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Quite Contrary Gardens

how does your garden grow?

The lovely Angela Tunner gave me the opportunity recently to speak about a variety of issues regarding chickens and farming. Please check out the interview posted on her site— which, by the way, is absolutely stunning!

Thank you, again, Angela!

Just over a month old now, these little mongrel chicks are growing like weeds, on track to be a decent size, especially considering they are not a large breed, by the time December slaughter rolls around. And how gorgeous are these tiny buggers!? No teenage pterodactyl phase for them as for most chickens; they seem to have grown from adorable, fuzzy babes into beautiful, colorful, amazing chickens-in-miniature, completely bypassing the gawky, awkward stage. I am so enamoured by this group’s looks and personalities that I’ll be keeping several, including one of the cockerels, for breeding.

I’ve been reminded tonight that I’ve been terrible about updating lately– there’s been a lot going on and yadda, yadda. There’s really no excuse. So, for today, here’s a photo of some of the homestead’s newest additions. These little guys will be dinner in December, and the gals will stick around to lay us some blue and green eggs.

This is my second summer growing these Thai caladiums. Last year they were puny, but this summer they have really taken off! The foliage is still not as large as you’ll find on traditional caladiums, but with textures and colors like these, who cares?!

Please be sure to check out my guest post on Every Kitchen Table, Rob Smart’s wonderful blog promoting healthy, sustainable food.

It seems like summer finally decided to arrive! And it’s a welcome relief for the garden after a second straight growing season of unusually cool temperatures. August is shaping up to be a ‘normal’ month with temperatures climbing into the 90’s during the day. The tomatoes are finally thriving, the eggplant is finally flowering, the chard and fennel are beautiful and the pepinos are loaded down with their little ‘melons.’ Phew! I thought I was losing my garden mojo for while there!

And since the tomatoes have decided that summer is finally here, it is time once again for my favoritest favorite meal- gazpacho! Tomatoes, cucumber, onion, maybe a carrot or sweet pepper, little bit of hot pepper, whatever’s ripe in the garden with a pinch of salt and a hefy helping of vinegar in the blender et voila! Dinner is served and I never even needed to touch the stove!

The prettiest Morning Glory in the garden

Cleome