Uh-Oh vs. The Strawberry Snacker

After performing his afternoon perimeter check, Uh-Oh reported that something was amuck in the strawberry patch.

Something or someone, he said, is eating our berries.

Some hooligan bird or other small critter has invaded our berry bed and has been secretly snacking on our juicy berries.

The ones under the leaves are safe...for now...

Uh-Oh's honor has been insulted...how dare those critters!!!!

Hell hath no fury like a black cat scorned...

Watch out, birds...

It's on.

 ;)

I'm such a busy little bee!

I really feel like Ma Ingalls now!!

I've "put up" 6 pints of stewed tomatoes and 14 pints of peach freezer jam!!

This is the very first time I've ever done something like this, and I swear I almost feel more sense of accomplishment than when I finally finished my dissertation!

Thank goodness the garden bounty didn't take 8 years!!!

I've always been a little scared of the canning process.

Something about the whole botulism thing really gives me the creeps...

Go figure!

But, one of my really good friends who's like a big sister to me, and one of my bosses as well, told me there's really nothing to it and all would be well if I just followed a few simple rules.

The first thing I did was peel my tomatoes.

Now, I'll be honest.

This sounded like a horribly boring and tedious job to do.

But when you drop those babies into boiling water and that skin splits, you take them out and dunk them in ice water, that skin just slides right off.

Now, I love tomatoes.

I think I might have mentioned that before.

If not, you might have guessed it since I planted 25 tomato plants this summer.

The smell of these beauties as they are opened and cut into hunks is just absolutely fabulous!

 

I crushed mine pretty well because I know I will be using them in soups, spaghetti sauce, etc all winter.  I don't mind a big bite of tomato, but my kids will turn their nose up if the bites are too big. 

When I have to buy tomatoes, I usually buy the diced tomatoes.

Since this was my first batch, I simply added a little salt and pepper to taste and stewed for about 20 minutes.

 

I filled my jars and left a 1 inch space at the top.

Then I placed those jars into a bath of steaming, almost boiling water for about 10-15 minutes.

I turned the heat off then and just let the jars rest.

While those tomatoes were luxuriating in their sauna, I thought about all those peaches on my counter.

I remembered seeing a recipe for freezer jam from Sandy at The Reluctant Entertainer, and then she linked to a recipe for peach freezer jam from Christy at A Southern Plate.

What did I ever do without the blogging community???

I went on over and read through the simplest instructions imaginable...even for a beginner like me!

I smooshed my peaches with a potato smoosher.

I added 4 cups of sugar for every 3 cups of peaches...YOWZA!!

Mixed all that up and let the sugar and peaches intermingle.

Then I dissolved the jell stuff (I used Sure-Jell because that's what I remember my mama using).

I poured the Sure-Jell into the smooshed peaches and sugar...

poured the peach, sugar, jell mixture into the sterilized jars...

and

Wallah!!!

 

The crushed, stewed tomatoes are on the left and the peach freezer jam is on the right.

This was Monday night's work...

and this...was tonight...

I am exhausted.

But, it is that GOOD kind of exhaustion!

Can you believe that I still have more tomatoes??

and peaches??

Whoa Nelly!

A Bountiful Harvest

Does anybody remember when I was worried about my tomatoes?

What about the cucumbers and peppers?

Please take note of the eggplant sized cucumbers that hid themselves under the massive heap of cucumber leaves.

Oy!

I also picked peaches today from my dad's trees when I made another marathon trip to my alma mater...this time to pick up my firstborn from soccer camp.

This was my haul:

Jam anyone?  Peach cobbler? Peach Salsa? Peach Ice Cream?

With all the money I've been saving with couponing, I splurged and bought myself this little happy today....

because I will have to have a panic attack if any of this beautiful food goes to waste.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day ;)

It's official.

I've become Ma Ingalls :)

Garden Update - An Unwelcome Visitor

Every day my youngest and I start off by checking the garden.  I with my coffee in my hand and she in her pajamas :)

We check the tomatoes first and make sure that they are all standing up...remember, I forgot to pull those suckers off, so now each tomato plant (all 20 of them) looks like an octopus...arms and legs jutting out from every corner :)  Some of the tomatoes growing on these noodly arms are the size of large oranges or small grapefruit, so you can imagine the weight.  I do not want my beloved tomatoes to touch the ground, so I've had to work hard helping them back up each day...

Because of all the extra nurturing I've been providing my sweet tomatoes, I am that much more paranoid about some pesky critter (my neighbor's dog Henry) checking out my garden early in the mornings before we get outside...my best guess is that Henry takes a morning nap in the shade of my tomato jungle!  I'm making plans to surprise him one morning and chase him with a stick when he least expects it.

All of the tomato plants I repotted in order to save the ones in the bed have lived except for one.  I like to think this tomato died so that the rest could live :)  The tomato plants in the pots have to be watered more than the ones in the bed.  I think it has something to do with potting soil and being in pots, etc...so my youngest and I usually give them their last drink around dusk.  One day we found these two gang members:

Do you see them???

Do you see the two interlopers???

Do you think these pesky worms have any idea how hard I have worked in my garden?

Do you think these awful  brown speckled fellas have any idea how much I went through to save the very tomato plants they have chosen to squat on??

Do you think they even care??

This worm in particular tried to act all nonchalant like he was just rolling around whistling...not really up to anything...maybe even a new tomato plant inspector :/

Does he think I'm stupid????

At least Henry takes off running when he hears me coming!

This dude was soo arrogant!

At this point my youngest actually said, "Awww Mommy, he's kinda cute!"

WHAT??

Now, let me clear something up here.

I NEVER thought this worm was cute.

N.

E.

V.

E.

R.

As far as I'm concerned, worms are small snakes and you know how I feel about snakes.

But, it's hard to kill something when your 6 year old is standing there talking about how cute it is...

But then, Mr. Cocky Worm just couldn't get enough...

He thought he was in the clear...

He thought he was such a ladies' man...

And, then we caught him!!

Red Handed!

With his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak!

Can you believe this devil?????

Eating my tomato leaf as he smirks smiles for the camera!

Please take a good look at him because this was the last picture taken of him in his short life.

The moral of this story is...

Hell hath no fury like a woman and her 6 year old scorned!

and most importantly

Don't mess with my tomatoes...or you'll get smooshed!

Good News from the Garden

Sunday afternoon my youngest and I discovered something that lifted our spirits and made our hearts swell with pride...

We had 2 cucumbers that were ready to be picked!!!

Our first "harvest" :):)

Doesn't she look like a professional gardener?

She was very proud.

Those same cucumbers tasted delicious in tonight's salad!!!! 

Garden Boo Boo

Wah!!!

I messed up!

I tried to fix it!

But, I think I made it worse.

I love tomatoes.

Love them, love them, love them, love them.

I can eat them raw, no matter what size or variety, and there's no telling how much I used stewed, diced tomatoes in sauces or bases all year long.

As is true of my personality, when I like something, I tend to get crazy.

Or, as my kids would say, "Cray Cray" - (please please go see the MAD TV clip of Bon Qui Qui on YouTube and have a laugh on me).

I planted 25 tomato plants, people.

25.

Think about that for a moment.

25 tomato plants in a 4 ft. square raised garden bed.

The little plants fit nicely...I left plenty of room in between so they could stretch out their little limbs and still be comfortable.

All was well.

Until I left for Destin and was gone for 7 days.

When we returned, my tomato bed looked more like a JUNGLE.

My father said, "Did you not pull off the "suckers" at the bottom?

My mother said, "You're supposed to pull off the "suckers" at the bottom?

WHAT???

First of all, when my dad first mentioned "suckers," I thought he was talking about some kind of horrible worm. 

My youngest and I were traumatized by tomato worms on our first tomato crop a couple of years ago.

Tomato worms are big fat worms that have horns and look like the devil himself implanted them in your garden.

I still have nightmares.

Now, I know that both of my parents were talking about the little plant shoots at the bottom of the tomato plant that will weigh the plant down as they grow horizontally instead of vertically.  Sure enough, the "suckers" sprouted out and up and out and up and out and up...each "sucker" sprouted its own shoot, and then those shoots sprouted more.

The individual plants (when you can finally decipher which limb goes with which plant) each actually remind me of a grammar diagram. Do you remember those?
I'm sorry. I'm an English teacher.


The following photo is one example of the tomato plants I have laying on their sides instead of climbing the nice little green stakes the Head of My Household put in for me.

I was too busy thinking about the hundreds of tomatoes I was going to grow to be worried about growing a forest in my garden beds :(

Oy.

The Head of My Household said, "You mean both your parents told you to do the same thing and you STILL did it your way?"

It wasn't the first nor the last time I've been called hard-headed.

You'd think I'd learn.

My mom said, "you'll need to thin them out in order to save some of them."

WHAT??

Thin them out??

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I want them all!!!

(See what I mean?)
Gettin' crazy again.

If I had to thin the tomato plants, I decided I didn't have anything to lose in trying to repot the ones I chose to thin out.  I found an unused paint bucket in our garage, a couple of older pots, and bought several cheap garbage cans.

I pulled off those "suckers" (I don't know what you call them once they've become big giant limbs) before I repotted the thinned tomato plants.  I even drilled holes in the bottom of the garbage cans and the paint bucket so that the water could drain.

In the heat of the day my little repotted tomatoes look pretty sad.

They actually do perk up when they are not in the direct sun.

I lined them up next to the rails on my patio so they would have plenty of support...My mom says they're probably in "shock" and I should take extra care of them for a while.

Just what I need...a sick bay in my backyard.

It was 94 degrees today with at least 194% humidity in Southern Mississippi.

Even my pool water was 92 degrees.

My little tomatoes will need all the help they can get.

I'm just hardheaded enough to try to save them all...

 

Family Vacation Part 1

After working registration on Friday and a 2 hour meeting on the Friday afternoon before the Memorial Day holiday (who's idea was that, anyway??), I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get my family ready for our vacation in Destin. 

We were scheduled to leave by noon on Saturday, and I was determined not to lose my mind before we left.  I'm notorious for freaking out a little before I leave to so somewhere...I'm a little OCD about how I like to leave my house when we're going to be gone.  Certain things like dirty laundry and dishes in the sink or dishwasher can make me nuts. 

I wanted to stake my tomato plants before I left, but my Farm and Garden was out of stakes :(  I did not have time nor was I interested in going to Wally World to buy tomato stakes, so hopefully my tomato plants will be ok when I get back. My cucumbers are growing like crazy every day...it's almost as if you can SEE them growing

Our yellow pepper plants keep getting taller and have little buds on them...I'm not sure if the buds are new branches or actually the beginnings of a pepper.

My youngest's watermelons are beginning to spread out...I'm so glad we left them plenty of room to grow.  The last watermelons we grew were very small, but much of the reason was planting them too close together.  Vines have to have room.

I can't wait to see our plants when we get back home; I can only imagine how much they will have grown after not seeing them for 7 days!

New Birth

My youngest and I check our little garden beds every single day for signs of growth.

We've been doing this since the day after we planted.

Not sure what we thought we'd see that first day...but we looked anyway.

Sometimes we check on them twice a day :)

Yesterday we saw this

This cherry tomato is called a "Husky Red"...don'tcha just love that?

Makes me think of little kids clothes :)

I can just picture a little kid in his blue jeans with the elastic waistband...a tough kid...just a little bit bigger than the others.

Those are our little Husky Reds...the first yields of our entire garden beds. 

We were squealing as if someone had given birth to a real baby.

Thank goodness it wasn't me :)

This is what our tomato bed looks like...I may have overplanted, but I don't really even care.

I do have to get my tomato stakes in before we leave for Destin.

We had one good wind, and several of my beloved tomato plants were leaning to the side.

I've got to make sure they'll be ok while I'm away.

I'm actually very worried about leaving them.

Not worried enough to stay home.

But, worried just the same.

These are our cucumbers.

We left plenty of room in this box so that the vines could spread at will.

And, this box has our watermelons in the back with hopefully enough room to grow and spread their vines, yellow peppers on the front right corner, and one little strawberry plant on the front left corner.

(I've got to learn how to write directly on my photos like I've seen other bloggers do :)

Weary Travelers

I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Reading, savoring and thinking.

When I finish the book, I'll fully review it here, but it is impossible not to say anything about how Kingsolver's year of living solely on what her family could produce or buy locally has reinforced ideas I've been thinking about in some form or another for a long time.

One of these ideas is about our country's dependence on foreign oil...and how Americans seem to take everything we're given, suck it dry...then leave the skeletons behind...whether we're talking about farmland, oil, forests, oceans, etc...you name it; we are "Users" and "Consumers" in the worst sense of the words....without ever a thought to what we might do when those resources are gone.

Some of the ways that we waste resources are very stupid.

And many of them we do without ever realizing what we are perpetuating.

Take groceries, for example.

Even those of us who try to buy the best that we can to feed our families healthier meals don't realize how much gas and other fuels go into making sure we have those "healthier" products.

I bought these groceries the other day...these items are all items that I would normally buy in my own family's quest for better health. 

Please remember that I live in rural Mississippi...I do not live in the big city somewhere where fresh produce is difficult to find.

However, of everything I bought, only these few items were actually produced in my state.

 The chicken was manufactured in Laurel (10 min. from my home) and the bacon was manufactured in in Shannon (several hours from my home). 

The corn was wrapped at my local grocery which does try to make a habit of buying from local farmers, so I'm assuming it came from someone in my county or close, and the tomatoes came from Lucedale (an hour or so from my home).

While for many reasons these are not "perfect" foods, they are the best of what I bought in terms of how much fuel went into getting them here.

Then, I added in 3 other products that were manufactured and shipped from other Southern states. 

 The coffee is from Louisiana, the bread from Georgia and the blueberries from Florida.

Still not too bad...I can be in LA in 1 1/2 hrs, FL in 4 hours, and GA in about 6 hours.

 Unfortunately, though...my "fresh" bagged spinach and my tasty strawberries rode on some truck all the way from California.

 I've traveled to California no telling how many times in the last 2-3 years...I fly. 

My poor spinach and strawberries had to ride on a truck.

Here's where it gets confusing to me.

The climate that I live in is pretty well suited for growing.

Even out of season fruits and vegetables are available in area hothouses...

So, why am I buying strawberries from California????

The apples pictured in this photo are from Washington, and the Bleu Cheese is from Wisconsin.  I have no idea where the canteloupe, cucumber, broccoli, or milk came from because the only identifier on them was "USA." 

Oh, yeah thanks!

That narrows things down for me a lot.

I went ahead and fed my family these products even though I had no idea where they came from, who grew them, or what kind of pesticides, chemicals, or additives had been used in their production.

That's actually a pretty scary sentence.

 Probably the most confusing purchases of the day were these. 

Why in heaven's name did these world travelers show up in my Southern Mississippi grocery store?

The bananas are from Guatemala, the yellow pepper from Canada, the kiwis from Chile and the blackberries are from Mexico.

I grew up picking blackberries (that's how I found out I was allergic to redbugs, or chiggers as we call them in the South)

And, I have yellow peppers growing in MY garden.

Are you as confused as I am?

While I know that sometimes we have to have certain items shipped in, it seems silly for me to be buying items from Mexico that I can buy right here in my own town. 

If everybody did at least that...buy what they can locally instead of buying those same items shipped from faraway places, imagine how much gas/oil would be saved.

Imagine.

SSSSSSSSSummertime Visitors

When the Head of My Household and I moved into our house 5 years ago, we were able to buy a lot in our neighborhood that was a larger lot than most and one of the few lots that was not surrounded by other houses.  Our lot backs up to woods (formerly a horse pasture), and we purposely chose to keep most of the trees around our home.  I hate nothing more than to see a contractor come into an area and completely decimate all the natural plant habitat.  I have never and still to this day do not regret our decision to leave the trees and brush surrounding our home. 

Within sight from our front porch and higher ground in our backyard, we can see the lake that runs the length of our neighborhood. 

We purposely did not buy one of the lots actually ON the lake for a couple of really important reasons.

Reason #1: Price - lake lots are ridiculously expensive.

Reason #2: This frightening fella...

This dude's name is Water Mocassin.

Remember please that I am a Liberal Arts major and will do the very best that I can to explain biological matters with as much accuracy as is possible for me and in words that my book loving self can handle.  Thank you.

The most important thing about this snake is that he bites, and his bite is incredibly poisonous.  According to the Mississippi State University website, one person in Mississippi dies each year from this snake's bite.  However, most of the folks who are injured or killed by venemous snakes have tried in some way to either catch or kill the snake. 

In other words, they've lost their minds.

Water Moccasins are common in Mississippi and they love (as their name implies) semi-aquatic environments (um....like the lake in our neighborhood).

Now, you might as well call me Eve.

Cause I don't like snakes.

Never have...never will.

The Head of My Household, however, is not afraid of snakes.  Now, he's no dummy either...he doesn't try to catch them and he respects their boundaries.  He can, thank goodness, tell the poisonous from the non-poisonous ones.  He doesn't squeal and run when one is sighted in our vicinity.

And, most importantly, he doesn't feel nauseous at the simple idea that snakes are very possibly all around us.

That would be me.

Anyhoo...Water Moccassin dude visited my house Wednesday night. 

Oh

yes.

He

 did.

Uh-Oh and Beneigt took it upon themselves (as they have on several other snake occasions) to keep us safe from the interloper.

Lord, have mercy.

This past Wednesday night my neighbor came in from church and saw our cats chasing and swatting at something near the end of my driveway...of course it's been raining like crazy and the ditches are full of murky water.

Upon closer inspection and the realization of what was happening, my neighbor introduced Mr. Water Moccasin dude to the sharp end of his shovel.

He actually had to bury Mr. Water Moccassin so that Beneigt would leave him alone!!

My youngest grounded the cats from going outside "FOREVER!"

 

We were barely over Mr. Moccassin when Thursday after another pounding rain, my youngest and I were in the yard around the pool.  My youngest had walked over to the garden beds (yes, in her bare feet as most all Missisippi kids do).  I was standing by the diving board watching her.

I happened to look down in the grass maybe 2 feet in front of me and saw this:

I almost vomited right then and there.

This snake was

BETWEEN

me

and

MY

BABY

!!!!!!

I knew if I screamed "SNAKE!!!" that she would run straight for me.

She had already probably stepped right over the snake once unknowingly (Thank you, Lord)...I knew we wouldn't get that lucky again.

I suggested we check the pool skimmers (which she is fond of doing), and she walked diagonally toward the skimmers instead of the direction of the snake.  I took her by the arm and walked her all the way around the pool sidewalk, passing right by the skimmers, and up onto the deck where I could hold myself together no longer and started squealing, "SSSSSNNNNNNAAAAAAKKKKKEEEE!!!!"

My middle child came running to the door to see what in heaven's name was happening.

We stood up on the sides of the deck to see the snake without going anywhere near it.

It wasn't moving.

After several minutes of wondering what the heck was going on with this snake, and trying to find the Head of My Household, my middle child's friend who lives in our neighborhood who likes snakes, and calling my friend Missie who's husband is a biology major, the snake still hadn't moved. 

I began wondering if it was dead.  

My so-called BFF Missie said, "Take a picture of it and send it to me via Blackberry Message."

I told her she'd lost her mind.

I did, however, like a do-do bird, begin to slowly walk toward this snake with my Blackberry.

I stood as close as I could without getting sick and worked on the zoom of my BBerry camera.

My middle child was right behind me.

While I was zooming, Middle Child said, "Mama"

I looked up at Stranger Snake to notice that his upper body looked a little different than it had when we first saw him.

I said, "Did it move?"

Middle Child said, "It definitely looks different than it did a minute ago, Mama"

She barely got the word "Mama" out of her mouth when Stranger Snake sprinted (if snakes had legs) off into the woods like a 3 ft. Sidewinder.

Oh.

My.

Dear.

Lord.

I'm sure that the neighbors on the other side of the neighborhood wondered who was being axed to death at our house.

Together, my middle child, youngest child and I let out the most blood curdling screams you have every heard in your life as we knocked each other over to get into the house.

My baby was standing in the doorway like the smart child that she is...I don't even think she saw the snake slither away...but she decided if her sister and I were screaming, it was probably a good idea if she did too.

Once the Head of My Household came home, he sat us down and we looked through the criminal photo books of snakes to find our culprit.

According to the MSU snake identification website, our Stranger Snake was most likely a Black Masked Racer.  He is not poisonous, and he will even eat other snakes.  However, the website said "he will not hesistate to bite if he feels threatened or cannot flee."

I need to take my heart medicine now.

I do not like snakes...have I already said that??  But, the Head of My Household has taught me that the non-venemous snakes will actually keep the population of venemous snakes down.  We will have to worry less about Copperheads and Water Moccassins as long as there are enough natural enemies to eat them. If you can stand to look back at the snake pictures, notice that the Water Moccassin's head is diamond or triangle shaped while the Racer's head is not.  This is not a foolproof way of distinguishing poisonous snakes from non-poisonous ones, but it's a pretty good start.

You're not going to believe what happened on Friday.

Are you sure you can handle it?

I went to the grocery store and left the Head of My Household weed eating around the pool and my garden beds.  Even though the Stranger Snake was non-poisonous, the Head of My Household decided that we will keep the grass around the pool very short from now on.  At least that way we won't accidently step on anything that might bite us.

Guess what he found around my beloved garden beds?

Go ahead and guess.

Did you guess????

Now, this is a black Speckled KingSnake, and if there is a good snake, this is him.

The biggest snake we've every seen at our house was early early one morning and was a KingSnake.  

The Head of My Household actually played with him.

Oy!

Not with his hands, for heaven's sake...I already told you he's not a dummy!

Seems the Head of My Household disturbed King Snake's shady resting spot by weedeating all the tall thick grasses.  I like to think King Snake was hiding and waiting on the other snakes to try and come back in my yard again...so he could EAT them!! 

It's the only way I can make myself feel better...by making up some narrative with a sinister plot, good guy vs. bad guy.

Today there were no snake adventures at my house.

Thank you, Lord because 3 snakes in 3 days is about all I can handle for now.

I need time.

The girls and I went shopping, just in case.

We left the Head of My Household to wrangle the varmints...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Yesterday was the final day of class...WAHOO!!!!!!

My youngest and I went by the local Farm and Garden and FINALLY picked up some plants! 

 I know we're late...but late is better than never.

We bought enough tomatoes to take up one entire bed!

We are some serious tomato eaters at our house...we bought several different sizes and varieties and carefully stuck their little "signs," as they youngest called them, into the dirt next to the plants so that we could keep up with what is what.

It was 94 degrees at 3 p.m. in the afternoon Friday so I got to plant all of these by myself.  My youngest bailed on me quickly and joined her big sisters in the pool.

She did come back to help me when it was time to plant the cucumbers, squash, yellow bell peppers, watermelon and strawberries, thank goodness...bc I was pooped!!!

She cut the outside papers off of the little biodegradable pots.

Then, she tore off little bits of the bottoms so that the roots could easily find their way into the dirt.

Once the little plant was securely set in its hole, my youngest prepared to cover the plants with the dark dirt.  She knows the dark dirt is rich with nutrients and fertilizers that the plants need just like people need their healthy foods and vitamins.

She was very careful to make sure the dirt surrounded the plant...

She was also very careful not to "drown" the little plant with too much dirt.  It was fun to watch her be so careful with the little plants.

Like her oldest sister, this one is very particular with the way things are...she wants it to be right...she doesn't want it to be done half way.  Please notice the serious look of concentration on her face.

I haven't been able to find many yellow bell peppers in the grocery store lately...so I'm looking forward to these little babies growing up.

I hadn't planned on buying strawberries.

But, my youngest was determined.

Hopefully we planted them correctly enough that something will grow and she'll be able to experience seeing how her favorite berry comes into the world. :)

Again, the serious attention to detail :)

Please notice how dirty her swimming suit is getting :)

We may have planted this one a little deep...she was very concerned that the strawberry leaves were mostly under the dirt.  We'll cross our fingers and hope that the little plant will burst through the dirt as it grows.

Rest, little strawberries...and build up your strength to break through the dirt.

All three beds are planted.

We watered them...and then jumped into the swimming pool!