It’s been a plentiful summer in the way of cucumbers and tomatoes and I’m sad to see the growing season end! This past week I had the opportunity to go into New Martinsville School and speak to the pre-k classes about the pop-up farmer’s market that 3 locals farmers set up outside their building. I talked to the children about the fresh fruits and veggies that they would see outside. I got a consistent response to the name “banana” pepper of “ewww” because I’m pretty sure they thought it tasted like a banana and I asked if they ever ate it on pizza. The answer to that question was an empathic “no!” I took on this speaking engagement as a service of our Family Resource Center at WCCCF but also because I recently joined the board of Grow Local Go Local. It’s a nonprofit organization that provides local food educational programs, such as the farmer’s market and community garden projects. This is something I’m excited to be part of because I am passionate about people eating nutritious foods, especially those grown in their own communities. Why give giant corporations your hard earned money when you can pay a local farmer (who’s using the money to keep his lights on rather than buy his second vacation home in the Maldives) and get fresher food. Win-win. And best of all, you can use these fresh foods to make things like apple crisp! It was delicious! Thanks for the apples, Holly!
The small group of local farmers in Wetzel and Tyler counties have been providing the food for pop-up markets in these two counties for the past month and hope to expand even more next year. They partner with the schools and they allow the students to come out to the market and use “market money” to trade for fresh produce. It’s all free to the kids. They get to experience what a farmer’s market is like and get to take fresh food (possibly even new foods to try) home to cook and/or eat. There’s a chance I may grow some produce next year to help supplement these markets. If you’re a gardener and would like to help, contact me. I can put you in touch with the people in charge (not me, although I did get suckered into being the secretary of GLGL 🙄).
So, about my garden. Earlier in the summer we had cucumbers coming out of our ears. I even cut down on the number of plants this year and we were still overflowing. If you followed along in August, you know that you made a ton of pickles. They were delicious. Except for the ones we added minced onion to; those were kinda gross. We won’t do that again. We followed a bad recipe. Last summer we had an infestation of beetles on our cucumber plants, that ended up ruining our crops. I did some research and read that marigolds are supposed to keep beetles away. That must have been sound advice because I didn’t see one beetle this year! My marigold plant, that I started from a seed and only used organic soil and fertilizer on, grew massively out of control. I have never seen a marigold get that big. Maybe there are different varieties and I have a behemoth one, I don’t know. My mom loved marigolds and planted them most summers and I never saw them like that growing up.
As soon as the cucumbers dried up, the tomatoes started coming on and I’m ashamed to say that a portion went to waste because I wasn’t prepared to deal with the quantity that they produced! I picked and canned over 35 pounds of tomatoes. I made salsa, pizza sauce, and spaghetti sauce. Let me just make a public service announcement about canning food. It sucks and it takes FOREVER. Therefore, if someone offers you food that they have canned, do not accept it unless you intend to eat it. It’s far too shameful to waste it, believe me. We tried very hard not to have a tomato jungle again this year, and while it was slightly more manageable than the mess that was last year, it still could have gone much better. I didn’t sucker the plants in time and they needed staked long before I got around to doing it. We traveled quite a bit this summer and I felt like every time we came home there was a new mess.
Just a fraction of the harvest!
Surprisingly, we had far less issues with the rabbits this year. We put a small garden fence around the lettuce at the beginning of summer and they were unable to get in. We also fenced in the watermelon plant. We had one watermelon grow to bursting and when I cleaned it out of the bed, seeds dropped all over the place and now we have over twenty new plants sprouting. I left them just to see what would happen. I think that fall may come eventually (maybe 🤷🏻♀️) and with it will come frost and they will die off.
I also had to fence in my bushes in the back yard because some dog that I shall not name kept eating my blueberry bush down to the ground 😡. She wouldn’t touch the blackberry one for some reason. Since I’ve fenced it, she can no longer bother it and it’s starting to come back. My friend, Kim, told me I planted them too close together and she’s probably right. I’m good at doing that 🤷🏻♀️. So we’ll see what kind of mess these become next summer.
It may be the end of the growing season outdoors but our aquaponics garden is able to grow all year round! Unfortunately, mint is the only thing that has survived so far, and that could be because mint is invasive and easy to grow. I just like watching the fish, whose names are Smurfette (blue), Lucy (pink), Ethel (purple), Jon Snow (green), and Bumblebee (yellow). Can you guess who named which fish? Ethel had a hard time when we first introduced them to our tank. She wasn’t eating and Jon Snow was a total jerk and kept biting her. I know I’m not supposed to smack a fish but I wanted to. His behavior was uncalled for. She must have recovered because now she’s one of the bigger fish and they all seem to get along. We bought Jon Snow, Bumblebee, Lucy and Ethel at the same time and got Smurfette a week or so later. She was considerably smaller than the others but she didn’t seem to have any issues with them. Luckily, because I just told you I don’t know how to properly punish fish. Philip primarily feeds them during the week but I usually feed them on weekend mornings because he sleeps later and I love going in and telling them good morning (Philip tells me they can’t hear but that doesn’t matter) and getting their food. They know what you’re doing and they become very active in anticipation of breakfast. They know that’s what it’s called, too, because I asked if they’re ready for their breakfast 😉. It works with the girls, so why not?
Mint growing in the aquaponics garden.
Speaking of the girls, you have got to see some recent pics we’ve taken of them. These two are the biggest goofballs I’ve ever seen.
Yeah, Soph, it’s totally fine to eat Sansa’s ear. I’m sure she doesn’t mind 🙄.
Sansa’s cute snoot. Yes, I know I shared this one on FB. It’s worth seeing again 😃.
A small glimpse of the drama that is Sophie. She was mad because I was on my computer, not paying attention to her. I would have paid attention to her but she had just jumped on me and throat punched me so I pushed her back to a sitting position. This resulted in indignation, failed attempts at being sly and trying to sneak in front of my laptop, a dramatic head toss and then pleading eyes 🙄🙄🙄.
I finally got around to installing a new screen door that opens in the middle to the sliding glass door to the deck (the second one because the first got chewed on by someone.) Could someone please tell her that’s not quite how it works?
Sansa just chillin with her tongue out.
Awww. That fuzz is from an explosion
This one. Or the first one. I’m not sure which. They got new stuffed toys yesterday; they are both dead today 🙄. RIP leather rabbit and spiky fox.
She was wagging her tail because I asked her who did that 🙄. This explosion involved the couch pillow behind her and is the reason she will be going back into her crate when we leave for a while longer.
Watching the Mountaineer game.
This is what I see when I open the door to the bathroom. I call them my shower chaperones.
Taking the girls to visit my new workplace and get loved on by all coworkers. Sansa was in Heaven with having so many people to scratch her butt 😂.
And Soph freaked out and pooped on the floor. Good thing the new tile isn’t down yet!🤷🏻♀️
Chillaxin on the couch after a hard day of getting muddy paw prints all over mom’s clean floor 😡.
I love how sweet they look when they’re sleeping. I saw a meme that said, “I wonder what my dog would think if she went through my phone and found the hundreds of pictures I have of her sleeping.” Bahahaha I like to think they would be flattered 🤷🏻♀️.
Sansa on her bed, probably hiding from Sophie. Unsuccessfully.
Yes, Soph, that does seem like the easiest way to get to that toy 🙄😂.
I was leaning on the arm of the chair and looked down to find this. She’s never far away from us.
This one had me cracking up the other day. I was on the deck loving up Sansa, giving her some butt scratches and kisses and I looked up to see this creeper watching us 😂.
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