our homestead: early autumn seed saving



Ghosty and her porch pumpkin.

October is my favorite month. Like the fleeting beauty of the blossoming of the spring cherry trees, I view this month as the golden month before the dark winter. The leaves are all turning my favorite colors: crimson, orange, plum and mustard and are dazzling both on the tree or tumbling through the wind. The fields down the hill from my home are full of big, fat pumpkins and mazes of maize (corn). And all of my favorite flowers around the yard are producing seeds for next year's garden.

 I've been collecting a variety of seeds and laying them out to dry on a rack near a basement window. Once dry, I'll roll the seeds up in paper or fill paper envelopes with them, then I'll store the seeds in an air-tight container in a dark room, such as the basement pantry. By next spring, the seeds will be ready for planting, and acclimated to my area's specific weather and soil conditions. I also plan to gift some seeds to gardening friends like I did last Christmas. It made me happy to see plants growing in my loved ones' gardens which originated from seeds I'd taken the time to save the previous growing season.

 So far, I've saved seeds from those strange chocolate and pink tomatoes I grew, the ample nasturtiums which covered my retaining wall this year,  fragrant red, white and blue sweet pea flowers, teddybear and strawberry blonde sunflowers from the vegetable garden and Bienenfreund seeds: an awesome heirloom flower I purchased from Uprising Seeds which lived up to its German name (Bee's Friend) as its whiskery violet flowers were swarmed by bees this summer.  

 

1. Nasturtium seeds
2. Sweet Pea pods
3. Bienenfreund seeds
4. Sunflower seeds

I've already dried ample amounts of sunflower petals to color up winter teas; I love seeing the bright yellow of a dried sunflower petal come back to life once steeped in hot water. I had a basketful of loose sunflower petals after harvesting seeds, so instead of drying more petals, I decided to have a little fun and throw them up in the air to try and catch a photo of the petals raining down.

our homestead: catching up at summer's end

The first official day of Autumn isn't for another two weeks and we've been experiencing our own version of the drought here in the Pacific Northwest. We haven't had rain in more than 50 days save for the quick nighttime downpour we had two evenings ago. Day after day, bright sun and clear blue skies. Regardless, I sense Autumn approaching. I see it in the leaves rolling across the roadway or blushing red in the trees, I feel it early in the crisp mornings when I curl up closer to my dogs and pull more blankets on, and I've started tasteing it via butternut squash and chanterelle mushrooms. Yes, it's summer's end. In recap, I feel rather satisfied by my summer. I spent time with loved ones including taking a girl's trip to Lake Chelan, swam, went camping at Coal Lake a few times, hiked a lot, grew fruits and vegetables and raised my first few clutches of ducks (and my chickens just started laying eggs), and worked farmers markets. I've been preparing for winter this past month- drying herbs and flowers for tea, freezing and canning our over abundance of tomatoes, cooking up apple pie filling with my sister-in-law. I never get enough done. I'll turn to this blog in winter to remember parts of the growing season. I never am able to post photos of everything, but at least I have a few glimpses. More writing about some life updates after the jump of photos...

 

1. Our little homestead

2. Magic, simply magic. Watching a duckling hatch.

3. These ducks were born this season.

4. Teddybear sunflower.

5. Italian white sunflowers.

6. Coal Lake.

7. My husband, Joe (left) and his goodfriend Nate (right) mountain trout fishing.

8. Banjo and Oswald exploring the mountain rock.

9. Working the Anacortes Farmers Market with Shannon.

10. Gathering herbs and flowers for winter teas.

11. My partners in crime this summer.

On to the updates. My husband and I might be moving from the Swan Slough. Not anytime soon, but possibly within a year. We made an offer on an affordably priced 2 acre plot of raw woodland near a small bass-fishing lake about 20 minutes north. Our offer was accepted, and we've been spending the past week and a half conducting a feasibility study to make sure we could live on the land before committing to the purchase. This is a huge step for our family as we've always talked about finding land and building a very small, energy-efficient home of our own. We thought we should look now since properties are priced so cheap. We don't own the land we're on at the Swan Slough, so we'll be moving towards ownership- which is both exciting and scary. If everything checks out with this property, I dream of building a little house with a woodland garden with walking paths and maybe a treehouse too. We want to have a clearing for a vegetable garden and greenhouse and a fenced-in duck oasis. I am definitely romanticising the possibility of being able to kayak whenever I please, as the lake is just a walking block or so from the property. We are still close to friends and family and in a good school district (perks!). Making a little home here will be a lot of work, but my husband and I look forward to the challenge. I am still considering whether or not I should start a new blog, or just rename this one. A lot of my past is in this blog, and I do plan to continue my baby-homesteading spirit to our new property. The topics might change. The name of the blog might change. But perhaps I should keep on writing here...*fingers crossed* that everything works out.

1. Our new road. The property touches this road from the subaru to where I'm standing.  

2. The property is heavily wooded with lots of ferns, mushrooms and old growth stumps.

3. I love this cedar grove. I imagine I'll make a woodland garden of bleeding hearts and hostas here.

4. The lake down the street.

 



our homestead: mid season

1. The first of my sunflowers are starting to open up.
2. A ladybug finds her home on the stalk of a tall sunflower.
3. The vegetable patch.
4. I love my sunflowers.
5. Golden chard and Arabian Nights nasturtiums.
6. Fava bean pods.
7. My free-ranging duck herd.
8. The Blondie.
9. Oswald and the ducklings.
10. My first Brown Turkey fig in the greenhouse.
11. I believe these are a Pink Brandywine/Yellow Pear cross.
12. Resident spiders keep the mosquitoes down in my greenhouse.
13. Big green beauties...waiting to see what color they turn.
14. The majority of our tomatoes appear to be this saucy, Black Prince/Evergreen cross.
15. There's a Cat hiding in here.
16. A basket's worth of harvest with much more to come.
17. Freshly rinsed tomatoes right before grilled sandwiches and preservation.

our homestead: garden's growing

My little garden is off to a good start. I am beyond happy that the growing season is here again. Every morning I enjoy the ritual of letting my birds out, watering the plants in my greenhouse and watching the growth of my vegetable garden while casually plucking weeds. I'm fairly tired from a busy day of working the yard and I'm about to go sit out on the porch for the remainder of this warm evening we're having to listen to the sounds of nightfall and to smell the sweet scent of my white lilac (it seems to emit the most perfume at dusk), so I'll post a few photos of my garden's current state.

Wild numbers of sunflowers are popping up every which way around my yard. Aww, we'll be so lucky when they are all flowering.

Nasturtiums, German Chamomile and poppies are all growing.

Velvety and tangy 'Apple Mint' growing taller everyday. I'm looking forward to some summer mojitos made with this. Yum!

Our main vegetable patch (we have a few other patches scattered around the yard). This is also where we grew our garlic patch last year. I made some nice raised beds and everything I've planted here is coming up.

I've already snuck a few 'French Breakfast Radishes' from our radish patch. Oh so sweet and adorable.

One of my little broccoli plants. This is my first year growing broccoli.

Potatoes! This year I planted two potato patches: one for us and one for the ducks. I read that mashed potatoes make for a good filler food for ducks, so we'll be able to stretch our feed dollars more.

Baby 'Lacinato Kale' peeking out of the soil. Waiting to be braised with some lemon and chickenstock.

Our arugula patch. Soon this will grace my homemade pizzas with pancetta and goatcheese. Oh baby! 

Itty-bitty kohlrabi: one of my favorite vegetables. When it's full grown, its stems will swell into little green baseballs. You peel them and snack on them fresh or can roast them up. They are in the cabbage family and taste like sweet broccoli.

'Arabian Nights Nasturtiums' peeking out of the ground in the vegetable garden. Their flowers are supposed to be red, white and purple in lieu of the usual orange and yellow. They'll help ward off certain insect pests and will be a sweet and spicy addition to our salads.

Fava beans! These guys are sweet and nutty, like a delicious lima bean (har har), and can be planted with peas as they are more of a colder season bean.

Snap and shelling peas coming up below my branch pea trellis.

My tomatoes are in full swing in the greenhouse. I think they are taller and healthier than they were last year at this time. In fact, I'll have to go back and check, but I'm not even sure I had them out to the greenhouse yet last year.

I also have lots of tomato flowers blooming, meaning I'll have tomatoes sooner this year than last.

Oh what have we here! My first "tomato".

Here's one of my 'English Brown Turkey' figs, leafing out.

And the peppers!

This is my happy place.