SPRING!!!!!!!!!!

I had to change my blog to a more springy look because I am officially out of winter mode! :):) I got my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange and we will be starting some soon! Seed Savers Exchange is a wonderful place to get heirloom seeds.Most of what I need I will get from my local co-op.They carry alot of Seed Savers seeds amd I will just get it as I need it but I wanted to be sure to have the exact tomatoes and a few other things that I wanted.....These are the varieties that I got from my order to get us started! :)

Lettuce.......Seed Savers Lettuce Mixture
Brussels Sprouts......Long Island Improved
Cauliflower.....Early Snowball
Spinache......American
Broccoli.......Calabrese
Cabbage.....Mammoth Red Rock and Premium Late Flat Dutch

TOMATOES........:) The children all got to choose a kind and after a long time of debating we chose.....

Mamma.....Brandywine (Sudduths Strain),Hungarian Heart,Hillbilly Potato Leaf,Gold Medal,Juane Flame,Black From Tula,and Romas.

You can go to Seed Savers and read about them if you want.I can't WAIT to get them started!!! Hopefully this weekend! :):)

Preserving Kale (and any other greens)

I really,really want to like Kale.My midwife tells me that she finally found a way that her boys will eat Kale! They are asking for seconds! She blanches it first, sautees it in olive oil, and then adds toasted sesame or sunflower seeds and seasoning.They love it.Since Kale is like one of the very best vegetables there is for you I am determined to get it into our diet.I have about 20 plants so hope to get several gallons in the freezer this year!

Wash Kale............

Fold in half and cut off stems.

This is the Kale with all of the stem removed.

Blanch is boiling water for 2 minutes then immediately dunk in cold water.I just have my strainer right in my sink and either spray it with cold water for a few minutes or have my sink full of water and put it right into the water.Either way works.You just want it to be cooled right away to stop the cooking process.After cooling,roll the greens up in a towel or something absorbant.(I used a diaper! lol) SQUEEZE to remove water!

The last step is to spread the greens onto a cookie sheet and freeze.When frozen you can pack into your freezer bag! Beware that a huge bag of greens will shrivel up to practically nothing! lol

What I want in storage this year for food.....

40 quarts of pickles
50 quarts of saurkraut
40 quarts salsa
20 quarts hot peppers
40 quarts frozen corn
1 gallon dried corn
15 quarts frozen green peppers
125-150 quarts of frozen vegies (other than corn)
30 quarts apple pie filling
Dried apples and pears ?? how much
10 quarts of sun dried tomatoes
20 quarts apple sauce
25 pints of pizza sauce
50 quarts tomato sauce
Green salsa
Enchilada sauce
Blackberries
Dried potatoes AND stored potatoes
Squash
Diced onions
12 pints relish
Beets?
Apple cider in freezer? We need another freezer for this so we shall see.....


I am sure I am forgetting some things but I can add to this later!

A few gardening pictures from this year.

The first is my garden standing at the house,looking out to the garden,The 2nd is up against my house.You can see that it is only half way finished lol but the first part has comfrey and echinacea planted in it.Not sure what all else I am going to plant yet.The 3rd picture is standing on the other side of my tomato patch.I thought it was SO pretty!!I hope I get more tomatoes than I can handle.They were starting to get a little early blight after a bunch of rain but they are doing better it seems! I am so thankful! I was worried!

More gardening pictures

The first picture is the morning glories growing on the fence I have right when you walk into my garden.Then there is a close up of some of my green peppers.I have about 15 plants and I hope to get plenty in the freezer this year! The 3rd picture is a close up of my flowers that
are in the front of my garden and the 4th is the blossoms on some beautiful,heirloom,"dragon" beans that I am growing this year! I just thought they were so beautiful!

Much better picture of my gardens...JUNE

You can see garden #1 ,#2 and #3.......#1 starts right in front and curves to the left and goes down to the end of garden #2....Garden #2 is the one you see right to the left of garden #1 and garden #3 is behind garden #2 but you can barely see it..... If you click on the picture you can see it enlarged......

Potato hills

They are not up yet but any day they will be! There are 25 potato plants in each hill so that gives us a total of 200 plants....They are heirloom blue potatoes.I really,really hope they do good!

This is a small section of one of our gardens......It is hard to get the whole thing in the picture......Here you can see the cabbage,some of the onions,a few tomatoes and some cauliflower.......My children each have a garden of their own this year and they are on the left side starting at the tiller and they go on down a ways....That overhead trellis you see is my little girls to grow her pole beans on....She also has morning glories planted around it.....

Garlic

My garlic patch this year.......Garlic is one of the best natural antibiotics there is.I should have about 100 heads of garlic at the end of this year if it does good.I am excited as I have never grown it before.....I don't know WHY because we love garlic!

Gardening!

I love it...! Here when it warms up a little I will be going outside and putting the rest of my tomatoes in.....I also want to plant more beans,peppers,popcorn and FLOWERS of course:) I LOVE gardening.I do alot of canning,dehydrating etc.This year we planted 200 strawberry plants! I have NEVER had that many strawberries and I am so excited.They are my favorite! We are also planting a bunch of heirloom corn (bloody butcher....I do NOT like the name! lol) for grinding! That will be a new experience for us.With all of the genetically modified corn in just about EVERY corn product you can buy.....it is a big push for us to just grow our own.If you don't know much about genetically modified foods and their dangers I highly suggest you research it.It is a very serious/scary issue!

POPCORN.....We are growing a bunch of that this year too! I have never grown it and I can't wait to see how it does.....

POLE BEANS....Usually I grow bush beans but after growing a few pole beans last year I am excited to grow alot more this year.....My husband is building me trellisis for them to grow up that I can walk underneath! They are SO beautiful!! My garden is much more to me that a place where food grows! ....I LOVE to make it pretty! Anyhow, I am very excited about these pole beans....It would be so much easier picking beans standing up!! SO that is another fairly new thing for us this year.....

My children all have their own gardens this year....That is SO fun and they just love it.We have such a wonderful time outside in the garden.They are very serious little gardeners and get so excited about growing things.My girls just love to go and gather herbs to preserve.They were given their very own dehydrator to dry flowers/herbs in .They love that.....They love to make things with herbs....

I am so thankful to live in the country and be able to grow all of this good food....have animals....fresh air....good water....It is such an excellent place to raise a family!