Cooking from the Garden!

So our garden is definitely starting to grow!  The last couple of days we have enjoyed cooking with some of the things we have picked! 

These green tomatoes, picture taken a couple weeks ago, got bigger..

And became yummy Fried Green Tomatoes!!!!


These are the first few yellow squach and zucchini from the garden..

And I made 3 loaves of zucchini bread today!  We will probably cook the squash in the next couple of days..2 more wil be ready very soon...

Now people that know Robert and I know that he does most of the cooking, and always has  It is so exciting to me (and to him!) that as a result of growing fruits and vegetables, I want to spend time in the kitchen!  Sam & zoe are enjoying trying some new foods as well, which is wonderful!



Hen-side the Beltline Tour D'Coop

On May 21, Robert and I (and Zoe too, Sam opted to Stay with his Gigi) were able to check out the Hen-side the Beltline Tour D'Coop in Raleigh http://www.tourdcoop.com/
This is an annual tour of urban chicken coops in the Raleigh area, that raises funds for Urban ministries of Wake County.  There were 19 coops on the tour, and we saw 10 of them!  Here are a few shots from the day:

This coop was made from all reused materials claimed from a farm scrap pile.

This coop was also built from reused materials, and the roof is slate salvaged from an orphanage in
Charlotte!

We saw some awesome gardens like this one:

This was my favorite house!  Huge veggie garden, flower and herb gardens, bees, mushroom logs, fruit trees, a zipline and a clay oven!

Here is the clay oven..we are soooo building one of these in the future!

And some beautiful chickens!

Zoe was feeding cherries to these Barred Rock hens!

  if you check out the website, they even offer a chicken keeping 101 class (I took the class last year) that is a very informative "must do" if you are thinking about keeping chickens.  We had a very fun day and we  will definitely be doing this tour again in the future.

We have Blueberries (and a few other random thoughts)!!

Aren't they beautiful?  The blueberries have been getting ripe over the last 2 days..this is what I got this morning...yum.....

and little strawberries..they are plants from last year that did not do so well..I have been calling these "chicken strawberries"   because they are so small and the chickens love them!

We have two little limes on the key lime tree...tiny and cute...

Tomatoes! 

Can you see the baby Zucchini?

I spent some time weeding this morning.  Robert helped me and we weeded quietly while Sam & Zoe played in the yard.  It was surprisingly calming.  We both sat there weeding away and Robert tells me that just like the weeding today, when we get bees next year we will have to be calm and deliberate when working with them.  Is he trying to prepare me ahead of time or what?  I am terrified of bees, and I think he is scared that I will get stung due to a freak out.  I do want to face my fear and not have the twins scared of bees like me.  We will see when the time comes I guess.   I am determined to turn my backyard into someting wonderful, and bees are a must...



A few pictures...

Thought I would post some pictures of the chickens and plants so that we have some now and then shots...

this is the main garden bed right now..asparagus, yellow squash, 1 tomato plant, okra, a huge blueberry bush, strawberries hanging, 2 pumpkin plants, zucchini, and a couple of cukes grow here.

 This is the deck, mainly my herbs here (sweet basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, flat leaf parsely, thyme), carrots in 2 pots that Sam & Zoe planted,  some lettuces, and a couple more strawberries tht may or may not make it..

 Also on the deck, a Meyer lemon and a Key lime tree...love these!

 This is the chicken coop, built by Robert!  Fort Knox of coops...

 The big girls, Bea (the red sex link), girlfriend, and Lulu (the barred rocks)

 The little girls and quite possibly boy (the black and white one, Bogey).  The others are named Chocolate, pickle, and Truffle.  They are all Ameracauna mixes known as "easter eggers"  They should lay blue or green eggs.

Thanks for "touring" the yard with me!  Hopefully there will be huge changes seen over the next year...but more on that later!

First post.. a few things about us..

Last spring, my husband Robert and I started talking about chickens in the backyard. We read and researched and decided that it would be a great thing for the Twins, Sam and Zoe, who were 2 at the time to learn where their food cam from. And Lets face it, FRESH EGGS ARE YUMMY! Robert researched wether or not we could have backyard chickens since we live in a neighborhood (no HOA) but we are not inside the city limits. We found out we could and the fun started..
We got 4 chickens that were about a week old and fell in love! They were so cute. Robert began coop construction, and we finally got the girls moved into the coop by the time they were 8 weeks old. We waitied and waited for that first fresh egg, and finally go it around the beginning of September. We were stoked, and so were friends and family that have been getting eggs from us ever since. We lost one of our hens in the late fall due to a hawk attack. One of the Hazzards of the job i suppose.
this Spring we got 4 more chicks, and have recently moved them out into the coop with the big girls. We also think one of these is a Rooster, which should be interesting....he will be kept if he is calm and behaves or he will have to be rehomed since we live in a neigborhood.
When we got the chickens we also planted a few veggies, herbs and a couple of strawberry plants. We had a blueberry bush that finally started producing too.
Anyway, after doing some serious reading and soul searching, I decided to begin plans for next year for a much larger garden and maybe some bees too. I like the idea of self sufficiency, home grown food, and a fun family project! I have at times been really bad about following through with a project but now is the time. I am hoping to share pictures here, give tips as I learn new things, and document my journey in Backyard Farming!