The Weekly Digs #164

Chicks!

We are really seeing things come together full circle around here. We saved 11 of the Delaware chickens last year for breeding. We incubated their eggs four weeks ago and had 22 delaware’s hatch and 1 buff orpington. Cruz stuck a buff orpington egg in the incubator at the last minute and it’s a cute addition to the group.

When we butchered our meat birds last year, we reserved the biggest and the best for breeding. I’m interested to see how big these ones are and hope to continue the process in the future.

This post contains affiliate links. Full disclosure can be found here.

In the Garden

We have had so much rain again this week. It seems almost endless, sometimes it is a blessing and other times it is a curse. This week was probably the latter. 

The strawberry harvest has been abundant thankfully but with the rain we lost quite a few to rot. It picked all that I could save and fed the rest to the chickens. 

On Friday, I planted corn and as I was doing so, I noticed my tomatoes looked terrible. Just the week prior at planting they were lush and green and now they were yellow and drooping.

I stuck my hand into the soggy soil down to where I planted the roots of the tomato, deeply planted as always. But this time, I was shocked to feel water. And not just a little bit but it was literally like a pond underneath the soil. 

When I first started this garden, I had mounded the garden beds high, 5 inches above ground level with soil, but over the years, the soil settled closer and closer to the ground. This year, with the tomatoes planted deeply the roots sat 5 inches below ground level and the water all pooled in the root areas of the plants.

I was in a bit of shock and tried to think through what to do. The only option was to pull them up out of the soil and plant them higher. I did that for 90 of the plants. I pulled the tomato out, added a significant amount of compost, then replanted so the roots were above ground level.

Between pulling them up out of the soil and replanting along with the fact that they sat in a pool of water for four days (and chilly soil at that), I’m afraid several may not make it. They are so stressed out that even if they do make it, they likely will catch some form of disease. 

It was awful. I was pondering why it was so devastating to me, and I think it boils down to my goals. We have been growing all our own vegetables for years now. If a crop fails, I don’t say, “oh well” and run to the store. We go without because it is so important to me to eat homegrown food.

It would be sad to me to not have any canned tomatoes this winter! I am praying they miraculously recover.

Good things are that we are harvesting carrots, lettuce, garlic scapes, and strawberries this week! Kids garden tomatoes look perfect, so if most of mine don’t make it, at least we will have some tomatoes!

I also planted lemon squash, butternut squash, Long Island cheese pumpkin, lady Godiva.

Preserving

I cleared out some freezer space by making chicken bone stock. Every time we cook a whole chicken, I put the leftover carcass in the freezer. Eventually they all add up so I can make a batch in bulk. 

I used a new large stock pot I got and it is amazing! Previously, I would use two crock pots but it was so nice to do it all in one pot and I could fit more. For those who are wondering, you can find the pot HERE.

I pressure canned 14 quarts.