Friday, July 30, 2010

Produce Stand


So the other day, I decided to set up a produce stand on a busy corner near my house to get rid of the surplus vegetables that we can't eat right now! Cars are zooming by all day and people walk by as well. So I spent hours cutting, cleaning, and bundling up all of my extra vegetables, herbs, and flowers from the garden.

My little brother-in-law came to help me and to sell his Fresh Eggs and Garlic that he harvested himself. So we set up...and sat...and sat...and sat! NO CUSTOMERS! It was so disappointing! I mostly felt bad for dragging my bro-in-law out there with me and then having no business! I mean, at least 100 cars had to have driven by and looked at our stand. I think my location was bad...not the right "clientele."

So we packed everything up. I made a few phone calls to friends. And we were on our way delivering boxes of fresh vegetables, flowers, herbs, and eggs!

I am so thankful to all of you who bought my produce from me that day! You saved the day! My vegetables would have gone to waste! I am glad all my friends could enjoy them and now I can look forward to delivering weekly boxes of surplus produce to my friends and putting a smile on their faces! Thank you, everyone!!!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Garden in July

Heirloom Yellow Peas, Red Cabbage, Sunflowers, Zucchini.



 Rainbow Beets, Collard Greens, Rainbow Swiss Chard

Garlic, Swiss, Chard, Broccoli, Sweet Peas

Huckleberry Picking

Last week I went huckleberry picking with a dear friend and her family at their "secret spot." It was abundant with ripe, purple berries. However, huckleberry picking is a lot of work! I have never gone for an entire day before but it was worth it! I know have a large bag of huckleberries in my freezer to savor throughout the summer! It was also nice to just sit down in a patch of berries and chat for hours as we filled out buckets!

I plan on making some homemade huckleberry ice cream in my ice cream maker. Just eating them frozen out of the bag is delicious, too!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I'm looking to connect with all of you fellow gardeners, thrifters, chefs, and domestic goddesses out there! My husband and I have planted a garden together for years! This year is our biggest garden so far! I always have friends and family members asking me for tips, recipes, and how we do what we do. So here on my blog I hope to share that with all of you and I hope we can inspire eachother with new ideas, tips and tricks in the garden, kitchen, and life in general!

Here is a progression of our garden so far. More posts to come as I figure out this whole world of blogging!





We start most of our seeds in the house in our kitchen window sill! Kyle rototills the soil in the early spring. We make "Cold Frame" boxes so we can start our lettuce, kale, and spinach in early March. They create a green house environment and keep the plants warm at night.


Top Left: We build a "Pepper House" so we can start our peppers & eggplants outside in early spring. It is PVC pipe buried in the ground to form an arch. Then we stretch a sheet of plastic with holes (available at hardware stores) over the top. We weight it down with bricks around the edges. We leave this on until June or July when the peppers have outgrown it.

You can also see our "Walls of Water" that we use on our tomatoes. This gives the tomatoes a big head start in the garden. (It's almost August and our tomatoes are 5ft tall or more!) You can buy these at Big R or any hardware/ home & garden store. We also use milk jugs on our squash and cucumber plants to create a mini green house around them. We leave the Walls of Water and milk jugs on until the plant outgrows them!