Update on the Peacock

It is about time that I gave an update on PeteyPi, our peacock.  If you have forgotten how he got this rather odd name, here is my original blog about him.  

The Peacock

So, here he is today.

If you recall he was only 2 years old when we got him and won't be 3 until this spring.  Because peacocks do not get their full tail feathers until they are 3, then he still has a way to go.  But, he is getting there.  He has a few "eye spots" and they are beautiful.

Because he is such a large bird, we installed a couple of 2X6s in his shelter as roosts for him.

Here he is jumping from the top roost to the bottom.

Today I decided he needed a better feeder.  His old feeder was made of plastic and was too shallow.  A lot of food was knocked out onto the ground and wasted.

So, I bought him a bigger feeder that is made of metal and is deeper.   He was very curious about it.



And, walked all around it.  Even jumped up on the straw bale in the corner to get a better look at it.

Finally, he decided to try it out.

Then, I cleaned and refilled his water dish and he tried that out too.

 I have gotten quite attached to this silly bird.  I sometimes give him treats, like this lettuce that I recently had left over from a salad.

 It is amazing the things he can do with his neck and head.  He can stretch his neck out long, like the picture of him on the straw bale, or scrunch it up, like the above picture.  He can also turn his head 180 degrees!

So, that's the latest on PeteyPi.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and find him as beautiful as I do!

Turnip Greens

About a month ago, I took you on a tour of what winter looks like on the farm.   

December on the Farm

One of the pictures I posted in that article was of our turnip patch.  

Both the leaves and roots of the turnip plant are edible.  But, turnips have a bad reputation because of their strong taste.  However, when cook just right, they are delicious.  Here's how I cook the greens.

First, remove the tough stems of the bigger leaves, wash well and drain in a colander.

While they are draining, chop some onion and saute in a large pot along with some chopped bacon.

You'll need a large pot to start with, but the greens cook down to a fraction of their original size.  I like to use a cast iron pot like this enameled pot.

Once the onions are softened and translucent, add the turnip greens.  You will need to stir them ever so often and watch them carefully to keep them from sticking.  I usually add a little extra water or broth.

Cook over low to medium heat.   They quickly wilt and cook down, like this.

Now, put a lid on the pot and cook over low heat until tender. 

Add salt and pepper to taste, put them in a bowl and enjoy!

I like to add a dash of hot pepper sauce and eat them with cornbread.  Some folks add a teaspoon of vinegar.  These are a meal in themselves.  

Attracting Native Pollinators

Back in June of 2016, I wrote an article about the Native Pollinator Workshop we attended at the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture.   Native Pollinator Workshop

I recall at the time I had intended to write some more about what we learned in that workshop, but, alas, we got busy with the garden and I forgot about it.  Forgot about it, that is, until this past weekend when we attended the annual Horticulture Industry Show.  This was the topic of my last blog entry.  HIS meeting

During the meeting I attended a session on providing habitat for native bees.  I posted a note about the session on our Windy Acres Natural Farm Facebook page and someone asked me if I could share some of the information I learned at the session.  This reminded me that I had intended to share information from the workshop we attended in June.  So, here is that belated post.

The Europeans brought honey bees to the new world and since that time, we have become dependent on them to help pollinate our crops.  However, before the Europeans arrived, there were already many native insects that did the job of pollination just as well as honey bees.  Now that honey bees are being decimated by disease, it is more critical than ever that we encourage preservation of our native pollinating insects.  

In addition to pollination, many natives eat pest insects.  For example, the larvae of many syrphid flies eat aphids.  The adult fly fuels itself by eating sugary nectar and then searches for plants with aphids on which to lay its eggs.  When the young flies hatch, they patrol the plant looking for aphids to latch onto and suck dry.  

So, how do we encourage these native pollinators in our yards?  Here are some tips.

• Avoid using pesticides, but if you must, try to avoid letting the pesticide spray drift out of the area you want to treat.  Use low pressure and avoid days when the wind is blowing.  Even light wind can cause considerable drift.

• Create a pollinator-friendly landscape.  Unfortunately, this does not go hand-in-hand with large manicured lawns.  Some lawn may need to be sacrificed to create suitable habitat for beneficial insects.  One can do this by creating flower and herb gardens that contain plants that attract butterflies and native bees.  Here are some recommendations for flowers and herbs that are good to plant.

• Native wildflowers are excellent for attracting pollinators.  A short list of these includes Asters, Beebalm, Goldenrod, Milkweed, Joe-Pye Weed, Purple Coneflower, Sunflowers and Spiderwort.  There are many domesticated varieties of these you can buy at garden centers.  As I have mentioned before, we have a couple of large areas we only mow a couple of times a year to encourage wildflowers.  In one of those areas we have some beautiful native milkweed called Antelope Horn Milkweed.  Here's a picture of it.

• Herbs include Basil, Lavender, Mint, Rosemary and Oregano.  Here are some pictures of my basil patch from last summer.  I let it go to seed during the latter part of the summer.  It was literally covered with bees.

• Garden flowers include Mexican Sunflower, Cosmos, Russian Sage and Borage.  I grew Mexican Sunflowers this past summer and plan to plant them again this year.  In addition to attracting butterflies and bees, they are also a beautiful red color with yellow centers.  

• Provide suitable nesting sites for native bees.  There are a couple of ways to do this.

• About 70 percent of native bees nest in the ground, so they need access to bare ground.  Clear the grass from an area of your yard.  An obtrusive corner where you might situate a few large rocks so that it looks somewhat landscaped would work well.  The site should be open, sunny and have good drainage.

• Other native bees are tunnel-nesters.  They generally nest in abandoned beetle tunnels in stumps or dead trees.  But, you can simulate these sites in several ways.  Here are pictures that illustrate how to do this.

The Xerces Society has excellent information on building nests like those above.

Xerces Society

Horticulture Industry Show 2016

Goodness! Here we are in 2016 already. When did that happen? The past few weeks have been a whirlwind with family coming in for the holidays and a birthday for Tom thrown in there as well.  

However, we have one more activity to get out of the way this month before I feel like the gardening season can truly begin.   The Horticulture Industry Show is an annual event that is a joint meeting of growers in Arkansas and Oklahoma.   Each year the location alternates between Tulsa, OK, and Ft. Smith, AR.  Oklahoma State University bears a lot of the responsibility for organizing the event.

Here is a link to this year's event:  HIS meeting  

The theme this year is "Building Soils for a Secure Future" and the keynote speaker is Jeff Moyer from Rodale Institute.  He is a world renowned expert in organic agriculture.  

Rodale Institute was founded in 1947 by organic pioneer J.I. Rodale to study the link between healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people. He moved from New York City to rural Pennsylvania in the late 1930's where he was able to put his ideas and principles into action.

He learned about organic food-growing concepts and theorized that to preserve and improve our health we must restore and protect the natural health of the soil.  When World War II caused a sudden shortage of nitrogen fertilizer because it was diverted to making munitions, the natural nutrient poverty of the nation's soil was revealed.  Developing and demonstrating practical, non-chemical methods of rebuilding natural soil fertility became Mr.  Rodale's primary goal during World War II.

Rodale Instutite's website contains a wealth of information on topics ranging from herbal gardening and apple tree pruning to organic gardening and maple sugaring.  I hope you will check out their website below.

Rodale Institute

Freezing Rain and Tomato Decisions

Two days after Christmas and we are having our first big winter storm of the season.  We are sitting right on the freezing line in the state with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees.  To the west of us, they are having high winds, blizzard conditions and icy roads.  To the east of us, it is mostly just rain.  We are in the middle, where rain is mixed with sleet creating a slushy mixture on the ground.  If the temperature sinks into the 20s (as they are bound to do this evening), then everything will be covered with ice.  It is at times like this that I am so thankful that we have a warm house with electricity and running water in which to wait out the storm.  Here's the top of our greenhouse.

Days like today are good days to dig out the seed catalogs we have been getting in the mail for the last few weeks.

Today, Tom is trying to decide what varieties of tomatoes to grow next year.  Here's his list so far.

Well, he doesn't have the best handwriting, but as long as he can read it.....that's what counts!  Ha!

There are several favorites he picks every year, such as Bush Early Girl, Cherokee Purple and Sprite.  We lean heavily toward the heirloom tomatoes, though.

A short lesson on hybrid versus heirloom tomatoes.  Hybrids are a cross between two varieties of tomatoes and require human intervention to produce the seed.  If you save the seed of hybrids, whether it is tomatoes, peppers, beans or whatever, and plant them the next year, you will not get a plant that is like the hybrid plant.  This is because the seeds "segregate" out into plants that resemble the original two plants from which the cross was made.  Heirloom varieties, however, are not the result of crossing two other varieties.  They are pure lines that have been passed down for years and whose seed will produce plants exactly like the parent plants.  

Unfortunately, because our society has graduated away from the farm and most folks do not have home gardens from which to save seed, hundreds of these old heirloom tomatoes have been lost.  Even home gardeners tend to buy hybrid seed because they have been bred to produce better and to be resistant to common disease problems. Seed catalogs have to offer the seeds that their customers want, so they drop heirloom varieties and these are eventually lost to history.  

But, I digress, so back to my original train of thought.  It is very difficult to decide on which tomato varieties to grow because there are literally hundreds of them to choose from.  For example, in addition to your regular red tomatoes, there are white ones.

And there are black ones.

And bi-colored ones.

And orange ones.

See what I mean!  We even have a book on heirloom tomatoes.

Tom likes to try something new every year.  This year he is looking at this tomato.

I can't help but wonder how this tomato got its name.  Someone named Kellogg developed it and because Kellogg is a breakfast cereal brand, they decided to call it this?  Or is it because tomatoes are excellent accompaniments to eggs for breakfast?

Whatever the reason, writing this entry today has really made me hungry and it is almost lunch time.  So, I'm off to find something to eat.....preferably something containing tomatoes.  Chili sounds really good on this cold day and I have all those packages of tomatoes I froze last summer for use in soup and chili.  Yum!

December Picture Tour

Only two more days until the first day of winter.  So far this fall the weather has been relatively mild and most days have been warm enough to allow for going outside with just a light jacket.  Today is overcast and it looks cold.  But, in reality, it is not that bad and I decided to head outside for a walk around the farm.

I walked past the hoophouse.  Tom put new plastic on it this year and has piled bags of leaves along the sides to keep wind from blowing in along the bottom and for a little extra insulation.  He has all kinds of nice cool-season greens growing inside.  By the way, we did not rake all these leaves ourselves, but have recycled them from curbside.  It's a win-win.  Keeps them out of the landfill while giving us material for our compost making and valuable mulch material.

We still have a bit of garden cleanup to do.  Below is the pepper patch.  We grew several kinds of bell peppers this year, along with pimento, jalapeno, cayenne and poblano peppers.

There are a few green and growing plants in the garden, though.  These are turnips.  They don't mind the cold weather.  Both the leaves and roots of turnips are edible and they are quite nutritious.

Tom always plants cover crops during the winter to help renew the soil and keep it from blowing away in the wind.  Here is a blog I wrote about cover crops a few years ago, Cover Crops, and below is a picture of one of the fields with Austrian winter peas planted as a cover crop.

The peach trees are dormant now.  But, they produced some really good peaches this year.  Peaches are my favorite fruit and I am already looking forward to peach season next year.  But, for now the trees need to rest and renew their strength.  We humans could take a lesson from them.

Sally Dog went with me on my walk.  She enjoyed checking out the compost pile.  Not sure what she found so interesting, but here she is.

  

There was no activity around the bee hives.  Our beekeeper says the bees will venture out on warm sunny days during the winter, but today they were snug inside their hives.

On that note, I'm getting a little chilled and think I will head on back to my hive and get warmed up!

From Years Past

I'm sorry to announce that I have a case of writer's block and am having trouble finding something to share.  I think the primary reason for this is that I've just been so darn busy for the past month.  Plus, the weather has turned colder and it has rained several times, so it is wet and soggy outside.  Just not very conducive to spending time outside which is where I get most of my ideas for this blog.  Sigh.

To get some inspiration, I spent some time looking back at my entries from years past and decided just to share some of the articles from Decembers of previous years.

Last year, I wrote and article about Sumac Spice.  This is a lemony tasting spice made from the outer coating of sumac berries.  Sumac is a shrub that grows wild in Oklahoma.  I used the sumac spice in some sugar cookies I made.  They were delicious!

In December of 2013, we had snow.  It was not very deep, but the temperatures were very cold for several days.  I got cabin fever and finally bundled up in warm clothing and ventured out.  I wrote a blog about my walk in the snow that day:  Walk in the Snow

In 2012, Tom brought in a bouquet of flowers he picked in the garden for me.  What kind of flowers grow in December?  Read this to find out what they were:  Winter Bouquet

There were several articles in December of 2011 that I enjoyed reading again and it was hard to pick just one.  But, I ended up selecting one that showed pictures of an all-out war between deer and raccoon captured on our wildlife camera.  There must have been a raccoon family living living nearby and it appears in these pictures that they were in competition with the deer for the corn we put out.  In fact, in many cases the raccoon seem to be winning the battle.  Raccoon Wars

Finally, 2010 was the first year for this blog.  I started it in January of that year.  It is hard to believe I've been doing this for 6 years!  That year I wrote only 3 articles in December.  (If I don't get off my duff and get busy, this may be the only one for December this year!)  Anyway, I selected an article about the thornless cacti that we grow and sell.  The original plant was given to us by one of our sons who lives in Texas.  These are easy to propagate and have beautiful yellow flowers.  Thornless Cacti

So, that's it for now.  We are finished with most of our grandparent duties (attending dance recitals, band concerts, Christmas programs, etc.) for the month and things will slow down for a few days prior to Christmas.  Hopefully, I will have time to get inspired for another couple of articles this month.   Wish me luck!