CHANGING SEASONS ON THE HOMESTEAD
The joys abound around the homestead in the last days of summer and early Autumn. Our apple tree is giving up her fruit, the garden is sharing the last bounties to harvest.
My favorite harvest this season was the potatoes! I’ve never planted or harvested potatoes and it was so fun, it’s really like digging for treasure! I got the last of the jalapeños and chili peppers and made jalapeño salt and Hawaiian pepper water! So hot, it burnt my eyes to cook those chili peppers! I dried my jalapeños out in the food hydrator and it turned out awesome.
Potato harvest 
Potato digging 
Potato 
Hawaiian Pepper Water
We mowed down the corn stalks and weeds that were thriving where the onions, tomatoes, lettuce and peas once grew. The last of the green beans were left on the vine to dry in the sun, then picked for seed next year.
The chickens were laying daily for a few weeks so we were getting 4 a day! That’s awesome! The little girls are still not to laying age yet. We started working on the new coop and getting all the spaces ready for winter.
Farm Fresh Eggs 
eggs 
Tammy Kate & Sybil 
Sybil
The kitchen canning is all done, trust me I’m dancing s jig for that one! I do love all my fresh canned foods but those weeks of harvest are hard work and long hours in the kitchen. But is there anything more beautiful than home canned fruits and vegetables. I also like preserving foods in the freezer as well.
This autumn we are working on getting the new raised bed garden built and planting some garlic! I never knew garlic was planted in the fall and harvested in the spring. So neat! We are thinking of putting in rain barrels and compost bins next fall and I’ve been eyeing some baby doll sheep and a donkey. I may have lost my mind. I’ll have to hire a farm hand.
We finished the new coop, and have 16 girls now, only 4 are laying age yet, but they are doing fantastic. The coop was a labor of love and was my birthday present, that’s a good present. In all, it’s been a wonderful Summer and beginning of Autumn here on the homestead. We are ready to get that raised bed garden up and prepared for next spring.
