Garden Update

This summer has not been good to us on the farm. Those lovely planter boxes that we built to keep the gofer out I guess had bad soil and not enough water, so we lost a lot of our plants in the first month. Things are finally starting to grow. There was one box that did well for us this summer, it was the box where I put compost and dirt from the ground in it.

We got and are getting lots and lots of peppers. The only problem is when it gets really hot they get sun scorched. I have a shader up, but it's not enough. The weather has been very mild this week and today I found all those peppers ready to harvest! I was so excited. I also found 1 cucumber ready to harvest as well. I am so excited to finally be finding food! Tonight we actually got to eat peppers, cucumbers and strawberries from our own garden. That's the most in one meal in a long time.

Our chickens are another story! It has been crazy, they started laying eggs under all the mango trees and I had to go on an egg hunt every day. Then they stopped laying eggs and went broody. For a while I could take one egg a day out from under them, they would take turns watching the egg they shared for that day. After almost 2 months, they stopped sitting on the eggs and stopped laying all together. Finally, we are up to 2 eggs a day again for the past 2 days in a row. Maybe it's the weather. It did get pretty hot for a couple weeks.

So, there is our update. I'm going to try to plant a bunch of squash after I get the garden all weeded. They are supposed to be pretty disease resistant in the fall.

Dinner from the Garden

This is one of the reasons I LOVE summer...

All those fresh veggies. They sure look yummy. Too bad they weren't all perfect. The lemon cucumber wasn't quite right and the regular cucumber I let grow too long. I was waiting to see if it was a lemon cucumber and if it was going to change colors. Obviously, it was not!

Isn't this a lovely garlic from the garden?

I was so excited when I saw how big the cloves were. I need to make roasted garlic with one of them.

I put the garlic with some olive oil in this butternut squash that was given to me out of another garden. Mine are not growing yet. I really hope that changes soon because I really love this stuff and because of the hard skin it keeps all winter long. Anyway, I bake it at 375 until it's soft and it is so, so good.

Here is my favorite salad made with all the summer veggies. I have the peppers, red onion, and carrots from the garden then I added some avocado, lettuce, feta cheese and almonds. I tossed it all together and added Trader Joe's Cranberry Walnut Gorgonzola Salad Dressing, my favorite! The only thing missing was the cucumbers.

To go with my salad and butternut squash, I made teriyaki meatballs, bell peppers and onions.

It was a delicious dinner!

Mostly all organic. The meat, avocados, cheese and dressing were not organic, but the rest was.

Did I make you hungry? :-)

Kristen

Yummy 4th of July

It was my turn to bring dessert to our weekly taco Tuesday and I wanted something with strawberries so this is what I came up with.

It was SO yummy! I just couldn't get enough. C isn't too fond of strawberries so I got to eat all his. Strange kid.

Here is the recipe if you'd like:

6 lbs strawberries

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding (bigger one)

1 bigger container cool whip

1 box vanilla wafers

some blueberries

I typically don't measure when I cook, so this is as good as you are going to get. Anyway, to make it, first make the pudding. Once the pudding sets up, fold in the cool whip. Then Layer vanilla wafers on the bottom, pudding/cool whip mix and strawberries. Repeat but on the top layer, add stripes of strawberries and use the blueberries for the stars part of the flag.

This dessert was SO yummy!!

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What's growing and not growing...

We planted our spring garden I think a little over a month ago. So, it should be growing like crazy by now. We had some issues with the watering and our corn flowered way too soon, the squash didn't grow and I lost some of the tomatoes. Now that we got it all straightened out, I think we are finally growing strong. Maybe another month and I can start posting organic recipes. 

Anyway, here is what is growing and not growing...

Some of the onions are looking good, some are kind of small. There is an elephant garlic down there and 2 regular ones. I'm letting them dry out to see how they turned out. I sure hope the elephant garlic turned out. I love roasted garlic.

This is the biggest onion I have EVER seen!

This is the second year for our strawberries. They usually get eaten by the rolly pollies, but then a squirrel found it's way into our garden by a hose that was left draped over the little fence. That darn squirrel ate ALL of our strawberries, even ones that were not ripe. But, once I took the hose away, the squirrel can't get in so we have beautiful strawberries again. Also, for some reason, there are a few less rolly pollies. If you have a good trick to get rid of the rolly pollies PLEASE, please tell me. Organic though.

We have 3 artichoke plants, one was amazing grew so fast and then it started to do terrible. The plant was turning black and the artichokes were misshapen. Today I discovered it was aphids! I kept thinking that, but didn't see any. Well, it's the green kind on a green plant, of-course I didn't see any! I sprayed Neam oil today and every day I'm just going to blast them off with the hose. That should work.

At least the plant that wasn't doing so good is doing much better now and I have this beauty...

Here are the peppers. Much better so far then last year. I still need some shade. I'm thinking another basil plant.

Since my other corn planted with my squash and beans didn't do so well, Mr. C planted a bunch more off on their own. Now I get to "watch my corn pop up in rows." Ha, ha! I just had to say that. Yes, I am a country fan much to the disappointment of my husband.

Here is a very sad tomato plant. Who needs tomatoes anyway...

Ok, I suppose I can use them for cooking. This one is doing much better with more water.

And, that is how my garden is growing. It's on it's way to getting better. This is what I have been working on instead of sewing. I weeded SO much this morning and got covered in aphids. I can't stand those little things.

Kristen

Eggs!

Woo-who! I went out to pet the chickens this afternoon about 12:30. I didn't check their roost this morning because I do every day and when I peaked in the hole to see who was hiding, Honey was in there. Then I remembered I got 2 new chickens yesterday. The white one, the frizzle to the right of her and the other one in the middle behind the white one.

So, I opened the door and guess what I found in this little basket?

Yep, you guessed it, eggs! 3 to be exact. I am so excited, even more then my kids are. Little C said, "Ah-oh, I hope it wasn't a rooster that laid those eggs." He knows we have to get rid of the roosters.

We are on our way to not buying eggs anymore, that's saving 4-8 dollars per week! Organic eggs are expensive and we usually go through 2 dozen a week. Yes, these little eggs are a bit small, but our chickens are barley 6 months old. I am assuming as they grow, so will the eggs, at least a little and if they don't we have 8 chickens to make up for the size.

Kristen

Artichokes

I love food fresh from the garden. The other day we had this...

It ended up here a couple nights later...

Then it found it's way here...

And here...

And finally became this...

It's amazing how much better fresh from the garden food tastes. These artichokes had so much flavor. L's plate was completely empty after dinner, she kept saying, "Mommy, I want more artichoke, I need more food." I love hearing that when it comes to fresh organic veggies.

It was originally little C's idea to plant the artichokes, he has been waiting and waiting till we can eat them. Needless to say he was very excited.

Here is a little tip for those organic gardeners out there that are also having trouble with earwigs. When you cut the artichoke off, tap it upside down first, then look inside the petals (or what ever you call them) for any earwigs hiding, knock those out, then soak it in a bowl of water before you refrigerate. This so far has keep me from finding earwigs roaming around my refrigerator or finding a surprise little extra protein in our meal.

Earwigs and rolly polly's (woodlice) are the worst! I can not figure out how to get rid of them yet. If you have any tips for me, I'd love to hear it.

Kristen

Granola

I've been wanting to find the best granola recipe that doesn't have too much sugar. I love granola and so do my kids, but it is filled with sugar so we don't buy it much. Today I tried a new recipe that I will share with you. It's pretty good. I will share with you the original recipe and then how I made it with a few changes.

Here is the orignial recipe for Cherry, Almond and Cinnamon Granola
4 c rolled oats
2 c sweetened shredded coconut
2 c sliced almonds
1 1/2 c dried cherries, chopped
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/3 c good honey
2 t ground cinnamon

Well, I miss read the recipe to begin with, I thought it was cranberries. I thought that would be good so I started making it with cranberries. That was my first change.

Then I didn't have coconut so I added a little vanilla coconut milk instead. Well, L did, not me.

Since I didn't have coconut, I went looking through the pantry for something else to add. I found this date topping. We added a couple handfuls each. It's good and just dates in little pieces, no sugar added.

Then we put it into the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Every 5 minutes I stirred it and took it out.

It was good! I did miss the coconut, but still we ate tons of it already.

Here is my recipe:
Cranberry, Almond and Cinnamon Granola

4 c rolled oats

1/3 vanilla coconut milk

2 c sliced almonds

1 1/2 c dried cranberries

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/3 c good honey

2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 c date topping

One thing great about this recipe is, it's huge. If you have 2 kids split the recipe for each and they can each make their own batch at the same time. If that is yours are like mine and want to do every part and not take turns.

I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I did.

Kristen

Hummus

We love hummus around here and it's so darn expensive for how fast we go through it. I thought making my own would be just as good and a little cheeper.

I sure was right!

Here is what I needed for the original recipe + a cucumber. I didn't like the cucumber hummus so I omitted it and added more garlic.

Recipe:

1/3 c tahini sause

1 can garbanzo beans

1 T olive oil

1/2 c lemon juice

4 cloves garlic

1 t garlic powder

I blended it all together and it needed a little something more, so I added Franks Red Hot sause, red pepper and a tad garlic salt and paprika. Much better!

Here is the final recipe. I don't really measure when I cook so amounts are guestimated.

Hummus:

1/3 c tahini sause

1 can garbanzo beans

1 T olive oil

1/2 c lemon juice

4 cloves garlic

1 t garlic powder

1 t Franks Red Hot

1/4 t red pepper

sprinkling of garlic salt

sprinkling of paprika

For some reason my kids are pretending to swim in the house today. It's actually cold out today. C is trying the hummus with a white carrot from the garden.

L already ate up her hummus and is now having a "Daddy Shake."

It must be good!

How could I resist putting this picture up of L waiting for me to make the hummus.

Since I showed you the "Daddy Shake" that we have almost daily, I'll give you another recipe...

Daddy Shake

1 banana

4 oz oat milk

hand full rolled oats

spoon full of peanut butter

3-4 ice cubes

Variation: add a scoop of choc, honey or agave. My kids like it with or without the other stuff. I usually add honey though.

I hope you like it as much as we do! Oh, but I won't drink the shake. Peanut butter and banana is just wrong!

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