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A Garden Adventure of Three Sisters

4/13/2022

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   I've wanted to try the three sisters method of gardening for a while. Today, I planted the corn! You can follow me on this journey and we can both see how it turns out.
   Three sisters gardening is a method of companion planting. Native Americans have used this method for centuries. The three sisters are a nutritional benefit to gardeners, as well as a gardening to each other.
   The corn plant provides pole-like support for the beans to grow up. The beans provide nitrogen in the soil that benefits all three crops. The squash provides shade to keep the soil cool, moist, and prevent weed growth.
   The corn variety I planted today is called Golden Bantam. This is my first time to try this variety. Last summer I ate Rattlesnake green beans for the first time. They were delicious! I will plant them next to the corn in a couple of weeks when the stalks are a few inches tall. Haven't decided which variety of squash I'm going to plant yet. I hope you will follow along for the adventure. Until next time, take a few minutes and check out the link above to the video showing the start of my three sister's garden.
    Happy gardening and God bless!
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Egyptian Walking Onions

3/30/2020

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Coronavirus got you sheltering in place? Then there is all the rain on top of that which may have you trapped inside, preventing you from getting you garden planted. No worries because there are lots of wild edibles growing in the spring. Many of which are as nutritious, or even more so, than what's growing in your gardens.

We have a ditch full of one such wild edible. More on that in a second. For a few of reasons, our yard is WILD during the spring. First, we let it go wild intentionally as all the spring flowers and 'weeds' are a great nectar and pollen source for our honey bees. It also makes for great tasting honey according to our repeat customers. The second reason is something we don't have much control over. The rain. We couldn't mow if we wanted to for all the standing water. Specially the ditch! For an added bonus, many of the weeds growing in our country yard are edible for us as well.
Today I want to talk about the ditch, rather what's growing in the ditch. During my fresh air, daily exercise walks over the past few weeks, I've been watching the wild onions grow. We have a PLENTIFUL crop of Egyptian Walking onions growing there. To be honest with you, it wasn't until I attended a local garden club meeting a few months back that I actually knew what they were called. I had also been curious in past years if this onion smelling plant was edible. Turns out it is. If you would like more information on this plant, Dan has made a wonderful video on harvesting and cooking this beauty.
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This might be one of those 'weeds' you transfer to a safe growing area in your yard before mowing them all down. Who knows, there may be a run on onions in the grocery store some day. These days, you never know.
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Egg and Chicken Terms

2/5/2019

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"Free-range" 
"Cage-free"
"Omega-3 Enriched"


What does it all mean?

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Let me take a few minutes to break down all these confusing terms according to the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension office.  Be careful, sometimes you may be paying extra for nothing!

Cage-free - Hens are raised in an enclosed structure with unlimited access to food and water.  They are NOT required to have access to the outdoors.

Free-Range - Hens are cage free with continuous access to the outdoors during their laying cycle.

Vitamin Enhanced - Hens are given a special diet that helps them produce eggs with a higher vitamin content (e.g. Vitamin E)

Omega-3 Enriched - Hens are fed a diet that includes flaxseed, algae or fish oils to increase the Omega-3 fatty acid content of the eggs.
USDA Organic - Certified organic eggs are from uncaged hens that have free range of their houses and access to outdoor spaces.  They are also fed an organic diet.

100% or All-Natural - Only means nothing was added to the egg (coloring, flavoring).  Does NOT indicate how the chicken was raised.

No Added Hormones - No eggs have added hormones, regardless of what the package says, because the use of hormones is NOT allowed in hog or poultry production.  If you see "No added hormones" on a package, it must be followed by the statement:  "Federal regulations prohibit the use of Hormones."

​
No Antibiotics - Hens are raised without any antibiotics of any type.

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Upcoming Workshops!

1/22/2019

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Backyard Garden Series

I'm really excited to announce that I am offering a four part workshop series.  It gets even better.  The workshops will be offered at three different locations!  If there is not time on your calendar to take all four, you can easily take the individual classes of your choice.  Each class is a stand-alone class.  However, there is a connection and building of information if you are able to take the entire series.
 

The topics include...
Soil - Composting & Worm Bins
Plant Choice & Planting Methods
Garden Design & When to Plant
Harvest - Storage, Cooking & Nutrition

For information & to register
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Blueberries on the Farm

6/29/2018

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While taking photos of my berries this morning, I couldn't help but think of lines from Robert Frost's poem, "Blueberries".  I can only imagine the sight he describes in the poem...  "And all ripe together, not some of them green and some of them ripe!  You ought to have seen!"  It is a rare sight for all the berries on the bush to be in the same stage of ripening, as you can see from the photo.


This mornings harvest made for a nice touch of fresh fruit with breakfast.  All the berries picked today came from one bush.  There are several  still to ripen.  I planted this, and one other bush, last year in an old bathtub that was once used for a water trough.  The two bushes have more than quadrupled in size over the past year.  Wish I knew what variety they are.  It seems to be a late variety as they are just now becoming ripe. 

Excited about how well the bushes were doing in a container, I bought eight more this past spring.  I was even able to get a few berries off each.  I can't wait to see how they grow over the next year!   Four of the new bushes are Premier and the other four are Tiff Blue.  Their berries have since come and gone for the season. 

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I want to leave you with another image Frost created with his words, "You ought to have seen how it looked in the rain, the fruit mixed with water in layers of leaves, like two kinds of jewels, a vision for thieves."  
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Backyard FARMacy  Summer Guide is here!

6/25/2018

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Download

your

free

copy

now!
Free Summer FARMacy Guide
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Farm-To-You  @  Woodcreek Today!

5/15/2018

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Wondering what's on the carte from the farm this month?

Eggs
Honey
Fresh cut herbs - multiple varieties
Tomato plants  (Homestead - Heirloom)
Calendula plants (Pot Marigold)
Shasta Daisy plants
Vermicompost
Composting Worms


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Shasta Daisy

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Calendula

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Our Little Barnyard has two missions when it comes to growing edible plants.  Our first priority is to grow plants listed on the Dirty Dozen list in order to have healthier food. Foods on the Dirty Dozen list are the top twelve foods containing the highest levels of pesticides and herbicides.  We do not use pesticides or herbicides on the farm. 

Our second priority is to grow superfoods.  A superfood is an exceptionally good food naturally high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants or omega-3 fatty acids.  These foods are good for improving one's health and for boosting the immune system. 

Herbs

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

5/14/2018

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WOW!  The cooler temperatures are gone and my gardens are growing like weeds!  Oh... the weeds are also growing in the garden, but so far I've been able to keep up with most of the weeding.  Check out these pictures from before and after a two week trip I just returned from.  Can't believe how much things grew during my absence.  Scroll on down to find out what all is growing on the farm.

Before

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After

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What's growing on the farm?

On the arch gardens, we have several varieties of heirloom squash, watermelon, pumpkins and gourds growing with a few marigolds and nasturtium mixed in for insect control.  Inside the arch gardens we have a variety of heirloom tomatoes.  One will also find a few hay bales in one of the arches growing a mix of lettuce and carrots.  It will be interesting to see how the carrots grow in the bales!  During my time away from the farm, the swiss chard growing in one bale did not make it.  Down he side on one garden you can see the okra off to a good start.

We have additional hay bales growing rhubarb, collards, yellow squash and both green and gold zucchini.  I can't wait to try the gold zucchini!

The raised beds contain a variety of herbs, beets, kale, broccoli and various other veggies. 

This year we started a small blueberry patch.  So far it looks like we will have a few berries to harvest and sell at our Farm-To-You events.  The blackberry patch we started last year, and greatly expanded this year, is off to a great start.  We are not expecting to harvest many berries this year.  Our hope is to have a large harvest in the next couple of years.

Whenever possible, we grow heirloom and/or organic varieties of vegetables.  Our goal is to totally avoid GMO varieties.

We are a small farm with several small gardens that produce an abundance of foods.  If you would like to learn how to grow a lot of food in a very small space, check out our workshops!

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FARM-TO-YOU event!

4/18/2018

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We're so excited about our new program!

Next Tuesday will be our first Farm-To-You event!  We will be bringing products from the farm to a neighborhood in Fate.  If you are in the area, please stop by and say hello.  We would love to meet you!
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Wild Edible -Oxalis- Turn a Weed Into Tea

4/3/2018

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Oxalis can be found growing in most any yard or garden.  Many people try to kill this "ugly" weed.  I like to think of it as a food I didn't need to plant.  As we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  This beauty is good to eat.  Backpackers use it as a refreshing drink along the trail.  The flowers, leaves, stems, seed buds and tuber roots can all be eaten. 

How do you identify Oxalis?  It can have yellow, white or pink flowers.  There are 850 different species of Oxalises.  All have flowers with five petals.  The "clover like" leaf has three heart-shaped leaflets. Even though it looks like a clover, it's not related at all!  So how do they differ?  They both have three leaves.  Both have pink, yellow or white flowers.  The three leaves differ in that the true clover leaves are more rounded.  The clover leaf has a tiny toothed edge.  A full or partial white chevron design can be found on the green leaflets of the clover as well.    The easiest way to tell them apart is to wait until they bloom.  Oxalis will always have a five petal flower.  The clover bloom will be round in shape and some can be sort of spiky.

Tuber roots are eaten in New Zealand as a vegetable.  So dig up those pesky weeds from your yard, cut off the greens and flowers, wash off the roots and toss them in a roasting pan coated with our favorite cooking oil and bake for about 20 minutes until tender.  Then Wah Lah!  The weeding is done and you have a new root vegetable to serve with dinner!
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More Recipes

Now that's what I call hiding the evidence.  While enjoying a nice soup and salad on the patio with guest, just keep smiling as you pull up another spoonful of soup to your mouth when you hear them complement you on a weed-free garden! 

(Read the consumption warnings below.)
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Oxalis Cooler

1 quart water
1/2 cut Oxalis leaf/stem/flowers/seed pods
1 TBSP agave nectar or honey
Dash of salt

Mix in a blender, let sit in the fridge overnight,
Drink up and enjoy in the morning.

Roasted Oxalis Tubers

Oxalis Tea

Serve hot or cold.

1 Heaping TBSP Oxalis leaves and stems
1 Cup boiling water

Pour boiling water over the Oxalis and let it steep.
Drink hot, or add ice and cool.
Sweeten to taste.


Soup, Salad, & Stuffing

Dig up the oxalis roots.
Wash them well to remove the dirt.
Cover with your favorite cooling oil.
Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until tender.
You can toss the leaflets and stems in a soup or salad of your choice.  I've been told it's also good added to a fish or chicken stuffing. 
Oxalis has been said to reduce fever and increase appetite.  When applied as a topical, it can reduce inflammation.
Consumption Warnings:  As with many things, eating in excess is not a good thing.  Oxalis contains oxalic acid.  This acid can bind dietary calcium, resulting in a loss of calcium in your bones.  When eaten in excess, it can also cause kidney disease.  One can find this warning in most articles on eating Oxalis.  However, these same warnings are not found on other items such as black tea, parsley, rhubarb, spinach, chard, beets, cocoa, nuts, berries, black pepper and beans which also contain oxalic acid.
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    Farm Owner

    A Mattingly - Owner and operator of Our Little Barnyard.  Can't believe it's been over twenty years since I started living the farm dream!  What an amazing and challenging journey it has been!

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    Our Little Barnyard
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  • Grace Blog
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