Vacation is almost here...garden is in!

We are full speed ahead here on our suburban homestead!!!  Everything is pretty much planted and coming up!  This year I've planted a ton of cucumbers as I am going to can pickles this summer!!!  I'm very excited about the prospect of it! I also have a lot more squash planted as well.  Last year was not a good zucchini year and we are praying for a good harvest this year!!!  I've got some tomatoes growing...I've had to fight the weather so we'll see how they fare.  All the lettuces look amazing and the peas are coming around nicely.  I was going to plant my beans, but every year I've wanted to coat them with inoculant to get a better harvest and I can never get my hands on any.  I've finally ordered it online so in a week or so I can get started on that.

We are almost ready for vacation!  It is going to be crazy fun and I can't wait.  The kids are so excited!!!  We are doing the whole Florida/beach/theme park vacation.  I love blogging, but this isn't my main blog.  If you are interested, my other site is www.homesteadblogger.com/zucchinimom.  I've got all kinds of stuff there, including recipes, all this fun vacation stuff, gardening, homesteading in the suburbs, etc.  I'd love to get to know more of you!  I hope you have a great weekend!!!

Gardening and kitchen revelations

We have had gale force winds around here and I didn't get much done over the weekend.  Finally, around dinner, the winds stopped, the sun shone, and I put in all my seeds into the ground.  Ahhhh.  I feel much better now. I'm particularly excited about my French pumpkins, affectionately called the Cinderella pumpkin.  They are an heirloom variety that the carriage in Cinderella was made from.  It's a large, flatter shaped pumpkin and looks just beautiful.  I'm crossing my fingers and praying for just one beauty this summer!!!

I also decided something...instead of pining away for an expensive Bosch mixer, an expensive grain mill, and a horde of hard grain, I decided to break out my bread machine and make dough so I can bake it in the oven. I think we often times get in a rut of "I have to have..." something in order to accomplish something.  Why not make dough and then bake it in the oven???  I finally dug the machine out of the small appliance cemetery in the garage and put it to work!!! It's been in the garage because with my family of six, one little bitty loaf of bread equates to one slice per person...not exactly worth my time and effort.

So I decided I was making rolls for my family and you know what, they turned out gorgeous and delicious!  No more feeling sorry for myself because I don't have the newest, most efficient fandangled gadgets out there.  I think back to the prairie women who did it all by hand and cared and nurtured for their families amazingly well with what little they had.  They are truly inspiring and help me when I'm not feeling like I'm homesteading very well.

I hope your homestead is running smoothly!  Dust off some of those small appliances and put them to work! You just may be surprised with what you turn out!!!

Recycle your jeans into a quilt

Hi all. I am revamping my little blog here. I hope I spark a little interest. A project I will be working on is a massive picnic quilt made from recycled jeans. These are all the squares I have cut. They are 6 1/2" x 6 1/2". I have been collecting our jeans for years specifically for this project! I can't wait until I have it all finished! This is only the first stage so I will keep you posted on my progress. It's a great way to reuse and recycle something that we all have! Wait until I show you what I have planned for some of the pockets that weren't used!!! But that's for another post!!!

As you can see, I have many different colors and I have included seams and some decorative features, too. I've watched some youtube instructions and some people don't feel seams should be used or stretchy denim--hello, I've had four babies, you better believe my jeans stretch!!! It wouldn't be recycling if I didn't use them!!!!!! I've also included stained jeans. My husband works very hard for us so it will be included. With my family of six, we all have contributions and it will be a quilt for the family!!! What are some clever uses of old jeans that you have???

Sixty pounds of peaches!!!

Here are the "fruits" of my labor. Sixty pounds of peaches netted me in total: 22 pints of peach butter, 11 pints of sliced peaches in a light syrup, 7 half pints of peach jam, 7 tiny little jelly jars of peach butter, and about a pound in the freezer. Not bad for all my efforts!!! What have I learned from my peach-y exercise in canning?

1. Make sure your peaches are absolutely ripe!!!! The peels will come off so much easier after you immerse them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then dipped in cold water. The first 20 pounds I processed was very laborious because they weren't ripe. By my last 20 pounds, we had it down!!! Make sure they're ripe!!!!!!

2. "Many hands make light work!" The more the merrier and it will go by quickly if you have lots of help.

3. Flying peach pulp will burn you! Trust me...I learned the hard way!!!!

4. I've heard of some people boiling down the pits and peels. I personally gave some of the peels to my worms (I have a small worm bin) and they absolutely love them!!!!

It will be a joy to have that peach butter in winter, but for now, I really don't want to see another peach for awhile, ha, ha!!!

What are you preserving in your neck of the woods???

More canning...peaches and pears!

Look at these gorgeous pears! These only cost me $1 per 3 lbs. Oh yes!!! I will be making pear butter out of these beauties. Plus, I bought 40 more pounds of peaches. I know, I know, you probably think I'm crazy, but they were such a deal. In a previous post, I told you that I made 4 little jelly containers of peach butter. Uhhh, they're all gone. The kids went crazy over it. They love it on toast and the other night we put it on pancakes. It was CRAZY GOOD!!! So I'm going to make loads of it for this winter. Can't you imagine a blizzard outside and having a delicious scone or buttermilk biscuit topped with the lusciousness of summer by way of peach butter? I can't wait to scoff at the snow while indulging myself!!! Yes, I'm a summer baby! Needless to say, I'll be busy the next few days with my canning, but it will be so worth it!!!

Beans are coming in!

These are the lovely Royal Burgundy beans. They are a purple bush bean that was my oldest daughter's crop this year since her favorite color is purple!!! We picked only seven so far, but that is just the beginning! We have many more to come!!! The family stood around as we cooked them to watch the color change from purple to green!!! These are a great bean to have to get your kids interested in growing and eating beans! It's healthy and you have a little magic show to go with it!!! They were just tickled!

We did manage to get one zucchini so far (absolutely disappointing)! The tomatoes are starting to ripen...I can't wait to make salsa! The squashes are plugging along as well. We have pumpkins and yellow summer squash, and for the first time I'm growing dipper gourds. I'm way excited about that one! How is your garden growing???

Canning is "peachy" keen!

I bought twenty pounds of peaches because I got them dirt cheap!!! Here are the "fruits" of my labor! I canned 11 pints of sliced peaches in light syrup, 7 pints of peach jam, and 4 of the tiny little jelly jars of peach butter!!! Not bad for twenty pounds. I think I will be getting another twenty pounds since it was sooooo inexpensive ($0.39/lb.). I can't wait until winter to eat this summery goodness!!!

When I started with the peach jam a few days ago, I could not get the peels off the peach. I think it was because the peaches weren't quite ripe. I waited a few days for them to ripen to can the sliced peaches, and the peels came off like it was nothing. That saved me a ton of work!!!! Now they look so pretty and I'll check the seals tomorrow. In the background you'll notice Ball's Blue Book of Preserving. It has been such a valuable guide as I can this year. It is quite the resource and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to can things properly. What are you canning or preserving this season?

An update on my zucchini: not so good. It's very embarrassing that I'm zucchinimom and I'll barely have any zucchini this year. Last year was such a stellar year for zucchini around here and horrible for tomatoes. This year, the tomatoes are growing like gangbusters and the zucchini are doing miserable. Such is the life of a gardener!!!

Happy growing and happy preserving!!!