Something cool about your own eggs

Way back when we put a fence around the front (there is a photo I believe in the oldest post...cracks me up to even look at it) we got hens.

Here are a couple of pics...Paua, the kids favorite chook, a silkie bantam.

and eggs, we have a surplus of eggs right now.  Don't worry, it'll only last till the weekend, I'll bake a couple of things, family and friends will come around.  However as far as egg production, I wouldn't go with bantams again, they go clunky/ broody for ages.  I hear Rhode Island Reds and Red Shavers are way better- and I remember it was my job to feed the hens as a kid.  I'm wanting to introduce a few new hens to the flock, which is currently 4 hens very soon.

I've deleted a whole lot of material on this blog and will attempt to add to it daily...yes daily.  That is my resolution even tho its not new year.  It might just be something little.  It might be a rant, it might be photos, but blah de blah about the garden and our journey of eating from the garden.  When I've got a few posts I'll invite my Facebook people from Horowhenua Kaikai.

5 plus a day: The rainbow in my garden

 I’d argue that you get more when you grow your own food organically and eating freshly out of the garden. I had a little think about some of the fruits and vegies I grow and what colours they are:

Greens

I’ve got the greens covered 12 months of the year, at the very least there is always silver beet, bok choy or cabbage ready to eat, plus there are herbs like parsley, oregano, mint etc… so I’ve got greens covered and we pretty much eat only greens from the garden. In the summer when the garden is pumping, we have courgettes coming out of our ears (we have to give them away, it’s not possible to eat them all), green peppers, cucumber, fejoas in winter, spring onion, leeks, beans and broad beans.

Purple/ Reds

Purple is sometimes covered, depending on the season. So I’m a fan of Maori potatoes, the long purple ones called Urenika or Peruperu, but they don’t keep that well. Then we have tamarillos, yes I know they say you can’t grow them here but I do and they grow well. Then there are raspberries, now they have a real short season and frankly rarely make it inside. They just get scoffed, and that’s about the month of Christmas. We also have passionfruit, the vines are getting stronger and stronger, now into their 3^rd season. There are black currants, a pretty sour fruit which I chuck in the plum jam pot. Oh yes plums, we have the early ones in December. They are small and yellow fleshed and we have to beat the birds. Then at about the start of February we have the big fat damson and black doris ones. I have a grape vine but haven’t had much luck with that so far… I think it needs to get more established. Ok so that’s my purple. (Note: also growing your own garden means you can try vegies that you might not usually see in the fruit and vegie shops like purple beans, purple tomatoes – a big fat beefsteak one called Black Krim, and purple (also known as red) cabbage. Some of these could also be in the red column, like the apples from our little apple tree and the beetroot. In the reds of course we need to include the tomatoes which I try and make sure I grow heaps of so that I can roast some for bottles of pasta sauce throughout the year.  

Yellow

Yellow, hmm let me think? Pumpkins, Crown pumpkins are yellow on the inside, and on the menu right through winter, as are butternuts. They’re good keepers so the season is quite long. In the summer we have butter beans and yellow cherry tomatoes. I wonder if I can count the silver beet rainbow chard which has yellow (and other coloured) stems. I think so. We have yellow tamarillos called Teds, gold I think too. I think passionfruits would come into this category too; the sticky stuff with all the flavour is yellowish. Then there are the citrus fruits, we have a lemon tree, a mandarin tree, the grapefruit hasn’t fruited yet, but I’ll give it a mention to encourage it. The flesh of the moemoe potato is very floury, buttery and yellow. Corn, as sweet corn or maize, is a staple cereal crop. I also have a range of capsicums and peppers, yellow and orange included.

White/ Browns

White: that would be our white corn (kanga ma), a pearly gem that can be ground up to make cornmeal porridge to warm us up in winter. I have a white currant. The starchy potatoes and even the waxy potatoes are the big white players. This leads us into browns like the Jerusalem artichokes, the onions. I have grown mushrooms a few seasons ago and even though I do encourage it, my children are not mushroom fans. I like them but can cope without them.

I’ve always loved pretty much all vegetables, and the children are expected to as well. I think the only thing they don’t like (surprisingly both of them) is mushrooms, and the thing I must admit I do avoid are Brussels sprouts. I had them when I was a kid and I wouldn’t have problem if I never have them again in my life.

I happen to agree with the health promotion on this one. When something is at the peak of its season, we have been known to gorge on them e.g. mandarins, fejoas, passionfruits, plums… and indeed… there are way worse things that our family could be doing than getting the peak vitamins at the peak time from the most delicious fruits.

Here are some of the fruits and vegies from the colour groups:

Of courses your family’s tastes will be different, and likely if I was to draw up a table next season it would be different. Ah the variety of life.

What can I grow this year?

My style of Composting

My style of Composting:

I have kitchen scraps and garden waste and ashes and sawdust and leaves, shredded paper and it all goes in. I have a few compost bins dotted around the garden, they fill up and rot down and when I need it I spread it around.  I compost anything that I can.  I try to be conscious of trying to put carbon back into the soil- and if I wasn't so lazy I'd do Geoff Lawton's 28day compost.  But what I do do is have bins.  Some were sold as compost bins- with no base, which I inherited from my Dad but these days Ive gone for mini wheelie bins sold down the road for $14 which are easy to get around cos they have wheels- have a lid thats hinged on, and well they're cheap.  They can act like a little wheelbarrow sometimes. I don't really do much, except add to them, sometimes water them, sometimes turn them, pretty much let the insects and micro organisms do their thing.  The worms in this pic are pretty busy- the compost isn't ready-but its teaming with life.  I don't know how but the worms and stuff get in there, and multiply.

This spring- & I have at least 3 compost bins that are full of really good compost, so Ive been putting this out on the garden beds- under a mulch of wood chips when planting out seedlings.  The other thing is- I have a whole lot of weeding to do so I need to get the bins emptied to have something to put the organic waste into.  I could just have compost heaps- but these bins work for me.

Some people say don't put this, don't put that...but I figure if its biodegradable chuck it in.  Some will bring heat- fast to the bin, it will accelerate the decomposition.

I remember my grandfather showing me his compost worms, and getting me to smell his compost.  Haha something I will never forget.

Horowhenua Kaikai Gardening project

I just rediscovered this blog,

My business Rangiora Consultants is carrying out a project called Horowhenua Kaikai where we are setting up 330 gardens in Horowhenua, NZ. So thats small towns Shannon, Foxton, Otaki and Levin. We've met the target of setting up 330 new food gardens for this growing season, and now we are taking people onto a waiting list.

It warms my heart every day to travel around inspiring and being inspired by gardeners. Ive met some characters who have caught the bug and are now spreading the passion to others in their circles of friends and family. We have a Facebook page under Horowhenua Kaikai where we have competitions to for fruit trees,and other garden related stuff.

Donna

no dig garden beds

Ok I WAy underestimated how much shredded paper, lawn clippings and compost Id need. I want the beds to be raised so I need way more. Next door neighbours had a phage (no idea how to spell it) full of grass clippings starting to compost ---I just grabbed ANy organic material I could...however Ive barely done ONE garden. Start slow Donna! I took a photo a few days ago- it already looks different with the layers. The garden beds come out further and are more raised now and where the wheelbarrow is- is getting dug so the paths are lower- to add the top soil to the beds- also fence is stained.

Anyway we have in Kiwifruit (male and female-the small cocktail one) and passionfruit along one fence wall, a choko my grandfather gave me, a grapevine for another wall. Close to the brick house we have tamarillos and then small trees around a mandarin, grapefruit, fijoas (x3) a peach, guava and a white currant and a couple of olives. In a few years this is going to be really productive-fruitwise. This season we'll get herbs and a few vegies and soil getting built up. Currently the top soil is really shallow and then clay.

As we put in more mulch, more annuals, herbs, vegetables, more legumes etc can go in. Lupins have sprouted- we'll see how they take- but they can be for chop and drop mulch around autumn and over winter. I also had the idea of getting some of the firewood that got wet and is growing fungus to put that into the mulch- to feed soil micro-organism population.

The plan is a deck or courtyard like outdoor eating area---we are still playing with ideas...perhaps a pond in the lower lying area. Im thinking of getting those big concrete slabs to be a solar mass- and be suitable for a table and chairs to be on. Probably a pergola structure with a grapevine which is deciduous so no leaves to let in winter sun shine.

The side of the house is for a slim line water storage unit - for water from roof and solar panels on the roof as we can afford it and composting operations also around the side. Ive collected pamplets of local ones when I was at the Eco show in Taupo in October-bit by bit

Ive told my son he can get a few chickens WHEN he's ready to understand they are food after they stop producing food and I dont think he's feeling that. I would like some onsite diggy around/ and fertilising creatures. Ive been checking out chicken tractors etc on trademe website but we're not yet ready to bid.

Ive gotta get on with having a good look at National party's ideas about changes to the Resource management act for a class I have to teach this weekend.

I have started to get on with the new front garden...Im going to need way more organic material. Ive done one garden with grape, fijoa, mandarin, guava, white currant trees (saplings) in. The topsoil is pretty shallow then its clay.

Ive layered the garden bed material starting with compost then wet shredded newspaper branches and then rotted lawn clippings from next door. I will continue to keep building this up. Ill put in small plants too like silverbeet and also lupins for nitrogen fixing. Ill just load up the beds. That will go in in the next few days. There is an area around the front front-where no one goes- where I will see if it can cope with corn, the soil may be too clay-ey for now but Ill just keep adding to it. There are 2 slightly sunken areas whihc Im thinking about making into a pond or water garden. Bit by bit. Ill be doing a lot of observation on this area. There are some branches of shrubs and trees here and also from the back which I can chip to add to the gardens.