Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Eating well in winter

We have a ton of canned peaches, apricots, tomatoes and plums.  Our freezer is FULL of venison, homemade sausage and homegrown beef.  Yet we're low on veggies.  So I'm going to try to grow some in our window (like we did chard last winter) with the hope that we won't have to keep buying expensive greens from the store.  When the winters are 5 months long it's hard to not fantasize about salads and bbq'd veggies, fresh tomatoes off the vine still warm from the sun.  Ugh.  Only a couple more months!  Planting lettuce in a window box this week though.
The seeds we ordered arrived yesterday so we're planning our beds this week, locating bulk 4" pots, meeting with the SCORE advisors and looking a little closer at renting land this spring for livestock.  Even if its just stocking feeder calves on a rotational system, it would be a good way to get some experience.  Lambs may be better - lower purchase price.  I can't wait until we can live out of town.  How wonderful it will be to be able to see farther than a hundred feet or so.  At least we can see some mountains from our house, it's a straight shot down the street to the "B" hill (as in Dillon Beavers).  Wish it was a hill with some trees on it lol.
Richard has been working on greenhouse-warming ideas and we've nearly come to an agreement on the set up.  We're going to warm it with water.  Small "ponds" kept warm by a trough heater will keep the room and plants above them warm.  We will grow duckweed in the water because it is an excellent addition to your soil and  has a rapid turnover rate.  Plus, Savanna can have fish now and they don't need to be in the house! We'll keep you posted on how it works, but  it's much cheaper and safer than a space heater or wood stove so we're hoping it works well.

0 comments: