Planning our Garden

Well the menu worked well for the most part. I forgot to make pudding before hitting the bed, so there was no dessert for lunchboxes. Everyone survived, so I am not feeling terribly guilty :) I also realized this was the first round of the SEC. I went to visit my Mom and watch the University of Kentucky beat Old Miss (go CATS!) and completely skipped lunch. So no salad for me today. Tomorrow we play the University of Tennessee and I may pace the floors instead of eat again!

My cousin and I are planning a garden this year. Our family owns a farm where not much farming is actually going on at the moment. We figured this would be a good plan, to put the ground to use and save some bucks at the store. It worked well last year. Though the tomatoes were pretty much a bust (too much rain caused them to rot on the vine) the blue lake green beans are just perfect and we had some great potatoes. The corn didnt do enough to put up, just to eat occasionally. I learned that when you raise cucumbers and yellow squash you better put them where you can check on them daily or they get way out of control! Those will be planted at home instead of the farm this time, in my Square Foot Garden. I love this way of gardening. I know exactly what is in the soil, and I have almost zero weeds. I have a plot that is 4' by 8' so I can do quite a bit here at home. I also have 3 large pots that I can use for container gardens. Last year I raised chives and basil. This year I want more herbs and maybe a few flowers. Anyway, I believe the corn, green beans, melons, potatoes, beets and onions will be out at the farm. At home I want cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, butternut squash, watermelon, herbs (parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary), chives, maybe some lettuce and celery, cauliflower if I can get it to grow. Didn't work out well last year but I am an optomist.

Now the truth is, last year when weeding the garden I swore I would not do it again. When harvesting I was thrilled and couldn't wait to plan for this year. Then when I was trying to can tomatoes, shew! the smell was horrible all through the house and I was back to never doing this again! But, I have to say, I like my green beans in jars better than frozen, my corn frozen rather than jarred, and I found a mix for chili base that is out of this world! So, I will raise tomatoes for chili mix and sandwiches for the family (none for me, thanks!). I also will visit the farmers market for a few things that I want but not so much to put up--like zuchinni and peppers, and for fruit, which I can't raise here. It is also time to make dill pickle "stackers" again. Since rarely anyone but me eats pickles I only have to do them every 2 years. It takes me that long to go through 8 quarts of pickles. This year I made bread and butter pickles also. I tried relish but it didnt work out all that well.

I did dry mushrooms and apple slices and the chives in my cousins dehydrator. It will have to go back to her house soon though. She has a pressure cooker, but I haven't made that investment yet. Maybe later this year. I would feel better about doing canning with one to ensure that everything detrimental is dead :)

The menu for Saturday is in flux. I had planned to have chicken at lunch but the bag we thawed only had 4 pieces, not 5 like the last bag (packaged by weight I suppose). That means we don't have chicken for tomorrow night. Alas, our mashed potatoes were instant, and there is very little I like less than warmed up instant taters, so the extra serving got tossed. But the left over green beans will be great in my chef salad tomorrow. So... new plan for Saturday. :)

Breakfast: Might do French toast. Haven't done that in a while and it would use up the bread that is not working out so well for sandwiches, eggs (AF)
Lunch: chef salads for the daughter and I,
Dinner: glazed salmon, rice (AF), mixed veggies

It will be a bread baking day, so I will look up a new recipe to try. Also a dessert baking day, so I will bake something TBD. I have several reduced sugar cake mixes and some brownie mix I think. I also have a bunch of recipes my mother had saved for years and passed on to my daughter (the aspiring chef). I will spend some time looking through those too. The married daughter and SIL will be by for a bit in the morning, and there is plenty of laundry to do while the ballgames are on. UK vs UT at 1 pm EST on CBS... should be a full day even if we get more rain.