Status Report: September 2024

 September almost zipped right past without a status report so here we go...

Sitting: at my desk, listening to a dog down the street barking, kids talking as they walk to school, and birds chirping in the trees. There won't be too many more days I'll be able to sit at my desk in the morning with the windows open, so I'm enjoying it while I have it.

Been busy with: all the fall chores of putting the garden to bed. Pulling up plants that are done for the season, pruning back plants that need that and beginning the process of mulching fall leaves to give all my raised beds a nice, thick blanket for winter. 

Feeling: rather heavy hearted with the footage coming out of the south, after Hurricane Helene. Some of those little Appalachian towns are completely wiped off the map. One after another of reports of entire families deceased or missing, and so much destruction and heartache. It does my heart a little good to see so many civilians & private companies stepping up to help with food, water, shelter, etc. All of those affected are in my prayers.

Thinking: Quite a lot about so many different issues that have come up lately. In no particular order:  

• Christian Nationalism 
• Busybodies on social media 
• Bible reading challenge To the Word
• The Steve Lawson issue
• Being the kind of Titus 2 woman you wished you had as a young wife/mother

I think some of these things might be in my next Social Media Comment Section post. Maybe not so surprising, some of them are completely connected.  

I will elaborate though on the Bible reading challenge To The Word. From their site:

"Imagine a great table, loaded with the best food, perfectly prepared. This is how we view the Word of God, and it is our joy and privilege to encourage Christians to find their seats and share the bounty of it with us. The reading plan is simply the menu, the challenge is to become Christians who live and breathe the Word of God."

This is the Canon Plus 2024-2025 Bible Reading challenge that you can find here. I had no intention of starting a new Bible reading program until almost everyone I see on social media started mentioning it and then I thought "sure, why not?".  While I've studied entire books of the Bible over the years I've never been able to follow a "read the Bible in a year" all the way through.  I'm really enjoying the audio version and hope to be able to follow it through the entire year. 

Looking forward to: finally processing and/or canning all of the harvest I haven't been able to get to yet. Carrots, apples, berries, peppers, sweet potatoes and tomatoes.  Some will be canned, some frozen and some freeze dried.

Well that wraps up this month's status report (in just the nick of time!).  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have an incredible day. 

Garden 2024 Update #14: Season's End (almost!)

Seven months ago I began my garden updates with some big ideas for 2024.  In that post, exactly 7 months ago today, I mentioned how I was spending some concerted effort with things that I haven't previously had much success with.  Sweet potatoes and onions from seed. Well the onions were a complete flop just like before, since the squirrels and chipmunks just absolutely love young onions, and ate them all. I won't be trying that again, I'll just get my onions from the local farmer's market instead. The sweet potatoes on the other hand, are doing fantastic. 

Starting with slips I grew & then transfered to jars of water, I ended up with 4-6 slips in each 20 gallon grow bag.  They seemed to struggle most of the first half of the season but then when the intense heat of the summer showed up, they took off like mad.  I suppose that makes sense considering sweet potatoes are actually a tropical crop.  They did excellent in this location too, so my plans for next year will be to grow them here in the same place.  Possibly in grow bags again, or possibly in a raised bed along this side of the sand area. I love the way raised beds make the growing space so organized and tidy, so I really think this area needs one of those to go toward my goal of beautifying my growing space.  

Another crop that did really well for me this year were jalapenos. I discovered Cowboy Candy a few years ago and it became an instant hit with the entire family as well as many friends. I never seem to make enough for it to last more than a couple of months (in addition to all the jars I give away in gift baskets) so this year's plan was to make at least twice as much!  I like to mix up the peppers 1/2 & 1/2 with jalapenos and sweet peppers, to dial the heat down a little and that works out perfect for everyone.

Overall this year, I had some pretty wonderful successes with garlic, basil, mint, lemon balm, peppers, carrots, blackberries, apples, potatoes, tomatoes and even my cucumbers that got flooded out far too early in the season.  Next year I'll be dialing it in even more, and focus more on what grows well in my wee garden.  I'll still make room for experiments but after many years of trying out new things, trying new spaces to see what grows best, where, I think I've finally sorted all of that out.  

While I haven't harvested the sweet potatoes yet, those are on the list to clear out over the next couple of weeks along with all the rest of the tomato and pepper plants and then mulch a ton of maple leaves for topping off all the beds for winter, and putting the garden to bed. I plant my garlic on Halloween, and this year I'm going to plant twice as much as in years prior, since we always run out long before the season is over. 

It's been a really good growing season for me, and I hope this inspires you to get out there and use whatever space you have, wherever you are, and grow some of your own amazing food! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have an incredible day. 

Garden 2024 Update #13: A Garden & Kitchen Tour

It's hard to believe it's already September. The growing season always seems so short, and over way too soon.  While it's not quite over yet, it's coming quickly and the chore of "putting the garden to bed" has already started. 

Come join me on a walk through the garden & peek into the kitchen:

Mid August when the garden is most lush. 

I love the way it looks when food is spilling out of the raised beds the way the carrot tops are.

I've been working on beautifying (as much as possible) the inside of my wee cottage. 

As I always say, it was really nice of me to buy this hot tub for my cats. 😂

My 2nd to last Mars Madness Hibiscus flower this year. 

They cast such a gorgeous pop of color in the garden. 

Yet another contender in the "mutant tomato of the year" contest. 

All the green tomatoes are growing on a single stem that appears to have grown out of the red tomato. 

Terra Cotta Yarrow - orange blooms are new - they yellow out in about a week. 

Apparently the carrot heard about the mutant vegetable of the year contest. 

What you get when you leave your wee bunch of carrots in the box lid. 

Scarlet Runner Beans were late bloomers but look at 'em go now!

The grape vines are taking over. 

My Cherry Wine at 8 weeks.  It's fantastic! 🍷 Recipe is here.

Sometimes the harvest looks like this. 

New Fridge Pickle recipe I'm trying from here

The spear on the left is 1 day old. 

The one on the right, the more olive colored one, is a week old. 

Perfectly pickled & garlicy goodness. 

25-ish pounds of tomatoes 

A year's worth of ketchup (more or less) and 2 quarts of rich tomato juice.

I use Sarah's recipe here

The late summer clear up has begun. 

Out are the butternut squash (non-producers this year) and blackberries are now in their place. 

Clear up continues with the removal of the last of the vines on Cucumber Lane. 

This whole section is being planned for renovation for next spring. 

One of the last berry clusters this year.  

The bushes were HUGE procucers and I couldn't be happier.

Thanks for coming along on a tour through the garden & the peek into the kitchen. 

I hope you were encouraged or inspired in some by your visit today. 

Status Report: August 2024

Sitting: Inside with all the windows open and the AC off.  While I'm ever thankful for the air conditioning on those sweltering hot summer days, it's sure nice to be able to turn it off and just enjoy the fresh breeze coming in the windows. 

Been busy with: the garden always keeps me busy but my current (ongoing) project is beautifying the cottage space. When I had it built a few years ago the intention was to have it be dual purpose. A garden cottage to store all my garden supplies as well as guest cottage bunkie.  We did have a surprise guest for a week long stay a couple of years ago and I quickly turned it into a bunkie with an inflatable bed, night table, privacy curtains, lamp, fan & charging station. After seeing how cute it looked with a very rushed "hurry, turn that into a bunkie!" job, I'm even more excited to see how it will look once it's all done. There is much work to do from insulation, sheetrock, better lighting, additional shelving, building a small storage loft & probably 10 other things I haven't thought of yet, but it's a project I'm very pleased to be working on. I'm enjoying watching the YT channel Made by Mick while he renovates a storage area off the side of his house, turning it into a small apartment for his daughter. Getting lots of ideas on how to translate some of his techniques to what I'm aiming for in the cottage.  

Re-evaluating: the garden for next year.  Every year I dial it in just a little more.  I've had a lot of fun growing experimental items and I do dedicate a small space every year for that but I've toned that down the last couple of years to spend more time growing what grows well here, and what grows well for me. Also re-evaluating raised bed areas for spots that currently don't have them. For my piece of land, raised beds tend to produce much better results than in-ground planting so I'm planning on adding at least 4 more for next growing season. 

Feeling: Kind of sad that the growing season is coming to an end in a few short weeks. Technically, my growing season is from mid May through mid October, so there's roughly 7 weeks left, before we're looking at the first frost of the year.  Although there really isn't much time to be sad, since fall zips by faster than it should, and between mulching all the falling leaves for free garden bed mulch, there are roughly 32 million things to take care of to put the garden to bed for the winter.  My carrots are doing amazingly well this year and I've decided they'll be the last to harvest, after the first hard frost.  An old time farmer told me they're ten times sweeter if you leave them in the ground until then, so I'm taking that advice as Farmer Gospel. 😊

Looking forward to: The next round of canning!  On the list to finish out the summer will be zucchini bread jam, Cowboy Candy, and my world famous homemade ketchup.  Okay maybe not world famous but my kids & grandkids, in-laws & outlaws all love it, so, that's good enough for me. 

Well, that just about does it for this month's Status Report. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking in! 😊 I hope you have an incredible day.