The big Cover UP!

A BIG Welcome to Sunny! Thanks for following my blog!!!

Thank you to GoGreen.VC for including my garden & house blogs in their link index!

It was pretty cold last night... in the 30s. So I have covered up my precious tomato plants!

It's so easy to do with my square foot garden! I had the hoops all in place from the spring... just had to dig out the plastic sheeting pieces.

Would love to plant some carrots... wonder if I could get them to germinate??? Still beautiful and warm during the day... in the 70s... and I could cover them... What do you think?

Will be making more tomato sauce today... and finishing the walls in the guest bathroom!

Fried Rice with garden veggies

Fried Rice with Garden Veggies

I had some left over rice from the other night... so decided to make fried rice.

From the garden:

Tomatoes, chopped

Swiss Chard cut in little pieces

Carrot slivers

Yellow Banana Pepper, chopped

Onion, chopped

Not from the garden

Rice

Corn... sadly...

How to make it:

Heat up some oil.

Add onions & fresh garlic if you have some on hand

Add whatever garden veggies you want... or add left over veggies... or frozen veggies

Add leftover cooked meat

Cook until tender

Add your cooked rice... add salt, pepper... and some soy sauce to taste.

If you want, add fried egg... I do this in the same pan. I just make a place in the center of the pan and fry up the egg then mix it in.

Enjoy!

I sure do love having my garden out front! Makes it so handy for grabbing this and that to add to dinner!

Tomato Sauce is simmering...

I'm making tomato sauce today!

Wish that I had 2 big stock pots.... really should pick up a second one!

Got 1 big stock pot and a soup pot going on my 2 burner camp chef cooker simmering tomato sauce!

Yeah.... more tomato sauce for the pantry... well... still have to can it.... later... maybe... today...

Some of my tomato plants did get frost the other night.

NOTE TO MYSELF>>> Be ready by the beginning of September to cover tomato plants!

The big harvest...

I don't know how much this bucket weighs... but it's heavy! I'm going to have lots and lots of tomato sauce to can!!! Yeah!!!Harvested all my peppers!
Harvested my ONE cucumber... DARN... well, at least we got ONE!
I've so enjoyed our sunflowers! This is my last big one.

Warning... warning... frost imminent

Tomorrow night's going to be a cold one... today the weather changed. We went from August in September to.. well... burr...

Time to frost proof my precious tomatoes!

Carrots for dinner

Carrots for dinner! I put a beef roast in the crock pot for dinner... along with my garden carrots and some potatoes... and garden onions. It was sooo sooo good!But... I'm kind of sad... because my carrots are almost gone. I planted a 4x4 bed full... next year, I'll need at least 1 4x8 bed filled with these yummy carrots! Can you tell that I love carrots?

Oh... I want to try those juicing carrots next year too! I saw some in the territorial seed catalog... sorry, can't remember the name. Will have to look it up.

Tiger Lilies planted!

I got the Tiger Lilies all planted! Hope that they bloom next summer!

Tiger Lilies... from my kind neighbor...

My neighbor just thinned out his Tiger Lilies... and would I like some??? And take as many as I'd like!

Well, heck... YES!!!!

Whooohooo!!!! Ok... where to put them... where to put them... Am I ready for landscaping here at our new house???

Yes! I will find a place!!! I LOVE Tiger Lillies!!!

Bucket of tomatoes!

Just picked about 3/4 full of a 5 gallon bucket full of tomatoes! Will be putting on another sauce just as soon as I get back from running an errand in town.

We've had beautiful weather lately, 85 degrees today... I think that August has finally caught up... only it's September!

Tonight for supper... spaghetti, homemade sauce... maybe a bit of salad fixings from the garden too... we'll see!

More Plum Jelly!

I made 2 batches of Plum Jelly this morning. Got 14 more pretty jars for the pantry!

Do I dare put on another tomato sauce today... or... do I finish laying the tile in the guest bathroom of the new house??? Hmmm... such choices!

Babies... grow fast!

I've got another pot of sauce simmering... the house smells so good!!!

There are a few babies growing in the garden... not pictured are tasty peas, and flowering beans.

Here's a little cantaloupe! Grow baby... grow fast!

All the vining plants really didn't grow.. they just sat there... looking puny... while my husband was patiently waiting for cucumbers to appear... WAIT... there's one NOW... GROW FAST BABY!!!

Tomatoes... tomatoes... tomatoes...

I picked a box of tomatoes yesterday! Wow!!! I've got some work ahead of me... wonderful canning work!!! Get ready pantry shelves!!

Garden Overview photo. It's been a while since I've taken one of these...

Collecting seeds... enjoying the harvest!

I made tomato sauce yesterday. Got 8 pints canned... one is in the fridge. Will be making pizza with it this week. Oh my gosh... it smelled so good as it was cooking up.

Today, I'll be picking more tomatoes. I bought some of Mrs. Wages Ketchup mix based on Granny's recommendation... so I may try some of that next.

My parents have 2 Plum Trees... they are sooo good! I've been making Plum Jelly. Yesterday I steamed juiced a fresh batch... so will be making MORE Plum Jelly!

Homemade Jelly makes an awesome gift... so... I love to have LOTS on hand!
My Hollyhock are just about done producing flowers at our little rental house. So, I've been collecting seed so that I can plant them up our new house.

Pictured on the far right is a collection of "Wyoming Wild Sunflower" seeds. I don't know the official name for these petite cluster-like sunflowers but they sure are pretty! They grow near watering ditches and along the side of the rode. They are so pretty!!!

Hmmm.... where to plant them????
Here are 2 heads from my giant sunflowers. We love eating David's Sunflower seeds... so I thought that I'd try harvesting my own sunflower seeds.
I've got lots more tomatoes to pick. Mostly I have Roma tomatoes, but I did purchase a few indeterminate plants from our local Master Gardeners sale this spring. I have so enjoyed to wonderful sweet taste of the Rutgers. This one pictured is a Opalka... strange looking thing, isn't it? This is the first ripe one... I have no idea how it will taste.
Well, I am so pleased to finally have enough ripe tomatoes to make a sauce... that... is what I wanted most from my garden! I make pizza almost once a week and love using my own tomato sauce!

Preserving the Harvest... PLUM JELLY & TOMATO SAUCE!

Spending some time preserving the harvest today!

Then I've got to move onto finishing laying tile in the guest bathroom of the new house!

My 11 year old just walked outside and made a comment about how good my tomato sauce smells! Whoohoo!

Plum Jelly

From the Plums that my mother brought over the other day, I had about 15 cups of plum juice! Then she brought over some more today and so far I have 8 more cups!

I have a steam juicer that is absolutely wonderful!!! My friend Ana taught me how to make jelly using a steam juicer... it's so easy to prepare juice this way!

I have made quite a few little jars of Plum Jelly so far! And will have double that with this batch of juice!

I think that I need to find my dehydrator for her next batch! Wouldn't that be yummy? Dried Plums!!!

Tomato Sauce

My family gathered about a 5 gallon bucket full of roma tomatoes the other day. So I washed them up using my favorite all-purpose, clean everything, organic cleaner , got out my Vita Mix and whizzed up the tomatoes.

I LOVE my Vita Mix for making tomato sauce! All I have to do is wash up the tomatoes and take off the top hats! Then I plop them into the Vita Mix container (skins, seeds and all!), tamper them down as they turn into a wonderful tomatoey juice!

Now, I'm sitting outside on this beautiful day with my tomato sauce simmering away on one burner and my steam juicer steaming wonderful Plum juice on the other burner of my Camp Chef cooker.

My camera is in the truck with my husband... I'll post a picture of my set up when he gets back.

I'm so excited to be at the point of processing tomatoes into sauce for canning!!! YEAH!!!!!

Hope that you're having a great Labor Day... and enjoying a family BBQ! We'll be doing steaks on the grill today!

Preparing Broccoli for freezing

Well, I just cut some beautiful side shoots of Broccoli. I decided to preserve it by freezing.

But, I had never done it before... so I googled... and found this awesome reference: Preparing Vegetables for Freezing.

I will also put this link in my reference section on the right side bar.

Got a bucket of tomatoes to process still!

Oh my gosh tomatoes!

Oh my goodness... just picked bunches and bunches of tomatoes!

Let the processing begin!

I have to say that I'm disappointed with the size of my Roma tomatoes... they're tiny!

Next year, I want to grow indeterminate paste tomatoes.

Question...

Do you have a favorite indeterminate paste tomato... or a suggestion for me?

My parents gave me a bunch of plums. Guess that I'll steam juice them tonight! Love plum jelly!

It's all about ripening tomatoes... and fall crops blooming!

I'll be cooking up tomato sauce before long! Most of my plum tomatoes are ripening up! What do you suppose causes tomatoes to ripen? Is it warm days and cool nights? This photo below is a little sun washed... but it's still fun to see all those ripening beauties!

Lots of ripening tomatoes in this bed!

My Fall Crop peas are blooming!

My Fall Crop bush beans are growing nicely, I'll have to get this bed ready for impending frost...

Sorry not to be on top of my blog posting... we're working hard on the new house... so much to do to get finished up! More details here if you're interested.

Red Tomatoes!!!

Hi gardening friends!

Many of my tomatoes are starting to turn! If I can stop eating them... I might get enough to make some sauce!