Gardening

I am anxiously awaiting frost free morning's so I can plant our garden. We love the fresh vegetables all year long. Today is windy and only in the mid 50's. With the sun shining though it feels a bit warmer so perhaps I will go and dig in the dirt awhile and look forward to the garden. My neighbors and friends question my sanity, but there is just nothing quite like fresh garden food! We have 5 gardens in our yard. There is a small herb hill near my clothesline. A small patch of pumpkins and squash out behind the shed. Beside the shed we have rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish and blackberries. Then we have 2 rather large patches for peas, beans, tomatoes and more pumpkins, squash and cucumbers. My husband keeps busy weeding and proudly observing his garden. I keep busy weeding and processing the food for our family to eat throughout the season! There is nothing like fresh veggies on the table next to that platter of roast beef or chicken! My youngest likes to pick peas and nibble on them as she assists in weeding. At the ripe age of 5 she has learned the difference between weeds and peas. She is very discerning when it comes to that! Another of our children loves the fresh cucumbers sliced and lightly salted with sea salt! Those go really really fast at the dinner table! Our freezer is full. The canner is kept busy and we even take advantage of a food dehydrater! What a great bonus to our health and budget!

"They're all gone!" my son hollered up from the basement that doubles as a canned food cellar in our house! "The dried apples are all gone!" he sadly stated looking very defeated as he climbed back up the stairs. I had dehydrated 7 half gallon jars of apples over the last fall. Then I looked outside and the land lord was pruning the apple trees. Last year I had way more apples that I could process! Since they were pruned I will have larger apples, but way less. Just then a neighbor stopped in. "Don't worry" he calmly stated, "we still have the apple tree in the vacant lot behind my house and its never pruned because a church owns that property and allows me to use it! Look out...we're going to have MORE dried apples, applesauce and apple butter this year. If you have any great recipes feel free to send them my way.