Thursday, October 29, 2009

Pumpkin Carving

We grew all but two of your pumpkins this year. We planted them late so some of them didn't quite make it all the way orange. But we did have a great time carving them!













Wednesday, October 28, 2009

It's Apple pickin' time

Apple picking is my favorite of all the fruit we pick. It's easy for the kids to do and we can pick 100 lbs of apples in about 10 min. We really didn't go apple picking in the dark it was just late afternoon and storming.




Stony Ridge Farm

Every year we head over to Stony Ridge Farm to pick pumpkins go on a hayride and do the corn maze and see their animals. This year it poured and we had already been at two soccer games were it also poured the whole time and after we were done at the farm we went and picked apples so by the time we were done with this day we were all soaked...but we still had a fun time.















Canning

As I mentioned before our garden was a huge success this year. So that meant a lot of Canning for me. I actually really like doing it so it's not that big a deal. So everything we can't eat fresh we can or freeze. I really can't remember everything I made this years so here is an overview. Canning season for me starts in June with the arrival of our strawberries. What aren't eaten are made into freezer jam and strawberry rhubarb jam. Then the season starts to work through all the berries strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Mostly made into jams or syrups and some blueberry pie filling (which is sooo good!). In July I start working on the vegetables mostly green beans and carrots, I freeze our beets and peas. I also made a ton of cucumber relish. This year I ventured into soups tomato and carrot fennel. Then I start on the tomatoes and with 9 tomato plants this year I had a lot! I mostly made salsa and spaghetti sauce. I even was able to make green salsa this year with our Tomitillos. Our potatoes we just leave in the garage in a box and all of our squash and pumpkins I cook and freeze the pulp I also freeze a lot of shredded zucchini. August comes bringing peaches and pears. I didn't do a lot of peaches this year just made some pie filling. Our Asian pear tree had tons of fruit this year so I canned some of them. (hopefully there good) So the season finally ends in October with apples, lots of pie filling and applesauce. It's a lot of hard work and I do like but I wasn't sad to put my canning supplies away for the season. So until next year good riddance!




Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Pumpchini Anyone?

Our garden this year was a huge success! One of the cool things we found in our garden was a volunteer (meaning it grew on it's own) squash plant. Most volunteers I just pull up like weeds but for some reason I let this one live and the result was a cross between a pumpkin and a zucchini. We haven't quite decided what to do with them (there were 2) . Carve them for Halloween or try and see if they are eatable. I think Cameron is dreaming of the ultimate combination of pumpkin/zucchini bread all in one loaf.


Some of you might be wondering how this plant came to be. Last year in our garden we had both pumpkins and zucchini. So when the fruit was forming on my pumpkins none of the male blossoms had opened yet (and I hate to loose a pumpkin because it didn't get pollinated) so I took a make blossom off of my zucchini and pollinated my female pumpkin blossom with my male zucchini blossom. This doesn't do anything to the pumpkin that year it will grow normal and look just like it should. It does though mess with seeds of that pumpkin. If you take the seeds from a pumpkin that as been pollinated with another kind of pollen then you never know what you could get! How did it end up in the garden again. Well after the garden is done we turn under all the old plant material into the garden for extra nutrients for next year. That includes our jack-o-lanterns from Halloween and some of them must have had a few seeds left over in them. Not a big surprise given the age of our kids. And there you go all you NEVER wanted to know about cross pollination.

Soccer/ Kaylynn

This is Kaylynn's third year of soccer and there is no doubt that she absolutely LOVES it. This year as been especially fun to watch. They have a goalie for the first time, play on a bigger field and actually keep score. The girls rotate the goalie so everyone has a turn. Kaylynn prefers to run around so she like offense the best. Kaylynn is also really good at soccer. She sees the field really well and has lots of great passes she has also scored quite a bit this year. It has been a fun season to watch.







I get so into the games I forget to take pictures good thing there are three games left!

Soccer/ Paytyn
This is Paytyn's first year of soccer. Sometimes she likes it and sometimes she's not so sure. But she is really good at it. She is very fast and often has the goal all to herself. She is really fun to watch.






It's kind of far away but this is one of Paytyn's many goals. Kaylynn as you can see is very excited for her :)