Where's Cindi?

Mr. Clay snapped this picture of me in the garden this morningWhat's that?? ...You say, you can't see me in there? How's this?Need me to zoom in a little closer? I am not squatting or kneeling; some of the tomatoes are taller than me now. I was really stretching my neck to see above them. So far only a handful of ripe tomatoes. But...

this week I harvested 16 pounds of anaheim chiles. This is what they looked like before roasting:

Then that much roasted down to this:

And then after peeling, deseeding and stemming, it bagged up to be this much (16 pounds reduced to 8 pounds)...and off to the freezer they went...

(shown pictured in snack baggies and sandwich baggies; later transferred to 5 qt sized bags)
Well all of them, except one baggie, that will be used to make 'Cheater's Chile Rellenos'. Complete recipe with pics on my next post.

Until then
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Cindi

The garden is done and so am I

I finally got the garden finished planting last weekend-the final totals are:

*I tried to get all the plants in the pic, but a few just didn't make it in the frames*

32 tomato plants-all grown from heirloom seeds

12 squashes - 5 varieties; also from heirloom seeds (I'll show these when they get bigger).

93 pepper plants-more than half are anaheim chiles-some are the Big Jim variety and their chiles will grow to a foot long!...the rest are: cherry hots, jalapenos-we have a few Super Nachos that grow peppers 5" and a couple of Mammoths that grow fruit 6" or better (we'll see), and 1 lone serrano that somehow sneaked it's way into our cart at the store

The lettuce, radishes and carrots are sneaking into the upper right hand corner of the pic and the far spaced plants next to them is the squashes.

1st and 2nd crop of radishes, lettuce, and carrots...the first crop of radishes has been completely harvested and almost all eaten now. I'm embarrassed to show the 2nd crop up close; they need weeding so badly...

We have been eating salads from the lettuces I thinned. Mr. Clay can't stop raving about how good the lettuce is.

and of course, the gazillion peas...and lookie! Mr. Clay got the neighbor to cut his weeds back away from the fence :)

The peas are full of blooms and have just started bearing pods. I love peas right from the plant; can't stand canned or frozen ones though. *this is just a small section of the row of peas*

I ended up planting 4 tomatoes in a neighbor's yard and gave away more than a dozen; my poor aching arms and hands just could not take anymore planting. Each plant has had its own hole dug, the hard pan clay broken up, mulch and soil added and then planted. I'm really not a wimp; the tiller broke and was in the shop, so I had to do it all by hand...141 individual plants + the peas and radish, lettuce and carrot crops...the only thing left to do is water,weed, and watch them grow.

And remember this shot last time? Well here is the same tree (from a different angle and the grass is starting to come in nicely now
And those trailers??? We moved them out, laid down weed protectant material, and had 7.5 tons of rock hauled in and I 'got' to spread it all out. My arms were like aching noodles afterwards. The rock is about 5-6 inches deep.

The area under the white trailer (which is really Mr. Clay's shed) is the lowest part of our property and when it rains or the snow melts, we always have a pond there, making it impossible to get into the trailer. Mr. Clay's theory is that the rock will be raised enough so that we can get to the trailer during 'wet times'...I shall let you know how this works out.

All this work really took a toll on my body. The old grey mare just ain't what she used to be...My arms and hands were hurting so bad I couldn't sleep through the night for weeks. I finally went and had it checked and turns out I have a bulging disc. I went to my acupressure guy and he fixed me somewhat. I was told not to push, pull, or do anything for 10 days...but you know how that goes. As luck would have it, I got a callback from a temp job I did last year. So I will be temping from Monday thru til the end of the month...so much for that 'rest and not do anything' stuff :)

And finally, our latest toy which actually arrived a few weeks ago is....

the tumbling composter...this will make it easier for us to make our own compost. We have started our first batch with vegetable scraps, egg shells, paper from our shredder, a bucket of rabbit poop from a friend, peat moss, some mulch, and a little depleted soil. And all we have to do is turn it and let it do it's thing.

And "what will we do with all those anaheim chiles?" is the question I keep getting asked. Stay tuned and next time I will share my "Cheater Chile Rellenos" recipe.

We lubs our anaheims :)

Until next time,

XOXOXOXO

Cindi