Trying New Things

How is it August already?! I am not ready for summer to be winding down. I realize that I may be in the minority, but I dread the start of school. I love having my kids home during the day. Not to mention this year I have my first senior!!! How did THAT happen?!?! It seems like just last year we were stressing over kindergarten school supplies…and now she’s going to be graduating?! This year is going to be full of new things with having a senior and all that goes along with that (senior pictures, cap and gown, graduation invitations, graduation party…..STOP!!!) I don’t need to think of all that today. But, this week we did try some new things here on the homestead. Let me fill you in.

We have continued to be blessed by our green bean plants, and were able to get another good sized picking. This time, I wanted to try out my new pressure canner. I have pressure canned beans before, but this canner allows me to do more than 4 pints at a time, compared to my mini pressure canner/cooker. Now, I had to read my manual about 4 times to make sure that I was assured of what I was doing, but I still had to “phone a friend” to make sure that what I was doing was right. Her reassurance was GREATLY appreciated! When all was said and done, I found out that I REALLY like this canner, and all the jars sealed. SUCCESS!!!

My last blog post I shared pictures of my abundance of fresh herbs growing. I decided that, if I wanted to make the best of what I had, I needed to do something with them. I did some research, and thanks to DirtFarmerJay, I was able to dry a large amount of our fresh basil. He had a great video showing how to step-by-step, oven dry basil. Now my goal is to be able to grow as much as he does!

I took the steps he showed for basil, and I also tried it with a LOT of fresh parsley. Much to my surprise, it took a LOT longer than the basil to dry out. It turned out great though, and I have the most fragrant, home-dried basil and parsley! It’s amazing how much more fragrant the herbs are when you dry them out yourself.

Canning vegetables and drying the herbs led me the a Bible verse found in Psalms: 21:20 “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but the foolish devours all he has.” Now, I’m NOT saying that I’m wise, but taking into account the times we are living in, even the Bible says that it is responsible to prepare for the unexpected. Having extra supplies on hand (extra food in your pantry), could mean the difference between feeding your family or going hungry. We are not hoarders of food, or preppers…but we are trying to be good stewards of the bounty that God has provided us.

Another first for me, is I’m trying “second-planting” of some of my other produce. I have always read that you could plant some plants/seeds several times in one season, but I have never actually tried it. This year is the year. I had about 4 rows in the garden that I had just been staring at since the decision to expand the garden. When watering the garden I would water the rows around them, and just stare at them not knowing what to do with them. I decided to try a second planting of sweet corn. My first round of corn was kinda depressing. The stalks are only about waist high, and the cobs are tiny, if there even is any on a stalk. So I’m trying again. Almost all of the seeds took, and they are growing nicely, so far. I also replanted lettuce and peas. I was disappointed in my first pea planting as well. We only got 2 pickings, but part of that is because we were on vacation and a couple chickens got to them before I did. The peas and the lettuce are coming up nicely as well! Wish I could say as much for a few of my other plants…but that’s for another post. I’m going to have to share that I’m not a perfect gardener, and sometimes things don’t go well. I’m not going to share failures/hard lessons in this post 🙂

Hope you all have a great week! Reader question for the week: What is your favorite canned vegetable (either from a store or home canned)? Just by the amount that my family goes through, I’d probably have to say green beans.

2 Replies to “Trying New Things”

  1. My favorite would have to be the April Burkhart canned green beans!!! Any one who has had them KNOWS the difference between those canned beans and store bought green beans! The flavor is exceptional !!!

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