The Inadvertent Farmer

KinderGARDENs Winners

I've spent the last couple of days going over our series and your wonderful posts.  I am amazed by the tenacity of we gardeners!

We've had unprecedented drought, tornadoes, hurricanes, and rains that lasted until August...this season was a hard gardening season.

Yet we still grew morning glory houses, popcorn mazes, oodles of veggies, and tons of smiles!

In spite of all of our weather woes we spent times with our kids and helped to teach them the importance of fresh from the garden foods grown by their own hands.

So due to all of this I just could not pick a winner this year...

(And our scheduled judge was unavailable)

We are all winners!

So I just ordered enough copies of 'Trowel and Error' and 'Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars' for everyone!  So if you linked up last week with a post highlighting what you did during our KinderGARDENs series you will get a copy of both books.

Email me at theinadvertentfarmerATgmail.com with your address for you books.

As for us we are still harvesting squash by the wheel barrow load, the corn is just trying to ripen, the blackberries are going crazy, and tomatoes...oh my goodness do we have tomatoes!

All the while I am planning and dreaming about next year, when the sun comes out again and we dance and play in our garden!

I will miss seeing your gardens every week, but look forward to next spring with you!

We're going to be doing a lot of projects here this winter, crafts with kids, painting of furniture, revealing of my new craft/sewing room, as well as new recipes galore so make sure you come visit often!

 

Drying Tomatoes, Dehydrating How To

We are simply being over run with tomatoes...and I mean that in the very best way!

I had so many hopes of canning hundreds of pints of tomatoes but alas they all decided to ripen just when we are starting homeschool, soccer, and swimming lessons.  Not to mention all the harvesting going on elsewhere in the garden, corn, blackberries, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and more!

So I have decided to use to easy go-to methods of preserving tomatoes.

Freezing and Drying.  Today we're all about drying or dehydrating...

This can be done in warm areas outside in the warm sun under cheese cloth...unfortunately if I did this they would drown!

You can also dry tomatoes in the oven set at 200 degrees.  Either use a non-stick mat or spray cookie sheets so they will not stick.

But I'm going to use my dehydrator.

 

Start with fresh clean tomatoes...

 

Half or quarter (or smaller with BIG tomatoes) your tomatoes and place them skin side down on your oiled tray...

 

You can leave them perfectly naked or do what I do and season them lightly.  I use a custom made mix of sea salt, freshly ground pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.  This takes them from delicious to simply heavenly!

Italian seasoning would be great too as well as seasoning salt or any number of spices you love with tomatoes.

 

Dry them until they are leathery but no longer tacky or sticky to the touch.  This takes a minimum of 8 hours in my dehydrator and up to 2 days if they are really big pieces.

 

I just throw them in a freezer bag.  You can also preserve them in olive oil in the frig for up to three weeks but I have no time for this...none!

All winter I will add them to soups, rice dishes, and pizza...perfectly wonderful and perfectly easy...

Just the way I like it!

 

KinderGARDENS Wrap Up 2011

First of all I want to let you all know how much I have enjoyed touring your gardens this year.  Although we have survived torrential rains, blistering heat, and even hurricanes we have persevered.

I know some of our gardens did not live up to our expectations, but some passed them.  Either way our kids got to see the real life results of hard work and mother nature's whims!

So thanks to all of you who passed along in a very tangible way the love of gardening to the next generation...the world is a better place because of people like you!

So without further chit-chat from me...

Wait.

I forgot, I need to show you something!

This was a birthday gift from my sweet mom...yes as soon as the plum tomatoes are done where this is going to go, I will erect my very own greenhouse.  It will be 12 x 25' and I simply can't wait to be able to garden 12 months a year...yeah!

I'll be posting about this new project in upcoming weeks.

So again without any more talking,

Hold on just a moment...

I forgot to share this with you guys.  Remember how I always preach getting kids outside and into nature?  Well we did it in an unusual way lately...

We set up tables outside and with 12 little kids participating...we had a tie dye party!  Yes a whole girl's soccer team and one little brother got to tie dye their soccer uniforms.  Now this is my kind of garden party!

Like a rainbow came down and sat on one of my white pumpkins!

Ok now it really is your turn, link up your wrap up posts below...

 

 

If You Can't Beat Them... Photograph Them!

I have long given up on keeping weeds out of the 'lawn'.  This is mostly due to the fact that our lawn is just pasture grass we keep mowed down right around the house.

Even if we had a real lawn there is no way to keep the weed seeds from the fields that surround the property from blowing in and sprouting up in it...so we don't try.

So instead of worrying about dandelions I enjoy them for the photogenic nature.  This was taken at dawn on a morning that had quite a bit of dew.  The moisture made the seed heads less 'poofy' than usual, making it so you could see right down into the dark ball at the middle.

It is so easy to love a dandelion when you relax about your yard!

So don't freak out about weeds...photograph them!

Although I will admit it makes mowing a bit conflicted!

 

Whole Wheat Belgium Waffles with Blackberry Compote Recipe

I used to in my long ago past make Belgium waffles from a box mix.

Then I decided to try to give my family only (well mostly) real foods from scratch.

We have been without Belgium waffles for a few years now as I figured there could not be a good healthy recipe for those light sweet waffles we all loved so very much.

I was wrong!

I made these last Sunday and they were delectible!

Here is the Recipe (based on a recipe found here)

• 4 cups white whole wheat flour (I'm sure regular whole wheat would work too)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used evaporated cane juice)
• 6 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups milk (I used coconut)
• 6 eggs (or egg replacer if vegan)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (next time I'm trying all applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Add milk, eggs and oil to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined (don't overmix as you will develope the gluten and make for tough waffles)
3. Use approximately 2/3 cup of batter per waffle (depending on your iron size)
4. Bake on waffle iron as per manufacturers instructions.

Being careful not to overfill...ahem.

 

com·pote Noun/ˈkämpōt/

1. Fruit preserved or cooked in syrup.

2. A dish consisting of fruit salad or stewed fruit. 

Blackberry Compote Recipe

• 4 Cups fresh Blackberries (unsweetened, frozen could work too)
  
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Cook over low heat until very juicy and the berries are tender but no mushy.

I did not add any thickener to this as I wanted it to soak freely into the waffles, like this...

The combination of the sweet waffle with the tangy berries was divine...or so they all said!

 

At least I didn't have to scrape plates!

Next time you are wondering what to do for breakfast (lunch or dinner for that matter) give these yummy waffles a try...your family will adore you for it!