Tuesday, March 30, 2010

First harvest

Well we had our first mini harvest this evening. it was just a bit of chive and a leaf of dandlion. As harvests go it was small but it was still significant. The chives could be combined with the eggs that our chickens are now producing with very little effort to make a nice greens omlet and we could serve it up with some garlic wilted dandelion leaves for a March fresh Minnesota grown meal. I know it can be tricky to eat locally some months of the year around here. But combined with the remnants of last falls pickles the march Minnesota garden can in fact feed you quite well.
In gardening notes,
I have extended the chicken garden. By forking over the loose soil and sod and throwing the sod to the chickens along with the dandelion roots I have already doubled the size of the chicken garden. We plan to grow some grains for storage and for feeding to the chickens during the winter. We will also grow chard to feed them during the summer to supplement the grass and grubs they get on their own.

3 comments:

Aimee said...

Our chives are coming up too but I hadn't thought about eating them yet. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt them. I think that's about the only edible thing around here at the moment.

I haven't read through the whole history of your blog - have you talked about the chicken garden before? I'm curious to hear more about that.

We've been talking about growing some kale for the girls this year.

Mr. H. said...

I am really looking forward to hearing more about the way you will be supplimenting your chickens diet via the garden. A green that you might consider growing a small patch of for the birds is belgian endive. It produces large greens all summer and if you leave the roots in the ground will come up again in the early spring....and the chickens love it.

Frustrated Farmer Rick said...

Aimee-Last year I planted a small garden next to the coop to supplement the feed that I have to buy in for the chickens. It was kind of disorganized. Like most of my endeavors, but it did help cut down on the amount of feed I had to purchase during the growing season. I have really grown to love kale. I grow the red Russian variety and it has become one of our favorite vegetables. Mine seems to grow a bit slow for use as a chicken fodder. I can pretty easily grow more swiss chard than I can eat so have in the past used that as chicken feed.

Mr. H- As always I am off to a slow disorganized start this year. The plan is to grow some grain along with the chard. We are planning to plant quinoa and amaranth. I may also plant some mammoth sunflowers if I have enough space. I also am planning on growing squash for the girls again as well. Also the plan is to go quite large into beans. Well I have done the talking. we will have to see if I can do the growing now.