Our Backyard Homestead

8 Gallons of Jam

My mom and I spent the day using up the remainder of the 140 pounds of peaches we picked last Saturday.  She was only going to stay a few hours and we were only going to make two batches of jam, one for me and one for her.  But the peaches wouldn't end and we couldn't let them go to waste.  At many points The Tornado's desire to play "peach smash" with them was sounding like a better option especially after the 300th worm cut out!  We began shortly before 1 pm and my mom literally cut peaches until 8:30 tonight!  I did let her have a short break for dinner.  While she cut peaches, I did the jam making.  We sure accomplished a lot, but the peaches continue to be the gift that keeps on giving.  Me with a sticky kitchen to clean up and her with a batch of half made mango/peach chutney and a peach pie to mix up tomorrow.  Fortunately for her sake, the hardest part is done in the cutting of the peaches.

After she left, I had to figure out just how much jam I have made this summer.  I was quite shocked to discover that the grand total is just over 8 gallons or 43 pints!!  And pears haven't even ripened yet.  The tree that towers over my garden just on the other side of the neighbors fence is a pear that is brimming full of fruit this year!  With what is on the branches on our side of the fence, I do believe there will be enough to get at least one batch of pear butter.  I am going to need a few days to recover from the 140 pounds of peaches before I can think about pears.

Of the peach jams, our favorite by far was Grand Champion Peach Jam.  It was a bit labor intensive, but definitely worth the effort!!  I have now made four batches of it.

The jam run down:

• 3 batches of Four Berry Jam
• 1 batch of Blackberry with Honey
• 1 batch of Blackberry Jam
• 4 batches Grand Champion Peach Jam
• 1 batch Peach Jam
• 1 batch of Rhubarb Strawberry Jam
• 3 batches of Mango Peach Chutney

State of the Garden 7/28/10 part 2

I had the wrong lens on the camera to get a good wide angle shot of the garden.  For the end of July, it is looking better than I would have expected.  All of my mulch is paying off this year.  With the exception of around the new fence, I am winning the war of the weeds.  On the far right is what I would like to title "my big ole mistake squash and melon bed."  When planting, I blatantly disregarded the "plant 6' apart" advise on the seed pack because even though my space is nearly as big as our entire backyard was in Frisco, it is not 6' apart large.  Well, this is looking to be my learning curve lesson of the season!  Winter squash, watermelon and cantaloupe vines are mixed up all over the place and looking to expand further.

Malabar spinach that has self seeded from last year.  I attempted to transplant one to the fence to help bring a little beauty to the very large fence, but the little transplant was not happy about being moved on a 100 degree day.  I think I will try again, but rather than transplanting in the morning, I will move it in the evening and give it a chance to settle in overnight when the temps are cooler.

 

There aren't too many tomatoes growing in the garden right now.  Of my hybrid plants, Early Girl has been my most successful plant to set tomatoes.  My hope was that by growing small fruited varieties this year, they would set fruit even when the heat set in.  Maybe it was the early onset of 100 degree days or the fact that many of the varieties went in late, but for two years now Early Girl is my only variety that takes the heat in stride.  Even the Heatwave variety I tried this year that was supposed to continue producing in the heat has failed me.  I will continue in my quest to find a successful heirloom variety that can produce well in Texas, but my garden will likely always feature at least one Early Girl.

The other tomato that continues to set fruit is my volunteer plant from last year.  I wish I had some idea as to what kind it is.  The fruit is little bigger than a cherry but it has been incredibly productive.

This is my chocolate cherry tomato that I grew from seed.  I am so hopeful that it is the same tomato that I sampled from the farmer's market when visiting my sister in Oregon!!  Those little tomatoes were like nothing I have ever eaten before!!  I have several plants in, but I think this is the only one that has actually set fruit.

A tomato what not to do!  This is my little experiment row of tomatoes.  They were leftover seedlings that I couldn't bear to toss in the compost pile, so they are are growing in bags of soil.  I simply cut a rectangle out of the top side of the bag, poked holes in the bottom side and then stuck my plants in there.  I did not expect them to do this well and did not have plans in place to stake up the tomatoes.  I keep meaning to run by Home Depot and pick up some bamboo to stake them, but it hasn't happened yet. 

This tomato is at the end of my experiment row and is the only one that got a cage.  As you can see in comparison to the previous picture, it is doing much better!  Note to self, go and buy those poles before it is too late.

I think this is the last of the tomato pictures.  I haven't counted how many tomatoes I am growing this year, but it is an insane amount.  Should my plan to keep them alive for fall actually come to fruition, I will be learning all about preserving tomatoes!  Mixed in this tomato branch is a self seeded basil plant.  Every Texas gardener should plant basil and lots of it!  Not only is it wonderful to use in the kitchen, but it helps deter bugs in the garden.  It is a natural companion of tomatoes both in the garden on and served up on the plate!  Basil takes almost no effort to grow, and I need as many of those kind of plants as possible to keep me from giving up!  I did plant a few new varieties of basil this year, but most everything that is growing is self seeded and they are the healthiest, largest basil plants I have ever had!

State of the Garden 7/28/10 part 1

It was such a nice evening that I just had to make a little journey out to the garden with the camera.  Today's harvest includes 1 cantaloupe (up to a total of 7 that we have picked!), 1 egg and 3 peaches from our peach tree planted this spring.  The chickens are on my "might become dinner list."  Please note, this is only said in jest.  I may or may not be serious, but my children might never speak to me again if we served up Henny or Penny for dinner.  Speaking of Henny, she will only lay her eggs in some random place in the garage.  Before we went on vacation it was under the tool bench.  We thought a week confined to her coop had cured her of her wandering egg laying ways, however, this week she is back to the garage...in a new and equally inconvenient spot of course! 

Most likely she is back to laying in the garage because Elsie, one of the black and white chickens, seems to have gone broody again.  Broody means that she wants to sit on her eggs.  This would be well and good if we had a rooster which we might in our new chicks.  We thought we had cured her of her broodiness prior to vacation as well, but all of the sudden she is queen of the nesting box this week.

The chicks are also on the naughty list as they have literally eaten every bit of my citronella plant.  Just 2 days ago it was a beautiful, huge plant!! 

Here are the chicks before devouring my plant!  They have gotten so big.

Hmm, I didn't plan for this to be a rant about the chickens!  But now I am out of time so I guess garden details and pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.  We just sampled the two peaches from the new tree.  AMAZING!!!  We are looking forward to hopefully a larger harvest of peaches next year.  Being the somewhat over the top researcher that I am, I had a terrible time deciding on what kind of peach trees to plant.  What a huge relief to now know that we picked some good ones!!

Save Money on Groceries

I know it might sound a bit odd, but my favorite room in my grandma's house has always been what she calls her "fruitroom."  It is in the corner of her basement and summer or winter, the temperature is always quite cool in that particular room.  From a child's perspective, walking into the fruitroom didn't seem all that different from walking into the grocery store.  But how fun that the grocery store was in my grandma's basement!  Even now, I still have to visit the fruitroom every time I am back, there is just something about the space that beckons me in.

Whether canning her own jams and veggies or stocking up on a good sale, my grandma truly understands the value of being prepared and "living green."  Most of our grandparents grew up remembering a time when they went without during the Depression.  They lived in an era prior to the mega-grocery store where every imaginable convenience food stock the many aisles.  Growing up in a disposable generation, I believe far too many of us take for granted that food comes from the grocery store and that it will always be available when we want it.  The art of canning and storing food is nearly lost.

I began subscribing to Mother Earth News a few years ago.  While I disagree with much of their political leaning and environmental theories, most of the magazine contains such helpful or interesting articles that I choose to overlook that with which I do not agree.  I was thrilled to receive my new issue yesterday and see that it contained articles on canning and living on less.  The thing I appreciate most about the magazine is how many articles they provide free on their website.

My first recommended article is a great primer on learning to live like our grandparents did.  In this time of uncertain economy, I believe it is something we could all benefit from learning to do a bit better.  So with no further ado, I recommend that you click on over and read the article "Save Money on Groceries: Buying in bulk and freezing or canning fruits and veggies are great ways to enjoy better food and cut your costs by up to 85 percent!"

Don't worry, you don't have to have a garden to benefit from reading the article.  Here is how it begins:

"Not everyone has the time or resources to tend a big garden, so we wondered: What if you bought your produce in season at a farmers market and preserved some of it for winter use?"

Fortitude

Little did I know in moving to "the country" that much fortitude would be required.  Snakes, spiders, chiggers and frogs, all things this city girl would rather pretend did not exist.  Spiders didn't take too much to overcome.  Very few are poisonous and they eat bugs.  Beware of large spider webs at night and don't be too freaked out by the ones that dig rather large holes and live in the ground.

And then there are the frogs.  Lots and lots of frogs.  Frogs eat bugs.  Frogs will hop out of nowhere and scare the pants off of you.  Though I have never actually lost my pants, I have learned to live with the frogs.

But the snakes?  I tell myself that eventually I will have an unhappy encounter with a snake.  Snakes eat bugs, snakes eat frogs, maybe snakes even eat rabbits.  Rabbits eat green beans and lettuce, rabbits are bad.  Does that bother you to know that I detest those cute little creatures?  But I digress, back to the snakes.  I do not relish the thought of the day I happen across a snake in my path.  However, I take comfort in the fact that we have personally witnessed our chickens eating two small snakes.  Here is to hoping that they will continue to keep the yard snake free!!

Unfortunately the chiggers continue to haunt hunt us and make being outside rather miserable.  Every year we threaten to "go nuclear" and give up on the pursuit of a chemical free yard.  This is our third summer and so far we have managed to make it organic.  We have tried everything to repel and/or kill them but nothing has eliminated their stronghold on the yard.  While the chickens have done a wonderful job of controlling many other insects in the yard, the chiggers continue to win the game.  Well we might have finally found the solution! 

It is not a solution that will eliminate them, but it is making being outdoors in the summer heat so much more enjoyable!  Some might complain it is an eyesore, but I'll take the eyesore and leave the chiggers thank you very much.  So what is our solution?  An above ground pool we went out and bought after attempting to clean out the garage in 100+ degrees.  In the week that we have had it, I don't think there has been a single chigger bite!  It is so nice to be able to go out and pull a few weeds and then cool off in the pool.  And even nicer to make it an entire week without chigger bites!!

Now back to the topic of fortitude, I must return to my pile of wormy peaches and practice the habit of fortitude.  If someone would have told me a few years ago that I would pick 140 pounds of peaches and then have at least half of that pile of peaches contain "bonus material," I never would have believed them.  Oh how far this city girl has come!

 

^{_{I do not recommend putting this many white peaches in a bag.  Unfortunately many were quite bruised by the time we made it home.}}

Operation Keep it Alive

^{Watermelon that decided to grow in the middle of the tomato cage.}

Ahhh, the "joy" of gardening in Texas in 100 degree heat!  This summer has been rough because while we had lots of winter rain, we have had very little rain at our house since early March.  When 100 degree days set in in June, it seemed that I was doomed to fail this year.  Fortunately, we had a few weeks of slightly cooler temps and a nice several days of rain.  I was quite amazed today at how my tomatoes are looking better now than they were in June! 

Yesterday, I spent the morning fertilizing my large tomato plants.  This is something I have meant to do the past two summers but it never happened.  The first year of the garden I ended up with pneumonia in July and that was pretty much the end of the garden.  Last year, I have no good excuses other than it is plain no fun to garden when it is so stinkin' hot!!  This year I am attempting Operation Keep it Alive with a goal of actually caring properly for the plants I have in hopes of a fruitful fall garden.

Fall gardening is Texas is fabulous in my limited experience.  The hard part is forcing yourself to plant in August and then watering A LOT in order to keep it alive until the cooler days of September bring much anticipated relief.  Irrigation is key to a successful Texas gardener I truly believe.  I plan to take some pics of my current set up and share what has has worked well for me and what hasn't.  If you are thinking about a garden, the first plans you should make are for irrigation!

We have picked our three peaches from our three year old peach tree.  Hands down, some of the best peaches EVER!!  We also ate our first cantaloupe from the volunteer cantaloupe plant.  We have picked two more with several others still growing.  I may have picked the very last blackberry today.  It was amazingly fat, juicy and delish!!  There are three different types of watermelons that have set fruit.  I need to get pics of my heirloom moon and stars watermelon.  Even if it doesn't end up tasting as good as it was describe, it is unlike watermelon I have ever seen and so fun to grow!

Our second peach tree was just planted this year, but set about 9 tiny peaches.  I picked three last week before realizing they were not fully ripe yet.  The rest are still on the tree and hopefully we will get a small sample sometime soon.

My amazing swiss chard that came back from last year appears to have officially died.  Over the weekend it suddenly began wilting and is now looking rather dead.  The new plant that I grew from seed right next to the established one is doing great.  I also have two swiss chard plants in my kitchen window garden that are thriving.  And I can officially say that we have eaten chard!  I put it in soup last week and everyone ate it without any complaints!  I was so scared to use it because I had tried it raw and it is very bitter, but cooked it was a very nice addition to the soup.

One of the several cantaloupes!

Despite the very unhealthy looking state of the baby peach tree, the peaches were AMAZING!!!  I will definitely be fertilizing and doing everything possible to improve the health of the tree!  If anyone knows what all the holes in the leaves signal, I am all ears!  I assume it is an insect problem??

A great deal on organic fruit!!

I am so grateful for several wonderful days of rain last week!  I took pictures of the garden gone crazy yesterday and plan to get back to blogging, that is after the tomatoes get a little more attention.  However, this week I am blissfully drowning in 25 pounds of peaches that need to be processed before they rot.  Today I tackle peach and mango chutney.  If it is good, I will post the recipe.

If you wish to buy all organic produce, but like me, it is next to impossible to find decent strawberries or raspberries at a price that doesn't break the bank, now is your chance to stock up!!  I was at Costco yesterday and they have the most beautiful 12 oz packages of organic raspberries for $3.65 and 4 pound packages of organic strawberries for $7.99.  While a price tag of $8 seems high, when you break it down to $2 per pound on the strawberries it is a steal!! 

I bought some extra to either turn into organic jam or to freeze for winter when such produce is not available.  However, at the rate the berries are disappearing, it might just all get eaten fresh....and that is okay too!!

Edited to add a picture of the yummy goodness bowl of berries each of us had for lunch.  Outside of picking your own, I think they are the best tasting berries I have ever bought from a store.  I frequently question whether or not organic is really worth it.  For many reasons, the answer is yes, however today the reason is taste!!  Conventional berries will never taste that good!!  Now run to Costco and get some for your family while the very short berry season remains!

Pizza night, garden style

Breaking news!  We have now tried both the malabar spinach and the purslane!!  Not only have we tried it, but we had it two nights in a row.  Last night I went out in the rain to pick some to add to our salad.  Tonight I made it out in between storms in order to pick toppings for our pizza.

The purslane might just edge out basil as my all time favorite plant!  Not only is it beautiful and insanely easy to grow, but the leaves have great flavor.  And to top it off,  you can pick the leaves off of the stem, put the stem in a cup of water and it will begin rooting in a matter of days.  I just planted another edge of my kitchen garden with slips that the chickens broke off of my potted purslane on the back porch. 

The malabar spinach was also good and didn't have too strong or bitter flavor.  However, a few of the bigger pieces had a somewhat slimy consistency in the center of the leaf.  I am not sure I would want to eat it much in raw form, but I think it could work for green smoothies or cooked.  Baked on our pizza tonight, it was great.

I wasn't sure if the kids would go for the garden veggie pizza, but I didn't give them any other options.  Toppings included patty pan squash, malabar spinach, onion, red pepper, fresh basil, purslane, tomatoes and black olives.  The only thing that did not come from the garden was the black olives!!  I'll confess, I was a little afraid to taste it, but 4/5 of us loved it.  A certain Mr. Tornado did pick a few peppers off and wished for his normal ham and pineapple, but overall it was a big success. 

I also must confess that this entire post was inspired so that I could post a picture of my red bell pepper.  Peppers have not been something I have succeeded at so to have my first successful pepper in three years of gardening deserves a little celebrating!

I was quite thrilled to discover that my summer squash is not entirely lost to the squash bugs!  This little patty pan was a happy discovery this morning.  I decided to break out some neem spray in hopes possibly killing some of the rapidly increasing squash bug population in attempt to salvage my remaining squash plants.

 

BC ~ Before Cheese!  The green that you see is the malabar spinach.  I added chopped basil after adding the cheese.  The finished pizza is above.

 

The second pizza, this one had purslane instead of the spinach. 

Basil or malabar spinach free for the taking!

I enjoyed this cool, albeit humid, morning by doing some garden chores.  In North Texas you must treasure every day of July with temps in the 80s!!  That doesn't happen often!

I discovered that I have basil popping up everywhere.  I also discovered that the malabar spinach reseeded itself nicely and thanks to all the rain is popping up in abundance as well.  If anyone local would like to start either of these plants, I will happily transplant some and save it for you.  Just leave me a comment if you are interested!

I do believe that basil is my absolute favorite thing to grow!  It thrives in the heat of summer and adds wonderful flavor in the kitchen.  I love that it seeds itself and comes back every year.  If it is not just where I want it, I can easily transplant, but most of the time I just let it grow where it plants itself.  It is useful to grow with your veggies because it helps repel bugs.  It smells heavenly when I brush up against it.  And lastly, I love having my freezer full of pesto to enjoy all winter long.

I would have thrown in the towel my first year if not for plants like basil and marigolds!  I find it an absolute necessity to grow plants that require little care, yet offer big benefits.  Basil is the #1 plant in that category in my garden!

No Room for a Garden?

The past two years I have been working on a herb/perennial garden right next to my kitchen window.  I took some pictures of it yesterday in hopes to encourage everyone to work in edibles to your landscaping.  Herbs are a wonderful way to get a start gardening.  I have found them to be extremely hardy and productive, but they are also quite pretty and can fit in well with landscaping.  There was very little landscaping on this property when we bought it, but one of the things I was thrilled to discover was a rosemary in the front yard.  I love being able to snip a little fresh rosemary year around!

A large yard is not necessary in order to have a garden.  Our very first little house had a small and mostly shaded yard.  There was a tiny 3'x3' ish sized bed right next to our tiny concrete patio, but it was plenty of room to put a few tomatoes in.  When we moved back to the Dallas area, we had the big house on the tiny lot, yet even there I planted a few tomato plants in pots.  The kids were 1, 3 and 5 at that point so it was not the season of focusing on gardening, but the girls loved their tomato plants.  Somehow we even managed to keep them alive all summer and still had tomatoes in November!

If you really want to get brave, why not sneak a tomato into your landscaped bed?  I ran out of room for all of my tomato plants this year, so I have put several into my new kitchen window bed.  You can choose a patio variety that is meant for growing in pots or use a bamboo pole and keep the plant thinned so as to not look unruly.

Here is a picture of the bed two weeks ago, our chicken coop in the backgroud:

Here is a different angle, taken yesterday.  I can't believe what a difference having my new irrigation in place as well as a nice soaking rain made in how much it has grown in the past two weeks!!

The pink flower border is purslane.  It is an edible flower, but I have not yet been brave enough to try it, however, after reading this link about purslane, I might just try!  Here is a close up of the beautiful, delicate flowers:

Even if we never get brave enough to eat it, the flowers are doing a wonderful job at attracting beneficial insects such as bees!  The flowers come in many varieties of pink, as well as yellow, white, and multi-colored.

Some of the decorative peppers.  The skinny ones in the background are not spicy and the kids love to come eat them straight from the garden, they have a bell pepper flavor and are actually quite good.  The dark plant's peppers are supposed to be very hot.  I am not sure that I am in love with growing peppers, they seem to like lots and lots of water.

This climber is called Malabar Spinach.  We have not tried it yet, as there is just now enough to harvest for a meal.  Maybe I should throw some in with our salad tonight!

Here is where I have tucked in the tomatoes along with some swiss chard, yellow and red varieties.  I must confess we have never actually eaten the chard.  But, I think it is a beautiful plant to grow and one of these days I am going to try cooking some up!  I also have some in my main garden beds that grew from March until the extremely cold middle of December that we had last year.  Much to my surprise, the roots that overwintered in the garden began sprouting new leaves this spring!  I do love plants that require little effort and keep things looking pretty even if we are too chicken to try eating it. 

The tall, pointy plant back behind is another in the easy growing, though non-edible category.  It is a calla lily that I put in when there was nothing but weeds growing here.  It was so neglected for two years that it amazes me every time I look at it that I have not killed it!  Though you can't see them, this year I planted four more calla lilies next to it in hopes they will perform like the first one has!

 

And lastly, here are the tomatoes with a basil plant tucked in between.  I hesitate to encourage you to grow a tomato in your front yard and then post this picture because these two have gotten quite unruly while I neglected them.  The bamboo looks terrible because it needs to be replace with one sturdy pole rather than the several skinny ones I attempted to make work while we were on vacation.  I will replace those poles and trim out some of the excess leaves.

The large green mass on the far right of the image is some sort of weed that is popping up everywhere in this bed.  I have no idea what it will turn out to be, but for now I am letting this cluster reside and pulling the rest.

And that is the tour of the non-herb edibles.  Look for a part two with the herbs and perennials.