Storing A Bountiful Harvest - From Kathy F.

Kathy F. writes:

God has truly blessed us this fall with a bountiful harvest (although much of my bounty didn't come from anything I did....most were a gift from gracious church members and friends).

So what am I to do with all of this goodness?  Save it for winter....by canning it....

So that is what I did...

To date, I can canned 16 quarts of pears

32 pints of apple butter (can you say "Christmas Gifts"),  12 quarts of apple juice 18 quarts of apple pie (one of my favorites).

13 pints of salsa, 21 pints and 2 quarts of tomato sauce, 5 pints of pizza sauce,  55 quarts of grape juice (from my husband's vines) and that is just on my shelf, I also froze 15 quarts of peaches (those came from my tree), 24 quarts of freezer pickles and 53 quarts of corn.

We also helped butcher nearly 80 chickens with friends over Labor Day (and we kept 15...so our freezer is stocked too).

I think we should be set for winter, right? 

First Veggies!

Kristi L. writes:

Summertime is here, and our garden is finally producing. We’ve been battling fungus on our 12 tomato plants, so we’re still waiting on those.

We did however, get some green beans and baby beets. Yum-yum.

You won’t find a picture of the grape tomato because it found its way to Joanna’s mouth before I could snap a photo of it.

How Does My Garden Grow? - Kathy F.

Kathy writes:

Very well...I must say. Just thought I would give you a quick update....the potatoes, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes all have a few flowers....but as you can see, it is all doing well. I have a timer on the sprinkler to water for one hour every morning from 5-6 while we are gone...I look forward to seeing what it all looks like when we return.

The big box that doesn't look as lush are the strawberries...which are in their first year, so they didn't get super big. But we did get a few small berries...which made Hannah very excited.

Update on My Garden - Kathy F.

Well, I finally got my boxes built and plants in...doesn't look too bad, huh??

We had a lot of fun planting...but we literally finished minutes before a thunderstorm rolled in....which was nice in the sense, I didn't have to water my garden right away.

We planted: cucumbers, green beans, onions (box 1) the little boxes all have carrots, strawberries are in box 2, box 3 contains lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower...the 4th box has tomatoes, and more broccoli and cauliflower. I have also added 2 potato grow bags. So we will see. Each child is in charge of one big box and one little one...and the 4th box we all share.

When I was planning how to plant my garden I used the link here. Not only can I see a visual of what my garden will look like, it also tells me how many of each plant I can put in one square foot box....very cool!! When my kids helped me do the planting I printed off a "map" of their garden box and then they planted it.

If this is successful, then we might build a few more boxes next year. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes this summer.

-Kathy