I was in my sewing room trying to finish up some family PJ’s I had cut out at Christmas time (oyvey!). The pattern facings were completely wrong and I ended up ripping them out and will need to cut new ones. Teach me to walk a purchased pattern! The frustration was alot more bearable tho as I watched them from my window…

After tilling a few rows, Kelly gave into the begging Flying J’s and let them each have a turn at the tiller.

Here’s my born farmer, J1:

Next up, was my born gardener, J2:

Then my baby (dressed in his Homer Depot costume), J3:

It was a little harder than they expected:

Everybody took a little rest:

Had some lunch:

Then played!

Isn’t Spring Grand?

My brother and his girlfriend knocked on our door Friday morning at 8:30 am. The day before he said he’d call me. I told him sure – I’m up at 7am, np! Well Friday AM, I had turned off the alarm and crawled back into bed when I realized I didn’t have to go to Mom’s! So, no one was awake when he showed up. lol.

Digressing for a second:

Mom is done with radiation!!!! WOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooHooooooooooooooo. Albeit very badly burned and taking pain killers for it. See – everyone says “Oh, it won’t be anything you can’t handle – just a really bad sunburn” Liars! Imagine a horrible road burn – like motorcyclists get or accident victims! THAT’s what it looks and feels like! Anyway – She is recovering and really – really happy that it’s over!

So – Now Kelly shows up the door with a tiller in hand and asks me where the garden is. lol. After tilling my old garden (whis is really small – about 8 x 10 ft.) in 20 minutes, I asked him if he’d till me a new garden spot at the back of the yard. I get that leprechaun look – the twinkle with the “I don’t know if I should have showed up today” Look.

God Bless Him!!! He tilled me a new 16 x 32 ft garden – including tilling in all my compost from the heap collecting over the winter and even made me a 3 x 32 ft section parallel to it for berry bushes! And all just before the rains came!

I’ve wanted this garden for over 5 years, but at 45 and out of shape – double digging it wasn’t going to happen any time soon!

Kelly and Lisa were there for 4 hours, tilling and removing rocks and putting them by my little wooden bridge. He said he would come back next week, after I’ve had a chance to get rid of the grass clumps and put some manure and food on it, and he’ll till it to prepare it so I can plant it this year!!!

Hopefully the kids will leave my rocks alone. They will get the smaller garden now so we can plan our gardens together. When we get our plans done up – I’ll scan and post them.

I am so excited – and sooooo grateful to him! We sent him home with 5 jars of jams and a full belly of breakfast – but I can never begin to repay him for all of his kindness and hard work! I LOVE MY FAMILY! Isn’t Kelly awesome?

In season are Blueberries and Apples. The bowl below has 1 1/2 gallons of blueberries, just picked Friday….. I wish you could smell them – they are heavenly! As for the apples, they are dropping off of trees everywhere!

Crab-apples, Crab-apples, out in the wood,
Little and bitter, yet little and good!
The apples in orchards, so rosy and fine,
Are children of wild little apples like mine.
The branches are laden, and droop to the
ground;
The fairy-fruit falls in a circle around;
Now all you good children, come gather them up;
They’ll make you sweet jelly to spread when
you sup.
One little apple I’ll catch for myself;
I’ll stew it, and strain it, to store on a shelf
In four or five acorn-cups, locked with a key
In a cupboard of mine at the root of the tree.

—Cicely Mary Barker, THE CRAB-APPLE FAIRY

* from Wild Man Steve Brill’s Website

Today, we make more jelly! Yummmm.

What could be more patriotic to start your festivities with today?

Test Pattern #49: The 2 Minute Blackberry Jam from Slobokan on Vimeo.

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After which a beautiful summertime sunset followed:

The trees, grass, buildings, everything – glows around the dark pines. The already dark green evergreens turn to almost black, the green grass turns to a soft brown and the sky casts a warm pink-orange glow against everything. Sometimes, the beautiful turquoise sky shines in between. I LOVE SUMMERTIME IN GEORGIA!

The day after the rain storm:

– Wild Blackberries were ready to be picked!

Today – I MAKE JAM! YUMMM

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My sister’s sweater is just about done. Needless to say, it will be a Valentine’s day sweater. Who knew it took so long to knit a sweater? lol.

This is the first sweater I’ve knitted and the first time I was able to buy all the yarn needed up front! That was exciting in and of itself!
I’ve become a big fan of Creative Knitting magazine in the process. This sweater is from the Sept. 2007 issue and has been a great deal of fun to knit. It has just enough variation in the pattern (cables and lace) to keep it from becoming monotonous. I will be putting a separating zipper on this sweater, rather than the buttons, just for ease of use for Pooh Bear. If she thinks her sweaters aren’t closed properly, she will walk around hunched over all day for fear of it opening! Don’t want a hunch backed sis!!!

btw… I found the magnetic board at Target’s clearance for 2.00 and the sliding rule from Walmart’s clearance section for 1.00. These have been priceless in working this pattern! I noticed they have more left, so anyone that needs one, I HIGHLY recommend especially that magnified and magnetized sliding rule!!!

Slobo made turkey broth from the Thanksgiving turkey. I canned 8 quarts of it. We’ve already used half of it, so he made broth again from the Christmas Turkey. This time I added the salt and meat (he chopped it up and made the broth). Last night, we got 7 quarts and 9 pints from that Tom Turkey! Not Too Shabby!

Now, I’ve got 4 lbs. of blackeyed peas soaking in the fridge along with a thawing Ham Bone from Thanksgiving and some yummy fattening Salt Pork! Those are going to be so good. I’m hoping there is some ham in the freezer too, to have as the main course for tonight. If not, there will be a quick run to the store! In lieu of collard greens, we will have spinach and brussel sprouts for me!

This is what is left of the cookies from something like 15 dozen that we made (and gave away! lol) I made fontegmon, sanbackles, ginger snaps and J2 made absolutely wonderful homemade caramels dipped in belgian chocolate! That boy needs to become a chef and make the world a happier place! He did a wonderful job!!! The fontegmon required 16 egg yolks, so I froze the egg whites and will use them to make an Angel Food Cake (or two) tonight. We bought some strawberries that I’ll make a glaze from with slices on top. YUM! Diabetes, heart disease, can go out with the old a day late, then I’ll be good!

My dear MIL gave me a cookbook that belonged to our boys’ great-great grandmother from Canada. It’s the Woman’s Guide To Cooking. The front cover and title pages are missing, so I can’t tell you when, where, who published it, but it has a section talking about the frugality necessary now that the War is beginning, and I believe they are talking about WWII. What a wonderful book it is!!!! I stayed up until 4 am reading it. NO Kidding! It has more information in the beginning chapter about food than any other book I’ve ever picked up!!! For example, there was a test for pectin in fruit, using epsom salts! I had not run across that. It also explains exactly what fats, sugars, milks, etc. do in cooking – making it possible to understand them inside and out so that you can create your own wonderful recipes. Information that is sadly lacking in the cookbooks beyond that time period!

Well off to can and cook up some blackeyed peas! I hope that everyone has a Happy and Safe New Years!

Slobo got him and the kids a camera that does video. It is so neat. You can take a color sample of an image area and it will take the pic in black and white except wherever the color you picked shows up. It will do macro pics – he got a really awesome pic of a yellowjacket on apple cores yesterday and a very pretty butterfly. With an extra card he can take over 600 pics and an hour of video. His is the Canon Powershot. He also got a Canon Powershot SD1000 for our nephew in Iraq.

Chris is stationed over at Camp Cupcake (Al Asad) AFB. It’s about 120 miles from the center of Baghdad. He said they have been under sniper attacks and one of the guys was killed a few days ago. (See how little the news media reports?). The fighting is intense over there. Soldier’s Angels Germany has been getting 100′s of guys at the hospitals a day. Don’t hear about that on the news magazines either. We just sent 12 lbs of candy and the cam as a suprise for him and his buddies. My brother and sis-in-law just sent him 21 lbs. of candy and three motorola hand helds so he and his two best friends can communicate without getting into full gear to visit eachother’s pod.

He said the heat was unbearable – well over 105 and in full gear – they are getting over heated quick. The kids and I sewed up 30 cooling scarfs and sent them in his box for now, but have well over 180 more cut out, ready to stuff and send. They will have to wait til Thursday’s payday. But at least he and 20 or so of his closest friends will be cooler. lol.

The kids and Slobo love the cooling scarves. (Pssst…. great for menopausal hot flashes too….lol) We kept the four samples we made. We are going to make 7″ discs of these for the guys to put in their helmets and later on, when stateside, baseball caps. The medical teams use them and cooling vests to aid heat stroke victims over there, as well.

The websites are selling them for about 6$ each, but we were able to make over 200 for $40. JoAnne’s has khaki cotton for 2.00 a yard (Made in the USA – Yeah) and we only used 3 very small bags of water crystals from Michael’s (1/2 tsp. each). One bag will make 34 scarves. When we used 1tsp – they bulged and it was like having an italian sausage hanging around your neck. The lady at Michael’s recommended testing the amount because some of the guys were complaining about how hard they were when they hydrated – she was right! 1 tsp is way too stiff. Here are the kids making them – and if you want to make some – here is a pattern. Again – I caution you on the amount of crystals – a little does go a very long way!

As for the canning / gardening update:

Our garden has stopped producing anything except rust fungus so we will be tearing it out and replanting this next week.
I’ve started a compost heap and it seems to be working really good. I had a grocery cart from when I lived in Simi Valley, CA. It’s a metal wire frame on wheels. I lined it with hardware cloth and put layers of newspaper in the bottom. Then stack the veggie parts, etc layered with meadow grass clippings (hay). It’s 3/4 full already after just two weeks, so I need to make another, much larger version. Hopefully this will all decompose nicely for next years garden – which will be about 40 x 60 ft.

We purchased 3 bushels of apples from the Collins’ Brother’s Farms at the State Market last weekend. One bushel of Rome’s has made 14 quarts of applesauce. 7 of which are cinnamon (the kids love that one).
Today, I’ll make the apple butter – yummy – from a mix of Romes and Granny Smiths. Then the final bushel of Romes and Granny Smith’s will be used on Monday to make Apple Pie Filling.
I absolutely am in love with the apple corer / slicer. The whole family never tires of taking turns peeling and coring apples. It is just such a fun and helpful invention!

Slobo and the kids will finish going through the last of the donate bags today and I’ll start scrubbing the classroom and bathroom before Tommorrow. Tommorrow the kids get to move back into their classroom – and they are very excited! They have donated 3/4 of their toys, helped organize and finish up seasonal chores. The two youngest have already packed their backpacks with books and bandaids in anticipation. They will be late getting started full-time, but they are so enthusiastic about it, I don’t think it will matter at all. They’ve learned measurements just in the last couple of weeks helping to can and have been studying birds, bugs and wildlife while setting up habitats last week. It’s amazing how they absorb so much information just from every day life. They’ve already mastered basic fractions and basic multiplications like 2′s, 5′s, 10′s, just helping to count veggies. Still – they want their classroom with their new supplies and the best of all – Great Snacks and New Books! lol.

Til next time……. Hope you are enjoying cool, breezy, crisp days too………

I found two great web sites created by one great individual, Maggie!

Hillbilly Housewife
and
An Old-Fashioned Education

Check them out…. There are great recipes, things to make you smile and lots of support – and best of all – Maggie shares (ALOT)!

—-
What else is in the family news:

The not-so-good news:

Our middle child’s goldfish, Nemo, passed away last week. For four years + he has lived faithfully on our kitchen counter. He was character and is missed greatly by all! His body was interned beneath our son’s cherry tree where he will create beautiful blossoms in the spring, just as his wife, Lucy, does for our roses.

Our garden – sad little tomatoes from the drought created a 2 inch diameter Brandywine (and it ripened on the vine – go figure)
Rust has taken over the Kentucky Wonder Beans. We bought sulphur in time to spray – brought it home – loaded the sprayer – and the sprayer that worked last week – suddenly doesn’t work this week.

The good news:

We just received two days of really nice rain and now the weather is absolutely wonderful to go out in during the hottest part of the day!

We’ve just about finished completely rearranging the house. The kids (I’m still in shock) acting of their own accord, decided to donate 3/4′s of their toys to help get rid of clutter. They have been such a great help re-arranging. They move clutter so fast – it’s actually a pleasure to move things now! I love these boys!!!!

I spent yesterday remaking 27 jars of muscadine jelly that didn’t set. Humf… Really glad that’s over – now just say your prayers for me that it sets…. please?

After just 3 hours sleep, we went to the Farmer’s Markets locally and the state’s. (Yes, we bit the bullet – I needed tomatoes and apples to complete the years storage plans. The drought has literally dried up our local market). The local market ended today *sniff*. I’ll miss going there, but it signals time for the craft shows to begin in October and November. That will be fun!

At the local market we purchased 2 dozen free-range eggs for 3 $ a dozen (one dozen had two turquoise eggs from Easter Chickens, that was really neat), a lb. of Italian Sweet Peppers for 2$, 2$ for a head of lettuce and 3 peacock feathers for the boys to play with for 2$. For the first time, we found pork and chicken there. We bought soup bones at a $1 a pound (this included 5 lbs. of meaty chicken wings), 1″ thick center cut pork chops for $6 per lb., The prices for the veggies weren’t better than a supermarket, but everything is local and organically grown which is wonderful, especially for canning! The meat we bought was from Gum Creek Farms in Roopville, GA. She said they were going to be delivering meat to our area once a month and we can reserve some. I’ll start saving now! I was very relieved to find a source for fresh meats. Our local super markets carry rancid horrible meats alot of the time. I wish that I had remembered the lady’s name we dealt with, but she reminds me of family. A strong woman with blonde hair and the most beautiful blue eyes like my sisters’ eyes. Talking with her made me remember for an instant, my father’s mother. They were the same strong woman with the most gently eyes! Of course, she was much younger – probably younger than me. Have you ever gotten the feeling tho, sometimes, when you meet certain people, it’s an ancestor or someone special looking back at you? That’s what I felt. Just me tho. Maybe because it’s fall and I get too romantic (or crazy) at this time of year….. lol.

The State Market had actually really great deals this time. And more American vendors, albeit only a few more. But, hey, I sure was glad to see them! Possibly getting there a few hours earlier helped or the fact it’s bloated with produce right now. We were able to get 3 cases of Romas for 4.00 a case, 2 cases of Better Boys for 9.00 a case, 2 cases of Rome Apples and 2 cases of Granny Smith apples for 17.00 a box, 5 lbs. of Pecans for 15.00. The apple season has all but dried up in Georgia, the ones we purchased were from North Carolina. Still the first of the season. I can taste apple butter already – yummy!

I started making the Spaghetti Sauce for canning when we got home (about 4pm). Now at 1:42 am, the sauce has finally shows signs of reducing to a level that might put me in bed by 3. lol. It’s cool outside tonight also for the first time in months! The house smells wonderful, the back doors are open, nighttime sounds creep in between the dryer going and the stove creaking under the heat. All in all it has been a very wonderful day! Fall is definitely in the air……and tomorrow we are off to see the civil war get re-enacted at the New Manchester Textile Mill ruin. That will be alot fun for the kids. We’ve hiked there and geo-cached there several times, so it will be fun to see the place alive as if walking back in time 200 years.

Slobo has pics of the tomatoes and Spaghetti Sauce up at his site.

I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labors and the beautiful fall God gave as much as we are…

I leave you with my favorite quote from hillbilly housewife’s site: “Going to church every Sunday no more makes you a Christian as standing in the garage makes you a car!”.

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. The kids and I have been sick all week. In spite of it, tho, I’ve managed to get some more canning done. This is probably the first August in Georgia it has felt good to work in a steamy kitchen.

I’ve canned 4 more lbs of pinto beans, but Slobo is making refried beans from them as fast as I can can them! I’m glad he likes them and I’m even more glad with the sickness, I don’t have a sense of smell! In addition to those beans, I’ve canned 15 pints of Boston baked beans, 24 1/2 pints + 5 pints Muscadine Jelly, 5 quarts of Grape Jelly, 8 pints + 5 qts Peaches, 8 pints + 5 qts Pears and 7 quarts of assorted Kidney Beans for chili this winter. Slobo cleaned out an underground basement closet for me and we have filled one bookshelf, so I need to scrounge more shelving as soon as we are well enough. With all of the freezing and canning, payday came and went, and the cupboards were still full except for meat. That was really nice! Now, If I only knew a butcher!

Notice the wierd looking tomatoes? The brandywines have gone from really big during the rainy week, to really strange looking shapes during the hot dry weather. They are as much fun to grow for their sculptural habit as for their taste! I’ve eaten so many tomato sandwiches that I think I’ve turned another shade of red. Just looking at that big one tho, makes me want another one!

Before we got sick, I made the kids some “Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies” using a recipe from a cookbook. They were just awful! The kids liked them, but they were small and puffed. Fatiqued from the medicine, I sat in bed one night and went through my recipe drawer and lo and behold, found my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe! It’s from a lady named Sylvia DeBaar and I believe it came from my first husband’s mother, which would date it between 1930 – 1950. Here’s a pic of the original recipe. I doubled the batch and made it with 1 c. vegetable oil and 1 c. melted butter. It made 4 1/2 dozen large cookies (approx. 2″ balls). I also added a bag of Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips because Slobo was craving them. They sure are good and smell heavenly! I’ve made this in the past with just chunky peanut butter. A tried and trusted recipe for sure!

If you make them, please let me know how you liked them. Thank you Sylvia, wherever you are!

Peaches and Muscadines from Collins’ Brothers. Pears from Grier Farms

We got up early and went to our county and state farmer’s markets on Saturday. The farmers from our local county are really hurting with the drought. One had a sign up saying “No rain – No Tomatoes!”.

As for the State Farmer’s Market, I don’t know why they call it “State”. Might as well say, Canadian and Mexican Farmer’s Market. It is over 150 acres of booths and buildings. Of the businesses we visited (maybe about half the acreage), only three were Georgia Farms, and one had half of their produce imported! I was so disappointed to see that! It is just basically a grocery store – restuarant wholesale pickup joint! The prices were terrible also. Many cost more than in the supermarkets to the retail customers. (Because it’s a day or two fresher I suspect). Still, if I wanted an International Farmer’s Market, I would have went to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market!

I really like our local market, albeit it’s extremely small, at least we can build friendships with the people that grow the food we eat. They also are very anxious to share information and teach us what, how and why they do what they do. Invaluable!

We did make purchases from two farms at the State Market. These two were Georgia Farms and family members were selling the produce, so I felt we could trust it more. Yet, I don’t think we will be going back.

From Grier Farms, we got a 1/2 bushel of pears (I thought they were apples, Slobo said Pears – he gets the booby prize! lol) $7.00
Collins Brothers Farm, 1/2 bushel of peaches $24.00, 1/2 bushel of muscadines $27.00, 14 oz. English Walnuts $5.00 , 4 lbs. of sunflower kernels $8.00 . Total 64.00

I tried blanching and peeling the peaches, fresh and ripe as they look with stems and leaves still on, they just wouldn’t peel! There are only two quarts in a medium syrup from 8 peaches. I’ll wait for the rest to ripen more and see if they peel easier. I kept 17.5 lbs. of pears and peaches to can and gave my parents the rest. We also took them a gallon of the muscadines and assorted canned goods and veggies from our garden. The neat thing about all of this, we get fresh produce and still have enough left over to make sure they also get fresh fruits and vegetables.

I haven’t posted much last week because of all the preserving. I’m glad the peaches aren’t ripe yet because I need a couple of days to get out of the kitchen.

The past week, I canned: (seems like it should have been more looking back. lol)

12 pints of Pinto Beans
13 quarts of Vegetable Soup from Jarden site (using our tomatoes – woohoo!)

Froze:
5 lbs Kentucky Wonder Beans from the local farmer’s market
3 lbs okra from the garden
Dried Cherry Tomatoes, Celery, Onions and Carrotts

and put up seed for the Brandywine’s, Romas and various Peppers (local and from the garden)

I also tried making Banana Chips in the food dehydrator. Big Mistake. They were really nasty! I used 6 – just turned yellow – bananas, dipped them in honey and sugar base (per a recipe) and dried them. I don’t know if it was the lack of ascorbic acid or that I should have coated them “after” they dried – but after two days in the dryer, they still were moist, sticky and stinky! Won’t be doing that many again. Hopefully I’ll find a recipe that will make them as good as the ones that are store bought. It would be nice to make use of the bananas when the kids decide they don’t want bananas that week.

I also tried drying some venison jerky from the venison my dad gave me. I used a 1lb of ground meat + the jerky spice mix that came with the dryer. Slobo has made ground beef jerky in the past with it and it was really good. This time, it was really good until, I read online that to pasturize it, I should heat it to an internal temp of 260 in the oven. I REALLY NEED TO WEAR MY GLASSES! Slobo said that should have been 160 – well – now I know why they burnt and stunk too! I’ll try again today with another lb. I hope I don’t mess this one up too!!! I’ll try just half in the oven first. If it ruins it again, at least I’ll have 1/2 to send to Slobo’s dad and my dad. The kids will just have to do without – because I aint’ takin the chance with them. The Dad’s all have iron stomachs and are begging to take the chance!

Slobo’s dad was funny. Slobo talked to him and told him what all we were preserving. Not 2 seconds passed after they hung up when he called back and said “You know, there is a guy up here in Oregon who would just love to get a care package!”. I told him we wouldn’t tease him with talk of it without sending him some, so when we have a year’s putup, I’ll send him a care package too!

All this may be boring ya’ll, and I’m sorry for going on, but it will make for a good reference next year!

Watering the garden this morning, it looks like there’s about another couple pounds of okra and tomatoes and the beans are taking over everything they get their tendrils on, so I’ll wait a day or two and go at it again. For now tho, my house is screaming to be cleaned! Happy Gardening!

Tomato and Green Chile Salsa
(Watch out for those horny tomatoes)

Yes, we wrestled the traffic, the bugs, and the boiling 50 lb. pots and now have….. drumroll

11 3/4 pints of Salsa
4 lbs. frozen Kentucky Wonder Beans
and 9 quarts of Tomato Ketchup

Yes, it is the Weekend Canning Update…. Nothing as exciting as Miss Sodapop’s weekend, but hey, I do sport a new burn in the shape of an eyeball on my hand – does that count? Oh well, we can’t all act like kids again, although, we did a pretty fun job of it at dinner.

I asked the boys this morning to pick up their toys so that I could vacuum and change the sheets on their beds before starting on freezing veggies. They grumbled a little bit about having to do it, but, after about 10 minutes, J1, in a great cheerful mood comes out and says – “Wait til you see how good lookin’ my room is…. But don’t come in until I tell ya…. promise?”. J2, grinning from ear to ear, comes out – tells me the same thing, then cheerfully walks away rolling the vacuum. J3, being only 6 and Mommy’s Helper, decides he’s really good with scissors and is going to help me get the beans ready to freeze. He happily chats my ear off as we pick ends off and break them in half into a pot. When he’s done, he proudly tells me what a great job he did – I agree – he disappears for a little while. About 30 minutes go by and all three show up in the kitchen. Tell me to close my eyes, take me by the hand to their bedrooms and reveal each room – one by one…..

Lord, I don’t know what caused it ———– but THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Their rooms were absolutely meticulous!! Toys neatly put away, even from U-N-D-E-R the beds, dirty clothes put in the laundry room, they even removed the dirty bed linens and took them to the Laundry. They all had twin fitted sheets half on the beds – but the pillowcases were actually on the fluffed pillows!!! J3 had decorated his wall using some stickers to stick up costume jewelry, put his favorite shirt on a hanger on his dresser knob, then decorated it with beads, and arranged his pillows. He was very proud of his contribution as decorator!

What a wonderful suprise that was! I just gave all three giant hugs and kisses!!! J1 told me he didn’t want me to have to do all of that on top of the canning. Just when I worry about their sibling rivalry or seemingly lack of interest, they go and do something like that!

It got even better as the day went on. Slobo and I cooked dinner together for the first time in years. After finishing the Salsa at 4am last night (sheesh), we decided to give the boys a dinner tonight as if they were at their favorite restuarant, El Jalapeno (or as our 7 yr called it – El Happenin’ El Nino). So, we made Carne’ Asada, Cheese Tortillas and Homemade Chips to go with our Salsa. After it was cooked, Slobo called the kids to dinner, by greeting them at the stairs with “Welcome to El’ Happenin El Ninos”, escorted them to their table, then introducing himself as their waiter for evening, he presented each with their favorite meal. They absolutely loved it and so did we. It was great fun!

As dinner came to a close, and as most dinners, the kids started playing with their food, but this time, we joined in. We made picasso faces with salsa, guacamole, lettuce and other veggies. The kids made flying characters – then as all dinners with small boys – they recognized the melted Monterey Jack as all kinds of bodily fluids, so we had to close the restaurant before we got health code violations or Mommy got sick! It was alot of fun tho. As the two oldest were leaving the table they gave me and Slobo pats on the back and said we got five stars! Awesome. They have all agreed to dine with us again at the next artist hangout, soon. Maybe a Matisse night with Italian food and veggies. Leonardo would be a stretch, but it would be fun to build his inventions in pasta or breads!

I highly recommend a night out at your favorite family restuarants at least once a week. They are a real stress reliever and everyone walks away with an aching belly from too much laughter.

It was better than Mother’s Day Today!

The Brandywines’ – one thought cat facing but the other said, nope, that Brandywine Heirlooms have that scarring – it’s typical with the variety. Being heirlooms, they aren’t as resistant as the Better Boys, but they are really meaty and great for canning. Just blanch and remove the skins, cut away the scarring and they will can up great. I just need to use the pressure canner and a 1/2 tsp salt per pint.

That was really good news, since so far I’ve got about 15 tomatoes, weighing in at between 1/2 to 1 lb. per tomato. Here’s hoping I can do some canning this Saturday. It will be the first time I’ve tried the new pressure canner. Little nervous about it but anxious to get the first try over with without blowing me or the jars up!

As for the Romas, apparently the variety I have is small generally and more pear shaped, but very meaty and will make a good paste.

The Cherry’s I found out I can dehydrate. So, I’ll be hunting down Slobo’s old beef jerky dehydrator to get those going. Cherry tomatoes are amazing, they just produce away and no bugs like to eat them so far.

The Better Boys are stunted due to the drought and possibly some horse manure that is composting about 50 ft. away might be interfering. She said there is a chemical that is passed in the manure from the hay the horses eat. It doesn’t affect the horses, but will leach into the garden beds if not composted fully. The yellowing of leaves, she suspects, since on the lower half, could be early blight from soil washing up onto the lower leaves also. She recommended some liquid calcium also, but we weren’t able to find it locally. I’ll have to scout for it some mroe.

We did go by and pick up some pine straw which will help. Earlier mulching washed away. While there, I went ahead and got sevin 5% to put on the cucumbers (hopefully will control the worm) and japanese beetles that have moved onto my beans now. I hesitate to do this because of all those sweet earthworms, but since the beetles are dong a great deal of damage now, it has to be done if I want any beans.

While I was there, the ladies were telling us about Heritage Days coming October 20th. They offered for the kids to join the 4-H program. The kids were really excited about that! One loves to garden and they have a 4H Kids Master Gardener program. The oldest loves outdoor activities and they will be doing a campover at Eagle Rock. She said they do all kinds of things. Volunteer programs, Art, Gardening, Farming, etc. This sounds like it will be a winner.

They wanted to join Boy Scouts. We ordered a handbook and uniform, then found out the group here isn’t active. The leader’s phone number has changed and they don’t answer emails. So, we gave up after the regional director became frustrated by it. 4H sounds like it will work out better for all of their interests anyway.

Everything I’ve read is right, tho. The County Extension office is a wonderful place full of information and experience. We’re taking soil samples in next week and will start preparing the larger bed for next year. Now – If only I knew someone who did tractor work! Double digging is getting harder in my old age….. cough cough….

While there, I also got a brochure for a class being offered at the University of West Ga. The Sustainable Growers School is giving a class to teach anyone interested in farming to sustain their family. The cost was $350/person. The last one was held in Spring so I will save up and take it in Spring of 2008.

Now, all I need is for those peppers to ripen close enough together so I can use them right away. With the heat this week, maybe that won’t be so hard. The Heat Index for today is supposed to be 115′. This has been a good week to hide out in the basement and get it cleaned up. We are 3/4 of the way getting everything cleaned up! Woohoo…. I love progress!

Last week, blight, bugs and drought related problems began rearing their ugly heads.

Serrano’s have begun turning. Slobo planted 2 tabasco peppers and two serranos. I had planted a green pepper but it died not long after transplant from a blight. Turned completely black and died within a week. The serranos have been teasing Slobo with tons of green serranos. Finally he has two red ones. Now if we only knew what to do with them. I wonder if I rub one on the tomatoes that are growing if the ants would leave them alone? Would the flesh absorb the heat from them?

First vine ripened (3/4 anyway) beefsteak. I am guessing from searches online that those cracks around the top are from the early drought. Thus far, I’ve gotten about 5 beefsteaks. There are probably 24 or more on the vines still. Cucumbers have started producing also. So far, I’ve gotten 6 pints of pickles sliced, one quart of whole smaller pickles and three we just ate before they could be pickled. The cucumber is just beginning to fill with flowers, so I hope they do well. Our middle son loves pickles, so he planted the cucumber.

Here are the beefsteak and big boy plants (left – strung, propped and over 5 1/2′ tall it has taken the tomatoe cage up with it as it’s grown), okra is behind it (still flowering), peppers and beans to the right. Way down towards the smaller right bottom corner is my lavender. It’s really dwarfed here but seems to be hanging in pretty well. The okra was planted by our 9 yr. old. He told me yesterday, okra is his favorite thing to eat. I fried him up over a lb. of breaded okra the other night and he just ate them like popcorn. He should be happy this year, since he has enough to last now.

Here are some of the first picks. The Romas have a weird bulbous shape at the vine end, but are ripening. There are several more ripening, but the yield seems awfully low right now from in the past. So long as I get a pot of sauce from them to can, I’ll be happy!

And finally, sniff, the blights and other problems. The garden slopes about 2″ for every foot, which I’m sure contributed to some problems with the plants on the left end. Here, I have (starting at back edge by the chair) cucumber, parsley, radishes towards front edge (just planted and two weeks later on their third set of leaves), and a big boy tomato plant that seems hit hardest by a blight.

The rest of the garden, tho showing signs of blight and possibly calcium deficiencies, isn’t having the problems that this plant is having. It’s dwarfed from the problems, and although it is bearing fruit, end rot is taking what little it produces.

I am going to be digging up the okra, squash and this plant very soon, composting what I can and burning what I can’t. I was thinking of putting in some more tomatoes, but I may cut those numbers down and add some carrotts for fall. I’ve still got to research what I can get in and successfully grow for canning. Hopefully Slobo won’t be so busy this week so we can go to the local County Ext. office.

I’ve already started staking out the next year’s garden spots. We have an area where I could put in a much larger garden next year, that will be about 20′ x 40′. It is pretty hard right now from the dry weather and lack of use. We tried renting a rear-tine tiller in the spring and the tiller just scraped about a 1/4 of an inch of dirt up. The garden above (about 10 x 20) was double dug by hand, 1st two years before winter with composted manure, vegetable matter, coffee grounds and eggshells added. The last year I added buckets of earthworms from the kids fishing trips and fish pulp, spring I added a Mulchy – Compost product called Nature’s Helper. I highly recommend that product, it’s worked really well to help break up the sun dried clay. The only thing I think I should have added was possibly some more lime when I planted, since the tomatoes appear to have calcium problems. A trip to the extension office should help me figure this out. The new additional garden spot will be alot of work to get going, but being in direct line of the sun from east to west (and praying drought conditions improve) it should be a really good spot to use from here on for canning.

Sorry if this is all too much info – but the garden posts, hopefully, will really be a good aid for future garden endeavors.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the littlest guy (6) planted, being the flower picker that he is, behind the garden in front of the fence, is a patch of golden cosmos and some other wildflower mix. Here are his dried flowers he’s been saving so we can use them in our handmade paper this fall. The lavender I planted is for him too. He doesn’t know what it is yet, but it should give him sweet dreams this fall and winter. The batch to the right is what he saved from spring – azalea, dogwood and other assorted spring flowers.

As for Flash and Stitches – they get to play with the tomato rejects – tossing them around and chasing them. Dogs are so weird!

The Tomatoes are having problems now due to the drought earlier in the season. Wilt, Blossom End Rot, and Cat’s Face are rearing their ugly heads on a few. One bush in particular was hit pretty hard with wilt, but thus far, the tomatoes are hanging in there. LIterally.
The oddest thing tho, I hadn’t dealt with before, are ants making trails through the bottom of some of the Beef Steak tomatoes. This is the first time I’ve tried Beef Steak, so maybe the ants really like those? dunno. I went out early this morning to water and couldn’t believe the little devils were literally eating a trail through one that was just about to ripen.

Up until this point, other than the monthly feedings, I’ve avoided spraying anything except dawn mixed with water, but I dont’ think it’s going to cut it anymore. I dread the thought, but am contemplating using some Sevin dust or try BT first, to combat some creepy crawlies. I’ve been drowning the horny little japanese beetles making their home on my beans and okra, and picking off the worms, but now, it’s getting difficult to find them all. Although, the population is down, some have now moved to other veggies.

The ants, stinkbugs, and now, a peskly little pickle worm is working his way through the cucumbers, squash and I think probably responsible for some tomatoes that were damaged. I released two praying mantis’ about 2 weeks ago. And while the population is down, I can’t find the mantis. Guess they filled up and left home. As did some resident spiders. I just don’t know what the effects will be of using an insecticide, since I’ve not done it before. It’s taken a couple of years to make my earthworms happy – Sevin will probably hurt them. This is all so new, I think it’s time to pester my local county ext. agent – after all – it all rolls downhill. They will probably laugh at me and my gnarly looking beefsteaks. I guess the tomatoes could always be stars in the next veggie – tale movie – Bob and the Big Boys’ Christmas Vacation. I can see them now, pulling up their cages and taking root next to Bob’s mound.

On the bright side, tho, the cherry tomatoes are giving off the most deliciously sun-ripened tomatoes without a single problem. I’ve got about 4 ripened beef steaks so far, about a dozen that are ripening in the kitchen (couldn’t let the bugs have them) and about a dozen Romas thus far, tho these are facing the worst of the drought problems. Even with watering, the early drought and then the week long deluge of water, seems to have taken their toll on the Romas the most. It’s a shame, because those are the ones I wanted the most. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed at least enough will make it into some cans this year.

A bonus for Slobo this morning, tho, the Serrano Pepper plant finally produced a red pepper – albeit short and stubby – but hey – it turned red – I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to. There are probably about 100 peppers on that plant. I don’t know what we will do with them. Anyone have ideas for Serrano’s? An online search doesn’t reveal anything about storage, just use in Salsa, and I’m not sure that salsa has the right PH for canning.

The okra, now as tall as me, 5’4″ is beginning to slow production. It is still flowering, but it seems I’ve got a respit from blanching okra for awhile. I think I’m going to pull out the okra and squash plant soon and get my second round of tomatoes in soon. Maybe I’ll just do more Big Boys’ so there will be some good ones to can up for winter, but we’ll see. If the Roma’s make it off the vine ripened, I’d be awfully tempted to plant several more of those – but that’s probably risky.

Radishes are coming up as well as the pumpkin – just gotta get rid of that worm. Wonder if he would like to go meet my Carpenter Bee’s?

If what I’ve read is correct, less sugar prevents the preservation that would allow for room temp. storage. Does anyone out there have any experience with that? I would really like to use less sugar, but I don’t want to poison the family trying to store a low sugar recipe on the shelf. At least they won’t contain high fructose corn syrup and other fun things.

Just on a fun note, canning sure was easier with the large pot and real canning jars instead of a pasta pot and taco bell sauce jars! I don’t recommend doing that unless you assure they get refrigerated and used up within 3 months.

Today, we went and checked out the vacant lots again and found a great deal more bushes. There were bushes for about 1/2 mile. This is what we were able to pick in about an hour.

This bowl is about 4qts. I’ll be mashing them down in a bit to make some jam, but I wanted to share the pretty picture before I do. What a wonderful find God had hidden around the neighborhood!!!

I’ve finally figured out why the last batch of jam didn’t set up as thick as it should have. It did thicken a little more after about 4 days but not to the consistency I was hoping for. In that batch, it was 4c. berries to 4c. sugar, boiled to 220. This time I’m trying the UGA’s site for liquid pectin, 4c. crushed berries, 7 c. sugar. This should work better, but the higher sugar, I’m not crazy about. The price I guess I’ll have to pay for pantry storage. At least there’s no high fructose corn syrup. As you can tell… I’m really new to this, so I’ll let you know if it works. Does anyone have a recipe for a good mint jelly? The mints are taking off like crazy too.

We just had a deluge of rain tonight, so I’m sure there will be a noticeable difference in the veggie garden in a few days. Hopefully for the better!

Now that I’ve got my canner, I’m eyeballing every growing plant within a few miles. Sick, isn’t it? Don’t answer that!

Today was the first clear day since the last post about the progress of the garden 4 days ago. I thought it would be fun to take comparison pics of the garden as it grew (wish I had that thought when we started it).

This is a pic of the garden on the 8th, and below it is a pic of it yesterday. I knew it had ‘fleshed’ out more but I was surprised to see it grew about 4-6″ depending on the plants. It would be fun to setup a camera again for the fall planting to see if I can get a small video of it growing in time lapse. Think J1 and I should try that.

In the meantime, I babysat and cleaned (just a little) for Mom and Pooh today. She gave me the money to get a pressure canner and some jars. WooHoo. We are going to check out the Farmer’s Market weekend after next and hopefully I can get a jump start on building up the pantry downstairs.

At least the pics give me incentive to start double digging the next section of the garden. I’m hoping in a couple of years to have 1/2 of the backyard (equal to about 1/3 acre) planted for our family and to supplement my other families. Mom was telling me how Great Grandma Ward used to keep her pantry in a cool cellar and how she dusted it every day. She said she could remember seeing wall-to-wall shelving brimming with everything you could think of, especially her favorite, pickled baby corn. That was the 40′s before computers. She said Lula Belle even had made her own cute sticky labels stuck to the jars. Wonder if she had a printing press???

If you want to find your local farmer’s market, I found a neat site linked from our farmers market website, called LocalHarvest.org .

Technorati Tags: garden, growing, canning

This is the pond we added to the kids Fort Hoochenu. It’s made from a mish mash but it works. And it now has a resident toad.

And some boulders at the porch edge for footrests. I love Rocks!