Onions - things I never knew before

Reblogged from organic urban farm girl:

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu...
Many of the farmers and their families had contracted it and many died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then).

Read more… 774 more words

Everyone should read this.

Dad Gave us Some Celosia (cockscomb) Seeds

He brought the cut flowers over during the summer and we saved the seeds. I had never seen this flower before. My jaw dropped, I am in love! Just look at them:

I got this photo from Everlasting’s By Diana. Ours are the burgundy flowers. They looked like a crushed velvet section of a brain. Seriously! I can’t wait until we can plant them.

To learn more about Celosia (there are several types) you can check out The Flower Expert.

I Received a Wonderful Gift!

I received a wonderful gift from another Word Press blogger last week. Jimmy Cracked Corn sent me a package of rare (heirloom) Cabin Tomatoes. He is on a mission to keep this variety alive and well.

I am so grateful that he sent me this and will do my best to grow and save these seeds. I hope to pass our seeds on to several other gardeners we know. We will try our best to keep this going and keep tabs on them. 

He even made his own packages!

Thanks, Jimmy! We’ll keep you posted.

Been Busy!

What a day! Come home from work. Meat is cooking, go out pick beans, husband picks peppers, leave the tomatoes! Clean beans, steam them, get dinner ready. Eat, have coffee. Sweep floors, tidy up, do dishes, charge batteries, take some pictures. Wash peppers, cut , clean, flash freeze them. Sweep up seeds. More coffee. Do more dishes. Post on both blogs.

Next…run bath, have bath, do laundry, then pray I am not too tired to start a new craft project! Should pick ripe tomatoes but forget it…I am soooo over fresh tomatoes!  LOL!

Oh, our last surviving pumpkin is no longer on the vine. I could cry. Will I ever succeed in growing them? Next year this will be top on the list. I will grow BIG pumpkins!

Just look at that tiny little thing! 

On a lighter note, I did make a tomato sauce last week for our spinach filled fresh pasta. It was so good. I just made it up myself and wrote down what I did. I’ll post the recipe later.

But look…

I made that!

Happy gardening!

It was good too!

The World’s Smallest Watermelon and Other Things!

This watermelon fell off the vine. It was a tasty little thing though. We only had three. The other one is toast. All our hope for one decent sized melon rests with the one in the greenhouse.

I read about people taking the seeds out when they freeze tomatoes for sauces. Oops! I didn’t. I will be making a real sauce with herbs and such with the next few batches. I have bags of this and beans in the freezer.

My husband wanted sliced tomatoes for brushetta/omelets in the winter.

More and more chilli peppers everyday! That is from one plant.

Finally getting some cherry tomatoes from a plant that grew back from last year.

A red pepper. We are hoping they start turning now. Wait until I take photos of our pepper plants. I don’t know what I will do with them all.

Last but not least, we recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and I made the tasty little chocolate/peanut butter chip cheesecakes. I changed it up a bit from the recipe. It’s from a cookbook I have. Are we allowed to share recipes from a cookbook? Or is there some copyright issues with doing that? I’d love to share it because they were so good!

Edit: (I forgot to add the picture before I pushed the publish button)

I turned 41 since I last posted. So I am older and wiser this week.  Or maybe not…

Happy gardening!

Seed Packet Templates

Reblogged from Clover and Thyme:

I've been dabbling in seed saving this year. So far, I have harvested cilantro and two types of heirloom tomato seeds. If you're like me, after putting forth the effort to save the seeds, you want somewhere pretty to put them, especially if you plan to give them as a gift.

As a little gift for my readers, I've designed both decorated and blank seed packet templates for you to download and use for your seeds.

Read more… 59 more words

Had to share these lovely templates from Becky at Clover and Thyme. Thanks, Becky!

Veggies in the Raw!

I am running out of clever titles.

Some of our latest goodies:

We have bags of frozen beans and there are still plenty more to come! We have also been able to share a few bags too!

You win some, you lose some:

Not a problem. We have given over fifty away. Have loads in the house waiting to become various sauces. And there are still an abundance in the garden.

Peppers. We have so many. Too many!

New Life in the Flower Garden

I picked up that clay pot at the end of a driveway next to where I was working last week! There was a hole at the back but the broken piece was set inside. Lucky me! 

This lily is 8 1/2 inches across! What a beauty!

Happy Gardening!

Oh, Say Can You See…

I can! I can see our tomatoes turning. It feels like Christmas. My heart is full of joy!

Our cucumber plant didn’t croak. There are two:

Still don’t know where these came from but they are doing great!

There is a website devoted to Chili Peppers called The Chili Man. It has a huge data base, seed exchange and probably everything else you ever wanted to know about them.

A sunflower decided to grow in the middle of our tomatoes. A lovely addition:

We thought a raccoon was at our tomatoes but when I went out last night I saw a skunk! Are they in season? I wish!

Happy Gardening!

Beans!

We had rain yesterday. For all of five minutes. It came fast and furious, tore the netting from our tent gazebo. Oh well, you get what you pay for! Next year we will build a proper one. Those things are made too cheap!

On a good note: We have beans!

We ended up giving a bunch of green tomatoes to some people on the corner. She loves fried green tomatoes and ours just won’t ripen! I think it has been too hot and they have just shut down. That or Mother Nature is playing games on me, knowing how much I have been craving them. 

Happy Gardening!