Our 2013 egg count as of August 10:
1863 chicken eggs & 1076 duck eggs
Needless to say, we have lots of extra eggs and have been selling them to help recoup our costs. Keeping poultry is not by any means a money maker for us. We estimate that it costs us about $3.25 for each dozen eggs produced and we sell our eggs for less than that. Still, it is something.
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| We've sold a few ducklings and duck hatching eggs, too. |
Garden Harvest and Preservation Totals
Current as of August 7:
- 81 Radishes
- 192.9 oz Swiss Chard
- 40.6 oz Mesclun Salad Mix
- 31 heads of Lettuce
- 149 heads and (mostly) side shoots of Broccoli
- 2.3 oz Spinach
- 992 Strawberries.
- I canned 18 half-pints of jam and we ate the rest.
- 61.6 oz Pod Peas. I froze most of these.
-4 bunches of Thyme
- 102.6 oz Kale
- 16 heads of Garlic
- 109.7 oz Shelling Peas
- 22.6 oz. Blueberries
- 11 Cherries
- 77.7 oz Raspberries
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| A bowl of blueberries and raspberries |
- Nearly 27 POUNDS Blackberries, which has been processed into:
-10.5 pints of Raspberry/Blackberry Jam
- 11.5 pints of Blackberries, frozen
- 6 qt. Blackberry Fruit Leather
- 68 Cucumbers:
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| Flavoring Agents for Deli-Style Dills |
- 213.2 oz Green Beans. I froze these, too.
- 7 heads of Cabbage
- 100 Carrots
-160 Beets
-We ate some and I pickled and canned 3 pints.
- 4 Zucchini
- 2 Watermelons
- 19+ Pounds of potatoes
- 171 onions, dried and braided for storage (Expect a post on this soon.)
- 15 peppers of various kinds
- 17 tomatoes
- 2 ears of corn
- 1 cantaloupe
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| Harvest Basket |
We still have room for improvement, but have been much encouraged by the bountiful harvest we've had this year. How is your garden growing?
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We got a late start to our garden, but generally things have done pretty well. Tomatoes, thought plentiful, are splitting due to the heavy rains here in the Ozarks. Our star crop seems to be the jalapenos. They are prolific. Too bad I only need a few for salsa. lol
ReplyDeleteOur tomatoes are splitting, too. Getting 7.5" of rain in one week will do that! I feel guilty complaining, though, after suffering drought for the past two years. Glad to hear you are having success in the garden this year.
DeleteTo reduce the food costs of my duck flock, I have been trying some unconventional methods for growing food for them by starting growing lower on the food chain. I have 2 worm bins dedicated to feeding ducks. They produce as many black soldier fly larva as worms, but the ducks don't discriminate. I build up compost layers of brown and green yard waste to create the floor of their cooped area so they can forage even before we let them out for the day. (I am favoring small sticks and canes so it creates openings for them to tuck their bills in and dig for critters.) I also build piles of yard trimmings and prunings that are in different stages of composting, all providing goodies for the soil and the ducks. I have a duckweed aquarium for treats and up next is to try growing guppies for them. (I won't talk about the squash, beans, beets, blueberries, etc, that I (accidentally) grew for them or so they thought.) It gives me so much joy to create real food for them (and receive their appreciation in by their ignoring their pellets and cracked corn bowls.) I'm doing this at a very small scale (4 ducks in a small urban yard) but Wow! Is it fun!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I don't want to know how much I would have to grow for my flock (currently 22 chickens and 15 ducks and counting), but they definitely get their fair share of table scraps and greens from the garden, which cuts down on the feed some. I could start fermenting their feed, too, and it would go farther.
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