How to Build a Potato Tower

Make fencing into round columns, cut PVC pipe to height of column, and drill holes every six inches into pipe all the way around the pipe.  Put a plastic bag over one end of the pipe and secure it with a rubber band. This is to keep the water in the pipe so it will flow outward through the holes.

Line the bottom and sides with straw. Then add compost, at least 6 inches worth.  Now add seed potatoes.  Cover with more compost and 6 more inches of straw. 

Once the plants have grown out about 8 inches, then gently cover the stems with another 6 inches of straw.  The tubers should form off of the stems so you can keep adding more straw until you reach the top. 

I spent $3.48 on the seed potatoes so hopefully I will at least get a return on my initial investment.  Here's to hoping for a good harvest!

Adding to Our Flock Through Incubation

 A friend gave us a still air egg incubator last year because I wanted to try to hatch out some chicks this spring.  Surprisingly it was much easier than I thought it would be!

This is the way I did it:

• I gather the eggs from each day while they were still warm.  In pencil, I marked an X and an O on opposite sides of the egg and I noted the date it was laid. 
• Then I placed it in the incubator.  I had set up the incubator on my bathroom countertop because it suggested a "humid" and centrally heated location was best for optimizing incubator hatch rates.  Our incubator also had a shallow well that we had to keep filled with water to keep the inside humid, but some incubators are different. 
• I turn the eggs one to three times per day to ensure the chicks would develop properly. 
• I continued adding eggs until I had about a dozen in the incubator. After about 10 days, we went in a night and shone a bright flashlight under the eggs.  If there was a "dark spot" where we could tell blood vessels were forming we put it back.  This meant it was in fact a fertilized, growing embryo.  We pitched the unfertilized ones.
• Then after another week, we looked again with a light.  Those fertilized eggs had become completely opaque so that the only light from the flashlight we could see was through the chicks "air hole" at the large end of the egg. 
• At this point, we stopped turning the eggs allowing the chicks to be able to orient themselves in preparation for hatching. 
• Then we started LISTENING!  Day 21 is when they are supposed to hatch but I have found that it is a bit more variable than fixed.  The first sign of life should be the chicks weak peeps coming from the shell.  Once this starts, your chick should start "pipping" out the shell with its beak in about 24 hours.  If it takes longer than this I would consider gently helping break out a piece for it, but I have not had this happen yet. 
• With about an hour of "pipping" the chick will start "unzipping" itself by pecking the sides of the shell out until it can free itself. 
• Once the chick is out you should let it dry itself in the incubator for another 8 hours or so. 
• Then take it out and place it under your warm grow light in the brooder with fresh food and water. 

Now you just keep them warm and fed and water and in a clean cage and they should grow like little weeds!

Homemade Pizza Dough

We love homemade pizzas and we are one step closer to having a completely organic, made-by-my-own-two-hands, all homemade pizza.  We have already canned our own pasta sauce from our garden last summer and I am currently learning how to make my own cheese, but tonight I wanted to share my easy pizza dough recipe. 

First in a large bowl, add one packet of dry yeast, one-half teaspoonful of brown sugar and one and a half cups of WARM water to a bowl.  This is "proofing" the yeast and it takes about 15 or till it looks foamy. 

Then add 1/2 teaspoonful of salt and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Mix well then stir in 2 & 1/2 cups of flour with a spoon.  Now take of your watch and any rings and bracelets.  SERIOUSLY this stuff is super sticky, don't  repeat my mistake!  Now get your hands all flour-y and begin kneading the dough by folding it into itself.  I keep mine in a large bowl and knead it in there but if you want to have fun and make a HUGE mess, do it on your countertop!  Add the flour to it by handfuls and keep adding until it no longer sticks to every bare patch of skin it touches...I hate that feeling. 

Finally when you have it in a nice pretty ball schmuey some olive oil over it, that's the not so technical term for it, and put it back in your bowl. 

Then cover with a damp cloth and let sit for one hour.  During this time it should double in size. 

Hey...it worked!

Now punch the dough back down into a tight ball.  Let it "rest" for a minute, then roll it out onto your pizza stone or pan.  I like to let it rise for another 15 minutes here then put all my toppins' on. 

Put it in the oven and bake at 425 for 15/20 minutes. 
 

 

 

 

Canning Pumpkin

Canning pumpkin for pumpkin breads, pies and whatever else your heart desires is a great way to experience the wonderful taste of REAL pumpkin any time you want.  It is a bit more work because you must first cook the pumpkin to soften and remove the thick outer skin.  After that, just cube and process in a pressure canner making sure to follow required time and pressure guidelines.

I used two small pie pumpkins (4-6 lbs.) purchased from a local grower.  I yielded 6 quarts and one quart will make about two pumpkin pies if you use the shallow pie crusts.

I wanted to make a "medium" simple syrup to pour over the pumpkins for processing instead of plain water so that the pumpkin cubes would already be sweetened.  This means I won't have to add much extra sugar when I am ready to use them in cooking.  And believe me they are so sweet and delicious I could eat them straight from the jar.

Syrup:
5 cups water
3 1/4 cups sugar

 

Bake pumpkins till they begin to "squat" and the skin begins to bubble up off of the flesh.

This took about an hour at 350.

 

Then cut your pumpkins in half and begin to remove the skin.

 

 

After the skin is removed, cube and place in your clean jars.

 

 

Pour the simple syrup over the pumpkin cubes and process in the pressure canner for 90 minutes at 11 psi. Let cool, then they are ready to use!

 

Whitaker Point and Buffalo River in Ponca, Arkansas

We took a short vacation in November and went up to Branson to do some Christmas shopping.  We took the dogs and decided to spend the day driving through the Buffalo River National Park.  We also stopped and saw the elk at Boxley Valley, the lookout over the Arkansas Grand Canyon and hiked out to Whitaker Point.



It was a gorgeous view and totally worth it, but don't let people tell you it isn't much of a hike, as in don't just take off with your dogs in non-hiking shoes and no water.  It is a little longer that just a "short hike" at least now we know!

We just missed the leaves turning, but it was still a beautiful sight.

And I was glad to sit down, since I was wearing totally inappropriate shoes for our "short hike". 

It was about 45 minutes in and if you get lost about an hour and a half out, not that it happened to us or anything.

Remi wanted to jump in the Buffalo River so bad, we had to keep her on a leash.

Bull elk and his lady friend.

View from the lookout at the Arkansas Grand Canyon.  They said you could see Missouri from here!

Summer Veggies becoming Fall Soups

This week has been our first taste of some much lower temperatures so I decided to warm myself up with a bowl of hot soup...using only the fresh veggies I happened to have left on hand.

It turned out delicious!

I'll call it:

 Creamy Bell Pepper and Potato Soup

2 large potatoes per person
3 chopped bell peppers
1/2 medium onion
1 can or two cups chicken stock
3 cloves garlic
1 large turnip
1/2-3/4 cup sour cream
6 sprigs dill
2 tbsp butter
2 cups milk

• Bring to a rolling boil, let cook until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.  Mine cooked probably about 20 minutes.
• Mash potatoes, add butter and milk then return to heat.
• Return to a boil, add sour cream to desired level of "creaminess".
• Add a few more fresh dill sprigs and enjoy!

Homemade Wine 2012

We have just bottled and are enjoying our first batch of wine!

The peach wine is very sweet and light and the plum is more dry, red and tart.


I'll give you a brief explanation of the wine-making process, now that we have successfully made our first batch.

• Weigh out fruit, place in a knee high stocking or cheesecloth, squeeze out as much juice as possible into clean 2.5 gallon bucket.  Add water.
• Weigh sugar, add to juice, stir then take out a sample and measure the specific gravity. Usually it should be around 1.10. You will need a hygrometer for this step, one came with our starter kit.
• Add your preservatives and stir. Place it in a cool dark spot, in 24 hours add the yeast. Let ferment for another 5-7 days until specific gravity reaches the next goal point as stated in your recipe.

 

• Next you will siphon your juice into the glass carboy, fill it to near the top with water, and place your airlock on the lid.

• Let sit for about a month or two until they clear.
• We siphoned each off again into a second clean carboy to get the juice off of the sediment.  Then we let it sit for another month.  At this time you can test the specific gravity again to be sure it has reached the proper alcohol content.  0.9 equals about 12% alcohol content.
• Then the final step is the best part...bottling! Siphon into a clean bucket, add more stabilizers, water, and sugar (if needed) then siphon into clean bottles and cork.  Store bottles on their side so the corks will absorb some and the wine and swell to completely seal the bottle.
• And if you have some that won't fill another bottle, then put it in a mason jar and enjoy immediately!



Currently we have grape wine in the glass carboy, they should be another month or so until they are ready, and muscadines are in the primary fermenting bucket.

The muscadine wine should be ready by Christmas!