Happy fall

Harrison with all his pumpkins from the garden, he was so excited to harvest his pumpkins and bring them home and arrange them on the front porch.

Strawberry Picking

Last week we headed to the strawberry patch with some friends. We came home with lots of berries and even went back again over Mother's Day weekend. We LOVE strawberries and I am glad I found a good local source to pick them. And I LOVE that Harrison enjoys learning about where our food comes from too. 

Garden May 10, 2012

 This is where our garden is so far this year. We are enjoying lettuce and have onions about ready, even a few peppers starting to grow.

 I planted my herbs in pots in case I need to move them and they take up less space this way too.

 Harrison is NOT a much help this year as he was last year, but he is still excited about the garden.

 I have some broccoli but not sure how that is going to turn out this year, lots of onions. about 15 pepper plants 19 tomato plants, some celery and an few peas. I have room for a few more tomatoes just have not got the plants yet. I also am going to plant a few cucumber plants when we till the lettuce up.

Spring

Spring is my favorite time of the year and since we always seem to move in the fall the following spring is always fun watching and waiting to see what come up. I did plant a lot of bulbs in the fall but I am so happy that I have lots of surprises coming up.

Garden Time

When we moved Harrison was upset that we could not move our garden with us. So while we at the new house a few days before the big move and the painters were working Harrison and I worked very HARD to get a little garden planted we even moved a few plants from our old house.  We did not know if we would actually get anything from this garden but we have gotten some peppers and cherry tomatoes and last week we picked our beans before a freeze.  They would have produced for a couple more weeks but we knew frost was coming and we were tilling other beds in the yard so we went ahead and cleaned up the garden too. But here are the beans we got from Harrison's garden :)

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Flowers

I lOVE having fresh flowers from the garden. Makes it really feel like summer :)

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Spring is in the air

I am so happy that spring is on it's way. Flowers are starting to come and we are itching to get our garden in the ground.

We do have some seeds started in inside and hope to get the garden worked this week and some seeds in the  ground.

READY for spring

We are SO READY for spring and Harrison asks me daily if we can plant our garden. While we have had some pretty days during the past week it is still way to early for big garden plans. But we have started some herbs in the house so hopefully we can get a head start on them, and I can stop buying them at the store. I like fresh herbs but not the price at the store.

Pear and Apples

Last weekend we put a few apples and pears up...

and here are a couple of our favorite recipes for apples and pears. http://akparkhurst.blogspot.com/2008/09/apples-and-pears.html

Veggies & Soup

This year has not be a great year for my garden but I have been trying to put up what I can . Above is bag of frozen veggies for soup this winter. I start the bags in the spring with peas put a few in the bag and freeze. Then as things come in I add them to the bag and put back in the freezer. So now I have peas, cor, carrots, and green beans all ready for big pot of veggie soup. We have also been bring in the sun flowers in to save for the birds this winter, since once again Harrison has to feed all things outside.

Here are a few helpful links

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2010/09/preserving-summers-bounty-considering-the-savings.html

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2010/08/preserving-summers-bounty-recipes-and-tutorials-to-keep-you-busy-until-thanksgiving.html

http://www.simplycanning.com/

brussel Sprouts

We had a few Brussel Sprouts last week to put up.

Cooking without Recipes

A few days ago I posted this http://parkhurst1.blogspot.com/2010/07/cooking-without-recipes-tomato-sauce.html and I have another "Cooking without recipes" Recipe. This Time of the year what comes in from the garden is what I try to put on the table for dinner. And for this Dinner I had gotten these Purple Bell Peppers that I wanted to use.

So, I slice up the purple peppers, a couple banana peppers from the garden, a green pepper from the garden and lots of onions also from the garden, and a few cloves of garlic, in a pan with a bit of Olive Oil.

I also had no plans for dinner so I put frozen chicken tenders in another pan with about covered with water and boiled till almost done. Then I sliced it up and added with the peppers and onions. I also cooked a few mushrooms in another pan for mine since John does not do mushrooms.

I added some garlic salt and Lime pepper.

And cooked till everything is as cooked as you like.

When everything was about done I added a can of black beans and a couple handfuls of frozen corn.

Severed over Muiltigrain Gluten Free chips (which is are GREAT I LOVE THEM) a bit of shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes and salsa.

This was SOOOOOO YUMMY. This is mine and Harrison's John was still working at dinner and I normally fix John and put it in the microwave if he is coming home shortly and in the fridge if it is going to be a while, but did not think he would want his chips yucky from all the good stuff.

Gardens make me Smile

The above Sunflower Harrison has been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to bloom. He planted these seeds, watered, and waited. they are finally blooming. they are about 8 feet tall and we were expecting very large blooms but they are not big but he is so excited. The ones below are from sunflowers that have already bloomed, from the other side of the garden we are saving these for the birds this winter.

Corn

Bag of corn from Dad means Corn Hulling at our house.

And Harrison is such a big helper this year (really he is, he loves it and actually does a good job)

Cutting it off the cob.

You have to have a little taste test. The real reason for him eating is so he can take the cob to the chickens :)

Lots of yummy corn.

For the compost which Harrison also takes care of for me.

Then I spread it out on baking pans and freeze then put in bags so I can just grab a handful or two when I need it for a dish or soup.

Its a busy time at our house but we enjoy these goodies all year this way.

It is Canning Time

Canning time is here and in full swing. It is a HOT job but and other things get ignored during canning season but in the winter I am oh so glad I have it. I know just what we are eating and it will be even more important now that Harrison is Gluten Free.

And this year I don't have to do everything while Harrison is alseep. He has been helping and actually really cutting down on my work.