Figs

Our fig tree had lost of ripe fruit and we managed to pick some of it before the birds ate it all. While delicious on their own, we had fun trying a couple easy recipes with them. The kids are still warming up to them. I think they just aren't quite used to the texture, because the flavor is amazing!

Our first recipe was very simple: figs cut in half, dipped in balsamic vinegar and topped with goat cheese. We put them in the toaster over for a few minutes and they were delicious.

Our second recipe was only slightly more complicated. Figs and pears sauteed in butter and brown sugar in home made crepes topped with cinnamon and home made whipped cream. Yummy!

Garden Friends: Snakes

As we were walking down to the garden, we saw a big gopher snake (about six feet long) slithering in the wood pile. We were all happy to see him there and hopeful that he would catch some of the gophers or squirrels that were eating all of our tomatoes. 

Suddenly, we heard a high pitch squeak. We thought (hopefully) that it might be the sound of a squirrel that was just caught by a snake. Maya, our dog, was very excited and ran to the wood pile, sticking her nose in a little hole in the woodpile. We called her back so we could see what she was sniffing at through the hole. Lacey was the first to see a bunny's head. She said that it looked like it was laying still. 

As we were all crowding around trying to see what she was talking about, Maya stuck her nose back in and that is when we heard a very loud hiss. Seriously loud, I did not know that snakes could make such a loud sound. We decided that it was probably a good idea to give the snake its space and called Maya away again and found some work to do away from the garden. 

After about a half-hour or so, we went back to see if the rabbit or snake were still around. All we could see was part of the snake's body sticking out of the hole where we had seen the bunny. One less rodent to eat our bounty.

This was a different gopher snake we found previously in a different part of our land.

Pest Control: Earwigs - Round 2

Apparently, earwigs like to live in straw that is used as mulch in your garden. We were providing a safe, comfortable place for the earwigs to live by day with plenty of food to eat by night. Once we got rid of the mulch, the earwig problem became much more manageable. We had added mulch early in the year because we had an unusually warm winter. As summer approaches, we are noticing fewer earwigs in general, so we may try mulching again this summer. We'll see how that goes.

Pest Control - Earwig Battle: Round One

We think that our vegetable garden is being attacked by earwigs. We see them everywhere around the garden (and house for that matter - which is really disgusting by the way!). Thanks to Google, we discovered a pretty simple trap for them. You put about an inch of vegetable oil and something smelly like soy sauce (some of the articles and YouTube videos suggest the water or oil from tuna) in a shallow container (we used yogurt containers and small cans) and bury the container in the ground so that the opening is at ground level. The earwigs are attracted by the smell and fall into the container and the oil coats them so that they cannot get out. When you go out in the morning to check your traps you will be both delighted and disgusted at the number of dead earwigs in your containers.

We've only done it for a couple nights so far and it seems like there are less holes in the new leaf growth. Hopefully it will help a lot.

Wild Cucumber

We have a pretty vine that started growing under and all around one of our oak trees as well as part of our fence.

We weren't sure what it was, but it was pretty, so we let it grow, wondering if it would produce any fruit or anything. Yesterday, we found this crazy spiky, green fruit on it, and decided that we had to know what it was. 

Turns out it is a wild cucumber. According to SF Gate it doesn't strangle the trees it grows on, so I guess we don't have to kill it, but perhaps we don't want to let it grow everywhere it wants to go. 

Fruits and Veggies

It's not all chickens on the Potter Farm, we've also been working on the garden. And when I say "we" I really mean "Ron."

Last weekend he put in some fruit trees and table grapes.

The girls planted a row of strawberries and Ron put in a soaker hose

We also have some beans growing that we planted a few weeks ago,

Hopefully we will have some nice fruits and veggies this summer. As long as the gophers don't eat them first.  

We'll see what we get up to this weekend. I still have to add pictures of some of the creatures we've found as we've been working in the garden.