Sweet's First Crop

We finally harvested the last of our garden crop. Doesn't that look delish??

Of course...in comparison...to the green pepper...

...they weren't too impressive.

But Sweet was pretty darned proud of herself. This was her first crop after all. And it was just enough for each of us to get a hunk to taste. Mighty good work!

(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

My Volunteer Garden

My garden is mostly voluntary this year.

By the time we got around to planting it a very healthy squash plant of some sort was up and looked so good we hated to get rid of it. So we left it.

The leaves on these plants are huge.

As well as the blossoms.

Now we don't know what it is. It kinda looks like an acorn squash but since we didn't plant acorn squash last year I don't know how that would be in there.


Also some of the fruit looks like pumpkins. So, when it is ready I will figure out what it is and how to utilize it.


So what we are going to have is a mystery at this point but we Pickles love living life on the edge.

(c) 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Garden and Cleaning and Weekend Plans

We finally got the garden planted today. 16 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, 5 cabbages, 1 watermelon and 1 cantelope. I still need to plant zucchini and cucumbers and that will be all, I think. I would really like to plant 1 jalepeno plant but I am not sure if I will.

The dill has completely taken over the little garden. Chip doesn't want any to go to waste so when we were cleaning it out he kept planting it in pots. He also planted the parsley we found. He is hoping to have an indoor herb garden come fall. We will have to come up with something for him to keep the pots in.

Tonight I went upstairs in "cleanie meanie" mode and made the boys clean their room. They were NOT happy with me. All the time I gave them to read before bed got eaten up cleaning and putting their clothes away. Dill's clothes were stacked on his dresser and were taller than me. That boy I tell you will do anything to get out of doing something. If you have one like him you know exactly what I am talking about.

We have a busy weekend in store. I have to work and the kids have gymnastics tomorrow plus music practice on Sunday. That eats up our weekend being in town. I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow and then hope to stay home and have some mommy time on Sunday while Cool takes the picklets to music. I am seriously considering NOT going to gymnastics next term. I am tired of never being home. I do not make a good out of the home mom. My house is falling apart, my temperament is not where I want it to be and our meals three days a week have been consisting of microwave mac and cheese, TV dinners and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That doesn't include the in between meal snacks of Starburst, Twizzlers and Sea Salt and Vinegar chips. Nutritious, eh?

Well, it is almost 11:00, I have eaten all the cherries I bought for Dill and drank two bottles of water. Guess that is my cue to hit the hay. Have a good night!

Ketchup and Apple Butter

Yesterday the picklets and I made use of the pitiful crop of tomatoes and the leftover apples. Homemade ketchup and crock pot apple butter. They both turned out great and taught the picklets that making both is a process, a L-O-N-G process. Best of all: the jars all sealed, about 30 seconds after leaving the boiling bath water. YEAH!

(On a side note: The jars are resting on a Papa John's pizza box, the home of our new love. Hawaiian Chicken Pizza. OMG...that pizza is out of this world. Especially if you like bbq sauce, pineapple, chicken, onion and bacon. YUMMMMM)

I for some reason did not take pictures of the process but here is the final product. I can't tell you how excited the picklets are to have apple butter on their toast this morning. :)

© 2008 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Garden Pizza Part 2

This Spring when we planted the garden the kids planted the Pizza Garden. This past weekend we reaped the benefits of the "pizza"! Yippee!

Picked from the Pizza Garden: onion, peppers, tomatoes, parsley and basil. (Picked earlier in the season was the spinach.) I just love fresh picked veggies.

What does one do with freshly picked veggies from the Garden Pizza? Make pizza of course silly!

Whole wheat crust, fresh tomatoes, onion, two different kids of peppers, spinach (from the fridge), basil and parsley. Topped with slices of mozzerella and a sprinkling of feta. Can you say YUM?

I can definately say that the garden pizza will be part of our garden again next year. This was a fun and nutrious science lesson.

© 2008 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Strawberries

We actually have a crop of strawberries this year! In years past we would have a handful here and a handful there but this year...oh my the wonderful strawberries. I don't have enough to make jam but we have had enough for three desserts of strawberry shortcake!

copyright 2008 The Homefront Lines

Garden Pizza

This year the kids had the option to grow a pizza. Intrigued they listened intently and readily thought it was a great idea! I found plans that I liked at a couple of different places. You can find a PDF that includes a pizza sauce recipe here and a 4-H instructional here. But if you don't like either of these, just do a search and you should have no trouble finding instructions you like.

The kids decided on 6 slices of pizza. Tomato, green pepper, mixed pepper, parsley and basil. They measured out a 4 foot square at the end of garden A. They roped it off and then made a circle shape with stones.They found the middle and after practicing reading the sundial they made, started to measure out equal slices.The problem...they couldn't figure out how to get 6 equal slices.No matter what they did the slices were uneven or the wrong number. So, they decided to add extra onion and spinach to our pizza.I had to sit back and let them work this out on their own and it was killing me. But I love spinach on my pizza so all is well with the world.

After everything was planted the kids watered their creation and are waiting patiently for the day they get to use the ingredients to make homemade pizza!

©2008 The Homefront Lines

May 15th Planting of the Garden

May 15th is generally the day that planting the rest of the garden becomes safe around here. by safe I mean safe from frost and hard freeze. NOT safe from rabbits and coon...but that is another story for another day.

So, planting is what we did. The kids got to plan, map and plant the whole garden. They did a wonderful job and check the progress daily. Unfortunately it has been chilly at night, cloudy most days and rather cool for this time of year so the seeds are not growing as they hoped. But they have hopes and dreams and the weather won't squash those.

We had all this we needed to plant. We found, after reading the seed packets, that we could not plant all this. Some of these should have been started indoors 8-10 weeks before planting them outside. How was supposed to know eggplant was part of the tomato family???

C planted Kholrabi and dill at the end of garden B. I think we may end up with kholrabi mixed in with the cabbage because half the package of seeds spilled on that part.

The boys worked together trenching the tomato plants until all 9 of them were planted. It was nice to see them work together.
In garden A the kids roped off areas and planted zucchini, cucumbers (or pickles as my grandma calls them), beans and yellow squash. We have room left over that is going to be popcorn but I forgot to get the seeds from the van today. It is on the schedule for tomorrow. There is also 9 tomato plants along one of the long sides.

Garden B has a total of 10 cabbage plants, 15 pepper plants, 2 half rows of kohlrabi and 1 half row of dill, as well as raddishes and onions. It is growing major weeds and needs to be mulched which will happen this weekend.

If everything grows will will eat very well this summer with peppers and zucchini frozen and tomatos canned for winter. We will keep our fingers crossed. :)

©2008 The Homefront Lines

TV Free Day 5

Cold and rainy and did I mention cold? Weather in Iowa can change at any given moment I tell ya.

Planted rose bushes.

Put compost around cabbage plants. Doesn't that look rich?

Worked on hip and knee replacement surgery.

© 2008 The Homefront Lines

TV Free Day 3

This was a busy day! I accomplished more by noon than most people do in a whole day. OK, so I might be exaggerating but I was busy.

C and I went to my grandma's house to learn to make kolaches. Every respectable Bohemie girl and woman should know how to make these and we are no exception to that rule. And to quote my dad, "Someone needs to know how to make them besides Gaga." Gaga bakes almost everyday. Kolaches, rolls, cakes, pies...you name it, she bakes it. No better person in the world to learn from. It was priceless to see my grandma teach my daughter how to make the beloved family kolache. Comparing their hands while they worked brought a smile to my face and joy to my heart. To think my daughter has the opportunity to know her great-grandma and actually learn something so precious to my grandma's heart is something I will carry with me the rest of my life.

When the kolache baking was over and we were done "testing" them with a cup of coffee and/or Blue Bunn Orange Juice, we had to head outside to help my grandpa. At over 90 he still does most of his own yard work. He needed some help hammering a border going around his evergreens into the ground. We then had to lay grass seed into a rut. While Gaga (my grandma) and C spread the seed, I raked it in. My grandpa stood in the supervisory position...lol

We left a little after noon. We had so much fun and brought back with us memories to last a lifetime.

After DH got home we once again worked out in the lawn, this time plowing the garden and planting early veggies. We had the discussion earlier in the year where DH wanted to only plant 1 pepper and 1 tomato plant. WHAT???? How in the world would I be able to put up food for the winter with only 1 pepper and 1 tomato plant??? So, last night, I talked him into plowing another area in the yard to grow more garden! Yippee!After rototilling until dark, we have a 6x6 area completely plowed. In that area I have planted 6 cabbages, a row of radishes and a row of onions. This weekend I am going to plant another row of radishes, onions and also lettuce and spinach. He got about 1/2 of our regular garden done.We have plans to grow beans, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, multicolored peppers and various herbs as well as the plants I mentioned earlier. C wants to grow peach trees so she has asked Gaga to save her seedlings that always come up. We will plant a row of those on the north side of the house if we get them.

After eating a late supper, we were in bed by 10, exhausted by a good day's work.

copyright 2008 The Homefront Lines