Garden Fuss

This is day one of garden clean-up. As you can see we had a bumper crop... Wait what is a bumper crop anyway? Pardon me as I digress, I just looked this up on Wikipedia and they refer to a Bumper Crop as: "In agriculture , a bumper crop refers to a particularly productive harvest yielded for a particular crop ." Not only did we produce a crazy amount of Table Queen Acorn Squash, we grew and harvested an amazing amount of pole beans (kentucky wonder I believe). We've enjoyed stir-fry, soup, casserole, and even green bean pickles. The latter being a huge hit in my and my brothers home. I am now down almost two jars; there happens to be approximately 5 beans floating in a nummy garlic dill brine in my refrigerator. I am way into the thick of it when it comes to putting food by these days. My kitchen is oober full of large pots, produce, and a couple scrap buckets...

  Just made it back from walking the dog. What is disturbing to the hubby and me is that along the creek bed we saw only rocks and small puddles with stranded fish. What was worst of all was hearing only quiet as we walked to where the water "falls" over the sandstone into the lower creek bed. There was a trickle that didn't fall it kind of just sheened down the rocks into what was a very small kiddie sized pool of water. Kids from a neighboring school yelled, "crane" "crane". As we edged closer to see that there indeed was a crane plump full with fish that were very easy pickings. We've always wondered if there were fish going over the falls and today proved that yes there were and that they depend on the falls for their lively hood. It gets them from one place to another, and carries valuable nutrients and food to them. Until today the drought in my mind only consisted of brown grass, thirsty trees, and dried up vegetation. Today's visi...

    I've waited all year to try my hand at making my own hot sauce. Yes I know there are plenty of grocery stores in my area that sell a variety of peppers that would have allowed me to try this out before now. However, there is nothing like the satisfaction one feels from growing their own and learning to create valuable pantry staples directly from their own land (yard). The recipe was so flippin easy I smacked myself on the forehead for not doing this sooner.   The beauty of making your own condiments allows you to control the sugar and sodium in the final product. I wish we had scratch and sniff monitors so you could have smelled and felt the spice coming from the teeny tiny Thai Peppers. Everyone in the house had very high oxygen levels after the preparation of this I'm sure because it opens you right up.   Tina's Thai Chili Hot Sauce: Ingredients A handful of Thai Chili Peppers. 4 cloves of peeled garlic 1 large o...

One Giant Roma, 6 stalks of Dino kale, a small white onion (all from the garden); mixed with a splash of cream make a delicious easy sauce for pasta. 3 year old and adults approve and I must agree that this recipe is a keeper. Now with only remnants of all the goodness left in the pan I am realizing that I should have made more. So much for my simple brunch plan... I was sure the guys wouldn't like it so I made a small pan. Next time I'll know to go all out.
Happy Harvesting!

Tina