Spring Judging School 2016

This past fall, I took some classes for judging school to be a judge at fairs.  The classes I took last year were 'Interview Judging', 'Cut flowers/Plants' and 'Veggies/Produce'.  I had fun.

I saw the event listed for the Spring Judging school and decided right away that I would go.

Here's a sign that was hanging in the main room.

There was coffee, OJ, bottled water, Krispy Kreme donuts, and fruit for breakfast while we mingled and waited for everyone to arrive and check-in.

After introductions it was time to head to class.  :)

My first class was 'Refinish, Refurbish, & Repurpose'.  I didn't take any pictures.  We did get several handouts.  We critiqued before and after pictures.  Some of the projects were really cool.

The next class was 'Baking – Breads'. We got a handout and then it was time to do some sampling.  There was biscuits, and different breads.  Some of the items were store bought to test us and also made wrong so we could discuss why it would get points taken off.

After the second class it was time for lunch.  There was sodas, bottled water, subway sandwiches, Wise chips, fruit, cookies.

After lunch it was time for my third class.  It was 'Baking – Cookies & Cakes'.  We got a handout and then it was time to do some sampling.  There was lots of fresh baked goods.  The teacher had some friends bake up some of these for us.  

Those of us that had the sampling were pretty full after we were done.  But we were told to only take a small square to taste.  Sometimes when you end up judging you might only have a few things to taste and judge but other times you might have a whole table full of stuff.  Small pieces just to get a taste.

I had fun and learned a lot.  The organizer who is a certified judge told me that I could mentor with her this summer so I am official.  Mentoring is the last step and then I can judge on my own.  :)

When I got home I put all my papers from class in my class book that was everything is together.

2016 Garden Update #11

We had more rain all week long.  We didn't even see the sunshine until today and it only came out after a huge rain storm that passed through fairly quickly.

Let's get to my plants......I ended up moving a lot of the container plants back into the greenhouse.  I didn't want everything to become water-logged with the downpours.

My succulents are doing great.  I think they love the greenhouse so that's where I'm gonna keep them until the winter.

Early in the week, I moved my cactus into the greenhouse.  I thought maybe my house is too cold for it?  It seems to really like it in there so far.  I might just bring it back to my house in the winter.

I always check on everything before I leave for work.  One morning, I was in greenhouse checking on the plant babies and heavy rains started falling down.  I had to hang out in the greenhouse for a bit until they let up so I wouldn't get soaked.  haha  Anyways, these $1 flowers I got few weeks ago at Lowes seem to be blooming.  Here's what they looked like one morning.

And in the afternoon, here's what they looked like.

Such vibrant colors.

Look at the pollen.  The bees would love these flowers.

My passion flower loves being in the greenhouse.

I found a bright red ladybug on some mint leaves and grabbed and I put it on the passion flower.

Up close

Some bell peppers....doing great.

Lots of blossoms on one of my tom plants.

This big cherry tomato plant is doing really good.

Already some little toms....

My in ground tomatoes are growing but seems slow.  I'm going to put some coffee grounds at the base of these plants to see if it helps them.

My sunflowers, I think loved all the rains we got.

Up close of biggest sunflower plant.

Beautiful and vibrant Iris.  This Iris uprooted in my front flower bed so I planted it in a pot and it's doing good.

Inside.....

Peas are soooo happy.  I can't wait until I see flowers and pods.  :)

The green beans are loving their spot too.

I have many potato plants coming in from the seed potatoes I planted.

And lastly, my orchids are good.  The biggest one finally has blooms starting to open up.

Backyard Chickens Update #9

First off, I bought a couple of things off Etsy that I had to have.  

1st.  This adorable chicken decal for my car and my rainman (planner) because why not.  How cute is this?  I got it from JennsCraftRoom.

2nd.  I had seen a rock that had been hand painted of a barred rock chicken.  I loved it.  I even had it on my wish list.  When I checked on the rock to see if it was still available it was not.  Someone had purchased it.  I contacted the maker and she said she would make me one to purchase. I asked if she could make a australorp and an ameraucana chicken as well so I could have all three of my chickens painted on rocks.  She did!!!  She had them ready the next day.  I was so excited and I purchased all three.  She is a very talented artist.  I got them from AlisonsArt.

My chickens will be 5 weeks old next week.  They are getting so big.

How cute are they?

I'm going to see them this weekend and I can't wait.

Things to do before I bring them home....

-paint the chicken coop.  (it only has primer.  My MIL is going to do this.)

-block off the basement windows so chickens don't fall in them

-fence off garden area

-cut grass (husband)

-get a rubbermaid container for the pine shavings

-put shavings in coop

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Granola

My husband loves granola.  I hate buying processed granola from the store.  Most of it has way too much sugar.  I found a few different recipes online to make my own.

This is the recipe I used for this particular granola.

Here's the granola going into the oven.

Here's the granola after 35 minutes in the oven.

It was really dark.  I think I shouldn't have left it as long as the original blogger.  I followed the original post exactly.  

I added some peanut butter chips.

My husband shrugged when I asked him if he liked the granola.  He said it's not really crunchy.  I found it to be bland.  I told him that I won't make this one again.  I told him I have some other recipes to try to make.  He said he will still use this up because I made it for him and because he doesn't want to waste it.  That made me happy because I don't like wasting food.

There's two good things about this recipe.

1.  I found out that I love honey roasted peanuts.  OMG....they are so good.  :)

2.  I used coconut oil for the first time EVER.  It's kinda like wax as you spoon it out of the jar.  LOL  I can't wait to use it again.

No Bake Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Squares

I came across this recipe for a no bake peanut butter oatmeal squares.  It was simple enough so I decided to make them.  

While stirring the oats into the peanut butter/honey mix I broke it.  :(  I was bummed because it was one of my favorite spoons.  I guess I'm gonna have to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond and get another one.  haha  

Anyways, while adding the oats I decided to only mix in 2 cups instead of 3.  There's no way 3 cups would have been coated or mixed in.

My husband and I both enjoyed these bars.  Normally, I make balls but I wanted to change it up so these bars were a nice change.

You will need:

1 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

2 cups quick oats

Melt the pb and honey until smooth.  Then mix in the oats until everything is combined.  Add foil to a pan.  I used a square brownie pan.  Spray the foil with non-stick spray.  Add the mixture and evenly press down.  Refrigerate until firm.  Cut into squares and store in a tupperware container.  I keep them in the fridge but I'm sure you could leave them in a container on the counter.

I made these bars again this past weekend.  I added some mini chocolate chips because why not.  :)

CSA Box- Week 2

Last week, I picked up my first CSA box.  This morning, I picked up my second box.  Each Tuesday for 24 weeks, I will be picking up a box of farm fresh fruits and veggies.  :)

Here's the sneak peak of my goodies.  My half share box was jammed pack.

Here's everything we got.....

-2 bundles of lettuce

-half dozen eggs

-strawberries

2 greenhouse grown tomatoes

-radishes

-beets

-swiss chard

-2 small onions

-2 carrots

The strawberries are very tasty.

I love the colors of swiss chard.

Got beets?  I do.  And plenty of radishes.

For dinner tonight I made turkey burgers.  I sliced up one of the toms and some lettuce for the burgers.  I also am not using those fake chemical filled cheese slices anymore so I sliced some cheese from a real block of sharp cheddar.

I made a frittata tonight too.  We will have this for dinner tomorrow night.

I have farm fresh eggs, farm fresh swiss chard, a greenhouse grown tomato, bell pepper, garden chives, garden basil, farm fresh onions, pepper, nutmeg, bacon bits, and some shredded cheese.

CSA soup

I still had some veggies from my CSA box that I wanted to use up.  I had never made anything with swiss chard before so I went to the interweb for some ideas.  I found a Paula Dean recipe with swiss chard, sausage and white beans.  I figured I would cook it but make it my own by adding some other things to it.  :)

Here's everything in the pot before I mixed up.

I added the broth and then mixed.  MMMMMM

I served this with some corn bread muffins.  Everything was seasoned perfectly.  We loved it!  I will make this again.

I used:

swiss chard (bunch from CSA box, washed and roughly chopped)

sausage

onions (2 small from CSA box)

minced garlic

lettuce (from CSA box, washed and roughly chopped)

large tomato (from CSA box)

black pepper

red potatoes (cooked in baker and sliced up)

chives (cut from my plant)

chicken broth (reduced sodium)

can of white beans (drained and rinsed)

can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

water

First I cooked up the sausage with olive oil, minced garlic and some of the onion.  Once sausage was cooked, I put everything in a big soup pot.  I then added the chicken broth and a little water to make sure everything was covered.  I let it simmer for a while.  It came out fantastic.  The flavors were amazing and I hope there's swiss chard in my CSA box this upcoming week.  :)

2016 Garden Update #10

We have had a lot of rain lately.  I think we got rain for like a a week and a half straight.  So annoying.  I love rain but I hate downpours.  We needed the sun to shine.  I had to move my containers in the greenhouse so stuff wouldn't flood.

I packed everything in there because I didn't want to lose my plants.

Today, I decided to bring everything out and check all the plants to make sure they were good from the rain.  I added some more dirt to some of the pots that had some excess water.  I also cleaned out my greenhouse.  I had some trash in there I needed to get out and I swept and wiped down my shelf.

My succulents are doing well.  I still need to pot 3 and re-pot another.  I picked up some more ceramic pots this past week at the dollar tree.  All they had were orange so I picked up the last 4 they had.  I need to get some more small river rocks tho.  Might be making a dollar tree trip this week.

I also got some mushrooms from the dollar tree.  There's a cute fairy garden section.  They were sold out of everything but they had some more items restocked when  I was in there.  I had to get the shrooms.  haha

I finally have my first sprout of my hycacinth.  My mom gave me the bulb at Christmas.

From all the rain.....you can see some of the flooded mess.

I did use up all my dollar tree river rocks and put them in the gnome garden.  All I need now is a fence.  I also need to repaint some of these guys to make them like new again.

We had a visitor this past week.  When I was filling up my water jug I saw a baby bunny.  I had Nate come outside and he came over and picked up the little guy.  He wasn't scared of us at all.

I had a ladybug visit as well last weekend when the sun was briefly out.

I forgot to mention last weekend I planted some cucumbers inside.

I also planted some potatoes last weekend.

I have several small sprouts.  YAY!!!

I have some iris in my front flower bed.  One fell over and uprooted from a fast storm that passed through.  I planted it in front of the greenhouse but then decided to put it in a pot this afternoon.

It might be moved again before it gets it's final place.  haha

I went to lowes this past week.  I picked up a cherry tomato plant and 2 peppers plants.  I got some fresh dirt too.  :)

My sunflowers in the ground are taking off.  I took down the netting system I rigged up and have now placed a bunch of forks around the sunflowers to keep predators out.

I planted the sunflowers I had in the greenhouse.  I figured they needed to be with the other sunflowers.

I planted my lonely green bean in the ground.  I also have a trellis ready for when it gets bigger.  If you look close enough you will see some sprouts from the mixed flowers I planted in ground.

Inside my house at the window my plants are doing so great.  They loved that the sun was finally shining today.

I had to tape the peas to the window like I did in the past.  They needed something to help them stay up.

I have some squash ball sprouts.....this was last week.

And here they are today.  So big.  I'm gonna have to re-pot these soon.

My chives.  I love these and I have no idea why I never kept these before.  I love going over and snipping some and sprinkling them in dinner.

That's my update for now.  I hope the sun stays around for a while so my plant babies can get real big.