Sprouts

About 2 days in

About 3 days in

Laying out to dry

We have sprouts!

I have wanted to try growing sprouts for a long time, in fact I received 3 bags of sprouts to start for Christmas LAST year.  Then life got in the way and they got put in the back corner and just here recently I discovered them again.  I looked online how to grow sprouts (you know? youtubed it!)  and I have to say I was a bit intimidated.  Everyone seemed to have their own way of doing it, some say you have to soak them this long or this long, some say you have to rinse them this amount of times per day or not...
I felt overwhelmed, not really sure where to start really.  I knew it was easy, I just had to get past that first step.
So I shut off the internet and walked away.  I knew I needed a jar and I needed a screen of some sort to keep in the top of the jar for easy rinsing and draining.  I have seen jars and kits for sale at the local Health Food's Store (for upwards of $20) and knew what I needed and also knew I could make it for less at home if I could just find the right stuff.  I looked around at Lowe's, thought maybe I could get a screen patch and use that but didn't want to spend that much money.  I came home and thought about it for a few days.  I looked one more time on the internet looking for benefits of eating sprouts, how to eat them and recipes and things.  I remembered I had cheese cloth from making yogurt cheese awhile ago and thought that would work perfectly!  I was right.  I have the jars, I have the round part of the lid and so I just cut a square big enough to cover the top of the jar and put the lid on!  I looked at the front of the bag the sprouts came in and there were directions right there telling me how long to soak them for, how many times to rinse them in a day, and how long until they are ready.
I did all three of the ones got: Adzuki Beans, Broccoli, and a Spice Mix from Territorial Seeds.
This one just happens to be the ones that sprouted the fastest.  This one is the Spicy Mix.
They are pretty cool, they start as this little tiny bit in the bottom of the jar and over the course of a soaking, a few days of rinsing and draining and letting them sit they start to FILL the jar.
I am currently waiting for the other 2 to be ready to eat, they are coming along but need a couple more days.

Adzuki Beans

Broccoli 

Can't wait to try these too!

WORMS!!!

We have worms!

Or to be more precise, we have Red Wigglers.  These little wiggly things are working hard turning my compost into wonderful plant growing dirt.
Or that's the idea and the hope in any case!

We have never done this before so we are definitely still learning, but it is a lot of fun to say the least.  Even the kids are having fun doing it.  We are keeping them in the shed for now until it really starts to warm up and we can get a lid for our container so the neighborhood cats don't get into it.

We started them off in the bucket on the left, but by the time we got some food for them to eat on, some sand to help them digest, and some dirt to help keep them warm while they are working the bucket was already half full.  We thought maybe they needed some more room to spread out.  There are 100 of them in there after all.

So a friend of mine happened to have the container on the right she needed to get rid of so we took it off her hands!

Much better if I do say so myself!  I just hope they worms like it!

Tomatoes

I love walking into my pantry in the middle of winter and seeing all the pretty rows of jars full of food.  Have loved it since I started canning.  I love knowing that when I go to the grocery store in the middle of winter I can say to myself, "hmm? I don't need that, I already have it on my shelf!"  But I can't see all those pretty rows of jars full of things or say these things to myself while at the store if I don't actually have them!  This of course requires work.  

Putting up food is not hard, it's just time consuming and requires a bit of forethought and preparation but once you get into the swing of it and get a good rhythm going things seem to just roll along and before you know it you are pulling those jars out of the water and listening for that oh so satisfying pop as the seal actually seals itself to the top of the jar.  It's at that point you know that all your work was worth it!  

(Puts a smile on my face just thinking about it)

Gardening this year was a bust, I started too late, had soil that wasn't the greatest, squirrels that would not leave my growing veggies alone and aphids that ate my poor green beans like they were at a Sunday buffet.  

I think part of my problem is I recently come from a growing season of 4 months and have moved into a growing season of 8 months.  I am thinking 8 MONTHS?  This has to be the easiest thing out there!  Oh, 8 months may seem like an easy season but it has it's challenges, just like the 4 month season, just different problems all together.  

For example, here I don't need a sheet to keep the light frost off in the beginning and end of the season, however I do need to water what feels like constantly.  The heat wears that soil out and along with it the roots of the plants.  I'm thinking next year the garden will require a drip system of some sort I can put on a timer and have it go off about 3 times a day.  We will see, I may have to adjust that accordingly, but what new challenge isn't without it's trials and experiments?  

Another problem?  I could not find dirt that was readily available to me here.  I of course live on a military base where they frown upon you digging your whole back yard up to plant veggies!  I don't know why, it seems perfectly logical to me, but oh well, the Rooster is very adept at making me garden beds, he's made a plethora of them for me before, he is quite handy in that area.  But the dirt!! It was a problem.  I could not find compost anywhere unless I wanted to pay big money for it (you would think it were gold or something down here).  I finally found some at a store that said "garden soil, for fruits and vegetables"  NOT GOOD FOR MY VEGGIES!!!!  I got plants to grow, just no veggies.  Nice big beautiful leaves, no vegetable on the bottom.  I am looking into the reasoning behind this, will have to ask Grandpa, he is kind of an expert in these areas!  Maybe do some research online, after-all, it is right here at my fingertips.

I do think I have found a solution to this problem for next year though.  I am simply going to start composting and  making my out soil.  I know, I live on a military base right?  I have an idea that I think just might work though.  More on that later.  This of course also involves the handy work of the Rooster (don't tell him I know but I really think he actually enjoys these kinds of things, even though he sometimes rolls his eyes at me and has some smart comment about it, secretly I know he enjoys it as much as I do!)

But all in all, I can't say this gardening season was all bad - it was definitely a learning season and I got zero produce, but I am looking forward to next growing season with anticipation and new things to try. I have 2 years to get this gardening things down here in Georgia.  Suppose I can do it?

And for this year?  All I can say is thank heavens we have a Farmer's Market!!