Summer 1 – 2012
A few weekends ago we cracked open a jar of pickles we canned last summer at our first summer kick off party and we were delightfully impressed with ourselves. They were tangy, salty, and full of wonderful dilly flavor. I was quite inspired to do it again this year with our own pickles! Last year’s pickles were someone else’s crop that we experimented with. After we gathered all our supplies from various stores, our cupboard and read up on what pickling entails, we set out for a long, hot day of canning. Our efforts were rewarded with three quarts of pickles! 
Not a lot mind you, but plenty for our first try.
I thought that would be the end of our homesteading adventures, but alas, no. We have grand ideas. We can be more sustainable! And produce is very expensive.
Summer 2 – 2013
We put in a garden this past Memorial Day weekend. It was the perfect weekend to do so. Not too hot, with a breeze and lots of time on hand. I rarely have much time to do time and labor intensive things at the house so I’m hoping that having this garden will help me cultivate the family time as well as vegetables for my family.
Preparing the plot of land for our family garden was a huge task. It’s just a tiny bit of our yard but full of foliage, some weeds, some plants that needed transplanted and whole lot of rocks. The dirt has a lot of clay in it and random rocks embedded in so tilling was a chore. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do that bit. This whole gardening business is literally backbreaking work. I hope we get lots and lots of veggies! This earth mama seriously needs to see the fruits of her labor! I planted green beans, lettuce, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes…nom nom nom.
My loving husband constantly laments over his hope that I settle down and have time to do all the things I say I’m going to do with this garden. He’s already said we need to set aside a day for the canning. I can already see that disaster of a day happening. He doesn’t handle heat well and it gets HOT in my kitchen. I’m thinking of all the lovely foodstuff we’ll be making with our crop. Salsa, spaghetti sauce, salads, stuffed peppers, cream corn, zucchini bread and of course, pickles! We’ll see if all this happens. I’ve already started daydreaming of eating the food.
Craftmanic Mommy 