Growing Garden!!

Northern Indiana has had a COLD spring.
We've had a few good days sprinkled here and there so
a couple weeks ago I was able to plant
peas, carrots, lettuce, and cabbage.

The strawberries I planted last year grew like mad!!

Hopefully in a month it will grow tons of strawberries and
I can restock my freezer...
I'm almost out!!

I planted 2 rows of peas and they came up nicely.
Be nice and stop making fun
of my crooked row!!

I had 4 very nice cabbage plants until 2 days ago when
the 4-H goats found them and ate 2 1/2 of them...
GRRRRRR......
no seriously I mean,
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

And my carrots. I planted 2 1/2 rows of it. It's so hard
to see when it's little but I think most of it came up.
Last year I thought carrots were REALLY hard to take
care of so I'm not sure what I was thinking when
I planted so much...
I guess I was thinking it tasted really good out
the the freezer last winter!


So that's it on the garden for now.
I bought 10# of potatoes 2 weeks ago and
they're still sitting in the canning room. I'm REALLY hoping
to get them planted this week.
Then I'll probably wait another week or so to get the rest planted!

Oh I just remembered I forgot about the lettuce I planted.
It's up too, but I forget to get a picture...

Anyone else have a garden going yet?!?!?!?

Canning Tomato Sauce - The EASY way!!!

I read how Heavenly Homemakers did her tomato sauce
and I adopted it!!! Be sure to read her post here.

This works so great. I've done it about 6 times so far
and have about 32 Quarts of tomato sauce and 35 pints.

I'm over 1/2 done but, I'd like about 15 more quarts
and maybe 20 more pints. Then I'd also like
some salsa and tomato soup.
Come on tomatoes keep turning red!!!

Start with tons of tomatoes! Simply wash them and take off the tops.
Some I take off the bottoms and some I take out bad spots. Take out
the core if it's big. My tomatoes are Roma so most of the cores are tiny.

Cut them in half or fourths.
Leave the peel on and leave in the seeds.
(how easy is that!)

Next take your tomatoes and put them in your blender.
Smash them down a little with a big spoon.
Start it up and it should look like a big smoothie!

You can even add in some zucchini. Just cut it up and
blend it with the tomatoes. I peeled mine so that
there weren't green pieces in the sauce.
I added 1 zucchini per huge bowl of tomatoes.

Heat it on high until it starts to really cook. At that point I turn
it down to a strong med. It will begin to froth up so if your
pan is too full it will run over. I sometimes prevent this by
dipping out some of the froth before it goes overboard!

When the froth is gone you have tomato juice. I let it cook
about an hour longer and I have tomato sauce.
Total cook time is around 2 hours give or take!

After that, dip it out and put it into your jars.
Make sure and sanitize your jars, lids, and rings.

I water bath my sauce. Be sure to follow your water bath
or canning instructions. I did mine for around 40 minutes.

Pull them out and you're done!!!
Add them to your stash after 24 hours.

I use tomato sauce for all my
pasta's, pizza, and chili.
I just add different spices when I pull it out!

Anyone else use this simple method for tomato sauce?

Zucchini in excess!!! Freeze it!!

If you have a garden chances are you have excess zucchini.

Did you know you could just slice it up, blanch it and freeze it??
Then in the dead of winter when the snows a fallin' pull it
out and enjoy some garden zucchini!
Fried in a tiny bit of olive oil... Yum!!!

Check this link for more details or just do a
simple search for freezing zucchini.
I read that unblanched zucchini will last 4-6 months
while blanched will last 10-12.

Of course don't forget to shred some for the
WONDERFUL Zucchini bread.

Oh and don't forget to leave the peel on!!
It's got the good stuff!

What's you favorite way of eating zucchini??

Wordless Wednesday!!! Garden Salad!

I LOVE Summertime Produce!!

Everything on this plate came directly from our garden!!
Including....
Lettuce, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and peas.
I guess the sprouts were actually grown in the house!

We are soooo blessed to
have an abundant garden!!!

Does anyone have an idea of what to do with excessive
cucumbers that does not involve pickling them???
I'd love to preserve them for the winter!!

Garden Update!!

The rain has stopped but thankfully it keeps growing!!

Here through June we have been getting some serious rain...
But in July someone shut off the water!!

I'm hopeful the forecast is right and we get some today!!

Part of my corn didn't come up the first time so I replanted it.
That's why some of it is much shorter!
The taller stalks have big corn cobs on them!
My son, Malachi, is so excited

I've been able to eat a few cherry tomatoes and the
Roma's are looking good and loaded!!

I Pray the tomato worms don't visit!!

The potatoes plants are dying and getting
ready for us to enjoy some yummy potatoes!

Oh my, what can I say about the zucchini...
It's large, In charge, and Taking over!!!

Poor beans getting bullied by the zucchini!!

Here's a tally so far.... I've gotten several cherry tomatoes, about 15 cucumbers, around 8 zucchini, tons of lettuce, 4 bowls of green beans, 2 bunches of broccoli (more ready), a couple bags of peas, and 9 big bags of carrots.

I've gotten a whole lot more by July than I did last year!! The work of is really paying off and my freezer is going to be really full of yummy veggies!!

Leave a link, I'd love to see your garden!!
What have you been harvesting???

My Week (Day) in a nutshell!

Here's my week in a nutshell!
(Actually all this happened today!!!)

Watched a few (one not pictured) of my nieces (2 on the right)!
Actually they just played with my kids, very
little watching involved!!
My daughter LOVES to have girls over since she's
stuck with 3 brothers!!

Picked lots of produce! I'm still loving the lettuce and
I enjoyed my first cucumber last week. It lasted 1 meal!

Pictured is 3 big bags of lettuce (had 4 but gave one to my MIL),
4 cucumbers, and a few straggling peas!

Sprouting my next batch of alfalfa sprouts!
More on how to do this coming soon!
These are SOOO Nutritious and Delicious!
Oh and EASY too!!

Figured out that the bees were huddled outside the hive because
we needed to add super to our beehive!
YAY! We might actually get some honey from this hive...
Our other hive is nearly dead...
But Hey 1 for 2 the first year... we'll take it!

Made MORE Granola.
Last Thursday I discovered a granola
recipe that Everyone not only likes but LOVES!!
I've made 4 batches in 6 days!!
I don't have time now, but I'll share the recipe next week!


We've also been spending tons of time in the pool. The
lowest high for the coming 7 days is 85*
Sorry no picture... I guess I haven't taken any pool pics
this year yet... What is wrong with me!?!?!?

And we're packing up the camper! We'll be going to my mom's
tomorrow for a sort of "Staycation"!
My mom has a hot tub and tons of room to run and play
and my sister who lives next door has
a pool with a ginormous deck.

What more could we want on vacation!!!

Have a good week everyone!
See you next week!

Finally a Garden Update!!

Wondering where I've been?!?!?!?

Half the time I've been in the garden!
The other half!
Havin' FUN in the POOL with Hubby and the Kids!!
(I suppose I should add another half in the kitchen doing my baking...
wait is that possible?! can someone please clone me??)

And I'M LOVIN' EVERY MOMENT!!

Disclaimer.... Please look past the weeds. I decided NOT
to keep a weed free garden cuz.. well.. I need to sleep
and I like my family!!!
A garden this size (for me) is IMPOSSIBLE to keep
totally clean (unless that's all I do... EVER!!!)

BUT I'll take the weeds cuz I want LOTS of produce!!!!

Clear to the left where you see trenches, I just planted
another 2 1/4 rows of potatoes (today)!
This time I tried the Kennebec variety!
I planted another 10 pounds

Next to that is Sugar beets-- A post for another day!!
Then I have almost 3 rows of corn.
For some reason part of the corn came up and the rest didn't.
I replanted it and you can see it but it's still small.
Inbetween the corn rows I have pumpkins, watermelon,
and muskmelon!

The plants with the white sticks are tomatoes.
We drilled holes in pvc pipe to tie the tomatoes to. It's working
really well so far. I think I have 16 Roma plants
Next to those I have brocolli, peppers, cherry tomatoes, beans, and zucchini
Then I have a whole row of bush beans
By the hoses I have a row of carrots.

My cabbage is on the left and then you see
my Yukon Gold potatoes. 3 1/2 rows of them!!!
We love potatoes!
We just had a major spout of potato bugs last weekend
and it killed me but I used Seven.
Anyone have a better idea??
BTW - this was not a small outbreak that you can pick
by hand, I'm talking a MAJOR plants covered with little
tiny bugs EVERYWHERE..... It all happened in about 7 hours.
Seriously I left the house in the morning and saw NO bugs and when
I came home 7 hours later they were everywhere and 1 plant
already had Major damage.....

Strawberries I just planted 2 months ago.
They are spreading really nicely!

One of my prize items -- Cucumbers..
Last I counted they had 44 flowers on them.
Um yea from 4 plants!
They must like alot of RAIN...
We've been getting TONS of rain here in the Midwest.

Here is our biggest one. I can almost taste him...
But I'll have to wait a few more days!!

On the left is our leaf lettuce!
LOVE IT!
It's going crazy. So far I've gotten 6 huge bowls of lettuce
from them. If you didn't plant leaf lettuce look into it next year!
My $1.xx seeds have produced a TON of yummy eating!
You just break off the outer leaves and it just keeps coming!

You already saw my carrots and beans from the other side.

On the right is my 2 zucchini plants. They've gotten really big
and I should get my first one next week!!
This year I'm NOT peeling them. Last year I peeled and then
shredded them for bread but I've since learned that like much produce
the nutrients are in the peeling. SO DON'T peel!!

I had to throw in this picture of my sugar pumpkins.
I used to work in a "sweet shoppe" and in the fall they
always had iced pumpkin cookies. I'm hoping I can come close
to duplicating them this fall. They were AWESOME!!

So How's your garden doing???
If you want leave your link in the comments and I'll come visit!

Have a great week!

Garden Update.... It's Growing!!!!

These pictures are horrible quality (someday I'll get a better camera),
But for now I still wanted to show you all because I'm very
excited!! Here are my Peas....
(Can you see them?? They're the two little green things!!!)

And here is my leaf lettuce!!!

I can't believe they are peaking through
only 7 days after I planted them!!

No potatoes yet, but I think they take a little longer
since you plant them further in the ground.

I planted carrots today!!

Man I can't wait to freeze, can, and eat this stuff!!

Anyone else have a garden update??
Leave your link if you do!
I'd love to visit your garden too!

The Start of Gardening 2010!!!

Last weekend my wonderful hubby rented a tractor and tiller
and went out in the 20* weather and tilled me a huge garden!
I think he had fun driving it, we'd love to own one of these!

Don't be fooled though, I was out picking up rocks, and then
more, and then more, and more.... You get the idea!
We have quite a pile of rocks going on and I'm
sure there are tons left! My kids (well some of them) helped too.

I think the garden ended up being around 70 x 40
Yea, I'm kinda crazy like that!!

I'm ready this coming weekend to plant
Potatoes, Snap peas, Strawberries, and Leaf lettuce!

Anything else I should be planting early????
Anyone else ready to plant??

We're Home!!

Hi Everyone!
We pulled in around 4pm today!
We had a Wonderful safe trip but we're glad to be home.
~
Well kinda glad... I'm not glad to be
DROWNING IN LAUNDRY!!
Imagine 6 people and laundry for a week including bedding and towels!
Looks kinda like this....!!!!!
It's hard to tell but that pile is about 2 feet deep!!

Then on top of that my Wonderful Children
decided first thing to check the garden.
Here's what they found....

65 Tomatoes to be exact.
(that brings our season total to about 120.
With plenty more on the way!!)
Guess I'll be chopping tomatoes
all weekend in between loads of laundry
~
But at least VACATION WAS A BLAST!!!
Have a great evening!

Things I Love Thursday - Garden

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before but
I LOVE MY GARDEN!!!
Here's an update...

This was taken over a week ago.
I've meant to do a garden update days ago and well you know how it is...
It just didn't get done!!!

The peppers were weighing the poor plant down
to the ground so I had to stake it up.
Worked pretty good!

I whined for weeks saying I think I just have green tomatoes and that would never turn but one day we found this and since I've harvested about 5 red tomatoes. (yes that was a long sentence!) Patience is something I'm not good with a lot of the time!!!

My tomato row looked like this before we went camping for the weekend. While we were gone we apparently had a major rain down pour or wind and it left my tomato row looking like this...

I can't seem to fix them either.
So There goes a bunch of tomatoes hidden under being smashed with no sunlight. We'll see how they do.

And oh I just adore the little tiny watermelons growing so quickly. I can seriously see the difference from one day to the next!
My 10 yr old shares my excitement and
goes out early every morning to give me a report!!!
***
So how's your garden doing???
Leave your link in the comments I'd love to come check it out!
For more "Things I Love Thursday" visit here