ORANGE ZEST

I was thinking while eating an orange.... why not dehydrate the zest for later use. Ah ha, frugality at it's best. Here is the result. It looks so pretty in the old canning jar with the sun shining through it. I won't leave it on the window sill of course as the sun will cause it to deteriorate. I just did this for the picture and so you could see the other older canning jars next to it I have collected.

World War II Garden Poster

A Poster for our Times

World War II Garden Poster

Seedling Pots

Cheap Seedling Pots

Yesterday every moment I had to spare I made seedling pots. It's almost
"moon time" for planting and if, I don't get a move on I'm going to be late starting my seeds.

You probably know if you are going to start seeds indoors most plants require to be started at least 6 - 8 weeks ahead of your last frost date. For me here that's somewhere in late (to early) May. Depends on who you listen to or, what you read.

Anyway the pots were simple enough. I googled instructions off the net. I looked at any number of sites to see how it was done. Then devised my own way. I am using blank packing paper from shipping boxes, newspapers and lord knows what else I may use for these. A very great idea for reusing and recycling.

I had a problem finding a cylinder which was completely round and small enough. I tried a glass but, that ended up broken. Then I had that mess to clean up. Finally hit upon the idea of an old pill bottle. Works great and I can now fashion at least one seed pot in less than a minute. Sometimes two! Woo hoo! Another couple of days and I'll be worrying about germination time and waiting to see green little shoots appearing. Doing this makes me finally realize that yes, Spring is just around the corner.

Eggs, beautiful eggs.....

Eggs, beautiful eggs. Free range, organic. What's not to love?

I was searching online looking for a place which raised chickens. After viewing some awful videos on a TV program from England about the treatment of laying hens.... I should actually call it cruelty and abuse, I made the decision to NOT buy store eggs any longer and support such an industry. Hence the online search.

I found Angie from Heritage Harvest Farm and her blog. She and her family raise free range organic chickens and sell the eggs. (More on Heritage Harvest Farm later.) I contacted Angie about her eggs. I have contracted to buy a dozen eggs weekly from her. Best move I have made in recent weeks.

Look at the picture of those eggs. Gorgeous. The eggs are actually extra large in size. The yolks are a delicate orange yellow in colour. And, talk about taste. Wow.... are they ever good! Beats the store bought ones hands down.

Thanks Angie!

Seed catalogs

The seed catalogs are overflowing out of the mail box. These past two weeks, I have gotten such an assortment of them, I am driving myself nuts.

I really need to catalog the seeds in the deep freeze to see what needs ordering. Because the way things are going I am going to be spending my last dime on seeds and all sorts of gardening paraphernalia. My hands are just itching to get dirty.

Dirty.... can't wait! And, I am one of those crazy gardeners who doesn't wear gloves. During the growing season I have broken and grimy fingernails even though I scrub and scrub them.

Okay back to my daydreaming. Come on Spring!

More soup cause it's winter

Well winter is starting to wear on me. Till I look out the window and see a beautiful sunrise with the promise of Spring around the corner. Here's a picture looking out my back window early one morning last week. Got to admit... beautiful, eh?


Past two weeks this household has been sick with the flu. It was wonderful to be able to pull a jar off the shelves and have good home made soup without fuss. With that being said, I had to get myself in gear and start canning more. This time it was chicken with loads of garlic, carrots and onions. I'll add either barley, rice or, noodles when the time comes to reheat some. I can hardly wait to taste it.

About soup

Shown are the finished product of turkey broth making turned into turkey soup. Second pic shows the assembly line of filling the jars with assorted veggies prior to my adding the broth.
Small amount of liquid loss is not actually a loss. Reason for the liquid loss is I did use some dried veggies in the mix and believe it is why the level is lower. Also know this to be true because when I pulled the jars from the canner ( 12 hours before this pic was taken) when they were finished there was no liquid loss. Wish now I had taken pictures of them then. Darn it.
I just want to take a moment and say thanks to Claudia who gifted me with these liter Mason jars. "A big thank you Claudia!"
My DH says I should change the name of this blog to something along the line of .....
Saving seeds and onward. Why? It's because I have tried to do just that. I started saving seeds for the veggie garden a couple of years ago. Then once the garden has produced it's harvest, I take the harvest and can it. Then cook some mighty delicious meals (if I must say so myself) from what comes from canning stock pile.
Just a thought.