Recycling Food! I'm not talking leftovers!

Nevah!

Evah!

Evah tell me it can't be done!

It's far to easy to root what 

would be headed for the compost.

 Pineapple top rooted!

Place the top in glass of water for two weeks. 

I changed the water when it looked cloudy.

This baby's ready for a pot!

 Green Onions!  

I cut the ends off and used the tops.

I stuck the root ends into a pot with some other stuff

and within three days the tops were breaking thru the soil!

Celery!
Yep!  I cut the bottom off to clean the stalks.

I thought ... hmmmm.  Why not?

Stuck it in the pot and in less than a week they broke ground!

This is just over two weeks old!

There are two more in there that look like this!

I'm doing the same with my organic new potatoes 

that sprouted on the counter!

I also read you can do this with Ginger!

You know how expensive Ginger is!

Well, you know .... if you juice!

Happy Gardening!!

Making Stock!

Another great tip!!

Do you make your own stock?

Veggie Stock?  Beef Stock?  Chicken Stock?

They are all super easy to do ... only a few tried and true rules!

Karma Free Cooking photo

I've always tossed leftovers into a freezer container .... saved for that first soup of the season!  I've always tossed veggie peels, bits and pieces into the compost.  But wait!  Instead of using fresh veggies to make stock (and then discarding?  not in this house!), toss those peelings, nubs and wilted carrots into the freezer til you have a gallon bag full.  I also toss my veggie pulp from my juicer into the bag!  Make a few quarts of vegetable stock (can or freeze), and THEN toss the remains in the compost.  Waste not!  Want not!  You know it's healthier than store bought stock!    Pssssst!  You can even use your crock pot to do this!!


Read more at The Garden of Eating!  Great article on this subject!  Oh so easy!  Next time you clean out the produce drawer in the fridge, ask yourself if you can use the item in stock instead of tossing it!  Recycling at it's best!


There's another post over at Poor Girl Eats Well about making veggie stock!  And another at Hillbilly Housewife!  And still another at Karma Free Cooking!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

Mornin' Y'all!

I spent the first part of the morning canning!

This Sweet Pickle Relish is the best I've ever tasted!

Hijacked Cookbook from my Daughter!

Simmering!

Water Bath!

Five Pints!
Listening to the pings as I blog!
1-2-3-4-5!  Yay!

~


Look at my little sprouts!!!
Beans and Tomatoes!

My favorite Little Sprout!

Linking up with Daphne over at

Flip Flops and Pearls!

Join us!

For My Gardening Friends!  I came across this blog last night while perusing Pinterest !

It took over 20 years of gardening to realize that I didn’t have to work so hard to achieve a fruitful harvest. As the limitless energy of my youth gradually gave way to the physical realities of mid-life, the slow accretion of experience eventually led to an awareness that less work can result in greater crop yields.  Read More!

I ventured out today by myself.  First time in over six weeks.  The boot came off two days ago.  I'm taking it slow and cautious.  As instructed I am swapping the boot from the now healed broken foot to the other bad foot in an effort to alleviate some of the pain by immobilizing it.  We'll see.  Not very optimistic about it.  Doc is pretty certain it's nerve pain and arthritis.  MRI and x-rays show no reason for the kind of pain I'm having in that foot. 

I Can Do This!

I've be forced to re-evaluate my activities - which is the last thing I wanted to do once getting out of that boot.  You should see the to-do notebook list I've compiled.  I'm reducing the 7-9 outdoor art shows (which has been my regular routine the past four years) to only 1 in 2012.  Only one.  O-N-E.  It's an easy one day event nearby with lots of help.  Physically I just cannot take on what I have in the past.  Because of the orthopaedic issues, I also had to give up keeping my angel/granbaby girl full time.  That was spiritually excruciating.  I mourned.  I grieved.  I finally came to accept it (sorta-kinda-in a way).  Then, she got to stay with me Friday ... the day after the boot came off.  I never realized how tired I was each day and how much energy it took the last two and a half years.  Maybe it's because I've had a low activity level the last five weeks recuperating (along with the fruit salad mix of other issues).  I know I'm not 100% yet ... and may see-saw between good days and bad days.  I'm hoping for more good than bad.  I will pace myself.  Save up the energy for get-togethers and pressing activities.  My glass is half-full!  My heart is even fuller!  I ♥ my family and look forward to regaining a familiar pace!

Anywho!  I ventured out today and had lunch with my sister and then made a ever so slow walking tour stop by the garden center at Lowes.  The seed-starting trays had arrived.  I bought a couple to go with the ones I already had.  As well as another two long, narrow planters for shallow things (i.e. chives, green onions, lettuces, etc.) to grow on my back porch.  I also acquired two very large pots to grow a couple of potato varieties in.  Tomorrow I will get the seeds I've been gathering in their respective containers and place them in my little greenhouse off the dining room.  I'm hoping all the seeds will germinate into healthy, strong transplants for my spring garden. This will be the first time I've tried to plant a garden without buying transplants.

 

There is so much to be done.  Inside and outside.  My studio is a complete wreck.  I can't even begin to think about returning to painting before that declared disaster site is cleaned up.  Before that happens, the overflow from the pantry must be dealt with ... thanks to my canning projects that require the more sturdy shelving location.  The guest room is also a declared disaster because of the orthopaedic apparati (is that even a word?!) occupying the room ... most of which can be put in the garage, which in and of itself has it's own micro-chaos.  Not as bad as it was before my husband took advantage of my clumsiness on crutches and took over the much needed task of, shall I say 'attempting to organize' MY garage?  A very valiant attempt at that!  Add the dining room table where all my business records are scattered ... not to mention the back porch where gardening chaos reigns because I had the metal shelving on the porch relocated to the greenhouse for my seed starting.  Did I just come full circle?! 

I'm pacing myself.  This will take awhile!   I'm extending grace to myself. I'm venting using y'all as a therapeutic release!  And, BTW,

Terri! Terri! Quite Contrary!

How does your garden grow?

Well, It's a start!  Most of my gardening

will be containerized this year.  So many weeds

have germinated in my raised bed, I've decided

to sterilize it this season and hopefully plant

and harvest a fall crop of greens and peppers. We'll see!

So far, on the patio, we have three kinds of tomatoes:

Big Boy, Better Boy and Romas. 

Alongside are Sweet Banana Peppers,

A Bowl of Mesculan greens,

Basil, Rosemary and Blueberries.

Next week, I will get the others potted and growing:

Zucchini and Yellow Squash,

Red, Yellow and Green Bell Peppers.

and, if I can get my hands on some chives,

they will join the party!

Little Keller watering the Coreopsis and her feet!

In the side yard, we have another pot
of blueberries and a fig tree!

. . . and a gazillion little tiny fruits
on the Blood Orange Tree!!!

Happy Gardening!!!

I finally got the urge to work outside and begin somewhat of a garden.  I know I'm running a little behind.  For the most part I'm doing a back porch garden.  I think I'll tend to it better than I have in years past when everything was out in the side yard.  Time will tell.  My dear husband is gardening north of home at the camp:  corn, tomatoes, and I'm not sure what else he has there along with the abundance of fruit trees.


I planted the below items this week......in containers on the back porch.  Along with a blueberry bush and a variety of lettuces.  My sweet granbaby girl helped water everything and then kissed the blooms on the tomato plant! I'm sure we'll have a bumper crop this year!!

Sweet Banana Peppers for stuffing!!!

Better Boy Tomatoes

Rosemary, of course!

Basil! For Marguerita Pizza!!

I also have an 8' x8' raised bed in the side yard.  I don't know what I'm gonna put out there.  Thinking about squash and zuchini and bell peppers.  We'll see.  Previous plantings haven't done so well cause of the watering situation, so I've gotta figure out a plan cause the sprinkler system doesn't seem to give it a deep enough watering.  We'll see how it goes!!!

Of course, my "crop" area won't look as good as my virtual farm did!  It was, however, fun while it lasted!!  There were no weeds!  That was a good thing!!!

Lettuce Pray . . .

The raised bed garden is full of weeds from the summer so I decided to do some back porch gardening this fall. The only thing that interested me was the lettuces. I brought home Butter-crunch, Romaine and that old standby, Iceberg. Hope to get some spinach too. I also adopted a new rosemary since my transplanted monster rosemary didn't survive. This one can graduate up from pot to pot on my back porch. Isn't that where they are supposed to thrive anyway? At the back door? I went to the garden center looking for crotons for a huge golden yellow pot my husband bought this summer for his container garden, which was the overflow from the raised bed. I found a pretty potted mum too which I thought would go well with the bright colored pot and crotons. I think it all came together nicely and brightens up the porch. I already miss my big mosaic pot but this punch of color is a pretty good substitute for now! All that's left is to pray the Gardening Angels whisper "Grow! Grow!".
Except for the Hibiscus and Spirea, the back yard is barren of flowers and flowering shrubs after ripping everything out this past summer. We lost so many plants to a mysterious disease. All the Knock-Out Roses and the Indian Hawthorne died. The vegetable garden didn't thrive either. That was the first disappointing harvest we've ever had. I think we will sterilize the bed over the fall/winter by putting a tarp over it and letting the sun heat it up. I'll have to read up on that process again and get it started this upcoming weekend. Tony asked me to pick up a Farmer's Almanac. Maybe next spring we will plant on time!

I need to spend some time updating my garden journal. It's stuffed with seed packets and plant identification pokies and ideas. What? What's a pokie? You know! Those little white things the nursery pokes down into the plant to let you know what it is and where to plant it!

Happy Fall gardening!