An Acre And A Half
My little corner of the world

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Chicken love

Yes, it's true. I'm in love with my chickens. All seven of them. There used to be eight, but the neighbor's dog got one of them when we weren't looking. So sad.

Why do I love my chickens? Well, who wouldn't love such gorgeous creatures? I mean, just look at those beautiful feathers -





I love the sounds they make and their quirky personalities. And best of all, I feed them my kitchen scraps, and they give me these -


Fresh natural free range eggs, right outside my back door. I love my chickens. And they love me. See how they just can't wait to see me when I open the door of their coop? -


You don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact that I'm the one with the food, do you?

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Oven roasted Ratatouille

We have so many wonderful veggies growing in our garden. Along with corn-on-the-cob that I picked this afternoon, for supper I served a delicious melange of eggplant, yellow bush scallop squash, red and yellow bell peppers, Roma tomatoes, torn basil leaves, onions, and garlic, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and coriander...


then roasted in the oven.


And that's how I made oven-roasted Ratatouille. Oh, my, was it fantastic! And all the vegetables except for the onion came from my own backyard!












































































































































































































































Sweet corn: It's what's for dinner

Went out and picked this year's first batch of sweet corn from the garden today -

Worms got into it a little bit. That's to be expected when you grow organically, I guess. But it's not so bad - as I was shucking, I was tossing the worms to the chickens and they gobbled them right up. Extra protein! It's a win-win situation!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Broccoli from seeds

This year I decided to start my broccoli from seeds instead of buying the plants. It's much less expensive that way. I started the seeds in peat pots and kept them under the grow light in the basement for about three weeks. I moved them outdoors just yesterday, to get them used to being outside. Once the plants get their first set of true leaves, you have to repot them in a larger pot if it's not quite time to move them to their permanent home in the garden. Bury them in dirt up to the cotyledons to keep them from flopping over. I had to learn the hard way.



In a couple of months we'll be enjoying tasty organic broccoli, straight from our backyard. Can't wait!

Welcome to my world

I swore I'd never start another blog.

I lied.

This one's going to be about me and my life here on this little one and a half acre sorta suburban homestead in the Piedmont of North Carolina, where I live with my husband and kids (well, four out of five of them), my chickens, and my cat. I want to talk about stuff I'm growing and cooking and canning and other things that I'm learning and how I manage my little piece of heaven on earth. My world is pretty much centered on this little plot of land, and I love it. Welcome to my acre and a half.