Author Archives: Maria

Mother!!

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We’ve been making kombucha in a continuous brewing system for a while now, but it’s in a ceramic pot, so you can’t see it unless you look in the top.  Lately, it seems like I will add some fresh tea to the batch and it will be too strong to drink within days.  It’s fermenting way too fast.  So, I finally took the scoby out to see what was going on and this is what I found:

scoby

That is the biggest, thickest hunk of scoby I’ve ever seen!!  I tried to separate a slice of it to put it back in the tea, but I couldn’t.  It had grown into one huge mass.  So, I took off a small chunk, put it back in the tea, and I’m going to put the rest in the blender and use it on the garden in my compost tea (I hope that doesn’t ruin my garden 🙂

Meet the new addition

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Well folks, we finally did it!

We’d been talking about getting a new car for years, we just couldn’t find what we wanted.  There are no environmentally friendly family cars.  To have room you have to get a mini van which get horrible gas milage (compared to our 45 mpg Jetta), and to get good mileage you have to get a small car.  Plus, we did have a vegetable oil kit in our jetta so that we could run our car off of straight vege oil, which was free from the right sources.  (But, we’d taken that kit out a while ago and now just run it on biodiesel.)  So, it was hard to think about going back to gas.  But, after much looking around and realizing that the jetta was just tooooo small and costing us toooo much in repairs, we decided on a Toyota Prius.  It is roomier than the Jetta, gets great gas mileage, cost less to repair, and seems like the best option out there for us right now.  So, meet the new car!  a 2010 Toyota Prius… arrived on the lot yesterday morning and we drove home in the afternoon.  Isn’t she a beauty!!  I’m going to have to get use to the fact that it is very, very quiet when it is running, especially compared to a diesel engine.  But, really, you can’t hear it at all.  It’s really nice, but you have to be extra careful when you are in parking lots, ’cause pedestrians might not hear you coming!

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Harvest Totals

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Last month I decided to start writing down all the food we harvested from our land.  In April, I only kept track of eggs, but this month I tried to remember to measure everytime we brought something in the house.  I keep a little scale on the kitchen counter for just this.

April Harvest

  • 146 eggs

May Harvest-

  • 110 eggs (we were down because 3 of our hens were broody and not laying)
  • 5 pounds 4 ounces strawberries
  • 2 pounds shiitake mushrooms
  • 4 ounce rose petals
  • ~2 pounds of greens (this included chickweed, kale, lettuce, pea shoots, and spinach.  I’ll try to be better about separating then next month.  Sometimes we would go grab some greens for a sandwich and forget to measure.

In May, we also had 11 inches of rain!!

Feeding the garden

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Quick question…

How often do you fertilize or feed your vegetables? I’ve not done anything since they’ve been planted, and everything looks great, but I imagine they would like a little food boost every now and then.  I checked on my comfrey compost tea, but it’s not ready yet…

Monster Pudding

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I’ve been experimenting today… thought you’d like the recipe.  It’s really good!  It even gets ‘Kaia’s Gold Star of Approval!” (I got the original recipe from Darcey)

Monster Pudding:
4 small avocados
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tbsp. Cardamom powder
1/3 cup (or less) honey or other sweetener

Put all in a blender and mix up.
You can eat it like this, or if you can’t stand looking at green pudding and would like a little ‘dirt pudding‘ instead, add 1/3 cup carob or cocoa powder…
If you want to get even more creative you can also 2 drops of orange or mint essential oil.

Mmmmmmm……!!!

It’s dairy free and full of lots of good fats and oils!  And it’s really tasty!!

Yummy giggles!

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Leif found his giggle tonight!!  It had us all laughing up a storm!  I’ll see if I can upload the video for you!

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I also finally finished his kimono for next winter.  It’s a pretty easy pattern, I just haven’t had a whole lot of hands free time.  I’m going to knit some pants to go with it.

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(Sorry for the horrid color, the lighting sucked!)

Oh, and the strawberries are coming in!  YAY!

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Gardens a growin’!

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Kaia’s flower garden:
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Looks like we will have a nice strawberry harvest this year:
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Onions are doing well!
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Potatoes are up and growing strong:
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Lettuce and other greens are overwhelming us!
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Here’s a view of the front gardens from the roof
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The plants on the roof are doing well… well, the ones that survived. Almost all of the delospermas (ice plants) didn’t survive the winter. We have large dead spots on the roof. We’ll see how things grow over the summer. Hopefully the plants that are living will fill in the gaps.
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Kaia and I planted 45 Gladiola bulbs this spring, and Heidi created a little heart garden around them for us!
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Chicky baby

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Snowflake ended up hatching a total of 4 chicks (out of 8 original… but one was squashed, one was dropped, and two didn’t fully develop). Poor Sparkle didn’t hatch any. I waited until day 23 before I took her off the nest. I cracked open all the eggs and only one had a chick and it looked like it was only 18 or 19 days developed. I think she just didn’t keep them under her enough and they got cold. I’ve put her back in the coop but she still won’t stop sitting on anything she can. I’m not sure how to break her from being broody. I don’t want to put her back on more eggs. I think another 21 days of sitting would be too much for her. She needs a break.

Now, my Buff Orpington is sitting on 12 eggs. She went broody a week ago and I decided to put her in the other side of the broody coop once Sparkle was out. We’ll see how she does.

Here’s a pic of the 4th chick that hatched. Dad is an Ameraucana and mom is a Welsummer;
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With 3 of his ladies sitting on eggs, Fezzik the big rooster is getting a little antsy and has started picking on Poodle Noodle, our silkie rooster. He drew a little blood on his left ‘ear’. I put some blue lotion spray on it so the other chickens won’t be attracted to pecking at the red blood. It seems to have worked, but the ear may be infected. It’s puffy. I’ve put a salve on it… we’ll see how he does.

Still waiting…

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The chicks are very late in hatching… normally, a chicken has a 21 day gestation. Our first chick hatched at 22 days, three more hatched at 24 days! I don’t hear any peeps coming from the other two, but they had moving chicks in them last week. Our other broody mama is due on Friday… her batch didn’t look as good. One, maybe two moving chicks out of 6 when we candled them last. (Oh, and another one of our chickens has gone broody, but we don’t have any room for her to sit. So, I’ll try to discourage her 🙂 )

The arrows are pointing to the crack in the shell where the 4th chick is starting to hatch.
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Can’t shake the grin

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I can’t wipe the smile off of my face from watching Kaia at her first lesson today. She was SOOO FLIPPIN’ CUTE!!!
here’s her high block…
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We both started classes this week! It feels good to be back in it, but class kicked my butt!!

In the garden

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Things are really looking nice in the garden! The greens are growing strong, my cucumbers and summer squashes are peaking their heads up, the potatoes are up, and the new asparagus has just broke ground. Yesterday, in Virgo (a fruit sign), I planted a hops vine, put in 22 tomatoes seedlings, seeded 3 types of winter squash, 2 types of pole beans, and seeded 3 types of melons into soil blocks. With almost everything in the garden, I realized that I have nothing to feed the plants with. I can’t use anything fishy or seaweedy, ’cause Suki will dig to china trying to find the source of the smell. So, I’m going to try an herbal fertilizer. I filled a 3 gallon bucket half way with comfrey and yarrow leaves (they were slightly wet from the rain). Then I put a large rock on top of them to weigh them down, and covered the bucket. I’ll let it sit like this for 3-6 weeks. I should end up with a concentrated fluid vegetable food. I’ll water it down with 10 parts water to one part concentrate and then spray the veggies. I’ll let you know how it works. What do you use?

The only pests I’ve noticed so far are flea beetles and white flies. I’ve sprayed a little neem oil to see if that will do the trick. May have to get some diotomacious earth for the beetles. What are your preferred methods of pest control?

this is a bloom from the “pavement rose” (a rugosa type) that I picked up at the herb festival this past weekend. Isn’t she lovely? The fragrance fills the garden!!
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Birdies at the feeder! There is one I’ve seen lately that is an iridescent midnight blue! I don’t know what it is, but it’s beautiful!
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We have babies!

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Well, at least one that I know of. The chicks were due yesterday, but snowflake never hopped off of her nest, so I couldn’t tell if they’d hatched yet. But, just a few minutes ago, I went outside and heard some peeping. One little chick had just hatched (I believe this one is an Ameraucana and Black Australorps mix)! YAY!!! Babies!
You can see her peaking her black head out from under moms wing.
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In celebration of the upcoming hatching, Kaia and painted the broody house and the feeder. I really like the color they add to the yard!
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feeder

Following through – A Challenge

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Every year, as Spring comes around, I find myself reflecting on things that I’ve done in my life that I really enjoyed, but are no longer a part of my life. For one reason or another, I’ve given up on them and I wish I hadn’t. So, this year, I’m making a list of those things I’d like to follow through on. Join me if you like. Make a list of those things you have done in your life that you really enjoyed and wish you still did. Then pick one (or more if you like) that you commit to add back into your life this year. Be sure it is something that brings you joy! Then leave me a comment and let me know what you are committing to!

Things I’d like to follow through on: (not in any particular order)
1* Learning a foreign language – I use to be fairly fluent in Spanish, but lost it after college. I’ve also studied a little Italian… I’d love to speak both again!
2* Latin Dancing – I took classes at one time and absolutely loved dancing!!! It made me feel so sexy… I loved the flow of the steps, but I felt weird dancing with other men… I didn’t feel like I could be as sensual as I wanted… Toby doesn’t really like dancing… So, I stopped.
3* Tae Kwon Do – years ago, I was a green belt, and I was good at it too! I really enjoyed the spinning kicks!!! But the Dojang moved, and I quit.
4* Hooping – haven’t hooped in months because of pregnancy and now, not begin able to find the time. I really want to get better. It’s like a form of meditation for me
5* Travel – not so easy with kids and a homestead, but I love to visit foreign places and learn about other cultures!
6* Singing – I used to sing in high school and college… mostly opera! But, somewhere along the line I lost my nerve and became more of an introvert. It makes me feel so powerful, though.
7* Piano/Fiddle – I played piano and guitar when I was younger but didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now… I’d love to become more fluid with my playing!

So, to start with this year, I’m going to make a commitment to hooping again. At least once a week, but hopefully more! Heidi, who lives on the land, said she will hoop with me. I’m going to make a little sandy spot somewhere on our land for a hooping pad.

I’m also headed to the local dojang on Monday to check into Tae Kwon Do classes!

What about you?

Candling the eggs

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We went out to candle the ladies eggs this evening. I made my own candler with a strong flash light and a piece of cardboard wrapped to make a cone for the egg to sit above. that focuses the light so that it shines through the egg.

I thought it would be a good idea to see how development was going. That way, if there is an egg that isn’t developing or is full of bacteria, I could get rid of it so that it doesn’t explode or contaminate the other eggs. This site has some nice pictures to follow, as does this one. The main thing was looking for the blood vessels. It’s not so easy when you have chicken that lay dark eggs. I checked Snowflakes eggs at 7 days and saw a spot in each of the eggs (the eye of a developing chicken), but couldn’t see veins. Today (day 11) when I checked I was able to see a moving chick in each of the eggs! YAY! You go Snowflake!! she’s on seven eggs.

In Sparkle’s eggs, it wasn’t as easy. She’s only been on her seven eggs for 6 days. I found three that had obvious blood vessels and 4 eggs that I couldn’t tell. I’ll candle hers again at 11 days to see if I see any moving chicks.

We tried to take pictures, but our camera sucks! Here’s the best one we got. There was a moving chick in this one. You can’t see that, but you can see the air bubble that develops along with the chick.

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What are we going to do with all these babies?? We need to build a larger coop!

Story Dice

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I saw the fantastic idea of story dice here and had to make some! So, I ordered a bunch of blocks and Kaia and I spent a few days last week painting. She made a winter set and a spring set, and I made 4 sets of 4 blocks (extra sets for Kaia’s school K-2 class rooms). It was so fun thinking of things to put on them. We did a boy, girl, turtle, dragon, rabbit, house, beach ball, candle, egg, tree, car, bike, book, cupcake, flowers, boat, hat, balloons, ring, cup of tea, rain, butterfly, and a question mark (to make up your own). You can play many different ways, but the way we use them is to throw them out and create a story with the pictures that are on top. One person will start with a picture and then the next person adds on to the story with the next picture. It’s a really fun way to encourage creativity and imagination.

storyblock

Our Broody Ladies

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Well, they say (who ever They are) that Silkies often go broody and make great mamas. So far, They are right. Both my silkie ladies are broody. Snowflake started sitting on eggs this past Sunday, and Sparkle started sitting a few days ago. So, Toby, sweet construction man that he is, made a broody box for the ladies. He constructed it so that two chickens can use it at the same time, without getting into each others business. I’ve heard that once the chicks hatch, the mamas can get violently defensive. So, we didn’t want to risk that by having them sit in the same area.

Each ‘pen’ is 3′ by 18 inches, making a 3’x3′ box. They have an area for sitting and a space to eat and stretch their legs a bit. The top is hinged so that we can get in and out without too much interruption to the ladies.

Here’s my hotty husband getting started with the box.
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Putting the box into place, just outside of the main coop.
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Looking into one of the ‘pens’
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We moved them in tonight, once it got dark (it seems to bother them less if you move their nests at night.) Snowflake (sitting on 7 eggs) settled right back down and Sparkle (sitting on 8 eggs) went to check out the grub.
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Hopefully, in early May, we will have some babies.

My Child is driving me crazy!!

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sdlkrnyiod!! ltionadfshlk!!! Did you understand that??? NO!! That’s because it is crazy language! I know, all you parents out there are saying “yeah, I know what you are going through”… But OH NO! She is driving me up the wall, out the window, and over the yellow brick road!! How can a 5 year old have such control over my emotions? I truly believe that at the exact moment of her birth, the stars aligned to create a mother-daughter relationship that would encourage me to bang my head on the wall… or the floor… or the door…

Example 1:
“MOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM! (said in a loud, whiny voice) YOU WOKE UP BEFORE ME!!” (I’m sitting in bed, not yet having opened up both eyelids!)

“MOOOOOOMMMMM! WHY DID YOU CHANGE LEIF’S DIAPER WITHOUT TELLING ME????!!!” (Oh, I didn’t know I had to inform you of my every movement!!)

“YOU CARRIED MY SIPPY OUT TO THE CAR, SO YOU HAVE TO CARRY IT BACK IN MOOOOMMMMM!!! (While I stand at the door with my hands completely full with groceries and a baby, and she carries nothing)

And as I try calmly to tell her why she needs to help carry things from the car, she puts her hand to her ear pretending to talk on the phone, holds the palm of her hand up to me, and turns the other way! OH no you didn’t just tell me to ‘talk to the hand’!!

Oh My God, child! Get over this phase fast, will you please!!!

OK, end of rant! Momentary sanity has returned…

In other news, we had our house featured in the New Life Journal again. It’s a great article and makes me feel very proud. Though we certainly didn’t build our house to get recognition, it’s certainly nice to get a pat on the back for it!

One of the bee hives survived the winter and one died… I think they starved. But, the hive that survived seems to be going strong. I went into them today to be sure they weren’t getting ready to swarm… but no signs of swarm cells. They were actually very calm and it was nice to work with them without feeling intimidated. This is the first time I’ve gone into the hive by myself.

Two of our hens have gone broody… our silkies. We built a little make shift broody nest for the first one, but now that two are broody, Toby is working on a little broody house for them. He should finish it tonight, so I’ll take pictures and post them.

Speaking of pictures, we spent Wed. afternoon getting family pictures taken. The man who took pictures of my earth belly offered to take family portraits in trade for my time posing for him. Of course we took him up on it. He is such a great photographer, but also a really nice guy! It was fun spending the afternoon with him. Here are some of the pictures… there are a bunch more, but he hasn’t posted them yet. I’m not a fan of the first picture, but that’s my own vanity finding fault with my double chin and squinty eyes… I love Leif’s smirk in the second picture, and Kaia and Leif’s twin stares in the third… and the fourth one just melts my heart!

Keeping busy

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We had one of those wonderful weekends where you stay really busy with all kinds of fun stuff!

Though we don’t really celebrate Easter, Kaia and I wanted to do something crafty for spring. First we made sweet little birds nests (and ate way too many M&M’s) We brought a few to a birthday party on Sunday, but what we left at home is all gone now 🙂

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We dyed some of our eggs, too. But, since we get dark eggs from our chickens and you can’t see the dye well, we tried a new dying tactic.

First, you set up your dyes in glasses and hard boil your eggs.
Then, you roll the cooled eggs around, cracking the shell, but leaving it on the egg.

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Plop the eggs in the glasses of dye and leave them for a few hours, at least (we left ours overnight).

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Then, take them out of the dye and peel off the shell. The inside of the shells are just as beautiful as the egg.

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The darker colors came out best. Some of the eggs didn’t peel well at all, I think they were a little too fresh when we boiled them.

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We plan on having deviled eggs later on this week.

Yesterday, while the moon was in scorpio, we planted spinach and chard seeds out in the garden beds, and started cilantro and fennel in soil block in the cold frame.

With the weather warming up, I really need to go into the bee hives and check them out. But, the weather has been either rainy or too windy. Soon, hopefully, so I can add more supers if they need more space (to keep them from swarming).

Roots and wood

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I put out some roots yesterday while the moon was in Virgo… potatoes of all colors (red, blue, white, yellow fingerling, new potatoes). I did intensive planting of 50 potatoes in a small raised bed, each potato was placed 9 inches apart in all directions. We’ll see how it goes. I also planted beets (Lutz’s salad beets, which make good greens as well as large beet roots, and Chioggia, which are the red and white bull’s eye beets). And since the onions I grew from seed are still looking puny, I put in a pound of onion starts, too.

I also planted a rose bush. I know that’s not a root, but I’d just received it in the mail and it needed to get in the ground. It’s a Rosa canina rose. I’ve been looking all over for it and found only one supplier, and it was going to cost $70 to get it shipped to me. Even though these aren’t the showiest of roses, the hips they produce are huge and I use them a lot in cooking and medicine. Many other roses produce nice rose hips, but this is the kind you will get when you order them from an herb supplier. So, I thought I would have to be without…then Lizzy Lane found one on Ebay for me… in Italy! I contacted the seller and they were the nicest people! They said they would send me a small start for $11, including shipping. It arrived in beautiful condition on Wed. so I plopped it in the ground yesterday. Yay!

Here’s a rose hip recipe for you:
Rose Hip Jam
Fill jar 2/3 full of cut, sifted & deseeded rose hips.
Cover with apple juice.
Let sit 4 hours to overnight. May be blended for smoother texture. Refrigerate.
Slather it on toast, use instead of jelly, or just eat it with a spoon!! Mmmm

Toby’s started work on a wood shed. It seems to rain every time we need to bring wood in for a fire, so we thought it would be nice to have a dry place to stack it for next winter 🙂
woodshed

And, I don’t think I ever put up pictures of the guest house once we finished it… well, almost finished it. Heidi’s been living in it since late last year, but it still needs water, electricity and finish work. It’s cute though, eh?
guesthouse

plantings

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I set out my broccoli, kale, and lettuce/greens seedlings today. (The moon is in Cancer, a water sign good for planting leafing vegetables.) And tomorrow the moon moves into Leo, a fire sign good for planting fruiting plants, so I am going to start my tomatoes and eggplants. From reading other blogs it seems like I’m way behind on my plantings, but if I calculate my plantings by the average last frost date around here (April 21st), I’m not supposed to start tomatoes until about now… am I way late??

I have another question… When I start my vegetable seeds, unless the seed package tells me otherwise, I always just stick the seeds in the soil…. I know some seeds need cold, some need scarring, some need soaking, but which seeds? Is there a list of seeds needing stratification or scarification?

EC

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Ashley asked about the little potty Leif was sitting on… We are trying something called elimination communication. It’s where we watch the signs that Leif makes when he is about to go potty and make a noise when he pees or poops (like a tssssss, or a little grunt). At certain times of the day, or when we see those signs, we sit him on the potty and make that noise and he goes into the potty! That way, he spends less time in messy diapers. It’s really simple, I just haven’t taken the time to do it enough with him. I should be putting him on the potty when he wakes up and after he eats. Problem is that when he wakes up he is usually starving to eat, so he ends up going while he is eating. And after eating he usually falls back to sleep, so I don’t want to wake him up to go potty 😉 Still, it’s really cool when I do sit him on his little throne and he goes into it!

amazing…

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These last two days have been so amazing! Yesterday, as Kaia and I were driving home, we passed by one of the cow farms down the road. Most of the cows were far off in the field, but there was one standing right by the road. I noticed that she has an amniotic sac hanging out, and when she lifted her tail there were two front hooves! So, we pulled the car over and watched the sweet mama cow give birth! It was so beautiful!! And as soon as the baby came out it twitched its ears and tried to stand! Amazing!

Then, today, we spent the evening hanging out with a deer! She walked right up our road and stopped by the house to say hi. She must be a lost pet or something. I called the nature center but they said there was nothing they could do. I hope she doesn’t get shot… she’ll walk right up to you and let you pet her! She even walked up to the back door as Suki was barking her head off from inside. We spent a few hours outside with her and then she walked off into the woods. I doubt we’ll ever have an experience like that one again!

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Elimination Communication

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Hello out there! Leif here!
Check out this cool chair my mommy got me (well she calls it my ‘throne’… does that mean I’m a prince??) Every so often, but not often enough if you ask me, mommy lets me sit on it. She even takes off my clothes and lets me sit nudey! She makes faces at me and funny noises. She’s such a silly lady. I think we are supposed to be having ‘fun time’ together or something. But I have to admit, I’m just in it for the chair. It’s really cool and very comfortable. And, don’t tell mommy, but when she takes my diaper off and puts me on the chair…
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I pee in it!!! 🙂

hello…

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… I’m still here 🙂 I’ve just been away from the computer a bit… It’s hard to type with a baby in your arms 🙂
We are all doing really well! Leif is a total sweetie! He’s very laid back, although he is a total snuggler and doesn’t like to be put down. Kaia is still in love with him and is taking on the role of ‘big sister’ very well.

We’re getting some much needed rain here. Looks like the week ahead will bring even more rain! Maybe the spring will start flowing again (it dried up last July with the drought). With the rain, I’ve gotten a few shiitake from my logs. They dried up last year and hadn’t produced in a long time. I really need to move them to a more moist and shaded area, too.

shiitake

In the garden, I’ve planted asparagus. I’m the only one in the family that likes it, so I should have lots to enjoy! I planted the crowns last Sunday, under capricorn, an earth sign good for planting roots. I know asparagus isn’t a root crop, you harvest the spears, but I thought it might be good to plant them under an earth sign to get the roots established well for better harvest later. We’ll see…. I have 10 more crowns, maybe I will plant them under a leaf sign and see which patch does better.

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Kaia thought she’d try out the chair to see how well it works to calm you down.

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The most awesome home baked bread EVER!

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I love home made bread; The aroma that fills the house, that first bite that permeates the senses, the crisp crust and soft, warm interior! Mmmmmm! I use to think that I couldn’t bake bread well, so I bought a bread maker in hopes that I would have more home baked bread. The results were mediocre and I stopped using it. Then I found a recipe for home baked bread that seemed pretty easy and realized that kneading the bread wasn’t really that bad. I made that recipe for a few months, but with the time it took to mix it, rise, knead, rise, bake…. I had to be home for most of the day to tend the bread. So, that recipe fell by the wayside. That’s why I was so excited to hear about this book. I can’t remember where I first learned about “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” but I was really excited when it finally arrived in the mail the other day. Their website had a number of contests to win a free book, but I couldn’t leave it to chance and bought one instead 🙂 Today I tried my hand at their master recipe and was Very Happy with the results! At 2 pm, I mixed together the flour, yeast, water, and salt, and let it sit on the counter. Then I planted some onions and picked up Kaia from school. When I got home, the mix had risen over twice it’s size and pushed the top off the container it was in. I cut off about a pound of dough from the mix, shaped it and let it rest while I feed Leif. (The rest of the mix, enough for 3 more loaves, went in the fridge where it can stay for for days, until I’m ready to cut off another hunk of it to cook up!) Then I plopped the dough in the oven and went out to plant the leeks. When I got back inside, the house smelled fantastic and there was a perfect loaf of bread ready for the tasting. I let it cool a little while and heated up the soup and greens for dinner. Here’s what the bread looked like just out of the oven
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Thirty minutes later, there was still some soup and greens on the stove, but…
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… the bread had disappeared! Kaia even ate her salad without a complaint because she knew she could have more bread once the salad was gone! She said “Mommy, this is just like store bought bread, and that’s a good thing!!” Ohhhh, it was so good! It had a great crispy crust and was soft and fluffy on the inside! The taste was almost sourdoughy!! I’m a little worried that I’m going to have to put limits on the amount of bread we eat in the house, ’cause at this rate, we could have a couple loaves of bread a day!! MMmmmmm
After the master recipe, the book give you lots more recipes that work off the main one… sweet breads, peasant loaves, flat breads, etc…
Now I have to decide which of the tons of recipes in the book I’m going to try next!!

Gardening 2009-7

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With the moon in Virgo, an earth sign, the onions and leeks went in the ground today. It wasn’t so easy planting with Leif attached to me by sling, but we managed 🙂 I only put in 16 soil blocks of onion (with 3 or 4 seedlings in each block) and 12 soil blocks of leeks (with 3 or 4 seedlings in each). I just don’t have the garden space this year for more. Plus, they are so tiny and spindly, I may get some onion starts to plant elsewhere just to make sure we get some onions out of it all.

Oh, here is another great guide to planting by the signs. They have a weekly newsletter too with reminders of what to plant when.

Gardening 2009-6; Signs to garden by

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Living in the Appalachian mountains, I’ve heard some of the older farmers say things like: “I won’t be planting corn today… moon’s in the heart” or “Best be planing your collards today… moon’s in the feet” I had no idea what they were talking about, but I really wanted to understand them!! It sounded so neat to be able to garden by the moon signs.

This is my first year gardening by the signs. I am mainly working with this book. It’s easy to use since it spells it all our for you; when to plant what and why. A very general overview of the signs if this:

Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio are water signs (wet) and are generally good times to plant leafy things.
Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are Fire signs (warm/hot) generally good for planting fruiting things.
Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are Earth signs (cool/cold) generally good for rooting things.
Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are Air signs (light/bright) generally good for flowering things.

So according to the book, these signs, mixed with other aspects of the stars and moon, tell me when it is best to plant my garden.

This past fall, I attended a class on Healing by the Signs, given by Phyllis D. Light. Her family dates back many generations in Alabama, and she is lucky enough to have generations of relatives who have passed on their herbal and gardening knowledge. Though her class was primarily about healing according to your sign and what sign the moon is in, she also touched on gardening as her ancestors taught her. This is where I finally understood what it meant to “plant things when the sign is in the feet”. Here are some basic notes:

(notice as you go down the zodiac, you also go down the human body… The first sign starts at the head, the the last sign ends at the feet. A person born under a certain sign, if out of balance, may have afflictions related to the body parts that their sign rules. Also notice that the first sign is a fire sign, then there is earth, then air, then water, and it repeats down the zodiac.)

Aries (the first house) rules the head and sinuses. It is a fire sign good for pruning, turning soil and killing weeds. It is not a time for planting or starting new projects.

Taurus (the second house) rules the throat and thyroid. It is an earth sign good for sewing seeds and planting root crops. It is a good sign in which to start projects, and build.

Gemini (the 3rd house) rules the breath, lymph, and blood. It is an air sign good for weeding, cultivating and harvesting. A time for cleansing.

Cancer (4th house) rules the stomach, breasts, and upper liver. It is a water sign good for planting seeds or root crops, watering the plants, pruning/grafting.

Leo (5th house) rules the heart, spine, arteries, spleen, and lower liver. It is a fire sign good for pruning, killing weeds and cultivating.

Virgo (6th house) rules the intestines, solar plexus and carpal bones. It is an earth sign but is considered a barren earth sign because of the dry/hot Leo sign before it. It is good for killing pests and weeds.

Libra (7th house) rules the kidneys, skin, and lower back. It is an air sign for planting above ground crops (things without big roots)

Scorpio (8th house) rules the genitals and bladder. It is a water sign; prune for growth and plant seeds.

Sagittarius (9th house) rules the thighs, hips, glutials, sciatic and motor nerves. It is a fire sign good for tilling and cultivating. You can also plant some over-wintering foods such as garlic, onions, and greens.

Capricorn (10th house) rules the knees, joints, skeleton, and skin. An earth sign good for pruning for growth, planting seeds, bulbs, rhizomes, and greens.

Aquarius (11th house) rules the calves, ankles, blood, and circulation. An air sign for harvesting to store food, and weeding.

Pisces (12th house) rules the feet, lymph, synovial fluid, and glands. A water sign for sewing seeds, transplanting, grafting and fertilizing. Considered a very fertile sign.

So, I’m taking detailed notes as to what I’m planting when and will report back at the end of this gardening year to let you know how things went. If any of you out there are gardening by the signs, I’d love to hear your experiences.

Gardening 2009-5

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Yesterday, The moon was in Cancer… a water sign, good for planting grafting and pruning. So, I went out and pruned the fruit trees that needed a little trim. And many of the trees that I planted last fall also needed to have their limbs weighed down. The limbs that are growing at too close of an angle to the main tree will not be strong enough to support a full load of fruit. So, the limbs are weighed down or pushed down to at least a 45 degree angle from the main trunk to encourage a stronger crotch angle/structure. I chose to weigh down the limbs since I have lots of twine and rocks; I don’t have any limb spreaders/spacers. So, for those limbs that were too close to the main trunk, I tied some twine to the limb and weighed it down with a rock. The sap is rising in the trees right now, so they are more pliable and hopefully, after a few weeks, I can remove the weights and the limbs will stay in their new positions.

I had also hoped to start more seedlings yesterday, but that didn’t happen. So, I starting them today. The moon is in Leo today, which is generally thought of as a very hot and dry fire sign, not good for doing anything but killing weeds and pruning, but, I’m hoping that if I plant the seedlings in the garden in a good fertile sign, that they will grow well. (According to my biodynamic planting book, today was still a good sign for planting fruiting things… must be because of other aspects of the stars and planets that I don’t understand). So, I made 4 more trays of soil blocks and started broccoli, kale, spring lettuces, greens mix, celery, and parsley.

The onions and leeks are doing great since I started watering them from below and added the peat. So, I think they will go out in the garden on Thursday… the moon will be in Virgo… an earth sign good for planting root crops.