Good Surprises

In this update to Grandma’s Garden I first will tell you about a volunteer zucchini plant that grew under the care of the grape plant we planted last year. I gave it some compost from our bin, and apparently we had at least one zucchini plant we got rid of some seeds into the compost last year.

Here is a picture of the progeny from that plant.

We turned some of those into shredded zucchini, and froze it to make zucchini bread with.

ANCIENT AFGHAN

Another thing that was a great surprise was while cleaning the garage, I found something I had searched frantically for in there in the past, but didn’t find then. My mother had given me a box that had belonged to her mother. In it was an afghan she had started for me years ago. It was squares she had knitted, and sewn together in strips. This was new learning for her in her seventies. Previously she had crocheted, but never knitted. She knitted these squares from a knitting book for learning to knit, sewing the squares together to turn into an afghan. What a treasure to find! I sewed the strips together, and viola! Her afghan for me was finished.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

We also celebrated the 10th anniversary of our granddaughters birth this month. Didn’t know this would change her into a dinosaur. She had fun scaring us as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Everyone also enjoyed the carrot cake. It was store bought cake. We just don’t have time to do everything ourselves, but it still really tasted good.

I

I

I

I

I

CARROT HARVEST and PRESERVATION

The real challenge was to harvest our carrots, and can them. Here is a picture of them harvested in the wheel barrow.

This next photo is them after I take their tops off. I actually harvested two big bowlful’s.

Next picture is after I peeled them. The canning recipe says to peel the carrots, otherwise the peels will get stringy, and they will be bitter when canned if you leave the peels. I didn’t mean to get the ketchup packet in the picture, but it does help to give some representation of size.

I was very tired of peeling. After they were peeled, I put them through the kitchen Aid slicer attachment.

Then I put them in the previously sanitized, and hot jars, poured some hot water up to within an inch of the top of jars, sealed them with the hot lids, and put them in the pressure canner. Our canner is off by one pound, so instead of the 11 pounds pressure, I made sure to go to at least 12 pounds pressure. It was vented for ten minutes, then held at that pressure for 30 minutes, according to the canner instruction book.

And the final results are just beautiful. I made 7 jars last Friday. Then my husband and I made another 7 quarts on Sunday!

ANOTHER HARVEST

We also harvested almost thirty pounds of red and gold potatoes from our garden this season. Had some cubed and fried by my husband last night, with scrambled eggs on the side. Yum!

Thank you for joining me in this episode of Grandma’s Garden. Next time I will show how we remake a room in our home to prepare our home to be shown, so we can sell it, and head for our new life. This time in a place without a home owners association, and I am hoping also for some land for bigger garden surprises!

If your into reading the Bible, read;

Proverbs 31: 10-31 Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character.

Blessings to ALL,

Grandma