A new journey into homesteading "pic heavy"

[frustratedearthmother]

Holy Cannoli! That's awesome! Great looking carrots. Whatcha gonna do with all those peppers?

 

[Chic Rustler]

we make alot of hot pepper jelly.

we so pulled the beets and radishes today. they arent rrally good to eat because its been so hot but they nake great pig feed.

the squash and zucchini are dead. vine borers finally got them. thats ok. well plant more. they make great pig feed too.

feed is getting so high we are trying to cut corners anyway we can

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Pepper jelly sounds great!

I feel ya on feed prices! I'm doing the same by feeding extra and or spent plants to the critters. The collards have gotten tough and pretty bug bitten - but the goats don't care. Chickens will eat 'em too. Every little bit helps.

I lost some squash, but have already replanted. Some of the beaten up squash plants are trying to recover so .

 

[Mini Horses]

feed is getting so high we are trying to cut corners anyway we

Same here!! I'm planting extra of things that "keep" well. So winter squashes, pumpkins and winter crops. I'm doing some mangel beets this year for a try. They used to be widely used years ago. And turnips for fall. Both can stay in ground here most all winter.....plus extra greens, etc. Takes a lot for a herd of goats. Right FEM?

I'm also planting barley in August into two renovating pastures for green feed into winter, when pasture grasses are pretty sparse. More work to control their time on graze but, save on some feed costs. A couple fields will be stockpile grass, too. Now I can appreciate the extra acreage! Hope it all goes well!

 

[flowerbug]

we make alot of hot pepper jelly.

we so pulled the beets and radishes today. they arent rrally good to eat because its been so hot but they nake great pig feed.

the squash and zucchini are dead. vine borers finally got them. thats ok. well plant more. they make great pig feed too.

feed is getting so high we are trying to cut corners anyway we can

i've got tons of melon and squash seeds from previous years growing. squash seeds are also easy to collect and grow. if you want to have a lot of squash plants you just take the innards of the squash and go out into a big patch and bury them, if they don't sprout this year they may sprout in the next years... just put the next squash in a hole in a different spot.

 

[flowerbug]

Same here!! I'm planting extra of things that "keep" well. So winter squashes, pumpkins and winter crops. I'm doing some mangel beets this year for a try. They used to be widely used years ago. And turnips for fall. Both can stay in ground here most all winter.....plus extra greens, etc. Takes a lot for a herd of goats. Right FEM?

I'm also planting barley in August into two renovating pastures for green feed into winter, when pasture grasses are pretty sparse. More work to control their time on graze but, save on some feed costs. A couple fields will be stockpile grass, too. Now I can appreciate the extra acreage! Hope it all goes well!

diakon radish and turnips can get huge. when you go to the store and see those tiny perfect turnips in a bunch and then you come home and look at a turnip the size of a basketball it's quite the difference in results. swedes aka rutabagas are a type of turnip, also good as animal fodder. cabbages, etc.

when i was growing my green manure patch of alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil i could chop that three times a season and have about a hundred pounds of nitrogen rich greens. over the years it got infested with other grasses and weeds and i couldn't keep up with is so Mom took to mowing it. finally the past few years i've been able to reclaim it and grow some vegetables in there. all those inputs of past choppings made that soil really rich in worms and much darker than it was when i started many years ago. if i were smart i'd leave an alfalfa plant every here or there to keep adding some nutrients back to the soil more than the beans will do but the problem with that approach is that it will also attract rabbits, groundhogs and deer. until i can get the fence finished some year that's just how it goes. so no alfalfa there...

[edit]

i forgot to mention that the biggest turnips and radishes i ever grew were the ones that were hidden in that green manure patch.

 

[baymule]

Plant Giant Pink Banana Squash for pig and chicken feed. The mature squash stores well and makes good pumpkin pie.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I've planted Giant Pink Banana squash for three years now - never got a squash offa it...

We've taken over CR's thread, lol. Sorry!

 

[Chic Rustler]

I've planted Giant Pink Banana squash for three years now - never got a squash offa it...

We've taken over CR's thread, lol. Sorry!

not at all.

 

[farmerjan]

Nice carrots.... I don't like carrots to eat, but have tried several times to grow them and the soil has always not been "soft enough.... maybe in this new garden... next year... trying to get caught up with it since being away and all the rain we got... and not having it all mulched... trying to lay out cardboard and then some mulch on top to hold in place as I go collect more old hay from various places.... The weeds in the rows are not too bad and can be easily pulled but I want to get the "open spaces" where the vines will run covered.