Attack of the killer Tomatoes

Has anyone seen that film apart from me? You should watch it should the opportunity ever present itself. It is so dreadfully awful that it is hilarious. I was reminded of it this afternoon when I was outside picking the ripened tomatoes from our garden. It is so hot today, that they were literally cooking in their own skins.

I'm going to offer some to anyone who knocks on my door today! Namely that will be our cleaner for one. I wonder who else providence might send our way?

Otherwise, they are destined to become tomato and basil sauce for pasta!

Still waiting....

Today marks the 11th day of Bertha's long incubation of her eggs. It seems so much longer since we set the eggs under her, but I have checked and double checked the date we set her, and it is definitely day 11. I am tempted to candle the eggs, but as I wouldn't even know what I am looking at, I have refrained from doing so. What will be, will be. I just hope they're progressing and we will end up with chicks out of all this.

I went up to the coops today with some kangaroo mince which I fed to the other three girls, and when Bertha smelled it and heard the special "Ohhhh we have goodies!" call of the other hens, she decided to get off her nest. I gave her some of the mince, which she gobbled down happily, along with some grains and then she proceeded to have a drink, and a leisurely dustbath. She is looking quite scruffy because she has pulled out a lot of her feathers to line her nest. I was going to snap a photo to show everyone, but by the time I went back up there with the camera she was just settling back on her eggs and I didn't want to disturb her again. She looks well and happy otherwise, so I think she is going to see this through.

In the meantime, we have been busy in our garden again and spent yesterday planting seeds and seedlings. We finally got our seed potatoes into the ground, along with planting out the pumpkin seedlings I have been nurturing. We also planted rockmelons, watermelon, beans, zucchini and button squash.

Seed Potatoes.

Yes, there really are little pumpkin plants here!

The chooks were busy, too! (A couple of these were from the day before)

They really enjoy their summer coop!

A well deserved lunch after the hard work.

And this is what Solly, my cat, thinks of hard work!

 It was good to get the planting done, and relax in front of the telly with our special "Grand Finals" cheese and vege platters for lunch!

Bokashi, Books and Broody hens

 It was time to bury another bucket full of Bokashi today so I took it up to where I buried the last lot on August 29, almost a month ago! My how time flies! I was curious to know how well the last lot I buried had broken down and I remembered saying on my blog that I would let you all know how it went. If you recall I said in THIS POST That I gathered up windfall citrus to bury with the bucket full of citrus peels, vege scraps, eggshells, and other waste from the kitchen mixed with Effective Microoganisms to help it break down. 

I started to dig where I had buried the last lot and was very surprised at how soft the ground here was. I turned over a spadeful of the most delicious smelling compost! It's kind of fruity and sweet smelling and very moist.

 For the most part, the scraps and peels had broken down completely, although there were still some little bits of citrus mixed through.

Citrus in the compost

I think that the bits of citrus that had not broken down yet might actually be from the whole ones I put in that I picked up around the yard. Anything that had been cut into small pieces and processed in the bucket prior to burying was gone!

I am really very pleased with this.

The vege patch continues to thrive, despite the potting mix we planted it in being quite hydrophobic and not holding moisture very well.

We have Roma Tomatoes coming on nicely!

 We actually put some soil on some of the veges, from the bokashi compost pit, to see if it helps at all with moisture retention. We won't be doing the 'no dig' gardening method again, though. It hasn't really saved us any work because of the time involved in trying to keep the roots moist.

I am reading a good book at the moment called Frugavore: How to grow your own, buy local, waste nothing, and eat well by Arabella Forge. I'm really enjoying it and will post a review once I have finished it. Sandra is reading Changing Habits, Changing Lives by Cindy O'Meara and I want to read that after she is done with it.

Broody Update: Bertha sat all day again, today. I think she may have been up for some food and water early in the morning, but hadn't stirred again all day. It was a very warm day and I was concerned about her, so I went and tried to put some water on her beak to tempt her to drink from a little bowl I had with me, she told me where to get off! I left her alone after that, but when I took a wet mash up for the other girls this afternoon, I offered some to her in her own little bowl and she ate about 1/4 cupful. That is food and water mixed together with some egg added so I am content that she won't starve or dehydrate. I've left a small bowl of water and a little bit of mash next to her nest for her as well. She must think this is the life. No egg laying, a comfy secure box all to herself and room service laid on!

Spring has truly sprung. bukcluck!

In the springtime, it seems a young hen's fancy turns lightly to raising chicks!

Much as I would adore some little hatchlings trotting around after their mumma hen, I am not set up as yet for raising chicks, or for brooding them myself should the hen go off the set. :( I wish I could let her have some chicks, but I simply don't know enough and it would probably be unfair to her, and the babies.


I have heard that it is possible for eggs to hatch if you put them down your shirt/bra, but I am not keen to find out if that's true! Besides which, I don't even have fertile eggs as I have no rooster. I guess, clucky as Bertha and I may be, it will be the sin bin for her tomorrow if she is still setting.

Making EM Culture!

The past few weeks, I have been conducting highly classified, secret business! I didn't say anything about it until now, because this was the first time I had tried this recipe and I didn't want to embarrass myself if I created a horrendous zombiefied lactobacilli based monster and unleashed horror upon the world.

Yes, I was trying to culture lactobacillus, amongst other organisms for my bokashi bucket. Being on a pension, I try to do everything as frugally as I can, and am slowly teaching myself never to buy what I can make for myself, so, following THIS RECIPE I decided to try and make my own EM (Effective Microorganism) innoculant for bokashi composting. I was a bit worried that all I would end up with, would be a sour, stinking mess, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A couple of weeks ago, when we were going to eat rice for dinner, I washed my rice and reserved the water, setting it in a large jar in a dark cupboard for 7 days.

It came out, looking something like this

Image via Hawaii Healing Tree.

So, first part, successful! Now I had to add 10 parts milk, to 1 part rice water. I measured out 100ml of the water, to which I added 1 litre of milk, and back into the cupboard it went for another week.

That part came out looking like this:

Not the most appealing looking stuff!

I admit, I expected this to smell revolting, even though the recipe said that it should just smell like yoghurt, and I was surprised when I took the lid off, to discover it did actually smell just like, well, yoghurt! So that was looking good! I then strained out the solids from the liquid and put the liquid into another bottle which I added half a teaspoon full of molasses to.

There was a little fluid left over after filling the new bottle, so I poured that onto some potted plants as it is meant to be good for the soil.

It looks a lot nicer in this, final state, and it should keep for about 6-12 months under refrigeration. It smelled sweet because of the molasses and if it ever smells sour, it will mean that it has gone rancid and should be discarded.

Oh, as for the milk curds?

The chooks got to enjoy those!

Poor Bertha, she still doesn't understand about food and fences!

Omnivorous Chooks

Green Jungle Fowl

When I posted on my blog recently about my chickens going nuts over canned sardines, my friend DivaJyoti commented that she hadn't known chickens would eat fish.

Chickens actually prefer to follow an omnivorous diet. The chickens we know today, that scratch around in barnyards or (sadly) rot away in battery farms, for shame! tend to be fed on a grain based diet, more because it is convenient for us. The domestic hen, gallus domesticus is actually descended from the Jungle Fowl:

• Gallus gallus
• Gallus lafayetii
• Gallus sonneratii
• Gallus varius (pictured)

Jungle Fowl originate from India, Sri Lanka, South East Asia, and Indonesia. In their wild state, jungle fowl eat a varying diet consisting of fruits, grains, vegetation, small rodents, lizards, bugs, slugs and insects. When allowed to 'free range' our domestic chickens will do much the same. I've heard of domestic fowl eating mice, lizards, beetles, worms, caterpillars snails and slugs. In fact, a flock of chickens let loose in a matured vegetable garden will nibble little bits of the veges, but will also keep the garden almost completely pest free. They particularly favour the larvae of coddling moth! Yesterday, I gave my chooks 100g of kangaroo mince.

Someone mentioned on a poultry forum I frequent, that feeding kangaroo meat to chooks is an extreme sport. After trying this myself, I'd have to concur. There was none of that hesitant peering at it before taking a small peck to taste it that you normally see when offering a new type of food. Rosie tried to rip the meat out of my hand before I even got the wrapper off it! 

Velociraptor

Then it was on for young and old as my gentle, 'boking', scratching hens turned into miniature velociraptors, jumping up, flapping at me, trying to snatch beakfuls of meat out of my fingers (they rarely eat from my hand) and chasing each other all over the chook pen trying to snitch pieces out of each other's mouths. All the while, they were making that special high pitched muuuur-uurrrrrr! sound that chooks reserve for only the best and tastiest morsels.

I think they like it!
Images via wikepedia

The Garden

I was a bit sore and sorry today after yesterday's efforts in the yard, so I confined myself to lighter activities such as photography and light housework. I thought I would share some photos of our garden. This is the first year that we have tried having a serious vege garden as opposed to growing a couple of lettuces in a pot.

Roma Tomatoes

 

 

 

They're floweing!

 

Dwarf Peas

 

Various Lettuces

Pumpkin seedlings

These are just the first few things we have planted and we've already eaten a few leaves off some of the lettuces. They're very tasty and soo fresh! Free Range egg and home grown lettuce on a sandwich. It doesn't get any better than that.

I also took photos of some of the other plants in our garden.

Sunflower Seedlings sprouting for the chooks

The flowering Mulberry tree!

A native honey bee pollenating the mulberry blossom

 

More Mulberry flowers

Young Marigolds

Mango blossom

 

Budding Jasmine

 

Jasmine

 

 

Not sure what this is called, but it's pretty!