Our own garden is much the same. The early season crops are doing well and the hot weather plants, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, melons are just waiting for their time in the sun.  I’m beginning to doubt that we’ll get any melons this year. If we do, they won’t come in until late September. One bright spot, I picked our first raspberry ever yesterday. I guess the variety I bought (which I’ve not been able to find any info on) is an early-mid season variety.

Two weekends ago I spent the better part of a day cutting and assembling the four sides to my chicken coop expansion project.  With the four sides assembled I was able to spend this past Saturday (an absolutely perfect day) attaching the expansion to the existing coop.  Time was my enemy as I needed to have the project attached, roofed and enclosed by the end of the day so our hens could safely go to roost that evening.

I began by attaching the roof members. This was much simpler to do before the the two boxes were joined. Phyllis and I then carried the expansion to it’s new location where I worked the ground to ensure that it was level with the existing structure. I removed the front window panel from the old box and butted the new box up against it and screwed the two units together. Next I cut the plywood panel for the top of the coop box. Since this had to slide in from the top it had to be done before the roof went on. After that came the roof, a good thing because it poured rain Saturday night. I discovered that the aluminum flashing I bought for the ridge was narrower than that used on the existing coop. This is one aspect of the expansion that I’ll have to revisit once the coop is complete.

With the roof in place I attached hardware cloth around the base. The final step for the day was to install the floor of the coop. This had to be done in two pieces in order to get them through the the front opening. Before I did that, however, I had to install a couple floor joists to support the four foot span of plywood. As a final step for the day I reattached the front window panel to the new box.  Phew, 1o hours from start to finish.

Next weekend I’ll add the trim, cut out openings for the nest box hatch and add a door on the back side that leads out to the run. Phyllis is in charge of building the nest box and painting.

What?  What’s a garlic scape? Well, when a hardneck garlic variety reaches it final growth phase it sends up a curly shoot called a scape.  This is basically the garlic flower head and they need to be removed to force the plant to put more energy into making a bigger bulb.   Scapes are edible and I like to use them for Garlic Scape Pesto.  They  have a wonderful flavor that is a cross between garlic and scallion that is just delicious!  After garlic is dug up it needs to cure for several weeks and the scapes are an early treat until we can cook with the bulbs.

 Garlic Scape Pesto:

1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano or grana padana
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste 

Method:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add cheese to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated

I began framing out the expansion to the coop this weekend and hope to complete it next weekend. It will triple the size of our current coop. After that I’ll need to build a permanent run, part of it will need to be covered. It will also need some temporary barrier to keep the older girls separated from the younger ones until they are ready to be introduced to each other. I’m still chewing on that idea.