Poop, banjo pickers, and turnips
Posted by Amateur Teacher on Monday, October 29, 2012
Under: the homestead
In other words, an update:
This past weekend was a busy one in front of the twin cedars. It mostly involved scooping a lot of poop. And I mean A LOT. Almost five gallons of rabbit poop, ten gallons of a beautiful hay and goat poop mixture, and a nice ten gallon bucket of chicken poop. It's amazing what you get from two pygmies, nine chickens, and four little bunnies!
Don't let that make you queasy. Poop, like rain on a garden, is a fabulous thing! When an animal is well taken care of and its diet consists mostly of green material, you end up with some mighty fine, not so smelly, fertilizer. Our goat and rabbit droppings we took straight to the garden. The chicken droppings, though, because of their high nitrogen content, we spread on the part of the garden where there aren't yet any plants. That way it can dry out and become not so potent.
When all poop was scooped we turned our attention to turnips. In our fall garden so far we have turnips, cabbage, collards, and broccoli. Turnips are pretty much like weed! They were the first to show themselves, the first to get their tall green heads lopped off, and finally, the first to get harvested and neat nice rows replanted. I couldn't believe how fast they grew! For just the two of us we have had plenty, but you can't get enough food to store away! Which is why we went ahead and planted more.
We pulled up about three gallons of actual turnips and since the greens were looking a tad bit rough, we went ahead and gave Loretta, Lynn, and the Potters (the bunnies) some treats. They were quite thrilled and there wasn't a sign of any greens in either pasture or hutch after about 45 minutes. It's been nice and cold here so the bottoms have been sitting on the porch waiting for yours truly to get out there, peel, chop, and can. Which I am planning to do... some time soon... when I am more motivated... which means that Mister is probably going to have to make me do it in the next two days.
After all that hard work we were ready for a good yummy lunch. We've been seeing just how long we can put off going to the grocery store. It's amazing what you find in your cabinets and fridge when you really look. How often do we buy stuff, let it ruin, and waste?!
I subscribe to Southern Plate. Christy Jordan has wonderful recipes and always has a sweet story to go along with each post or some sort of way to show the South in her food. I love it. I've made quite a few of her recipes the last few months, but this one takes the cake. Maybe it's my love of all things vinegary right now, I don't know, but WOW, these were DELICIOUS! It would make a great Octoberfest, football, or Halloween sandwich, are you ready? Just the name makes me love them: BANJO PICKERS. Sorry, we ate them before I even thought about pictures! So, enjoy Christy's original post about them!
This past weekend was a busy one in front of the twin cedars. It mostly involved scooping a lot of poop. And I mean A LOT. Almost five gallons of rabbit poop, ten gallons of a beautiful hay and goat poop mixture, and a nice ten gallon bucket of chicken poop. It's amazing what you get from two pygmies, nine chickens, and four little bunnies!
Don't let that make you queasy. Poop, like rain on a garden, is a fabulous thing! When an animal is well taken care of and its diet consists mostly of green material, you end up with some mighty fine, not so smelly, fertilizer. Our goat and rabbit droppings we took straight to the garden. The chicken droppings, though, because of their high nitrogen content, we spread on the part of the garden where there aren't yet any plants. That way it can dry out and become not so potent.
When all poop was scooped we turned our attention to turnips. In our fall garden so far we have turnips, cabbage, collards, and broccoli. Turnips are pretty much like weed! They were the first to show themselves, the first to get their tall green heads lopped off, and finally, the first to get harvested and neat nice rows replanted. I couldn't believe how fast they grew! For just the two of us we have had plenty, but you can't get enough food to store away! Which is why we went ahead and planted more.
We pulled up about three gallons of actual turnips and since the greens were looking a tad bit rough, we went ahead and gave Loretta, Lynn, and the Potters (the bunnies) some treats. They were quite thrilled and there wasn't a sign of any greens in either pasture or hutch after about 45 minutes. It's been nice and cold here so the bottoms have been sitting on the porch waiting for yours truly to get out there, peel, chop, and can. Which I am planning to do... some time soon... when I am more motivated... which means that Mister is probably going to have to make me do it in the next two days.
After all that hard work we were ready for a good yummy lunch. We've been seeing just how long we can put off going to the grocery store. It's amazing what you find in your cabinets and fridge when you really look. How often do we buy stuff, let it ruin, and waste?!
I subscribe to Southern Plate. Christy Jordan has wonderful recipes and always has a sweet story to go along with each post or some sort of way to show the South in her food. I love it. I've made quite a few of her recipes the last few months, but this one takes the cake. Maybe it's my love of all things vinegary right now, I don't know, but WOW, these were DELICIOUS! It would make a great Octoberfest, football, or Halloween sandwich, are you ready? Just the name makes me love them: BANJO PICKERS. Sorry, we ate them before I even thought about pictures! So, enjoy Christy's original post about them!
In : the homestead