Carrots?

We were disappointed in our carrot crop in the fall our carrots were super tiny. We just kinda gave up on them. Today was a pretty nice day so we went out and dug up the garden, and here is what we found. THEY FINALLY GREW! 

I don't know what it is about our garden but every year we go out after we have given up on a crop and there is a late spike in productivity. It is always a different crop but it happens every year. I will say it is nice to have fresh Carrots in February.

Cooking up a Storm

Well our garden has been doing wonderful which has in turn made me more domestic which I am pretty sure my husband is loving. On Sunday I got up and weighed our tomatoes we had accumulated quite the bowl full in our fridge and voila we has 6lbs, perfect! So let the process begin! Gabe and I spent most of the day in the kitchen we made 4 more jars of tomato sauce but this time I didn't have to buy anything from the store!! I was pretty excited and while that was working I decided to make zucchini bread, since we had just picked one the night before. So here is another recipe I found on the Internet.

As with everything at our house we omit the nuts (safety first) and my hubby had one suggestion put sugar on the top for a sweet crunch. 

Otherwise it was a success. Here's Gabe enjoying all of our hard work 

Zucchini

I just realized that I never shared what I decided to do about which way to grow our zucchini. Our choices were:

1. Just letting them grow as they please.

2. Growing them Vertically. Whether that be using a tomato cage or stakes.

We ended up making a cage out of some fencing we had, so it was kind of like a tomato cage. (I didn't take any pictures of it on the plants where you could see it, sorry.)  

In this picture the cage in in place and you can see how the plant is growing upward.  

As the plants started to get bigger I trimmed up the leaves on the bottom so the Zucchini had room to grow. The plant started to get pretty big for the cage and it was becoming difficult to reach in and trim up the plant. 

Right before we left for vacation I removed the cage. I knew I wasn't going to be there to remove the pesky leaves that were in the way and we did have some little Zucchini popping up. We switched to the free method.

I think it worked out quite well because when we got back this is what we had waiting for us.

Now to make something delicious out of them!

When Life gives you Tomatoes

We have been getting tomatoes from the garden lately and we decided to try a tomato sauce recipe with the ones we had plus a few extra from the store since not all of our tomatoes were ripe at the same time. We thought starting with a small batch was a good starting place since it was a new recipe.

Seasoned Tomato Sauce

INGREDIENTS

• • 12 cups chopped ripe tomatoes (about 6lbs)
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1tsp dried)
  • 2 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt

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INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, sugar, pepper and bay leaves in a large stainless steel or enameled saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, until very thick, about 1 1/4 hours; stir frequently. Press through a food mill or coarse sieve to remove seeds and skins. Add lemon juice and salt.
2. Ladle sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe tops clean. Put on lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Remove and cool.
3. Makes about 4 cups

What I did a little different: We don't have a food mill to remove the seeds and skins so we started by blanching the tomatoes so we could peel them before we started. We just left the seeds in.

Blanch Your Tomatoes

• Fill a large 7- to 8-quart pot with 1 gallon water; bring water to boiling. 
• Using a sharp knife, cut a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato. This encourages the skin to split during blanching so you'll be able to slip off the skin easily with your fingers once the tomatoes have cooled. 
• Working in 1-pound batches, immerse tomatoes in the boiling water.
• Cook until the tomato skins split open.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer tomatoes to a large bowl of ice water.

Between Harvests

From time to time I get really fed up with the weather, it seems like all it does is rain. The grass is constantly wet and I can't mow, which of course means it is taking over and that stresses me out plus the chicken run is a muddy mess, because no mater what I do, it rains and makes it worse. I JUST WANT SUN! 

Then the little voice in my head says "It could be way worse! We could be the state having wild fires!" OK OK you are so right little voice and I am so glad we aren't that state by the way. Plus it is making taking care of the garden easier so I should just count my blessings. Let me tell you what, the rain is doing wonders in the garden division. 

Our Blackberry bush started to produce this year! We got a hole 4 or so berries, but I'm sure next year will be awesome!

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Everything is really looking great which is awesome but then at the same time we are in the hurry up and wait part of the process again. We were so excited to have lettuce and strawberries earlier in the year and now that the strawberries have stopped producing we are just kind of hanging out and waiting for all of our other plants to come into harvest season. 

As you can see the tomatoes are doing amazingly well and are probably the next to be harvested we are just waiting for all of those beautiful things to turn red. 

Happy Gardening!

James and the giant peach

We planted a peach tree in the summer of 2013 and this year we got our first little peach from it. Hopefully next year we will get at least 2 peaches :)

Yummy Grass

Took the smaller chickens out for some fun in the grass. 

We also took out the babies to the garden and used them as weed control and as fertilizers.