Garden Pics and Stormy Weather

Our garden is finally beginning to look like a garden. 

That's great, in general, but the late growth is presenting a few problems.  Our early crops, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage, are just starting to take off.  They are cool weather plants, so not only do we wonder if they have time to mature properly before really hot temperatures arrive, we were counting on them nearing harvest by now so that we could sow other seeds in their place.

What to do?  What to do?

As they are still rather small, we are considering transplanting them back into pots and trying to over-summer them and put them back in the ground as large bedding plants in late August for a fall harvest.  I'm thinking this isn't the best idea.

We could just sacrifice them so we can use the real estate to plant our summer crops (i.e., zucchini, peppers, etc.)  It would work, and monetarily we'd only be out a few seeds, but I just hate the idea.

Or, we could leave them be and add more beds (raised or in-ground) to plant our summer crops in.  This is probably what we will do.

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We had thunderstorms with strong winds overnight.  Here is a limb from a small maple that has broken and is draped over the power line running from the pole to our house.  Our electric utility has been notified, but because we still have power, we are not on the priority list (apparently lots of folks lost power in the storm).  We've been told a crew will come out soon, but probably not today.

Problem is, more storms are on the way.  In the 15 minutes it's taken me to write this since taking the pic, the skies have grown dark again and the radar is turning red.  If there's much wind with this next round, we could easily lose power.

Still, I'll take this weather any day over the snow we had three weeks ago.

April Resolution Review

I'm a week late with this post, but April was a whirlwind for me, and I'm just now catching up.

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in April. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• April Progress - Read 2 books (9 books of 18 total), and none of the  magazines (so still at 10 magazines of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
• Dandelion Hunter:  Foraging the Urban Wilderness by Rebecca Lerner

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• April Progress - Quilted a table runner for my dresser ( 4 projects of 12 total)

So, I finally quilted something.  So many people (I'd venture to say they're mostly women) say quilting is their hobby of choice, so I wanted to see what the fuss was all about and learn a new skill.  I enjoyed the process, but I didn't love it.  On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a crafty project I hate, like mending clothing, and 10 being a project I love, like crocheting an afghan, I give quilting about a 6. 

I chose colors that coordinated with our bedroom, and I think selecting the fabric was the best part of the process.  I also enjoyed doing the machine quilting, which in this case was simple diagonal lines.  Cutting and piecing the top was okay, as was sewing on the binding.  The part I didn't like was, that as careful as I felt I was being, there were still glaring mistakes.  I've read that it's to be expected with a first quilt.  I chose to leave the mistakes in, because I just didn't have the patience to rework any of them.  That is the main reason I may not quilt anything else.  Then again, maybe I will.  It will probably depend on the type of project and my mood.

All that said, here it is.  It's a simple hourglass pattern, without border, but with binding I cut myself.  I did all of it on the machine.  If anyone is interested, here is the pattern, and here is the websites I used to teach myself the basics of quilting, and how to get the diagonal lines straight.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• April Progress - We completed our spring planting sometime early in April, but I don't recall taking time to fill in what we did in my garden organizer.  I really need to do that before I forget entirely.
  
  And I'll just be blunt.  Three mornings of frost in late April sucks.  Snow (yes, snow) during the first week of May sucks more.  So far, everything has survived, with the help of tarps and upended buckets for cloches, but growth has been very slow for this time of year.
  

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• April Progress - We switched away from buying granulated white sugar in March and were able to stick to that decision in April.  No other changes were made.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• April Progress - Again I say, gardening is great exercise!  Reach high for the tarps, carry them to the garden, spread them out, haul firewood to hold them in place, wait out frost and snow, then reverse.  Repeat approximately once a week, well past last average frost date.

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• April Progress - Shane continues to work out of town several times a month, so we are continuing to pay extra each month toward the loan principal.  A noticeable dent in the balance is being made.

Haphazard Homestead Happenings

Where does the time go?  The days are just flying by lately and so much is happening around here.

The gardening is beginning to show signs of growth.  Except for the potatoes, onions and ginger, everything we planted this year went directly into the ground as seeds.  Almost all the little seedlings have started to come up.  We have carrots, onion, radishes, peas, lettuces, Swiss chard, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, turnips, and beets.  No signs of cauliflower yet, though.  We've been eating asparagus on a regular basis, and some of our rhubarb is almost ready to harvest.

We had a couple of nights of freezing temps last week (in late April?), but we covered everything and it all made it.  The weather, and therefore the garden, are running a few weeks behind this year, and I'm wondering now if we'll have any room for our late spring plantings that I had thought would follow behind some of the early crops.  Oh well, we might just have to build another raised bed or two.

Like everything else, our flowering trees are behind schedule.  Our red bud, white bud and crab apple are just now starting to bloom.  One of our young rhododendrons is in full splendor right now, though.

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I have almost completed my April craft project and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish by tomorrow afternoon.  Look for it on Wednesday, along with the rest of my April goals update.

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For those who enjoy hearing about Bob the Basement Cat, he is doing well, but we've come to the conclusion that he is either partial or completely deaf.  I'm not sure how we missed it, actually.  We can often go in and out of the basement and do whatever we need to do, and if he's asleep or just looking away from us, he might never realize we're there.  Also, when you speak or make other noises, his ears don't move toward the sound, not even a little.  It might also explain why his meows are so very loud and might be the reason he craves touch so much.

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Our weekend schedules are filling up fast for spring/summer.  A couple of biggish home improvement projects, a trip to the zoo on Mother's Day, a day of city-wide garage sales, and camping, have us booked up for most weekends until after Independence Day.

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19 more days until school is out for Kat, possibly for good!  We have decided we will unschool her once this year is over.  Learning about this lifestyle change is huge in our lives right now and is what I've been spending much of my time on recently.  I promise, though, that this shift won't turn this into an unschooling blog.  I'm not sure I'll blog about it much at all, but if I do, I'll spin it off to a separate blog much like I do with our RVing stories.  Just thought I'd mention it, since it's been taking me away from the blog and Facebook page lately.

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I apologize again for not being around to visit your blogs and pages much lately, but I'm going to try to remedy that this week. 

Ready, Set, Garden!

Gardening has begun at Haphazard Homestead!

I now have a new printer and have begun using the garden planner I purchased earlier this year.  I have mapped out our garden on grid paper, but I also like mapping it on an aerial photo (this one's from Google Earth) and pasting it into a drawing program to add the ground features.  It just gives us a more realistic perspective, I think.  All the white boxes or lines are our planting areas, both raised and in-ground beds.  If they aren't labeled, they are still empty.  It should also go without saying that the beds are absolutely not-to-scale.

Shane and I have been simultaneously planning on paper and planting in soil.  So far, we have planted a largish potato patch, two new gooseberry bushes, as well as transplanting about 75 strawberry plants to a new pyramid.

While I'll try not to neglect the blog entirely, you can expect that posting will be more erratic for a while. I apologize in advance for absences that are sure to happen, and will post if/when spare moments and inspiration coincide.

February Resolution Review

Since Shane will be home and our weekend will begin tomorrow, and since the last day of February is today, I decided to write my Friday post today.

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in February. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• February Progress - Read 2 books (5 of 18 total), and 5 of the  magazines (6 of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• February Progress - Started and completed one toe-up knitted socks. ( 1.5 of 12 total)

I taught myself to crochet around the age of 12 or 13.  A few years later, I taught myself to knit.  I don't consider myself an accomplished knitter, and think it's more difficult than crocheting, but I usually do alright.  These socks were probably the most challenging knitting project I've tackled.  The work itself is not difficult, but just finding a pattern I could make sense of took days.  I made irreparable mistakes causing me to start over several times, but with each re-do, the quality improved.  A few nights ago I was determined to finish the sock, but come 2:00 a.m. when the yarn was about to run out, I completely forgot to consider that I needed a stretchy bind-off.  I bound off in a traditional way and couldn't get the thing over my foot.  So, I had to rework that, and now it might be too stretchy, but at least I'll be able to wear it (and learned a stretchy bind-off to boot!).

The sock isn't without flaws, by far, but it will be wearable, and I'm looking forward to finishing the pair.  What's more, now that I have a clue what I'm doing, I'll probably make more socks in the future.

My first sock!  It's in Paton Kroy washable wool
sock yarn; the colorway is Clover Colors.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• February Progress - Our printer quit working and I haven't replaced it yet, so I haven't been able to use the garden planning downloads I bought.  However, I've been planning all the same.  I know what we will be planting, in approximate quantities, and have ordered seeds.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• February Progress - I have to admit that I haven't made any progress toward finding less harmful sweeteners since last month.

In other nutrition news, I've started making kombucha tea and tibicos soda (aka, water kefir) again after letting both go dormant for a few months at the end of last year.  Since re-establishing the habit of drinking a cup of one or the other -- or both -- daily again, I've felt a noticeable improvement in the way I feel.  To me, they are like safer, more natural energy drink and they are good for your gut.  IMO, they taste good, too.


Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• February Progress - I have not found a different yoga class to join and to be honest, haven't given it much thought.

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• February Progress - A little.  When we first bought the RV, I padded our first two monthly payment by about $90, rounding it to the next hundred dollar amount.  For the next five months, though, I wasn't comfortable doing that.  We are in a position now that I can start paying extra again each month and even start catching up on the five months when I wasn't able to pay extra.  Every little bit helps.

Garden Planning - Step 2 - Buying Seed

Knowing how much to plant each year is the hardest step in garden planning, I think.  As far as I can tell, no matter how I choose to calculate amounts, I'm going to get them wrong. That said, I still think it's better to work on this step and at least have an idea, rather than to just forge ahead blindly.  After all, neither a truckload of zucchini nor a spoonful of peas will do me much good.

I started out by taking my initial list from Step 1 and considering how much we eat of each.  This isn't an exact science, and some calculations will be less brain twisting easier than others. 

One way to figure amounts is to determine how many times a week your family eats a vegetable, multiply that by the number of people in your family, then by 52 weeks a year to determine your annual consumption in servings.  It's easy enough to Google to find out how many servings are in a pound of that particular vegetable, but if you can find even two websites that remotely agree on how many pounds per plant that vegetable will yield, please send them to me, because I couldn't find them.

Another way to plan is to remember how much you planted last year.  Every year we plant about 8 square feet of lettuce.  We don't plant it in rows, we just broadcast the seeds.  Every year I'm certain it won't be enough to satisfy those early spring cravings for fresh salads.  Every year it ends up being too much and bolting and/or getting bitter before we can eat it all.  Every year the excess becomes cheap filler for the compost pile.  In an odd way, this works for us, so why fix what isn't broken?

So this is how I proceeded, best-guessing my way through the roster of things we'd like to grow, and ultimately moving a few more things off the planting list and onto the purchasing list.  Once this list was finalized, Shane and I compared it with the seeds we already have on hand and know are good, then we ordered the rest. 

At this point in our gardening experience, I don't feel qualified to recommend specific varieties or seed sources. I will tell you that most of the seeds we already have on hand came from Hometown Seeds in a promo pack I received a few years ago.  Our seed potatoes were gifted to us (thanks, Melinda!).  We ordered the rest of what we needed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, both because they sell non-GMO seeds and because they are located in our home state.  We have just a few things left to buy; we'll probably get those from local nurseries.  You'll have to do your own research and make the decisions that are best for your family.

Next up...I plan the layout of the garden while I wait for the snow to melt.

Garden Planning - Step 1 - Knowing What You Eat

I've mentioned before that I bought a neat-o perpetual garden planner download from Northwest Edible Life, and have all intentions of using it this year, but our printer pooped out last week.  Until I can find a replacement printer for cheap or find time to take the file to be printed out at a printer-outer shop, I'm stuck with old-school pencil and paper.

I had to do a little research to remember, but I've determined that this will be our fifth season in the garden.  In the past, we've grown a little of this, a little of that, and whatever sounded interesting.  It's a fun way to garden, and a great way to learn what you like, don't like, can grow well, or can't grow at all.

This year, though, we're approaching gardening a little differently.  There will still be plenty of variety and a bit of novelty, but we're really going to focus on growing what we eat most.

With that in mind, the first step in this year's plan was to write down everything I could think of that we eat that is plant-based.  From tomatoes to dry beans to rice to tea to pineapple.  I used a seed catalog or two to help me remember everything and I wrote down things I know we can't grow simply because they might jog my memory about things we can grow here.

Then I went through and crossed off anything that we can't grow in our area (things like citrus, tropicals, coffee) and anything we don't have room to grow (grains, mostly) and things I'm just not ready to try yet (grapes, mushrooms).

Once that was done, I considered our family demand.  How often do we eat these foods?

There are several vegetables, fruits, and berries that we eat often and grow well for us.  Because these are on our menu several times a week all year round, these will be the biggest money-savers and nutrition-givers.  They will stay on the list.  Frequently-used herbs also stay at the top of the list.  For some reason I'm not very successfully at growing herbs, but if I can get successful, then cha-ching!  Big savings!

Several crops will grow well for us, but we don't eat them as often.  They'll be planted if we can work them in, or dropped without regret if we can't. 

Some foods are better for us to purchase, either because we don't eat that much of them, we have tried growing them before with little or no luck, we know they won't grow here at all (coconuts, anyone?), or we don't have room to grow them even though they will grow here (wheat is good example).  Unless we just want to try a couple of these crops for the fun of it, they won't make the cut.

The end result should be a fairly accurate list (below) of what we'll be planting this year.  Your list will vary depending on your appetite, gardening zone, skill level and space limitations.


Already-Established Perennials:
Asparagus
Rhubarb
Strawberries
Blackberries
Elderberries
Raspberries
Sunchokes

Definitely Will Plant:
Green beans
Lettuce, variety
Onions, bulbing
Garlic
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Dry beans
Carrots
Beets
Zucchini or other summer squashes
Onions, green (scallions)
Spinach
Swiss chard
Bell peppers
Cucumbers
Radishes
Cilantro
Parsley
Basil
Thyme
Oregano
Cumin

Will Plant If It Works Out:
Sweet Corn
Peas (shell-out and snow varieties)
Kohlrabi
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Celery
Eggplant
Cabbage
Napa cabbage
Collard greens
Jalapeno peppers
Winter squash (butternut, acorn)
Ground cherries
Watermelon
Okra
Sunflowers
Ginger
Summer savory
Sesame (for seeds)
Gooseberry bush(es)
Peach tree(s)

Be prepared.  Next week, we start talking numbers.

January Resolution Review

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress.


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• January Progress - Read 3 books (3 of 18), but just one of the  magazines (1 of 38). 

The books I read were:

• Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Beatles, Beatlemania, and the Music that Changed the World by Bob Spitz
• The Asperkid's (Secret) Book of Social Rules: The Handbook of Not-So-Obvious Social Guidelines for Tweens and Teens with Asperger Syndrome by Jennifer Cook O'Toole
• The Unschooling Handbook:  How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith.

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• January Progress - Finished a pair of fingerless mittens. (1 of 12)

I finished these crocheted fingerless mittens.  I had started them back in the summer on a camping trip, but lost the pattern on the same trip.  Fortunately, I was able to find it online, and was able to complete the pair. 

I also knitted a small afghan/blanket for our cat Bob, who was moved from outside to our basement in December.  He likes to sleep on dirty laundry, specifically sweaters, so I decided to make him something of his own.  It isn't much to look at, but it used up some of my yarn stash, and was good knitting practice for me.


Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• January Progress - Did germination testing on the seeds we already have on hand.  Printed garden organizer I purchased from Northwest Edible Life and recorded seed tests and a few other things.  Read about gardening.  Thought about gardening.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• January Progress - Shane has switched entirely to local honey as the sweetener in his coffee.  I only sweeten coffee occasionally, but when I do, I've been using Sucanat.  I have not yet found a sweetener I like in my tea other than white sugar, so I'm working on reducing the amount.  Little other progress has been made on this front.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• January Progress - Something came up and I was unable to join.  I plan to look for another class or a different activity to meet this goal.
• I've started looking at bicycles.  I'm getting a good idea about what I want and don't want in a bike.  Basically, I'd like a big ol' cruiser bike with a big, well-padded seat, and handlebars I don't have to lean over, but with multiple speeds.  If I can't find what I want, Shane says he can (and will) Frankenstein custom build one for me. 

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• January Progress - None.  I have filed our tax returns already, and should be getting refunds, but those funds are earmarked for tires for Shane's truck, tires for the RV, and a large chunk of savings for next winter when holidays and bad weather shrink Shane's paycheck considerably.  Very little, if any, funds will go toward the RV balance.  On the other hand, we just completed a No Spend/Reduced Spending month and were able to save quite a bit of money to put toward savings.

Sausage-and-Stuffing Stuffed Acorn Squash

Most stuffed squash recipes include rice in the mixture, but I wanted to use a box of stuffing that was in the cabinet, so I came up with this.  If you'd prefer, you can make your own stuffing mix to use.  Just search "homemade stove top stuffing" and you'll find lots of recipes.

I stuffed three acorn squashes for my family (6 halves), and ended up with extra stuffing mixture.  I could have stuffed additional squash, but instead I spread the stuffing into a greased baking dish (use whatever size is appropriate for the amount of stuffing you have left) and baked it alongside the squash.  It would make a good side dish, lunch dish or even breakfast.  Kat and I had some for breakfast this morning.

Sausage-and-Stuffing Stuffed Acorn Squash

3 to 6 acorn squash, depending on the size of the squash and size of your family
1 box stuffing mix (or equivalent homemade stuffing)
1 pound pork breakfast sausage
2 eggs
shredded cheddar cheese

Wash squash and cut in halve from stem end to blossom end.  Remove seeds and guts.  Sprinkle cut side with salt and place in a lightly sprayed microwave safe baking dish, cut side up.  Cover and microwave on high for 10 minutes.  Alternately, you could cover with foil and bake at 375°F for 50 minutes.

While squash is cooking, prepare stuffing mix according to package directions, but omitting the butter if it is called for.  Set aside to cool slightly.

Crumble and fry pork sausage, drain.  Break up large pieces so that sausage is a fairly fine crumble.  Stir into prepared stuffing. 

Beat eggs in a separate bowl, then pour into stuffing and sausage mixture.  Stir well.

When squash has cooked, remove from oven or microwave and carefully uncover.  Using a large spoon or scoop, fill cavities with stuffing mix, mounding mixture on top.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 375°F for 30 minutes.

Makes 3 to 6 servings, depending on how many squash are used.

It's Alive!

Garden season isn't quite over yet.  This is what we picked from our garden last night.  Two big bowls of green beans (we covered them during our recent frosts), several small acorn squash and a custard cup full of strawberries.

Yes, I did say strawberries.

They're an ever-bearing variety and they've been doing this all summer except for a short while during the hottest, most dry weeks.

We even had 2-3 raspberries last night, but they last long enough to make it into the photo.

Still in the garden are butternut squash, possibly a few more green beans, some Swiss chard and some collard greens.  Everything else has been "put to bed", so to speak.

Are your gardening days over for the season, or do you still have a few plants that are producing?

How to Ripen Green Tomatoes in Your Basement

Some of last year's tomatoes; taken October 2011.
A couple dozen of these look ready to move to the kitchen.

Our first frost was last weekend, so we picked all the tomatoes we could find on our vines, whether they were ripe or not.   We didn't have nearly as many greenies as we did last year, but there were still a couple hundred, I guess. 

I don't want that many sitting around on my kitchen table or in my kitchen window waiting to turn red, so I set up the seed starter rack (mini greenhouse) in the basement.  Any cool dark place, like a garage or cellar, will do.  I left off the see-thru plastic cover and put a layer of cardboard on the shelves to keep the really small tomatoes from falling though (paper would work, too).  I placed all the green tomatoes on the shelves and covered the entire rack with plastic.  In our case, we had some very large white plastic bags used to dispose of natural Christmas trees.  You could use large trash bags, tarps or whatever you have on hand.  Cloth sheets will work, but not as well as plastic.  The plastic covering not only blocks out direct sunlight, but also traps in gasses that help the tomatoes get ripe.

Every couple of days, I will go down to the basement and check for tomatoes that are turning red.  Once they have a decent tint (about half-ripe) I'll gather those and bring them upstairs to sit on the table to ripen in the sunlight.  I don't mind a few tomatoes at a time sitting around in my kitchen. 

You're mileage may vary, but we've found that this method works better than any other for us.  They'll  never taste as good as if they had ripened on the vine, but they are still so much better tasting than store-bought tomatoes. 

Canned Roasted Green Tomato Salsa

We had our first frosty nights last weekend, but knew about it ahead of time and picked all of our tomatoes, both red and green.

Many of the larger green ones are being ripened in the basement (more on that later), but there were still many small green tomatoes to deal with.  I decided to make green tomato salsa with them.

I scoured the internet for green tomato and/or tomatillo recipes suitable for canning, then true to my style, I tweaked a couple of them to come up with my own.  Because I only tweaked spices a bit, and used fewer bell peppers and onions instead of more, but left the vinegar and lemon or lime juice amounts the same (and added some citric acid for good measure) I'm confident this recipe is still safe for water bath canning.  But here's my disclaimer.  If you are uncomfortable with this recipe for any reason, don't make it.  Use one from the Ball Blue Book or your local university extension office.

Anyway, back to the recipe.  This stuff's good.  It's tart, tangy, fresh-tasting and not very hot.  Hot can be good, but sometimes I just want the flavor without the heat.  If you want more heat, you can add more jalapenos or some cayenne pepper to the mix.

Annie's Roasted Green Tomato Salsa

6 to 8 pounds of green tomatoes, stemmed and cut into large chunks
drizzle of olive oil
sea salt and pepper
1 cup chopped bell pepper (any color)
2 large onions, diced
1 4-ounce can diced mild green chiles (or the equivalent fresh)
8 slices of pickled jalapeno (or use fresh - to your own taste)
1 cup fresh lemon or lime juice
1 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons chicken base or chicken bouillon (optional, but it does add to the flavor)
2 Tablespoons sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon citric acid (to increase acidity)

Heat oven to 325°F.  Prepare jars for canning following the directions in the Ball Blue Book or from your local university extension office.

Brush a large baking pan with sides (like a steam table pan or a roaster) with a drizzle of olive oil.  Place tomato chunks in pan.  Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and sea salt.  Place pan in oven and roast for 60-90 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare water bath canner for use per manufacturer's directions.

Remove tomatoes from oven and spoon tomatoes and any liquid into a large stock pot.  Add all remaining ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Mixture will probably still be chunky, so blend to desired consistency using a handheld immersion blender or by blending in batches in a blender or food processor.  Continue to simmer while assembling jars, lids and rings for canning.

Fill hot pint jars with hot salsa mixture, leaving 1/2-inch head space.  Wipe rims with a clean damp cloth, adjust two piece lids and rings, and place in canner of rapidly boiling water.  Once water returns to a full boil, process for 20 minutes.  Remove jars from canner and place on a folded kitchen towel in a draft-free area of your kitchen.  Listen for jars to seal.  Store any jars that fail to seal in the refrigerator for immediate use.

Makes 7 to 8 pints. 

Today's Post Brought To You By The Letter B: Bob, Backyard, Butterfly

It's been quite a while since I posted an update on skinny ol' Bob, the stray cat who adopted us in July.  It's hard to get a good picture of him because he doesn't look up when you talk to him and doesn't like to make eye contact.  But he's as sweet a cat as ever and is finally starting to look more like a cat than a bag of bones.  Still, I'd like to see him put on a little more weight before winter gets here.

And since we're outside, lets take a look at what's still growing in the backyard.

We have lots of big, bushy tomato plants left, but because of the heat and drought, they just didn't do as well this year as they have in the past.  We're still getting 3-4 small tomatoes a day, though.

This bunch of collard greens was strictly volunteer.  It didn't do much of anything until we started getting rain again, then it took off.  I'm just going to leave it there for a while, since they are said to be sweeter after a frost.

We planted and harvested (dry) pinto beans earlier in the summer and then replanted with green beans.  They are just now starting to set beans on, so hopefully we'll get a few jars' worth.  The ones we planted with the corn (in a Three Sisters planting) didn't do anything.

Kat still has two large Moon and Stars watermelons in her garden.  We already picked three.
You can see the stars on the rinds and the leaves, but none have had spots big enough to call moons.

The squashes we planted as part of the Three Sisters planting fared better.  We were late getting them in, but I think they will ripen before we get frost.  I can see several butternuts like the one above and several acorn squashes.  The zucchini plants gave us a few, but we weren't overrun with zukes like we usually are.

These last pics are of a butterfly (or is it a moth of some sort?) that Bob was chasing and that Kat rescued from him.  It seemed stunned, but unhurt.She and Shane were able to hold it for a while until it finally walked up Kat's arm and flew away. 

Summer's Winding Down

• Shane and I enjoyed a weekend getaway in the camper. I'll write more about that later this week.
   
• Kat has a quick back-to-school night on Tuesday, then classes begin on Thursday. Yes, already.
   
• When we checked out teacher assignments, we learned that Kat's new teacher is named New Teacher. Hmm...seems a little late in the game to not know who's filling that position.
   
• Looking forward to dinner out on Thursday with my good friend C. We've been friends since 5th grade. She invited all of us, but I may decide to ditch the family and make it a Ladies' Night Out. Used to be that would have meant heading straight for the bar, dancing and drinking until the wee hours, then somehow each of us making it to work the next day. Now a wild night means dinner, one cocktail (if any), a little conversation, and making back home and asleep by 10:00 -- and probably feeling it the next day all the same.
   
• How dare you insinuate that we're getting old!
  
  



• Our garden is down to just tomatoes and a couple of watermelons at the moment. We let the pinto beans dry on the vine and shelled those out last week. We completely missed our window of opportunity on picking corn; it got too tough and chewy to eat, but we are letting it dry on the stalk and will try making some cornmeal with it. Our few cucumbers were so bitter from the heat that we gave up and ripped them out. The green beans and zucchini that we planted along with the corn (Three Sisters planting) didn't produce a thing.
   
• We're not done gardening yet, though. It's time for a fall planting!

I'm Just a Blip on the Radar

Just a quick fly-by to say I might be scarce this week. Kat has been under the weather since Saturday night, I have tomatoes and other good things coming in from the garden that need to be worked up, I need to go vote, and I need to get ready for another weekend camping trip.

We're trying something different this time out.  Instead of camping in a state park or Corps of Engineers campground like we usually do, we're staying in an independently owned RV resort.  It used to be a private club but has recently been opened to the public and boasts a few more amenities that the state parks.  It's called Lake Paradise; I'll let you know if it's all it's cracked up to be.

We sold our travel trailer over the weekend, which was a relief.  This late in the summer, I was beginning to worry that we'd have to overwinter it (and make payments on it) until next season.  And just so I don't confuse you further, we sold the newer, but smaller, trailer that we bought last summer.  The older, but bigger, 5th wheel camper we bought a couple of months ago is still safely tucked in our side yard between trips.  It's doing a great job doubling as a a sunshade for many of our garden beds.

I just love happy accidents like that.

Canning Potatoes

We harvested about 20 pounds of potatoes this year.  That's not a great yield, but it was better than any previous year, so we were happy about it.  We ate some of them right away, but I needed to do something with the rest before they started going bad.  My options were eat them (too many), make mashed potatoes and freeze them (I have success with this, but no room in the freezer right now), dehydrate them or can them.  I decided on canning just because I wanted to try them.

I remember canned potatoes, usually with a bland white gravy, from elementary school lunches and just knew that home-canned potatoes would taste better.  And believe me, they do!  One of my jars failed to seal, so we had them for supper that night.  I just mashed them with a fork, added a little butter and garlic powder, and they were delicious.

They are easy to can, too.  Because they are a low-acid food, the must be pressure canned, but the method is simple.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the forethought to take photos of the process, but here's what you do.

Clean fresh potatoes well and peel if desired.  I didn't peel them because most of the skins scrubbed off as I was washing them.  Cut away any deep eyes and/or bad spots.

Cut potatoes into chunks about 1-1/2" square.  Small potatoes can be left whole or just cut in half.

Place potatoes in clean cold water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and boil gently for 5 to 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, have clean, hot canning jars at the ready.  I don't sterilize jars, but I do run them through the dishwasher to make sure they are clean and hot.

Once potatoes have cooked, not until tender but just long enough to be heated through, drain them and spoon the hot potatoes into the hot jars.  Add a teaspoon of canning salt to each quart jar (1/2 teaspoon to pint jars) and then fill each jar with clean boiling water, leaving 1 inch of head space.  Use a knife or spatula to remove any air bubbles.

Apply clean, new lids and secure with rings until fingertip tight.

Process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 40 minutes for quarts or 35 minutes for pints.  Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for your canner, the Ball Blue Book, or the advice of your local university extension office to ensure safe canning practices.

Make Your Own Garlic Powder (Granulated Garlic)

If stored properly, heads of garlic can last a good, long time, possibly from one season to the next.  This is the situation we found ourselves in this year.  We still had several heads of garlic in the basement, with  fresh garlic ready to bring in.  I decided it was time to turn the older garlic into garlic powder, sometimes also known as granulated garlic.

The first thing I did was peel the papery film off the garlic and separate the cloves.  Because this was last years harvest, some of the cloves were too dry and crumbly to work with, so I composted those.  Some were a little dry, but still flexible (like a raisin) and good-smelling, so I saved those.  The rest seemed fresh, considering their age, and I used those as well.

I peeled the skins off each clove and, except for the very smallest of cloves, I sliced them about 1/16 inch thick.  I spread them out on the "fruit leather" tray of our dehydrator and set it on the high setting.  Oddly enough, it was the pieces that were already leathery that took the longest to dry; the fresher pieces dried right away.  I suspect it had something to do with a change in the sugar content, but I'm not sure.  It took 2-1/2 days for all of it to dry to a brittle stage.

I didn't bother to measure or weigh anything before I started, but I didn't think to measure the dehydrated pieces.  A tray of garlic measured to just under a cup of dehydrated bits.

I put all of the pieces in our blender and blended them on high for about three minutes or until they were thoroughly pulverized.  The resulting powder measured right at 1/2 cup.

I stored the powder in an airtight container in my spice cabinet, and will use it just like I would any store-bought garlic powder.

Boney Bob is a Good Garden Companion

We're doing what we can to keep things alive around here, and that includes both cats and plants.  We water our gardens every other day.  They could probably benefit from a daily watering, but because it takes me more than an hour to water it all, that just isn't happening.  Every couple of days will have to do.

Our tomatoes seem to be doing well.  We have a total of 30 plants in various areas of the garden; all but 12 of those were volunteer plants.

We're still getting a few of our ever-bearing strawberries; we pick about a cup every 2-3 days.  I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but our raspberries have flourished in the heat and have set on quite a few new berries.  We picked just four berries in the spring and thought that would be all, so this is a pleasant surprise.  Our ground cherries (aka, cape gooseberries, aka husk tomatoes) are done for the year, but yielded a few pints.

We don't have a lot of luck growing bell peppers, so we only planted four plants, but they have done a little better than usual this year.

Our cucumbers are struggling.  They didn't germinate well, so we only have about 1/3 of the plants we expected.  There will be plenty of cucumbers for salads, but probably not enough for pickles.

Our pinto beans look sad, but they aren't.  We're drying them on the vine on purpose.

The Swiss chard just keeps going and growing.

Kat's garden still has three small melons in it, all of which seem to be growing well.

Back behind the shed, we have a Three Sisters planting.  The corn is tall and I think the ears are just about ready to pick.  This is a late season variety, so it feels like we're running behind a lot of other area gardeners.  Under the corn is green beans.  The plants are green and pretty, but there are no beans.  I think we're running out of time.  Between the corn/bean clusters are squash plants -- zucchini, butternut and acorn.  They look pretty good, but so far,  no blossoms.  A couple of tomatoes volunteered among the sisters, so we left them and I noticed they have blooms now.

The Jersalem Artichokes are thriving, and we haven't watered them at all!  We're giving our asparagus, rhubarb and blackberries a little water, just to keep them alive.  They're done for the year, though.

I think that's about all we have going on in the garden right now, but very soon it will be time to think of late summer and early fall plantings.

And before I forget, here is Bones again.  We have also started calling him BOB, which stands for Bag O' Bones.  He's gained a few ounces, I think, and it appears some of his fur is growing back in.  We moved him to our back yard and he seems to like it there.  He's quite the garden companion.  He loves to follow along and keep us company while we're watering and harvesting.  He's even started pouncing on the garden hose and chasing butterflies, so I'd say he's starting to recover.