Happy Fall everyone

The kids 'made' this leaf pumpkin for me.....


I think I would prefer that they rake them up like I asked....


But I do love lawn art!!

Misadventures in Canning

Last year while shopping I came across a fancy glass jelly thermometer. It had pretty bold colors with easy to read numbers (I’m getting old!), and it was chunky! Super cute! Now nothing is wrong with my old metal Taylor thermometer, it just didn’t look as cute as this new one. So I convinced the Mister that I must have it, and home we went. Now fast forward to last week….

We had an over abundance of tiny green plums this year. They resemble a green gage, but were much smaller. The kids and dog have eaten a ton of them and I have been searching for a way to put the up for storage. While at the library I found a book on preserves with an interesting recipe of Green Gage plums and Almond jam. So after washing 3 pounds of plums I began cooking them. I then had to put them through a food mill so I could remove the pits, and you can imagine the number of pits that are in 3 pounds of 1-inch fruit. I added my sugar and almonds and got the temp up just right. It tasted wonderful, sweet with a crunch! I had the water bath and jars all ready to go. I pulled out my new fancy glass jelly thermometer and what do I see? The damn thing had busted at the base and I now had no idea how much glass was floating around in my amazing jam. I’ve used this thermometer several times with no problems. But it just goes to show you that the good old metal jelly thermometer that I’ve have for 10 years should have never been replaced by this fancy piece of crap.

Pressure Canning Extravaganaza

After three days I have finished my weekend of canning(only a day late!)! After much reading I have finally decided to use my new pressure canner.

I invited over my good friend who helped me through the fears that come with your first time pressure canning.


We started with two cases of beets, both red and golden and decided that canned beets would be a great trial for the pressure canner . We found out the hard way that we had to watch our head space or they will boil over.

The next day we finished the second batch of beets in the pressure canner and also did a delicious batch of peach pie filling following this recipe I found at Creative Canning
And today I did a solo mission of pickled golden beets using a recipe I found in Best of the Joy of Canning cookbook.


Also through a few of the leftover peaches from the pie filling into the dehydrator, and some.... apricots, and beets!

In between my first day at Farmer's Market and 'the canning event of a lifetime' I had a chance to harvest most of my Walla Walla onions. They turned out wonderful. There are still a few giants in the ground but I had a great harvest of med to small size onions!! Whoo Hoo!!

New kid on the Block

Today was my very first day of selling at the Okanogan Valley Farmers Market!!! I can't explain how exciting this is for me, but I'll try! For years I have wanted enough room to grow veggies to share with the public, but until our move to Washington it wasn't possible. After lots of work and time I have the garden of my dreams. I used to think that if I couldn't eat it, then I wouldn't grow it. Now that I have enough room to grow what we will eat and then some, I started adding flowers. And they are addicting!! Although I just began my love affair with flowers I have dived in head first as usual and now feel as though I am quite knowledgeable about the subject. This year I will be slowing putting my feet in the water, and plan on selling as long as I have enough bouquets. Next year I'm hoping to expand and will even be selling dried flowers and wreaths along with fresh bouquets. Wish me luck!!

Summer's first Harvest!

After what seemed to be FOREVER I have finally had my first summer harvest.


My 'Hansel' Eggplant was the first to produce some yummy summer delights!


Also I was able to finish the garlic harvest. As of today I have drying in my basement 35 heads of garlic. It is a wonderful thing when you walk under the garlic and get that delightful smell drying garlic!

I am hoping start harvesting Walla Walla onions this weekend, but I also would like to get started on canning some of this wonderful summer fruit I am running into this summer. Maybe a little of both?!?!

Olympic Peninsula

Well I have survived the first week of the Misters’ vacation! We headed over to the coast for our first visit to the Olympic Peninsula.

The drive over went very smooth. We made a stop at Pikes Market; I had heard so much about this place. However I wasn't impressed, it seemed more like a tourist attraction then a real farmers market. I guess all the wonderful markets we have here at home have spoiled me. We then headed out to the Edmonds Ferry crossing. The fare for crossing was a little pricey, but since the kids enjoyed it so much it was well worth it.

After a 45 minute boat ride we were back on the road and heading toward the campground. We camped in the Olympic National Forest at the Klahowya campground, on the Sol Duc River. Rosey is posing in front of the river, seconds later she in naked in the river.

We spent one day at the Hoh Rainforest.

Needless to say this place gets ALOT of rain...

This is in the actual National Park so we had to get a doggie-sitter to watch the mutt for a day. We only did two short trails, but it was great to get to see some of the beauty (and slugs) that Washington has to offer.

We spent a few hours at Rialto Beach. A breathtaking beach with a great view of the Flattery Rock National Wildlife Refuge.

This year the Park is celebrating a historic event. They are REMOVING a dam!! When I heard this there was no way that I could not head over and check it out. I always love when the bureaucracies realize they did something wrong! Over 100 years ago some guy had the bright idea to build a dam or two on the Elwah River (I guess at least it was for power!).Here is the Glines Canyon Dam on the left and the Elwah Dam on the right

Well finally the parks department saw that the amount of power the dams produce is not as important as the ecosystem that is has destroyed. So after 20 years of BS the dam is coming down!! And so it is the ‘Last Dam Summer’! The NPS is handing out these hilarious buttons to all visitors, even the kids! Rosey took advantage of getting to say dam.

I can’t wait to visit over the next several years and see how this beautiful river takes back the valley.

The Elwah River at the soon to be removed Glines Canyon Dam

Good Times!!

Spring Harvest!

Our spring harvest this year was very short unfortunately. We were able to get a lot of great batches of radishes and turnips, but all the other crops seemed to bolt very early this spring. The arugula and spinach only grew about 12 inches and then sent up those dreaded flower spikes! On the bright side the chickens we fed very well this year!!

Snake steak for dinner

I had my first run in with a snake today. I should have known that it was there; the dog had been signaling that something was in the area, but I just ignored him and went back to mowing. As I was mowing a path to the garden when I almost ran it over. It scared the crap out of me! And then it went straight into my garden, of course. Armed with my shovel (always my weapon of choice!) and the dog I went after it. Once I found it and saw that it wasn’t a Rattlesnake I just shooed it out of the garden.

I kind of hope it comes back and eats what ever has been burrowing in the garden, as long as it doesn’t bring any friends along.

After all this Rosey and I were discussing snake safety and she declared that she wanted to kill it and have snake steak with pepper for dinner. Yum!

Spring has arrived!!

Spring finally is in full swing after what seemed like a short and mild winter. The fruit trees are all blooming and are once again buzzing with bees. Also all the chickens are back to laying us lots of pretty eggs.

We finally got our first blue egg from our Ameraucana hens. AppleBelle was very excited since these are the hens she will be showing at the State Fair this year.

The tulips I planted last fall are beginning to bloom; and the garlic from last fall is looking like it will have a wonderful harvest.

We have decided to only grow heirloom veggies this year and ordered all our seeds from Sand Hill Preservation Center. We also will only be growing heirloom flowers, most of which we ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Both of these companies sell seeds which are GMO-free, which is surprisingly getting harder to find. We will no longer support any companies that sell gene-altering seeds, mostly because of all of the dangers and unknowns that are associated with them. I will now climb down off my soap-box.