Harvests & Plantings

Hello, friends.  Last week, I canned another round of tomato sauce.  We weren't eating the last of the cherries, so I turned them into a jar of cherry lime jam for a gift, and canned it while all the equipment was out, and the water was still hot.  Spicy cucumber chips were made for a dinner.  I harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, pawpaws, figs, and cantaloupes.  We sent pawpaws home with a couple of visitors.  I gathered seeds for evening primrose, calendula, cosmos, and marigolds.  My birthday was last week.  J wanted me to go with him to pick up beadboard and maple plywood at Lowes for the skoolie.  I asked to go by a nearby flower farm, where we got two types of lettuce, chard, collard and purple broccoli seedlings, several packets of seeds, yellow and yellow/pink cannas, and a couple of water lettuce for the birdbath/fountain J made me for my birthday.  I'll try to take a pic of it soon, to share here.  It's wonderful.  I used the Amish method to start two types of tomatoes for next year, as it worked so well this year.  Lemongrass and homegrown lemon balm and lemon verbena were used to make iced tea.

One night, J requested rice and beans for supper.  I pulled a bag of our crowder peas from the freezer for him, but decided to use up some cabbage and mushrooms in a stir fry for myself, and added our zucchini and garlic, plus carrots.  Not long ago, I found a stir fry sauce recipe I like, so used that.  We've been opening the house up whenever it was cool enough at night, sometimes not until 4am, but it looks like we'll be able to open at bedtime from here on out.  We both sleep much better with windows open.  Egg production has seemed very low lately, as in none or one in a day sometimes, but then I saw where at least three different hens, based on the colors, had laid five eggs under their teepee "safe space" in their yard.  That's a first.  Several are molting, which always affects egg production.  I'm adding several spoonfuls of powdered milk to their mash, to up their protein, and help encourage new feathers.  I continue using bits of this and that for their mash.  This week, I opened a jar of mustard green beans, which neither of us can eat now, so I've been chopping a bit each day and adding it.  They always come running, when they see me coming with the bucket.

The pups were bathed in the outdoor shower, with homemade dog soap, on the last day in the 90's.  J wanted chicken and noodles on a night he was feeling under the weather.  I pulled a container of curried butternut squash soup from the freezer to have for my dinner.  With harvested basil and a small amount of purslane, I made pesto, using our garlic. I also made some cashew parmesan, some of which was added to the pesto.  On a recent supplement/grocery purchase, I used a promo code for 15% off, and went through Swagbucks, receiving 4% back.  We finally have some tiny eggplant growing in the garden.  Hallelujah!   Just as it was beginning to rain, we planted the purple broccoli and two of the chard seedlings, as well as the two cannas.  J also dug a clump of the canna we already have, and put it in the same area.  We hope next year will be a kinder one to our garden and plants.  Be well, friends.