Bittersweet bounty

This week was the last week for our vegetable csa pick up. If you remember last year, I am always very sad when it ends. My csa takes away the planning of veggies in my house. For a blissful five months, I barely have to buy veggies at all. Or think about what veggies I should buy. All I have to do is pick them up! Or pick them from the garden. :-)

Anyway, for the last few weeks (I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier! File under 'definitely will do next year!'), I have been buying the seconds from the farmer. And canning them! It has been so much work- overwhelming at times, depressing at others- but oh, so worth it!! And what a blessing.

My goal is to can 50 quarts of tomatoes every year. And every year I fall dissmally short. Last year, I may have gotten to 25 or thirty. The year before, I don't think I even broke twenty.

I haven't counted yet this year, but it is a lot. A.lot.

But Saturday I picked up the last of the season's seconds for a very reasonable price, and now I am throws of the last canning of the season. It is a blessing. And sad, too, knowing there won't be fresh tomatoes again until next july.

So here are some pictures of my kitchen and my tomatoes. And now, back to my regularly scheduled programming: canning.

:-)

Fall garden

garden

I am so sorry I have not updated my garden this summer.

Today we worked on cleaning it up a bit. Chris even burned the leftovers right there in the garden. Last week I finished pulling out the tomato plants and chris mowed the grass.

Some things that are left in the garden still: our kale forest, other kale forest, swiss chard, beets, spinach, horsradish, and a whole host of peppers. Chris has plans to cover them and keep getting peppers until december... see previous post about how we have peter piper beat. :-)

Enjoy the pics!

Dinner on the fire!

Tonight's dinner is cooking on the fire! I love that it doesn't heat my house up and I get to be outside.  What's more, usually when we cook on the fire, Chris does it, and all I have to do is prep. :-)

What's for dinner tonight? Chicken legs, baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes and a salad.

Other exciting news: we got some plants for our garden today!

Garden Tour 4.24.13

Here's the latest video from our garden.  Taken Wed, April 24th

Sorry I took it sideways. :-P

Garden 2013 Update 3

I actually managed to make a video today of our garden.

Enjoy!

Garden 2013 Update 2

Well, it was longer than I wanted until I got to this post (of course).  I don't have any pictures (sadly) -- not that there's much to look at right now.  :-)

Maybe tomorrow I will have Ben, Sam and Ellie take you on a tour of the garden.  That is always fun and amusing.

But here's the quick update.

• Despite bad technique planting garlic last fall, almost all of it has come up and is about 3" tall. 
• The strawberries are starting to get new growth on them. 
•  Chris bought a grapevine, which I planted today
• Chris got three blueberry bushes that I planted this past weekend out front
• Ben got a kiwi plant that we haven't planted yet. (who knew you could plant kiwi around here?!)
• I planted peas yesterday (both snap and regular) 
• Chris planted radishes which are coming up (little baby sprouts!)
• We planted a bag of 75 snowball onions, some of which are sprouting a bit
• Chris expanded the garden to the size it will be this year, dug a little trench around it, put the fence around it, and put some landscaping fabric over half of it. 

That's all I can think of right now.  Hopefully tomorrow you can see it with me.  It looks rather barren right now, but the promise of spring and summer is there in the little green sprouts peeking out here and there!  

Good night!

Garden Preview 2013

Hi!  I have so much to share with you!  Especially about our garden this year.  But I only have about five minutes.  So I will give you the much shortened version, with more details to (hopefully!) come.

We are expanding our garden this year! Last year was a bit haphazard because Baby John was such a newborn.  This year, both Chris and I want to really focus on it.  We want to run it like a mini farm.  We recently watched a Ted Talk by this guy who plants gardens on people's lawns in South LA. He said, "Growing your own food is like growing your own money."  We agree. And who wouldn't benefit from a few extra dollars?  Especially edible ones.  :-)

So right now, Chris and the boys are outside working on the garden... I just came in (I'm supposed to be starting dinner).  Chris got fence, dug a trench, put in posts, and put up the fence to make our garden 50% bigger this year.  I cut circles of fence to make our potato containers (which will be grown outside the garden).

In addition to the backyard garden, we want to beautify our front garden.  After talking it over with my aunt, who is a master gardener, we decided on a butterfly bush, some blueberry bushes, and some other grasses, shrubs and perennials to fill out the space.  It has been ugly for too long.  :-) (And Chris is super excited about the blueberries!)  He also picked up a grape vine.  And Benjamin bought a kiwi plant.  Who knew you could grow those in PA!?  We are looking forward to getting our hands dirty and filling our baskets with produce this summer!

I will plan to make regular posts to let you know how it is growing!

Of course, please understand if 'regular' is interpreted loosely... I do have four kids, cook traditional foods, homeschool, clean (sometimes), launder, cloth diaper, sew and garden.  :-)