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You can eat fresh from the garden tomatoes out of hand, cook with them, dry them, freeze them, can them.
You can put them in salads, on pizza, you can make sauce, salsa, and ketchup from them...
But if you are really, really creative you can....
Learn to...
Balance a tomato...
On your face!
I love it when kids get creative in the garden!
So what is your favorite way to us garden fresh tomatoes?
Thanks for the patience...I am almost done with the apples. I went and picked 4 boxes of the very best sauce apples in the world! I am hoping for 20 quarts or so, but if the kids don't keep eating it so fast I might have much less!
Today I'm going to do something I have never done before. I am going to review a product that was sent to me this spring. I waited this long to make sure how well it would hold up to a real garden under real use of more than real kids!
At the end of a straw covered path is a little garden box...just past the potatoes, to the left of the sunflower maze. It is planted, thanks to Sweet Girl, with pink geraniums, yellow daisies and strawberries.
This bed if from Greedland Gardner. It 42" x 42", is made from recycled plastic and wood waste. I am not usually a fan of plastic due to the petro-chemicals used to make it. But with each of these beds 22 pounds of plastic and wood waste is saved from the landfall...right on!
The advantage of these beds is that they will not rot (like my wood beds are doing as we speak), the do not split or splinter either.
The are super easy to assemble due to the unique corners...
The side boards just slide into these.
Now I must say that if I was using this somewhere highly ornamental (which is no where on this farm) I would love to see some kind of nice caps for the corners to finish them off. For my purposes these are perfectly fine.
This box has been in the garden all season weathering rain, sun, escaped chickens and small children...it has come through with flying colors.
I liked it so much that I am giving one away to a lucky reader! Just leave a comment letting me know what you would plant in a garden bed like this one.
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There are also lots of other things happening in this week's KinderGARDEN!
We have butterflies galore...friendly ones that like to hang out on turquoise sweatshirts!
The sunflowers around the maze have grown gigantic!
We planted over 100 pre-sprouted seeds and only about 20 survived...but the ones that are here are simply stunning!
The cabbage family is growing in fun colors!
Dahlias are making their showy appearance...LOVE these! BTW, my un-gardener hubby planted these, rock on sweetie!
Blueberry season has just finished its peak and we have been eating, baking, preserving...and playing with blueberries! As you can see Sweet Girl was comparing daddy, mama, and baby blueberries.
If I could give anyone a tip to a great blueberry patch it is to plant early, mid, and late season blueberries...we have a season that extends almost 3 months!
So did you go out at dawn and take photos? I can't wait to see them!
I'll leave the link-up up until Wednesday night at 10pm...now I'm off to finish applesauce!
I got an unexpected call early this morning from a friend who has a large tree of yellow transparent apples that were more than ready to pick...if you know anything about old apples you know that this type makes about the best applesauce ever! I could not pass up the opportunity for free amazingly delicious apples.
So after a morning of picking I am now chained to the stove and canner making applesauce because in this heat they will never last!
Meet this year's applesauce!
I will post KinderGARDENS on Monday with a great giveaway and review of a new product.
Until then...
Carry on!
YUM!
Up onto a fence post closer to the brilliant blue sky that is! Speaking of daisies...
This just arrived as a large canvas, my first ever photo into canvas...more on that later.
For now I'm just going to smell the daisies!
Wait...daisies stink!
But they sure make me happy!
Go out and do somthing that makes you happy...walk among the daisies! I dare you not to smile...
First let me update you on what's been going on around here:
New Donkeys, tomatoes ripening, new greenhouse, new bunny yard for the garden, zucchini taking over the world...you know the usual insanity!
But first before we get into this week's assignment let me show you the maze...
The sunflowers are way, way over the kids' heads now, which make for a jungle like path through the maze!
This is at sunset when all is quiet in the garden. The scarecrow did a bang up job keeping the birds out of the raspberries...great job Blue Man!
The morning glory tunnel did not work out...I must be the only person on the planet that cannot for the life of them grow morning glory. It is considered a weed in many parts of the country! Next year I'm going to try hops!
Now for this week's assignment:
Your Garden at Dawn (or Dusk)
There is no more magical time in the garden than just as the sun is coming up or going down. This week I would love to see you share pics of your garden (and kiddos if they are up!) at sunrise or sunset...
The light just cannot be any better than it is first thing in the morning!
You might even catch a sunflare or two!
Or a critter or two...even the cutest of creatures are somehow turned magical at dawn!
Some are more magical than others...ahem.
So set your alarm clocks for early one morning this week and see what you can capture...I promise you will not be sorry.
And the coffee is on me!
*****
Next Week: I am reviewing a raised bed garden system and one lucky reader will get to have one of there very own!
Carry on...
Let's see here, what have I learned about donkeys in the short time I have been their friend...
First of all donkeys are very social. Everywhere I go on the farm I can turn around and see this trio following close behind.
Donkeys are silly! They stand at the fence making all kinds of faces and silly noises trying to get my attention... and get me to give them a treat!
Reminds me of someone else...
Miss you big guy...sniff.
Speaking of treats...a donkey will follow you to the end of the earth for a hotdog bun!
Whole wheat of course!
They also like to be brushed, scratched and talked to.
They love to chase alpacas and harass llamas and hee haw just for fun!
And finally...they make really, really good farm ornaments!
I can't wait to see what else I learn about these wonderful creatures over the upcoming months and years.
Yep...I'm talkin' about you, sweet funny face!
We're home again and frankly I'm jumping for joy!
So please excuse me while I go play in the garden and pet the donkeys!
What about you? Are you anxious to get home at the end of vacation or could you stay gone...long gone?
If I were totally honest I pretty much would never leave home...but being a team player and all, I travel once in a while. But for me there is no place like home!
I found a little bit of wi-fi floating around in the air here at the motel. So while we are doing this...
Water Park Moses Lake Washington
And eating this...
Beginnings of blueberry cherry ice cream
And hanging out here...
Top of Chinook Pass next to Mt. Rainier
Yours will be the only garden updates this week...rock on KinderGARDENERS!
Welcome to our little Tuesday get together here at the farm.
Its called Summer's Simple Things.
This is the day we share the simple things we have been doing for fun this summer. Those things that require no batteries, remote controls, or electrical outlets.
Just good old fashioned summer fun!
Today is one of my kids' favorite simple things of summer...
Yummy homemade popsicles...or fruit pops as we call them. I made 40 of them at a time for the breast cancer fundraiser last week. As the weather turned a little chilly not many were eaten. The brownies and peanut butter cookies on the other hand were devoured!
That means my kids have had the difficult task of eating them for me....ahhh poor babies!
I need the freezer room for freezer jam so I have been pushing fruitpops for breakfast lunch and dinner...yep that's the kind of mom I am.
Now you can either make these in plastic popsicle forms or as I did in paper cups. Even I don't have 40 forms on hand!
My first flavor (and my favorite) is Orange Mango Strawberry Banana. Start with a small bottle of organic orange mango juice. Put it in the blender with a peeled, cored mango.
Add strawberries...
And finally a banana.
Whir it up. You can leave little chunks or make it perfectly smooth...which is what I did.
Pour it into little paper cups. Since I made these for a grownup party I used 5oz cups. For kids you might want to go with a smaller cup.
Put them on a cookie sheet.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap.
Insert a craft/popsicle stick into the mixture. (if you have really tough plastic you will have to make a tiny slit first to start it, trust me this helps tremendously!)
Pop them in the freezer till solid.
Peel off the cup to eat. If it is hard to peel let it sit for a few minutes to soften or if you are in a really big hurry run it under warm water.
Sweet Girl and I liked the Mangosicles!
Baby Boy preferred the Blueberry Pops.
Apple juice, blueberries, banana, and a touch of vanilla
Ya, its a tough job but somebody's got to eat all those leftover frozen treats!
This is the scene I found when I walked around the corner of our house onto the side patio.
Baby boy along with his trusty motorcycle were hanging out by the pool.
Hey baby, watcha' doing?
Playing.
What's with the boots?
Me don't want my feet to get dirty.
So you're wearing your boots while playing in the swimming pool?
They not boots...they my muck boots.
OK...you're wearing your muck boots while playing in the pool?
Yep.
And where are your pants?
Don't know...
The conversion seems complete, we've now officially gone from regular people...
To farm folk...
To complete hicks.
Baby did you know that wearing muck boots and just your underwear makes you a baby hick?
Huhhh?
Never mind...carry on.
*****
What makes it funny that he's wearing boots to avoid getting dirty is that just a couple of hours before he looked like this...
As you can see he avoids getting dirty at all times!
So what about you?
Hick or city slicker...Country Folk or Town Folk?
Life is like a tomato...
Sometimes it is red and warm and perfect from the garden...until...
Until you turn it over and realize that a slug has eaten a hole in it and left slime in the crack...I for one hate slime in the crack!
As with life there is nothing to be done but to eat around the bad stuff and enjoy it to its fullest anyway!
So here is to he very first (non-cherry) tomato of the season, imperfect but delicious none-the-less
Kinda like Life!
Only a girl would pick a caterpillar off of a tansy flower and come inside to make it a home that includes a pink bed for the tiny thing to take a nap on!
And yes we did return it to its brothers and sisters on the tansy!
*****
We are leaving on vacation today so unless I run across some internet floating around, only Monday's and Thursday's KinderGARDENS posts will be new...the rest will be reruns. But not to worry I will pick some good ones!
I love animals and thoroughly enjoy having them here on the farm. Yesterday we were lucky enough to have 3 donkeys join our little funny farm.
Yet something unexpected happened last night as I was sitting on a chair in the middle of the pasture getting to know them...
I was smitten. They are such curious and gentle creatures. They were slightly cautious at first, but I bribed them into coming to me.
After they realized I brought apples they were as friendly as could be...yes the way to an animals heart is certainly through its stomach!
Meet Jackson...he the daddy donkey (Danni he has been gelded since siring his daughter!) he is just a few years old and is beautiful! He is curious and friendly, we are hoping to get him used to the kids sitting on his back.
This is Jennifer...she is the mama donkey. She is 10 years old and is the most friendly of the bunch. She is calm and sweet and the kids can already ride her while I lead. She is also trying to wean a 1 year old daughter...ahhh I feel your pain sweet girl, been there and soooo done that!
This is Elska...she is 1 year old and is the most hesitant of the group. She is a tad nervous about us but she is lovely and I'm quite sure we can win her over.
I must say I am completely in love with these three and am going to have to discipline myself to get my outside chores done instead of hanging out with them all day!
But we also have other fun things going on around here...
Every morning the kids go out to the blueberry patch to gather berries for breakfast.
Yesterday Sweet Girl decided to make a mud pancake to go with her blueberries...yummm!
We've got spiders on sunflowers...
As well as daisies!
The honey bees are doing what honey bees do...working non-stop!
We on the other hand take the time to relax and share a bowl of homemade vanilla coconut ice cream (recipe next week)...ohhh it is delicious! This is a weekly ritual for hubby and the kids.
Speaking of food...
Did you all notice that we have now given 42.5 pounds of food in our Grow to Give program...yeah!
I know as the season goes on that number will grow substantially! Just remember to involve the kids in the giving. Explain to them about hunger and want, let them learn to reach outside themselves to care and give.
That is our week, how about you? How is your KinderGARDEN growing?
Look who just pulled up!
Here is a sneek peek at some of the cuteness that you will see here tomorrow!
Who knew donkeys liked dust baths as much as camels???
Now I'm off to find a few certain someones some apples...
"Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?"
~ Mary Oliver
I ran across this quote yesterday at Soule Mama's place...a blog which I adore! As summer is into its second half this quotation hit me...hard.
First I cannot believe that it is August...of the year 2011 no less.
Secondly I want a recount...there has got to be a mistake, somone sped up time when I wasn't looking!
Time seems to go so much faster than it did when I was a kid, faster than when I was first married, even faster than it did in my thirties. With each decade time's passage seems to be swifter and swifter.
Has it been this way since the beginning of time? Do all humans ponder the fact that summer used to stretch on almost forever and then suddenly it is gone in a blink of an eye?
After much thought there are a few reasons I think this phenomenon happens...I won't bore you with most of them but the one that really applies to me is...
Busyness.
When you are a kid you have little to do but to play, read, explore and do a few chores...time seems to flow at a slow easy pace with summer stretching out a lifetime.
Fast forward to young adulthood. You become more busy with work and/or school but without a big household to take care of, time still is under control.
Full blown adulthood! You have a passel of kids, a house to run, a job to go to, a garden to tend...laundry, dishes, groceries, bills. Not to mention any volunteer work and church. There are school supplies to buy, toilets to scrub, and animals to feed. Let's not forget the kids that need attention and the husband/wife that needs lovin'! Add that all up and there is not enough hours in the day to do them all properly.
Since there are not enough hours, those precious few seem to scream by at an alarming pace...before you know it you are dead and you never did get everything done!
So here is the conclusion I have come up with...
I can slow time down by clearing some things off my plate.
If we could go back to the simple summers of our childhood I think we could recharge and learn to slow down I don't mean completely ignore our responsibilities but really do we need to be so busy?
You know as well as I do we don't!
So here is my motto for August...
Slow down and savor the last few moments of summer.
Make it good to the very last drop!
Afterall we are not guaranteed another...
Happy August all! I hope this is the very best August of your life!
Once again I am here to advocate for your local pollinators...
Bees LOVE Borage!
Love, love LOVE it...seriously crazy about the stuff!
It freely reseeds (yet is easy to pull)
It is a lovely blue color...
I know I preach the benefite of borage at least once a year... but I really truly adore the stuff.
So will your bees!
But be forwarned...it gets BIG
About 3 - 4 feet tall and about that big around!
Big bushes with bold blue star like flowers!
