Desert Garden Carrot Harvest

A long time ago Ben found on old dresser dumped in the parking lot of his office. He hauled it home and we turned it into a raised bed for carrors and radishes. It is filled with a mixture of potting soil, compost and sand and we've been very happy with the results.

This month we are harvesting a mixture of baby carrots, including chantenays, oxhearts, Paris Market, and Dragons- the beautiful crimson colored carrot. Nothing goes to waste from this raised bed- the hens love eating the carrot tops.

Encyclopedia of Country Living - 40th Anniversary Edition

When I first started reading blogs about growing my own food, the book that was mentioned most frequently was The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.

As my interests expanded into raising chickens and sustainablity, people in the know were still pointing the Carla's book as a resource. Living in the 'burbs I thought that this book wasn't for me but boy was I wrong! Anyone from homesteader to apartment dweller can use the great tips and advice from Carla.

Leanna’s Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Leanna’s Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Ingredients

6 to 8 pounds cucumbers, scrubbed and sliced into ¼” thick rounds
10 fresh dill sprigs
2 tbsp dill seeds
1 large onion, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, sliced into thirds
1 quart water
3 cups white vinegar
1 cup Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canning/pickling salt

Directions

In a large pot, combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil; cook and stir just until salt is dissolved. Place a sprig of dill in the bottom of each sterilized canning jar.

Pack layers of cucumber and onions tightly into the jars, leaving ½ head space. Place garlic pieces and dill sprigs into the jars and sprinkle with dill seed.

Pour liquid mixture into jars to cover the cucumbers. Move the cucumbers around with a knife to release any air bubbles. Make sure the liquid covers the cucumbers, onions and dill completely.

Cover tightly and refrigerate for 48 hours. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Growing potatoes in the desert?

I accidentally pulled these up while weeding. It looks like the experimental potato bed is coming along nicely. Now if we can just get them thru the summer months. . . (fingers crossed)

Lucy and Piccata in the chicken tractor

After 18 months of looking at the chicken tractor in our yard we finaly got around to putting the chicken wire on it. The tractor is fabulous and Picatta and Speckle love it. Lucy and Molly were not impressed. The next step is to put the tractor in our smaller raised bed garden so the hens can clear out the weeds and turn the soil.

One project completed, 23,674,992 to go!

112 Degrees in the Shade

Ugh! It is going to get up to 112 degrees today and I am outside tending to the chickens and the solar oven. God Bless the person who invented the portable mister system that Ace Hardware sold me, I think I would be passed out right now without it.

The good news is that despite this unbearable heat, the chickens and the gardens are doing quite well.

Our youngest hens are now 25 weeks old and they are all laying several eggs a week in various hues. We had a over 5 dozen eggs in July. Considering the hot days, that's not too shabby. We had enough eggs that we were able to share them with friends and our (oh so understanding!) neighbors. Not once have they complained about the "hen party" in the backyard when things get a bit noisy.

Lucy soaking her feet. Or is it Molly?

Lots of eggs!
Our front garden has really worked out beautifully. Over the winter we lost the Lantana to a bad frost so we tore it out and replaced the flowers with a vegetable garden. This turned out to be a fabulous idea. The area is shaded until the afternoon and the plants are doing much better that the backyard veggie garden.

In the front garden we have several Better Boy and Early Girl tomatoes which are still producing. The Sweet 100 tomatoes were very tiny but make perfect chicken snacks. We have a single zucchini plant which, as anyone who has grown zucchini can tell you, yields more than enough zucchini for 2 people.

The backyard gardens contain some heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons. Not much to say here as we have more crabgrass than garden at this point. On a lark I threw in some seeds from and Armenian cucumber that I purchased at Lee Lee's. I completely forgot about them until the big monsoon in July uncovered this. . .

I have no idea how long it had been growning under the grass and weeds but boy was it delicious. From now on I am only planting these babies.

More good news - the bell pepper curse is finally broken. My inability to grow peppers is legendary in my family and it's quite funny since I can manage to grow just about anything else. This season I finally was able to grow 2 red bell peppers in the front garden. Believe me, they are nothing to brag about and certainly wouldn't win any prizes at the county fair. Heck, they were barely big enough to add to a single dinner salad. Still, just the fact that I was able to keep the pepper plants alive and harvest a vegetable that could be clearly identified as a pepper - that is HUGE for me and I owe it all to chicken poo water.

Yes, I said chicken poo water. It smells and looks just as disgusting as it sounds but the plants love it. You see, it is so hot here in the east valley that chickens find it very difficult to cool off. Heat related deaths of backyard hens are quite common here. Thanks to the folks at Valley Permaculture Alliance and the people on the Arizona board over at BackyardChickens.com I have learned about different ideas to make life more comfortable for my girls. One way is to provide the hens with a shallow pan of water to wade in and cool off. They love it! HuzBen refers to the pans (actually cat litter pans) as the Hen Spas.

Now about the part where the "poo" comes in. Chickens are not unlike small children and won't get out of the pool to do their "business." By the end of the day the pan of water is less foot bath and substantially more chicken toilet. But - when life gives you lemons. . . or in this case, chicken poo water. . . use it to your advantage. It's free liquid fertilizer and it's fabulous. (But OMG - the smell, yuck!)

Time to go and get the bread out of the solar oven - see you soon!

Grilled Zucchini

Today's harvest from the garden, sitting in my new grilling basket from Sur La Table at Casa Paloma in Chandler.

Ben will be grilling our first zucchini of the season today. Lucky for us, we still have some oranges to use for the zuccini marinade this afternoon. These (behind the zuccini in the photo) are Arizona Sweets from the neighbor's tree. They keep for weeks as long as you put them in a cool spot.

To make Ben's grilled zuccini- First, slice the zucchini lengthwise into 1/2 to 3/4 inch planks or rounds. Squeeze some OJ on the slices and let them sit for about a half hour to absorb the flavor. Right before grilling, spray the squash with a litle mist of EVOO and sprinkle them with garlic salt. Toss the slices on a very hot grill until grill marks appear, flip and cook for a few seconds on the other side.

Check out the varegated purple sage we grow in the herb garden. It almost looks too pretty to chop up and use in a recipe.

Our Very Own Backyard Chickens

We thought about it for years and this weekend we finally took the plunge and got our very own chickens. We are now the proud owners of two Black Minorcas and a cute little Blue Old English Game Bantam. The girls started work right away and we had 2 eggs in the first 24 hours. Nice!

When I say we thought about it for years I am not exaggerating. I first learned about keeping backyard chickens like most city folks did, in an issue of Martha Stewart Living. At that time I was single and living in an apartment so all I could do was look at the fabulous photos of the beautiful hens and their multicolored eggs.

Fast forward to 2009 when I discovered the Valley Permaculture Alliance (then the Phoenix Permaculture Guild). I was looking for info on veggie gardens in the desert but I was thrilled to find a group of people chatting about raising hens all over the valley. That's when we figured out that it was "do-able."

We finally got serious about chickens after participating in the first Tour De Coops where we met people just like us and saw how they incorporated chickens in their suburban neighborhoods. We stopped looking at chickens as pets that lay eggs and started considering the benefits they would bring to our gardens and compost pile. Oh, and they eat kitchen scraps and bugs? Bonus!

Our next step was to take the "Raising Chickens In Your Backyard" class taught by Rachel Bess with Valley Permaculture Alliance. Rachel's class is better than any book you can read. Most books are general but Rachel has been raising chickens for years in the Valley so she understands the needs of a desert chicken. She's also honest and says that having your own chickens is hard work and it isn't for everyone. Her class waaaaaaay under priced at $10.

In Rachel's class we also learned that you could purchase custom coops from people advertising on Craig's List. Bingo! We found Kyle, who not only builds custom coops, but he delivers too! He asked us about our needs and made suggestions about things we might like. He was fabulous! Three days after speaking to him on the phone he pulled into our driveway with our new coop. (see below for you can find Kyle's Craig's List ad "Chicken Coop for the Valley" or call him at 480-363-5775)

That brings us to this weekend when hubby bought me a trio of hens for my birthday. We are already planning a coop addition with Kyle. and we hope to add an Ameraucana to the flock soon.

Solar Oven Eggs and Cheese

Solar Oven Eggs and Cheese

Today was windy but sunny. Too windy to work in the garden but a perfect day to get out the SOS Sport Solar Oven and make breakfast. I set the oven out to preheat and I added a brick. The brick is painted with black bbq grill paint and actually serves 3 purposes in the oven. It elevates the dish for more even cooking, and holds heat so the oven stays hotter if a cloud passes in front on the sun. The bonus is that it also keeps the oven from blowing off the table on windy days.

I used the same ingredients I use to make an omelette on the stovetop (1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 1 oz grated cheese, 1 tsp non fat milk). Cheese is a must. I am trying to lose weight and live heart healthy so I try and keep cheese to a minimum. Trader Joe's carries interesting but inexpensive cheese and I picked up Cotswald Double Glouchester this week. It has a great flavor that goes well with eggs and I love the chives added in.

I mixed everything together and poured the mix into an old First Class cabin casserole dish that I found at the US Airways Company Store for about 50 cents. Buttering the dish makes for easy cleanup. The eggs and cheese took about 30 minutes in the preheated oven. I topped the dish with more fresh chives out of the herb garden. Breakfast for one without turning on the stove - gotta love it.

The Farm Stand at Agritopia

With all the craziness surrounding the holidays, I forgot to pick up lettuce for our salad. There isn't much in the garden right now thanks to the rabbit that moved in under our shed. I am still nursing a damaged knee so there was no way I was going to fight my way around the grocery store to grab lettuce.

I was checking out Twitter today when I saw a Tweet about The Farm Stand at Agritopia selling spring mix for $1.50. Problem solved - the self serve stand is open 24/7 on Ray and Higley in Gilbert right next to Joe's Farm Grill and The Coffee Shop. I picked up the bag of salad mix, 2 lemons ($1.00), and medjool dates ($6.00). Fresh, local, and reasonably priced - love it!

October: Unprocessed - Friday Farmer's Market

Since we're trying to eat local and organic when possible, on Fridays I love going downtown shopping at the Downtown Mesa Farmers Market This isn't one of the larger farmer's markets in the valley but it has everything I need. Naturally there are vegetable vendors and most sell other items as well. Herbs can be purchased fresh, dried or in pots ready to plant. You'll find cheese, bread, pasta and pasta sauce, and lately Dr. Hummus has been selling and giving samples of what I think is the best tasting hummus ever. (Oh, his pita chips are excellent too!) There's also tie-dye t-shirts and craft items. Today one of the ladies was selling lovely tote bags that she made.

As you can see above the heirloom tomatoes were fabulous today. I'll be saving the seeds to start over the winter for my spring crop. They did very well for us this year. I also bought some organic cucumbers and fresh corn.

I'll be making more mayo (aioli) this week so I actually went to the farmer's market today for some eggs. If you like fresh eggs this is the place to get them. They go quickly so get there early. Crack them open and you'll see how different they are from anything you can get in the store. The yolks are a deep yellow compared to the eggs I an used to seeing. Curious about where the eggs come from? One of the vendors has a photo album, so you can see the hens along with their hen house and their grazing area. You won't find that at Fry's.

Lemon Verbena From The Herb Garden

So much for bringing the outdoor inside. The verbena wilted and looked terrible within five minutes of taking this photo. I'll be drying it instead of enjoying it in the livingroom. It smells wonderful!

Getting Things Done

Breakfast from the garden - a baby watermelon

It is a beautiful morning, pretty hot but cloud free. Just perfect for making a roast in the solar oven which I've been trying to do since Tuesday. As soon as I woke up I looked out the front door then ran for the oven to put it in the back yard to pre-heat. I cut up the roast so it will cook faster. After sprinkling it with dry onion soup mix I poured about a teaspoon of bbq sauce on each piece. That's all you need to do and it makes a very flavorful roast with lots of juice you can use indoors on the stove to make gravy. Cooking times varies as do the cooking temperatures but it's usually about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

The garden yield has slowed to almost nothing after all the very hot days we've had here in Mesa. Ben went to visit family in Tucson recently and we were lucky enough to be able to send some crook neck squash, zucchini and heirloom tomatoes to his mom. The tomatoes have stopped producing and the zucchini are much smaller. If you're used to seeing zucchini in the supermarket, that's about the size of the vegetables I am getting now. No more super sized veggies that made my coworkers laugh. The baby watermelons are still on the vine and doing well. The cushion of weeds they are sitting on sure helps to keep them from rotting on the ground. At least, that's my excuse for not weeding. :-)

We plan to add another raised bed in a month. It will be in a perfect spot so we can grow lettuce and tomatoes all winter. Also on the "to do" list is to remove all the soil from the big raised bed. Grass has taken over and quite frankly, the 10 year old soil isn't producing like it did in seasons past. Even though we add compost and manure yearly, it looks like it's time to make a fresh start.


The roast ready to go into the SOS Sport Solar Oven

Another item on my list of things to get done was to get a good sour dough starter going. We love sour dough bread and liked the idea of making my own starter from scratch. I found everthing you need to know about sourdough here - http://sourdoughhome.com and I mixed my first starter on Monday night. It did well for 3 days, nice and bubbly with a good sour smell. Then it finally died yesterday. No bubbles, no rising, just mush. Our water isn't the best here in Mesa so I am guessing that it was the constantly changing chlorine levels that did it in. I'll have Ben pick up some Evian today and I'll try again. Ooh La La - French sourdough! :-)

Late June Garden Yield

Out in the garden this morning, weeding and watering. This baby watermelon was only about the size of a nickel a week ago.

The heirloom cherry tomatoes are doing nicely. They don't yield as much as a Sweet 100 tomato but the taste is far superior and the color is beautiful, they ripen to a deep burgundy. The regular heirloom tomato plant has grown very large but is still setting blooms even in the 100+ degree desert temps. Lots of large tomatoes on the plant but nothing close to ripening yet.

As usual, the zucchini is taking over the yard. It must be doing well in the neighbor's garden as well since they knocked on our door last week offering to share their haul. I told Ben to tell them we'll take one zucchini from their garden if they take two from ours. They're all ready to go . . .

Saturday Harvest

Today's harvest was 2 zucchini and our first crook neck squash. I'm already taking extra zucchini to my coworkers. This zucchini will be grilled tomorrow. Yum!

Growing Veggies

From the garden today- Our very first zucchini of the season.

In The Garden

The corn is starting to get silks on top so it won't be long until we're happily munching on corn on the cob. The zucchini are plentiful and about 3 inches in length. I'd love to stuff and deep fry some of the flowers but when my cardiologist said to increase my vegetable intake I don't think that's what he had in mind. :-) The temperatures are increasing so it surprises me that the remaining lettuce is doing great.

The parsley we have growing in a big pot in the yard went to seed within weeks of breaking through the soil. I must have planted the seeds of a variety that doesn't like the hot Arizona spring because we usually have no issues growing parsley year round here. Ben uses lots of parsley in Chicken Piccata so we planted a bunch in a clay pot on the screen porch. It's cooler there because of the added shade and seems to happy in that spot. I am surprised the cats don't bother with it. I had to bribe Posh with some kitty treats to get her in this photo.

April 2010 Garden

First zucchini of the season.

Our weather has been rainy with mild temperatures so that should make for perfect gardening. The zucchini is doing well but everything else looks a little rough. The romaine went to seed much earlier than usual considering the favorable conditions. The remaining green and red leaf lettuce is starting to brown on the tips but is still tasty.

The heirloom tomatoes that I started much too early are thin and I only see one lone tomato between the three plants. The larger tomato seens to be doing well and has about a dozen flowers. Our pepper plants are also thin and frail looking. Everyone in the Valley has great luck with peppers except me. It's a running joke between me and my brother in Apache Junction. He has beautiful peppers but cannot grow thyme at all. I have awful peppers but as they say, thyme is on my side.

A trip to the nursey yesterday made it evident that I am not the only one with issues this season. The peppers at the nursery didn't look any better than mine. We purchased two heirloom tomatoes and a half dozen herb varieties. The tomatoes will replace the lettuce one it gets too warm to grow greens and the herbs will take over the spot where we planted garlic that the cats dug up.

Solar Oven Chicken Dinner

Starting Seeds

Since the laundry room gets the best dose of sunshine, we are starting our seeds on the window over the washer and dryer. So far we've sowed the heirloom tomato seeds, both the regular and cherry tomatoes that I bought on my visit to the downtown Mesa Farmer's Market. The dill seeds were harvested from our herb garden this year. After Christmas I'll be starting more herbs, the other varieties of tomatoes and hopefully some squash and peppers.