Summer Garden

With yet another cool, wet summer on our hands we are still waiting for the garden to finish up for the year. I am hoping for a few more good days of sun so the pumpkins can ripen and the corn finish.

 Everything grew great this year, but we are not seeing a whole lot of fruit for our labor yet. Things look a bit of a mess because we pack that garden as tight as we can with lots of different things. The wild looking flowers are from some cilantro I planted a couple years ago. It volunteers each year and comes up all over the place. It looks wild, but smells divine. I will have lots of lovely coriander to use this winter. Yummy.

 The kids and I planted sunflowers in with the corn and it has worked out perfect. The corn helps support the heavy stalks and they just look so cute and happy. Although the other day we had TONS of rain and they had their poor heads turned to the ground and looked so sad. Here's to sun for sure!

 We have zucchini coming out our ears and they are very large this year. I think I mistakenly bought a different variety than normals because these are much harder and more pumpkin like on the inside. I baked a  Chocolate Zucchini Cake and it was so divine. Now I just need to shred this basket and get it in the freezer so I can make lots of yummies over the winter.

I did manage to uncover a couple yummy cucumbers too. They were so flavorful and crisp. My mouth is watering thinking about it!

Garden 2011

Well, it has been the coldest spring since 1955 this year, so the garden is going in about a month and a half late. We will have to take our chances and see what we get this year, but we are going ahead with it anyway.

The kids and I got out the seeds, trellises, and tomato cages and got to work. This year I even paid them each $5.00 to help me out. It got them to work longer and without too much complaint.

  Logan is my little gardener. He loves every minute of it and is the first one to bring in the harvest when it arrives. Funny kid.

 Robb found these cool bamboo pyramids at a clients house when they were throwing them away. He hauled them home and we set them up. The peas and the beans are going to have a great time climbing those.

Landon spent most of his time putting on gloves. There were some outbursts of frustration (because he NEVER, does that) because he kept trying to put on two of the same glove. A right handed glove just isn't meant to got on a left had, no matter how long you work at it.
All in all it went well and everything germinated in under a week, so I am crossing my fingers that the weatherman is right and that we are in for a warmer and dryer than normal summer. I am also hoping for a good Indian summer so we can get some corn. If not then we will be off to the farmers market.
This should make for an interesting canning season. Happy gardening everyone!

Here is a list of what we put in this year:

Corn, Carrots, Lettuce, Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Beets, Radishes, Onions, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Butternut squash, Zucchini, Potatoes, Peas, Green Beans, and pumpkins

Closing up Shop

Sorry I have neglected my blog so badly lately, but we have had such a busy fall this year. I hope things quiet down a little before the holidays so I can get caught up. I have LOTS to share.

The weather has turned cold here in the Northwest, so when we got home this weekend, everything in the garden had been kissed by the frost. That means that we are ready to close up the garden for the winter. The kids and I went crazy and filled up the trailer with the garden leftovers. Our plan is to cover the garden with a couple tractor scoops of the compost pile and put it to rest for the winter.

This year was a very poor year for growing things so we were happy to clean out the rest of the harvest and put it in storage for the coming months. We ended up with a lot more that I thought we would and now I have a bunch of work ahead to store the food.

The chickens got busy scratching there way around all the yummy goodies.

The goats thought it was Christmas morning with all the tender vittles to snack on. They LOVE to eat the raspberry leaves an broccoli. I did have a bit of a hart time keeping them away from my rhubarb, that is still growing.

I ended up with quite a big box of onions. We don't eat a lot of onions so I may have to find some friends to pass some of these onto. Oops, my cucumbers got away from me. I am not sure they will taste all that great, but we shall see.


The kids and I were sooooo excited when we saw that there was some good ears of corn on our pathetically small stalks. We had to fight the dog, chickens, and goats for what little corn we got. Who new that everyone loved corn so much.


I had a lot of tomatoes on the plants, but most didn't turn green. I will take what I can and put them in the freezer and make sauce this winter. I will try and ripen the green ones in my windowsill before I freeze them. We were even lucky enough to find a few more squashes and zucchini. I am not sure what the green and yellow ones are. I guess we will find out when we cut them open. I love to make purees. Click here for a great idea on how to make purees.

We were excited to find a few potatoes. I didn't expect to find any, since my potato plants didn't do very well in their containers. I am going back to having them in the ground next year. We will enjoy these though. I think I need to make some stew for dinner tonight.

Hope your garden harvest was bounteous.

Garden Bounty

Yesterday, Logan and I went out to check the garden and came out with a bunch of yummies. The zucchini finally decided to get busy and we picked 8 huge ones. We also harvested a few onions, rhubarb, and one tiny little squash for purees

Since we had such a bounty we decided to make a chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. After eating 5 pieces of this yummy cake I thought I better share it with you. I found this recipe on food.com (used to be recipezaar) and the lady that posted it is named Opal Fitzgerald. Isn't that the cutest name. You know that a recipe coming from someone with that name is going to be yummy. So here we go. Just a warning, the recipe does make a ton. You can either use 4 round pans, or two 9x13 pans. Make one for your family and give one away.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups zucchini, coarsely shredded and unpeeled
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Directions
In a large bowl, beat eggs until fluffy. Add sugar gradually, beating until mixture is thick and lemon-colored. Beat in vanilla and butter. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt; add alternately with buttermilk. Beat until smooth. Fold in zucchini and walnuts.
Divide batter into four greased and floured 8 or 9-in. round pans, or two 9x13 pans.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes or until top springs back when gently pressed.
Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove to wire wracks and cool completely. Frost with your favorite frosting. A frosting glaze would be super yummy.

Hope you enjoy this very moist and delicious cake. Happy Fall

May Flowers

This is my absolute favorite tree in our yard. It is called a Hawthorne Tree and it is so darn adorable. In the spring it blooms these adorable little pink and white flowers. This tree makes me smile everytime I look out the kitchen window. I like to think that fairies live in this cute little tree. Don't they just make you smile?

This tree is only a couple years old, so it is still quite small. I can't wait for it to get larger and full of even more flowers.

Spring Phlox

Simply for your viewing pleasure. Happy Spring!

Garden Patch

Handy hubby showed up again last weekend and decided he wanted to make a rock screen for the garden. What you might ask is a rock screen? Well, first of all I have to tell you we have REALLY rocky soil at our house. We have to use a digging bar every time we want to dig even a two inch hole around here, so you can imagine how hard our little seeds have work to get up in our garden. So the screen is for keeping the dirt and getting rid of the rocks.

Hubby went to the hardware store and bought some heaving gage screen that cost $6.00. He used some wood scraps from around the house. He nailed the wood into a square and stapled the screen to the wood. He then attached legs with bolts to help it move back and forth.

Here is Addison and Robb working the dirt like no other. It is hard work, but the dirt looked fabulous. I can't wait to get the corn planted!

This was after two runs with the screen. Told you we have LOTS of rocks.

Now look at that beautifully screened dirt! Now I have to wait for the cold weather to get the heck of here so I can't get some tomatoes in the ground! Can't wait!

Red Ripe Rasberries

My raspberries are finally coming on really well. They are a very late blooming variety, and don't come on until late August. They are so yummy, especially picked right of the bush.

We are having to pick about every other day now. I have already made two batches of jam and put a large bag in the freezer for smoothies and crepes. I realized that I have not posted a recipe for a while now, and so I decided to post my crepe recipe below. It is a very yummy brunch item or it could also be used as a very delicious dessert.

Bear Lake Raspberry Crepes

Crepe Batter:

1 1/2 c. Flour

2 T. Sugar

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 t. vanilla

2 c. milk

2 eggs, beaten

Filling:

1 (3oz.) pkg. instant pudding (any flavor you think would be great with raspberries)

2 c. 1/2 & 1/2

1/2 tsp. Almond extract

Sauce:

3 c. raspberries

2 T. cornstarch

1/2 c. sugar

Crepe Batter: Combine flour, powdered sugar, baking powder and salt. Add beaten eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Lightly oil skillet. Pour 1/4 c. batter into hot skillet. Tip skillet to coat bottom of pan. Cook over medium heat until light brown. Loosen edges with spatula. Turn and brown opposite side of crepe. Stack cooked crepes on a plate until ready to serve. (Crepes may be frozen for later use)

Filling:Combine pudding and half & half and almond extract. Beat until smooth and pudding begins to thicken. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Sauce: Mix together sugar and cornstarch. Place raspberries in sauce-pan. Mash and heat until bubbly. If using fresh berries,m ad 1/4 c. water. Stir sugar and cornstarch mixture in bubbly raspberries. Stir constantly. Bring mixture to a boil. Cool.

To serve: Pour a small amount of sauce on a serving plate. Place 2-3 T. pudding in center of each crepe and roll. Place 2 crepes on serving plate. Top with additional whole raspberries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Sorry I don't have picture of the finished product, but trust me they are well worth the effort! Head on over to Grocery Cart Challenge for more fun recipies.

Happy Fall!

This is my happy little pumpkin growing in my garden. I have been watching this little guy all summer. We even made a little bed of straw for it . We don't want it to get yucky on one side. I think I will name this one Burt!

Burt says Happy Fall Y'all!

Join the fall fun with Rhondi at Rose Colored Glasses

Fairy Garden

I have been saying all summer that I was going to post about my fairy garden, and since Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer I figure I better get after it. I have been so inspired by all the fall decorations on everyone's blogs that I feel a bit behind. So here goes.

This is the before, this little paper bark birch tree has been here for the past 4 years all by its lonesome. So with Hubbies man power we dug out the lawn and got the shape just right. This is the before...

...and here is the after. There is not much color in it this year. I will work on that next year with pansies and columbine. But for now here we are. We moved two huge hostas from the front yard and divided them. We ended up with 10 plants from those two. That tells you how big they were

This is birdbath/feeder that my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday. It is a perfect addition to a fairy garden don't you think?

Here is Henry the turtle who stands guard in the garden, making sure nothing naughty gets in. Doesn't he look fierce!

We also put in a few little houses for the fairies to take up residence in! This is one that we moved from another flower bed. The kids and I found some cute houses at the Dollar Store and painted them up for the little fairies.

My mom make this pretty totem from various glass pieces that she found on her junkin days. It adds some sparkle to the garden, just what fairies love, sparkle!

Here is one of the houses that the kids painted. We also found smooth river stones at the Dollar Store. Who knew you could find those kinds of things there. So we made little fairy paths around the garden.

This is just a cute little trinket that we added for some whimsy. You know fairies are all about frolicking and whimsy!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. I will add more next summer and see where it goes.

Potato Harvest!

It was yard work day around our house and we got busy in the garden harvesting. Here is hubby and the kids digging for potato treasures.

They had so much fun finding all those yummy red potatoes. Out of all the food we have grown in our garden, potatoes by far, have been the funnest! You can see the goats in the background reaping the rewards of harvest time! They love all the weeds, and plant scraps we send their way.

Of course Landon just had to be in the middle of the process. He grabbed his own shovel and started digging. The next thing I know he had dirt crusted around his mouth and his hands are covered in dirt. Guess he decided to have a soil snack. Packed with all kinds of mineral and vitamins!

Robb and the kids coming across the field from dumping yet another load of garden waste! Of course the goats have to come along and supervise that things are being done properly and that they are not missing out on anything good. Today they got all the pea vines and stuffed themselves until they were sick! A farm is truly the first recycling center on earth. It is great!

Our harvest yielded two 5 gallon buckets of potatoes, and one bucket of carrots. I guess I better round up some more jars and get busy canning again! More yummies this winter!

What did we do today?

What could possibly be worth going into things like this?

All those thorns can be very nasty, but well worth the pain...

...for these little black beauties!

Yep! Those are true blue Washington (full-thorn) blackberries! Most people view them as a noxious weed, and sometimes they can be, but these are my favorite berry in the world. Every year we head out as a family with all the large bowls our house holds. We pick until we can't pick anymore!

Landon was our taste tester. He almost dumped the whole bowl over. About gave his parents a heart attack. We worked hard for that big bowl.

Logan was in charge of the clippers. Removing any branches that kept us from the prize.

Addison's nickname is "the berry picker" and lives up to her name. The only problem is that she eats then faster than she saves them!

Hubby in the middle of a good patch. The best ones always seem to be just out of reach. Another problem with blackberries.

After we got home I washed them and tucked them away in the freezer for a cold winter day to pull out and make jam or even a yummy crisp or pie! I promise to post a great recipe for those!

Garden Visitor

While I was out watering today I had a little visitor. It perched on a twig on top of one of my rose bushes and watched me for a long time. I couldn't pass this moment up and ran for my camera. Much to my happiness it was still there so I could get a good shot. I had never seen a dragonfly like one of these before. I have seen various shades of green, but never red.

I looked it up to find a name for the beautiful creature and came across the cutest site all about dragonflies. This particular one is called a Scarlet Dragonfly. It was quite photogenic, posing like a supermodel of the bug world!