As much as I don't want it to, the end of the Summer is here. Long lazy mornings have been replaced by 6:30AM wake up calls and a race to the door before the bus gets here. Late nights watching our favorite shows or movies have been over by showers and early bedtimes. Getting back on schedule is never fun or easy, but it is something we have to prepare for nonetheless. ...
Gardening
10 Recipes for Fresh Strawberries!
Strawberries are the signal that Summer is nearly here. Sweet and juicy with a brilliant red color, strawberries are at their peak in May and June. My family has been celebrating the strawberry for as long as I can remember. Strawberries have woven their way into our mealtimes for generations. This springtime berry is much anticipated in and we use them as much as we can during ...
The 5 Best Seed Companies for Southern Gardens
The arrival of seed catalogs in the mailbox is the first sign of Spring in my book. They usually begin to arrive at the beginning of the year and I love nothing more than curling up with a hot cup of coffee, an ink pin, and some lofty goals for the new year's garden. While I am certainly not a master gardener, I do love to tend my little plot of land every year. Each year's ...
Horseradish Dill Deviled Eggs
A few weeks ago I was looking back through some old posts and came across one about what I hoped to have one day (and stuffed artichokes which by the way are delicious and I should totally make this again soon). The very first line of that post is: "My dream is to one day move out of suburbia and back into the country. I would like to have a few acres of land for the kids ...
Garden Fresh Chow Chow
I love love love to can. If I loved cleaning as much as I love canning, my house would sparkle. It would look like all of those pictures on Pinterest where everything is neat and organized with cute little labels. So far, the only thing in the house with cute little labels is all of m canning projects. My new favorite canning project is this chow-chow. It's ...
Country Garden Update!
Unlike exercising or laundry, I always find time to garden. I love it and this year has been especially rewarding so far. I put just about everything in the ground over a month ago and thankfully most of it survived the late frost in mid-April. Now, the garden is really starting to crank up. The squash and zucchini are beginning to pump out tasty little fruits and the tomato ...
Gardening on the Cheap: Let’s get growing!
Here it is, the end of February, and the time to start seriously getting ready to garden is upon us. At least in the South. You folks up North may have another couple weeks. This year is going to be a challenging and, hopefully, exciting year in the garden. The biggest reason for that is that instead of just two cute 4x8 raised beds... I'll also be starting a much bigger ( ...
Gardening on the Cheap
This seems like an odd time of year to start talking about gardening, but anyone will tell you that I am not known for great timing. Timing aside though, now is actually a great time to think about gardening. Gardening for next year. This past Summer's garden was a success for us. Out of my two little 4x8 beds, I got enough veggies to help keep my grocery bill manageable. Not ...
Homemade Cucumber Relish
Thity-three quarts of green beans, 9 quarts of tomtoes, 7 pints, black eye peas, 8 pints of cucumber relish, 7 pints of kosher dill pickles and 2 gallons of sauerkraut fermenting in my utility room.Our stockpile shelves that have very sparse since we moved are now busting at the seams. I have been on a canning bender. I think I may have a "problem" because I just can't ...
Country Garden Update and Cilantro Lime Grilled Chicken Salad
So 3 weeks of rain was followed by 5 days of searing heat, then... more rain. All of this wishy washy weather has been reeking havoc upon our allergies but the garden doesn't seem to mind much. Especially the broccoli and lettuce. We have been eating off of those plants for the last week or so. Especially the lettuce. I have certainly been adding more fiber in my diet. The ...
Garden in the Country Update
I am quite proud of myself. It has been nearly a month since I started gardening and I have managed to keep everything alive. Hooray for me! One month down 6 more months to go. The first bed is flourishing. The strawberries are doing well, and we have already picked a couple ripe ones.. The broccoli and cabbage are chugging right along as well as the lettuce. Every thing seems ...
A new found respect.
Gardening is all the rage these days. Everyone wants to plant some plants and dig in the dirt and harvest bucket loads of fresh veggies to feast off of all summer long and there are plenty of people out there who are successful at it. Really, anyone can be successful at it, but there is something all of those books and blogs and magazine articles don't tell you. Gardening is ...
How to Make Homemade Strawberry Jam
I have a lot of childhood memories related to strawberry jam. My parents owned a business that involved suppling lots of factories with nuts and bolts and stuff. For Christmas, my mother and I would give all the workers a basket full of cookies, candies and strawberry preserves. They had lots of customers and during the summer, we made LOTS of preserves. 20-30 cases I think. We ...