With Silver Bells...

Every year I begin my gardening adventure determined that this is the year that everything will grow like it does in the catalogs or Organic Gardening.  In my mind, my little back yard is neat and tidy, which a totally weed free path and lovely flowers nodding their heads in approval along the way.

Every year, just around this time, things just kind of get away from me.  There are good reasons for this.  I have a full time job so my time on the weekend is limited and there is always something to be done, laundry, cooking, etc... so when weeding becomes a full time job, I start to lose the battle.

Really, I should do something about landscaping the brick path so that weeds don't grow there, but I'm not really sure what I want to do there.

At any rate - I thought I would share what was working this year and what wasn't.

What's working - my strawberry patch and the sweet potatoes.  Both are growing like gangbusters!  I'm expecting a bumper crop of the first next spring and of the latter this fall!  I'm really happy with the strawberries, as this was the first permaculture bed I made last year.

NOM NOM NOM

Sweet potato (Georgia Jet, I think) growing in a trash can.

What's not working too well - well, interestingly enough - it's my cucumbers, peppers and squash.  They've never gotten bigger than about 5 inches and they are just sitting there.  I didn't even bother to take a picture, because, well... they aren't worth it. Maybe when they hear about this public humiliation, they will be shamed into bursting into fruit.

My little greens section has been doing okay, although it has been beset by cabbage moths and I've had to share the collards and kale with them.  The lettuce was a huge success, as are the carrots.  I've had marginal success with the beets, but I think it is because there is too much nitrogen in the soil, from what I've been reading.

The beans are starting to come in and I've harvested a few bags of decent looking potatoes.  I made smashed potatoes with them the other night and they were awesome!

the rounder ones are Lehigh and the oval ones are a variety called Nicola.  

The apple tree is still doing great - the apples are getting to be a decent size.  I hate to hope, but if things keep up the way they are, I might be making some apple butter from my own tree come fall.  This is the MacIntosh that I've been trying to rehab.  At first, I didn't think that many apples had set, but I looked up tonight and I'm going to have to buy one of those fruit pickers on the long handles.

The other fruit trees have had their summer haircuts and are putting out another flush of growth from the cuts, which is what I want.  Their next haircut will be in late February to take out any unwanted limbs and help them establish a strong framework with which to bear fruit.  Out of all of them, I have a feeling the only one to set fruit next year is the plum tree I picked up at HD for a song last fall.  I think I paid $10 for it.  It is growing like crazy and already has a couple of inches of new growth from the cuts I made.

The crazy plum!

Apricot Tree

Tomatoes... I have fruit set - Here's a pic of one of the Indigo Roses that I have been cautiously drooling over.  Still nary a ripe tomato yet though.  I hope they all don't ripen while I'm in Texas.

Indigo Rose Tomato.  When it ripens, it will be deep red with a blush of nearly black purple and oh, so sweet!

Well, that's about it.  My next blog post will be about my foray into the world of carpentry, but I'll leave you all with this pic of one of the happy girls roaming around, eating worms and bugs, dandelions and lamb's quarters to her heart's content!

So there was this sale...

Hey there!

Picked my brother up at work the other night and we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things. That's when I saw it.  The sign said, "Blueberries... Buy 1 Get 2 Free."  I stared at it a while.  Surely, this couldn't be right?  They must have meant, "Buy 2 Get 1 Free."

I looked at that sign for a bit and finally, just went ahead and piled 6 pints into my cart.  What the heck.  Why not, right?   I do loves me some blueberry jam, as well as blueberry pie, but that's for another day since THIS mama has been counting those calories, and yes, I know jam has a lot, but you all... Buy 1 Get 2 Free.  That's all I'm saying.

Anywayyyy... I brought them and the next day, set about washing the berries and sorting through them.  There was only a few that were not acceptable and those I tossed with disdain into the compost.

Darn it.  Not enough sugar and what??  I knew I bought pectin, but could not find it.  Off to the grocery store for both.  Too bad there isn't a local sugar cane or sugar beet farm.  I have a feeling that sugar is one of those things that if I knew the conditions of the workers, I would never buy again, but ignorance is bliss, as they say and I somehow doubt that either of those crops grow in Pennsylvania.  (When we lived in Arizona, where I grew up, I used to see the trucks with sugar beets all the time, so I'm guessing the climate here is not conducive to either crop.)

While I was there, I looked through the meager canning supplies and thought for the umptiumpth time that I really should start a business that specializes in canning and putting food up supplies.  (I could call it, "CAN this!")

Home again and dumped the rest of the sugar on the berries, as well as the pectin.  I had jars all sterilized (which is super important in water bath canning) and ready to go along with hot lids and rings.

This is my steam canner, that I only use for sterilizing since there is lots of argument about it being hot enough to kill bacteria inside a full canning jar

The jam came to a boil and threatened to over flow the very generous pot I had them in, which is why I don't have a pic of that step.  I let it boil for the suggested amount (although now that it has cooled, it appears that I could have let it go for a bit longer, as the jam is more syrupy than jammy.) and loaded up the hot jars with the hot jam, swiped the rims with a clean paper towel dipped in white vinegar,

I then slammed on a lid and ring, tightened them finger tight and plunked them as I finished them one by one into the hot water bath.  You should always have about an inch of water over the tops of the jars in water bath canning, just so that you get a good seal and even heat throughout the jar.

The jars were processed for 15 minutes, because they were pints and that's what the USDA says for that size.

Tonight, I removed the rings, washed the jars in hot soapy water and placed them upside down on the dish towel to dry.  They are beeee-you-ti-full!

Here they are pictured with a batch of beans I pressure canned.  I did the beans because my supply was running low and they make a great addition to salad or a quick dinner of bean tostados (which is what we had tonight).  These are black beans and chick peas (garbanzos or chi-chis if you are Italian).

I cannot wait to have some delicious blueberry jam on toast with a fresh poached egg or two and maybe some homemade sausage.  Oh, I should do a post about that, right?  Best Christmas present ever... the grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid Mixer!  (or as I like to call it, "The Goddess of Kitchen Equipment"  I love that thing!)

Good Soup Weather

I was all set to do some fall yard work today.  Perhaps some cleaning up some dead canes and straightening stuff up, but when I woke up, it was damp and dreary.

So instead, I cleaned up the kitchen.

Then I thought, "Self?  Why don't you make some soup?"

"Self", I said, "That's a great idea."

So, I did.  This:

Plus about 2 hours, became this:

7 Quarts of vegetable beef soup.  I forgot to put vinegar in the canner, so I have to scrub haze off the jars tomorrow once they've cooled and settled, but still.  

I had enough left over for a big bowl for lunch.  

Perfect day.

It Takes A Village...

Today I woke up with a clear vision in my head of what I wanted the porch railing/wall to look like.  It would have to be 36" tall with a wide shelf all the way around to hold drinks or maybe a pretty potted plant or two. Because of this, the design had to be modified slightly.  Instead of the end posts reaching all the way up to the ceiling with the eventual screening in mind, I would cut the studs, lay the board for the shelf on top and when I am ready to screen it, I could just cut a stud from the shelf to the ceiling.  No biggie.

This might be better anyway, because then I could take the screening down at some point without having to tear down the railing or trying to make awkward cuts sideways to cut it flush with the railing wall.  I'm not sure the set of circumstances that would lead me to take down the screening - perhaps a sharp blow to the head or some world wide event that led to the destruction of mosquitoes, but you never know.  I'm sure the little bloodsuckers fulfill some sort of biological nook that if empty would lead to something horrible, such as a shortage of hops or some such catastrophe.

At any rate, after employing my youngest daughter, I was able to obtain accurate measurements.  Guess what?  The top rails were indeed slightly bigger than the bottom ones.  Measurements in hand, I headed down to the local home supply and purchased my supplies.  I decided to try my idea out on only one side for the moment to see how I liked it, so I only bought enough material for the driveway side.

Since I don't own an electric saw, I got one of the helpful sales associates to cut my pieces to my specification.  This is one of those services they offer that is priceless.  I also stopped and looked at house numbers and signed up for a free estimate on a kitchen cabinet facelift.  Or whatever they call it.  Where they take the doors and drawer fronts off and slap some new ones on and veneer the cabinet bases.  That thing.  I doubt I would go for such a thing at this point, simply because a.  the cabinets are of the cheapest quality (although they ARE wood) and b.  I want the kitchen to be redesigned to actually be practical.

Getting back to the porch... here is my materials list:

1.  4 2X8 framing studs cut into the following lengths:

• 83" for bottom rail
• 83 1/4" for top rail
• 4 pcs 32" 

2.  1 8"X1"X96" pine board cut to 83 1/4" long

3.  Finishing nails

4.  Masonry screws

5.  3" long deck screws guaranteed not to rust

6.  Caulk 

7.  One male neighbor to come over half way and tell me what to do

I did not have to get that last one at the store, since I already have several of those at home.  I got home, dug out my drill and got to work.  There were a couple of moments where things started to go pear shape, but I persevered and this is what I ended up with:

Now from the other angle:

I'm pretty freakin' proud of myself.  Now I have to get the panels and attach them to both sides to finish it up, cover the edges with molding, paint it and I've got my first railing/wall done.  

About the point at which I got the top rail attached and was trying to figure out how much of an overhang I wanted for the shelf (known as the reveal), one of my male neighbors came over to tell me to use screws and not nails because I was "killing myself with the nails."  I held up the drill and a handful of screws.  This did not bring the instruction to a close, however. 

 "Use finishing nails for the top and then take this little thing that looks like a round screwdriver and tap the ends into the wood."  

"A nail set," I said.

"Yes," he said then continued, "Then hit it with some wood filler and it will look great."  

"Thank you for your help," I said and after he walked away, I walked over and picked up the box of finishing nails, the nail set and the wood filler I had sitting on the porch about 2 feet from where he was standing.  I've got this.