Harvesting the Greens

This week the dehydrator has been busy with greens.  I planted Kale, Swiss and Ruby Red chard, Romaine lettuce, and Leaf lettuce.  I have cut all rows once and my kale and chard are ready to be cut again!  I am dehydrating these and crumbling them up then placing them in a half gallon canning jar. Its almost full already.  It looks like I"ll get two of them full this year. That will be plenty.  I usually take a handful of them and put them in soup or in whatever skillet dish I'm making.  This gives you the greens without really realizing it.  I dried them on a very low temperature for two days to help keep the nutrients in.  Its a great way to plant greens you can eat throughout the season and then save some for winter.  Right now I've gotten everything in my garden except my broccoli.  I dont plan on planting that till end of July or beginning of August.  Right now its harvesting the greens, sugar snap peas, and turnips.  Carrots are coming soon too.  Oh and Blackberries soon too.  Gonna be busy busy busy.  Pardon if I dont blog.  I didnt realize how hard it is to be a mom, harvest/plant/can the garden, go to school, and blog lol.

Saddened by a loss

Everytime I get a favorite chicken and become attached, they end up dead somehow.  It happened again.  My beloved peachy cream.  She was a mostly white golden comet.  I loved her dearly.  She was such a human.  She would always be the last one in, making sure all were in bed.  She would come up to me and "talk" to me, love on me, and she just generally cared that I loved her.  Its sad to say but instead of being angry at a neighbors dog or at a coon, hawk, or skunk...I have to be mad at one of my cats.  Its the only explanation of the time of day she disappeared and the location I found all the feathers.  I"m so upset, I want to cry but its my third favorite that died.  She had gotten out of her pen like she always does and goes picking around the yard, mostly in my garden.  Apparently that was her downfall this time.  The cats have never even hinted at the chickens.  They walk by them when the free range and dont even look at them.  Its just sad to say but I miss her terribly.  Its almost better not knowing sometimes.  I guess I will be finding homes for my cats and reinforce the chicken run so none can get out.  I went out this morning and all the others of the same kind and size were all "talking" to me telling me what happened.   Goodbye my beloved peachy cream, I'll miss you.

Holy Hotness!!

Well I've been inside mostly trying to get cool.  Its been in the middle to high 90's here the past few days.  I have tried really hard not to cook.  I have to make bread but have been trying to hold off until tomorrow with the hope of the "cold front" that is suppose to come and lower us back down into the high 70's. 

My poor garden is looking horrible during the day.  I bought a new sprinkler.  I had two last year, one leaked REALLY bad and was more of a waste then help.  The other I put high on a landscape timber in the middle of the back garden.  My corn got so high last year that I couldnt water it.  I am hoping this year the landscape timber will help.  With the new sprinkler plus my old one I can water my entire garden at once and not miss anything.  Of course it means sprinkling my chickens too but the last two days they have been fine with it! I did manage to harvest two of those plastic walmart containers full of strawberries out of my garden.  I took those along with the 4 I bought at Aldi's and the last of my mature rhubarb stalks and made jelly with my boy.  I call it jelly but its probably preserves, or jam, or something else.  I dont get all technical its all jelly to me.  You spread it on toast and eat it with peanut butter lol.  I also have gotten two pickings of sugar snap peas.  I swear if I go into the garden and work a bit, all my plants seem to grow overnight!  I picked those peas totally gone.  Skipped a day and then had to pick another couple handfuls today of huge normal size peas.  I also bought some straw and put that over my watermelon and muskmelon section.  Had some left over and put it around my zucchini plants.  I went out today and they doubled in size!  I guess some plants like it HOT and some just wish it was winter again like my lettuce.  I still have some plants to place in the garden and some to restart.  I hope its better tomorrow.  My plan is to mow and place the grass in some newly planted pepper plants.  They are still mega small but I think they will grow better in the garden then in my start container.  Plus some of my tomatoes died when I planted so I'm gonna throw a few roma or cherry tomato plants in with my normal ones.  I am also going to start my pumpkins this weekend.  Still trying to decide on the whole winter squash thing.  Might plant my second planting of lettuce and carrots too. Cant decide.  Guess it will depend on weather and time.

Lovin Life

Sorry its been so long since I blogged.  I've just been enjoying the rain free week or so we've been having.  Memorial Day was great. I went to my best friends parents house for a cook-out like we do every year.  It was great seeing all of them again.  You dont realize how much you miss your friends parents till you dont see them hardly at all.  They have a wealth of knowledge that I enjoy obtaining from them.  She's the one who got me planting at St. Patricks day.  Something that came in extremely valuable this year.  Most of my root crops went in just a little after St. Pat's day and then we got tons of rain.  They are doing really well this year.  Had I waited I wouldnt have been able to get into my garden to plant them.  

Things are going really well here. I bought 2 seedless concord grape vines and planted them in my back garden along the fence.  They say it will be about 3 years if you prune correctly.  I have looked things up online but I'm going to see if youtube has any videos.  I bought seedless because I want to make juice mostly and dont want to have to deal with seeds.  I have wild grapes out here but they are getting overrun with blackberries, and this weird fake grape looking plant.  I looked it up once.  All I know is it produces grape looking berries but they are poisonous.  I am not getting the crop of grapes I did a few years ago but cant really get back in this field corner to fix the problem so I just decided to go buy some.

Today I went grocery shopping.  I decided to stop at Aldi's which is one of those stores like save a lot where you bring your own bags. They try to keep the cost down but most of it is prepackaged food that we dont eat.  I really wanted perogies ( I know I spelled that wrong) and dont really feel like making them. While I was there I did do some shopping and got some green peppers, strawberries, and bananas.  Walmart has bananas for 54 cents and Aldi had them for 44..but when I looked at the sign it said 1/2 off bananas!  What? excuse me?  I looked at the bananas and grabbed half a banana box full.  These were going bad but guess what because of a smart purchase last summer I have a dehydrator.  I can use these older bananas that others cant, so I get the deal most dont.  I have a dehydrator full of banana chips plus I made a double batch of banana bread. ( it smells so freakin good in here right now!) You can freeze that once its made and enjoy it whenever you want.  All my bananas cost me like $3!  Since the strawberries were only 99 for a container I got 4 of them.  My garden strawberries are going this year but I planted plants this spring so they arent giving the fruit they will next year.  I have gotten about 2 handfuls, one each day.  I am trying to decide if I want to make strawberry jelly or dehydrate them.  I have 24 hours to decide lol. Dehydrator is full.

Right now life is good.  My bills are paid, my garden is rocking produce, my dehydrator is full,  my pantry is filling slowly with "backup" food, and life is good.  I have to give all the credit to God.  Without his blessings on my life, on my lifestyle, giving me crop sharing friends, and blessing our finances...I would be nothing.  I am so greatful that I can do what God is calling me to do and to enjoy working for the Lord.

2nd garden harvest...Salad! (how to prepare lettuce)

So while all my friend put in their gardens this weekend, I laughed.  Then today I went and made a salad.  In my garden I have Romaine lettuce, Leaf lettuce, Kale, Swiss Chard, Ruby Red Chard, and Spinach.  Most of this is ready to pick.  I dont wait for mine to get big and bushy like the store, instead I snip the larger ones and pick the outer leaves of those and let them continue to grow.  With all the rain we've had my greens are really growing.  Harvesting lettuce is a little different than the store because you have dirt to contend with.  So first go out and if need be spray your greens with the hose lightly to help "wash" some of the dirt away.  Then grab your larger leaves and I personally cut them with scissors.

If you are harvesting some chard or kale..snip only the leaves and leave the stems on the plant. My family doesnt like them and I hate cutting it twice.  If you really want to recut then go ahead. 
Next you want to get a large bowl and place your lettuce in it and fill it with cold water.  Once the lettuce is covered, give a couple swishes and let it sit for a minute.  This lets the dirt settle to the bottom of the bowl.  Then gently pull the leaves out and tear them into tiny pieces and place into another container that you can fill up with water.  I usually use this pan.

When the pieces are small it will help get the rest of the dirt off the leaves.  Again fill up the pan/bowl over the lettuce and swish it a few times and let the dirt settle. Pull out the leaves gently and then place in a collandar to drain the rest of the water off the lettuce. You can toss it a few times if you like.  I let this sit while I chop the rest of my veggies.
This salad had romaine, leaf, kale, and swiss chard as greens.  I also put some radishes in because there were a few more done.  I had some celery and carrots in the fridge from the store. I added them in too.  It was a very delicious salad.  I'm so excited to be eating fresh greens while everyone else is just planting.

How I make Rhubarb Jam

Lets face it, there are a lot of recipes out there on how to make Rhubarb jam.  This is the wing it method I developed two years ago.  First go pick you some Rhubarb, dont worry about how much you are doing or how many cups it will cut into, just pick as much as you can.  The problem with recipes is that I would go pick mine at a friends get home and not have enough.  Or just too much and didnt know what to do with.  So just go pick a good big batch.  Once you get it home cut it into sections kinda like you would celery.  Well make sure you have cut leaves and root/stem bottoms off..then cut into sections.  (sorry I dont have the pretty red rhubarb like my friend..I have green)

 Put them in a food processor and chop them into tiny pieces.  Many take the time to cut them into little pieces but hello I have stuff to do..just chop them up.

Once they are chopped place them in a bowl and kinda determine how much you got.  My hands if I grab a large chunk are about 2 cups.  So here is 3-2cup piles approximately.

So you are going to need sugar. How much depends on how much rhubarb you have and how sweet you like your jam.  My method is start with almost the amount of sugar equal to the rhubarb. In my case I have about 6 cups of rhubarb..so I measure out 4 cups and pour it on top the rhubarb in my bowl.  Then I measure out another 2 cups and set it up on my stove. Let the rhubarb set with your sugar mixed it for a while.  Just leave it on the table or counter and start your hot water bath.  I have found with jam/jelly/preserve whatever you want to call it, its best to hot water bath just to make sure.  I've had to throw out containers that looked like they sealed then grew a lovely toxic mold.  So I use my pressure canner for my hot water bath.  I have another electric stove in my breezeway that I can on because I have a ceramic cooktop and it doesnt fair well with canning.  Fill it up so that your jars will fit under the water..mine is about halfway because I am going to do pints.  You can always add water later if needed and wait for it to boil again.

I also place my lid on without the rubber ring..just kinda sitting on top.  Helps keep the heat in.  So now your rhubarb is sitting in sugar, your hot water bath is going, and now you need to wash your jars.  Once you get canning more you can kinda tell how many jars you need.  I always wash 3 or 4 more than I think I need lol.  I seem to always under-judge how many.  Once your jars are washed fill them with hot hot water and then set them in the sink and fill that up.

I washed 6 and then one jelly jar. Its a good idea to wash a smaller size jar because your batch wont always come out even.  You can either hot water this if its a full jar or place it in the fridge to eat.  Wash your rings and seals too and set them aside.  Then take a wet wash rag. I use one of my older ones and then place it next to your pan that you will be cooking rhubarb in.  This is so when your filling your jars you dont get sticky rhubarb jelly on the stove and it dry. That stuff never comes off!  Gather your ladle, your funnel, and grab a bowl and put some hot water in the bottom.  My jars are kinda far in the sink from my stove..so I place 3 or 4 jars in the bowl and pour out the hot water into the bowl before I fill the jar.  You need your jars hot when you fill them or they will break.

Now your rhubarb should be fairly soupy.
(at this point I usually puree mine in the blender into a liquid)

Pour it into your stock pan and start it boiling.   Make sure you stir it because it will boil fairly quickly.  Once it boils turn the heat down to a nice slow boil because as this thickens it will spit at you and it hurts!  Continue to stir and boil until it is a globby gross soft mess.  Once it is this nasty mess you can do one of two things.  You can add gelatin, pectin or any other thickening agent and hope its enough ( if it doesnt thicken in the end you have ice cream topping!) or you can do what I do and use corn starch.  No one uses corn starch and I dont know why, but I havent died yet.  I do want to say that we use our jelly within a years time, so I dont know the shelf life beyond that.  I mix 2 or 3 TBS(I dont really measure that either) of corn starch with just enough COLD water to make a nice slightly runny paste.  Then I pour it in SLOWLY into the stock pot while stirring. 

I ended up using 3 of these spoons.  Make sure you only add enough water so you can stir it, otherwise it wont thicken as well in the pan.  Once you get this in and you probably will have to turn down the heat a little so you dont get spattered.  As this boils it will thicken. Because we arent using measurements its hard for me to use pectin or anything because I dont know how much I actually have.  Once it is thickened you want it to look like a very thick applesauce.  The jelly will thicken a little..and I stress just a little when its cold in the fridge..so you want the jelly to be pretty thick.
Here is a picture of mine.  You dont want to know how many pictures it took to get this one.  The corn starch lightens the color a little.  The stuff really is still green, this camera phone is odd making it look yellow but its not. Its just a lighter green.

Once everything looks good to go TASTE your jelly.  Now because we are using corn starch it might have a slight starchy taste, this goes away for me..or at least I personally dont taste it later.  This is where you can add more sugar to make it sweet.  Rhubarb sours as it cans so make it sweet.  Not so sweet you puke or anything but make it to where you say..man that has just a bit too much sugar.  Continue tasting it to make sure its slightly sweet then pour it into your jars.  I actually didnt need any more sugar so I was thankful for that.   When you fill your jar, leave the space where the ring screws on.

Wipe the tops of the jars, place your lids on, and hot water bath for 20 minutes.  When 20 min is done you want to take them out of the water bath and place them on a towel in a non draft area and then cover them with a towel and let them sit to cool.  For clean up of your stock pan you can use the hot water from the sink, left over jars, or your bowl on the stove.  I place everything sticky into my pan and use the hot water I have sitting around.  If you use cold that stuff is like glue.

            The batch I made this time did 3 pint jars and 1 jelly jar exactly.  Had I used jelly jars it probably would have made 6 or 7.  We just eat a lot of jelly so jelly jars are pointless really for us.

Time from start to finish for me was 1 hour.   Other recipes you boil for hours and hours.  Who has that kind of time?? I can handle 1 hour!

Rain barrels

Here is what I have done for rain water barrels.  These come in handy for the garden and chickens and saves water.  I also use rain water for my fish tanks because its already soft and the amount of iron is next to nothing.  My water is horrible.