Menu Update

Aren't they cute? Grampa Tom had a fit. He thought I was planting his boots. The one with the strings is his boot, but it's an old one that I stuck away in the store room a couple of years ago when I first saw this project on Pinterest :) I'm asking $10/boot!

So this week we hope to have:
Grama Sues Pasture Raised Rainbow Eggs
Radishes
Kale
Chard
Red Onions
Sugar Snap Peas
Beets
Zucchni
Cucumbers
Cabbage
Kohlrabi
Carrots
Broccoli

We may be able to bring in some:
Tomatoes
Sweet Corn
Peaches and Melons

In the herb department we should have:
Greek and Italian Oregano
Sage
Dill
Thyme
Chives
Cilantro (Dried only)
Tarragon
Basil and Parsley

Come get some good eats!

God Bless You All!
~Grama Sue

This Week's Menu Possibilites

 While supplies last!

Grama Sue's Pasture Raised Rainbow Eggs
Salad Mix
Tomatoes (only available Fri. and Sat.)
Radishes
Kale
Chard
Green Onions
Rhubarb
Beets
Kohlrabi
Peaches
Broccoli
Strawberries
Turnips
Peas

This Week's Menu Possibilities

Grama Sue's Pasture Raised Rainbow Eggs
Spinach
Salad Mix
Tomatoes (only available Fri. and Sat.)
Radishes
Kale
Strawberries
Chard
Green Onions
Asparagus
Rhubarb
Cucumbers
Beets
Kohlrabi
Peaches
Sugar Snap Peas
Sage
Greek and Italian Oregano
Dill
Thyme
Chives
Cilantro
Dried Gourds
Blown Eggs
Plants:
   Aloe
   Calencula
   Lemon Balm
   Pumpkin on a Stick
   Hanging Flowers

Update on Grampa Tom

Life has been crazy busy with Grampa Tom down. Hate to be so MIA from this blog, but it's kinda low on the priority list right now :(  I am going to try to  post a list of menu possibilities once a week for anyone who might want us to deliver to their home.

Grampa Tom is slowly recovering. He had a set back with some infection in the incisions on his legs, but hopefully in a couple of weeks that will all be healed up.

He started cardiac rehab last week. His blood pressure has been really good since the surgery, but when he started the rehab, it shot way up. Don't know why that is, but they put him on some blood pressure meds and it is back down. The meds really knocked him out the first day. He seems to be adjusting to them now, although he tires really easily.

He is able to wash eggs and do some little things around the house. Can't wait till he can haul the 50# feed bags out to the chickens again! I am getting pretty strong though, I should probably keep doing it  :)

We have been so blessed by people who have stepped up to help. Several people have come to help plant and weed the gardens, lots of people have given money to help us through this difficult time and even more people have held us up in prayer!

Job 14:7 “For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that its tender shoots will not cease.

Grampa Tom may have been cut down, but a sapling that comes from a tree that has been cut down is often stronger than the original tree because of the large root supporting it. We are fortunate to have strong roots in God, in our family and in our community! Thank you for all you have done!

Hugelkultur Dog House

Since Grampa Tom was laid up, so many people have stepped forward to help us out. We are overwhelmed! Yesterday, my sister and brother-in-law from Waterloo came down to help with the garden. The big row gardens were too wet to work in, but it was a perfect day to rip sod and work on my hugelkultur dog house.

Hugelkultur is a raised bed garden style that was developed in Eastern Europe. The base of the garden is a wood pile covered with sod and compost. This type of bed has all the advantages of a regular raised bed plus! It creates more planting space because you can plant vertically as well as horizontally and the wood acts a sponge and long term fertilizer so you don't have to water or fertilize as much.

Most hugelkutures are built as 6-7 foot x 4-5 foot mounds with large logs at the base. My basic aim with this project was to build a nice warm dog house with a garden around it so I started with some pallets on the inside and then I stacked blocks around that to make nice dry walls.

Then I started building the garden beds.

 

I put up pallets and lined them with straw from my giant feather grass clump and paper feed bags to keep the dirt in. Then, I filled the beds with logs and twigs along with sod from the new garden bed.

I have been working on this for a few weeks now here and there so I had the walls about half way finished before my sister and her hubby showed up yesterday. It had taken me a long time, so I thought maybe we might get the walls to the 3/4 mark, but amazingly we got all the walls up, packed with wood and sod! It must have been Grampa Tom and my dog's expert supervision! Not really ;) Sharon and Clark worked their tails off!

We now have a large flower/herb bed on the corner of my in-laws drive way.

and some nicely filled hugelkultur walls!

The dog house still needs a roof. I'm planning on stuffing Saran wrapped pallets with packing peanuts and scrap styrofoam and wiring them to the top. I will top them with a large sheet of plastic or some tar paper and put some tin on top of that. The wood, dirt and sod that we put in will settle, probably by about a third, so I'm planning to keep filling the beds with yard waste and compost this summer.

 

TA-DA!!!! It doesn't look like much this year, but next year I hope to fill it with petunias tomatoes and gourds. Can't wait!
Tomorrow we are planning to tackle the big row gardens. We have some people coming to help and Grampa Tom is looking forward to his short stint of pure management :)


God Bless You All!

Grama Sue

Quincy Blessing Hospital

What do you see in this picture? A rock covered roof-top? Not me! I see an awesome space for greenhouses and container gardens :) Blessing hospital in Quincy, IL has lots of roof top space like this. 

Grampa Tom wound up there last week needing emergency open heart surgery. The whole place was terrific! The doctors knew what they were doing. The nurses, therapists and aides work their tails off! The social worker and financial counselor were incredibly helpful. They had a dark, quiet room for me to sleep in the night after his surgery and a very reasonable hospitality house across the road where I could get a shower, wash clothes, fix a meal and sleep for the rest of his stay. The food was even good! 

Yep, the only improvement I could suggest would be to improve the scenery a little with some roof top gardens. Perhaps the master gardeners program that works out of Quincy could make this a project. Not only would it give patients something beautiful to look at, but they could produce a good deal of the fresh veggies for the hospital.

Lemon Balm

This patch of lemon balm is going to be torn out this year. Grampa Tom and I use so much lemon balm during the summer that I thought I needed another bed, but I've got so many little patches turning up here and there that I've decided this space would be better used as a parsley patch.

I usually don't bring cut lemon balm to the markets because it wilts to quickly, but I'm planning to put this bed in pots to bring all summer long so my customers can grow it too. Lemon balm needs full sun to produce to it's full potential, but like any plant in the mint family, it can survive just fine in partial shade. Be careful where you put it though! It's a weed. It spreads by the roots as well as by seed. To keep it contained, you should put some sort of a boarder around it and keep it cut so it doesn't flower.

We use lemon balm on a daily basis during the summer when it is abundant. I even bring a pot of it in during the winter. Lemon balm makes a wonderful tea. We mix it with the green tea that we make into iced tea. It is also great in salads, soups or on sandwiches.


It's great for any type of skin irritant, bee stings, bug bites, rashes, cold sores ... just rub the leaves on the affected area. Lemon balm has been shown to have anti-viral qualities. Citral (the chemical that creates the lemon smell) has been shown to cause cancer cells to self-destruct.


Got a toothache? Put a few leaves between the affected tooth and your cheek. The pain will start to subside within a few minutes :)


I make a tincture of it to use on mouth sores during the winter, and I'm experimenting with making lotions, creams and salves with it. Haven't got that one down yet - still in product development (shhh... That means I haven't gotten around to finishing what I started.)


It's also reported to be good for anxiety, insomnia, colic and upset tummies. It is even been proven to help Alzheimer's patients be less agitated.


Lemon balm also seems to be a pretty safe herb to use. The only warnings I can find about it are cautions when using with sedatives. Lemon balm can increase the potency of these drugs.



Our chickens love it. They always keep any stems that try to escape the garden trimmed back well. I try to dry some every summer to give them a treat during the winter :) Dried lemon balm looses it's scent quickly, but if you put it in the freezer it keeps pretty well.
So be looking for it when you come see me!


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue