Planting Peas & Finding Eggs...Spring is Coming!!

We planted Alaska Peas today in the garden. I've not planted them before, but here's what Victory Seeds has to say about them:

Alaska (Earliest of All)
55 days — This variety was introduced in 1881 in England as 'Earliest of All', by pea breeder Thomas Laxton. A cross of 'Ringleader' and 'Little Gem', it became the parent of many subsequent varieties. First offered in the United States in 1882 by James J. H. Gregory and was in several seed catalogs by 1883. It seems that it was renamed in 1884 by A. B. Cleveland of Cape Vincent, New York and given away as a premium for subscriptions to the periodical The Rural New Yorker. The name stuck.

The plants are twenty four to thirty six inches tall and grow well in cool soils. There are typically five to eight smooth peas in each round pod. Classically used for canning or freezing, also fine fresh or dry (in eighty days) for soups. Not a super sweet variety. Seeds are smooth.

We also got a surprise in the chicken coop today...an egg!! We've been without fresh eggs all winter and seeing an egg in the nesting box was pure bliss! Don't let anyone tell you that fresh, homegrown eggs aren't better than the store ones...my 7-year-old said the store ones were a bit like rubber when scrambled one morning. We're very excited to see that our flock is back in business! It's also a sure sign that spring is on the way!

Mother's Day...

We added a new berry to the OAH this afternoon! The girls (with the help of their PaPa) got me a huge "Austin Dewberry." It's around 4 1/2 feet tall & already producing, so I'll be exploring uses for Dewberrys in the next few weeks! If any of you have had them, please share recipes and preservation tips!

We've also been harvesting a bowlful of strawberries each day. I've learned that propping the berries up on the leaves helps with the rolly polly problem and keeps them off the wet soil, which has also proved to be detrimental.

Although the onions are not ready for a mass harvest, we are pulling one here and there to use and they are wonderful. I'm contemplating preservation methods for these, so please share if you have tips in this area, too. I plan to dehydrate some for quick additions to soups and stews and also chop some up for freezing. Of course, we'll eat lots of them fresh.

The potatoes are almost ready to harvest as needed. At first, we'll get new potatoes then we'll just dig them up a plant or two at a time. I've found that this is the best way to keep them from spoiling and they just keep growing as they wait for us to harvest.

Tomorrow we'll harvest our peas! This is my first ever successful crop of peas. I learned that I've always planted them WAY too late. I went by the Farmer's Almanac this year for my early plantings and boy has it paid off! The girls have enjoyed some of the peas right off the plants..they are amazingly sweet. I've even more excited that there are lots of new blooms so I know our harvest should continue. How do you preserve peas without a pressure canner? I'm saving $ for one, but they are so pricey. It doesn't help that I don't trust the cheaper ones with the weight...I'd prefer a pressure gauge so I'm sure our canned food is safe.

Everything's comin' up roses!!

The fruit trees are just beautiful right now! I couldn't resist taking tons of photos when I took a morning walk around the OAH on Tuesday morning. These are the blooms on the pear tree (above).

This one's the apricot tree you saw in the chicken coop photos.

These bright pink blooms are on a miniature weeping peach tree...the most unique of our four peach trees by far! Aren't the blooms an amazing color?

The blackberries are showing signs of life! Check out these tiny, perfect leaves on that beautiful reddish-brown cane.

Last, but not least, the wando peas! These are really outpacing the other peas we planted. It will be interesting to compare yields from these two so we'll know what grows best in our climate for future garden plans.

We are getting some cold rain this morning...and it's cold enough that it was frozen on the cars when we got out to go to school, so I'll be checking on the trees and garden later today to see how they are faring. Everything we've planted thus far can reportedly take a bit of a freeze...we'll see.

As for the chickens, I moved the bunny hutch in with the little chicks. Ginger's hutch has a ramp that opens down so she can come and go as she pleases...of course, she has never had the opportunity to test this out because I was afraid she'd squeeze under the fence and get away. Now that she is in with the chicks, they are having a great time! The chicks were a bit hesitant at first, but they warmed up quickly. So, Ginger will play with the chicks awhile then hop up into her hutch for a quick nap and snack. I gave the chicks comfy shelter filled with lamb's wool (too short to spin into yarn) and they seem to be handling the cold quite well. I'm keeping a close eye on them today in case they need to come into the garage, but so far...so good.

Keep the comments coming on Tuesday's post! I love the ideas everyone has sent for prettin' up the chicken coop/bunny run. I hope to work on it over Spring Break...so stay tuned!