Tomato Hornworm vs. Braconid Wasp

My tomato plants are enormous (around 6 feet tall and growing).  I feel like I am battling to keep them from taking over the world (or at least my garden).  They have outgrown their cages, so I have driven bamboo stakes in as additional support and tied the plants to them.  I have cut them back and cut them back, but they continue to grow with a vengeance (and they are laden with fruit).

The other day, I went out to battle with them again and noticed a tomato hornworm.  It was not a surprise even though I have never seen them in this garden before (we have had them in the large farm garden).  I did not remove it, not because I want it to eat these overachieving tomato plants, but because I could see it was parasitized.  There were little white cocoon looking things attached to it- braconid wasps (well soon to be).

Now, they do look creepy and your first instinct maybe to get rid of the infested caterpillar, but resist the urge!  The braconid wasp larvae are a blessing in disguise.  The larvae are feeding off of the hornworm and will eventually kill it (thanks for the help).  At that point, there will be more braconid wasps hunting in my garden!

Don't worry about having more wasps in your garden- they are not after you and will not sting you.  They are looking to continue the cycle of finding a new tasty host caterpillar.  In other words, they are beneficial even if they gross you out!

Making Dog Food

We farm as a way to produce healthy food for ourselves, but what about the dogs?  They get healthy food too!  We are not very fond of organ meats, but the dogs love them. I used to freeze them, but freezer space is too valuable at this time.  Canning is a wonderful option!  After doing some research, this is what I did:

I started with hearts from the pigs that were processed over the winter.  I cut the meat into chunks and filled my canning jars to the half mark.  I used pint sized jars, so each jar had roughly 1 cup of meat.

I then topped the meat with 2 tablespoons of organic brown rice.   To that I added boiling water (leaving an inch of headspace).

I removed any air bubbles by running my measuring tool along the edge inside each jar, and wiped each rim before securing the lids.  

All jars went into the pressure canner and processed for 70 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. After allowing to cool and wiping the jars clean, the labels were attached and into the cabinet they went!

Piglets

The Thursday before Mother's Day, our sow had a litter of 10 piglets!  I had checked on her around 10:30 before going to bed. She was fine.  She had eaten her dinner that night and was begging for more.  She had moved some hay around on her house, but she had been rearranging things for about a week.  I set my alarm for 1:00 a.m. to check on her.  When I went out to see her, I didn't expect anything to be different (I had been getting up in the middle of the night to check on her for most of the week).  I was surprised to find she had given birth to all 10 of her babies!

Turkey Nuggets

After watching an episode of. Extreme Couponing, I had an urge to make something from scratch. I have to say that I found the show motivating.  This was not because I felt I could save money by making my own nuggets; instead, I had the urge to make something healthy.  It was sad watching the couponers celebrate their $8.50 haul of about 70 bottles of soda and 200 boxes of Ramen Noodles along with other highly processed "food".  I wouldn't want to eat that garbage even if the store paid ME to take it home.  So, this was my motivation.

Making your own nuggets is simple and (better yet) you get to control the ingredients.  Here is what I did:

1)  Get your ingredients ready.  You can use chicken or turkey- whatever you prefer.  Our turkey was already cut into "nugget size" pieces from turkey processing day.  In the first bowl, I have beaten eggs mixed with Dijon mustard.  The second bowl contains breadcrumbs (homemade, of course), garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.   Preheat the oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit with your baking sheet inside.

The beauty is you get to use what you like.  You don't have to use the mustard or those seasonings.  Some people like mayonnaise instead of the mustard.  Occasionally, I will use honey mustard or whole grain mustard.  Other seasonings can be used as well (seasoned salt is delicious).  Italian is my favorite blend to which I also like to add some Parmesan cheese.

2)  Take each piece of  chicken or turkey and put it in the egg mixture, coat each side, then do the same with the breadcrumb mixture.

3)  When you have enough nuggets ready, take the baking sheet out of the oven.  Drizzle it with olive oil.  Place the nuggets on the pan and drizzle the top of the nuggets with the oil.  Bake them for 5-7 minutes (you might need longer if you have larger pieces or strips).  At this time, turn them over and bake for another 5-7 minutes (or until completely cooked).

4)  You will have beautiful, golden brown, homemade nuggets ready for eating or freezing!  If you are going to freeze them, let them cool completely before you put them in a freezer safe container.  Enjoy!