A crowder pea is any variety of cowpea bearing pods with closely spaced (crowded) seed (peas). Last year, we grew Top-Pick Crowder Peas and saved some seeds and planted them this year.
We love crowder peas. They are our favorite, but we also planted blackeyed peas as well. Both are in the cowpea family. This method below will work for any variety of crowder pea, blackeyed pea, purple hull peas, etc.
Continue reading “How to Pressure Can Crowder and Blackeyed Peas”
Not long ago, my better half decided that we needed a drying rack when she was inspired by Magnolia Holler’s Herb Drying Rack. It would come in handy for drying our garlic and our winter bulblets. Being frugal (read: cheap) we settled on a rather inexpensive design.
We started with an adjustable window screen.
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| Photo Credit Google |
Are you trying to find new and inventive ways for cooking your bountiful supply of squash, then give bacon wrapped squash a try! Sometimes with a bumper crop you start to get tired of eating the same old thing over and over again. This was the year for squash. Anything with bacon must be good, right?
It is so simple and a real nice change of pace with the squash.
Continue reading “Bacon Wrapped Squash | Squash Pan Fried in Bacon”
We had planted 2 raspberry vines last year, but they never grew and died. They were a part of the shipment that got lost, came late, and were planted late. So back in February on a trip to Tractor Supply we bought 4 more bare root raspberry canes (2 Heritage Everbearing and 2 Latham).
We planted the raspberries just a few days later and said a little prayer.
For what seemed like the longest time there was again no sign of life. Then 2 months after planting we finally saw some green life to them.
Much of our garden has turned into a jungle. Between all of our excessive rain and just getting busy with harvesting and the rest of life the weeds have taken over! Many plants are coming to an end or dwindling down now. Our second planting of green beans, black eye peas, and crowder peas are doing well. But what has me anxiously waiting the most is our watermelon and pumpkin.
Last year we only planted 4 mini pumpkins. It was a little late in the season and we knew we would not have time for large pumpkins.Those started growing wonderfully, but over night (literally) they were destroyed by stink bugs! I was disappointed. And we did not even plant any watermelon. I’m not a big fan of watermelon. I’m surprised I’ve not been kicked out of the south! But the rest of our family likes it. So since we had neither last year we are anxious about this year’s crop.
All of our main bathroom fixtures were a horrible powder blue. Yes, that’s right powder blue! I have hated it from day one for the last 14 years. Let me tell you, all blue toilet, sink, and tub really limit your painting and decor options. And now due to about 25 years of age they were really wearing out. Much of the glaze had worn off from the inside of the tub making it ugly and dull and hard to clean stains. The walls of the shower were tile and had been repaired multiple times and really just needed to be completely removed or redone. Every time I cleaned the sink and counter little blue chips of the sink was starting to flake off.
So finally, over the course of the last couple of months we have been gradually redoing our bathroom. Jon replaced the toilet and sink/cabinet a couple of months ago. Jon started with the toilet as it was just the easiest part of the process. Then a few days later, the sink was a particular challenge as the nook it sets in is not any standard size and we refused to pay custom cabinet and counter top prices. But with some special cutting into the sheet rock and 2 sink/counter tops later it was in and looked good. Tip: If the counter top is a tight fit, the bubble in the level says it isn’t quite level, and it is still slightly wedged between two walls do NOT sit on it and bounce to coax it the rest of the way down. If you bought the cheap affordable cabinet with the cheap thin counter/sink it may spider into a million pieces. We can laugh about this now, but were not laughing at the time.
What super-food can you make for pennies, maybe even for free? Chicken broth is healthy, very simple to make, and supports your immune system. And did I say it’s inexpensive?
Whenever I make chicken for dinner – at least once a week – I remove the bones and put them in zippered freezer bags. The bags go right into the freezer.
I grew up learning the value of preserving food for the winter and hard times. Our family grew a big garden each year and canned or froze the extra for later. We visited pick your own farms or combed the fields for wild apple trees to harvest fruit to stock our pantry. I continue to put away produce for my own family now that I’m a wife and mother. I want to make sure there is plenty of food in our house in case a snowstorm closes the roads or price increases put the basic necessities out of our price range. Besides that, I get a real sense of satisfaction when I pull jars of my own home canned foods out of storage and make a meal entirely from foods I preserved!
Continue reading “Putting Up Food on the Homestead”
We were pleasantly surprised this year by the size and amount of blackberries we picked from our 2 blackberry canes that we planted last year. I made a couple of blackberry cobblers with some of the harvest. We picked the rest as they came in a little at a time and put them in the freezer. We also picked a few wild blackberries from our rural property and froze them. The blackberries from our thornless canes are substantially larger than the wild blackberries, but we are thankful for them all. It is ok to pick a few of your berries a little early before they have completely ripened (with just a touch of red in them) if you intend to use them for jam. The tart red blackberries have more pectin and will aid in the jam setting up. Still the majority of our berries were fully ripe when picked. All total I believe we froze about 4 gallons of blackberries.
Continue reading “Making Blackberry Jam”
I grew up in the country crawling around in weeds and such as a kid. We were always warned we were going to get chigger bites, but never did I in my entire 38 years until this year. While mowing and working out at the land several weeks back, Jon and I and one of the boys got a bad case of chigger bites. I even got them twice. The second time was horrific and they even blistered. No chigger bites in 38 and years and now twice within a few weeks of each other!
