Ghosting my readers was absolutely not my intent for this summer.
I created this blog back in December 2019. I had no idea how the upcoming year would unfold.
Pandemics, stores limiting purchases, garden centers and seed suppliers running low, riots, crazy hornets, aliens???
Seriously. This year reminds me of a cheap SyFy movie.
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Overwhelmed.
That seems to be the reoccurring feeling for this year. Teeming with fear, anger, and exhaustion. The urge to unplug from social media and internet access has been equally balanced with the constant urge to keep up on how much is going on.
I’ve been retreating outside to escape from the constant noise that comes from searching aimlessly online.
Canning, cooking, preparing for the fall garden, tending the animals, and teaching the boys as much as I can about the land around us has been a saving grace.
The Garden
We have been bringing in a decent harvest for the past several weeks. I was able to save many of my brassicas, despite the intense heat and bug overload. Sauerkraut will definitely be on the menu for this winter!
Blackberry season is coming to an end, but I’ve been focusing on harvesting the aronia berries and elderberries to dehydrate for the winter. I’ve been filling elderberry syrup orders quite a bit, as schools in our area have started opening back up again.
Foraging
I’ve found foraging has been SUPER exciting (of course, I’m making sure to cross reference my identifications before consumption!) But so far, I’ve foraged elderberries, aronia berries, and wild grapes. The berries will be used medicinally as syrups throughout the winter, and the grapes for a concentrated juice that we will freeze and use as a special drink treat during the winter.
Please know, we do have our own elderberry bushes and aronia melanocarpa. Our aronia bush produced about half of what I need for this winter (which is amazing!) and what I’ve foraged has been responsibly done! Our elderberry bushes are not mature enough and haven’t produced any fruit this season. I’ve only foraged a small amount of what we need and will purchase the rest from an organic source.
I always keep this book on hand for quick reference!
The Animals
We are officially free of all our dairy goat kids! It was a very hard decision, as we planned on keeping Fiadh (our white doeling, born on the homestead this past May). But with everything going on and still occasionally getting pregnancy sickness, I needed to downsize. It was the best decision for us and for the animals.
We harvested our last round of meat birds for the year, along with several retired laying hens. This last harvested ended in about 150 lbs of meat for our freezer! (Which will also create bone broth!)
All of the meat rabbits were harvested. 8 kits, and 5 breeding rabbits. We felt that while meat rabbits were a good “gateway” meat animal, but when comparing the amount of meat we can harvest from chickens for just a few weeks to what can take several months with the meat rabbits, we decided to take a step out of the meat rabbit realm.
This doesn’t mean we won’t ever welcome meat rabbits back onto our property again, but during this season of our lives, we need simplicity over diversity!
The hogs will be harvested this weekend! I can’t believe how quickly they have grown to butcher weight! Last week we took the boys to their Great Grandma’s house to pick apples for special treats for the pigs. It was a good time to visit, laugh, and explore!
Farmer’s Markets
One of my biggest lessons from last year was to learn it is okay to supplement what you can’t produce from other sources. “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver, was a huge inspiration this past winter to reach out locally and only eat what’s in season if you didn’t preserve enough during the summer.
I’ve found a lovely roadside stand that we’ve gotten sweet corn, musk melon, and the biggest onions I’ve ever seen from! Our ducks pulled out all of our onions (lesson learned… no more ducks after this year, either!) so I was delighted to find she sold them by the box!
There is a big farmer’s market once a week about 45 minutes away that I visited a few weeks ago. They had a ton of variety but I was most excited to find a vendor with lion’s mane and shiitake mushrooms! Both of which went into stews and broths with beef bones for after Baby3 joins us this February!
How has your season been going?
I know this year brought on so many new gardeners! Please feel free to share your stories, your successes, and even your failures! We’ve all been there at some point!