Saving seeds back for next year

last year I saved some seeds and it worked great.
I saved mamoth sunflower seeds easily in a poly bag (they grew even bigger this year!)
tomato seeds were a bit trickier, I put the jelly goop on paper or paper towels on the porch to dry the picked the seeds off easily enough. I suspect I can leave them on a paper towel and just put it in the dirt paper and all next year.
you can also save your squash, cucumber, melon and even some herb seeds easily by gathering and drying & putting them in plastic containers or baggies.
it is a nice idea to trade with friends and relatives swapping seeds is easy and can save you money and be an adventure too. (I ended up with some mismarked seeds and got a wider variety than expected) .
It was not a great year for my  garden this year, tomatoes had issues and a fungus attacked my cucs and squash but i did end up with quite a bit of each dispite this issue... now as for corn... I will not try to grow corn again, it is too frustrating between the animals (mostly those little monster squirrels) and the room it takes in my somewhat smallish garden, I feel I wasted valuable time and energy and ended up not getting one single solitary ear of corn for my trouble! I was able to can corn  bought at the farmers market for alot less than it cost me in time, trouble, fencing, rubber snakes, fertilizer etc... and it was yummy too ;).
   I am going on a trip  back home to Easter Washington in a few weeks and was hoping to have a few canned things to take to my mom but my garden, has not produced as well as last year with weather and animal issues.  Time seems to slip away too, I have enough tomatoes to can some but have not been able to between working and mommying lately.
    If I can manage to set aside 2-3 hours I could do it, but I seem to be short for that much time lately.

    I did manage to can quite a few cans of corn and pickles ( not quite a few in a farmer's wife reference perhaps but in an " I got home from work at 11pm and was done by 3 am reference)
   I have peaches I wanted to make some jam with but have decided to just can them for later, if I don't eat them all first!  I think I may do apples later.
   Well I know I haven't posted much lately but it has been rather busy here, school starts soon and I hope to hear plenty back from others on canning, gardens, seeds, and home school or back to school...

a lovely recipe site

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/7/Peach_Melon_Conserve53018.shtml

Peach cantaloupe conserve

My poor whithering squash plants....

I was able to harvest a lot of Spaghetti squash from my vines on the porch, before they were infected by the Powdery mildew, and I still have healthy plants in the garden too.

                                But these poor little guys started dying off and it spread like wild fire.

this is the bale garden in mid July

this is the Bale garden at the end of July, no one ever told me Pumpkins where Olympic! this one has jumped across the bale garden and is also crawling around it in two directions. I am hoping it is hardy enough to survive the Powdery Mildew that killed the spaghetti squash and cucumbers.

I was still able to get about 8  spaghetti squashes off the vines and they were still very tasty! This was prepared in the toaster oven

Recycled paper seed cards...

I took some construction paper Jr. had cut shapes out of and tore them up into small pieces put those pieces into boiling water to soften them then put the hot goop (which was in this case orange)  into the Magic Bullet/ Bella Cucina and blended it furiously making a smoother gooier paste and after this cooled  (because cooked seeds won't sprout) I squeezed fresh  tomato seeds into (because if it is dry seeds I fear it may cause them to sprout). I then took this goop on to the porch where I had window screen layed out for this purpose and spread the goop into different shapes. I made a card shape, some leaf shapes and some round shapes to make pumpkins out of later, these will later become fall greeting cards that a person can plant in the spring. (In theory anyway.) It is sort of lumpy and thick but I think as the water evaporates they will get lighter and maybe thinner, I suppose if it stays fluffy it is ok too, I will let you know later how it turns out... here are some pictures of how it looks so far:

it sort of looks like a hamburger patty but they are not that thick.

here are the different shapes I made.

Hey I have another follower!

Thanks for following my blog, please share your ideas and make comments and spread the blog to anyone you think might find it interesting.... in other words I still need more followers!

disjointed thoughts I wanted to share

    I realize people were having trouble posting comments so I have altered the settings which should allow you to post comments very easily but they will show as anonymous, if you do this, and want me to know who you are please sign you comment at the end.
    If you have any specific interests please share them, I am looking for ideas right now.
   I recently bought a 2003 Pontiac Vibe and right now am very impressed with the difference in the gas mileage I get especially when compared to my 2003 Town & Country... worlds apart, and so much easier to maneuver and park! I feel so liberated!
   I am having some garden difficulties right now with something called "Powdery Mildew" it is killing some of my squash and all of my cucumbers. If you have any thoughts on this please share them.
   Recently I found out my 72 year old Aunt, whom is my all time favorite Auntie, is having some problems and has been admitted to the hospital with Acute Renal Failure, so I plan to make a trip over to see her in a few weeks for a day.
   I have been considering getting her a personal dvd player, because she has alot of trouble keeping her remote, and keeping it in working order, in the nursing home she is in. I wonder if it has anything to do with her trying to "fix" it.... anyway, she shares a room with another woman and I thought having a simple easy to use dvd player with earphones and no remote, might be just the ticket, then her favorite  (her words, not mine) niece could send her video letters and stuff on dvds she could watch at her leisure. I just have to find one, I may end up giving her the one I already have because it is pretty simple, but it is also set up for the car so I have not decided yet.
   Of course I should be finishing my recent letter to her right now instead of blogging this right now, as I have no real great items to post.
   I did however have my first spaghetti squash last night and I have been harvesting Mortgage lifter tomatoes already, really huge juicy  ones too! I have lost nearly all my corn to some horrible animal and my cucumbers to the Mildew issue, and about 3 pounds of beans have been harvested from my garden thus far. I am hoping there will be enough of something to can since I bought a boat load of jars last month and a water bath canner... I may have to break down and buy fruit to make jam or something.
    I may make some dill relish, that sounds easy and useful and delicious.
    Oh that reminds me, I have been harvesting my garden seeds, I did this last year and it worked so well and saved me so much money on seeds and I knew I was growing things from items I had already been successful with. I had especially good luck with the tomato seeds, they are a little messy but once I figured it out it was so easy.
   Last year I laid out the seeds jelly and all on paper towels or paper and put them on my warm porch to dry then picked the dry seeds off with tweezers leaving the dry jelly behind.
   This year I wanted to make home made or recycled paper and put the seeds right into the paper so I can make little seed cards I can plant or even send as greeting cards and other people can plant.
   Well these are my thoughts today, maybe later I will come up with more, but hopefully you have enough to comment on and share your ideas from these some what disjointed thoughts I shared today.

Canning Apple cake in the oven...

This looks easy and I can see a whole bunch of possibilities having seen this...
Remember I already gave the Big Warning about oven canning previously, but having said that here is a video shoing how to make and can apple cake in jars in the oven.
These recipies are very popular to send to soldiers over seas.

http://youtu.be/aRzTz-erxDE

What Julia Ate: Oven Canning

What Julia Ate: Oven Canning

Here is a link for oven canning.

This blogger talks about oven canning:

http://whatjuliaate.blogspot.com/2011/02/oven-canning.html

Oven canning?

   I was recently asked about oven canning, if I had any information about it, I had never even heard of it ,so like a good little blogger I went to the National Center For Home Food Preservation to see what they had to say on the subject.
   Basically the said "DON'T!"
  The National Center For Home Food Preservation says Oven canning is not safe, that it can be dangerous because the temperature will vary according to the accuracy of oven regulators and circulation of heat. Dry heat is very slow in penetrating into jars of food. Also, jars explode easily in the oven.
   So there you  have it... this isn't a good shortcut, sounds messy and dangerous!
   Having said that I will post any more information on the subjust I find because it was requested..... But I posted the warning first.

It was a long hot night at my day/night job...

no A/C in the van on a 95 degree day and humidity was crazy with all the thunderstorms we have been having... But I wanted to rush home and add something meaningful or profound to my blog, I couldn't think of a darned thing!
   I was thinking of making something out of chocolate.... maybe some sort of small cupcake with raspberries over the top and drizzled in chocolate.... I don't have the actual energy to follow through with the idea but the bug fat bug is buzzing in my ear about it... any comments or ideas?

canning beef videos part 1 & 2

I would love to reach this woman but it says she no longer has an account, I really like her videos.
Canning beef appeals to me for both the storage and the quick preparing of a meal.

part 1 http://youtu.be/vQMHL1xYQC0
part 2 http://youtu.be/_kwZcIPVFww

Does any one can butter?

I found a video on canning butter. I have never had even heard of this and wondered why you would can butter... do you have any ideas?

here is the video:
http://youtu.be/DmmyS7z1UNI

canning corn videos part 1 & 2

part 1 http://youtu.be/vJiJxm6_Dx4
part 2 http://youtu.be/MixeBr-xLq8

video on freezing corn

http://youtu.be/y6c3BQIiRVU

A simple video on freezing green beans.

http://youtu.be/Q7RTUUUDZMU

Easy Green Bean canning video:

http://youtu.be/YAkP6Rn2XvY

I found a great site for pickling & canning instructions:

http://www.pickyourown.org/makingpickles.htm

Bread and Butter pickles (Simply recipes)

Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe

• Prep time: 4 hours, 20 minutes
• Cook time: 15 minutes

Start with the freshest pickling cucumbers you can find; your pickles are only going to be as good as the produce you start with. The fresher the cucumbers are, the crispier your pickles will be.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 lbs pickling cucumbers (fresh from the market)
• 1 pound white or yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup pickling salt (can use Kosher salt as a substitute, regular table salt has additives in it that will turn the pickles dark and muddy the color of the pickle juice)
• 1 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar (5% acidity)
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar (5% acidity)
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 3/4 teaspoon celery seeds
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 6 allspice berries plus a pinch of ground allspice
• 6 whole cloves plus a pinch of ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

If you are planning to store pickles outside of refrigerator, you will need the following canning equipment:

• 5 pint-sized canning jars, clean, unused lids, metal screw bands for the lids (see Canning jars and lids)
• 1 16-qt canning pot with rack
• Jar lifters or tongs

Method

1 Carefully rinse the cucumbers, scrubbing away any dirt that may have stuck to the ribs. Slice off 1/8-inch from the ends and discard. Slice the cucumbers in 1/4-inch thick slices, place in a large bowl. Add the sliced onions and pickling salt. Stir in so that the salt is well distributed among the cucumber slices. Cover with a clean tea towel (thin towel, not terry cloth). Cover with a couple of inches of ice. Put in the refrigerator and let chill for 4 hours. Discard ice. Rinse the cucumber and onion slices thoroughly, drain. Rinse and drain again.
2 If you are planning to store your pickles outside of the refrigerator for any length of time, you will need to sterilize your jars before canning, and heat the filled jars in a hot water bath after canning. If you are planning to eat the pickles right away and store them the whole time in the refrigerator, you can skip the water bath step. It's still a good idea to sterilize the jars first, you can do that by running them through the dishwasher, or placing them in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes. To sterilize the jars for canning, place empty jars on a metal rack in a large, 16-qt canning pot. (Jars must rest on a rack in the pot, not on the bottom of the pot). Fill with warm water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to warm to keep the jars hot and ready for canning. Remove with tongs or jar lifters one by one as you can the cucumbers. Sterilize the lids by bringing a pot of water to a boil and pouring water over a bowl containing the lids.
3 In a 4 qt or 6 qt pot, place the vinegar, sugar, and all of the spices. Bring to a boil. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the sliced cucumbers and onions. Bring to a boil again. As soon as the sugar vinegar solution begins boiling again, use a slotted spoon to start packing the hot jars with the cucumbers. First pack a jar to an inch from the rim with the vegetables. Then pour hot vinegar sugar syrup over the vegetables to a half inch from the rim. Wipe the rim clean with a paper towel. Place a sterilized lid on the jar. Secure with a metal screw band.
4 If you are planning to store pickles outside of refrigerator, process the filled jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Return filled jars to the same canning pot with its already hot water. Water level needs to be at least one inch above the top of the cans. Bring to a boil and let boil hard for 15 minutes, or 20 minutes for altitiudes of 1001 to 6,000 feet. Over 6,000 feet, boil for 25 minutes. Remove jars from pot. Let cool down to room temperature. Jars should make a popping sound as their lids seal. If a lid doesn't properly seal, do not store the jar outside of the refrigerator.
Makes about 5 pint jars.

Pest Problems?

I have some problem areas at my house, my porch rails were covered with Red Spider Mites last year, and of course like everyone else in our area there are the Ants, and typical garden pests (including BUNNIES) I have FINALLY found something that takes care of all of them....
   If you put a few drops of Tea Tree oil in a quart of water, then spray it on those troubled areas, it gets those pests gone! I mopped my kitchen floor with it and no Ants for WEEKS! I put it on my garden ever 3 or 4 weeks and even the bunnies stay away, (I have used it all summer and seen no ill effects on the plants), and those awful Spider Mites are gone! I tried every kind of insecticide last  year and nothing worked, somethings made them fewer for a day or two but they always came back, this really works!

Maybe today will be a good day to find freezer jam recipes. What ever I do will have to start with a lunch date with 2 handsome guys, Jr & Sr.

Yay! I got a member!

Thankyou for joining Penney! oxox

Salsa by Jen Still Hostetler

Jen Still Hostetler

i finally mastered SALSA

28 oz canned whole tomatoes with juice
4 cloves garlic
3 jalapenos- 2 roasted- no seeds
1/2 white onion
juice from 1 lime
course salt

garlic, onion, jalapenos, lime juice in a blender and puree
then added whole tomotoes ( i squeezed out the seeds) and pulsed it

add this to the tomato juice and then add in diced cilatro to taste. i heavily salted after prepared!

Today's non TV activity.... (brought to you by Mikey).

Today Mikey wants to " make a TV you can use in a power outage" He needs a box and various other items to decorate it... In the old  days we would have called it a puppet theater...
   I am just glad there is no TV noise in the quite and relaxing house. Next we make puppets!

Fried Squash Blosoms by dave Rusk

Dave Rusk

Fried Squash Blossems.
Melt butter or butter sub. in skillet I use 1/2 stick you can adjust as to the amount of Blossmens betng fried.
Put about 16 Blossmens in skillet.
Fry on low heat until the blossmens become brown and hot.
Place on paper towl and salt and pepper to taste.
I bought my blossmens off an Amish lady at the Dover food Market on Wednesday.

Quick, easy, and cheap homemade Frappe` or frozen Latte` (not from scratch)

   I am a fiend for Frappe`s and Moolatte`s and all those fru fru coffee drinks but they are expensive and you have to go OUT for them.
   I use my Magic Bullet or Bella Cucina to make them at home with generic instant capacino mix (usually about the cost of one frappe`)
and I fill the cup with ice,

Then I add about 3 spoonfuls of the capacino and milk, (you could add chocolate syrup)

                                                                I blend until smooth

                And viola! here in about 45 seconds I have a frappe` I can enjoy anytime (mine is vanilla so is light in color mocha is darker) also you can add cold coffee instead of milk and its still good with lower fat and more caffine.... I hope you enjoy.

Bella Cucini VS Magic Bullet

Last winter I wanted a Magic Bullet really badly and went shopping for a good price. After finding one at Elderbeerman for cheeper than Walmart I decided to get it but they were out! UGH! So I went online and oredered it, at the discounted price PLUS an added discount for ordering online... (YAY!) a week or so later I got an email that said it wasn't coming because they were out of them :(  but I could call customer service. I called and they said they would look for one for me if they located it they would send one out.
   I  figured I was out of luck so I went looking and a face book friend told me she had a Bella Cucina and loved it.
   I found one on Ebay and bought it for next to nothing and it arrived very fast and I was pleased. The next day a Magic bullet also arrived! That was unexpected, but ok I am a lucky girl and have both now.
   My friend said I should compare them and share my thoughts. So here they are.
   The Bella Cucina out performs the Magic bullet IMHO.
Both are good products but BCgoes longer with out smelling like the engine is burning and does better when crushing ice and blending ice drinks, and doesn't need the shaking the MB seems to need when things in it aren't mixing properly.
   However with that being said, when using the flat blade cap the MB did better because my BC leaks, I think it is just my unit because the seal on the cap sits oddly and won't seal properly.
   I fully plan to use them both as they are both good units and you would be happy with either one. This canning season Both of my units will be incredibly busy and I will be posting if either of them gives up the ghost...
   There you have it, my review comparison of Bella Cucina and Magic Bullet.

The TV dilemma....

 This summer we decided our kids (7 & 19) and maybe their parents, were watching way too much boob tube,  so we suspended our Direct TV account for the summer months.
  This was really easy to do, I just called and they asked if I knew that date I wanted it resumed because they needed a resume date and presto! We have netflix so it wasn't cold turkey, and now we are able to pay 7.99 a month for the streaming  to the Wii or our computers thats a savings of about 80$ a month during the summer (which I guess can be applied to the water bill for my garden).
   One of the benefits is that if Jr. wants to watch "Crap for Kids" tv he can do it on his laptop with earphones! I don't have to listen to that racket (YAY!). I also can tell him he has to watch something educational between viewings of Crap tv. He loves the Dinosaur documenteries and the other shows netflix offers about bugs, and animals and other things like PBS kids shows too.
   I haven't figured out how to hook the laptop to the tv yet but I am working on that too.
   I also want to find a good recipe to can Green beans . Those are some projects I will be posting on ... if you have any ideas please post them.

My biggest and most favorite project is always my garden.....

This year in addition to my little garden I added "The bale garden project". My neighbors thought I had gone nutty but take a look it turned out lovely!

This is the "arbor" I made for my cucumbers and Italian Tomato Trees and Pocket melons.... 32$ made out of PVC. I then cut out the bottoms of the planters and put them in the ground and planted my various plants in them.

 This the big day... My bales were delivered. Here is my helper (Husband Mike) or in this case (Farmer Mike)

We arranged the bales so we could plant potatoes in the center, lined the bottom with news papers, added my seed potatoes, put down some compost and topsoil, and covered it with straw and grass clippings.

Around the bales it was time to plant, and I learned that planting seeds didn't work as well as nursery plants  and since it was a late start because of the cold weather I used plants instead. 5/15...

                             But by 5/27 we had this! (below)

and by 6/23 ...... (below)

                        And now it looks like this...............

And my arbor looks like this...

                                           
          I enjoy this and it makes me feel so  good to see the difference when I look at the
pictures.

   I can't believe how easy it is to make this happen..... I would say about an hour a day to water and tie back wandering things and until it is time to pick it isn't that much work... or maybe its just because I enjoy it so very much, because sometimes I realise I have been in the garden for way longer than I realised when I come on to the cool house. (I have a great farmer's tan now).
                                           
             
   

Homemade Refridgerator Pickles.... (these ARE from "Scratch")

   My most recent project is these great and easy refrigerator pickles.

                      
   This is a super easy recipe I have broken it down to the cup so you can fill whatever size jars you need.
   So for every cup of water add 1 tablespoon of Cannin or Kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of  White Vinegar (these are very salty and after your first batch you may decide to cut the salt down a little bit) .  Before you fill your jar with Cucumbers (of whatever shape you have cut them into) add some minced garlic (about a teaspoon and 1/2 ) and if you like spicy pickles  use pepper seeds as well. Add a few sprigs of dill or dill paste.... just add dill, put in your cucumber and cover with  your brine (I sometimes put the garlic in the brine it all settles) I also put dill on top close the lid and put them in the back of the fridge so no one sees them for 2 days.
   I always seem to start eating them after 1 day but they are better after 2.

Not everything "Homemade" is made from "Scratch" at our house....

I enjoy a lot of homey ideas, not always as much follow through as I would like, and never enough time to complete most of them. As a result I wholeheartedly believe in shortcuts and in modern conveniences and in some procrastination when it is called for, because, after all the best thing one makes at home is one's family and that's something you have to enjoy and attend to while you have them and their attention. 
   I have found  as time goes by, even the most faithful child will become and adolescent , then before you know it become a know it all teenager , just aching to become an adult and when they do you can be left feeling that you have been left with nothing but wrinkles, gray hair, an empty nest, fond memories and of course some regrets. So there needs to be some time to play and enjoy each other while they still like you and listen to you.
   I enjoy my family and my family life and hope to create a place to share ideas, recipes and time and money saving wisdom and short cuts to make life more fun and less expensive.
   I hope you find it interesting, fun and informative enough to join.