Independence Days Update

Independence Days Challenge Update. The original idea from Casaubon’s Book which can be found here. Link

You can find this weeks update here along with other updates in the comment section.

1.Plant something – more green beans, swiss chard

2. Harvest something – lettuce ( starting to bitter from heat), peppermint, cilantro, basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, lemon balm, lemon thyme, chives, mexican marigold also known as (texas tarragon), dill, summer savory, lots of green onion, hot peppers.

The dill is starting to head.

We will soon have zucchini and cabbage. Nothing I like better than a cabbage stir fry.


3. Preserve something – chopped green onion for recipes in freezer. More dried herbs.

4. Prep something – I would think fixing our pond pipe, Link , would qualify as preparing since we must prepare to save our fish in that particular pond. Still weeding and watering.

5. Cook something – new! Lemon Tea Bread and Lemon Balm butter recipe from Cooks.com.

Turned out great! Read about it here.

6. Manage your reserves- Thinking about canning shelving to hold more canned goods in an extra closet, but haven’t done anything about it yet.

7. Work on local food systems - Neighborhood fishing, which we allow because ponds can get overpopulated just like forests. We do have to monitor how often it goes on though.

We had one neighbor that began to just come and take fish anytime he wished and we finally had to tell him not to come without permission. Funny but he hasn’t been back since. That was several years ago too.

Our community is great. We have had neighbors fix our lawnmowers and patch our roof totally free of charge. All they want in return is to fish every now and again.

We also swap out garden veggies, like if our potato harvest is great but our green beans don’t fair so well, we will give certain neighbors potatoes for green beans and the likes of that. Just an example of the wonderful neighbors we have.

8. Manage waste- Still trying to remember to throw on compost heap and donated some old furniture to charity.

9. Learn something new – About Rhubarb diseases, mine has what is called Ascochyta leaf spot. See what that looks like here.