Sprouting Time!

New addiction: sprouting! Good on sandwiches... Good on salads... Good for you!  I had heard that those little sprouts had more nutrients then their elder counterpart, the full grown plant.  So, I figured why not try to grow then myself?  Our family always needs more "good stuff." 

Day 1:  Take seeds ( I used spinach) and soak them in water overnight in a jar.

Day 2: Drain and set jar at a 45 degree angle in order over the course of the day to prevent seeds from getting moldy.  That night add water to the jar, giving the thirsty seeds a drink.  Then immediately drain and set jar at a 45 degree angle.

Day 3 -5:   Each night add water to the jar.  Then immediately drain and set jar at a 45 degree angle until seeds sprout.  Keeps up to a week in the fridge!

 

 

Growing our own chicken feed!

The weather has been so beautiful this weekend, that it was time to start planting seeds!!!  Knowing us, we probably planted a little late (or early depending on how you look at it), so we'll see what pops up in a week.  We decided to take two courses of action: human food and chicken food. I planted the human food seeds starting indoors... focusing on lettuces, radishes, beets, and spinach.   Eric on the other hand concentrated on planting the chicken food directly into the ground.  This was a major event.  Not only did he prepare the soil, but had to fence the bed off.  You know that chickens love to dig!  In the past, they have killed very established plants.  I had to say goodbye to our artichoke plant this year.  Anyway, the bed consists of an omega-3 chicken blend, red oats, buckwheat, flax, and cow peas.   And yes, these are cover crops too.  We're rockin' multi-purpose planting.  See the diagram for the pattern the "chicken bed" was planted in.  The bed is 8 ft x 4ft.

Harvesting Quinoa

This past summer, we grew Quinoa... with the idea of harvesting and eating it through the winter.  Well, being new to gardening... (especially grains), through trial and error, this process has taken quiet while!
Step One:  Harvesting:  I collected the Quinoa stems in September and stored them in a paper bag.  I thought that the seeds would fall out once the plant had completely dried.  WRONG!  Some did, some didn't.  Now it's January, and I finally have time to take matters into my own hands... winnowing!!!
Step Two: Winnowing:  Looking at my collection of stems, I thought, "I bet I can get through this by winnowing with my hands...  I will probably get only a half a cup and take about an hour."  WRONG again!  As I winnowed by hand the first two stems (rubbing bunches of the dried florets together) , I easily had 1/2 a cup.  Plus, not only seeds fell into the bowl, but the casings as well.  Spending time picking the casings out was getting to be a time drain!! So, my wonderful husband made me a winnower out of wire mesh and voila... I had an efficient and effective winnower!

Step Three:  Washing  Quinoa needs to be soaked in water to rinse out the saponin.  I soaked and rinsed the seeds about 5 times until the water ran clear with no bubbles!
Step Four: Drying  Finally I put the clean quinoa on baking sheets to air dry!

Presto Pesto

It's harvesting time!... What to do with all this basil? Of course, Presto Pesto!
I decided this year to freeze some of my Pesto in ice cube trays, to have later in the season. As for the rest, the pesto goes into everything! Yum-Yum