Page 33 of 95

Garden – Fall & Winter 2017-2018

January 5, 2018 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

We thought we would catch you up on how the garden ended up in Fall of last year, including our foray into the adventure of sweet potato growing, and where we are today!

Here are the final days of the 2017 garden before the freezes started to hit…

This is the one plant, a broccoli, that grew from the first Spring planting. I have picked off a few broccoli heads and have eaten them as I’ve walked by 🙂 :

Here is our gogi berry plant:

And these are our blackberry plants:

Here are the okra plants third week in October:

But then the freeze was coming, and so we covered them. They looked a little creepy like this actually… 🙂

And sadly, they still didn’t fare well, and so that was about the end of them for the year:

But before that, we thought we would try to save some okra seeds this year to plant next year as part of our continued effort to get sustaining here. We pray God might grant this to work!

Sweet Potatoes

I mentioned in our last real garden update that we planted sweet potato slips this year. This is our second attempt, with the first one in our raised beds only yielding a few small ones.

This year however, and I think it has a lot to do with that we’re using the forest bed mulching technique we’ve discussed before, God graciously granted some quite nice ones!

We harvested the beginning of October. The first one I pulled out was half rotted, very mushy, and I was worried they all would be like that, but most were thankfully just fine! You’re supposed to be very careful pulling them out so as to not damage the tender skin, which hardens later.

Here’s a stack of them:

And Sue with an American football-sized one:

And this is just to give a size perspective:

Here they are in the wheelbarrow being taken to the house for curing. Using the information from a website about curing sweet potatoes, we let them open-air cure just on the ground in a couple places in the house for probably about three weeks:

And then wrapped them up individually in newspaper to go into the root cellar for another six weeks. Apparently the longer you can wait to harvest, even just after the first light frost, and giving them that long to cure allows the sugars to form in them, which gives them a good taste, and without which they apparently taste very bland:

And finally, last week, we started pulling them out of the root cellar, and they appear to be still ok….yea, and thank the Lord!

Here, Sue is putting them into a meal:

And into the pan (although there is one store-bought mixed in). But, they do indeed taste great, and again we are very thankful to God for these provisions off of the land!

Garlic

Since we have larger garden areas with which to be able to plant both for Winter and Spring, we are attempting garlic again this year, planting cloves the Stongers graciously gave us. This is just this week after the big freeze we went through here:

And the wild lettuce, which I believe is the prickly lettuce I mentioned before, is coming back too!

As always and again, we are very thankful to the Lord for His providence in granting sustenance from the gardens! We pray He might continue to, as He will, and that He guide us into more and better ways to live off of the land in direct dependence on Him!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Trina’s 2017 Turkey Chicks

December 21, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

Trying to learn from my mistake of how we handled turkey moms wanting to sit out in the woods by just trying to put them in the barn at night but them going right back to their nests the next day, and us loosing one of our sitting hen turkeys earlier in the year because of that, this time when Trina our original turkey started sitting, we grabbed her and put her and her eggs in the summer kitchen.

Well, thanks to the Lord, that worked out much better! With those eggs and some new ones she laid, and hoping at least some of the eggs were fertilized, she indeed hatched out two new chicks!

Here are a couple of pictures of the turklets a couple of weeks old:

They don’t always get very far, not even to two weeks sometimes, as we’ve had them die young in the past, but I also think some of that was due to me getting too close to the mama and causing her to panic and them maybe getting stepped on. And so, I tried not to do that as much, or much more slowly, and by God’s graces, the chicks are still going! Here they are just the other day:

And here is the video of their life adventure so far. The introduction of them to the flock didn’t go so well, and Trina was picked on a lot, but eventually she apparently got tired of it and went on the offensive, and that helped back off everyone:

Also, the young turkey in the last turkey chick blog post mentioned above, which we called Halia, ended up being a tom. Ha! And so, we’re going to call him Halio now. 🙂 It seemed to really take him a long time before showing male characteristics — only recently have we discovered this.

He is on the left in this picture:

And here is one of all of the flock minus Trina and her little ones:

Once again, we are very grateful to the Lord for these provisions, and the continued health and safety! We pray they go to uses that glorifies Him and benefits His Church!

— David

The Orchard – 2017 – Pears & Pecans

December 15, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

The Lord has graciously allowed our orchard to continue on, and we are very thankful!

The year started with my pruning the fruit trees. This year we had foreman Mimi supervising! 🙂

And here is the orchard mid June:

I think the mild winter last year affected our peaches and nectarines, as we didn’t really get any of those. And not many plums either. But God granted we had one pear tree do very well. Quite a few fell off in a storm we had, and we collected them but they never ripened. And apparently, pears don’t ripen on the tree, and you have to pull them at just the right time, when they easily twist off the tree, and then they ripen as they sit, but can only sit for so long before they over ripen.

However, we were able to enjoy quite a few of them from the ones still on the tree which did ripen fairly well! Here are the last several:

And this year was our most productive pecan harvest! We had basically three trees produce this year, up from one last year.

Here is the first round from the two newly-producing trees. This sheller apparently works extremely well:

And then our big producer yielded a two-gallon bucket worth!

We are very grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions of food off of the land, directly from His hand. And we thank Him for the increase in pears and pecans He graciously granted!

— David

Goat Breeding Time 2017!

December 7, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

With Autumn upon us, it was that time of year once again to put our boy goats and girl goats together for goat breeding time 2017!

This is why we have goats, so they, Lord willing, will kid in the Spring time so we can eventually have milk. God has been gracious this year again as He has kept us in milk since we sold our 2016 kids earlier in the year.

As with last year, our buck Rocky still has that knot on the side of his back leg, which we have found out is an actual injury.

And wouldn’t you know, about a month before we’re supposed to put the bucks with the does, Shakespeare, our other buck, as the intensity of his rutting seemed to increase over early Fall time, ended up hurting Rocky more to where one morning Rocky couldn’t get up. We got him out of there and put him with the females, and graciously the Lord granted that within a few days he was at least able to get up by himself. He can still get around, although we’re just not sure he’s going to be able to get the job done with his set of females, so we’re monitoring, and if he doesn’t seem interested in one of his that’s in heat, we’re hauling her over to Shakespeare.

But, without further ado, here’s is the video of this year’s meet and greet! 🙂

We are grateful again to the Lord for this opportunity to breed the goats He has graciously granted us, and we pray He might grant kids and milk next year!

— David

David’s Digest: Complete Christian Comfort

November 27, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 3 Comments

It seems to me that Christians find most if not all of their Christian comfort from the fact that the Lord Jesus has forgiven them their sins. But complete comfort comes from not only being justified before God, free from the guilt and pollution of our sin by Christ, but also comes from obedience to the commands of God, in Christian graces existing in our hearts and acted out, and mortification of the carnal man, in a sanctified life.

Christ bought sanctification through His atonement, and thus, it is required for the full effect of Christ’s work for us in our Christian lives.

We can draw comfort from the propitiation for our sin, and it seems to me many do, but complete comfort must also include a sanctified, holy life.

I would suggest that, a person who believes they are Christian but does not have the desire for, nor the evidence of, the sanctification process in their life, does not have grounds for Christian comfort.

The following is from Puritan Thomas Manton regarding this topic, in volume 18 of his works, in a sermon on Acts 10:34-35:

[1.] How much they are mistaken who think sanctification hath no influence upon our comfort and peace. Some good people are overtender in this point; they pretend they would fetch all their comfort immediately [directly] from Christ. And is Christ the less author of it because sanctification is the matter of it? As if sanctification were not from Christ as well as justification. He is both to us: 1 Cor. i. 30, ‘He is made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.’ But they think this is to fetch comfort from something more in ourselves than justification is; for the one is an adherent privilege, as the other an internal qualification.

True; but though it be in us, it is not of us. It floweth from the same grace of God, and the same power and merit of the Lord
Jesus. And something there must be in us, or how shall we make out our title and claim, or know that the grace of God belongeth to us? If we look only to justification, and suspect all comfort that is elsewhere derived, we are in danger of falling into the gross part of the error of Poquinus and Quintinus, who in Calvin’s time asserted it to be the only mortification to extinguish the sense of sin in the heart. But this is not to mortify sin, but to mortify repentance and holiness, to crucify the new man rather than the old, not to quiet conscience, but outface it. Surely where there is sin there will be trouble. Sanctification is one means of applying the grace of God, as well as justification; and we must look to both benefits, and the mutual respect they have to one another.

But because this prejudice is drunk in by many not ill-meaning people, let us a little dispossess them of this vain conceit.

(1.) As to Christ. It is certain that a sinner can have no hope of acceptance with God but by Christ : 1 Tim. i. 15, ‘Christ came to save sinners;’ and Mat. i. 21, ‘He shall save his people from their sins.’

(2.) It is as true that ‘whosoever is in Christ, he is a new creature’, 2 Cor. v.. 17. So that the dispute will lie here; to clear up our interest in Christ, whether we are new creatures; for till that be determined, we can have no solid peace and comfort within ourselves,

(3.) None is a new creature but he who feareth God and worketh righteousness; for that is the description of a new creature, that all old things are passed away, and all things are become new; a new heart, a new mind, and a new conversation [behavior]; for a new heart is only sensibly discovered by newness of life, Rom. vi. 4. Well, then, our proposition is fully reconcilable with the grace of Jesus Christ.

[3.] With respect to the Spirit, who is our sanctifier and comforter. First a sanctifier, and then a comforter, and therefore a comforter because a sanctifier. Otherwise the Spirit would cause us to rejoice we know not why, and the comforts of a christian would be fantastical and groundless; at best we should rejoice in a mere possible salvation. But holiness is God’s seal and impress upon us: Eph. i. 13, ‘In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.’

When his sanctifying work is interrupted, so is his comforting work disturbed also, Eph. iv. 31. David’s bones were broken, and he lost his joy, when he fell into great sins, Ps. li., and Ps. xxxii. And it is true in others, who, when they have been lifted up to heaven in comfort, have fallen almost as low as hell in sorrow, trouble, and perplexity of spirit, when they grew remiss, negligent, and disobedient to the motions of the Holy Ghost. If we intermit a course of holiness, the frowns of God will soon turn our day into night; and the poor forsaken soul, that was feasted with the love of God, knows not whence to fetch the least support. Such is the fruit of our careless and loose walking.

May God sanctify us by His Spirit because of Christ; may He grant us a desire to be obedient and live holy lives, including obedience to His commands in living out the graces of His Spirit and mortification of the carnal man and a putting away of things in this world that feed it; and may we diligently ask Him for these things to be put in our hearts.

You can read excellent writings about sanctification and mortification in Mount Zion’s “Free Grace Broadcaster” publications on sanctification and mortification.

— David

Introducing Tuscan

November 17, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

We recently had another little stray show up around here…just started hanging out like he always belonged. 🙂

He showed himself to be a very friendly one, and was almost certainly a domestic for someone at some point.

We decided to take him in and call him Tuscan, because of his yellow coloring:

True cat form:

He’s all boy-cat, follows me around a lot, and pretty much runs the outside. 🙂 He and William don’t quite get along yet, and Mimi is still afraid of him, and he chases her, but they all do appear to be getting a little used to each other. We put him in the barn at night, and he actually doesn’t seem to mind, and I really think he’s helping keep down the mice population in there, earning his keep! 🙂

He sometimes likes to join Sue in the goat field while she is milking…we think he might have ulterior motives… 🙂

And here he is camped out on the cistern roof!

And here is a quick video of him, including a few moments of he and William around each other:

We’re thankful for the little addition to the homestead, and for the help in mice catching the Lord has granted us through him!

— David

Preserving Okra in Cheap Apple Cider Vinegar

November 10, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

Having lived in Texas over ten years now I can see why okra is so popular in the South. In our personal experience with hot Texas summers, we have found that okra is one of those crops that thumbs its nose at the hot, sweltering Texas sun and says “Come on, is that the best you got?” It is an extremely prolific, heat/drought tolerant crop that has done well for us every time we have planted it so far, thank the Lord.

This has presented a problem, albeit a good problem, for me in terms of the best way to capture and preserve it. You can certainly pressure can it but that is not our preference because we like to preserve it with all of its nutrients and freshness. Okra is a nutrient powerhouse, so we are excited and very motivated to incorporate it into our diets.

The last couple of years I cut it up and lacto-fermented it in a salt brine but found I didn’t prefer it for a couple of reasons. For those of you who don’t know, okra has this “snotty”, “mucusy” stuff inside each pod that is really healthy and beneficial but kind of gross. And, for some reason, I still haven’t nailed the salt brine recipe and have had a lot of hits and misses.

Thankfully, some time last year my friend and neighbor, Shannon, and I were talking about okra and she mentioned lacto-fermenting it leaving the okra pod in tact and not cutting it up. I was very excited when she mentioned that and was eager to try it. First of all, it meant a lot less prep time and also, maybe a reduction of the “snot” factor.

Fast forward to mid-summer and our okra plants were starting to produce each day. If you’ve ever grown okra, you know that it grows measurably every day. You could probably sit and literally watch it grow if you had the time. At first, I cut them up and put them fresh in our salads each night, which is crunchy and delicious, by the way, and the “snotty” factor is virtually non-existent in fresh, cold okra. But then the floodgates opened and a big okra surplus started to mount up. I remembered I had preserved garlic cloves in apple cider vinegar and really liked the flavor so I decided to do the same with okra. I went out and bought a really cheap jug of apple cider vinegar at the store and off I went!

Here is our beeeeeautiful okra, probably just one days worth:

So I quickly rinse them and, it’s not necessary but I like to cut off the stems so they fit in the jars better:

Then I just shove them in the jars however they will fit:

You can usually get a gallon jug of cheap apple cider vinegar for under three dollars. Even though it is not organic with “the mother” in it (a colony of beneficial bacteria promoting good gut health), cheap apple cider vinegar is still a great preservation vehicle and a pre-biotic, which means it feeds probiotics. So it’s still a great way to preserve. It also provides a really nice pickling-like taste:

I just pour in the apple cider vinegar and leave about 1″ space at the top:

Pouring Apple Cider Vinegar into Jars of Okra

A very important step that I had forgotten but a friend reminded me, is placing in the jars something that contains tannin. This keeps the okra nice and crunchy, where it would otherwise become soft and mushy over time. Thankfully, we have oak and mesquite trees right outside our house, so I just place a few leaves of one or the other in each jar.

Another step worth noting is that you may find you need to burp your jars for the first few days to release the buildup of any CO2 (carbon dioxide) gases. But since you are not waiting for an official fermenting process, you can eat the pods as soon as you like!

All in all, we preserved over 50 quarts of okra this garden season, all thanks to God for bringing the increase! I went ahead and numbered each jar so we can be sure to eat the oldest ones first. Since the pickle taste can be pretty tangy, I quickly rinse the pods before I put them in salads, etc., and it leaves a really nice pickled okra taste. You may wish to add in any other spices/flavors to customize your preserved okra to your liking. If you want to tone down the tang, just soak the okra in filtered water over several hours before you want to use it.

This way of preserving should keep for many months, although your experience may vary.

Jars of Preserved Okra Marked for Organization

We are extremely thankful to God for His bountiful okra harvest and a very quick and simple way to preserve it!

Susan

The Sifford Sojournal

Page 33 of 95

Garden – Fall & Winter 2017-2018

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: Trina’s 2017 Turkey Chicks

The Orchard – 2017 – Pears & Pecans

Goat Breeding Time 2017!

David’s Digest: Complete Christian Comfort

Introducing Tuscan

Preserving Okra in Cheap Apple Cider Vinegar

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