Canning and a Small Update

Yeah, I'm still here, just don't have a lot of time for blogging. Today I was canning so thought I would stop in an show you the results. Cranberries were finally marked down at the store this week which is great because over Christmas and Thanksgiving we used up the jars I had made last year. I purchased 5- 12 oz bags for a dollar each. When I make cranberry sauce I make juice as well. So  today we ended up with 7 quarts of juice and 5 pints of sauce. If you want to know how I made them you can find out on this post that I did last year and the link is also in the listing on the left under Popular Posts.

Carrots were also marked down this week. The ones in the bag that they sell as baby carrots, although they never really are baby carrots. I got two larger bags and two smaller bags. I sliced up all but one of the smaller bags and pressure canned them. There is a post on canning carrots on my blog here. I canned them the same way today except I did slice them instead of leaving them whole.

Those of you who are on my facebook page know that I got a newer car. After having driven such an old car for so long it is pretty amazing to have  power windows, locks and seats; lovely to have heat and air that works; nice sounding radio and CD player etc. etc. It also came with my first car payment which I worry about constantly.

You also might have seen on facebook that I found a violin teacher in the next town over. I was so excited and she is only charging me $20 for a half hour lesson once a week. I just went to her the first time this last Friday and she is such a nice person. She said she hadn't had a student who was so well outfitted with violin, bows, tuner, extra strings, extra bridge, and lots of music books. She also said that she could tell that I was really committed and practiced a lot because I was much better than she thought I would be since I had been just teaching myself.  It was great to have her there  to tell me, "no that note is too high", "that one is too low" "this is how you do slides" etc.  I am so looking forward to the next lesson!

As for gardening, I really haven't been down to the garden lately as I have been sick for almost 6 weeks and am just now getting over it. I still cough but only once in a while. Anyway, got down the garden today. We have had several very cold nights and some of the greens are a bit frosted but I am sure they will be fine.

Here are the spinach/mustard tendergreens. I really need to pick them but it won't be today after all that canning.

Yup, in amongst all that chickweed are some kale plants. I do love this Red Russian kale and none of it will go to waste.

Unfortunately, before we got real cold this week we had several weeks that were way too warm and the broccoli has formed small little heads. I will just have to pick them and wait for the side shoots.

If there is one thing you can grow in the winter here in Georgia it is turnip greens. There aren't making any bottoms but the tops are obviously doing great.

Here are the beets. They got frosted pretty good but should be fine. I am hoping to have more than greens from these but it will be spring before they make any actual beets. I do like the greens as well though.

Here are the radicchio. Some of them have small loose heads so we may have some to add to salads later on.

That's it for the garden right now. The last picture I took was of the pond. During the warm weeks we had the paperwhite's bloomed but are now falling over since the cold has come. Other bulbs I planted around it are poking out of the soil as well but only a little. The bowl of pink stuff beside it is just the leftover from making the cranberry sauce. I have put it out for the birds. I hope to get a chance to work on the pond a bit more and add more rocks to cover up the liner that is  sticking out and I need to make a smaller filter (under the rock). The fish are doing just fine though, you can see them around the floating plants in the center. Excuse all the leaves. I just raked a few weeks ago and I am tired of raking the back yard. The leaves seem never ending this year.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all are staying warm!