August already?!

Happy first day of August. This year is flying by. It's been a great year so far though and hope the trend continues!

Not too much going on today. There is a loaf of bread in the oven right now and it smells so good that it is making my tummy rumble. It should be done in five minutes and then I think I'm having tomato sandwich with one of these:

I just pulled them and there are probably five more waiting to be picked. I'm thinking some pasta and sauce this weekend.

I'm happy because it's just before noon and I actually have things done this morning. I have my third load of laundry going through. I have a loaf of bread done. I have cut grass at three houses and my kitchen is clean. Not bad for a procrastinator like myself.

Look who lost his first tooth yesterday.

Aidan lost tooth number one. The other tooth next to his gap there is hanging by a thread also. He actually let Connor pull his tooth yesterday. Connor noticed that it was hanging there and said "I'll give you all my money if you let me pull it." So Aidan opened up and Connor yanked. Of course, Connor doesn't have any money, but the tooth fairy paid Aidan nicely for his cute little tooth. Please excuse the mess behind Aidan. He got his school books yesterday and I'm in the middle of setting up the office into a classroom again. I have books and supplies all over the place and need to get some semblance of order here. I think that will be my last major project today. If I can get that done then I can enjoy my weekend. I'm hoping there will be some weed pulling this weekend.

Uh oh. The kids are getting feisty for lunch. The bread just came out and they are buzzing all over it screaming how hungry they are. I should go feed them and start my pizza dough for pizza night tonight. I hope everyone has a great day and an awesome August!

I'm such a slacker.

I have not really been out in the gardens for a couple of days now. I have had this dull headache that I can't shake and just a general feeling of blah. There are things happening out there though.

First, I want to just say "NOOOOOOOOO". We have them. The dreaded Japanese Beetles. The little buggers are basically eating the rhubarb and the roses. I finally got a bucked of soapy water yesterday and started flicking them in with just a tiny bit of remorse for their lost lives.

unwanted Japanese Beetle

the destruction these little bastards do

their certain death if I see them out there.

Granted, I don't think we have as many as we had last year, or maybe they are just starting to turn up. They are not as bad as my poor mother in law has them at her house. It was just creepy how many were over there munching away on her foliage. I hope they don't get that bad here. Every time I take Patchy out for a bathroom break, I'm checking to see if any more have shown up.

In other gardening news, happier gardening news, our plants all look really good. The mystery compost plant is slowing taking over the brick patio. At least it's not choking out all the pretty flowers we planted back there. I have my doubts as to if this is a cantaloupe. I think it looks more like pumpkin. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

mystery

Speaking of mystery. Remember the free squash plants we got from the nursery. They were by a sign that said Acorn squash, but when I planted them they were labeled Butternut squash. Well, they have taken over the one bed they were planted in. The have choked out all the Hungarian Wax peppers and the onions. It's crazy. There are numerous flowers on them but still nothing growing to give us an indication of what they are.

squash of some sort

We are picking three to four tomatoes off the bushes a day now. One day our family gets a bunch and the next day Nancy picks a bunch. If you look at the picture you can see a bunch of them are red and ready to be picked again. There will be no deficiency of Lycopene in our diets. I had four sitting on my counter and I used three of them in tonights dinner of Channa Masala. They taste amazing!

tomato patch number one

Around tomato patch number two our pretty pest control is looking great. I speak of the marigolds. When we planted them they were these tiny little twigs that I didn't really thing would amount to much. I was wrong. They have bushed out so much and are very pretty. And they appear to be working because we haven't seen any kind of pests over there at all. Yay for marigolds!

perfect pest control

Last, but not least, look what I picked out of my pot of dahlias:

sign of fall?

This lone little red maple leaf. It has blown in from somewhere and is giving me a glimmer of hope for my favorite season of all. FALL. I noticed the other day that the ornamental cherry tree in the front yard has started to drop a couple of leaves too. It gets me all excited for cooler weather and all the fun fall activities associated. Wahoo.

That is all I think I have for you today. I should be outside taking advantage of the 74 degree weather at the end of July and cut the grass or weed the gardens, but I'm going to go take an alieve in hopes to kill this annoying headache. I'm also going to go cut up one of my freshly harvested cukes and eat it with some fresh, home made hummus. Yummus!!

Holy harvest Batman.

I took advantage of our cool morning and wandered out into the garden to do some work. I'm glad I did. I was able to get a pretty big harvest out there this morning.

today's score

The kids were so excited about the carrots being ready to pull. They probably could have gone longer in the ground, but we being the impatient sort, decided to pull half of them this morning. I couldn't clean them fast enough and they were pounding them down. I had to cut them off because I was hoping to use them in a stir fry.

Connor and Aidan tearing through some carrots.

The patch where I had the beets and carrots is almost completely harvested and cleared out and we are going to put some more beet and carrot seeds down and see if we can get one more big harvest before frost hits. I figure that we planted those seeds at the end of May and it's now the end of July, so if we planted this weekend we might be able to get them the first of October.

I am starting to try and figure out what we are going to do with our tomatoes. I have four sitting here ready to eat now and the plants are FULL of them. They are starting to get pink and Tim and I are having a disagreement about what to do with them. He wants to make sauces and can them and I think I would prefer to just can them with no flavors and then we can make different sauces when we open them up. Maybe we'll compromise and do half and half.

getting pink

almost ready!

The zucchinis are doing great. What a cool plant. You plant a little seedling and it turns into this monster plant that keeps giving us tons of zucchinis. There are three on the one plant getting ready to be pulled and I pulled a large one off the other plant this morning. So far, we have made two loaves of zucchini bread, had a chicken/zuke stir fry and we made something we saw on Jamie at Home (one of my fave cooking shows!), Zucchini Carbonara. We made it with whole wheat pasta because that is all we have, but it was delish!! I still have a half a zuke in the fridge that I will probably just cut and eat with some hummus.

zuke getting ready for picking

bee pollinating a zucchini blossom

Tim's chili peppers are getting ready to pick also. We have four containers growing on the side of the house and we started these peppers from seed. I had them all labeled so we knew what was what and then Tim replanted them around a little bit and didn't keep track of what went where. So we now have four pepper boxes full of peppers and we have no idea what pepper is what.

Mystery peppers

The savoy cabbage is finally starting to get heads on them. Poor Tim checks on them every time he's out there and was worried because they didn't seem to be forming. He is waiting for some cabbage rolls.

savoy cabbage

The flower garden is in dire need of weeding. I'm hoping that I can enlist some help from Tim and get some done tonight. I think next year I'm going to do what my MIL did and put straw down on top of the dirt to inhibit some weed growth. I was happy to see this pretty little Foxglove still growing full force back there. We have two of these plants. One with white flowers and one with purple flowers. The white ones are doing great and while the foliage on the purple one looks great, the flowers are gone. Although, I did notice a tiny little stalk coming up that might be some more coming out.

foxglove

Well, I've got to load up the wee ones and head to the dairy for milk and eggs and then hit the grocery store. I've put it off long enough and we are down to nothing in the house. It's funny because when there's no food in the house, we don't eat. Novel idea.

Have a great day!

Another experiment.

First off, I would like to introduce our newest family member. He's not been named yet, but I'm leaning towards Bonzer. Tim has always been fascinated with bonsais and is trying to make one out of a maple seed he planted. Well, yesterday we had to take Patchy to go get groomed and we were going to hang out in the book store while we were waiting. Tim found a couple of bonsai books that he was interested in but then got an emergency call from work and I had to take him home to deal with it. Connor and I went back to get Patchy and I ran into the book store to get him one of the books and when we were driving home we noticed a stand set up selling bonsais. It was weird. So I picked him one up. The guy had mostly juniper trees and a couple of maple trees and then this one. It was tagged with the kind of tree it was, but I was so excited that I didn't really notice it. I think it started with an "E". I guess I'll have some research ahead of me. I'm considering it his early birthday present. Now I hope we can keep it alive!

yet to be named bonsai

Did you really care about that? Probably not. Sorry. On to the experiment. Last Monday we made a tomato pie. It was basically phyllo dough with mozzerella and feta cheeses and then just topped with sliced tomatoes and fresh basil. It was yummy. Anyway, I bought some heirloom tomatoes and Tim and I got to thinking that we should figure out how to save some seeds to grow some next year. This is what we have done:


Find a tomato that you really like the taste of.


Cut the tomato in half at it's equator.


carefully squeeze out the goo with the seeds. This was easier than I thought it was going to be.

seeds and goo ready for water, ready for plastic wrap

Then you take the bowl of seeds and add two tablespoons of water and cover it with a piece of plastic wrap and use a knife to put a tiny cut into it for air to come in and out. The article we read said that it's a fermentation process to get the seeds ready for growing. I thought I had taken a picture of the bowl wrapped with plastic wrap, but didn't see one. I'll have to look again. Every day you are supposed to open it up and stir the water and tomato goo around. I just kind of shook the bowl when I remembered it.

When you see it get kind of gross and scummy on top, it's ready.

film of grossness on top. mine had mold growing on it and a fruit fly. I'm not sure if I should be really grossed out by that or not.


Put the seed goo into a fine sieve and rinse the heck out of it. And then you are going to try and get as much water off of them as possible.


Then you lay the seeds out on wax paper to dry. It says that it will probably take a few days to dry completely. I'll know they are dry when they move easily across the wax paper. I will then store them in a paper envelope until January when I plant them and hopefully start some seedlings for the garden next year. I hope it works. I will report on them later and let you know.

I haven't really been out in the gardens much over the last couple of days. I have to get out there and do some tomato tying up and some weeding. I have been procrastinating something terrible with this. It's hot out and the mosquitoes are vicious. But, I am getting a lot done inside the house so that's better than nothing.

I am...

...a canning virgin no more. Yup, today I took the plunge and decided to try my hand at canning before we get hit with all of the tomatoes. I used the cherries that I got at the farmer's market on Thursday and made some Cherry jam. It made 8 1/2 pint jars full. I also used the wax and green beans that I got (plus the ones I harvested) and made some dilly beans.

jam and beans


dilly beans

A couple of notes about the process of water bath canning. It took FOREVER to get my big pot to come to a rolling boil. I really need to write out a list to take me through the steps individually so that I don't forget anything. I think on one jar of jam I forgot to wipe the top ( I went back and fixed it before I put it in the pot) and on one of the jars of beans I forgot to get the air bubbles out. Also, I need to have all the fruits and veggies cut up and ready to go before I start the jars heating up. They only need to heat for ten minutes and I found myself trying to do three things at once. Next time I will have the produce ready to process and then sit and wait for ten minutes while the jars heat up.

So, basically here are the steps I need to follow next time:

1. get fruit/veggies all washed and cut and cooked.
2. put clean jars in water to heat up for ten minutes
3. put lids in hot water for ten minutes to warm the wax
4. when jars are hot, funnel food into jars
5. slide spatula into jar to get out air bubbles
6. wipe the lip of the jar off
7. put down wax seal
8. spin the lid on
9. put jars back in water and boil for desired time.

I was shocked with the amount of sugar called for in the cherry jam. I made it to recipe and used what it called for but I will look for other recipes that use less in the future. Heh, and one of the jars of dilly beans will be extra spicy because instead of putting the 1/4 tsp of cayenne in it like called for, I inadvertently put in a 1/2 tsp. Oops. I'm not going to stress out about it though. All in all I'm happy that it took about three hours from start to finish. Start being pitting all the cherries and finish being the kitchen is clean and jars are cooling. Oh, and I want to look up how to cram beans better into a jar. I don't think I got enough in the jars but I couldn't stuff any more into the jars.

In other news, much to Connor's dismay, look what showed up at the house yesterday:

Those would be his grade three curriculum with his grade 4 math. He was less than thrilled. It's cool too because the books are all brand new. Never been cracked open. I love the smell of new books. I was flipping through the lesson plans and started freaking out because it seems so advanced. I freaked out last year when I got the curriculum and thought he would tank, but he ended the year with a 98% average for all of his classes. We'll just take it as it comes and I know he's insanely smart and will do fine. I think it's more me that I'm worried about. This year I will be teaching Aidan as well. His books haven't shown up yet and he told me the other day that as soon as they were here, he wanted to start. I think I will do that because I can get a month ahead with him and it will free up some time during the official school year.

It's a gorgeous day here today. I was thinking to myself the other day how it kind of felt like fall was in the air up here. The sun has shifted ever so slightly and this week the highs have been in the 70's and 80's. I thought I was imagining it, but I was talking with Debbie this morning and she said she felt the same way. I love fall and can't wait for it to be here. I have a lot to do before fall gets here, but I look forward to it.

Well, I'm off to go do some knitting while the rest of the family battles it out on the wii. Have a great day!

Farm Market Thursday!

Oh, how I love Thursdays now! It is farm market today down in the square. It takes the boys and I about 25 minutes to walk down there and then we are in heaven. They like it because I let them each get a piece of pizza and I like it because of the plethora of fruits, veggies and plants. Tim met us down there after his team meeting was done and we all walked around together. They had a special table set up this time with bugs. All different kinds of bugs, good and bad for the garden. I touched a hissing cockroach. They had all kinds of bugs that were in jars and it made me think of Lewru's bug blog she did. It was neat and the kids had a blast. We scored a whole bunch of goods today:

Of course we hit the Amish baked goods, and we got some corn, leeks, potatoes, dill, cherries, peaches and a ton of green and wax beans.

It's a gorgeous day out today too. All in all, we had 2 1/2 inches of rain yesterday. Right now it's 1:15 and only 68 degrees out. Have I mentioned that I love living in the north east? I do. I got out into the garden today to look around some more. I've declared this weekend a "weeding weekend". Tim has said he will help me out there. I did harvest a couple of things.

swiss chard and some wax beans and green beans

I am so excited with the amount of tomatoes that we have out there. Most of them are the size of my fist.

tomatoes galore

I have to laugh as I show you the next tomato plant. Brian, this one is for you. After seeing your tomato plant , I had to show you the tomato plant that Patchy dug up and that we thought was a goner.

I've named this Patchy because of his attempted murder.

Patchy's fruit.

I wish your little tomato plant luck and suggest that if you attempt to grow tomatoes next year, replant it sooner.

Finally, I am happy to say that it appears the cucumber plants are happy with their trellis. They have climbed up one side, tried to get into the pear tree and are starting down the other side.

cukes

Nancy cut up a couple of these babies last weekend for our book club meeting and they are so yummy. I'm not sure we'll get enough off of them to actually make pickles or not. We seem to be eating them as fast as we pick them.

My big canning pot that I ordered yesterday is due to be showing up at my house today. Color me excited. The other kit (the one with the tongs and funnel and all that fun stuff) is due to be here July 30th. I'm contemplating trying a batch of canning before that stuff gets here. That's why I got all the beans. I'm going to attempt to make some dilly beans. A friend of mine sent me the recipe a couple of years ago and now I need to go dig it up.

Time to put the zucchini bread in the oven and get some stuff done around the house. Have a great day!

Lazy day

It's raining all day today so I'm not even going to attempt to head out into the gardens. I checked the rain gauge earlier and we got an inch of rain between 4 and 5 o'clock this morning. I think I can hear our plants sighing a sigh of relief. Yay.

Connor and I both had a tomato for lunch from the garden. They are awesome. I don't know why people buy tomatoes at the store when they taste so much better right out of the garden. Yum. Today, being that it is nasty out, I'm reading a couple of canning books. I ordered a big canning pot and the starter canning kit and now I'm waiting for it to be delivered. I can't wait. I'm also doing some knitting. So, even though it's yucky outside, we're having a pretty good day. I'm chalking it up to a mental health day.

As I have nothing to show from the garden today I'll share a couple of my favorite pictures of my wee ones from vacation.

Aidan, the cannon balling wonder.

He believes he can fly.

Connor, who wore this mask in pretty much every picture I took of him.

They look cute, but looks can be deceiving.

I hope everyone has a great day!