Potsy Garden 7-30-2020 & an Update

Potsy Garden Update 7-30-2020

&

Keeping Busy 

During the last few weeks of this crazy summer, I've been trying to stay busy.  For inspiration, I've been reading lots of blog posts and PINNING LOL.  Usually they inspire me with menu ideas, recipes, gardening knowledge.  I may or may not have also pinned about 10,000 ideas for rebuilding our house.  But... Doug isn't pinning and seems to be not very inspired about even making a plan for the new house.  Ah well.  What can ya say?  We are comfortable and there is no rush.  Plus, building supplies seem to be at a premium right now - so for now we will wait a little longer on that house rebuild thing.

One of the blogs I have recently been enjoying is Hickery Holler Farm Blog.  The Canned Quilter puts us all to shame as she works hard staying busy with lots of cooking, canning, baking, sewing, and gardening.  Her family is surely blessed!  I love to just scroll through the many glimpses of her life that she has shared.  I never fail to take away some knowledge or inspiration.  Please check out her blog!  It will be your new favorite, I'm sure!

My potsy garden is doing great!  Its growing like gangbusters and I'm getting a few things out of it.  

• Early Girl tomatoes - I'm not a huge fan of these tomatoes but I'm getting several each day.  They just don't have a lot of taste.  Probably won't plant this kind next year.  Tomatoes should be juicy, red, and flavorful.  Ah well.  You learn something every time you do it.
• Grape yellow tomatoes - These are doing great!  Slow to mature but I'm seeing more every day.
• Beets - I planted a baby tomato plant in with  my beets and it seems to have stunted the beets.  Next year, they get their very own pot all summer!  I wanted to pickle beets and make Rasberry Beet Jelly.  Planting more for fall so I may be in the business yet this year!
• Cucumbers - Not sure what kind I planted. They are good but are small and only have been getting a few a week.  Need more for Sweet Pickle Relish or dills.  We love pickles and I love the relish.  Sooo good on a BBQ hotdog!  
• Yellow Squash - My squash plants are doing great!  I planted two in a small raised flower bed that I filled with homemade compost.  The squash are coming in fast now and I'm loving them!  I grew up eating so much yellow squash. See this mammoth? 

• Watermelon - I have three babies!  I've never grown them before and planted them in the small, raised flower bed.  Vines are crawling everywhere!  Bring it on!  I'm ready for sweet watermelon any day now!
• Cantaloupe - I have one nice big baby cantaloupe.  Awaiting it to ripen so I can try it out.  First time for me for growing this.
• Pole Beans (greenbeans) - Lots of vines growing like crazy but blooms or beans yet.  
• Carrots - I planted flowers in the pot with the carrots.  Oops.  They need their own pot.  I tore out the leggy flowers and planted more carrots.  We shall see about them later on this summer.
• Zinnas - These do great in pots and make such nice cut flowers.  The more you cut them, the more they grow.  Who needs expensive garden center flowers when you can save your own seeds and plant more zinnias.  (The chamomile in this picture came from the overgrown field behind our yard.)

• Dill - Did great in pots.  Will plant more next year.  I love the smell!  Nothing like it and I can use it for dips and pickles.

Fall Planting

I've got to get more things coming in and think I still have some time.  Since I have room after pulling some leggy flowers and some space in my tilled garden area, I planted more:

• Beets
• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Pumpkins (for pie)
• Cabbage (I have dreams of making sauerkraut... fingers crossed!)

Hickery Holler has also inspired me to get my freezers loaded for the winter.  Who knows what will happen with this virus.  I'm getting ready in case stuff gets serious around here.

• Banana Bread - I used my Crockpot Tin Can Banana Bread recipe but baked in the oven in loaf pans until a knife came out clean when inserted into the middles.  I doubled my recipe and used six overripe bananas I had in the freezer.  I am eating one loaf for breakfasts and froze the other loaf.

Notice I discovered a muffin tin makes a 

great place to cool bread loaves.  :)

• Zucchini Bread - No picture but I used Hickery Holler's recipe.  It made a large loaf and some muffins.  Good stuff!
• Croutons - On grocery pickup day, I snipped all the stale bread and buns into croutons and baked until dry in the oven.  Doug will throw everything out if I don't get it done first.  I don't even use any oil or seasonings.  They are excellent plain and I can store it in the freezer and eat with soup or on salads.  Homemade Tomato Soup and Homemade Alphabet Soup are both great to store in the freezer. I can also use them for Homemade Stovetop Stuffing.  

For suppers, we are still eating "in".  I've not cooked so much since my girls were little and we were counting every penny.  LOL.  Some of our favorite meals lately were:

• Quick Pizza Crust - I made a double batch of dough and made one pizza with mozzarella and pepperoni; the other with pepper jack / sharp cheddar cheese and triangles of lunchmeat ham.  Very good.  Caseys and Pizza Hut having got nothing on my homemade pizza!  If you can run a sink of hot dishwater, you can make this crust.

• BBQ Burger Patties - We get pre-patted beef burgers from the local meat/butcher shop.  We love them leftover for lunches as well as for supper.
• Italian Marinated Chicken w/ mashed potatoes, corn, and hoecake biscuit.  (Recipe coming soon for the chicken because we love it!)
• Southern Stewed Squash & Onions - This is a huge family favorite!  Of course, Doug wouldn't eat it if his life depended on it.  I'll post the recipe soon.  Yes, mine has seeds.  I don't mind the seeds and even somewhat overgrown squash turned out fine in this dish.  I make a huge batch once a week and eat on it all week w/ different main dish items.  Squash is the one thing my family ate in Florida all.the.time.  We rarely had canned vegetables.  Mostly it was stewed squash, fried squash, fried okra, stewed tomatoes, sliced tomatoes, rice, big limas.  Stuff like that. 

• Tacos w/ Spanish Rice - I just add 1/2 cup of salsa to my long grain rice (parboiled  cooking instructions on the bag.  It makes perfect Spanish Rice.  I'll eat it leftover until it's completely gone.

• Spaghetti Sundays! One Sunday, both of my girls and I were all three making Spaghetti Sunday.  We each make homemade sauce, tweaked our own way using ground beef usually.  Sometimes meatballs, sometimes not, but always yummy and after a day of swimming makes the whole house smell good!

For snacks and desserts, I've made lots of cookies and a few other things like:

• Super Simple Vanilla Ice Cream - I made for Doug's birthday.  good stuff and I used my little Cuisinart tabletop ice cream maker.  Rachel gave us hers and it's such a treat.

• Frozen Bananas - Great for cold treats that prolong your snacking enjoyment.  I use overripe bananas, freeze on a plate, and store in a large baggy.

• Homemade Chocolate Pudding - I had mine ladled over a hoecake biscuit.  Cause, who has hot, chocolate pudding without serving it as "Puddin' & Biscuits"?

I am extremely blessed during this crazy time to be enjoying warm summer days filled with time on the patio sharing talks, laughs, and a few tears with my sweetie, time in the garden babying my plants, caring for a wild kitty who is letting us win him over, and preparing delicious food from my stocked pantry.

Take care y'all!

Gina