Bells of the North Homestead

Six more weeks till Winter. Or so the story goes told by Alaskan Natives and sourdoughs alike.   When the fireweed has bloomed all the way to the top, we have six more weeks till the snow flies.   So far this break up and then into summer, we’ve had some successes….and some failures.    That’s pretty typical though.   The garden is doing well but could be doing better thanks to the late start because of our vacation in the lower 48.   That is a killer here since our growing season is so short.    We got to harvest a large bunch of garlic scapes earlier this week.   Yes indeed, garlic scapes.   SUCCESS! The garlic survived the winter! We’ll have garlic later this summer to harvest.   We’re about 2 days away from harvesting our first zucchini and summer squash of the season.   Our kale and broccoli rabe this year barely sprouted due to the fact that we got a late start on it.   We should have ...

BHUT JOLOKIA HARVEST TIME! Three of these hot little babies are ready! At one point this plant was an unknown.  We knew we planted seeds for a Bhut Jolokia plant but were uncertain if this was one.  That is until it started producing peppers, late into the season.  Now lo and behold, here it is. I harvested three of the fruits and just cutting them off the plant made my throat burn as if I was slicing up jalapenos. At this point, I'm kind of afraid to cut them up but I know we want to dry them so it will have to be done sooner or later. FYI, the spicy peach tomato salsa I made recently was made using UNripe Bhut Jolokia peppers. We used two of those and we got a pretty spicy batch of salsa.  I can't wait to see what these do now that they are fully ripe! Oh and heads up, be looking out for a giveaway soon.  Bhut Jolokia Seeds & maybe a few sunchoke tubers.

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!!