Conquering the Jungle - Part 1

I know, no one has to tell me, I let stuff get away from me at times. Take for example the Jungle right outside of the front door:

This little patch of my own personal hell started out with good intentions - and was actually useful for the purposes it was intended for, for a short while.  The very first year here it held a SMALL and barely successful "winter garden". I got ONE SMALL "crop" of turnip greens out of it. Then, being the bad gardener I am, I gave up on that. But there was already a bit of (weak) fencing in place. At that point it became a holding area for poultry soon bound on a voyage to Camp Kenmore. Turkeys, chickens, ducks - anything meant to live a short (but full life) was housed there until it was large enough to roam a bit, then allowed to sleep there and be out in the day time. Often times, I have a few friends who send me extra birds after their kids are done showing them. They would be brought home, placed in lock down right there, and then the next day taken off to camp....freezer camp....but still..

You can see the last of the fence still standing here:

I never intended for it to be "long term" as far as the fence goes - it was just cheap plastic stuff put up with the intent to keep rabbits (and that freaking armadillo!) out when I had my tiny garden there.  Being as it was just zip tied on u-posts, it sagged over time, then the rains came....and being less than vigilant, with an ever present meaning to clean it up but lacking the get up and go I needed, it grew over into the mess in the first picture.  And the farmer was sad :(

I knew last year it was going to be a pain to clean it up. I DOUBLE knew this year I had to get it out of there and looking good if only because I was going nuts looking at it! THEN I saw a little snake crawl into it and I had enough! I seriously was well over having a wild life sanctuary right by the front door! There's enough woods around this place - they need to stay in the damn woods I said! So I woke up yesterday not sure what I wanted to get done, until I walked outside and saw my own little piece of hell waiting on me....

The porch swing, relocated since that is where the hay now goes, was not relocated to a spot to swing in, but hurriedly tossed aside one day. Many a string from a bale of hay found it's way down there. Before I located a trash can for the hay strings, let's just say many a string found it's way ANYWHERE it wanted to go - BUT where it belonged (in the trash!). There was even the tarp, which once protected poultry from sun and rain, buried under all that green weedy bits! No seriously, look VERY closely in both pics above, and tell me: DO YOU see a TARP??? No, really? Well look...it was there:

Note all the dirt and weeds still stuck to it....I'm still shaking my head about it, I had almost forgotten that was there too!

So, yesterday afternoon, I tackled it SLOWLY - it's hot you know! I pulled all of the old fencing, dug out a MILLION hay strings, found a few toys left over by the previous owners (I SWEAR that wasn't my Spiderman  action figure in there!), raked out the hay which had fallen off of the porch, and mowed it down!

It took all afternoon, and a short little bit of effort this morning even, but, drum roll please...

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! I had 2 giant spiders come flying up at me - they got squished, a mouse tried to escape my pile of raked up hay - by flying out at me! But Snowball II got it and saved it for me:

And some small snake, no positive ID but I am fairly certain it was nothing major, got brave enough to slither out to see what was happening. I did threaten to introduce him to the sharp end of a shovel, and he headed back under the house!

So, with that all done, off I go to finish mowing. Trying to keep the place looking good this summer - I let it get away too many times last year and I am fairly determined not to allow it this year... It just looks so much nicer when it is all manicured and pretty!

Don't worry...I have a few more jungle spots to tackle up around the house before I feel like I am done....a few more spots where I am sure mother nature will send her minions to try my nerves. UGH! I can't stand bugs tot ouch me, I don't appreciate freaked out mice and snakes headed my way at faster than light speed, and I really don't like not being able to see in the jungle while I am watching for all that stuff!

So...off I go to complete my mowing. Stay tuned as always...

Jalapenos and Onions...Mmmmm YUMMY!

So, seriously, like the NEXT DAY after I wrote about wanting to can something, I stopped at the feed store and was GIFTED a giant bag of jalapenos! 2 1/2 pounds of them! He just had an abundance from his garden, so the owner (Mr. Stubbs) let me have a big bag for myself :) I also ended up with 4 1/5 pounds of yellow squash I traded another lady for (she wanted milk, was low on cash, and it worked for me...but the squash is another post lol)

I came home and got them washed and sliced....

DON'T FORGET YOUR GLOVES FOR THIS STEP! No really - you will thank me for reminding you!

While you are working on the slicing and dicing...it's a good idea to get your jars ready. Some people run them through the dishwasher...I'm not running the dishwasher for a half a rack of jars...so I wash mine well, then plop them into the canning pot to boil while I work. LIDS TOO! Don't forget your lids and rings :) Of course, I set those simmering in a smaller pot - that way they are easier to fish out when I am ready for them.

(The water isn't really ucky - that's my poor lighting and photography at play).

Now that your jars are ready, and your jalapenos are ready, you will need a brine to pickle them! This part is easy peasy. Takes a few minutes, and just basic cooking skills.  Okay, here goes:

Pickled Jalapeno Brine

one whole onion, quartered and sliced

(leave them kind of on the big side...for fishing out of the jar and eating later :) )

3 - 4 cloves of garlic, diced chunky 

1 tbsp oil (any kind, it's just enough to saute the onions and garlic)

7 cups 5% vinegar (can be white, or ACV or a blend)

1 cup water

4 tsp pickling salt

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp oregano

1 bay leaf

1/8 tsp ground cumin

Saute your onions and garlic (use just enough oil so they don't stick to the pan - but not too much! You don't want a bunch of oil in this!) - now, this part is up to you, but I like mine to be about medium cooked. Not really carmelized, but not hard...I like the flavor it adds to the brine and jalapenos, but you can even skip all the seasonings if you want.  

Add the rest of the ingredients - ALL of them - and bring to a boil.  Allow to boil for one minute, just enough to get the flavors to start infusing together.

Okay - so now your brine is ready.  Let it cool just a bit, get your handy dandy jar funnel ready, pull your jars from their warm toast water bath (or oven, or dishwasher - however you keep them warm once sterile).  You are gonna start by packing them fairly full of jalapenos - not so tight you are squishing stuff in there, but tight enough....the peppers are gonna shrink up and wilt a bit when you add the hot brine!

Using your funnel, and a clean ladle, fill the jars about 2/3 full of brine - Now, I personally LIKE the bigger chunks of onions, so I make sure each jar gets a healthy dose of them :)  With this many jalapenos I start with about 5 pint jars....there will be peppers left over in your bowl! Now, when I get to the last jar, I go back to the first one, take a spoon, and kind of mash things down in there...adding more jalapenos to the top just about.  Repeat on down the line, then add more brine to each jar....repeat again....

With this batch I had 6 jars pretty well full of peppers and brine! You want about 1/4 inch of head space, wipe your rims clean, and place lids and rings on there just "finger tight". Then it's time to place in a boiling water bath for about 10 minutes, remove, let cool and wait for the "precious pings"!

***NOTE*** When making any brine, jelly, salsa, or high acid food be SURE to use a "non reactive" pot! Stainless steel, glass - NOT aluminum! Other wise the acid contents of the food will eat the metal off of the pot, deposit it in your food, and leave you with a ucky nasty flavor! Just saying....that's what I was always taught....

There they are...ready for their "water bath" :) Don't forget to take them out and allow them to rest undisturbed for about 24 hours, then check the lids to make sure everything sealed! Label those puppies...I mean peppers :) and get them put up!

Now we wait...as long as we can...but just a couple weeks really.  This allows them to "stew in their juices" as it were...once they have had time to set a bit, these will be AWESOME in fresh chevre, on omelets, on everything! I think we might make it one or 2 days more before we dive into a jar....I'll keep you posted!

Garden - Round 2

Let's be honest - very, very honest - I SUCK at gardening.  There's no way to phrase that delicately and still encompass how horrid I truly am at the whole concept.  I've bought and read books on the subject, joined and conversed on forums dedicated to it, heck you name it and I've tried it.  Anything that can help make me a better gardener I have tried.  Thus far, not much success has been mine.

Years ago, BG (before goats - heck BF 'before farm') I had a few happy little potted plants on my balcony.  Way back when, in the apartment living days, I could do decently by the potted plants.  Not great mind you, but decently.  Of course, back then, I didn't really have anything else to worry about.  Those plants got a LOT of attention that future gardening attempts did not get to see....

Then, we made the move to country life.  I put off gardening as I was preoccupied by things like poultry and goats.  FINALLY, the year I decided to do a REAL garden....THERE WAS A DROUGHT! Seriously?? For real??? Why yes, seriously.  Basically, between he wicked heat and lack of water from the sky and my own neglect I got like 3 little peppers and one sad tomato...yup...plus we ended up moving here that year. 

First year here I attempted a small - TINY - little winter garden of sorts.  I got enough turnip greens for ONE pot of greens...like a small 2 serving side dish worth.  But hey, that's the best I had ever done right? Never mind that my mother could grow the most amazing gardens when I was a kid, never mind that I spent many hours assisting in aforementioned gardens as a child, oh no...none of that green thumb passed my way it seems.  Anyways...what I was saying was...that first little starter garden went "so so eh okay" and I was encouraged...course life popped up, other things happened and FINALLY just this year I have gotten back into gardening right?

We won't discuss my sad little tomato and pepper starts...they are still starting as it were....I've been waiting on them to do SOMETHING amazing with themselves since, oh, FEBRUARY....Ok...then there were the greens and broccoli.  Oh yes, sad bit that, got run over, stepped on, run over some more, and finally the pig layed smack dab right in the middle of them and took a nap one afternoon...ok, well, once again I CAN at least grow greens.

So it was time to start the "spring/summer" garden - I moved it to a new location (one less likely to be driven over due to it's proximity to the septic tank).  And WEEKS ago we planted squash and pumpkin seeds.  Out of all that we planted THIS is what we have so far:

Now - don't ask me what is what - I was just taking pictures and forgot to mentally label squash versus pumpkin.  But I figure if I can keep these things a-going a while longer I may get a pan full of squash, a pumpkin pie and maybe some pumpkin left over for soap LOL...I'm proud of my little survivors here.  My husband refers to the garden as "The Graveyard" since it is where plants go to die....maybe this year I will finally prove him wrong...if I can remember to water it :(

Always growing 'round here....

Well...kinda...actually, mostly it's the trash and the weeds that grow lol :)  But hey, that's better than nothing right! 

So, I promised "post smoke signal pics" didn't I?  Here they are...though somehow I have already managed to build it back up with a few bags of trash again!

There's gonna be limbs a plenty too shortly, have a whole tree actually that needs to be cut up and burnt...it's coming, little by little....

And then, there's my mustard greens.  What hasn't been stepped on, driven over, and otherwise smooshed or attacked by bugs seems to be doing pretty well:

Might get enough for 1 or 2 pots of mustard greens before it's all said and done.  That makes me smile!

So now, I head into the soap room.  Ever determined to get prepared for another Saturday at the market!  Got all my hausfrau stuff done for the day too!  Dinners cooking, laundry is doing it's thing, dishes have been conquered.  It's a nice feeling...so away I go to soap...stay tuned for the more farmer tid bits of, well, farmer stuff :)