food

Finally got some stuff in and… you’ve got to be kidding me.

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Okay. Where do I start with today!

Well, first up, how about some cuteness?

As I was getting my coat to go feed the outside cats, I spotted movement in the distance. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these shots, so they’re not the best.

Two white tail deer, beyond the outer yard, at the far side of the barn. Soon after, I saw one of them making its way through the outer yard to the driveway, heading for the gate. The deer are very, very active this time of year, and the population looks to be quite high this spring! I haven’t seen so many since we stopped feeding them outside the living room window.

After I did the outside cats’ food and water, I tried for a head count. I think I counted 24 in total. Possibly 25?

Adam was on the cat house roof, where she prefers to eat, and she enthusiastically allowed me to pet her. I was able to feel around her belly. She does not feel pregnant, and I don’t feel any active nips. Given how early I saw she’d gone into heat and the boys going after her, it’s entirely possible she’s had a litter and lost it. I am seeing the other feral females – Slick, Sprout and the white and grey we haven’t named – show up just long enough to eat, and then they disappear.

I managed to get a picture of this beauty, though.

Fluffy is so adorably fluffy!!

I’m glad we were able to catch her and get her spayed, because she very rarely allows me to touch her. Once I do, she stops and enjoys the pets, but otherwise, she just runs away.

Once the outside stuff was done, I headed out. My first stop was to the post office, then I planned to go to the feed store in my mother’s town, then visit her.

I had asked the owner of the general store if their feed supplier also carried cat food. She looked up their list and they did. That was a while ago, so when I came in to get the mail, I looked through their feed section and saw they had three 18kg (39.68lbs) bags of cat kibble! They were only $45, too. With the other brands we’ve been getting, they are in the $50-$55 range.

We’ve never had this brand before, so I got only one, to try it out. If the cats like it, it would make things much easier to pick them up in our own little hamlet than having to drive to the towns with feed stores. The only thing is that I would have to change how I budget it. Right now, I put the budgeted amount onto a credit card, so that when I buy them I get my cashback or Canadian Tire dollars. The general store doesn’t take credit cards, though. Just cash and debit. So if I’m going to be buying the big bags there more often, I have to make sure NOT to transfer the funds to a credit card.

So after I picked up our mail, I got the one bag of kibble – then picked up a couple of sausages for the Easter baskets. Something else that was on my list for the shopping I planned to do after visiting my mother.

Since I got the test bag of kibble, I skipped the feed store and went straight to my mother’s.

She was in her favourite armchair in the common room when I got there. She was pleasantly surprised to see me, which was nice for a change.

It was a pretty quiet visit. There wasn’t a lot new going on. My mother immediately started complaining, of course, but not as … energetically, shall we say, as usual. Her health isn’t good. She needs sleep. She needs a private room. (I don’t disagree!) Her room mate is terrible. (I’m sure her room mate thinks the same of my mother!) The regular doctor never comes to see her. The other doctors are from the city come in just for a day. I reminded her that she would need to make an appointment for the doctor to actually see her as a patient; otherwise, he’s just doing his rounds before going to his regular patient appointments at the clinic. To which she complained that it’s just about moneymoneymoney. Apparently, doctors shouldn’t get paid? I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at when she says that, but she says it quite often.

Hopefully, she won’t be here for very long, but there’s just no way to know when a bed will open up at the nursing home she wants to be in.

I remembered to ask if our vandal had shown up again, after his big act with his wife pushing him in with a borrowed wheelchair, then storming out when she refused to pay for his funeral. She said no, he hasn’t. I was not surprised. I told her, I knew there was a reason he was visiting so often. He wanted something from her. Now we know what it was. She started going on about how he’s wealthy, he has his farm. I told her, that’s not cash in the bank. He would have to sell it. Her response was, what else is he going to do with it? His wife isn’t going to farm it, and they have no kids. I told her, he doesn’t have to. He’s got so many vehicles and equipment scattered all over his property. Stuff he can’t use anymore. He could sell just a couple of things and more than cover the cost of his own funeral. That reminded her of the thousands of dollars she’d given him for the huge garage he had built to store his equipment in. All I know is, his vehicles and equipment are still all scattered all over his yard, fully visible from the road as I drive by, except for the Bobcat he stole from my mother, so who knows what all he’s got stored in there. My mother got the point, though; there is no reason for him to be going to her for money to pay for his own funeral. Which could be years from now, for all I know, based on how he appears the few times I’ve seen him since his diagnosis.

Overall, it was a good and relaxed visit. I stayed until her lunch tray was brought over – a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and crackers, a pickled blend of legumes I recognize from Costco that is quite good, and canned fruit for desert. Her insulated tea cup was just hot water – at her request – to mix in with the glass of milk. One of her favourite things to drink. I stayed long enough to help her get set up and everything was in reach before saying my goodbyes.

From there, it was off to our regular local grocery store – and extra drive, but the difference in prices between that town and my mother’s made it worth it.

Once there, I got the last few things for the Easter baskets, including an extra flat of eggs. I’d asked my daughters to hard boil some eggs for me to start pickling after I got home. They ended up doing a flat and a half – roughly 45 eggs. The extras and the uglies would be used for egg salad. I got a paska for my mother, though it’s huge for a one person basket. Since she no longer has her own kitchen or utensils, my plan is to have everything for her basket all cut up and ready to eat without needing anything else. Plus, she could share the contents, if she finds it too much. We aren’t fans of paska ourselves, so I got a lovely fresh flax seed loaf for our own basket.

The shopping done, my only planned outing over the next while is to visit my mother and bring her the basket on either Saturday or Sunday.

I’m thinking Saturday.

There’s a reason for that.

The truck.

The truck has been running well. The stock up shopping trips have been fine. I have, of course, still been constantly checking the gauges. With the troubles we’ve been having for the past couple of years, I just can’t help myself.

Which is why I noticed something had changed.

The oil pressure gauge.

When we had the leaking seal replaced again, on warranty, and the oil sensor replaced, I got an oil change done at the same time. According to the mileage, we have a couple thousand kilometers before it needs to be changed again – which is about a month’s worth of driving, in the summer. Two months, in the winter.

After all that, the pressure gauge was right back where it was supposed to be and staying within a typical range.

As we were coming home from the Costco trip, though, it started to read on the low side of normal. Technically still okay, but at one point, it was pretty much on the line for low pressure.

It was reading normal again when I started out today, but when I got to the grocery store from my mother’s, the gauge had dropped down to the line again.

While I was on my way home, I kept checking it, and sure enough, it kept slowly dropping. As I was pulling into our driveway, it was touching the line again.

*sigh*

One thing I can say, though; the warranty differential is working fine. The 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive setting has been on auto, and it has had no problem kicking into 4 wheel drive as needed. Today got so warm, the hard packed snow under the tire tracks in our driveway started to soften and the truck starting to sink as I was driving, but I was able to get through with no problem! No getting stuck in our own driveway again!

We’ve been parking the truck in the yard for the past while, since my brother’s truck was half in our garage (as far as it could go without hitting the top of the door frame). My brother had phoned this morning and he suggested I just back it up into the lane towards the barn and leave it there, so we could park our own truck in the garage. So after the shopping was unloaded and I did an early feeding of the outside cats (they like the new kibble!), I moved his truck out.

His truck was having issues with sinking through the formerly hard packed snow, but it got through fine as well.

Driving our own truck into the garage, the oil gauge didn’t have a chance to drop like it did while driving, but it also never got to where it normally is.

The boxes for our chicken coop are still stored at the far end of the garage, so we can’t pull all the way in. Not a problem, since it means I had space to get out the step stool and check the oil levels.

It was low.

I had one last bottle of oil left, 3/4 full, and used that. The level seemed okay after that, but I’m never confident in what I’m seeing on the dip stick. The colour of the oil and the colour of the dip stick is pretty much the same, and the metal is always shiny, even after wiping it clean.

*sigh*

I made a point of checking, and there is no sign of an oil leak, but then I’ve never seen evidence of an oil leak even when it turned out to be leaking really badly, because of where the leak was. The only times I thought I did, it turned out to be from the differential, not engine oil.

Once I was settled inside, I called the garage. The owner answered. I made sure to first let him know that the warranty differential replacement has been doing fine, then explained about the oil pressure and being low on oil again. I mentioned, I’ve got a lot of driving to do in the next while!

He asked me if I could come in on Tuesday afternoon, so they can check it out. They are closed tomorrow and on Easter Monday, of course, so I was very happy that he could book me in so quickly.

For now, it should be fine for me to drive to my mother’s. I’ll do it on Saturday, when things are open, so I can pick up some extra oil to keep in the truck, now that I’ve just used the last of my stash.

This is getting so insane. I’ve either got another leak somewhere, or the truck is simply burning a lot of oil. Which I would expect to see evidence of in my exhaust, and I haven’t.

I just don’t get it.

I am so tired of vehicle troubles!

I can’t even say it’s been this particular truck, since the last two vehicles we’ve owned have also had weird problems. As my daughter told me during our Costco shop, and I was commenting about my own paranoia about the truck; with all the stuff that’s been going on, I have reason to be!!

Hopefully, it’s something minor that they can find and fix easily and quickly.

Hopefully.

On a completely different note, once I had my appointment made, I got to check out what I got in the mail.

My new soil thermometer has arrived.

The padded envelope had been opened, and the box it was in was crushed. That would have been customs. At least the thermometer itself was not damaged!

Once things thaw out, I want to use it in various beds to see how different the soil temperature is in, say, the high raised bed compared to the low raised beds. It might help explain why I had issues with my beans, melons, tomatoes and squash last summer.

That all settled, the last goal of the day was to make three different types of brine to pickle eggs in, and start peeling the eggs that were hard boiled last night. I made beet, soy and turmeric brines, using the simplest recipes I could find online, so I had three little pots going at once. Then my younger daughter and I started peeling eggs.

It was a disaster.

The shells just did not want to separate from the eggs!

Now, it we were just making egg salad, I wouldn’t have cared, but I was after the most perfect eggs to brine and use in our Easter baskets, and we just weren’t getting any at all. After about a dozen eggs, I called a stop to trying.

Thankfully, I got a extra flat of eggs at the grocery store today.

The ugly eggs didn’t go to waste, though; they got eaten pretty much immediately. 😄

Meanwhile, I started on another batch to hard boil, using tips I’ve tried in the past, all combined.

It worked.

First, fill the pot with water and generous amount of baking soda, then bring it to a boil. The eggs were brought out of the fridge to warm up. Room temperature would have been ideal, but I at least didn’t want to have cold shells cracking on contact with boiling water.

Once the water was boiling, I used a wire basket type scoop – I don’t know the name of it – to lower the eggs into the boiling water in batched. I got 24 eggs into the pot. One did crack, but nothing leaked out of it.

I set the timer for 10 minutes, but it took a while for the water to go from a simmer to a full boil again, so it was really more like 7 minutes at a boil. When the time went off, I shut off the heat, but didn’t take them out right away, just in case. Then I transferred them to a bowl of cold water and left them there for another 10 minutes.

Every single egg peeled perfectly.

All 24 eggs.

Perfect. Including the one that cracked!

I was hoping to just have 6 eggs per jar or brine, but I was able to do 8 in each!

Gotta make sure to pass on the method to the girls. My younger daughter was pretty upset that the first batch wouldn’t peel and felt she had done something wrong. It’s not a problem, though. We’ll just have lots of eggs ready for snacking!

Tomorrow, we need to dig out a couple of baskets from storage, and I need to figure out how to do my mother’s basket, if I’m going to have everything pre-cut up for her. Normally, the baskets would get blessed on Saturday, then enjoyed on Easter morning, but I have not been able to find any times for basket blessing. I know it’s being done; just not which church or what time. For quite a few years now, we’ve just blessed them ourselves. I’ll take the chance to visit my mother on Saturday with her basket and get a bit of a visit in.

Then not go anywhere again until it’s time to take the truck in to the garage to get checked!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up trip: this is what $817 looks like

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I am so tired.

In pain.

Drained.

I really don’t enjoy shopping.

Still, it’s done. Expensive, but done.

My younger daughter and I headed to the city after I got a couple more photos and videos of specific cats for the rescue, and after topping up the tires. I’m glad we took the time to check them. They were all low, even taking into account winter temperatures.

We made a stop along with way at a gas station in the town my mother is back in. We meant to get gas and lunch at Costco, but we wanted to get some drinks and snacks to tide us over for the drive in. My daughter paid for it, so that didn’t come out of budget. Gas was $1.729/L for Regular there at the time.

When we got gas at Costco, it was $1.499 for regular (Premium was $1.729). As we were leaving the city, we passed a gas station that was at $1.719 – but when we drove through my mother’s town again, the gas prices had dropped to $1.649! Nice to see the drop. It’s almost unheard of for rural towns to drop before prices in the city drop.

Once at the Costco, the first thing we did was fill the tank and reset the trip counter. At $1.499/L, it cost us just pennies under $80 to fill.

Before we did any shopping, my daughter and I went in to have lunch. There was no way we’d have the energy to stop for food after the shopping, so we made sure to eat first. My daughter got a couple of slices of pizza – not realizing how big they were! – while I had their Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich; something the other locations no longer have available. It’s been years since I’ve had one, and it was absolutely delicious! Those, plus a couple of drinks, cost $16.97 – and over half of the before tax total was just the cost of my sandwich!

It was worth it.

Since we were planning to go to the new Costco this time, my older daughter sent me some funds with a few requests, so this “over budget” total of $862.72 was not actually over budget.

It was, however, still very expensive for what we got.

We didn’t have to buy a lot of cat supplies this time, and I was able to get a fair bit of meat, but still…

This is what we got.

For cat supplies, we only needed to get for the indoor cats, so there is just one 11.6kg bag of kibble, a case of canned cat food and a case of XL puppy pads. In other non-food items, there is a package of toilet paper and a 4 pack of toothpaste.

From the pharmacy area, we got some B100, Adult Gummie multivitamins, plus some extra strength acetaminophen.

In beverages, we got a case of Monster (which my daughter paid for), a case of Oat Milk, Iced Tea mix (only because it was on sale) and some English Breakfast tea in a new Peter Rabbit design tin. Can’t have too much tea, and my younger daughter likes the tins.

In baking supplies, we got a bag of flour and a 2 pack of baking powder.

I just realized I got charged twice for the baking powder 2 pack. Crud. It’s not like we’re going to go back to the city to get it fixed!

In dairy, we got 4 pounds of butter – the price has finally dropped below $5 each here! – a block of mozzarella, a block of Old Cheddar, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, a wheel of brie and a 2 pack of goat cheese.

For bread, we got a 2 pack of rye and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps.

For protein, we got two hot rotisserie chickens, two panini packs for sandwiches, a pork blade roast, frozen salmon for the girls, Gouda and Cranberry sausages, plus mild Italian loose sausage meat, and a double flat of eggs.

In the odds and sots, there’s a 2 pack of butter chicken sauce, mayonnaise, peanut butter, coconut oil, a 9 pack of variety pasta, a case of Ramen noodles, a case of instant oatmeal, soy sauce (we weren’t able to find the brand my husband likes at the international grocery store, during our last shop) and a case of frozen perogies. My husband requested sour candies, so we got two bags of those.

Last of all was some instant eats, because no one was going to be up to doing much cooking by the time we got home! My older daughter had requested a sushi platter, so my younger daughter picked two; one for each of them. For my husband and I, I chose a Steak & Ale, with potatoes dinner. It’s in the oven as I write this!

What we didn’t find were the garlic coil sausages I was after for our Easter basket and general eating. Nor could we find popcorn. According to the receipt, we got 51 items, though with the double charge on the baking powder, it was actually 50 items. We got a total of $16.50 off with at-checkout discounts.

Total damage for the day, with gas, groceries and lunch, was basically $960.

Thank God this is just once a month!

We still need to get to a feed store for 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. I’m thinking to do that tomorrow, after visiting my mother.

While I was writing this, I got messages from someone in the rescue group. They will be taking 6 cats in total from us soon! Fosters already lined up. She was just checking to see if Grommet would be okay being fostered with other cats, like Furriosa. Grommet is really chill, and would probably help Furriosa handle the transition better. Furriosa is the least chill of but bunch. I’m incredibly grateful that they are focusing on getting the tiny females, first. They need the most help. Plus, Sir Robin and Grommet! They would be such perfect indoor cats. We’re looking at having them brought in for vetting and fostering after April 7, if all goes to plan! After that, they’re looking to grab some of the friendliest neutered males.

This means that they have had quite a few cats adopted, which is really awesome. It’s been such a struggle to find people willing to adopt rescues.

Anyhow.

That’s where we are at now – both city stock up shops for April are now done.

I am so, so glad it’s over with. I could happily curl up in a corner and go to sleep.

After taking pain killers.

Oh! That reminds me. I have come up with a possible reason for why this 15+ year post menopausal body suddenly wasn’t anymore. It might be a very rare side effect of the anti-inflammatories I’ve been taking. I am now stopping completely (I was already taking only the minimum dose), and already seem to be seeing a difference, though it is likely way too early to say for sure. Since I wasn’t able to get an appointment with the doctor until May, that gives me time to confirm the theory as right or wrong.

It would be good if it really was that simple!

The Re-Farmer

Open fire cooking

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After all the digging yesterday, today we got to enjoy the fruit of my labour with a cookout.

March is a birthday month, but we never celebrate birthdays on the day, but the weekend before or after (unless the birthday happens to fall on a weekend, of course), plus like to do nice things for the birthday person spread out over a couple of weeks.

The other thing we normally used to do was take the birthday person out to the restaurant of their choice. Which isn’t really an option anymore. So instead, we would do the take out of their choice.

Now, in theory, we could have done that this time. My brother got his truck prepped and it’s available for us to drive, should we need it. He is also convinced something is going to go wrong with our own truck! It is a much older truck – I don’t know the year, but I think it’s either late 70’s or early ’80’s. With my luck, I’m afraid that if I drive it, it’ll break down, too! 😄

My older daughter that has a birthday this month, however, insisted we not spend any money on her for her birthday. When I told her, I budgeted for it, she said to put it towards the truck.

*sigh*

So, instead, I decided to do special meals. Today, it was a cookout.

The cooking was done outside, but the eating inside, because dang, it’s still cold out there!

My younger daughter headed out early to get the fire pit going and build up coals for cooking, while I brought out the stuff to cook. This was our first time using our square Dutch oven that I got on clearance at Canadian Tire, months ago.

I had eight baking potatoes, wrapped in foil with olive oil and course salt. They all fit quite nicely in the Dutch oven, as you can see in the second picture.

I got the pictures after she’d had it in the middle of the fire pit for more than an hour (we forgot to check the time), then moved it off to one side to start cooling it down a bit.

The nice things about this Dutch oven. The square shape made fitting the potatoes in much better than with a round shape, which made for more even cooking. As with the other Dutch oven, the lid can double as a separate cooking surface. It’s smaller, and lighter, perfect for if we want to cook smaller portions, and easier to carry when full.

The down sides with this design. It has no legs, so it rests directly in the coals. The lid isn’t recessed, so any coals set on top are not as secure. It’s handles are built in; larger areas on opposite corners, rather than a wire carrying handle that swings up and down, or can even be used to hang it over the fire. There is also no handle on the lid. Which means we can’t use a tool to lift the lid off, nor use a carrying handle to lift the entire thing in and out of the fire pit. Instead, we had to wait for things to cool down enough to handle in some way. My daughter was able to push the lid off to the side so I could remove the potatoes and take them into the house to stay warm in the oven. Eventually, my daughter was able to get the lid out so finish cooling off on the side, but it took quite a bit longer before the rest was cool enough to remove with oven mitts. Even then, it had to rest on top of some logs (so as not to come in directly contact with the snow) until it was cool enough to handle and bring inside.

Then my daughter reset the fire and built up more coals to cook the hot dog wieners. We have a moveable grill surface (you can see the shadow of it in the first picture above) and a cooking tray designed to go on a BBQ grill, for things that would otherwise fall through the grill. It fits a dozen wieners at once.

Wieners that had started to freeze by then!

With the temperatures, once those were on, we had to cover them with foil. I had a metal dish to bring them into the house with, later; with the wind, I ended up setting it on top to keep the foil from blowing off!

When it was time to turn them, though, I realized I forgot something important.

I forgot to oil the cooking surface. The wieners were stilling to it!

As soon as they were cooked through enough, my daughter transferred them into the (now warm) metal dish. They were pretty torn up, but she did the best she cook! I wrapped the dish in foil and went in to keep them warm with the potatoes. Originally, we were going to toast the hot dog buns, too, but quickly gave up on that idea. We would toast them in the oven, so I took the bag of buns in, too.

They were starting to freeze as well!

In the end, though, it all worked out well. The potatoes turned out to be perfectly cooked! I was more concerned about them. The last time we did foil wrapped potatoes in the fire pit, they were set directly into the hot ashes. They cooked way faster than expected, and were pretty burned in places. Cooking them in the Dutch oven protected them and let them cook more evenly. Definitely something worth doing again!

That was for today. Later on, we’ll be baking a cake, and I’ve got fish fillets thawing out for another special dinner – one only my daughters can eat, but that’s just fine! My husband and I don’t tolerate fish – or most seafood in general – well. The girls, on the other hand, love pretty much all seafood.

As for me, it’s back to spending time with the family! It’s been a good day.

I hope you are having a wonderful day, too!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shop: this is what $288 looks like

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Today, finally, we did the stock up shop that normally gets done at the end of the month!

Between issues with the truck and trying to get my mother’s apartment emptied before the end of January, what would have been our first stock up shopping trip to the city, didn’t happen.

This trip is normally a stop at Canadian Tire, a Walmart and then either the international grocery store we like so much, or a Superstore.

Well, we’ve done our Costco shop, and have done local shops, so today we only needed to go to Canadian Tire and Walmart. Both of which we could do in the smaller city where my mother is now in a Transitional Care Unit, until they can find space for her in a personal care home on a permanent basis.

I didn’t take a picture, but our first stop was at Canadian Tire, where we got three 40 pound bags of litter pellets. I was also looking for more seed starting mix, but they only had Miracle Gro, which has become increasingly filled with chunks of wood and twigs. So I skipped that, but I did pick up a new growing tray kit. They had 72 cell trays with hexagonal cells and a greenhouse dome lid for only about $9. I just got the one, as I have other things I can use. I’ll eventually need to get more drain trays separately, though. More and more of my older ones are starting to crack.

My Canadian Tire purchase was only three bags of pellets and the one tray kit, which totaled $35.24

Then, it was the Walmart.

This is what $288.51 looks like.

Most of my list was non-grocery items. My husband requested a few things, and my older daughter requested some heat and eats. None of us are doing well enough to stand in a kitchen, cooking a full meal, right now.

So this is what I ended up getting.

I couldn’t get the receipt to lie flat, but I think it’s still readable.

In the heat and eats, my daughter chose dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, just for fun. Not something we normally get, at all, ever! I grabbed a package of corn dogs at the last minute (they became supper!), plus we got a couple of bags of frozen tater tots.

For other food items, we got a couple more loaves of rye bread, sandwich pickles, 3% milk, a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale, a bottle of Kefir (a rare treat), Birthday Cake flavoured coffee creamer, a box of Sleepytime tea and a bag of oranges.

My husband requested Fresca, sour candies and water flavours.

There are some feminine hygiene products, hair oil, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, paper towels, two cases of canned cat food, and the Jiffy seed starting mix I was looking for. Also, a package of baby wipes to keep in the truck for hand washing.

For the drive home, we got a couple of drinks and a snack to try. Samosa chips; rosemary vinaigrette flavoured. They were quite tasty!

And that’s it; 33 items in total came to almost $300.

Our Walmart shop actually cost more than getting the truck repaired. That doesn’t even include the Canadian Tire stuff, nor the gas we got on the way home (I only put in $20, but used my points to get 10¢ off per liter, so I got more for my money).

*sigh*

Thankfully, though, this should be our last big shop for the month. Which is already almost half over.

2026 is already just flying by!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: onion snails doing well

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I got to stay home today, for a change!

I did get messages back from the garage about the truck, but nothing about coming in. I’m not sure the problem is the sensor, after finding some oil on the ground in the garage yesterday. It was a while before I went out to move it today, so that I could check the oil levels, and see if there were any new oil stains under it.

There was. Just a couple of drops.

*sigh*

Oil levels were fine. I’m going to have to take a chance, though, and at least make a trip to the nearest Walmart. We’ve used the last of our canned cat food today, and the dry kibble is starting to get low, too.

It was a nice enough day that, after checking on the truck, I stayed out to clear some of the paths that got filled with drifted snow, after two days of high winds. Happily, the plows have gone by, so the roads will be clear. Things are supposed to keep warming up over the next few days, which is going to be quite a relief.

Of course, that makes me think of gardening!

The peppers and eggplant seeds that are set to pre-germinate aren’t showing any radicals yet, nor to I expect them to, this soon. Next on the list was things like tomatoes and herbs, but after watching the above video, I will just be doing the herbs, first. I sorted seeds I’ll be starting by how many weeks before last frost the packages recommend starting them. In theory, I could start the tomatoes in April.

I just really, really want to start more seeds! 😄

I realized it’s been a while since I updated about the onions. All four snail rolls now have seedlings.

They’re tall enough now that I raised the light a bit today. Should they get big enough to need “potting up”, they can be unrolled, more seed starting mix added, then rolled back up again. I made sure to leave enough excess length of the packing foam to accommodate extra width.

Just a little green growth to sooth the gardening soul, as winter drags on!

The Re-Farmer

Not a stock up trip: this is what $181 looks like

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After all the driving I did yesterday – including some white knuckle driving in near zero visibility, the last thing I wanted to do was head out again.

Unfortunately, between having to focus on getting my mother’s apartment emptied, plus concerns about the truck, we haven’t been able to do our usual city stock up shopping. I’m glad I had been able to do the top ups earlier but, until I can finally get to the city, we had to do another smaller shop. Plus, with all the driving I’d done yesterday, I normally would have gotten more gas before heading home on that last trip, but there was no way we were stopping to get gas at that point.

I really wish I’d been able to stay home today. The roads sucked. Yesterday’s high winds came from the south-southeast. Today, we had winds coming from the north-northwest. Since the roads I was traveling ran east-west, that meant there was drifting from yesterday/last night’s winds on one side, and new drifting on the other! Not to mention the open areas, where I was being broadsided by winds and had to fight them to stay on the road. Thankfully, it wasn’t particularly slippery. Temperatures were actually pretty mild today – not as mild as yesterday, but close. The winds, however, negated that completely.

I don’t want to have to do this again, so I made a larger than usual shop.

I filled a whole three grocery bags for $181.02m plus a 12 pack of Coke Zero and a couple of bags of potatoes – and that’s with all the discounts and sales I took advantage of!

Here’s what we got, today.

There’s the Coke Zero at the top of the list, which was on sale. I remembered we were running low on ketchup, so I got a bottle. It’s mostly the girls that use it, so I tend to forget. The gingersnap cookies are a treat for my husband.

There was a sale on pasta sauce, so I got a couple of jars. I got two 18’s of eggs rather than a flat, because the flats don’t fit in the hard sided grocery bags, and I didn’t want to fuss with a larger soft sided bag, just for eggs.

Next is a couple of pounds of house brand butter. The cheapest branded butter was almost $8 a pound. The spiral fries are something my husband is able to cook himself, which he likes to do whenever his pain levels are more tolerable. Then there are a couple of bags of frozen mixed vegetables, and a couple of bags of frozen pierogi.

Potatoes were on sale, so I got one of white potatoes, one of yellow. I also got a bag of onions and some bananas.

Stew meat was on sale, so I picked up the largest package I could find. It was still smaller than what I used to be able to get for under $20. Now, without the sale price, it would have cost over $30. Insane.

They had “cook tonight” discounts on whole chicken, so I got a couple. Those went straight into the freezer. I also got a couple of sausage rings, then decided to get a treat of potato salad. Something we don’t make ourselves, so it’s a fairly rare treat.

Last of all was bread that was on sale; two loaves of marble rye and two of whole wheat Texas Toast.

With the sale prices discounted at the till, not counting the sale items that were priced by weight, I saved $34.10. I could have gotten $10 off on this shop with my loyalty points, but saved it for another time.

There’s a reason we do bulk shopping in the city.

Hopefully, I will hear back from the garage early tomorrow. I ended up sending another picture. Once again, there was fresh oil under the truck. Just another drop, really. Still, it shouldn’t be there. Especially not after just getting that seal replaced. That means it’s coming from somewhere else.

*sigh*

No change in what the oil gauge is telling me. It starts off in the normal range, then drops to the exact same level in the “low” range, and stays there.

Tomorrow is supposed to be colder, but that wind is finally supposed to be done by now, so it’ll probably feel warmer than it has for the past couple of days. Today is Sunday, and the 10 day forecast is saying we’ll reach a high above freezing on Thursday, drop significantly on Friday, then warm back up again by Saturday. If the forecast is at all accurate, that will be the last of the whiplash weather – at least for the highs we’re expecting in the long range forecast.

Which means, by the time we’ve got whatever it is figured out with the truck and we finally do our stock up shopping in the city, even if it’s just one trip, it should be much more pleasant driving!

Here’s hoping.

The Re-Farmer

Rough night, rough day, so I’m testing out a flatbread recipe

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Ooff.

You know those nights where to get into bed and suddenly, you’re just awake? Absolutely zero chance of falling asleep?

Well, I had one of those last night. Finally, at around 4am, I got up to find a food. I sat at my computer table to eat and, since I was there and the computer was off, I decided to clean out the crevices on my mouse. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, so I decided to do the same to my keyboard.

I cannot believe how much cat hair I pulled out from between the keys! How does it even get in there??? Today, however, it feels like I’m typing on a brand new keyboard. 😄

I finally tried going back to sleep at about 5am and managed to get a bit of highly interrupted (by cats) sleep before it was time to get up and do the morning routine and feed the outside cats. Then I tried to go back to bed, but found I wasn’t feeling well for some reason. I finally did doze off, only for the phone to ring and wake me up.

I gave up after that.

I still wasn’t feeling well in general. Part of it had me wondering what I might have eaten to trigger problems (nothing out of the ordinary), and part of it was my joints wanting to give out on me. That whole “shoulder wants to dislocate while reaching to flush the toilet” thing is decidedly inconvenient!

I ended up getting one of my daughters to do the evening outside cat feeding.

I was feeling particularly useless today, so I started looking up recipes. At some point, Pinterest started showing me some Pins for liquid dough flat bread, which caught my attention. We aren’t baking bread anywhere near as much as we should be. Our bread machine stopped working properly a while ago, though we could still have it mix up a batch of dough in the evening, ready to bake in the oven in the morning, but we weren’t always in a position to do baking in the morning. Plus, a single loaf doesn’t go very far with four adults in the household.

Meanwhile, with all of us breaking down, one way or another, we were focusing more on no-knead bread recipes, anyhow. Most of these still require rising time, but sometimes I want something faster. Baking powder pan bread works okay, but variety is always nice.

Today, I found a couple of “liquid dough” recipes that looked good and decided to try one of them out. The dough’s texture is thinner than a batter bread, but thicker than a pancake batter, though there seems to be quite a bit of variability between recipes.

This is the basic recipe I settled on to try today.

Liquid Dough Flatbread

Ingredients:
2 cups flour (AP or whole wheat)
2 cups water
1 egg (beaten)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
2-3 tsp dried parsley (or slightly less, if using chopped fresh parsley)
Oil or butter (melted) for cooking

Instructions:
1. Add all ingredients together in a medium bowl and whisk together until smooth.
2. Heat non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Brush lightly with oil or butter.
3. Pour 1/2 cup of batter into the hot skillet and spread evenly.
4. Cook until the bottom starts to change colour and is solid enough to flip.
5. Flip, then apply a light coating of oil or butter.
6. Press the edges with a spatula (they tend to curl up). Cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip again.
7. Apply another light layer of oil or butter. Continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until both sides are golden brown. Note: a bubble of steam may form in the middle.

For this, I used olive oil in a handy little dispenser and a pastry brush to spread it, which made things easier. I also used a half cup measuring cup as my ladle, with a rubber spatula to scrape the outside to keep it from dripping all over and making a mess. With the half cup measuring cup, I was able to do 7 flatbreads that were about 8″ across this way, then for the last one, I just poured in what was left, which made for a flatbread about 10″ across.

This is what it looked like.

The original recipe said to put all the ingredients (the egg did not need to be beaten first), except the parsley, into a blender, blend it smooth, then transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the parsley. We don’t have a blender, but why would I want to dirty extra things when a wire whisk and one bowl will do the job? I didn’t even bother to beat the egg in a separate bowl, but just made sure to beat it before incorporating everything else in the bowl.

The finished flatbreads had a lightly crispy edge, and a softer, chewier middle.

We taste tested them plain.

My conclusion:

Very easy and quick to mix up, and not too bad when it came to how long they took to cook, for something that could be cooked only one at a time.

Adding the extra oil when flipping them did result in them being slightly oiler than I prefer – and I didn’t oil them as much as the original recipe called for!

For flavour, I think it would have been better if I’d used butter, ghee or even a flavoured olive oil, rather than a plain olive oil. I think butter would be best, as they rather needed the extra salt. Something to experiment with, if I make this recipe again, as it was a bit on the bland side.

I think I would also like to experiment with trying different additions instead of the parsley. Finely chopped garlic, for example, or a dry grated cheese, like Parmesan, or even some powdered, dehydrated tomato or spinach, for savoury options. I think it would also work well with a bit more sugar – maybe substituting brown sugar instead – and the addition of things like ground cinnamon or cloves, for a sweeter option.

While we were taste testing these plain as a snack, I think they would be a nice addition to go along with a hearty soup or stew, though for that, I really prefer our fluffy dumplings. More likely, we would use this as a wrap, like we use tortillas, with some sort of savoury filling. My daughter thought they would be nice dipped in some hummus or sour cream. Interestingly, she found the flavour quite “eggy”, which I didn’t get at all. Her taste buds can pick up a lot more than mine can, though.

I do think this is something that might work well for campfire or firepit cooking, too. Our well seasoned Dutch oven lid has legs and can double as a griddle that would be perfect for something like this.

In the end, I think this is something that would do well to quickly work up when feeling peckish but, as I mentioned before, it’s a bit on the bland side. I can see myself making a half recipe of this as a snack during the night.

A night like last night, were sleep just didn’t want to happen!!

The Re-Farmer

Finally got the fire pit going!

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We really enjoy the fire pit and I’m wanting to learn how to do more open fire cooking. Unfortunately, the last couple of summers have seen fire bans and, even without fire bans, it has simply been too windy to safely get a fire going.

So it looks like winter is going to be the time we are most likely able to use the fire pit! It’s been pushed back a few times, but today, I finally got it going.

It also gave me a chance to try using the magnesium rod and striker my husband got for me about a year ago, to light the fire. I started off using inner bark as tinder, but it was from bark that had been gathered over the summer and tucked under the fire pit cover. It would start to sometimes smolder, but was juuuust damp enough that it couldn’t catch and stay caught.

Conveniently, though, I had a tissue in my pocket. Once that caught, the inner bark could also catch, and I soon had a roaring fire.

My daughter was very disappointed that I went out ahead of her and started the fire. She wanted to do that! 😄 We’ll have to do this more often.

Once she came out, I left her to tend the fire and build up a coal bed, using the maple and apple firewood I’ve been setting aside for cooking fires. I went in to get the Dutch oven out and get the roast ready.

This time, I tried lining the Dutch oven with parchment paper, first. Last time, I used aluminum foil. It took two sheets of parchment paper, at right angles to each other, to be able to completely cover the bottom and sides. I oiled the bottom with a rosemary infused olive oil from the set we got for Christmas. I stuck whole cloves are garlic into slits on the fat cap side of the pork roast, salted it, placed it fat cap down into the Dutch oven, then added salt and pepper. Then I put whole red potatoes, quarters of onions and carrots cut in half around it. Last of all, I added a cup of reconstituted vegetable bouillon. Another sheet of parchment paper went over the top, the edges were gathered in, and finally the lid was put on.

In the second picture of the slide show above, you can see the fire still needed to burn down to coals a bit more. The handy thing of doing this in the winter is, we don’t have to worry about keeping things refrigerated. Though freezing might be an issue! 😄

We never completely uncovered the fire bricks on one side – I uncovered three, but the fourth was still hiding under the coals. There was a bit of a wind, so we decided to use the middle of the fire pit, instead. Normally, I would have the Dutch oven’s legs on the fire bricks, with an open space between the bricks directly under it for hot coals, set to one side of the fire pit, while a live fire was kept going on the other side to produce more hot coals, as needed. This time, we put it on hot coals in the middle, added some on the lid, then kept the fire going all around it. This way, we didn’t need to refresh the coals over the hour we left it to roast. We just needed to keep the fire going all around. You can see the set up in the next picture of the slide show.

In the last picture in the slide show, you can see how the food looked when we checked it after an hour. We probably could have taken it out earlier. The burned parchment paper tells me that temperatures inside the Dutch oven reached at least 450F. The meat was thoroughly cooked through!

We set the Dutch over aside on the metal sheet I use to cover the fire pit, stoked up the fire and simply enjoyed the flames for the next while. I didn’t want to be carrying the food in while the cast iron was still really hot. Then, after I brought it in, we both stayed outside to enjoy the fire some more!

We were able to make a good dent in the branch pile in the process. Another reason why we want to get the fire pit going more often. We have a branch pile in easy reach for the fire pit, but it’s getting too big!

Eventually, though, it started to snow.

While we were out there, we had a lot of cats running through the paths around us, but they disappeared as the snow started getting heavier. After a while, I started to bring our camp chairs and tools inside.

I had an audience.

They did not like the commotion I was making!

From the left, there’s Havarti, Gouda, unnamed kitten and Fluffer.

Also, can you spot the fifth cat? 😄 Those turned out to be Grommet’s ears in the back.

Then I went outside again and spotted this beauty.

Fluffy is such a beauty. I do wish she would allow us to pet her! Once in a while, I can touch her, but she is more likely to run away.

Yes, we have a Fluffy and a Fluffer. Because I’m just sooooo creative when it comes to naming cats. 😄

So that was the highlight of my day today. Making supper. 😄 It turned out really excellent, too. The potatoes really absorbed the flavours of that vegetable bouillon.

Next time we use the Dutch oven like that, though, I’ll line it with aluminum foil. It was hard to get the charred parchment paper out without dropping bits. 😄

My daughter, however, was suggesting that next time, we do a wiener roast, so I’ll be picking up some hot dog buns and wieners, the next time I’m in town.

Which will be tomorrow. I’ll be going to my mother’s apartment, first, then heading to town to visit her with some stuff she asked for.

Ha! I just checked the forecast. Yes, it’s changed again. They are saying 0C/32F as the high on Monday again (today is Friday), but now they’re saying Tuesday will reach a high of 3C/37F!

Well, we’ll see what actually happens.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up trip: this is what $722 looks like

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Well, we finally made it to Costco! Not the new location I was planning to go back to, but to the one that we have been going to regularly, since it was near where we could meet up with someone from the cat rescue and deliver a furball for adoption.

We did do a bit of non-pictured shopping. After delivering the cat, we went in and had breakfast. I ordered a large meal of Chinese food, knowing I could only eat half of it, and brought the other half home for my husband. That, plus my daughter’s food, totaled just under $50. Then my daughter wanted to look for something. While going through the mall, we passed a store I’ve never seen before that specialized in warm things – leggings, touques, mittens, blankets, scarves, slippers, etc.

Boxing day sales were still going on, and everything in the store was a flat $10 each.

We went in and my daughter found a display of slipper socks. She got a couple for herself and her sister. I got a couple for myself and my husband, if they fit. I also got a blanket and some suede moccasin style slippers. Hopefully, either the slippers or the slipper socks will fit my husband. If not, they might fit me. If they don’t fit me, they’ll fit the girls.

Each of the items I selected was regular price, $40. My total after taxes was $44.80.

After that, my daughter found a store with what she was looking for, and then we went to the Costco. I had planned to get gas first, but it was so busy, we just parked in the first open spot we could find – way out in a distant corner of the parking lot! At least we didn’t have to go into the overflow parking.

Oddly, it didn’t seem that busy once we were inside.

This is what our $$722.57 looks like.

That… really isn’t a lot.

I folded up the receipt because it had been pulled up part way through, so there were a lot of empty space, with an item count in the middle. It was only after I unfolded it that I realized there was a single item listed with the item count, too. A container of Parmesan cheese at $17.49

Aside from that…

For the big stuff that stayed on the cart, there is a case of Monster energy drinks, which I will be reimbursed for by a daughter, and a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I. There is a case of kitchen garbage bags, toilet paper, a 9 pack of pasta, a small case of tomato soup, and a double flat of eggs.

For cat stuff, there is four 9.1kg bags of kibble, a case of wet cat food and a case of puppy pads.

For the frozen and refrigerator stuff, there is a pork loin, which will be cut up into roasts and chops, and a pork blade roast. There’s a wheel of brie that was on sale, 5 pounds of butter, a block of Old Cheddar cheese, two packages of panini sandwich meats, a case of Oat milk, two 2 packs of salad mixes and a case of frozen pierogi.

Then there is a 2 pack of Vitamin D3, and some goat milk soap my daughter will be reimbursing me for, and a 2 pack of Head and Shoulders, which both my daughter and my husband use as an anti-fungal body wash, at the doctor’s recommendation.

There is also a container of popcorn, two big jars of mayonnaise, two 2 packs of rye bread, two packs of tortilla wraps, a case of instant oatmeal, and a case of ramen noodles.

I just realized, my daughter accidentally grabbed unsalted butter instead of salted butter. Oh, well. The price is the same! 😁

And that’s it.

Total number of items, 42. Total discounts, $15.30, but about $40 in taxes.

We got hardly any meat. Which is okay. With doing so many heat and eats for our Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, we still have some in the freezer.

Then we had to get the flat cart all the way to the truck. With so much packed snow, it took both of us to push it, and we kept having to stop to grab things that were vibrating off the cart.

Once we were loaded up, we went to fill the gas tank. The Costco price for regular gas was $0.999/L! It’s been ages since I’ve seen gas at under a dollar, even it if is barely a penny. Filling the tank cost $27.13

On the way out, we did stop at a gas station just outside the city. Mostly for a bathroom break before the drive home, but also to pick up some drinks, which my daughter paid for.

So, everything together today, including purchases at the mall, we spent about $844 in total.

Thank God this is just a once a month thing!

The next big purchase for the month will be a trip to the feed store to get 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats.

Ugh.

I’m glad to have the Costco shopping over and done with for the month, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, I need to get that pork loin divided up for the freezer.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden analysis: direct sowing

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Okay, so we’ve gone over the winter sowing, then the very disappointing transplanting. How, we get into the direct sowing.

For direct sowing, we did summer squash, pumpkin, pole beans, bush beans, carrots, peas, corn, sunflowers and, to fill in space after losses, Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard. We also planted potatoes and, for a second try, flowers (which I covered a bit in my last post).

Sunflowers, Pumpkin, Corn, Beans and Chard

The pole beans we planted were the Red Noodle beans, in the same bed as the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers. This bed also had seed onions from last year, plus the oodles of tiny self seeded onions I found and transplanted in between the seed onions while preparing the bed.

The Red Noodle Beans germinated and started growing really quickly. I’d planted them along the trellis side of what will eventually be a trellis tunnel. They came up so fast, I rushed to put trellis netting up, even though the structure had only the vertical supports up.

I could have saved the effort. That initial growth spurt was it. They never got any bigger that what you can see in the above slide show. I had a few spare bean seeds left and ended up planting them in gaps between some sugar snap peas. Those stagnated just as much, in a completely different bed.

*sigh*

The Hopi Black Dye sunflowers, however, were a pleasant surprise. It took a long time, but they did finally germinate. They, too, stagnated and took a long time before they started blooming. Some had a single head, while other developed seed heads at almost every leaf junction.

Much to my surprise, they even survived some frosts and a few heads developed what I hope to be viable seeds, that I have saved.

In the same bed as the Red Noodle Beans and sunflowers, I planted the free pumpkin seeds that are given away at the grocery store in my mother’s town. This year, their packets (they limit one per person) had five seeds in it. Last year, they packets had three seeds.

There was no variety name given, but the town encourages people to grow the seeds and enter their pumpkins in their pumpkin fest, from which they later save seeds to give out for free the next year.

I planted them in protective collars, in between the self seeded onions and tomatoes I found in the bed.

The pumpkins where the last thing I direct sowed this year. All of them germinated, and the plants were all some of the healthiest squash we got. They actually came up faster than the sunflowers. When one of them started to develop a pumpkin, I trained that vine up the trellis netting – by then, it was obvious no beans would be climbing it.

They got some really huge flowers, too.

We only got one pumpkin, though. Other female flowers did start to develop little pumpkins, but they all died off.

These vines were very resilient. Even after they seemed to be completely killed off by frost, but we still had warmer days after, they started to grew new leaves and even started to try and bud!

At least we got one pumpkin out of it, with five plants. Last year, we had three plants, and got five pumpkins.

We left it on the counter for a while, where it continued to ripen, and the pattern left by the hammock supporting its weight disappeared.

For bush beans, I planted Royal Burgundy. The first year we grew these, they were fantastic, and we’ve been trying to grow them again since.

These went in along with the Spoon tomatoes.

We got three. One of them got eaten by a deer. It recovered, though.

Despite this, those three little plants actually did start producing! We got a remarkable amount of beans from then, considering how spindly they were!

That did leave me with a lot of open space, and I was out of bean seeds, so I tried planting Swiss Chard.

All I can say about those is, they germinated. Quite a few of them, actually. None of which grew beyond their seed leaves.

*sigh*

I hadn’t planned on it, but I also planted some yellow Custard beans. These were from old seeds that I had, and they went in between rows of corn and between tomatoes.

The bush beans were included in these beds partly for their nitrogen fixing qualities. Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder.

I planted Orchard Baby corn, which is a short season variety. I got three rows of corn with two rows of beans in between them. The tomatoes got a few beans planted down the middle of the bed, plus one went into a gap between tomato varieties.

I had extra corn seeds, so those got planted around the Arikara squash, nearby.

The corn took a very long time to germinate. For a while, I thought they were going to make it.

In the main bed with the beans, that is.

Most of the beans didn’t germinate at all. Only two or three made it. I wasn’t surprised by that, as these seeds were a few years old, so I replanted them. Eventually, pretty much all of the beans did germinate, as did the corn in that bed.

The corn with the Arikara squash, however, did much better! They germinated faster, grew faster and produced cobs faster.

Not very big cobs, but there was something!

The main corn bed, however, took even longer for the tassels and cobs to form. Then, when we did…

We got corn smut on several plants!

As for the yellow Custard beans, they did eventually start to bloom and we even had beans to harvest, but the plants never grew even close to their full size or production. The ones planted among the tomatoes had a 100% germination rate, though one got dug up by a cat later on. They, too, struggled to grow, bloom and produce. We did, however, get yellow beans to harvest, later in the season.

Summer Squash and Potatoes

With the winter sown summer squash bed a complete fail, plus the small section of winter sown root vegetable mix by the garlic rolled on by cats, we had some open space to work with.

The winter sown summer squash bed became our potato bed.

While cleaned up the bed and digging a trench for the potatoes, I did find a couple of squash seeds but, overall, they seemed to have completely disappeared.

The potatoes we’d bought earlier and started chitting in the basement all failed. They started to grow shoots while in the basement, but I think it was too cold in there for them to do well. Once inside the portable greenhouse, however, they didn’t go any better – and then they got knocked over when the wind almost blew away the greenhouse, knocked over by cats and basically cooked in the heat of the greenhouse.

I got more seed potatoes. Those were chitted in the greenhouse, and did not get cooked.

With the cats seeing all freshly turned soil as an invitation, we made sure to put netting over the potatoes, right from the start. Over time, they got mulched, then mulched again.

On the one hand, they did seem to do well. They grew and got bushy and…

Then they started to die back.

Without ever blooming.

I don’t think I even found a flower bud on them.

I finally dug a few up to see, and yes, there were potatoes. In fact, we were able to slowly harvest potatoes as needed, for quite some time.

With this bed, it seems that drought, heat and smoke were not the only problems.

The bed was also filled with roots from the nearby elm trees.

My nemesi.

Still, we did end up with a decent number of potatoes to enjoy.

The summer squash – Black Zucchini and White Scallop, went in near the garlic.

They, too, got a protective covering right away.

Summer squash usually don’t take long to germinate, but these took so long, I was actually surprised when some seedlings showed up.

I had planted several seeds in each spot and, when they got bigger, I thinned by transplanting.

The summer squash, however, also stagnated for so very long. They did eventually get bigger and we actually got a few zucchini.

I had to hand pollinate them, as the male and female flowers bloomed out of sink.

Only one white scallop squash survived, and that was set back even more than the zucchini. In the end, we got only one scallop squash to harvest.

It was very disappointing, but at least we got something, before the frosts killed them.

Peas and Carrots

The peas were among the first things we planted, and we had two varieties. Sugar Snap peas and Super Sugar Snap peas. We also had two varieties of carrots. The Uzbek Golden carrots were also in our winter sown mixes, plus we tried Atomic Red carrots this year.

The peas were already germinating when the carrots were planted. I’d already set boards out, which protected the carrots until they germinated, and then were used to keep the soil from eroding while watering, as this bed has no walls.

The peas were probably the best we’ve ever grown, even though they did not reach their full potential with the heat, drought and smoke.

There weren’t a lot of pods to harvest, but I could at least snack on them while doing my morning rounds – until the deer got at them.

*sigh*

The carrots were both successful and not successful. There was good germination, and we eventually did a fair bit of thinning by harvesting. Few got very big, though. At the end of the season, when it was time to harvest everything and prep the bed for next year, there were quite a lot of carrots.

Little carrots.

But will, we had something! In fact, once we concluded that we like the Super Sugar Snap peas more than the Sugar Snap peas, I was able to leave pods on select plants specifically for seed saving.

Flowers

I already covered this quite a bit in my last post, but we did direct sow flowers this year. The winter sown bed got destroyed, so we started over.

In the second photo of the above photo, you can see that cats were not the only problem we had, trying to protect the winter sown flowers. The wind completely destroyed the cover we put over them.

I found more Dwarf Jewel nasturtiums to try again. I also found some mixed Cosmos seeds, and decided to plant the memorial Crego Mixed Colors aster seeds I had.

My mother used to grow Cosmos, so I knew they could grew here. We also have wild asters growing, but not domestic ones, so I wasn’t sure on those. Nasturtiums are completely new.

The bed got protective netting as soon as it was planted.

They took so very long to germinate. The asters, longest of all.

The nasturtiums bloomed and we were able to collect seeds, but they were much smaller than they should have been. The Cosmos eventually got big and bushy, but by the time the started to bloom, it was late in the season and they were killed off by frost long before they could go to seed.

The asters were what I wanted to go to see the most, as they are in memory of an old friend. Thankfully, the Cosmos protected them from frost, and I did manage to collect seed.

Final thoughts.

This was a very rough year in the garden. It made me so very glad we had the winter sown beds! Much of what we planted, however, is stuff we will continue to plant. One really bad year is not going to stop that. Locations and varieties may change, but the staples will always be there.

Beans: as disappointing as this year was, beans are a staple crop and we will be growing them again; both pole and bush beans, to extend the season. By the time bush beans are no longer producing as much, the pole beans are ready for harvesting.

At least, that’s how it normally works.

I really want to grow red noodle beans again. They are supposed to do well in our climate zone. There’s only so much I can blame on the drought and heat, or even the smoke. Maybe not next year, though. I also want to grow beans for drying, but that will depend on space.

Corn: These were also disappointing this year, but I do plan to grow more next year. I’ve got way too many varieties of corn seeds, but I have more Yukon Chief, which is a super short season variety we’ve grown before, that I will be planting next year. I’m also going to be growing a sweet corn that matures later, so they can actually be planted close together and cross pollination should not be an issue. Corn is a heavy feeder and you don’t get a lot for the space they take up, but I just really like corn!

Sunflowers: I’ve got the saved seed from this year, and I’ll be trying those, next year. Each year we do that, the variety will get more acclimated to our area. At some point, we might even have enough to use the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers as a dye! At some point, I want to try the giant varieties again (like the Mongolian Giant we winter sowed, but everything in that bed failed), but probably not next year.

Chard: I’ve already got a new variety of those winter sown with our garlic. I might try others, both old and new varieties, with direct sowing early in the spring, but I’m quite blown away by how the ones I did direct sow never got past the seed leaf stage. Not sure what to make of that.

Pumpkin: we have a new variety of pumpkin seeds to try next year, which I will probably start indoors first. It’s the seeds we get locally that do amazing when direct sown, so I’ll likely get more of those next spring, too.

Summer Squash: Once again, we have new varieties to try. I might start them indoors again, too. Direct sowing just doesn’t seem to work well. I know my mother used to direct sow zucchini when she gardened here, but that was a long time ago, and the soil and growing conditions have changed quite a bit.

Peas: we already have some dwarf peas winter sown in the kitchen garden. I’ve got another new variety waiting to be planted in the spring, plus we have our saved Super Sugar Snap peas to plant next year. I’ve just got to figure out how to protect them from the deer!

Carrots: I’ve already got a rainbow mix of carrots, winter sown. Hopefully, they will do better, size wise, than this year’s did. I still have other varieties of carrot seeds, including saved Uzbek Golden carrot, which we quite like. I’ll probably direct sow some in the spring. It will, once again, depend on space available.

Potatoes: I’m still surprised by the potatoes that never bloomed. Of course, potatoes are a staple crop, so we’ll be planting them again. In digging them up to harvest them, and to clean up the bed in the fall, I found a LOT of tree roots had grown into the bed, which may have contributed to the problem.

We’ve got to do something about those trees!

For now, the amount of potatoes we grow is nowhere near enough to last us through a winter, but we’re still looking to find varieties that both grow well here, and that we like. In the future, as we reclaim lost garden spaces and continue to expand, the goal is to plant many more potatoes to store in the root cellar.

Flowers: Of course, I’ll be planting the saved memorial aster seeds, plus some dropped seed might come up on their own. We have new Cosmos varieties, Bachelor’s button, saved nasturtiums, and other flower seeds to plant. It’s more about deciding where to plant them, as some were specifically chosen so that they can self seed and be treated as perennials. Over time, we plan on having areas filled with wild flowers all over, to both attract pollinators and deter deer.

Well, if you’ve managed to slog your way through all that, congratulations! And thank you for taking the time! If you have any thoughts or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment.

While I tried to include quite a few images with this, since I’m posting images almost exclusively on Instagram (I’ve used up almost all the storage space that comes with my WP plan), it’s a bit messed up. So, if you want to get a better look at things, here are the garden tour videos I did in June and July.

I sounded so hopeful in June.

Not so much by the end of July!

Ah, well. It is what it is!

In my next post, I’ll be analyzing our perennial and food forest stuff, and then one last post in the series with an overall analysis, and what we’re planning on for next year.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer