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!

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!

Fall Vegetables...

I just finished harvesting the last of the carrots from the garden. I got almost 10 pounds this year, and it really didn't take up that much space in the raised beds! I roasted a chicken the other night, and now I have leftover chicken, onions and fresh carrots simmering for chicken and dumplings tonight.

Homemade chicken stock smells AMAZING!!

I also have the carcass boiling away with the leftover onions and brussels sprouts from the first dinner, as well as the stems from the herbs I cut from the herb garden and added to the chicken and dumplings. This stock will go into the freezer to cook with later. I love that I can get 3 good meals (that serve 4 people!) from just 1 chicken and some veggies from the garden!

I also bought my first pumpkin of the season last weekend! I love pumpkin, and I hope that someday soon it will grow in my own garden, but for now I was just happy to see it on the grocery store shelf! There are so many ways to cook it, and the flavor is adaptable to most any dish or seasoning. This one will be roasted and pureed, most likely, and eaten with just a touch of salt and pepper.

Do you have a favorite fall vegetable that you look forward to all summer?

Fall Harvesting with the Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener!

Its harvest time for The Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener! Check out their latest video... and look for Woodside Gardens to be featured a little over halfway through!!