Around the Homestead Today...

Since our homeschool book-work is on a summer hiatus(for the most part - just tying up a few loose ends). We spend our learning time out in the gardens. Each of the children (except the two youngest who are 21 months and 2.5 years) each have a raised bed that they can call their own. Each bed has something different growing in it.  They learn to keep it watered and weeded and when it comes time to harvest the veggies, they learn which ones they can pick and which ones they can't yet. Plus they learn the proper way to get the vegetable off the plant (no pulling!).   If they get enough to put up, they assist me in canning it or freezing it where they get to measure out the ingredients, etc. I love teaching math by cooking recipes with them. They don't realize they are learning fractions and measurements.

You can pics of the raised beds and our other garden areas in this post: Gardening - Edible Landscaping, Foraging For Food

So with that said...

We were out in the garden yesterday doing a second picking on green beans in our garden. I sat and snapped them last night and today, I'm canning them. Just waiting for the water to boil so I can blanch the beans before I put them in the jar.

I put some basil leaves on the dehydrator earlier so I can make Italian seasoning with it as well as keep some dried basil on hand. I have basil growing but when I stopped at a nursery yesterday to buy some severely reduced tomato plants, I was given a grocery bag full of basil clippings. I have a lot left over that I'm sharing with a friend. I've got to take those over to her in a bit.

Jakob picked a few more pickling cucumbers today too out of his raised bed and that gave us enough to make some pickles. I'll also be canning some Cold Pack Cucumber Pickles in a bit. I've got them "mingling" together in the fridge already sliced up along with onion slices, vinegar, salt and pepper. He was going to get to help me but he lost the privilege when he did something he shouldn't have... threw the egg basket up into the air with the only egg in it from the chickens today. We only have two that are laying at the moment. The other surviving 8 of the new flock is still too young to lay.

All of the children are taking good care of their raised beds. They are keeping them weeded and watered.  We put grass clippings around all the plants in their raised beds as well as the herb garden and main garden too to keep the moisture in.  All the garden spots got watered today as it hasn't really rained here other than sprinkles lately. We need some rain very badly. The grass clipping help to retain the moisture when we water. We don't use fertilizer or growth sprays in our gardens. So if someone wants to eat something straight out of the garden, they can. Just wipe off (wash off preferably) the dirt and have at it.  We've often munched on green beans or peas in the garden when picking them.

We have picked peppers for a few days as some were not quite as big as others when we picked. We just store in fridge until time to make Canned Sweet Peppers with them. So I got gypsy peppers and sweet banana peppers sliced up waiting for the vinegar mixture to boil so I can put those in jars.  Both of these are really, really good on burgers and sandwiches.

I have plans to do up some jars of canned pinto beans too. You can see how to do those at this post: Canning Soaked Dried Beans - making your own canned pinto beans.

We also put out the herbs I bought yesterday (more stevia, chives, thyme, and pineapple sage). The bare spots in the herb garden is looking a lot better now.  We even put in 4 rows of bush beans in the garden today.  Last night we planted the other 107 tomato plants that I bought yesterday.  I have to can up spaghetti sauce and salsa this year. We ran out months ago and store bought just doesn't taste the same as homemade.

We still have things to plant and things to do. 

I hope you all had a productive day too, no matter what you were doing. Everyone's day is different and I hope it was a good one.