July update

We have really been busy around here to say the least. I know there is still 2 days left in the month but being it was raining I thought this maybe my only break from the gardening chores that have been keeping me on my toes for the whole month. So with that said our poundage for July is 258. Yes 258 pounds harvested from our gardens for this month!
Also with a rouge estimate saving us $187.38. Still calculating the rest of the produce so I am sure that amount will continue to grow.
Our tomatoes are having a rough go. With the rainy weather they have been introduced to a bout of blossom rot but are coming out of it. They are heavy and we have been having to tie them up over and over again. They are tall and I am pleased with the looks of them already, although I have one problem. I forgot where I planted the ripe green tomatoes. Hope to find them soon.

Freezing, canning, and salting Oh my!

Although the weather feels like Fall it still is indeed Summer. The harvest season is in full swing. With peppers, cabbage, blackberries, corn, potatoes, and brussel sprouts all needing to be canned, pickled, froze, or dried we are i n the midst of our busiest time of year. Oh and did I mention putting up fence, 7 birthdays, and building a barn for the horses? Yup all that means a whole lotta late nights bonding with my kitchen. (Sigh) The pleasures of homesteading. ya gotta love it.

Our first set of corn has really set out alot of pounds and makings for some savory meals come winter. The potatoes are coming up and we have about 20 pounds in the pantry, where its cool and dark. When the potatoes come up new veggies have been filling the holes in the garden or raised beds. We have a lot of veggies in the pantry, almost nearly full, making me wonder where I will end up putting the rest of our harvest. I'm sure the cupboards could hold a bit more with a little rearranging.

Yesterday we went over the hill to check on posts for the fencing and alas the blackberries were ripe and much more to our surprise the wild animals didn't eat them all. SO we got a container and had a fun time picking them wonderful berries which will be jam sometime today.

A little trip

puts it all in new light. I sometimes get tired and worn out. I sometimes think what life would be without canning, cooking, gardening, homesteading every day. That's why we thought it would be a great idea to get away for the weekend. Now we do not go many places. We travel very little but sometimes you just need to get away. The above pictures are from our trip.

We ate in restaurant's and really the only thing I wanted to do was come home and cook a home cooked meal. I loved seeing everyone from my childhood but we are happy to be back - home. I am happy we homestead. Happy to have the food on our land and pleased I had plenty of harvest to get canned when we returned home. Yes it was nice to have a little break but I wouldn't change how we live for the world!

Garden in July

The garden is in full swing. We have had an extremely weird summer with very few days over 90 degrees. More days with rain then without and more cooler autumn like mornings. But none the less no matter how the weather is this summer we must take it and try to do some good with it. The green beans do not like the weather but the cucumbers and tomatoes are loving it.

The first picture is of the potatoes, then cucumbers above the milk jugs, the milk jugs are where the early potatoes were which now is the broccoli, then above that is the peppers, melons, then onions.

Second picture, the one with the blue step stool in it, has beans and corn in it.

The third picture consists of zucchini, tomatoes, and corn in it. As in the previous post the tomatoes are doing wonderful, the corn seems to be stunted a bit ( maybe due to the weather).
None the less we are taking what we can get and if we need more the farmers market is right down the road. Hopefully we won't need it much but its there if we need it. I sure hope they have organic.

How is your garden growing?

Tomatoes - big and small

With 158 tomato plants I plan to have enough to make sauces, salsa, ketchup, and sun dried tomatoes. As it turns out , ablove pictures, show we will probably have plenty of tomatoes to go around. All the plants look like the above photos, they are loaded. Some as big as a small bowl. We have several different colors of tomatoes growing like, pink, yellow, red, black, white, orange, and of course green. I hope to have enough ripe green tomatoes to make up a batch of green tomato sauce for the kids. They variesties of tomatoes are as follows : Uncle Mark Bagby,Verna Orange, Great White, Black Plum, Grace Lahman, Black Krim, Pinapple, Yellow pear, mama leone, rutgers, dads sunset break O'day, Old Virgina, Thessaloniki, and Aunt Ruby's german green tomato.

Getting over the fear

, the fear of the pressure canner. With help from other gardeners and harvest keepers I finally gave in and used the pressure canner. I was really shocked how easy it is to use, now I looking for anything and everything to can for the pantry.

Now I am hoping the green beans will start really producing so I can can more then one jar at a time.

4 days in

and already we are having a bumper crop. With the tomatoes still yet to ripen we are experiencing tremendous yields. Vegetables are in my home laying everywhere, the pantry filling quickly and still have yet to pressure can anything. But the water bath canner has been getting quiet a workout. I find myself trying to figure out where I can place more shelves in our walk in pantry.
Oh yeah sorry for rambling but Happy 4Th of July. this July our family is celebrating our freedom of grocery stores. Looks like we will have little or no grocery store time. Thus this is more time spent with the family having fun weather it be just chillin or maybe a free time like fishing.
Okay back to the vegetables, in 4 days we have harvested 38 pounds 11oz these pounds are coming from onions, cabbage, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, beans and herbs. This is also done completely organic. Absolutely no pesticides what so ever.
Today we planted some fall broccoli and some more tomatoes bringing the total of tomato plants to 156 give or take one or two. I'm still hoping to can 1500 jars of food for this year. Hoping that will get us through till the next harvest.
Happy 4 Th of July!

Worthy of another year

So when we were planting the potato seeds earlier this year we were hoping for the best and just praying that we would grow enough potatoes to pay for the seeds that we bought. We purchased 3 different varieties small red ( shown in photo), Yukon gold, and russet Burbank. We spend around $20 dollars for our seeds and got 6 rows planted. Last night we grabbed the produce basket and up the hill we went to gather the red potatoes. The kids were having a blast - one trying to find the biggest potato in there hole and the other trying to find the most potatoes in theirs.
After clearing out the row, I came in to the house to weigh our treasures, 13 pounds of wonderful potatoes. That with the potatoes we have already harvested pays for the seeds and some seeds to save for planting next year. With 5 rows of potatoes still in the ground it looks to be a wonderful potato year.