This year, as our family decides to live more frugal, we decided on kicking it up a notch in our composting. We’re looking forward to a bigger and better family garden this year and that’s going to require us to pay more attention to the soil we grow our foods in. All those wasted food scraps that didn’t go to the chickens, will be re-purposed as wonderful organic compost. I’ll also be a little curious on how much less garbage we put out (it’s usually a lot) and how much more recycling we have each week.

Right now, I’m re-purposing an old Folgers coffee canister placed on our kitchen counter to save our kitchen scraps. When it’s full, we’ll take it to the garden. To keep it fresh smelling without all those nasty odors, I’m using my baking soda shaker to sprinkle in every once in a while to balance the chemicals and reduce odor.

Here’s a list of what kitchen scraps we’ll be saving for composting:

• Peels and rinds from fruits and vegetables
• Coffee grounds (we don’t have paper filters but you could compost those too)
• Tea bags and tea grounds
• Paper towels, paper napkins, brown paper grocery bags (use these all the time in the garden to keep weeds away)
• Cardboard boxes
• Egg shells and egg cartons (not the Styrofoam ones)
• Stale bread
• Potato peels
• Old newspapers

Just throw all of your scraps into your kitchen counter top compost bin, coffee canister or bucket and empty into the compost pile once it is full.  Just make sure to “stir” your kitchen compost frequently while it “cooks” to give it a little air–you can also add a little dirt/soil from the garden to the mix to speed up the process and minimize smell.

Saving those kitchen scraps is just another way our family is living more frugal these days. How about you? Is your family saving kitchen scraps for compost?

The Bergala Family Farm is now home to 24 chickens, 3 roosters and now 6 guinea keets! Here’s the breakdown: 2 “older ladies”, Cricket and Clover are our Silkie Frizzles and they have been laying eggs for about 1 1/2 years. They lay a smaller size egg like a Grade B. The rest of the ladies Buttercup (our fair chicken), will start laying fairly soon.

Jersey

Our roosters include Jersey, (pictured above) Rootbeer; our Silkie, and now we found out we have a Cuckoo Maran Rooster named Pierre. He doesn’t crow as much like the other two.

Pierre

Yes, we have become accustomed to farm life now, raising our chickens and roosters. This life must suit us, because we are still having a ton of fun!

With us finally taking a family vacation at the end of the year, we felt it was time to expand and rebuild our chicken coop to  allow for more nesting boxes and room to roam inside a pen versus free range all the time. We’re spending quite a bit more time outdoors this summer redoing landscaping and just making everything look nice so we felt keeping the chickens and roosters in a central location was best.

Rootbeer’s morning crow

Introducing our Silkie ladies….

Snowflake, Pretzel and Gretel

Freckles our scissor beak aka crossed beak chicken….She never runs from us and always greets us happily. She’s one of the smartest ones we have.

Freckles

Freckles

The gang at breakfast…

Miss Fancy Pants our Gold Laced Wyandotte is very independent…

Fancy Pants

Buttercup, Custard and the girls hanging out…

Buttercup, Custard and girls

The laying ones Cricket and Clover with Root beer…

Cricket, Rootbeer and Clover

And our new additions…Guinea Keets; one week and two weeks old

Guinea Keets

One of them has feathered feet…

Guinea Keets

Guinea Keets

Raising chickens never gets old. There’s always something exciting and new going on here at Bergala Family Farm. Have a great rest of your weekend!

This year, we decided on having a bigger family garden to grow our own foods. I took a couple of pictures of the garden this morning. This is our first attempt at growing melons. We planted a couple of different varieties and they seem to finally take off. Can you see the cute tiny melon?

Melon Plants

Last month, the deer decided to stop by for either a late dinner or early morning breakfast and ate away at our pumpkins, tomato and pepper plants. We were able to rescue them, but I’m not sure how well they will produce. I’m hoping for at least two pumpkins for the kids come October. The cucumber and tomatillos seem to be doing awesome!

Tomatillos

We’ve had some peppers already from the garden, but the rest is slowly growing. Everything is still alive and green with yellow flowers.  I’m hoping to see some results. We’ll see.

How’s your garden growing?

Have you heard about Home Depot’s Garden Club? If you plan on growing a family garden this year, Home Depot has you covered. I just signed up for their Garden Club and received a coupon on my next shopping trip there. I already see some ideas for expanding our family garden this year.  And to make it simple, they have cedar raised garden beds perfect for those just starting out.

By being a member of the Home Depot Garden Club, you’ll not only receive coupon savings but also great tips and advice on the best ways to build your garden whether it’s small or large, herb gardens, and helpful how-to videos.

Plant a vegetable patch in your new garden. Kids will have tons of fun caring for their seedlings as they mature. And what better reward is there for a garden well tended than a crisp carrot straight from the earth (washed, of course) or a nice ripe tomato right from the vine.

Go ahead, get your family garden growing!

The joy you get from an herb garden partially comes from being able to snip a few leaves whenever you want some fresh herbs in your lunch or dinner. Most of your herb plants will grow bushier for having been snipped back at regular intervals. This past weekend, I was able to spend a little bit of time in our family garden tending to herbs in the garden.

If you cut back a half to two-thirds of the herb plants, most of them will produce a second or third harvest. Always harvest your herbs into a paper bag or an open basket, and not in plastic, which could cause overheating and deterioration or possibly cause them to mildew. After your harvesting of the herbs, immediately start the washing and drying process to keep your herbs at top quality.

In this month’s newsletter, A Busy Mom’s Kitchen, subscribers learned how to harvest your fresh herbs from the garden and what if you’re producing more herbs than you can possibly use?

Mix chopped fresh herbs with melted butter, olive oil and garlic and freeze in ice cube trays.

All herbs can be frozen. Package small quantities in moisture-vapor proof containers. I like to use the tupperware ice trays I have with lids for this.

Why I Freeze Herbs?
 
Just about every soup, saute or sauce begins with the combination of these things: butter and/or olive oil and garlic.  With some herbs adding to the flavor, you’ve got yourself an easy base to many of your recipes.