Onion Overload Is Awesome!

This post is a little late in coming, perhaps as this is the picture of our first harvest on April 30 of our bulbing onions whose stems had flopped over. Since then, we have been harvesting onions about once a week as their stems bend, signaling that the roots will no longer be receiving nutrients from the foliage. We did not apply any additional water to the bulbs in the ground at this point in order to allow them to begin to dry and cure, although we did get a few rains that may have compromised some of the larger bulbs, which we took into the kitchen to use sooner than those we are trying to cure. We have developed a method for processing the onions. We harvest a bunch, cut their tops off for fresh use in the kitchen (yummy in homemade bread) leaving about 8"-12", and allow them to dry on a surface with good air flow in the sun for a day or two depending of the level of sun and heat until the roots are noticeably drier. Then the onions are moved onto upside down crates salvaged from the farm last summer which allow for good air flow. The onions are stored on the back deck in the shade to cure for another couple of weeks until the neck is thin and dry and the roots dry. The crates are perfect in the event of a rainstorm, when we can stack them and move the crates to the covered entry by the front door for more protection from moisture but air can still circulate between the crates! Then the tops are cut off to 1" and the roots cut off and they are put in perforated bags (from grocery store citrus) for storage. The small onions are taken into the kitchen after harvest for immediate fresh use. We have enjoyed a Spring Onion Soup found here http://www.sippitysup.com/spring-onion-soup-completely-unadorned/. Add some extra garlic into the recipe and some steamed broccoli and swiss cheese on top as garnish for the taste of fresh deliciousness in a bowl!

Sweet Potatoes from Scratch

 Sweet potatoes are delicious so we sacrificed our one remaining sweet potato to an experiment to create more. Sweet potatoes are started from slips - vegetative cuttings grown from the tuber.  Several months ago we stuck three toothpicks in each half of the potato and suspended it halfway covered in water. The tubers sprouted leaves from the eyes, which once 6" tall were pinched off and moved into a second jar of water to grow out their roots. Once the weather warmed in May, we planted them out into the garden!

Leaves beginning to sprout from the halved potato

3 Slips with lots of foliage and strong roots ready to be planted

Sights You May See in the May Garden

Two ginger rhizomes are starting to send up leaves!

A Texas star trellis built over the watermelon mound to house beans, a special variety from India given by a neighbor

Edible cucumber-tasting borage flowers bloom both pink and blue and are loved by the bees

A spaghetti squash hangs out on the trellis

Corn is doing well and getting tall

A orange kabocha squash is getting big

Winter squash vines take over the path in the center of the bed, as intended to maximize growing space

Verbena flowers look like a cluster of dancing stars on the end of their long stems

A Picturesque (and Functional) Garden Bridge

I want to share our completion of this project; in anticipation of lots of people exploring the garden during the garden party we knew we had to create a functional bridge across the channel feeding our rain garden from the roof downspouts. Our initial attempt to create a channel to the rain garden had two 90 degree turns in order to keep the distance the channel crossed the path to a minimum, thereby also reducing the size of bridge needed. Our original bridge consisted of the two large rocks now utilized as ramps up from the path to the bridge at either end of our new pallet bridge...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The original stone bridge basically only was in place for a day or two surrounding last year's spring garden party. Soon after, we noticed that soil, leaves and other debris carried down the channel by the water was getting dammed up under the rocks, so they had to go. For the next year, there was no bridge at all. We stepped across the channel or detoured to another path when using the wheelbarrow. During this year of monitoring the current channel path we also confirmed that the bends in the channel allowed for carving and sedimentation. Soil built up in the bottom of the channel and the lack of a soil berm between path and channel allowed for water to overflow out the down-slope side of the channel onto the path, thus never allowing the water to reach its intended infiltration location in the rain garden, topographically high in the garden. Thus an overhaul project began in which we re-routed the channel to continue straight into the rain garden, cutting diagonally across the path. We made use of the one pallet remaining from our improved chicken fence to make a bridge. Salvaged cedar fence slats were used to fill in the planking gaps, giving a beautiful weathered patina to the top. Hubby reinforced the "beams" supporting the planking to create a more sound structure. We also placed unused sample veneer brick vertically along the sides of the channel to protect the bank from erosion. Hubby researched and found out that May is historically the rainiest month in Austin. The re-design has already been put to good use and has functioned well!

Radish boats

Following our garden party, where everyone asked about the pods on our radish plants we did some research and found out, that yes, radish seed pods are edible. We tried some and were pleasantly surprised by their crisp radish/fresh pea flavor. I just loved the way the kale leaves made little boats of radish pods as we harvested! We since discovered that the rabbits will happily consume the older, tougher, more stringy pods. We have to leave a few to seed themselves into the garden bed though.

Considering the Egg Output

An important element of having a successful sustainable homestead or business is that you can manage your edible inventory. You have to be able to keep yourself or your client stocked with a predictable source of produce all year to be successful. One way we are improving our record-keeping is by keeping a garden journal that notes quantities and dates of planting so we can track information over time to refer to in the future in order to begin to capitalize on successes or learn from mistakes. It is also important to keep track of the chickens' egg production. The first price we settled on for our eggs was based on two factors: 1) the average yearly egg production of our chickens based on their breed descriptions and 2) wanting to keep the price relative or under store prices to attract buyers. About a year later, a comment from a regular customer made us realize two other things: 1) store prices were increasing and 2) our eggs are just as good of quality if not better (more humane, etc.) than those from the store so we started keeping daily records of eggs produced by our seven chickens to see just what our costs were. After the first quarter of the year we looked at the numbers and determined that based on production and feed costs, we were selling our eggs below production cost which had an end result that the cost of the eggs we ate ourselves was a dollar+ more in cost than we were charging others for our eggs. We determined a slight price increase would make a big difference in leveling the field. A month later, we now have more data to factor in and our new price seems to be accurate to cover the feed cost associated with its production. However, unlike a successful business, we aren't making money, so how could we solve that problem knowing that the true reason for having chickens was to learn to be self-sufficient? We noticed that on average over our record-keeping period we have been consuming half our eggs and selling the other half. This means that for 3 people to subsist independently, we would only need half the number of chickens we currently have (or 3.5 birds, round to 4). We feel that in this scenario, with the option of selling eggs removed, we would probably personally consume a bit more eggs, wanting maybe 2/3 of our current flock (or 4.6 birds round to 5). Therefore, to sustain we feel we need about 1-2 birds per person - handy information to know for the future!

Update: 5/20/13
So as a family-member pointed out to us, even though we recognize other values that the chickens provide, the above discussion did not expand beyond the monetary focus. One important benefit we recognize from the chickens is an expanded connection to the community. Neighbors and friends always ask after the chickens, looking for chicken-raising tips or interesting stories. We've made new friends through the chickens and helped entertain our current ones! Also, our customer's have a trusted and known source for their eggs, which may help their eggs taste even better! We love our experience with our chickens so much we recently gave our broody hen, Lacey, a dozen eggs to sit on and connecting with neighbors down the street, borrowed their incubator for another dozen eggs. Chicks are expected in the first week of June, but we aren't planning to count them before they hatch!