 | Homestead Changes Somehow nothing is ever as easy as it might seem to be. While the major part of the remodeling was done months ago, the interior More>> |  | The Remodeling Continues -- It's been almost a month now since the first new nail went into the roof. The roof is complete and the area below is now More>> |  | Celebrating A New Birth - Dealing With Death It's always exciting when an animal - or human - gives birth. Most of the time things go fairly well. Sometimes things go south and More>> |  | About Baby Chicks Last August while I was gone to the Garden Writers Symposium in Indianapolis a fox entered the chicken yard. Jerry was at work, thus no More>> |  | Pictorial Post #1I've been playing around with various craft ideas over the past few months, plus I now have a craft room, so I thought it would More>> |  | Handmade Crafts Photo Day - December 10, 2011 Welcome to the handmade crafts photo day! This is a new part of the blog that will appear on the homepage, experimentalhomesteader.com, under featured posts. More>> |  | A Homemade Meal to Enjoy on St. Patrick's DayIt can be a bit of a challenge having to figure out what to serve your family on certain days. Even professional cooks can find More>> |  | Cricut Cake Machine Just a note to let all of you know that in the coming months you will be seeing more on the Cricut Cake Machine. I More>> |  | Food Preservation Photo Day - December 26, 2011Welcome to the food preservation photo day! This is a new part of the blog that will appear on the homepage, experimentalhomesteader.com, under featured posts. More>> | | Food Preservation Photo Day - November 26, 2011 Welcome to the food preservation photo day! This is a new part of the blog that will appear on the homepage, experimentalhomesteader.com, under featured posts. More>> |  | Out, Out Darn Deer!! With fall and winter on our door steps you’re probably thinking you’re out of the woods when it comes to deer damage in your backyard More>> |  | Time To Grow For It- Homegrown On Your Own Who would have thought getting dirt under your fingernails would ever be considered one of the hottest trends going? According to Doug Jimerson, Garden Core More>> |  | 2012 Book Signings, Speaking Engagements & Other Appearances It looks like it is going to be a busy year! I already have several book signings and speaking engagements scheduled. Be sure to check More>> |  | TweetChat Archive - The Complete Idiot's Guide To Seed Saving & Starting Pre-Order your copy now on Amazon.com - available in paperback and also for the Kindle. @SheriARicherson: @IdiotsGuides - I am ready for my Live Chat Interview More>> |
I was a little suprised when I saw this combination of winter aconite and miniature iris growing in my garden this week. Both of these plants are early spring blooming bulbs. I did plant them both, several years apart, not really thinking about how they would look together, or to be truthful, even caring. In fact, I forgot all about the iris.
This is a common thing for me to do in my garden. I am a plant collector, after all, so when a new plant comes my way, I think about what conditions the plant would prefer to grow in, not where it would look good.
Winter aconite was a plant I lusted after for many years before trading for a start in early May at our local Master Gardener plant swap. I came home, promtly after the plant swap with no intention of doing anything else for the rest of the day but planting.
The iris were done blooming by May and it is quite possible their foliage had already died back or was hidden by an emerging perennial plant. The iris were a quick purchase I made at a local big box store one year when they were in bloom early in the season. We all want something blooming in our garden 12 months out of the year and when spring weather arrives, I am more than ready for a garden full of flowers.
I simply cannot stand the way nurseries force their plants into bloom just to get them out to the consumers, who, of course, plant them way too early. Most of these plants either die, or look so bad the gardener cuts them back or rips them out. I too have been guilty of buying plants way too early only to see their beauty cut short by frost.
There are ways to prevent this however. Use row cover, also known as frost cover, or protect them at night with homemade cloches. Make these from milk jugs, 2-liter bottles or any other container that does not have holes and will protect the plants from frost or extreme cold weather. After all, buying some plants way before the ideal planting time is the only way to get them locally!
Filed under Bulbs, Tubers and Corms by on Mar 25th, 2011. 
Today, March 22, 2011, Tulip gave birth to a single goat kid again, which is rather unusual because most goats have twins or tripets, sometimes more. She is a proud mama softly naaing, which is the way mama goats talk to their kids. If you listen closely you will hear the baby responding. She is still cleaning her baby even though no afterbirth remains and allowing the baby to nurse at will. Some goats don’t allow their kids to nurse which means either the goat has to be tied up and forced to let the baby nurse or you have to milk the goat, then feed the baby with a bottle.
We do not know at this point in time if the baby is a girl or boy, only that the baby is healthy and nursing. It has only been a few hours since the baby was born. The last time I attempted to find out what the baby was too soon, the baby fainted and mama almost choked to death. She was eating grain, so I figrued I would just pick up the baby. The mama did not like that. I had a serious situation on my hands and was alone. I chose to help the mama. Thankfully both were ok, but I certainly learned my lesson. Tomorrow we will try to sex the baby.
Tulip gave birth unassisted, once again. I have been very lucky in that respect. None of the mamas have had complications with their pregnancies or with giving birth. I honestly don’t know how I would deal with having to pull a kid. I guess I would just call the vet.
Tulip is now enjoying fresh water, fresh organic grain top dressed with organic kelp and a fresh flake of hay. I always treat the mother after they give birth. I figure they must feel similiar to the way a human does when they give birth. It has to be tiring and fresh food and water are always appreciated. I know this because of the way they look at me and because they wag their tails, similar to the way a dog wags their tail.
Stay tuned for further updates and be sure to tune into Exotic Gardening Farms & Wildlife Habitat Goat TV. You can access the live feed on the right side of the screen or you can view it at http://stickam.com/sheriannricherson
Update: We looked this morning, March 23, 2011 and found out Tulip had a baby boy. My agent Janet Rosen suggested we name him Moses, so we did!
Filed under Featured Posts by on Mar 22nd, 2011.
This is more of a personal list than anything else. This list contains all of the germinated seeds that I have potted up intending to put into the garden this year. Gardeners and biologists know how important it is to keep track of what is being planted each year.
Vegetables
18 Container Lettuce Ruby & Emerald Duet Plants
41 Cauliflower Purple Cape Plants
40 Baby Cabbage Pixie Plants
18 Broccoli Purple Peacock Plants
28 Tricolor Cherry Tomato Garden Candy Plants
41 Signature Salads Wild Country Mesclun Plants
6 Ace 55 Tomato Plants
11 Cabbage Copenhagen Market Early Plants
1 pot Scallions Delicious Duo – need divided once they are old enough
29 Wild Kale Garden Mix Plants
65 Container Lettuce Sweet Baby Romaine Plants
19 Flat Late Dutch Cabbage Plants
22 Cauliflower Rainbow Mix Plants
19 Broccoli Long Harvest All Season Blend Plants
37 Broccoli Heading Romanesco Plants
9 Brussels Sprouts Seven Hills Plants
21 Beefsteak Tomato Plants
29 Spinach Bloomsdale Plants
7 Summer Lettuce Bouquet European Reds & Greens Plants
19 Heirloom Tomato Summer Feast Plants
9 Container Chard Pot Of Gold Plant
7 Mexican Tomatillo Two Color Fiesta Plants
1 Container Lettuce Garden Babies Butterhead Plant
1 Onion Spanish Utah Plants
10 Heirloom Tomato Rainbow’s End Plants
18 Kale Glamour Red F1 – 2011 All-American Selections
4 Tomato Sub-Arctic Plenty VF Plants
11 Tomato Terenzo F1 – 2011 All-American Selections
Flowers
11 Stock Giant Imperial Plants
9 Echinacea Powwow Wild Berry Plants – 2010 All-American Selections Winner
4 Bells of Ireland Antique Apple Green Plants
3 Hollyhock Pom-Pom Apricot-Peach Parfait Plants
17 Statice Plants
32 Geranium maderense Plants
6 Dianthus Allwoodi x Village Pink Plants
2 pots Snapdragon Tall Deluxe Mix – need divided once they are old enough
1 pot Amole – need divided once they are old enough
5 individual Amole Plants
3 Gaillardia aristata Arizonia Apricot – 2011 All-American Selections Winner
2 Stock 10 Week Bouquet
Filed under Gardening News, Seed Starting by on Feb 7th, 2011.
Sheri Ann Richerson’s exotic gardening, elegant cooking, crafty creations, food preservation and animal husbandry… all on two and a half acres!
Experimental Homesteader is the combination of 7 different blogs -
1.) The Experimental Homesteader which is all about what is happening on our homestead.
2.) Animal Husbandry is the blog where you can learn about the different types of animals that live here which includes Beauty the horse, fiber and dairy goats, Leicester Longwool sheep, poultry, dogs and cats.
3.) Crafty Creations is a unique crafting blog that covers natural crafting including essential oil distillation, natural perfume making, herbal preparations, homemade cleaners, spinning yarn and weaving.
4.) Elegant Cooking is the place to go if you love gourmet meals but need to learn how to cook them on a small budget. Learn about edible flowers, cheese making, cooking with a solar oven, cast iron and wood stove cooking.
5.) Food Preservation has tips for stocking up, canning, freezing, dehydrating, root cellaring as well as how to make many items at home including your own vanilla and cinnamon extracts.
6.) Exotic Gardening Thoughts is the ultimate website for the truly obsessed plant-a-holic! If you love gardening, don’t miss this site, even if you are a beginner. Includes easy-to-follow instructional videos.
7.) Dreams and Destinations is the writing website of best selling author Sheri Ann Richerson. Topics include new book releases, publicity tips, information on the writing life as well as information on upcoming appearances and book signings.
Filed under About Experimental Homesteader by on Feb 2nd, 2011. Comment.
1 Pineapple Supreme Cake Mix
1 1/3 cup pineapple juice or water
3 large brown eggs
1/3 cup oil
20 ounce can pineapple slices
Maraschino cherries
Pecans
5 tablespoons butter
½ cup maple sugar
Combine the maple sugar and the butter in a saucepan. Place the pan on the stove. Turn the dial to medium. Stir continually until the butter and sugar melts. There may be a few small lumps left at this point, but that is ok, just make sure there are no large lumps. Whisk the mixture so it is well combined.
Pour the maple sugar and butter mixture into the bottom of a well greased cake pan.
Drain the pineapple juice off and set it aside. Place pineapple slices on top of the maple sugar and butter mixture. Place maraschino cherries in the pineapple holes. Place pecans in the open areas between the pineapple slices.
Set the pan aside while the cake batter is being prepared.
To prepare the cake batter, combine the pineapple supreme cake mix with the 3 eggs, 1/3 cup of oil and 1 1/3 cup pineapple juice. If there is not enough pineapple juice, add enough water to make 1 1/3 cup of liquid.
Stir by hand or with a mixture until the cake batter is smooth. Then pour the cake batter into the pan on top of the fruit and nuts.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 28 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Be sure to read the baking instructions on the back of the cake mix box and to adjust for pan size and altitude.
Filed under Baked Desserts, Cakes, Easy Homemade Desserts by on Jan 25th, 2011.
If you raise chickens or other types of poultry, it is possible to keep the eggs longer than their general shelf life if you freeze them. Frozen eggs work better if they are used in baked items rather than cooked and eaten. Eggs will keep up to six months in the freezer as long as they are preserved in the proper way and kept frozen. Eggs that you are going to freeze should be gathered as soon as they are laid and frozen immediately.
If you separate your eggs, the whites can be frozen in air tight containers without doing anything to them except removing the yolk. You should write on the container how many egg whites are in it and package according to use. For example, if you always use three egg whites, package just three egg whites together, or you can package one egg white at a time in individual containers.
Egg yolks and whole eggs need to be stabilized for freezing. To do this, scramble the egg or yolk and add one teaspoon salt or honey for each egg that is in the mixture. Again, be sure to mark the container so you know what is in it, what preservative you used and how many whole eggs or egg yolks are in it.
Twelve yolks equal one egg. Five eggs equal one cup. Three tablespoons equal one egg. If you want to freeze them individually, make up the mixture, measure three tablespoons into an ice cube tray compartment and freeze. Once the eggs are completely frozen, pop them out, wrap each cube in plastic wrap or freezer paper, put them in a freezer bag and label it.
To use, thaw the eggs, either in the refrigerator for nine hours or at room temperature for four hours. Use immediately upon thawing or the eggs will begin to deteriorate.
If you prefer to store the eggs in their shell and you have a cool basement or root cellar, it is possible to do this. Remove any large pieces of dirt, but take care not to wash the entire egg. Fresh eggs are best.
Find a stone crock, layer the bottom with a thick layer of salt, place a layer of eggs into the salt, with the large end down, then cover with a thick layer of salt. You do not want the eggs touching one another. You can continue to layer the eggs to the top of the crock, alternating salt and eggs in layers. When you are done placing the eggs you have in the crock, cover the top with a lid or thick piece of wood. Be sure to wash the eggs off before use and crack them in a separate dish to ensure they are still good.
Filed under Food Preservation, Fresh Egg Storage by on Jan 18th, 2011.
Growing plants from seed can be easy. Finding seeds, especially those that are rare or magical in nature, can be tricky. Come with Sheri Ann Richerson on a journey to find out where to find seeds, how to properly store seeds, germination tips and techniques, as well as what to do with the seeds once they germinate. Of course, it doesn’t end there. Once the seeds have grown you will need to know how to preserve your bounty. From Seed To Harvest covers this and much more! From Seed To Harvest is perfect for a gardener of any skill level.
From Seed To Harvest
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Filed under Books By Sheri Ann Richerson by on Jan 16th, 2011.
The oldest-known method for extraction and preservation of flower essences is known as enfleurage. This method, which involves pressing the flowers into some type of lard or oil, is used for delicate flowers whose scent cannot be preserved well using typical methods such as distillation or tincturing.
Delicate flowers such as lilac work well using this method. This is easy to do at home and the resulting product can be used in a variety of ways.
Lard is the typical fat used for this process, but a variety of oils can be used including the one I chose, organic cocoa butter. Cocoa butter can be added to a variety of homemade body products. Lilac infused cocoa butter will be the perfect addition to my goat milk soap I will be making soon.
The first step is to pick the lilac flowers early in the morning right after the dew has dried. Remove most of the stem.
Set up the double boiler, which is two pans, one set inside of the other, that is used to melt chocolate, oil, candle wax and a variety of other products that could burn or catch on fire easily if they were set directly on a stove burner. The pan on the bottom should be filled about half-full of water. The smaller pan which will set inside the larger one should contain the oil. I chose organic cocoa butter.
Bring the pan with the water to a rolling boil. Set the second pan containing the oil of choice inside the first pan. Keep an eye on it so it does not get too hot. As soon as the oil begins to melt, lower the heat and keep the oil stirred.
When the oil is melted, pour it into the pan you will be putting the flowers into. Begin filling the pan with the flowers.
You want the flowers completely submerged in the oil. To make sure they do not float on the oil when you are done, set a smaller glass pan inside the larger pan that contains the oil and flowers.
Be sure to remove the pan before the oil begins to dry or you may have a problem seperating the two. You can cover the pan with a lid or plastic wrap to keep debris out while the oil finishes hardening.
Allow this to sit for a few days to absorb the scent of the flowers. This process can take up to two weeks or longer. Keep removing the spent flowers and adding new ones as necessary until the oil takes on a strong enough scent to suit you.
Gently heat the oil back up if it has hardened, using the double boiler method. Stain the flowers using cheesecloth. Be sure to squeeze all the oil from the cheesecloth so you do not lose any scent.
You may use the product like this, or go one step further and make an absolute of essence.
To make an absolute of essence, soak the drained and scented hard oil in ethyl alcohol, which is pure wood or grain spirits. Allow the fat to soak for several days, then remove it.
The fat will be slightly scented and able to be used in bath and body products such as soap.
Do not cover the absolute. The alcohol will evaporate over time and the only thing left will be the absolute which can be used in aromatherapy, natural medicine or natural perfume making.
Filed under Enfleurage Extraction Methods by on Apr 17th, 2010.
