Living off the land

My hubby decided to get creative the other day. Behind our lot is a field with a ton of weeds. Among those weeds grows some wild wheat. I say "wild" because no one planted it.

But, to my hubby, wheat is wheat. He thought, "this will be a great lesson for the kids." He gathered a bunch of it, put it in a pillow case and gathered the kids around. He put it on the patio and told the kids to hit the pillow case with sticks with all the energy they could muster.

Then we had the fun part. Separating the wheat from the non wheat. It helps if you have a bit of wind to blow the chaff away. After some effort we managed to get it all separated.

After grinding it into flour with our wheat grinder he made a loaf of bread.

This makes "living off the land" take on a whole new meaning.

Now, speaking of living off the land. We also planted a real vegetable garden. This has been thriving for the first time since we moved out to this house. We have been able to keep the deer away (for the most part) as we planted marigolds which the deer to NOT like.

We also discovered that if you plant green beens between rows of corn they grow a lot better.

In the bottom picture you will see our squash patch. We are growing zucchini (there is a joke about them that I will tell in a bit), bumpkins and spaghetti squash.

We are also growing carrots, leaf lettuce, chard, and tomatoes.

Now for the joke about zucchini:

Why do Mormons leave their cars locked during church in the summer time??

Its so their neighbors don't fill them up with zucchini while they are in church.

If you have ever grown zucchini you would understand why this is so funny.

Now I just hope my tomato plants will grow a bit faster.