54 Pounds

Strawberries that is…. Grim and the Monsters went berry picking with me yesterday! 10 pounds go into the freezer for shakes and smoothies. 5 pounds for jam…. 1 pint for Strawberry infused vodka….. and the rest will be juiced for jelly! I got the steam juicer for Christmas and haven’t used it yet…. So excited.

Oh, then with the pulp left from the juicer I am going to mix with some sugar and make fruit leather for the monsters. Hope it turns out! LOL! If not nothing is really wasted.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Best layed plans

In my last post I told you all the things that I was going to be preserving this season. It seems like I just had to get started doing some other things first. Well, I guess that is why I always leave room for change! My mom, picky monster and I went berry picking. We were able to get Blackberries and raspberries. The blackberry bushes were taller then me and I am 5'9" and they had thorns that were huge. I have the scrapes and pickers to prove it. (Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of the boo boo's).

 

We got 4 quart of blackberries $3.99 each, and the raspberries were $3.50 a quart for 7 quarts. Mom got 12 half pints of blackberry jam and 5 pints of raspberry jam. I got 5 pints of blackberry jam, 5 pints of raspberry jam and 5 pints of Chocolate raspberry dessert topping.

Then I got on to cleaning out some of my freezers. I know I was suppose to have done this months ago. I still have more to get out but I did get out some of the pecans and made 3 half pints of praline syrup. Two bags of cranberries also needed to be used up. I got 5 half pints of jellied cranberries. 

When I was looking for other recipes, I came across two more that I can use up freezer stuff for. The first is Black Forest Topping using the bing cherries I froze months ago. I will be making strawberry jelly, also. This will be the first time I have made this type of jelly. Really, I don't know why I haven't made it before. But Grim will be very happy!

Grim was able to get the kitchen finished. Here is a before picture to remind you what it use to look like.

And here is the finished product.

We also changed out the counter, it is a multi-colored brown. The stems you see in the corner of the picture is all of the garlic. It is purple hard neck. I am hoping that I will be able to use some of these cloves to plant for next season.

 Lots still to do!

Gotta Run,

Yart

In, Out and my thoughts

We have been so busy here on the citystead.... LOL! Sorry no pictures this post just and update. I now have a rain barrel set up in front of the house. No rain so far but it is suppose to come tomorrow afternoon. I had to plant zucchini where the beans were eaten and I planted sugar baby watermelons where the corn didn't grow. I just hated the thought of those areas going bare for the season. I also had to go and get more pickling cucumbers to plant as something has been enjoying them. Grim bought me a composter yesterday as he was tired of looking at the grass clippings in behind the garage. My evil plan worked... LOL! Thanks Honey! Grim strung new line for the grapes to climb, I pounded stakes for the tomatoes, got all the mint into pots, horehound and oregano are also potted.

The strawberries that didn't look like much last year and very early in the spring have been producing like crazy. I have already had to pick 3 times and gotten almost a quart jar full each time. We have only lost a few to birds and mouses, so I am not complaining. Last year the few that ripened were eaten by the birds. I was able to get one bowl of strawberries for myself so far. It's hard keeping the monsters out of them.... *smiles* I added a little sugar and heavy cream.....Oh, it tasted like heaven! I am going to make an angel food cake and take the rest of the heavy cream (make whipped cream) and the strawberries to make the best shortcake ever!!!

I finally planted the camomile plants. I didn't know they are annuals.... Serves me right for not checking that out before! So I am hoping that they flower. I might have waited to long to get them in the ground. Oh, well have to wait and see. The onions and heirloom tomato I planted up front are growing like gang busters. Fluffy is growing like crazy. Since on of his parents is a flop ear, we think he inherited the floppy ears as well. So far only on of them has flopped over and if that is the case then he is even more cute if that is possible with one up and one down.

Almost forgot the potatoes are getting ready to bloom. I guess getting them into the ground at the proper time really does the trick. Last year I didn't get blooms until july and then they had blossom drop because of the heat.

Grim and I went to see Robin Hood. Now I have heard people say that Russell Crowe is to old to be convincing. Well, my thoughts are that Robin went off to the crusades as a young man, then was imprisoned for well on 10 years and then had to make his way back to England..... That puts him at the proper age in my opinion. Loved it! There was a line in the movie that really struck me though. It is when he is being told that the deer are off limits because they all belong to the king, he says that how can a man survive if he is not allowed to fend for himself. That got me thinking.... I know not a good thing... LOL! But how can we survive when our food source is held just above our heads by the new monarchy ie; Monsanto's and the like. Don't people remember let them eat cake! But alas I guess they don't, because if they did we wouldn't be in shape we are in with our current food situation. I got into a discussion with someone yesterday and they said that it was to expensive to eat right. I shook my head and said that it isn't if you eat the proper amount, your not wasteful and your not over eating so you can afford to eat right. With that argument stopped they then turned to I just don't have time to eat right.... To bad for them! Like I have said in the past I may not be doing everything right all the time but I am trying to change a lifetime of bad choices with little steps. I fail miserably sometimes, but it is when I get it right that makes for a better me.

With that said I am going to go out and enjoy the yard we worked so hard to make nice for today!

Gotta Run,
Yart

Weekend Recap

We went out to price the sod and blocks. And came to the conclusion that the amount of blocks we were going to use was going to cost way to much. So we opted to use more sod. Then I priced it.... Whoa! That is way more money then I remember it being. So we drove out to two different sod farms. The first one didn't have any and didn't know when they would be able to cut more, because of the rain. Off to the second one. They had the 35 rolls of sod we needed and local honey as well. The guy even tossed in two extra rolls for us. We used all but 5 rolls of it in the back yard. I have a bald space in the boulevard in front of the house that I can use the rest at.

This whole area use to be dirt with a few sprigs of grass. It looks so different now!


Then Saturday and Sunday we held a yard sale. We didn't do awful but we didn't do great either. Not complaining because I was able to take the money we did make and get a new umbrella for the patio table and a cushion for my wicker chair and also a new soaking hose. We are planning on getting more stuff out and having another one in a couple of weeks. I will be putting out video games, board games and video's. I'm fairly sure that it will be the right time for that as school will be getting out soon around here and the kids will be board. My kids have already played these games so much they don't even want to look at them anymore. I will be keeping monopoly and payday. We all love those!


I was out in the garden for a hot second on Sunday and guess what I found. One almost completely red stawberry! EEEEEE! I am so happy this will be the first out of our patch! I am so happy. I was telling Grim that if we didn't get anything this year I would pull all the plants and use the plot for something else. Now I don't have to. I think that I am just the most impatient gardener ever. We are suppose to get rain for the next three days. I really need to get out there and plant the tomato plants. Oh, just remembered I need to go and buy stakes for them. Shoot! The stakes can wait the tomatoes really need to get in the ground. Plus this week I need to go and buy the rest of my plants. None of the seedlings made it this year. I don't understand what I did wrong. But a grow light was purchased for next years seedlings. So I will worry about it then.
Not much more to report from the weekend!

Gotta Run,
Yart