Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Stocking Up Continues

Yesterday I finally got back out to the gardens.  I must have picked about 40 pounds of tomatoes, and this pot full of peppers, and one spaghetti squash.  I picked two types of green pepper, red pepper, cayenne, jalapeno and banana peppers.


I picked a handful of strawberries.  They are growing so much better in my new raised beds this year.

Yesterday I canned 3 1/2 more quarts of seasoned tomato sauce, using up about 23 pounds of those tomatoes I picked.  

Today I will make another batch of taco sauce.  My family devoured another 1/2 pint jar the other day.   Today, I also need to freeze all those peppers you see in the pot, and freeze more tomatoes.

I plan to set aside some banana peppers for an Italian treat that we have never tried. 

In the back garden, where we planted the watermelon and baking heirloom pumpkins (and the last of the tomatoes and sweet potatoes when we ran out of room),  I noticed something has been eating the produce.  They are eating the pumpkins and the larger tomatoes.  Must be the raccoons that were trying to get in our chicken coop.  I need to weed out there, but quickly pulled the few pumpkins that I could salvage for fall  decoration.  We won't be baking any of them this year. Between bugs and animals, they are a lost cause.   I can always buy some from a produce stand as well.

Tomorrow, rain is in the forecast, so that will making future weeding much easier.  Then I need to pull the collards and plant my garlic for fall.  The fall peas and beans should start to produce after this next rain.  It's our first fall planting, other than garlic.

The finished scarf - completely with scrap yarn from other projects.  It turned out pretty nice.

Spiders!  It's that time of year again.  When they decide that my home is their home.  Yuck!  We already found an ugly wolf spider in the kitchen sink this morning.  There is another very large one (not sure what kind it is) making a nest next to a window.  I'm saving that one for my son to remove.  I better learn to shake out my clothing from now on.  Some spiders like to climb.  I better get the rest of the webs sucked down with the sweeper this weekend.

6 comments:

Candy C. said...

The scarf turned out GREAT!!
I'm always amazed at how many tomatoes it takes to make sauce...
Yep, it's getting to be spider season. They are trying to find places to spend the winter. (shudder)

ladaisi said...

I love reading about everything you cook and bake and can and plant! Especially since I have no yard right now and a teeny tiny kitchen; I must live vicariously through you until I can grow my own veggies! I'm gonna' love it.

Unknown said...

I got a spider bite last week, ew...

Teri said...

Hi Kristin,
I jusr love the colors of this scarf! BEAUTIFUL!
Sounds like you had a pretty good year at the market.
Teri

Teri said...

Hi Kristin,
I jusr love the colors of this scarf! BEAUTIFUL!
Sounds like you had a pretty good year at the market.
Teri

Teri said...

Hi Kristin,
I jusr love the colors of this scarf! BEAUTIFUL!
Sounds like you had a pretty good year at the market.
Teri