Another produce post

So, I didn't get all my produce and products in that one HUGELY long post so thought I'd give it another try....

Zuchinni, shredded, measured, bagged and frozen. Fourty something cups worth...



(My freezer is full of produce- zuchinni, squash, red orach, swiss chard)







Grape juice from my own grapes!

And Chokecherry syrup from my own cherries.

Was NOT a good year for melons -so tiny.

So my roommate was awesome about asking our new acros the street neighbors if we could have their leaves. They said yes (I know not suprising) and then they showed us their chickens. I noticed they had grapes on their fence and so asked if I could come pick them later (it was dark by that time) and they said yes. So I was brave and the next weekend got some more leaves and picked a ton of dark purple grapes. I was even braver and asked the other neighbors if I could pick on their side of the fence. They were shocked as they didn't know people could just pick and eat food from outside, but said yes.

I got too bags FULL. And now have all this lovely free dark grape juice bottled downstairs. YUM

Its amazing how those vines probably haven't been cared for in over 15 years. I can't imagine the haul if they had been tended. The trucks are big around as a tree. Unfortunately they might get pulled out next year as the neighbor said its hard to keep the weeds down along the fence with them in the way :(

Used the last of my hot peppers from the garden and a bucket or so of tomatillos (they are all volunteers in the garden now) to make delicious green sauce. I bought a pH meter because I wanted to be able to make and can my own recipes without buying an expensive pressure canner. Turns out that botulism can't grow below 4.7 pH, so I canned my tomato sauce, salsa, and chili sauce worry free!

This picture shows my counter after a busy day of canning. I did a few of my tomatoes batches by color for fun. I also tried to make some green tomato ketchup after the frost and that didn't turn out so good. It tastes like chili sauce which I've never cared for. I think it was the pickling spice that I don't like. Too much cloves...

I bought some second hand apples pretty cheap this year. I didn't can any (I still have quite a bit from last year left) but made great dried apples and many apple crisps. Just used the last in a skillet apple crisp (the iron skillet I got for Xmas) that was very tasty.

ok this one has nothing to do with produce. Its melanie doing her mini tri. But when she came to visit I made her help me can some things so I guess in a way it does. Alec wanted this gorgeous Brandy Boy type tomatoe and carefully put it in his hat to take home. The hat got sat on (by me) and this is the result.

This is what I did with the sorghum. I cut it into lengths, smashed those with a hammer, and put through the steamer. Boiled that down till I got a sweet juice. Needed to boil that down further to get a syrup but it got lost in the back of the fridge and I just threw it out cause it was growing something I didn't want to taste :( but next year I'm sure I'll do better (especially if I can use that empty lot and put a whole stand in!!!

These beans were from last year. This year I didn't get as many brown ones...

The end till next garden season!

past Melanie Post

So back in May 2010 Melanie broked herself up pretty good and so I went to check things out. I'm curious that way.

I took random pictures and so I will inflict them on the world now.

Melanie wasn't up much for pictures when I first got there. I went shopping to make sure we had lots of food since I didn't know how long I would be able to stay and wanted to make sure Melanie had easy stuff. Actually Melanie is really good about keeping her freazer full of ready to go lunches, but it made me feel better to do stuff.


By Sunday Melanie was more sociable. Drugs are great.






I made a quiche thingy. More veggies then eggs :)




it might have gotten over cooked but not because I was distracted or anything. nope. not me.




We went to her appointment and that made me mad.

they didn't unwrap her arm carefully and didn't even have a softer place for her to put it. I was like, ummm did you not hear the part about the shattered elbow/arm?




Melanie wasn't too happy either because she would have to go in for surgery and it wouldn't be right away.

We went to Melanie's work for a little bit


I did some of my work too...





And before I left made sure Melanie could get in and out of her car and drive safely...






texting and driving is even less of a good idea when you have a broken arm but Melanie likes to multitask.





Hope nobody else breaks anything for a long time, but if you do I may come and buy you food since thats all I know what to do in a crisis :)

wherin I become a real fisherperson

This summer I had the oportunity to go fishin' a couple of times just up the canyon. And what was crazy was I actually caught a fish. It was suprising and somewhat alarming! Good thing there was a guide type person nearby who helped rescue the fish and keep me from loosing my pole. I really do enjoy fly fishing and seeing a fish come and eat my fly is amazing!

We stopped at deer creak to watch some kite boarders. Clicke on the picture and you can see them.



Cathy is a real fisher person (not like me)

I even went fishing when we went to ID for Natalie's baptism

In the fall, 0ur friend Craig took us on a lovely day trip to the upper Provo. The Provo goes over a series of beautiful falls. I had no idea there was so many lakes up in the Uintas, its a lot more wet then the mountains in NM. It was beautiful!

Hi Cathy. Hi Emily

Of course I had to cross to the other side and then take a picture to show how amazing I am.... :)

We ate a picnic lunch and hiked over to Trial Lake- or was it Washington?

Beautiful!

Either way Cathy started casting and caught a fish every minute or so until we had to go.... And I caught a couple

We went back a week or so later and camped overnight (I usually sleep under the stars but for some reason that night I kept thinking bears were going to get me so I didn't sleep much) and I caught more fish, not even by accident :) So I is a real fisherperson now.

jamie visits

So I got to spend some time with Jaime and Kade this past summer/fall. Somehow I mostly ended up with pictures of Kade....First we went to visit Melanie and Melissa in Vegas and to cheer Sarah on a marathon. Goood job Sarah! Jamie and Kade rode back to Utah with me and were very patient as my car decided to die and a 6 hr trip took a lot longer.




Kade loves stickers, and I happen to keep a lot.




Kade was also a big fan of my yard and he grabbed a tomato and munched on it like an apple while exploring. Then he found the berries and ate those all. Then we found the sweet cherry tomatoes and you can guess what happened with those.
















He was even happy when we put him in the chicken coop - no chickens yet so no worries about germs.






He is a sweet happy guy and fun to hang with and Jamie too, except when she takes pictures of me with my own phone.

























Then it was Courtney's wedding (Congrats Court!) so Jamie and Kade and Melanie came to hang out again. It was sure fun to see everyone.

Sad that I didn't get any pictures of the actual events....

Things are growing- and not just mold in the fridge

Spring? well up until yesterday it was feeling like spring wasn't far off, but then we got the white stuff. I don't really mind it. I think it was pretty today wiith the white snow and blue skies, similar to winters in NM


Anyways I'm in the prep for Spring. I put in a big order through Bakers Creek.... the second picture is my wishlist cause even though it doesn't look like it, I really was trying to restrict myself until the end when I got carried away with tomatoes....

These seeds were ones that Gage ordered. He saw me drooling over my catalogue over the break and asked what I was doing. He said he was interested so we looked things over and here is the result:

I took a few seeds from some of the packets because I haven't tried most of them before either so it will be fun. After talking to Amy, I picked out some more seeds to send to MT along with a green beaded lizard (that Gage made with Melanie), and a lost CtR ring. Hopefully they will get their seeds before long!

Some things are already growing in my house. In a couple of months there will be more starts. I can hardly wait! The only problem is that since I went overboard with tomato varieties this year, I will have to actually choose which ones to plant.

My plan this year is to ask the owners of some empty lots near my house if I can put a row (or 2) of tomatoes and a couple (like 7?) hills of squash...

On other news I already accomplished my new year's goal 2012. It was to print out all 12 months of goal sheets. I'm getting lots of check marks so I feel good about myself. I finally got one check mark in the exercise column last week.... 15 min on a bike and my legs were like jello :)