Planting Trees for Earth Day

Earth Day is this Friday, April 22nd. We tend to live by the Philosophy that everyday is Earth Day. So we don't really do anything to out of the norm for Earth day. We spend most of Earth Day outside playing in the dirt and planting things (just like everyday)...whether it be trees or flowers or vegetables. We also usually pick this day to go on a recycle/garbage pick up. We usually do that about once a month or so, so we try to make sure in April to do it on Earth Day.

A popular way of celebrating Earth Day is to plant a tree. This year we have planted many, although we are a bit ahead. These were all put in last week. We are working on planting our small orchard, and have been blessed with several tree starts from a few of our neighbors.

We had several small peach trees coming up under our main tree. We bartered a 6' peach tree baby for two small (2') plum trees. We bartered another peach tree for an old timey Kieffer pear tree. This one was a 6 year old tree and already quite large, so i am hoping that it will begin producing next year. Kieffer pears are what we had over the summer and they canned absolutely wonderfully. We also have a MoonGlow and a Bartlet Pear tree that are around 4 years old, but have never produced. Pears typically begin producing around 4-6 years, so we should start seeing pears in the next couple years.

The same friend that brought us the Kieffer pear tree came back with two old timey Black Heart Cherry Trees. Kenan has been working hard to keep the tree protected from deer, watered and mulched. They are leafing out, growing well and appear to be very healthy trees. This weekend we'll be purchasing and planting 3 new Blueberry bushes to add to our Blueberry patch.

Plant a Tree for Earth day!

Did you know that Lowes is giving away 1 million free trees on Earth Day. You might want to call ahead and make sure your store is participating.

Also Arbor Day foundation will give you 10 free trees with membership ($10). You can choose between Flowing trees, Wild Bird Garden, Autumn Classics and more! Enter your zip code and it will show you several tree packages that will grow in your area. My Nanking Cherry is one that came from Arbor Day. :) If you don't have space to plant trees you can also choose to have 10 trees planted at a National Forest in your honor. Pretty cool eh?

So what are you waiting for?? Go plant a tree!

Have a Wonderful Earth Day!

Canning Grape Juice and Jelly.

So once again we have been blessed with free food from our extremely generous neighbors. They called a few days ago asking if we had any interest in grapes. Their grape vines were overflowing and they had already shared with friends and family and still had buckets of grapes to give away. Like the other fruits we have received from them, these have never been sprayed or treated and are totally organic.

Our neighbors had explained the way they can their grape juice, but i couldn't remember the exact recipe. So i started looking online for instructions and was thrilled to find the same recipe on The Backwoods Home site. This really is an extremely easy way to make grape juice for canning. Keep in mind, it makes a grape juice concentrate, with sugar added so it's not 100% juice. The recipe calls for 1 cup grapes, 1 cup sugar and enough boiling water to fill your quart jar.

First, make sure you wash and sterilize your quart jars in a water bath canner for 10 min. Then add 1 cup grapes( washed and stems removed), and 1 cup sugar. Fill the jars with boiling water, leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe jar tops with a clean damp cloth, apply clean lids and rings, and screw on fairly tightly.


The original instructions say not to bother mixing, as they will mix while processing. i found from my first batch that they didn't really mix, and there was a layer of undissolved sugar on the bottom of the jars. So with the rest of my batches, i screwed the lids on and then mix them up by turning the jars upside down a few times to make sure all the sugar dissolves before processing.

Process for 25 minutes, a bit more if your in a high elevation. That's it! Super quick and easy.


Here is an example of the finished product ( on the right) that's grape jelly on the left. The longer you let it sit, the stronger the concentrate becomes. You dilute it with water to serve, 1/2 to 1 jar water depending on taste. This same method can be done to make cherry juice, though i am not sure about other fruits.

i also made a batch of grape jelly, although i don't have a tutorial for it. i just used the directions that came with the fruit pectin. i didn't even squeeze the grapes by hand...i used my juicer. So it was very, very simple, boil the juice and add a crap load of sugar and pectin, boil again and fill jars. Easy peasy. :) i plan to make another batch today, after i start in on these pears.

It is going to be another busy week here as i work on canning and freezing apples, pears, peaches, tomatoes and grapes. i feel like a little squirrel gathering nuts for the winter. It's a pretty good feeling though, looking around at my packed deep freezer, and shelves of home canned goods and knowing where it all came from.

Once the cold weather moves in and the garden begins to die back i promise to get back to crafting. i have so many ideas floating around in my head, just need the time to do them. My focus for the Autumn is dolls, mainly waldorf style, felt and crocheted play foods and new bead work.
Anything else you'd like to see again?

Harvest time and food sharing.

This week i am feeling slightly food obsessed. It is harvest time, which means my counters and tables are constantly covered in homegrown organic goodness.
Last week, some neighbors from down the road stopped by with a bag of produce from their garden. They stop every year and drop off whatever excess they have to each of the houses along our road. They are country neighbors, meaning they live several miles down the road, not right next door.

Last year they brought us a huge bag of fresh spinach and a few turnips. So, i sent them home with a dozen eggs from our hens.
This year they dropped off a dozen ear of corn and these beautiful tomatoes and cucumbers. We didn't have any extra eggs in the fridge, or garden produce to offer (other than tomatoes and cucs), but offered them some of our peaches which were still green on the tree. When they inquired about our giant sunflowers, we offered them seeds once the flowers die back.

This past week i visited my friend with the milking doe and practiced milking her goats again. i'd really like to get proficient at it, so that i am completely comfortable milking independently. My friend needs someone who can come over and milk her goats if they are gone for a day or two. This time i not only milked the Alpine, who is a full size dairy goat, but i also tried milking the dwarf Nigerian and found her quite easy to milk. i can see how it would take a long time to milk such a small goat, but i didn't have any trouble with the actual milking...which is very reassuring. i brought my friend a box of peaches, a 5' tall peach tree start and a purple butterfly bush. She sent me home with a quart of goats milk and some Chevre cheese. Yum!! :)

We are just begining to dig potatoes, and Kenan dug over 30 lbs earlier this week. We still have several rows to dig. i've started in on my second box of peaches, working to freeze some and give more away. We still have many peaches left on the trees.

There are apple trees growing everywhere in the area, many wild, and many spread by wildlife. These apples were from a wild apple tree at the edge of a neighbor's yard. The neighbor wasn't planning to do anything with these and was just letting them go to waste on the tree. He told us to pick as much as we wanted. These are large, nice apples and make delicious apple sauce! Kenan came home with almost a bushel, and if i can get these preserved he'll be getting more. There is another wild apple tree just down the road with the best tasting apple i have ever had. We are all eagerly waiting for them to ripen.

So at the beginning of the post i mentioned the neighbors who had dropped off some produce? As soon as our peaches began ripening we took over a bag full and several dried sunflower heads. They blessed us with a huge bag of organic plums and offered us a couple of small plum trees. We in turn offered them a peach tree ( we have several starts growing under our trees). So later this week we'll be planting more fruit trees. These plums are small, about the size of golf balls, but very sweet!


Yesterday morning we got a surprise phone call from the same folks we had received the plums from, asking if we wanted pears. :) So this is my project for next week, once i get through the apples and peaches and plums. i have over 100lbs of organic pears to can, and can pick more if we need them. They have already picked and canned what they wanted. We took them a jar of blackberry jam, and will dig them some red raspberry canes once they are dormant in the fall. i also plan to take over some sweet potatoes once we begin to dig them as well.

This is one of my favorite things about country life, and small communities. People are still willing to help each other out, share food and stories. i am always amazed at how generous country folks are. Many of the folks around us live in unimaginable poverty, yet when they have anything they are so quick to share it. This sharing has become one of my favorite parts of the growing season. Food, is as good as money here. i also no longer feel as if i have to grow everything myself. We can focus on the things that we grow well, and barter for the things that we don't. This sense of 'taking care of each other' is so strong here in the country, that's just what neighbors do.


While the spirit of neighborliness was important on the frontier because neighbors were so few, it is even more important now because our neighbors are so many. ~Lady Bird Johnson