Sisyphus Acres

and the orchard...

Blueberries have flowered off, looks like we'll get our first decent crop.  The apples and cherries also flowered off, hoping we get something there too.  Pears didn't flower, and only one of the plums, but we are getting there!  Blackeberries and grapes have started to wake up, and the hazelnut bushes look wonderful!  I have to replace one of the pears and lay in one last fruit tree to complete the driveway orchard.  Looks like I have to replace the walnuts and possibly one of the elderberries.  My arctic kiwi may need to be replaced by the nursery ~ I bought them this year, and they don't look so good, we'll see...

good night, off to bed!

val

even quicker on the herbs...

Haven't really gotten fully into the herb patch yet, the quince flowewred, so maybe fruit this year?  I hope so...I did plant ginger mint, and a new peppermint and lemon balm, some wintergreen and lemon grass.  I planted some garlic chives (in addition to the regular chives), and some lemon verbena (hope that survived the last light frost ~ I forgot to check), I planted some basil and some pineapple sage, catmint, and catnip.  Tomorrow I go to the nursery where I usually find some unusual stuff, so wish me luck...lol!

In the "greenhouse" I still have several herbs starting, including Milk thistle, toothache plant, and many other perennial gems ~ hope they all pop up in thyme (pun intended)

val

quick veggie garden update ~

I am back taking classes, Hannah's ready to "graduate" 8th grade, and I am filling in for someone else at work while still doing my job...oh and I need to get VBS ready before June 22nd ~ so I dont have much time right now to get on and keep things updated, sorry for that.  GArden is in full swing now, should have it finished being planted tomorrow except for corn, that may have to wait a day or two...

What I've planted so far: 180 garlic (last fall ~ they are 2 feet tall now), 90 potato starts, 25 cabbages, 20 brussel sprouts, 30 broccoli, 34 navy beans, 17 kidney beans, 24 cukes, 50 rutabaga, 25 turnip, 30 tomatoes, 12 bell peppers, 6 banana peppers, 6 jalapenos, 12 "fooled you jalapenos" (awaiting transplant, 6 "Hannah's choice" melons (picked cuz they are named after hannah of course...lol), 3 early butternut, 12 other various winter squashes, 10 pumpkins, 3 summer squashes, 3 types of lettuces, strawberry spinach, 50 shelling peas, 20 snap peas.  Still to go in...about 400 carrots, 200 corn, soybeans and beets, radishes and parsnips, maybe some okra, but almost finished...whoops green beans still have to get in too.

oh, and a few experimentals to plant ~ red and blue corn, for grinding into corn meal (and for decoration), and maybe a few mangels (sugar beets) ~ if I have the room...nothing too exciting on the "try me" board this year...but getting closer to the enough to preserve to feed us year round goal!

Have a great week everyone!

val

Birch Rootbeer and tapping birch...

There were a few questions about the birch sap/rootbeer, so I thought I’d address them a bit.

This is our first successful year tapping birch, it’s not done around here so no one new when the sap would run ~ the last 2 years we put them in when the maple was running and …nothing.  This year we put the taps in late March ~ and they ran!  Basically near the very end of maple season here in northern NH ~ probably the same elsewhere J

Yes, birch trees are tapped just like maple trees ~ we use metal taps and buckets ~ cuz we only tap 5 trees ~ but we only needed one this year for the 2 batches we made.  Do not tap when the tree starts to bud or leaf off, the sap then becomes very bitter.  It only keeps from 2-5 days, so processing needs to happen quickly.  You can freeze it, though I haven’t tried that.

The sap can (and has been traditionally used) as a spring tonic, it is slightly sweet, with a faint wintergreen (and somewhat nutty, like an almond) flavor. The sap, which pours out like water from the trees during a few weeks in the early spring, is said to be one of the healthiest and purest drinks, full of minerals that the tree has sucked up from the ground. In Russia this tonic and concentrated birch syrup is used as a traditional herbal medicine functioning as antiseptic, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-itching treatment.

Birch sap can really only be made into syrup effectively using reverse osmosis processing.  It takes 90 gallons of birch sap to make a gallon of syrup, so boiling it down would take way too long, though I’m sure it could be done.

I made birch rootbeer this year ~ two kinds ~ one where I bought birch beer extract and mixed that with the sap, sugar and champagne yeast ~ it’s the quick way, bottles off right away, ready in two weeks.  The second, and more traditional method I did as well ~ cutting birch twigs, and boiling them in birch sap mixed with honey, then floating yeast on a slice of rye bread.  Mixture sits for a few days up to a week, then you bottle it off, it sits for 3 months then it’s ready.

We’ll see how they both come out, the easy batch is bottled of ~ will go in the fridge soon.  The traditional batch will be getting bottled off tonight.  Not sure if it will still be root beer and not just beer after 3 months, but we’ll see J

You can make real birch beer (alcoholic) and fruit wines using the sap...there's lots of info here http://www.uaf.edu/snras/afes/pubs/misc/MP_04_02.pdf .

Time to begin planting the dormant stuff, my dad dropped in the last 6 blueberry bushes Monday, and I dropped in the Staceyville pear and two arctic kiwi.  I have 10 cranberry plants left to drop, maybe tonight if the rain holds off.  I will start seedlings this weekend and make some seed tapes for the carrots, will make planting so much easier!  The mini greenhouse dd bought for me for Christmas is up and outside in the sun, so it is ready to go!

I also finished painting another bird house, so 4 are out in the yard along with the 2 bee houses…spring is winding its way in…

Quick update ~ birch beer bottled!

I've been running like a madwoman for the past few weeks, busy at work, busy at home, busy at church, hannah busy at school functions, and just a lot of extra stuff to cram in, so I haven't been on a lot...

It's not quite time for planting here is zone 4, but the garlic has popped up and I'm anxiously awaiting the asparagus...

I did manage to bottle off the first batch of birch rootbeer this weekend, and will bottle the 2nd batch this week.  The first batch was made with sap, sugar, champagne yeast and birch extract.  The second one is the real macoy ~ birch sap boiled with birch twigs, blended with honey and yeast.  The first batch will be ready to drink in 2 weeks, the second batch a few months.

Each batch is 4 gallons, and at 8 pounds a gallon makes for 64 pounds of production before the season even starts!  I am going to keep track of pounds of production this year as part of the freedom garden project.

The blueberry bushes were delivered so I'm going to plant those this week, gearing up and getting ready, spring is creeping in slowly and I rearing to go!  I'm pretty sure there are other goodies in with the blueberries, but I can't remember what I ordered, and rather than check my email receipts right now, I'm going to let it be a surprise.  We have 25 balsam fir coming in 2 weeks, so it's time to kick it into high gear :-)

But right now, I'm exhausted, and crashing ~ so I'm off to bed.

val