Farina

Our rabbits are multiplying, and none of them have even bred yet. After our new addition yesterday, we're up to six.



This is Farina, a beautiful angora rabbit. We had been trying to find one for a while now, but without luck. Then, earlier this week we stumbled upon a flyer at the Stockyard, our local feed store. A breeder had three angoras for sale for $12 each.



We've named her Farina, after the main ingredient in Cream of Wheat. Cream of Wheat is my favorite breakfast food, and because she's known as "oatmeal" colored, we thought it was perfect.

So why do we want this furry little creature? The hair makes for wonderful spun yarn. Mixed with wool, cotton, or other spinning materials, it creates an elegant, warm, and soft fiber.

Roosts

Slowly we keep adding on to our many works-in-progress here in our garden. We finally added the roosts to our coop. It took the ladies a little while to figure out what to do with them (they continued to sleep on the ground), but it seems like most of them have finally caught on. I can't imagine sleeping standing up on a little wooden beam, but if it makes them happy, awesome.

The first of our bounty

So poor little Seymore the Squash didn't really make it too long. The plants have really been overtaken by fungus, but we did manage to rescue this teeny little squash. He's not very big, but we've added him to the fall decorations on the dining table. We might cook him up and get a couple of spoonfuls of mashed butternut, but atleast we have something (however tiny) to show for our work.

A fall dinner

It's finally starting to feel like fall. Squashes are dominating the produce section, and jack-o-lanterns are found on nearly every doorstep. Last night's dinner was very seasonal, another one of our eating goals. On the menu:

Pork and gravy
Mashed butternut squash
Baked zucchini, carrots, and onions
Home-baked whole-wheat bread


The table setting was also gorgeous, decorated with edible and decorative squashes, colored maize, wheat, and pumpkins.





Dinner was followed up with some delicious pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream.



I was very happy to have a nice autumn dinner. The weather doesn't change much here in Florida, but it's nice to see the food represent the seasons.

Fungus

Florida doesn't have the best climate for growing vegetables. It's very very warm, and terribly humid. The only crops that do really well here are citrus fruits, and strawberries. Some of our plants are suffering from the damp weather, and have developed fungus on their leaves. It started with the heirlooms, but has slowly spread to the commercial plants too. We're looking into remedies, and waiting patiently for cooler, dryer weather.

An epic aphid attack

The other day we went out into our garden to find that our black eyed peas were completely caked with teeny grey aphids. They seemed to be taking the worst hit, but there were also some on the Henderson limas. We decided to try using some soap suds to shoo them away, with plenty of help from Seleighna, the little neighbor girl.

Unfortunately, I think we may have used a little bit too much soap. The aphids were done for, but I think our beans may have been too.



They're kind of yellowing, and have dropped some of their leaves. We're going to pick what's left of the beans soon, and hope that the plants recover a bit.

And the snails go 'nom nom nom'

A while back we planted two strawberry plants in our garden. They were both doing very well, until one night. One of them was attacked by a hungry snail, and was completely annihilated.



The other one is still doing very well, and I wonder if this one will recover.