Friday night taco night on Tuesday night?

Why is that when some one mentions they're having tacos at home you immediately CRAVE them regardless if you specifically bought a corn tortilla press for Friday night taco night at home and it's only Tuesday night? It's bar none my FAVORITE meal at home! Most of the time it doesn't matter what your economic status is, taco night normally fits in there somewhere! Memories of my dad making us tacos before we went to church on a Wednesday night or two. Nothing like a hard shell taco straight from the box. I'm a die hard crunchy taco fan; however, with our venture & journey on doing "more with less" this seemed like it could fit in for the future IF it went well. Other than the first one being a bit too thick (would have rocked as a tostada for sure) it went superb! My family seemed to enjoy the extra effort mom put out there for them, but regardless it is even cheaper to just make them than buy them in a box (but I still have a small stash). And it didn't take but a second well actually 15 seconds on each side in a non greased/oiled cast iron skillet! The $16 I paid for the press should keep on giving and pay for itself not to far in the future! So give it a whirl, it's NOT hard! And the home made taco seasoning is a MUST do! No more prepackaged seasonings for sure thanks to pinterest. Just do a search and then adjust for your taste. I added more oregano to mine, 'cause that's just how I roll!

Happy Future Taco Nights in your home w/ your family

ijustwannagrow

Canning Swap

So since I just canned some jalapeño salsa my parents who just canned this delicious corn salsa is swapping me a jar! Swap with someone and diversify your canning pantry, it's taste & it's fun!

Test?

 Can I blog from my iPhone?? No way??

CAN IT! Um, Yeah I did!

So yeah, I've been gone for a while from my blog; HOWEVER, I've been super busy in "learning overload"!
I have had a BALL over coming my fear of pressure canning and well canning altogether really. I'm SO PROUD of myself for finally after 1 full year of purchasing my All American 21 quart canner I FINALLY decided I could do it! My husband stood around in the kitchen and definitely helped me lift that heavy sucker, but I did accomplish all the canning.

My first canning experience finally happened April 2013! That canner is built like a tank, it's SO heavy and for a first time canner it was a bit intimidating to be quite honest! But I FINALLY FOUND my MUSTARD seed and jumped up and did it! I had found a great sale on chicken breast & pork loin and my freezer space was getting narrow! And I wasn't letting the meat spoil! I've been watching youtube "how to's" canning videos for a year, so I knew what to do it was just doing it!

For an entire year, I bought canning stuff, LOL

the hubs helped me prepare the pot for first time use

First pressure canning (or canning ever for me) pork tenderloin on left and chicken breast on the right

Yeah the canning bug has hit me for sure. I asked for canning jars for mother's day. Here my buddy and I are picking up my gifts! So I'm looking forward to preserving our harvests by canning/ dehydrating/ freezing, etc. this year! It's just awesome to have so many options now!

I've never bought 16lbs of roma tomatoes before? But heck I can CAN now, so it was onto homemade jalapeno salsa this past weekend! I wanted to practice before my harvests start coming in!

Got 6 pints, then put the rest of the other 5lbs of chopped/skinned romas on the dehydrator 'cause I was too tired from being sick this weekend. But nothing wasted!

It's definitely a humble start to my first preserving pantry, but I'm enjoying teaching my little girl how to carry on family tradition! The rich chicken stock on the top shelf on the far left my mom canned! I've got a about 6 pints of homemade stock in my freezer I'm going to thaw and can this week from my own broth making! The lower shelf is to be preserved...empty jars to fill up with beautiful fruits/vegetables/meats/ and home cooked meals for winter!

 When I look at this cabinet it makes me think of of my Aunt Gertrude (my grandpa hash's sister). She lived in bunker hill, wv which is in the northern part of state. When we'd take grandpa to visit her house was decorated floor to ceiling with her preserving. She could whip up a garden fresh gourmet home cooked meal in a matter of minutes all the way from the homemade canned apple butter & jam on the scratch made buttermilk biscuits to the home canned chicken w/ scratch gravy to home canned green beans! Her canner was always running on her stove with the smell of garden harvest! The jiggy danced and the aroma was memorable! I wish she was still here, so she could see the humble beginnings of Savannah being taught to preserve and mommy learning to carry in family traditions! And Clint's grandparents Floyd & Martha canned a lot of their food/harvests as they were farmer's in KY/TN. There have been many times over the course of dating and being married to my wonderful husband that we dropped by to visit Floyd & Martha and they were canning their FAMOUS Pear Preserves! I hope to get the recipe to carry on this tradition with Savannah! And my parent's special "hunter's delight" recipe will be passed down to my daughter as well!

Get wild & crazy and "CAN" something! It's not as hard as you think!

ijustwannagrow

-I want to thank Michigan SnowPony, BexarPrepper, 255Sage, MistyPrepper, Noreen's Kitchen, West Coast Prepper RN, and the Prepper's Wife for uploading FREE educational videos of canning home harvests. And my special friend Sarah Wright who uploads her beautiful photos of her home canning and all her encouragement and guidance! I'm a visual learner and your videos TRULY helped me learn how to preserve my families garden harvest. We just have a small garden, but now I can shop at farmer's markets and not be afraid food will spoil and our diets will be come much more healthier by default skipping all the additives and preservatives that come prepackaged! It's just nice to have options! Thank You!

Happy Valentine's Day to Me!

Every year I ask for 20 bags of composted manure for Valentine's Day. I'm not a jewelry every year kinda girl! I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, it's just that it's not what works for me! So the hubs got me my 20 bags x 40lbs = happy wife, a new chicken feed, onion sets (red & white), 2 shop lights w/bulbs, 2 seedling mats, organic seed starting mats, and organic all purpose vegetable fertilizer. Oh and two fig trees! Super STOKED about these! Happy Valentines Day to ME! But first things first, the girls are dropping eggs like hot cakes again. Those sneak peaks of spring are in there sights and pearl seems like her molt is over, so she's back open for business too!

Normally I am practically standing out there to get the eggs; however, I realize now that since Savannah was sick I didn't get out there for two days. Total of 8 today!

Those 8 eggs I harvested today along with the + 4 eggs we had from 3 days ago = 1 dozen eggs we didn't have to buy! Praise the Lord!

Got my grow lights up and running! Since I didn't want to purchase another shelving unit this weekend, I do have 6 inches of wasted light space that hangs outside of the shelving unit on each side! But I just used what I had for the moment! And also need a timer, so it will automatically shut off after 12 hours. Even seedlings need sleep.

Got my seedling mats down: spinach is waking up on the left, ripbor curley leaf kale is on the right

I started more broccoli, dinosaur kale, redina red lettuce and stuck them right under those lights. I need 4 more grow mats and 4 more grow lights and then I'm SET going forward!

My leeks & onions are straightening back up to a stand up position now under the lights.

A bunch of Romain lettuces. I didn't know they'd ALL germinate since they were older seed! Who knew? Hopefully they're not too leggy since they literally just popped up in the last 24 hours!

It's all a learning experience, but you can learn. You really will get what you put into it most times. I appreciate ALL of the wisdom other organic farmers, friends, and perfect strangers I run across at the feed stores/gardening forums/blogs/facebook/  etc.

I learned today that my local feed store gets baby rhode island reds, Americana, Wing Dots, and bard rocks in this week! WHOO HOO!

We rejoice in all of these blessings and are excited to continue to learn and share what we learn!

ijustwannagrow


 

Sprouts continue to sprout!

For Valentine's Day this year my husband is being super sweet and getting me grow lights and seed starting mats. It's like the BEST Valentine's Day ever!  Will post pics next week after it all arrives and gets set up! But in the meanwhile I'll just give a quickie update on what's growin:

Rosemary seems to still be growing, but I can tell it's time to fertilize them with some organic fertilizer.

I can't believe how this cheap little greenhouse has restored life to a completely dead pot of Italian flat leaf parsley from last season!

This is a multiplier onion. Also known as a potato onion.

According to a friend of mine "Margo" who is a certified organic farmer. A real farmer. I only farm in my fantasies/dreams!  She said, "peel off all the brown, outer skins. You should find several "cloves" that can be carefully separated and each one planted". So if that's what Margo says, "you can pretty much bank on it". I'm thankful she knew what to do because I could hardly find anything on the internet about these suckers! So happy planting potato onions ya'll!

  

What THYME is it? I could begin using Thyme if I chose to, it's pretty much ready to go back into the garden beds, but will wait until it's much warmer. So glad I've got them growing again ahead of time. Definitely a jump start!

On my way back in from church I checked my greenhouse and I just can't say enough about how much it makes my day to see fresh new seedlings emerging everyday!!!!!

Super excited for this new rearranged/repurposed set of raised beds! More pictures to follow in coming weeks. I've got the chicken coop moving to the end of these two beds so that the chickens will work these beds in between season changes to clean out the buggies/fertilize/and turn my soil! Love my chickens, they're really hard workers!

I think the most exciting sprouts I have right now are leek, glad stone onions, & ever bunching green onions. I've never grown any of these from seed. I've never grown leeks or glad stone onions before. It's a whole new journey that I pray ends bountiful!

ijustwannagrow

Propogating more Rosemary

Took 14 more Rosemary cuttings today to try and propagate!

Placed a piece of wax paper over a mason jar filled with fresh water. Then took the stripped down rosemary cuttings and poked down through the wax paper that helped the rosemary stand up better this time round. And yep that's just a pony tail holder because I had no rubber bands. You just use whatcha have! And now we can see the rooting from the glass without pulling the rosemary in and out of jar.

And all these rosemary pieces I pulled off the stem will be washed & dehydrated and put away in my dried rosemary jar.

Always gotta be growin something around here!

ijustwannagrow