I Love Yellow Wax Beans!

This is the first year I've planted yellow wax beans in the garden.  It was purely by accident.  I went to the feed store to get green beans, and, well; one should always have their glasses on when shopping.  That's all I'm sayin.  By the time I realized my mistake, they were sprouting.  So I let them go.  I have yet to can any.  Not because we aren't getting them coming in, but because we have discovered roasted beans.   The clouds parted and the angels were singing!  It takes a lot of beans to roast, and you will eat every one I promise.  Just toss them with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  Preheat your oven to  450.  Spread them out even on a cookie sheet.  Bake in the 450 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Toss once about half way through the time.  Enjoy!

I always knew about roasted potatoes.  Who doesn't.  Then I learned about roasted carrots.  Now roasted beans.  I'm thinking this roasting thing is going to be my new go to.  I still need to can beans for winter, but I think I'm gonna keep them whole and try roasting them from the jar.  It's an experiment in the making.

The squash is covering me up.  I have grated Zucchini, and sauteed Zucchini and put them in the freezer.  I've made Zucchini relish.  I've also sauteed yellow squash for the freezer.  We've had it for dinner multiple times as well.  In fact I will cook some for just myself some lunches.  I still have it coming in.

So far I have about 4.5 lbs of blueberries which is more than I thought I would get.  The blackberries are coming in as well.  All in all, I'm very pleased with the results.

I have to say I like the "Back to Eden" garden.  I know it isn't at it's full potential this year, but it has seriously cut down on the amount of maintenance needed for my garden.  I can't wait to get all I want covered in wood chips done.

So do you have a garden this year?  How's it going?  Share your stories or pics!  I would love to see them!

Uppin My Game

My latest book read is "Folks this ain't Normal" by Joel Salatin; owner of Polyface farms in Virginia.  Highly recommend this book.  He's a big proponent of not just local eating, but scratch cooking, old skills, hard work etc.  Anyway, he got me to thinking and so I started looking around for local sources as well as organic, free range, pastured sources for food.  Here is what I know.  I can't do it all.  So if I am going to be able to buy truly local and organic foods I will need to grow most of it.  Next on my list is raising pastured  chicken cause that is out of my range too, but I digress.

As a result of my new found determination to grow as much of my produce as I can, My garden is slated to be in over drive for the season.  I'm fortunate that we have a long growing season.  Our first frost usually isn't until Oct 21st and we normally don't get brutally cold (teens and twenties) until Jan.  This give me extra time for cold weather crops to come in.  Currently there is no more room in my garden for anything else, but as things play out and are pulled out, I will be replacing them with something else.

Squash- The first to go.  I currently have 9 squash plants growing.  These were all planted a few weeks behind each other.  The first set of three is about done.  They will be pulled out and some volunteer lima beans will take their place.  The volunteers are currently growing next to my decks bottom step.  Green beans( bush) will more than likely replace the other squash plants.

Cucumbers-  These are only the first 3 sets planted.  I have four more that haven't started producing yet.  Okra will go there

Corn-  The corn is going gang busters!  Once these beds are done, I'll plant more green beans.  Corn is a heavy feeder and so before I plant the beans, my plan is to mix in more compost and let the beds sit a few weeks.  I will plant these beans about August 1st.  Beans take nitrogen out of the air and put it into the ground through their roots.  It will continue to replenish the soil.

Yellow Wax, and Lima Beans- These are currently growing and beginning to set pods.  As these finish, I will begin planting my cool weather crops: Beets, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflowers, spinach, and lettuce,

Cherry tomatoes_ despite my no volunteer pledge, I finally got to the point where I had to let some stay.  The are relegated to one main branch,  however.  As these die back, the plants will be pulled out and maybe snow peas will be added.  The cherry tomatoes will be dehydrated (I hope).

Roma tomatoes-  Once they die back they're done.  I'm not gonna try to let them keep going.  I'll replace them with snow peas if possible.

When my slicing tomatoes die back, they will be allow to stay.  When it cools off, they will come back and make the prettiest tomatoes.  These I will pick green and can fried green tomatoes for the pantry.

How cool will it be to have a garden last until Dec or Jan?  AWESOME!

Garden Update

The Garden is in full swing now.  Things are starting to bloom and I'm finally getting some squash.

Not sure if the "romance" worked or if my problem was one of a pest causing the squash to not produce.  I went to an area farmers market and, while there, talked to a very nice farmer who recommended I remove all of the babies and spray with an organic spray.  Desperate to try anything, I went home and did just that.  Well I did almost that.  I removed all of the affected babies; those that were no longer viable.  So not sure if the assisted romance worked or if his idea worked, but something did and for that I am thankful.  You want something good to eat?  Melt a little butter and chop up a yellow squash and some onion.  Saute it all in the butter with a little salt and pepper until the onions are kinda caramelized and the squash is soft.  Oh YUM!

This is one of my favorite beds.  I have no idea why I took this picture without putting that flat cinder block back in place, but it is what it is so just disregard that and feast your eyes on the pretty plants!  Tomatoes are all along the back.  Then from left to right we have Parsley, Marigolds, Basil, Bell Peppers, More Marigolds, More Basil, More Bell Pepper, and last but not least, More parsley.  By the Way, far left you see something growing out of the cinder block.  That isn't a weed.  It's Marigolds.  I let them stay where they landed and they are thriving.  Go figure.

The corn has sent up it's tassels and is currently taller than me.  It's over 6 ft at this point.  At least this bed is.  This is my first batch of corn.  There are 3 more beds behind this one in development.  Ironically all of the seeds were planted in the bed you see before you.  The subsequent beds of corn were transplanted in place to thin this area.  Once you transplant a plant, it sets it back a bit because the plants has to re-establish itself.  That takes time so the regular growth is interrupted for a bit.  This is a great way to succession plant without having to pull out the seeds each time.  I planted them all at once, then moved what I needed to.  You can go to my "How to" page to see a tutorial on transplanting successfully.  Here's the link to the page :

Click Here

So here is the organic garden spray recipe I use:

1 onion, chopped
4 gloves garlic (you can use garlic powder)
2 cups fresh mint leaves
2 TBS cayenne pepper
1 TBS dish soap
Enough water to make a gallon.

I start with putting everything but the water and soap in a 2 quart jar and adding just enough warm water cover it all.  Then Pulse it in my blender.  I let it sit over night "steeping".  In the morning I strain out the "stuff", leaving the liquid.  Add the rest of the water to make a gallon and the TBS of soap.  Put in a spray bottle and go.  Spray either early in the morning or in the evening.  Try not to spray in the heat of the day.

This has served me well so far and is so inexpensive I don't mind having to reapply if needed after a rain storm.

Hope this serves you well as well.  Have a great day!  BTW aren't my free wood chips so pretty!

The art of romance

Ahem... never thought I would have ever done this, but a gardeners gotta do, what a gardeners gotta do.

I have three huge yellow squash plants and two huge zucchini plants all covered with baby fruit.   And I do mean covered.  I should be covered up with squash coming in right now.   Problem is, though they are covered with baby fruit, these fruit will grow no more unless pollinated by bees.     I could not figure out for the life of me why this wasn't happening.  I went out this morning to investigate.   At first I thought is was a lack of bees, but I don't believe now that was the case.  Something, probably bunnies (who are getting less cute by the minute) is eating the male flowers.  Not cool.  There were maybe two male flowers left between the two zucchini plants.  So quieting the voice in my head that said "give them some privacy",  I took the male flowers off, opened them up, and went around to the rest of the viable fruits (some had already started dying.  Nothing to do about that.) and pollinated the fruit (female flowers) by hand.  I did the same with the yellow squash.  I will more than likely have to continue this for now, each day.   I now have a keen knowledge of what a male flower and a female flower looks like with their petals off.  I know, I know.  Just feels wrong somehow.  But it had to be done.  Below are the squash flowers.  Left is male, right is female.  See how it is attached to the fruit?

On the wood chip front, I am off this morning for another load of free wood chips.  The ones I have already laid down are doing great!  The plants are thriving.  In fact, I thought we were done with asparagus for the season, but we have more coming up now that they are protected from heat, and have plenty of moisture.  We received a lot of rain these past three days and so the garden is exploding.  After the plants dry some, It is back to pulling off tomato suckers, cutting herbs, and other various garden maintenance.

Two totally awesome gardening tips I never knew!

Well, that title sounds like I know everything.  That is soooooo not the case.  The old adage of "You learn something new everyday" is really true.  That is if you are willing to learn.  That is a sermon for another day, so ON TO THE TIPS!

1)  Milk spray-  Yes.  That is milk like you get at the store.  While walking through my garden the other day, I noticed a lot of white spots on my cucumbers.  So, I went to the computer to ask why.  Well it's called "Powdery Mildew" and it is prevalent among the squash family.  In an effort to keep my garden as organic as possible, I looked up organic treatments for "Powdery Mildew".  I found many articles on milk spray.  Basically it's 1 part milk to 2 parts water.  You can use any type milk you want.  It's the protein in the milk that does the trick.  Something about the reaction created when the sun hits the milk.  It creates an environment that the fungus can't handle.  I sprayed yesterday.  You should spray in full sun when the leaves are dry.  When I went out this morning to check on things, I noticed the spots are fading and, in some cases, disappearing.   I'll spray again in 10 days or if it rains.

2) Back to Eden Gardening-  In a nut shell, deep mulch gardening.  Here is a link for the info.  It's kind of lengthy, as it's a documentary, but I watched the whole thing. Very informative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPPUmStKQ4



***  check with your local landfill or tree service to obtain wood chips.  I should have some being delivered this week or next by a tree service, but I also took my little truck to our landfill and they had wood chips for days.  They filled my little truck to the tippy top of the bed.  The last two days I have been putting wood chips in my garden beds, flower pots, window boxes, etc.

Here's my garden so far with the chips added.  I need more chips to cover the last four beds and plan to put chips in between my beds as well which will get rid of the rock walkway.

Tomato plants are curious things, and other ramblings

Yesterday was a glorious day and, of course, I was outside the vast majority of it.  I am about to wrap up getting every thing in.  The last thing to go in was a replant of green beans.  I've had a time getting them to germinate.  We had a warmer winter this year and, yet, I was able to get my beans in and growing a month earlier last year compared to this year.  It's a mystery.  The next try is in now so we will see.

Everything else is going gang busters.  My strawberry bed is COVERED with baby berries.  If I can keep the critters out of them, it should be a good harvest.  I'm also happy to report that the late hard freeze a month or so ago, didn't take out my entire blueberry harvest.  I found baby blue berries yesterday and still have blooms coming in.  It won't be my normal harvest, but if the blackberries and strawberries do well, it may not matter.

Funny thing, I planted a lot of corn seeds due to the lack of germination with the beans.  I wanted to make sure enough germinated.  Well they ALL did I think.  I finally got the last one transplanted into a new spot yesterday.  I try not to thin plants, but will give them a fighting chance to grow up in my garden should they choose to take it.  Ones that would normally be pulled to thin the rows, are, instead, transplanted to a new spot in the garden.  I ended up moving a lot of corn.  Final tally of corn stalks in my garden?  180.  That's a lot of corn.

Everything's getting mulched due to our current drought.  My original plan this year was to not have a garden because of the drought.  Then we started getting good amounts of rain and I thought "Okay garden time".  Now it seems we are getting a little dry again.  The gutters on my house have helped in water collection, but I have now used up my water stores.  We are supposed to get rain on Monday, so I hope that helps in replenishing them.

It was while I was mulching everything that I noticed the tomato plant I originally thought dead from wind or hail.  Apparently he was only "mostly dead" ( "Princess Bride" reference).  He was saying I'm sure "I'm not dead yet, I don't want to go in the cart!" (Monty Python "Holy Grail" reference).  He had just enough stem left in-tacked to allow him to still be kicken.  The top of the plant was lying on the ground.  Tomatoes will root  where ever the branch contacts the ground.  I covered the part of the branch at ground contact, and watered it well.  I then mulched the whole bed as planned.  We'll see what he does.  I have done all I can.  I have to give these 10 plants kudos.  They have withstood being tossed across a room, planted early, subjected to three days of temps below 40 (one night 38), high winds(very high), and hail.  They're still here.  Gotta give'em credit for perseverance.

This morning included another trip to collect cinder blocks for raised beds.  We gathered enough to finish one bed and create one more.  I have 4 blocks left, and plan to go back for more.  Thank you E and J.

After unloading the cinder blocks, Dh and I sat on the back porch steps and just enjoyed the morning for a bit before back to work.  I looked around at everything with immense satisfaction.  I have to smile to myself when I see everything and know how much I enjoy all of it.  My mom once told me of all her children I was the last one she ever thought would have a garden.  Now look at me.  I have a garden, chickens, fruit tress, fruit bushes, etc.  It makes me smile because I know the fact that I do all of this always tickled my dad.  I makes me sad because he would read about all my adventures and I want to share them with him again. Bitter sweet I guess is the term.  I like to think he still gets to see all my goings on.  I at least know he's told about them.

Sorry,didn't mean to get all sentimental. Comes with the territory I guess, but lest I leave you forlorn, here is what greeted me this morning as I woke up.

Well It's a wait and see...

It seems every year I come up with a new garden experiment.  It's the process with everyone who gardens.  At the end of each season you analyze what you need to change and set about figuring a way to do it.  Last year my experiment was green beans.  Every year I had fought to control Mexican bean beetles, but was losing the battle.  Those little buggers would strip my plants clean.  There was no chance of succession planting working.  The new set of plants would pop out of the ground only to be eaten before they had a chance to grow much.  I really try to stay away from pesticides if possible, but it seemed the only way to control them even a little was to use Sevin, a common garden pesticide.  Last year I hypothesized that maybe if I planted my beans, all of my beans, early and all at one time, maybe they would have a chance to produce before the beetles could get to them.  So I did, and they did.  My plants had a chance to produce beautiful green beans before the beetles could get them.

Just as I was pulling the plants up, I noticed a few beetles starting to arrive.  The plants were pulled and tossed into the compost pile and any beetle scragglers were rounded up.  It was my best bean harvest in years.

This year I'm addressing another common problem I have.  We have some pretty hot summers here in the Georgia area.  Once the temp get above 95 degrees, my tomato plants stop blooming (so do I quite frankly), and begin to wilt.  By the time the "Dog Days of summer" end, my plants look dead.  If I leave them there, I've found, once the temps cool a little in August, I will begin to see new growth.  By October I have lush green tomato plants with huge green tomatoes that never have a chance to ripen before the first frost.   My experiment this year is to plant larger tomato plants in the early spring and see if I get a better harvest before it gets so hot.  I started seeds the end of December 2016.  I had 50 seedlings, but you guys remember the "Great fall of 2017" where I tripped carrying them out for some sun and plants flew everywhere.  Well 10 survived that ordeal.  They are my experimental group (cause that's all I have left).  I replanted more seedlings in the normal time frame for zone 7.  They are my control group.  See how scientific I sound?  My experimental plants are about 18 inches tall right now.  in fact one plant has the beginnings of blooms.  There really was no waiting longer to put them in the ground.  They were hard enough to get in the ground at the size they are now.  Yesterday was a cloudy day with the promise of rain overnight.  No better time.  I checked the 10 day forecast and saw no really cold temps, so I took the plunge.  Now it's a wait and see if they can make it thru any weird April chills, and if they produce a better harvest. I now have cucumbers, pumpkins, and yellow squash plants in the ground, and have planted my bean, zucchini seeds, and onion sets in the ground as well.  Now we wait.

WELL!

Yes I'm still here.  Aside from the past three or four days, I've been outside "playing" in the yard.  It's been great; blissful  if one would coin a phrase.  Ah but all good things must come to an end they say.  This week our early spring became a harsh winter; a reminder, if you will, that we ain't at spring yet and things happen.  Georgia weather don't cha know.  Our low's for three straight days stayed around 22, 23 degrees.  Now, I know that isn't cold in some necks of the woods, but in ours, it most assuredly is.  Especially when your blueberry bushes are in full bloom as well as your lone peach tree.   Fortunately my apple trees haven't bloomed yet.  Amazingly, my peach tree still has about 10 living blooms on it.  Not enough to write home about, but considering the temps, admirable.  I lost a chunk of blueberries even with them close to the house.  What part of the blueberry bushes were closest to the house seemed to fare okay, but the further away from the house the branches were, the more damage was done.  I will (I hope) get some blueberries, but not the amount I was hoping for.  I'll take what I get.  There are two good things I focus on.  The first is, with the cold days, I will get blackberries, so yay!  The second thing is that when I went to uncover my strawberry beds after the freeze (they did fine by the way), I noticed two baby blueberry bushes I thought were dead.  Apparently not.  They won't produce for a while, but it's nice to see them there.

Everything else made it through fine.  I've actually been picking spinach and one asparagus spear.  The early tomato plants I started in December are chomping at the bit to get outside, but not yet....not yet.  I went ahead and replanted more tomato plants.  I was within the recommended "Start indoor" time on them, so I won't need to buy any.  I also started cucumber, yellow squash, pumpkin, and sage (a replant).  Everyone came up!  They will start their trek outside today to harden off.  No one goes into the ground until after March.  Never know if we will have another cold snap.

I am luvin being outside.  That is my spot, my element.  It keeps me active, interested, and out of the fridge. That's good for my waist line.  I can not wait til I can post a picture of my back yard this year.  The new (to us) fencing is installed.  A decent job if I do say so myself. Once all is in full swing, I'll take a pic.

New gardening season is off (not quite rolling)

Starting to get excited with the progress of the garden thus far.  The spinach is almost big enough to start picking off a few leaves.  I hope my family enjoys fresh spinach cause apparently I planted a bunch(pardon the pun).  The lettuce is also coming up nicely.  I didn't plant as much of that, but it sure looks like salads will be in our near future.  In addition it looks like all of my herbs made a return debut this season.  And finally my beets did make an appearance!  Hopefully the deer will stay out.

Out of the 50 some odd tomato plants I started in December, only 10 survived "The Great Fall of 2017".  Those 10, however, are thriving and have already been hardened off.  They'll make for a good experimental group.  I will still be buying tomato plants though.  We will see how it goes with the bigger guys this year.  The basil plants also survived, but rather than have them in pots this  year, they will go directly into the garden.

We've had a warmer than normal fall and winter and so my blueberries are blooming as well as my lone peach tree.  I'm not really that worried about my blueberries, because they're against the house on a south facing wall.  As long as we don't have a really long hard freeze, they should be fine.  My peach tree, though, is in the middle of my back yard.  It's in full bloom and even sports a few green leaves.  Tomorrow nights lows are supposed to be 33.  That's a little too close for comfort for me, but there isn't anything to do about it, but pray.  I have been diligent in spraying my fruit trees.  I really want some peaches!

Speaking of fruit trees and blueberries.  For the past week or so I've been working on more than just spraying the fruit trees.  Starting with my peach tree, I've been removing any grass from around the tree, and adding more compost and lime.  In addition, I've begun to put edging around the trees in order to plant companion plants at the base of each one.  Mint, which I have in abundance, goes well with apple trees and so I have one tree complete and the mint planted with it.  Marigolds will be my companion for the peach tree.  I have those seeds started, but can't plant them outside yet.  My blueberry beds are getting somewhat the same treatment.  They're already in a bed, but I have split up my chive plant into 4 smaller plants and  have put two in each blueberry bed in between each blueberry bush.  I may transplant my Lemon Thyme into the blueberry bushes as well.

I finished the crawl space area.  I love, love, love it!  I smile every time I open the door.  The gutters are working like gutters should.  It is an awesome thing to behold.  It's the little things in life!  So how are things on your homestead?

The Results:

Well it is as I feared.  I started the beans too early.  Beginning of Feb is too early for starting these seeds indoors.  They grow to far and too fast.  I had to put them outside before they were ready.  I went out this afternoon to tent the plants for the up coming cold snap, and found the plants, while still alive, are not happy campers.  Tented or not, these guys wouldn't survive the upcoming cold snap.  So next year, while I will still start seeds indoors, I will start them around the beginning of March instead of the beginning of Feb.  It was worth the learning experience to sacrifice a few seeds.  I will grab some more at the store and plant as normal this year.  The squash seems to have fared a little better.  I lost one or two which is common with transplanting squash.  They tend to be temperamental and don't like their roots messed with.  My tomatoes plants are happily growing along.  I have been hardening them off outside periodically.  In about 2 weeks I will place them outside.  Everything else is coming along nicely.  I will cover the herbs and squash with pine straw to help them weather the cold snap on the way.  My blueberry bushes, mistakenly thinking winter is over, are covered with blooms which are now open.  This cold snap could hurt them.  My plan is to turn my focus to my blueberry bushes.  I possible will tent plastic over them and/or keep a fan blowing on the plants overnight to keep them from freezing.  We will see.  Once again I will pull out the heated boxes my dad made to heat the blueberry bushes from the ground up.  One box for each set of three bushes.

These boxes have been so amazingly versatile (thank you Daddy). I have used them as seed starters, blueberry bush warmers, a brooding box, and, in a week or so, and incubator.  One of our hens is brooding.  Once these eggs hatch and she leaves the nest, we will grab up the unhatched eggs and place them in the box with pine shavings, a thermometer, and a bowl of water to help with humidity.  We bought a piece of Plexiglas, cut to fit the top of the box, to cover the box and hold in the heat.  This is our makeshift incubator.  The second box will be a brooding box for each chick as it hatches.  Now what we are going to do with all of these chicks is another story entirely.  We have no idea.  We weren't expecting a hen to brood this early and we didn't realize we would not be able to get the eggs out from underneath her.  So we are in thought process as to what to do over the next couple of weeks.  The Lord giveth and He just keeps ON giving don't He?

So there you have it.  My update from the homestead.  Anyone else have their garden up and coming.  Share!

Nuthin to do but wait.

So back in the first part of February, feeling the gardening monster creeping up, I started an experiment to see if starting my green bean and squash seeds early would help with controlling pests; i.e squash bugs, and bean beetles.  I had no idea green bean plants would grow as tall and as fast as these did.  As a result I had no choice but to go ahead and put them in the ground.  The squash seems to have fared well.  I put them in a few days ago, and covered them with straw.  Yesterday I took the straw off and they seemed OK.  The bean plants are too tall for that, so I have a plan for when the temps get too close to the border for beans.  I will tent some plastic over the row until the nearly freezing temps are gone.  We should get those temps, according to the weather man, this coming Friday and Sat.  Winters last gasp(I hope).  One thing I do know is to start my bean seeds indoors next year around the end of Feb or beginning of March.  Beginning of Feb might be a little too early (ya think?).  So I wait to see how they will do this year.

Everything else is doing fine.  Spinach, Beets, Tomatoes, and herbs are growing well.  My blueberry bushes are covered in blooms as are my peach trees.  I did manage to spray them this year before the buds opened.  One the blooms fall and the leaves are out, I will start a spray routine again..  Peaches are one fruit that seem impossible to not spray.  My blueberry and blackberry bushes are really effortless with the exception of picking them.

On the inside of the Homestead, we are still living on just one check.  Still moving forward so far in getting things paid off or fixed.  The car is paid off, which is a glorious feeling.  We are hopeful to have the truck in the shop sooner rather than later.  Not sure how long these hours at work are going to last.  I'm hopeful they last long enough for us to get the truck in the shop by the end of May.  After that I can go back to 20 hours a week with no problem.  We just want to get that truck fixed, but we are realistic too in that if we can't get the truck fixed, we can use that money toward the purchase of another vehicle.  Without a car payment.  That's the kicker.  We are too close.

So since we still are working towards these goals, I am really trying hard to not spend if I don't have too.  I am making sure I am using up the things in the fridge that need using up soon.  I had some yogurt(plain) that was needing to be used this morning and so I made low fat chocolate muffins and a batch of freezer bisuits.  Here are the recipes:

Freezer Biscuits (compliments of www.hillbillyhousewife.com)

6 cups Self Rising flour (you can use All purpose, just add 3 TBS Baking Powder and 3 tsp Salt)
1 cup shortening
2 cups milk(I used half yogurt and half milk)

Cut shortening into the flour then add the milk.  Stir just until mixed, then dump out on the counter and knead it into a ball of dough.  Cut out your biscuits and lay them out on a cookie sheet.  Place in the freezer.  Once frozen, store in a container.  Use as you need them.  To use take out the biscuits you need and lay them on a cookie sheet.  Bake in a 450 oven 10-15 min or until golden.  Good biscuits.


Low Fat Chocolate Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
2/3 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients together until well incorporated.  Add the yogurt, egg, milk, and vanilla.  I use a whisk to mix it all together.  Pour into a muffin pan.  Bake 350 oven for 20 min.  Makes 12.

Spring dreams and things I wouldn't buy at the store even if I had the money......

I can understand buying certain convenience foods at grocery stores.  Grabbing a box of Hamburger helpers is better than succumbing to the lure of fast food.  Waffles are time consuming to prepare for everyone  if you are needing to get to work.  I get it.  I don't begrudge people buying convenience foods.  Sometimes time demands it, and sometimes you just don't feel like taking the time to do it yourself.  Can I share a secret?  I too have bought convenience foods.  I know the combination of everyone's gasp just sucked some poor shmuck off the street.  It's true though.  There are times when it is easier to grab a ready made pizza or frozen dinner.

Now that the true confessions part of my post has been taken care of; can I just say that there is a line I will not cross.  There are certain things that don't pay to grab at the store.  For example, I do not buy already mashed potatoes refrigerated in a plastic country crock, or Cinnamon sugar mixture in the spice section, or my personal pet peeve, the already made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crust cut off.  Drives me crazy the thought there is a market for these things.  The mark up on these items is ridiculous.  When potatoes cost at most 45 to 50 cents a pound,   I don't understand paying 3 to 4 times that amount.  Same for everything else I listed.  Take the time to make your own cinnamon sugar.  Just take about 1/2 cup sugar and 1tsp cinnamon(or more if you like) and mix it up in jar or other container.  Make your own PB and J and cut the crusts off.  Use the crust if you want to make bread crumbs or croutons. 

Okay my vent is done for now. 

On the homestead, I can say I have been able to prune my fruit trees (and but good too cause I have to be able to get all the spray to them this year.  I WANT PEACHES!).  My plan is to prune them back a good bit and open it up some so that the spray I use can reach all parts of the tree.  I probably won't get fruit this year.  My thought is if I can get ahead of the leaf curl, and fruit moths this year then maybe I will get fruit next year.  I am not out anything because I am throwing away at least a bushel of peaches every season.  Not Cool!  Being outside, even in the cold has only reinforced the longing to get back out in my garden. I am starting to make my plans and dream of a wonderful garden this year.  I am thinking we are looking at another rainy summer so I need to take that into account in my plans.  This means I need to put in at least another two concrete raised beds.  In those three raised beds I will be adding some extra sand and organic material to help with drainage.  Hopeful that will make those areas more productive.  Well that and the addition of the chicken poo. 

Other plans on my more than ambitious list are building a small green house, and hopefully a better chicken coop.  We also have some house type repairs that need to be made.  Are going to do it all?  Uhhhh No!  We will pay to have some of the repairs done cause there are things I have no clue about when it comes to home repair. 

So now that I have dreamt aloud.. What are your spring dreams?

WOOT WOOT! Mama gots to play this weekend..

By play I mean I got to do my normal around the house stuff with no interference.  I started my weekend on Saturday making a loaf of banana bread for breakfast.   After that I tasked myself with getting my sewing table back in working order, catching up the mending, and finishing up some doll clothes.  I was so excited to finish three doll outfits I am planning on selling(I hope) and a gown for an antique doll I have.  Here is the gown:

For breakfast this morning it was homemade cinnamon rolls with milk or coffee depending on your particular bent.  Then off to church.  After church I was able to come home, get dinner in the crock pot, and get into the garden.  I weeded and trimmed around garden beds, cleaned out the chicken coop and tilled the "Organic matter" removed from the coop into one of my garden beds.  By the way Miss Priss is still providing an egg a day.  Bless her heart!  Todays egg offering was the biggest she has laid so far.  Anyway, back to the garden duties.  Slowly but surely I am getting the garden put up for the winter.  I still have items growing and producing and so can't put up all of it yet.  I am getting there though.  I clipped a lot of rosemary and am currently drying it in my oven on a low, low, low  temp.  Dinner was literally a hodge podge of what I have in my fridge.  Left over chicken, in it goes.  5 cups of cooked black beans?  Throw it in there!  Add 1 cup of salsa, a chopped onion,salt and pepper to taste.  Cover with chicken broth and let it cook in your crock pot for a few hours on high.  We served it with crackers and or tortilla chips depending on personal taste.  I would say over all a very productive weekend.  Now to get ready for work tomorrow.  Looking forward to next weekend.  We should have our first temp of the season below freezing and Dh and I are going into the mountains to buy wheat berries and look at the leaves changing color.  So holding that thought in my head I am off to do something productive...take a shower.  You guys have a good day.

Black belt grocery savings part 2

Good morning!  So money is tight for you?  It is here.  This morning we had a surprise in that all of the sudden we are informed that it is time to buy cap and gown for my oldest son's graduation.  I was expecting that little surprise in the beginning of the year not now.  $60 deposit and the part remaining will be another $200.  YIKES!  It is bitter sweet though.  I am happy that my son is able to graduate.  He is my child on the autism spectrum.  For a while there we weren't sure he would be able to make it.  While my youngest is being homeschooled because he fell thru the cracks of the public school system, my oldest son had the benefit of an I.E.P and as such had co-taught classes, timely intervention, tutors, etc because the school system wanted to make sure his scores were high.  I hold his teachers in high regard.  The system not so much.  So I am proud that he will be able to graduate, but the timing of said payment is not good.  But if you think about no time is good to make a $250ish payment.  In addition to that surprise, I finally got my groceries Monday and I am sad to say I went about $80 over.  Had I not restocked my pantry I would have been right on target, but I am concerned that if I don't keep it restocked, then when  I do restock it will be so much more expensive.  What I added to my list were flour, sugar, tea, coffee, oil, canned fruit, and canned peas.  I was totally out of peas and the canned fruit is hopefully temporay until my fruit trees start to produce. While my grocery list did go over in order to keep my pantry stocked, the items I stocked were staple items.  In fact the vast majority of my grocery shopping is primarily staples.  Speaking of fruit trees, that brings me to my next blackbelt grocery tip:
Grow Your Own - Grass seems like such a waste of space.  LOL.  I am sure my dh would have no problem with me using the entire yard for my garden so he wouldn't need to cut grass.(smile) In my back yard I have blackberries(thornless yay), blueberries, peach and apple trees.  I also have my garden in my backyard.  In mygarden I grow tomatoes, corn, green beans, lima beans, navy beans, squash, pumpkin, spinach, lettuce, peppers, potatoes, beets, and cucmbers.  I will not lie to you.  Forget the picture of the cute, clean, lady with her pretty gloves on, her floppy hat, long sleeved shirt, and unsoiled jeans.  Gardening is a hot sweaty dirty business, but satisfying ohhh so satisfying.  I live in Ga and we have the red clay in our dirt.  I have good dirt, and properly prepared isn't too hard to work with.  However I don't use hand gardening tools.  I use full size hoes, cultivators, shovels, tiller, etc.  I will go out to the garden wearing my sunscreen and a sleeveless top and shorts(I know don't try to think of it too hard).  I take my radio to listen too, and am out there for a few hours.  When I come in I am a hot sweaty mess. You haven't felt a better shower than when you have just come in from a garden.  Oh yea, there are bugs.  Yea I know ewwwww, but there are bugs.  Just remember you are bigger than they are.(smile).  SO I think I have portrayed the garden sufficiently.  Now for the good part.  There is nothing better han veggies or fruit fresh from the garden or tree.  The savings is awesome as well.  My blueberry bushes put out over 35lbs of blueberries just this year alone.  I have six bushes that cost me about $10 each years ago.  Each year the bushes put out blueberries, lots of blueberries.  Those bushes have paid for themselves over and over.   The same gy garden.  It makes the produce pennies on the dollar compared to  bought and might I remind you, the taste and nutrition is so much better.  Work hard in the garden and few hours and skip the gym membership.  For those who may not have a yard to plant, look into container gardening, or raise bed gardening.  It is so satisfying to be able to walk past the canned veggie  produce because I dont need anything.  So all things considered gardening is hard work, but well worth the effort.  Trrry it you'll like it! 
Okay so since you went thru all the hulabaloo of listening to me wax on interminably, I will reward you with another recipe:

QUICK BREAD MIX

12 CUPS FLOUR, ALL PURPOSE
3 CUPS SUGAR
3 CUPS BROWN SUGAR
2 TBS BAKING POWDER
2 TBS BAKING SODA
1 TBS CINNAMEN
1 TBS NUTMEG
1 TBS SALT
1 TBS GROUND CLOVES

MIX IT ALL TOGETHER AND STORE UNTIL USED

TO USE:
3 1/2 CUPS MIX
1/3 CUP OIL
2 EGGS BEATEN
1 CUP FRUIT OR VEGGIE PUREE(THIS IS WHERE YOU USE ALL THE ZUCCHINNI YOU'LL GROW)
1 TBS MILK OR LEMON JUICE IF MAKING BANANNA BREAD

MIX ALL TOGETHER THEN BACK IN A 325 OVEN TIL DONE.