Sunday, August 18, 2019
Saturday, August 17, 2019
A Lot of Ducks in August
We've had large groups of ducks land a few times a day to enjoy the corn. It's great to see them together, playing, swimming, and enjoying snacks.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Otters and Sweet Potatoes
The morning after shows no signs of otter ravaging, so it seems that they visited, had a snack, and left. Otter visit #1 final assessment: No Problem. (Whew!)
I braved the sweet potato cage this morning, thinking it was 90 days since planting some of the earliest sweet potato slips, so there might be sweet potatoes forming. I used soft gloves to dig into a few of the fabric pots, and I found no sign of sweet potatoes. So.... either something has gone awry, or it's just going to take a bit longer to see food. I'm going with the latter, as all of my reading suggests that people plant the sweet potatoes late spring and harvest in time for the fall (October/November) so that they can have sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. Even though Gurneys says 90 days for vining sweet potatoes and 100 days for bush varieties, I'm going to smile and be patient. Besides, it'll be MUCH nicer to harvest in late September/early October when the weather cools a bit and the bugs subside some. I'm really looking forward to having sweet potatoes to eat from the P2 farm, so I really hope they make some food!
I braved the sweet potato cage this morning, thinking it was 90 days since planting some of the earliest sweet potato slips, so there might be sweet potatoes forming. I used soft gloves to dig into a few of the fabric pots, and I found no sign of sweet potatoes. So.... either something has gone awry, or it's just going to take a bit longer to see food. I'm going with the latter, as all of my reading suggests that people plant the sweet potatoes late spring and harvest in time for the fall (October/November) so that they can have sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. Even though Gurneys says 90 days for vining sweet potatoes and 100 days for bush varieties, I'm going to smile and be patient. Besides, it'll be MUCH nicer to harvest in late September/early October when the weather cools a bit and the bugs subside some. I'm really looking forward to having sweet potatoes to eat from the P2 farm, so I really hope they make some food!
Monday, August 12, 2019
Baby peafowl snacking
I accidentally hit the Slo-Mo button.... it's kind of fun to see the movement captured very S L O W L Y
"There's some kind of a big swim thing happening out there...."
We were warned...
It seems that three otters have come to the P2 main pond to feast tonight. They're noctural, so we'll keep watch and hope that a few tilapia are left by morning.
I should be alarmed, but darn they're cute, and there's nothing I can do to stop them, so we may as well enjoy the show!
We'll report in the morning.
When Mark saw the swimming, his comment was precious. "There's some kind of a big swim thing happening out there...."
It seems that three otters have come to the P2 main pond to feast tonight. They're noctural, so we'll keep watch and hope that a few tilapia are left by morning.
I should be alarmed, but darn they're cute, and there's nothing I can do to stop them, so we may as well enjoy the show!
We'll report in the morning.
When Mark saw the swimming, his comment was precious. "There's some kind of a big swim thing happening out there...."
Florida Coyote Visiting, Enjoying Corn
Today we found a local Florida coyote stopping by for a bite of corn. Corn doesn't seem like a traditional coyote menu item, but when you're hungry you eat whatever is on the menu!
He looks just like a cute, fluffy dog. He turns and smiles at 0:15. Awwwww.....
He looks just like a cute, fluffy dog. He turns and smiles at 0:15. Awwwww.....
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
First Baby Peacock 8-6-2019
Today, August 6th, we had a visit from mom and our first baby peacock of the year. She's about the size of a duck or sneetch :D
Friday, July 12, 2019
Banana Count
This post is all about answering the question "how many bananas"? But first a few things....
This week was an epic milestone... I got my first offer to buy some P2 bananas!
Plus our friend Bruce asked Mark "how many banana plants do you have"? Mark's answer was "I have no idea" LOL. I actually had no idea either!
On Thursday Brock of Florida Fields to Forks brought my delivery of produce share and fruit share, and asked me if I have extra bananas to sell. I'll have to admit, I have been struggling for years to get past hobby banana grower and to a point where I could reliably have fruit to eat all year. With the warm winter we had 2018/2019, the bananas at P2 are doing AMAZING. We had some high winds in a storm yesterday, bringing a banana bunch to the ground so I had to go harvest this morning. When I went to pick up the banana bunch, it was VERY HEAVY. I used all my strength to lift it up into LEM's trailer and get it back to the screened in porch so it can ripen safely away from the deer and squirrels. Once I got in back, Mark and I weighed it... 35 lbs! Weeeeeeeeeeee. This bunch is from Swamp Baby, which is an offspring from Swamp King. Swamp King was once of my first bananas that I bought online. I put the bananas in several different locations at P2 as kind of a science experiment to see how they did. Poor Swampy got stuck in 100% water in a very wet location. When I rescued him a year later, he was just fine, and spent some time in the pool cage before he got a place of honor in Palm Beach. Anyhow, Swamp King's baby (Swamp Baby) has made some incredible bananas. 35 lbs!
So, how many bananas? I did a walkabout and counted this morning. Every pup counts as one. We have 200 banana plants! So yep, I think it's highly likely that I'll have some extra bananas to sell or barter very soon. The banana log will help me to know when it's time to harvest them.
I did a bit of research this morning, and wholesale prices for specialty organic bananas are about $1 a pound. Not bad!
This week was an epic milestone... I got my first offer to buy some P2 bananas!
Plus our friend Bruce asked Mark "how many banana plants do you have"? Mark's answer was "I have no idea" LOL. I actually had no idea either!
On Thursday Brock of Florida Fields to Forks brought my delivery of produce share and fruit share, and asked me if I have extra bananas to sell. I'll have to admit, I have been struggling for years to get past hobby banana grower and to a point where I could reliably have fruit to eat all year. With the warm winter we had 2018/2019, the bananas at P2 are doing AMAZING. We had some high winds in a storm yesterday, bringing a banana bunch to the ground so I had to go harvest this morning. When I went to pick up the banana bunch, it was VERY HEAVY. I used all my strength to lift it up into LEM's trailer and get it back to the screened in porch so it can ripen safely away from the deer and squirrels. Once I got in back, Mark and I weighed it... 35 lbs! Weeeeeeeeeeee. This bunch is from Swamp Baby, which is an offspring from Swamp King. Swamp King was once of my first bananas that I bought online. I put the bananas in several different locations at P2 as kind of a science experiment to see how they did. Poor Swampy got stuck in 100% water in a very wet location. When I rescued him a year later, he was just fine, and spent some time in the pool cage before he got a place of honor in Palm Beach. Anyhow, Swamp King's baby (Swamp Baby) has made some incredible bananas. 35 lbs!
So, how many bananas? I did a walkabout and counted this morning. Every pup counts as one. We have 200 banana plants! So yep, I think it's highly likely that I'll have some extra bananas to sell or barter very soon. The banana log will help me to know when it's time to harvest them.
I did a bit of research this morning, and wholesale prices for specialty organic bananas are about $1 a pound. Not bad!
Thursday, July 11, 2019
One is Not Like The Others
A new duck family showed up today!
Mom, 3 black muscovy ducks, and 1 BRIGHT YELLOW muscovy duck. Awww.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Ringo Pingo Gets a Meatball
What can I say... we love Ringo. He's a friendly little raccoon who came to live here when he was pretty young. He sleeps in the tree and comes down in the morning for black oil sunflower seed and occasionally a meatball treat (Mark cooks for Ringo LOL).
Awwww! He just started eating out of my hand this week.
Monday, July 8, 2019
P2 Food - Update on Tropical Tuesday 7-8-2019
I'm very excited about food here at P2, and how what is available evolves over time. True, Mark and I couldn't survive right now on only P2 food, so Tropical Tuesday hasn't begun yet. But we're getting closer!
The big challenge is protein, but I'm pretty confident that we could get our hands on some chickens if we absolutely had to and survive from eggs and chicken as our protein source. Oh yeah, and tilapia! In the meantime (pre-apocalypse LOL) I'm thrilled to have harvestbox.com providing us amazing beef, chicken and salmon.
Other than protein, we have gobs of great veg and fruit here at P2. I am especially excited about figs right now, since the front drive fig tree has given me about 20 figs over the past few weeks. This is the "breba" crop late spring/early summer. There is another crop coming, much bigger, late summer/early fall.
Also, the food forest fig trees are excelling, and I expect them to be making fruit starting in 2020. We have Ischia and LSU doing amazing, with the others like Celeste and Turkey right behind.
I have been studying when to propagate figs, and which trees can be propagated. It turns out that new trees (like all of my figs except front drive fig tree) need another year before I start lopping off branches and propagating them. However, this was the right year to find three non-productive pencil thick+ branches off of front drive fig and cut them off to propagate. I did that Sunday... and I'm very excited to see how long it takes for those three cuttings to make roots. I also bought a few cuttings on eBay which I'll get this week and plant. If ALL of these fig trees make 20-50 figs 2x a year, I will be rolling in figs soon enough.
The sweet potatoes are doing great. The sweet potato cage (see post in June) is stunning... the vines are rich and green and prolific, and I'm certain that the cloth pots are filled with young sweet potatoes. If the regular sweet potatoes take 100 days to mature, I should be able to start pulling sweet potatoes out at the end of July, which OMG is only a few weeks away. How time flies... it feels like yesterday when I got the first Gurney's sweet potato delivery on 4/24/19. Those went right into the pots in the sweet potato cage.
I added new aluminum hanging tags to the flourishing fruit trees, as the wood stakes are kind of rotting over the last 2 years. So hopefully the plain aluminum tags will last longer. The dwarf mulberry didn't produce a lot of fruit this year, but the berries it did produce were SO good I ordered a Pakistan mulberry tree and got it delivered today. The pictures for Pakistan Mulberries are amazing - the berries are long and sweet and are considered the world's longest mulberries (4" long). I'm going to plant that beast (25' wide AND tall) away from the house, but not too far away so that the deer get all the good fruit. "These ruby red-purple mulberries have sweet, raspberry-like flavor with low acidity that is good for fresh eating or making cobblers." Can't wait!
So - that's the update. As of today, here's what we have to eat on a regular basis.
The big challenge is protein, but I'm pretty confident that we could get our hands on some chickens if we absolutely had to and survive from eggs and chicken as our protein source. Oh yeah, and tilapia! In the meantime (pre-apocalypse LOL) I'm thrilled to have harvestbox.com providing us amazing beef, chicken and salmon.
Other than protein, we have gobs of great veg and fruit here at P2. I am especially excited about figs right now, since the front drive fig tree has given me about 20 figs over the past few weeks. This is the "breba" crop late spring/early summer. There is another crop coming, much bigger, late summer/early fall.
Also, the food forest fig trees are excelling, and I expect them to be making fruit starting in 2020. We have Ischia and LSU doing amazing, with the others like Celeste and Turkey right behind.
I have been studying when to propagate figs, and which trees can be propagated. It turns out that new trees (like all of my figs except front drive fig tree) need another year before I start lopping off branches and propagating them. However, this was the right year to find three non-productive pencil thick+ branches off of front drive fig and cut them off to propagate. I did that Sunday... and I'm very excited to see how long it takes for those three cuttings to make roots. I also bought a few cuttings on eBay which I'll get this week and plant. If ALL of these fig trees make 20-50 figs 2x a year, I will be rolling in figs soon enough.
The sweet potatoes are doing great. The sweet potato cage (see post in June) is stunning... the vines are rich and green and prolific, and I'm certain that the cloth pots are filled with young sweet potatoes. If the regular sweet potatoes take 100 days to mature, I should be able to start pulling sweet potatoes out at the end of July, which OMG is only a few weeks away. How time flies... it feels like yesterday when I got the first Gurney's sweet potato delivery on 4/24/19. Those went right into the pots in the sweet potato cage.
I added new aluminum hanging tags to the flourishing fruit trees, as the wood stakes are kind of rotting over the last 2 years. So hopefully the plain aluminum tags will last longer. The dwarf mulberry didn't produce a lot of fruit this year, but the berries it did produce were SO good I ordered a Pakistan mulberry tree and got it delivered today. The pictures for Pakistan Mulberries are amazing - the berries are long and sweet and are considered the world's longest mulberries (4" long). I'm going to plant that beast (25' wide AND tall) away from the house, but not too far away so that the deer get all the good fruit. "These ruby red-purple mulberries have sweet, raspberry-like flavor with low acidity that is good for fresh eating or making cobblers." Can't wait!
So - that's the update. As of today, here's what we have to eat on a regular basis.
- Okinawa spinach (delicious and readily available)
- Cranberry hibiscus
- Malabar spinach
- Bananas (LOTS)
- Papaya (occasional)
- Figs (2x a year)
- Sweet potatoes (Purple now, all varieties in a few weeks)
- Tangerine (the west tree is still prolific with about 200 baby green tangerines right now)
- Star Fruit (Yum - ready to produce in a few weeks)
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Banana Flower Fruit Log
Now that the myriad of P2 banana plants are constantly making flowers and bunches of bananas, I need a better way to know when the bananas are done rather than watching for yellow colored bananas. AND I've just discovered how delicious green bananas are (1 minute in the microwave - YUM), so it's time to track the appearance of the flag leaf and banana flower so I can know when a bunch is ready to eat. I'm going to assume 3 months from flag leaf to edible bananas.
Banana Plant
|
Flag Leaf
|
Flower
|
Bunch
|
3 Months
|
Swamp King
|
7-1-19
|
7-7-19
|
7-14-19
|
10-14-19
|
Ho 2
|
7-24-19
|
7-31-19
|
8-1-19
|
11-1-19
|
Plantain (Banana Circle) - 2
|
8-2-19
|
8-3-19
|
8-15-19
|
11-15-19
|
Ho 2
|
8-17-19
|
8-20-19
|
8-30-19
|
11-30-19
|
Ho 3
|
8-17-19
|
8-25-19
|
8-31-19
|
12-1-19
|
Banana Grand Prix Mystery Banana
|
9-10-19
|
9-15-19
|
9-20-19
|
12-20-19
|
Lisa #2
|
8/1
|
8/15
|
8/30
|
11/30
|
HO 2 (3rd)
|
10/1
|
10/5
|
10/13
|
|
Lisa #3
|
10/25
|
10/31
|
11/10
|
1/30/20
|
Ho 1
|
10/15
|
10/20
|
10/25
|
2/15/20
|
Ho 1
|
10/24
|
10/29
|
11/4
|
2/4/20
|
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