It is important to have good airflow so an oscillating fan on a low speed can really help. This year we braided the onions which not only helped them dry but made a beautiful display in our kitchen.

Next up are the squash and cucumbers. These guys come in by the bucket load. They can overwhelm you quickly. We make lots of pickles and can them with a hot water bath canner. They are very easy to make. The squash becomes bread, dinners, and this year we pre-breaded and froze some. Even with all of these uses we can not use up what we grow. We came up with a great idea to build a small farm stand when our boys were little.

It encouraged them to help in the garden, and taught them a little bit about money. As they got older and had jobs we took over the stand and use it as a means to offset our ever growing feed and seed costs. It is fun to design the chalkboard that lists the prices. And our neighbors are always happy when it is full.

In mid August, the tomatoes will start to ripen and it is time to put your nose to the grindstone. Skinning, seeding, and canning every night can test even the best marriage. We know that there are food mills and products out there to aid in the process, but we find that hand skinning and seeding works best for us and has the highest yield. Plus, getting so up close and personal with your food just makes you appreciate it a little more.

Wave after wave of beautiful fruit will have you seeing tomatoes in your sleep, but you will be happy in December when you pop open a fresh jar from your own garden. A glass of wine while working makes the task seem less like chore, and if your are smart you buy your wife’s favorite vintage. We can the tomatoes using a water bath canner as well. If you are getting into homesteading this will be one of the first harvest tools you will need. You will never look at a can of tomatoes in the store the same again.

As the tomatoes slow down the peppers will speed up these are easily processed. You can freeze smaller hot peppers whole. We like to slice the bell peppers before freezing to save space. We also pickle some of the hot ones for sandwiches. Along with peppers we harvest corn which we blanch on the cob and then cut off and freeze to save space.

It is important to freeze in a thin layer on wax paper and then put it in a freezer bag. If you don’t you will have one big corn cube.

Throughout the summer and fall there are many other vegetables that get harvested such as peas, pumpkins, turnips, beets, beans, carrots and hops.

Sometimes it seems like the harvest never ends and It can be overwhelming. The real key is to put something up every night. When your kitchen table is full of produce you need to attack it the way you attack a dirty room. Start in one corner and work your way around. Harvest time can seem glamorous and who doesn’t love to post their harvest pictures on instagram or facebook. Never forget that these pictures are just a snapshot of hours of hard work and planning. So the next time you bring in a bag of tomatoes and say “honey we have to can tomatoes tonight” make sure you stopped for that bottle of Chardonnay first. Happy harvesting.

gardening, Home Brewing, homemade, homesteading

The Best Father’s Day Gift Ever, Hops!!

June 1, 2018June 9, 2018 twobrancheshomestead

Many years ago on Father’s day, I received one very special gift. It was a gift that would keep on giving. No it wasn’t a membership in the “jelly of the month club”, it was a small Columbia hop plant. I had brewed beer for years and always fantasized about growing my own hops. I say that it was the gift that kept on giving because hops are perennial and come back every year. I began to do some research and soon found out that hops can grow more than 20′ tall in a year. I would definitely need to build a hop trellis, and I also had to pick a location where they could grow year after year. Hops are also deadly to dogs and cats, so I needed to keep them away from our pets. I constructed a trellis from landscaping timbers and secured it to the ground with guide wires. The wires would also serve as the place where the hops could climb. I prepared the soil with peat moss and composted manure and planted my hops.

I was amazed at how fast the vine grew, sometimes more than a foot a day. It curled its way up the wire and reached the top of my 16′ trellis quickly.

The vine then began to branch out and formed the beginnings of hop cones. We stripped the leaves from the bottom few feet of the vine to prevent mold growth. As the cones formed, I began to contemplate all of the delicious beer I would be brewing.

When the cones are fully formed, they will be full of lupulin inside. It is a sticky yellow substance. As I checked for ripeness, I smelled that familiar aroma. Hops are ready to be picked when they sound like tissue paper being crushed. We picked our hops and dried them on a screen, turning them twice a day.

After a few days we packed them in vacuum bags and put them in the freezer for future use. Harvesting hops is a joyous occasion and it is customary to drink a beer when harvesting. Hops have become a fun addition to the homestead and because they do not require replanting each year, they cost us almost no money to grow, just like our apple trees and vineyard. We usually brew beer in the winter and adding our own hops to a recipe gives us a wonderful sense of satisfaction. Picking up a handful of your own hops and sniffing them makes you feel like a master brewer for a day. Growing these hops will always remind me of that Father’s day, and I hope that bine(what the hop vine is called) and memory lasts as long as I do. So if you are a dad, drop a hint. If you have a dad, you now have a gift idea. And when you brew your first batch of beer be sure to send one my way.

gardening, glass gem corn, growing corn, homesteading

Glass gem corn happiness and beauty

May 3, 2018October 1, 2018 twobrancheshomestead

two branches homestead

Every year when I look through the seed catalogs, I always come across a picture that grabs my attention. A picture of a vegetable taken at peak ripeness and in perfect light. Last year was no exception, and it was Baker Creek’s catalog cover that drew me in. It’s always the same. I look at the picture, turn to Tracy and say I’m gonna grow that. So when the seed order for the year was placed glass gem was on the list. Glass Gem corn is a beautiful native american flint corn that can be used for flour or popcorn, but it’s this corn’s amazing color that makes it prized. In our area, we plant corn on memorial day weekend, so it was a long wait to get our seeds in the ground. We planted them away from our other corn to decrease the chance of cross pollination. After 2…

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gardening, homesteading

Planting onions to save your greens and cabbage

April 24, 2018 twobrancheshomestead

For years we grew cabbage and other greens in our garden, but we always ended up with the same result. All of our cabbage and greens would be riddled with worm holes. It was always so disappointing to remove the outer leaves of a cabbage to find it full of holes, or pick a bunch of spinach, lettuce, or kale that looked like Swiss cheese. We set out to find an answer that didn’t include pesticides. After a lot of research we were no closer to an answer. Finally one day after reading about homesteaders from the 1800’s, we found the answer was onions. As it turns out many of the bugs that like greens, don’t like onions. We decided to try it, what did we have to lose? We planted onion sets in between our greens. It was also fortuitous that both greens and onions needed to be planted in cool weather.

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In the above picture you can see how we planted in this case along side kale. After a month it became apparent, that the old timers really knew what they were doing. It’s hard to imagine how much of their knowledge has been lost, but we are happy to have been able to preserve this small piece of knowledge, and pass it down to our children who we hope will always plant onions with their greens. The onions didn’t totally eliminate the problem, but they were 90% effective, and we are willing to give up the 10% to keep pesticides out of our garden. This approach is not only better for us but also for our bees. It is hard to argue with the results.

We were so happy to have these amazing vegetables, and feel safe giving them to our family knowing that they are pesticide free.

Harvesting onions

After harvesting the greens there is an added bonus, beautiful onions. Onions are harvested in mid summer normally in our area. We wait for the onions to tell us when they are ready to be harvested. When onions are finished growing for the year, their tops will fall over.

After this happens we pull the onions and lay them out in the sun to cure. Curing onions properly allows us to have onions well into the winter. Different varieties keep better than others. In our experience yellow onions keep better than white or red.

After the dirt on the onions dries, and the tops wilt, we move them to a covered location to continue drying. We put them onto wire mesh to allow air to circulate around the whole onion. This keeps them from growing mold and rotting.

Once the onions have dried, and their skins are like paper, they can be stored in an onion bag. We like to hang ours to encourage air circulation. Any onions with and bruises or blemishes should not be stored, we take these onions and dice them. Once they are diced they can be frozen. Cutting up 30 or 40 onions can make you cry, so try swim goggles while dicing. The diced onions are great when you are pressed for time when cooking.

Growing food like anything else in life it takes time and experience to learn. Because of this we always seek the advice of people who have done it before. In this case we would be remiss if we didn’t thank those tough old homesteaders who plowed the ground before us and showed us the way. Sometimes in life and gardening you need to take a step back to move forward. In an age of quick fixes and a chemical for every problem, all we really needed to do was look back to how our forefathers did things to find a solution.

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Harvesting onions

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