Gardening

Gardening...

I think gardening is in all our blood, starting back with the big garden that Mom & Dad had on the farm. We talked about the strawberry bed, always a large strawberry bed.  There was asparagus, later on.  There were also the wild blueberry plants, not called blueberries, tho.  What?   And also ground cherries, that grew in the little husks.  Both of these fruits need sugar.  These both just came up, we did not plant them.  A huge sweet potato plant one year, long rows of green beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, the list goes on. Oh, and don't forget the mulberry trees in the shelterbelt.  Canned for winter, rhubarb and mulberry sauce, what a treat!

So the five of us, Mom and Dad's children, had gardens or trees or plants in our homes and yards, always.  Now our children are growing gardens the same way, even as they live in the cities....maybe a small garden, flowers or trees or houseplants.  And if we are one of the ones who do not have anything growing this year, we still dream and remember the big garden on the farm, and the satisfaction and pleasure that comes from the soil through the work of one's hands.         

Hot Peppers

Very windy and hot in SD today.  At 5 PM, it was 98 degrees.  Taking out what little moisture we had left.

I dried hot peppers today.   I have red jalapeno peppers, they are about 2 ½ inches long and green habanera peppers, fatter and about 3 ¼ inches.  The peppers are in a raised bed with some onions, and are really dry now.  It was hard to keep this bed moist, as it is not very deep.

One of the jalapeno peppers, dried, equals a scant teaspoon.  I have used some in cooking, and one is a great plenty for our taste buds.

I did get a little smarter this week when doing this, tho.  I used rubber gloves when cutting and handling the little buggers.

Last week after I cut and filled the dehydrator, my fingers were hot and tingled all day and into the next.

Every time the next week when I licked my fingers for some reason or other, they still were giving off hot vibes.

Don’t lick your fingers, you say.  You might be surprised just how often a person does that.

Pepper aficionados  out there, which are hotter---habanera or jalapeno, or are their many things that would make the heat…moisture, variety, etc?  I got both of these from a greenhouse this spring.

Anyway, I will think of this hot South Dakota summer this winter when cooking with my hot peppers.

My Life

This AM, June 8th, I spent a little time in the garden, planting a red rhubarb that my daughter got for me, and putting some fertilizer on the pumpkins and squash, since the soil they are in is not the most fertile.  Grandson Alex wants to to get a gigantic pumpkin from one of his plants.
It is a cool morning, and when I was finished, (well, one is never finished when you have a garden) I got a cup of coffee and sat on the bench I have in the garden.  I thought, how lucky I am, to sit here, without mosquitoes this AM, and listen to the various bird songs, to observe the trees and nature around me.  My garden has panel gates around the perimeter to keep out the deer, so I imagine myself in a safe haven, a wall God's angels have around me as I meditate.
 Is this a foretaste of the Biblical prediction when every man shall sit under his own tree in peace?  I ponder and pray for this world, the wars, the destruction, the children being abused, hungry, oppressed people, ones who are battling cancer.  I prayed for a time when every man shall have his "own tree"  You cannot know the solace and comfort just sitting like I was until you have the opportunity in your life as I have now.
I reluctantly left my garden bench to tackle all the chores waiting for me, at the same time thanking God for my life at this time, and the many blessings He has given me.
I hope anyone reading this today can find a haven for a few minutes to be thankful for the good things in their life.

Pumpkins

Fun with pumpkins!  We picked our Big Max pumpkins, that got no care except for the rains we had this season.  We had 3 that were 50#, others that ran close to that size.  We put some on the front step, Alex and his Dad took some to their house. I painted faces on them, we brought in a big round bale and some cornstalks, and arranged a display near our well traveled road.

Next year, hmmm.  I heard suggestions to use some Miracle Grow, and to scratch a name on the fruit when it was small and watch it grow.  Any other ideas?

Apples and Tomatoes

Yesterday I took care of the ripe tomatoes.  I still have them trickling in, a few at a time.  Some vines, for some reason have not frosted yet, but they only have small ones left on them.   Just cooked up a big pan, sieved them, and stuck them in the freezer.  Will taste good this winter, as I use tomatoes in a lot of dishes, mmm, chili, rice or macaroni dishes, stews, soups.  I also had a 5 gallon pail of apples.  They are a variety of Red Delicious, and wind blew every last one of them off the tree.  (It was a small crop this year!)  The deer stop and munch every day on their trek thru the yard, too.  I put the good ones in the frig, and the rest I ran thru the peeler, doused them with a little sugar and cinnamon mixture and put them in the dehydrator.  Really made the house smell good.  They are ready this AM to be jarred up.

Beet Pickles

Harvest from the garden--a row of ruby red beets.  They were all sizes, in a raised bed, so the watering on them was inconsistent.  I cooked, peeled, and then cut them up.  I made a brine of 2C vinegar, 2C water, 2C sugar, added a couple of cinnamon sticks, a dozen cloves, 2 small onions and 2 t. allspice, cooked for 10 minutes or so and jarred them up.  I did not process them, so put in 3 tight lidded quart jars in the refrigerator.  Beets are not my favorite vegetable, altho we have eaten several meals of buttered beets.  However, they are good for your body, so even with the sugar on them, they should make a good addition to a winter meal.