Homestead Pantry

Today we're cleaning out the strawberry beds, and transplanting them to the greenhouses' beds.  These plants have grown amazingly well despite the tough growing conditions this past summer.  The May floodgates closed, then two weeks later we had a scant half inch of rain, and then late July we had a scant 3/4 inch, (really pushing it on that one!) and that was it until Irene opened the floodgates again.  We had nary a dry day from that point on, it seemed.  Oh, there were dry days but not enough.  All this moisture coupled with the warm temperatures grew our gardens like crazy.  The pole beans took off like a tropical rain forest, as did every blessed vegetable out there---except the tomatoes.  They just turned black and died.

Our sweet peppers are lovin' hangin' out in the greenhouses with a couple of tomatoes, some herbs and  the brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli transplants.  Despite several very frosty nights and days too, they are lookin' good and still producing.  Amazing.  A little sunshine makes the greenhouse quite tropical. 

 The sweet potatoes made a huge crop, we're going to be digging up some more of them today, too.  We've already baked a couple of fall harvest pies, combining our goat milk cream cheese, sweet potatoes, immature punkins, and tahitian neck punkin's.  Mmm-mm delicious!

Update on Andromeda:  She went to guard chickens and goats in Virginia, her sister went to another farm in Virginia to guard chickens, and her other sister went to New York to guard sheep in partnership with an aging Maremma male.  Her brother Picasso is proving his worth here on the homestead.  More on him later, gotta get back to those strawberry beds before the sun goes down!  After that we have to get on the road to be onsite for a barn raisin'!