Looking back at the garden

Stephanie at Keeper of the Home (a very neat blog by the way) is hosting an Organic Gardening Carnival. The idea is to share how you garden went this year. What worked and what didn't and what we want to do next year.

This is something I have been thinking about anyway so I thought it would be fun to post about it as well.

We have a large garden by most peoples standards (If you compare it to my parents it is quite small!) and we try to fill it up. This year I planted in good time (What is thought to be the correct time for our zone 3 but ended up being a bit early) but then our summer got very busy and the garden was a bit neglected. There were disappointments but all in all God truly blessed and we were able to eat lots of good organic food all summer and we still are from what we have put up.

At one end up our garden (in the fence that keeps the deer from eating everything) we have a couple little apples trees (they aren't producing yet), strawberries, little northern blueberry bushes, perennial herbs the compost bin and this year I added 5 raspberry bushes and a grape vine. We also have a some perennial flowers and some room where we plant other herbs and flowers.

In the main part of the garden I planted this year:

• Lots of corn! I wanted to a bunch but I planted at the normal time (memorial day) but this year it was a bit early and it got cold again after that and so germination was pretty poor. A couple weeks later I did some replanting but still ended up having some germination problems. We did still get quite a bit of corn. We ate a lot fresh and froze some.
• Tomatoes (around 40 plants). The plants were all started either by my, my dad or a friend. I wasn't very careful about keeping them labeled (so it was a surprise when each of them produced) I would like to keep a bit better records next year. We had tomatoes earlier than most people I knew (we had an extremely cool summer) but never ended up getting a lot. I only canned a little salsa and one canner full of regular tomatoes. The tomatoes were very weedy, I think next year I might try to use black plastic around them.
• Lettuce (a wide row about 10 feet long). We were able to eat a lot of lettuce (and I enjoyed all the salads) but couldn't keep up with it. Next year I want to plant less but then plant a little more every few weeks. I liked our leaf lettuce better than the romaine that we tried this year.
• Carrots. We planted a wide row about 10 ft. long. They did good for the most part even though I was neglectful in the weeding. We enjoyed eating them throughout the summer and then when we dug them up we had a nice amount and we still have some. The kids loved pulling them too, which made them enjoy eating them as well.
• Beans. These did horribly. Much of the seed never germinated and what did grew super slow! But in the end it didn't really matter. My family is not really enjoying the home canned beans anyway and they don't like frozen beans. We did enjoy a few meals of fresh beans. They also like canned beans from the store and have liked my canned beans in the past just not these last few years. SO... Next year I either just plant enough to eat fresh or I find a variety that will not get wide and stringy or yellow.
• Cucumbers. These were very slow growers. But I did end up getting a few. Next summer will hopefully be warmer and I will probably plant the same amount again. Maybe more so I can try making pickles.
• Zucchini. I planted 2 and that seemed just about right.
  
• Peppers. (hot and sweet) I planted around 10. They actually did better than normal (peppers do not do well for me- anybody have any advice?) and I was able to have some to cook with and make salsa with. I think that would be a fine amount if I could get them to be more productive. Maybe I will look for a different variety. I would like to have enough that I could freeze a bunch of chopped up green pepper.
• Broccoli. I planted around 8 plants. We got some but they didn't form very big heads. I need to study up on that. They didn't get worms though so that was nice!
• Cabbage. I had 3 plants and they produced. This is my first success with cabbage so I was pleased.
• We also had various herbs (which I didn't use very well- I want to get better at that. ) and lots of flowers.

So that is what we did do, here are some of my dreams for next year:

• Carefully research and order seeds early. (Does anybody have any suggestions?)
• I think I will go ahead and plant tomatoes in black plastic. So far I have always used old carpet, newspapers and natural stuff for mulch but I am thinking maybe the black plastic would be better for keeping the weeds at bay and warming the soil.
• I also plan on planting less tomatoes but caring for them better.
• Add more Raspberry bushes.
• Get some BIG loads of manure from my parents farm. I have been hauling some over little by little but I want to really get a bunch!

There are probably other things but I can't think of them right now. I am excited about doing it again however. Even when it is discouraging there is something very neat about growing your own stuff!

Something that always brightens my day is seeing all my perennial flowers blooming. I think they are the way to go and hope to keep adding a few more each year.

What are your gardening plans for next year?

A Handmade Christmas!

First of all, Welcome to A Handmade Christmas!! I am so glad you are joining me. I am looking forward to sharing some ideas that I have, but am also very excited to see all of your ideas, so please jump in and share them with everybody!

This first gift idea that I am sharing I admit isn't a Christmas present here at our house -I recently made it and gave it to my son Aaron for his birthday. But since it would be a lovely Christmas gift as well and because we had such fun making it and he has really loved it I thought I would share it. I will try to explain how I made it so that if you want, you can make one too. I am not going to go into every detail (as that would make a very long post!) but if you are trying to make it and have any questions please ask- I will be glad to help if I can.

What we made was a busy book which we called "All year with Aaron". We had fun coming up with 2 different page sets for each season. Here is a tour of the book:


The first things you open up to is "Dress a Snowman" page. In my stash of fabric I had some with a winter skiing scene so I decided it would be perfect to use for this page. I sewed a white snowman on the page, drawing the face on with permanent marker and gluing on a orange felt nose. I used a portion of a wooden skewer to put through his middle to make arms. Other than that he is plain. All his accessories go in the pocket on the other side. The mittens (we made 3 different sets) have a slit in them so they can by stuck on the stick.

We also can up with a little rhyme:
"In winter Aaron likes to play
Out in the snow all day." (I don't plan on becoming a poet anytime soon but Aaron liked the rhymes anyway!)
The next page is a Tic-Tac-Toe game board. I made the board by sewing nine 3" squares together. Mara cut out X's and O's. I sewed a pocket on the other side to hold them.

Our rhyme says: "When it gets to cold to be out in the snow,
Aaron comes inside to play Tic-Tac-Toe."
This first Spring one we had a lot of fun with. We made a felt/wool tree and dog house and then we made felt finger puppets to fit in them. (At the bottom of this post are patterns you can use.) To make the finger puppets you cut out 2 pieces of the base color and sew them together, leaving the bottom open to put your finger in. Then I used hot glue to put the other pieces on and markers to add extra detail. We sewed a nest in the tree trunk "Y" that the bird can sit in. (We cut holes in the leaves so she could peak through (her name is Betty Bluebird), Sammy the squirrel can go in his hole in the tree and Spot the dog can slide in his doghouse.

Our rhyme is: "It's Spring!
Do you see the tree
where are the busy animals are peaking out at me?"

Next is the garden page. I cut out two strips of brown wool and sewed them on. on one side I hot glued Strawberry leaves, a corn stalk and a flower stem and then I had a strawberry and flower that can be buttoned on and a corn cob that Velcros on. On the other side I cut flaps and on top I glued onion stalks, carrot leaves and a potato plant (I didn't make patterns for these because I think you can do a far better job on them than I did!), Then we also made potatoes, a carrot and an onion that can be put in the correct spot. At other times they can go in the pocket on the other side.
The rhyme says:
"We plant, and weed, and water and hoe.
And God will make our garden grow!"


Now for summer! We made a fishing page. Jonathan made a fishing pole using a chopstick, yarn and a washer. I made a pocket for it to fit in. On the other side I made wave pockets and in them we have felt fish with magnets on one side. (I wanted to sew a magnet in between two layers of felt but our magnets weren't strong enough for that. ) Mara also decided to make a boot with a magnet on it too, just for fun!

The rhyme says:
"In Summer I go to the lake and wish.
Oh I hope I get a fish!"


Our next page is a soccer maze. I drew it on with permanent marker and then sewed nets on both ends (from a veggie bag). Mara made little felt soccer players that were glued on in dead end locations. The soccer ball we cut out of a piece of fleece but you could easily make it from felt. Since the background was dark I sewed a sun and cloud on to write the rhyme on.

The rhyme says:
We kick, we run, we score as we play.
We love playing soccer on this warm sunny day."
For Autumn I made a page with a pocket (the house and garage) for a toy car to go in and a pocket (the cloud) for a little place to go in. I also sewed on a felt road for the car and added a tree for detail.

The rhyme says:
"In Autumn Aaron loves to go!
Sometimes fast and sometimes slow."
The last page is full of activity stuff. I have a pocket that pens can fit in and another one that we put a scissors in (at this point I wish I would have put flaps on the top pockets and I might still do that. The bottom pocket can hold stickers and stuff on the left hand side and on the right I sewed dividers just the size (3/4 inch) to fit crayons. That is very nice for holding the crayons secure.
The rhyme says:
"Writing and cutting and coloring are fun.
We can do it a lot before Fall is done."
To make it the book I made the pages 11" x 17" (so each page was 8 1/2" by 11"). It worked good to have the two sides all one piece but if you want to have different colors on each side then cut it out 9" x 11" and then sew them together. You can refer to the above pictures to put everything on and then...

You want to sew the pages together. To do that I started with the right hand side of the snowman pages and pinned that half together with the left hand side (right sides together) of the Tic-Tac-Toe pages. Then turn it right side out and continue doing the same thing throughout the book until all pages are together but with no cover.


At that point it will look somewhat like this. Try to make sure all your pages are even and straight and then hand stitch them together.
Cut out a cover make it 11" x 18 1/2 ". Put a title patch on it if you like. You could decorate it a bunch more than I did. Then turn and iron the edges under 1/2 inch. Sew it down in the middle where the spine will be. Then turn and iron the edges on both the front and back pages too. Pin them together and while you are doing it stick a ribbon handle in on the middle of both sides. Sew them together.
Here are some patterns that you can click on and then print out:





Let me know if you try this. I would loved to see you finished product! (Also feel free to ask questions.) Some of my inspiration for this book came from here.

Now it is your turn!
Here is how:

• Write a post at your blog telling about a handmade gift, decoration, recipe or anything you are doing for the holidays that is handmade. (please make sure it is family friendly)
• In your post please put a link to A Handmade Christmas (or just my blog is fine).
• Then bring the link to your post over here (your actual post - not just a link to your blog) and add it to the MckLinky!
• Tell all your friends and encourage them to join us.

And as a special treat for those who add their links I will draw one of the names and send them a set of 8 gift tags to go on the gifts that they have made. This drawing will close on Saturday at noon.

Christmas Our style {and don't forget that A Handmade Christmas starts tomorrow!}

I love special occasions like holidays, birthdays, weddings, etc. It is so fun to decorate, make things special and maybe even dress up. I also enjoy gifts, giving them and, yes, getting them. It is fun to see them all wrapped up pretty to know the excitement that a gift brings.

But that said there are things I don't like about what I mentioned above. I don't like feeling overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to get just the right thing while staying within our budget, I don't like getting something that I know somebody spent good money on and I don't even know if I will ever use it, I don't like to see children all focused on writing lists of what they want and not ever thinking about others, I don't like commercialism, I don't like the idea of going into debt simply over a holiday and I don't like all the waste - the buying of things that we don't really need, quite likely with money that we don't have.

So when Ken and I discussed how we would celebrate Christmas in our home those topics of course came up. We wanted to make sure that we did not incorporate the things I didn't like into our holiday. So what worked for us was to come up with some rules:

This is what has worked Beautifully for us {I repeat- for us- each family can come up with what best works for them.}

• Christmas gift exchange is done only within our small family, that doesn't mean that was haven't given gifts to others or received them from others but we do not participate in any gift exchange. When we give to others it is without any thought that we will get anything in return and we have never started any sort of exchange with extended family either.


• We each have a Christmas stocking and all gifts are required to fit inside. That is just the way we have chosen to limit gifts. It doesn't necessarily limit the expense as you can find small expensive things -but we have kept our spending very reasonable. Family members have to work together to make sure that each of their presents will fit in each persons stocking.
• This isn't a rule but just what we do- most of the gifts are handmade. I made most of the kid's gifts which are given from Ken and I. The kids make all of their gifts which they give to each other and to Ken and I. We have fun for at least the month before Christmas sharing ideas, working together, having little secrets which the others don't mind being excluded from because they know it means something special for them. Pretty nearly all our handmade stuff is made with things that we already have on hand (we do a lot of repurposing around here - you know like "trash to treasure") which makes them basically free.
• We do not buy a Christmas tree but decorate simply with natural things that we can find in the woods, and other things that we have around the house. One Christmas splurge we do enjoy is lights. Ken has collected lights every year when they go on clearance and he puts up a pretty nice display now.

I am sure most people might find our style very sparse but we love it! The kids get very excited about Christmas and absolutely love making things to give. They also very much enjoy the presents they get. Last year I believe it was Mara who commented "I don't know which is more fun, getting presents or giving them."

During the Christmas we also enjoy having company over for a big meal. Last year we had a pretty big group with extended family and various others who didn't have anywhere else to go for the holiday. We have fun decorating for that and preparing our home cooked food. Usually we spend a lot of time playing games and visiting too.

If you are interested in (or quite likely already working on!) making handmade gifts for Christmas too ~ I want to invite you to come back here tomorrow for the beginning of "A Handmade Christmas". I will be sharing handmade gift ideas, decorating, etc. and will have a McLinky up so you can link up your posts of Handmade things as well! Please join me! (There is a giveaway planned for those who link

up too!)

This post is Linked to We are THAT family for Works for Me Wednesday. Kristen has a theme today and that is what works for you during the Holidays. I am sure there will be a lot of interesting posts full of lots of neat ideas.

Making Kimchee and Sauerkraut

A big project I got to be a part of lately was making Kimchee (or kimchi) and Sauerkraut with my parents. They have done it for several years but this was the first time that I had helped them. I was more interested in it this year after reading in "Nourishing Traditions" on how good fermented food (and she mentions these) is for you.

I took some notes and thought I would share the process with you! So here we go....

First you need some cabbage. My parents grew lots of them and they were huge and beautiful! For Kraut the normal hard cabbage works good, for Kimchee you want Napa cabbage. You want to take off the outer leaves and then cut out the heart (you don't want to use it).

Then we cut them up into chunks that would fit into my food processor and I used that to get them all grated. The food processor was quite nice to get it all done fast but in the past Mom and Dad have just cut everything up finely with a knife and it worked just fine. For the Kraut we used the grating side ( which made it pretty fine) and for the Kimchee we used the slicer which made it a bit courser.

We were making a pretty big batch but you could easily make just a third or less of these recipes. Here are the actual ingredients and amounts:

Kimchee

30 lbs sliced up Napa cabbage

2 cups fresh or frozen chopped up Hot Pepper

1 cup fresh ginger (chopped up)

1 1/2 cups garlic (chopped up)

1 1/2 cups salt

3/4 cup sugar

The food processor worked good for cutting up the garlic, ginger and peppers too.

Sauerkraut

for every 10 lbs of shredded cabbage (we had 30 lbs) add:

1/2 cup salt

1/8 cup sugar

Dad used 5 gallon buckets (which he has collected from restaurant- they get food in them) to mix the stuff in. He would carefully weigh 10 lbs of Cabbage in each bucket and then mix in the other ingredients in. In the case of the kimchee he mixed all the other ingredients together in a bowl first and then put a third of that mixture into each bucket of cabbage.

After each bucket with its 10 lbs of cabbage was mixed with its other ingredients then Dad (and in the picture above Aaron got to try it out too) would use a wooden tamper he had made and just push down on everything, over and over again until the juices started to come out.

After the juice got so it covered up the cabbage in the bucket then we would add more from the other buckets to it and start tamping again. In the end we were able to get all 3 buckets worth of cabbage into one bucket. This process is the same for both the Kimchee and the Kraut.

The process is almost over now....

At this point Dad took a circle of plastic he had made that just fits inside the bucket and he laid that on top of the Kimchee and the Kraut. Then he put a big heavy rock on top of the plastic circle. When I first saw the rocks, Mom was scrubbing them very carefully and I wasn't quite sure why she found the need to scrub rocks but since I found out they were part of the process it made sense.

Now it needs to ferment. For Kraut: You want to keep it somewhere that temperatures are between 60-75 degrees. If it goes over 75 degrees the cabbage will get to soft and if it is below 60 degrees it may not ferment like it is supposed to. You can keep it here from 3-6 weeks (the higher the temperature the less time and if it is closer to 60 degrees you may need more time) After this it can be kept in the fridge or canned but my guess is that when it gets canned it probably loses a lot of the health benefits.

For Kimchee you can do basically the same as above but around 1 week should be sufficient before transferring to refrigerator or root cellar temperature.

I brought some home in jars (skipping the sitting in a bucket with the weight step) and just left it tightly closed, sitting on my counter for a few days and now it is the fridge. I was reading that you can make your whole batch in a jar if you like using just one cabbage and tamping it down with a pounder or a meat hammer or whatever you have that would work.

Kimchee is an interesting food item but it kind off grows on you. I have been enjoying putting it on bland things like mashed potatoes.

Now I am curious... have you ever made Sauerkraut or Kimchee? Have you tried them? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. If you try it, please report back and let me know how it works for you!

This is linked to: Do It Yourself Day at "A soft place to land"

Abundance

O give thanks to the Lord,

for He is good;

for His loving kindness is everlasting.

1 Chronicles 16:34

God abundantly blesses! Here is a little bitty tiny example:

Thank-you God for......

89. Homeschooling. I feel so blessed to be able to spend each and every day having fun learning with my children.

90. Books. There are so many neat ones to enjoy. I have found some lovely ones lately.

91. Abundance of food. I cleaned the defrosted the freezer and organized it this past week and was just overwhelmed with how much good, natural and organic food we have been able to stock away. God is so Good!

92. 1/2 a steer. Grass fed, hormone free, local. I am so thankful that God provides for us so well.
93. Overhearing my children having fun having their Geckos act out Bible Stories. It is so fun to hear how well they remember and grasp them.

94. Questions. I used to struggle with this at times when Mara would fire questions at me a mile a minute and I felt a bit overwhelmed. She has slowed down a bit but she and Aaron (those 2 especially) still love to ask questions. They are especially full of questions when we read the Bible. I love the discussions that we end up having.

95. Sunrises. I love seeing sunrises and sunsets. They leave me standing in awe of our great Creator every time!

96. God's versatility in decorating. One day we will be enjoying pretty fall leaves, then gorgeous sunrises and then beautiful white snow. This Fall has been interesting and it has been FUN!

97. Humor in places I don't suspect. I don't think you can read the picture very well but on Sunday my parents brought my a bunch of Goatburger that they had packaged up for us. My little sister and friends had labeled it and they were all interesting, things like "Spider legs", "Squashed earth worms", "Boogers", "Belly button lint" and so forth. It made me laugh.

98. Smiles, Creativity and fun. I love watching my kids have fun!

99.Prayer. Oh I am so thankful to have a God that I can talk to personally, who cares about everything that bothers me, makes me sad and just anything and everything. He is always there and I can pour out my heart to him while driving down the road, standing in the shower, washing dishes, just anywhere!

100. Not having to be afraid about anything because I have a God who cares far more for me (and my family....and you and your family....and....) than any sparrow that falls, than anything. He knows how many hairs I have on my head. He knows me better than I know myself.

Do not fear

"And do not fear those who kill the body,
but are unable to kill the soul;

but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?

And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

But the very hairs of your head are numbered.

Therefore do not fear;

you are of more value than many sparrows."

Matthew 10:28-31

This is such a comfort verse for me. It is one I have often hung up around where I live. I specifically remember having it hanging up when I was in college and facing new situations in my life. The kids and I have been reading through Matthew together and we recently read this verse and I stopped so we could talk about it. I want them to always remember that no matter what happens to them in life, we don't have to fear, God is watching over us and cares so much for us.

What we do need to fear (and therefore stay away from ) is that our soul would die eternally. We have a God that does not want any to perish but He has also asked for us to follow and obey Him. That is what I want to do and I don't want to allow myself to get distracted by anything in this world that could cause me to spend eternity in hell.

Not being afraid isn't the same as being careless but it does allow us to do whatever needs to be done and lets us have peace of mind. We don't have to worry because we have a God who knows, and sees and can do anything!!

Thinking about those verse also reminded me of this song: