2015 Farmers Almanac

Here's what I am reading now...

I was excited to find the 2015 Farmers Almanac out on stands....

Do you plant according to the phases of the Moon? 

So "Bee" it

Loving the sound of the buzzing happening around my garden...

August

August has been unpredictable...wet...wild...and windy, with a lot of crazy lightening and thunder booms.

Through it all, my little garden has hung right in there!

Loving this shot from the upper garden...Carrots, Onions, Pumpkins, Corn, and Beans are doing pretty good.

All of our Cabbage has been begrudgingly  donated to feeding our local deer population. 

Sadly this is not the year of Cabbage at the Cedar House (((arghhhhhh))1st planting was lost to gophers, 2nd round planting has all gone to the deer...

I guess...You win some and you loose some!

On a happy note, Onions are big enough to start harvesting.

The Zucchini is plentiful, and our trusted zucchini bread recipe never disappoints. 

You can find the recipe Here

Sweet Heat

For those of you that have asked....Here is how we make our Sweet Heat Pepper Jelly 

Prepared Peppers, the original recipe calls for 2 medium green peppers,3 medium red peppers and 10 Large Jalapeno Peppers.  

I used what we had on hand, all Hungarian Peppers with 1 large red bell pepper added for interest.

Be sure to wear rubber gloves while handling and preparing peppers. Stem and halve all peppers. Rinse and discard all seeds.

Finely mince the Peppers...we use the food chopper for this job!

You will need:

• 4 Cups of  prepared Peppers
• 1 Cup of Cider Vinegar
• 5 Cups of Sugar
• Pat of Butter
• 1 Pkt. of Sure Jell Fruit Pectin 

Follow the directions for making cooked Jam recipe provided in the Sure Jell Pectin..

I am not a fan of  Hot Peppers...but I do love pepper jelly!  

Pepper Jelly makes  perfect appetizer, serve over Buttery Ritz crackers and cream cheese.

Can you say... Devine! 

This jelly does have a good kick to it...which is rounded out nicely with sugary, sweetness! 

You can scale down the heat to your liking, by adjusting the ratio of hot peppers to bell peppers.

Yields 6 cups.

Jam packed

The Raspberry harvest, has abruptly come to a grinding halt. I am greatful to have been able to pick loads of berries and put them in the freezer, until I could get back at the task of making jam.

We set up the water bath canners on the front porch, to avoid heating ourselves out of the house.

Jars were sterilized and filled with the bubbly, hot lava of sugary bliss. 

Two batches of Raspberry, a batch of Blueberry-Raspberry, and a batch of Pepper Jelly  have all been canned.

Look who's Bloomin'

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change -Buddha

I happen to love all the colors , but the red ones are super spectacular and eye catching this year!  There will always be a space for Zinnias in my garden !

Seeing Red

I have been patiently waiting to see red all Season...

I wasted no time, turning them into a delicious BLT!

Turn up the heat!

Harvesting Hungarian wax Peppers today.

It may look like an innocent Banana Pepper, but really this Pepper has a bite to it! Comparable to a Jalapeno, with a chance for even more heat.

On the heat scale....I'm a Big O' Baby!!! So, these little dumplin's will be sweetened up and made into Pepper Jelly.

Saving Seeds

The Peas that were planted this Spring, provided us with a bountiful harvest. As the harvest slowed, and Summer temperatures soared...The Pea vines have all dried up. Allowing the remaining pea pods to dry on the vines nicely. 

Harvesting dried Peas is rather simple... Once your peas have dried thoroughly and are brittle, pull each vine one by one and pick them clean. 

Once all the dried Peas have been picked, we throw the vines in the compost, and place the peas in a bag. Any bag will work, we used a random oven turkey bag that we had on hand, but even an old pillowcase would work just fine.

Give the bag  a vigorous shaking... smashing....and then, a little more shaking! 

This helps break open all the dried pods.

Hand pick, out the dried pods and double check for any that didn't open on their own. The dried pods are put into the compost pile too!

Dump the dried peas into a colander to shake and sift any fine debris that might remain.

We like to put our dried peas into a sealed glass jar and save for replanting in the Spring.

Jen and the Beanstalk greenhouse tour

On the vine

Grapes are growing and hanging on the vine....Looking just fine! 

I love how the grape clusters are starting to dangle down in front of the sign. These grapes never do get really big, but where they lack in size, they surely make up for it in flavor. 

They will not be ready for harvest, until september.

Here a pickle...there a pickle...everywhere a pickle!

Cucumbers are crazy buggers....I check in the morning before heading out to work, and by the time I return they have tripled in size. 

I didn't plant enough cucumbers this year to make it worth my while to can pickles. So we are just eating them straight up, fresh!