Category: gardens

One Foot in the Present and One in the Past

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Do you ever get that feeling that you are living in the wrong period of time.  Don’t get me wrong I love all the new modern technology.  A lot of technology has helped me in this world. Digital hearing aid, streamers, and personal loops have made a huge difference for me.  I also love the internet.  What I am getting at is crafting, cooking, gardening.  I know people do these things now in time but I don’t believe it is as prevalent than generations before us.

I enjoy having my garden.  Snapping peas or beans, making a BLT with a homegrown tomato is wonderful.  It sure beats a store bought any day of the week.  Seeing the plants grow, getting to maturity get me excited for canning.  Another skill that is declining.  I love to water bath can and to pressure can.  Knowing we have food and meals on a shelf is a satisfying feeling.  You never know when money may be tight, storms and you can’t get to a store, or a zombie apocalypse.  All very plausible and canned goods would be imperative.  Can you tell I am thinking spring!

Cooking from scratch is another lost art.  There is plenty of people that cook but there are so many box meals, take out, fast food.  Don’t get me wrong we do that also but I am trying so hard not to.  I want to use basic whole food ingredients for my family.  I want and enjoy making a meal from start to end.  Can be a little stressed on nights where there are evening activities but I get it accomplished most nights.  Knowing what is in our food I believe is the first step in trying to get healthy.  Slow and steady wins the race I have been told.  Call me old fashioned but I feel if I am home before my husband it is my job to make a meal for us all.  Minus the tablecloth, good china, a dress and a string of pearls.

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Lastly is crafts.  I love crafting.  I love seeing something in a magazine or online and trying to make it.  If that would be painting, jewelry, or decorating.  My main craft I go back to for almost 30 years is knitting.  For a birthday when I was a teenager I received a wicker basket with knitting needles and blue and yellow yarn from my aunt.  She taught me to knit and I made my first scarf that was an homage to my Swedish heritage.  I have left knitting behind at times but it is like an old friend and always welcomes me back.  When I attended college in New Mexico blankets were knitted for people.  It was a good past time.  Scarfs and hats have been made for my children.  For a while I knitted and sold my items under, Ausome Knits.  My knitting needles have been out again this winter.  A new scarf for my son, a couple birthday gifts are being made.  Tonight at church we are having a crafting night.  Bring what ever projects you are working on and we can fellowship and work on them together.

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Now there are some skills I wish I could get a little stronger at.  Sewing, I have a couple sewing machines.  I would like to boost my skills in this area. Also small needle crafts like cross stitch.  I have never done this but I think it looks like another good past time.

Could I live in another time period.  I think I could.  It wouldn’t be as easy as now but heck I have never owned or had a dishwasher so that dreaded chore would be the same.  Going to have to live one foot in the present and one in the past.

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Fall

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Fall is my favorite season. I love putting on a long sleeved T shirt. That slight chill in the air. Sitting outside in the evenings with no bugs. Oh yes I am excited for the month or two that is before us. This fall is … Continue reading Fall

Jars

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   I have such fond memories of washing jars in my grandma’s kitchen. She and my mother taught me to can. They gave me the love of a jar. The love of a full fruit room which is what grandma had. We made applesauce and … Continue reading Jars

My Garden

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My garden is in and it is looking mighty and full of splendor with the dark dirt that surrounds it.  My little plants look healthy and strong and ready to grow.  This time of year is the time I feel the most refreshed.  It is like the long winter grew a fog of webs over us and our minds.  This is the time to brush them off and clear our minds and look for the rebirth.  My time feels paced from the time the first windows are opened and it quickens as trees start to bud and the grass begins to green.  Gardens are tilled and the pace quickens, plants are for sale pace quickens even more.

The garden is planted and I feel at ease, at peace, and pure joy.  Seeing the little plants there I have a hard time not imagining what their growth will be like the colors and the smells.  I love the smell of a tomato plant on my hands.  The dirt that will be etched in the creases of my palms and in the nail-beds.  They are all signs of hope and signs of renewal that can happen with us all.

I find being in a garden very peaceful.  I have memories of taking my grandfathers hand and walking across the road to his garden.  We would weed some, pinch the suckers off the tomato plants.  We would pick some of the produce.  We would gleefully bring our prizes back to grandma who should be how to clean the peas and snap the beans.  We would sneak some early potatoes and grandma would cream them with the garden peas.  A garden was and is a time of family, love, patients and of teaching.

I love to involve my children in the garden.  From picking the plants to digging the holes to watering the plants.  We of course get watered too but that is half the fun.  Later in the season it is like a treasure hunt looking for the colors of the tomatoes and filling our bags to the brim with produce.  That feeling is still as strong as you wipe the water off the freshly processed jars of all the produce that was just picked and now in the cupboards.

This year we have potatoes, red onions, leaf lettuce, spinach, early peas, green peppers, red peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, cucumber and Christmas melon,  Roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, early girl tomatoes, big boy tomatoes and this year I added some heirloom varieties that I am just tickled pink about.  We have Mr Stripey, Old German, Amish Paste, and Cherokee Purple.  These 4 heirlooms are my pride and joy.  I can’t wait to watch them and their amazing colors come forth.

I pray for rain and sun.  Last year we had a flood and I lost half of my garden.  I hope that doesn’t happen again but at this point we do need rain.