Big Empty Heads

I dunno about you but I've just about had it with this incredibly long and incredibly hot summer. Sheesh! At present its over 90*. Again. I think the weather guy said this makes the 47th such day this year.

Big Empty Heads

With everything that started growing so early this season its kind of strange to think about taking the garden out now. Especially with another hot blue sky day.

I've started taking down the spent sunflowers. These tall, lazy giants will be next. Their big heads are mostly empty from thieving birds. Actually. I kinda like the little, flitty yellow tweety birds that seem to think I planted the sunflowers just for them.

Spent sunflowers

This grove of giants was one of my favorite gardens this year. This is where I planted those lovely potatoes - now distant meals. But I've started some late beans in this garden hoping to make it just under the wire of the frost. Tomorrow I'll hack down these giant stalks and feed them to the pigz. The pigz love the leaves and will goof around with the stalks. And they'll find any remaining seeds.

A friend reminded me about goat cheese stuffed and fried squash blossoms. Sounds great!

In the meantime, some things just keep setting blossoms. I can't tell if they are confused or if we'll have to keep dealing with this hot summer thru September.

Happy Friday everyone!

Tomato of Doom

Doom I say!

I dunno there's just something hinky with this tomato. Its just not right. I think its a Tomato of Doom.

Happy Thursday everyone!

The Giant Bubby Pepper Poke Disaster

Well friends, we've had our first casualty in The Great Pepper War of 2012. It was just two days ago during the last and final surge against the never ended bucket of peppers. There I was in the kitchen, surrounded by boiling cauldrons of bubbling pepper goodness.

Man down! The Bubby takes one for the team.

The end was in sight - I only had a few sweet peppers left in that bottomless bucket. But I wanted to have one final triumphant extra spicy salsa. So I donned my heavy, hot pepper handling gloves and headed to the far back corner of the garden to get one of the bad boys. You know the ones - those extra long, extra skinny, pointy, extra hotsy totsy peppers with the special warnings on them. Oh yeah, this was gonna be a spicy salsa for the record books. I marched out to get the Holy Hot one. Without incident.

On my way back to the house I was greeted by the dogs wagging all around. They had been on morning patrols and were covered in dew, those weird sticky green seeds, and had come to report no unusual goings on. "Good work, men!" I called to them as I made my way thru the wagging, panting, bouncing horde of dogs. Zander...aka "The Bubby" was especially bouncy as he followed me to the door.

Just as I as opening the door, my prized Holy Hot pepper in my protective gloved hand... it happened. In an instant my joyful pepper victory turned to horror. I was being slightly jostled by a bouncing Bubby and then.....a yelp.

I turned and saw The Bubby. Crying and pawing at his eye.

I looked at The Bubby. I looked at the Holy Hot pepper in my hand. It took me a few seconds before I realized that I had just stabbed The Bubby in the eye with a scorching hot pepper.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"  I cried.

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooee!" Cried Zander.

He ran. I ran. There was running. And crying. and more running and crying. Finally I got ahold of my 100lbs+ squirming crying puppy. His poor little eye was starting to tear up. And when I mean little, I mean to tell you that he has very small squinty eyes to begin with. Talk about a one in a million shot! Sheesh!

Then there was a lot more running and crying. Mostly by me. Luckily I was better in this crisis than, you know, other ones. I sprang to action with the phone in one hand - cuz you know we have the Good Vet on speed dial - and a cold compress in the other.

After more running, chasing, and wrestling I got Zander tackled and was able to hold the cold washcloth on his eye. He did not protest.

Of course the whole time I was trying to figure out what I was going to tell the Good Vet. As you can imagine they've heard just about everything from us. In fact I am fairly certain they have a standing appointment for us in their books. Probably called something like the "What Could They Possibly Come Up With Now Hour."  We tend to win awards from them with titles like, "The Weirdest Thing We've Seen Today"  and "The Worst Wound in 15 Years of Vet Practice." And my personal favorite, "Seriously? How Did This Happen?"

After determining that the eye poke was probably not fatal I brought Zander in the house, gave him some snuggles, a can of food, and watched him. He promptly passed out on the floor - asleep. When he woke up a short time later I tripled checked his eye - it was no longer tearing nor red. I made sure he could see and follow my hand to ensure his vision was not impacted, gave him more snuggles, and sent him back outside to play with his sister, Kai.

And thusly ended The Great Pepper War of 2012. Just one man down, I think we did OK.

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Any body got a canning casualty to top that one?

Foundations of Vibrant Health

Does everyone know my pal, Freemotion?  Did you see the dramatic 56 POUNDS her husband recently lost? By eating bacon? Now that's MY kind of eating-for-health plan! 

Friends, you gotta get ahold of this learning. You know how I'm always saying to take everything you've ever learned about nutrition from women's magazines and throw it directly in the trash? If this doesn't convince you then I just don't know what will. 

Freemotion is a Nutritional Therapist and she really knows her stuff. Recently she's been working on healing her wonky bloodsugar and she recruited her hubby in her efforts. Not only has her health dramatically changed for the better but holy cow! You should see her hubster!

Did they eat rice cakes, frozen microscopic meals, and non-fat, low-fat, food like substances? Oh no friends, they ate like kings! Meat and fat and veggies and everything. Did they spend hours and days in the gym sweatin' to the oldies? Nope. And what about taking those recommended pills pills and more pills to help with blood pressure and all that? Nope nope nope!  They are both healthy and vibrant and feeling great thanks to better nutrition.

What's the secret? Lean in friends.... eating real food the right way. Chances are if you are following the SAD (Standard American Diet) you are only eating what is marketed to you and not what your body needs.

So what does your body need? Well, there is an easy way to find out. Check out the upcoming teleclass to learn how to get and stay healthy. This is fabulous class is not about weight loss - its about health - but just one look at Peter and you'll see how eating real food the right way can change your life, your health, and your body.

Run right over to the Blue Viola Farm blog to learn more - she's got a post today on how you probably aren't digesting as much of your food as you think you are - and register for the class now. Or "like" her on Facebook and get a coupon code for a big discount for the class. (Or you can click here to read about registration and to learn how to get that discount.)  Are you kinda shy and would prefer to have a one-to-one session? Sure! Contact her thru facebook or on her blog.

Put down that diet breakfast bar right now and find out who you can get and stay healthy - eating bacon. Oh hallelujah!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Fall Planting and Shelling Beans

Someone asked me yesterday if there was still time for fall planting? Sure! There's always time for more planting.  As you know I've been planting turnips like crazy - and I'm also starting some frost-defiant and extra short season growers as well.

I harvested the potatoes in this bed a while ago and now its ready to be planted again.

Greens and radishes can do just fine in a short growing season. And they can be easily covered if we get an early frost. We'll see if the old wives tale about the cicadas is true - there could be a very early frost. Popular lore has it that the first frost will be 90 days after the cicadas start screaming.. I mean.. singing. Our weather guy had a segment on this earlier in the summer. And while their online story says "not to worry" I remember him saying on the newscast that its about "80% accurate."  If that's the case then mid-September could be very interesting around here.

A salad mix and radishes is just the thing to be planted now. Its low risk because all of the seeds were on end of season sale and if we get a couple salads? Super! And at worst I'll just loose a few things in the garden - but if so I'll just give them to the chickens and the pigz. We normally continue the harvest thru October tho so I'm not too worried.

This one $1 package of turnips has yielded about 167,000 turnip sprouts so far.

The Great Pepper War begins again today with hopefully the last round of salsa. But wow! The tomatoes are still coming on. With a rain day promised for today I'll be canning all day.

A lovely bean landscape.

After tomatoes and salsa, I've got some beans to can. I just love these horticulture beans. Not only are they just lovely - they are absolutely delish. I've been soaking a big pan of them in water - and a splash of whey - since last nite.

Now who's still planting for fall? Everyone canning today?  Happy Monday everyone!

The Great Pepper War of 2012

Friends, I am slain.

The Capsaicin Menace

They got me. Day Three of the Salsa Surge was brutal. By days end the kitchen was destroyed, my feet hurt, it was very very hot, and I still had one last 2.5 gallon bucket of peppers giving me the stink eye. I ended up putting that bucket in the fridge and then laying on the couch in a heap.

Who's idea was it anyway to get 197 pounds of peppers? Sheesh!

Making salsa is actually a really fun canning project - as long as you aren't doing it for 3 days in a row. And it is a great way to get started in canning. You don't need a pressure canner - just a big, deep pot to boil the jars in... and you can easily grow or purchase everything you need to make a batch of salsa.

My own peppers waiting to sacrifice themselves in the Great Pepper War

I'm partial the Ball Blue Book's zesty salsa. If you don't have the book, I found the recipe online here. This basic recipe goes pretty fast and you can always spice it up later when you use it. I really love this Black Bean and Corn Salsa. I just open a can of our home made salsa, a can of our home canned black beans, and toss in a handful of frozen corn (picked fresh, grilled, then popped in the freezer) and some spices. Its a great taste of summer anytime.

So much salsa....

The only thing about canning salsa is that you have to follow the directions and the measurements to the letter. While you might be tempted to toss in a few extra tomatoes, or use more garlic, the food safety mavens all agree that you need to use the same proportions to ensure nothing goes wrong. I really like the Pick Your Own website - here - for food preservation information. They have easy to follow instructions and have a lot of pictures.

Some folks are nervous about canning - but following the directions for an approved recipe to the letter is the best way to make sure your home canned products turn out perfect every time. You can also check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation for a detailed explanation of why you should follow an approved recipe.

I know some people who use those packages of salsa mix to make their home canned salsa. To me it seems pretty expensive and you know how I feel about industrialized food. I think the value of these mixes is that you only have to add the tomatoes (and vinegar).  But for me the tomato peeling and chopping takes the most time so I don't think I'd be saving that much time. For me the onions and peppers are a breeze. Plus I like having chunky style salsa so having some kind of reconstituted onions and peppers seems a little odd to me. But some folks like it and if that works then superduper.

In addition to the cauldrons of salsa, I also used the instructions for blanching and freezing sliced peppers on the Pick Your Own site. Later today I'll fire up the grill and will roast the rest of the peppers - they will be frozen in slices to be used in cooking all winter. Thanks for that tip - you know who you are!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday! Now back to the Great Pepper War! Charge!

Picking Peppers

Wow! What a haul!

Ten gallons of peppers picked in nothing flat.

We drove several towns over and went to a Upick produce place. We really love Schacht Farm Market. Its kind of a long drive for us but its worth it for their stupendous selection of peppers for picking.

Aren't they beautiful?

We brought our own buckets and set off for a flurry of pepper picking. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any of my sweet bell peppers to produce here - which is why we went to Upick our way to pepper paradise. They had both sweet and hot peppers available, but we only needed the sweet ones. Our jalapenos, Hungarian Wax, and Marconi peppers grew like gangbusters.

Just like a bucket of sunshine!

By the time we got there I was over-sugared and over-caffeined ...and I was ready for the pepper picking time of my life. But wouldn't you know it - the one stinkin' day it rained here in Central Ohio... but we persevered. Our spicy spirits weren't stymied by a small smattering of sprinkles. Altho I ended up with muddy shoes and soggy socks.

Within a few minutes both of our buckets were full and we started back to the market to cash out.  Not everyone is as excited as I am about peppers, apparently. I thought I should have gotten some kind of award for our quick, and prolific, picking.

Anyway, now I'm gearing up to salsa making!

Tomorrow's post.. how to handle "hot pepper hands".... more on this later. In the meantime, everybody salsa!

Happy Tuesday everyone!