It’s been so long since an update I don’t know where to start. Or where to end, or what to include. But I figure there have got to be a few readers out there hankering for some other news besides the shitstorm coming at us from the global mafia and the media cartels.
Mostly done, finally!
In my last update we’d started remodeling the kitchen. That was a very big DIY job, it took a very long time, and we’re still not totally finished. But we are very pleased with the results that were easy on the budget and tested our creativity, skill and resourcefulness.
I thought I’d include our first time redoing the kitchen, in 2009 when we first moved in, with the previous owners’ belongings to haul away before we could begin. It had been empty for many years and the mice and roaches had taken over. It was a disgusting experience, the worst of which we got to avoid this time, so that was a bonus.
This time we also repainted the ceiling and walls and all the cabinets as well as the breakfast nook bench and storage unit Hubby had built previously. He also replaced the countertops and handcrafted new lighting and shelves, expanding on the same ‘steam-punk’ style as he used on the entryway table he built last year.
Work in progress:
Just installed butcher block countertops, quite the challenge when floors and walls aren’t level or plumb!
After way too many lost hours, I was not always a happy DIYer! But I am pleased with the result.
I spent a lot of time stripping and re-staining the kitchen table. I still want to dress-up the windows treatments and paint the doors and bases of the table and stool. But then we got too busy and had to devote our time to the garden and orchard.
The cucumbers and zuccini that were badly damaged by hail in late spring did make a bit of a comeback, but now are succumbing to the heat.
Unfortunately and as usual, a lot of the time devoted to the garden gets wasted because of crazy weather. This year has been no different and we had a lot of rain at the wrong time for some crops at some stages. The older peppers did fine with it, but the younger ones look terrible and are not recovering. Same with the tomatoes. The heirloom Scarlet Runner bean is struggling and not producing, but is still quite pretty as an ornamental.
I’ll be writing about those seeds, as well as the ones that grew this great big beautiful Black Hopi sunflower (the tallest I’ve ever seen!), in an upcoming post about Gavin Mounsey’s book Recipes for Reciprocity, because the seeds came from him.
These cucumbers were just the right age for survival and are going strong now.
I’ve gotten good at succession planting over the years for the reason of crazy weather. In very early spring I try to get tomatoes, flowers and herbs started, but am often disappointed by late frosts. Days of heavy rain and high humidity with overcast skies can easily cause damage to younger more vulnerable plants in early summer. By this time of mid-summer I’m sowing more cucumbers, herbs, and sometimes beans, but it’s often already too hot for them to get established. At this point, we get what we get until fall brings more hope.
But of course I can’t be satisfied with that and am always experimenting. Often it’s fall tomatoes or melons, which rarely work out. This year it’s the challenge of romaine lettuce through summer. I seriously doubt it’s possible, but I’ve got a tray that has just germinated under lights inside to give it a try. I’ll put them in a shaded box, with plenty of hardwood mulch in an attempt to keep the roots cooler. It’s been in the 90s everyday lately, humid and not cooling off much at night, but there’s still some growing that wasn’t smashed by the heavy rain and hail a couple of weeks ago.
Left photo is view from garden, normally the creek is not visible at all. Right photo is walking along the power easement to the very flooded creek banks.
We also had another big oak tree die suddenly in the prime of life. The last one was just taken (partly) down by the electricity company’s crew because it risked falling into their cables. The latest one Hubby will have to fell himself, before it comes down on the fencing. That will probably be after he fixes his bridge to nowhere that he just built last year in response to flooding and was nearly taken out by this year’s repeat performance.
Sudden Oak Death Syndrome?
In the last two years, with no tornados or hurricanes to blame, we’ve had three large trees right around us flash out dead in a matter of days. Rather disconcerting to me, to say the least.
No such bounty this year I fear.
Still, let’s end on a positive note. Some years are better than others. We had an inexplicably bad blackberry year, but this year was excellent. Hubby made blackberry wine with much it, which was much better tasting as a young wine than the one I tried to make and age last year. Some years we have amazing tomatoes. Other years it’s great melons. Maybe this year it will be spectacular grapes?
It doesn’t take much for fabulous meals when food is fresh. Fermented herbs and veggies add flavor and nutrition with just a little garden surplus or foraging time. The chanterelles always do better with lots of rain. Hubby’s delicious young blackberry wine makes such a refreshing spritzer when mixed with kombucha. Eating seasonally from our land is so rewarding even when we don’t have a bumper crop.
I have a long list of content coming up during the swelter season, so all the more excuse to stay indoors. Thank Man for air condition! 😆
The Millennial Gardner gave a great little pep talk at the end of this confessional concerning his myriad gardening mistakes over the years. There should be more such vids as this. The positivity movement is dead, in my opinion, though MG is still a devoted adherent.
Positivity–Capitalism couldn’t survive without it!
He’s not yet reached the ripe age of bitterness. He thinks he will be able to continuously throw money at the problem, and I rather doubt that’s a viable long-term solution. I hope I’m wrong.
But overall I really appreciate his rejection of the typical appraoch to problems today: The Head in the Sand vs The Pie in the Sky. That’s what I see most often, and on that I think he’d agree with me.
So, more power to him!
We all need a pep talk now and then and Millennials especially it seems to me are inheriting the ends of the Shitshow and are expected to pull it all together again after the wrecking ball.
Hardly a lesson in equity, or perhaps the best lesson that could be.
The gist of his little pep talk is valid–anyone who excels at anything worthwhile has experienced, and learned from, the greatest teacher of all–Failure.
It’s not nice or pleasant or fun or comfortable to learn the lessons of failure. And we live in a culture addicted to nice and pleasant and fun and comfortable.
Not really a conducive atmosphere for learning.
Yet, sometimes the results of the lessons are far more pleasant than we might expect. Like, in my case, my greatest lesson in gardening so far has been flowers.
Flowers and ‘weeds’.
I had no idea the delight they offer when I first started gardening and I made little room for them in my garden, whether the classic garden cultivars or the wild weeds who long to make themselves welcomed. HUGE mistake!
I’ve been working on correcting that for many years now, and it’s absolutely paid off in myriad forms: more bees, more joy, more pleasure, more beauty, more sense of wonder.
The garden feels like less of a chore and more of a privilege with every bloom. The attraction is magnetic, to insects, to birds, to me. I observe better, I take more time, I allow my natural esthetic sense to align with the food crops and converge into a very satisfying balance of food and fancy.
Somehow, whether in my heart, or soul, or imagination, co-mingling the wild in with the crops has engaged me in a way that is a continual wellspring of curiousity and desire, even in the worst of times.
The rapture of emergent colors, the allure of fragrance on the breeze, the dance of the petals and the delight of the bees, I think what my early garden experience was missing was in fact the essence of ME. Because you don’t get that from books.
Learn from our failures dear ones, that’s why we tell y’all about them. Don’t let them dim your spirits, but use them in good faith, and find a way.
“We successfully got DVD hail!” He’s so excited! Is this guy working for the weather gods? The Texas Weather Modification Association perhaps? Or maybe Weather Modification, Inc.? A new startup with funding from the Gates Foundation?
I suppose they will soon be selling gardeners’ and homesteaders’ insurance. I’m really looking forward to the days I can list my squash on the future’s market so assholes like this can bet on it’s failure and cheer when he adds another 10 cents to his electronic wallet. I long for the new opportunity to fill out paperwork to get reimbursed 3 cents on the dollar, or rather, on the CBDCs: Was it crooked neck squash or zuccinni? Were the onions beyond the bulbing stage? Were the seeds purchased at a WEF-approved supplier? How much rainfall did the seeds receive in the initial 30-day growing period, so that we can deduct that from your refund?
Weather derivitives are already a big thing, so the insider trading when companies can boast about their crop and property destruction potential is bound to up the ante. But, it’s not war, don’t think of it as war.
It’s really about resilience and making communities stronger. And if the youth have a hoot while destroying their neighbors’ gardens, well, you know, boys will be boys!
What do you care about some lost work and produce when you can contribute to the future of science anyway? What are you, some kind of Luddite?!
Such a busy time of year already, made busier with our remodeling projects, but we always make time to stop and smell the roses.
And bow to the weather gods, or geoengineers, who have spared us this time, and after so much barking, we are grateful there was no bite. Before I sing our praises, let me acknowledge those further north who are biting the bullet this time around. Our picture perfect skies are so very rare, I don’t like to think about all that means.
We did prepare all we could for the worst, annoying as that was. Out came the row cover fabric again and the wheelbarrows full of logs to hold it down, after just having cleaned all that up and took it to storage the week before.
We expected a frost for sure.
All the pots had to be gathered to cover all the peppers and tomatoes. And considering it was so hot and humid and over 8o degrees when we were doing all of this, it felt more incongruent than snow along the coast of the Gulf of America. 😂
But, I can’t complain, because as I just said, we got very lucky. No hail, tornados, landocaines, flooding and we just barely scratched by the frost threshold.
Just look at that sky! I can’t tell you how long it’s been since seeing such a sight!
There is so much beauty and bounty, in nature, and in cyberspace too!
Just yesterday I was scrolling through my Youtube feed and about every 100 suggestions up pops a true gem, like this old Mexican lady cooking her heart out and sharing it with the world. This is the very best of the power that’s right at our fingertips, I truly believe that: The world’s people sharing about their cultures. The cuisines, the histories and myths, the music, the dance, the landscapes, the languages, the gardens, the architecture–and the ordinary folks sharing them. Unfortunately, as the AI gods have demonstrated, for every such miracle there are about 100 curses.
Make food not war!
There are the tiniest gems not to be missed through all the noise and all the neon glare.
And it seems like they are beckoning me to slow down and notice them.
What would you rather do . . . follow me around the garden, or do more of that thing you call work?
A plot of volunteer poke weed and garlic, as if they’re just screaming, we are here for your good health, so happy to be here, we keep returning for you!
Sometimes, when I least expect it, we learn how to grow together better. Like I was thinking of the old Southern trick to set out red-painted pebbles to fool the birds into keeping off the strawberries. I thought, I bet some well-placed breakfast radishes would have the same effect, and sure enough, it’s working. The birds have moved off that bed ever since those radishes started showing their little red tops, and bonus, we adore radishes, maybe even as much as strawberries.
We have been eating giant salads every day, with enough surplus for our neighbors.
Along the country roads all is flourishing. The bluebonnets are brilliant and I even caught a roadrunner, just barely.
Beep, beep!
Such gifts of beauty and bounty! What a precious, ephemeral time to infuse their bursting energy into our year ahead. What we put into it is what we’ll get out of it, just like life.
I hope your spring is being beautiful to y’all, too! Thanks for stopping by!
Still, no time. I’ve lost a month, maybe two, in projects and to-do. Now I risk missing the whole spring to more of the same. And yet, in spring, it’s never all that bad.
There will always be time for baking delicious bread, and making fabulous cheese. Even in the midst of kitchen face-lift chaos, the healthy food must go on.
Quinoa-rosemary sourdough made with potato water Fantastic!
Still, no time, but still want to share some quick happy snaps and briefest of updates, because I’d hate to be totally forgotten before even gone! 😊
It was a beautiful day, so I decided to take the scenic route to the herdshare where I pick up one gallon of raw milk at the cost of $15, that’s about a 1 hour round-trip. On this day, it took more like 3, with multiple occasions for nearly getting stuck in the mud. But it was very scenic and an adventure to boot!
Excuse me, sir, might I pass?
Apparently they get much more rain than we do and the scenic route proved impassable.
But the cows didn’t seem to mind.
Meanwhile back on the wee homestead, Patty has had a big brood!
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And the wild cherry has never looked so good! I wish I could get a better pic.
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We’re spending so much on our interior face-lift the roosters are taking over, no time to reduce their numbers, the benefit being, no sleeping in.
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The garden is growing so fast, and the citrus and magnolias I planted last year are just now sprouting. But all that for another post, too much to do!
Hope all’s springing with y’all, thanks for stopping by!
Another fixer-upper on the route to my herdshare. Looks a bit over our pay grade.
How about this one, also on the route?
Destined to become a Black Heritage museum, so they say! 😆
What is the difference between Hope, and Hopium? There’s a fuzzy line and it’s very easy to misjudge, but it’s located somewhere between: “Yay, Trump will save us all from $11/dozen eggs!” And “We should start a chicken mega-ranch.”
If those two meet in the middle of the road, might creative minds find that they’ve absent-mindedly crossed with logic and conclude a few laying hens might be just the ticket? A bit of self-sufficiency, why not? After all, it’s not rocket science . . .
Joel Salatin exposes the WEF agenda! “Josh Sigurdson talks with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, an entrepreneur and farmer who for years has fought against Monsanto, factory farming and dependence pushing for people to homestead and/or farm and not be dependent on the system. We previously interviewed Joel in 2017 regarding Monsanto. Now, 8 years later, we delve into the massively expanded technocratic grid as more than ever, people are dependent on grocery stores, the grid and AI, weakened by design. The World Economic Forum agenda is to destroy self sustainability and make people weak slaves to technocracy. Eventually they want food rations and carbon credit scores. They’re already being rolled out to some degree and with the 2024 United Nations Pact For The Future, this problem is encroaching quicker than ever. The climate lobby attempting to bring down farms is more alive than ever. There are solutions however which Joel Salatin has spent decades teaching people. There is also a rumor circulating that Joel Salatin was picked to head the USDA. He explains this and more in this interview.”
Though it is the gateway livestock, and that’s official, I’ve even heard it repeated by the official fact-checkers at NASA.
Don’t worry, more government will save us! They will VAXX this FLU away, similar to the way they spray on the weather!
Respiratory diseases? I can’t imagine how that might be happening! So baffling!
But as James Corbett points out, chickens are the simple solution, but not necessarily the Easy one.
Most folks will take the easy way out, drink the Kool-aid, puff the Hopium, and exclaim RFKJ is here to save the day. Cheap eggs and healthy injections on the way!
It’s been quite a long time since an update on the wee homestead projects and activities; it’s hard to know where to start! How about, for consistency sake, I bitch about the weather for a bit, and then move along to better tidings.
Of course the geoengineered chem-filled skies continue, as does our Yo-Yo season (formerly known as winter). We are using the air conditioning now, it’s been 80 degrees for days.
Buttercup is especially sensitive to the YoYo, to the point of regular getting seizures at such times, also lethargic and losing her appetite.
Buttercup hiding in her box all day.
There was of course the lows not long ago in the 20s and I was very concerned for the newly planted citrus. We employed quite the set up of lights and covers and they faired very well, I’m happy to report.
Invasion of Asian beetles on the citrus cover
But there has been a bad invasion of these awful beetles, which we’re vacuuming off the ceiling multiple times a day. Not to be confused with the garden-friend, the lovely little lady bugs, NO, these little beasts are really nasty. They infest, as obvious from the photos, and they bite, and as if that’s not enough, they stink.
I don’t like when folks call them lady bugs, they are not at all ladylike, so I try to correct them anytime I hear complaints, which is more often than you might think. The reaction I get is much more open and accepting than when I inform them about the manufactured weather.
Old lettuce bolting, replacing with new lettuce started under lights indoors, along with broccoli and cauliflower.
It does keep us on our toes, dealing with the Yo-Yo. Lettuce and herbs bolt prematurely quite often, seedlings come up then freeze or wither. We never know from week to week what to expect or how to plan.
I don’t normally have such a fancy setup, but these trays were gifted to me and they’re working quite well germinating some lobelia and snap dragons.
My indoor lights and heating mats make things easier, as does the row cover in the garden, but it is constant juggling. And if I miss a beat, death. Like happened with the Mexican oregano I was so proud of. I forgot about it outside one night when it frosted. Very disappointing considering our long journey of discovery, and how long I babied those few little sprouts, trying to anticipate their every need, carting them inside for warmth, then outside for sun and wind, and just when they were getting their legs, gone. All my fault.
Well, except for the geoengineers, because I wouldn’t be doing this constant refrain if our weather was consistent or predictable or seasonal.
I’ve tried twice since then to sprout the herb again with no luck. I will succeed eventually, of course, we’ve come too far in our quest to fail. The Mexican oregano has a long tale in these parts. Failure is not an option. More on that in the last HH post, if you like. https://kenshohomestead.org/2024/11/14/homestead-happenings-43/
I’d like to say it was the same with the milk quest. Unfortunately, I’m not nearly as confident; I feel failure is probably inevitable and maybe even imminent. For the time being I’m counting my blessings I’ve found another (perhaps temporary) source. Last time I was complaining about the cost, this one is even more expensive at $15/gallon. At that price I’m not going to be experimenting with any new cheeses, that’s for sure. To make cheese at all is not really feasible, except for the most delicious of selections—Camembert. Otherwise the precious commodity goes toward morning coffee, ice cream, and buttermilk for recipes and the extended expiration date.
Camembert to be draining before salting
I’ve been doing continued research on the topic of raw milk and what’s available and in general, where’s the market vibe. I found one young entrepreneur with a private herdshare selling cheese for $25 a pound. (A Herdshare Agreement or a Grade A license from the state are the only ways to sell raw milk in Texas legally.).
With my new herdshare deal I can buy more milk for cheesemaking, if I’m willing to pay $15/gallon. Considering the hard cheeses I typically made were 5 gallons ideally (better for aging in less than optimal conditions), that’s a really expensive cheese.
Certainly what can be made on-site are far better cheeses than can be bought at the store; that’s why I started making cheese in the first place. But still, it’s really hard to justify all that work, and expense, when we can still buy organic cheese for about $8/pound.
I will splurge one time in late spring, if possible, when the grass is thick and so the milk most rich. And we do still have two goats, hopefully pregnant, so there’s a small hope of cheesemaking in my future, if all goes well.
Moving on to the garden, the garlic is going strong and I’ve just got the onions in, 3 big rows of each. The garlic we plant is elephant garlic which does so much better here than any other variety I’ve tried, and I’ve tried lots. These are local for over a decade now and their productivity has yet to disappoint.
The onions are from purchased sets and they normally do well, though some years are a bust, like last year. I also started some from seed under lights, to compare if they are more consistent and adaptable, because the sets have gotten pricey in recent years and it’s irritating to pay good money for possible failure. Onions do not like Yo-Yo weather, but then again, who or what really does?
At least some seem to tolerate it better than others. We’ve got a couple of ‘oyster trees’ that are bringing us regular tasty gifts.
I’ve also tried a couple new things that have been long on my list. There’s the soap that’s just now cured, a bit earlier than I’d read is typical. I’m really pleased with it! It lathers very well and the scent is rather sensuous. My intention was something earthy and erotic, and I think I succeeded.
I got the sensual part down, now I need to up the aesthetic! Trust me, looks are deceiving here, I just need better molds! Never underestimate the power of packaging, eh?
After finishing up slaughter season and chopping up downed trees for a month, Hubby has moved on to a far more desirable and needed project, according to me, our kitchen! Yippie!
We’ve needed new countertops badly for many years, ours have been well-worn in 40 years, especially since we’ve gotten here and the space went from softly used a few times a year, to a daily year-round assault. It’s actually pretty impressive the counters aren’t near dust by now, considering how quickly more modern materials fall apart.
New island done, now for the hard part.
Old, ugly, not square or plumb . . . Good times coming in Hubby’s near future!
New countertops got us on a roll and now we’re planning new light fixtures and maybe even a new paint job. Big ideas, perhaps not backed up by time or commitment.
Those big ideas, I’m full of ‘em! In my mind the kitchen’s already painted and my next project is to paint the table, which I’ve wanted (and once tried) to do for as long as we’ve had it. I can imagine I might have a table with a surface that looked something like this . . .
But I’d be perfectly willing to settle for this . . .
Or this . . .
So, after I repaint the kitchen in the few spare moments between juggling plants in YoYo season, I acquire the skills of an artist, and paint something I can really be proud of . . .
Whenever I’m finally able to manage that, y’all will be the first to know!
In the meantime, here’s where we were at in the last update . . .
A celebration of fresh food in photo! Because it is a true pleasure for both of us to produce our own food as much as possible; it is the main appeal of this labor-intensive lifestyle.
To think, it all started with a hurricane, and then a garden. We didn’t even have a dream or a plan.
Or a clue!
Left: Hot peppers and turmeric, dried luffa for sponges Right: fresh from the garden—lots of lettuce, radishes, cilantro, dill, thyme, celery and roasted garlic.
The peppers are becoming a couple of sauces, one made by Hubby, chili garlic sauce, and was pressure canned for long term storage. It’s a copycat recipe of Huy Fong Brand and is fantastic.
Another will be made by me, inspired by Gavin Mounsey’s kitchen.
Photos by Gavin Mounsey
The peppers, garlic, elderberry, onion and other herbs will first be fermented and later made into a Sriracha-type sauce that will store about 6 months in the refrigerator. For amazing food photos and recipes, Gavin’s are spectacular, along with so much other refreshing content.
Previous year’s garden goodies.
From the pasture to the plate. It’s a very rewarding feeling!
Above: Hubby processing chickens with machine plucker. Below left: smoking bacon Right: Pork roll just off the smoker
Left: Christmas pudding, a British classic and my first attempt. (Thanks Kath for the recipe!) We will see in a month or so if I succeeded. Also liver sausage, made from lamb liver and topped with roasted almonds. It’s not everyone’s thing, I know, but you might be surprised, I was never a fan of liver either. Right: Cured lamb and Mason jar Marcelin cheese, aging. Yes, you can put them in the same small space, I cover the cheese with a bamboo mat, in a closet with my seed storage, for about a week before moving to cold storage.
The cured lamb can be done from many different types or cuts of meats. This one is taken from the easy-to-follow recipe for Cured Venison Loin at wildharvesttable.com
The cured lamb thinly sliced with soft cheese and sourdough bread is better than anything store-bought in these parts.
We have learned so much about growing and cooking and preserving and the learning never ends.
But all the hard work has excellent rewards!
I’ve learned a lot about homemade wines and cured meats from this Italian YT channel. It’s amazing what you can do with just a little bit of space and minimal equipment and good ingredients. I’ll be trying this simple salami next.
Roasted sweet potatoes become Sweet Potato
Roasted sweet potatoes from this year’s harvest become a favorite dessert: Sweet Potato Praline served with fresh whipped cream and homemade chocolate liqueur.
Cooking is a wonderful way to spend the day, even when it’s just for the dogs!
A big pot of dog food, fit for a Great Dane
Hope you’re enjoying your cooking time, too! Thanks for stopping by!
It’s been a while since any update, but not because nothing is happening on the wee homestead. It’s still the same story—the biggest news-worthy thing is the one I’ve been avoiding writing about.
As usual, there are the latest piglets and chicks and harvests and garden woes and ‘unseasonable’ weather. Rest assured, we’ve had all that again this summer.
I did imagine if I ever run out of blogging content to share I could start a new quiz show . . . Here we are in East Texas folks, so let’s play Guess The Season!
Come on down, step right up, where your chances to win are a remarkable 1 in 4, WOW!
But it might be more challenging to win than you think. How about it, ready to give it a try?
The roses and geraniums and wildflowers are blooming, volunteer tomato plants are coming up, the lettuce is bolting and the dogs are shedding, what season is it?
Well, if you guessed springtime, tough luck loser!
Let me give you another clue, Rambo, Teaky and Papa Chop are horny, but the girls are all already knocked up. Poor fellas!
Rambo, still chasing the girls! If you look closely in the distance, past the downed tree, you’ll see Hubby’s recently finished ‘bridge to nowhere’.
What else is new, or not? We have entered slaughter season, my fall transplants are dying in the heat, the moles and voles and gophers have taken over the garden, and I have only two bee colonies which survived the summer, again.
An entire bed of baby broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages lost to rodents! Argh! 😖
It’s well past time to plant garlic, Hubby prepared the rows a month ago, but I don’t dare do the deed. It’s still far too warm. They will start growing too soon, putting all their energy into a fine green shoot that will then die when the inevitable frost comes again, and the remnants of the bulb will then likely rot in the ground.
Lots of elephant garlic (harvested in May) left for re-planting and enjoying through the YoYo season. Behind it is about 1/3 of our sweet potato harvest. Both did very well, though the Irish potatoes and the onions did terrible.
As far as general garden results for the year, a mixed bag, as is typical. The peppers did not do well and I had such high hopes. Last year we had amazing peppers all summer and fall, so I really have no idea why this year was so poor. It was my hope to experiment with spicy ferments and pimientos. No such luck. We have dismally few jalapeños and green peppers coming in, plus one prolific plant that magically survived, producing these beauties, which will hopefully ripen quickly. I had to pull off one entire branch, which is where these green ones originated, because it was overtopping its cage and becoming unruly.
The squashes also did not do well and I attribute this to the wet spring followed quickly by excessive heat and drought. I’ve heard from several nearby gardeners who had the same problem.
Very few squashes this year, not even luffa did well, and that’s usually easy and prolific. In the center are persimmons, we got about a dozen off the young tree. And, a surprise . . . Watermelon!
The cucumbers were another disappointment, but that was my own fault. My goal was to prolong the season by succession planting, so I planted fewer cucumbers than usual at peak time, thinking we’d have them fresh and fermented for the entire summer and fall, so no need for canning surplus.
Unfortunately, even the young plants could not thrive in our summer temps, so old ones which were past their main production, along with new but not yet producing, all died. Then I got lucky and some volunteers showed up in late August, so I nurtured them along, and right after they started producing, we got a super early frost, one night only. It killed them off.
Six ‘winter’ watermelons!
Surprisingly, the quick frost did not kill off the few remaining peppers, or the watermelons, which I planted late after starting them indoors, on a whim, because the best part of the summer garden this year was definitely the watermelons.
And now, we’ve got more!
Thanksgiving watermelons, that’s a first. There’s also a few volunteer tomatoes I’ll be digging up soon to move inside under lights.
Between the bolted Romaine, one of several tomato volunteers.
The baby citrus trees have all survived their first summer, I’m so hoping that’s a sign of continued success. They aren’t looking so good, but they’re hanging in there. I’ll take that as a win, as temporary as it may be.
The young citrus planted in early spring, not looking great, but still hanging in there!
I’ve also been babying a few graveyard treasures. Perhaps as a distraction from my misery, I’ve been visiting all the cemeteries in the area and have found in them a few spectacular specimens I want to grow.
There was the healthiest, largest Turk’s cap aka Mexican apple (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii) I’ve ever seen, and in the middle of drought still bright and beautiful. I’ve been wanting one not only because they are drought-tolerant and attractive, but also because they are a popular medicinal and a perennial edible. (I’ll definitely be covering it in a future Herbal Explorations post.)
I did manage to get one cutting, out of 6, to take root. There’s also a wild pink rambling rose that I got rooted, and some gorgeous Magnolia trees, which I hope I can get started after stratification and scarification of their seeds.
A baby Turk’s Cap and a Mexican oregano (I hope!)
Plus, I’m excited that 1 of the 3 Mimosa trees I dug up from the gutter in early spring, and have been doting on all summer, is doing beautifully; I think she’s going to make it! Last year’s attempt failed by this time of year, I think because the spot I chose was too shady.
A young Mimosa tree recently transplanted after growing in a pot in part-sun all summer. Again in the distance, behind the sheep, Hubby’s ‘bridge to nowhere’.
Another noteworthy piece is we’ve had a mystery fruit invade the garden.
Mouse melons gone wild? I did plant store-bought mouse melon seed, also called cucamelon, for a couple of summers. I called it my ‘crop of the year’ in 2018.
They were a novelty item I thought I’d try, and while they are so cute and a fun addition to the summer produce, they are super tiny and tedious to harvest, so not a lot of bang for the buck.
Online stock photo: Mouse melons, about the size of my thumb nail.
Mouse melon from Wiki: Melothria scabra is native to Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela,where it grows in forests and thickets.
That is the closest fruit I can match to our mystery fruit, which does come with a more interesting backstory.
Two years ago I found five of these fruits on the road near the creek with no plant attached to them. I figured they were part of a squirrel’s stash that had flooded out, or had dropped from an unknown tree, a wild variety of something I’d never heard of before. I was so intrigued!
I looked all around for the potential tree and couldn’t find any. But, somehow I got it stuck in my head that I’d just found wild kumquats. When my local gardening friends laughed and told me that was impossible, I said, well, we will see.
The following spring I gave some of the seeds to a friend and planted some in our garden. Within two months I’d regretted it; it was no tree. The vines had very quickly begun to take over a large section of space with the most tenacious tendrils and prolific foliage I’d ever seen.
I told my friend to pull them out, immediately, as they were very invasive and she has very limited garden space. She laughed and said, “I told you they weren’t kumquats!” 😆
The vines are so tough they’re like pulling thick rope. They readily re-root from the vines as well, and I came to discover this year, re-seed with great abandon.
While I pulled them up that first year before seeing any fruits on them, there must’ve been some hidden, because this year another plant formed, rather late in the season, and in a spot where we could afford to leave it to its natural inclinations.
Wow, what a giant beast it grew into! In the dead of summer, in severe heat and drought, without any supplementary water, it grew, and grew, and has produced so many golf ball sized fruits I could’ve easily filled a wheelbarrow with them more than once.
Except the fruit is quite sour, exceptionally seedy and with tough skin. It was a labor intensive process, but after peeling and deseeding, I made a few ferments and I was impressed with the results.
Ferment with mouse melons and varied veggies and herbs.
But, the vines were taking over, moving into our pathways, climbing up fences, choking out everything in its path. So we started pulling it, mowing over it, and generally abusing it on a daily basis.
It lived on! All through the late summer and into our faux fall. It actually started regrowing under the brush pile of leaves and grass we piled on top of its last remaining vines.
While most of the fruit became pig fodder, I’m still impressed with its determination and tenacity and will be finding some wasted space to keep the mystery fruit in our summer rotation. Maybe with the okra, which we aren’t crazy about either, but keep growing as a ‘just in case’ survival crop.
There’s been another ancient garden mystery, which we may have finally solved. I mean ancient in the modern sense, that being over five years in the making. It concerns the herb popularly named ‘Mexican oregano’.
Many years ago I started looking to plant this herb, one of my all-time favorites in the kitchen, and that’s when the quest began.
Now, one would certainly think this herb to be readily available in these parts, considering every year I can find in the garden stores many different varieties of oregano—Greek, Italian, Cuban, Golden, variegated, ornamental, Syrian. Really, Syrian?
No Mexican. And yet, that’s right over our border, certainly a lot closer than Syria. Why can we not find seeds or plants of Mexican oregano?
Years ago this put a bee in my bonnet loud enough to get Hubby on the hunt. Between the two of us we’ve spent many hours calling around, searching online, trying to sift through the mounds of misinformation and redirection.
Yes, it would seem that’s happening not only in politics and history, but even in culinary herbs!
Once we were able to identify the basics of the problem, we honed in on the solution. There are actually two different types of (commercially unavailable) plants called Mexican oregano. We’ve been buying the herb in bulk for years without any problem, but we really want to be growing it ourselves.
~Mexican Bush Oregano (Poliomintha longiflora) Mint family
~Mexican Oregano (lippia graveolens) Verbena family
Of the 2 types, we want to grow the latter, lippia graveolens. It’s a marvelous oregano and not just in Mexican cuisine. The flavor is much less intense than Greek, more like marjoram, but with notes of citrus and thyme. It’s quite unique as far as oregano’s go, which makes sense, since it’s in the verbena family and not the mint family, as most are.
After discovering we cannot find plants or seeds anywhere around here or online, we were really wondering why this is. It’s a very popular herb after all, used in lots of Mexican dishes. We did come across a few sites that claimed to sell the seedlings and small plants, but they were always out of stock.
Finally, Hubby stumbled on a potential answer in an online forum. It was suggested that they don’t sell the seeds because they are too small. We had never thought of this! It was suggested to simply sprinkle some of the herb purchased from the store onto some soil! Wait, what . . . ?
So, I’ve been trying that a couple of times now, and I may have just gotten some positive results.
Baby Mexican Oregano? I’m hoping! Also rooting some lemon-scented geranium, which has done pretty well all summer.
Back to the bad news. We continue to lose trees, old and young, at a dismal rate. This one flashed out dead within one week in July. It’s one of four equally large ones that have come down just this summer. I honestly can’t imagine how that happens so quickly outside of being poisoned. The dead leaves continue to hang there, almost 3 months later, while branches full of dead leaves come down in the slightest wind.
Branches come down, but not the dead leaves.
The spring floods that forced Hubby to rebuild our culvert then turned into the two-month plus drought that made his efforts futile. Still, it had to be done, as the washout was really significant.
Big job for one old man and his old tractor!
The previous culvert was our first job when we bought this property. That time I was a big helper, right alongside Hubby, digging dirt and dragging debris. It was necessary in order to get the car to our camping spot, where we spent many months building the cabin. Hauling in water, no electricity, sleeping in a tent. Ah, the good ole days!
This time I didn’t lift a finger, not even to take photos. He was able to successfully replace the culvert with a structure which we call our ‘bridge to nowhere’.
But, it was still necessary even though we aren’t camping over there anymore, in order to get the tractor to the back half of the property for other reasons—fence repair, any necessary tree felling, or getting to the cabin that’s become an unusually attractive storage room. 😏
Hopefully this one will do the trick for another 15 years or so.
Slaughter season may not sound so appealing, but if you could smell our kitchen when Hubby is cooking up the meats and broths for canning, or making his marvelous split pea soup or sampling sausage mixes before freezing, I think you’d change your tune.
Which reminds me of a bit more news worth sharing. Canning potatoes has been a surprisingly good choice I’d not have expected. Fried potatoes are such a popular food and we eat them weekly. But it’s a pretty labor-intensive process to make good fried potatoes, because you’ve got to cook them twice to get them crisp. This is probably why so many folks rely on the wide variety of frozen French fries and other convenience potato products on the market.
A couple jars of Hubby’s pressure canned potatoes.
While we never get large potato harvests here (besides sweet potatoes that is) Hubby is an excellent sale shopper. When he spots them for really cheap, like they are now at just 19 cents a pound, he’ll buy a big load of them and get prepping.
By getting the first part of the potato prep done in bulk, these canned potatoes are so quick and versatile and delish. It does take a lot of initial time and effort—peeling, chopping, pressure canning, but it’s well worth it.
All you have to do then for perfectly crisp ‘fries’ is drain and rinse and dry a bit, then toss them in your hot oil or fat of choice and in minutes you’ve got a cheaper, healthier, quicker version than most convenience products.
And would you look at that! Such a long and newsy post which I managed without ever mentioning the elephant in my head.
That is the goats. My great summer sorrow. I lost 9 of them; there are just 4 left. And I still can’t face up to it without tearing up.
So, it seems I can be as avoidant, bypassing, stalling, redirecting, minimizing and gaslighting as the best of them, when it suits me. 🥲
Just protecting myself from facing reality, right? How very common.
I failed. I miss them. That dream became a nightmare.
But I can’t end on that sad note, not now. The summer has been hard on the sheep and the dogs, too. We lost several lambs and Hubby was once again nursing Shadow issues for weeks. That’s quite another story, for another time.
Suffice it to say, he’s doing fine now, hurrah!
Better watch out, Shadow’s in loop position, he’s about to pounce!
What an athlete!
And right back to lounge position.
There’s always Bubba, giving free hourly lessons in lounge.
Thanks for stopping by!
Do you have any idea what our mystery plant could be?
I’m adding another from Gavin’s Newsletter to the Herbal Explorations pages—the very popular Lemon Balm. Gavin does such a thorough job of covering it and I’m excited to start working with it more. I grow it, like mint, mostly for the bees, but like mint, I don’t use it nearly enough.
I’ve copied some favorite parts from his article below, but I’m sure I’ll be referencing it again directly in the future.
I really recommend viewing his full post and would love for any readers to add your own experiences with growing and using lemon balm as well, here in the comments section.
“I love this plant as it is very easy to grow (in fact, it now grows itself in our garden without any assistance) it provides forage for native pollinators while repelling mosquitoes and provides a long list of medicinal benefits. Lemon balm’s pain-relieving properties may make it an ideal choice for relieving muscle and toothache pain. In addition to drawing on its relaxing properties, this home remedy targets inflammation in the body.
“The leaves of lemon balm contain potent astringent and antibacterial properties useful for many things including cleansing wounds and pores to reduce blackheads. Due to rosmarinic acid, one of lemon balm’s key antioxidant ingredients, the herb also benefits the complexion. On top of all that, this herb is versatile in a culinary sense (providing fresh and enlivening flavors and aromas that lend themselves to enhancing creations in the kitchen).
“In the late 14th century, the nuns of the Carmelite Abbey in France began to make a “miracle water” using the lemon balm found in the monastery’s gardens. This is known as Carmelite water, which consisted of multiple herbs and spices with Melissa officinalis always as the main ingredient. This “perfume,” as it was called, was very fragrant and it was used to cover body odors as people seldom bathed in those days. This formula was also called “Eau de Melisse,” and it was revered by kings and nobles as well as commoners. It became a popular cure-all for various ailments and was used both internally and externally. Nicholas Culpepper, the 15th century English botanist and physician, praised the virtues of Carmelite water writing: “It causeth the Mind and Heart to becom merry, and reviveth the Heart fainting to foundlings, especially of such who are overtaken in their sleep, and driveth away al troublesome cares and thought…
“By the middle ages it was cultivated throughout all of Europe. Spiritually it is said in some cultures that lemon balm is known to balance feelings and emotions. It was used in ritual baths to invoke the Goddess, making you more appealing in the world of love and romance. Lemon balm has been associated with the feminine, the moon and water. It was considered sacred in the temple of the ancient Roman goddess Diana. It was first mentioned in medieval manuscript as “Herbe Melisse” in 1440. ( It’s botanical name, Melissa, stands for “bee” in Greek. Avicenna, a Muslim herbalist, recommended Melissa “to make the heart merry”. The Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus (1493-1541) believed that lemon balm was an “elixir of life” and would increase strength and lengthen life. After it’s introduction by settlers and subsequent naturalization (in what is now known as the United States) the Cherokee people used the herb as a remedy for fevers, colds, chills and typhus.”
“Lemon balm contains within it the virtues of a dozen other plants” ~ Hildegarde von Bingen 12th century mystic and healer of Germany
“Keep in mind that like mint, lemon balm grows incredibly fast in rich, well drained, moist soil that receives lots of sun. In the right conditions, it can even become massive. Once you discover all of the useful benefits of having this plant around, I’m sure you’ll be more than fine with that!
“Lemon Balm Repels Annoying Bugs This herb has the ability to repel ants, mosquitoes, and flies with its high amount of compounds that resemble the scent of citronella. Try making this easy herbal no bug balm to keep those pesky mosquitoes at range. Out on a hike and forgot to bring your bug balm? Find some lemon balm, crush the leaves, and rub them directly onto your skin! The same can be said of yarrow.
“As We Explored Above, Lemon Balm has Medicinal Benefits: Not only is this plant great in the garden, but it’s also an excellent gem to keep in your herbal remedy cabinet.
“Ancient Greeks used lemon balm steeped in wine to relieve the symptoms of fevers. Put together your own ginger and lemon balm cold/flu syrup to relieve those same symptoms today.
“This super healing lip balm uses the antiviral effects of lemon balm to quickly clear up cold sores. You can also use it in an herbal salve to speed healing of minor wounds. Lemon balm may also reduce menstrual cramps and premenstrual syndrome when taken daily for a prolonged period of time.
Lemon Balm also Attracts Beneficial Wildlife.
Traditional Medicinal Uses:
“Herbal Actions: Nervine: acts on the nerves. Sedative: calming agent. Mild Antidepressant: relieves feelings of depression. Mild Antispasmodic: reduces voluntary or involuntary muscle spasm. Carminative: gently calms the nerves. Lemon balm is a relaxing diaphoretic as opposed to a stimulating diaphoretic. Antiviral: destroys or suppresses growth of viruses, generally by supporting the immune system. Antioxidant: prevents free radical or oxidative damage. Specific use for dyspepsia associated with anxiety and/or a depressive mood. It is indicated for someone with symptoms typical of hyperthyroidism (inhibits TSH binding to receptors): anxiety, restlessness, palpitations, headache, and excitability and also is a mild anti-depressant. It strengthens the brain and its resistance to stress/shock, and lifts the spirits. It has tonic effects on the heart and circulatory system and can be used topically for herpes and other viral infections. Can also be used topically for gout and internally for rheumatism and neuralgias.
Practical Uses:
“What do you do with lemon balm? The most useful parts of this plant (and the way it found its name) are the leaves.
Compounds are extracted from the leaves and used to make lemon balm oil, tincture, salves and various medicines.
You can use the leaves in combination with other powerful herbs such as Yarrow in order to make effective (all natural, non-toxic and skin enhancing) mosquito repellant. Here is a link to an example of one such recipe: https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/lemon-balm-bug-spray/
Some of the most popular lemon balm uses include using the leaves in the kitchen to make tea and flavor dishes, as well as to create perfume oils and insect repellents. Some people even use it to make homemade toothpaste.”
Gavin’s article continues with many more pages of useful details about Lemon Balm, including lots of recipes and more detailed medicinal uses, loads of links and references and excellent images.
