Gardening

I have always enjoyed gardening. Flowers, Fruit, Veggies... you name it. I have also always enjoyed cooking. I have put up apple butter and preserves in years past. The first year Chris and I were married, we dug out a plot in the backyard of our first house and planted lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and green beans. The rabbits got most of it... then Matthan came along and we moved... I haven't really done anything like it since.

I have kept a small plant of tomatoes from year to year and a few simple herbs. This year I added different herbs and two tomato plants on the deck but it is not the same when you keep all your plantings there and not in the yard. Yes, my flowers and plants are fabulous... but I desire to do more... to change our veggie intake to utilize the very local! I had thoughts of putting up "organic" baby food for Westley... of course it seems he is headed straight from rice cereal to table food! He really does not care for the jarred stuff (except peas!)... he only wants what we are having. He ate bean dip two nights ago and munched another plum this morning at breakfast!

I took the kids (dragging Tracie and her kids too) out to the local park and picked mulberries in June. That really got me started toward craving my own preserves. Then Chris and I took the kids to a local pick it farm and picked blackberries a few weeks ago... fabulous fruit and made some awesome cobblers. Not really enough fruit to can preserves too though. There used to be wild blackberry vines in Old St. Peters... but I think all that was destroyed by flooding and roads being built. sigh. I really dug picking free berries! There is something to all the sweet fruit you get from the simple work of reaching and picking!

So, it is almost time for me to make real the visions of my own garden, not just a Victory garden but a Freedom Garden... A place I can grow in my own organic style. Of course, we are waiting until we move... they won't allow a veggie garden in this subdivision... not that the deer or rabbits care (they'll eat any flowers or plants I put in!) Of course, once I learned about the Earth Box my interest in that is huge. Easier and more yield than traditional gardening.

In the meantime, I have been getting excited about the upcoming tomato "harvest"... I already have regular ripe cherry tomatoes, but I am growing pink heirlooms too. I have grandiose plans to put up the tomatoes and my special spaghetti sauce. Now I am thinking I would love to put up my own salsa too. I am thinking perhaps I should head over to the local farm or farmers market and pick up tomatoes for canning... so I can put up my own sauces really. We ate a fabulous tomato alfredo tonight that moved me into thinking perhaps I can put that up as well.

I know peaches are in season right now... but Chris doesn't care for them. Caitlyn would eat them canned in lite syrup if I put them up. I may as well look into it for all the money I spend on them at the supermarket!

I will keep you posted... in the meantime check out the new links I put up about farming!