~ First Garden Harvest ~

I gathered our 1st garden harvest yesterday , 4 beautiful little radishes (LOL). Ms. Lame Lucy the guinea also laid her 1st egg of the season yesterday. The hens have been laying well , considering they're 2 years old now. I was planning to put the older hens in the freezer soon , but I've decided to wait. But I will be getting some new chicks soon. The leaf lettuce is also ready to harvest , looking forward to a homegrown tossed salad. What are you harvesting ?

~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Morning Harvest ~

This morning I headed out to feed the chickens , goats and to check the garden. I found this Siamese squash and a few other yellow squash and zucchini squash. There were a couple of cucumbers on those pitiful looking vines too.

The corn has started developing ears , was thrilled about that. I thought it was a total loss , but maybe not. I keep forgetting we planted the garden late , so maybe that's why it's just now getting ears.

These are my Tommy Toe Tomatoes aka cherry or salad tomatoes , they're huge this year. They're larger than most of my Homestead tomatoes and the Homestead are suppose to be medium size tomatoes. Of course they're planted near hubby's garage and can be watered.

This is the morning harvest , one of the girls had laid early this morning too.

The Roma tomatoes are ripening too , I've been picking them as they start to ripen. I'm afraid the deer will raid the garden if I don't. They don't like green tomatoes , but I remember one year they went through the garden and took a bite out of every ripe tomato . We loss most of our tomatoes that year to the deer. I plan to make some mild salsa with the Roma tomatoes. Little Froggy loves salsa , but the last 2 batches I made are to hot for him to eat. So I want to make a few jars that he'll be able to eat.

Hope you all are having a good week !

~ Garden Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ * ~ Thankful for the Pepper Harvest ~ * ~

Yesterday was a busy day , I gathered all the peppers off the vines. The bell peppers weren't as bountiful or as beautiful as last year , but at least we have a few to put away for the winter. The jalapenos did better than last year , although quite a few have cracked skins , need to find out what causes that. My guess would be not enough rain , but I plan to do research on the problem. I'll be pickling the jalapenos and freezing most of the bell peppers.

I also harvested a huge bag of the mixed greens , I'll be cooking those today. The leaf lettuce is also ready to start picking , so we'll be eating salads this week too. I'm not sure if the broccoli , cabbage and collards are going to produce anything , they're growing , but very slow and the cold weather is almost upon us , so we'll just have to wait and see.

I made this Soul Collage yesterday , haven't analyzed it yet , but it ended up being about " Harvest ". I think it expresses happiness about being finished with the harvest season , although I'm thankful for all we've been blessed with , glad it's coming to a end for awhile.

I still have roots to harvest sometime this week. I'll be digging dandelion , echinacea and yellow dock roots , to make tinctures. I also need to make more pine oil , so need to gather pine needles and I thought I was through with the harvest season (LOL).

I also had to clean the chicken coop , the girls are still laying well , getting 3 , 4 or 5 eggs a day. The keets have really grown , they're in chicken coop with the hens. I'll probably keep them in the there until Spring. We've had 4 of the adult guinea killed on the highway in the last month , they started wandering again after the females quit nesting , so we're down to 3 from the original gang. There are 20 keets , but we have 10 sold to a friend , so we'll have 13 guinea , maybe 11 if 2 go home with Curious J.

Well , that's what is going on around our homestead , hope everyone else is having a good week .

~ Autumn Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ In the Kitchen ~

Each time I think this harvest season is over , something else appears that needs canning , pickled or froze. My uncle brought my Mom a wash tub of okra , so we pickled okra yesterday. We also cut , sliced banana peppers and bell peppers that needed preserving. These pickled banana pepper rings are very easy to make , just cut into rings , stuff jar , fill with vinegar and keep in refrigerator. They're delicious on beans , burgers , in salads and make a sandwich taste special. We sliced the bell peppers and froze them , they'll be used for stir-fries.

I also dehydrated some apple rings and bananas , the dried apples are sooo good , but the bananas are to sweet. I'll use less ripe bananas next time , maybe they won't be so sweet.

~ Harvest Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Nana's Kitchen ~

I've been busy this week , on Monday I made six ~ 1/2 pints of blackberry jelly. The blackberries didn't bare well this year , so this is the only batch I'll be making.

Curious J and I are making rosemary flavored red wine vinegar , his dad loves it , so I'll be sending a bottle home with them.


~ Yesterday's small harvest from the garden ~


I added some dried moss , cayenne peppers and rosemary to my garlic braid I made last week. It looks so much better although it's still a little lopsided .....


it now hangs in the kitchen with a new wall hanging my sister-in-law gave me last week ( love it ) and a thrift store oil painting of an old barn I found a few years ago. I hope to have a barn like that one day !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Open 24 Hours ~ Nana's Kitchen
...... Where Memories are Made
and Grandkids are Spoiled ........




I was under the shed yesterday cleaning some garlic and the girls decided I needed their help .............


This is Fern standing in front of the garlic , right before she decided to jump up on my shoulder ................ wonder if she's a parrot in disguise (LOL).


I did get the garlic cleaned , sliced and laid out to dry on an old window screen ( the pic only shows one side ). I plan to make garlic powder , if it dries out well. This is tedious work , so I hope it is worth the trouble , my fingers are sore from peeling so much garlic.


~~ Garlic Blessings ~~
JoyceAnn

~ Garlic Galore ~

We've been busy digging garlic this week , the garden wagon sure came in handy.

The garlic didn't do as well as it did last year , but looking back at my garden journal , we planted it a couple weeks later and had to harvest about 3 weeks earlier , due to the weather. We've had hot summer like weather for the last month or so , and the bottom leaves were dying , so we had to harvest earlier. It's not as large in size , but we have about triple what we had last year.


Yesterday I graded most of the garlic , small , medium and large. I really enjoyed this part of the harvest , being outside under the shed , watching the guineas and listening to the birds singing , so peaceful.

~ Small ~

~ Medium ~

~ Large ~

Bundled and hung to cure !

In about 2 weeks it should be cured , then it will be time to clean it up and store it. I'm considering selling garlic at the local farmer's market later this summer.

~ Garlic Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~~ Lambsquarters ~~

~ Notice : The top center leaves that are emerging are powdery white ~

~ Lambsquarter ~





Friday I tried lambsquarter for the first time , it was delicious. The garden is full of this wild weed , I plan to harvest as I pull weeds from the garden. I created my own recipe and it turned out well , so here's how I made it.

~ Lamb's Quarter Stir-Fry ~

2 tbsp of bacon grease or olive oil

2 cloves of garlic (minced )

1 quart of lamb's quarter leaves

Lemon pepper seasoning

Parmesan cheese

Cooked noodles or rice

Saute minced garlic in oil of choice , until it is clear looking. Add lamb's quarter and stir-fry until done , add lemon pepper seasoning to taste. Serve over noodles or rice , add cheese and enjoy !

I used store bought lemon pepper seasoning , but I plan to make my own lemon basil / Pepper seasoning soon. Let me know if you try this recipe , would love to know what you think about it.

If you would like to know more about lambsquarter , be sure to check~out this link below

http://prodigalgardens.info/june%20weblog.htm#Lambsquarters

Annette has a yummy sounding recipe

( Lambsquarter & Navy Beans ) posted here

~ http://the-wardhouse.blogspot.com/2009/05/lambsquarters.html ~

I plan to try it soon.

~ ~ Greenest Blessings ~ ~

JoyceAnn

~ Spring Harvest ~

My oldest daughter was given about 10 lbs of asparagus this week , we've eaten some and frozen some for later. I love asparagus and hope my patch does well. Does anyone have a favorite asparagus recipe to share ?

I harvest violet leaves to make a infusion , it's like a green tea. The infusion is very good for you , full of vitamins and nutrients.

Harvested a few more violet blooms , they're almost through blooming for this season. I made more ice cubes with these blooms. I've also added some to salads. I didn't get to make a second batch of violet jelly , but plan to make dandelion jelly soon. I found a cookie recipe using violet jelly , they're called "Thumbprint Cookies " , hope to make some soon. I will share the recipe if they're good.

I gathered lots of dandelion greens , plan to cook a mess for my family this weekend. The girls are eager to try the new dandelion recipe. I think I'll serve it with whole wheat noodles this time.

Something store bought , something homegrown and something wild , made for a great salad. I used iceberg lettuce , a handful of homegrown leaf lettuce and dandelion greens , violet flowers & leaves.

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Major Harvest Time ~

We didn't get rain this past weekend , so we dug the potatoes Saturday. Actually hubby plowed through them and we picked them up. We didn't get all of them picked up , so had planned to finish yesterday. But we didn't get to them yesterday either , my Mom called and needed DH to look at her well pump , it's not working . Was hoping to get them up this afternoon , but it has been stormy. We need the rain , so I'm grateful for it. The potatoes didn't do as well as last year , but we are blessed to have some to eat this winter.

This morning I harvested corn and green beans. I will be canning the beans tomorrow and freezing the corn.

Today , my oldest daughter and I made baby food. We made carrots and green beans with corn for the wee ones. I also taught her how to make blackberry jelly. Last Sunday , they tried my blackberry jelly , she and her husband both liked it. It maybe because she's pregnant (LOL) , she liked the jelly and the stuffed peppers I made last week. She has always liked the stuffing in the peppers , but wouldn't eat the pepper , she ate the whole stuffed pepper last week and said it was good.

The blackberries are about to dry up , but I'm still picking about a cup a day. We made six 1/2 pints today , hope to make 6 more later this week.

Hope everyone is doing well , will try to visit some blogs tomorrow if I get a chance.

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn