Where The Green Grass Grows

I am blessed to have a morning commute of about 8 miles along a curvy country road into the town where I work the job that pays me money.  Sometimes I am frustrated by a car or truck pulling out right in front of me along the way, or often times one of them whizzing up from behind me and keeping close to my bumper, too much in a hurry.  Many times, however, I have driven the entire way without seeing another vehicle at all until I got to town.

Several mornings recently I've been awestruck by the mysterious beauty of low hanging bands of fog in the hills which hide the middle parts of the mountains.  These fog bands are seemingly held down by an invisible hand in order to allow the tops of the mountains to peak above the murky mists. 

Driving home I have been treated to the shows of the Dogwood and Redbud trees in bloom along with a variety of flowers of yellows and blues along the hills near the road.  I enjoy looking across the fields of the several hill farms I pass and seeing a man tending to his cows or horses, and I drive carefully by several homes where I have needed to brake in the past to allow for chickens crossing the road.

This morning it was not fog that had my attention, but the crystal clarity of the morning sun, shining on the mountains in the near distance.  It was unreal how it brought out such vivid shades of greens from the trees of the distant hills.  I thought to myself that the varied subtlety of the green colors seemed too perfect, like the artist had over exaggerated what the true colors of the trees were.  I realized that God was speaking to me, as He often does during my commutes.  He doesn't usually give me a specific message, He just taps me on the shoulder, reminds me that He is here and that He loves me.  I felt led to immediately thank Him this morning for the beauty of His creation and for blessing me with my wonderful family and home and providing for all our needs through the blessings of the employment God has allowed me to have.

My day at work today was unusually busy, but it was a good day.  As I got into my car to head back to the homestead, the radio started playing with the turning of the ignition key.  The last station that was playing this morning was the local country music station, becasue I was listening to the news at 8:00am.  I try hard not to make a habit of listening to the music on this station due to the offensive messages that so many of today's country songs offer.  However, there are still some songs that come out on the country music stations that are good!  I enjoyed the song that began playing this afternoon because it touched me so close to how I've been feeling lately.  Here's the chorus, which is pretty much the whole song.  You can sing along if you want...

I'm gonna live where the green grass grows

Watchin' my corn pop up in rows

Every night be tucked in close to you (Lisa)

Raise our kids where the good Lord's blessed

Point our rocking chairs towards the west

Plant our dreams where the peaceful river flows

Where the green grass grows

I am very thankful to live in this part of God's creation where there are grass and trees and hills and streams;  a place in the country where we can grow food, raise animals, and where our children can run and play and be loud if they want to.  I'm thankful that God has allowed us to plant our dreams where the peaceful river flows!  And where the green grass grows...

The Taps Are In But Will Time Work Out?

Matthew put 10 taps in our sugar maples yesterday as we are anticipating a good sap flow right now. We enjoy the natural maple sugar that comes from boiling down the sap and our supply is getting pretty low from last year's harvest. We also turn some into maple syrup, but we've discovered that we make better use of the sugar form so that's what we will go for mostly. Sugar keeps almost indefinitely where the syrup has to be kept refrigerated after the jar is opened and can ruin after a few months.

Our 7 day weather forecast is showing some good maple sap days:



Other sources are predicting Wednesday night to be below freezing instead of 38, which would be better. What we want is a pattern of the day time temperature being above freezing while the nights drop below freezing. I especially like to see the days hit 40 with the nights dropping into the mid 20s. The sap flow will stop when the temperature stays above freezing for too long or when the temperature is below freezing for too long. Like life in general, the maple trees need a nice balance to flow freely!

Matthew said several of the taps were already dripping last night! Now the problem will be finding the hours needed to boil the sap down once we get a sufficient amount collected. It looks like school will be on all week, so the days will not be available for me. Tonight we have the annual meeting of the volunteer fire department where I'm treasurer. Wednesday evening I will either be going to our monthly mid-week service at church or I'll be picking up our pork and stopping over at KMBC. Thursday evening is the Bible study at our community center that I've been leading. So that leaves Friday evening and the weekend before I will be able to get to the sap! I hope we have a good sap run, but I don't want it to ruin before I can get to it!

We will just have to do our best and trust that everything will work out! Balance is the key!

Homestead Happenings Month In Review: April 07

April has gone by in a blur it seems, and it is difficult to believe it is already over! I’m glad I’ve recorded some things on my calendars or else I would be looking around here at the end of the month, wondering what happened during April.

Weather:
Looking back, I see that we had some significant weather in April here at Pure Water Hollow. April always gives Kentucky a wonderful variety of weather but the great "April Freeze of 07" was a bit unusual. The first three days of the month were beautiful with temps in the 70s and 80s and on Tuesday, April 3rd we even saw 88 degrees! That made the sudden fall in temperature even more pronounced as the next night got down to freezing! That was followed by 3 days of off and on snow flurries and was the start of 6 straight nights of below freezing temperatures!

It was certainly hard on our fruit trees, but I believe that God works everything out for good in His own way. Perhaps the freeze will have taken care of the brown rot problem we had on our peaches and plums last year? Maybe next year’s crop will be even more bountiful and without the brown rot? And I had not gotten around to doing any pruning this season, which now I am grateful. Our trees were probably able to withstand the freeze better since they had not been pruned recently?

The two weeks following the freeze saw us record almost 4 inches of rain amongst some otherwise beautiful days, but it was the 2.7 inches of rain that fell during the 36 hour period during the weekend of the 13th, 14th, and 15th that caused some flash flooding, damage to our pond dam up in the hollow, and the river to overflow its banks, almost uprooting the peach trees down there! We also had rain on the 19th, 24th, 26th, and the 28th. Altogether it looks like we had a total of 4.4 inches of rain and about .8 inches of snow for the month of April.

Our temperatures for the month were a mixed bag. We saw 16 days in the 70s and 80s, 8 days in the 50s and 60s and 6 days only in the 30s and 40s. I guess that is fairly typical of a Kentucky April.

Chickens:
We are excited about what the Lord is doing in this department. April has been another record-breaking month for Pure Water Hollow Homestead egg production of 330 eggs, (not counting today). That broke last month’s record of 283 eggs. If you divide 330 by the 29 days you find that we have averaged 11.3 eggs per day! The first week of April went down as the new record total for weekly output of 91 eggs, beating the previous weeks record of 85 eggs! (I gathered the eggs later today. This last day of April saw a record number of eggs for one day: 22 eggs all laid in the coop! That makes 352 for the month!)

We have 27 hens now, but we started the month with 28. On April 10th 2 hens did not come back to the coop. One of them did return later, but one never did. We think she probably went to setting on a nest in the woods, which would have been fine, if she could have stayed safe. Sadly, Matthew found a pile of feathers in a rock crevice up on the hill yesterday. We think it must be from the missing hen.

We never really planned on going into the egg selling business, but people are now buying fresh farm eggs from the Pure Water Farm! We have made $23.50 selling eggs in April. We only started marketing them just over a week ago and we have sold 9 1/2 dozen during these first 11 days. All I did was put one flier up on the bulletin board at work and mentioned it to a few people and God is doing the rest. I have made some fliers to put up at some local stores and the post office, but we have to wait to see if we have any extra eggs. So far we are selling all we have here at my work!

I decided that it would be best if we used new cartons so we ordered 200 for about $50. I got them from the same place that pcsmom got hers. (Thanks for the tip). We got our cartons in on April 18th and had my flier up by the 20th. These 200 should be more than enough for this season and I think we will have many left over for next year. Here is a picture of what they look like:






One reason they may be selling so well is that we only priced them for $1.50 a dozen. I didn’t want to go too high since there are people around here who still sell eggs for only $1 a dozen, but they don’t sell them in attractive, sterile, new cartons!

Our cost for keeping the chickens this month has been just one 100 pound bag of cracked corn for $10.10. The price of corn continues to rise here…

Pigs:
Our pigs are costing us a bit more to keep, but we are still enjoying them. They are such loveable creatures! I bought 400 pounds of corn feed meal at the start of the month for $36.50. We mix this with the free milk we get from the distributors in town. This lasted for over three weeks but I did have to buy another bag on the 26th for $9.10 and we have gone through it already. I also bought a 100 pound bag of hog feed for $12.25 from one feed store and another 100pound bag of hog chow for $14.10 from another feed store. The difference is the amount of protein in the feed. The more expensive one has 16% protein, I think, while the other has 12%. I get them just to try and give the pigs a more balanced diet. The grand total for feeding the 4 now rather big hogs comes to $71.95 for the month of April.

We added a new metal feed trough for them the beginning of this month. Now we have a large trough outside and a large one inside. This has helped by giving them more room and a better variety. This new feed trough is actually half of some type of cylindrical tank, like a water heater but larger. Matthew dug it up from the ravine so we have no money in it and it is working so good! The outside feeding area was greatly improved on April 3rd when we built up the ground in front of the trough using free slabs from a local saw mill. We stacked them and nailed them together and covered the platform with dirt so it would not be too hard on their feet. The pigs love it and it has helped them be able to eat out of the trough tremendously!

We still have Porky, although he looks like he is definitely ready to process. He turned 6 months old on April 4th. I really need to get on the ball and decide where to take him. There are a few butchers to choose from, but the one I want to find more about is one in a neighboring community run by some Mennonites. If they are in business for the general public it might be worth it to drive further for some quality service by people I can trust.

I see that I have also spent money on straw for the pigs. It just seems that they enjoy having straw for their beds so much that I hate to let them do without it. Maybe I am pampering them too much, but I have given them 6 bales of straw during April. This also helps with the mud some, and they seem to use the straw in their stalls to clean the mud off of them. They do seem cleaner and happier when they have straw to play with. But we have to weigh in the cost factor. Straw here sells for $4.75 a bale so I have used about $30 of straw just to make them comfortable this month.

I also wormed them this month, on April 10th, just to be on the safe side. I went back and forth on whether or not it would be a good thing if they did not show any signs of having worms, and I finally decided to do it just in case. I actually bought the worm medicine back in January for $4.95. It was called Atguard Worm medication. It was the kind you mix in the dry feed and was enough medicine to do all four pigs.

Goats:
Our 5 goats continue to do well. They have never escaped from our fence, so I am glad that we must have done something right. We desperately need to continue fencing however, and give them access to all the plants and thorns and trees that are out now. They have picked their lot pretty clean, and they love it when the children take them on walks with a leash where they can get to other plants. I think we will be able to cut back quite a bit on their feed after they have a bigger area to graze.

This month we have gone through 2 bags of 100 pound goat feed that cost a total of $27.50 and they have started on another 100 pound bag of sweet feed that I bought for $13. I also bought 10 bales of hay for $30 on April 19th and we have already used several of the bales.

The kudzu has not yet greened out, so we still do not know how well they will like it. I surely hope it will be one of their favorites!

Bees:
As far as we know, our Genesis Colony of honeybees is doing well.

We went ahead and invested in all the bee keeping equipment we think we will need in the foreseeable future and it was delivered on April 14th in two 45 pound boxes. I think it was like Christmas for Lisa, and she has enjoyed going through it all and assembling the hives and supers and frames. We got a complete hive, another hive body, two more supers, all the frames we need, all the foundation we could use, a beekeeping outfit with the gloves, helmet, overalls, an extra helmet and veil, a smoker, a feeder, a book. and other little things I am forgetting. We are planning very soon to add a hive body and super to the Genesis Colony.

Trees and Plants:
We were able to plant 6 blueberry bushes, 12 cherry bushes, 3 pecan trees, and 6 coffee trees this month. We have a number of other pecan, chestnut, coffee, and dogwood trees to still plant. We have those extra trees heeled in in our garden, so they must find a home soon. Our garden is still awaiting our tender loving care.


In surveying my calendars, I don’t see much else I should mention here concerning April, except for the company we have had. It is neat that we started the month with a visit from my brother and his family and we have ended the month with a visit from my mom and step-dad. (I am hoping to share pictures that Mom took in my next post.) It has been fun to visit with family and share with them how God has been blessing our homestead.

Overall, I think we have had a good April, even though it did go by rather quickly! We operate in continual thanksgiving unto our Lord for the goodness he bestows upon us.

The Kentucky Coffee Tree

We have recently planted some Kentucky coffee trees in Pure Water Hollow and I hope that some of them make it. JubileeFarm5 asked about what the Kentucky coffee tree is and I’ve found that they are not a very common tree.

I’m going to quote a bit from a Kentucky government website about the Kentucky coffee tree, but the whole article is rather interesting, explaining the debate over the years about which tree to make the official state tree for Kentucky. If you have time you may enjoy the entire article at http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/kytree.htm.

"The only tree that has a commonly accepted name which includes a state name, the Kentucky Coffee Tree is the one of the only two remaining species of Gymnocladus in existence. (The other is in China.) Gymnocladus means "naked branches," which the Coffee Tree has six months out of the year.


The Coffee Tree is a legume, a flowering plant that produces compound leaves and pods containing seeds that are edible. (Although Coffee Tree beans are poisonous to humans unless roasted thoroughly.) The plant produces green-white unisexual flowers that attract insects to provide cross pollination. The seed pods are 6 to 10 inches long and usually appear in late summer and sometimes last throughout the winter. The beans are packed in a green gooey substance in the pods, and are also protected by a hard, dark green-brown shell. The seed pods are only produced by female plants.

The Kentucky Coffee Tree is a medium to large tree, usually reaching a height of 75 to 100 feet and a diameter of 2 1/2 feet. The largest Coffee Tree on record is located in Morgan County, Kentucky**, at a height of 78 feet tall and over 17 1/2 feet in diameter. The trunk of the Coffee Tree is short and divides into two to four secondary branches which are almost parallel to each other. The bark is dark gray and has rough projecting fissures. Young growth is stout often coated with a crusty film and fine hairs. The Kentucky Coffee Tree usually lives to be about 100 years old.

Found mostly in the midwest, the Kentucky Coffee Tree prefers deep, rich bottomland alluvial soils. The largest specimens can be found mostly in moist hollows on limestone soil, but the plant is tolerant of various soil types."

And here is the official bill when it became our state tree in 1976:

(S.B. 150)

AN ACT relating to designation of the Kentucky coffeetree as the official tree of the Commonwealth.
WHEREAS, in the entire world of arboriculture only the Kentucky coffeetree bears the proud word Kentucky in its name; and
WHEREAS, the bean of the Kentucky coffeetree once was used as a substitute for coffee by the intrepid pioneers who carved the Commonwealth from the wildernes; and
WHEREAS, John Filson in his "History of Kentucky" did refer to the unique beauty and usefulness of the Kentucky coffeetree; and
WHEREAS, in 1783 General George Rogers Clark did send seeds of the Kentucky coffeetree to Thomas Jefferson and which seeds produces trees still gracing the grounds of Monticello; and
WHEREAS, the Kentucky coffeetree often is referred to as "Kentucky Mahogany" for the beauty of its wood;
WHEREAS, the Kentucky coffeetree, although once growing in multitudinous plenty, now is an endangered species;
NOW, THERE,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

Section1. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 2 IS CREATED TO READ AS FOLLOWS: That the Kentucky coffeetree is named and designated as the Kentucky state tree.

Approved March 8, 1976
(This was changed in 1994 back to the Tulip Poplar or Tulip Tree)

From what I’ve heard from others, the coffee it makes is a rather poor substitute for true coffee lovers. Since I don’t drink coffee, perhaps I will enjoy the coffee-like drink we will be able to make from the seeds!

We are always happy to add potentially useful trees and plants to our homestead, and I think that the Kentucky coffee tree qualifies.

It is surely a unique tree because I’ve read that no animals eat or disperse the seeds. Some think that it may have been a favorite food for the mastodon before it became extinct, but since they died out, the Kentucky coffee tree has had a difficult time surviving.

I feel like we are giving a helping hand to a struggling tree species! Perhaps it will return the favor in a few years and give us an interesting beverage to try!

2 comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhen on April 13, 2007 at 8:49 am
That is so cool! I have several heirloom vegetables that are almost extinct. It feels good to plant, grow and continue something that isn't common.

All for His glory,

~Rhen

Purewater adds a hearty Amen!
Yes, all for His Glory
Edited by Purewater on Friday, April 13, 2007 at 10:26 AM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Melanie on April 27, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Thanks for sharing about the Kentucky Coffee tree. I was curious if it actually had any beans that were edible. That is so neat that the pioneer type, ambitious ones of the past tried it out. I wonder if it would grow in Ohio. Probably would being we are only a state north. Very nice article, thanks for sharing it!

Melanie @ Jubileefarm

Glad To Plant Trees

After six straight nights with temperatures down in the 20s here, the weather seems to finally have broken. Yesterday we got back up to 60 degrees and the weatherman is not predicting anymore freezing temperatures.

The blueberry plants that we had ordered came last week when we had freeze warnings every night, so we put off planting them of course. I’m glad they did not arrive the week before or we would have planted them and then probably lost them to the freezing! I think we did loose our plum, cherry, and peach crops. They were in bloom but now look like something stomped on them. I’m not sure if the apple trees were hurt too badly yet, and maybe the other trees will rebound, too.

After I got home yesterday we had fun planting some new trees and bushes. We planted the six blueberry plants and the cherry tree we had started from seed. I also got some trees to plant from the soil conservation office for free!

We planted 3 pecan trees in a good open sunny spot that should work well, and we planted six Kentucky Coffee trees in some not so good places. We have high hopes for pecans but we will just have to wait and see if the coffee trees will work in partial shade. We have always wanted pecans in Pure Water Hollow but have never gone to the trouble to get any trees. It is sad thinking that we have been here for 13 years and it takes a pecan tree about 12 years to begin bearing nuts. We could have pecans right now! I suppose later is better than never, however.

I also got some free chestnut trees to plant and some dogwoods. We thought we would plant the dogwoods next to the road along the river where the power lines go over. The power company always cuts the bigger trees down, and these should make a pretty screen from the traffic on the road after they grow. I don’t know where we will put the chestnut trees, since we don’t have any open places. I guess we will plant them in the forest and see if any of them will be able to survive.

I also have 7 more pecan trees and 4 more Ky. Coffee trees that we would like to find a home on our propertyfor!

We have much to do in the planting arena here. If only we had more time and energy…


2 comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sheryl on April 11, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Whatever you do, don`t plant the chestnut trees in the yard or where you have to mow. My grandparent had about five in the yard and they were nothing but a pain. They finally cut them down. They are not bad until the nuts fall to the ground and they are in prickly pods, the best way I know to explain it. If you are barefoot and step on one, oh my gosh it is really painful. They are hard to take your lawn mower over too. Now others may have different experiences with them. But I hated them. But of course, I was around ten and was always stepping on them.

I am so glad that the weather is getting warmer. My peas made it, I think. Some of my other plants, not so sure on them.

Reply by Purewater:

We know all about those prickly hulls you are talking about because we have three large chestnut trees in our front/side yard and they can definitely get in the way!

I wouldn't want to cut them down, though. We had hopes of making chestnut flour out of them, but we could not get the nuts dried out without them getting buggy. We did eat several fresh and our pigs absolutely loved them!

I picked up these new trees mainly because they were free, and we want to plant trees that can be used as a food source. We're hoping to get them established up in the hollow away from the house, but if not, we have plenty of chestnuts to do us from these three mature trees.
Edited by Purewater on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 4:09 PM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Melanie on April 12, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Our peach, and pear trees were just starting to bloom when we ended up with the nasty cold return of winter as well. I am not sure like you said about the apple trees.

What are KY coffee trees?

A Non-Adventurous Sunday Afternoon Walk

I almost wrote a catchy, exciting sounding title for this post since I was getting kind of used to Sunday afternoon adventure walks with yellow jackets and copperheads! Actually, there was no adventure this time, thankfully, just a pleasant, peaceful walk through the mountains.

(Actually, Lisa did get stung by a packsaddle or spider or something on her left eye, but it wasn't too much of an adventure. I was quite concerned when it first happened but I'm glad it was not too serious. Matthew galloped down the mountain to a place where he knew some touch-me-not flowers were growing. We use them to take the sting out of bites, stinging nettles, poison ivy, and any other type of stings. Lisa is doing fine now.)

Today was another incredibly beautiful Sunday that the Lord blessed us with and we were looking forward to our regular Sunday afternoon walk. The leaves are beginning to fall and the hills are aglow with the autumn colors. The blue sky was full of sunshine and the temperature was a perfect 74 degrees.

We ate lunch out at our picnic table in the side yard and then we were soon loading into the truck to hit the hills! This time we avoided the yellow jackets and drove right past the old woodpile where the copperheads might be, and we headed on up to the head of the hollow where the one good walnut tree was last year. (There are five or six closer walnut trees but they did not have many nuts this year.)

Around here in Kentucky, the walnuts are ready and have been falling for some time already. We have been disappointed, however, because none of our trees had many walnuts on them. Our last hope was a couple of walnut trees up on what we call the West Cave Trail. (We call it that because the trail loops past a nice overhang of rocks beneath the west ridge that we call the West Cave. It's not really a cave, just an overhang that you can stay dry in if there's a rainstorm.)  We sadly discovered that those walnut trees up there did not do any good this year either, for some reason. Maybe all of our walnut trees are too crowded by other trees? Some of them are rather large and we know that several of them have produced in the past. The rest of the forest is growing right around them, though. Do they have to be out in the open to have a good crop?

We did pick a poke full of spice bush leaves and twigs to make spice tea and some birch limbs to make birch tea and enough paw paws for Lisa to make some paw paw bread! We have lost most of the paw paws that were growing, however. A few weeks ago there were so many paw paws hanging around that we could not have used them all had we wanted to! The animals probably got them because they are a favorite food for opossum, squirrel, raccoon, fox, and others. We have plenty of those kinds of critters around Pure Water Hollow!

After we returned back to the house the children played some card games and we all had some delicious ice cream. It was a very peaceful, enjoyable Sunday afternoon in the Lord. I'll take a calm, non-adventurous Sunday afternoon walk over slaying copperheads and attacking yellow jackets any Sunday!

Thank you, Lord.

The Reign ~ Rain of the Chestnuts Continues

We began the chestnut harvest last Saturday so today was the 8th day of gathering chestnuts. We cannot see many more nuts up in the three trees so surely it is almost over? We have now harvested 7-gallon size storage bags full of them. Some are fuller than others so I don't know exactly how many we have, but we have bagged each day and written the date on the bag so we can keep up with which ones are the oldest. I think we have gotten the most this evening and have not yet put them into a bag. Looking at them now I think we may have to split them into two bagfuls!

Simon and Matthew gathered several nuts today and Christina and Simon have been helping me wash them and put them in bags. We had gotten behind and had three days worth of nuts waiting to go into the refrigerator. Our procedure has become that of collecting them in bowls out in the yard and then submerging them in a large bowl of water at the dining room table. Carla's book says that the bad ones will float and we have been having five or six to float out of each batch. We put those in the throwaway pile and also cull out any we find that have cracks or holes or look too black instead of the shiny brown. We then put the nice clean chestnuts into the gallon plastic bags with a twist tie and then we poke holes all over the bag to let air in, and I think to let moisture out? We don't know exactly what we are doing, but at least we are trying something more this year than we have before.

This has been the first year we have been diligent about gathering them every day. In the past we have let many lay too long and then we try to harvest them and find that most have gotten little worms in them while they waited around to be taken care of. We have discovered that the only way to avoid this is to harvest them as soon as they hit the ground, or as soon after as possible. We are doing it this way now because last year we gathered most of the chestnuts that fell, but became a little chicken when we saw all those worms.


Our Chickens Might Be Nuts - But They Don't Eat Them!

Speaking of chickens, last year I had two of those 20 lb birdseed buckets full of chestnuts but did not bring them in the house and do anything with them for many, many days. I don't really remember how long it was but I found that the buckets were full of those tiny worms and they were attracting many gnats as well. I then had a great idea!

Chickens like eating worms and corn, and chestnuts are called "tree corn", so it seemed to me that our chickens would enjoy scratching at the nuts, eating the worms as well as picking out the meat that was still good! So I dumped the whole thing in their lot... and I don't think a single chicken touched them. It made the lot look even trashier than normal and I was very sorry I threw them out to the chickens. I guess the chickens didn't mind too much, but they looked like they were uncomfortable walking on all those nuts! It has only been recently this year that I could not see any more traces of a stray chestnut still left.

Our current crop is in much better shape this year and I am excited about the possibilities. (Lisa wishes they were black walnuts instead because she really likes to eat them just plain. We do have several walnut trees back on the property but they have never born many nuts, plus we have to go on a trip to get to them.) We are still wondering about making chestnut flour. Lisa is thinking that we need to let the chestnuts dry out before we make flour, but if that were true, how in the world would you keep worms and bugs from getting into them (other than building a two-story smoke house)? If anyone reads this and has an idea, let us know.

Thanks.

The Sky Is Falling

Rat-a-tat-tat-bing-ping-bing "Watch out, cover your heads!"

No, we were not under enemy fire from some hillbilly feud; it was just the sky falling!

Actually it is our chestnuts raining down from above! The three chestnut trees are right next to our house and on the other side of the trees there is an out building with a metal roof and when these chestnuts fall they make all kind of racket! Everyday there has been 5 to 10 chestnuts on the sidewalk leading to our front porch and we have even had chestnuts shoot up off a bounce and land on our porch before!

Do you know how heavy these chestnuts are falling? Why, a person could say that these chestnuts are falling at such a heavy rate, all you have to do is set a dozen or so empty bowls down under the trees and leave them there. Come back in 5 or 10 minutes and the bowls would be overflowing with nuts! But that would be exaggerating some... I could continue the tall tale by saying that these nuts are sooo big and heavy that they put dents all over the car that might get parked underneath the trees! And a person needs to be under a strong umbrella when they are collecting the bowlfuls or else they are liable to get knocked unconscious! But those statements would be exaggerating some too...

Actually it has been fairly hard work collecting the chestnuts because of all the stooping over to pick them up, and those sharp prickly hulls always hurt somehow, even wearing gloves! Also it takes quite a bit of searching through the grass and under leaves to find the chestnuts. They are all over but you still have to search them out. You also have to pry the hulls away from some of them to get the 2 or 3 nuts out. If I am collecting them by myself it takes about an hour to get the equivalent of a gallon bag full. I am trying to only keep the best ones and dispose of those that are already getting a bit moldy or if they have any crack or hole in it. I am also filling up large buckets (old 20 lb birdseed buckets) with the hulls to clear the yard so we can see when new ones have fallen. So far I have dumped 6 bucketfuls of the hulls across the road. (It just crossed my mind that they might be good in a compost pile? We have never done composting but it seems like it would be a great idea). We have been putting about a gallon bag of good looking, clean chestnuts in the refrigerator every day and we have 4 or 5 bags full now. (We still need to clean today and yesterday's harvest and put them in bags.) We read in The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery that you can keep them for several months in the refrigerator in bags with holes in them for air, and even longer in the freezer! We will see.

Tonight Lisa is trying a Chestnut Puree recipe from the Emery book to go with our supper. I am traditionally not a big nut eater but I really like the idea of eating good food that God is literally allowing to grow on trees for us and all we have to do is pick them up! Some sources call chestnuts "Tree Corn" because of all the excellent nutrition they contain and so many possible uses for it!

Eight-year-old Christina has had the most fun with the chestnut hunting and has been the biggest helper collecting them. She has not likened it to what I am about to mention, and Lisa thought I shouldn't point it out to her, either, because of our feeling toward it. What I am talking about is that searching through the grass for the nuts and being excited when you find some, reminds me of an annual spring event that my family does not partake of; an Easter Egg hunt.

It looks like this is a good time for me to chase a rabbit trail.  Call me strange if you want, but eggs and bunnies really have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I think it is a tragedy that the "church" allows its children to get so excited about Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs and Easter candy. When they get older and can no longer participate in the egg hunts, just celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is boring for them and not very much "fun". At our home we try to keep the focus at Easter on celebrating Christ and do not want our children distracted with the nonsense of the world. The one or two egg hunts we did participate in left a bad taste with us, especially when the church does the hunt immediately following the Easter morning worship service! The children are generally not interested in the worship, only when it will be over so they can have fun. At least the church we are attending now does their egg hunt on Saturday and tries to use it as an outreach to the community. There are many children around who do not come to church except for things like that and it is possible that they will hear the gospel explained, but is seems difficult to me, and we did not participate. I did not mean to editorialize so much here. Maybe I will share more on our thoughts about Easter in the spring? This post is about our chestnuts! Anyway, my whole point is that it has been kind of fun searching for and finding the chestnuts. Children can have fun without all the worldly mechanisms in motion.

We would still like to hear from anyone that may have some experiences with benefiting from chestnuts and could suggest anything that may be helpful for us. There are still very many nuts on the trees so it looks like we should have several more days of collecting them. Other years we have collected the nuts, only to let most of them ruin. We are going to try hard not to let that happen this year!

1 comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mc2rwe on September 28, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Well I have no comments on the chestnuts but I applaud you on your lack of "bunny belief". We never allowed our children to participate in egg hunts or halloween celebrations. Much to the horror of most of our family… About a year ago my second son asked if he could have his share of the money that we saved on not buying all of that stuff when they were little… we just laughed.

Kathy

How Do You Make Chestnut Flour?

We have three large chestnut trees near our house and they are again loaded with nuts this year. Today's and last night's hard rains have brought many chestnuts down and we have already harvested a bowl full. We sometimes eat them raw but would really like to know how to turn them into chestnut flour. We have found many sources on the web that sells chestnut flour and many recipies that calls for chestnut flour, but no suggestions of the best way to make chestnut flour! We have ordered a grain mill that we think should work, but we are not sure exactly what to do. My wife, Lisa, thinks we would roast them first?

Also does anyone know how to preserve them until Christmas? We have never been able to have chestnuts roasted on an open fire at Christmas time because they are moldy and bug eaten by then.

I realize that this is kind of early to already be asking questions because not many of you are looking at this blog yet. We would welcome any suggestions, even if you don't find this until November or December or whenever. Perhaps you will help us be better ready for next year even if it might be too late this year!

The Lord always seems to give us an abundance of chestnuts and we always feel that we are letting a great blessing go to waste by not utlilizing them better. So if you have any good ideas besides making chestnut flour let us know them also! Thanks in advance.

1 comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Sunshine on September 23, 2006 at 4:54 pm
This has the old fashioned way… I think there must be an easier way now….

http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0282.htm

Welcome to the homesteading family! I have enjoyed your blogs. I will be returning often, I think. You seem to have a lot of good things to share. May I add you to my friend list?


Purewater:
I have copied an interesting paragraph from the above referenced web site about drying the chestnuts and pasted it here.  Thank you Morning Sunshine!  Add me to your friend list because I have already added you to ours.

"Of course, in the past the farmers who survived on chestnuts didn't sit around the fire roasting them, though some of their crop certainly did meet that end. The rest went into a drying hut, whose design (and name) varied from region to region; it was generally a small two story building, and come harvest time they would light a fire in the ground floor room. Directly above the fire was a stone heat shield to protect the beams supporting the second floor, which was spread with the chestnut crop; the heat rose and dried out the chestnuts, while the smoke that filtered up killed the worms that do get into chestnuts and might otherwise have eaten their way through the harvest. The fire was never allowed to go out, and on chill nights the farmers and their families would gather in the fire room to enjoy the warmth and pass the time, swapping stories and telling tales.

Dried chestnuts can either be boiled, ground up into flour, or used as ingredients in other dishes."