I grow a large garden every year. We start our bedding out plants in March, as part of our schooling, or so and then we get started outside by May. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I just waltz out to the garden and drop the seeds in. There is a lot of planning and prep work. But that's not for today's post.
Once you plant that one seed you are now committed to months of work. Actually for me, it's more than half the year.
April ~ start working the land
May~ hopefully get your seeds in
June ~ weeding and watering
July ~ weeding, watering, harvesting
August ~ weeding,watering, harvesting
September ~ weeding, watering, harvesting
October ~ harvesting
November ~ harvesting
That's 8 months out of the year that I'm working the outdoors portion of the homestead. My husband was looking at a job in Manitoba that would take him away from home for 18 months. I started to say to him, that because we home school, I could come visit him in Manitoba once.... the harvest ended, is what I was going to say. But then I realized that harvest doesn't end until the snow sticks on the ground here in Creston. That means Manitoba would be really winter time and I wouldn't want to travel out there.
Anyway, we start picking the cucumbers, peas, bean and tomatoes as they become ripe. But then we have whole crops that need to be dealt with at one time. Enter the onions!
You can see the plaits of onions here.
I plunked myself down in the onions and started pulling them out. Nothing special, nothing fancy. I bread my onions together and I'll tell you why. Once I've braided them together then I tie them in bundles so that I can hang them over a wire in our shop, (it's not a barn)
I had someone ask my why I braid them together. I braid them together so that as I start stealing onions from the bunches, the others won't slip out of the tied bundle. My mother just ties hers together in bundles, no braiding. As she cuts onions off the tops from the bundles she gets to a point where the onions won't stay in the bundle anymore because the tops of the onions can just slip through the twine.
The sledge hammer for putting in some posts for my raspberry patch. My little boys were trying to show how strong they were.
I use baler's twine because I can get it for free. That's the orange twine you can see. I use it for tying up my tomatoes to my stakes as well. Why not, it's already been used on the hay bales and has been rendered useless. We try to use up, or reuse so much stuff on our homestead because there is no need to let it go to waste.
I have always loved this quote and I'm trying to teach my children this. We live in a throw away society and I am not a part of that mentality.
Now I keep my onions hanging in my shop, where they are protected from the light frost until I move them into the house where they won't freeze. That being said, I didn't get them moved into the house last year and they froze solid. At first I thought, "Well crap! What a waste" but then I remembered that my sister in law actually dices her onions and then puts them in little baggies in the freezer. She keeps them frozen so they don't rot and then uses them as she needs. So I used them from frozen, they aren't that hard to dice even when they are frozen. So I didn't lose my onion crop last year. I did have to hurry in the spring to use up the end of them as the weather started to warm up and frost was starting to come out of the ground. This year I'm hoping to remember to get them moved into the house before they freeze!!
Anyway, we start picking the cucumbers, peas, bean and tomatoes as they become ripe. But then we have whole crops that need to be dealt with at one time. Enter the onions!
You can see the plaits of onions here.
I plunked myself down in the onions and started pulling them out. Nothing special, nothing fancy. I bread my onions together and I'll tell you why. Once I've braided them together then I tie them in bundles so that I can hang them over a wire in our shop, (it's not a barn)
I had someone ask my why I braid them together. I braid them together so that as I start stealing onions from the bunches, the others won't slip out of the tied bundle. My mother just ties hers together in bundles, no braiding. As she cuts onions off the tops from the bundles she gets to a point where the onions won't stay in the bundle anymore because the tops of the onions can just slip through the twine.
The sledge hammer for putting in some posts for my raspberry patch. My little boys were trying to show how strong they were.
I use baler's twine because I can get it for free. That's the orange twine you can see. I use it for tying up my tomatoes to my stakes as well. Why not, it's already been used on the hay bales and has been rendered useless. We try to use up, or reuse so much stuff on our homestead because there is no need to let it go to waste.
I have always loved this quote and I'm trying to teach my children this. We live in a throw away society and I am not a part of that mentality.
Now I keep my onions hanging in my shop, where they are protected from the light frost until I move them into the house where they won't freeze. That being said, I didn't get them moved into the house last year and they froze solid. At first I thought, "Well crap! What a waste" but then I remembered that my sister in law actually dices her onions and then puts them in little baggies in the freezer. She keeps them frozen so they don't rot and then uses them as she needs. So I used them from frozen, they aren't that hard to dice even when they are frozen. So I didn't lose my onion crop last year. I did have to hurry in the spring to use up the end of them as the weather started to warm up and frost was starting to come out of the ground. This year I'm hoping to remember to get them moved into the house before they freeze!!
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