How Does Your Garden Grow?

With silver bells, and cockle shells,
and pretty maids all in a row.

Okay maybe I don't have any silver bells or cockle shells, but I will do my best on the pretty maids all in a row.

This week I finally got the rest of my garden planted. Once things get going we are going to have more fruits and veggies then we are going to know what to do with, I can't wait.

In the large garden area we have planted: 2 verities of heirloom tomatoes, 2 verities of cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, 2 plants of an unknown tomato (my dad gave them to me), english cucumbers, jalapenos, red and purple bell peppers, habanero peppers, anaheim chilies, peperoncini, green beans, cantaloupe, artichoke, zucchini, acorn squash and butternut squash.

In front of that garden area we have 2 rows of strawberry's (3 different verities). And to the left of the strawberry's we have plants a dozen blueberry bushes, and a marion berry bush. We might not have fruit on most of the bushed until next summer but when we do we are going to have more then we know what to do with!

Last we have planted a great little herb garden. It contains thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, fennel, dill, chives, dwarf curry, basil, italian parsley and lemon verbena. The dill is going crazy and I have used a lot of it. It is so nice to just run into the backyard and pick some fresh herbs to go into dinner.

Stay posted for more updates on the garden, recipes and photos of all the great things I plan to create.

My Jam Plan.

Just after moving into our new house we discovered a very large rhubarb plant in out backyard. This made me happy because one of my all time favorite pies is strawberry rhubarb. Since I really don't like to bake, I figured the next best thing would be homemade strawberry rhubarb jam. I found this great recipe that uses the microwave. All you have to do cut up your fruit, coat it with sugar, microwave it for 10-12 minutes (more in my microwave because it is an old piece of crap), and put into jars. This process is genius! Not only does it save a mess of time but it, uses like a quarter of the sugar as other jams.

Since I liked how much the strawberry rhubarb turned out I decided to try out some other concoctions, using the microwave technique. I made some strawberry, rhubarb, orange, pineapple jam. And some pear, plum, rhubarb jam. All three are very tasty. I Love to make jam

I can't wait to come up with new recipes this summer. I want to try out some savory jams, like a pepper jam, and we are going to grow all kinds of peppers in the garden, so I will have plenty of great fruit to work with. So stay posted for more jam.