Corn Harvest 2020

Well y'all the first and second harvest of corn for the year 2020 has come in! Whoop whoop! It never fails that the corn and potatoes fall within seven days of each other. No matter how strategically we plan, they always need picking around the same time. Which means, a ton of round-the-clock work for all the members of our family. Thankfully, it's early in the summer garden season and we're still in good form, lol. Come talk to us the end of July and we'll be singing a different tune. 

We have several more rows of corn coming up in stages so Lord willing we should get a decent harvest of corn. Prayerfully, we'll be able to meet our family quota and be able to sell some. 

The crazy thing about corn is you pretty much have to pick, shuck, silk, and preserve it all in the same day. Which is why it takes every one in the family helping out. 

Our first and second harvest of corn yielded over 400 ears. We shared some with neighbors, froze some ears for corn on the cob, and then skinned the rest for canned corn. 

We were super thrilled to get a good harvest of corn, because we were completely out of both canned corn and corn on the cob. Our yearly goal for frozen corn on the cob is 30 bags of ten ears and our goal for canned corn is 50 pints. These goals pretty much allow us to eat corn on the cob nearly once a week for the year and we can add canned corn to meals once a week. I'd love to put 50 bags of corn on the cob in the freezer, but that just isn't so easy when you only have two freezers. Due to limited freezer space we really have to be intentional with what we store in them. No worries though, because any extra is easily sold around these parts.

When it comes to shucking and silking the corn, everyone gathers around under the shade tree and gets to work. We even bring out the super-sized industrial fan to help cool us off. Shucking and silking corn is a great job for children. There's nothing better than finding a worm and getting to play with it, lol. Well, maybe that's just a southern country kid past time. Nevertheless, with our large crew we typically make quick work of shucking and silking hundreds of ears of corn.

All the husks and silks are brought to the compost pile to be worked back into the soil at a later date. I can't say it enough, everyone who has a garden should have a compost pile that they are continuously adding to so that you are able to add those vital nutrients back into your garden soil.

With our first two harvests of corn we managed to freeze 21 bags of corn on the cob, nearly reaching our goal with several more harvests to go. If you'd like to see how we preserve corn on the cob, check out this post.

After the children were put to bed my husband and I had a late night date skinning corn to be canned. We had a friendly competition to see who could skin the most ears ~ I won't tell ya who won, lol. 

The corn looks so pretty. It may take a lot of work to get the corn harvested and ready to preserve, but it is so worth it. There is nothing like farm fresh corn. So much so that most of us had rather not eat corn if it isn't farm fresh. I guess we're just a tad bit spoiled, peaches and cream corn really is the cream of the crop and we are so blessed to be able to grow it.

I'm so grateful for such a bountiful harvest, while we may do a ton of work planting, weeding, harvesting, and preserving we know that it is God who is the giver. It is only through the Lord that we can do anything especially in regards to gardening and growing our own food. There have been so many times over the years that we have heavily relied on our garden to feed our family. And now with my husband losing his job it seems all the more important that we grow as much as possible. I have no doubt that God is going to provide for our family one way or the other. But, it definitely fills me with much hope when we're picking like we have been this year. God truly is amazing and will always meet our every need.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Onion Harvest

This past weekend we pulled up and processed our onions. It was a quick little homestead event, even with us planting more onions than we have in a quite a few years. Thus meaning it was one of our biggest harvests of onions and for that I am super excited! It's always a blessing when your hard work is rewarded by a bountiful harvest. After all the more you grow the less you have to buy from the store ~ which is one of our biggest goals in having this little homestead. 

Harvesting onions is super easy. All you have to do is pull them straight up out of the ground! It's so easy, even our two year old got in on the action.

I'm sure it's just because it's early in the main summer gardening season, but everyone was overly happy to participate in harvesting the onions. Children are fairly similar to adults when it comes to being refreshed and recharged after a long winters rest ~ come August we'll all be struggling to keep the momentum along with the right attitude.

 Everyone got their hands dirty during our onion harvesting, which is probably why it went by so quickly. The saying "many hands make light work", is no truer than when harvesting and preserving the garden. I could barely take a few pictures and a couple videos before all the onions were picked, but, hey, I'm not complaining. The quicker we are able to get it done the quicker we can move on to the next area that needs attention on our homestead. Trust me the work is never done, no matter how hard we try to keep up.

  

Once the onions we were picked we had a crew inside washing and chopping the tops off as well as a crew outside doing the same.

We cut the tops off of the onions and discarded them into our compost pile. There's probably something fabulous you can make with them, but I've honestly never taken the time to research it.

We ended up with two large basins full of onions to process.

Once all the tops were cut off and the onions were washed, we set to processing them in our food processor. If you choose to use a food processor to chop your onions, it is important not to over process them or they will turn into mush. I prefer to just pulse them a few times and at that point they're usually the right consistency. Once they're all chopped we scoop them into freezer bags by the cup full. We place four cups of onions into each freezer bag, for the simple reason that my canning recipes typically measure in four cup increments. This way once canning season is in full swing all I have to do is pull the bags of onions from the freezer and they're already pre-measured to throw into my canning pots as needed.

Involving children in the start to finish process of growing your own food is a wonderful aspect of the homesteading movement. There are so many amazing skills to be learned on a working homestead. Life skills that can truly benefit children for years to come. When someone is taught where something comes from they obtain knowledge, but teach them how to do something and they have a priceless skillset. Knowledge combined with ability is a powerful asset that we all should be pursuing via as many avenues as possible. 

The homesteading life is an amazing platform to obtain an array of knowledge and skills. Which can in turn be passed down from generation to generation. (Sadly, many are on the cusp of extinction due to the progression of technology). There is priceless value in the art of heritage skills, growing your own food, and the family unit. I'm beyond grateful that I have had the opportunity to rekindle the homesteading skills of days gone by with my family. The memories we've made and the lessons we've learned have been more than a blessing; they've been a beacon of hope in this darkened world we find ourselves living in. As I've said time and time again ~ the back-to-basics lifestyle is not an easy life, but it is a good life. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

DIY Tomato Baskets

We've had a rocky start to this year's main summer garden due to crazy weather, but now the majority of our plants/seeds are planted ~ praise the Lord! Now it's time to get our pepper and tomato plants set up with baskets and stakes. Tomatoes and pepper plants grow best when they are staked, we like to add the cages or baskets for added security. We definitely don't want to risk losing our plants on account of storms, wind, or simply the weight of their produce.

We currently have around 100 tomatoes plants and around 30 pepper plants in the ground ~ mercy we're going to be busy this summer, lol. So all those plants needed baskets and stakes. Thankfully, we have accumulated quite a good many baskets over the years but we were definitely in need of some more. 

  

We purchased wire fencing to make some of our new baskets, but we were also gifted with some used hog wire.  Second-hand supplies are the best since they help to build the homestead on a budget. To make the baskets it's super easy. Take the fencing and create a long tube big enough to go around your plants with a little extra for plant  growth. Use wire cutters to cut the fencing and then connect the ends by using zip strips or by bending the wire around the edges to connect the two ends.

This year we splurged and purchased a few t-stakes to use to stake our plants. Any long narrow pole-like items can be used as a stake. We have used sticks, t-stakes, wooden posts, metal poles, you name it we've probably used it. Take your preferred stake and hammer it into the  ground inside of one side of the basket. Then attach the stake to the basket with either thin wire, twine, or zip strips (pretty much anything works as long as you efficiently connect the stake to the basket). To help further secure the basket, we pile some soil around the bottom of the basket on the opposite side of the stake. 

You can purchase pre-manufactured tomato baskets from the store, but they can be expensive and don't work nearly as well as the baskets made from wire fencing. We try to make the most of our money, especially on the homestead, and being able to use things over and over again is so important. We have purchased the pre-manufactured tomato baskets, but they tend to break easily. 

When it comes to the fencing we prefer the hog wire, but it's more expensive than the welded wire fencing. The only draw back on the welded wire fencing is that the holes can be a little small for putting your hand through when trying to pick the tomatoes or peppers. To circumnavigate this issues, simply cut the wire to make larger 'windows' to pick the harvest.

We've learned a lot over the past 18 years of building our little homestead, so much of it has come through trial and error. We have often searched out the wisdom from those who have walked this path before us ~ sometimes to our benefit and other times not so much. Homesteading is a very personal journey. What works for one family may not work for another. No two homesteads will ever look the same and that is absolutely okay. It's easy to get wrapped up in having a 'pretty' homestead ~ for us it's more important to keep the cost to the bare minimum and simply get the job done as efficiently as possible. These DYI tomatoes baskets may not be as attractive as the store-bought versions, but trust me when I say they are more than adequate to stake our plants for many years to come. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

New Chicken Coop

Changes are happening on our little homestead. The most recent one is our new chicken coop. This is our fourth chicken coop we've built in our 11 years of owning chickens. Our first coop we built was rather small, but we added onto it and made it work for many years with no problems. In 2017 we got rid of our first flock of chickens because they were fairly old and we wanted to start over with some young chicks. During this time we also tore down our original coop, with the intentions of building a new coop, but we ended up moving to the 'big house' that year. 

Due to the chaos of buying a fixer-upper and deciding to sell it within a month of purchasing it, my husband and I were unable to focus on building a new coop or buying chickens. But our oldest son decided he wanted to do it on his own. He built a small coop and bought 20 chicks (laying hens). Thankfully, the coop was small because when we sold the 'big house', a year later, we were able to move the coop back to our old house fairly easily. Fast forward another year and we just felt it was time to build a bigger coop. We'd actually prefer for our hens to free range all the time, but we don't have the space for that and they'd most likely eat all our crops. 

In previous years, we've also tried our hand at a using chicken tractors, but we discovered we preferred the stationary coop for our property layout. Every homesteader has to find their own way and what works best for them. There's nothing wrong with trying new things. When we're adding on to our homestead we try to take into account all of our circumstances ~ what works for one homestead may not work for another and that is perfectly okay.

We started building the new chicken coop at my FIL's shop, which is next door to where we live. We did not use any set chicken coop plans, just referenced a host of different ideas and went from there.

Before the coop got too big we used the tractor to relocate it to where we wanted it to be on our property. We haven't always had the luxury of a tractor, but it sure is nice to have around when we need it, especially when it comes to moving heavy things like our coop.

This is how we set up the inside roost and nesting boxes. Before we move the hens into their new home, we'll put a nice layer of pine shavings inside, on the floor.

This is my favorite part of the coop. Here is our 'egg grabber hatch', lol. This is located on the back side of the coop and it just makes it easier to locate the eggs.

Building the new chicken coop was a major family affair. It was a great learning opportunity for all of our children. Nothing like hands-on experience.

We up-cycled some metal off of our roof which was damaged in a wind storm recently, to finish off the roost/nesting box part of the coop. The reminder of the coop is closed in with chicken wire, including the top. We have many predators in our area so we have to make sure the coop is extra secure. We even lay some pieces of wood and blocks around the bottom of the coop to make sure the chickens are safe and sound ~ we don't want any little critters making a meal out of our prize laying hens. 

We currently have 17 chickens, which is plenty for us. We average a dozen or more eggs a day. We are planning to add some guineas and meat chickens to our homestead in the very near future. I'm not sure which ones will be taking up residence in the old coop, but rest assured it will be repurposed in some form. I'm so excited to watch our homesteading endeavors continue to grow and evolve. It really is so much fun learning new things.

 We've come a long way over the years. We've worked hard, made a lot of mistakes, but God has more than honored our efforts. I've said it time and time again, the simple life isn't an easy life, it's just a different life with amazing rewards. To be able to work alongside your most treasured people to meet the needs of your family is definitely a special gift from the Lord.

With Love & Hope

Jennifer 

Buying in Bulk

Buying in bulk has been a major blessing to our family over the years. Our first experience with buying in bulk began with just white flour and sugar from Sam's (which at that time was over an hour away). I had zero clue how to cook or bake when I was a young, newly married woman at the ripe old age of 19. It took me a year to come to the realization that I actually wanted to cook and bake, and that I could really enjoy it. It took a couple more years and a couple of babies before I jumped into cooking and baking from scratch, but once I started doing that, I quickly learned it was in our best interest to buy dry goods in bulk. 

As our family grew and we evolved into a more healthier lifestyle of eating, it became more and more practical for us to seek out a bulk co-op company to purchase our dry goods from. Since we live in small-town rural Alabama, finding a co-op company was not that easy. Thankfully, through many hours of searching, as well as networking with other like-minded families, we did finally find a co-op company. That was about eleven years ago. Because of the cost, only once a month delivery options, and the inconvenience of driving an hour to reach the co-op drop-off location; we opt to purchase a one year supply of all our necessary dry good food items.

For our large family (currently 11 living at home) that means we store around 45, 5 gallon buckets (some are 6 gallon buckets) within our home. We do not have a large house. We actually live in a doublewide mobile home. Our house is not a Pinterest house. We make our house work for us. For now our buckets are dispersed in three different closets, stacked three buckets high. We keep smaller containers of everything in our kitchen pantry for daily use. We typically fill our smaller containers once a week depending on the food item, while some may only need to be filled monthly. 

We label the buckets with masking tape and a Sharpie. We do this because often the buckets have to be switched out when we purchase a surplus of one item or another, from year to year. It's super easy to just rip off the tape and put on a new piece, instead of scribbling on the buckets. 

I really don't have an exact science as to how I figure out how much of each item we need to purchase each year. It's kind of just a given that all our buckets need to be filled and I take stock of our inventory before placing our yearly bulk order. Some years we eat more of one certain food item than another and we order accordingly. 

Through trial and error I've learned how many pounds of food fill the buckets. Different food items require different amount of buckets. For instance a 50 pound bag of quick oats fills about two and a half 5 gallon buckets. But a 55 pound bag of seas salt barely fills one 5 gallon bucket. And to be honest I'm still learning! Even with this being our eleventh year for bulk ordering, we ended up being short four buckets, so we will have to order some more. This year we purchased more bulk beans than we have in the past, and I overlooked two full buckets of oats (meaning we didn't really need any ~ sigh, good thing they won't go bad!).

The following list is the bulk dried goods we've ordered over the years. As I've mentioned before, what we order exactly each year depends on what we consume, which fluctuates from year to year. 

Prairie Gold Hard White Wheat Berries

Quick Oats

Old Fashion Oats

Steel Cut Oats

Popcorn

Cornmeal

Brown Rice

Wheat Germ

Flax Seed/ Flax Meal

Spices

Carob Powder

Carob Chips

Raisins

Cranberries

Lentils

Sunflower Seeds

Quinoa

Kidney Beans

Chick Peas

Black Beans

Pintos

Sea Salt

Barley

Yeast

Nutritional Yeast

Baking Powder

We also purchase a year's supply of honey, usually as 'seconds' which means there's some form of condensation in the honey. To us this doesn't matter and allows us to buy the honey at a discounted price. Along with the honey, we buy a year's supply of maple syrup. We buy the maple syrup by the gallons, and four of them usually meets our family's needs for the year. 

The company we use for our dried goods bulk order is from Country Life Natural Foods. We usually place our order around March after we get our income tax returns. This year it took us until the end of April for us to get our order in due to most of our needed items being out of stock. Since we order so much food, we don't usually join in on a group co-op order, our own personal order meets the necessary money quota required for a truck order. 

We order our maple syrup from Branon Maple. 

The honey comes from a local farmer we know. 

We've purchased buckets from several different places over the years, one being Emergency Essentials, but they no longer sell buckets. We have purchased them from Lowe's before too and another online container store; but I honestly cannot remember the name of that company, it was so many years ago and the buckets are not labeled with the company's name. Pretty much any bucket will work as long as it is food grade.

Ordering in bulk has so many benefits, but mostly it helps save our family money and allows us more flexibility to remain committed to eating healthy. Finding some of these items in our local stores is nearly impossible. Without the bulk food suppliers our family would not be able to enjoy such diversity in our healthy eating endeavors. While we do eat plain, simple food, on repeat for the most part, it is a blessing to be able to mix our meals up to some degree. 

There really isn't anything complicated about ordering in bulk. It's just one of those things you have to jump into and learn as you go along. Each family is going to have their own different needs, but I'm confined nearly every family can be blessed by ordering in bulk.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Preparing for Lean Times

There's no denying it, times are strange and uncertain. Life may or may not ever return to the way it once was. It could be understandably easy to sink into a hole of despair. Or you can do like our family is doing and prepare. Who knows what the future holds. I would like to think one day we will wake up and this insanity called COVID-19 will be a faint memory. But, in all likelihood, there's a good chance, this global shutdown is going to last a while longer and have dire consequences for years to come.

Our family has decided to be proactive and focused on creating solutions to our current concerns than wallowing in self-pity. I'm not going to lie, it's hard for me to keep on keepin' on. Some nights I lie awake sick, thinking about how horrible this world has become, and that I have ten children who have to figure out how to survive in it. But, I know that God is going to use all of this for the good of His people. I also know it would be a major disservice to the Lord, my family, and myself if I remained in a depressed state of mind. Instead, I'm hoping to be an example to my children on how to adjust, pivot, and roll with the punches. We don't have to succumb to this craziness, we can rise above it, and become better people as a whole.

Our family is making some consorted efforts to create practical solutions to help us thrive during this time. We want our children to feel safe and know they do not have to worry how their needs will be met. We want to shelter them from the raging storm whirling around outside our four walls. They deserve it, and my husband and I will do whatever it takes to make sure our children are well protected. The following is a more detailed synopsis of exactly what we are implementing within our family dynamics to help us survive the dire circumstances we currently find ourselves in. 

Preparing For Lean Times

1. Reevaluating Needs vs. Wants:
• Now is not the time for frivolously spending. We are praying through each and every purchase whether food, clothing, or any other item to determine if it is a necessity. 
• We are making purchases which help to reduce our over all spending, such as our new clothe line. 
• We are limiting our shopping in person as well as online, making sure every purchase is an essential item that our family truly needs.
2. Intentional Sustainability:
• We have increased the size of our garden with plants and fruit bearing trees/bushes. We are also pursuing meat chickens and other sources for food supply; such as inquiring of neighbors and friends if they know of outlets where we can find fruit trees to pick from. So far we have found a new free source for crab apples and someone who is getting rid of their canning jars.
• As cliche as it may sound, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is at the core of our daily life. We are reusing everything that we possible can ~ just the other day I salvaged a set of stand alone stairs to use as a planter station for my herbs. ALL leftovers are being eaten. Of course cloth for as many things as possible including diapers and napkins. We are trying to become a no waste family. 
• After a month of searching we were able to place our yearly co-op order. While this does not sustain us indefinitely it will meet our dry goods needs for the next year, reducing our need to purchase these items from stores or online. We've also managed to place our yearly order for maple syrup which we cook with and we're working on our yearly order for honey. All of these bulk purchases safe us money in the long run.
3. Immune Health:
• We are focusing on eating clean. Whole foods to promote a healthy immune system which can ward of disease and infection as well as give us the energy to pursue our many avenues of self-sufficiency.
• We are removing as many toxic substances as possible from our home from cleaning products to beauty products. There was a time we had minimal of these items, but I guess you could say I became negligent. I feel now is just as good as any time to get back on that band-wagon, it's really not that hard and it's certainly more affordable.
• We are making sure we have a decent stock of herbs, essential oils and vitamins to help combat ailments. We have always done this, but I guess you could say we are upping our game. We haven't been to the doctor for sickness in so many years I couldn't even tell you exactly the last time. But, the key on this one is to be proactive with necessary supplies so that when there's a need to treat a health situation, you are prepared.

Ultimately, God is in control. But, we can be used by God to fulfill His will. Having a plan and being intentional to work towards those goals is a much more positive way to use our time these days; rather than just hiding inside worrying. It is my deepest desire that throughout these crazy times our family would uphold God's word, look for the Lord's wisdom and knowledge, and not be wasteful with our time here on Earth. We are alive for a reason. None of *this* has caught God off guard. He is still in the business of providing for His people and He will continue to do so until the end of time.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

2020 Spring Planting Season

This year's spring planting season has been an eventful one to say the least. For as long as I can remember we have planted the second week of April. This year we went along with those same plans, only this year we've experienced some unusual weather. 

First we had nonstop rain, so much so that we could not plant any of our late winter plants or seeds.  Even though we didn't get the potatoes or onions planted in late winter like they were supposed to be, we decided to go ahead and get them in the ground (late) and pray for the best. 

Then we've had some unusually cold temperatures which have killed many of our plants. We've had to replant quite a bit of our tomatoes and peppers. We thought we'd lost our entire patch of sweet potatoes, but a fellow gardener informed us that they are growing just fine. Apparently the cold kills the leaves above ground, but the vines below are still growing. Lord willing that is the case, because sweet potatoes are one of my most favorite foods to grow.

We start the majority of our plants from seed either in recycled food containers or directly into the soil. We do buy some plants from the store such as tomatoes (not all of them, some tomatoes we start from seed), eggplants, peppers, and sweet potatoes. 

We've found that a lot of seeds that we'd normally plant directly into the soil do better if we plant them into small pots first and then once they get a good start, we transplant them into the soil. Those seeds include: yellow squash, zucchini, pumpkin, butternut squash, cucumber, some watermelon, and cantaloup.

Thankfully, even though we got our red and white potatoes into the ground late, they seem to be growing great. We planted four nice long rows, Lord willing we will have a nice harvest. We also have four great looking rows of green beans coming up. It's been a few years since we've had a decent harvest of green beans, but we're determined and we aren't giving up. We've yet to run out of them throughout the year, but we do have to ration them. It would be so wonderful to get a bumper crop of green beans this year.

We planted about a dozen rows of sweet corn. Our first planting had some skips in the rows so we've already gone back and replanted where some of it did not come up. We're hoping to put up ears of corn in the freezer as well as can corn. It's been a few years since we have had to can corn, but our supply is running low and it's time to restock. It's fairly labor intensive canning corn, but it's worth it once the job is done and we've got it to use whenever we want. 

We try to be as resourceful as possible with what we use in our gardens, with the intentions to keep the cost at a minimum. We stake our tomatoes and bell peppers using cages made with rhubarb fencing, a pole (sometimes we use a good thick stick), and zip strips. It may not be the most esthetically pleasing contraption, but it gets the job done. Our focus is to grow as much food as possible with the least amount of financial impact. 

We still have a good bit of planting left to do. It's still too cold for the plants that prefer hotter temperatures. In a couple of weeks we will be planting the watermelon, cantaloup, and okra. We will also plant another six or so rows of corn, to help stagger the harvest. From now until the end of August we're going to be full on, full-time gardening, picking, and preserving. Busy yet fulfilling days ahead to say the least.

To recap what we currently have planted:

Corn

Field Peas

Tomatoes

Bell Pepper

Hot Pepper

Red/White Potato

Sweet Potato

Pumpkin

Butternut Squash

Eggplant

Zucchini

Yellow Squash

Green Beans

Onions

Cucumbers

I try not to think about everything we have planned ahead of us in regards to the garden, because I would probably panic and have a melt down. In the long run it is a lot of work, but if we just remain focused on one harvest at a time, it doesn't seem like nearly as much work. Plus, when the main gardening season comes to a close and we have freezers and jars full of food to eat, it makes all the long days of hard work worth it.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Winter Canning

Oops, I guess this post should have gone before yesterday's post, but that's what happens when your'e as behind as I am in sharing what's been going on around this little ol' homestead. We're just going to roll with it, and hopefully I'll get caught up sooner than later.

Since we've decided to go full on mega gardening season this year, we knew we had to free up some space in our deep freezers. We currently have two fridge/freezer combos and two upright deep freezers. We try to reserve freezer space for venison and produce that doesn't can very well. But, come August when we are all run ragged we often freeze the field peas and tomatoes instead of canning them. So, we often have a freezer full of those two items this time of year.

Now that we're hoping for a bountiful harvest this year, we are acutely aware that our freezer space is critical; so we commenced to have a couple winter canning days. First with our frozen tomatoes and second with our frozen field peas (Mississippi Pink Eye Purple Hull, to be exact). 

We don't do anything special to freeze our tomatoes or peas. Simply shell the peas and put them into freezer baggies, and then freeze. For the tomatoes: we quarter them, making sure all the bad spots are cut off and discarded, and then put them into freezer bags and into the freezer. If it's a cherry or grape tomato we put the entire tomatoes into the bag without cutting. 

To can the tomatoes and peas from frozen, we set them into large bowls to unthaw over night before we plan to can them. I especially like to use my frozen tomatoes to make rich, thick tomato sauce. The frozen tomatoes make a perfect sauce consistency for making pizza sauce, which is why I put these pureed tomatoes into pints. Typically, when I'm making pizza sauce a pint jar of tomato sauce is sufficient.

We had quite an abundance of peas stored in our freezers. I must admit I rarely pull peas from the freezer when I'm wanting to use them in a meal. It's just so much easier to use already canned peas when preparing a meal, because they're pretty much already cooked.

We ended up with 18 pints of tomato sauce and 29 quarts of field peas (one jar of peas is not pictured because we used it for dinner). Not bad for a winter canning session. We've been hugely intentional trying to eat what we have preserved, especially in regards to eating what is in our freezers. After all, we worked really hard to grow the food and to preserve it. Even with life being so uncertain these days, it's such a blessing that another season of gardening to grow our own food is upon is. Normalcy is definitely a positive ray of hope and for that I thank The Good Lord above. 

With Love &Hope,

Jennifer

Spring Around the Homestead

Sorry Y'all I know it has been awhile, but life ebbs and flows for sure, and life has just been extremely busy. I've actually had 14 posts ready to go for a couple weeks now but getting everything set up and published has proven to be a little more challenging than I'd prefer.

We have been super busy around the homestead lately, gearing up for what we hope and pray is a bountiful harvest year. We've had so many projects going on from sewing, soap making, starting seeds, sewing seeds & planting plants in our big gardens, making new flower beds, and of course continuing with our homeschooling efforts.

 We had weeks of rain which made it difficult to plant our early spring crops. But we did manage to get in the ground some white and red potatoes as well as some onions. We planted double the onions than what we did last year. Lord willing we will get a decent harvest.

I'd really like to experiment with some different varieties of onions in the future. But, I am grateful we were able to find these onions still available; since finding garden plants and seeds isn't as easy as it has been in years past.

I know I've said it many times before, but I'll say it again; I truly love that my children have the opportunity to learn how to grow their own food.

Everyone gets their hands in the dirt around here. 

We added a new fruit arbor to our homestead. This one holds ten muscadine plants, which is like a grape. Grapes don't grow very well down here, but muscadines are a great alternative.

We started many plants this year including this entire flat filled with tomatoes. 

We also planted an assortment of herbs which were given to us by some dear friends. 

We did purchase a good bit of plants this year: tomatoes, several pepper varieties, sweet potatoes, and eggplants. We are hoping to preserve more seeds this year for next years garden, reducing our need to buy plants.

Unfortunately, due to a very late cold snap, we lost most of our sweet potatoes. We are planning to replant them this week.

Our fruit bearing bushes and trees are looking very good this year. We currently have blueberries, pears, apples, peaches, plums, blackberries, and figs. 

Even though we purchased 'late blooming' fruit trees and bushes they often get a little excited over early warm weather and bloom a little too soon causing us to lose our harvest.

We are fervently praying that this will not be the case this year. We are all super excited and hopeful for a bumper crop of fruit this year! 

Currently in the ground we have tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, onions, white & red potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, field peas, green beans, and corn. We have a good bit of seed starts growing to help stagger our garden harvest. 

I've been collecting canning and preserving items over the weeks such as vinegar, sugar, and canning lids. We have been diligently working to wrap up household projects and finish our academic year before the harvest begins. It won't be long before we're knee deep in produce! Fun times ahead for sure!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer