W.U.F. Update

It has been awhile since I have done a proper update on the happenings at W.U.F. It has been busy this summer. The garden has been fairly low maintenance. We have had an awesome harvest this year, and we are not even close to having the entire lawn replaced. So far our most prolific crop has been the cherry tomatoes. We have been harvesting 1-2 pounds per day on average. we let it go a few days awhile back. We ended up with five pounds of ripe tomatoes. We added onion from the yard, and jalapenos, roasted hatch chilies, cilantro, and smoked garlic from Sunflower Farmers Market. I put in too much cilantro but it is still good. I have eaten three jars already.

We have also had a good yellow summer squash crop this summer. We have been unable to keep up with it. Our lettuce did well also. We still have some winter squash ripening on the vine and some pumpkins to carve up for Samhain. We have been sharing with family and friends as well as putting some away. We had some corn and will have a ton of red and yellow bell peppers as soon as they ripen. We are hoping to ripen them on the plant, but may have an early frost this year.

I was on vacation last week, and while I was at my moms Sy and I picked 13 1/2 pounds of prickly pears, the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. The juice of said prickly pears is in a fermenter with honey, purified water, organic apple, juice, and wine yeast. The honey is local wildflower honey and is very rich. It should add a nice flavor texture to the prickly pear. This is of course an experimental melomel. A melomel is a honey mead with fruit added in the fermenting process. It is a honey and fruit wine essentially.

Sy and I have also been working on setting up an online shop at Etsy.com. It is an online market place for selling homemade products. Sy will be soon putting up some of her jewelery for sale, and I hope to sell some photographic prints. We are also toying with selling canned goods such as jelly's, dried herbs, and salsa. Every little bit we add brings us a little closer to the lifestyle we want for ourselves.

Prickly Pear Melomel starting the fermentation process.