How Does Your Garden Grow??

One of the things I was excited for moving to the country is planting and growing a garden. This year I planted:  

Peas

popcorn

sweet corn

purple corn

purple beans

3 kinds of carrots

4 kinds of potatoes

spaghetti squash

zucchini

gourds

cucumber

3 kinds of melons

spinach

arugula

3 kinds of lettuce

onions

purple onions

green onions

asparagus

strawberries

cherries

apples

chives

barley

My apple tree!

Corn

Potatoes

Peas

Barley

Pretty potato flower

This is my garden today...

Our community just got hit my a massive hail storm. They were the size of baseballs. The smallest hail were the size of golf balls.  We have massive damage to our vehicles, camper, and roof.  Our neighbours crops were destroyed. I can't imagine something like this happening to our ancestors, who couldn't afford to just run to the store to buy food. Their entire life revolved around growing and producing food and farming cash crops to provide for their families. I know how heart broken I am over my garden, I can't imagine what it would be like for them. I'm very sad today! I going to go curl up and eat ice cream and go to bed early, and deal with all this tomorrow.

Here Chickie chickie!

I feel like I'm trying to play catch up for the last 6 months, 2 posts in one day!

We got 27 Red Sussex Cross baby chicks back at the end of April. The coop wasn't quite ready for them yet so we had to make a little pen for them in our unfinished basement. We made it with 2 window wells that's haven't been installed yet. Laid down some plastic and then some puppy training pads ( or puppy pull ups as my daughter called them)  and then put down some hay and wood shavings. It worked quite well! And we managed to keep the smell to a minimum.

Only one of the chick had died. So now we have 26. 13 hens and 13 roosters.  This is them now...

They are free range, we did have them in a pen for the first little bit. We have a fox that lives in the area so we were nervous about letting them free range. But so far so good. They free range all day now and we haven't had a fox problem YET. In the fall we will butcher the roosters, hopefully my grandma will be able to give us a hand with this! We may keep one or two of the roosters and try our own hatching in the spring. The hens we will keep for eggs. They should start laying in early fall.
They also have recently learned to use the kitty door into the garage. So our garage is now constantly covered in chicken poo. Kinda gross!!  One thing I've learned about chickens is NEVER wear flip flops into the coop! The chickens will peck your toes!!

Bread Day!

At our house we bake our own bread! I love baking bread for a few reasons.

1. I can make it cheaper and healthier and know what goes in it compared to store bread.

2. It's a GREAT stress relief to kneed the bread, not to mention a super arm workout. Talk about          multi tasking!

3. There is nothing yummier in the whole wide world then fresh out of the oven bread smothered in honey butter.  mmmmm...

4. I'm a thinker, and I think a lot about my ancestors. When I bake bread or garden or do any of those things that were apart of their everyday lives I feel closer to them. I feel like I got something from them. I feel like I owe it to them to learn certain skills to be able to provide for my family. I know its kinda weird. But hey! that's just me!

Anyways enough about me let's get back to the bread. Here is the recipe I use. Its off of a bag or Rogers Whole Grain Flour. I've tried a few recipes and this is by far my favourite. This recipe yields 4 loaves.



1/2 Cup  Warm Water
1 tsp        honey
2 TBSP  yeast

Dissolve yeast and honey in warm water and let sit 10 minutes. Until doubled and foamy.

In a large mixing bowl:

3 1/2 Cups    Warm Water
1/4 Cup         Honey
2 TBSP         Molasses
1/2 Cup         Veg Oil
2                   Eggs Beaten
2 TBSP         Lemon juice

Add together and mix well

 Add yeast mixture and stir. Gradually add 5 Cups of Whole grain flour, beating vigorously after each addition. Let stand for 20 min until mixture is very light.

(I usually use multigrain flour instead of Whole grain flour. (I stock up when its on sale for $4 instead of the $12 that it usually is) I sometimes add in flax seed, sunflower seeds or oatmeal just for fun!)

After mixture has sat for 20 min add 

4 tsp  salt
4 cups of white flour ( you can use the whole grain if wanted but I find the white helps to keep the bread fluffy) you can add more flour as needed to make a soft, workable dough.

 Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Form dough into ball and place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise 50 minutes or until doubled.


Punch down and shape into 4 round balls. Cover and let rest 20 min.

Form into loaves and place in greased (8 1/2" x 4 1/2") loaf pans. Brush tops with oil. Cover and let rise 50 minutes.

Bake @ 375*F  for 30-40 minutes until bread tests done.  Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

And there it is! Yummy light and fluffy bread!

To make the honey butter I usually just mix equal parts honey and butter. But for a special treat I will make this recipe from "Our Best Bites" recipe book

1 Cup real butter
2/3 Cup honey
3/4 Cup powdered sugar.

Mix together and spread on fresh bread.  

This isn't enough to last a week in our house. One loaf is gone by the end of bread day. And the others don't last much longer! I usually try to bake buns or a quick loaf like banana, apple, lemon or zucchini bread to help this bread last longer. Try it! You'll LOVE it!