garden (neglect)

Since our lovely rain storm, sprouts are popping up all over! I managed to sneak out into the garden briefly before the storm to start some cover crops on a couple beds and seed some lettuce, chard, and kohlrabi. We also seeded the dry dirt patches in front of our house with grass seed. I'm hoping to get out there this week to change a few beds around (we have some temporary brick lined beds), start some more cover crops, plant our garlic and onion sets and transplant our strawberries that apparently prefer pots. I'll also be begging our tomato faeries to help ripen the many green Roma tomatoes hanging plump on the vine!!

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On a side note, persimmons are producing in abundance this year, I picked several to see if they are really ready. Tried a sweet but still tannic persimmon today! wow...

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scarlet runner beans

spouts poppin' in everywhere!

mint is crazy


hidden mushroom


gourds that I started a bit late

'soil builder' cover crop started in two beds


chard spouts:)

Neglected garden that needs some love and attention asap!

These flowers have been blooming FOREVER, I swear, for like months now! I love zinnias!

grass sprouts in our dirt path

Quotable Sunday

"You know you've got to rise,

though you like to flow,
you can't keep staring out the window..."
Matisyahu

recent outings:)

We ventured to Waddell Beach , which is part of Big Basin State Park. It was a beautiful, cold day-

We went to a Halloween sugar-cookie making party. I didn't get many pictures because my camera ran out of batteries:( It was a little wild, several preschoolers and there toddler siblings all making sugar cookies, but it was so much fun! The germs get baked off...right?

Kylan in a bonnet:)

We also took a trip to Half Moon Bay to Lemos Farms. There were LOTS of people, including a few school buses full of children. A bit overwhelming, but Kylan did get to ride a pony, a train, pet goats, pick out a pumpkin, and have a picinic:)

Good times-

Quotable Sunday

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."
Henry Ellis

catch-up with ketchup

My first try at making ketchup!

I have gotten so little done in the past couple weeks, I had a catch-up day:) Besides all the normal household things I needed to catch-up on today, I also had some good kitchen time baking and making ketchup!

I think the ketchup turned out great, It taste a little more vinegary then I would like, but the recipe said to wait 2 weeks before eating so maybe it will balance out. Made with beefsteak tomatoes from our garden. I used a recipe from the book Art of Preserving, modified a little of coarse:)

(I really need to take a photography class and get a good camera!)

canning

Pickles! My first shot at canning them:) I only got a total of 6 jars (gave 2 away), but I am happy I got some canned. It's hard to get enough cucumbers ripe at the same time!

Not that pretty, but here is my lil canning stash this year:) I still need to can my frozen tomatoes!

Early morning floor snack...


The power was out for 32 hours this week and I was getting ready to can everything I have frozen. I started with strawberry jam and strawberries in sauce. When I had almost finished them up the lights went back on:) My frozen tomatoes luckily were not very defrosted, so I can procrastinate them a bit more. The strawberry jam turned out great:)

This year I canned apple butter, vanilla pear butter, pear sauce, mixed berry jam, strawberry jam, berries in juice, and pickles.

I hope to make ketchup, tomato sauce, and maybe another batch of apple butter:)
Yum!

Beautiful Morning!

Ah, I love living in the redwoods! This morning is quite beautiful...cool, scattered clouds, everything fresh and clean from the rain!

The past few weeks have been quite eventful. My mom visited for a couple weeks, my sister-in-law visited for a few days, we had a nice storm that dropped 10 inches of rain in a day followed by 32 hours of no electricity. To top it all off my little ones got sick, I got a touch of the flu, and my husband had to take time off work with an ugly staph infection in his hand!

Today I find our daily rhythm again, all seems 'back to normal'. Bread is baking, this weeks somewhat planned out and the house is pretty clean:)

Blessings-

WIP Wednesday!!

No pictures, I've made some progress on K's socks. My mommy is in town visiting us until Monday and my sister-in-law is in town for a few days. So...I probably won't post until next week:)