Fall Garden Experiment

Hey y'all! It's finally fall in our neck of the woods and I'm beyond excited about it. 

I've just about let it slip away without showing you what's blooming in the yard and garden.  Speaking of garden. I've been doing some experiments. You want to hear about it?

Ok, first experiment. By the summer's end, the okra had gotten tall and lanky and there was new growth showing up at the base of the plants. So, I thought I would cut them back and see what happens.

Well, lo and behold, the plants started producing more okra. 

 

Then I thought, if it worked for the okra, wonder what it would do for the tomatoes that had become spindly and unruly. Second experiment.

The plants still had lots of tomatoes on them, so I picked them all and cut the plants back. We'll see what happens. 

What does one do with an abundance of green tomatoes? Make fried green tomatoes, of course. Delish!

 

I, also, planted a few fall vegetables....cabbages, collards and lettuce. I've never done this before. It's a learning curve. I may have planted too late for the cabbages because our first frost date is in a couple of weeks. 

 

The collards, however, will be fine. Every respectable southerner knows that they taste sweeter after frost falls on them, anyway. 

Not sure what to expect from the lettuce. They are supposed to be iceberg lettuces, but they don't really look like they are forming heads. 

I have already picked some outer leaves and had a salad. It's so satisfying to know you've grown your own food. Homemade salads! Yes!

There is still some veggies hanging on. I cut the zucchini back and it now has two new babies. 

I had a volunteer cucumber plant pop up. It already has blooms, but I'm afraid it might not make it, if we get frost soon.

The bell pepper plants that didn't do a ding dong thing all summer decided to start producing. 

And, the basil has bolted, but my neighbor spotted honey bees and a bumble bee feeding on the nectar, so I decided to let the bees have it, for now.

Just a few more pictures of things around the house and lake......

A little fall decor..... 

I like it simple.

We've had a few foggy mornings......

 

And, before I leave, I just have to show you a few blooms.... Mums.....

Marigolds....

And, Zinnias.

What's being happening in your fall?

Laurie

Canning and Preserving

 

I'll pick my garden once more this morning and then summer gardening is over for me. The garden is still producing, but I'm off to Colorado for a month. Emily will continue to pick vegetables, while I'm gone. And while I'm gone, I'll be dreaming of and planning a fall garden to start on my return home. 

You may remember that this was my first year gardening at the lake. Even with the learning curve of gardening in a little different climate and completely different soil, I consider the garden a complete success. The fruit trees were a sweet treasure and gave us lots of fruit to enjoy and preserve. The discovery of our Granny Smith apple tree was the best and although it only had two apples, I'm sure that next year there will be even more. 

I'm going to leave you now with a few pictures of our rewards.

Our peach tree was loaded this year, but the two cold snaps we had in early spring stunted their growth, I believe. They had their fair share of bird pecks, a few had worms and we had a branch break from a combination of a lot of peaches and the branch being weighed down by rain. The deer and squirrels finished those off. But all in all, we harvested quite a few peaches. And with the plums we picked earlier, I was able to put up quite a few jars of peach and plum jam. I, also, froze a few bags of peaches and made a couple of peach cobblers.

 My tomatoes did really well, this year. 

This tomato came from my garden and I probably have a dozen lying on the kitchen counter with that many more in the garden ready to be picked this morning. I've enjoyed quite a few tomato sandwiches and I'm surely going to miss them. And although I didn't plant enough to can, I bought enough from the farmers market for that. I canned 21 jars of tomatoes. Oh my gosh, we are going to enjoy tomatoes and rice this winter. 

21 jars

By the time I took this picture, I had already given away quite a few of the 31 jars of peach and plum jam that I preserved. That's a table full of hard work right there.

I planted one zucchini plant and it took over a 4 x 4 raised bed. The thing was a monster and grew monster fruit.....well, mostly because I didn't get to them in time. 

I was away for a week and when I came home, I had two gigantic zucchinis. You can see one of them lying there behind the zucchini bread. I really thought they weren't any good, but after cutting the seedy part from the middle, there was plenty of flesh left on the sides. From those two zucchinis I blanched and froze four bags, made two loaves of zucchini bread, grated the last one and got enough to make six more loaves of zucchini bread or maybe add to a pot of soup, this winter. 

 6 cups grated zucchini

 2 cups in each bag and each bag will make 2 loaves of zucchini bread.

For the zucchini bread, I followed this recipe. The only change made was that I used pecans instead of walnuts. It was delicious....more like cake than bread. I will make this recipe again. 

 

And lastly, while Cliff, Sawyer and I were at lunch yesterday, we must have had a heck of a storm blow through because we had a fallen tree across the drive, when we got home. 

My posts will take a turn, now, to our adventures in Colorado. If you don't mind, I would appreciate it, if you would whisper a prayer for safe travels. You know I can't stand to fly!

Talk soon, 

Laurie

Canning Tomatoes

There is just nothing better than rice and tomatoes and homemade biscuits. It's one of Cliff's and my favorite meals. And there are no better tomatoes in the world than the ones you can yourself. It kind of makes me feel like a pioneer woman. And although I can't make a decent biscuit to save my life, Cliff's mama can. I mean they are downright melt in your mouth delectable. And she loves to make them for us.

Of course, I didn't grow enough tomatoes to put up, so I headed on down to the farmers market to buy what I needed. Last summer, I canned 25 lbs. of tomatoes and they didn't last through the winter. So this year, I  bought twice that amount. Yep, 50 lbs. Well, law! When I started preparing the tomatoes, I got a little bit overwhelmed. I had to channel Granny to get through it. It took me nearly 4 hours to wash, blanch (makes peeling easy), and to cut them up.

 
But once that was done, I started prepping the jars and it felt like I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Humph! There's always something. It quickly became obvious that I would need more jars. After a quick trip to town, I was back in business.

I used the boiling water bath method and that took the rest of the day. Every year, I learn something new or a better way in the process than the year before. Next year, I'm definitely going to have a couple of gas burners to get the job done. The stove is too slow!!
 
I lost 2 jars because by the time I was ready to put the jars in the bath, they were a little too cool. When I put them in the hot water, the bottom just popped right off. I soon figured out that if I put the jar rack in place at the top of the pot and place the jars on it until the heat from the water below and the steam heated them up enough, I could submerge them in the boiling water bath, safely.

 

I finished with 11 quarts and 20 pints. I think that will do!!

Roll out the biscuits Ms. Wanda. We're ready for some tomatoes and rice!

 Laurie

Overview: Month of July 2013

July has been a crazy month. Started out really wet, finally turned pretty hot and humid and now it can't decide if it's going to let the sun shine or not. But hey, I'm not complaining. It could be a lot worse. Could have done without the humidity. But, so it goes in the south.

Just a little of this and a little of that:

Not much going on other than lot's of exercise (stats below). My half-marathon training is underway and it's going well. My pace has picked up, finally. It's almost back to what it was before I got injured last December.

Sawyer is so funny. I just can't keep up with all of his ism's. His latest, however, had me hooting and hollering. He declares that when you mix a policeman with a cowboy......you get a sheriff. HaHa!

Mama was invited out to lunch with my brother, for his birthday. They went down to Shem Creek in Mt. Pleasant. She declares that she saw two things she had never seen before. One - Dolphins jumping up out of the water. And two - Girls standing up on a surfboard, paddling.

HaHa! I'm quite sure she saw paddle boarders. But how awesome is it that at the age of 72 you can still see things you've never seen before?

You may not know this, but I also write a family newsletter. And this month, we had a "What is your favorite summer smell" spot. I got lots of different answers...from flowers, the smell of bacon and onions cooking to pluff mud of all things. But for me and my girls, as I said in the newsletter, the apple does't fall far from the apple tree. Our favorite smell was Coppertone Suntan Lotion. And I also like the smell of Dial soap...the gold one. It reminds me of my friend's, Robert and Shea's, clawfoot bathtub in the second floor bathroom of their beach house. They use Dial soap, too.

I've been busy canning tomatoes this week.

I put up 19 jars..........

.....and made a pint and a half of blueberry jam.

I think I'll make some more. I have many a blueberry left.

Exercise:

If you remember, I started experimenting with running and then riding the bike directly afterwards in July. Well, I've had to cut back on that. My half-marathon training program has begun and running and biking in the same day is a bit much. However, I do ride the bike on one of my weekday runs....just for a shorter distance, though. And then again on Sundays after the half training session, I also ride a shorter distance. Now, I use biking as cross training...that allows me a couple of long rides during the week. I know, it's confusing. But in case you were wondering, the stats below may help to clarify.....

July 2013:

Ran:                51.88 miles
Best Pace:       11:37 avg./5.16 mph avg.
Longest run:     4 miles
Bike:               163.26 miles
Best mph:        11:20 mph avg.
Longest ride:    20.69 miles
Races:             No races, this month. Hallelujah!

So, what has your month been like? Are you exercising yet? And, what pray tell is your favorite summer smell?

Til later,

Laurie