KinderGarden wrap up

Ok, I'm a bit behind the times. Oh, well, I've had fun this growing season, making sure I involved the children. I have always tried to get them invested in what's going on. It's not always easy, especially now that they are getting older. The garden doesn't seem to hold quite the appeal that it used to and there are days it is a struggle to get them outside. But, here are a few photos of the year- in no particular order.

We've had successes- the galeux d'eysines harvest is now up to 16.

And failures- all our poppies in the Goth Garden died.

But the columbines have grown tremendously.

They should be beautiful next spring.

The Black Knight Butterfly bush is thriving to the side of the Goth Garden.

And the pumpkin vines continue to thrive-

I think, in their bid to achieve world domination.

We've had wierdness

And beauty

And discussions about where our food comes from.

We had a bit of a discussion about natural selection when I selected the biggest, best peppers from the most robust plant to save seeds for the Anaheims. Aren't they HUGE!?

Thanks to Kim at The Inadvertent Farmer for hosting the Kindergardens challenge this year. It has been fun, even though I've not always been good about posting.

KinderGarden Field Trip

The KinderGarden projects are wrapping up this month. Not much is happening in the garden around here. I picked another pumpkin. This brings the total harvest to 9 (7 in the shop, one eaten, one given away) and there are at least 2 that will be ready in a week or so and more small ones on the vines. We will definitely be good on our vitamin A this winter!

Since we are having absolutely lovely weather (and didn't make it to the farmer's market this morning) I dragged K10 along with me to our local orchard. This is really local- like less than 3 miles driving (probably even less in a straight line). He initially wasn't thrilled- he was given the choice between coming with me or helping V fix some wind damaged boards. He opted (with a grumble) to come to the orchard. I told him that we could pick apples or just get some already picked- they are the same price. In the car on the way he decided he wanted to just buy the apples and go home. Of course, once we got there......

Who can resist apple picking in September. So, we got our baskets and talked to Paul, the owner, who gave us a map of the orchard.

It's quite the place.

We could have taken the tractor ride but K wanted to walk.

Of course, silly me, I forgot my camera. I have some crappy photos on my phone but now my phone is refusing to talk to my laptop...sigh.... But I did get some pics of the aftermath.

K10 and the smallest apple he could find!

It is a Minijon

A mini Jonathan- most on the tree were much larger than this one but he couldn't resist.

We ended up with two large bags of apples.

Enough to fill the fridge drawer.

But best of all, Karl asked if we could go back to the orchard in a few weeks when all these apples are gone.

Knowing where your food comes from is a good thing :-)

KinderGarden weirdness

Troll Bridge Farm has been invaded by alien pods! Or, as J16 put it: "They look like a giant's boogers". Hmmm..

Pretty cool, huh.

A Galeux d'eysines pumpkin.

For some reason this morning, I remembered reading that these shouldn't be left to get too ripe on the vine as the "warts" will continue to grow. So... I decided I'd better check them. Oops, several pumpkins were totally covered, much to the delight and grossed-outedness of the children. They look kind of like they are covered with peanuts.

K10 models a pumpkin

Gotta love that face!

I13 looks like he isn't sure he really wants to be holding this weird thing.

J16 has picked her favorite.

All in all, we picked 8 pumpkins today.

They're happily curing in the shop.

We counted at least 5 more big ones on the vines and a multitude of little ones. And the vine is still blooming like mad. I'll have to check the remaining pumpkins more frequently so we can get them with a pleasing amount of warts. LOL! These are supposed to be excellent eating pumpkins- I guess if you can get over the bizarre look. But, for all their strangeness, they are fun!

KinderGardens is winding down. So, a few photos from the Goth Garden. Once again, my favorites of the year:

Sunflower Moulin Rouge

Black Pearl Pepper

They are starting to ripen and look like little bright red marbles!

It was a lovely but WINDY day here. I'm not sure the temperature ever got above 70F and we had 25-30 mph wind all day with higher gusts. Not quite the hurricane conditions some folks may have had but quite breezy. It really made it feel like fall. In fact, I'm making some beef stew for dinner tonight since it is so cool outside. It was a lovely, relaxing day at home for me since today was my comp day for working last weekend. So, I get a 4 day weekend. Ahhhh.... today it was laundry, dusting and sorting my closet (EEEK). I only got through about half of it before I got distracted by other, much more fun things- like picking cucumbers and tomatoes and discovering pumpkins!

I hope you all have a safe, fun filled holiday weekend. Enjoy the last of summer.

To those on the east coast with the hurricane and to those in New Zealand with the earthquake- my thoughts and prayers go out to you.

KinderGardens- a learning year

We've been asked to talk a bit about what we've learned this year through our KinderGarden projects. Wow! Where to start. This has been a learning year on so many levels.

One thing we discovered this evening-

These little guys are HOT!!!

Along with our usual stuffed hot peppers, I had three tiny Black Pearls, stuffed with cream cheese- no bigger than my thumbnail. OH, BABY!!! Even V went running for a glass of milk. I had heard rumors that they have heat on par with habaneros- now I believe it! Yowza!

I've also fallen in love with a sunflower. Two other plants of the Moulin Rouge sunflowers have begun blooming- these are even darker- almost chocolate brown.

Absolutely gorgeous!

I also learned that Galeux d'eysines pumpkins will take over the world.

Or at least a third of the garden. Fortunately the sunflowers are tall.

I've also learned that as a family we can accomplish many things working together- but that construction and gardening don't mix together well, considering the time commitments needed for both.

But we did manage to find a place for V's mother to sleep (She has been here since Friday and will leave Monday morning)

The room went from this...

And this.

to this...

And this- still not finished but closer.

It's starting to look like a real room. One thing I'm excited about is that, not only is this our guest bedroom, but this is to be MY room! In all the years we've been together, I've never had a room to call my own. This will be my sewing/quilting room, a place where I can work and not have to put things away after every time using them. Most of my craft and quilting stuff is still boxed up, even now, a year after we moved and I'm chomping at the bit to find them again.

Sunflowers and KinderLabor

It's been too hot and humid to be out in the garden too much but we have been busy in other ways around the farm. Our sunflowers seem to have gotten off to a late start this year. First, from the Goth Garden:

Sunflower Moulin Rouge

Stunning, deep red flowers. Quite Lovely.

Then, in the main garden we have the Flash Blend from Botanical Interests, a lovely mix:

This sunny yellow guy is a good 10 feet tall!

The sun was setting behind this one, adding to it's colors.

But sunflowers aren't the only thing growing- look at these:

Lotsa Peppers!! Jalapeno!

I13 was asking about making salsa so guess what we did tonight? Mmmm....

And finally, considering the heat index was in the low 100's today, I'm glad I was working at my paid job and not with the kinder at home (which happened to include J16's new boyfriend).

Deck reconstruction has begun!!!

We will eventually wrap the deck all the way around the addition but that probably won't be finished until spring. We will finish this section enough to use this fall.

And, yes, we are firm believers in child labor here. The children all help on construction, garden and kitchen tasks. This way, they are learning valuable skills in addition to having the satisfaction of building our home. I mean, really, how many children get to help frame and drywall their home and help design the layout of the basement. This house has been (and will continue to be) lots of work but it is also a great accomplishment for us all.

Oops, gotta go get my tomatoes out of the canner- it's time to go watch some meteors!!

KinderCooking and much more

I'm going to need a vacation to recover from my vacation. I've worked hard these past two days- and so have the children (and V, I guess).

Look! Our first Litchi Tomatoes!!!

The Goth Garden produces!

The boys play on our remaining dirt pile.

We requested that they leave us a pile of dirt to use as fill around the property.

They also left us some gravel.

V gives a whole new meaning to "Iowa Dirt Farmer"

He is using the mower to break up the clods of clay to smooth the surface.

Weird but ingenious.

See my little shrubs in the background? Manchurian Apricots and bush cherries.

J16 has also been busy. Remember that I mentioned that we got a bunch of old folding chairs from my parents. She has been busy repainting a few.

From this...

... to this. Oh, the joy of spray paint.

Me, I've been busy planting my shrubs that have been languishing in pots since this spring, waiting for the septic installation. Yesterday I canned tomatoes. I lost quite a few that had split with the big rain and didn't get picked soon enough to be salvageable.

Tomatoes Galore!!

The children decided this one looks like Super Mario.

Not at all related to gardening. This is my indulgence from vacation.

A handmade pie plate from Silver Dollar City.

I haven't used it yet.

But, I spent lots of time in the kitchen, creating other yummy food. This week (August 1-7) is the Eat Local Challenge sponsored by our local Food Coop. The challenge is to have 80% of your food from local sources this week. We are only kind of participating since we were gone for 4 days. But we ate well while we were gone (except for lunches) as well as since we've been home. Yesterday it was homemade Baba Ganoush, cucumbers with local yogurt, pita bread (local source), fresh tomatoes from the garden and falafel.

Roasted eggplant from the garden for baba ganoush.

With local garlic and Tahini made in Missouri (fairly local)

J16 works to saute peppers and onions from the garden.

This evening we had burritos with local tortillas (West Liberty) and grass fed beef. J16 is using one of her new purchases. Since she will be a Junior in High School this fall, she is thinking ahead to college and announced a few weeks ago that she wants cast iron pans to take with her when she heads out on her own. We purchased some today from a local store while we were out getting school supplies. They will be included in the mix with my pans and used in the kitchen so they will get seasoned over the next two years. She is now the proud owner of two Lodge skillets- a 5 and a 10 inch.

We even had a local beer to go with dinner tonight.

Red Rambler Ale from Peace Tree Brewery, Knoxville, IA

Both J16 and I13 have been busy in the kitchen. I13 will be cooking tomorrow evening- with fresh local ingredients. And, I'll probably be doing something more with tomatoes... this time of year it never ends. I really want to make dill pickles but no one's dill seems to be doing well this year (mine was a bust as was Mom's). Maybe I can find some at the farmer's market. tomorrow.

KinderGARDENS and a KinderCanner!

Sigh- the septic guys got rained out today. I'm not sure if they will be out tomorrow to finish or not. The county health inspector also needs to look at the system and he didn't show up today either.

It was too wet to get out in the garden and life has been a bit crazy around here lately. But, even with the rain, it was a fun, eventful day.

The Black Knight Scabiosa is blooming in the Goth Garden.

It looks much darker in person.

The first sunflower is blooming.

My pattypan squash are blooming like mad but no squash yet.

The Black Pearls are growing. The largest is only about half an inch across!

J16 and I had planned to go blueberry picking this morning but didn't go due to the impending rain. But, we ran a few other errands and had lots of fun.

We went to Kalona to the Amish bulk store at Stringtown and then stopped at the cheese factory. Next week is Eat Local week sponsored by the local food coop so we wanted to get a few things. We didn't anticipate getting these:

Three more barrels for holding rainwater.

The cheese factory periodically has 55 gallon barrels that they sell. These have previously contained sanitizer or water purifiers. They are a great deal if you are there when they have them. They sell them for $5 each or 3/$10. Since they had a whole stack (8 or 9 barrels) today and we happened to be driving the van and had the seats out, we got three!

We also had a great find while we were at Stringtown Grocery:

Possibly the tastiest peaches I have ever had!!

So we decided to make peach jam. I think it's great that J16 is eager to learn how to can and preserve food. There are so many people out there who have no idea and so many fewer people out there to learn from.

She even has pretty good knife skills for a teenager.

I've seen way to many adults who don't know how to handle a knife and it's scary to watch!

Mmm, seven jars of July Gelatinous Yum (as named by J16)

And of course, she helped clean up. LOL!!

Tomorrow she wants to make Baba Ganoush from the eggplant we picked this morning. Mmmm.....