Wholesome Haven Homestead

03/25/2022

I have been gardening on my property for 9 seasons now. I fell in love with gardening and farm animals when I lived with my in laws next door. Milk goats, meat cows, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and oh the gardens! This is a photo from 2010 ish of my in laws animals. I began my first garden bed in summer of 2013 when we bought our home (next door☺️). Two years later I said I ran out of space so we tilled another garden in the field. So grateful that my in laws have equipment to loan us. My gardening practices have evolved now. Last year I moved to no till. Since I was fighting weeds constantly. I have learned a lot over the years. What I like to grow, what works and what doesn’t. I still have so much more to learn though. Which is why I think gardening feeds my soul. I love the trial and error. I am so grateful I got to live on a farm and learn from generational farmers. My husband was raised with this as his life. I was raised with a love of flowers from my parents. I am now combining both of those loves. Excited for this season. Zygi our son is more helpful, he is anticipating the ripening of his sugar snap peas, strawberries, and raspberries. Leonie so far is enjoying her time in the garden and greenhouse observing or napping😉.

10/31/2021

Today was a sad day for the homestead. These are eggs from one of my laying hens that got killed from coyotes massacring our flock this morning. We lost 16 chickens and all 12 of my kahki cambell ducks. Our good friends came to help us process and save the meat we could from the chickens laying about. I am truly grateful to have friends like them to help us in a crisis. With our new addition to the family we haven’t locked them up at night. This is what came of it. But when there is death their is life. We found 4 baby ducks and a few more about to hatch. We set them up in a brooder and the rest of the eggs in the incubator.

10/08/2021

Fall is here and our flock is enjoying the fresh grass. Trying to finish ripening our pumpkins in the sun. Butternut squash is almost ready to pick. Zygi is enjoying seeing the animals roam on the fresh grass.

09/03/2021

I will soon be harvesting our winter squash in the next month. Our delicate squash did very well. This one will store similar to acorn squashes. We also have some butternut as well. Also have a wide variety of pumpkins from Jack O'lantern, Pie, Pepita, and mini gourds. This is a great article on storing and curing your winter squashes.

https://harvesttotable.com/store-winter-squash/

Winter squash when harvested must be cured for long storage in winter. Here are easy steps to cure winter squashes.

08/13/2021

Best picture to describe our day. Late evening and an empty chicken tractor. and I butchered 24 of our Cornish cross meat birds with the help of my dad, MIL, and the guidance of our neighbor who is an old pro. We are grateful for these animals that will nourish our family and our guests. We did not let anything go to waste. They largest bird was 6 pounds 5 oz. They were just over 8 weeks. The smallest was just tad under 4 pounds. We could have let some of the smaller ones go longer, but we didn’t. Proud of us as a family taking on this task of growing our own food.

06/05/2021

Our Cornish crosses came today. In a month and half we will be stocked up on organic and ethically raised meat. They all arrived alive and well from . I made the magic water that recommends for strong and healthy birds that help give a nice kick to their immune system.

06/04/2021

We hatched our first chick on the homestead today. We are very excited! I was bummed the other day when candling the eggs I found about a dozen bad ones out of the 33 in the incubator. I heard this little one chirping from the incubator and trying to get out of its shell. The chick is a Wyandotte/Langshan mix, both good meat and egg laying breed.

05/11/2021

Today is a post about don't do what I did!
(with and Old photo of Zygi last year watering my garden as a cute attraction!)

So I was never big on starting seeds early. The years I was gardening in Grad school I always hand sowed May 31st and always had an abundant garden. I would hand sow even my tomatoes. I would get some started from my MIL like cabbage and maybe other tomatoes, but everything else from squashes, cucumbers, lettuces, corn, sunflowers, collard greens, kale, beets, carrots, etc. I would always hand sow and always had an abundant garden. Why? because WA gets a lot of daytime sun since we are higher up and we get a late fall frost. Any who, last few years I have played with starting seeds in doors or in a cold frame or greenhouse tunnel. What did I learn this year. You really need a seed starting potting mix. DO NOT USE the organic potting soil from Home Depot. This was my mistake this year. The mix is to woody and none of my tomatoes came except one variety and my squashes liked it as well as a few others, but in regards to tomatoes, peppers, and even cabbages it did not take. This was a waste of seed and money. So please do not make my mistake. What do I recommend then? Fox Farm organic potting soil products which Coastal Farm and Ranch sells.
Also as I noted above, in WA it is never to late to plant. Dont ever think its to late to start a garden. I have even planted squashes in the beginning of June. Also if you prefer to start from starts there are great places to get them: If you want organic check out farmers markets and or Marlene's Natural Market. Conventional starts that are great is at Carbinitos and they have a great variety. Also there are many crops that can even be planted in August for a late fall harvest. IT'S NEVER TO LATE TO GROW FOOD!
Happy gardening!

04/30/2021

Onions are growing nicely, and prepared my raised beds. First time doing raised beds and no till method this year. So far I am happy with how well my onions are growing with the no till method. Raised beds made from our arborvitae hedge we took out to prepare for a greenhouse. Doing an arched trellis for beans and cucumbers. Here is a before. Hopefully in a month or so it will be more green. I have a few more no till beds to prepare to fit all of the food I want to grow.

04/26/2021

We have been hard at work bringing water faucets to my gardens so I don't continuously ruin hoses. Preparing the ground work for our greenhouse. There is a lot of action going on here. We look forward to when these projects will come to a close and we can show off our hard work. Zygi always being such a great helper!

02/24/2021

I have Duck and chicken eggs available if anyone is interested! Duck eggs are great for baking, scrambles, over easy, and in frittatas. They are more nutrient dense then chicken eggs and larger. People who have allergies to chicken eggs tend to not show allergies to duck eggs since the proteins that you are allergic to are different. Fed organic, no soy, no corn feed.

02/21/2021

Since we purchased our house 6 plus years ago we have been building a place of refuge and safety for our family. We have added to our orchard year by year so we can rely less on the grocery store. We have cultivated our land to grow our own veggies. Last year we added laying hens and meat chickens as well as laying ducks. Soon we will have our goats Elsa and Ana here once the barn is finished up. We alway love to have people over to share in our slice of heaven with others. Obviously since COVID that has been limited, but this last year we have really been able to build more on our homestead. I have now started a page for our refuge; Wholesome Haven Homestead. Follow along as we build our homestead, give gardening tips, show herbs that you can grow at home, how to utilize what you harvest on your property as in ferments or canning and much more.

02/21/2021

02/21/2021

Zygi helped me start some red cabbage, leaks, and broccoli seeds today. We used our new soil blocker. We made our own seed starting mix from Organic garden soil and fertilizer from Home Depot. Placed the flats in the cold frame and our green house tunnel. We are planning to build our greenhouse in a few weeks, but for the time being this will do.

02/21/2021