Wednesday, June 22, 2016

The vegetable garden

Last year we had a wonderful harvest on our vegetable garden. I did al lot of canning and we had enough food for almost a half year. That was very well but I would like to grow all our vegetables on the homestead. So early this spring, my husband and I, picked out a small pasture of land and turned down the soil, to make a larger vegetable garden. We used a hoe to turn it over. We have a lot of stones in the ground here in Sweden, so it is much easier to use a hoe then to dig it with a spade.




On this new land we plant potatoes. We used the horse and a potato plow to make the furrows. It was both for us and the horse the first time. It turned out very well and soon I get the potatoes in the ground.

 Also bought we this spring a small Polytunnel to grow tomatoes. In Sweden is it not warm enough to grow them outside, I did try I for a couple of years but it never turned out that well. But now the tomato plants grow very well. It looks like a jungle inside J and a couple of days ago I already spot the first tomatoes!

Monday, June 20, 2016

Hay making season

It’s almost midsummer and we have fine weather, so we decide the start with the haymaking season. We will try to mow at least 4 acres of hay land, but when the weather stays fine and our health aloud it, we have 3 more acres awaiting for us.



We mowing with the scythe. Both me and my husband and in 2 hours we can mow at least 600m2. after the mowing is finished we spread it out over the land to dry. The next day we turn it and shaken it up with hay-forks and let it dry for a couple more hours. In the afternoon we build haystacks. We use to different types of haystacks. The first one we build on a vertical wooden pin. (see picture) For these kind of haystack you need at least 2 days of dry weather.
The other type we use, (see picture below) can be build with grass you cut that same day. So you don’t need to turn the grass to dry. It was a common type of haystack here in the area until the ‘50s. 

I prefer most the first type to build but sometimes when don't get dry weather the second type is handy to use. The stacks stand there at least 3 weeks until they are completely dry and then we get them in with horse and wagon....

Saturday, June 18, 2016

making rhubarb -strawberry marmalade

Now is everything growing so well in our vegetable garden. After a long period with warm and dry weather, have we got some rainy days now. You hear and see the vegetables grow 


J. We have got a lot of strawberries this year and the rhubarb plant is also growing very well, so I thought it would be nice to make some marmalade. This is my recipe:

I picked about 1kg strawberries and 600gr rhubarb. Wash it well and cut the rhubarb in 1/2cm pieces. Boil the rhubarb pieces in a little water, 3-5min. take it from the fire and mix the marmalade sugar (1,5kg) and the strawberries in. Replace the pan on the fire and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir frequently and boil it 5 min. Now the marmalade is ready, pack the marmalade into the jars, turn on the lid, turn the jars upside down en let they cool.


Friday, June 17, 2016

how it started

It’s almost unbelievable that we live here over 4 years right now. We, both my husband an I, are born and raised in the Netherlands. I lived in the northern part and my husband in the middle of the Netherlands. But our pats crossed someday, lucky me J. After our marriage we moved to Germany, together with our 4  horses. We had a little house en acre of land and a lot of work. We meet new friends, everything seemed to be good but deep in our hearts we new that we would not stay in Germany for the rest of our live. We would live in a country with lots of nature, where we can grow our own vegetables, have more livestock, where we can live in a sort of same way our ancestors did.  So after 5 years we sold everything we had and emigrated to Sweden.
Here we get everything we wanted. A old house, build 1850, a large barn for the horses, plenty of land. Now we were home. From the first day it feels like we always had lived here. I think that it’s a good sign.

And now after 4 years, everything seemed tot get in the right place. We have chickens, a very large vegetable garden, one of our horse we use to do every kind of work on the homestead. (It’s very fun to plow with your one horse). But there is also a lot we are planning for. I would like to have a own dairy cow, for making my one butter and cheese. We need a place were we can store our canning products and much more…

Thursday, June 16, 2016

my first post

Now I/we finally got a blog. I hopefully post every now and then at any rate. A lot of pictures and stories about our live on a 1850's homestead in Sweden, recipes, lot of sewing projects and a lot more. More later!

Chips and shavings

Chop! Chop! The chips are flying around. He gives his axe another sway. The early morning air fills with the aromatic scent of pinewood and ...