Ya Know How I know

It's Spring.. the inside is a mess.. the outside is a mess and I'm surrounded by things that needed to be done yesterday!!

The outside.. I've got 11 tomato plants in the ground and two zucchini so far. I've got more tomatoes but not sure how many? I've got peppers that are not quite ready to go out in the big world. I was going to mow the weeds but found the mower out of gas! I really, really need to mow at least around the beds and trailer cuz the ticks are ALIVE and well! I hate ticks! They creep me out! Throughout the winter I lay all my cardboard in between the beds. Everything cardboard, cracker boxes, cat food boxes, cardboard packing boxes.. in the spring I cover it all with grass clippings and you never know the cardboard is there. Until I do that it looks like a dump. I don't really care but it really bothers my husband! It serves to keep the weeds down though. Various 5-gallon buckets sitting around some with horse poo some that use to hold horse poo. I did empty the water out of the empties and turned them up side down so the misquotes could not use them as nurseries.

Meanwhile inside.. I've decided to start a quilt for my brother as a Christmas gift. I've got lots of totes filled with cotton fat quarters sitting every where. I've pulled the kitchen table into the living room and it holds my iron, my sewing machine, a cutting mat, and cutter, various rulers and marking tools, more fat quarters and two buckets filled with seeds that will be planted next week. The kitchen is clean but only because I have a load of chopped onion in the dehydrator. Wash needs to be done, carpets need to be vacuumed and we won't even talk about dusting. I did put all the books I had piled on the end table next to my bed away .. no time for reading now.. It's Spring!!

Fun.. Fun.. Fun



Nesco Dehydrator



Five med/large grated dehydrated potatoes with green onions on a 12" dinner plate



Chives about half done in the dehydrator

I had intended to can most of the garden this year. My goal is not using the freezer for preserving our food. After playin with the dehydrator yesterday and today I think I will be drying a lot of things. From what I have read there is more nutrition in the dried food as opposed to canning.

I re-rehydrated some of the potatoes for last nites dinner and honestly I could not tell the difference in taste compared to fresh. I see this as a way of making more fast "slow" food. Also as a way of saving space which I have very little of.

I've heard you can dehydrate meat, eggs and even milk but I have a lot of research to do before I try that! Also properly dried and stored dehydrated food lasts a long time, serval people said 30 years, I take that with a grain of salt? I still have a lot to learn but this really looks promising and I'm excited about another way of storing our food.

If any of you have tips I would love to hear them!

Meat & Bread

I canned up the rest of the venison I had in the freezer yesterday. This is the second time I’ve canned meat and it was a LOT less stressful than the first! I reviewed Jackie Clay’s instruction (Jackie Clay) and got all my stuff set out and ready (I failed to do that the first time so there was some scrambling). It went very smooth and quick. I did have a jar break which made a big mess and I’m not quite sure why that happened but I’m not stressing about it. I ended up with 9 pints of meat. One of the jars did not seal so I made BBQ out of it for dinner and it was wonderful. So I got to add 8 jars of meat to my little pantry.

While I was waiting for the pressure canner to do it’s thing (75minutes) I made a loaf of bread, actually two loaves but one was devoured for BBQ sandwiches.

Today I will be going through my tomato and pepper seeds to see which will get a place in the garden. It’s time to get them started! The broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and leeks did fairly well in the compost but I think I will add a bit of perlite to it for the pepper and tomato seeds.

I’m curious what kind of bug year it will be. I don’t think the lack of winter is going to be a good thing! I’ve already got cabbage worms munching out on my Russian Kale that grew all winter. I think I’m going to do a fall crop of cabbage, kale, broccoli and cauliflower. I think a latter planting under row covers (which I’ve never used) is the only way I’m going to get any yield!

Wishing everyone a fruitful day!!