restoring the roost

North Carolina Country Living and Farmhouse Style

North Carolina Country Living and Farmhouse Style
since 2010

Selecting Fruit Trees for the Homestead

· gardening, Homesteading

One of the most exciting things about homesteading for me is planning our orchard and reaping the sweetness of fresh home grown fruit!
Fruit tree selection and placement definitely requires some forethought as some fruit trees are very high maintenance. You don’t want to go to the expense of planting a lot of fruit trees only to have them fail to bear fruit or succumb to disease.  Well-drained soil is very important as is exposure to full sun and proper pruning.
 I’ve made a list of the fruit and nut trees we would like to plant for our homestead (see the plan above for where the orchard will go) that would work for our area in North Carolina:
1. Apple
Can’t have a farm without apple trees, right?!?  I’d love to have several varieties of apple trees, some of them heirloom perhaps.
2. Pear
3. Peach
Peaches are the most high-maintenance of the bunch that we are looking at. I’m planning to plant only the white-flesh variety, as they have a higher antioxidant level (and I like the taste better too!).
4. Nectarine
5. Plum
6. Fig
We cannot wait until fresh figs!!!!  In North Carolina a really common type of fig is the Brown Turkey fig and that is probably the one we plan to go with.
7. Cherry
 We will probably only plant one or two of these because I’m not sure how well cherry trees actually do in our area.
Nut Trees:
1. Pecan
2. American Hazelnut
3. Walnut
Are there any that I’m missing? What kinds of fruit trees are your favorite to grow?

Cutting Costs in a Custom Build

· decorating the roost, new house

This is the current state of our dining room table. Oh, the fun of building a house!

Our cost-to-build estimate for our new house went over budget of what the new house appraised for–by quite a bit. So, we are finding ourselves having to cut or change things in order to find more cost savings.

We knew with our budget we certainly wouldn’t be building our “dream home” but we are still hoping to include a lot of nice custom features. As we analyze the cost-to-build numbers with our builder, we are making changes and cuts to save some cash so that we can invest in the few things that we absolutely don’t want to compromise on  (which is mostly me putting up a big fight on things like windows, ceiling height, and the fireplace). Building a house can cause a lot of arguments with your spouse, so choose your battles wisely!

Below is a list of some of the things we are doing to save on costs:

1. Lower grade flooring in some rooms. Carpet for all bedrooms and upstairs loft, linoleum in the laundry room. Save nicer hardwoods for great room, dining room, kitchen and entry hall.


2. DIY open shelving instead of upper cabinets in the kitchen.


3. Stock/inexpensive bath vanities in the children’s and guest baths


4. Inexpensive tile in bathrooms (and for Kitchen backsplash)


5. Minimizing the complexity of the roofline


6. Minimizing corners of the exterior of the house


7. Simple interior moldings and woodwork, no crown molding


8. Composite interior doors instead of solid wood. Save solid wood for front door and French doors.


9. Wood decking floor for the screened-in porch instead of tongue-and-grove flooring


10. No cabinets in laundry room (we will build our own in later)


11. DIY shelves in pantry


12. Reuse of our current refrigerator, washer and dryer


13. Doing all of the landscaping work ourselves


14. Painting all the interior walls one color to start, no complicated paint designs


15. Finding light fixtures that are on clearance or repurposed from Craigslist or Ebay


16. Finding cheap salvaged brick to use for foundation, fireplace and chimney

For those of you with experience in house-building, can you add anything else to this list? 

Impressive Garlic Harvest

· gardening, Homesteading

HOLY GARLIC BULBS! This was one awesome harvest of some HUGE heads of garlic (at least for us).
In addition to planting our usual little plot of garlic in one of our raised beds, we also planted a sizable patch out at our new property (beside our new neighbor’s garden). All of the seed we got from our local feed store which sells garden supplies as well. We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled up some enormous heads of soft neck garlic with a smaller amount of the hard neck variety.
hard neck garlic
I’ve been using it as “green garlic” ever since we harvested but currently we are letting it cure until it is thoroughly dried out and will not mold or rot. To cure, we let the garlic sit on tarps for a while until we had the time to hang it up on our screened in porch to dry for at least a few weeks.
garlic curing
We plan to make garlic braids to give away and to sell and I hope to preserve a good amount of this delicious stuff by pickling and making a garlic powder and spice mix. In the past we have supplied our garlic needs for almost a full year by using what we have grown in our garden.
Nothing like having homegrown garlic hanging on your screened porch!
Additionally, we are going to try our hand at making “black garlic”–so stay tuned for an upcoming post on this antioxidant-rich gourmet delicacy.
The size of the cloves in the large bulbs are nice and big!
We will definitely be planning more garlic in the fall–it might just be our best bet for an easy cash crop 🙂

Small Batch Pickled Beets

· gardening, Homesteading, recipes

This is the first year we have ever been able to grow beets that actually developed a root!

I had to thin them out quite a bit along the way, so although I didn’t end up with a ton, I still had enough to make one jar of pickled beets and have two or three batches left for regular cooking.

I just love pickled beets. It’s one of my favorite types of pickled vegetables for sure and beets are so healthy for you I like to enjoy them any way possible.

I used a recipe from the TV show A Chef’s Life, found on their website here. It was featured on the “beet” episode but instead of processing my beet jars I just stuck them inside the refrigerator instead since it was such a small batch and I knew I would eat them soon anyway.

One of the interesting things I remember them talking about was how important it was for flavor purposes to leave the beet greens on the roots when cooking them before canning the beets.

Beets cooking in the water with greens still on

Here is what you will need, taken directly from the website:

3 pounds beets
3 cups cider vinegar
2 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 cloves
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon chili flakes
3 star anise

Place washed, skin-on beets in the bottom of 6 quart or larger pot. Cover the beets with water by 2 inches, and bring them up to a boil. Boil, covered for 20 minutes. Check to see if they are done by sliding a knife into the center. The beet should give just a little resistance. If the they are not done, continue cooking just until they are. Drain off the water and set the beets aside to cool.Once they are cool enough to handle, peel and slice the beets into 1/2 inch rounds. Position the rounds in wide-mouth canning jars. If you have rounds that are too wide to fit, cut them into half-moons, or quarters, or whatever you have to do to get them in there.


Combine the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive, 3 quart saucepan and bring it up to a boil. Carefully pour the brine over the beets, making sure the beets are completely submerged in the liquid. At this point you could refrigerate the beets for up to 3 months without processing in a hot water bath. If you’d like to store them at room temperature and keep them longer, follow the directions on (pg. 00) and process the jars for 5 minutes. 
the brine for the beets


What is your favorite way to cook and eat beets? 


VAF Conference

· architectural history

This year’s Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF) conference was held in Durham, NC a few weeks ago!  That means I got to go for the first time 🙂  It was a wonderful conference and so cool to have so many folks from all over the country (and Puerto Rico!) right here in the Triangle!
second floor bedroom at Horton Cottage, late 18th or early 18th century, Durham County
The conference began with a great opening plenary session with keynote addresses by Catherine W. Bishir and Jim Goodmon. Then, on to the all-day bus tours on Thursday and Friday.
West Grove Meeting House, ca. 1915, Alamance County
The tour that I chose and assisted with was the “Piedmont Patchwork” tour which consisted of historic sites with Quaker, German, Scotch-Irish and African American heritage as well as multiple textile mill industries in the mostly rural areas of Alamance and Guilford Counties.
Spring Friends Meeting House, 1907, Alamance County
Our tour began with traveling from Durham to Snow Camp in southern Alamance County, where we visited two Quaker churches, the West Grove Friends Meeting House (1915) and the Spring Friends Meeting House (1907).
Rear and side elevations of Old Brick German Reformed Church
Then we visited the Old Brick German Reformed Church (1813, 1840 and 1946). We enjoyed lunch at Historic Jamestown, a Quaker settlement in southern Guilford County, where we toured the Jamestown Meeting House (1819), the Mendenhall Plantation (1811), Barn (early 1800s-1900) and Store (1824) and the Madison Lindsay House (early and mid-1800s). At this point (I had forgotten to bring my good camera with me on the bus) my cell phone ran out of storage space and I couldn’t take any more pictures. Nooooo!!!
Next we traveled to the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum and Palmer Memorial Institute (1902-1971), an African American college prep and elite finishing school. To learn more about this historic site, please visit here.
We drove through the historic textile Mill Villages of Alamance (est. 1837) and Bellemont (est. 1879) on our way to the striking brick antebellum Hawfields Presbyterian Church (1852-1855) which also included a Session House and a large cemetery.
Finally, we ended our tour at the Saxapahaw Mill Village (mid 1800s-mid 1900s) where we were able to tour the rehabilitated mill complex and enjoy a fabulous local barbecue dinner at the Haw River Ballroom.
Former spinnng mill at Saxapahaw on the Haw River, Alamance County
Friday’s tour focused on Durham County with the second half featuring some of the City of Durham’s historic buildings. Our day started at Horton Grove and Stagville Plantation in northern Durham, an important early state historic site formerly belonging to the Cameron family with an impressive number of former slave dwellings that survive and allow for the interpretation of African American history in Durham during the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. To learn more or plan a visit to Historic Stagville, click here.
Horton Grove former slave dwellings and tenant houses (ca. 1859-1960), Durham County
Large timber frame antebellum barn at Horton Grove, ca. 1859-1860. , Durham County
 Stagville Plantation House, ca. 1790 and 1799 addition, Durham County
Interior of main house at Stagville Plantation, Durham County
Then we toured the Umstead Farm and Store, a late 19th century restored frame “I-House” with outbuildings, one of which used to serve as a post office and rural store.
Umstead Farm former post office and store and farm buildings, Durham County
Umstead Farm main farmhouse, Durham County
Next we visited Russell School (1926-1927), perhaps the most well-preserved and intact Rosenwald School in Durham and Wake County area, and enjoyed a fantastic lunch provided for us by the ladies of Cain’s Chapel Baptist Church.
The Russell School (1926-1927), a former Rosenwald School, Durham County
Interior of the Russell School with former alumnae of the school standing at left, Durham County
Interior of the Russell School, Durham County
In the afternoon we toured the Golden Belt textile factory and mill village (1900-1930s) in downtown Durham, much of which has been rehabilitated into other uses and preserved with the help of historic tax credits.
exterior of rehabilitated Golden Belt textile factory, Durham County
We saw more former tobacco warehouses that have been rehabbed at the former Liggett and Myers Tobacco Factory complex (1880s-1940s).
The Cotton Room, rehabilitated former Golden Belt Textile Factory, Durham County
One of the highlights of the afternoon was our visit to St. Joseph’s AME Church (est. 1891) in the Hayti community, a thriving African American community in downtown Durham during the early 20th century.
St. Joseph AME Church in Hayti Community, Durham County
Friday’s tour ended at Duke University where VAFers were given a chance to see the impressive newly restored Gothic Revival Duke Chapel (1930-1932). Exhausted from the busy all-day tours but energized about the wonderful vernacular forms of architecture right here in the piedmont and the Triangle, I left feeling incredibly grateful to be able to attend the conference and learn from so many professionals. I hope there will be more VAF conferences in my future 🙂
Interior of main house at Stagville Plantation, Durham County