While in the upper garden area I was able to capture this moth pollinating our cucumber plant. It doesn’t happen very often being able to get video of this process but I’m grateful.

Do you have a sweet tooth? Need something for breakfast or a snack? Luckily I have lots of goodies you can choose from.

A wide variety baked goods from individual brownies, cookies and breads to full loaves of both quick and yeast breads. Also cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes and kolaches.

All items are made from scratch without preservatives. Only real butter is used and the eggs are provided by our chickens and ducks. Packaging is kept to a minimum as not to add more to a landfill.

You can find these goodies on Sunday in Ash Fork, AZ in the Family Dollar parking lot 8 am to 2 pm. (Weather permitting). Look for the blue canopy.

They can also be purchased as a special order directly from me. All special orders require payment in advance.

Only sold in Arizona and can be shipped anywhere in the state.

Thank you for being here we appreciate all of you.

You should even if it’s a pot of herbs in your window. I’ve been trying to grow gardens for about 10 years and each year it’s been a struggle.

This year we have been blessed with lots of rain so far in Monsoon 2022. It’s been so dry here we truly needed the rain (even if it’s all coming at once 😊).

​I’m sharing a video of our lower garden below to give you an ideas of how I’m doing things different this year. I added cardboard & bark and it has helped keep moisture in that growing area definitely a plus.

What’s cuter then momma and babies swimming in a puddle of rain water?

This is the first time the baby ducks played in a puddle but we have a small pool for them to play in as well.

​#monsoon2022

Do you have a favorite treat you remember eating as a kid?

Does it bring back memories when you eat it now?

These kolaches do for me. Granted they aren’t exactly like the ones I had as a kid but close enough.

We lots of things happening in the farm this year that we haven’t had before. Most of it is good but some is sad.

Here’s the good news- Bonnie our oldest duck was setting on eggs (for the very first time and she’s not a young duck) and hatched out 3 babies. I have a picture below. They are so cute and follow momma around everywhere. She hisses and let’s you know your too close so I think she’s doing great for a first time momma.

Now the sad news-this part has been hard for me and it has taken me over a week to share. The sad news is the 2 baby chicks one of our hens hatched out have died. I watched the momma hen sit on those eggs for almost a month and then they hatched out only to live about 4 days is heartbreaking to me. The momma seemed lost without them and was looking around for them for several days. We have had death occur over the years of having animals but this was different for me. RIP little baby chicks.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post I appreciate each and every one of you. ❤️

Nothing like the richness of making your broth.  In this case I made vegetable broth from my vegetable scraps bag I keep in the freezer.  When the bag gets full I pull it out of the freezer and put it in the Crockpot with some filtered water (not quite to the top of the Crockpot-it can boil over) and let it cook on high for about an hour then I turn it down to low and let it cook overnight.  As you can see in the pictures it turns a deep amber color and tastes delicious

This recipe makes almost 2 quarts of vegetable broth.  I used some in with our beef roast so I ended up with 1 quart jar and 1 pint jar.  Since I have other things from the first picture to preserve yet I may go ahead and pressure can the vegetable broth for later use.  

By making your own broth you can control what goes into it and your body. No salt is added to this recipe but dried herbs would make a great addition to the flavor.  

​Happy Cooking! 

​

Most of us know we need to fertilize our plants but honestly that was the extent on my knowledge. I’ve referred back to my notes again which I’m so glad I have even if I can’t read my own writing sometimes.

N-nitrogen helps with the leaf growth.

Here’s an example of too much nitrogen- my tomatoes were huge plants full of leaves but no fruits were growing.

P-Phosphorus helps the roots of the plants and flower & fruit development.

​K-Potassium helps to regulate the nutrients the plant gets.

​Calcium, Magnesium and other micro nutrients are required for healthy plant growth. For my own personal knowledge I’m going to do research more on micro nutrients because what feeds my plants also feeds me and my family too. A soil test will help you to determine what kind of fertilizer you will need in your soil for overall plants health & growth.

​blessings all

After going through my notes on Zone 7b which we live in I wanted to share what I learned because I didn’t know this information previously. There are a lot of new people moving into our area so I hope this will help some of you because growing here is definitely a challenge. We have 140 growing days in total unless of course you have a greenhouse. I’ll do more posts on staggered planting, square foot method and fertilizer another time.

blessings all