This is my second year of gardening, and potatoes are one of my favorite things about growing our own food. Potatoes are one of the most important foods to eat organic because of their thin skins. So I absolutely love growing our own. They are easy to grow and it's fun digging them up. It's kind of like hunting Easter eggs in the dirt!
We had a lot of potatoes to dig so we made it a family affair.
Isn't it amazing that planting some plants in early Spring will give you this amount of food by late Spring? If you've never grown your own food, I highly recommend it. It's very rewarding.
We got some large onions and a lot of small ones. You can chop them up and freeze them. This would be great for making soups and stews in the Winter.
With all our fresh red and white potatoes, plus the ones we canned {more about that coming soon}, I hope to not have to buy potatoes for the rest of the year.
This is our little chicken house. Isn't it cute? My Father-in-Law built it. He's pretty handy like that. I think the chickens would enjoy a cute front door though. Maybe I'll paint it for them. ;)
Our chickens should start laying eggs in the Fall. I cannot wait! There's nothing better than fresh eggs. Our little chicken community is funny. They each have their own personality and there's a pecking order. My in-laws said they fight over who gets the best spot to roost at night. There are some definite bullies in the group. We have guinea hens now too and, apparently, the chickens gang up on the guineas.
The kids like to try and catch them. It's easier said than done. And you learn fast that flip flops are not the best shoe for the chicken yard. Unless, you like chicken poop on your toes.
This is what the garden looks like now that we've pulled the cool weather plants {potatoes, onions, radishes, broccoli, lettuce, sugar snap peas & mustard greens}. Now we're hoping for a good crop of tomatoes, peppers and green beans.
I love learning this way of life. It's hard to imagine there was a time when all you had to eat was what you grew yourself. I'm thankful for some of our modern day conveniences, but I think it's important to learn to live off the land too. I think we've found a nice balance. But I'm eager to learn more every year. It's a lot of work but there's just something about eating food you grew and prepared yourself. It makes you proud and it definitely tastes better. I'm grateful that Allen's parents are passing their wisdom down to us. You can only learn so much from the internet. It's great to have people in our lives to show us how to do these things. The kids think it's pretty fun too.
