It's Easy Being Green

Photo by Greg Bagley

Are you looking for a cheap, easy way to create several nesting boxes for your laying hens at once? I saw this fantastic setup over at McMurray Hatchery’s Homesteading Chores Ideas and Contraptions Contest that just ended a couple of weeks ago.

It’s basically a wooden rack that holds two stories of 5 gallon buckets that look to make excellent nesting boxes. The plus with Greg Bagley’s design is that the buckets are secured so they won’t move but are also easily removed for cleaning. Click the link above to see more photos and read Greg’s assembly instructions.

Our coop is way to small for this setup here at the Half-Acre Homestead but I hope to keep this idea in the noggin for future use. Do you have a unique nesting box setup? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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This has certainly been a challenging gardening year, at least for us here at the Half-Acre Homestead. Not only do we have significantly less time to work in the garden (due to the impending arrival of baby girl #2 in the next few weeks) but the weather has just been a bear this year.

All varities of squash have set nicely this year but so far nothing has matured. Every plant has been attacked by squash vine borers and died.

We had an early tease of a warmup early this spring but then the weather turned cold and downright nasty. Cool, rainy weather stuck with us through the end of June but that now infamous 2011 Heat Bubble has built up and doesn’t seem to be looking to leave anytime soon.  Our garden plants were slow to start and are now battling high-heat and humidity.

As a result, this past week marked the arrival of the first ripe tomato. It’s happened significantly later this year than last. Our spring planted squash plants (pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash) are all dead now, thanks to an outbreak of squash vine borers. The wasp-like insect lays its eggs on squash seedlings. The grub-like infants grow in the stem of the squash plant, boring out the inside of the steams as they eat. Eventually the plant can’t exchange water or nutrients and withers. We’re hoping a second planting will start producing in enough time to save our squash season.

Our popcorn patch has wasted no time shooting up toward the sky and looks to be producing quite a few ears of future popping goodness. Eggplants have also been extremely slow this year both growing and with fruiting. Etna bush beans (used for drying) have been doing very well and produce abundantly. Our pole beans on the other hand have yet to set pods even though they’re covered top to bottom in blooms.

Hopefully things will eventually catch up but if they do, we’ll probably already be gone to The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee to welcome our newest member of the family into the world. How does your garden grow this year?

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*NOTE – I did not receive any products or services for this blog post*

No question about it, my excitement was far more noticeable as Homestead Hottie opened up a gift box mailed to her. Packed inside, nearly a half-dozen bottles of Martha Stewart’s clean products, everything from glass cleaner, toilet bowl scrub, laundry detergent and dish detergent.

Martha claims her product line if “effective, responsible and safe” with most being 99% plant and mineral based cleaning products. All ingredients in the cleaning products are said to be biodegradable with no artificial ingredients. Even the bottles are fully recyclable. These are all great features and just the type of products we’re always on the lookout to use here at the Half-Acre Homestead.

Using this batch of green cleaning products left me thinking Martha should stick to other things, mainly baking that 12 hour cake or hot gluing the most fantabulous wedding decorations you’ve ever seen this side of the Mississippi. If fact, I found her green cleaning products less than effective at their labeled task.

I like the pump spout on this bottle of laundry detergent but that was about the only thing I liked.

Martha Stewart’s clean Laundry Detergent smelled pleasant enough and had a thick, detergent like cream to it. We used the whole bottle of detergent and as long as your clothes weren’t soiled, they came out smelling and looking clean. Light to moderately soiled clothes often came out with stains and dirt still in place. Heavily soiled clothes didn’t stand a chance of coming clean with Martha’s detergent. Any level of soiling required the clothes be washed with our homemade natural laundry detergent.

Steer clear of Martha's Dish Detergent if you're looking for clean dishes.

Much of the same is to be said for the Martha Stewart clean Dishwasher Detergent. This detergent is fragrance free but I noticed right off the bat that it is extremely runny. While most liquid dish detergents are gels, Martha’s is watery and not very viscous at all. We used most of this bottle and found each and every wash with the detergent to leave our dishes covered in a scummy film. Dried or baked on food debris was never removed by the Martha Stewart clean Dishwasher Detergent and most truly dirty dishes had to be washed by hand following a run through the dishwasher. The results were so bad I quit using the detergent and it has since taken me several washes and hard hand-scrubbing to remove the film that Martha Stewart’s detergent left coating my dishes.

Martha's All-Purpose Cleaner has been effective in quickly cleaning lightly soiled areas of the house.

I have used the other cleaning products off and on, mainly just for convenience factors so I don’t have to sprint to another area of the Half-Acre Homestead when I need to clean. For the most part I’ve found the Toilet Bowl cleaner and the All-Purpose cleaner to be pleasant smelling and effective at cleaning. The Carpet Stain Remover had a “spotty” track record on our carpets, cleaning half of the stains with a bleaching effect noticeable while the other half of the stains were left untouched.

As for now, we will continue buying green cleaning supplies from the likes of Seventh Generation and Dr. Bronner’s. The rest of the cleaners we will make on our own. It was wonderful to receive a box full of green cleaners as a gift but I would recommend not buying them for lack of effectiveness.

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The weather here in southwest Indiana has been flip-flopping faster than a group of politicians lately. May proved to be a tough one to get the garden off to a good start before the heat of summer set in and parched everything. We struggled the first half of the month with copious amounts of rain, day in and day out. The raised beds proved their worth in being able to shed the excess water and keep winter vegetables from turning into a bog.

Cooler temperatures (we’re talking 50’s some days) definitely put a cap on growth rates though and stunted warm weather crops that should normally be out around that time. Several tomato transplants just couldn’t get the early sunshine and warmth necessary for them to establish and they ended up withering away. Once two weeks of severe rain moved out, we quickly ping-ponged into the mid 90’s with full sunshine. This extreme temperature swing stressed even more transplants and left local gardeners and farmers wondering what season mother nature was going to stick with for awhile.

It looks like the heat has ended for the time being, taking us back down into the upper 70’s and low 80’s. Another stormy and wet pattern is setting up for the rest of the week. Established plants took advantage of the sun and heat though, putting on a flush of growth that caught them up nicely.

Calico Popcorn begins to stretch toward the sky while a volunteer pumpkin begins to ramble about in front of the popcorn patch.

Our patch of Calico Popcorn out near the duck pond already reaches my knee and almost swallows up our Darling Daughter when she walks in the rows. The tomato plants are also doing great, shooting up a foot or more in the past several days. We’ve even started to have some blossoms open within the last couple of days so hopefully by the 4th of July we will pick our first homegrown tomato. Potato sprouts are shooting up but who knows what they’re doing beneath the soil’s surface.

Our two black and white cats poke through the new garden space checking out the tomato patch and the potatoes in the lower right.

Cosmo Savoy Lettuce has been a big producer in the cool temperatures and only recently has started to bolt. It’s produced many dinner salads for us and by far has been the most successful lettuce growing we’ve ever done. Purple Globe Turnips have also done well this year and provided a continuous harvest. Our grapes are off to the races too. They are quickly climbing up the arbor over our garden gate and are stretching down each side of the garden fence without abandon. We even have some clusters of grapes growing and can’t wait to taste them when they’re finally ready to eat.

The grapes have started furiously crawling across the tiny arbor over our garden gate.

This is the first year we've had clusters of grapes growing and we can't wait to try one!

We’re planting more fruits and veggies every day to keep a continuous harvest cycle going this year. We can’t wait for those summer staples like tomatoes, zucchini and yellow squash to start producing. How does your garden grow? What has done great so far and what has been a disappointment?

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Our newest additions to the Half-Acre Homestead have arrived.  We picked up three Auracana chicks from one of our friends yesterday who made a big order and wanted to share in the fun.  Auracanas are the “Easter Egg” chickens that lay green and blue eggs.  We’ve kicked around the idea for a year or two, just wanting to start out with a couple hens to provide us some eggs.  Our decision was pushed last year when we had a terrible problem trying to combat the swarms of squash bugs that devastated our zucchini and summer squash plants, leaving us little to enjoy.

Unfortunately we lost one little girl late this afternoon.  It seems the long journey was just too much for her.  She was sluggish on arrival but some sugar water helped perk her up.  Her activity improved along with her eating and drinking but late this afternoon she just quit moving around and wouldn’t get back up again.  We were really excited about her because she had different coloring from the other two girls and it looked like she was going to be a standout.

Our other two girls seem to be doing just fine.  We’ve been getting a kick out of their little antics, spontaneously falling asleep and waking up.  They love to cuddle too.  They’ll roost in the home office for a few weeks until the weather is nice enough for them to transition out full time.  Now it’s time to build them a little garden hen house.

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I'd like to think Julia would be proud of my forays into French culture...poor accent included. Image via Wikipedia

Monday kicked off a new week here at the Half-Acre Homestead with little to no bang.  Our week-long spell of sunshine and 60 degree temps came to an end today as heavy rain lashed at the side of the house for most of the day.  Tonight we’re supposed to plunge into the 30’s.  It was one of those stare out the window type of days with the exception of buttoning the hot boxes back up after they caught some afternoon showers.

Tonight was “Poulet de Troi Repas” though…that’s “chicken of three meals” en Francais if you don’t speak my language of love.  Yes, I studied French.  Four years of that daunting language stretched across both high school and college and what have I done with it other than gain an inside track into Julia Child’s mind.  It was a strategic move at the time living in the desert southwest.  Shun the language that made sense to learn and be the only guy in a classroom full of French speaking girls.  I was Jean Nate and if the name sounds familiar it is that famous shampoo in a bright yellow bottle.  How could I not have a fun and fancy free nickname for all those practice sessions in class…voulez vous…ok for this nerd that was wishful thinking.

Back to our chicken of three meals, this is an excellent way to use your resources to their fullest.  We’ve always been thrifty with our leftovers but since we became members of the Stonewall Farm CSA Program (community supported agriculture) we’ve made our yummy organic meat go as far as possible.  If you haven’t tried their meat or eggs yet, you’re missing out.  Let them know Nathan Ryder referred you and they will take good care of you. One whole chicken can usually be made to stretch over the course of one week creating three or even more dinners.  We usually start our chicken of three meals out the first night by roasting the bird.  Our favorite method to roasting isn’t the ordinary stick it in the oven and watch it brown.  No, we encrust our poulet in salt before shoving it into cook.  Homestead Hottie discovered this roasting method several years ago and we’ve never turned back.

You might think this will cause the chicken to turn out unbearably salty but surprisingly it doesn’t.  The salt hardens and forms a thick crust during the roasting process, locking in your chicken’s juice and preventing it from squeezing out into the bottom of your roasting pan.  The resulting skin underneath that roasted salt crust is the most amazing golden brown, crispy and downright delectable as it melts onto your tongue.  Tonight’s chicken had a French theme thanks to one additional ingredient:  Herbs de Provence.  This herbal blend contains lavender, the aromatic which on first whiff whisks you away to a sunny Mediterranean destination.  If this isn’t already a staple in your herb cabinet I highly recommend you buy some or make it yourself.

Ingredients:

- 1 organic, whole chicken (Evansville locals can get one from Stonewall Farms, tell em we sent ya!)

- 1 or 2 cups kosher salt depending on size of bird

- Herbs de Provence seasoning blend

- 1 large lemon cut into wedges

- 2 to 3 cloves of garlic

- Several sprigs of rosemary

Directions:

1)  Stuff cavity of chicken with lemon wedges, garlic cloves and several sprigs of rosemary

2)  Place chicken breast-side down in roasting pan and dust skin with Herbs de Provence.  Spear more rosemary sprigs through skin in several different spots.

3)  Pour kosher salt over the top of your chicken, patting in place to prevent salt from falling off into pan.  A light spritz of water can help the salt stick if your bird’s skin is dry.

4)  Place into oven and roast at around 400 degrees until internal temperature of the chicken reaches 180 degrees.

5)  Remove chicken from oven and use the back of a carving knife or wooden spoon to shatter the salty crust, scraping salt off the skin and into pan.  Voila!

Make sure to refrigerate leftovers and carcass for meal number two to be discussed in a future blog post. Bon Appetit!

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Homestead Hottie’s pregnancy cravings are ramping up to full-speed these days.  Wait you say, you didn’t announce you were expecting.  You can get filled in on the preps for 2.0 by heading over to Harvest of Daily Life for the details.  As any loving husband should do, I make sure every one or at least most of those cravings are met with attentive detail.  When Momma is happy, everybody is happy!

A couple of days ago Talina got an insane craving for P.F. Changs Chicken Lettuce Wraps.  With her nausea she’s been leaning toward light fare to fill her stomach as anything heavy leaves her feeling like “death” as she says.  Then came the Changs craving and of course, we don’t have one of our favorite restaurants within a quickly drivable radius.  That doesn’t mean I can’t attempt a clone recipe in our own well-equipped kitchen though!

This need for lettuce wraps also spurned a craving for Panda Express Orange Chicken, another one of our family favorites when we “splurge” on eating out.  Loving and cooking Asian food pretty frequently in our household, I’ve been anxiously watching work going on at the new Aihua International Market and so we made a family trip to see if they were open and to round up the necessary supplies for both clone meals and some future Thai cooking.

Aihua International Market just opened on Green River Road just north of the intersection at Lynch. It made for a perfect Sunday afternoon cultural adventure.

Much to our surprise, the parking lot was packed and the store was bristling with customers of several different nationalities all speaking several different languages.  You feel as if you’ve stepped into a completely different country right in little ‘ol Evansville, Indiana.  Walking through the automatic doors, you find yourself staring straight down the cooler case at all sorts of exotic fruits, veggies, herbs and roots neatly stocked and ready for your hot wok.  It’s a lot to look at and easy to get lost in, at least for a foodie like me.

Distracted already but I have to get back to the list: water chestnuts, crushed red chilies, arrowroot, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, Kaffir lime leaves, galangal root and fresh lemongrass.  When it comes to organization, things are a little hard to find at Aihua.  If items are labeled, deciphering the labels is difficult and takes extra time.  Chinese characters stand out above the secondary English printed on many of the packages and it’s nowhere near as simple as grab and dash.  It’s more like hunt and peck, turning over every rock and leaf until you find what you’re looking for.  The rice wine vinegar and red chilies were located without much effort.  The rest required a tour guide and the staff was eager to please.

The first woman I found stocking the shelves couldn’t speak English and apologized profusely that she couldn’t help me.  It was cute and I could tell she felt really bad so that didn’t stop her from flagging down the woman who seemed to be running the ship.  As she determinedly breezed past, dark chin length hair perfectly quaffed and not moving an inch as she headed toward the store room, she quickly whipped her hand to the shelf without even looking and grabbed the only tiny, elusive bottles of sesame oil they had to offer.  That’s anther check off the list.

Now to find those water chestnuts, I flagged down a tall Asian man wandering about the aisles.  He intently tried to understand what a water chestnut was, trying to correlate in his mind the proper translation so he could lead me to the right spot on the shelf.  After a couple minutes he enlisted the help of a pre-teen Asian girl, her white fuzzy ski cap bouncing between aisles crammed with shoppers as she scurried about.  She had the matriarch of the store, now back and standing strong at the register, translate and tell the man where to take me for water chestnuts.  Check!

Realizing the young girl was my lifeline to finding the other unusual ingredients I needed, I quickly tracked her back down and spewed out my laundry list of ingredients.  She led me from one corner to the next, quietly reading my list back out-loud as she pointed and plucked the items from the shelves.  Kaffir lime leaves were tucked away in an unlabeled bag, hidden in the cooler like a treasure only available to those who seek it out.  I felt like I belonged in an underground club as she measured two handfuls of the aromatic glossy green lime leaves into a smaller sandwich bag for me.  Then she grabbed a stalk of fresh lemongrass and finally showed me the galangal roots and let me pick which one I wanted for our soup pot.  Check, check and check.

Now I know to look for my fresh ingredients by sight next time and not by hand-written sign. From top to bottom: glangal root, lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaves

Standing in line at the checkout, a tiny, older Asian woman was purchasing a cardboard box filled with all sorts of noodles and vegetables.  When it came time to pay, out came a credit card.  “You pay with card?  Where you’re cash?” the matriarch demanded.  The customer said something unintelligible to which the owner replied “You know better!  Cash better!  Next time!” as she pulled out a credit card triplicate form and began rubbing an imprint on the counter.  The dread hit me as I only had a dollar bill in my pocket but that was before I spotted a small, hand-written sign that said cash only under $10.  Knowing Homestead Hotties love for Tiger Balm, we quickly grabbed a tube to bring our total above the $10 mark.

Our visit to the international food store gave new meaning to the term "watching carbs", something Everly adored.

Darling Daughter Everly had a blast taking in all the different languages and foreign items displayed throughout the store.  The biggest kick came from a tub of live blue carbs (really crab but that’s how it was spelled) crawling over each other and looking for a way out.  The Asian women adored little miss Everly and her bright red hair and even gifted her with a special magic wand-like lollipop at the check-stand.  Her grin was priceless and so was the fun in finding some real culture here in Evansville.  Oh yeah, the dinner of Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Orange Chicken turned out pretty damn good too, except for the fact that nausea kept my Homestead Hottie from really enjoying it too.  There’s always leftovers!

I would encourage any international foodie to stop by Aihua sometime and don’t forget to bring cash.

Nothing like a magic-wand lollipop to make a girl's day!

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