Another Blogiversary yesterday!   Yes, @chickensinthegarden.blogspot.com has reached another annual event to celebrate.

Right now, we have two young chicks that have recently been added to our chicken flock.  Lacey, the golden-laced Wyandotte, is acting as a surrogate mother to the two new Ameracauna hens that were recently purchased from some 4H friends.

Blogiversary, Again!

Well, it is Chickensinthegarden's blogiversary today.  What have we been up to?  The two French prune plum trees are producing like crazy this year and Jonathan has been busy pitting and popping the plums for drying in the dehydrator. Here's a photo of him in action:

The drought has affected our garden quite a lot.  We've lost some shrubs and growth is slow for the new bamboo.  The vegetable garden is on drip, but the once-a-day 30 minutes is not enough for the vegetables to thrive. We've harvested cucumbers and tomatoes, but the beans did not do well at all. I've started digging up more of the lawn in the front yard and planted tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and peppers.  Those plants are doing very well. It is time to harvest another zucchini from the front yard!

So, should it be spelled Blogaversary or Blogiversary?  I don't think I was consistent over the years.  The debate continues...

April A-Bloom

The garden is just gorgeous right now: roses and iris are blooming. Wisteria and tulips and lilacs have just finished blooming.

Yesterday!

Yesterday, August 1, 2013, was chickensinthegarden's Blogiversary!  I guess we celebrated that by having the date slip our minds...we also had goat kebabs for dinner served with grilled vegetables and Afghan bread. I bought some Afghan bread at a nearby halal market where I also bought the goat. I marinated cubes of the goat shoulder meat in yogurt combined with cumin, cardamom, hot pepper, and cinnamon.  It was quite tasty--very lean and flavorful.

Currently we have 7 hens and 2 Indian Runner ducks. I purchased the ducklings at the Alameda County Fair about 5 weeks ago. They have grown so quickly.  Here's a photo of when they were young:

They have grown so very much since then. Here's a photo taken this week:

One is supposed to be able to tell the sex of Indian Runner Ducks at the ages of 6-8 weeks.  Apparently the females quack and the males have a sort of hoarse whispery sound. And the males have a definite single curl in their tales.  So far, I'm not sure what sex these ducks are.  They will live with the hens, but currently we've had supervised play dates with the hens and ducks.

Easter Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bird's Nests

Today I made some Easter Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bird's Nests.  Such a simple recipe from The Curvy Carrot.   Here is how my bird's nests looked when all done:

Looks like a little sign of spring.  Spring is really happening here in Fremont.  My lilac bushes are blooming, the crabapple tree is amazing:

We are so lucky to have a large yard with so many beautiful fruit trees.  Jon's beehive seems happy so far and the bees stay active on the new fruit tree blossoms.  Looks like I'll have to thin the Blenheim Apricot tree, as there are so many small fruits on it this year, and we do not want to break another branch!

Blogiversary!

Hi there, Readers!  It is Chickens in the Garden's anniversary!  Six years of every now and then sending out missives to you on chickens, cooking, and gardening, as well as other items of interest that cross my mind.

Once again at this time of year we are slicing up French prune plums and dehydrating them for the year. My husband has taken on much of this task, and we also have a nice, new orchard ladder that is helping with the harvesting.  It is amazing how many wonderful plums are on the tree...

Apricots!

I've been busy with our Royal Blenheim Apricots. Our tree was incredibly productive this year and I've dried the apricots, made cobblers and tarts, and made jam. The jam has just apricots, sugar, and lemon juice. I'm using my new copper jam pot that has a wide bottom on it and helps make some delicious jams and preserves.  The jam in the jars looks so pretty in the window:

Early Harvesting

The garden this year has some early vegetables that we've been enjoying.  We've already been eating Sweet 100 tomatoes in our salads, and last night we had our first cucumber--a Suyo Long.  It was sweet and crisp.  The pole beans have been producing like crazy, and the first full sized tomato is red and ripe--an Early Girl.  Still harvesting some purple sprouting broccoli and collards, and digging up red onions and shallots as well as some nice-looking garlic.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Last year I picked up starts of Purple Sprouting Broccoli in early Spring at the Berkeley Farmer's Market.  It turns out that this variety of broccoli usually needs to overwinter before it forms heads.  I had six very tall, leafy plants, and I grew inpatient last summer and fall when no heads formed.  I ended up feeding the chickens four of the six plants, however I left two in the ground through the "winter."  (We've had an incredibly dry and mild winter this year.)

Much to my surprise, the two plants that have overwintered are now forming purple sprouting heads.  This purple broccoli forms many smaller heads all over the plant, as you can see in the following photos:

We picked some of the heads last night and enjoyed them with dinner. The purple heads turn green when they are cooked. The taste was very good!

Oak Titmouse

There are so many birds in the garden now.  We have five hummingbird feeders, and so we get lots of hummingbirds. We have jays and crows, of course, and some finches and woodpeckers too.  This morning I saw what I later identified as an Oak Titmouse. This small bird has a little topknot making it quite distinctive looking.

I found a website with some excellent photos by Robert Royse of Oak Titmice at various times of the year in California.  Here is the link: Oak Titmouse photos

This titmouse is related to the Tufted Titmouse, however they are found primarily on the East Coast while the Oak Titmouse is found in California and Oregon. What a pleasant little bird.  I'm next going to try to listen to it...

A beginning birder I am...

Morning's harvest

Today, nearing the last day of September, there is still a wonderful harvest from the vegetable garden.  The bean plants are pumping out beans--mostly the thin, French filet-type, Emerite.  The tomato plants are still producing--Pineapple Rainbow and Early Girl and Big Rainbow here. And, for the first time, I have plenty of basil to use in bruschetta and in tomato sauces as well as making our own pesto!

Some Morning Pickings

Here is a photo of some of the morning pickings from the vegetable garden. Some seeds I got in late this year, including the Cocozelle summer squash, a striped Italian variety. This is the first zucchini from that plant. Next to it is a Spacemaker cucumber: we have enjoyed many of these in salads so far this year. There are two varieties of pole beans in the basket: Emerite, a thin filet-type bean, and Trionfo Violetto, a purple Italian variety.  One lonely Early Girl tomato is shown, but some days we harvest 6 or 7 of these. The heirloom tomatoes that were planted are starting to ripen, but we didn't pick any today. Also there is a yellow scallop summer squash in the basket.

I can't wait until the eggplants are ready, and many more of the tomatoes and peppers. I'll have to get plants in earlier next year, although we will probably enjoy good, fresh summer vegetables from our garden into September and October.

Blogiversary!

It is the blogiversary for my Chickensinthegarden blog! Five years of writing for this blog!  My loyal readers and fans:  thank you for reading.  It has been great fun to post photos of the garden and relate sagas about the chickens and gardening here in our little spot in northern California.

Right now the Pink Pearl apples are falling off of the trees.  The Early Girl tomatoes are producing well, as are some of the summer squash. I got a late start on the pole beans but the vines are growing taller every day. The purple spouting broccoli was planted too close to the other plants, but it is healthy and thriving and we should be able to eat some of the broccoli very soon.

The French prune plums are ripening, and we've started to pick some for drying. The squirrels are eating lots of the plums this year.

Both the Red Russian Kale and the regular green kale are growing well, and the eggplants and pepper plants are very healthy. We've got some chard and red onions too, and we've harvested and are drying the garlic.

Pink Pearl Heirloom Apple Tree

Look at all the apples on our Pink Pearl Heirloom Apple Tree. They should be ready to eat in about 3 weeks, if not sooner. I've written about this tree before on my blog--the flesh is pink and you can easily make pink applesauce out of the great apples, without adding any food coloring!

R.I.P. "Big Connie"

Our very old Araucana chicken, "Big Connie" died today and I buried her in the backyard. She had been getting progressively weaker and we had to isolate her from the other hens, for they would attack her rather viciously. She used to be the top on the pecking order, but with her arthritis, deformed foot, and aging, she fell to the bottom of the pecking order.

She used to lay bluish-green eggs, but had not laid many eggs in the past two years. We didn't feel comfortable just killing her off for lack of productivity, so she died comfortably and at a quite advanced age. We weren't sure how old she was when we got her, but we've had her for almost six years. She may have been around four years old when we got her, so she had a long life for a chicken.

Here's a photo:

Jubileum Plum Tree

Our new Jubileum Plum Tree has its first plums this year. They are so very pretty on the tree.

We purchased this tree through Raintree Nursery, a nursery located in Washington state that has many interesting cultivars. I have ordered many of our fruit trees through this nursery.  Jubileum was bred in Sweden and is a pink-purple plum.  Much larger than our French prune plums, this plum looks like it will be great for eating, jam or jelly, and plum tarts!  We dry most of the harvest from our French prune plum trees.  I'm curious to find out what color the flesh is of our Jubileum plum, but we'll have to wait a few more days until they are fully ripe to find out.

Gardening

Last Saturday I worked the Master Gardener booth at the Healthy Living Fest at Quarry Lakes Regional Park.  The day was cold and very windy, and the skies were overcast until I left after 1 pm. I worked with two other Master Gardeners.  We answered gardening questions and handed out sunflower seeds and pots (with planting instructions) to the kids who visited the booth. We also gave out handouts to gardeners who had questions about pests or diseases, or may have questions in the future.  A great site is the University of California Davis IPM site, where answers can be found to many gardening questions.  Here's the link:  UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program

This is an invaluable resource. Master Gardeners strive to give the least toxic methods to deal with gardening and landscape problems, and refer to this site to help the public.

I was also happy to hear so many people in the process of converting their water-demanding lawns to drought tolerant landscapes.  Alameda County Master Gardeners has a great list on drought tolerant plants that do well in the East Bay.  We are also in the process of creating a demonstration garden at Quarry Lakes Regional Park.   This demonstration garden will allow the user to view drought tolerant plants and learn what will grow well, once established,  in this area with very little water.

Roasted Artichokes, Spring Garlic, and Other Seasonal Delights

Last night I roasted some of our homegrown artichokes in the oven. I halved the artichokes, drizzled a bit of olive oil over them, and sprinkled them with sea salt and pepper. I roasted them until the hearts were done, and maybe even a bit longer than I should have. The edges were quite charred and crisp, but we enjoyed them for dinner dipped into some mayonnaise. It was a new taste for us!

This weekend I harvested our first spring garlic and cooked it in a stir fry with snow peas, onions, and fava beans. Delicious.

The garden has been producing something for most meals--mainly fava beans, even though I planted only one row last winter, but also snow peas and Yugoslavian red lettuce.  Plenty of good spring produce.

Beautiful Spring Weather

Well, Spring has sprung, and we are busy keeping up with the weeds, and transplanting some of the vegetables that I started inside. Also set out a couple of tomato transplants too. The garlic is growing well, and the fava beans seem very happy.  The lettuce has taken off, and we even have six or seven asparagus shoots--they don't seem to get ready at the same time, so sometimes we split one for a side dish at dinner--it's kind of sad that there's just one at a time, but they are tender and oh so fresh.

Rain and More Rain

I got caught in the rain earlier today when I had to get my groceries from the store to my car. I shopped at a different grocery store today and parked my car further away. When I was done checking out, I got to the exit door where a line was forming. Outside, it was raining very heavily, but I decided it looked like it would not let up. I rushed with the cart and my groceries towards my car, but by the time I had unloaded everything, my coat and my jeans were soaked through.    I waited a bit before driving off, and when I got home, I ran for the front door, leaving the groceries in the car. I took a warm bath, hung up my soaked rain jacket and my jeans, hoping they would dry as they were just above the small heat register in the bathroom.

I thought Spring was here and we were going to be done with the rains!   But the forecast for northern California shows rain every day on into next weekend.  Of course, that could change, and it is great for the garden, but it makes it impossible to weed and plant in the garden. The grass was just mowed last week and it is already several inches long.  Ah, well.

I started some seeds indoors, and within five days my Cherokee Purple tomatoes and my Rainbow Chard sprouted. Today the Cucumbers also sprouted. Nothing from the pepper seeds yet.  I'll keep watch.