Garden Update

Garden is growing amazing. I’ve already given so much to friends. I love growing a garden but I need to get better at keeping up on the harvesting so it can stay healthy and grow more.

SWEET POTATO SLIPS PLANTED:

This is the first time I’ve grown my own sweet potato slips to plant in the garden. Actually I’ve never tried to grow sweet potatoes before. I think I may have planted them to close together. We will see how they turn out.

On the sides of the bed I planted herbs and marigolds.

MILK CRATES AS PLANTERS

I love milk crates. I make so many things with them; shoe racks, veggie baskets, storage bins and now I made them into planters.

The girls finally showed some interest in growing plants. I used all my growing space in the garden and I didn’t have space for another raised bed so I had the idea of making my milk crates into planters.

I lined the inside of the crates with landscaping fabric (that water can drain through nicely) and had the girls mix up some soil and fill the crates.

Since it was a little too late to plant seeds we drove to our local greenhouses and the girls picked out some plants. They ended up planting 8 crates with veggies and flowers and 2 wooden planters that were empty and begging to be used.

Yesterday I used a crate to plant peppermint, spearmint and mojito mint.

MAIN GARDEN

Napa cabbage bolting

Planted celery where the napa cabbage was.

Chard & Baby Bok Choy. Pulled out all the chard that went to seed and planted more chard in its place.

Broccoli Rabe and onions

Corn and potatoes

Bush beans, okra and cucumbers

Thinned out the beets and carrots

Edible flowers, pole beans and peas

Yummy peas! I was curious and ate one of the pea plant leaves. They are so tasty I was amazed!

Sweet bell pepper finally are starting some new growth and eggplants are a little bigger.

Collards, onions and dill

Strawberries, lettuce, arugula, spinach

Tomatoes and collards

Sage, kale, thyme, rosemary and basil

So I accidentally over watered the strawberries. The leaves started to brown on the edges. I clipped all the bad leaves and the new leaves are looking better.

Blueberries

STRAW BALE GARDEN

It seems that I must of done this right because everything is growing nicely.

Tomatoes

Flat leaf parsley

Hungarian Wax Hot peppers

Watermelon

Cauliflower

Red cabbage

Green cabbage

Pumpkin

Sugar Bush Acorn Squash

Burgess Buttercup Squash

Zucchini

Crookneck squash

Celery

Spaghetti squash

Marigolds

Cilantro

It’s been a crazy adventure so far. Today and tomorrow I build the soaker hose irrigation system. Wish me luck!

Composting Egg Shells Tip

Here is an easy tip for composting egg shells. Egg shells compost better if they are broken up. Place your egg shells in a bag and then crush them. You might want to use a small plate to crush the shells. If using your hands and fingers be careful, you might get poked! Once crushed up transfer egg shells into the compost pile.

Mushroom Time!

   
Got some great mushrooms at the discount rack today! Time for some dehydrating!!

Last time I bought a bunch and dehydrated them too. Slices are great for sautéing, soups and stews. Whole dehydrated portobello tops are great for grilled sandwiches!

A great book for dehydrating foods:

  

Page 67: MUSHROOMS
   

  So next time you see an abundance of awesome veggies on sale for dirt cheap, buy them and dehydrate them for later use!

TOMATOES!

  Got all these tomatoes yesterday at a reduced price of $3.99! This is what I did with them today…

  

  9 trays of sliced tomatoes for sun dried tomatoes!
  3 half gallon jars of tomato pulp ready to use for salsa or sauces.  Before I jarred the tomato pulp I let drain for about 30 minutes or so to get tomato water.

  Got about 10 cups of tomato water. Great to use as water substitute for savory dishes, broth or just spice up and drink!

Does your GLuten Free bread crumble on sandwiches?

  
I go back and forth with gluten. I know my body is better without it but I just deal with hives here and there. It’s just so damn good and convenient!

Anyways, I hate when you bite into your GF bread sandwich and it crumbles, making you eat your sandwich way to fast instead of enjoying it slowly.

Well, this morning I decided to toast my GF bread then use for my sandwich. Wow, I was pleasantly surprised how it changes the texture of the bread. It wasn’t brittle anymore! 

Now I am eating Rudi’s Orginal GF bread. I’m not sure how this trick works with other brands, but it works awesome with this brand!

What to do with all these Leftovers?

  

Dinner was great! Now what to do with the leftovers?

  

I could put them all into individual containers then crowd my fridge or make easy to grab meals for later…

Like this…

  

My favorite size mason jar is the pint size (2 cups). This size is a perfect meal portion! No matter what I make for a meal, leftovers go into these babies for quick, healthy meals for later. I freeze most of them but a few remain In the fridge for lunches or snacks. 

Try it, you will love this quick time saving tip!

Tomatoes!

    

I got a case of organic tomatoes for $1.99 earlier this week. There were several tomatoes still in good shape. Definitely $1.99 worth!

I was going to make a bunch of tomato sauce but after I chopped them up I decided to make black bean & corn salsa!

  

I ended up with almost 8 quarts of salsa! Yippy! The whole family loves it. 

I’m going to post the ingredients but I rarely measure things, I go by look and taste. Remember organic ingredients are always better.

Black Bean & Corn Salsa:

• diced tomatoes

• red onion

• cilantro

• corn

• black beans

• fresh lemon juice

• apple cider vinegar 

• Bragg liquid aminos

• salt & pepper

• surgar

Maya’s Pancake Adventure

I’ve been having little miss Maya help me in the kitchen lately. Last night we made a pot roast in the pressure cooker and this morning PANCAKES!

  

I like to make tons of pancakes at once and then freeze them flat on cookie sheets. Once frozen I vacuum pack them and keep in the freezer. Then they are ready to grab and pop in the toaster for a quick healthy breakfast. 

   

 

We made banana, apple cinnamon and blueberry pancakes. 

  

We made them all from scratch. We even grinded our own flour from organic wheat berries. She had a blast learning ingredients and how things worked and came together to make batter. 

   

 

  

We made a large bowl of the batter without the goodness. Then we split the batter into 3 smaller bowls then added the mashed bananas to one bowl, Apple and cinnamon to another and lastly the 3rd bowl with blueberries.

   

I have a few pans going at once then cooking time is cut in half!

   

Pancake Base – makes about 8-10

• 1 c whole wheat flour (or 3/4c wheat berries ground into flour) 

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1-3 tbl organic surgar

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 egg or 1/4 c egg substitute

• 1 1/2 tsp coconut oil 

• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 c non-dairy milk

• 1-2 c of fruit of your choice

Blend all the dry ingredients in one bowl and wet into another. Combine dry and wet ingredients until batter is smooth. If too thick then add more liquid. If too wet add more flour.

Enjoy for many breakfasts!! 😀

Carrot Juice – Yummy!

So 25 lbs of carrots later! I got two huge bowls of carrot pulp for baking and 16 cups of organic, fresh carrot juice. I like to freeze my juice in bulk then take one out the night before for an awesome drink the next morning! 

I got this 25lb bag of organic carrots from the store for $5! Because a lady who ordered them decided she didn’t need them and a bunch of carrots were broken into chunks. Fine with me, that meant I didn’t have to chop so many up to fit through the juicer!

I think it’s time for some carrot breakfast muffins!

  

STRAWBERRIES

I bought 2 cases of fresh strawberries for $1.98 because some were starting to go bad. After sorting, cleaning and disposing of the bad strawberries and leaves I filled a one pound container filled with compost matter! That’s it! I couldn’t believe it. So I actually got 15lbs of strawberries for $1.98. I’m good with that! 

So now maybe I’ll make a strawberry pie and freeze the rest! 

And that’s exactly what I did…we will eat one and I will freeze one for later!