The garden has been keeping us busy. The weeds got away from us and now we are really working hard to gain the upper hand! We are going to be doing away with the grassy aisles – it looks beautiful right after weed eating…however it is a lot of work and gets out of hand easily. The grass/weeds also come up along the insides of our beds…NOT a good thing.
We have been picking a lot of green beans from our bush bean plants. We grew Blue Lake and Provider bush beans this year. The Provider appears to be a much more prolific producer and we can’t tell much difference in the taste….so next year we will most likely stick to Provider. The canner has been going non-stop the last few days!
I think we are well on our way to our supply for the year. Our pole beans should start producing in the next couple of weeks and then I’ll begin canning again. Green beans are a staple in our home. Sometimes the boys will open a jar to eat for lunch….just cold, canned green beans.
It seemed like Strawberry season was a long one this year. We have had strawberry cobblers, fresh fruit, strawberry ice cream and plenty of freezer jam. I’ll be doing some strawberry syrup next to have with our made-from-scratch buttermilk pancakes and waffles!
My mother-in-law taught me to make freezer jam before I had children. My Grandmother taught me to make regular cooked jam. I hadn’t made freezer jam for many years but was inspired by my friend Julie to put my hands to it again. I’m so glad I did! I had forgotten how wonderful it tastes and will look forward to eating it when the snow flies! I think I will do some raspberry also.
We celebrated Josiah’s 15th birthday in June. What a wonderful young man and such a blessing to this family. Josiah wants to be a farmer…and plans to hand this farm down to his children some day. He asked for a cake that reflected one of his favorite games “Pirates of the Caribbean”…a card game of sorts. He also asked to have a ship sailing into the fog….FOG????….how do you make fog out of icing and cake? Well…you don’t….I found some “fog-colored” cotton candy. The first time it turned out wonderful but by the time dinner rolled around the “fog” had completely disappeared…too much moisture in the air I think. Wish I had taken a picture of the first go around but here is my fog, quickly re-applied before serving 🙂
And that evening, after dinner, Josiah came to tell us of a special birthday present that arrived although none of us had planned it….
A gift from the hand of our Father! The eggs that Josiah had put in the incubator weeks before began to hatch on his birthday! It just seemed so special and seemed to mean a lot to Siah! I think 4 hatched that day with another 4 over the next few days.
He has filled the incubator again and we are expecting more in the next few weeks…
Stay tuned for the next post to see what other new additions have arrived here on the farm….and I’ll be doing another name contest this week…..but not for soap 🙂 Stay tuned!!
The Essential Herbalist 
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