Chicken Update

Here are the peeps at a bit over a week old. Don't worry, the one in the background leaning against the thermometer with her head in an impossible position, is only sleeping. We have moved them from a cardbord box to a large Rubbermaid tub and put them on pine bedding instead of paper towels. They've mostly grown out of the chicken narcolepsy that caused them to keel over into sleep in the middle of activity. They are starting to develop "big chick girl" habits such as scratching in the bedding and flapping their newly developing wing feathers.

Seedlings

The seedlings above are being hardened off to set out in the garden. They are mostly tomatoes and peppers, but also include various herbs and flowers. Not pictured are 20 or so tomatoes that are already in the garden as well as some that are potted up into 1 and 2 gallon containers. I start a few in late December and continue sowing through January and February to have started plants with various maturities. I do this for several reasons. First of all, I like to have a few ready to sneak in the garden in late February, to get an early start. These will most certainly need to be protected when frost is predicted, so I don't want a lot to cover. Also, even though we are getting close to to our frost free date, some beds are still producing fall/winter veggies so I don't have room to plant everything at once. We want to have a continuous supply of fresh produce, and these new plantings will not be ready for harvest for at least 2 months. So as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, peas, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, kale, chard and lettuce are harvested, I want plants of appropriate size to fill their spots. This will also stagger the harvest of the spring/summer crop.

I've used mostly recycled containers for these so my main cost is seed and potting soil. I always shop the feed and seed store for bulk seed first. You can buy a package of seed from them for their minimum cost of 1.00 which contains much more seed than the catalog seed packet. The varieties they offer are usually non-hybrids that are tried and true for the area. I do place a catalog order every year, but mostly for tomato and pepper seeds that the farm store does not carry. I have three or four favorites in each catagory that I grow every year, but each year I am enticed by catalog descriptions to try a few new varieties.

Here is what I'm growing this year:

Peppers

My favorite sweet bells are Early Thickset (the earliest bell but still quite large), Colossal (A large pepper with thick walls, good for stuffing) and Big Bertha (best all around sweet bell, huge, good for stuffing or roasting). The last two years I've grown banana peppers as I like them mostly in salads. Sweet Spot is a bit more productive than the generic banana, but of course the seed costs more. I always grow one or two Jalapenos for chili and salsa, and for friends that like hot peppers (true hot pepper lovers will tell you that jalapenos are not all that hot, but they are plenty hot for me). Marconi and Carmen were two frying peppers I tried for the first time last year. They were good enough to earn a few spots in this years garden. I've also planted a pepper called Golden Bell. Although not as prolific or large as others, I like its light green color which matures to a lovely yellow. New this year I bought a packet of mixed orange, red and chocolate peppers. I'm all about color.

Tomatoes

For years I mainly planted two varieties; Homestead and Celebrity. These are delicious, productive, and do well with our heat and humidity. These are determinate varieties. Tomatoes do not set fruit when daytime temps are over 90 degrees as their pollen "clumps up". As the determinates mature mostly before this happens and provides a large amount of harvest in a few weeks time, they are ideal for freezing and proccessing. Last year though, I planted several indeterminate tomatoes, Better Boy, Goliath and Whopper and had tomatoes for a month after the bush tomatoes were done. I've learned that to flick the tomato blossoms with my fingers will help pollinate when the temps and humidity are too high to do this naturally. I always grow one cherry tomato (not our favorite for flavor, but very prolific) and several paste tomatoes. In addition to the above tomatoes, new this year, I'm trying Jet Star and Rutgers, Opalaka (paste tomato) and Giant Valentine (supposed to be very meaty). I've also started Legend (blight resistant) and Solar Set (developed to set under hot and humid conditions).

I'll post a flavor and productivity report in July.

Chicks!!

We have 6 new additions to the farmstead. Are they not too cute! We raised chickens, turkeys, quail, ducks and hogs for a time in the late '70's-early '80's before deciding livestock plus gardening plus full-time jobs and a newborn was a bit much. We decided to keep the kid and get rid of the animals. Since then, I have missed the delicious eggs and the manure the most. So we've taken the plunge and acquired 6 pullets (baby hens) to raise for their eggs and their ability to turn table scraps and garden refuse into fertilizer. I had forgotten how entertaining they are. I call them the "Borg Collective" because when one decides to peck at the feeder or investigate a water drop on the side of the brooder, the others immediately pile over do do the same. Yesterday I came home to find their waterer on the ground, bedding wet, and can only imagine the group effort it took to push this thing over. (Luckily none appeared wet or cold). The most amusing thing is when they line up in a row and nod off standing up. In 10 seconds they go from feeding and running around to eyes closed and heads lowered into little chicken naps.

These are Buff Orpingtons. Chickens can be a bit high strung and as I did my research before buying I kept seeing this breed with these descriptive terms; docile, gentle, friendly, quiet, and affectionate. It sounds as though they are, in both coloring and disposition, the Golden Retriever of chickens.

We have them in a cardboard box in the mudroom under lights for now, as they must stay warm until they feather out. When I put them on the floor while I change their bedding they stay close by. If I cup my palms they try to all hop in, to stay warm and secure.

I guess I'm their momma!

Citrus

In this part of Florida, citrus trees can grow and thrive with a bit of protection when the temps really dip. We have 7 Navel Orange trees and 2 Pineapple Orange trees in large 45 gal pots. These are too heavy to pick up, so Bill has epoxied these to pallets so he can lift them with a forklift attachment to the tractor and move them into his shop when subfreezing temperatures threaten. We have 2 Temple Oranges planted in the ground (pictured above) that are so happy with their location and soil that we must top them off every year to keep them to a 10' height so that we can wrap them in frost cloth. Finally,we have a Lime tree in a large pot that sits on the driveway on the east side of the house. Lime harvest is more continuous and spread out than many other citrus and they hold well on the tree, so they are available many months of the year. I use them quite a bit for cooking and seasoning, so I prefer this tree close to the kitchen.

We coddle the potted Navel and Pineapple Oranges and relocate them whenever the temperature is predicted to drop below 28 degrees. The Navel Oranges are the best fresh eating orange, sweet and nearly seedless. Pineapple Oranges provide the best fresh squeezed juice I've ever tasted. So yes, it's worth the 30 minute move process that occurs several times during the winter. The Temple oranges are not nearly as tasty and we wouldn't be devistated were we to lose these. As a result, we only wrapped these with frost cloth this past week when the temp was predicted to hit the upper teens. (19 degees was our official low). They have survived several hard freezes uncovered, with no fruit loss and minimal leaf damage. Although they are not the best orange (actually a tangelo) for fresh eating, they make a surprisingly good juice that freezes well, as opposed to the Pineapple that is better fresh. Because they are in the ground instead of pots, they produce hundreds of fruits rather than the dozen or two from a potted tree. The experts say that citrus trees will be damaged at 28 degrees and killed at 26 and below. The Temples survived 23 degrees unprotected and 19 degrees wrapped. The Lime tree unprotected was unfazed at 23 degrees. Although the Lime is in a warmer mico-climate, as it sits on concrete and is protected by the house, it is supposed to be the most temperature sensitive of all citrus. I'm thinking that established citrus will acclimate a bit to cold weather and would like to see more research done in this area. Areas of Florida just a bit south of us grew citrus on on a large scale until a devastating freeze wiped out major groves in the 1930's.


Orange Salad

Navel orange sections, with sliced banana and pecan halves. Amazingly good and easy.