My rhubarb was getting quite large so I thought I would make some jam. I bought a flat of strawberries at Snow Goose produce stand and cut off 6 of my biggest stalks of rhubarb. I’ve never made jam before so I wasn’t sure what to expect but it turned out really good. I was able to can about a dozen jars. I had some fruit leftover so I made sauce with them. Going to top my ice cream with it tonight. Oh yeah, I also pulled up my first carrot to see how big they are…looking good so far!
Now that we took down two trees we have a couple stumps to kill. I found a way on Pinterest with something we already had in the garage, rock salt. I drilled a bunch of large holes in the stump and filled up the holes with salt. I’m not sure how long it takes to dry out the stump but fingers crossed it works. I’m open to suggestions though ?
Today we had two large Juniper trees cut down on the side front yard. They were just too big and took up the whole side of the house. After they cut down the trees I went in and took down all these shrubs that were hidden under the trees. I still need to figure out how to kill the stumps…another day. Next year we are going to make this space into an English cottage garden with lots of flowers. I have always loved those. It will be fun to grow flowers from seed too.
My husband made my day today. He made me a mini greenhouse in our shed. I bought the light years ago and used it at our last house. But it’s just been in storage waiting to be used again. I planted a few seeds for our fall garden, dill, cilantro, lettuce, and green onions. I ordered the rest of the seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. I ordered bok choy, green beans, dragon carrots (they are red), and some more lettuce. Another simple garden task we did today was add on/off switches for the drip lines to each bed. I will need water to my hoop house but not the others once summer is over so this will give us control over what gets watered.
I have been saving all the fallen apples the last week in two crisper drawers. They were packed and I had my harvest basket full so I needed to do something with them. Last week I made a jar of applesauce to keep in the fridge, to test the method and the recipe. For that jar I left the skins on and it left a little bit of a gritty texture so this time around I knew I needed to peel the apples.
I finally got to use my KitchenAid attachment to peel. It worked great. Then I added 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 TBS cinnamon to the apples and cooked them in the instapot for 8 minutes. This was my first time canning all by myself so I was a little nervous. But it was actually really simple. I blended the cooked apples and added them to the hot jars. Then canned the jars in a water bath for 10 minutes. I repeated that process for 3 batches. I ended up with a dozen jars. And they all popped! I love that sound, it is so satisfying.
Today was a fun one in the garden. First I got the score of the summer at a garage sale, a big screen to cure my onions and garlic on. Best $3 spent! Once they cure I’m going to braid them.
After that I built a hoop house so I can garden in the fall and winter, something I’ve never done before. The hoop house was pretty easy to build. I bought 5 10ft 1/2in PVC pipes, a pack of tube straps, 10 clamps, zip ties, and a 10x25ft plastic sheeting to cover the hoop house with. I screwed the tube straps on the inside of the beds and stuck the PVC pipes in. I attached the final pipe with zip ties to the top for stability. Then I covered it, cut off the excess, and clamped it down. It only took about a half hour to build. Now I just need to figure out what I want to plant ?
Update: I braided the garlic and onions. It took about three weeks to fully cure the onions, only two weeks for the garlic.
Today I decided to take my son to the church park. It’s a playground at a local church that we’ve gone to for years. It’s nice because you always have the playground to yourself. Another great thing about it is the blackberry bushes that surround the property. I brought a big bowl and got to picking while my mom pushed my son on the swings. Good thing I picked a bunch because my son ate a ton of them, which surprised me because he has refused to eat them in the past. So that was cool. I made the simplest dessert, a blackberry cobbler. Just a few ingredients and you’re good to go. Add some french vanilla ice cream and you have the best summer dessert.
Today’s harvest was inspired by my friend Justin. We went out to dinner at Pacioni’s Italian restaurant yesterday and he is the chef there. He sent us a complimentary bruschetta plate. It was so good. I knew I had to make it. So I harvested my first batch of tomatoes today and made some delicious bruschetta. Fresh basil from the garden, feta, and balsamic glaze and you’re good to go.
Today I went around and took pictures of every flower on the property. I have 28 different types of flowers. Not counting the different varieties of Dahlias that haven’t bloomed yet. Here is a gallery of all that beauty.
Apples keep falling off the trees, so I guess I’m making applesauce today. I used the instapot, it only takes 8 minutes! That’s what I call good fast food. After they are cooked, I used the immersion blender, easy peasy. I didn’t make enough to can but we will eat this up over the next couple weeks.
