Category: Gardening

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100 Pounds of Tomatoes – Canned

Two years ago I had decided that I wanted to can enough tomato sauce to last our family for the year. Of course I decided to do this when it was winter and there were no fresh tomatoes to be found. So, I told myself that that would be my goal for the summer. Well, summer came and with it I was HUGE pregnant. It was also a drought. I made the wise choice to sit with my feet up instead of can any amount of tomatoes.

Fast forward to this summer. I am not pregnant, there is not a drought, and there is still the need…..so I made a small batch of tomato sauce to sort of get the hang of it. We have a farm share through a local farm and when we started getting lots of tomatoes I saved them. My test batch was a success. It was easy but time consuming.

I never actually weighed this bunch at all, but this amount of peeled and seeded tomatoes gave me only 4 half pints. I was then looking around trying to find something to do with all the skins, cores, and seeds (I really hate to have any waste) and I found that you can process them the same as the meaty part of the tomato. You may have to spend a few minutes pushing it all through a strainer but there is quite a bit of flesh left on the back of the skins. So, into a pot all that went…

And I started cooking it down….

Then I pushed it though a strainer…..

It was thick smooth and perfect. I ended up getting another 4 half pints out of the skin, seeds, and cores.

Now that my test batch was such a success…I sat down and did some tomato math. Trying to estimate how much tomato sauce one family might use in a year. Then trying to figure out how many tomatoes are needed to result in said amount of sauce.

I started by looking at my cooking habits. I make something tomato based a minimum of once a week…sometimes two or three times. So, I knew I needed at least 52 pints (most of my recipes use a pint). A bushel of tomatoes is 53 lbs. and I found many differing opinions on how much sauce you could get out of that. Lots of it has to do with how thick you want the sauce. I decided that 2 bushels would be a good place to start.

I was smart enough to realize that pushing 100 lbs of tomatoes through a hand held strainer would be silly, so I bought a food mill. As for tomatoes, I found a decent price at one of the local farm stands. $18 for a half bushel. I called and put in my order. My tomatoes were ready for pickup on a gloomy rainy Sunday.

Holy.Crap. That is a lot of tomatoes.

I decided to just skip the blanching, peeling, squeezing step on my first go around since I planned on processing all that stuff anyway.

Big huge fail. It had to cook down overnight…it was actually faster to blanch, peel, and squeeze the tomatoes and process the ‘waste’ stuff later.

So, I started processing tomato sauce…and I kept processing tomato sauce. Finally, a week later…after staying up till midnight or later every night…I had 64 pints of tomato sauce and 16 pints of salsa.

Oh, and the jars on the left in a different color are apple sauce. My sister has some apple trees and she brought me a couple of boxes of apples.

I also did a small batch of peaches earlier in the summer.

I still want to make a batch of salsa verde with some tomatillos and some more applesauce, but essentially, my canning is done for the year. I am quite excited to have so much yummy goodness for my family for throughout the year. I will try to go bigger next year and do some diced tomatoes and some other veggies.

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An Organized Workspace

I keep accumulating more things ribbons, fabrics, books, thread, yarn, etc… and I have such a small workspace/sewing area that it was beginning to be so cluttered. I would have to move a pile out of the way to cut out fabric. Then, I would move the pile out of the way to get to one sewing machine, then the other. And on and on and on. I was drowning in sewing supplies. Yet…. you can never have too many supplies. What I needed was to utilize the wall. Shelves would need to go up. I found some awesome floating shelves….crazy expensive is what they were. Part of the reason I have taken up sewing so much is to save money. So, I hit up our local hardware store and picked up some cheap particle board shelves with some brackets. I even splurged an extra $2 and got two brackets that would hold a dowel rod for my ribbons!

Here is my little corner of the basement/playroom. I still have boxes and bins full of fabric and old clothes to cut up for fabric under all the tables. I’m also thinking of getting one more shelf.

See my window….no I really don’t drink that much.

The other side of my little corner. More bins and boxes of fabric under my cutting table. The containers on the wooden desk are all different colored snaps. Another window full of wine bottles. I swear I don’t drink that much. I keep collecting them to paint though!

Here is my stash of yarn. I need to figure out a better way to keep it all up on the shelf. Maybe some wire bins turned on their sides? I will keep trolling pinterest for some ideas.

Here are my sewing books and the awesome hand spun wool I got from the farmer’s market.

 

Here are my useable fabrics and scraps and my thread. On the right I used a magazine holder to put my patterns….it is stuffed pretty full right now so I need to come up with a different solution for that.
 I also left space for another thread holder. I have the thread to fill it but need the money and the time for another trip to the store.

Here is my cutting table with my planning bulletin board over it…right now it is covered with patterns I need to put away. The table is just a standard 4 foot folding table that was raised up by using some PVC pipes (I forgot to take a picture of that but you can sort of see them in the top picture)

Here is my dowel rod ribbon holder. Only room for a little bit more ribbon so I will need to figure out more storage space for more ribbons soon. I will wait until that point comes to think about  it though. To the right of the shelf you can see my crazy huge roll of fleece. I also have miscellaneous supplies on this shelf; paper crafts, elastics, bias tape, lace, glues and interfacing.
 Now I have until Saturday to sew a birthday dress for Miss Faye! It is nice to have room for all the sewing!

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A Farm Share Sausage Soup

This summer we decided to get a share from a local farm; Troggs Hollow. It was a way to insure fresh veggies all summer. So far we have only had two weeks worth and being so early in the season it has been almost all greens. 
I have a sausage potato soup that I have been making for quite a few years now and I decided to spruce it up a bit with our veggie share. I use a smoked sausage in it but ham or bacon would be just as good. For this batch I used hakurei turnips, and dinosaur kale. I usually have homemade chicken/turkey stock but I’m out and need to make a fresh batch so I had to use some store bought this time. I also added 5 red potatoes. Onion is also good in this but I didn’t have any this time.
  
Ingredients for Soup Including Fresh Hakurei Turnips and Dinosaur Kale

I start out by browning the sausage. Then, I cubed the turnips and potatoes and ripped the veins out of the kale.
Since all parts of the turnips are edible I also coarsely chopped up the
turnip greens.I add in the stock and make sure to scrape all the yummy bits up from the bottom of the pot. Next, I add in the potatoes and turnips. I add my seasoning at this point as well. I use thyme (fresh is best but I had to use dried this time), parsley, red pepper for a kick, and some black pepper. If salt is needed add it at the end. If you add it at this point it gets absorbed by the potatoes. I bring the pot to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. Keep the simmer going for about 20 – 25 minutes or until the potatoes and turnips are fork tender. During the last 5 minutes of simmering time I added the kale to a separate skillet with some bacon drippings (you can use butter but Owen has dairy issues so I try to not use it here). I cook it for around 2-3 minutes and then add it to the pot of soup at the end. I pull out a serving for Owen (keeping it dairy free for him) then I add about a 1/4 c. of heavy cream. I bring it back up to a simmer but only for about 5 minutes (don’t let it get back up to a rolling boil or the cream will separate).

  Serve as is and enjoy or top with some shredded cheese to melt in. This soup went over so well in our house that every last drop was
eaten…none for left-overs! That is saying something since Hugh is such
a picky eater.

Farm Share Sausage Soup
1 lb. Smoked Sausage/Ham/Bacon
Turnips (I used 4 Hakurei Turnips)
Turnip Greens
Kale (any kind would be good, I used dinosaur kale)
5 red potatoes
4 cups chicken/turkey stock
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 T. bacon drippings (for dairy free) or 1 T. butter
2 T. parsley
2 t. dried thyme or 4 fresh sprigs
red pepper to taste
black pepper to taste
salt to taste
Cut and brown sausage/ham/bacon in the bottom of a 5 quart or larger pot. Wash and cube the potatoes and turnips. Rip the veins out of the kale and chop kale and turnip greens. Add stock and stir to get all the browned bits off the bottom. Add the potatoes, turnips, parsley, thyme, and peppers. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for around 20 – 25 minutes or until the potatoes and turnips are fork tender. In a separate skillet heat up the bacon drippings/butter and add the kale and turnip greens. Turning the greens to coat with the fat and working to wilt the greens; only for around 2 – 3 minutes. Add the greens to the soup. If you are going for dairy free the soup is ready to be served. If you would like a cream based soup, add the 1/4 c. cream at this point. Simmer (but not boil) for a few more minutes. Serve and enjoy.
 
This makes around 10 servings of soup if you are serving it with a meal. If this is “the meal” (as it was for us) then you only get around 5 or 6 servings.
The great thing about this soup is how easy it is to add any type of veggie or bean or change up the meat or leave the meat out all together. Enjoy this as much as we did!
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Beanpole Teepee and Patio

The beanpole teepee for the boys is DONE! I spent way too much time digging the sod out. I wanted to rent a sod cutter but it was not worth the cost. $65 for 4 hours, when the rest of the project only cost me around $60.

I of course got my idea from a pin on Pinterest. I pretty much followed the directions on the page except for the center stone. They wanted me to get a 17″ stone. Well, they don’t come in that size. At least not that I could find after spending a couple of hours searching online. I considered making my own using a plastic planter base as a mold but then I realized it would take a good week to set and become useable. That was not going to work for me. I wanted to get this project done right away.

First, I took a stick and tied a 3.5 foot piece of twine on it, near the bottom, then I stuck it in the ground where I wanted the patio floor of the teepee. I took a left over can of spray paint from the crib project and sprayed the grass while  holding the nozzle of the can near the end of the twine and walking in a circle.

Next, I started digging (about a foot outside the pink line, the pink line is the finished size of the patio….I wanted a dirt area on the outside of the patio to have a space to plant the beans in). I have no idea what kind of grass this is here in the back of our yard. It is different from the rest of the yard. It goes completely white in the winter (it has not yet gone completely green yet this year) and it is thick. It’s root system makes a sort of mat in the top 2 inches of the soil. It about killed me to even get the shovel though the grass. This step took me 3 days when it should have only take me a few hours. After I had about 2/3 of it done I got G to help. I had planned a play date with a couple of kids from Hugh’s school but they only planned on helping with the bricks.

There was the problem of what to do with all the grass and dirt that I ripped out. Well, I made some new flower beds with it! I put down newspaper to smother the grass in the area and then I put the sod upside down on top of it. By putting it upside down the sun bakes the roots and the grass stops growing. I will spend the rest of the summer adding to the new beds. G will dump all the grass clippings on it and all our kitchen compost scraps will also go on it. If I had all that stuff to dump on it now I could just let it sit for 6 weeks and it would be ready. I have to do it the long way though. It will be ready to plant in in the fall.

Here is the final size of the newly added bed. I was excited to be able to get the entire bed laid out with the sod and dirt that I ripped out of the patio area!

Next up…the sand base. The pin directions called for 12 bags total, 6 for the base. Yeah, as if. I had to use all 12 bags as the base. This pic is of the awesome mom from the boys’ school and G working on leveling the sand. I have to say, this was the hardest part and the part that we kind of gave up on. I knew that a perfectly level patio didn’t matter since it’s intended purpose is the floor of a teepee. I learned a lot though and I “think” I will be able to accomplish this step a bit better on the big patio on the other side of the yard (the one that we intend to put a table on and need a level floor).
Oh, and I know it is just an excuse but it was HOT out. Hot and the sun was beating down on us (I have the crazy sun burn to show for this day), and we needed this step to be over.
I didn’t get a picture of the step where we laid the bricks. Or the kids hauling all 150 bricks and handing them to me but I did get this one of the boys standing on the patio before I filled in the cracks. You can see that it is not level…I was not about to pull the bricks back up and start over with the sand step though. I also bought a bag of smooth river rocks and we added them in the “big cracks”. It think the kids enjoyed doing that.
I decided to add a stepping stone where the “entrance” to the teepee would be. I also decided to not use regular sand to fill the cracks. That is just inviting 2 young boys to dig it all back up. Doing that turned into a huge hassle though. I did my research and decided to use polymeric sand It worked perfectly and almost like magic! I love that stuff. I ended up having to use two 50 lb. bags…and that was exactly enough for a patio of this size. 
We had a frantic gardening in the dark issue with this though. I spread the sand and then got it a little bit wet with the hose…it got dark by this point….the directions said to go out and get it wet a second time…I did that. The directions then said to not let it get rained on for 24 hours. Go, check the weather. Oh, crap! Realize that it is supposed to storm all night and all the next day. Then realize that the tarp is still holding all the dirt that needs to be back filled around the edges.
G really is a good sport with all my crazy projects. He came out and set up a small flashlight and started back filling the dirt while I finished up something in the house. I came out and we finished with the dirt. It actually was pretty nice working in the garden in the dark. No chance of getting a sun burn! Anyway, after all that work to use the tarp to cover the patio, the storms all passed us by. I shot this pic the next evening just before dark. You can see my stepping stone where the entrance  will be.
G had a day off work today so I got him to help me with the poles for the teepee. I bought twenty-four 6′ bamboo poles. I knew that they would not be long enough since the patio is 7 feet across, so we taped 2 poles together with some duct tape. We gave them a 12″ overlap to make them sturdy. That gave us 12 poles for the teepee. Miss Faye was great and took a nice long nap so we were able to get the entire thing done. I didn’t measure but I think there is a good 7 or 8 feet of standing room on the inside of the teepee.

As for the top of the teepee, I just tied the bamboo poles together with twine.

We left to go pick the boys up at school and came back late in the day. The sun was low in the sky and I realized that my stepping stone and entrance were poorly located. They face west and the afternoon sun shone directly in the teepee. Obviously it is not an issue now that it is bare, but once the beans fill it all in then it will not be shaded inside in the afternoon. It bothered me enough that I dug the stone up and relocated it on the south side of the teepee.
After I relocated the stepping stone I then needed to fix the position of all the bamboo poles to accommodate a new entrance. Then, give the boys a quick planting lesson. Find stick….poke holes around poles…drop a couple of beans in each hole….cover and firm soil….DONE!

Then I tied twine all around the teepee to define the area for the boys (get them used to going in and out at the entrance) and to give a tiny bit of stability to the poles.

Here are the boys….excited by the teepee. Well, Hugh is for sure and Owen is really excited by the rolly polly in Hugh’s hand.

Now, we water and wait. We planted 6 beans around each pole. There has got to be at least one good strong one to come up around each pole. I will thin them back if we get all of them to come up.

Project done! On to birthday party planning. The count down is on….party in 11 days.

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My Summer Gardening Plans!

Every year I try to do more landscaping in my yard. I really enjoy the manual labor and I love to make my yard beautiful. I wish I could do more each year but sadly the budget only allows a little bit. This year I am enlarging some flower beds, completely changing my garden to accomidate a teepee for the kids, and creating a path to “enter” the yard while surrounding the patio with flower beds. 
I have already started on the path. I was initially only going to put a narrow stepping stone kind of path in but then I realized we needed to be able to get the lawn mower into the yard without crushing the flower beds. So, a big wide path it has become!
Mini path progress (it will be solid stone when I’m done). This is just a dry lay to see if I like it. Now I need to go get some sand. Except for the sand (which is only $1.50 a bag) this is a free project….the last people who lived here put in the patio and kept all the extra stones in a big pile behind the garage. It is kind of nice to get rid of the piles! I don’t want the pavers perfect squares like they are now though so I need to figure out how to break them.

View of the path from the yard looking at the house. I will rip out all the grass to the right of the path and make that flower bed butt up to the path.

I got a couple of plants today. One is a vivid pink hollyhock….I will plant it near my bean teepee. The other is a dappled flamingo willow. I still have to figure out where I want to put it. I researched it online and it is supposed to get HUGE and grow fast. I may put it in the bottom right of the below picture.

If you look closely you can see my pink circle in the grass. I started making the flower beds around it it two years ago. I will clean it up and make the flowerbeds go all the way around (except for an “entrance”) this summer. Next summer I plan on digging out the center and putting in a patio for our bistro set…..can’t afford all the stones this year though. If I do put the dappled willow near this “almost” patio it will be in a perfect position to block the patio from the neighbor’s prying eyes.

Finally, the “fun” project! Over in this corner of my yard I had my “garden” it was tiny, but you can see another pink circle. This one is where I need to rip the grass out right now. I’m putting in a very small brick patio which will be the floor of my bean teepee. Then I will create new garden beds around the outside of the teepee area. I still need to mark those before I rent the sod cutter.

Off to start digging!