I think I just might turn into a pumpkin...

Do you remember this post and my gigantic pumpkins? Well, today was the day I tackled some of the preserving.

We had a regular size pumpkin from a pumpkin patch we visited and our 2 ginormous pumpkins. I chose to take care of the two smaller ones today (and we've since decided to sell the 76lb-er on Craigslist). I started this process just after lunch today and just now (at 9pm) closed up shop and I'm not even finished yet.

The average size pumpkin was definitely nothing special, but this guy was a bit challenging to cut into, even with my very best knife.











Here's the first batch in the oven baking.









Here are the other two batches waiting.






Today yielded me 15 pints of puree for the freezer and I still have about 4-6 more pints that are baked, peeled and chopped and ready to be pureed but I didn't have any more standing up left in me today (since I've been standing for the better part of the last 8 hours).

I also have enough pumpkin seeds to be roasted to last us a long while. They've been washed and I'll roast them tomorrow.
Updated 10/11
In other preserving news, here's what I have done and still have on the to-do list:
* Apple butter - done (2 pints and 8 half-pints)
* Apple pie filling - decided to just make a few batches of apple crisp instead
* Tomato/pasta sauce - (1.5 pints done and still have lots of tomatoes ripening, will probably have enough to make a few pints by the end of next week) DONE
* Jalapenos - done (half pint)
* Tomatoes; dehydrated - (have dehydrated a few pounds and will probably do the same with the stragglers that are the last to ripen once I've canned all that I can)

The PUMPKIN - duh, duh, duh, duuuuh

Okay folks. Here's the scoop on the pumpkin who has been affectionately named Lt. Col. Pumpkin. It's an inside-joke-thing!

Here's what the pumpkin looked like on August 24.

Soon after that photo the leaves near the beginning of the plant started dying so I knew it only had a few more weeks before we would need to cut it. I started trimming off dead leaves and cut off one whole leg of the vine that was only taking nourishment from the main vine to give it as much time to grow as possible.

Finally, we decided that this past Thursday was the appointed day.

Here is "pumpkin day" in photos:

It's up to her chest lying on it's side!! In reality, we should have stood Lt. Col. Pumpkin up on his butt when he was still young, but alas, we didn't think about it until he was too frumpy to sit properly!





Family photo!
















Michael, our friend Jesse and Eli moving Lt. Col. Pumpkin from his home.













Lt. Col. Pumpkin weighed in at a whopping SEVENTY-FIVE pounds - you read that right, I said 75lbs. Holy moly, no wonder it took two men to get him off the ground.








We actually had 2 pumpkins. The smaller one was on a smaller plant and even though it was also lying on its side, it ended up looking fairly pretty and properly shaped.

However, the only thing I could think while taking this photo was "quick, get them off my glass top stove before it breaks!!"


Tune in next week for the next installment - Lt. Col. Pumpkin goes to work!

The pumpkin plant that was a squash that really is a pumpkin!!

Remember this garden post where I told you about my "squash". Ha! Well, it really is a pumpkin after all. Just look at it!

This was taken on 8/17. Please disregard the crying 3 year old who DID NOT want to take a picture with the pumpkin!

And this was taken on 8/21.

Garden update

I thought it was time I give you all an update on my garden. The following photos were taken about a week ago and everything is a bit bigger now.

* In the back, on the far left and just left of center (the tallest plants) are all tomatoes. This year I started them from seed in my kitchen window - they are all large red cherry and there are 5 plants. I started them a little later than I should have, but was still able to transplant them in mid-May. They have done really well so far and have a lot of fruit on them, I imagine they will be starting to ripen soon!
* In the back, just to the right of the tomatoes are 2 jalapeno plants but you can't really see them because they are hiding underneath the giant tomato plants. They are producing nicely and I'm harvesting about 2 peppers per week.
* In the center (the staked plants) are potatoes. I started them on my own from organic red potatoes - I did not use seed potatoes so I have no idea how they will turn out - it was more experiment than anything... They have not been hilled properly but they are quite tall and staked up to save ground/walking space.
* In the back right corner are Elite White peas that have not done well. I planted them mid-May also and they still aren't very tall and definitely are not producing. I haven't yanked them yet because I'm just waiting and I don't need the space yet.
* Just below the peas is a patch that has lettuce and cilantro. Yum! The cilantro is just about finished and I pulled up all but 2 plants today. The lettuce continues to be wonderful!
* The bushy section in the middle right in front is carrots. These are doing wonderfully, as well. I have dug up carrots 2 times since this photo was taken so they are starting to get a little sparse. I realize now that I really should have thinned them when they first sprouted because they are quite interesting looking. Some are curly and squished together and some are even twisted together because they were too close. They still taste yummy, though!
* Just to the left of the carrots is a strawberry plant. It's a bit hard to see because of the squash leaves. It's a very pretty plant that has grown nicely, but has only produced 3 strawberries, all yummy, but I'm not sure what's up with it...
* The last thing I want to tell you about is that squash plant. Here's a better photo:

YIKES! It's out of control. First off, this is actually only 2 plants. And they are from some seeds that Eli planted in a cup as a preschool activity. When he brought them home, I never in a million years thought they would amount to anything. But, then it sprouted and began to grow, so I transplanted it into the garden and apparently it REALLY likes it there! It was suppose to be a "pumpkin" plant (at least that's what the cup said), but it turns out it's yellow squash. It is producing nicely with about 10 squash on it right now. We will never be able to eat it all so we will be giving some of it away. Right now, there's one that needs picking that is nearly the diameter of a basketball and oval shaped. It doesn't have the long neck that squash usually have, but it's definitely squash and NOT pumpkin!

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this squash plant grows at least an inch a day!

Garden time!

Here is a photo of what my garden looked like 2 days ago:


First row (starting in the back):
* 3 tomato plants
* 2 pumpkin (don't know what kind b/c Eli planted these in a cup at preschool and they actually came up so I transplanted them) - however one of them already has a bloom on it so I'm sure I'll find out soon!
Second row (starting in the back):
* 2 jalapenos
* 1 more tomato
* 1 strawberry plant that survived the winter and is thriving!
Third row (starting in the back):
* 5 potatoes, but only 2 of them have sprouted (can't really see them in this photo)
* 2 small rows of carrots
Last row:
* Peas (not doing very well - only a few of them have sprouted and they seem to be fizzling)
* Cilantro
* Lettuce
* 2 small rows of white onion

Outside the garden:
* 2 pots of peas (again not doing so well)
* small pot of cilantro
* small pot of chives that I think got drowned and never sprouted
* planter of lettuce (this is where the wind blew some of the seed from last years plants that I left in the ground too long, the seeds apparently made it thru the winter and then sprouted!) I had no idea the seeds had even gotten into this planter, just had some sprouts one day! BONUS.

I'm not sure how well the tomatoes will do because it snowed into mid-May and I couldn't put them out (started them inside) until just a few weeks ago. They are looking better, just not great. Maybe they just need some TLC.

What does your garden look like so far?

Oh how I love my little garden.....

The tomatoes are taking over!!! That's OK though, because they're producing wonderfully. There is a Roma behind these 2 massively, large plants that isn't fairing so well. I think it's about done.

Then there's the Cherry Tomato (the one nearest the fence) and it probably has 75 or more tomatoes on it right now and they're ripening quite nicely. I'm picking 4-5 about every other day!! They're soooooo yummy, too!

The other HUGE tomato plant is an Early Girl, it produces a medium size fruit. There are lots on this one too, but we haven't had any ripen yet, so I'm dying to taste these when they're finally ready.

The smaller tomato plant in the front (closer to the center) is one I transplanted from a pot that was apparently too small. I thought it was stunted, but since I put it in the ground 3 weeks ago, it's grown lots of new growth and even has some fruit that will be ripening soon!!

You can't really see because of the overgrown tomatoes, but there are 2 jalapeno plants in the row next to the tomatoes. They both currently have about 6-7 peppers each and 1 or 2 of them will be ready to pick within a week's time!

In the 3rd row all the way at the back is a green bell pepper. It has just recently started blooming, so we'll see if it produces anything.

And the lettuce...... need I say anything?! My neighbor has gotten lettuce at least twice a week for a few weeks (and she's also taken some for a friend) and we eat it several times a week and I'm just a tad overloaded! I went a little bit crazy with the seed when I was planting! Beginner's error! I definitely misjudged just how much lettuce would be produced by that one little packet of seed!

When I replant for fall lettuce, I'll definitely be more careful to make true rows and use the seed sparingly (like the package recommends!!).

I'm also getting ready to plant some carrots in that huge empty spot where I currently have the water hose.

I might even plant some winter squash (but I'm the only one who really eats it, so that might just be a waste).

Oh, and I have grand plans for next year's garden. There will be tomatoes, lettuce, jalapenos, green bell peppers, cilantro and other herbs, carrots, cucumber, zucchini and beans!! Yum!

Garden update and my first harvest!

My first harvest from my Colorado garden is a pretty Roma tomato. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it's about 2.5 inches tall and just looks oh so yummy! I'm going to partake of this beauty with my lunch tomorrow and I think that even if it's the most disgusting tomato I've ever eaten, it will still be wonderful - because I grew it myself!!

This is not in my garden yet because it is actually a science lesson of Jacob's (learning about seeds and what they need to grow, etc.). We took 4 dried beans (red beans) and soaked them for a while then 'planted' them in mason jars squished up against the side of the jar with a wet paper towel and napkin to hold them in place. That was nearly 2 weeks ago and this is the only survivor, but it's a hearty one! It will go in the ground in the next few days!

This is a full view of the garden. The left row is all tomatoes. Starting from the back: Roma, Cherry, Early Girl x 2. The very front Early Girl bit the dust (or so I thought) and then I noticed about a week ago there is new growth coming up from the root.... The next row is 2 jalapeno's in the back and 2 strawberries. I'm not sure what happened to the strawberries, maybe they're just waiting to come back next year. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. The third row is a green bell pepper and cilantro, the other spots were never filled because I couldn't figure out what else I wanted - the bean plant from the mason jar will go in one of the spots. The far right row is a variety of lettuces, in the front is Romaine and the back portion has a mesclun (spring mix).

Close up of the 2 jalapeno's

Close up of the Roma with another tomato ready for picking tomorrow!

I also have this Celebrity tomato in a pot. It was started before the garden was even an idea in my head. I think it has 2 on it so far and several more blooms!

Close up of the cherry. Just a quick estimate in looking at it this evening and I think it has about 15-20 tomatoes growing on it already. It's a cherry, so they grow in clusters of 4-6! The first of those will be ready for harvesting in about 2 weeks! I can't wait!

Here's the Early Girl that didn't nearly die! No fruit yet, just a few blooms!

This is mostly Romaine lettuce with a few misc. others mixed in that got scattered over when I was originally sowing the seed.

Mish mash...

~1~ The new garden is going fairly well. I'm not sure what's going on with the strawberries (they're almost goners), but everything else seems to be thriving!

I have several tomatoes that should be ready in a couple of weeks! They looks so yummy already, now if they'd just hurry up and start ripening.....

No sign of any peppers yet, just one little bloom on a jalapeno plant.

And since all I did with the lettuce was take the 2 packets and shake them out over the side of the garden where I wanted them (no rows...) I have lettuce sprouts coming up all over that area. Thankfully, none of the seeds strayed to other parts of the garden before I got a thin layer of soil over the seeds when I was planting!

~2~ Eli has had a fever of 103+ since yesterday morning and I have no idea why, he has NO other symptoms.... Ibuprofen doesn't really seem to be helping much. He's such a trooper though, other than being nearly lethargic because of the high temp. and not eating more than about 5 bites today, he's trying really hard to be normal.

We had a play date scheduled for this morning at a playground and he would go play for a little while and then come back and lay down in the stroller for a few minutes and have a drink and then go off and play some more and repeat it again. However, his 'play' was very muted and more of just meandering around on the equipment, never really sliding down the slides or anything, just kind of walking around. Then he took a 3 hour nap!

The rest of the day consisted of a short trip to the mall (him in the stroller most of the time), a trip to Target (Eli lying in the basket part of the cart with his blanket) and lots of lying on the couch.

~3~ Why the Target outing with a sick kid, you ask? Jacob had earned a new 'toy' for learning all 50 states. He has learned where all 50 states are on a map and can name them on request (we ask "where's _________" and he points to it)!!! He's not even 4.5 yet and I'm very proud of him! We chose to let him get a digital camera. Not a fancy-shmancy one, just a generic $19.99 one with no screen, zoom, etc. It has 3 settings for image quality and a couple other settings and only 2 buttons! It's small, has changeable face plates and an arm strap. Michael got it set up for him and taught him how to use it tonight!! He had fun with it and about half of the photos he took the first go-round had his finger in them! So, he's learning how to concentrate and not get his finger in the photos.

~4~ Since Eli hasn't been well, I didn't get to go to the Farmer's Market yesterday evening :-( And Jacob didn't get to go to t-ball practice because Michael was at school, so Jacob was bummed about not going, but he has a game on Saturday that he's looking forward to.

~5~ I finally chose the fabric I'm going to use in Rachael's room for parts of her bedding and accessories. The rest of the bedding will be sewn from coordinating colors of the pattern fabric I chose. You'll just have to wait to see some of the finished products though......

My new garden, and how it came to be!

Let me just start off by saying that I have an AMAZING husband!! He's wonderful!!

This is how our space started out. Don't let the photo fool you, it's pretty large, 7.5' x 10'. And yes those are rocks, gazillions of them. They actually ended up being deeper than I originally thought. They were probably about 4" deep. And moving them included shoveling, scooping (the kids helped a little as you can see) and then pulling the undermat back with rocks still on top, to get them all out of the space. We estimate to have moved around 3,000 POUNDS of rocks.

This is Michael picking out the remaining stragglers. I actually did most of that part since he did all the shoveling, etc. (the heavy lifting). These first two photos were from Sunday and it was seemingly very hot. Probably only about 80, but we were in the direct sun for several hours, so it seemed much hotter than it really was.

Monday, we went to Home Depot and decided how we would 'wall it off'. We decided on 2x12's for economic reasons and we didn't need rock edges or anything because we're the only ones going to see it, so basically we just needed funcionality. The far edge is actually screwed into the posts for our fence, the side and the close edge are held in place by large garden stakes. Monday and Tuesday also brought us much cooler temperatures and mostly overcast skies, making for a much more pleasant working experience!

Then began the filling. This took much more fill than I anticipated and because we have no way to get a load of dirt (no truck) and it would also be very hard to get a wheelbarrow back there if we did have loose dirt (the other side of our house, where the gate is, looks just like the before of this garden project - TONS of rocks and that makes rolling a wheelbarrow very difficult) we bought the dirt by the bag - which is more expensive, but was really the only option we had. We bought a total of 40 bags of top soil and garden compost - coming to a grand total of just under 1300 POUNDS of dirt that Michael carried by the bag (2 at a time) from the driveway, all the way around the house to the back...... Yay for strong men!!! We also then backfilled around the edging with some of the rocks we moved out of the way, thus giving the edging stability on both sides.

And today while the kids were napping, I got out there and got everything in the ground. Here's what we have:
* Marigolds at both ends of every row (for bug repellant...)
* The row closest to the house is 3 varieties of tomatoes
* The next row is 2 jalapeno's and 2 strawberries
* The 3rd row is 1 green bell pepper, 1 cilantro and 2 empty spaces
*The last row (closest to the fence) is lettuce seed sown directly into the ground and a few seedling transplants from a pot I had already planted with lettuce.

What a wonderful weekend

We had a wonderful weekend, I hope all of you enjoyed yourselves as well.

Since today (Monday) was a holiday - Memorial Day, Michael also got a 'down day' on Friday - his squadron got that day off as well. So we actually had a 4 day weekend. Normally, we would have taken that opportunity to drive over to Oklahoma (appx. 700 miles) to see Michael's mom so the kids could have some grandma-time, but with gas prices the way they are it would have cost us $300 on gas alone. That doesn't include food or anything else we might do while we're visiting, so an Oklahoma trip was absolutely out of the question.....

Here's what we did instead:

* Friday morning we took my van in for brakes, then did a little piddling around. We came home and ate lunch and then the boys and I took naps (Michael was doing some school work during this time). I had the good fortune of being able to nap for TRHEE hours!! What a wonderful husband I have!

*Saturday morning we piddled around the house for a little while and then decided to head to the zoo for a little while - zoo memberships are great!!! We got to see the wonderful new exhibit that opened this weekend called "Rocky Mountain wildlife", it's all about the local wildlife, including mountain lions, moose, porcupines and many other native Coloradoans! We came home and the boys and Michael had naps and I went out on a trek to replace the security blanket we lost while at the zoo..... Eli was none too happy to realize it was gone - so Walmart came to the rescue (which is great because it had to be a very specific 'feel' - he has a thing for satin and chenille.....)!!!

* Sunday morning I put a chicken in the crockpot so we could do whatever in the afternoon and I wouldn't have to worry about coming home and getting dinner ready. Then we headed to church. After church was lunch and naps for the boys. During this time I finally refined my idea for a garden space in our yard. I've been watching the yard to see which area gets the most sunlight hours and finally scoped it all out. So after naps we headed to Home Depot to get some remaining plants, etc. and then came home to start the work - the process of this garden will be a separate post because you HAVE to see the before and afters - again, I have an amazing and very strong husband!!

* Monday morning I had the pleasure (thanks again to that wonderful husband of mine) of sleeping in until 9:30! It is very rare that I sleep past 6:15 since Eli has decided he'd rather be an early riser these days, so it was such a treat. And Michael had even planned to cut the grass first thing, but decided to let me sleep in instead. I got up and took over child duty so he could go out and do the grass and then we picked up where we left off on the gardening. And it was a very full day of gardening, but a very productive day. All I have left is to get the plants in the ground tomorrow!!!

Tell me about your holiday weekend. Any fun trips? Or are you as impacted by the gas prices as we are?

Today was also Eli's 2nd birthday - although we aren't celebrating until Saturday because of it falling on a holiday. That will also be a separate post.

How does your garden grow...

Saturday and Sunday we went to Home Depot and WalMart to get the necessary supplies for me to start our 'garden.' I don't actually have anywhere in my yard to make a real garden, so I am gardening in pots for the time being. This actually works a little better for me since I can move the pots in the summer when the sun hits different parts of my yard for longer periods during the day. Sometimes when living in the mountains (we live in Colorado Springs at 6,500 feet) it's hard to find a spot that gets the same amount of sun at the beginning of spring as it does into the summer. This is caused by the topography of the area we live - too many hills...

Here's what we got:
* 2 types of tomato seeds (cherry and a medium size better boy)
* Strawberry plants
* Variety lettuce seeds
* Soil
* Manure
* 2 12" round pots with drain pans (these will be used for the tomatoes after transplant from starters inside)
* 24" window boxes (one will be used for additional tomatoes, one for strawberries and one for lettuce)

I had been saving my commercial yogurt containers, plastic fruit cups and other small (4-6oz) plastic containers for a few weeks - to start the tomato seeds in since they can't go out yet because we could have one (or FIVE) more frost in the next few weeks. I had a total of 11 containers to use and used a box cutter and cut small drainage holes in the bottom of each.

Sunday, Jacob and I spent a couple of hours planting the tomatoes in the small containers. We put them on the drain pans for the final pots since I didn't want them draining all over my kitchen floor!

We also planted the lettuce seeds, nothing exciting to see here, just looks like a bunch of dirt. Germination is 8-14 days, so maybe in a couple of weeks we'll start to see some tiny lettuce leaves.

I bought already started strawberry plants (they were a really good price). I planted 2 containers (4 plants) in one window box, so they should start producing in about 6 weeks - one of them already had a bloom, so maybe it will be sooner!!

I hope it all goes as well as I envision it. I've grown tomatoes before and they did ok. I've also attempted cucumbers - and let's just say, I think I'm turned off to that for a few more years....