• About
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

[Insert Clever Blog Title Here]

~ Jamie writes about whatever.

[Insert Clever Blog Title Here]

Monthly Archives: September 2016

Harvest Time

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

Posted by Jamie Lee in Backyard Chickens, Canning & Preserving, Gardening, This Week on the Homestead

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

canning, chickens, country life, Dog, farm life, gardening, harvest, homesteading, pastured pork, pigs, preserving

The best/busiest time of the year.  I am in awe of the farmers around us who work around the clock when it’s time to harvest.  You’ll often see them combining well past dark, headlights shining, trying to get the crop off before bad weather hits.  Thank you, farmers.  Growing up in the city, I never learned to truly appreciate the work they do to feed us.  I’m only one generation removed from the farm, and yet, I really had no idea what harvest entailed.

So watching the combines and swathers at work day and night has really put my small harvest in perspective; however, I feel no less busy.  Often I’m working well past dark to put aside the fruits of our labours, which will feed us during the winter.  Indulge me a crazy moment here, but I feel in my bones that it’s going to be a bad winter.  It’s going to be cold and snowy, so I’m in full on winter prep mode.  I have no reason to back up this feeling, but what’s the worst that can happen?  If it’s an awful winter, then we’re prepared; if it’s a mild winter, then we’re over prepared – win-win situation.

First up, potatoes.

Day 5 of #septemberharvest is #bushel. This is about half of the potato harvest. I think when we're done we'll have a bushel of potatoes. #potatoes #larder #storeyourown #growyourown #saskatchewan

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 6, 2016 at 12:10pm PDT

 

We have so many potatoes.  We’ve only harvested half the potatoes we planted so far – the fingerlings and the Yukon Gold.  I still have Blue Russian and our own Hilliard Steet seed potatoes (we’ve saved the seed for about three years, and I no longer remember what type of potato they are!)  I thought we’d have at least a bushel of potatoes (which I think is 50 pounds) but now I’m thinking we’ll have more like three or four bushels of potatoes.  The fingerlings alone were 50 pounds, and we have to eat those right away because they don’t store very well.  Potatoes with every meal this winter – breakfast, lunch and supper.

 

Onions

Day 8 of #septemberharvest is #produce. Here's our onion haul for the year. Red onions, Spanish onions, yellow onions and a few shallots. Probably about 25 pounds. The best we've ever produced (we've battled onion maggots for years) but still not enough to last all winter. #biggergardennextyear #onions #harvest #saskatchewan

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 8, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

 

This is the BEST onion harvest we’ve ever had.  We’re so pleased with our onions!  To finally have a garden that doesn’t have onion maggots is simply wonderful.  Next year, plant fewer potatoes and more onions.

 

Tomatoes

Day 6 of #septemberharvest is #work. I took the day off real work today to recover from our housewarming hootenanny yesterday, which was fantastic!! Anyway, spent the morning cleaning up after the party and now I'm pulling my tomatoes since there was frost last night already and they're not going to ripen on the vine at this point anyway. #garden #gardening #tomatoes #Saskatchewan #growyourown

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 6, 2016 at 3:22pm PDT

 

I pulled all the tomatoes quite early because we had a couple nights of hard frost at the beginning of the month.  The tomatoes didn’t fair so well anyway – a lot of them had damage on them from something (?), and they are now molding as they ripen.  Next year, the tomatoes have to be planted in a more sheltered spot.  They’re a bit too sensitive for a country garden.

 

Fruit

Day 11 of #septemberharvest is #canning. Got eight pounds of peaches and seven pounds of long-fermented dills canned late last night. The whole house was a steaming pit of hell. The windows, the floors, the countertops – everything was damp. #canning #preserving #peachpreserves #dillpickles #saskatchewan #harvest #storeyourownfood

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 11, 2016 at 4:31pm PDT

Harvested the grapes from our old house tonight (which is now our rental property). The grapes were lovely but the garden and yard we put so much work into for ten years has pretty much gone to ruin in six months. Kinda sad to see. #grapes #Saskatchewan

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 16, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

Canned some lovely pears today with @mo_heather. Trying to get others as excited about canning as I am, so I have people to can with next season! #preserving #canning #storeyourown #foodinjars #Saskatchewan #homesteading

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 18, 2016 at 6:02pm PDT

 

I’ve put up peaches, pears, cherries, apples, sour cherries, and grapes – the last two in the form of juice.  The larder is coming along very nicely.

 

Day 12 of #septemberharvest is #pantry. I don't really have a pantry in this house so my goal is to stock the larder in the basement. The canned goods are coming along nicely, and we're already running out of room in the cold storage. Good harvest this year! #gardening #harvest #coldstorage #larder #canning #growyourown #storeyourownfood #saskatchewan

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 12, 2016 at 8:49pm PDT

 

Squash

Frost tonight so we pulled the pumpkins, spaghetti squash and butternut squash. Basically we'll be eating potatoes and pumpkins all winter. #pumpkineverything #squash #gardening #saskatchewan #growyourown #larder

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 12, 2016 at 8:55pm PDT

 

The star of the garden this year (besides the multitudinous potatoes) was definitely the pumpkins.  Over thirty pumpkins!  The most I’ve ever grown was ten, so I don’t really know what I’m going to do with thirty pumpkins this winter.  We also had a couple of spaghetti squash and butternut squash, but they didn’t do as well as the pumpkins.  Any pumpkin recipe is welcome.

 

Chickens

Day 11: #Dinner of #augusthomesteading. My dinner was Boston Pizza with my niece and my mother-in-law, so here's a shot of some of the animals enjoying their dinner. Pigs got slop and feed, and the littles ventured out further than they ever have from the coop for some fresh, wet grass. #homesteading #chickens #pigs #freerange #pasturedpork

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Aug 12, 2016 at 6:00am PDT

 

We finished butchering the last nine meat chickens.  The first six took us four hours to butcher, start to finish.  The last nine took an hour and a half, start to finish.  Yay for experience and learning!

My little laying chickens are growing bigger every day.  Just last night, I confirmed that out of five chicks, three of them are roosters.  Sigh.  That leaves me with only four hens going into winter, one of whom no longer lays.  And now I have to find homes for two roosters.  They’re already starting to crow and charge each other.  Perhaps someone would like to trade a roo for a laying hen?  I can assure you they are very good looking roosters!

 

Pigs

Three (not so) little pigs. #homesteading #hobbyfarm #saskatchewan #pasturedpork #pigs #growyourown

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Sep 21, 2016 at 5:52am PDT

 

All I can say is – not so little and cute anymore.  The biggest one has quite the attitude.  It will still be very difficult for me when it comes time to butcher, but they’re getting more aggressive by the day.  Still pretty awesome creatures, though.  I like them a lot more than I thought I would.  Since we butchered the meat chickens, we’ve basically only had the pigs for daily chores (the laying hens have a very large feeder and waterer).  I’m going to miss having the daily feeding chores.  Plus, I love having a slop pail to put all our food scraps in.  Nothing goes to waste.

 

In other news, we got ourselves a farm dog.  Her name is Jenna, and she’s a beauty.  Sleeps all day; barks all night.  Loves to wander far and wide.  Really loves to wander – she’s run away twice in the past month.  But we got her back – eventually.

Day 21: #new of #augusthomesteading. This is our new farm dog Jenna. We got her on Tuesday night. She ran away Wednesday morning. We found her Friday morning. She spent the last two nights sleeping in the porch so we know she's safe. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, she'll know to call this place home. #dogsofinstagram #farmdog #dogswithjobs #saskatchewan #homesteading.

A post shared by Jamie Shebelski (@sparrowhill2016) on Aug 21, 2016 at 7:38am PDT

 

Looking forward to things slowing down a bit now, once the harvest is all in and tucked away for the winter.  This weekend I’m going to pull the rest of the potatoes, and harvest the beets and carrots.  Next up will be hunting (moose and deer) and then the pigs.  Our larder shall be full indeed, and my heart full of gratitude for all the nourishing food.

Advertisements

Share this:

  • Click to email (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
About Button

Hey. I’m Jamie.

This is my blog about whatever I feel like writing about.  Usually about chickens.

Welcome.

Categories

Follow Dreambles

Receive notifications of new posts by email.

Instagram

Good morning chickies! First batch of littles entering the awkward teenage phase. • • • #chickensofinstagram #chickens #lovemychickens🐓 #saskatchewan #sparrowhillsk #sparrowhillhatch2018 #littles #smallfarm #ameraucanamix
Snowy view from the rehearsal hall today. Feels more like we should be rehearsing "Christmas at Pemberley" instead of Pride and Prejudice. #justno #wintergoawayalready #prideandprejudiceyxe #carolinebingleymeangirls1813 #saskatoon #saskatchewan #persephonetheatre
Ahhhhhhh! Two hundred bales of straw. I was so nervous for this. We decided to get a large quantity delivered instead of trying to haul small loads ourselves. This will last awhile. And we found a supplier not that far from home - support local rural economies! • Kitty likes it too 🐱 • • • #sparrowhillsk #saskatchewan #smallfarm #strawbales #carbonaceousdiaper #livestock #homesteading #homestead
A beautiful winter morning on the homestead. Too bad it's almost the middle of April. . . . #homestead #saskatchewan #sparrowhillsk #neverendingwinter❄️ #pleasespringplease #smallfarm #hoarfrost #fog #foggymorning
Advertisements

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.com

Archives

  • December 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012

Blog Stats

  • 61,931 hits

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.