It really is the little things

 Yes, yes.  I know.  I'm late AGAIN!  Between gardening, Easter, and my birthday it's been some crazy times.  Now that my plant sale is somewhat over, all of my own plants are wanting to get put into their own garden.  I've been scurrying around finding spots for, not only my own plants, but ones left over from the plants sale.  So when I say "somewhat over", that means I still have folks coming to shop from what I have left.  

One such person returned recently to get more plants, and her daughter had crochet me a chicken!  Cutest thing, and that she would want to do that for someone she barely know is so special.  

As if planting wasn't adventurous enough, I've begun to harvest!  Yay!  Harvest 2025 is underway!  Todays harvest consisted of Beet greens, garlic scapes, asparagus, Cilantro, and strawberries!  Beet greens are a healthy alternative to lettuce in a salad.  Down the line I'll use the actual beet root.  Garlic scapes are the single flower that begins to emerge from the center of the garlic plant.  These can be harvested and used to replace fresh garlic.

I've  managed to get everything I HAVE to get in the garden.  Now my focus is on finding spots to throw an extra tomato plant here and there, as well as volunteer marigolds and Zinnias.  Soon I will post a picture of the garden for 2025.  I have to say I'm quite thrilled with it.  Now ask me in July when the weeds are in charge because it's too hot to go outside! 

We finally have the mower working.  I'd like to say I did it by myself, but I can't.  My dear friend helped me replace the deck belt, and sweet hubby mowed the grass today.  What a blessing.  It's so nice not having grass up to ones knees.   

Another friend gifted me a few gallons of milk.  I have rennet and am going to embark on my first attempt to make mozzarella cheese probably tomorrow.  I'm excited and terrified.  We'll see.  If I can do it, I'll be sure to write about it.  If I can do it, we'll have pizza tomorrow night!  

Fast forward to tomorrow and I DID IT!  I made mozzarella cheese for the first time in my life.  It wasn't too hard.  I'll do a post down the line on how to. We are having pizza tonight!

So now I'm off again to get back to work in the garden.  This time of year is super busy!  Isn't that funny.  In the winter when I have time to write, there isn't much to do, and in the summer when I have all kinds of things to write about; I have no time!  

What cool things are going on in your garden, kitchen, homestead, life ?  

Canning Mode!

 You know the saying "Why put off until tomorrow what can be put off until the next day"?  We'll that's me.  I'm notorious for putting things on the back burner.  Problem is there are only so many back burners.  So today is the day to take some of those things off the back burner, and address them.  So we will now enter 

CANNING MODE!

I have Blackberries that need to become juice or jam.  Tomato sauce to can.  Ham bone broth and Chicken bone broth that need to be canned, and jalapeno peppers that need to be made into cowboy candy.  These are from last season, but I've had them frozen, waiting to have them dealt with.  Today's the day.  Getting all of these things out of my freezer leaves only some whole chickens, a brisket, a turkey, ham, and pork roast.  Fresh strawberries will be coming in soon.  Having room in the freezer to simply wash and freeze these strawberries is awesome!

In addition to all that; I've begun harvesting my herbs, asparagus, and spinach.  The herbs are taking their turn in the dehydrator and the asparagus and spinach are in the fridge.  It's a good feeling to shop from the back yard.  

Don't be intimidated by canning, and don't think you need all the latest gizmos.  Canning can be as simple as water bath canning.  Water bath canning is simply having your jars covered with water about an inch over the tops in a large stock pot.  Bring the water to a boil and start your timer.  You don't need a pressure canner for water bath canning.  You simply need a deep stock pot.  Water bath canning will be how the blackberries, jalapenos, and tomato sauce are processed today.  Pressure canning is what I'll do for the broths.  Jars are a necessity, either way.  However, and at the risk of endorsing a brand, Walmart has a Mainstays brand of jars that are very reasonable, and actually cheaper than the jars found at Goodwill.  I always recommend anyone wanting to start canning to simply start with a deep stock pot and begin canning jams, jellies, fruits, and pickles.  Even tomatoes can be water bath canned.  There is such a wide array of food items that can be water bath canned; one can get used to canning before dipping their toe into pressure canning.  

Aside from space in the freezer; canning a good portion of items normally stored in the freezer, allows them to be shelf stable and therefore immune to a power outage ruining my frozen items.  I'm entertaining the thought of taking the plunge and canning the meat I currently have frozen.  All I can say is let me get through this stuff first😁 .  

Okay.  Fast forward to afternoon and I managed to get 7 quarts of chicken broth,7 quarts of ham broth, and 5 pints of blackberry juice concentrate canned.  The blackberry concentrate will be used this summer in Blackberry tea.  It's a simple matter of brewing ice tea and adding the blackberry juice to the tea.  Very good, and can be done with juice concentrate from the store.  I recommend not using juice concentrate that is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.  I use cane sugar to sweeten ours.  Not wanting to toss the left over pulp from all of those blackberries; I made a fresh fruit crisp for tonight's dinner.  I also made one loaf of banana bread from some frozen bananas.  I still have enough blackberry pulp for a second crisp, but that is another nights dessert or I may use it to make cereal bars, which are a fan favorite.  Unfortunately the cowboy candy and tomato sauce will need to be done tomorrow.  It has to be because it's thawed now!

                                           

My Apologies!

 I realized this morning that its been over 2 weeks since I posted anything!  You guys are going to think I bailed again, but no I was just franticly getting ready for my and my friends annual plant sale.  This has been going on for 3 years now.  One day I went on my neighborhood app and said I was starting seeds for my own garden.  Would anyone want me to start extra?  They could come shop for what they wanted, but a lot cheaper than buying at a store.  This gave them the ability to have plants much less expensively, and it covered our gardening cost for the season.  I received a positive response, so we started the plant sale.  We've done it every year since.  This is something we have really enjoyed doing.  

1)  Fosters community that's in person and not just on a social media app.  We've met lots of wonderful people as a result of this.  These are people I may never have met otherwise.  We even had a few that came and wanted to see the greenhouse, and my garden set up in order to get ideas for their garden.  We can talk a long time about gardening!

2)  We get to share our information and answer any questions someone may have about particular plants, how to's, tips and tricks, what works and what doesn't.  I know in an era of search engines; much can be found online(allegedly), but there's something about just having a discussion in person that helps grasp a concept.  In addition, I can tell you search engines don't know everything.  Each customer left with the understanding that if they had further questions they could just message me or call.  

3)  We're helping people get started on providing food for themselves.  It may only be a little, but it's something.  Those few tomato plants they bought this year, may turn into tomato plants and peppers next year.  Someone could be starting an herb garden that expands into a medicinal garden.  I started my journey with two, count them two, tomato plants and now......

4) Savings all round.  This covers our gardening for the season; seeds, soil, and any other garden paraphernalia.  Plus our customers get at least 50% off what they would have paid for something comparable at the store. 

Anyone that can start seeds can start to do this for their community.  First gauge interest, and if there is interest; go for it!  It's work baby sitting plants until spring, but very worth it in our opinion.  I started this before I had a greenhouse.  We had plants all over, but even then it was worth it.