A Few More

things to be thankful for from this year's garden

Canning Party and Notes

~ This year we canned about 15 (frozen) gallon bags of tomatoes.
~ We got everything boiled down to a really good consistency this year- this took about 7 hours for this many tomatoes (I think there was about 20 quarts in the pot before we boiled it down).
~ START EARLIER!  We ended up canning until after 1:00 in the morning because we got to a point where we couldn't really stop.  I think starting around 9:00 am would be great.
~ PUT THE LID ON THE CANNER (did I mention it got late? a good portion of our time was spent watching a pot waiting for it to boil and saying why isn't this water boiling!)
~ In the end this was okay because the sauce had more time to simmer and I love the thickness of it.
~ Food mill, love.
~ For next year- Freeze, thaw ahead of time (NOT BY BOILING IN WATER, makes them too soggy and we lose some tomatoes that way) and use the mill.
~ 12 jars total (4 large Weck, 8 medium)
~ Just had spaghetti tonight, SOOOOO good.

Today's Tomatoes

Garden

This has not been our best gardening year.  Fatty fatty groundhog managed to eat all of our edemame, all of our broccoli, most of the spinach, most of the cabbage and most of the kale (though this one is growing back).  After we trapped him the 4th time and released him across the freeway, he has not returned.  But still, it's a tad depressing to see all of the empty spots in the garden.



Also, a lot of our tomato plants have black spots on them (I need to look up what this is), and the potatoes were completely demolished by the potato beetle while we were up north.



So I'm trying to make the best of what we do have.  We have blanched and frozen a lot of beans (trying to make up for the loss of a year's worth of edemame in our freezer).  And we have been enjoying the surplus of carrots with dinner as well as the fresh tomatoes, cucs and a few peas.



Other garden goodness we have been loving

~ Smoothies with our aronia berries, frozen strawberries and frozen black raspberries
~ One of our favorite garden salads
~ Zucchini boats!  (recipe found by Katie)
~ Kale, beet, apple juice from the juicer
~ Sauteed beans
~ Roasted beets

Where We Are

Sometimes I get behind on coming here and then it becomes very hard to return.  There are so many posts to catch up on (Grace's play!  Field trips!  The retreat Grace and I just went on!  The garden!) and it all just seems to overwhelming.  In times like that it's easier if I just forget about all of that for now and start where we are.  So where we are...

~ The flowers are starting to bloom here.  This might be my favorite time of year on our farm.  After what seems like almost two weeks of blooming the magnolia tree is just starting to drop it's velvety petals.  Nora has repeatedly brought me excitedly to some new patch of color to show me her discovery.

~ A week ago, just before we were going to be heading out to the laundry mat with a load of towels and rugs (can't seem to get them to not feel like sandpaper after being on the line) I decided to just give our dryer another test.  Magically it started working again.  I was both ecstatic and depressed.  Ecstatic because I didn't even realize how much I missed it.  I mean I hate to say it because I really want to be someone who always hangs their laundry on the line but once it was working again I really just wanted to snuggle up with it, maybe even write it a love letter or two.  But I was also depressed because I worried I'd never go back to my laundry line, it had just finally became a part of my everyday routine.  But surprisingly after a week of using my dryer again I started really missing the laundry line.  So now I'm back to it.  Except for the towels.  Not sure I can ever get use to that one.

~ This weekend Nora was helping me with the laundry and as she peeked through some hanging shirts it suddenly reminded me of this day with Grace five years ago.  Awwww... so cute.

~  We've gotten the barn almost all cleaned up for the season and are starting to eat dinner out there whenever the weather permits.

~  Dinner in the barn is usually followed up with some sort of barn "show".

~  We did some clay work last week for school.  Forgot how much we all love that.

~ The garden... we planted some kale and lettuce three weeks ago and it is finally starting to sprout.  But today was the first day we've really had a chance to spend a big chunk of time working in there.  Can't wait to get back out there tomorrow.

Sun and Fevers and Laundry

It has been in the 50's and 60's here for the past several days.  The kids have been running outside directly after breakfast to play in the mud and explore the temporary "stream" that appears here every spring.  Yesterday we had school outside.  For the second day in a row I woke up and hung the laundry on the line in the early morning sun.

Aside from our happy spring fever, we had a little scare with Jackson last night having to do with a fever of a different sort.  He had been complaining of a headache and then last night he spiked a temperature of 103.2.  Then he said his neck hurt and of course all we could think of was meningitis.  So he and I spent 3 and 1/2 hours in the ER and several tests later we found out thankfully that all is well.  Today his fever is gone but he is in a lot of pain from the tests and there is a small part of me that wishes I just would have waited until morning to make a decision.  Hindsight I guess.  But in any case he is okay and of course we are so grateful for that.

Our dryer has been broken for a month or so and Ryan and I thinking very seriously about not ever fixing it.  While it does add one more thing to my to do list, I love the idea of being freed of one more appliance and moving just a tiny step closer to our 10 year plan (someday I'll write about that here).  Plus about 50% of the time I really like hanging the laundry up.  I think if I work at it I could increase that percentage.

Everyday when I walk out to let the chickens out I gently tap my boot on one of the garden beds to see how much it has thawed.  I think a few more days of this weather and I'll be planting peas and lettuce.

Dinner

Our edamame, our apple sauce, our squash and kale, Ryan's venison. Yes!

Tomato Sauce

Canning notes:
22 lbs of tomatoes.  I didn't change much from the recipe I made last year but I did simmer the sauce for 4 hours (instead of 45 minutes).  It made less sauce but it was much thicker this time which is what I was going for.

Home

We returned from our annual 4th of July up north vacation today and were welcomed home by a delicious little surprise- black raspberries are here...

Weekend Highlights

~ Enjoyed radishes, lettuce and kale from the garden everyday
~ Spending the majority of the weekend in the garden with the whole family
~ Going to our friend's Summer Solstice party (where the kids ran threw sprinklers, jumped on the trampoline and ate way too many treats)
~ Started working on Jackson's quilt (it was the first time I've used my sewing machine since Christmas, I missed it)
~ Captured the tiniest frogs (toads??) from our driveway, they were everywhere
~ Got a glimpse of another beautiful sunset

Yes

Breakfast in the garden...


Garden in my dinner.

Evening in the Garden

Autumn Garden Love

Garden Ramblings

I have been doing my best to keep up with what is coming out of our garden... but I am starting to fall behind.  There is just so much out there (despite the weeds).  This afternoon I made a giant batch of soup with our tomatoes- some for dinner tonight and some for the freezer.   Then I froze two more gallon freezer bags full of tomatoes for another day when I have more time. I don't know how many melons I cut up today and fed to my children- maybe 10.  I had to feed a few over ripe ones to the chickens too.  And what am I going to do with all of those cucumbers?  I have caned 21 jars of pickles this year, I think we are all stocked up in that department.  I did find a really, really good salad to make with them today.  Perhaps I can eat that everyday for the next month. Nora has started this new thing where when she is done with her food she simply throws the whole plate or bowl off the table.  Today that equated to three broken dishes and a good chunk of my time spent picking fresh garden produce off the floor (I am apparently a slow learner).

Thankfully tonight at dinner- with all of this homemade, homegrown goodness in front of me- I was reminded of the point of all this cooking/canning madness (or at least one of them anyway) and was inspired to keep at it again tomorrow.  

The Beginnings of our Garden Dinner

Time to Get Cookin'

Garden Dinner

My new favorite meal that I made up tonight- quinoa with homemade pesto and just picked tomatoes sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.

I think Nora might (understandably) be a bit confused about what the weather in this here part of the world should be like in May.  Whenever she wants to go outside she still grabs for her boots and tries (often successfully) to put them on.  Then she stands at the door and says "go".



And so we do go (after I help switch her out of boots and into sandals)- right out to the garden.  This week we have planted edamame, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and broccoli.  I can't believe I'm saying this with the late start we got this year but I'm actually feeling pretty good about our garden.

Spring Fever