Garden Season Approaching

Garden season is fast approaching us and we have started to get the garden area ready for it.  My husband has done the first tilling of both garden areas and will do it again just before I plant.  This makes the soil nice and loose for easy planting.  He also threw some "fertilizer" on from the chicken house that he tilled in with the first tilling.  Many old timers will advise that chicken droppings are the best!

With plans to attend farmer's markets this year, I have added some new crops to our garden plan.  These include spinach, beets, head lettuce, eggplant and kohlrabi.  These will add to our already large variety of produce including veggies, herbs, cherries, plums and peaches.  I have also thought about planting garlic and cilantro.  I will be mapping out the gardens this week to give me a better idea of what will be planted where and how much we can fit.  We have enough room to add another garden if needed.  I would be planting by next weekend, but since we have 3 dance recitals in those 2 days it will not happen until the following week.  I probably could have gotten it in this week, but with the unpredictable weather we have had I decided it was better to wait.  I get pretty nervous about planting anything before May 1 at least.  

I also am going to do at least some of our garden plant shopping at the local nursery instead of the big name stores.  They often have varieties available that the big names simply don't have.  This would include some of the heirloom tomatoes and spinach varieties to name a couple.  They are a little pricier, but not enough to make the difference to me.

Every year I get so excited at garden planting time.  It is so much fun planning it out, shopping and getting all of them planted.  I always feel a great sense of accomplishment and then the work and wait begins for harvest time.  That is always my favorite!  There is nothing better than the first tomatoes and zucchini.  

As always have a wonderful day!

Easy Homemade Tomato Juice

This summer flew by so quickly! We have been so busy this summer that we have barely had time to take a breath.  We had a child graduate this year, then getting everyone ready for the county fair, birthday parties, the state fair and back to school! Oh yeah, and gymnastics all summer!  With one starting college, one starting junior high and a 5th grader life is BUSY!

The last couple weeks I have been busy canning tomato juice.  I thought I would share my recipe for it the way grandma did it.

I start by washing all the tomatoes (I always plant beefsteak because they are huge and I get lots of juice out of each one), then I cut off the tops.  Next I boil them in a large metal washtub until they are soft.

Next I smash them until all the juice is gone in my grandmother's metal juice collander.  This is fast and works great for getting all the juice out.  And the kids think it's fun!

I dump the bowl of juice in a pan to boil.  I usually add a little pepper and sometimes garlic and oregano.  I wash the jars in hot soapy water and sit them on a towel (the next step can get messy).  I put 1 tsp salt in each jar.  I use a plastic measuring cup to fill each jar with tomato juice until there is 1/4" space left at the top.  Immediately I put the flats and rings on the jars.  The jars get hot fast so I usually have to have an oven mitt on to tighten the rings.

I put all the jars of juice in a hot water packing enormous pan filled with hot water.  It works best to fill it part way, put the jars in and finish filling until jars are just covered.  This goes on the stove on med-high and boils for at least 10 minutes.  Then I take the jars out and set them on a towel to cool.  You can hear each jar lid pop as they seal.  When they are cool I check each one by pushing on the top.  If they don't push down they are sealed.  Any unsealed ones go back in the hot water packer or in the fridge to fix soon.

This is the way my grandma canned tomato juice when I was a kid and I always loved helping her!  Now my children enjoy doing it and hopefully they will pass it on to their children.  Life gets so busy these days that I love it when I can take a little time to pass on a tradition from older generations.

Have a great day and take time to enjoy the little things!

Garden Pros and Woes- Part 1

One of the things I love in the summer is my garden.  In the spring I cannot wait until it's time to plant.  The anticipation just about drives me crazy.  I usually plant the same items every year.  Those items are: zucchini, tomatoes, bush beans, cucumbers, broccoli and green peppers.  I also have a separate potato patch where I always plant red potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes.  I periodically try pumpkins and other veggies.

This year was no different.  I waited and waited with the unseasonably nice weather late last winter to plant my garden.  I did plant a little earlier than usual and all was going well.  This year I was persuaded to try another tomato variety besides my beloved beefsteak.  I was told if I tried an heirloom variety that I would never go back.  I planted some brandywine tomatoes along with a couple beefsteak plants (I had to in case the brandywine were horrible).  After a whole season picking, eating and canning, I have to say that I love both of them.  The beefsteak are medium to large tomatoes with dark red insides that taste amazing and work well for canning tomato juice.  The brandywine tomatoes got amazingly huge.  The color on the outside is a lighter/different color of red, but the insides were equally dark red and amazing to eat.  The brandywine also were a little sweeter.  They reminded me of the tomatoes from grandma's garden when I was a kid.  I used both for canning juice and what we have had so far has been great. Next year I may plant both again! 

In June we started having some very hot/dry weather.  My zucchini, cucumbers and melons started to turn brown after having a great start and looking amazing in the beginning.  I assumed it was the heat and lack of rain that was causing this.  There were some insects I noticed in the garden, so I applied the seven dust as usual when I have this problem. I started watering the garden more than usual and while all the other plants were doing great these continued to look worse and worse.  By mid-July all of them were dead.  I attributed it to the heat and thought "next year I will do better at watering".  Only recently did I begin to research this problem that has bothered me since my plants died.  I have never had a problem keeping the garden alive!  Especially the cukes and zucchini -usually I have more than I know what to do with. 

What I found in my research was that my bugs were squash bugs that can wreak holy havoc on young plants.  They have a hard shell and are gray and flat.  They are hard to kill and harder to get rid of completely.  They winter under plant debris and rocks.  Pesticides don't kill them very well. I have never had a problem with these before and hopefully can get rid of them before next spring. 

If anyone knows of a way to get rid of these things please comment to this post. 

HAVE A GREAT DAY!