Egg Shells

I have heard of many things that you can put into your garden to add nutrients and help improve the soil and one of the things people say is to crush up eggshells and sprinkle them in.  Okay.  I tried that.  The problem is not in the eggshells themselves so much as the membrane that remains stuck to them and refuses to let the eggshell completely break apart. 

My wonderful mother-in-law taught me the trick to this problem.  I gather my eggshells in an oven safe bowl and after I bake something that I am making anyway (like zuchini bread from the 12 cups of zuchini that I pureed yesterday), I turn off the oven and stick the eggshells and bowl right on the rack.  The eggshells "bake" which makes them MUCH easier to crush.  I put them in a plastic baggie and let the kids go at them with one of their plastic toy hammers.  They have a blast (though too vigorous pounding can poke a hole in the baggie and then you have another mess to take care of.)  I sprinkle them in the garden around my plants and I have also found that the sharp little pieces of eggshell are a great deterent to slugs.  They seem to leave the plants alone where I have applied the crushed shells. 

Friday!

Well, we started homeschool one week earlier than the homeschool Charter School we are enrolled in because I really wanted to get a jump on this year.  This year Josh is in 3rd grade and Joe is starting Kindergarten.  I want our special theme this year to be service and for us to find ways to help in our own community as well as areas of the world that need special help. 

I am really excited about this year and hope that it all goes well, though I am a little nervous since I haven't taught two at a time before.  Luckily we get to ease into it with Kindergarten...when I took Joe in to the Charter School for his pre-school assessment, the teacher said he was already ahead of most Kindergarteners and she thought we could basically skip Kindergarten and go straight into first grade.  I, however, feel that Joe is just not ready for a full day experience - he is still so wiggly.  So I am going to make sure he stays challenged and we are starting him on basically 1st grade math and I am just going to continue the reading/phonics program that we did in preschool but I am going to try and remember that he is in Kindergarten and not to push him too hard. 

I need to focus a little more attention on activities to keep Sam and Elise entertained while we school.  I tried to let Elise color in her highchair but she is not there yet and kept trying to eat the crayons.  I don't want any multicolored diapers, thanks anyway.  She likes to sit on my lap and play with a toy, but that only lasts so long.  Sam is able to start basic preschool worksheets and feel like he is "schooling" too.  He is also big enough to play with blocks or look at books or do "art" sometimes.  But I would like to come up with some more quiet activities for the two of them. 

Time to start canning and freezing!

As you can see - it's harvest time!!!  I've got two of those zuchinis that are as big as little Sam's legs to puree and freeze for zuchini bread this winter and I just got my new canner from Ball - made to can on ceramic flat topped stoves.  Hope that works or we are going to have a freezer full of tomatoes!  The canner I found was on Amazon, made by Ball, so it should be good!  Wish me luck!

Community Garden Update

The field at the community garden has been producing lots and lots of super yummy things.  We were able to take a couple full bags of green beans to the local food bank, lots of zuchini and squash, tons of beets and greens, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes.  This was my first time to take the food to the bank and drop if off.  Normally, Cheryl handles that aspect.  I am trying to work on having a servant's heart as a theme for this year's homeschool and wanted to teach the kids more about getting involved and helping others directly.  Plus Cheryl had hurt her hand and was unable to do it this week so it worked out.  The kids understood what we were doing.  It was really uncomfortable to go there and drop it off and see all the people standing in line.  Many elderly and quite a few with children.  It really made me grateful for the blessings God has put in our lives.  I recently read that one in six children in America are growing up right now in food insecure households.  Meaning basically, that they aren't sure where their next meal is coming from.  How scary that would be, especially if you had children to care for.  I am glad there are ways for us to get involved in helping those who need it.  I have been researching into different organizations to support, world vision international, the global orphan project...anyone have any good ideas about trustworthy Christian organizations? 

Raspberries

If you want to grow a super easy fruit...plant some raspberries.  Yum.  And I can grow them, which says a lot.  My other fruit growing experiments have been less than ideal.  They are almost like a weed where you just put them in the ground and let them go.  Every couple of days for the last week and a half or so the kids go out and pick 2-3 cups of berries - some for fresh eating and some to freeze for making raspberry freezer jam later when I have more time. 

Magic Beans

We are currently harvesting 3 kinds of beans in our home garden:  yellow wax beans, green string beans and purple beans (the magic ones!)  They turn green when cooked, which is very interesting to my children.  A cool variety to try.  Easier for the kids to pick since the purple color really stands out against the green of the foilage.  Plus they look really neat in the pickin' pail.  I also found a kind of squash I want to try and grow next year...Zephyr summer squash...half yellow and half green.  You just don't see these kinds of things at your local supermarket.  I can't wait to see in my personal  raised plot at the church garden what is going on with my multicolored carrots!  Red, purple (can't remember if I planted any other colors or not).  There are so many varieties to explore that aren't the typical stuff you see everyday.  Yellow and burgandy tomatoes this year too.  My first "lemon boy" tomato is almost ripe.  I think.  How do you know when a yellow tomato is ripe? 

The Return

Well, I am home from beautiful Montana.  Huckleberries were lots of fun to find.  I am preparing for the homeschool start and gathering curriculum from all areas of my home and community.  Found a cool homeschool support group to bounce ideas off.  Putting together a Unit Study for Africa to start things off.  Altogether going fine.  I have been to see the two gardens - my backyard and the community garden.  Both are crazy wild with weeds after only 2 weeks of my neglect, but are starting to produce yummy deliciousness.  I was worried that all my raspberries would be overripe by the time I got home, but it turned out just fine.  They are beautiful, big berries and taste awesome! 

Bad news is that I got sick.  So this weekend was my first opportunity to participate in a gleaning event in my community - and I couldn't go.  Such a bummer.  They were gleaning a field of sweet corn.  Yum!  I guess they had been getting lots of yummies for the food bank!  Maybe they will have another project soon that I can be involved in.  Such an awesome activity and way to help your local hungry folk.  Wish I could do more.  When I think of all that produce just going to waste if it doesn't get gathered by someone it breaks my heart.  I would like to take my oldest son with me.  I really want to cultivate a servant's heart in my children (one of our homeschool goals this year) and this kind of opportunity would really be good for him!  I will have to check and see what ages are invited to participate. 

The main organizer of our church's community garden informed me that my in-ground garden was going wild and we will need a legion to help pick the beans.  So cool!  I have three young grasshoppers with too much energy anyway!  And I can authorize them to be in my field.  We have beens, pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, beets (TONS of beets), some kind of pepper, and some mystery plants that I can't remember what they are - I was just having too much fun sticking stuff in the ground.  I think they may be brussel sprouts, but I am not sure - never grown them before.  A few stalks of the original cornfield did come up, so they are also scattered about.  What a conglomeration!  But I am very glad that I stuck those seeds in the ground or else nothing but the corn would be there for harvesting now and instead we have a variety of fresh produce to donate and use within our church family, too!   God's creation is truly amazing. 

Possible Homestead Sites

Today I went out and looked at some land for possible homestead sites.  I don't know if this will ever happen, but if I don't look, I know it won't.  I saw some beautiful land, but nothing that just jumped out at me.  I am looking for a little glen, something with a nice big meadow for my garden, but with some nice trees around.  Somewhere large enough to have a bit of a barn and a beautiful little cottage that maintains a private feel with the trees.  I will keep looking...

Aches and Pains

So, I went out last night while the kids were at their church soccer practice and weeded the potato field.  I ache in so many places today.  Ibuprofen is my new best friend.  Some of those weeds were enormous.  A few I had to pull with both hands and almost ended up sitting down.  I met some lovely Colorado potato beetles and sent them off to be with their maker.  I really only got about 3/4 done before soccer was over.  (I had done some in the morning already).  It looks so much better and I am thinking that there is some room to plant a few things in the spaces where nothing came up.  Spinach?  Peas?  Need a cool weather crop this time of year.  Hmmmmm.  I am thinking peas.  I still have quite a lot of seeds.

Squash Bugs?

A wonderful lady at our church garden passed this advice on for those really annoying squash bugs that attack your zuchini, pumpkins, etc.  Squash bugs lay little red eggs on the underside of the leaves and the bugs are fairly large - about the size of my thumbnail.  They can make a real nuissance of themselves.  My friend encourages the planting of lavender with the squash or the planting of white radishes along with or around the squash and tells me that the squash bugs will avoid those types of plants.  You can also take the flowers off the lavender stems and sprinkle them around your plants.  Not only does it keep the bugs away, it smells amazing! 

Controling Pesky Pests

Did you know that often just laying out a strip of duct tape - sticky side up will catch the bugs that are bugging you?  Cheap, easy fix for roly-poly bugs around your favorite garden plants and even some spiders that may sneak in your house.  You don't have to always invest in glue traps or spray toxic pesticides.  Try it.  Let me know what you catch! 

Share and Share alike

I have often found in my local gardening adventures that if I offer something I have to share, others will know that I garden and they in turn will offer something I don't have.  Example:  I have a friend with a peach tree.  I have raspberry bushes.  She doesn't can her peaches and always has an abundance.  We share with each other - I give her jars of fresh rapsberry freezer jam and/or fresh berries and she gives me peaches! 

Also, offering a helping hand, whether it is at a community garden or an elderly neighbor's house, sometimes results in a postitive "reward" of garden bounty.  Not that that is the best reason to help, but it's a nice side benefit!  And many times, people find out that you can fruit or tomatoes and when they have an abundance that they don't want to process, they seek you out so you can "take it off their hands."  Anyone had that experience with the zuchini the size of a horses leg?   You can grate and freeze it, you know. 

Happy Gardening!

From the church community garden!  Mmmmmm.  Pays to help out!