Celery Scrap Gardening

 This post contains Affiliate Links.

      I have heard of scrap gardening, but we never really thought to try it. We bought celery about a month ago, and I kept looking at thinking... What if? What if I put it into a bowl of water? What if I didn't put it in with the scraps to go out to the compost bin? What if I didn't throw it into the food scrap bowl to feed the pig? What if.. What if it grew? 
     So I asked Zoey, "What if?" and she said, "Let's do it!" and guess what it did... 

IT GREW!

And it Grew!

 To the point we thought, "What if... we planted it?"

 Zoey went out to the yard for the good gardening soil. We got out a Terra Cotta pot. She filled it half way with soil. 

She put the celery plant in the pot and then used the rest of the soil to cover up the rest of the plant. 

  Suddenly, our big celery plant, did not look so big. But that is okay, because it grows larger every day.

 We sat our celery plant in the kitchen window where it is nice and sunny, even in winter time. It has already grown bigger since we took this picture. Now we wonder, "What if it grows large enough that we can eat it?" :)

We are working with these onion ends now. Hmmm... What if? 

Want to see what else you can grow from scraps in your kitchen? Check out this article on 25 Foods You Can Re-Grow Yourself Using Kitchen Scraps. 

Have you tried this before? How did it work for you? 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

A Foraging We Will Go!

This post contains Affiliate Links, but most of them are not. 

'Every thing we need to survive is in nature. Knowledge and effort are the only other thing required.'

-Sean O'Hair (A friend in UNITY) 

So What Exactly Is Foraging?

'Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce.^[1] Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment where the animal lives.' -Wikipedia

     A very important and often neglected skill for survival is foraging. Being able to find edible food in the wild will be a must in a SHTF scenario. I want to be able to provide for my family in any situation, and for my children to also be able to find food for themselves! Times are already tough. Foraging is a wealth of FREE food found in your area just waiting to be picked! 
     In today's times, people think you are nuts if you forage for food. Why when there is a grocery store on every corner? It was not always this way. For thousands of years people foraged for their food. It was not until grocery stores became so popular that people stopped looking in their gardens and in their yards for their daily meals. So why has this time old tradition become lost? Well think on this, when grocery stores opened they did not carry items you could find in your yard. Why would they sell something you could gather for free? As time went on and people became so dependent on shopping at grocery stores alone, they began to forget about the items in their yards. Convenience replaced what we used to do naturally. 
     While on our quest for self sufficiency and eating more natural, we discovered Wild Crafting and Foraging. (Those are affiliate links to help you understand what I am talking about, they are also on my 'wish list') We are also learning about healing herbs and how to be healthy naturally. In February, we will start taking herbal/medicinal classes at StarDragonFly Herbal Company. They are in a town about 20 minutes from us. Zoey and I visited one day when my mom had an appointment in the same town. I wish I had gotten pictures. The little shop is absolutely amazing! I will get photos next time for sure! We are excited to start learning with them! Our family friend from Time to Thyme sells some of her wonderful soaps and products in there. I squealed when I found them beautifully displayed on a table. 

Here are a few of our favorite wild foraging plants in our area.
(Okay, there is only 1 right now but there will be more soon!) Wild Onions

Here are some pictures of some of the plants we have found on our property..

Day Lillies 

Wild Violets

Honey Suckle

Dew Berries

White Clover 

Canna Lillies

Lichen

Heal's All

Henbit

Sheppard's Purse

 We have found a few others as well. At my mom's, I found these in her yard. Working on identifying them. Do you know what they could possibly be? 

Some sort of plantain or dock?

Great sites to learn about foraging, herbs, wildcrafting and useful recipes:
(I have not been paid or compensated for endorsing these sites.)

http://learningherbs.com/

http://herbalacademyofne.com/

http://www.foragingtexas.com/

http://melissaknorris.com

http://survivalathome.com

http://gnowfglins.com

http://survivalsherpa.wordpress.com

http://learningandyearning.com

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

We Butcher A Chicken...

WARNING- This post contains photos of a family sending their own chicken to freezer camp! If you are not the chicken killing type, or if you are disturbed by information or images of animals being butchered, please, DO NOT READ THIS POST. We are on the path to self sufficiency, and raising our own food is part of this journey.

"We butchered a chicken today. Great life lesson and anatomy lesson. There is something... satisfying... to be able to provide a meal for your family that you know what it was fed, you know how it was treated, you know how it was butchered, and you know how it was prepared. I don't know if we will ever do another, but, we are happy with today." -Personal Facebook Post February, 2014

     We have become a society disconnected with our food. Rarely does anyone know where or how their food is processed. We buy our meat in nice, little wrapped packages, and not once do we question where it came from. How were they raised and in what conditions? What were they fed? How was it processed? The chicken from the stores is kept in giant barns crammed full of thousands of chickens, all pecking at each other, or standing there waiting to die. Don't believe me? Type in your computer, 'what are chickens fed to make them grow so fast?' and see what comes up. Quick link to Wikipedia says, well it says a lot.. Just read for yourself.
     I am in no way condemning anyone for eating supermarket chicken. I buy it all of the time still. My family loves chicken and I am not a lover of butchering my own meals. Honestly, I hope to grow out of this.  I have already come quite a ways from the girl I used to be. In the past, if it did not come from the supermarket, wrapped up nice and neat in Styrofoam and plastic wrap, I wouldn't eat it. We were given some hamburger from my uncle one time and while my family raved about how wonderful my meatloaf was, I was in the bathroom gagging and hearing Uncle Mark call out 'Calfy' to his cow. Fresh eggs? FORGET ABOUT IT! That was just disgusting! (My sister is still this way!)  In my quest for self sufficiency, however, I have grown to realize the importance of knowing where my food comes from. This is not important to everyone, but it is important to me.
      My husband's, mother's, boyfriend's. granddaughter (phew, did you catch all that?) raised chickens for FFA. When the project was finished, we were asked if we wanted them. They are Cornish Rock Cross and are breed to grow quickly. This also makes them unlikely to ever mate, lay eggs, or live past a certain age. And while I was not yet 'there' in my homesteading journey, I felt if I was going to 'Talk the talk...' I had better start down this road when I was offered the chance at no cost to me.
     My daughter helped me along on our first journey. We researched, read articles and watched youtube videos on butchering chickens. We decided to go with the 'cone method' of butchering. We took a milk jug, just like on the video we watched, and cut out the bottom of it. Then you put the chickens head through the hole and slit its throat. As it drains of blood it goes peacefully to sleep. Or rather, that's what is supposed to happen. Nothing could prepare us for our first time. Like I always seem to say, you think you know, but it never turns out how you expected. The chicken fought going into the milk jug hole, the incision clotted up instantly, then, the chicken cluck/cussed us, saying we were doing it wrong. Hubby came to the rescue with an ax. Note to self: Never, ever try that method again.
     Plucking took nearly and hour, even with dunking in the hot water several times. We have since learned that the skin is not that important to us, even when frying. It is a lot quicker to skin. We do not eat anything on the inside, so it is all boiled and fed to my dogs. We did find a lot of little orange balls we discovered were the beginning yolks of eggs. That is how we ended up keeping 'Prissy,' our first hen to lay an egg.
     It was very educational for my daughter. She learned a lot about chicken anatomy. She is like me (not crazy about killing the chicken) but she loves to identify the organs. She loves to cook our homegrown meat as well. She has very little attachment to the chickens because we have told her from the beginning these were 'food, not friends.' My hope for her is to become a veterinarian or be in another medical field. I believe she will be great healer one day.
     Just in case you continued to read, but were uncertain if you wanted to see the photos, I have saved them for last. The are not really terribly awful in my opinion, but this is your last chance to go check out one of my other articles. You can see my daughter make store bought Cornish Hens in my post HERE. Again, you are reading a blog about our homeschooling/homesteading family's quest to become more self sufficient. Thank you for your support.

Our FAIL...

 Getting the insides out.

 Don't you just love her protective gear!

An hour to pluck it and it still looked like this?

 The end result. 

     We decided to stuff and slow roast our chicken. We learned from our Cornish Hen dinner that we like seasonings, and this time we did it right. It was delicious and tender. I had forgotten to take a photo of it when we were finished cooking it. The photo above is what we had LEFT after dinner. Two adults and a 10 year old barely made a dent. I pulled off the rest of the meat and separated it into family sized portion freezer bags. We got 4 more meals out of this one bird. 5 meals for free. 

     We have sent several chickens to 'Freezer Camp' and I plan on sending more soon. If this is not your cup of tea, I understand. I used to be that girl remember? But it is now something I take pride in. My meat was raised by me. They were fed a healthy diet twice a day and also free range all day long. I know how they were treated, I know how they are processed. I know they were healthy and will provide a healthy meal for my family. Thank you for joining me on my journey.

Update On Landscape Garden- The Mystery Plants

 

      Edible landscape is a gardening technique we tried out this year. In the front yard, I planted 3 little mystery plants that had fallen out of the egg container and away from their labels. 
     At the time, they were just little balls of dirt that had not seeded yet. I was not sure what they were, and decided to name them my 'Mystery Plants.' My choices they could be were watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, and cucumbers. Either way,  aesthetically, I love the lovely green plants and yellowy/orange blossoms of all of these plants. Win, win right?
     I planted them in our little front yard, around our flowering Bradford Pear tree, thinking the flower bed would resemble having elephant ears in a way, circling our tree. I imagined after they grew and produced fruit, we would just go out and pick what we needed. A beautiful landscape with the added benefit of harvesting it's production. Ahhh.. daydreams... 

     The reality of it, I no longer have a front yard. The pretty little setting above, quickly turned into the monster below...

     So what is this 'Mystery Plant?' Well, if you are an experienced gardener, you might have already figured it out. Maybe, I should have figured it out as well. However, every time it started to fruit, there would be wrinkly little yellowish balls on it that would quickly die out. Hmmm... maybe cantalope? I was really hoping for cantalope or maybe zucchini. I posted pictures of it in gardening groups asking, 'What is it?' No one had an answer for me. I was told to just wait and see.

      In the mean time, my 3 little plants started to take over the front yard. And while they were lovely, I was not expecting to have to pick up they 10ft vines so my son could mow around them either.

So what is this mystery plant? 

Pumpkins... Pumpkins? Are you serious? 

     Not that pumpkins are bad, just was not expecting these plants to be pumpkins. Yes, I seeded out pumpkins, but I thought they were part of the regular garden that died out after the freak end of May freeze. I am a little disappointed. We do not eat any pumpkin products except for the seeds. We LOVE pumpkin seeds, but I was wanting something I could feed my family with a little more. We eat pumpkin pie only once a year at Thanksgiving and we are not big 'pumpkin flavored' fans. 

     At first, only 6 pumpkins grew from the 3 plants. I guess that was okay. Then we got cooler weather and lots of rain. Now we have nearly 20 pumpkins growing. We have decided to keep a few and try selling the rest. 

     We harvested the first 6 this week. It took a hack saw to get them off the vine. We were told to leave them on but one started to rot. Never smelled something so foul in my life! We cut it in half to see if the seeds were salvageable. HUGE mistake! PEE YEW!

     So what will we do with the pumpkins we harvested? Storage is going to be an issue. I have no pantry, cellar, or any cool dark, dry place to store them. Right now they are on the living room floor. 

     My daughter could not wait for seeds and decided to cut one open so she could roast pumpkin seeds for a snack. Our pig also got a snack. He was very grateful. My neighbors were over while she was carving the pumpkin. While we sat on the porch watching her, my husband and our company talked about how much they love pumpkin pie. How wonderful it must taste fresh! Really? Okay, Google how to make homemade pumpkin puree and pie filling. Maybe I will be able to feed my family from this unexpected bountiful harvest after all! Maybe I will even try my hand at making pumpkin bread.... Maybe... 

So let's make a list of all I can do with my 'Mystery Edible Garden.'

1. Pumpkin seeds to eat
2. Pumpkin seeds to put back to grow for next year
3. Feed the animals (natural dewormer in pigs)
4. Less gas used mowing front yard
5. Make pumpkin puree for baking pies and bread
6. Sell extras for a little profit
7. Halloween Jack O'Lanterns that will save me $10 this fall

Not bad! (Even with it taking over our yard!) 

Oven Drying Zucchini

   

     One of our abundant garden items this year is zucchini. Only the kids and I eat it, and we just can't eat it as fast as it is growing. I thought about pickling it but we have also had a huge crop of cucumbers. Pickling at this time is out, but I might try that later on. What do you do with extra produce that can not be eaten fast enough? I thought of freezing it until I saw a post in one of my Facebook groups about drying vegetables. Excellent homesteading option for long term food storage! I do not have a dehydrator, and prefer to learn methods not requiring electricity. We are looking into making an outdoor dehydrator, but for now I decided to oven dry them. Lots of fruits and veggies can be dried this way. 
     Of course we started by researching Drying Zucchini in the Oven, and found a great article over at Real Food Mama that describes the process in clear and simple steps. Here is what we did with her info.

Oven Dried Zucchini

1. We started by washing and drying our zucchini. We had 3 and a half large zucchinis we started out with. (I completely forgot to get photos of us washing, cutting and preparing our zucchini. :/ )
2. Cut into 1/4 in slices. Any smaller than that, and it will dry too quickly. Any thicker, it might take too long. We did end up with some larger and smaller slices. My daughter (and I have to admit, myself as well) ended up making all sorts of sizes of slices by hand. This wold probably be easier with a veggie slicer of some sort. It is now on my wish list to get one. 
   
3. Place slices on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Place in oven. 
4. Set your oven to the lowest possible setting. My oven's lowest is 150 degrees. You are drying them, NOT cooking them! Think 'Low and Slow' while they are drying. Also, air flow is key in drying foods in your oven. I propped my oven open with a knife set on its edges in the door. You might have a better option and I would love to hear it if you do! 
   
5. You must flip them over quite often to insure even drying on both sides and to prevent them from sticking to the cookie sheet. I figured this out the hard way. My second batch the next day dried a lot quicker since we sliced them all at the same time. I stored them in the fridge overnight and this might have caused them to dry a bit while they were in there. 

   

   This is what the look like as they
   are drying when you flip them.

   

   Ooops!

6. Dry your zucchini until they are no longer flexible. They will be crispy to touch. My first batch took 6 hours. The second batch took just 4 hours.
   
   
   
   
7. Store your dried and cooled Zucchini in jars or baggies. Note a whole sheet of dried Zucchini did not fill up a pint jar. Extracting the water significantly reduces the size of the slice. Zucchini is 96% water. 
8. Now what do you do with your dried zucchini? I hear it is good in soups and sauces. I have never tried them before and have never used them in cooking. (Right now, my daughter is preforming an experiment on re-hydrating a piece of our newly dried zucchini. I will let you know how that goes on another post.) I would actually like to try them in lasagna layers. We did try them just they way they are and we all kind of liked them. My last batch I seasoned them with a dill/onion seasoning packet I had up in my cabinet. They were yummy! But I tell you, a little seasoning goes a long way! 

Do you have a good recipe that uses dehydrated zucchini? We would love to hear about it!