AND THE FARM GROWS AGAIN! SHADE GARDEN ADDITION

OUR MINI FARM GROWING AGAIN!

With a slight break in the temps this weekend, my very talented husband finished the new addition to our mini farm!  My brother had given us a set of cages he received for free from a friend of his, and my husband's mind started working!


Here are the cages as we received them:

We then decided to move the location of Oreo and Daisy's cage in order for the larger addition to fit in this location well!  We also had this small dog fence on our property as well.  It had some vining weeds growing through it and my daughter worked to remove those.  We are not sure if we like the fence in this area or not, we are giving it some time to see if it grows on us.   If we keep the fence there, it will be an area for the bunnies to get some exercise and somewhat of a safe haven for the chickens.  My husband had mentioned something about eventually building an enclosed area here, instead of using the fence. 

Here is a picture of the finished project.  This is the front of the area!

Here is a picture of the back of the area.  As you can see my husband has built boxes on each side of the new addition!  To the left will be the "chicken coop", complete with nesting boxes for the egg layers!  We plan on creating a ladder for the chickens so that they can enter and exit their coop!

Last but not least, here is the newest addition to our farm, Dusty.  He is a buck that we picked out from our favorite farm, 3G Farms!  A special thanks to them for their contribution to this new addition!


DUSTY

So with the construction complete on our newest project on the farm, now my work begins.  As soon as our temps begin to cool down a bit, I will be able to begin some landscaping for this area.  I have already done a lot of research on shade plants and will continue my research in order to pretty up the newest area of our farm! 

THERE ARE TREASURES HIDDEN UNDER THE WEEPING WILLOW TREE!

Happy Gardening!
Mindy

A CANNING FRENZY IN MY KITCHEN!

Wow are the veggies coming on or what??  I am having a great time harvesting all the veggies from my garden and then taking them in and deciding what creation I will come up with next!  I have been doing lots of research from books and online looking for unique and good canning recipes!  The internet is a wealth of information about canning and canning recipes!  My kitchen has been transformed into a "canning" kitchen!  I have everything set up to make the canning as efficient as possible! 

With my more in depth gardening expedition this year by starting almost all of my vegetables from seed, seeds which individually cost just pennies on the dollar, it has been even more rewarding harvesting my veggies this year!  I have really been motivated to do a lot of canning and spread those pennies even further!  I am finding online and in many books that canning for self-sustainment is really on an increase with the rising prices of food in the stores.  Canning allows you to know what has been added to your foods, as you are creating them yourself with no artifical additives.   If you have never canned before, I urge you to give it a try!  You do not have to fill your entire pantry with food, start off small with just a few small patches of different items, I bet you become hooked just like I did! 

Here is some more of my work:

Below is Mrs. Wages salsa mix.  This is a very easy mixture to work with, all you have to do is dice the tomatoes, combine the ingredient packet with the tomatoes and some vinegar, cook for ten minutes, place in sterilized jar and to the hot water bath canner for 40 minutes.  This is a very good salsa!

These are some pickles I created using some Ball Kosher Dill Pickle mix I purchased at lowes last fall when the marked down all of their canning items!  This was a great steal at 25 cents, regular $2.98.  I was able to get 4 of these for $1.00.  They are extremely easy to make as well and very good for the beginning canner who has cucumbers!

Happy Canning and Happy Gardening!

Mindy

NATIONAL CAN IT FOWARD DAY! YOU CAN CAN!

Happy "National Can It Forward Day!"  I was very busy on this special day of celebration!  If you haven't ever tried canning and preserving your own fruits and vegetables, I will tell you one thing, "YOU CAN CAN!"  It is an amazing way to use the extra fruits and veggies you cannot eat and is absolutely awesome to be able to enjoy these foods in the winter, when the garden is covered in snow!

I purchased this very handy new Discovery Set that Ball offers, and it is amazing for small batch canning and has all the items you need (except for pectin and fruit) to create a "canning masterpiece"!  Ball has really created a unique product to get people to give canning a try!  I highly recommend this product for beginners and small batch canners as well!

Today in the kitchen I made:  Traditional Salsa (A special thanks to my husband for helping me dice up all the onions and tomatoes that I needed), Cherry Preserves, more Strawberry Preserves, Kosher Dill Pickles, and Jalapeno Jelly!

For those of you who have never tried Jalapeno Jelly, I know it sounds a bit bazaar, but it is really good!  You can take a cracker, a bit of cream cheese, and then top it with some Jalapeno Jelly!  Yum! Yum!

Happy National Can It Forward Day!

Mindy

WHEN IT REALLY HOT OUTSIDE, I GET REALLY BUSY INSIDE!

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER HERE IN SOUTHERN INDIANA!

While we have sure had some hot and humid days so far here in Southern Indiana and are definitely lacking the rain we need, I have been really busy harvesting and working in the garden early in the morning and working inside the rest of the day! The harvest have been good!



After harvesting my veggies, I took a trip to a local orchard here in southern Indiana and got some wonderful peaches!  With these peaches I made some sliced peaches in syrup, some Peach Cobbler Bread, and 14 jars of peach preserves!  I also made 4 jars of strawberry preserves with some strawberries I had purchased.

 I made several mini loaves of Peach Cobbler bread and Grandma Bagby's Pumpkin bread!

I made some special deliveries to several very special families with some of my mini bread loaves and preserves!  I saw lots of smiling faces!

What a days worth of very rewarding work!

Happy Gardening and Baking! 

Mindy

A GREAT 4TH OF JULY SUMMER RECIPE

Happy 4th of July to All!  Hope you have an enjoyable day!

What reminds me of the 4th of July???  When the big tomatoes start turning red!  While I have had cherry tomatoes turning red for a little while now, it is not until the "big" ones start turning that I feel it is truly summer!

This one is getting really close to turning!  This is one of my Big Boy plants that I started from seed back in the winter.  This plant is planted in one of my hanging buckets!  I will keep an eye on this one!

I would also like to share a recipe that I have made today for the first time.  This recipe is featured in the cookbook from Gooseberry Patch called "SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY". 

BLT MACARONI SALAD

("SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY" - PAGE 167)

16 oz. pkg. macaroni, cooked

1-1/4 c. celery diced

5 green onions, finely chopped (I used 1/4 c. finely chopped Vidalia onion)

1 tomato, diced (I used several cherry tomatoes, diced)

1-1/4 c. mayonnaise

5 t. white vinegar

1/4 t. salt

1/8 t. pepper

GARNISH:  1 lb. bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled

In a large bowl, combine macaroni, celery, onion and tomato.  In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients except bacon;pour over macaroni mixture, tossing to coat.  Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.  Just before serving, sprinkle with bacon. 

Serves 6 to 8

The ingredients are fairly easy to prepare!

Salads are very good and refreshing to have during summer get togethers!

I will be combing the bacon into the salad once it is time to serve!   ENJOY!



STUFFED MUCHO NACHO JALAPENO'S

My Park Seed Mucho Nacho plants that I started from seed this past winter are coming along well!  They are producing some nice, big jalapenos.  These jalapenos are great, as they are on the mild side of the heat spectrum, which makes them great for this recipe.  Yum! 


This picture was taken about 20 minutes before they were done baking!  You want to the bacon to be completely cooked and brown on the edges!

STUFFED MUCHO NACHO JALAPENOS

1 dozen Mucho Nacho jalapeno peppers or other jalapeno pepper of your choice

8-oz pkg of shredded mozerello/cheddar blend cheese

1/2 lb bacon, halved
toothpicks

Slice jalapenos lengthwise without cutting all the way through.  Remove seeds and veins.  Stuff with cheese; close back up.  Wrap a half-slice of bacon around each jalapeno and secure with a toothpick.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until bacon is cooked and cheese is melted. 

This is a great party appetizer as well as an awesome side dish to go along with any dinner! 

If you have any great jalapeno pepper recipes or any other great summer recipes, I would love for you to share them here on my blog!  Thanks so much!

Happy Gardening and Cooking!

Mindy