Winter?

Well, it is almost Thanksgiving. We never got the garden tilled. Pulled and cut all the plants except the brussels sprouts. We'll see if they produce. Everything had to do battle with the slugs this year so nobody did super well. We had some funny weather to boot. It never really did get warm. We only had a few days of the hot summer weather.

We did get my compost moved to the most clay filled section of the garden. I pulled the fence from around the garden as well. I left fence up around the compost. The dog would live in there if I didn't.

Speaking of my compost... I ended up having an avocado pit sprout while it was in the compost pile. So we threw it into a pot and brought it in. Now we have an avocado tree growing in the house. Well, more like seedling still. We'll see how it does as a house plant. I know it won't survive our winters outside.

The seed catalogs have already started to come in. I'm thinking I'll do a lot from seed, but with a new baby and a toddler this upcoming spring I think we'll have to do a few more plants. I really liked mulching my paths with a sawdust meant for animal pens. I think we'll have to do that again.

So basically my plans for next summer:

• Have Tom put a border/raised beds in the garden
• expand the tomato section
• mulch with sawdust
• mulch the strawberries this should really be done about now (maybe Tom will this weekend if I ask really nicely.)
• make sure I sprinkle the slug killer early
• plant lots of peas for Bear
• plant lots of tomatoes for Bear
• lots of onions for us
• try to get cucumbers to grow again (haven't had much luck with 'em but Bear really likes 'em)
• expand the herb section

Of course all of that is on top of the plans for the house. Things like replacing a couple windows and painting the porch.

So now for current weather. We've gotten a little snow. Enough to say we did. It melted after a day and now it is supposed to get really cold. I think predicted is supposed to be somewhere around 10 degrees F. Not much above that for a high during the day. Maybe we are getting into winter? I kinda hope so. I'm ready.

October 16th

Been a month since I posted... We've had our first hard frosts. About 28 degrees F last week. Did in what was left of the tomato plants and the squash plants. I'm hoping I can convince Tom to help me tear up plants and till for the fall. At 6 months pregnant I'm not feeling super up to doing all that needs done.

I didn't get as many tomatoes as I had hoped this year. Heirloom varieties don't seem to have the yields of the hybrids. Of course the hail and blossom rot didn't help this year either. The squash did okay, and I seem to have a couple of ears of corn but haven't tried them yet.

I've moved the compost to the bed that is full of clay and needs some organic material. I'm not done moving the pile, but that is another one that I need Tom's help with. I think the only other major thing to do will be to get some sort of raised beds going. I pulled the fence and we are hoping to make it a little more ascetically appealing. I might have to do some online idea browsing for raised beds and landscaping.

Garden update

I realize it has been awhile...

The tomatoes are starting to finally ripen. I've had to do battle with hail and blossom rot this year. Not a great year for tomatoes. It really doesn't help that I tried several heirloom varieties that appear to be more apt to get the blossom rot, split skins, etc. That and they don't seem to be quite the producers that the hybrids are. Ah well, they do have incredible flavor though.

I've also had scabby potatoes this year. Our cool, wet summer has not been great for a veggie garden. I managed to get a head of cabbage, lots of green beans, a few carrots, lots of onions, dill went crazy, tons of peas, and a few beets. I'm not good at keeping up with the lettuce and spinach. I do have a couple small tomato plants that were from previous year's seeds. They seem to be doing alright.

Oh, the tomatillos have done well this year. I'm getting ready to make another batch of salsa verde from them this weekend.

My big challenge has been to keep things from freezing this last week. Now if I can just make it another week or so until the tomatoes finish ripening so I can make the salsa...

Gardening leads to thoughts on saving money...

It has been kind of entertaining to read the headlines lately. There is almost always at least one blurb about how to save money. The best part is that it is usually directed at people that in all reality have a fair amount of money along with a job. Most of the suggestions are good ones, but really don't go far enough if you truly have little to no income.

A little background: I grew up in what would be called a poverty stricken family if you looked at the finances. We didn't feel like we were in poverty and yet our income level was well below the standard poverty level. Now, I am not saying we were poor. We weren't. We never really wanted for anything, other than maybe some more money. We always had enough to eat and we had clothes to wear. We had a roof over our head and as kids we got to do plenty of extracurricular activities.

But...Here is where we did things differently from other people. I very seldom remember having new clothes until I was paying for them myself. Everything you wanted you had to save up for. There were lots of times I wanted to do something or buy something that just wasn't possible at that time. If we didn't have the cash in hand it wasn't possible. There were no credit cards, no home equity loans, and no car loans. We didn't drive new cars. Quite the opposite in fact.

In order to make ends meet there were things like the fact we didn't have insurance unless we were in school. Then we had the coverage through the school disctrict. It didn't amount to much but it did help. Mom and Dad made almost all of our food from scratch. We shopped for almost everything second hand. When something was purchased that was new lots of research went into it. It had to be something that was going to last. There was no t.v., no dishwasher, no microwave, and lights were used as little as possible. This meant our utility bill stayed low. Wood heat ensured the power bill didn't spike in the winter. It couldn't, there was no other option.

We had a small garden too. My poor mom though. We lived at 6200 feet so not much more than peas, potatoes, and carrots would grow. We did harvest lots of berries from the wild and we went hunting every fall. I know, not an option for most city dwellers but we weren't living anywhere near a city.

So, I'm finally getting to my point. I now garden in order to save money on our food. Especially as we have children of our own. I haven't kept very detailed records, but in my estimation I probably only spend about $100 on the garden in a year. I know I get more than $100 worth of food from it. Especially when you start to consider things like the herbs I have. Even parsley that is an inexpensive thing to purchase fresh. I think it is about 80 cents for a bunch of fresh parsley. Now if I were to buy a jar of dried parsly from the spice aisle that price jumps to $4.00 or more. I think I bought my parsly plant for about $3.00 and I can get several fresh cuttings from that plant every year. Plus if I let it go to seed then I don't have to spend that $3.00 next year.

I'm doing the same sort of thing with our baby food this next round. Green beans from the store in a jar cost about 80 cents a jar. I have more green beans than we can eat right now so I'm steaming, pureeing, and freezing them for baby food. Besides reducing the cost I know what is in my baby food now. Sure my time should be figured in to the cost as well, but I'm preserving food anyway this time of year and it really doesn't take any more time to set aside an ice cube tray or two of baby veggies.

Well, now that I have run out of steam on this subject. I'm tired of sitting in front of the computer, it is a nice cool day, and I still have beans that need picked. I think I'll go play in the garden.

August 7th--Full blown summer

When did that happen. The peas, beets, carrots, and lettuce are done. The potatoes ended up with scab, and the green beans are going nuts. I have volunteer tomato plants again along with lots of squash that decided to grow. I'm finally starting to get a cucumber here and there and I harvested the first of the zuchinni today. Some of the roma tomatoes are starting to color too. Soon I will be extrememly busy in the garden.

The cherry butter ended up being frozen. That way of preserving isn't nearly as pretty as canning, but sure is faster. None of the pictures really warrented getting put up.

And one last thing...Onions are going crazy and corn is starting to tassle.

July 18th-- Cherry Butter

I got some cherries the other day. 3 lbs of them. Beautiful ripe Rainiers. Then I realized that we shouldn't eat 3 pounds just like that. There are consequences to eating that many cherries... At any rate I have never really liked preserved cherries in any form so I've been debating what to do with these. Most cherry recipes are for Bing or some other type of dark or tart cherry, not the sweet, white, Rainiers. I did finally find a couple of cherry jam recipes that sounded worth a try, but they call for pectin. I don't have any in the pantry and I'm not going to the store while Bear is napping.

So on to the decision to make butter. I've made apple and plum butter, but not cherry. The pectin was the final decision maker, but as I was slicing to pit the cherries I realized another benefit to butter. You don't have to be super careful with the fruit. Bruised imperfect cherries can go in, unlike all the other recipes for preserving cherries that call for perfect fruits. Whew. I'm not good at being that careful. Yet another benefit: I can use my crock pot to cook the cherries. A plus for sure when it is supposed to be in the 90s again today.

If everything goes well, I will post pictures and more of a step-by-step of canning the butter etc. We'll see if the taste is even worth putting up. Starting this next month is when I really wish I was a stay-at-home mom. The harvest of the garden starts to really get going and I sure could use the time at home. Maybe I'll be able to save some vacation next year and take a week in the fall to put up canned goods. Right now I just have weekends. One way to help this out is to freeze things until I can get to it on the weekend.

Speaking of freezing things...I'd better get going on the big batch of blueberries that I got with the cherries. And next month the huckleberries ought to be ready! Mmmm...I love the glut of summer fruits and berries.

July 17th Carrots and Beets

They are out, washed, and sitting in the sink. Now I have to decide what to do with them. Do I turn them into baby food? Maybe pickle the beets? Stew the carrots? Hmmm... This is the bad part of the garden. Deciding which is going to be the best way to enjoy the bounty. Fresh carrots are a completely different animal from those at the store. Beets I like, but in small amounts, and no one else in the family likes them. I put them in the garden because they are easy to grow.

The peas are getting past their prime. That is an easy decision. Shell them and put 'em in the freezer. That is if I can get them past a little boy. For as much as he doesn't like the carrots or beets he LOVES peas from the garden. In the pod or out, but generally not cooked. Come to think of it though I haven't tried cooking the ones from the garden. They never made it that far.

I've pulled most of my lettuce and did pull all the spinach. So my first bed is almost done. A few carrots left along with the peas and green onions. Once the peas and bachelor buttons are done that bed is going to get cleaned up and I'm thinking I'll mulch over it with my compost pile. This bed has a lot of clay to it. Originally I was thinking of planting something else, but I just don't think it is going to happen this year. I'm not all that ambitous.

Besides, I'm going to soon have onions, beans, tomatoes, and corn to deal with. I'm not sure what is going on with my red potatoes. I think some sort of bug has gotten to them. They never flowered and they are yellowing and wilting. Either that or a disease.

My main bug of blame this year (and last) has been slugs! I have a veritable slug farm. Anyone need slugs? Maybe someone wants to rent a garden area to feed their ducks or chickens? I could keep some birds pretty darn happy for quite some time.

Well, I think I'm off to try to put some dinner together and make a decision about my beets and carrots. Maybe.