Basil Pesto :: the frugal edition::

Last week we picked the first of our basil.  I didn't think the plants were really very big and so I wasn't planning on cutting very much, but I came in with an overflowing bowl.  We decided to make pesto for our pizza.  We used the last of our frozen pesto a couple of months ago and pizza just isn't the same with out it. 

I picked 1/4 pound which doesn't sound like much but was enough to make 4 batches of pesto.  We're well on our way to stocking our freezer for the year. 

Basil is easy to grow and just a few plants can give you an entire year's worth of pesto.

Pesto can be pretty expensive even when you make it yourself - a small bag of pine nuts sell here for $4 then add in the cost of olive oil and Parmesan and you've spent a pretty penny.  Last year I tried making some of our batches with pecans instead of pine nuts.  Guess what?  No one could tell the difference.  We gather our own pecans each year so that really cut the costs, but even if you had to buy the pecans they would be way cheaper than pine nuts. 

Basil Pesto Recipe: 
1 cup basil leaves -  firmly packed
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
4-5  cloves garlic (we really like garlic, feel free to use less)
2/3 cup olive oil

Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree.  Best after it has been sitting for a day or so.

Store in jar in refrigerator for a week or so.  For longer storage put pesto in ice cube trays and freeze.  When completely frozen remove from ice cube trays and put in zip lock bag. 

The air will make the pesto turn brown so make sure that there is some oil floating on top.  The oil will rise to cover the pesto, but if you notice it turning put a little oil on top of it. 

Enjoy it on pizza, pasta, sandwiches, with crackers, by itself etc.

WARNING:  Beware of jumping blender jars.  When I was about halfway done scooping the pesto out of my blender the jar just jumped right out of my hand and shattered on the floor.  I had no idea blender jars could jump!

ps:  There is no finished product picture because although basil pesto is so very yummy, it's not so photgenic.

For more delicious recipes check out Tasty Tuesday and These Chicks Cooked

Craft Hope {bracelets for Russian orphans}

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

This weekend we spent some time making bracelets for Craft Hope Project 12 Bracelets for Russian Orphans.  We pulled out all our beading stuff and had some fun.

We have several friends who are foster parents and  friends who have adopted from Russia and China, so my children are aware that sometimes parents just can't take care of their children . But while we were beading it was a great opportunity to talk about the children who will be getting these bracelets.



 So, why bracelets? They're going to be a small part of a much bigger  ministry. Here's what Craft Hope has to say:
Basically WCSG, the local Christian radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is teaming up with Orphan Outreach to help children in Russia. They’ll be working at St. Petersburg’s Crisis Center 15 — a triage for children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. The children who are brought to the center range in age from infant to teen — many are newborns who have been abandoned on the street or left in dumpsters. They’ll be reaching out in a variety of ways to help meet their physical and emotional needs. They’ll also be visiting orphanages in the region on Leningrad.

We know we'll probably never see what God does with our small gift, but we know that He can use even our most meager attempts.

If you're looking for more great ideas to keep you busy this summer check out Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Craftastic Monday, Kid's Can Craft, Just Something I whipped up, A Bowl Full of Lemons,  Making the World Cuter and Made by You Mondays.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (Amanda Soule)

Summer Sewing School {tips on teaching children to sew}

Note:  I've mentioned before that all my boys have various levels of sewing ability.  They all have learned to at least sew a button and do some simple mending. So while most of the stories I draw on will be about Phoebe since she is by far the most proficient sewer, please remember that sewing is for everyone, not just girls. I hope that you moms of boys will find some projects that will inspire them, even if the project is to be given as a gift. 


When Phoebe was 5, almost 6, her aunt gave her a small sewing machine.  Carl and I had already approved the the gift and so we were not shocked when she opened it.  Looking back, I think "What was I thinking?  five.... really? five!"  But she was just 3 months away from six and well, six is so much bigger than five. 

I quickly ordered a book to teach her to sew, and although the book had some useful information and some cute projects, it just didn't excite her. She wanted to sew what I was sewing.   Whenever I'd get my machine out,  she'd get hers out and want to sew.  At first, I really struggled with this because my sewing time was very limited and to teach her would mean that I couldn't do as much of what I wanted to do. But I knew my attitude could kill her excitement.  So, unless I had some kind of deadline that I was up against, I would let her sew along side me and just realize that it would take much longer. 

This is what a 9 year old boy needs to be able to sew... the most comfy chair in the house, mom's book
that was in the chair and "can't" be moved because he's too busy to do things like that, and the xbox
controller so he can be in charge of the music selections.

I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point she became a profient sewer.  We can whip out great gifts in half the time it would take me alone.  She even has had a few people pay her to make burp cloths and other items.  It has been so worth the extra time I took a few years ago to teach her and let her sew along with me. 

One thing I learned with Phoebe is that children, like most of us, want to spend out time doing something useful.  Phoebe would sew on paper for a few minutes, but she really wanted to create!  To teach her to sew in a straight line, turn corners and sew a circle I drew on paper and then had her sew right on the line.  After she did this, we would sew the "real" project.  We would do this each time... and then at some point, it didn't need to be done anymore.

Please keep in mind that when making these projects, mistakes will be made. Sometimes, lots of them, some will be able to be fixed and some won't be.  It's okay.  Just start over.  With this in mind, I would suggest that you let your child pick out fun fabrics, but not expensive ones.  It is much easier to remain calm when a mistake is made with $3 a yard fabric than it is when a mistake is made with $10 a yard fabric.  Also, buy a little extra fabric - anticipating mistakes. 

None of these projects need to be perfect.  We have picked projects that will be just fine if there is some wiggle in the stitches.  There will be times that you need to rip out stitches, but try to do that as little as possible.  The more your child sews, the neater the sewing will get. 

If your sewing machine has more than one speed, meaning that when you push harder on the foot pedal the machine goes faster, I suggest putting a thick sponge under the pedal.  That way your child doesn't have to worry about how hard to push the pedal down.  You can remove it as your child's confidence builds. 

Just like learning any new skill, sewing at times can be frustrating.  If I have a choice between either laughing or crying (or yelling), I chose to laugh. So when mistakes are made when we sew, we try to just laugh, learn our lesson and start over. 

Above all, have fun!!!

If you don't want to miss the upcoming posts, you might want to either follow or subscribe.


If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments and I'll answer them there.

In the garden...melons

When we planted our Roma tomatoes this year we put some of last years compost in the bed.  For all the other beds we used aged hay from a friend's horse and goats.  By the time we planted the Romas we were out of farm "stuff".  I had started my Romas from seed and a friend had also given me some.   Imagine my surprise when hundreds of  melon plants started popping up in my tomato bed!  Apparently someone put melon seeds in the compost bin - a no no here. 
We moved our Romas and let the melons take over - after thinning lots of them.  They are watermelons and look really good.  There's even a few and a yellow squash growing in the compost bin.  We've just let them take over and moved our pile.  Why is it that volunteers always seem to do better than the plants I actually plant? 

We have only had mild successes with melons in the past but I'm hoping this year will be different.  We installed our homemade drip irrigation system in the melon patch.  (that would be milk jugs with holes them that we buried) We also planted some honeydew melon and cantaloupe in our onion patch.  The onions should be harvested before the melons get too big. 

Our patch of watermelon volunteers.

Here's some info on growing melons: 

• Melons do just fine direct seeding in the garden.
• Plant in hills (this helps you know where your seeds are!)
• Plant 3 seeds per hill and then thin if needed. (If you make your hills large enough you might not have to thin)
• Keep well watered, plants will live for a long time with not much water, but either they won't produce any fruit or the fruit will be hard. This is especially true for watermelons - they need lots of water
• If you plant transplants, plant a few seeds too. That way you'll have older and younger plants.
• Do not water the leaves, just the soil (this is where the milk jug come in handy)
• The sun helps the melons ripen.  You can use a homemade "solar heater" to help them along.  Put your melon on top of a large juice can.  This idea is from The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook by Cam Mather.

Pests and Problems:

• Cucumber beetles - you will find these in the flowers. Squish them.
• Squash bugs - like to be at the base of the plant. They will climb up the stem to lay their eggs.  You can try putting a board at the base of the plants at night and then in the morning lifting it up to find the squash bugs. 
• Squash bugs lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves (they are orange-ish colored). again - squish them or if you just can't do it, pull off that leaf and burn it.
• Powdery mildew - is a white mildew that will attack the leaves of squash, melons and cucumbers. It is caused by too much moisture on the leaves and is spread by bugs. We try to cut off infected leaves and burn them. Last year we had a hard time with this and are changing the way we water to hopefully avoid it this year.
• You can put a paper plate under your melons (and winter squash) to keep them up off the ground to help keep the bugs off the fruit.  I did this last year after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  When we picked our water melons when the vines died very few were ripe.  This year I think I'll try black plates instead to help attract the sun. 

Harvesting and Storing:

Its hard to know when to harvest melons.  I've heard of people thumping them, waiting for the underside to be a certain color, waiting for the vine to die, all kinds of tricks.  We've found it is usually just trial and error.  We try to wait as long as possible and then just eat lots of melon.  We'll eat the cantaloupe and honeydews first and then the watermelons as the watermelons seem to last a little longer than the others. 

My favorite book on bugs is Howard Garrett'sTexas Bug Book  an amazing book with tons of pictures and remedies.

If you have any more tips for growing melons, please share them in the comments.

To see what's going on in other gardener's little plot of land check out Frugal Gardening 101 and Tuesday Garden Party.

Stuffed Flying Saucers {aka Patty Pan squash}

We had never seen white patty pan squash until we moved to this area.  The first time someone gave us some, it was a little overgrown and the skin was a little hard.  I didn't think it would saute very well because of the skin and I'm a little too lazy to peel squash.  So we cut it up, battered it and fried it.  oh, yeah, it was good!  But since we try to reserve our fried food calories for okra I knew I would have to figure out another way to cook it.

A couple of years ago I found several stuffed squash recipes and mixed them up and adapted them to our taste.  Last week we harvest enough white squash to make stuffed flying saucers (as my children like to call them.)

Stuffed White Patty Pan Squash recipe:
8 white squash
2 cups cooked black beans
4 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup salsa (or more)
1 Tbsp. cumin
salt, pepper and cilantro to taste
grated cheddar cheese

Cut the top off the white squash - not all of it just about  a 3-4 inch circle.  Use a spoon to scrape the seeds out.  In a pan, combine beans, rice, salsa, cumin, salt, pepper and cilantro (optional - if you like it).  Heat up.  Then stuff the squash with mixture.  Cook for about 45 minutes then top with cheese and cook for another 10 minutes or until squash is soft. 

I didn't include a completed picture because, well... it was not very photogenic when we made it.  I put the cheese on when I put them in the oven and cheese isn't very attractive when it's been baking for almost an hour.  But I bet you can remember to let it bake first and then put the cheese on.

For more great recipes check out Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table

graduation gift {laundry bag and a book}

This weekend our local homeschool group sponsored a graduation ceremony for any seniors who wanted to participate.  This was the first time we have been able to go, it was very touching.  There were 10 students participating, I personally knew all but 2. 

There was a video presentation for each student that each family put together and then the parents and the graduate would  go to the front and the parents would present him with his diploma. Each parent had the opportunity to speak.  It was interesting to hear what was on the parents hearts as they close one chapter and begin another.  Several families were graduating their last child so their lives will radically change.  Two young men chose to speak to their "class" both of these young men have a heart for God and I am excited to see what God is going to do in their lives. 

The daughter of one of my dearest friends graduated yesterday.  We have known this young lady since she was in 5th grade when they first moved here.  She has been like a big sister to Phoebe.  In the past she has willingly braided her hair, painted her nails, colored with her, etc.  When Phoebe sees her and her sisters she runs and hugs them - it is just precious. 

I wanted to get her something that was practical and inspiring.  So, using this tutorial from "i have to say", I made her a laundry bag.  That way she can go to the laundry mat in style while at college. 

That is the practical part, for the inspiring part I gave her a book.  I asked her mom what to give her and she suggested Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  So, I bought the book and read a little bit of it and really liked it.  All morning I had meant to inscribe the book for her, and all morning something came up.  So, I thought I would just write on the card instead of the book.  Then at the reception following the graduation ceremony I noticed that someone else had gotten her that book (it had a ribbon on it, but wasn't wrapped).   Maybe that's why I had such a crazy morning!  I quickly took the book back to our local bookstore where I had purchased it and they graciously allowed me to exchange it. 

I got the book Living on the Edge by Chip .  Chip Ingram is one of my  favorite authors and speakers.  The book is based on Romans 12.  The part that I skimmed that really resonated with me was when he talked about friends and living in community.  For a teenager who will soon be leaving home and going off to college where she knows no one, I thought his insights on friendship were very wise.  He made a comment something like "True friendship is more than just sharing coffee and reading Bible verses together."  I will definitely have to get this book for us.  Ingram

Phoebe and I also worked on our Summer Sewing School projects, feel free to follow along we'll be posting the first project on June 2nd.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (Amanda Soule)

Summer Sewing School {the details}

Phoebe and I have finally ironed out all the details for the Summer Sewing School.  At least I hope we have.  I wanted to be sure that the projects were, in fact, something that an elementary or jr high child could not only do but also enjoy doing. Phoebe helped me quite a bit with this. 

Also, this is not just for girls, Benjamin is going to participate so if you have a boy who wants to learn to sew please encourage him. All of my boys know how to do some basic sewing, they can sew on a button or a Boy Scout patch and do some simple mending.  I've even seen one with Phoebe's little sewing machine in his room when he decided to make a cloak.  I think these are good skills for boys to have.

Doll quilt Phoebe made when she was 6.

  Here's the nitty gritty:  

• Summer Sewing School will go from June 3rd to July 15th. 
•  I'll post the supply list a week before we actually work on the project.  That will give you time to pick your fabric and get your supplies together. 
•  We will be doing our project on Fridays but you are free to pick whatever day works for you.  I would suggest deciding ahead of time what day of the week you are going to sew and then honor that time.  
•  I'll post the tutorial for that week's lesson on Thursday.  That will give you an opportunity to look it over before you work with your child on it.  These will have step by step instructions and pictures. 
• I will also try really, really hard to check comments late on Thurday night or early Friday morning to answer any questions.  
• Also, we'll have a flickr group set up so that you can upload pictures of your projects. 

 

These are some pin cushions and a purse Phoebe made when she was 9.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting some ideas about learning to sew and teaching your child to sew. These are things that I've learned over the years of teaching myself and then teaching Phoebe to sew. Some I've learned from others. And some, I've learned the hard way!

A little bit bigger doll quilt Phoebe made when she was 10.  She won reserve grand champion
in her age division at our county fair that year.

If you don't want to miss the upcoming posts, you might want to either follow or subscribe.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments and I'll answer them there.

This post is linked to Market Yourself Mondays and Tuesday Time Out

In the garden... garden tour and corn harvest

This is what I brought in one afternoon.  I'm not sure how one hen laid 2 eggs, but apparently she did?

We harvested our corn on Saturday.  We have 38 ears of corn with a few more still in the garden that were not ready yet.  This was a great lesson in procrastination.  One of the tips I gave in this post on corn was to put a drop of mineral oil on the tassels when they wilt and begin to turn brown.  I did this last year using flax seed oil and we only had a few ears that had earworms.

Well, whenever I was in the garden lately I would think Next time, I'll bring the flax seed oil out and put it on the corn.  Well, next time never came and when we harvested we had to cut the ends off almost every ear because of earworm damage.  Lesson learned!


The hens were having a feast Saturday morning!

 We also found more vine borers in our yellow squash, white squash and luffa squash.  We had to pull 2 of our yellow squash plants, but we do have some new ones growing.  Gabriel performed amazing surgery on the rest. 

This is our lone luffa squash plant that came up as a volunteer.  We're hoping it survives the squash borers!

Our onions are doing great.  Some have already started to fall over, so I think we'll be harvesting most of them in the next couple of weeks.  I've already planted some honeydew melon and cantaloupe in the onion beds.  In the back you can see our second batch of corn, you can bet I'll put oil on the tassels this time!



These are my pole beans.  The day after I took this picture the buds finally started to open.  So soon we should be having more than just squash to eat.





These are the Celebrity tomatoes I bought.  They are starting to turn yellow, so maybe next week we'll have some ripe tomatoes.




One of the basil plants.  I can't wait to start making pesto!  In the back are radishes.  None of us like them, we plant them so the insects will eat them instead of the plants we like. There are definately more holes in the radish leaves than in the basil, so maybe it works.



We have several "baby" watermelons.  All of these plants came up as volunteers, maybe someone didn't make it all the way to the pasture with the compost bucket last year?  At any rate, we had tons of watermelon plants come up in our Roma tomato patch.  The watermelons got to stay and the Romas got relocated.


Over all, we're pretty happy with what's going on in the garden.  We also have some cucumbers, but they are not doing very well, and some garlic, pie pumpkins, potatoes and bush beans planted.  We'll be planting our okra soon and I'll be planting more luffa, some spaghetti squash and a couple of large pumpkins. 

We're also planning on going to a mushroom farm and getting some mushroom compost. We've never used it before, but have heard good things about it. 

For other great gardens visit Tuesday Garden Party , Frugal Gardening 101, Outdoor Wednesday and Homestead Barn Hop.

summer pasta salad

If you've been looking at our side bar, you've probably noticed that we have picked quite a bit of yellow squash.  Fortunately for me, my family is pretty tolerant when it comes to food.  They don't really care if we eat somethings over and over. 

So we've been eating yellow squash almost every day. Usually, I'll saute some in a little olive oil with salt and pepper for dinner.  We don't like it mushy so we don't ever boil it.  I've cooked it in the oven at with a little olive oil, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.  We also like to eat it raw in pasta salad. 

This is such a versatile summer salad.  This time I used penne noodles, but I've also used rigatoni.  The carrots, squash and zucchini are from our garden and the tomato and broccoli are from the store.  Sometimes, I put avocado in if I have some.  I've also put sunflower seeds in it.  Once you've cooked and drained your noodles, chop up whatever veggies you have.  Mix them with the noodles and pour zesty Italian salad dressing over them.  Store in refrigerator.  Best when served cold.

Enjoy!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

kids clothes week challenge

Last week, I happened upon Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge and decided to join in on the fun. The challenge was to work on children's clothes for an hour a day each day.  I didn't sew each day, but it definately gave me the spur I needed to work on some of the ideas I've had floating around in my head. 

I made Esther a pair of summer pajamas out of some "vintage" (a.k.a. old) fabric that I  bought at the Senior Citizen's fabric sale.  For the top I used a pattern, Simplicity 4206, for the bottoms I just traced a pair of pj's that we already had and added an inch all around.  Since I hate hemming, I added a little orange ric rac to the bottoms of the legs and the sleeves.

I also made a shirt for Phoebe out of some cute cotton voile fabric we got at the same sale. 



 To make the shirt I:

• Cut 2 peices of fabric - about 24"wide and 22" long
• Sew up the 2 sides to make a tube.  I used a french seam.  To make a french seam pin fabric wrong sides together and sew a 1/4 inch seam.  Trim seam to 1/8 inch.  Now, put fabric right sides together, pin and sew the seam again using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. 
• After tube is made, cut a triangle off of each of the top corners- these are the armholes.  I measured about 2.5" in from side and 5.5 inches down from top, then used those marking to to make a straight line to cut. 
• Make a casing for the elastic across the top.  Fold the fabric down 1/2 inch and then again.  Sew along the edge.
• Cut the elastic - measure across the chest to determine how wide you want the top of the shirt to be.
• Insert the elastic and sew it at each end to secure it.
• Using bias tape finish the armholes and make ties.  
• Make elastic waist - measure about 3" down from each armhole and mark a line on wrong side all the way across (I used a "marks be gone" pen).  Then I cut a piece of elastic that was comfy around Phoebe's waist and sewed that on the line stretching the elastic as I sewed. 
• Hem the bottom.  

I wish I had been able to actually sew everyday, but I feel pretty good about finishing these.  Esther still needs a few more pairs of pj's and Phoebe would like a couple more of these shirts for the summer.  Now that I've got the ball rolling, I'm going to try to sew at least a couple of days each week for the summer.

Summer Sewing School {a sew-along invite}

Since we homeschool we have the freedom to arrange our schoolwork in a way that works best for us. We've done it all... schooled year round with a predetermined schedule; schooled year round because that's just how life worked out that year; started school after labor day, took holiday from Thanksgiving until New Years and called it quits I mean, finished May 1st; set our school year by the local school district calandar and many, many other ways.

Now what works best for us is to work really, really hard academically starting about Aug. 15th (it's really hot here remember) and finishing up in early May. The only down side is that some of our non academic learning, ie. fun stuff, gets put off until the summer. The upside is that we have all summer when we don't have alot out of the house commitments to work on the things we've been waiting all year for.

Phoebe working on a gift for a friend when she was 9.

This summer, Phoebe and I are going to invite a few friends over for Summer Sewing School. We'll do this on Fridays for 6 weeks. And we'd like to invite you to join us!

This Summer Sewing School is geared toward children who are 6 years and older and mom. Mom will be an intrigal part of the school, even if mom doesn't yet know how to sew! But is open to anyone!

We will do a variety of projects that include hand and machine sewing. So you will need to have a machine that is in good working order. It doesn't have to be fancy. Phoebe got her first sewing machine when she was six and it went one speed...slow. It is great and we're saving it for Esther! She has the Janome Sew Mini, they don't make it anymore but it is similar to this one .


A simple tote to take to Art Class.

 We're still working out all the details, trying to determine the best projects to do to teach the skills we think are most important. We'll have it all ironed out next week and we'll post the details then.

So that you don't miss the details, you might want to either follow or subscribe.

In the garden...carrots

We harvested our first few carrots this week for a pasta salad.  We've grown carrots in the past and I vividly remember a year when we grew so many that instead of eating them raw, I was sauteing them night after night. 

While I don't think this year will be like that, we do have a pretty good patch and should be able to not buy carrots for a while.  Benjamin especially likes to go outside and check the carrots, looking for just the right one. 

Had I left them in the ground longer they would have filled out all the way to the tip.

Here's some things about carrots:

• Planting times for our area (South Texas) is Jan 15-Mar 7 and Sept 15-Nov 7
• Carrots need well tilled, loose soil.  If you have clay soil you should really add alot of compost to begin to break it up.
• I sow the seeds really close together,  I just sprinkle them from the envelope in a line and cover them with soil. 
• Thin to 2 inches apart
• Carrot seeds are really small and so they need for the ground to stay moist while they germinate. You can lightly water the soil each day - just be careful that the soil doesn't form a crust. 
• Or you can put a piece of burlap or a board over the seeds for 5-7 days.  When you peek under and see green remove the covering.  (I have not tried this, but I will this fall.  I had a really hard time getting these carrots to germinate.  I sowed seeds 3 different times!)
• Succession plant so that they are not all ready at the same time.  Try planting every 2 to 3 weeks during the planting season.
• Do NOT try to start carrots early and then put them in the garden.  The roots will get all mangled and funky.  Although one certain little boy I know loves this, his mom doesn't. 
• Carrots will grow as long as they are going to and then fill out.
• If you use too much feritilizer your carrots will be hairy (little roots growing off the carrot).  These will not store very well.  
• Like onions, carrots will bolt or go to seed in their second year. Unless, there is crazy weather which makes them think they are two, even if they are really only one.
  
  

  

  This is what happens when a carrot gets too much water!
  (Please excuse our brown grass, we're in the middle of a drought.)

  

Pests and Problems:
Other than the germination trouble this year, we've never really had any issues with carrots.  They seem to be fairly easy to grow, once they start.

• Carrot Rust Fly - you can use floating row covers.  But carrots are easily disturbed so be careful.  Try growing onions nearby, the should help repell the larvae of the rust fly.
• Sometimes a gopher will eat just a part of a couple of carrots - solution: pay son 50cents for every gopher he traps. 
• Grubs or wire worms will sometimes chew on a few or tunnel through them.  We feed these to the chickens.
• Overwatering will cause the carrots to split!

Harvesting and Storage:

• We just harvest the carrots as we need them throughout the summer.  Taking them from the most crowded area. 
• I have read that you can store carrots in wet peat moss in your cellar.  We don't have a cellar so I won't be trying this. 
• Carrots can be left in the ground until the ground freezes
• I know you can also freeze carrots, but we're not big frozen veggie people. 

Feel free to add any other carrot information in the comments.

This post is linked to Tuesday Garden Party and Garden Tuesday

Mother's Day international fun...

A few months ago, I started talking about pancit.  I don't know what got me thinking about it.  But evidently I talked about it alot, so when we went to the library last week Christian checked out 2 Filipino cookbooks... Filipino Cuisine and The Philippine Cookbook.  By the way, if anyone knows why Filipino is spelled with and "f" and only one "p" and Philippine is spelled with a "ph" and double "p", we would like to know.  So far we've made up all kinds of silly reasons, but it would be nice to know the reason.

What is pancit?  I thought you'd never ask.  It is a stir fried rice noodle dish from the Philippines. 

I read the pancit recipes in each cookbook and this pancit recipe and then kind of did my own thing.  Which, apparently is very common. 

On Saturday, I was serenaded by a local mariachi group.  It was such a fun surprise!  I don't speak much spanish, so I didn't understand what they were saying.  But I loved it.  It brought back a flood of memories of my dad and our trips with him and my stepmom to Mexico. 



Pancit Bihon (or my version of it):

In the spirit of trying to just use what I have, I used only chicken, no pork or shrimp. I used about 6 mushrooms, a small head of cabbage, a bag of shreaded carrots, 5 squash and 2 onions from our garden. I cooked the chicken in some water with 2 tbsp of fish sauce and 2 tbsp. of soy sauce. Then I sauted the onions, cabbage and carrots using some of the broth. I took that out of the pan and then sauted the squash and mushrooms with some of the broth. I took that out of the pan and then put in three 8oz packages of rice noodles (the really thin ones) and the rest of the broth and some more fish sauce and soy sauce. After about 3 or 4 minutes they were ready and I mixed the noodles in with the veggies. If you were doing a smaller amount, you could do it all in one pan.

We also tried lumpia - they didn't turn out so good. I think either I need to use a different wrapper or maybe the oil wasn't hot enough. They didn't really turn golden brown - they were still kind of clear and greasy.

If you have made lumpia and have any hints for me I'd love to have them!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday, Mouthwatering Monday and mmmMonday.