July 25, 2014

Jim brought in another big haul last night and I've been spending most of the day getting it all put up.  We had a 5 gallon bucket of cukes (plus a little bucket more) from too big to finger sized, that I love to make dill pickles from.  I used the smallest for dills, 3 qts; next size for bread and butter's, 3 qts.; next size, chunked for Caddie Pickles, named for a friend of Aunt Inez', 3qts., and I started a batch of cinnamon pickles with the very biggiest ones.  I saved a dozen or more just for eating.  I also put up 4 qts. of beet pickles and had enough for lunch.  My kitchen isn't in nearly as big of a mess as it could be.  I tried to clean up a bit and rest after every batch.  I made lunch in the middle of all this pickling, too.  We had a "homegrown lunch".  We had egg salad with avocado served with tomato on a lettuce leaf, beets, zucchini patties, and cucumber salad. There were three of us.

I have a gallon of beans to snip that I would like to do yet tonight, but I am saving the rest of the squash for tomorrow.
I made 4 qts. of applesauce a couple days ago.  I was making applesauce the way I learned how from my mother.  Wash and quarter the apples taking out any bad spots, worm holes or bug bites, cook them and run them through a sieve.  I poured the sauce back in my dutch oven to sweeten it, when it hit me--I can't taste how sweet it is!!  I could tell the salt I put in made a difference in the tartness, and luckily Lynette was home so I could use her as my tester.
So, for future reference.  I had my dutch oven nearly full of apple sauce, and I put in five 1/4 cup scoops of sugar that were just a bit more than level and a teaspoon of salt.  I should measure more definitely, but sadly, so much depends on the kind of apples that are used.  Sigh.  I guess I will just have to make it when someone else is around to taste it for me.

Our garden is looking pretty good for this time of the year.  You will notice the weedlessness.  Of course, we never take pictures when the weeds are hiding the plants like they have for most of the years we've had a garden.

July 21, 2014

Our garden is beautiful this year.  Everything is green and full.  Jim has been able to keep the weeds under control.  We had rain and cooler weather at the right time in the spring, with no wild storms so nothing was broken.  The only mistake that was made was getting too much 2, 4-D on some of the corn and it isn't quite right.

We got our first beans today.  There are a couple of cups waiting to be eaten in the next couple of days.  I processed a 5-gallon bucket of squash into chunks for soup, slices for scramble, and grated for bread or fried zucchini patties.  I also made 3 qts. of dills today.  I'm going to put as much squash away as I can and the chickens will get what I can't use or give away.  It is so nice to see everything doing so well.  I haven't been able to get a decent crop of cukes for several years.

We've been eating onions right along also.

July 12, 2014

I wasn't going to put this picture on the blog.  I have lots of photos of the flower garden.  But it looked so nice ready for graduation.

We didn't plant much before the graduation except for these deck rail boxes.

Then it was time to get the garden planted. 

These roses are doing really well this year.  They are gorgeous in early June when they are growing and blooming like crazy. 

I planted spinach right outside the front door.  Our first harvest. 

I accidentally cut this clematis way down this spring.  I cut off some green stems, but that didn't seem to hinder it any.  There is more purple in the blossoms this year that usual.  I wonder why.

My lovely oldest daughter gave me these lilies, with the boy's hand-prints on the pot.  After they stopped blooming I planted them in the flower garden to enjoy them next year.

Our garden is beautiful this year. We've had little rains often, and all the damaging winds and hail that have pummeled surrounding areas have missed us.  We shorted the garden by about 40 feet so we have less area to plant, but also less area to weed, so Jim is doing a good job with it.

We are now eating summer squash and I expect we soon will be overrun.  We heard that planting radishes under the squash will keep the squash bugs away, but since we heard that just this week and planted the radishes accordingly, we haven't much hope that they will come up and do their job under the shade of the squash bushes.  

Cucumbers are thriving as well.  My first dill pickles that I have made with my very own hands in two years.

I have discovered that I like certain fruits on my cooked cereal in the morning.  They provide some interest since I can taste nothing sweet.  I've been buying strawberries whenever I can get them under $2 a pint and freezing them.  Blueberries and peaches are also going in the freezer when I can get them cheap-er. I've discovered that rhubarb sauce also works well on my cereal, but I have to depend on other people for that one since rhubarb with not grow on our property. 

I have tried and tried and tried again.  I think I am done trying.