The Weekly Digs #200

Hi friends! I’m writing a very quick note because I know some of you check here every week. We did a lot of things today, planted peas (for a second time, I’ll explain more later), mulched, and outdoor seed started. I usually do my writing and photo editing on Saturday nights after coming in from a long day so I can get this homestead journal updated.

I came in today feeling super exhausted and not quite myself, so I am giving myself rest and an early bedtime. I will fill in the rest of this blog post and the scoop for the week on Monday 🙂

In the meantime, if you want to see what we’ve been up to in the month of March click HERE. Hope you all are doing well!

Monday Update!!

In the kitchen

We rendered our lard last weekend! I start every kitchen project thinking this will only take a few hours and when it’s all said and done it takes 3x times as long! That was definitely the case with the lard. We started at 6pm and because of the slow rendering process we didn’t finish until 1am. 

I was really grateful to have Cam and the kids helping on that project or else it would have taken even longer. The lard from our pasture raised pork is a night and day difference from what is available at a store. It makes the time and effort worth it.

In the Garden

Planting Peas

We got a lot done with the garden this week! The kids and I prepped garden beds for the peas, the kids set up the trellises and we worked together to get all the peas planted.

We planted 4 rows 90 ft long. Two rows of sugar snap peas, and two rows of PLS595 shelling peas. Both varieties  were super productive last year! 

The next day it rained so hard and continued into the night and next day. We got four inches of rain over that time and as usual this time of year it led to some flooding around the area.

When I went out to survey the damage, many of the pea seeds we had planted had risen to the surface, and some of the loose soil washed down and away from the seeds. 

We originally planted them with the Earthway seeder which I always have mixed results with for peas. Our soil is heavy enough, it never really seems to cut deep enough for planting. Some seeds are close to the surface and some end up an inch deep where they should be. 

We also hand covered a lot of the seeds originally because the seeder didn’t cover them. 

So in the aftermath of the heavy rain, we all went out and replanted them. This time, we poked individual holes and we carefully placed them in the holes. The peas had swollen and some were already sprouting so we had to be extra careful with how we planted them and be extra delicate.

Seed Starting

I also seed started some more echinacea. My first batch I planted 4 weeks ago is finally starting to sprout but I decided I wanted a little bit more. 

I used a different wicking tray for planting the echinacea. I like it for seeds that take a long time to germinate and get going because it stays wet longer than soil blocks. 

I did two trays of echinacea paradoxa, and one tray of echinacea purpurea. 

Mulching

We cut back and mulched our raspberries. We have one variety that is doing really well, I think it is called Joan J., but the rest are not quite as vigorous. 

We are right on the border of being able to grow them, they do better in cooler weather. As a result, it takes a little extra TLC to get more productivity. We have the irrigation all set up now, and with the mulch hopefully they’ll be a little more productive this year.