Whiteley Creek Homestead

LIFE AT THE END OF A DIRT ROAD IN CENTRAL MINNESOTA

organically grown triticale in our field
canoeing in our wetlands
raspberries growing wild on our property
our back porch fieldstone fireplace

about

Category: gardening and hens

  • foraging for food

    I wanted to make Chicken Tomato Gravy to serve atop mashed potatoes, so my youngest grandson helped me dig some new baby potatoes from my garden.  There were chickens to feed and eggs to gather…  and raspberry icebox pie to make for supper. 

  • first csa box of the season

    Today I picked up my first CSA box for the 2010 season. Each pickup is so much fun to see what in-season produce will determine the week's menu, but this box was especially exciting because of its long-awaited arrival. The CSA deliveries to our drop site at the Crow Wing County Food Co-op in Brainerd (Minnesota) were to begin the week…

  • KLKS and The Circle of Life

    When I drive, I listen to KLKS 104.3 FM Breezy Point (Minnesota). When I wash dishes, I listen to KLKS. When I'm blogging or doing office work, I listen to KLKS. In my housekeeper role when I'm cleaning cabins at my bed and breakfast, I listen to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Luther Vandross, Harry Connick,…

  • planting tradition

    My father, who died five years ago, was born May 20, 1910 so he would be 100 years old today. I always plant potatoes on his birthday in honor of him because when I was a kid growing up in a family of 14, we planted huge crops of potatoes that we stored in our root cellar to carry us…

  • chitting

    A funny term… but so very useful. "To chit" means to presprout seeds or potatoes so they have started making a root prior to planting.     To chit peas and beans, soak the seeds in lukewarm water. In this photo, I am soaking 'old spice mix' sweet pea, 'dwarf gray' sugar pea, and scarlet runner beans in…

  • this girl is a woman now

     In the words of Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, "This girl is a woman now. She's found out what it's all about. She would never be the same again." One of my three 19 1/2 week-old hens (Flossie, Olga, and Phoebe) laid its first egg this morning! It is small. as first eggs are, but I am more than…

  • garden planning tool

    I created this diagram of my garden layout with a new garden planning tool that I discovered. You can easily move the plant symbols around to a different location until you have it just right. It's so easy to visualize what your garden will look like. To determine placement, I first decided upon what I wanted to grow. Next, I grouped the…

  • gardening supplies giveaway

        Imagine Childhood is having a giveaway for an Organic Gardening Gift Set worth over $75.00 to one lucky winner, but you must act fast! You must have your comment submitted onto their site by 2 p.m. MST today. Here's a time zone map, so you can see how much time you have left to get your submission in. The winner…

  • hydroponic farm and green drink

    This morning, my friend Sharon and I toured the Urban Oasis Farm in Tampa where veggies are grown hydroponically in a sterile soiless growing media. Since the purpose of the "soil" is for root support and not for nutrients, such material as pebbles and mulch are sometimes used. Urban Oasis chooses to use a growing media consisting…

  • gardening course

    Yesterday marked the end of my first term towards earning my Bachelors Degree in Holistic Nutrition. I completed all tests, projects, and exams in my two courses Fundamentals of Holistic Nutrition and Basic Herbology. That is why my posts have been so few and far between the past few weeks. I have been one very busy student! Today,…