What did you do in the garden today?

[akroberts1085]

I finally got the mansion finished for my 2 girls.

 

[akroberts1085]

@WthrLady on pg 6483 that's what it looks like from the front

 

[WthrLady]

I won't bother to put mine away until the applesauce is done.

I wasn't PLANNING on applesauce. I was standing at the peeler/slicers and decided I could NOT face yet another dehydrating session of apples. I need to get to celery and carrots tomorrow night.

The canner is never far I'll grab it for extra soup or meat deals, but it WAS away.

 

[WthrLady]

@WthrLady on pg 6483 that's what it looks like from the front

That'll do nicely!

 

[akroberts1085]

That'll do nicely!

I decided my girls need to know that they are part of the family so why not go big. It's about what I did for the grandkids in my home office. I gave them the closest full of art supplies and craft supplies.

 

[Smokerbill]

Yeah, I remember you talking about the deer in the garden problem. I'm glad you got it fixed enough that you had a good year.

I had a really good gardening year as well. Coming to end now, but really enjoyed it while we could. We filled up a few racks in the freezer with fresh garden food to enjoy this year. And, we ate more fresh food directly from the garden this year as well.

Same here. The only produce I bought at the grocery store this summer was peppers a few times, onions and a couple heads of cabbage.

I have plenty of zucchini in the freezer for the winter, 2 one gallon bags of tomatoes, and many more to freeze. Turnip greens in the freezer, too. And plenty of kale growing in the garden that will keep me in fresh greens all fall and winter.

I'll leave my carrots in the ground over the winter and pick them as I need them. I'm in zone 8b, so I don't get too much weather that's below freezing. They say carrots get sweeter left in the ground over winter, too.

The onions I planted were a bust. I tried starting onion seeds and planting the seedlings and they just didn't grow. I'll spring for a few bags of onion sets next spring. They're cheap and reliable. But maybe I'll also try direct seeding some onion seeds in a spot in the garden this fall and see what happens. It's fun trying new techniques.

That reminds me, I need to get garlic planted soon, too. It's that time of year.

 

[akroberts1085]

Does anyone have any idea as to about what era this lock is from? My husband found it on our property after taking down an old shed.

 

[saysfaa]

Yesterday, I planted lettuce, bok choy, and corn salad. Some might be transplanted into the garden, the rest will go into pots/planters to be moved in and out of the house as it gets too cold for them outside. Assuming they all do well, I think that is the last of the planting for this year - except for rye and wheat. And radishes. And maybe one more try at spinach -maybe I should just throw spinach seeds all over and see where it wants to grow.

The last planting of peas is blooming, the last planting of beans has buds, the carrots are almost big enough to eat - as thinnings although they are spaced to not need thinning yet. They might not need thinning at all.

The first planting of brussels sprouts have, what are they called? sprouts? but they don't look like I expected. They are just loose rosettes or small clumps of leaves too disorganized to be called a rosette at all. Is this because of the variety? or what the first ones usually look like? or is the weather being too hot for them? Did I not pay close enough attention to them soon enough (but the ones higher on the stem don't look like that is the case)? Something else?

 

[littledog]

Why is it that in my old age I only now become aware of how much good food is wasted when we should be eating all parts of some plants? Maybe it's just my basic lack of food and nutrition background. When I was growing up, boys had shop class and girls had home economics. Never the two should mix when I went to school. But here I am, at 63 years old, and hearing for the first time in my life that you can eat carrot greens. Thank you for the info, but it really makes me feel that I had a poor food education growing up.

BTW, last year I watched a documentary on the way the French people teach their children about eating and nutrition. Their lunch hour is actually an hour long and they are taught about food like a regular class. They had a head school Chef (male, in the movie) who planned out all the meals and had assistants (male and female) who helped. Compare that to my school experience where we packed down as much food as we could in 10 minutes and then went to the gym to play. Our cooks were local mothers from the community. You never, ever, saw a male in the school kitchen. I hope that has changed.

I also wonder why the produce section in the grocery store cuts off good parts of the plants they sell - possibly because of people who buy things to strictly follow recipes.
If they sold carrots with the tops, somebody trying to follow a recipe calling for
"2 cups of grated carrots" might include the tops in those two cups and end up with not such a good carrot cake. Which reinforces your premise that the USA is severely lacking in food and nutrition education!

I'm 62, and I was forced to take "home economics" in middle school along with all the girls, and all the boys had to take woodworking. The class was pretty basic, I think the most complicated thing we cooked was grilled cheese-and-tomato sandwiches, and there were no "economics" involved, which might have been useful if they'd taught us "you can save money on greens if you cut off the carrot tops, cook them separately and serve them as a green vegetable."

The boys' woodworking class was just as basic, pretty much how to measure and cut. In our class was a group of boys who were seriously into drawing, designing and creating intricate model boats and ships, and they were way more advanced at woodworking than what the class taught. They wanted to learn sewing so they could make cool patterns on their sails and make them look realistic.

A group of us went to the Principal to petition for the option to choose between woodworking and home economics, or both, we were told unequivocally "NO" and it turned into a big drama, with parents involved.

I really believe the reason why they kept us separated us like this, was in between sewing and grilled cheese sandwiches, were the main lessons they wanted us to learn - about periods, tampons, hygiene, being "ladylike," "keep a magazine in your lap while holding hands with a boy" basically keep your physicality hidden and don't be yourself around the male gender.
The boys learned (the bits they told me, there was more about puberty issues they were embarrassed to talk about) basically, "Be a man! and don't cry if the saw cuts off your finger!

I would love to see the documentary you watched about nutrition education in France! I was lucky enough to live in France for a few years in high school (military family) and the way they eat, and raise their children to eat, is so healthy. They expect the children to eat at the table with them, and the first course is vegetables, when the children are hungry, so they develop a taste for them. They spend time at the dinner table, teach their children to treat it as a social occasion and hold a conversation, introduce new foods here and there.
I never met a French child older than 8 or 10 who was a picky eater, like way too many American children are.

 

[Kiki]

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