Just Some Stuff

There are several plants around here that I haven't been able to identify, and this is one of them. I thought I would see if anyone could help me. I'm wondering if this could be plantain, but I really don't know.

We have them growing here and there, but not in any great abundance. I'm just curious if this plant could be useful. Any ideas?

We planned to breed One Stripe in mid June so we could have Thanksgiving babies. She hasn't seemed interested. Not long ago I thought, she sure is getting fat even though I am feeding her very little since she is not being milked. Then I started watching her closely. Her underbelly is getting much bigger and Frank and I think her udder may be filling ever so slightly. If she is pregnant, the question will be by who and when. We sold Teddy, our last buck, in April and don't remember the boys getting the gate open and making an unscheduled visit to the girls before he left. That only leaves our young bucks that were born in March. We didn't separate them from the does until they were 2 1/2 months old. Until recently everything we had read said a young buck is not able to successfully breed until they are 4 months old. But recently I read that they can breed at 2 months old. So, we will just have to wait and see.

Fried green tomatoes, fried okra, fried yellow squash, corn

We have been enjoying meals that include all fresh picked food from the garden. It is nice to be able to walk out, pick something, come in, wash it off and cook it. It doesn't get any fresher than that.

Our friends down the road have started raising chickens for the first time this spring and have been anxiously awaiting their first egg. This week they received it with much excitement. It reminded us of our first egg which we celebrated, just like they are. You notice her egg is brown, and she thinks it came from one of their Rhode Island Red hens. We will soon be having brown eggs also from our new Black Australorps. We look forward to it.

Life on the farm is good. Frank is progressing every day. And we are enjoying the abundance of our garden. How are things in your neck of the woods?

Until next time - Fern



UPDATE: July 26, 2014

I want to thank everyone for their input into the identification of the mystery plant. For those of you that thought it might be comfrey, I need to provide some more information or visualization about this little plant. I have a new comfrey patch that is growing quite well and these plants are much, much larger than this little plant we are all guessing about. I realized that I should have given more perspective on the size of the plant, once I read some of your comments. So, I went out and took some more pictures. Maybe this will give some more clues about this plant's real name.

Here are my 5 new comfrey plants with Pearl, our Pyrenees napping in the background.

The large and small comfrey leaves dwarf the size of the mystery plant.

The veins on the leaves are similar, but the smaller plant's veins are more symmetrical.

The mystery plant's leaves are rounded, whereas the comfrey is pointed.

The blooms of the two plants are similar in appearance, just not in size.

Thank you for giving me the motivation to study these plants in more detail. Are there any more guesses out there as to what plant this is?

Fern