Hello Homesteading community! It has been quite a while since I last shared here. In fact, my last post was typed out from the other side of the world! Back in Argentina I have been doing a bit of this and that. To be honest very little of my chores have been related to herbalism, unless you count drinking pot after pot of tea! We are on the verge of winter and a cold snap wiped out any last reminders of the summer garden a couple of days before I returned.
Summer is long gone but, I have been taking advantage of sunshine the best I can and have decided that I am done with toiling in the soil of the garden beds. That garden on the other side of the lawn and a hedgerow from our house. It is tucked away and out of site and thus, easily forgotten. The soil there has never been good and the plants only barely prospered.
Instead I have been focusing my efforts in a micro-garden consisting entirely of potted plants just outside my front door.
And it has been a very productive change. Between typing out posts and doing indoor chores I very often find a few minutes to water, weed, or harvest from the potted plants. The garden being so nearby means it cannot be forgotten about or destroyed by our local bird populations as my three kitties are constantly chasing them off.
Nights are cold but that does not seem to bother the arugula that I have planted. Other crops need to be stored under the protection of a weird wooden structure that we have covered with white landscaping fabric. Like so many things on this old farm, I am not entirely sure what the original use of this wooden structure is. There are two of them in all, one we use to store wood and the other has become a tiny workspace and greenhouse.
As you can see these pots and trays are growing plants that are sown very close together. This is how microgreens are planted, densely and in 100% compost. Due to the limited sunshine they are growing much slower than my microgreen gardens of summer but, I appreciate them none-the-less. In about two weeks these trays will be ready for harvesting with a pair of sharp kitchen scissors. Each day I seed new trays so that we have a continuous harvest!
The summer garden, which is a bit of a walk away, still has a bit growing there. A few herbs and fava beans struggle on and will hopefully give us medicine and beans after the winter solstice. And, to my great surprise, there are pumpkins. Probably about a dozen still remain after I harvested this one for yesterday's bone broth.
I am keeping busy with my writing and have even begun to film and create videos! This year I made a goal to become more professional as a content creator and, halfway through the year feel like I am finally getting into my stride. At the moment I am writing scripts and filming for several different videos about witchcraft, herbalism, and of course growing microgreens!
Above all the most important task to survive the coldness has been and continues to be collecting firewood. My guy has been hard at work all year chopping and stacking a pile of pine and mulberry logs that are keeping us warm during the night. My role is to gather up kindling to get our fireplace going as well as create piles of wood on the land.
Our building project is going quite well but, there are still a couple of boulders that refuse to budge and must be cracked using the fire method. Tomorrow is the big day and so I spent yesterday making collecting driftwood in the creek and making piles atop the two rocks that we will be burning (and hopefully cracking) all day tomorrow!
It is a big job preparing the wood though quite enjoyable once the fire gets going. Now I must go prepare lunch, snacks, and drinks for the big event. More on that in my next post.
Happy Homesteading everyone!!