Happy Independence Days, everyone!
Plant something:
- This week I’ve begun the process of attempting to sprout my sweet potatoes in order to grow a few slips. Not sure if I’m doing it right though…I’ve read a variety of things and most seem to contradict each other…I’ve cut one sweet potato in half and stuck each of its bottom halves into a jar of water (the potato is being held up by a few toothpicks stuck into its sides) on the windowsill. I’m completely open to words of wisdom and advice in this sweet potato slip adventure…please share your experiences 🙂
Harvest something:
- Carrots = 2 ounces
- Greens = 1 ounce
- Spinach = 1 ounce
- Eggs = 18
Preserve something: Nothing this week
Waste not (beyond our normal composting):
- Tool Lady designed and built our new (outdoor) chick brooder (see Skill Up below for the pic) out of all re-used materials from the very first chicken coop we made a couple of years ago. Total cost for the new brooder was $1.49 for hinges, purchased at the Re-Store!
- Our rain barrels thawed out enough for me to use a bit of the saved rain and snow to water the hoop houses and the garlic
Want Not: Nothing this week.
Eat the Food:
- 1 quart pinto beans
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 half pint pickled beets
- Home baked bread
Build community food systems: We have vowed to try our very best to visit our local Framer’s Market every Saturday. Last weekend was our first trip in several months and I had forgotten how nice it is to go, see many familiar faces and see the bounty everyone is offering, no matter the season! We came home with potatoes, sunchokes, turnips and the biggest onion ever!
Skill up: We built a new chick brooder! Well, when I say “we”, I really mean that Tool Lady did at least 99% of it, I simply played assistant where needed 😉 The newest Newbies have been happily living outside in their brooder since Sunday.
Independence Days Challenge is hosted by
Sharon @ The Chatelaine’s Keys
I’d love to see what you’ve been up to! If you’d like to join in simply leave a link to your Independence Days post and I’ll pop on over! If you don’t have a blog, feel free to let me know what you’ve been up to in the comments below!
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I can’t wait to hear how the sweet potato experiment goes…I would love to grow them myself someday, but they seem so intimidating.
I’m determined to try my best to make it work this year so stay tuned 🙂
In the past, I’ve successfully started sweet potatoes by laying them full length in pyrex bread pans and keeping about 2 inches of water around them, only the top inch out of water. The past 2 years I have not gotten anything from my sweets but rot. The difference? I moved into an old farm house that stays around 57 degrees in the winter and spring. My old house had radient floor heat so I had one huge heat mat to start seeds and sweet potatos on. I believe that a very warm temp. is needed to get these tropical plants to sprout. This year, I will place my glass containers on top of the metal housing of my seed starting lights. I used this method to bottom heat my newly plants seeds last spring. Of course you must be extremely careful that no water leaks onto the lights.
I find that if you forget you have sweet potatoes and leave them in the back of the cupboard for long enough they eventually sprout….probably not when you want them to though.
Ha! Right?! The one I cut up was in the pantry for a few weeks and nothings sprouted, so we’ll see what it does now 😉
I will seek Sweet Potato wisdom and enlightenment from my father when I visit later today and let you know. Happy Friday : )
Thank you! I’ll take all the advice I can get!!!
I bet you have some happy chicks!
Most definitely!!!
Love the brooder! I bet it feels good to have that project finished.
Thanks Jody! It feels so nice!