We were working on winterizing the moby when all the sudden Jack come running over with a little garden snake that he caught! He was so proud of his capture. Being that he doesn’t have front claws, he rarely catches anything. Just bugs now and then. But he tries all the time.
Well, he finally got something. Of course, it was fine and playing dead. He just kept holding it down in the grass with his little powder puff feet… and all the while trying to figure out what to do with it, I think!
We took a little video, and he was very funny… Finally Maggie, the patron saint of the Moby homestead’s little critters, would not let us bother him anymore and she picked him up and walked him over to some little woods nearby. I was kinda surprised that she would pick it up, she’s always been a little weirded out by snakes.
Gypsy was pretty interested as well. But she really didn’t want to get too close. Maggie did a good job of holding him and letting our little friend go. I believe he will stay away from cats in the future!
Some day I hope that we can have a little more land and encourage more wildlife and all to visit. We love our birds and all the kitties, bugs and snakes and all. We have a possum that comes to visit as well as a couple squirrels and a raccoon (that Gypsy treed one night and kind of scared the heck out of me… long story! ) and numerous toads and bunnies. That will be wonderful… we’ll see how that comes along in this lifetime!
This is last week’s haul of tomatoes, so I thought, I want to do something with them so that we’ll have yummy tomatoes through the fall and winter.
I use a lot of stewed tomatoes, in my soups and like with meatloaf or roasts, that kind of thing. So I found this cool recipe for crock pot stewing and that sounds fun and easy to me.
You take a bunch of tomatoes. Pretty much fill up the crockpot almost… add some onion, and green pepper and then 3 or 4 tablespoons of sugar, a couple cloves of garlic and a bit of salt (I put in a tablespoon) and then some ground pepper to taste. Stew them all day in a crockpot… 6-8 hours and then let cool and either can or freeze. I’m going to freeze mine.
You blanche and skin the tomatoes, which is really easy! And I will admit, I’ve never done it before and I was really amazed at how easy it was!
Just boil some water and have a bowl with ice cold water and ice cubes in it waiting. Pop the mater in the boiling water about a minute or three. Some split their skin like immediately, others needed a little longer. Don’t want to cook them, but the bigger they are, they might need the 3 minute time. Then pop them right in the cold water. It’s almost like magic! They slip right out. It’s a little messy, just use your hands and free them.
I rough cut them into some big chunks and popped them into the pot.
Then I added my spices and sugar, along with some chopped up onion and green pepper. I added two big onions to the pot because I love onions in my soups and all that. You can add celery too, if you want, heck green onion… ah… whatever… carrot? That would be good too.
Now, I did overdo the pot a little bit, but they do cook down, so I let’er ride. Just drained off a little of the watery juice after an hour or two. Not a lot, just enough to make it all fit good. I suppose you could drain off a lot of that pulpy liquid, but I like that too, seems like it works good and is all spiced up and all.
You cook it a good 6-8 hours on high and stir once or twice to make sure it’s all mixed good. Then turn it off and let it cool another 5 or 6 hours. Then you can either can it, use it or bag and freeze it! I’m going to bag and freeze mine in like quart and pint sized bags.
Oh, it made the house smell so good… and the taste is out of this world. Fresh garden stewed tomatoes! I think they will be a little taste of summer heaven on a cold wintery evening. Some hot homemade bread and a little ham or beef stew? YUM!
The winds are blowing today, it’s down to 57 degrees!!! We went from shorts to coats in one day! Supposed to go down to 34 degrees on Wednesday. I think my garden’s days are numbered! That’s for sure….
Look what was protecting my giant ear of sweet corn! This dude was a little scarey looking… I went to grab at the ear of corn and I almost grabbed this praying mantis! Yikes! I’m not a big bug fan, but he was pretty cool looking. He? She? Not sure…
I can’t believe the amount of bugs and wildlife that planting a bunch of gardens has brought in around the moby! I think it’s a good sign. I didn’t use any pesticides or chemicals this year. The only thing we used was the garlic mosquito spray and I have to say, that stuff was pretty effective. We had to apply it a couple times in the early spring, and first of summer, but after that, we only did it one more time. And we have not had bad mosquitoes this year. Really effective and safe for most other critters and all. Highly recommend that stuff… Mosquito Barrier.
It’s been getting pretty cold at night. Once or twice I had to turn on the furnace.., just to take the edge off the cold. And the plants are definitely starting to look a little weary. Corn is drying out, and most of the tomato plants are droping leaves and turning yellow. Most of the big tomatoes are done and ripe… there are a few left that I’m just letting finish. They might make it… they might not.
After all, we are only a week from October. The sunflowers on the south side are finishing up as well. I might give them a few more days and then I’ll cut the heads and the stalks and through it all in the compost pile to work on over the winter. I’m wondering it the stalks will decompose very well. I might get a little box of compost booster to work on my pile. It’s sort of doing okay… but seems a little leggy and all. I suppose maybe I should be chopping the stuff up more, but well, I’m kind of a lazy composter! I will be pulling all the tomato and pepper plants, but I plan on using my corn stalks for decoration!!! How cool is that?
Since the stalks are drying out and turning brown, I figured it was time to start harvesting some of the corn. I picked ten little ears and I must say, most of them were pretty little. I’m not really sure why, it’s going to be some of my late night reading I think before bed. They might as been a little too close together? Or just too late in the season and all… not enough rain? Gardening is more than just a seed in the ground and poof, harvest in 90 days! Lots of variables for sure!
Doing pretty good though… up to 72 pounds of produce from the gardens. Still got carrots, broccoli, more tomatoes and corn as well as a few late peppers trying to finish up. We MIGHT make it to 100 pounds!!! Especially if I count all the sunflower heads. We’re drying out the north side flower heads, though we have a squirrel thief that is wrecking havoc with our drying process…. but there are like 4 times as many big head on the southside! I was actually thinking of making a drying screen rack for them…. like two old window screens and bungy cording them together with all the heads inbetween? So we can lay then out in the sun, but not have all the varmits eat them raw.
Well, I husked the corn… and it’s more suited for the Green Giant’s nibblets bags than any state fair winners, but I don’t care. It was awesome… straight from the garden into the hot pot for a dinner of sweet corn from the garden and a grilled cheese sandwich! Pretty simple, but super rewarding. They say if you can get it into a hot pot within 30 minutes of picking, the sugars in the corn don’t convert to starch and you get some of the best sweet corn around. I do declare, they are right. It was delicious!
There are probably another 20 or 30 heads left. We’ll pick some more over the next week and see how it goes!!! I had to take a video of the biggest ear and it’s unveiling. And of course, some silly Gypsy footage of her obsession with fetching her icky stick. Hope you enjoy it!
It was a perfect Sunday afternoon…. some garden harvesting, a little time with the dog, and some hammock resting with the kitties. Pretty decent afternoon if you ask me.
Going to make stewed tomatoes in the crock pot and freeze them I think… I have a lot of tomatoes for the effort! Got a cool recipe I’d like to try, it seems really easy and a great way to use up some of the harvest for soups and meats later in the year.
