Do You Know What I Hear?

Close your eyes and pretend you are leisurely getting ready for the day. Also...insert a screaming Professor who is climbing up your legs as though his life depended on it.

Then imagine you hear THIS sound- oh, and to get the full effect, turn up the volume as loud as possible.

Did you know that is the sound cranes make? 

I had no idea! I had to actually look it up in my bird book, which says, "Often heard before seen, they have a very distinctive rattling call." No joke! They wandered around our yard most of the morning, then finally drifted away...very much to our ear's happiness.

Happy Wednesday!

Harvest Monday: Peach Peel Jelly

What could bless a cheapskate's heart more than turning a pile of stinking peach pits & peels into a pile of beautiful peach jellies?

I feel I qualify for an honorary homesteaders medal or something of the sort!

Last week I shared what I've put up so far this summer. (Not to be confused with what I've put up with!) When I was googling tips on canning peaches, I stumbled across a few mentions of saving the peach peels and pits to make jelly with. Boo YAH. 

 So I had a nice slimy bowl of goo sitting in the fridge for a few days until I could get to it. And it was easy as pie to ,boot! (Peach pie, of course.)

How to Make Peach Peel Jelly

1. Save all peels and pits from your peaches after you are done stuffing your face with fresh juicy peaches canning, freezing, etc.

2. Put the peels & pits in a large stock pot and just barely cover them with water. Bring them to a boil, then let them simmer for about a half hour.

3. Turn off the heat and let them rest overnight.

4. Put the peels/pits into a cheesecloth and squeeze out every last bit of good peachy juice. I canned a bushel of peaches and ended up with about 9 cups of peach juice.

5. Put 3 cups juice into a large saucepan, and add 1 package of powdered pectin. (I recommend using the powdered kind because I never have any luck with the liquid pectin.) Bring to a rolling boil.

6. Add 3 cup sugar (I don't think jelly is supposed to be healthy!) and return to a boil. Boil rapidly for a minute or two, then remove from heat.

7. Skim off the foam from the top, pour into your hot canning jars, then process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. You can also just ladle it into a clean container and refrigerate it if you aren't canning.

Mmmm. I've been waking up every morning this past week to the Tornado's voice whispering in my ear, "Mama, can I have a piece of toast...with peach jelly???"

Come see what other gardeners have been doing with their harvests for Harvest Monday!

  

Before & After: Kalipso's Lost & Found Garden

Kalipso from Busy Bee sent me a beautiful Before & After...um, long enough ago that I'm ashamed I haven't posted it yet. Her garden transformation is not only lovely, but it really is a story of lost & found again. (Eerily similar to the way I kept losing her email and then finding it again!)

*****

You have to know a few facts about my garden before you see these "before and after" photographs. During the war operations in Croatia (1991 -1995), I had to leave my home. I came back ten months later; the war was not over but the area I live was liberated. The house was burnt down and there was a jungle around it. 

I used old bricks to make paths and this central circle in 2003. I recycled the brick from the old grandma's house wall. After pulling the old house down, my father left this wall to serve as the fence towards the neighbouring plot. I finally pulled the wall down to make a new fence and I used almost all the bricks from the 23 m long and 1.7 m high wall. 

I really have no idea how many of them were in that wall but, they are all around my garden laid as paths, edges, patios... Not sure I would be so enthusiastic to do the same again!

1. How did you come up with the design for your vegetable garden?

I had lots of old brick left from pulling down my grandma's house that used to be on the same ground where my house is now. And, I wanted to solve two problems in my veg garden - to have solid paths during the rainy days and, to have less weeds to pull out. So, I made these brick paths.

2. I assume digging up & re-laying down the bricks was the most challenging part of this transformation. Were there any parts that were easier than you expected?

 Easy or not, gardening is, besides tremendous pleasure, a lot of hard work but I count on that!

I am an optimist. I guess, making this garden was a good therapy against depression and self-pity that catch many people who suffered in the war. As for myself, creation is always over destruction. Though, we have to destroy a few things to create new. Hard work - I enjoyed every step of the way!

Much of this Before & After comes from Kalipso's own post on her garden. I've featured several of her amazing photos, but be sure to check out her post to see the rest of them! And I do have to confess to having a little bit of brick envy...those paths are stunning.

And as always, if YOU have a Before & After - big or small! - send me a note and I would love love love to show it off. :)

Witticism Disclaimer

I feel compelled to issue a Witticism Disclaimer.

(Source)

I can't tell you how many comments/emails I have gotten about how people enjoy the humor on this blog. It cracks me up! Because in person I am so not funny.

I keep my mouth shut in awe in the presence of legendary local wit. I have trouble getting coherent words from my mouth to my brain. Too frequently they get scrambled up into something like, "I'm going to the store to get sham-paste and tooth-poo." I usually resort to the old standby of just giving a toothy grin in lieu of speaking.

Apparently my brain is hilarious, but my mouth ... er, not so much. :) So be forewarned.

Laugh a little this Wednesday, friends! (It IS Wednesday, right?)

DIY Chic: Q-Tip Flowers

I've come out of the craft induced haze I find myself in after I browse my Pinterest boards long enough to make these adorable Q-Tip flowers for the Tornado's room.

This is one of those projects I really wish I would have come up with on my own! It's easy, cheap and supercute to boot. So instead let me extend thanks to the creativity of Homemade Ginger, who posted the original tutorial.

I doubt this is what the makers of Q-tips had in mind when they manufactured the product, but at least they were generous enough to concede they can be used for a "variety of uses". Hee hee...

How to Make Q-Tip Flowers

1. Cut loads and loads of Q-tips in half. You will need more than you think!

2. Poke the Q-tips halves into a styrofoam ball. You can use as many or as few as you like.  Be sure to have a family member videotape how hilarious you look at the end while you are courageously trying to grip the styrofoam between the tiny spaces and jam "just one more in!"

3. This is what your alien space ball Q-tip flower head will look like once all the Q-tips are in. Reassure your child who is insisting she does not want "that thing" in her room that it will indeed look pretty when you are done. Ok, so this isn't really a step, but now you are ready to dye your flower!

4. Mix food coloring and water in a shallow dish. I used 7-8 blue drops with 5-6 green drops for the aqua color. It would be pretty in any color, though! 

5. Gently dip/roll your Q-tip ball in the colored water. The dye will seep up into the Q-tips. 

6.  Set the balls aside to dry. I have them drying on a paper towel in the photo, but when I picked them up, the dye that was touching the paper towel had seeped out. I had to re-dye and then set them in a small bowl to dry. I would highly recommend NOT drying them on a towel unless you want to dye them twice just to be like me. :)

7. Poke the styrofoam ball into the stem of your choice. I pulled off the petals of a dollar store flower and poked it into the ball, and that seemed to work well.  

The balls were really heavy when I finished. I didn't expect that! I had to weight my vase down with river rocks so they didn't tip over. Just something to keep in mind when you are choosing a vase!

I know you are mentally calculating how many Q-tips you have in your bathroom right now, so off you go! :)

DIY Chic: Ruffled Painted Shoes

So, recently we've been reading Cinderella.  In fact, I'm hearing "bibbity, bobbity, boo" coming from the room where one Tornado is supposed to be sleeping.

These aren't glass slippers, but upcycling these ruffled painted shoes sure seems like magic.

I picked up these high heels at a clothes swap. Not sure what I was thinking!?!

Probably something along the lines of, "These sure are cute. I would have worn these in my previous life," all the while looking down at my (comfy) sandals which sport a fine coat of baby spit-up sheen.

They lived for several months in the Goodwill pile since unfortunately, I have no daily use for navy & pale pink polka dotted high heels, no matter how cute. (they don't look navy & pink in the photo though!)

As I was transferring them to the car to send them away to the thrift store, it hit me.

"I do need black dress shoes for church."

"I wish I had something to wear that matched these."

"Paint! I paint everything! I can paint these suckers!"

 I used black puffy paint that I had on hand, because I didn't want to spend any money on this experiment. The puffy paint left a pretty shiny finish, much nicer than the spit-up sheen. 

The heels begged for ruffles, so ruffles it was. You can see how to add ruffles to shoes on my post about altered flower shoes. I added three layers of ruffles to these puppies.

And there you have my salvaged-ruffled-painted-altered-for-free Bibbity Bobbity Shoes.

And yes, they will be making their way to church on Sunday. :)

Harvest Monday: Aug 22

August 15, 8 pm, six-and-a-half pounds...welcome to my tummy, watermelon baby!

And she was soooo good. :) There's another one out there for us, too. We're just waiting around for her to ripen up...eerily similar to the last few weeks of being pregnant!

My kitchen counters are finally cleared from the mountains of produce stacked there. I've determined that the only thing I don't like about canning is that it uses all the BIG pots and pans, which makes the kitchen seem much, much messier than it really is. The best part? Seeing those beautiful jars just resting on the counter gives me a highly addictive happy rush. :)

Put Up Summer 2011 (so far!)

 Blueberries 22 pints frozen 

 Brandied Cherries 4 pints canned

 Cherries 4 pints frozen 

 Corn 16 pints frozen 

 Cucumber pickles 2 quarts frozen 

 Dill 7 oz frozen 

 Green Onion 1/2 bag frozen

 Mexisauce 8 pints canned, 2 pints frozen

 Onion 1/2 bag frozen 

 Peaches 6 quarts frozen , 5 quarts canned

 Peppers, green sliced  5 quarts frozen

 Peppers, red sliced 1 quart frozen

 Pesto 12  halfpints frozen 

 Raspberries 5 quarts frozen 

 Strawberries 31 pints frozen

 Tomato Sauce 18 pints canned 

 Zucchini 7 quarts frozen  

 

Amazingly, there is still room left in the freezer! :) And yes, those would be labels on the shelves. I tried to hold off as long as possible, but the labelmaker conquered this time.

Joining up to Daphne's Harvest Monday...come and share your harvest this week too!

Wednesday Whew

The kitchen has been getting a workout in the past few weeks, 

and the computer has been getting a rest. :)

Corn and peaches hanging out on the counter...waiting for the freezer. 

Learn how to can "something" was on my list of things to do this summer. I'd never canned a blessed thing before, but have wanted to try it for some time. We did brandied cherries a few weeks back and I loved it! 

Since my tomato harvest was mostly deered, I bought loads more and will be having some hard core quality time in the kitchen over the next couple of days with these babies.

Speaking of which, do you have a great recipe for canning salsa?

I've only made salsa fresh before, so I'm a little overwhelmed with the results I got from googling it. :)

 

Harvest Monday: Aug 15

Zelda had so desperately hoped to break into season 9 of Project Runway with her modern tomato jumpsuit. She designed it for the urban vegetable...possibly a sleek green zucchini attending a soup mixer, or a lanky leek wanting to impress at the local salad bar.

Pity Michael Kors and Nina Garcia didn't see it in the same light.

I was pretty happy to have harvested about 9 pounds of Amish Paste tomatoes from the four survivor plants. It's a little discouraging to think of how many more I would have had from the twenty others that were eaten, but I'm glad that I at least have some to harvest!

I also harvested another 3 pounds of green peppers and a good pound of red peppers. There is a boatload of basil out there for the Tornado to help pick after supper. My family may very well be sick of pesto by next summer! :)

What's growing in your garden?

 Check out Daphne's Harvest Monday meme to see what other gardeners are harvesting from their August gardens.

Thankful Wednesday

Thankful for creative little ones who leave drowning crayons for Mama to find...

maybe they are just soaking to be planted out into crayon bushes?

Hope Grows Day: August 2011

Happy Hope Grows Day!

Last month I was hoping to reap a harvest from the vegetable garden. I realized that I didn't plant nearly enough cucumbers or beans, and I have wayyyy too many peppers! The fourth year must be a charm with the peppers, because they have been one of my Nemesis Plants for the the past few years.

There are well over 5 pounds of peppers in my Harvest Home tally so far!

The sole remaining tomatoes after the deer attack have been barricaded with the rest of the chicken wire. I figure, if it's nearly impossible for ME to reach the tomatoes, it has to be nearly impossible for them!

 In August, I'm hoping to see these morning glories go from this:

to this:

I'm so glad they aren't conquer the garden to the death invasive here. I do get volunteers each year, but not so many that I cannot easily yank them up if they show up where I don't want them.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the sedums start to turn color. These are passalongs, so I don't know what variety they are, but they are faithful and have interesting foliage all year long!

  

It's probably too much to hope for in August, but I'm looking forward to slightly cooler temps so that I can transplant and fix this barren looking  area! :) Maybe I should save that for September...

What are you hoping for from your garden in August? 

Please join in and let us know!

(I can't seem to get the Mr Linky widget to load, so just leave your link in the comments this time! Thanks!)

Message from the Zorkinis

Do you ever get the uncanny feeling that your "zorkini" are trying to tell you something?

These zucchini from the farmers market were together over 6 pounds. 6 pounds!?!

So...what is your favorite zucchini recipe? :)