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Canning/Harvest

Harvest 2021

Keira

This post is probably boring to everyone but me, so you have my permission to move on. But if you like gardens and knowing totals, you might find one information here:

In thinning the carrots, I picked about 3 gallons when the stems were off. That made 10 jars of pickles carrots. And boy are they pretty with all the different colors in there. Note to self, Cosmo purple aren’t great for canning. I took a risk and left the skins on just to hilight the purple that is only on the outside and they are still orange when canned, but the brine is red-tinted. Not worth it. However the atomic red are pinkish in the jar, and make a nice addition. I haven’t found too many of them, yet. And they don’t really scream red, but in a jar full of real orange, yellows, and whites, they’re different and elegant.

The lunar white carrots taste amazing, but they kept getting rooty and seedy. Not cool. I guess I can’t say for sure if was the lunar whites, it could have been the mystery whites from the Sow Easy packet.

The varieties I planted.

I will have to go thin them again (or at least harvest them) but it was nice to harvest and get the canning ball rolling. And my preschooler that hates carrots will now eat them… In pickled form.

I put all the pretty ones in the same jar.

I really want to find a way to plant carrots so I don’t have as much early thinning. I tried mixing them with sand this year and it didn’t work, I still ended up with bald spots and over-crowded spots that I wasted tiny seedlings. And with the sand, I ended up with carrots all over my garden from seeds not staying in their spot.

I thinned the beets, too. I planted Detroit Dark Red and Ruby Queen. My family has always done Detroit Dark Red… But I might be a traitor because Ruby Queen has grown amazingly and they’re so much easier to peel. It’s already time to harvest the Ruby Queen beets, but the Detroit Dark Red can stay longer. There is definitely a difference in color. One is really purple compared to the other.

I got 6 1/2 pints. I can’t remember how many gallons of just roots from harvesting, though.

And oh the peas! My peas have been crazy this year. I planted 4 rows, 6″, 12″, and 6″ apart like I usually do… And I’m not gonna do that again. Usually they don’t come up so well and then I have some on either side of my string trellis and it works out. Next year, I will plant them with a walkway between them. Or at least use better string/twine! They snapped the string and I had to deal with vining swampy peas. No fun. But I got 6 harvests of 2 gallons each! And I’m still getting about a gallon every few days now.

How many have I managed to get in the freezer? Um… 1/2 a gallon of just peas, and 1/2 a gallon of peas and baby carrots from my first thinning. The rest have gone into just about every meal I’ve made over the summer. Or straight into little mouths. Am I complaining about that? Not in the slightest. But it tells me that 4 rows is my minimum.

However, green beans… I planted those darn things twice and something keeps eating the new sprouts! I even placed forks in the rows to keep things out and they eat around the forks. Which makes me think that field mice really like bean sprouts. So I bought 11 lbs from my friend and it made 27 pints.

My other purchase for canning so far has been cherries. I thought I’d missed them, and wasn’t willing to pay upwards of $5 per lb, so I didn’t think I’d get to use my new cherry pitter this year. Then I was walking down the produce aisle at the grocery store and saw cherries for $1.99/lb! I snatched up 4 bags (couldn’t bring myself to get more) and filled the jars half full (I want to use the juice just as much as the cherries), boiled the pits (for not nearly long enough) to get more meat/juice off of them (eventually I’ll have a steam juicer) and put about 3/4 a cup of what I had boiled in each jar, filling the rest with simple syrup of 1:4 (sugar:water). I hope they’re not too sweet, I used internet suggestions. It made 13 qts, so 2 lbs per batch. Remember, that’s about half full, though.

And, as a note to myself, I made a video of my garden, but I don’t want to add it here because it has identifying location features.

Canning/Harvest

Tomato Varieties

Keira

This is more of a tomato diary than anything. If you don’t care about tomatoes, keep moving, haha.

Firstly, I planted tomatoes on April 15th. Not as early as I wanted to, but last year I planted them too early and they all got root-bound so late is better in this case. In my growing zone I don’t actually put them in the soil until the weekend after memorial day (we always get caught off guard by one last super cold day and too many people lose their tomatoes. I don’t wanna be one of those people), so we still have plenty of time. I planted 3 of each variety.

I bought an heirloom seed packet from David’s Garden (no commission. Just pretty impressed with his seeds. No one is paying me or rewarding me for this post). This included Slicing Black Prince, Striped German Hybrid, Slicing Moskovich Slicing, Beefsteak Brandywine, Beefsteak Cherokee Purple, Beefsteak Cherokee Green, Beefsteak Great White, Beefsteak Valencia, Beefsteak Yellow Brandywine, and Beefsteak Rose. I also had cherry, pear, Roma, and Rutgers tomato seeds from years past, Carbon seeds from Baker Creek Seeds (kind of a seed nerd girl favorite. All their catalogs are so pretty and I feel fancy ordering from them), and Delicious tomato seeds from Gurney’s seeds (I like their seeds but they’re never in a rush on shipping, so order *way* early).

The only ones not claiming “heirloom” status are my Roma, the Delicious and Cherry tomatoes (though I have a packet of Cherry tomaotes that do say heirloom. This packet is older so I grew it this year (I like my other one better, though), and the Striped German (it’s the only one that says hybrid in the title). I want to keep seeds, done all the research on how to do it, but I haven’t managed to do it yet. I’ve also never managed to compare seed packets like I’ve wanted to before, so I’m at least checking that off my bucket list. Fingers crossed I can stick with it.

If you want to see how last year went, I’ve got a gorgeous tomato picture in this post. The same seeds were used.

Today is April 27th and I feel like I need to get this all written down before I forget it all.

First, the Delicious seeds popped out of their pods first. They’re growing amazingly well. Next (a very close second) were the Valencia, White (surprisingly. The packet said they’re hard to grow. And I got a whole 4 white tomatoes last year, so it’s probably not wrongn), and Brandywine. They all have their second set of leaves. I think the Black Prince will catch up, they’re all kind of showing their heads, but just barely. Then I have 1 German, 2 Moskovich, 2 Purple, 2 Roma, 2 Green (plus a sneaky volunteer. I dropped a seed when I planted and it landed right in the hole, I guess), 2 Yellow, 2 Rose, and 2 cherry. My Rutgers, cherry, and pear seeds are losing the race. The Rutgers have sprouts but none of them look healthy, they still have the seed shell on them and they’re tiny. I’ve got some sprouts starting to show in my cherry pods, and not a single pear tomaoto is showing, which surprises me because I always have a *ton* of Pear and Cherry tomaotes by season end. Fingers crossed the rest show up but each day looks less promising. I also have an extra white and a mystery plant. The white seeds were both little and stuck together so I left them (like I said, they’re supposed to be hard to grow). And when everything was planted I found a random seed and didn’t want to put it back in the wrong spot, so I just threw it in some soil. We will see what it turns out to be).

I intend to keep 2 plants from anything that grows, and the 3rd plant I will send to my parents. They live in a different growing zone (I’m in 5B and they’re in 7A), but I wanted an accurate idea of how things grew and didn’t want to have open garden space because something didn’t grow well, and my mom said plant some for my dad, too, so my dad getting the surplus is a win for both of us.

More to come…

May 23 Update

I transplanted tomatoes (and my sunflowers) on the third of May. I decided to re-plant some of the problematic ones. For science. Some were just extra for my mom (I had the space). Instead of writing lots of paragraphs, it seems easier to just start putting everything in chart form. I like charts.

Varietyreplantedtotal notes
Delicious03Still doing crazy well.
Valencia03Doing well. Turned the grow light off because they were getting sunburned (weird) but nothing else has suffered from not having it on.
Purple03Interesting note: I thought only 2 would survive (only transplanted 2) but the other guy was just a late bloomer. He’s currently got his second set of leaves and I’m about to transplant him.
Green02growing well. I had 4 plants (one volunteer seed) but one didn’t grow and my children … loved on the other one. This plant also got sunburned from the growlight. I didn’t replant because my mom doesn’t care for green tomatoes.
Yellow02Growing well. Didnt replant because my Mom doesn’t care for yellow either. She’s more of a classic tomato fan.
White03I have 2 unlabeled plants now (thanks kids) so maybe 1 is the extra white one? They’re looking a little weak. Thin, long stems. The packet that came with advised planting a fish with them, so when I put them in he ground, I most definitely will!
Brandywine03The tallest plants now! They’re getting eager to be transplanted but I never dare plant tomatoes in the ground until after Memorial Day.
Roma25I thought I was only getting 2 Roma plants so I planted another for science and an extra one for my mom. 2 days ago the last little Roma popped his head out of the dirt! The other 2 (planted May 3rd) have their second set of leaves now, but that guy’s pulling through!
Rose13growing as expected
Moskovich131 plant doing really well. One on the short end. replanted one appropriate size for being re-planted.
Cherry23Same as Roma, thought I was only getting 2 cherry plants so I planted 2 more just to make sure I had enough to send to Mom and I have a little seedling growing well! the original 2 are growing well. the second planting have not sprouted yet. But that 3rd little guy is growing!
Pear33One pear plant transplanted with the rest. Replanted 3 to make sure I got enough. 2 have sprouted from the second set.
German24ishI thought I was only getting 1 German so I replanted 2 more. When I was checking on my seedlings today, the 2 I had all but given up on are starting to break through the soil. No leaves out yet, but there are 2 living plants coming up. One of the replants is also up. the original plant is doing well and about 6″ tall.
Carbon23ish1 carbon made it to transplanting and is doing well. one was decapitated when the seed shell didn’t come off right (I need to figure out how to help them with that). It’s still alive, but I’m not counting it a survivor. one of the replants is up with it’s second set of leaves. And as I was evaluating all of the other late-bloomers, I’ve got a carbon sprout working it’s way out.
Black Prince221 plant is growing well. 1 replant is sprouted with a second set of leaves.
Rutgers306 plants and 1 was decapitated when the seed shell didn’t come off, one still has the seed shell on and I don’t wanna repeat the problem (but it’s not growing), and the new ones haven’t even sprouted yet. Don’t think I’ll keep trying these.

Recipes

Slow Cooker Gumbo

Keira
  • 1 pound andouille sausage
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil (I use grapeseed because that’s what I have)
  • 1 cup flour (I use wheat)
  • 2 bell peppers, cored and diced
  • 3 celery stalks
  • 1 small onion
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 quart jar stewed tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning (my kids will eat this but I cut it down if my mom’s coming to visit)
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne (I leave it out when serving kids or grandmas)
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1/2 c small-cut cauliflower (leave out if freezing. Not authentic but I like to pack veggies in and it’s not too far-fetched in a gumbo)
  • 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
  • 1 cup okra (if you have it. We don’t, usually)
  • 1 pound peeled and deveined raw shrimp (mine’s frozen)
  • salt and pepper
  • Prepared rice
  • Optional toppings: green onions, fresh parsley, or avocados (Avocados aren’t authentic but they are delicious).

Slice sausages. In a regular-sized frying pan, brown sausage coins (2-ish minutes). Place in crock pot.

While the sausages are browning, I start slicing my trinity of vegetables (peppers, celery, and onion). It carries over into my roux stage, but I’m pretty fast at dicing and my stove is right next to my cutting board. If you don’t have ideal circumstances, definitely do the mis en place version and slice your veggies first! And do it as fast as you can at the beginning of your roux, because toward the end it goes much faster.

Once the pan is available, add the oil and begin slowly adding flour, mixing in as you go. It will be pastey. This is called a roux. It’s a staple in cajun cuisine. Turn the temperature down to medium. If you’re still slicing veggies, stir your roux about every quarter of each of the vegetables, but adjust based on need. Don’t burn your roux! If you do, start over on it!

Once your roux is about the color of chocolate (20-30 mins. It starts slow but gains momentum), add the trinity. Mix it around and it kind of coats the veggies. Then mash and finely dice the garlic. After the veggies have been in the pot around 5-8 minutes, add the garlic to the mixture. Cook it one more minute, stirring constantly. The veggies should just be turning translucent and soft. Add the whole mixture to the crockpot.

Add in the chicken stock and mix it around to encorporate everything. Then add the stewed tomatoes, creole seasoning, paprika, cayenne, and bay leaves. Set crock pot to low. It will need to simmer 4-6 hours.

At any point, depending on preference (I add about halfway through, but have added it at the beginning before), add chicken, okra, and cauliflower.

Half an hour before serving, defrost the shrimp under hot water and add it to the pot. If your shrimp is defrosted, add it at 20 minutes. This is also when I start my rice (unless I’m using day-old rice. I do, regularly).

The gumbo is ready when the shrimp are pinkish and opaque, not clear. They also kind of curl in on themselves.

Adjust salt and pepper, as needed. Remove bay leaves.

To serve, place rice in a bowl, pour gumbo over the top, and add toppings of choice, if desired.

To freeze: don’t freeze it with the rice or if you added the cauliflower! But you can still freeze it with the proteins. Let cool. Scoop desired amounts into ziploc freezer bags. Freezes for approximately 3 months with shrimp, 6 months without it.

A Day in the Life, Educational, Life Lessons

Today’s Adventure Down a Rabbit Hole

Keira
close up of rabbit on field
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So, there I was, minding my own business (aka cleaning the front room while my children are watching educational television -*cough,* Octonauts, *Cough*), and I overhear that the whale has a sunburn.

So, my curious brain decides to google if whales really can get sunburned.

Turns out they can.

Apparently they can get tanned, too! (Source)

But that’s not all!

black hippopotamus laying on ground during daytime
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Hippos don’t get sunburned because they secrete a red sticky substance that not only refracts the sun, it keeps bugs away. Beauty companies are studying hippos in order to mimic it in makeup. (Side note: when telling all of this fascinating info to my sister, she informed me that The Lion Guard lied! One of their episodes talks about hippos getting burned. Is that not the epitome of mom-to-modern-preschoolers life? Haha, not only are we discussing random facts we learned in one kid show, we are cross-examining it with another kid show. … Here’s where you ask us how much we let our kids watch and we tell you to mind your own kids, thank you very much).

Anyway, you should also know that domesticated pigs can get sunburned and heat stroke, but wild pigs don’t. The fur on a wild pig has been bred out of our domesticated breeds.

But wait, there’s more.

Elephants and rhinos can get burned. That’s why they hang out in the mud.

agriculture cows curious pasture
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So, hippos nope, but elephants and rhinos, yes. (source)

And cows and newly-shorn-sheep can get burned, too! I asked my mom (dairyman’s daughter) if that was true and she said yes, and she has seen it personally. Lighter-colored cows turn pink when they’re sunburned! I know you were just dying to learn that.

Apparently, researchers are discovering the more plants with chlorophyll an animal eats, the more likely they are to burn (no good source but enough you can see a connection. my best one has since been taken down. Google it, though). But also some research in humans who take chlorophyll supplements have started to emerge). I guess I can see it… chlorophyll collects sun rays. Who knew the plants were getting revenge, amiright?

But that’s not all! Did you know that darker skinned people have a harder time converting sunlight into vitamin D (source)!?! This one kinda blows my mind because this pale-skinned northerner is not so great at having enough vitamin D whenever they take my labs. In fact, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, so it’s kind of a big deal for me to get enough sunlight. But I checked other sources, and they all agree. The lighter the skin, the better the ability to convert sunlight into vitamin D. So, the ancestors that used to live near the equator had darker skin so they would not burn as easily, but they also get more sunlight, making that the necessity. And the ancestors that lived to the north were paler because they needed to absorb and convert the sun rays into vitamin D because the sun wasn’t as available to them. Bodies are awesome.

I don’t know if I really needed to learn all of that, but it’s fascinating, isn’t it? And now you know all that useless information, too! You are so much better informed, now! You’re welcome.

And, see? Octonauts are educational!

And my floor was clean for a whole 2 seconds while they were distracted, so… totally worth it.

Keira at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Sponge Bath

Summer

Dear Readers,

As I have stated before, my kids love water. We are always looking for new ways to play in the water.

Today we decided to add sponges to our bath. My toddlers loved scrubbing the wall and each other.

You can use sponges to add another layer of sensory play. Another way to use sponges is to help your toddler learn the different body parts.

“Scrub your leg.”

“Now scrub your arm!”

All you need is sponges and a bath. You can add other aspects, we chose to add bubbles and color. It was so much fun!

Summer at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Tweezer Activity

Summer

Dear Readers,

Today I decided to work on the pincer grasp. Getting ready for pencil grasp will be important for when they begin writing.

This activity can have multiple levels of difficulty. To begin we had to make our tweezers. There are a couple different ways to make tweezers, but we chose to use some straws and hair ties. First you fold the straws in half (we chose these thick shake straws). Then you use the hair ties to wrap the fold. This makes the straw stay in the form of tweezers.

The easiest item we had to pick up was cotton balls. We also had varying sizes of beads to make it a little more difficult.

The girls played with this for a while, moving the items from bowl to cup and back again.

Summer at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

National Read Across America day: Puppet Play

Summer

Dear Readers,

National Read Across America day is today! We decided to celebrate it by putting on a puppet play, but first we needed to have the puppets.

Puppets are easy enough to make. All we did was cut a gingerbread man outline out and then customize them. Once the customization was done we glued them onto the giant popsicle sticks. And there you have it, we had puppets ready for our play.

The play we chose was the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf. The girls loved making the puppets and had varying amounts of help.

With the puppets done the kids were able to put on the play. They enjoyed telling the story over and over and over again. They put on the play multiple times for us because they had so much fun doing it.

If you have kids like mine, you’ll need to be prepared to sit through multiple renditions. But on the bright side you won’t have to do much for it.

Summer at searchforseven.com
Brag, Educational, Kids Need Play

Read Across America Day: Complete a Reading Challenge

Keira

Dear Reader,

Happy Read Across America Day! Or, happy birthday to Dr Seuss, if you’d rather. In honor of Dr Seuss’ birthday, I wanted to share a great accomplishment we just reached at our house! My preschooler has reached her goal of reading 1000 books! And my toddlers are at 500.

Okay, they can’t read. But they can listen. And they do!

I kinda just said, yeah, sure when the library offered the program, thinking it was a good way to dedicate snuggle time to my then-toddler while her twin sisters were still tiny (read: super time-consuming and attention-needing). They helped me download the Beanstack app and signed me up for the challenge linked to their library (I know a lot of libraries all over the US use the app, check with your library!), and that allowed us to start earning prizes. So far we have earned games, book bags, shirts, simple crafts, and a handprint on the library wall!

My toddlers don’t really care about the prizes, but they love the trips to the library. And they love books! I guess that’s the real benefit to the challenge. To have such a love of books at a young age is amazing. And my preschooler is already listening to chapter books at night. The kid that never.sits.still will curl up in my lap and sit for a solid 20-30 minutes and listen to intermediate-level chapters! It’s her favorite part of the night. Story time has slowly gotten longer and longer, and honestly, even though it takes more of my time, I love it, too.

I hope, in honor of Dr Seuss, you pick up a book today. And I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. And if you don’t… You’re reading the wrong books!

Keira at searchforseven.com

Kids Need Play

Proprioceptive Ball Play

Summer

Dear Readers,

I have some children who are constantly seeking proprioceptive input. I pretty sure I have said this in a previous post but proprioceptive input is the input from joints, muscles and connective tissues that underlie body awareness. It can be obtained by lifting, pushing, and pulling heavy objects, including one’s own weight.

I have had this exercise ball for many years and haven’t brought it out until now. It has been hidden in a corner and I am regretting that I haven’t thought to bring it out before now.

The kids have loved playing with the ball and I don’t have to watch them too closely while they play with it. My oldest (the biggest seeker of the proprioceptive input) has especially loved exploring what she can do with the ball. It has been a great help.

Summer at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Park Play

Summer

Dear Readers,

With grandma coming for a visit we needed something simple and fun to do. With the weather being so nice I thought it would be the perfect time to go to the park.

My girls love the park, and had a blast. The best part about the park is that there are so many options on what to do. There is the slide, or swings, or even the splash park when it is warm enough. There are also fields so if we had brought a ball we could have played with that, or climbed trees.

Not all parks are equal, but the chance to get outside is always a plus. And like I said there are lots of options you can do at a park, even if they don’t have a playground.

Summer at searchforseven.com