Peas from anotha' motha' ---- green beans...

So they kinda look alike. But our green beans are doing much better than our peas did.

This is just the latest harvest of them...about 3 pounds worth, it took me about 45 minutes to get them all picked. Grammy even came and helped for about 10-15 minutes, and Farm Chick for about 5 minutes. Last week while I was picking some tomatoes I noticed that there were tons of buds on the green beans. I told Farm chick, there are going to be a huge bunch coming really soon. Sure enough, there was. It took me a whole hour to snap the ends off!

Makin' Salsa

Do you all remember the goddesses? I was privileged to have 2 of them over on Sunday for lunch and then some salsa makin'. MK Lady got sick with the flu and couldn't make it and Big Red wasn't going to be in town. We forged ahead just the three of us and had a fantastic time!

MI and Amos were lookin' good while they "put up" salsa. They humored me and put on aprons. I'm pretty sure you have to wear an apron to cook in my kitchen. Just seems like the right country thing to do.

They made the process go quickly! We sort of made an assembly line and whipped those tomatoes into shape. Our salsa turned out hot and spicy...just like us!

Girls, I love ya! Come back to Four Sisters Farm very soon.

Canning Spaghetti Sauce

Hello me beauties!

Step 1: You throw these gorgeous tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for a few minutes

Step 2: Plunge said tomatoes into a bowl of ice cold water

Step 3: Peel off the skin and cut off the stem, etc. (put that stuff in a bucket for your chickens)

Step 4: Blend baby blend

Step 5: Mix tomato puree with some sugar and spice and everything nice

Step 6: Bring to a boil, then decrease heat and simmer for 25 minutes

Step 7: Put sauce into hot mason jars, let out bubbles, then cap them

Step 8: Put mason jars into a "water bath" - (that just means a big pot of boiling water) for 40 minutes

Step 9: Take the mason jars out of the water bath and check to make sure they have a good seal

Step 10: Label them (this is very important...relish, salsa and spaghetti sauce basically look the same)

All in a days work!

The Harvest

This photo represents but a tiny portion of the harvest from our "Super Garden." I am not going to lie. I am completely overwhelmed. No one in their right mind would plan to do this kind of garden along with renovating a basement and moving in their family. Of course, none of us knew we would be so busy when the garden was planned! :)

I am not a country girl by birth. I am growing into this role. I have no idea what I am doing. What I don't know I attempt to learn via the internet or other experienced country people. Canning is hard work. Doctor's Wife, Pretty Princess, Lou Lou and I learned that last year.

So far I have "put up" the following...
Potatoes in the root cellar
Onions in the root cellar
Garlic in the root cellar
Green Onions in the freezer
Carrots in the freezer
Snap Peas in the freezer
Zucchini in the freezer
9 pints of salsa
38 pints of bread and butter pickles
6 quarts of bread and butter pickles
12 pints of dill pickles
12 pints of sweet relish

I'm looking forward to canning more salsa and some pasta sauce with our tasty tomatoes. I wish I knew what else to do with all those stinkin' cucumbers. By the way, when a cucumber is bitter...you can tell. It is NASTY! DW and the kiddos came today to help me can salsa and pickles. I made DW taste the cucumbers. She was a good sport.

Puttin' Up the Carrots

EJ and Wubba worked hard to get these beauties out of the ground.

A job well done!

Now it's momma's turn to get these carrots ready for the freezer.

Here is the finished product.

The whole time I worked (and it took a LONG time) Carrot man kept me company. Kind of looks like he has a top hat on. I think he needs a cane too.

Snap Peas

I am getting about this many snap peas every other day! Life is getting exciting around here. DW and Lou Lou helped me pick these peas! They also helped me weed, weed, weed the garden.

We discovered an interesting bug on our dill plants. DW, you will have to do a post with the pics you have!

Thanks for the help chicks!

Garage Sale Victory!

The boys and I went hunting for treasures last Thursday. We found several "little" treasures that thrilled them beyond belief. We also found a fantastic buy that thrilled their Mommy! Check out all these mason jars... I paid $12 for this whole lot. There are 77 jars. EJ figures I got them for about 80% off retail price. We still need plenty more...we are hopeful we will have lots of salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles, etc to put up.

"Putting Up" The Green Onions

Isn't that what country folk say? "Putting up the garden" Check out all our green onions!I washed them, dried them, chopped them up and then bagged them. The smell of that many green onions was stout! I was crying and they weren't tears of joy.Ready for the freezer! It's hard work being a farm wife....but who can come complain with such fantastic and happy help!