August 31, 2015

August Challenge



August:

1st-
2nd-
3rd-
4th-
5th-
6th-
7th-
8th- 
9th-
10th-
11th-20 minutes- 1 mile
12th-
13th-
14th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
15th-
16th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
17th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
18th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
19th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
20th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
21st- 20 minutes- 1 mile
22nd- YARD WORK
23rd-
24th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
25th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
26th- 20 minutes- 1 mile
27th-
28th-
29th-
30th-
31st- 

= 11 mile for the month. 


I've been lazy again this month.  I still got some walks in but not as much as I wanted.  I am challenging myself to walk at least 20 minutes per day for the month of September.

Organizing Kitchen 2015

So, I'm on a vacation again.  Trying to use up time before I lose it all at the end of the year.  I decided I would tackle my kitchen today and get some stuff organized.

I started with under the kitchen sink.

Here's what it looks like.  My kitchen trash can sits in front of white tub.  I took it out so you could see how messy it is.

I removed everything.  I then began throwing stuff out and going through what I had.

I also ran the vacuum and cleaned up any crumbs.  Everything is nice and clean now and I know what I have underneath that cabinet.

Next, I decided to get rid of storage containers.  I promised my husband I would go through our containers since I purchased these.  This cabinet annoys my husband and myself.  Whenever we pull out a container we can never find the correct lid.  It's frustrating.  It doesn't even really look that bad in the picture but it is.  I do have several containers drying in the dry rack, I need to go through too.

I love these and these.  I use these for my food prep now so I will only be keeping these.  
I can't afford these. haha

I took everything out.  This is the containers and lids I am not keeping.  I already have a taker so they are bagged up and will be dropped off this week.

I have what I'm keeping in there now.  Ahhhh......feels good to purge.

Next up was organizing the pantry.  It's become a mess again.

I took everything out and covered all the counters.  (not everything is pictured)  I then cleaned the pantry shelves and vacuumed the pantry floor.

I put everything back nice and neat.  Some stuff was expired and I threw it out.  I also got rid of some things I had in there.  For example, the pet food storage container.  
We don't have any pets now so that doesn't need to be in there anymore.

New Things Monday

I haven't done a new things post lately.  So here it goes....

I saw these at the grocery store the other day.  There was a $1 off coupon so I figured I'd try them.  It's Jennie-O Turkey Breast Sticks.  They are new.  They look kinda like a cheese stick.  I'm always looking for more way to bring good healthy proteins in my toddler lunches.



(Picture from here)

I love these.  They are very tasty.  They are pretty healthy too.  No nitrates or nitrites.  All natural.  No sugars and only 25 calories.  :)  There's a few different flavors.  I will be trying the others.

August 30, 2015

Sunflower Seed Saving 2015

My sunflowers were pretty much dried up.  I love saving the seeds from the ones I grow.  I snipped them and sat on my back deck and started getting the seeds out of the heads.


This was the biggest sunflower I got out of this particular harvest.

I picked off the leaves and scratched out the dried parts.

Underneath is the seeds.

I picked all the seeds out.

Lovely little seeds.

Seeds to plant for either the greenhouse or for next year.

I didn't want to throw out the sunflower head.  So I added them to a mason ball jar.


2015 Garden Update- #35

Another garden update.

Cherry tom

green bean flower

green bean



A lovely visitor this morning.


2 toms, I picked the other day.




Toms picked this morning.  The green one fell ff so I will let it ripen in window.

My harvest today.  toms, peppers and just 1 green bean.

Farm Stand 8/30

I went to the farm stand this morning.  Lots of farm fresh produce.  :)

toms

carrots

squash, zucchini

onions, potatoes

peppers

cabbage

apples...honey crisp 'crack'

apples, nectarines, peaches and more apple

The colors of fall.....these mums were on sale today only for $5.

leaf lettuce

cucumbers

tomatoes

Here's what I got....

And a purple mum.

I got toms, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, apples, potatoes, peppers, nectarines, red onion and mum plant.  I spent $18.65 for everything.

Tomato Tasting and Garden Tour 2015

Yesterday, I took a road trip all by myself.  My BFF is in Portland and my husband isn't into tomatoes so by myself it was.  

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is in Mineral, VA.  They hosted their 5th tomato tasting and garden tour at their farm.   The farm is only about an hour from where I live.

The tomato tasting event was from 2pm to 4pm.  I got there along with several other people at 1:54pm.  We all went right to the main house for the tomatoes.
(this picture was taken before I left,....long line)

There was cute produce, plants and flowers all about.


I went inside and immediately started going for tomatoes.  There was over 30 heirloom tomatoes.

So many to try.   loved the wild cherry toms.




Cute tomato poster.

When I went to go to another table there was a long line so I got in it.  While I was waiting, there were two nice gentlemen in front of me.  One of them stepped out of line to get some tea.  He also grabbed me some.  So nice.  :)

I finally got to the other tomato side.  My favorite tomato tasting was the anahu toms.  These were delicious.

I did not like the coyote toms at all.  BLECH  LOL



Chocolate toms.  Not bad and no they don't taste like chocolate.  LOL

More toms

There was also some watermelon.  It was yummy.


There was a table with a ton of seed garlic and perennial onions for sale.  I didn't take a picture.  There was always a long line here.

Flowers on a table.


Here's the fresh tea.  The one I had that the gentleman brought me was the lemon balm tea.  It was very nice and refreshing.  The other tea was a mixed herb tea.  It was a mix of spearmint, applemint, wild bergamot, and holy basil.  It wasn't my favorite.  I kinda tasted like licorice and I don't like licorice.

Tomatoes

Some seeds for sale for the tomatoes we got to sample.

Books for sale.

Once I was done with my tomato tasting a nice young lady, named Irena called for a tour.  I met her out front.  I was the first one.  :)  Then a huge group of people came along.

We walked around while learning what was planted where.

Irena, picked a bunch of these from a plant.  I forget what she called them.  I think it was Bergamot.  She did say people say to make tea with the flowers of this plant but she said you should actually use this part of the plant for tea.

Irena, talking about some plants.


More veggies planted.


Lots of flowers.


Lots of corn and sunflowers.


Irena, talking about sweet potatoes that are planted here.  In the green house in the back she said there's peanuts in there.

Lots of fields with something growing.  Some are just trial gardens or seed grow-outs.



We walked around to everything.  I wore flip flops.  I should have brought my garden clogs.  LOL  I did bring my garden hat but left it in the car.  I should have worn it.  Lots of people were wearing there garden hats.

A bunch of tomatoes.  A ton of varieties.  These were only being grown to do research on them for their catalog and to take pictures for their catalog.



More plants.....Squash, huckleberries, okra and more.


In this greenhouse a bunch of things were being dried out.  Garlic mostly.

In a barn there was a lot of farm equipment.

Garden tools and buckets.


Up the stairs, Irena said there was stuff drying out.  I think she said onions but I can't remember.  (I should have had a notebook and wrote this stuff down.  There was several ppl taking notes)  There was some cute signs hanging in here too.

Close up on some of the signs.


Huge garden basket.

Another Greenhouse

Green onions

A teepee made out of bamboo for test pole beans.  I want some bamboo to make this.  haha

Do you see the beans?

Pumpkins

Irena is telling us here about the 30 different types of peppers that are growing.  She also said if you are a smoker and you roll your own cigs then you are not allowed to go near and touch the tomatoes or the pepper plants.  You can transmit TMV, (tobacco mosaic virus) onto the plant.

These sichuan button flowers make your mouth numb for a little bit if you eat them.  They are nicknamed "toothache plant".  They are hard to come by in the United States and they are mostly only sold to high end chefs.

Sunflowers

Beans

Tiny squash

Trellis

We walked through this trellis.  There was a lot of cocozelle.  It's a type of squash and tastes just like zucchini.

More sunflowers because I love them. 

Irena answered questions for the group.

On the road you had to watch where you were walking so you didn't step in road apples.

This is probably where the road apples came from.  It's a pet cow.  :)  Irena, told us that this little guy showed up when it was two years old.  They found out it was from a neighboring farm.  The farm asked them if they wanted to keep it and they said sure so they let it just do it's own thing.  :)  It was so friendly.  We all got to pet her.

More beans

Edamame ready for harvest.

Sunflowers...

A goat

A pig

Tiny baby pig

After the tour, I went back into the main house.  I checked out the seed room.  It was air conditioned and soooooooo awesome.  OMG, shelves and shelves of seed packs.



The pictures don't show you how awesome it was.



I wanted to get some anahu tomato seeds but couldn't find any.  They might have been out.  The place was packed and the seed room was very busy with people picking out seeds.

I did buy some of the wild cherry toms I tried and liked and some of the homestead 24 toms.

I also picked up a printed sheet that has some gardening tips.

I had a lot of fun.  Everyone was so nice and it was fun seeing a farm that sells seeds as a business.  :)