Fun Canning

Jen has finally backed down to 20mg of Prednisone but her symptoms are coming back. On top of that, the side effects of the meds are not being too nice. It feels like we are right back to where we were 5 weeks ago.


We ended up back at the Hillview Farms for round three of blueberry picking. With Jen not feeling well and me on a mission to have enough berries to can, we were focused and determined and in the end, successful. It is truly amazing how much blueberries kids can eat!

• Trip #1: 5 lbs
• Trip #2: 7.5lbs
• Trip #3: 6.5lbs

After some time reading and waiting for the mason jars, I finally decided to try making my own blueberry preserves. It took more time than I realized but all said and done, we now have 10 1/2 pints of hopefully tasty preserves. Not having all of the right utensils, I made do with two large soup pots for the water bath. I first started with one but the recipe I used yielded more jars than would fit in one water bath.


Blueberry Preserves
(makes 1-8oz jar for every cup of berries)

• 10 Cups fresh blueberries
• 5 cups Sugar

Mix blueberries and sugar in a large stainless steel pot and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Slowly bring to a rolling boil stirring constantly. After 15 minutes, turn heat off and use a chilled spoon to check gelling. If OK, then can, if not, boil another 5 minutes.



Watermelon plants are starting to take off. It is hard to see if there are any small watermelons yet and I suspect rabbits are ensuring there are none. Zucchinis are still growing too quickly to pick or use. It is amazing to me because there is only 2 plants.

Its Not Really About the Carrots....

I tried carrots and beets for the first time and I did not have great germination. The carrots are heirloom from France and the beets are golden. Reading on a few different news groups I was happy to read that Golden Beets generally germinate poorly....that made me happy....isn't that sad?

As for the carrots, I companion planted with white icicle radishes and I think in my want to have too much, I never thinned any of its resulting in poor carrot germination and too many radishes that had all lead growth and little root development. From what I can understand, overcrowding and not thinning creates competition for light so they put their energy into reaching for the sky and not in their roots.

As a result, I have few carrots and what I do have I needed to thin. So I decided to pull one hoping that would be enough. I know it wont but I can hope for now. To my surprise, I feel like I just birthed a 9 ton rhino....I grew an orange carrot....too small to do anything with but it looks like a carrot!!!

String Bean and Red Onion Salad

• 3 lbs String Beans
• 1 red onion halved, sliced thin
• Olive Oil to coat
• 2 Tbsn Rosemary

Blanch the string beans in salted boiling water for no more than 3 minutes. Drain, add thinly sliced onions, olive oil and rosemary. Toss well to coat. Refrigerate until dinner.

Cuke are still doing well and I finally got a lemon cuke. These are about 2x the size of a golf ball and look like a pale lemon. They are tasty though. Jen and I ate one and there are two more ready to go

After some time, I finally picked up the stuff needed for canning. I am excited and being sort of dorky about it. I bought the Ball Book of Canning and the Joy of Pickling. I am going to try my hand at pickles and blueberry preserves. We did this once before but is was a half cocked try about 7 years ago with raspberries but it didn't turn out too good. Hopefully this go around will be different.

It has been so hot here this week and with Jen still feeling the same, out came as many indoor things to do as we could manage. We have had many babysitters over the last two weeks and anything creative is welcome. Jen finally got her MRI results and they were all clear (thank goodness!!) but there still is no answer to the dizziness. Hopefully as she comes off the Prednisone, it will gradually improve.

Flight of the Bumblebee

With Dr Cohn calling on Jen's cell phone, I had to take work calls from outside to make sure I had signal strength. The two Chaste Trees are in the midst of blooming and looking closely, there are thousands and thousands of large bumblebees. I was completely in awe. Jen signed up for the The Great Sunflower this spring which counts the number of honey bees so I was interested how many were here......I could not find any....there were well over 100 bumblebees before I started to lose count. It was pretty cool to watch though.....a little nerve racking to get close enough with my digital camera though.

Last few days have been a blur, Jen is still the same and Dr Cohn ordered a brain MRI with no contrast yesterday. After calling 4 places, we had three appointments one of which was the same day. Laura came to babysit so I could go and while in the waiting room, the MRI machine broke. So today we went at 11:15, got the films, drove them over to Dr Cohn and by 3:30, had semi good news. With his untrained eye, his interpretation was that there was nothing out of the ordinary, abnormal or anything grabbing his attention. He will wait until Tuesday's report shows up form the Radiologist, but he seemed to have a good sense and feeling: all clear. Jen's blood work was normal as well....at least the absolute worst is ruled out but still no answers.

After the kids went to sleep, I headed out to the garden. With all the crap lately, I have not spent much time out there. Jen picked two zucchini well over 24 inches, I found two more and inspecting them tonight, I will have three more in the next few days. The squash do not set as much fruit but they grow just as quick.

After watering everything and rooting around, I noticed that there were a huge number of Sultan Peas ripe. I have only picked one or two to date but today I got a good bowl full and left plenty on the vine. The vine itself is well over 7 feet tall as it is starting to come back down the far side. These are sweet and the vines are fun. Now I have to actually cook them :)

The cukes are growing just as crazy but so far I only have picking cukes. Jack doesn't mind as he ate 4 for dinner last night. i just ordered picking stuff and mason jars so hopefully I can try my hand at pickles by next week. I still have not seen any lemon or slicing cukes and I feel like I should have

Just a closing picture of Jen and Charlotte walking up the blueberries. Last Saturday was about 5.5lbs that lasted until Tuesday. We went back on Wed at lunchtime and picked another 7.5lbs. I promised Jen that we would grow our own blueberry patch one day.

Blueberry Picking

Well, yesterday was blueberry picking. We tried a new place much closer to home, Hillview Farms in Gillette. With Jen still feeling the same, I was hoping being so close to home would make it easier. Didn't start out too well as Jen felt pretty bad but by the time we got there, her medicine kicked in.

We picked up our baskets and walk across the street to the "bobbing heads". Sounded a little funny. We walked through some planted rows (about an acre's worth) and I was completely amazed, 6'-7' tall blueberry bushes, rows and rows....each row probably 500' long.

Although there was complete excitement on Jack and Charlotte's part, there was a calm that sort of came over us, a distinct mission at hand. Charlotte ate every berry that she picked over the hour or so of picking, Jack needed to fill up his pail entirely by taking mine, Jen had the determination and patience to pick only the very ripest, roundest and largest of the millions of berries around us and I was just plain happy, something about being outside picking right from the bush has had more and more of a draw for me than ever before.

I am probably going to register for Margret Noon's library talk on Slow Food.org. I did quite a bit of research and is seems to be focused on local, sustainability, etc... concepts that I am feeling more and more strongly about. There is so much to know, so much out there, and even with what Jen and I already know, I feel like we are in the dark.

The garden overall is going well. the Sultan Beans are now ripe and I picked the first few, the picking cukes are now starting as well, 3-4 every other day. No Slicing or lemon cukes though. Zuc's and Squash have take off and I now need to figure out how to freeze, store, cook more than I care to admit. Knowing that there would be a lot per plant, I only planted two of each but it seems these 4 plants are producing more than any other plant I have ever had or seen.

Tomatoes are growing well. As are the beets. I picked my first beet and I now think I can pick all of them as I wish. Since these are root crops, I will leave them in the ground until I am ready to use them. I am thinking about a recipe that Cheryl mentioned, Roasted Fennel and Beets. Sounds good.....need to try that. There are many more green tomatoes but none turning. My only problem is one of the Black cherry plants next to the house is skyrocketing in size to almost 7', wilting and I had to stake it today.

Cooking Chard

Jen is sick today again with her vertigo, babysitter until 1:30, me and the kids the rest of the day. Although I wish I could help Jen more than I am, I am excited to have so much alone time with the kids. Today was a hard day, I was short and not too understanding but I think I managed.

This is the second week with picking up Tiffany and Sandy's CSA share. Seems mostly green and 600 per year seems like a lot up front so I want to see what they get each week. This week was Dill, Parsley, Basil, Rainbow Chard, Lettuce, Cukes, Squash, etc...

Never using Chard before, I tried a quick recipe and it was great!

Sauteed Chard

• 3 Cloves Chopped Garlic
• 2 Tbspn Olive Oil
• 1 Tbspn Butter
• Chard, de-ribbed, cut into 1" ribbons

With butter and Oil heated, saute garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add chard into an even layer and let sit for 4 minutes. Turn over and let sit for 4 minutes. Mix and cook for another 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Garden is growing quick after 3 days of rain, especially the watermelon and cukes. I picked 4 or 5 pickling cukes but have not seen any of the other two varieties. There are about 10-15 new green tomatoes and several large Zucs. The watermelon is growing up to 1 foot a day now.

Rainy Day

Trying to quit smoking for the 100th time this year. Jen is still a little sick and it is raining out so just had a frustrating morning. Ended up in the garage with both Jack and Charlotte starting to refinish a coffee table so Jen can have it double as a sand tray for her work.

Sometimes it is amazing to me, just losing focus on the crap of the day while doing something you enjoy with your kids can fill up your cup. Jack and I sanded with 6o grit to remove all the old finish. Sort of detailed work because the legs are all turned but it ended up being fun

Charlotte is not as into things like that, her patience is not too long. She joined us for a few minutes then went off to play with the bikes, then back to us, then with the dogs, then back t0 us, then with the cat......she is so Jen.

As for the garden, the first tomato is getting bigger everyday but it is split in the bottom. I am waiting to see if it heals itself or if I need to take it off. I hope it will be fine. Other than that, I have 6 little Black Cherry tomatoes and all the other plants now have flowers.




The Sultan Peas are just starting to come out and I have about 100 cucumber flowers with 3 or 4 really small cucumbers. I have picked about 5 or 6 zucchini and one yellow squash




I am starting to look into a pickle recipe and I am thinking about blueberry picking every day now....blueberries are in season and I cannot wait for the kids to turn blue....

Went for a quick walk through the garden this morning. Seems that the Black Beauty Zucchini and the Squash plants are much, much larger than any other squash I have planted before. Next year, I need to give them much more space.

Peppers also need to be started indoors much earlier, they are not a big as they should be and still no flowers. Hopefully soon.

As I have posted on both GardenWeb and SeedSavers forums, I need to think about a different way of gardening. I have too much grass growing up through everything and it is starting to take over many of the beds. Lasagna type of layering with a no-till option may be the way to go. Need to do some more research.

The Sultan beans have hundreds of beautiful flowers and the vines are well over 6' now. Should not be too much longer until we have some beans. Since these are heirloom and not offered much, I may try to save some seeds for next year if they are good.