Slow-Cooker Baked Apples

This is how it all started... 3 chopped apples, 4 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp vanilla extract and some sprinkles of cinnamon and sugar all set on low in my crock-pot early this afternoon.  Now....

My house smells heavenly, and after dinner this will be topped with caramel praline ice cream.  My children are drooling as we speak...


In other news, we FINALLY got the snow we've been missing for over a month! Yesterday started out with an ice storm which turned into a huge snowstorm, and finally the world is white again!  The kids are loving it, and even the geese seem to enjoy it a bit.  I thought they might sleep in the coop for once, but they seemed quite content to sleep outside in their usual spot!

The Geese are ready for winter!

The Geese finally have their arctic entryway! My silly husband even made it match the existing coop... and our house! I laughed at him, but whatever gets it built, right?! The best part of this whole thing is that other than the bird netting on top, we spent exactly $0.00 to make this! It's all repurposed lumber and leftover roofing and siding!

The last leg of the 2013 garden...

With all of the leaves gone, the weather is starting to feel less like fall and more like winter, and I'm somewhat surprised that there is no snow on the ground yet. I've been taking full advantage of the un-frozen earth, however, and am still enjoying the harvests from the garden. I'm eating broccoli, chard, bok choy and lettuce, having just finished the last of the turnips and beets last week. I'm not harvesting any more sunchokes, as I want to have a good crop next year.

Along with stretching the garden out, I've also managed to get an extra fence project started! I'm building a small wattle fence at the back of the herb garden, to protect the siding on the house from back splash and to keep the dirt from eroding toward the house as well. I love the look of this type of fencing, and with all the brush that grows up around here, I'll never run out of supplies! Wattle fencing is such an easy solution around the garden, and it's a great way to utilize the natural materials on your property!

The geese are doing well, although Gerdie is quite confused as to why the swimming pool is so hard and slick in the mornings! I've left it out for them up until now, but I'll be removing it this weekend and putting it into storage for the winter. We should HOPEFULLY be building the arctic entryway for the goose house this weekend also, so with any luck, I'll be able to get my projects finished and all of the tools put away before the snow decides to let loose!

A Woodside Gardens Radio Interview!

alaskapublic.org has a radio interview that I did last week available...

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/10/07/the-year-round-alaska-gardener/

Give it a listen!

New Garden Updates!

I've got a new garden update posted at Alaska Public Media... check it out!

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/09/17/another-successful-garden-season/

What have you been missing?

Have you joined us on facebook yet?  I keep the blog posts here, but there's a lot more chatter and pictures at https://www.facebook.com/woodside.gardens... come say hello!

Sunchokes in Alaska...

For those of you who don't know, a Sunchoke, or Jerusalem Artichoke, is a perennial related to the sunflower with a tuberous root that is very edible and quite tasty.  I have been hearing about Sunchokes and their cold temperature hardiness for many years now, and they seem like a great perennial vegetable for Alaska, yet I've never seen them planted in the gardens around here.  Known for their pretty flowers as well as their plump roots, they seemed like the perfect fit for my permaculture aspirations!  I finally found them in the produce section of our local grocery store last fall, and I have been looking forward to testing out their potential all winter!

The package came with 10 roots, and I experimented with cooking 4 of them, using them raw in salads or roasted like a potato with a little olive oil.  The remaining 6 were wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the back of the refrigerator crisper drawer, where they remained until the end of May.  This spring, when the ground was ready to be worked, I simply opened the package up and let it sit on the counter for a few days, and then planted them about a foot apart and 6-8 inches down into the soil. I made sure to select an area where they can fill up the space over the years without bothering anything else in the garden.

They sprouted out of the ground within about two weeks, and a month later, they are growing beautifully and providing a shaded area for my geese as well!  They seem to be very tolerant of the heat we have been having, and don't seem to be bothered by any pests so far.  We'll see how they do as the season progresses, and hopefully they will become a permanent resident in the garden!

New post up at AlaskaPublic.org...

I've got a new post up at alaskapublic.org... check it out!

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/05/16/protect-early-starts-with-recycled-milk-jugs/

It started as a greenhouse...

It started as a greenhouse that turned into a garden shed... but this year I have found a new, permanent use for the structure...

Moving the building to its new location, closer to the house...

Adding the new floor...

 Cutting the access door...

Framed in to protect from sharp metal edges... (the access ramp is temporary, we'll build a better one shortly!)

And Herdie and Gerdie have a new home!!!

The Geese have FINALLY moved in!  I'm ridiculously excited!  If you follow Woodside Gardens on facebook, you've seen me gushing about these critters all winter.  Herdie and Gerdie are a 1 year old mated pair of Toulouse Geese.  I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them, and I've been waiting for the snow to melt for MONTHS so that I could set up a proper shed and run for them.  The geese are beautiful and very friendly (toward me, not everyone...), but the best part is this...

Breakfast!

It's mating season in the goose world, and although she won't lay all year long, Gerdie is giving me one of these every 2 days right now!  Her eggs average 160 grams (she won't be fully mature until next spring at 2 years old) which is approximately the size of 3 chicken eggs!  Scrambled goose eggs with a little sea salt and dill make the best breakfast ever!  I have saved all her egg shells, by drilling a small hole at each end and blowing the egg out, and they will be used for some craft projects in the future.

I love this basket of egg shells sitting in my kitchen window!

Do you have geese or other poultry?  Come on over to the facebook page and talk about it!

Still Here... Just Nothing To Say...

Today is May 4th. The temperature reached as high as 40F, and it snowed...

I have been delayed over a month now in getting the run and coop built for my geese because the snow hasn't all melted yet.

Some years, I already have things planted in the garden by this date.

My seedlings are dying to go outside!

Long story short, I'm still here, but I'm a grumpy gardener, and I have nothing to say!  Join me on facebook, however, as things are slightly more interesting over there!  And don't worry, I'll have more to write about eventually...

A Woodside Gardens First!!!

My sweet goose, Gerdie, laid her very first egg!

And it was delicious!

A Quick Update to Start Off the New Year...

We've had 4 days of temperatures above freezing now, and although it has been great to tend to the bird feeder and shovel some snow while wearing a t-shirt, I'm starting to worry about some of my more tender perennials, like the lavender, and the experimental garlic bulbs I planted this fall. A freeze/thaw cycle will heave the plants up to the surface of the soil where their roots can freeze. I did put a very thick layer of mulch over the lavender and the clematis, so hopefully that will make the difference.

So much snow has melted now that I put on my Sorels and stomped around the yard for a little while yesterday. I opened up the covered raised bed, and to my surprise, the top inch of dirt was completely thawed! Anything below that was frozen solid, of course, but that top inch really made me realize that there is plenty of potential for that structure! I can see my seedlings sleeping comfortably in there over night until the threat of frost is over, and if the whole thing thaws faster than the other raised beds, the potential for a pumpkin or two is a reality!

I really don't know what I'm going to do in my garden this year. I have a feeling that with the geese coming in the spring, and all the planning and building that that will entail, the garden isn't going to have much for experimentation! The garden fence is moving to the birds, so they have some predator protection, and this year will be my first non-enclosed gardening experience. I'm looking forward to moving the garden beyond the confines of that wall, but hopefully the Moose and the Rabbits will be nice to me!

I think that the chickens are going to end up on hold for another year now. The geese are a great start, and probably easier to care for also. Once my husband sees how they do this winter then maybe he wont worry so much about adding a few chickens, but for now, city-boy (and over-planner) that he is, he is extremely worried about how this is going to work. I've given up trying to explain that we don't need a $1000 coop... hopefully he'll figure it out!

Just out of curiosity, does anyone reading this post raise birds in cold climates? I'd love to hear about your experiences!