Bells of the North Homestead

I've lost track of what week I'm on now with my little pets, the worms.  Still though, every week I lovingly feed them all the scraps from the kitchen.  Worrying over whether they will like the cherries better than the cucumber peels or the rotten peaches over the bell pepper parts.  They honestly don't really give me much feedback since they tend to eat it all. One of these days I'll start actually weighing how much I'm putting in there so I can see exactly how much they're chomping down.  All I know is I put about two to three large bowls of mixed waste and about two weeks later it's completely eaten.  All that's left is mushy mud, paper bag mulch and a bunch of worms on the top that are begging me for more food.  We've already harvested loads of worm tea and so far the plants seem to like it.  The plants are most definitely growing BIGGER this year.  Heck, last year they never got this big, but then of course we didn't prepare our soil like w

Okay, so like I said, yes I will provide the recipes that I used to preserve the fruit and fruit.  Now first thing, I have to say, not a single one of these recipes are mine.  These are all borrowed from numerous places on the web.  I've provided the link to the website that I borrowed the recipe from.  Our first canning of the season was the strawberries we picked at Brad's Produce . Strawberry Chipotle Jam Ingredients 1 quart strawberries (about 1 ½ lbs.) Try to select 1 cup of slightly-unripe berries 1 large juicy lemon, zested and juiced 3 cups sugar 2-3 chipotle peppers, minced (canned) ¼ tsp. salt Instructions Chop half of the berries into small pieces and smash the rest of the berries. You should have approximately 3 cups—a little extra is ok. In a saucepan combine the lemon zest, juice, sugar and salt over medium heat. Stir the mixture occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add all the berries and minced chipotle peppers to the pan. Bring to a low boil. Simm

It's now been, what? Almost a month and maybe even a week since I've written.  I kept having the best intentions to write and then.....something always got in my way. First I injured my left foot while walking through the garden, next, was my laptop which decided right now was a perfect time for an epic fail.  Then next hubby having yet another TDY, while my son and I were sick. Nice, real nice. Hell, as it stands right now we're in the middle of a Severe Thunderstorm Warning and watch (thank God it's not a T---ado watch or warning!).  Thunder is rumbling outside and the sky is lighting up as if someone has thrown fireworks up into the clouds. So with all that happening I still rush to hurry and write. My God, where do I start? First, we had a few successes.  Our battle with the slugs is going well, thanks to about 4 beer traps we set weekly. My hope is that when I put in our second seeding of mesclun, arugula, romaine, and other mixed greens the slugs will be far