Gardening Lingo

I love taking pictures and during a conference a speaker suggested telling a story or making a timeline using pictures.  This spring I have been taking pictures and posting them on facebook.  As I have been posting them on facebook I realized that gardeners have their own lingo and most people probably don't understand what we are saying.  Below I will list some Penner Pumpkin lingo and techniques we use.

Milk jugs-  We use these in our garden at the beginning of the season.  We love going into our garden as early as possible, but there is always the weather to work around.  One way we have done this is by using milk jugs around our plants.  We fill them up with water and put them by each plant.  The theory is that during the day the water will heat up and at the night the heat will be released.  This keeps the plants from freezing.  Also if we plant stuff out in April we make sure the plants can stand cold nights (so we don't plant out tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc).  We seed our peas, and plant cabbage and potato plants.

Black plastic-  We use this both in our greenhouse and outside in our garden.  We use plastic to keep the weeds down.  Also it keeps the plants wetter and it provides a bit of heat to the plants.  This year we put down plastic on our entire pumpkin patch.

Floating row covers-  This is a special cloth that keeps heat in and keeps bugs out.  This allows us to plant earlier.  Our cabbages like attracting bugs.

I have been thinking a lot about what we do at Penner Pumpkins and the techniques we use and I realized that gardening can be quite complicated.  I have been doing it for 20 + years so it makes sense, but a newcomer would be quite confused.  Pumpkins, gourds, and squash can't be planted side by side, we have to make sure there is a couple of rows, usually we plant corn, to separate them.  Also Indian corn and sweet corn cannot be planted side by side because it would make the sweet corn inedible.  Also some varieties of sweet corn cannot be planted side by side.  Also corn needs to be seeded in blocks (we usually do 4-5 row) so that there is good pollination.  Every year we get new seed catalogues and they always give us good tips for the garden.  With pumpkins we use many varieties so that we can have blue, orange, white, warted, flat, red, big, small, or pie pumpkins.  I love gardening and I love seeing what comes out of the garden.

Lorissa Penner

Cat Tales

At Penner Pumpkins we love animals.  Growing up we always had cats and dogs.  On our home yard we usually have around 15 cats.  We have this many because of the number of buildings on our yard.  All of our cats have names and very unique personalities.

We use to have a cat named Charlie.  This cat decided that the best place to have her kittens was our front step.  We decided this was not a good place for her to have kittens so we started putting her into a building to have her kittens.  When ever this cat was ready to have her kittens she would meow non-stop til we let her into the building.  One year she had five kittens and we had two rabbits.  One of the rabbits gave birth and died so we moved the bunny into Charlies box.  One day I came in and I hear a kitten meowing.  Charlie had moved four kittens and the bunny and left one kitten behind.  She knew she had five kittens and she moved five animals.

On May 2 Molly had four kittens.  She gave birth to one on a shelf and than decided that was not a good idea and moved to a different location.  She didn't move the one kitten when she went to the new location.  We (Shirley and I) were showing Joy, a person who gives us advice on our Agritourism business, around the zip line area.  I heard a kitten screaming and went to investigate and found the kitten, I didn't see the mother so I assumed she was out somewhere.  I think kittens are extremely cute so I showed Joy the kitten and she found the mother.  I didn't want to move the kitten because the mother than could abandon all the kittens.  Joy felt sorry for the kitten and moved it to the mother.  The mother didn't abandon the kittens and the abandoned kitten is doing fine.

Written by Lorissa

Sunshine Muffins

This is a recipe I adapted from a Reader Digest recipe. It's delicious.

Ingredients

1 cup multi-grain flour (or whole wheat flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup squash (or you could use pumpkin). Make sure it is pureed. If you search my blog I have directions on how to bake pumpkin or squash.
1/4 cup plain or vanilla flavoured yogurt

Optional:
1/2 cup of: dates or raisins or cranberries or walnuts or raw hull less pumpkin seeds (can be found at Superstore and are green in color) or sunflower seeds.
1/4 cup of: ground flax seed or wheat germ or both

The last time I made these muffins I put in cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, ground flax, and wheat germ. I add ground flax and wheat germ to make the muffins healthier. I used ground flax instead of whole flax seeds because your body can't digest whole flax seeds.

I usually will use a red kuri or a sunshine squash to make these muffins.

Directions:
1.In a large bowl mix together dry ingredients.
2. With a mixer or in a blend or food processor, combine eggs with brown sugar, apple sauce, pureed squash and yogurt.
3. Stir together wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just mixed. Add fruits, nuts and seeds and barely mix in.
4. Grease muffin cups and divide batter into 12 muffin cups. Bake in a preheated 400 F (200 C) oven for 25 minutes or until a tester (tooth pick) comes out clean
5. Cool muffins on rack.
6. Enjoy.

Lorissa

What people have to say about the Forest

RSL: it was easy to spend over 2 hrs there. but...prob. better in September when there garden is still growing and the corn isn't starting to dry. All in all a lot of fun and we will go next year for sure.

AG: We went today but my little girl was scared of the haunted forest lol!

CBM: We love The Scarecrow Forest and both my girls (ages 2 & 4) looked forward to the zipline ALL year (they both went on last year too).


RSL: Best time ever! Thanks for making our family fun time worth the trip to the Scarecrow Forest.


NJV : You guys are amazing!!! This was our first time there and I think it's going to be an annual event. Making the scarecrows was a memory our family will have forever. Thanks for doing what you do!!

KP: Thanks for a great birthday party. The kids had a great time (so did the adults).

Joyce: I work at Scarecrow Forest and I think the whole place is awesome. I love the people I work with and all the stations/activities I can work at.


CBM: The best part of the Forest is...... my 4 & 2 year would say the zip lines and 2nd favorite would be the straw bales to climb on.

NSD: You are guys have a great place.....and we will definitely be back soon;)


Palm Lite: I wanted to mention to you that we really appreciated your enthusiasm and energy you put into hosting our corporate function. You did a great job in hosting and organizing the activities and getting the whole group involved as well. Keep up the good work!

SH: Just to let you know we visited your place yesterday. I did buy a pumpkin. What a wonderful setup you have for the kids! The playground was terrific, my grandson who is 5 loved the Zip line – his comment was “I want to do that every day”. Another hit was the duck race. We all enjoyed the “train” ride, especially the “conductor’s” sense of humour. It was nice to have good, clean fun without the creepy Halloween décor some of the other places have (I enjoy Halloween, but not the blood and guts that some feel is necessary).
P.S. I especially like the fact the washrooms weren’t outhouses! LOL
(by the way, for us clued out city folk you might want to explain in your directions that Highway 311 is split and you need to pass the first one that goes west so don’t travel down east on a gravel road that happens to be on the exact opposite side of the first 311 split – LOL.) See you next year!

Lorissa

Highlights of Oct.21

We had 249 children and 37 adults enjoy the Forest during the day. The bales, kittens, and zip line were quite popular. At night we had 50 people enjoy the Forest and get scared by some of the scarecrows.

Other highlights:

-Having eight buses at one time on the yard
-A brown calf was born in the pasture next to the zip line
-Seeing the children holding the kittens, petting Mr. Taffy, and feeding Little Peter a tomato and loving it and loving the animals.
-Seeing some very creative pumpkin painting creations.
-Having some groups surprise us and show up without reservations (A mix-up in communication. We prefer groups to reserve well in advance so we can plan your visit. But it all worked out).
-Re-arranging the gift shop for the fifth or sixth time this year.
-At night people wondering where Bob was (to understand this you need to come out on Friday)
-Being called the underwear Lady at night

In total from Mon to Fri we had 511 people in the Forest. Busy, busy but we were loving it.


Hepzee all worn out from all the petting during the day. He didn't even have energy to straighten out his ears. Maybe it was his 3 1/2 mile run after all the children left.

Lorissa

Petting Farm Animals Part Two

Dogs

A baby dog is called a puppy.

The average life span for a dog is around 10 to 14 years.

Gestation period is an average of 63 days. An average litter has three to six puppies.

Puppies sleep ninety percent of the day for their

first weeks

Puppies are born blind and deaf.

Cats

A baby cat is called a kitten.

Domestic cats can sprint nearly 31 miles per hour (50 km/h).

Your cat's heart beats twice as fast as yours.

The average number of litters a fertile cat can produce in one year is 3.

The average number of kittens in a feline litter is 4–6.
In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can theoretically produce 420,000 cats.

The gestation period for cats runs from 60 to 67 days.

Horses

A baby horse is called a colt

A horse is pregnant for 11 months. A baby horse is called either a colt (male) or a filly (female).

Many horse live into their 20s and some live into their 30s.

When a horse is born its legs are almost their full adult length!

Most foals are born at night under cover of darkness and away from prying eyes and possible danger.

A pony is a small horse and they are considered intelligent and friendly, though sometimes they also are described as stubborn or cunning.

Ponies have a stocky body, dense bone, round shape, well-sprung ribs, a short head, large eyes, small ears, and their legs are proportionately shorter. They have strong hooves and grow a heavier hair coat, seen in a thicker mane and tail as well as a particularly heavy winter coat.

Guinea Fowl

They are native to Africa

They are farmed around the world for their meat, eggs and feathers.

They are the farm yard watch dog, sounding the alarm whenever anything unusual occurs. They can get very loud when they don't like something.

The incubation period for Guinea eggs is 26 to 28 days

They are extremely good runners and use this method, rather than flying, to escape predators

Petting Farm animals Part One

The Scarecrow Forest animals.

Goats

A baby goat is called a kid.

After a 5-months pregnancy (gestation) an average of 2 kids are born per doe.

There are over three hundred distinct breeds of goat

Goats are ruminants and have a special "4-compartment stomach".

Are used for their milk, meat, hair, and skins

A pygmy goat is a small breed of domestic goat

Pygmy goat were introduced to the United States in the 1950s

Wattles are little folds or tufts of skin covered in hair located on the neck under the jaw. They serve no purpose.

Almost all goats are born with horns

Pot Belly Pigs

Originated in Vietnam, and were first kept and raised as pets in sometime in 1985-1986.

Live for around 10-15 years

Gestation (length of pregnancy) is 110-115 days

Pigs have bristles instead of hair. This is a rough, type of hair that sparsely covers their body. They will shed this hair.

Most pigs will eat just about anything, anytime. Little Peters loves cucumbers, cauliflower, corn, and tomatoes.

A lot of pigs end up being very overweight because humans overfed them.

Pot bellied pigs are the fourth smartest animal, and can be trained commands such as “sit”, and “lie down”, and can be litter trained or house trained.

Silkie Chickens

Are well known for their calm, friendly temperament.

Originated in China

All Silkies have black skin, bones and grayish-black meat

A hen will produce 100 eggs in an ideal year

Chickens have four toes, but Silkies have five toes (like humans)