I’ve spent most of the morning outside in the garden and with the chickens and calves.  It is so hot out there!  I’m still watering a good bit to make sure all the veggies in the garden survive.  I have lots of planting to do this coming weekend too.  Sounds like I need to get busy and do some planning to know what I need to plant where

This morning when I first went out, I decided to check in the chicken coop (looking through the door) to make sure there were no chickens in the nest boxes before I opened the nest box doors.  Well, one of the Barred Rock girls was in there!  So I just kept waiting and checking on her.  When I heard her start making this funny sound, I ran over to the coop and looked in.  I guess that is when she was laying the egg.  Then she got out of the nest box and went over to the feeder to eat.  So, I ran around the back of the coop and opened the nest box doors — yep, there it was!  A cute little brown egg — perfect I might add!   It looks a little darker than the one yesterday so I believe it is from a different chicken…  So, I know for sure that I have 3 girls laying eggs now!

I just had to share that with you…. I don’t know if you’ve been as anxious as I have been, but I am so relieved that they are finally laying and (knock on wood) everything seems to be going very well.  I’ve heard stories about chickens that lay eggs without shells and all kinds of things when they first start laying.  So far I’m 3 for 3 with girls that seem like they will be ok and hopefully not have any problems.

I took this pic yesterday of the Beauty King tomato… it’s completely ripe now and talking about a beauty!  This variety was developed by Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms out in California.  Take a look:

My DH loves yellow tomatoes — especially for breakfast with sausage, biscuits and gravy :-)  Yesterday he and my DD left for a trip to Kentucky to see “Mamaw”…. DD will be spending a month with Mamaw in Kentucky again this summer (her favorite place to go!).   My mother-in-law used to always fix yellow tomatoes with biscuits, sausage and gravy for DH when he was growing up.  So I sent my prize tomato up to Kentucky to be enjoyed up there.  My MIL also loves to garden and I knew that she would really love to see this tomato.  She might even want some seeds of this variety to plant next year

Well, I’ve got to get a shower and get dressed!  I’m late….  I would really rather just to go back outside and sit with the chickens all day, but I’ve got things to do and places to go….

…. but I went back outside to do some harvesting in the garden because it seems like everything is getting ready at the same time LOL   Tons of tomatoes….

Take a look at these Campari’s…

That’s alot of tomatoes on just one truss…   And then there’s the Chocolate Stripes that are just beautiful tomatoes:

Unfortunately, one of these split…. but that’s ok - I’m going to save the seeds from this one so it definitely will not go to waste

My mysterious bi-color “Emma” tomato is continuing to grow — still no signs of it beginning to ripen… so, I’m still waiting patiently LOL:

It is just super huge….  I checked the bottom side just to make sure that there’s no BER or splitting going on and so far so good.  I’m going to be keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

My one watermelon is doing well.  I am going to take EG and DoubleD’s advice and find a way to support it because it is getting quite heavy on the vine and I definitely do not want to find it on the ground split open after all of this LOL.   It’s really beginning to look like a watermelon now:

The corn is growing like crazy!  The tops of the tassels are just beginning to come out :-)  It won’t be long before the silks will be showing…  The corn has really done well this year and it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long ago that I transplanted it into these raised beds along side the chicken run.  It’s getting tall enough now to provide the shade that I needed for the chickens.  Take a look:

NOW, I NEED A DRUMROLL…. because you’re just not going to believe this!  While I was harvesting tomatoes in the garden, I kept looking into the coop through the big screen door because one of the Ameraucana chickens was in a nest box… she was panting and at first I thought she might be in a little distress… so I kept going back and checking on her.  I’ve read about some chickens that get egg bound when they first start laying and I wanted to make sure that she was ok.  So as I was picking tomatoes, I heard a funny chicken sound.  So, I went back over to the coop and looked in and the chicken wasn’t in the nest box anymore.  Then I went around to the back of the coop and opened the nest box door and found a warm, greenish egg that she had just layed!  It was larger than the egg that I had gotten earlier. 

So write me up for 2 eggs today!!!  Yeah!!!  Here’s a pic:

Can you believe how large this egg is?  It’s the size of a large store bought egg!  No wonder she was in a little distress.  I just can’t believe it.  Two eggs on the first day of them laying eggs!

Every morning I’ve been going out and feeding/watering the chickens, calves and puppies.   And, every morning like clock work, I ask the “girls” (our resident chickens) if they have a “prize” for me while I scan the coop and nest boxes looking for that first egg.  This morning, well, they left me a PRIZE!!!  Their first egg was in one of the bottom nest boxes…. it was PERFECT :-)  A small brown egg, perfect — not one blemish… placed on the hay, safe and sound.

This pic was taken from outside the chicken coop where I have the back doors to the nest boxes :-)  I’m so happy (doing the happy dance here!).  I’m not sure which girl layed the egg but she did a great job and layed it in the nest box (instead of on the coop floor or in the chicken run somewhere).   My chickens just amaze me everyday.   I’ve been thinking that they wouldn’t know to lay the eggs in the nest box and that I would probably find eggs all over the place at first until they figured out what the nest boxes were for.  But, that didn’t happen….  she layed the egg exactly where she was supposed to.  Amazing!

The egg came from either one of the Rhode Island Reds or one of the Barred Rocks… both of these type chickens lay brown eggs.  I’ll know when the Ameraucanas lay an egg because it should be a shade of blue to green.

OK, now I’ve got to go back outside and harvest those tomatoes in the garden LOL  I dropped everything when I found this egg and came inside and posted on my blog!  Just wanted to share what we’ve all been waiting on — the FIRST EGG

Oh, and here’s my updated signature line at BackyardChickens.com:

6 Araucanas/Amerucauna (Easter Eggers); 3 Barred Rock; 3 Rhode Island Reds — hatched on Feb/18; shipped on Feb/19 and received on Feb/20 — FIRST EGG 7/01/2009 @ 19 weeks old

I didn’t get this post finished up last night, so I’m posting it this morning

Yesterday morning I harvested 2 more eggplants from the garden — one is the Black Beauty and the other is another White Cloud.  I still have one more that needs to be harvested — it is the Ichiban.  So guess what we’re having for dinner this week LOL!

The tomatoes are still coming on like gang busters!  There were several in the garden that I should have harvested this morning but I’m going to leave on the vine until tomorrow morning.  My counters are full and until I can consume what we have already harvested, I need to leave these on the vine for another day.  I’m eating lots of tomato sandwiches!  Man, how I have waited for this day all winter and spring LOL   I just crave a good tomato sandwich — nothing but 2 slices of bread, a little mayo, salt and pepper and some nice juicy, thick slices of a super ripe tomato.  Today for lunch, I’m bringing the bread (with the mayo, salt and pepper already added), a slicing knife and a couple of ripe tomatoes to the office :-)  I’m not planning on sharing with anybody either!! LOL

The Campari tomatoes are really ripening up fast now.  I will take a pic tomorrow morning to show you how many are on each trellis.  In some cases there are 10 to 12!  These tomatoes are excellent to cook with.  They are meaty, no blossom end scar at all and have a great flavor.   I guess they are not really Campari tomatoes any more LOL   A Campari tomato is a hybrid and these tomatoes are now several generations from the seed saved from a hybrid fruit.   So, I’m not really sure what variety these tomatoes are anymore — but I do know they this year they seem to be producing the same fruit as last year so I’m hoping that they are pretty stable now.

This morning while I was outside feeding and watering the chickens, the boys (Capri & Fozzy) were upset and wanted into the coop to see the girls.  Well, the girls were all upset and just wanted out into the chicken run.  See, I’ve had them separated for a week because the roos were just ganging up and beating up on the girls.  The boys were ready to breed but the girls were not.  I figured a little cooling down time for them would be good.  Plus, Capri (Barred Rock Rooster) was just getting too aggressive both with the other chickens and with me.  So this morning I took Fred’s advice that the chickens would work out their problems (as chickens do) and I opened the coop and let the girls out.  Well, being apart for that week must have made the difference (what’s the old saying “Absence makes the heart grow fonder?”) because the girls were more than willing and everyone was happy to see each other, if you get my drift.  Here’s a pic a little while later — there’s about 5 girls all scratching in the dirt and taking their dust baths.  And, Capri crowing… I guess he was happy to have his girls back LOL:

You are barely see the girls in the dirt LOL… here’s a little better pic:

There must be 5 or 6 chickens all digging around in the dirt in that spot LOL  Of course, you can see Fozzy and Capri standing guard by them LOL   Now, my problem with Capri…. well, that’s another story.  I am going to try to work with him and follow the advice that Fred (Fred’s Fine Fowl) gave me to sweeten Capri up and make him less aggressive.

Well, while DH and I were in the kitchen working on tomatoes, we decided that we have enough pickling cucumbers for a 1/2 batch of pickles!  After seeing how fast that first jar went, we knew we definitely needed to make some more.  And, as promised I took some pics along the way!

The first pics are the jars and lids in water that will be coming to a boil for sterilization purposes…  first though, wash the lids and jars in hot soapy water to make sure they are very clean.  Then sterilize them.

While the water is warming up in the pots that have the jars and lids, mix up your brine solution and bring it to a boil — make sure to use a non-metal pot.  I chose this enamel type stock pot:

While that is going, it’s time to take the cucumbers out of the ice water bath where they have been chilling and cut the stem and blossom ends off.  Then you’ll want to cut them into spears.  Also, it’s time to peel the garlic!  Make sure you have plenty of garlic available.  I use 2 cloves sliced up in the bottom of each jar and 2 clove sliced up on the top after I’ve stuffed all the cucumbers into the jars.

So once your brine solution has come to a boil, you’ll want to take 1 canning jar out of the water and let all of the water drain out.  Then here’s the order in which you begin to add your ingredients to your jars:

1. 2 cloves of garlic sliced into the bottom of the jar
2. 1/2 teaspoon of dried dill into the bottom of the jar
3. Now, pack the cucumber spears into each jar nice and tight (make sure that the cucumbers are not taller than the jar! — I cut mine so that they are just below where the threaded portion of the jar is)
4. Finish off by throwing 2 more sliced cloves of garlic on top and add a sprig of fresh dill.
5. Next, using a measuring cup, dish out a cup of the boiling brine and pour into the jar covering the cucumbers — leave about a 1/4 inch air space at the top.
6. Use a paper towel to wipe over the rim of the jar (to make sure there is nothing on it and you will get a good seal)
7. Please the lid on the top and then screw the band on.
8. Invert the jar for 2 hours to make sure you get a good seal.

That’s it… do this for all the jars and cucumbers you have until you run out.  Here’s a pic of a jar that is packed and ready for me to fill with the brine solution:

I had some extra brine left over and another jar that was sterilized, so I halfed some bananna peppers and cut some okra in half and pickled a jar full of the mixture with the dill and garlic… I can’t wait to see what that one is going to taste like LOL

Here’s a pic of the completed batch:

Notice the jar on the far right — that’s the one that has bananna peppers and some okra in it LOL  Here’s a closeup shot:

Today we harvested more tomatoes and now we’re in the process of getting them put in the freezer.  It’s an easy process — just dunk the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes to loosen the skins, then cool in a strainer.  The skins will come right off so easily!  I then cut out the stem/core and place into a Ziploc bag and freeze.

But this tomato update is to share some amazing tomatoes that we harvested from the garden today.  You are just not going to believe them!  Most of them are from seed purchases I made from Wild Boar Farms — the farmer, Brad Gates has spent years developing these unusual and very tasty tomatoes.  If you have a chance, go and check out his website www.wildboarfarms.com and then go to the Twitter link at the top and scroll through some of the photos that he has taken at his farm. 

So here’s some of the tomatoes we harvested today ….

This one above is Beauty King… you can tell how it just about fills the plate.  It is just beginning to get ripe and will be a beautiful yellow and orange when it is completely ripe.  I didn’t want to take a chance and leave it out in the garden any longer LOL  I’ll take some updated pics when it ripens up.  By the way, it weighs 13.5 ounces!!

These two are Brad’s Black Heart — one is completely ripe and ready to eat.  The other is just now beginning to ripen.  Just look at how tall these tomatoes are!  They are heart shaped and will completely fill your hand when you are holding one.   These are beautiful tomatoes!  I have 3 of them now — lots of tomato sandwiches for lunch and dinner this week!!  The largest Brad’s Black Heart so far is 10.5 oz!!!

These 5 are Black & Brown Boars… the ones on the top are just about over ripe LOL   They almost have a gold touch to them.  We ate the top three just sliced today.  The taste is amazing!  The dark tomatoes have such a rich taste!  These tomatoes run about 4 to 6 oz each.

These two are Pink Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes.  Aren’t they cool?  They are very meaty tomatoes with a “sweet” tomato taste.  Yes, we also sliced and ate them this afternoon too LOL

Now, on to the Chocolate Stripes.  I purchased this seed from TomatoFest.com  My plant is just loaded with these huge tomatoes!  I went ahead and harvested these two because they are just beginning to ripen.  They will spend the next couple of days inside with me to make sure nothing gets them LOL  The largest tomato so far from the Chocolate Stripes is 14 oz!  I will also take some more pics when these ripen more:

One of the coolest things about intensive gardening, square foot gardening, or raised bed gardening is that you can grow alot of food in a small area.  And one of the reasons this is possible is because you learn to TRELLIS those vining plants like cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelons.  I use lots of trellis in my garden. 

Here’s an update on that Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe that I’ve been watching…

Except, there’s one problem with this melon…. it’s not a Minnestoa Midget LOL!  I believe I must have gotten mixed up when I labeled it because this melon is a Delice de la Table…. so that explains why the vines have grown so long and everywhere.  See, Minnesota Midget vines are only about 4 feet to 5 feet long.   The vines on this cantaloupe plant are probably 12 feet or more long now.  Here’s a description of this variety from Seed Savers Exchange (where I purchased the seed):

1408-Delice de la Table — French heirloom listed by Vilmorin in 1885. Translates as “Delight of the Table”.  Ribbed fruits have sweet orange flesh and weight about 1-2 pounds. Very hard to find, almost extinct.  85-90 days.

So I’m very excited about this cantaloupe and I can’t wait until it is ready to harvest!

Next, the watermelons… I am growing MickyLee which is a variety that is a “personal size” watermelon.  I chose this one because I thought it would be easier to trellis.  Here’s a description from Reimer Seeds:

88 days. Citrullus lanatus. Plant produces good yields of very flavorful 15 lb watermelons. The watermelons are very sweet and have bright red flesh. A single serving size watermelon. Capable of producing 5 melons per vine. Excellent shelf life. It is protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act, #8600104 . United States Department of Agriculture, PI 601307 PVPO. pk/20

 

PVP Variety- Seeds may be used only to grow for personal use.

Hmmm, a PVP variety - that means that I cannot save seeds from this.  I don’t like that too much.  I guess I’ll just have to share seeds with my friends that came from the original packet I purchased.  Here’s a pic of the one melon that I have growing on the vine so far:

I do have a question for EG – do you think that I will need to provide additional support for this melon since it could be up to 15 pounds?    Or, will the vine be able to support this on it’s own?

Our two steers are growing by leaps and bounds.  I took some pics yesterday of both of them and DH and I compared them to the pics I took right after we brought them home in May.  Most beef cattle just aren’t that socialable.  But ours, well, they have names and they are pampered and spoiled like you wouldn’t believe LOL  They let us pet them while we’re feeding them sweet feed out of the scoop and they even rattle the chain on the gate when they want “in” LOL   One thing they don’t usually do is MOO.  I don’t know why.  I think they are kinda like the baby that doesn’t talk because it just doesn’t need to LOL  You know, the baby that has the mom and dad that can read it’s every whimper….

But this past week, early one morning, I was “moo’d” at 3 times in a row!  See, I usually take care of the calves first with feed and water in the morning.  They take priority over all the other animals (or so they think).   They wait for me to come through the gate and into the back yard — I see them spying me from across the yard LOL   Well, on Wednesday morning, the puppies were out of water so I decided I would water them first.  So I turned around with my back toward the calves and walked to the faucet to turn on the water.  Well, the calves thought that I was leaving and they moo’d at me 3 times LOL

Here’s an update pic of Davison… he’s been laying down under one of the magnolia trees so he’s all dirty on his side LOL:

And here’s a pic of Kitty looking noble as usual LOL:

Kitty even posed for a “side-view”…. he’s very photogenic LOL:

Haven’t they grown!!!  Their faces are looking more like bulls instead of baby calves.

Eyed Click Beetle flying through the air and landing on a tomato plant.  At first, I didn’t know what in the world this huge bug was that was flying around.  I had DH catch it so we could get a closer look.   I didn’t take a pic of it but did find one online:

Now, I’ve never seen a huge beetle like this before.  He was probably around an inch and a half to 2 inches long.  DH put him in a jar and we got to experience him “clicking”…. he would do this to propel himself upward but he’d hit the lid of the jar and fall back to the bottom.

I learned online that he/she was probably 2 to 3 years old and that these beetles are an agricultural pest… mainly to crops like wheat and corn.  Their larva live in the soil and do alot of damage to crops. 

Since I’ve been gardening, I have become more aware of the insects that I see.  Instead of just spraying and killing everything, I am more observant and to do a little research online.  I try my best to keep all pesticides out of my garden.  And with that, I want to make sure that I don’t kill any beneficial insects.  The others are squished or go to the chickens for disposal

Do you find, by trying to garden organically, that you’re more observant of the insects in your garden?

Speaking of seed saving, I fermented some seed pulp from the Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomatoes.  I am just so impressed with these tomatoes.  The size is very small (about the size of a marble) but the taste is awesome!  These tomatoes would be great in salads.  From the one plant that I have in the garden, I am getting a huge handful or more every day.  A good many of them are eaten as soon as they come off the vine LOL

The seeds are now drying and should be ready in a couple of weeks.  If you would be interested in trying this variety in your garden, please send me an email — judy at ft2garden dot com — and I will send you out some seeds (only to U.S. and Canadian readers please).    I would love for others to try this variety.