basil, pigs and millet

tabitha and i processed most of the basil. picking each leaf from each plant got a little tedious. we decided that a bottle of wine was in order. we had great fun chatting and plucking basil leaves. tabitha's new food processor is great. we just fill it with leaves and pulse it on for a few minutes. the end result is a chopped puree. we filled a dozen half pints and another ten full pints. these will go into the freezer for later cooking exploits. tabitha makes the most wonderful meat balls with this stuff. it is also ready to be made into pesto after a little thaw.

it almost like having fresh basil all winter.

meet link and patty.

they are pretty cute and in the old pen for now. i have to get a few more pallets before get started on the new permanent pen.

i have some molasses to put on the water fountain nipple to get them to start using it. jocelyn is curious about it since sweet grain is coated with molasses. henry is monitoring all these activites.

the new pen will be adjacent to the garden on the barn end. there is a large old stump that i'd like them to root out. if they manage to clear that area we'll expand the garden that direction in some future. speaking of expanding the garden one of our huge oak trees got hit by lighting. it'll die for-sure. that tree shaded part of our garden but made a nice shady spot in the front yard. we'd never have cut it down since the benefits of the tree outweighed the shade that it cast on the garden. it is a bitter sweet thing.. we'll likely plant a paulina empress dragon tree in a similar spot. closer to the driveway so it shades that area but not to encroach on the garden too much. i really like a ginko tree there but they grow so slowly. the jury is still out since the tree isn't gone yet.


tabitha's father has a large field of millet that he has been nurturing all summer.

it looks beautiful. we might try to get some of that hay for jocelyn for the winter.

it is so healthy and looks tasty. we are going to research the feed quality since milk cows require tons of protein.
kassi found a flower.

there were plenty to choose from.

here mike and tabitha are negotiating millet futures.

doesn't it look wonderful?


the lighting strike, happened at the same instant that the electric garage door opener gave up the ghost and our water heater failed. coincidence? it was so scary when it struck. it was only thirty feet from the house. thankfully it wasn't our house tree. we have a huge tree that shades our house and when that one dies it will be a sad day.

giant tomato

we got a huge amish paste tomato. it was so large i decided to save seed from it.

these seeds will be added to the omelay christmas seed mailer.

we canned more tomatoes today.

scooping into the cooked tomatoes.

pouring them into the jars.


this is a specialized jar lifter.

it can also provide endless hours of entertainment for small children.

going into the show canner.


this baby holds fifteen quarts.


we canned twenty six more quarts of tomatoes today. we didn't get the second batch of green tomato salsa done yet. regular tomatoes take precedence over all other canning. the green tomatoes will hold for another day. i took the day off tomorrow to get a little ahead on this canning business.

i went down and got eleven bales of hay to be sure the cows have plenty of hay laying around while we are gone to st. louis. we'll have to keep the cows confined to the inner paddocks while we are gone. the outer paddocks are electric fence only.

i have decided to use my existing used steel to re-roof the garage and adjoining pantry. this will give me the opportunity to get those roofs completed much less expensively. furthermore, i'll get a little more experience before i attempt the complex roof lines of the main house. i also plan to extend the roof of the utility room to include a solar storage tank and water heater addition. i have decided on an entirely new design for my solar storage based on newly acquired materials.

with all this canning we have been clearing out the pump-house of canning jars. it will soon be empty enough that i'll light a fire under my arse to tear off and put the new roof on the thing. it needs better insulation. i have most of the stuff to do it. i just need the time. although that opens a whole other can of worms. the pump house roof will provide partial support of my solar hot water collectors.

solar facts; at our latitude 37°, during equinox the altitude of the sun is 53°, during the winter solstice the angle of the sun is roughly 29°. if my solar collectors were angled to optimize for winter solstice they would have to be sticking up at a 61° angle. i have double the square footage of collectors i need for the size tank i have.
to even out my solar gain for domestic hot water i should angle my collectors to optimize for the winter months. during the summer months a trash can filled with water will stay above bathing temperature.

just some thoughts to help me figure everything out.

pantry 09 update

life is all about our pantry right now. of course regular summer activities are happening too. my youngest, romneya martin grey omelay, will be one year old within the week. he is great, very happy and self entertaining. he has found his place here at the pile of omelays--the feistiest omelays yet. somehow he has assimilated all of the feisty behaviors of all the kids and added his own special brand of feisty for good measure. we encourage this... why might you ask?

everyone needs their super-power that they can fall back onto throughout their life. here at the pile it seem to be feisty.

tabitha has been logging a canning legend over at her blog. follows is my attempt at making a list out of it.

pantry 09
pickled beets 15 quarts
pickled beets 18 pints
plain beets 26 quarts
pickles dill spears 54 pints
tomatillo salsa 6 quarts
pickled pepperoncini 5 pints
tomatoes 92 quarts
zucchini relish 26 half pints
green tomato salsa 10 quarts

one of our rows of tomatoes was so stricken with blight we decided to harvest all of the green tomatoes from it and close that row down. it made over half a wheelbarrow load of green tomatoes. what good are green tomatoes is these quantities? our first year here we discovered a recipe from susan over at farmgirlfare. it is absolutely profound, unique, delicious and loved by all of the omelays. she calls it relish, don't be fooled by the name this is no two year-old christmas present here. we had tacos from the green tomato salsa left-overs. it is better than i remember. it is not sweet, my closest comparison is to chile verde sauce but not as spicy.

the table is full once again with tomatoes and will likely make more than 25 more quarts. we are hoping for more than one hundred and fifty quarts of tomatoes in the pantry total. canned tomatoes enter our weekly diet more than two times and could easily ramp up to three times per week minimum. three times per week means that we can eat one hundred and fifty six quarts of tomatoes. these numbers seem staggering but omelay boys are healthy eaters and never seem full.



this years pantry fervor is fueled by having been so sick all last winter. last year with a new baby, an almost completely failed garden and all of our other issues we had a tiny pantry. hence, we ate relatively poorly all winter. not this year. tabitha is also planning to make echinacea tincture (thanks tansy) very soon. this should help bolster our winter health also.

i have already started warning fellow employees that if N1H1 takes a grip and threatens pandemic to expect me to wear a mask and gloves while at work. call me paranoid but i'm not adverse to looking funny for the sake of my families health.

pantry work and seed saving

the pile of omelays has been aflutter with filling our pantry. our table has been covered with tomatoes for the past couple of weeks.

those two baskets regularly collect the morsels of tomato goodness. the table is the holding pattern.

this bowl is queued to blanch in that pot of boiling water just on the right.

it takes a few seconds until the skins loosen.


their next stop is the sink filled with cool water.


tabitha is slipping off the skin.

and cutting out the stem.

then quarter them to fit into the jar.

here they are cooking down a bit in our five gallon stockpot.

stir frequently.

here are the jars ricked-up for tomatoes.

steamy goodness.

here they are in the pressure canners. tabitha likes pressure canned tomatoes better. she claims that the quality is better.

notice the paper plate. during canning season we have been almost exclusively using them. sink and dishwasher space is at a premium. if we had tv-trays we would probably be using them too. remember the covered kitchen table? so far our tomato canning has culminated into over sixty quarts. we hope to double that number before we collapse into tomato stained heaps.

while my lovely wife busied herself with other mysterious canning activities i saved seed from our most glorious tomato specimens. here are two german-stripe-tomatoes that have had the skins removed. beautiful aren't they?

imagine a thick slab of this hiding your burger.

alas these will be canned as soon as i collect a little hope from them for next years garden. i slice them along their equator and jab my finger in each seedy section. the seeds ooze out into a jar labeled german-stripe.

i put the lid back on the jar and leave them to ferment for a few days. a white layer of mold covers the top of the goo. i fill the jar most of the way with water and shake vigorously. the floaty white stuff can easily be poured off along with most of the water. i usually repeat the first step two or three times until there are only clean seeds remaining. the seeds need to be strained and put on a piece of shiny paper to dry. paper towels don't work that well.

i am only saving seed from the german stripe, cherokee purple and amish paste tomatoes this year. i'll be sending small packets that contain each of these for christmas this year. if you'd like to get on our christmas mailer please comment here on my blog. i'll probably only have enough for a limited run including my prior commitments. so, first come first serve. this was a huge success two years ago with many happy seed recipients.

toly has his appointment in st. louis in a couple of weeks. he has been fine since his last episode. we will be attending the zoo while in the city. mostly we are looking forward to visiting with tansy

we might be getting some tomatoes after all

this is the third time this year that our table had been covered. we have 42 quarts canned up so far and tabitha will probably put-up another twenty eight today. we use tomatoes very frequently and can easily use one hundred and fifty quarts.

tabitha has also pickled an incredible fifty five pints of cucumbers.


this is zucchini relish.


the kittens are bonafide. they are already excellent hunters.


kassi's sunflowers that she grew from seed.


we harvested a top super from the bees. the honey is spectacular-spectacular. toly loves it and won't touch the stuff that we buy.


these amish paste tomatoes are really pumping out the fruit.


this is our second planting of cucumbers. they are already getting the wilt.


the root cellar is settling nicely. the cover of mint is really taken.


the chickens love their coop. i need to build more nest boxes soon. we have two broody hens right now and have no blood line control yet so they just sit there most of the day in vain.


these plants are doing ok. there is lots of waste from these. we won't be growing omar lebanese again.


the okra is doing fabulously.

the cow is looking pretty good too.

the garden is a complete jungle.

we are never growing melons again. we just lost our last plant the other day.

these rows seemed so wide when we first planted them. now you can barely walk between.


our peppers are putting on tons of fruit too. we'll be pickling lots of them too.



baby blue birds.


i am disappointed with this variety of pole bean. it'll probably be back to rattlesnake pole bean again next year.

beautiful foliage though.


anyone seen japanese beetles eating marigold flowers?


barring the catastrophic, we'll be getting a bunch of butternut squash.


we also made a bunch of soap. this is our best batch ever.