Picking and Drying Kale in the Winter
It has been quite warm here for the last few days, so I decided to take a walk. We were able to be outside with just a sweater on, the temperature was about +3. We live in an earthship so I decided to get on the roof and take some pictures.
This is a picture of the path to the greenhouse I made a few days ago. I wanted to get some supplies to start some plants in the house. I went through knee deep snow, it was quite a walk.
We had so much snow and it was so cold we had to have the goats in the back where there is more shelter. They have spent some time in the pasture previous years. The building is my milking shed. I am not currently milking due to the fact that our girls are pregnant.
The barn and goat pens are behind the house. We decided to put them behind the house by the trees so they would have some protection.
Here is a picture of our male goat. We named him King Kong. We call him King for short. I think he is magnificent. I see he has some hay on his head. He pulled his head out of the feeder to pose for this picture.
We built our greenhouse like the earthship. it has an earth rammed back wall.
Here are some of the planters in the greenhouse. I didn't have enough time to process the kale last fall so I left it here. I have discovered that if I gently cut it off the stems I can take it into the house and finish the drying process. You can see the earth rammed wall in the back ground.
Here is a beautifully preserved kale plant. it has retained it's shape well.
Again we left this lettuce seed. We have so much lettuce seed that we had to just walk away. I believe this is romaine lettuce. Some has fallen into the planter so we will have volunteer lettuce again this year.
Here is all the kale that I collected. It will go into the house to be dried and then crushed to be added to our morning smoothies.
Here is the end result. Crushed kale. This is not the big pile of kale that I collected. This is just a few leaves from the other day. The large pile will need to dry for a day or two in the house and then be crushed.
Thanks for checking out our domain.
Carey, King is magnificent. I would love to train my big male to pull a small cart. I would go in to town when needed that way. Sounds crazy to most individuals. I would love it, maybe someday. We in northeastern ny have gotten more snow in march than we did all winter. It's beautiful and needed but I have cabin fever. Hope your birthday was peaceful.
Thank you. More snow, wow I think it is time for winter to be over. Glad you received the snow that was needed. I never thought about him pulling a cart. They are strong enough.
Thank you for the birthday wish. How did you know? My evening was really nice.
Carey, I apologize for the delay in responding. I have been on a trip of sorts.
I think I may have seen your b'day on face book.
Please forgive me if that was not o.k. to do. Love K
@carey-page
No worries at all, I was just surprised. Thank you for the birthday wish. It was very sweet.
I hope your trip was good.
Great post. I shared it with some friends. With any luck it will get picked up. Thanks.
Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
At +15 you break out the shorts! lol Only a true northerner could appreciate that!
I love the photos, Carey. They give a good idea of what your domain looks like after winter has done its worst. I ike King. He looks pretty impressive!
I always look forward to having a few volunteer plants in the garden. It looks like you may not have to plant lettuce for awhile. I hadn't thought to dry my kale, but last year's crop was small and we ate it before I needed to find a way to preserve it.
Yes at +15 it is pretty warm. It is so nice to see temperatures like these. Winter has given us a run for our money this year, but really it is no different than other years. My perception is changing as I gain in age.
We always plant loads of kale and lettuce so that we can dry it for the winter. This year I am going to try to add spinach to dry. I havn't dried spinach in previous years. We also dry alfalfa, some dandelion leaves and duck weed for our smoothies.
Wow!! Thank you for such a great share! Love the goats!! I love that they still have their horns!
It's brilliant how you let the kale freeze. I would have never thought of that. Do they take longer to dehydrate from frozen? I truly need to get a good dehydrator made this year.
We eat alot of spinach. Love the cool start greens! How soon will you start planting in the greenhouse?
It's exciting! Think spring!
I refuse to dehorn our goats. I think it takes away their ability to protect themselves. Also I have heard that some goats experience personality changes after they have their horns removed.
When we ran out of kale for our smoothies I decided to try the frozen kale in the greenhouse. It was a shot in the dark that worked. Haha After I bring the kale in the house it only takes 2 days for it to finish drying. It is so much easier.
I have started some plants in the house now. I will not transfer them out to the greenhouse until late April. I find the nights just get too cold for them. We are low on wood or we could put them in the greenhouse sooner. We do have a wood burning stove in there as well. Actually we brood chicks in the inner greenhouse as well.
Yes think spring for sure. Is it warming up over there yet?
Carey, I don't agree with dehorning goats either. To my understanding horns are a part of their body heat regulation system . I agree about them using their horns for protection. I've seen a goat ram a dog who was attacking her kid. That dog learned that goats are not to be trifled with. The dog was not seriously hurt. Also horns are handy to control them with.
Good thing the dog was not too injured. I have been ramed by a male goat. It is not fun, it took me months to heal. We had a goat that came to our farm and she had no horns. However she was the alpha goat. She bit everyone to get her way. I think goats with horns are more wholesome looking. It is like seeing a cow with horns. We don't see them very often but they look whole. They look more natural.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I feel your pain. I too was ramed by a male goat. He ramed me from behind hitting where my left knee bends. I was flat on my face eating dirt. When I lifted my head he was staring me in the face getting ready to ram my head. I yelled "It ain't goin down like that" He turned and walked away. Eventually I had to put him down he was just too mean.I wonder now if that wasn't the beginning of ridding my life of abuse.
Yes it is not fun. Interesting that you yelled "It ain't goin down like that". When he walked away he must have known you weren't going to back down. I can see how that might be the beginning of you ridding a life of abuse. It must have felt good to be able to stand up to him like that. Eating dirt probably wasn't fun however.
I wish my encounter was like that. I do realize that I had that encounter with our male goat for a reason I am good with it all now. At the time though I had to really do some healing. He reorganized some of my abdomen. He managed to get 2 really good blows in before it was over.
I still love our animals, they are amazing creatures. I just have a very healthy respect for them. I have also learned that male goats don't care what female is cycling. I carry a stick when I have to go into the pen. He just want to mate. A very gentle tap on the top of his horns lets him know that I am not up to playing.
Hearing how you were hurt made me weak in the knees. You know that feeling when your legs feel like rubber?
I love my goats also. My big male Lith is gentle. He was the first goat I helped be born.
Wow the feeling coming thru to me about your goat accident is very strong.
Love you Carey. Take care
Thanks so much for sharing. Sorry I was not expecting to send that energy through. Take care and have a great day. :)
I cannot imagine putting any animal through that process. It baffles me. Factory farming in all its glory.
That is so good to know about the kale. I guess is the same as harvesting Brussels sprouts in the snow. Now that i think more on it. Brilliant!
We are in another cold snap. -30 windchill for about 5 days. I am starting seeds indoors this week. I really want to get a greenhouse up this next year. :)
Always so many great ideas and plans! Lol
Yes and they put the babies through that process of dehorning as well. I think it is cruel.
I have never grown brussel sprouts. Good tip to know thank you.
Another cold snap. Oh my I feel for you. It is in the month of March where those cold snaps can be difficult. Spring is so close you can taste it and you are sitting at -31. Thankfully it is only for 5 days. I will be thinking about you during this cold snap.
Our greenhouse is helpful but unless we have the fire going I find it only gives me a couple extra weeks. Starting seeds inside the house works really well. The greenhouse is great for tomatoes and cucumbers. Our tomatoes and cucumber plants usually get to be 8 feet tall in the greenhouse.
Sunday!!! Above zero on Sunday!! Tshirt weather!! Lol i will be starting my seeds tomorrow for indoors.
I saw the pictures of your amazing greenhouse tomatoes! Very inspirational! Do you can your tomatoes? Pickles with the cucumbers?
Wow how nice to have above temperatures. Yes T shirt weather for sure. Yes my tomatoes and cucumber plants get to be huge. It is almost overwhelming to keep up to them. They love the greenhouse and so does corn actually. I do can tomatoes. Last year I had so many I made tomato juice as well. As for cucumbers we don't eat pickles. I have made pickles for years an we just give them away. Last year I shredded cucumber and then froze it for in soups. We found that was a better use for us.
I imagine you do the same with all of your produce as well?
Last year, not one tomatoe ripened on the vine. I had to ripen them indoors. :( i can my tomatoes simple. Skins on. When i am making things like spaghetti sauce, i just cook the tomatoes, and add what i need and boil it down then. I find i am so busy canning so many things.
I dehydrate things as well. Wonder how well cucs dehydrate? I dehydrate zucchini.
I don't have a freezer :/
We make relishes, pickles...
This year it is my hope to dehydrate more. It saves shelf space, and stores better in the case of the cabin freezing.
So much to think about! Lol
We seem to always have to ripen our tomatoes indoors. The season just doesn't seem long enough here to ripen them on the vine. I also leave my tomato skins on. It is way easier and there is too much harvest to do to fiddle with the skins.
I have dehydrated cucumbers. It works really well. Our cucumbers were a bit sour that year so we didn't eat much of them. I found out that if you plant sunflowers close to the cucumbers it sweetens them up. I never dehydrated zucchini before. I always freeze it or we eat it too fast. That would be hard without a freezer, at least until it is below freezing.
Loads to think about, and loads to do. :)
Awesome pics, I have to say.
Especially, I like the first one where we can see the house in the picture is fully covered in ice!!! I don't know how the people inside that get to breathe, there must be some other passage for air in/out?
Other thing I noticed is the difference in goats from here in India to the ones you have shared.
Even the Kale plant you have shown is something different to what we grow here, it's more or less like bun shaped here, almost like round.
Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos and about the environmental changes in your place.
The first picture is the back of the greenhouse. Picture 5 is the front of the greenhouse. However our house is similar. The front of our house is made of glass and wood. The greenhouse is made of glass and a plastic fiber.
Your goats are different? This is interesting to me. I will have to look up on line to see what the differences are.
The different environment really do have different their own plants and animals. What I mean is we all grow the same things, eg. kale but they look different and act different in the different environments.
Yes, the horns will not be that long and also visibility, I think it's different.
I agree with you about the change in same thing in different environmental conditions. Even I think the goats also.
I was looking on line at some of the breeds that are in India. Yes there are some different breeds. I imagine they can handle the hotter temperatures. We really have to make sure the goats we have here can handle the cold. You are right the horns are not as long as our goats horns.
That's right.
Yeah, the goats here are more accustomed for hot and humid temperature. I have seen the difference in cows and even buffaloes as well and as you said, it must be for protecting them from the cold environment.
Great to know things from you.
Wishing you a wonderful day as you move on with the ice and the chilly cold there.
Nice going not letting the kale going to waste and preserving it to enjoy the nutrition later on!
Thanks, we need to save as much as we can here. Thanks so much for stopping by.