Today's Harvest

It's like Christmas in July!

1 yellow crookneck squash
2 zucchini
4 golden beets
5 carrots

~Marisa & Michael

Broilers 101

This season Dale documented his experience raising and "harvesting" what started out as 50 broilers.  Broilers are meat chickens as opposed to chickens you keep for eggs.  If you missed it or wanted to see the videos back to back you can follow his journey here:

We are so grateful that Dale shared this with us.  What an informative and really quite interesting series!

Megan's Square Foot Garden - 6 week update

Everything is coming along really well - especially the basil, corn & pumpkins.  I haven't had to pull one weed and I've yet to fertilize.  What an easy way to garden, I'd say!  Here's a comparison of how it looked six weeks ago and today:

Food, INC.

Here at Backyard Farming, we are so excited about this movie. Hopefully it will raise awareness as to where our food is coming from, what our food is actually made of, and the importance of eating locally. Check out the trailer.



And click here to check out the website.

June Harvest

Marisa and I decided to weigh all of he food that we harvest this year for a few reasons. First, we have never done it and we are interested in what we actually grow. Second, we want to document our bounty for those that don’t have gardens or don’t think it’s worth having one because their property is too small. We live on .11 acres and our garden is a very small part of our property. I think many will be surprised at how much we grow. We will give a monthly report documenting what we have grown so far.




June Harvest

Lettuce (various types): 2 lbs 1 7/8 oz
Peas: 3 lbs
Strawberries: 4 lbs 3/8 oz
Green Beans (One plant that our son got in Sunday School): 1 oz
Green onion: 1 ¾ oz (We didn't plant green onions this year, it just showed up)
Chives: 2 oz

This adds up to a grand total of 9 lbs of produce in the month of June. I bet we double this in July. We should start harvesting summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes and maybe cucumbers this month. What is your guess on what our yield is?


~Michael

Lettuce All Give Thanks-Eat the Seasons Friday

Lettuce All Give Thanks....

……. to the bounty of summer. The other day Marisa asked me to make a salad for dinner which gave me the opportunity to go out to the garden to forage. There is nothing better than a salad that was picked 15 minutes earlier. I was able to get some of our Green Oakleaf lettuce and our Forellenschuss Lettuce. We also had some sweet peas and strawberries to add to it. Here is a photo of the pickings.

I made sure to wash these as we had sprayed the vegetables with our homemade bug spray the week before. Then I mixed everything together and Marisa made a great salad dressing. She got the recipe from our sister-in-laws’ mother Irma. Here is the recipe.

Poppy Seed Salad Dressing

1/2 Cup Canola oil
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. Poppy seed
2 Tbsps. Worcestershire sauce

Mix well until the sugar is dissolved.

Put them all together and you have a great salad, fresh from the garden with ingredients that you can pronounce. No preservatives, no additives, just a whole lot of tasty.
What's in Season?
Lettuce
Strawberries
Peas


~Michael

Peek-a-boo

Can't wait to eat you!