Church garden update and more ...

It seems it has been a while since an update on the garden at the church. Here's what's been going on around "the homestead" (haha)...

The beets have been doing really well. We have been thinning them as they grow, using the greens for smoothies and steaming the roots (even if they are tiny) for supper. We all really like beets!!

Our beets from last year are going to seed. It looks a mess right now but hopefully we'll be rewarded with seeds for next year.

I did a post before about our kale ... here is an update on that. This first picture is of the new kale. We use kale in green smoothies and also chopped up small in soup or with tomatoes over rice. A huge bowl of kale cooks down to nearly nothing, so we can put a lot of kale in a main dish. I've heard that kale is the most nutritious dark green leafy veggie you can grow in your garden and (as we know from experience) it's VERY easy to grow. We plan to plant more of it soon.

This is the kale from last year that is going to seed. See how tall it is!! The yellow flowers are nearly gone and lots of seed pods are left.

A close up of the seed pod. I think they will be ready to harvest when the plant dies and the pods start to open.

Here is a picture of our spinach from this year already going to seed. We have so many spinach seeds, we might have to share a few with friends!

The tomatoes here at the church are doing well. Corban has strung the larger plants up and is going to try to do them like some brethren here do it - they prune the plants to one main stem and have it to climb up the string. As the plant grows, they move the string over a bit and I think they bury the bottom??? I'm not sure. We'll keep you posted on progress as we learn and move along.

The strings ...

Our onions are a mess but getting bigger! Corban has been using the thinnings to chop up and put in his homemade bug repellent brew.

And the peas are a mess as well!! But they are producing!

Yum!

The fruit trees are all doing great. We picked all the fruit but a few on each tree so the trees could concentrate more on growing big and strong. Maybe we'll leave more next year?

A new addition to our little 'homestead' (that word makes me laugh! I wonder how many homesteads consist of a house, a church and a church parking lot?!) ... strawberries. Yum yum. These plants have already produced for the year. They used to belong to a family here at church; Corban dug up several of their 2 year old strawberry plants and now we hope to have some next year a few feet away from our house. We'll see.

And here you see the tea we are growing. To the left is peppermint and to the right is spearmint.The spearmint was transplanted about 3 weeks ago but it seems to be hanging in there. We have lavender in front of the spearmint, but I don't think it's going to make it. And in case anyone was wondering, that's our pastor, David Keeling.

Our chickens are still being well-loved by all who meet them :)

A common scene in our back yard ... brothers fellowshipping and talking with guests. On this particular day, Brianna and I served everyone sandwiches. We stood next to David on the swing to the right with the plate of food and waited for the men to quit talking so they could pray. All the sudden a chicken jumped up over the fence (can you see the fence on the right?), landed on Brianna's arm and helped herself to the sandwiches. Needless to say, it was very funny. Brianna and I ate the two sandwiches with chicken bites in them :) and then we rewarded the chickens with a treat for being so funny.

And a not-so-common scene ... where did THAT come from?! A new family moved to town last week and is keeping their little bike at the church for anyone to use. Hmmm. The 'flying nun' jokes are already sprouting up. I don't plan to use this motorized thing!!!