Happy Mother's Day

Andy is building me a new raised bed garden for Mother's Day!  Hard to believe the little guy who was a preschooler when I started this blog is now a teenager and building me things! 

It is kit from Home Depot and extremely easy to put together.  I can't wait to plant tomatoes and peppers in it! 

The weather here in Minnesota has continued to be cool - including snow in the beginning of May!  I *think* that is all behind us now.  Today should warm up to a nice 60 and by next week we should be warmer. 

I haven't planed a whole lot outside yet - just onions.  I hope to plant some cold weather plants this week. 

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there!

What happened to my little boy that use to terrorize worms?

It doesn't seem that long ago that my little boy Andy used to get so excited to find worms in the garden - just to terrorize them. He used to think it was cool to cut them in pieces, smash them, drown them and anything else that caused them terror.

This afternoon as I was planting peas, he spotted a really fat worm and asked for it. As I handed it to him, I wondered how long the worm would live. It seems that the little boy that took great pride in the number of ways he could harm a worm has grown up. Today he studied the worm from all angles, stroked it gently and them put it back in the garden alive and unharmed. "Go and dig some holes for oxygen for roots, Wormy" the boy said.

Hard to believe that the little boy who was in preschool when I started this blog is now an 11 year old fifth grade middle schooler. Where has the time gone? The middle school that he attends is an E-STEM designated school - the E stands for Environment. He is really learning to take good care of the earth. The T stands for technology and the school recently handed out iPads to everyone of its students - good bye books and notebooks. The iPads are school property and have to be returned at the end of the school year but it is really cool to not lug around all those books and be able to record all of their data right on their iPads. So very different from when I went to school in the dark ages.

The boy still has autism and still has a severe learning disability. But it is harder to see those issues as he grows. I continue to hope that he will grow into a self sufficient adult.

I think the worms are safe in my garden once more.

My monkey picking plums!

I haven't shared any photos of Andy helping in the garden in some time so when I caught him climbing the plum tree and picking plums for me, I just had to grab the camera.

He blends in pretty good.

Here he is all serious about picking (he did pick a whole pail full for me).

But here, he is getting a little silly - notice the half eaten plum in his mouth!

The plum tree is having a very good year! That kind of takes the sting away from the peach tree that died - again. I don't think I will replace it again.

Andy harvests his first cantaloupe!

Isn't it a beauty?

I was so proud of Andy that he made such healthful choices when planning his garden. He was diasppointed in his watermelon but he has been watching his muskmelons with great anticipation (he has a lot of them).

The first two were finally ready this weekend. We ate one and gave one to a neighbor.

It was the juiciest cantaloupe I have ever eaten. I must admit that I am not a big muskmelon fan - Dan and Andy love them much more than I do - but I ate my share of this one!

From the mouth of babes.........

Don't you just love the conversations kids have with each other? I know I do. My son Andy had his friend Sylvester over today. Andy took Sylvester in the kitchen to show him the zucchini I had just picked from the garden. There conversation went like this:

Andy: Look at these zucchini my Mom picked today.

Sylvester: I don't like zucchini.

Andy: Yes you do.

Sylvester: No I don't.

Andy: You do when it is cooked in cake.

Sylvester: No I don't.

Andy: Yes you do.

Sylvester: I most definitely do not.

Andy: Well, you had seconds of my birthday cake at my birthday party so you must have liked it.

Sylvester: Your birthday cake had zucchini in it?

Andy: Uh huh.

Sylvester: Wow, your Mom is sneaky.

Andy: Well yeah, where do you think I get it from?

So you don't have to search the archives for my recipe - here it is - and if you aren't GFCF, just substitute regular ingredients for the GFCF ones.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
2 1/2 cups gf flour ( I used Bob’s Red Mill GF Mix)
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (use aluminum free!)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening
2 cups rapadura (you could use regular sugar, but rapadura is healthier)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons grated orange peel (make sure you grate an organic orange - you don't want to know what chemicals are on non organic ones)
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup milk substitute (I used Dari Free)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts, but any would be fine or omit if you are nut free)
Glaze (directions follow)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
1 Combine the four, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.
2 With a mixer, beat together the shortening and the sugar until they are smoothly blended. Add the eggs to the shortening and sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a spoon, stir in the vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini.
3 Alternately stir the dry ingredients and the milk substitute into the zucchini mixture, including the nuts with the last addition.
4 Pour the batter into a greased and flour-dusted 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan (use a stainless steel pan – please don’t bake in aluminum. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes (test at 45 minutes!) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes; turn out on wire rack to cool thoroughly.
5 Drizzle glaze over cake.
Glaze:
Mix together 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk substitute, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Cut in thin slices to serve.
Makes 10-12 servings.

That's my kid! An Earth Day Story.

If there is one thing my kid is good at it is listening to every little thing even when you think he's not. I can't tell you how many times something that I have said to someone else has come out of his little mouth - and I might add, that is not always a good thing! I like to think that I am always aware of tiny ears listening and watch what I say but I don't know if that is always the case. But I digress - this time he has been listening to good things.

He was playing in his room on Sunday with his cousin Michael and Vinny from next door. The boys, ages 7, 8 and 9 were discussing Earth Day. I'm sure it is something that all three of them have been talking about in school. Here is where the repeating stuff from my mouth comes in - I heard Andy say "This is what I don't get about Earth Day - shouldn't every day be Earth Day? It is cool that there is one day dedicated to taking care of the earth, but don't we live on this earth every day - shouldn't every day be Earth Day?" Even though I know my kid does this, it still takes me back to hear by words tumble out of his mouth almost word for word as I've said them to someone else. I don't think I have even discussed Earth Day with Andy since taking care of the Earth is something we do every day.

He got those boys thinking. They talked about Earth Day for a long time and Andy even walked them out back to where I had just planted the potatoes and onions and told them that HIS MOM practices Earth Day every day. He wanted to give each of the boys a plant from the basement but I told him they could come and visit them once they are in the garden and help take care of them. I was just afraid if they took a tomato plant home it would not get planted at the proper time and end up dying. They can eat from my garden any time.

Happy Earth Day to my fellow gardeners. May every day be Earth Day!

Mom, do you know what these are made of?

This is just too good not to share. Andy was just looking at my gardening stuff - excited that we are going to start plants indoors this weekend and he just came running to me with a peat pot in his hand and asked me if I knew what it was made of.

Now, I know it is made of peat but I wondered what he thought so I asked. He was very proud to tell me that it is made out of cow poop! I asked him how he came to that conclusion and he informed me that he learned it watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe! He always has to say the name of the show like that - it is not just Dirty Jobs, but Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. For those of you not familar with that show, it is on the Discovery Channel.

So, now I wondered if it really was made of peat or not so I did some investigating. The ones I bought are indeed peat pots, but Andy is correct - Mike Rowe did do an episode on some that are made from cow manure. They are called Cowpots. I think I will probably buy the cowpots instead of peat pots next year. I had never heard of them before. There is no convincing Andy however, that the ones we have right now are made of peat.

My little gardener!

Here are a couple of pics of Andy's science fair project. I was so proud of him. His project might not have been the most detailed - but it was all his - and after all, he is only in 2nd grade and he does have autism.

Checking in on Andy's garlic experiment

Garlic B is all up and looking healthy


Garlic A on the other hand, didn't fair so well - only one very weak shoot.

A garden experiment for Andy

Andy didn't have any homework yesterday and he needs to be kept in a routine so when he doesn't have any homework I make some up. So yesterday I decided he could help me plant the garlic - after all learning about gardening and how things grow falls in the area of science in my book.

While we were looking for garlic to plant we came across 3 old shriveled up bulbs from last year that didn't get planted. Andy wanted to know if they would grow. Rather than google the answer, I thought why not plant them and let him find out for himself. If they don't grow, they won't take up any space and I'll plant something else there in the spring - if they do grow, we'll have garlic.

We discussed it and decided that we should also plant some fresh garlic so if there is another factor like weather or when we planted it affecting it, we'll know that. Besides I want to make sure we do end up with some garlic!


Here is the old garlic we planted. I think maybe one or two of them look viable and will grow. Andy thinks it all will. We are going to call this Garlic A.


Here is the fresh garlic we are planting. We are calling it garlic B.


Here is Andy planting Garlic A.


Here he is planting Garlic B.


And here are our row markers showing what we have planted.

We got a really good rain last night - so now we wait and see what sprouts. Watch for updates and let's see what Andy learns.

Making Applesauce to Can

Making applesauce is so easy and so yummy. The apple tree is loaded and canning some enables us to enjoy that apple goodness all year long.


Wash apples and cut into pieces - no need to core or peel. I do cut any obvious bad spots off of the apples. Since I do not spray my apples at all - they aren't always the prettiest, but they are fine for applesauce.


Cook apples until they are soft. I only add a tiny bit of water in the bottom to keep them from sticking before the juice starts coming out.


Put apples through a food mill. Here is Andy helping - this food mill attaches to my kitchen aid mixer. Andy loves to do this part and is quite upset if I do it when he isn't home.


Return sauce to stove and season to taste. I added a little cinnamon, maple syrup and raw sugar.


This is the raw sugar that I used - you just grate a little off.


Here's Andy helping me adjust the seasonings. He told me it needed more cinnamon! LOL. He is so serious about helping.


Once you get it the seasoned, pack in jars and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Don't pack in too big of jars - it has no preservatives so it will go moldy if you leave it in the fridge too long. I find pint jars are a good size for applesauce.

Hard mornings work in the garden....

but it still beats a good day at work - wait a minute, I'm unemployed - oops, guess it beats job hunting!!!!

I just don't know how to grow brussels sprouts in a small garden. They always grow so tall and lean over on top of other things that are still maturing. I have tried tomato cages and staking them in the past and all that happened was that they pulled the cage or stake over with them! This year I planted a variety that was supposed to not grow as tall - NOT! They were all over the cabbage and starting to lean into the bell peppers. So I took some old square tomato cages and opened them up and put them around them and kind of hooked them to the rabbit fence and then to each other. They seem study - we'll see. I also took the lower leaves off so I could work with them better. Hopefully they will be happier and I'll get some sprouts soon. A couple of the plants have some large enough to eat at the bottom, but most are just little bumps.

Here are 4 pics of the garden from different angles after I was done cleaning it up today -





It looks so much better now - and I'll have room to plant the fall garlic. I think I am also going to plant some radishes and some late season lettuce - but I'm too tired right now. We'll see if I get back to it....


And while I was out there, I cut some herbs - got a huge bowl of parsley, basil, oregano and dill. It is mostly parsley.


And I dug up a few rogue potatoes and onions (thought I had them all) and picked 5 bell peppers and 1 small head of red cabbage.

And what was Andy doing during all of this? At first he was digging in the area of the garden where there wasn't anything currently growing, but after awhile he got tired of that, so he went and grabbed his rope. Long time readers and friends will know that Andy has autism and his thing is strings, ropes, hoses, tape - anything long and slender - other kids on the spectrum spin wheels - Andy plays with strings - it's not as noticable as when he was younger - but it still takes up a lot of his time. Here is a pic of him with his rope creation this morning - he was so proud of himself and wanted me to take a picture of him.


So, that's life in my garden today. I hope everyone is enjoying a good gardening day.

Making Catsup

This was my first attempt at making catsup. I think Dan wished he had worked overtime tonight - after about the 12th time asking him to taste it after I had adjusted something he asked if he was going to be tasting catsup all night! Poor baby! I tried using less sugar, but he and Andy (who eat most of the catsup in this house) just weren't happy with it until I had doubled the amount of sugar I had originally started with.

I started cutting up tomatoes, tomallitos, onions & bell peppers at 8:30 this morning. I used a variety of colors of tomatoes - from green to yellow to red to orange - so the catsup did not turn out a deep red.


By 9:30 I had them all cut up (I did not seed or skin them since I was going to be using the food strainer attachment on my kitchen aid again) and started them cooking.


At 10:00, everything was looking nice and soft so it was time to put them through the strainer.


Here's Andy (yes, he's still in his pajamas) helping with the food strainer. This part only took 15 minutes - with my old manual one it probably would have been an hour!


Here's the liquid after it went through the food strainer. You want to cook it down - but you don't want to boil it down too fast or it will burn on the bottom.


At 1:00, I put vinegar in another pan and added some spices in a bag - I simmered this about 30 minutes - then I added it to the tomatoes (without the spice bag).


By 5:00 it is reduced by a little more than half and I start my tasting and adjusting of ingredients as I continue to cook it down.


By 7:30 it is reduced down and is thick enough that it stays on top of this slotted spoon. Time to start sterilizing jars.


The finished product - 5 pints of catsup.

Here are the ingredients and amounts that I ended up with:
Catsup
Chop and combine in stock pot:
13 lbs tomatoes
1 lb onions
4.5 oz bell peppers
Cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Put through food strainer. Return liquid to stock pot and cook down until about half of the original volume.
Combine in sauce pan:
4 ½ cups vinegar (I used a combination of white and apple cider vinegar)
2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground allspice
2 cups sugar
Combine in cloth bag or tea strainer and then throw in with vinegar mixture:
2 tsp whole cloves
3 tsp celery seed
2 tsp mustard seed
3 cloves garlic, minced
Simmer for 30 minutes. Discard spices in bag and then add vinegar mixture to tomato mixture. Continue to cook down until desired consistency. When consistency is getting close, taste and adjust seasonings.
Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes
Yield: 5 pints

Pictures from my wet garden 8/22/07

Every time I think the rain is done, it starts up again. We sure have had a lot of rain lately - would have been nice to have some throughout the year and not all at the end...... Anyway it has only sprinkled mostly today so I got out to do some picking and to take a few pictures.


Here is Andy in front of the famous Minnesota peach tree. He is 4 ft tall so you can see how tall this tree has grown. The ugly brown spot to the left is where we had the pool. Andy was 4 when we planted this tree and he is 7 now so it is 3 years old. The first year it just looked like a twig with leaves on it. Last year it produced I think 7 peaches. This year it has about 3 dozen on it. There are two varieties of peaches that will do will in this zone - reliance and contender. Reliance is an older variety and not as sweet - it is considered more of a canning fruit. This is the contender and boy, are those fruits wonderfully sweet. I had one earlier today and the juice was running down my chin! I don't know of any nurseries here that carry either peach variety. I ordered this as a bare root from Gurney's - click here to see it on their website.


Here is a close up of Andy in front of the tree and you can see the peaches hanging on the tree.


Cucumbers from the garden today. The neighbors are starting to run away when they see me coming with cukes in my hand. I told them it is dangerous to congregate during cucumber or zucchini season.


Here is a shot of some of my tomato plants. I am getting quite a few. I think I am going to try and make catsup for the first time tomorrow.


Something is infesting the concord grapes. There aren't hardly any grapes on them anyway because I have to keep cutting them back to keep them out of the neighbor's garden. The red swanson grapes on the other side of the yard are doing much better.


The poor flowers are laying down and need to be dead headed. The cucumbers are moving into the flower's area.

I hope we see some sun tomorrow.

Nothing is as sweet as watermelon you grow yourself

We cut into the first of Andy's watermelons last night. He was so excited that one was finally ripe. It was so sweet and delicious. I cut half of it into chunks and deseeded it and took it outside and shared it with all of the neighbors. It was a hit with the adults and children alike. Andy was so proud that he grew it himself!

Washing potatoes

Andy was having a blast washing the dirt off the potatoes that I dug up yesterday. He also got a science lesson out of it when he discovered that he created a rainbow.

Andy and his watermelon

Andy thinks the biggest one is ready to pick - but the underside is still pale green, but it won't be long!

Random Pictures from my Garden this Weekend 7/23/07

The coneflowers are looking pretty!


Lots of tomatoes!


And one is starting to ripen!


A beautiful Daylilly



This native was seen in the garden most of the weekend (note to self - must hide face paints better)


This was the native's play area - must be related to a gardener!


Even though the Bell Peppers are small, they are producing peppers!


The cabbage continues to look wonderful!


And I have started picking cucumbers!

I sure hope it rains today so I don't have to water - I haven't finished reading Harry Potter yet!