Yesterday was a fall garden day which involved lots of weeding, digging, compost, and moving plants around.Today was a grape juice day.
Flashback Skinny Tee
P is a skinny girl. Seven years old and all of 40 pounds. Usually when a shirt or top fits her in the shoulders it is way too short and doesn't even reach the top of her pants. Not a great look. So, she usually wears shirts that look a bit big on her.Enter Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. It seemed like this pattern was made for Miss P. I cleaned out my dresser on the weekend and found an old shirt of mine that P liked. We cut it down and made a great new shirt for her. This is the first shirt that has actually FIT her in years! She loves it.
The pattern is super easy and I was able to keep the existing sleeve hem and neck finish of the original shirt with careful placement of the pattern pieces.
She likes the top so much that she had to wear it for the rest of the day - which was spent threshing the black beans that we grew this year.A few weeks ago we pulled up all of the black bean plants and wrapped them in old sheets and put them on our upper porch to finish drying (we didn't want the beans to fall from the pods into the garden). Yesterday was the perfect crispy warm fall day for threshing.First we wrap a big bundle of plants in a tarp. Then, P's favorite part, we thwack it with a stick to pop the beans from their dry pods.
Then we pick out all of the plant parts making sure there are no beans left in the pods.
What is left on the tarp is a pile of black beans mixed with chaff.
On a breezy day we will pour this mix from bucket to bucket and let the wind carry away the chaff and we will be left with black beans to store for future meals.
Yesterday was a perfect fall day!I also found the perfect pattern for the top of P's Elf costume for Halloween! She'll be a skinny elf in a Skinny Tee!
The Tree
Yesterday we cut our tree.After last year's success with one of our homegrown trees, we went straight to the field to cut our Christmas tree this year. We only had a handful that were large enough so we were able to make our choice quickly.
We chose the one on the right.It was the perfect afterschool activity to start our weekend.
Have a great weekend.
Apple Time
We're making applesauce!
American Chestnut
My plan was to post this picture today with a quote. I thought surely Laura Ingalls Wilder had written something about roasting chestnuts in her books but she did not.So, instead I'll tell you a little about our American Chestnut trees.The American Chestnut used to be a prominent tree in the eastern United States. They were all but eliminated by the chestnut blight in the early 1900s. Typically new trees don't live long enough to flower and fruit. Several organizations have been trying to reintroduce blight resistant trees to the original growing range.When we first bought our property more than twenty years ago we started planting trees from the soil conservation service. One year they offered American Chestnut seedlings. We bought a small bundle of those and two of them have grown to adulthood. For several years we have seen flowers and one had the prickly fruits grow on the trees. Previous years we have found lots of flat nuts. They were not fertilized and did not grow into plump fruit.
Our two trees are not very close to each other so this spring when we noticed that the trees were flowering we clipped a flowering branch from one tree and tossed it into the tree that has had the prickly burs on it in the past.Our experiment worked!This year we have plump chestnuts!
Now we need to decide if we will roast them or plant them.
Thoughtful Sunday
"Don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter, 1902.
Twenty Eight Pounds - of Garlic
Yesterday we harvested garlic.We save the largest garlic bulbs for planting the next year and each year the bulbs that we harvest are a little bigger.
We cut the tops, trim the roots,
and clean them up a bit.
Then we spread them out to dry for a while.Our total garlic harvest yesterday weighed in at over 28 pounds! They will loose a bit of water weight before they go into long term storage.I love that there are a few foods like garlic, onions, and potatoes that we haven't bought in years. We are able to grow enough and store them over the winter. We have just finished the last of our stored onions and the new onions can be harvested as needed as can the potatoes.
The Sorting
This week we finished harvesting our heirloom corn. After collecting and shucking comes the sorting.The smallest ears are fed to the chickens. We save the largest and best looking (making sure that we save some of each color) for seed.I pulled about twenty that I will use in my K-2 art class. I'll have the kids do a macro drawing of the corn with oil pastels.
P has filled a basket with ears that are pink. She plans to plant the pink kernels next year to see if she gets all pink corn.
We'll make corn meal from some of the corn for our Little Red Hen Bread, a family favorite.What's been keeping you busy?
How the Garden Grows
We didn't get off to a great start with our gardens this year. The mosquitoes and then heat wave meant that I didn't spend much time fighting the weeds. We only got a handful of peas earlier but now we are having a little better garden success. We have onions ready for harvest and have already pulled all of the garlic.
We have some green tomatoes
and the promise of more to come.
Our chard is doing well but the carrots and beets are still small. Patience. We just need patience.In the mean time the local u-pick farm has some really great blueberries!
Harvest Time
We have been in full swing with our fall harvest lately. Last weekend we picked some pumpkins and pulled the onions out of the ground.
This weekend we focused on the black beans. First, we pull the bean plants and let them dry in the sun on a tarp. Then, we put a bundle of plants in a smaller tarp and whack them with a stick to pop the beans out of the shell. 
The last step is to separate the small plant bits from the beans. On a slightly windy day we can pour the beans from bucket to bucket and let the wind blow the light dried plant bits or chaff away.
We have also been eating lots of fresh pears from our trees and last night froze several peach pie fillings. Our raspberries will continue bearing fruit until the first hard frost. We pick the berries every other day.
I know we will appreciate our preservation efforts come January. That is what I keep telling myself.
Next on the food preservation plan - grape juice. B says the grapes are ready.
I know I will enjoy my quilt retreat next week!
Buckets of Berries
It finally came. The day we have been eagerly awaiting finally came - opening day at the local blueberry farm!! We went early, as usual, to beat the crowds.
We quickly strapped on our buckets and started picking.
We filled our buckets and came home to start our blueberry feast. We have been eating them by the handful, putting them on cereal, making peanut butter and blueberry sandwiches, baking them, and even freezing some. I think we'll be picking again soon!
