Bells of the North Homestead

I promised didn't I? a Rafflecopter giveaway I am in fact giving away one Jam or Jelly to the winner of this giveaway.  The giveaway starts April 1st at midnight and ends on April 13th at midnight. At the conclusion I will announce the winner and that winner will receive whichever jam or jelly that sounds good to them that I have listed at my Etsy store. Now in order to win you do have to fill out the question on the giveaway, at the very least, but if you want more entries simply tweet this and like the page. Now one extra bit. If I hit 100 page likes by the end of this contest (April 13th) I will give one extra jam or jelly (your pick) to the person who shares my page and gets me the most likes. I will be watching my page closely over the next two weeks to see who wants the free jam or jelly the most. Enjoy!!

UPDATE! I have one last batch of seeds left to give to any who would like them. Due to the overwhelming response I have nothing left other than Long Island Cheese Pumpkin seeds and I barely have much left of those!  These grow into gorgeous pumpkin like squash with brilliant orange flesh. Long Island Cheese pumpkins are very sweet and are great for making pies, breads or even soups.  This weekend I will probably be making a recipe I found on Southern Food.about.com to use up our one last Cheese Pumpkin (hence the reason I can offer a few more seeds!) Pumpkin Pecan Bread This recipe makes 3 loaves of pumpkin bread, perfect for gifts or holiday entertaining. Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Ingredients: 3 cups sugar 4 large eggs 1 cup vegetable oil 1 (16-ounce) can pumpkin pureé 3 1/2 cups self-rising flour * 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped

A few might recall I posted a giveaway for free seeds  a while ago.  I do have a few left to give out which I have listed down below here but here's a bonus for those who received some of those free seeds. A bit of history. I am the type of person who loves reading the history behind a plant.  How did it become so popular? Why is this certain vegetable or fruit so expensive in the grocery store? Why does it have that really weird and sometimes musical name?  To me, this makes it so much more enjoyable to know all about the plants that I grow.  So I decided to post some of the research I did while working on a project called Vegucation Outreach  that is being used here to encourage kids eat their veggies.    Something to keep in mind about the winter squash.  Many say this "Oh you have to have ROOM to grow THOSE plants!"  I beg to differ.  I have been now for the past two seasons training my heavy winter squash to grow vertical. Up fences.  I save my orange and onion

It has now been seven weeks since we started our seedlings and this year, once again, we tried a different way. That's the way it is with gardening and gardeners in general.  Many ask me as of late to give them advice and most times I'm left stuttering and speechless.  Because most of it boils down to trying something over and over again and just simply finding what works for us. Out of all the seeds we have started it now appears we have a WHOPPING two plants that are being stubborn so far. One newspaper pot containing an Italian Pepperocini from Baker Creek and one newspaper pot containing a seed for a Chocolate Habanero have yet to germinate.  All the others are doing their best, growing closer and closer to the grow lights we purchased for them this year. Now, while I bang my chest and announce in a false baritone voice "me good gardener!" I do feel there is a need for tweaking our methods here. Our plants are doing pretty good however they are all showing

How many of us go to the grocery store and pay for Vanilla Extract?  Raise your hands. Wait, no, never mind, because of course I cannot see you but if I could I would bet most of my readers here would raise their hands.  I know I normally would.  That is until recently when I discovered I could make my own Vanilla extract for use in baking and cooking and save a bit of $$$$ in the process.  This is just so easy that I cannot believe more do not do this.  Really. Why is it that so many things are actually pretty easy and yet we all believe they are difficult? Well except mayonnaise. I have yet to successfully tackle that one even with scores and scores of eggs down the drain or in the trash. Okay, now first and foremost.  Please keep in mind. I just started my bottles curing this weekend so I have yet to try out the finished product.  I cannot tell you yet what my thoughts are on the finished product that I have made.  I will be doing that in about two months from now. Ingredient

Gardeners all have their own particular way of storing seeds.  Our tried and true methods to keep our seeds dry, safe, cool, and most of all, viable. For me, approximately five years ago, give or take, that meant storing them in their original envelopes in a tupperware container and hoped that they wouldn't get wet.  Many times I would get frustrated each year when I would try to start some seeds and I would have no success with germination.  Little did I know I needed to keep my seeds in a little better conditions than what I was doing. I sometimes did start a plant from seed but I would always succumb to running by the nursery, the local Home Depot or Lowes and get $20 worth of plants. Once I started growing more unusual varieties though, this could not work.  Most nurseries and greenhouses along with the big box stores simply do not carry varieties like Black Cherry Tomatoes, Delicata or Rouge vif d'etampes Squash.  I don't think I've ever seen any local store car

DIY Powdered Dishwashing Detergent Imagine my surprise when I discovered that you can make your own dishwashing detergent and if you are making your own liquid laundry detergent then you have almost all the ingredients on hand anyways.  Once again, killing the two birds with one stone. Where I had really no definitive recipe towards the liquid laundry detergent I did use one almost exclusively for the dishwashing detergent.  You can find the recipe here at  DIYNatural.com   I did make one extra adjustment, just to see if it changed anything. I had some Dr. Brommers Peppermint Pure Castile Soap from one of my Wegmans shopping trips so I added about a tablespoon to the powder and mixed it in thoroughly.  While the powder now smells nice and minty, it did not do anything to the finished product.  The dishes just smell clean but not minty.   Lesson learned.  It does not make any difference if I add scent to the powder.  It doesn't affect the finished product. (Finished product