We have been very focused on getting the chicken coop finished and making sure that all is well with the birds, the farmhouse, dog, and a kid going off to college.  We haven’t posted much about why the farm even exists!  FOOD!

Despite the blistering schedule of trying to balance two jobs, a high school graduation, kid off to college and a farm, we managed with the help of grandma to get the urban farm planted this year too!  It has kind of been left to its own devices though.  The birds took the onions and a squirrel took a bunch of the corn (my squirrel repeller being at the farm and not in the city).  In a moister part of the yard we had some slugs in the tomatoes.  BUT! We have had a great harvest of broccoli all summer, we have had strawberries, kale, herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, green onions, a year’s worth of garlic, beans, some corn, and a bunch of peppers.  Not bad!

Today, I got up early to beat the heat here and went out and picked stuff.  I got through most of it but I got stopped in my tracks with the tomato harvest.  My Roma saucing tomatoes lost their minds.  I picked over 100 lbs of tomatoes thus forecasting what the rest of my day was going to be like.  I froze 25 lbs of whole tomatoes and as I type, have 3 stock pots of tomatoes boiling down to sauce consistency on the stove.  This one day will provide us with all of the tomatoes we will need until fall 2014!  Due to time constraints I am freezing it all instead of canning.  When the beans come in they will need to be canned as we have found no good way to freeze beans that doesn’t make them taste like bicycle inner-tubes.

This evening I am going back out to pick Basil (not the dog), Kale, green onions, and peppers.  I will be able to make and freeze all of the Pesto we need for a year.

Corn, cherry tomatoes, cucumber salad and Italian sausage for dinner!  Yum!  Total distance to plate …. 40 feet.  Chemicals used….. ZERO.

I am completely amazed that the city garden did so well this year even though it was kind of treated like a nuisance.  Next year it will likely be mostly summer food with the homestead growing the storage foods for the pantry.  I love growing chit! ; )

Happy Labor Day all!   Given that labor is now treated like an evil step-child, we need to remember the people who really built this place.  Working and laboring to build a farm and all of the construction work it has taken, they have my undying respect.