salsa

The tomatoes are still coming in.  We figure we've gathered over 100 lbs from the greenhouse so far.  We've been loving lots of fresh tomato sauce, tomato soup, caprese salad, BLT's and salsa.  Lots of salsa.  We've canned 30 pints so far, with plenty left over from each batch for eating on the spot.

We still have lots of almost-ripe tomatoes hanging on and numerous green ones.  We're holding out for the first frost to hit the greenhouse and then it will be time for green tomato pie! 

july in the garden

I wish I was better at recording our gardening endeavors so we could read them from year to year.  I have a gardening journal that I started way back in 2007.  I start off great at the beginning of the season, sketching our garden and where we planted everything.  And that's about as far as I get.  So seven years later I'm about 15 pages in.  

That leaves us always asking things like:

When did we start the tomato seeds last year?

Was that 2009 or 2010 when it snowed in June?

Which type of tomato kept rotting on the bottom?

Do you remember that kind of zucchini that we didn't really like?

And the list goes on.

Oh well.  I guess the best part is that we're doing this whole gardening like, learning as we go and really enjoying it.  

Our greenhouse looks more like a jungle these days.  The tomato plants are getting more and more little green tomatoes every day.  The basil is overflowing.  Pesto making in the near future! The peas are about done, but we are still getting a few here and there.  The swiss chard has offered us several side dishes and is still doing well.  Just gathered another bunch this morning.

The pepper plants are starting to flower.  

We spent the afternoon yesterday enjoying a break from all the afternoon rain storms we've been getting.  Mason and I pulled all the weeds in the big garden.  Emma read books to Caleb on the porch and daddy split firewood. 

We got a hailstorm about a week ago that shredded a lot of the big leafy stuff in the garden, but Mason and I found lots of new growth.  The cabbage may come back.  We have several rows of carrots (our hardest thing to get to sprout).  The beans are looking good as well as the beets.  Mason pulled all the weeds around the sunflowers he planted.  They're doing really well. 

We all came in hot, tired and covered in dirt.  Rootbeer floats were definitely in order!

tomatoes

The kids sure love helping in the greenhouse!  A few weeks ago we transplanted our tomato starts into the soil.  They seem to be doing well despite some cold nights.  Mason and Emma helped dig holes and water them.  Every morning Mason goes out to check on them.  He checks on the peas too....looking for one that he and Emma can share as a little pre-breakfast snack. 

We're still getting lots of greens.  Our cabbages that we started are sprouting.  We have a few pepper plants coming along as well.

The apple trees in the {mini} orchard are sending out lots of shoots and buds.  About half have leaves.  We transplanted lots of lilac bushes and locust trees, which are loving all the rain we've been getting.

So many little things to enjoy with the kids as they walk around checking on everything. 

Our third little bean hasn't made his/her debut yet.  We've had a few false alarms but this little one has a plan of its own!  We'll see what the doctor says today.  I don't think she'll let me go past 41 weeks, so this is the week!!

peppers + cornbread muffins

We've been enjoying a little green in the house this winter thanks to these fun pepper plants. These are a Siberian pepper called Grandpa's Home Pepper.  We ordered the seeds because it said they had more than 50 little peppers per plant and that they produced all winter in low light.  Both were true.  The hardest part about these was getting them to sprout.  There were only maybe 15 or so seeds in the pack and only two sprouted....months after we planted them.  We had pretty much given up but kept watering them anyway.  It paid off.

 These tiny little peppers have some serious flavor. We've been throwing two or three into anything that can handle some spice.  We've also been saving the seeds, drying on the counter, since we are enjoying them so much. 

I made some peppery corn bread muffins and tossed in a few of these peppers minced up.  Yum!

Peppery Corn Bread Muffins
adapted from Gooseberry Patch

1 c. yellow cornmeal
1 c. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2/3 c. chopped peppers (green, yellow, red, or a combo)
1/4 c. corn
1/4 c. butter
1 c. milk
2 eggs

Stir together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, chili powder, and basil.  Saute peppers and corn in butter for 3-4 minutes.  Beat together eggs and milk.  Mix together the pepper/corn mixture, milk mixture, and flour mixture.  Add to greased muffin cups.  Bake at 400 for 15-10 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins.  


In other gardening news, we got the greenhouse all cleaned out (and by we I mean Ryan and the kids while I was at a stampin' up party with my friends!) and ready to plant.  We are going to start our tomatoes and peppers (inside) this week and some greens and radishes will be making their way into the greenhouse.  I did manage to get all of our seeds organized and inventoried and we put in a couple orders for some things we were missing.  I'm looking forward to lots of gardening time this year!  

 

oh, hello.

Well, somehow October came and went and I hardly even turned the computer on...let alone do this blog thing.  We've been plenty busy with other things around here and fall sort of seemed to slip by. 

 

This has been one crazy start to the school year.  Learning several new curriculums, gaining six new students in seven weeks and mentoring a new teacher has kept me on my toes.  Parent-teacher conferences are now behind me and the stack of papers to grade is slowing decreasing as I finally get into a routine.

 

The garden and greenhouse supplied us with plenty of food to keep us busy.  We canned 25 pints of green beans and turned ten gallons of cabbage into sauerkraut.  We had our first frost weeks ago and have had a couple snow storms as well.    

 

 We dug up all the potatoes.  This is all the fingerlings, most of the purple vikings, and about a third of the sangres (the red ones).  They are delicious.  We figure we got about 90 pounds total.  They keep finding their way into soups, stews, and breakfast potatoes.   We ended up with lots of tomatoes too.  We pulled all the green ones before the greenhouse had a frost and made a lovely green tomato pie. 

 After we opened up the garden for the chickens, we also found a few other visitors. 

 Last weekend we spent Saturday with Grammie and Grandpa down at their property.  The boys got the rest of the siding on the bunkhouse.  Brats and sauerkraut were on the menu for lunch! It was a crisp fall day...beautiful all around.

 That pretty much brings us to this morning.  All costumed up and ready for the preschool party.  Mason was a superhero and Emma was a cowgirl. 

These cuties sure help keep it all in perspective. 

Tomorrow brings November.  I'm looking forward to a new month, maybe not such a whirlwind.  We're spending the day butchering our older flock of chickens and cleaning out the coop.  Time to fill the freezer once again.  So much to be thankful for!

beets and peas

Just a little peek at what's been coming out of our greenhouse.  Mason and Emma love to pick the peas.  Mason usually picks them off the vine and Emma is our resident pea-sheller, even though more make it into her mouth than the bowl.  The peas are going straight into the freezer.  

 

This was our first harvest of beets.  We've been enjoying the greens in our salads too. 

 We used some of them for beet rolls from a book I had gotten from the library.  Total fail.  The chickens enjoyed them. 

 We used some more in quinoa beet pancakes, which were really good.  Ryan and I liked them better than the kids, but they did eat a few each. 

The rest of the beets we just roasted with balsamic vinegar and had with dinner a couple nights.  The kids love them this way.  As Mason would say, "We are just chowing down on these!"

We're ready to pick the rest of them in the greenhouse.  We're probably going to pickle them and can them.  We planted a ton of beets in our garden and they are just now sprouting.  They took longer than everything else.  We're crossing our fingers that we don't have an early frost. 

In other greenhouse news: the tomato plants are flowering, we have more salad greens than we know what to do with, and the basil is calling out to be made into a couple batches of pesto. 

seasons

We're not really sure what season it is at our house.  We had snow over the weekend, our house is filled with pumpkins, cinnamon, and apples and we're still enjoying fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse.  

 

I love these goofy kids.  Mason wanted to wear his awana vest.  Then of course Emma needed a vest.  And with the vest always comes a hat.  I love those tomatoes too.  They are some of the best ones we've had yet. 

who knew?

Do you know what these little bugs are? 

Me either.  They started popping up all over our greenhouse in various sizes.  Some are tiny.  Some are pretty decent sized. I was beginning to worry about what we were getting infested with.

Turns out these little guys are baby ladybugs.  Seriously.  I thought baby ladybugs would just look like mini versions of the cute adult bugs.  After doing a little research I learned that they actually have a pretty interesting life cycle.  I had no idea that they started out like this before a short period of metamorphosis.  The ladybugs are busy doing their thing.

I'm planning on  bringing a few to school to watch with my second graders since we just went through the whole life cycle of a butterfly.  I'm sure they will be just as interested as we are.  We keep looking for the pupa attached to our greens, but we haven't seen any yet.  This greenhouse sure keeps us on our toes. 

peas & parsley

We spent some time in the greenhouse this weekend.  We picked our first batch of peas and turned them into a yummy stir-fry.  Mason ate plenty of them right on the spot, carefully picking each pea out.   

We also had an insane amount of parsley that has gotten a little out of control.  We finally trimmed it back to a managable size and whipped up a double batch of parsley pesto. I'm thinking it will be great tossed with some homemade noodles. 

The greenhouse is their favorite place to play.  I'm so glad we decided to have it open up to the house.  I love to see them all covered in dirt, helping to gather food to add to our meals. 

weekend work

We're busy enjoying the weekend!  We've spent as much time outside and in the greenhouse as possible.  We've gotten a lot done, yet it seems like we've had lots of time relaxing together.  I've cleaned out and rearranged kitchen drawers and cupboards (much to Mason's dismay), made bread and granola, studied for my National Boards test, done lots of laundry and tried a few new recipes.  I love time at home, with no plans inparticular.  Time for impromtu picnics with Grandpa and Grammie. Time for movie night and chocolate with Ryan.  Oh, sweet weekends!            

ladybugs and life

We have lots of new friends living in the greenhouse. Hundreds of ladybugs actually.  They are happily munching on the tiny problematic aphids.  Mason couldn't wait to put them out there.  We kept telling him we had to wait until it warmed up a bit.  As soon as the sun starting poking it's way through the windows he was ready to let them out. 

Emma waited in the doorway, peeking in and giggling. 

Mason has spent a lot of time checking on the little bugs.  Little bits of new life crawling around our greens. 

The snow finally melted enough for a long family walk this morning.  I asked Mason if he knew that the Easter Bunny was coming tomorrow.  He replied, "A bunny?  In the house?  That's silly!"  I told him that he might leave a present for him.  He said, "You mean he's going to take some eggs from the chicken coop?" Haha.

Last night after a powerful Good Friday service Mason said he wanted to read his "Jesus Book." We read the story about Jesus dying on the cross.  He told me it was a sad story and I told him that he was right, but that in a few days we would read the happy story.  Mason was up before the sun this morning.  I set him up with a blanket and some books on the couch while he waited for everyone else to wake up.  Later when I came to check on him he told me he was trying to find the sad story because he wanted to look at the pictures again before we read the happy story.  That's where my heart has been today.  Thinking about the cross, remembering the picture in my mind, and waiting to rejoice!