Tuesday, July 17, 2018

A Happy Little World

My little corner of the world is as happy as I can make it.  I see and hear enough bad stuff daily, that I just want to hole up here and love my little piece of this big old planet.

I have been around gardening every one of my 63 1/2 years - and it still amazes me.  It truly is like having a grocery store in your back yard!  Every day that I go out with my garden bag and pick something - I find myself giggling!!!  I really do!
I just find a huge amount of happiness in walking into the yard, picking something fresh, and deciding how we will EAT IT!

My folks had a huge garden and my poor Momma had the task of putting it all up for the leaner cold months.  She worked till midnight or after, many a day.  I truly didn't appreciate the garden back then - it was just a lot of hot work to me. 
Now I did love eating raspberries as I was helping to pick - but I hated the chigger bites.  I loved going out and picking a warm tomato off the vine and eating it right there.  I loved sitting behind the chicken house eating sour green apples till I got sick.  I loved standing under the grape arbor munching on Concord grapes till Mom saw me - and said she needed them for juice and jelly. 
I just didn't understand then, that all that work was necessary for us to have the good life we had.  We ate good all year long.  Other people ate good at our house too.  Mom fed anyone that showed up.  We didn't have much money - but we had scrumptious healthy food to keep us full.

Today, most of us don't HAVE to grow a garden for financial reasons.  We can go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want.  However, many of us prefer to grow our own.  We know how it was grown, we know what is on our table, we know how it was fixed.  It is soooooooo much healthier.  I don't necessarily fall for the "organic" hype at the stores - truthfully they can tell us anything, and we can't prove them wrong.  I know how my garden was grown!

We can make jams, jellies, juices, sauces, etc.  We can eat it fresh, or cook it, or can it, or  freeze it.
We save money with our gardens.  We eat healthier with our gardens. 
I still marvel at what a little seed can produce.  It is definitely a gift from God in my opinion.


 
Don't forget that you can also use EVERYTHING.  Those tough ends from asparagus, broccoli, etc. can be dehydrated and ground into powder.   Tomato skins can be dried and powdered.  (You can add so much flavor to food with these things).  I personally love to peel the tough ends of broccoli and steam them  - they are my favorite part to eat!
The outer leaves of cabbage or broccoli can be done the same way.
Peels and pits can be cooked down and made into jelly and jams.  Rinds can be sugared or pickled.
Herbs can be grown in small areas or pots and dried for later use.
Peels or scraps can be placed in the garden for extra fertilizer or in the compost maker.  Waste nothing!

I love making flavorful powders out of all kinds of things most people would throw away.  Powders can be added to soups and stews or smoothies and breads - there is no limit to what you can do.

So they next time you walk outside and pick something - maybe you will giggle too.  Take a moment to realize what a wonderful gift it is.  I don't care if you have a container garden or 2 acres, or if you get a handful of things or bushels - it is ALL magical!!!!!!

Look upward and say "thank you" - because you are blessed beyond measure.  You too, live in a happy little world!

18 comments:

  1. I sooo love your positivity!! Thank you!!

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    1. Aaaawww thanks Kathy. We just need to appreciate the simpler things in life. We are so truly blessed.

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  2. This is a sweet blog post, Cheryl. My grandparents were gardeners. My grandfather always had more than one garden and they were all huge. I have very fond memories of them :)

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    1. We are so fortunate to have those memories and to get to make a few ourselves for the younger generation.
      Life is good.

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  3. Yes, I love this! We never had a garden growing up. My mom grew tomatoes, but that was it. I've always wanted to have a huge garden. This is our first year, and we're starting out kind of small, but we've already been able to harvest a few peas and some basil, which felt like magic to me. Throw a few seeds in the ground, get back food? WOW! I'm going to be extremely busy once our tomato plants start up- we've got a ton of them, and they all have tiny green tomatoes on them, which makes me so happy. :) I'm definitely looking forward to expanding the garden next year!

    And waste nothing- excellent advice, and something I try to follow. I'm not perfect, but I try my best to make use of everything I have. It's a good philosophy to live by. :)

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    1. I am so happy you are getting to enjoy the MAGIC of gardening. It is just so much fun to me.
      My garden isn't huge either - but it is more than enough for the two of us and plenty to give away.
      Have fun preserving your harvest!

      None of us are perfect - but 'waste nothing' just seems a good steward thing to do.
      Have a good one!

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  4. Oh Cheryl I feel the same way. I just am thrilled with my garden everyday. I can't wait to make a cucumber,tomato and onion salad. All that bounty from the garden, from one little seed. It truly is a miricle.

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    1. It is - isn't it? I love that so many are getting back into gardening. I love to see young folks learning too.
      That first salad will be the best of the entire year!!!!!!! ENJOY

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  5. Cheryl, I love your blog...and your "gardening joy". Because I moved to a new house this year I missed out on any gardening and I sure do miss it. It seem like I am cheating on summer.

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    1. Jannie, thank you for your kind words. I hope maybe you still have some 'goodies' that you put up from last year!

      Use this summer for other fun - and then get back on track next year. ENJOY

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  6. There is nothing better than eating freshly picked fruit or veggies, still warm from the sun, right off the plant. Pure heaven!

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    1. BLISS!!!!! You just can't get any fresher than that!

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  7. Yes, I agree. I am growing tomatoes this year and putting some in the freezer for winter soups and chili. There is a certain self satisfaction in knowing that it's from my own hands. I love this post.

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    1. Got to have something for the garden for the winter!! I gain great satisfaction knowing that this old gal can grow something edible!
      Thanks - have a good one!!!

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  8. Cheryl, about your mama's grape jelly and jam...do you have a recipe for either or both? I have some grapes leftover often and would love to make a small batch of jelly or jam with them. Is there a way to just freeze or refrigerate it instead of canning? If you do have a recipe and the time, a blog post would help more than just me I'm sure. I love to pin your recipe posts so I can always find them easily. Thanks so much for your wonderful blog. We plan to move to a more farm-friendly area where we hope to raise some veggies and have fruit trees and berry bushes so your blog posts are very inspirational to me right now. We raised some vegetables when I was a kid and I hated picking green beans and wouldn't eat them. Now I think how wonderful it would be to grow and pick my own vegetables and fruit again. Youth is certainly wasted on the young!

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    1. h I do love that phrase - "youth is certainly wasted on the young".
      I make grape jelly too, and like Mom I have always used to recipe that comes with the pectin (in the box).
      I now water bath jelly - but only have done that the past coupe years. I used to make it, lid it, and let it ping away. It always stayed on the shelf - I know - bad me! But Mom did it that way too - or used paraffin on top of it. She never processed jelly.

      I freeze my grapes each year until I have enough for jelly or until I have the time. It works just fine.
      Any jelly or jam can be made without pectin, it just takes cooking it longer so it will set. I will do some research on this and hopefully someone else can chime in as well.

      I hope you get the chance to have a garden and enjoy the gardening life. I love it. I think it's in my blood. My brother is the same way.
      Thank you for your sweet words!

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  9. Great post. I do love shopping in my own yard. I was foraging raspberries today from an empty plot that has a bunch of them growing. I also traded 3 heads of lettuce and 10 peppers for 2 jars of honey. I have more lettuce then I can eat so I was happy to do the trade.

    I use all of the parts of the veggies that we don't eat go in the dog food that I make. She loves it and it is good for her.

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    1. It is so much fun to 'shop' in the yard. Our private grocery store!
      That is great that you are bartering goods. I love that.
      Doggies need healthy food too! No waste.

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