Festival of Foods

Dear Readers:
My garden this year has produced, and produced and produced (every pun intended). I almost can’t keep up with it-neither can my freezer. I’ve been harvesting daily, canning, freezing, dehydrating and when all else fails, inviting others over to stuff them full of veggies.

I hope to prolong and save back as much of the garden’s goodness as possible. I thought I’d show you all what I’ve been up to.

Roasting whole cherry tomatoes has become a favorite past time. I throw these on a pizza, a sandwich or I just eat them plain. Yum. I’ll do a large batch, freezing several small baggies for later use.

To use up cucumbers, I concocted a cuke salad adding black and red beans, red onions, vinegar and stevia. So tasty.

Of course, canning is a must. I’m set for the next couple of years in the salsa, whole tomatoes, jalapeno pepper department.

My little $5 dehydrator has been pushed to its limit and has seen the likes of tomatoes, green beans, okra and peppers. I freeze most of the dehydrated items to use in recipes down the road.

And Bicep’s favorite are my chocolate zucchini muffins. So, I made lots of them-96 to be exact. Most I freeze, but I pull out a few from time to time if he’s been a good boy.

This is the only thing my garden hasn’t produced, but that I love to make-granola! I make 4 batches at a time and freeze 3 ziplock bags full for the future.

Biceps even got in on the action and for the first time ever, made french baguettes. They were amazing.

My poor little freezer-I have pushed it to the limit. I stuffed it so full of awesomeness that the air wasn’t circulating and nothing was freezing. Our ice cubes were water squares.

I think it’s safe to say that next year, I’m saving up for a chest freezer. End of story.

Gardening-What a Load of Poop!

“Why do I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the things I want to do?”-Apostle Paul, after unloading 1600 pounds of manure by himself to fertilize the Garden of Gethsemane, 60 A.D..

I could have waited for Bicep’s help-waited for his biceps. But that man works so hard already, I thought I would save him this little bit of trouble.

Which turned out not being a “little bit of trouble”.
The sweet old van was loaded down with the 1600 pounds of poop-and I tried backing up our drive per usual (“for quick get-aways”, according to Biceps).

The trailer hitch scraped at the steep concrete, screaming at me to stop. My neighbors flocked outdoors, mouths agape, wondering what that weirdo girl was up to again.

So, I quit my dog and pony show and parked on the street instead.

This was my means of transportation for every last pound of poop.

This incline on my driveway was my arch nemesis to the caravan of crap.

This was my support team throughout the ordeal.

These were the remaining bags as I neared halfway through the poop cartel.

This is my political statement towards how our government is being run today-“A disbursement of a lot of crap!”.

This was my view as I dropped the last bag, covered in a lot of sweat and a bit of poop, wishing for a hot shower and a cold beverage. My mood was in the pooper, my muscles felt like crap and I wondered if all of this composting business was just a pile of manure.

My neighbor called from across the fence and shouted, “What a load of sh**!”. Which of course made me laugh and made the entire ordeal humorous and worth sharing with you all.