First Round of Canning

Our first harvest of Early girls (red) and Lemon boys (yellow).Sanitizing the jars and lids.Blanching then icing tomatoes to remove their skins. 

A secret sauce preparation, then the resulting marinara sauces are ladled into the mason jars and boiled to create a seal.

Seven Jars of mouthwatering spaghetti sauce for my family to enjoy the tastes of summer into the fall and hopefully the winter, too.
For canning tips and recipes see the USDA guidlines -- canning is not difficult, but must be followed precisely to avoid foodbourne illness.

Mary, How Does Your Garden Grow...

Every morning, and several times a day, I check my garden to see what's ready for harvesting. This is our first official garden since we now have the space in our new home. I loved being in my grandfather's garden as a child. He grew tomatoes, green beans, wax beans, asparagus, and I think some squash...It's been a long time. He also had a few apple trees that I played hide-and-seek underneath and snacked while hiding. I attribute my love of fruit and vegetables to the time spent at my grandparents' house. I knew whenever I was there, there was always something fresh to picked and transformed into the family meals. I remember being hungry late one night (after the Merv Griffin show) and asking my grandmother for something to eat, expecting some cheese and crackers or some other convenient snack. Instead she went to the stove and prepared warm homemade applesauce from the apples in the backyard she had picked earlier that day. I had to be no more than 4, definitely before grade school, but I remember how special it was and that memory sticks with me today. I think it's important to teach our children the process from seed, to fruit, to table and the self reliance of being able to grow it yourself.

My scaredy cat, Mabel, carefully watches me garden and makes sure the plants don't get more attention than her.

Nana -Our Newest Edition

After much discussion, debate, and planning... we picked up our new baby Saint Bernard, Nana in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Of course she was named after the famous nursemaid from Peter Pan.
MaryJane shrieked the whole way home in sheer delight.
At 10 weeks old, she's already bigger than her, but is a very gentle giant and almost housebroken.
She plays with her toys, putters around the lawn, and takes plenty of naps. She is a dream baby.
And I'm very confident she will be an amazing dog.

Keep on spreading the good word!

SunChips has created a compostable bag. How wonderful?!?

Let's hope that this starts a trend, not only in the food industry.

Although my 3 person family is down to 1 bag of garbage a week, our recycling bin is still overflowing.

We need better packaging solutions and I think this is just perfect.

Preparing the Land for Our New Garden

A rewarding lunch menu for all our hard work...
Fresh Squeezed Strawberry Lemonade

Ravioli and sweet potatoes on top of mixed greens with organic chives from a friend's local farm drizzled with extra virgin olive oil
And homemade pizza made on the grill topped with tomato sauce, red peppers, leftover roasted chicken and fresh basil from our herb garden.