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Gifts From The Garden
We all love the warm feeling we have that comes from receiving a handmade gift, but so many of us in this busy world we live do not have time. There are some quick gifts which may already be in your pantry which you canned during the summer garden harvest. There are alot of short cuts you can take such as using your canned treats and some simple packaging with a recipe card to share your gift. Most of the treats may only be finding a cute basket, stenciled recipe cards, or jar toppers to assemble a cute gift with a jar tucked inside. Fruit Honeys Topped with a…
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A Guide To Peppers
Peppers are a favorite in most gardens behind tomatoes and herbs. They are often grown in container gardens and they do well. Peppers are a warm season favorite however, they require higher temperatures, grow more slowly and are smaller in size compared to a tomato plant. They require full sun and they need to spaced 12-18 inches apart. Peppers are a thirsty plant and need plenty of water. The soil must drain well so the roots do not get saturated which can water logs the roots. A little history about the spiciness/heat of pepper began in the 1900’s. The Scoville scale of heat is a measurement of the spiciness/heat of…
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Baking With Zucchini
We learned a lesson from zucchini over the years. We always grew 3-4 plants each year and you probably can guess the rest of the story. We ate zucchini. We cooked with zucchini. We froze zucchini. We gave away zucchini. We now grow 2 plants and that seems to plenty to fit our needs and we do not feel as if we are being wasteful. We like baked goods with zucchini the most. Zucchini bread and other baked items are very easy to make. Grating the zucchini is a snap if you have a food processor with a grating feature. (It really saves the knuckles.) A hand grater works fine…
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Homemade Fruit Roll Ups
As my son transitioned to food and milk at one year I quickly realized he had a huge appetite. It was hard to keep him full and I soon introduced a pretty large size snack time in the late afternoon. I have been very committed to homemade food for him to avoid preservatives and unhealthy ingredients. So, I needed to get creative with our snack time for a good variety of healthy snack options. Well, we get some amazing fresh strawberries locally that are delicious. My son LOVES strawberries. So, I found a creative way to use our strawberries that would be a new snack to introduce. I decided to…
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Growing and Harvesting Butternut Squash
Butternut Squash It is considered a winter squash. Given the chance winter squash will take over a garden (this includes pumpkins). The vines are very long and will grow to all parts of the garden. I usually direct the long vines to the perimeter of the garden so they encircle my garden space. Growing butternut squash was not on the top of my list during my early gardening years but once I decided to try growing it, it has been a regular in my garden. Growing Butternut Squash Butternut squash is easy to grow. The growing season begins in the summer for harvesting in the fall. The seedlings are extremely…
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Peach Preserves
I have so many peaches ready on my peach trees, so I’ve been in the midst of making my peach preserves! Many of my readers have been asking for the recipe, so here it is! [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:7] SaveSave SaveSave
Home Grown is Best
