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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Robert Walton wrote:
> Sounds like your garden is still being pretty productive, Bev. I wish
>  I'd kept a couple of tomatoes, but it was best to just get the whole
>  thing in a cover crop.

Yeah, I threw some kelp and organic crap on my beans about 5 weeks ago
and I am still getting a gallon plus a quart(snapped) every other day.
I have about 2 pounds of field peas, and I have only harvested about
half of them.  I lost count on quarts of tomatoes, salsa, pizza sauce,
tomato sauce and paste and Rotel, etc.  It is enough for a year though.
I'm really psyched about my sweet potatoes...they are very pretty, and I
have just about as much butternut and acorn squashes.  I still have
carrots, and tomorrow I will go out and de-leaf my Malabar spinach vine.
   I had it on a fan trellis that I made myself, but it got so heavy
that the trellis broke in two places.  The Spinach vine is now covering
the carrot bed and trying to vine over 6 feet to the grapevine supports.
 Time for a de-leaf to slow it down!


We had the best dinner tonight. It was simple-chicken nachos made from
leftover chicken that I cooked in the crockpot yesterday.  Anaheims,
cayennes, tomatoes, sour cream and some chili seasoning with Colby jack
cheese...YUM!  It made me wish for a corn/black bean salsa.  I want to
make one so if anyone has a nice salsa or relish with corn and black
beans, let me know.


> I took James' advice on potatoes and just dug them I probably should
>  have dug closer to the beginning of Sept., a few spuds had started
> to grow. I put a few bins of potatoes up under the house. I'll be 
> eating potatoes.

DH wants me to do that tomorrow.  I was just going to let them go until
Spring, but he is itching to try the Yukon Gold type.  Everything tastes
so different since we quit smoking.  He, well, we, eat all kinds of
stuff that we did not eat a few years ago.  I now have orders to grow
tomatoes every year, just so he can put tomatoes on his hamburgers.
This, from a man who would not touch a tomato of any type just a year ago.


> Picked lots and lots of peppers. Hot and sweet. I might put up a few
>  jars of the hot ones. Also, might make a big batch of stuffed
> peppers and freeze them. I've got lots of sliced peppers frozen for
> cooking.
I've mostly pickled mine.  I either pickle or use them fresh.  I've
never frozen any until this year. I stuffed some poblanos to freeze, but
we ate them all..lol..
A guy DH works with has been giving us hot cherry peppers, AKA pimentos.
 They are heavenly!  I cut them, remove seeds, salute them in oil with a
dash of garlic, and put them in the food processor.  After that they are
just like storebought pimentos, only better. This last batch I sliced
them, saute'd them, and froze them.  I'm hoping to use them on
enchiladas, quesadillas and fajita type wraps.  I did not peel them, so
I'm guessing they will lose some texture and form, but as long as the
flavor is there, I'm good.  I cannot wait to grow these next year.  I
will grow boatloads of them, not just for pimento cheese, but for
pizzas, fajitas, and I might even dry some for powder.  They are just
wonderful little things.
I've never liked sweet peppers like bell peppers, so I am always looking
for a good, mild pepper with substance to use in dishes the way people
use the colored bell peppers. These little cherry peppers are not that
hot, and they will work well for red.  I thought the banana peppers
might work for yellow, but they just don't have the right flavor I think
they should have for those type dishes.



> Working is tough when you are trying to homestead. The good thing 
> about starting to work now is that you will be used to it by spring.
>  I've got a routine down, it's tough at times, but doable.

I'll be leaving the house at 7 and will be gone almost 12 hours.  In
addition to homesteading and gardening worries, I am really concerned
about my weight.  I had lost some weight until I had my foot surgery in
July, and then being unable to ride my bike or walk or exercise made me
gain the weight back.  I will be missing my weightloss goal for the year,
but I am not giving up.  The problem is, how in the world can I even
maintain weight, let alone lose weight, in a sedentary job where I will
not be exercising at all.  There aren't even any stairs to run up.
I'm seriously worried about gaining weight.


B


>
--
Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the ocean's depths, MY son is
protecting your freedom on the USS Key West, currently deployed
somewhere in the Pacific and/or Indian Ocean.  Go Navy!
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA