Garden Gluttony

I recently read a newspaper called Garden Gluttony. I think that might be a good description of us this summer. Not only did we plant a lot of vegetables (18 tomato plants) but they all did amazingly well this summer. We had so many tomatoes that I even canned some this year which I haven't done for a long time!







But were we content with that, no, of course not! When we dug up our potatoes, we planted again in the empty space. So, we are still getting some veggies from the garden! We have a second batch of radishes for salad along with some spinach that we just planted a few weeks ago. Swiss chard is still coming and the tomatoes that we pulled off the plants last weekend are slowly ripening inside. We made chili again tonight with fresh tomatoes. In addition to all the stuff in the freezer we are still enjoying fresh potatoes, onions, rosemary and sage from the garden - yummy!
I love heading into the winter with a pantry and freezer full of good food.

What happened to the Garden Season?

Well, here I am again. I've gone from a posting in May talking about finally having a few garden chores to do and being very excited about it to four months later and the garden is still very much alive! It has gone from putting plants in, to "It's a jungle out there"!

And then to "What am I going to do with all of these tomatoes"?



Here's one of many solutions - Tomato, mozzarella and basil salad - otherwise known as Caprese salad.




Other options these last few weeks have been batches of homemade spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, frozen chopped tomatoes, chili, beef stew, zucchini stew, grilled cheese and tomato, tomato on toast and if all else fails - give them away!!

Maybe now that I have done this posting, it will be easier to get back to doing it on a regular basis. I did have a few things going on this summer like getting married, having a big party and another family wedding coming up in a week and a half! I hope you'll forgive the long lapse - I have!

Planting has begun!

Gardening season is beginning. This past week after coming back from vacation, I picked up some live plants that probably had been sitting at the post office for a week. Hopefully they are very hardy and will survive. I planted Bellflowers and Johnson's Blue Geraniums. How is that for a nice name for a flower! And it's my favorite color! Tonight, I planted some potatoes. Last year we had planted some potatoes from old potatoes from the year before. I read that you will get better production if you start with fresh "tubers" so I ordered some and put them in. The test will come later I guess. I also have onion sets and garlic to plant - I may run out of room this year. The seeds have arrived too and haven't had time to even look at those. Hopefully this weekend will be good weather and the bugs won't be too bad so some of them can go in. I still will wait until Memorial Day to put in the tomatoes and anything else that can't take the frost. Happy planting everyone!

Sock Blanks

What is this you say? It is a "sock blank"! Still confusing, right? Well, this piece of knitting comes all knit up as you see it, except that it is pure white when it arrives. Patsy gave a group of her knitting buddies each a sock blank for Christmas along with different color dyes. Then one day in the last month or so, we gathered at her house for this experiment. We mixed the dyes in Mason jars and then we each dyed our "blank" based on our color preferences. Here is mine with of course, lots of bright blues. What happens next is that the knitting is made up of two pieces of yarn knit together so that when you unravel this into two balls, you have two balls of yarn that are relatively the same so that you can knit two similar socks - thus the name sock blanks!

Garden Chores!

A few days ago, I sprinkled Hollytone, an organic fertilizer for acid-loving plants around my blueberry plants that were still surrounded by snow. When I bought some plants a few years ago, the man at the nursery said if you do it this way, as the snow melts the fertilizer gradually sinks into the ground with the water. So, I made some big bulls-eye circles in the front yard around the plants. Today it was beautiful outside - in the 60's. Up near the front of the house, the snow has disappeared on the southern exposure side and I was able to rake out one of my flower beds. I also pruned the apple trees a little bit and pulled out old blackberry canes to make room for the new ones. It felt so great to be able to do some garden chores. I know come mid-summer, there will be more chores out there than what I can possibly get done, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying my time outside!

Winter Wonderland

Well, it is certainly white outside!! We got about a foot of snow on Wednesday and then we lucked out (if you like snow) on Thursday. North and South of us got buckets of rain and although we got some sleet throughout the day and night, the majority of it was snow. We ended up losing power at home Thursday night and it didn't come back on until Saturday morning. And now, it is snowing again as I write this! I did some shoveling but am looking forward to doing some cross-country skiing this afternoon - and taking a hot shower after! It's amazing what you take for granted as far as electricity is concerned. No lights of course, no computer, no water which includes no flushing! Good thing I had filled the bathtub with water on Thursday for that purpose. Even though you know the power is off, you still keep flipping the light switch when you go into a new room - just habit I guess. We're off to a wedding tonight so hopefully everyone arrives safely and I'm sure the bride will be beautiful in Winter White!

The Seed Catalogs have arrived!

Okay, so maybe the beginning of winter isn't the best time of the year to start a blog that is primarily about gardening, especially when you live in the Northeast! So, I can write about cooking, especially with produce that came from the garden and that was either canned or frozen and I can also talk about knitting - because...I can always talk about knitting! Anyway, back to gardening. The seed catalogs have arrived so we can start dreaming about our summer gardens. John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds is a catalog that Skip's dad told me about a few years ago and I have been ordering from them ever since. They have lots of great varieties, including many heirlooms with great descriptions about the plants and even ideas of how to prepare some of the vegetables. John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds is not owned by one of the big "agribusiness" companies and doesn't sell any "treated" or genetically modified seeds so it's perfect for organic gardening. The days are getting longer now and I am getting ready to place my seed order - a sure sign of spring. I will need a few more days to peruse the catalog to make my final decisions though - so many choices!!

Shopping and Lunch with Friends (Great Friends!)

Yesterday I met two of my long-time/high school/college friends for lunch and an afternoon of shopping. It was great fun! There is something very relaxing and energizing at the same time getting together with girl friends and catching up on whatever has been going on in our busy lives. A lot has changed for us all of us in the past decade - especially with our kids. College graduations, weddings, full-time jobs, grandbabies on the way! What hasn't changed is our friendship. We always seem to be able to just catch up wherever we left off last time - even if it was months and months ago. Oh and the shopping was great too. Nothing like having a friend or two say - Oh yes, that looks great - you should buy it - it's on sale! :)