Tomato Harvest

There has been a lot of harvesting going on around here.  I am happy to say I am not doing all the work!  Little Miss can clean and eat an entire tomato plant in less than ten minutes.  She is fully aware of where everything eatable is in the garden.

I was admiring what a wonderful job my friend  Morgan did of illustrating her tomatoes and decided I should give it a try myself.  I used Picnic and was really pleased with how easy it was.  Sometimes you just need to put yourself out there and see what you can do! Please take a look at the varieties I chose this year!

Hunt Season

Its once again hunting season and that means for a solid ten days I have to command the ship by myself.  Not much time for blogging and causing trouble...I just wanted to assure you things are fine, I am just lost in the everyday like everyone else! Happy hunting!

Slow Gardening

I invite you to have a good gardening read with Felder Rushing today.  He put it all very well so just following the link:

Slow Gardening

Enjoy!

Summer Storms

I hope that you too are headed out to check the rain gauge this am.  With any luck, a decent amount fell last night.  I know the east coast has had more than they know what to do with...I on the other hand would be thankful for some much needed moisture. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  I actually did a little projecting.  It seems like it has been run run run lately.  Hanging around the house was exactly the thing this family needed this weekend.

Songs of Summer

A noise I will long for come winter.

Broccoli

The harvest is coming in! This is the first time I have had enough broccoli to save. It may not be much but it is more than I care to eat in one sitting!

First step is to cut the heads up and remove all the leaves. Rinse well. I think a water rinse is fine. If it doesn't come off during the rinse it will definitely come off when you boil it.

Next step is to blanch for three minutes. Blanch translates to boil or cook slightly. Make sure you stick to the three minutes.

Lastly, transfer to your freezer bags and label with the date and contents!

Active Composting

In general I am a pretty lazy composter. I throw it in the bin, water it and maybe turn twice a year. When I get overwhelmed with more material than the compost bin can handle, I turn to the chickens for a more rapid result. You would be surprised how much these little ladies and go through! I just dump the weeds in and they do the rest! Scratching, eating, shredding...they love it. The extra bugs and nutrients they get are fabulous for them especially if you don't have the luxury of being able to let them roam. So, I say let someone else do the work! You have more important things to do right? We'll call it the hen house enrichment program.