Lunch For Two

We had errands to do this morning.  William and I were hungry when we got home so I needed something quick and easy to make for lunch. 

I decided on pork chops along with Tomato Pie. 




For dessert Turtle Cake fit the bill.



First I baked a pie shell.  Then I coated the pork chops with Dijon mustard and salt and pepper.  In to the oven they went.to bake while I let the pie shell cool.  I mixed some mayo, sliced green onions, basil, shredded Cheddar cheese and shredded Mozzerella cheese.  The tomatoes were peeled and sliced into thick slices.  I lined the pie shell with the tomatoes then sprinkled some Parmesan cheese over them.  Next the mayo mixture was spread over the top of the Parmesan cheese.  The pie was then put into the oven to bake for thirty minutes.  We had lunch in about forty-five minutes.

What does this have to do with gardening?  The tomatoes were from the Early Girl plants we set out around the last of February.  So the Tomato Pie was made with tomatoes from our garden.  The pie was served with baked pork chops and sliced cucumbers (cucumbers also from our garden). 

I must admit that not all the ingredients for our lunch came from our garden nor did they come from our homestead but some of them did and that makes me feel good about what we are eating. 

If I could we would raise everything we ate but marriage is a partnership and my partner says "No." to raising pigs and calves so I do what I can do with what we do grow here at Hunny Bunny Haven.

Oh and I keep working toward getting a pig and calf to raise to go into our freezer.  I may have a while to work on this as it took around six years to get the okay to add guineas to the homestead.  Eventually he said yes and now he seems to like the guineas.  I think he'd like the pig and calf too if he gave it a chance.  I know he'd love either one of them when it was served up on his plate.  :)

Thursday William and my step-father butchered twelve young rabbits.  Step-father kept one for he and my Mom to fry and William and I put fifteen quart bags of rabbit in our freezer.  That's a lot of stew for this winter.

Next week William is planning to butcher at least twelve more rabbits to go in the freezer.  We will have fifteen young rabbits left to either sell or send to Freezer Camp.  After the rabbits are butchered and put in the freezer we will start on chickens.  We have twenty young chickens to go in the freezer and two roosters.  When we finish with the chickens and  put Thanksgiving, the turkey in the freezer, we should be set for winter time as far as meat goes. 

Life is a little busy here at Hunny Bunny Haven right now but that's a good thing!

Garden Becoming Meal For Worms.

We try not to use any kind of pesticides/insecticides on our garden.  I'm being sorely tempted to hunt up something that will make the bugs and worms think twice about dining on our squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. 

First, let me explain my terrible fear of worms.  Wait a minute....I can't explain that fear.  It's just there.  I'd rather someone throw a snake on me than a worm.  I know, I know it's all in my head and it probably is but I get ill if I touch a worm or a worm touches me.  

Bugs and worms have invaded the squash.  I pull a beautiful yellow squash off the vines only to find a worm devouring the bottom of the squash.  This makes me sick to my stomach. 

When squash bugs get on the squash plants, I have no problem scooping them up and sending them for a  swim in soapy water with a little oil in it.  But the worms....well I just have to step aside and let them have the garden. 

OR.....use a insecticide or pesticide.  I don't use either so I'm not even sure which one to use to get rid of the crawly things. 

Our squash vines are full of young squash.  I need to figure this one out soon or all those lovely squash will be infested with worms.

The green beans have spots on them where the worms have been eating.  So far, I haven't gotten one of those nasty things in my hands.  But, I know it's only a matter of time.

These pests aren't choosey.  I've found them in the squash, zucchini, cucumbers and have seen where they've been eating on the tomatoes and green beans.

I know my fear of worms is psychological and that I need to deal with it but I can tell you now....It ain't gonna happen.  Not if it entails me holding a worm to get over my fear.  I'd just as soon get into an airplane and fly around the world and that ain't gonna happen either.

Well, that's off my mind.  Now you all know that when it comes to worms...I'm out of my mind. 

I may have to give in to the dust that is supposed to kill everything around it including the worms.....

Garden Pay Off!

The garden is finally paying off...For our dinner we had grilled pork loin, grilled zucchini, yellow squash and onion (the squash and zucchini were from our garden), cucumbers from our garden, sweet banana peppers and jalapeno from the garden and bought tomatoes.  I could eat like this every day.  The best part of the whole meal is everything was low in fat, carbs and calories.

I put four quarts of yellow squash and three quarts of zucchini in the freezer before we left on our trip to Alabama.  The next harvesting will be canned along with the green beans.

The tomatoes haven't started ripening yet.  I'm trying to hold off until they are ripe but if they don't hurry up and ripen I'm going to be having "Fried Green Tomatoes".

This is the time of year that I enjoy the most.  Fresh vegetables for most every meal.  I truly believe that there's no better food in the world than fresh garden vegetables.

Off the gardening subject:  We gained a son-in-law this last weekend.  Erica married Timmy Bozeman on Saturday, June 2nd.  They were married on the beach in Orange Beach, Alabama.  The ceremony was beautiful as was the scenery but neither compared to the beauty of the bride and the groom was very handsome.  I hope they'll always be as happy as they were that evening.

 

Erica and Timmy, June 2, 2012.

Thanks for dropping in.  I hope you'll come back soon. 

What A Difference A Couple Of Weeks Can Make!

Two weeks can make a big difference. When I last posted, I put some pictures of our garden in the post. The green beans had started running but had not gotten very far up the teepee. Now they are up to the top and are blooming.




The cucumbers were running up the wire support. Now we have cucumbers about five inches long. These are the Burpless cucumbers.



The eggplants were about six inches tall but now they’re much larger and have buds on them. Soon there will be eggplants.



Zucchini and yellow squash are blooming. There are several zucchini fruits on the vines and the yellow squash….Well, what can I say. We couldn’t wait so we gathered all we could find and had them for dinner one night this last week.



There are a lot of small yellow squash on the vines now. I’ll be more patient and wait until they are larger before I pluck these off the vines.



Clusters of tomatoes are hanging on the mature vines. The seeds William planted are coming up. He put three seeds in each hill so we will have transplants.



The tomato plant that came up volunteer in the Swiss Chard is blooming and we think it’s a Tommy Toe. That one plant will be all the Tommy Toe tomatoes we need for the summer. We need sandwich size tomatoes.



William built another teepee and we have Rattlesnake beans and Mennonite Purple Stripes planted around it. When our Louisiana Purple pods are done producing the newly planted beans should be ready to start producing.



That’s the tour of our garden for today. We are still waiting for all the vegetables to get ready for eating. It won’t be long now. They will be worth the wait.



A note about the guinea that was setting. She hatched ten keets. Two have died. Some how some of them escaped their pen and one was dinner for an unknown animal and the other one drowned.



This has not been our year for poultry. Now rabbits that’s another matter. Our rabbits have lived up to the old saying “Multiplying like rabbits.” I wish the poultry and water fowl would do the same.

Jan, Jan, How Does Your Garden Grow?

In raised beds, on teepees and any place else I can find to sow......

Green beans growing on a teepee and a raised bed filled with cucumbers, one potato plant and one tomato plant (the tater and mater came up volunteer).


Eggplants and a bed of zucchini

 
Early tomatoes, bed of yellow squash and the bed of zucchini.

 

Peppers (sweet bell, cayenne, jalapeno, and sweet banana), the green beans and cucumbers.


Our blueberry bushes.  We have three bushes planted in one big hole.  I wanted to put some more out this spring but didn't get to do it.  Maybe we can find some this fall and get them in the ground.  I'd love to have six more bushes.


That's all we have planted so far.  We plan to plant one or two beds of green beans on teepees.  I know we have room for one more teepee.  I'm hoping for two.

We have more tomatoes planted in the bed with the early tomatoes and plan to put some at the end of the eggplants and the jalapeno peppers.

That's our raised bed garden.   I think it looks pretty good.  Can't wait until it starts to produce fruits.  Yummy veggies and good sweet blueberries.

Rain...Glorious Rain.

This morning I woke up to rain.  We've gotten a couple of light showers this last week but we haven't had "real" rain in several weeks.

Our Garden is happy for the drink of water.  The plants are standing upright and are growing.  The peppers have blooms on them and the tomatoes are fruiting.  Yipee!!!!  Tomato sandwiches in the near future or just as good we'll have fried green tomatoes.

We planted more tomatoes today and replanted some of the sunflowers that didn't germinate.  There's still enough space in two of the raised beds for more tomatoes.
 
We are planning to till an area to plant more green beans.  I hope we can get to that next week but the forecast calls for rain several days of the week. 

I have some Rattlesnake bean seed that I want to plant.  A late friend, Mrs. Gladys, used to plant the Rattlesnake beans and she would give me seed.  I haven't had seed for these beans in a long time.  Thanks to Martin I have some now.  :)

The goose never hatched her eggs.  Trinity cleaned the nest out last Wednesday.  Also, none of the duck eggs hatched. 

The incubators that we have do not hold the temps as they should and this is causing the eggs to not hatch.  We're going to have to give up and buy a good incubator.  I think it will pay for itself in the long run.

We do have an incubator full of hen eggs going right now.  We are more successful with hatching chickens than the ducks, geese or turkeys.

If we are going to hatch birds to sell, we're going to have to do better than what we're doing right now.

We have twenty-seven baby bunnies born this week.  This makes us a total of sixty-two rabbits!  Far too many for me!  No more breeding bunnies until we sell some of the ones we have.  I sure hope William reads this.

This is all that's happening at Hunny Bunny Haven for the week.  Thank you for dropping by and do come again.

May Showers Make Jan's Garden Grow

The garden is up and growing.  William did a great job getting the beds ready and getting the seeds into the ground. 

He fertilized all the beds today.  Then after lunch we got a good rain.  I could almost see the plants growing if I looked closely enough.  LOL 

The duck eggs we have in the incubator haven't started hatching yet.  I hope they hatch.  There's a duck setting on a large clutch of eggs.  If the incubator eggs don't hatch maybe she will hatch us some ducklings.

The goose is still setting.  It's getting about time for hers to start hatching.  According to what I've read it takes about 34 days for goose eggs to hatch. 

We also have more baby rabbits on the way.  All four does are bred.  We are going to have rabbits invading all our spaces.  We already have twenty-nine baby rabbits and MORE on the way.  Help!!!!

I'm doing much better after my accident.  I'm doing all the inside chores and get to go outside every once in a while.  I have to be careful in the sun so as not to sunburn the areas that were burned in the accident. 

We're going to a large flea market here in Philly this weekend.  We have a booth there and are hoping we clear out some of the clutter from our storage building along with making a few extra bucks!

It's a busy time around here right now.  I hope to have some pictures of the garden and of our new babies to post in the near future.  I invite ya'll to check back soon and see what we've been up to.