After the Rains

We survived all the storms moving through the area.. though I am wondering if we shouldn't call Noah in with his boat... grins

Well I know I haven't posted in a while... using the Internet is just so irritating to me right now. Not in a “I don't know how to use it” way. More like.. I don't see the point to being online unless I have good reason. It's weird.. but it's me.

I am going to keep my blog going I just seem to need a bit more motivation to do it right now.

Bit of news, kids will be going on their trip next week sometime on Saturday unless my grandmother winds up ill. My mother is spending this week caring for her then she'll pick the kids up on her way back home. We're picking them up and getting her washer and dryer as well. One long week no kids though! That is going to be sooo nice.

Garden...

Well... I saved all those Tiger's Eye beans to grow as no one sells them right now. They all sprouted... then... our “tame” buck and his buddies came by and mowed 80% of therm down. Sighs I guess I'll be growing them just for seed this year again.

My grape is finally grasping onto our grip trellis, I'm going to have to work out how to prune it with how our trellis is. I'm hoping the cucumbers will get big enough to start up the trellis this week. Two of the three types of gourds have sprouted, and my sunflowers are spotty. I have all my squash plants growing, and my cabbage family plants as well as my onions are HUGE this year. The cabbages themselves have not started heading yet, but they are twice the size they were last year at this time. The onion stems are about ½ an inch... those are growing in the buckets from last years tomatoes. Speaking of tomatoes... My three little tomato plants are turning into trees out there. They also have tons of flowers on them.

We have been harvesting kale and lettuce every other day, while the kids are gone I should be able to daily. The herbs are doing very well this year as well.. also the one eggplant we have seems to be growing. Our strawberries are looking good, we have not picked any yet as Silver keeps saying they aren't ripe yet. Shrugs I am use to store bought ones which are sold under ripe. The elderberry.. TREES are taking over, they should flower this year and if so there will be tons of them.

I got to try an interesting jelly at the farmer's market yesterday it's white zinfindel. Yes you heard me.. as in the wine. It is soo yummy! Goes really well with banana bread too!

That's it for now.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Few Words...

OK folks first thing, due to money issues here we are going to have our internet off for a month or 3 while we get the money for our building projects done. So after the 8^th of this month I won't be online (according to the phone company).

I will be keeping track of what goes on here so I can update when we get it back on. WE are going to be working on our outdoor stove in the next couple of days and provided we don't get rain before tomorrow afternoon we will get more digging done in the root cellar tomorrow. We are down about 2ft now and we need about another 5 ft.

I have made a couple of decisions on some of our “standard” crops at this point. We liked the lemon cucumbers more than standard cucumbers in flavor and how they grow so unless the dragon's egg variety does well and tastes better we will be sticking with only lemon cucumbers. By the way... we had one ripen fully so far and it was so GOOD!

As it stands we will be growing red noodle long beans as the green black seeded one was having a major bug issue. While we picks the same amount of both, all but one of the black seeded were “buggy”.

I seem to be having some major issues with my squashes this year. I still have no female flowers on them. Now I see them starting then they wilt and die. However, the male flowers are flourishing. Anyone know why? I'm wondering if it's been the heat wave causing it troubles.

I have some good news on the GMO front:

http://www.naturalnews.com/033216_GMO_contamination_lawsuits.html

At least in two states a farmer can sue another for contamination by pesticides/herbicides and GMO infection. Read the article please and learn more!

I will be making my first jam/jelly attempt sometime this week as I know have everything I need to make some. Wish me luck and if I get it done before our net goes down I'll post my results.

Foraging day!

Yep “foraging” , as foraging is one of the good things about living in a country/woods setting you can gather a lot more food than you can just by growing. Today was a blackberry day. As you can see my harvest was not big as it is still early in the season.

We have a great many blackberry canes along the road here, so many and so big that they over hang it in spots. The canes are so swollen with unripened fruits right now they are bending quite a bit I'll try to get a picture of in in a day or so.

We should have a great many more berries in about a week based on the coloring of the remaining berries now. Oh, that smaller bowl is of blueberries that grow wild next to my property. The blueberries seem to be spreading as well so next year we should have a good crop from those along with my lone one in my berry patch. I do hope to add to my berry patch next year.

For now any berries that I forage are being put into a baggie and being frozen (don't yell at the moment the baggie takes less room in my freezer than the jars and the jars keep getting broken by kids). I am freezing as I am hoping in a month or two, to be able to make my first jam/jelly. I am planning it to be a mixed berry jam possibly with rosehips in it for vitamin C.

I need to look up some recipes on jams/jellies online and look through the few I have stored on here and see if I have one I can modify for my use. Lowes right now has a anniversary edition water canner that I'd like to buy this month if we can afford it. Then I'll get some jelly sized jars and anything else I need and make my first attempt!

I am so excited by the thought, and I hope it “jells” correctly as I'll be doing this completely from a newbie standpoint. Any helpful hints would be appreciated!

Now take some time and find out if you have something “wild” near you to forage. Most areas that have any hint of wild berries sometimes will have “berrrying days” where someone will guide you to go to the best “patches”. Though I am sure they don't show you the town's favorite spot, why give out a good secret?

I have noticed the mandrakes (or Mayapple if you prefer) are not doing well this year I have only seen one with a growing fruit. So I am guessing I am not trying that jam out this year. I hope to next year though.

Be Well and Blessed Be...