Field Trip!

Today was a field trip to an “urban farm.”  It is set up in downtown Birmingham, as a learning center and a store of sorts, when crops are in.

Luci and I had a lot of fun.  She met two new “best friends forever.”

Tasting the smoothie made with lots of things she doesn’t like.  Doesn’t matter that the orange juice and yogurt hid the taste of the kale, avocado and banana:

The teacher/docent showed the kids the labels that were on some of the fruit, and wanted them to figure out where the fruits came from (I know the grammar is not right, but please.  It’s my blog.).  The teacher shoved one fruit in Luci's face and asked her where the banana was from (again, my blog, my grammar rules).  Luci is reading 3- and 4- letter words now.  Luci just stared at it, looking like a sheep who had just been asked an algebra question.  Like she’s going to be able to read “Guatemala.”  Finally the woman passed it to another kid.

Who knew she likes worms?  Not me.  She wanted to bring this home as a pet.  Two and a half hour trip home and it’s supposed to survive?  My answer:  NO.  (By the way, I think that's a beetle larva)

 The teacher/docent suggested tossing the juicy worm into the chicken coop.  “The chickens will think that’s a great steak!”  Didn’t help Luci.  She was upset with that idea.  I haven’t seen the worm since we got home, so I am hoping she let it go there in the garden.

The night before this trip, we had broccoli at supper.  Luci would not eat any.  I took a teeny-tiny bit of the blossom part and put it into her mouth (we are talking about 1/15th of a teaspoon!) and she gagged.  Okay.  So you don't like broccoli.  What did she find at the urban garden?  Purple broccoli.  Which she LOVED.  Which tasted EXACTLY like the green stuff we had the night before.  Maybe if she ate my broccoli with dirty hands, she'd like it.  (That's the purple broccoli, with yellow flowers, in the photo.)

 Today we had some fine company.  One boy in a cape, and one boy who wore long underwear (it was chilly) and this hat with the earflaps.  He was a hoot-and-a-half.

 Luci had more fun than I ever would have guessed digging through compost, looking for insects.  Here she is with one of her "new best friends forever," and that incredibly unique boy:

How does your garden grow?

Bell Peppers

Banana Peppers

Luci's Treehouse

Grape Vines

Cucumber Blossoms.  I may just cry.  Those blossoms mean that more are coming.   I've canned gobs of Bread and Butter Pickles and Dill Pickles.  Gobs.   John just keeps bringing in more cucumbers.  We took three bags full of cucumbers to church today, to foist on unsuspecting people.

This Week

We are still getting plenty of use out of the easel that Mom and Dad gifted to us a while back.  Luci made a checklist of things for her to do during her day:

Slep  (sleep--get out of bed in the morning)
Et      (eat)
Play   (I think you can figure this one out!)
Slep  (sleep --go to bed at night)
Chorz  (chores)

Please, someone tell me:  How can she spell phonetically but not be able to read?

Luci grabbed my camera and had a photo shoot with her Barbie and Ken dolls...

Not too shabby of a photographer, huh?

I've been canning or freezing many things that John has grown in his garden.  I learned that I should not have cut the banana peppers because it looks a lot like canned calamari.

We have so many pickles (the cucumbers did quite well!) that I told John, "No more!"  He brought in two dozen cukes last week and I nearly cried.  We've started giving them away.

Happy Birthday!!

JT's birthday is today.  Sweet 16!  He got a new car!!

JT sometimes helps in the garden...

 umm, JT, put the iPod down!

 And now the boy young man has enough candles on his cake that we can turn off the overhead lights!

Pumpkin!

Luci planted pumpkins this year.  Today John harvested the very first one.  Luci and I worked to preserve it, and made some muffins along the way.  I followed the directions on this site.

Here she is!  This pumpkin weighed 7.2 lbs.  It is really too large for freezing, according to the things I've read online because the larger the pumpkins are, the stringier they can be.  We didn't let that stop us.

Not so sure about the innards!

It was really easy to separate the seeds from all that goop.  Just put the stuff in a bowl, add water, and watch the seeds float to the top.  Pick those out, then stir the mess again.  If the seeds are stuck to the fibers, just rub them between your fingers.  They will come loose.  The bowl of water makes it so easy.  I roasted the seeds (Luci added the butter and salt) and we enjoyed them after supper.  Directions here.

We steamed the pumpkin, a bit at a time, in the microwave.

Pureeing the flesh.  The site recommended a hand blender.  Mine did not work.  The VitaMix had no problem!

We had enough for three packets for the freezer (one will make a batch of muffins, two will make a pie), and enough left over for...

Muffins!  These were so good!  Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from allrecipes.com. 

JT refused to try a muffin.  He won't eat anything that's the same color as his hair (orange).  I tried to get him to taste just a crumb of one, a crumb loaded with chocolate chips, but he wouldn't!  He did, however, make off with half of the roasted pumpkin seeds.

The Great Pumpkin Experiment is a winner!

I'm just not hungry enough.

We have a vegetable garden.  It is not a big garden.  John planted it one day with Luci while I was in town.

I came home to find he planted a whole row of turnip greens. 

He's the only one who really likes turnip greens.

I'll eat them--sometimes.  Sometimes.  Very rarely.  Almost never.

John decided that we need to put some up for later, so he brought in about half a bushel of greens.  I got about one-third of my way through the mess (properly, they should be called a "mess o' greens") and my hands and forearms were itching!  I did not remember that from past times of working with greens.  I killed a few bugs, too, and washed much dirt off the leaves.  That might be why they are called a mess.  Pretty sure of that.   I am fairly confident that I got most of the dirt off before blanching the greens. 

After all that work, I had enough for three side dishes at suppertime stashed in the freezer.  After all that itching, and chasing some bugs down, I declared that I was done with greens.  I'll wash up a supper's worth at a time, and cook them for John, but no more blanching big messes all in one night.

If times get tougher here than they are now, I might change my mind on greens.  But for now, I'm just not hungry enough.

Time Capsule

Luci wanted to bury a time capsule...to be unearthed at the late, late date of...
 .
(are you ready for this?)....
 .
(drum roll, please!)...
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Tuesday!

So, she and JT put some things in an ice cream bucket and dug up a corner of our vegetable garden.  Our ground here is as hard as concrete.  The garden has been tilled, and this corner next to Luci's pumpkin plant is not in use.

What does a six-year-old put in a time capsule?
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A Love Letter to Daddy.


A Calculator.


A Fanger-Mayer Glass.
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What?  You don't know what a fanger-mayer glass is?  That's Luci-speak for  Magnifying Glass.

This Week

John planted our garden this week.  Luci helped.  Luci is a real outdoorsy girl.  Good thing she has a daddy who loves being outside a lot!  Luci had him going down to the creek, out to the treehouse, driving to Lowe's to get plants (she picked a geranium for herself), and all things muddy.  She had a blast.  John did, too.

At supper, after they planted the garden, I asked Luci, "What did you and Daddy plant today?"

Redishes.

They put these little stakes in the ground, noting where each vegetable is located.  Isn't that cute?  I think the neighbor's dogs will love having those little chew toys.

Corn Harvest

This is it, the corn harvest. Two ears. Luci helped to shuck the corn (ooh, what's that?! corn silk) but would not even touch it when it was ready to eat. The boys loved it, though, and pronounced it "Awesome!" I guess we are at the end of our photo-journal of Luci and the corn.We went to a near-by dairy's open house, hoping to see how it runs but just got a nice little glimpse at their shop. They may be field-trip ready by Spring, I will call then to see and perhaps set one up for our homeschool friends. Really gorgeous barn--can't wait to see the rest of it. (By the way, I discovered that I really, really don't like goat cheese. It's been 20 hours since we were there and the taste is still fresh in my mind!)
We found a bonnet for Luci in the shop.
A nice place to sit and visit. The chairs had Auburn or Alabama painted on them. We disinfected JT as soon as we got home.

Corny Luci

Week 9 Week 10

Now we are watching the sunflowers develop. The corn seems to be as big as it's going to get.

Enjoying the Changes

Saturday

Wednesday and the previous Sunday

Ta-Dah!

Sunday Wednesday

Corn, Week 8

Last Week This Week

Gardening

Our garden has produced some things, but not very many. I think the neighbors' dogs or the animals in the woods next to us are getting some of the vegetables for themselves. One day we'll have almost ripe cherry tomatoes and the next day they will be completely gone.
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Here's our haul from yesterday. Yes, the squash looks beat up and the green bean and cuke kind of limp. Since this was all we got from the garden yesterday, with little hope of more today, I let Luci wash these items outside with her dirty sponge. When she started using the squash as a hammer to work on her scooter, I didn't stop her. That lonely squash wouldn't be much for dinner, anyways. The cucumber was actually ok--but where are the many little cukes so I can make pickles?? The cucumber plant is enormous but very few cucumbers are actually coming to maturity (or else it's those critters again). Today I sent the kids out with Luci's Easter basket/bucket to pick anything that was ripe. Notice the redhead complaining about the 17 year old not helping...

..and notice which child is working! The one who won't eat any of the produce...not even the green beans!

"I can't find anything, mom." Did you look? At least he showed up to pretend to help. He's got Luci's Easter basket ready, just in case he finds something.

Sunflower about to bloom!

Baby cantaloupe.

This garden has confirmed for me that I do like watching things grow. It is fascinating. It also confirmed that I don't like vegetables any more than I did when my parents had a garden that was 5 times as big in the backyard in Boise. Next year, we need to make the garden much bigger because things here are just too close to each other. Need to do something about the soil, too, but not sure what. It is all hard as a rock, even after rain. Impossible to hoe. The hoe won't even dent the soil. And it's full of rocks! I mean, full! Oh--and speaking of soil, we need to have some added that is truly clean--this soil was all from our yard, and the grass is growing through everything. Just impossible to keep out. That Bermuda grass gets everywhere!

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Another thing this has confirmed to me: the produce aisle at the supermarket is a wonderful place.

Corn....

Week 1 Week 4
Week 6

Are you ready for this?

Ta-Dah!

Week 7