Today's Harvest

We've been shelling peas like mad today. I put these in the freezer on a piece of parchment. Did you knowI Love to Cook at Kitchen Kneads has parchment precut for cookie sheets? My husband went and bought us pizza. Maybe that defies the purpose of gardening which is healthy eating. But it made it possible to get more done. We found out Pizza Plus has a gluten free crust so that was nice. The cheese might do me in. It seems like my milk allergy is getting worse. 

I picked a head of broccoli and some green onions today. I can't wait to eat them! And I pruned the tomato plants too. I got rid of all the leaves and branches touching the ground. They are just reaching the tops of the cages and just starting to bloom. 

How to plant peas in your square foot garden...

First of all, It's good to have a nice reference book.  

You can see the back of the book is arranged by vegetable type. 

I flipped open to the peas.

Then I soaked all of the peas.  ALL OF THEM. Duh.  Spring and fall's peas.  I ended up giving the rest to my sister-in-law.  

And then I went out to my square foot garden and placed the seeds in the soil.

And covered them up.

And it's looking pretty good! The rock on the lower right side is covering a vole hole. We added mole/vole bait that will break down into a garden friendly substance and sorry but the name escapes me right now. Those little critters are like mice/moles and they think my garden is their playground, and my lawn, and my window wells -gravel inches deep doesn't even bother them.

The peas are planted and good thing too because I just used the last of them in my parrot's food.

Harvest Monday - July 30, 2012

Kiwi is sneaking a a Victory Freezer pea just seconds after I dumped them on the table. 

I gave him this one and then I put him in the living room on the window sill to snack on it.

I had several little helpers.  My son and Kiwi both thought that they needed to shell peas.  My son was a great big help.  Kiwi was not although he was very cute to watch.

My daughter was all excited about the new oven mitts I made.  I should not go into the Bernina shop in the old Main Street area.  It's a fun little quilt shop, I think it's called Stylish Fabrics or something like that.  I purchased the patterns, two fat quarters, the rick rack, hobbs 80/20 batting, and the insul-batting. Now I'll be making some more for Christmas gifts ...

My son said it looked like an angel.

Just having fun with the 50 mm lens.

Here they are all spread out on the silpat in the cookie sheet.  This way they freeze individually.  I don't blanch them before.  I learned this from Stoney Acres. They are so tasty this way.  If I get a craving for something sweet, I can just grab a handful of frozen peas.

 I like to cover them up before I pop them into the freezer just incase someone tries to dump them on accident.

I also picked 12.5 lbs of green beans.  Thankfully my husband helped me snap the ends off.  I'll be canning those this afternoon. I grew one 15 foot row of wax beans and 90 feet of Jade Bush green beans. They are my favorite green bean after trying several different types.  I will get two more pickings off the plants before the grasshoppers mow them to the ground.

 Where has this summer gone?  At least we have plenty of fun memories.