Homemaker's Organizer Giveaway

I just had to share with you, who may not have seen this yet, that there is a giveaway going on for this incredible Homemaker's Organizer!

It could also be called a Homesteader's or Gardener's Organizer too because it contains some extremely helpful pages on garden layout, canning inventory, freezer inventory, harvest and preservation records etc.  

June on the Homestead

I don't know about where you are, but it has been HOT here.  Missouri hasn't seen 100° temps here in June since the 1950's.  We start early in the morning getting everything soaked down, critters fed and fully supplied with cold, fresh water and then hightail it into the house before noon if possible.  With temps like these though, the critters have to be checked on all afternoon to be sure none of them are suffering from the heat.  Yesterday we even put fans on the chickens it was so bad, not sure what the humidity was, but it was high.

Here are some odds and ends of what we attended to this morning:

Grape Tomatoes

Cucumber and Green Bean Patch

(Straight Eight and Dasher Cucumbers and Strike Green Beans)

Jalapenos

Thai Peppers

(Cute little plants, but I'm not sure what to use them for)

Orange Bell Peppers

Tabasco Peppers

(Not quite sure what I'll do with these either)

Winter Onions

(Walking Onions)

Zucchini

(Planted late in hopes of missing the squash bug cycle)

Roma Tomato Patch

(Two dozen plants left to grow willy nilly)

Kale for juicing!

One can never have too many Hollyhocks...

Our mystery melon...

(Any produce last year that wasn't consumed or preserved went to the chickens.  This spring I was delighted to find all kinds of mystery plants where our chicken tractor happened to be last fall.)

Big Beef Tomatoes

(Covered in Diatomaceous Earth for the Aphids)

This is your red flag.  Here is a perfect example of what to look for before the leaves on your tomatoes begin to disappear.  This is hornworm droppings.  If you watch carefully, you can spot this on your leaves and remove the worms before they devour your plant in two days.  Believe me, it doesn't take long at all!  Once you spot this, get down on your knees and look at the underneath of the leaves just above the droppings.  The big green worms should be easy to find!

See, there he is.  He was on the leaf just above his droppings.  (See the Aphids? Not as easy to get rid of as the worms.)  Feed these big, juicy worms to your chickens and they will love you for life.  Whatever you do, catch the worms early!

And last but not least, here is a fella that has never had his picture taken before:

This is our daughter's beloved rabbit, Pippen.  Her grandfather and her constructed this handy dandy pen for him which includes a back and sides that can be closed up or let down depending on the weather.  She absolutely fell in love with him at the pet store.  They told her he was a dwarf bunny and she spent $30 of her own money on him.  We soon discovered how clueless the local pet store people are when he grew into an almost full size rabbit that she could've gotten from our neighbors for $5.  Lesson learned but either way, she loves him and that's what counts.

I hope you are managing to stay cool today!  If you have any suggestions what I can do with those hot Thai peppers....please let me know!!

Preserving Blueberries

Glorious Blueberries!!

Not only are Blueberries totally delicious, they are extremely healthy too.  Blueberries are known to have the highest antioxidant of all fresh fruit.  They are full of Anthocyanin, Vitamin C, B Complex, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, Copper, Selenium, Zinc, and Iron.  In case you need more convincing, see the Top 10 Health Benefits of Blueberries on the Women's Fitness site.

Strawberry Preserves

REST

That is one of the best little words my weary mind and body can eagerly comprehend, especially at this time of year.  It seems after months of planning, preparing and planting the garden, I look ahead into the hot and sticky summer months and realize I've only just begun.

This week has been full of not only an abundance of garden work, but lots of work in the kitchen too.  We are just about done washing, hulling and preserving over twenty quarts of beautiful, luscious, juicy red strawberries.  

Is your mouth watering yet?

We have gone a bit strawberry crazy!

Trying to figure out what to do with all the strawberries even after making strawberry preserves and flash freezing several gallons, we turned to the ever trusty Pinterest for ideas.

First we made the strawberry preserves.

Spring on the Homestead

Spring came early for us this year.  Sometimes it just seems early because of all the work involved, but this year, it just plain came early.  Every time I turned around, there was something I was behind on.  Ever feel that way?  

Growing Potatoes in Bags

Over the past several years, we have tried growing potatoes here in the Ozarks without much success.  Oh, we would get some potatoes, but they have never done very well.  If you know anything about the Ozarks, you well know what a pain it is to grow anything in this red clay.  This year, we are trying something completely different (for us).  I realize that this method has been out there for awhile, but it never occurred to me to actually try it.  Old habits die hard.

Life On the Farm in March

Do you remember the our warm weather in January that led me to some winter planting by planting tomatoes in the milk jugs?  Well here they are ready to transplant.  Looks like I have my work cut out for me!  

Seed Germination in Three Days

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Success !!

In my last post, I walked you through our sure-fire way of germinating seeds.  Here are the initial results.  

The heirloom Mortgage Lifters and the Early Girls are some of the very first to germinate in three days!  Several others have popped their heads out too.

You can see they have already stretched their necks up for light, so these little fella's will head out to the greenhouse where they can get the proper light they need.  

I understand that they need at least 12 hours of light to continue to grow.  Have you heard that from anywhere?  I know that our chickens require 12 hours of light to lay their eggs through the winter and that truly works wonders.  

I wonder if it's the same for these little plants to keep growing .....

For all of the instructions on our soil-less mixture and the steps we take to guarantee success with seed germination, please follow this LINK.  

Please remember, seed germination will depend on how good your seeds are most of all.

Our Sure Fire Germination Process

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This was our front yard one week ago today.  Many of you may remember how antsy I got with our warm January weather, which led to this ...

As you can see, they are acting like perfect little greenhouses!  Since our weather has been up and down the charts though, the seeds have not germinated yet.  They will pretty soon I'm sure, and I believe they will be stronger plants too.  However ... I am needing to get some seeds started now so I turned to our sure fire method that I learned last year which is to use our egg incubator.  It is excellent for regulating the perfect germinating temperature for seeds.  It should've been done before now, but I've been so caught up in sewing, that I have put it off until now.  

Discovering the Power of Green

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I'm hooked on juicing!  There, I've said it.  

This coming from someone who has avoided green vegetables like the plague all of her life.  My main four food groups consisted of cheese, any kind of pizza, sugared anything and pasta.  Believe me, it shows too.  

Garden Bag and Heirloom Seed Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. 

Congratulations to the winner Mrs. Lewis from A Godly Homemaker, chosen from Random.org.

Thank you, THANK YOU for all of your entries!  

It has been so much fun to visit everyone's wonderful blogs and discover several new favorites!  Everyone has so many wonderful things to share and teach, I'm so inspired!  

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Isn't this bag adorable?!  

Bakersville Pioneer Village and Seed Store

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The end of January almost always brings around a visit to our local Baker Creek Pioneer Village and Seed Store.  Whispers of warm air have been stirring our thoughts of planning the garden.  I say whispers.....it has been over 60° several times this month, so what else is there to do but to make sure we have all the seeds we need.

Planting in Winter

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Here it is, the end of the first full week in January and I have been looking forward to being elbows deep in our sewing projects, but instead, it seems that the weather has turned my attention back to the fast approaching growing season.

We can not believe how many beautiful days we are having in January!  The warmest day last week was about 65°, turning my mind to mailing out the seed order.  The thermometer in the greenhouse was reading 80° and my fingers were itching to play in the dirt.

Sowing Winter Seed

Above:  Winter Sowing 101

When I sow seed, I usually begin in February by incubating the seed and then moving them out to the greenhouse once they've germinated.  This regular routine of mine has bugged me ALL summer and now that harvest has passed, it has bugged me even more.  How do I begin this process earlier?  I don't want to be transplanting them for the first time into individual pots when it is time to be transplanting them into the ground, but my greenhouse isn't heated (yet) and the winter days are too cold before the middle of February.

Fresh Garden Macaroni Salad

Nothing says summer like a freshly made macaroni salad!  

It's easy to modify if you prefer one vegetable over another or maybe you just like to add in a fresh herb or two.  Our family recipe is one that changes depending on what is available in the garden that day, but here is the basics of it for you:

August on the Homestead

Life has been so busy that I frequently have to get out early in the morning to enjoy the peaceful dawn as the world wakes and also to be able to enjoy God's miracle of creation right in our very own yard.

The butterflies have covered the Anise Hyssop and Butterfly bushes this year, so much so that they seem

Fresh Garden Veggies for Dinner

Fresh picked sweet corn, there's nothing that says summer more!  We can make a meal out of just sweet corn and we practically did last night except for the fact that we had so many other fresh vegetables to use that we more or less over did it at the dinner table!  There has been a blessing of zucchini, crookneck squash, and sweet peppers......so for the first time this year I put them together in a stir fry.  Delicious!!

When you've made all the Zucchini Bread you care to make,

Making Blackberry Jam

Making blackberry jam, or any jam, is about the easiest canning project there is.  

Todays Homestead.....

The Promise of Spring

 

This is what we woke up to!  We started our tomato and pepper seeds in an egg incubator......exactly seven days later.......they sprouted!  Tomato and pepper seeds need between 75 and 85 degrees to sprout and I've never been able to get them to sprout this early before, so I'm very excited.