Windfall... part 2

 

Isn't the color amazing?



 

 

 

The purple color of the grape skins did not emerge until I added the skins to the warm pulp.

 

 

The pie was delicious.  So much so, I forgot to take a picture of the finished pie.

Now, I did use a store bought pie crust.  I have learned, over the years, I just can't make a pie crust.  I have tried and I do not have that ability.

DH and I ate the whole pie in two days.

Here is the recipe, below, that I used exactly and we loved it and I will make it again.

Concord Grape Pie I

In fact, one of the reviewers said that she made the filling and then froze it, so I have five more pie fillings in the freezer.

The cooler made seven pie fillings.  One we ate, one I shared with the gal who gave me the grapes and then five are in the freezer for winter.

I liked that you only use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and the pie is tart, it's not real sweet.  You taste concord grapes, not the sweetness, like welshs grape juice.

I hope that if you have concord grapes that you will try out this pie and see how good it is.

Windfall.....

I was so lucky.  A friend called me and said that her husband didn't have time to make jam with their grapes this year, would I like them?

 

SURE!

 

I had no clue how to make jam, or jelly.  But, I thought, I am not going to refuse free fresh fruit!

 

 

 

 

I had never even had Concord grapes before.  Just Welsh's concord grape juice.  BOY! Is there a difference in taste.

 

 

 

 So, I brought home a whole cooler FULL of grapes.  Pounds and pounds of grapes.  That smelled heavenly, by the way. 

 

I went to my preserving books and they all said SUGAR!  Some were 5 cups of grapes, to 5 1/2 cups of sugar.

 

I don't know about where you live, but sugar here anymore is becoming expensive AND they've reduced the package size, but not the price.

 

Then, I went to allrecipes.com, one of my favorite places and found a recipe for Concord Grape pie.

 

 

 

Yes, I said pie.  Interesting.

 

So, I began to "pop" the flesh out of the skins.  What an interesting thing.  The skins just pop right off, very easily.  Too bad apples weren't so easy.  Or tomatoes for that matter.

 

Anyway, I popped the flesh into a measuring cup and the skins went into a bowl.  I needed to save those to add back in to the pie.

 

 

 

 

Then you put the flesh into a pan and you slow heat them and mash them a bit as you go to release the juice.  You bring them to an easy boil and the flesh just kind of melts and then the pits fall to the bottom.

 

 

 

Next, you strain everything.  I used my strainer and a potato masher to get as much of the juice and pulp as I could.

 

And, because I want to keep your interest, please wait for the next post to see the out come!

Will I be sorry?

Meet my comfrey plant.  I am not sure what kind it is.  I do not think it is a bocking 14, which they say is a sterile comfrey.

 

 

I only purchased the one because I felt that I could propagate it if it doesn't self seed this year.

 

 

It is a rather lovely plant, isn't it?  I bought it from a small, local nursery.  He had lots of people as for it last year, so he got some, but wasn't sure why they wanted it.  I told him that I was looking for a local source for it to use in my compost pile.  He said he was going to look into that.

 

 

Then, I asked at another nursery and when I did, the owner said, "why do you want a weed?  I have plenty of those by my compost pile, if you want some, I'll dig them up for you,"

 



 



I planted this one at the top of the yard near the new compost pile.  In that part of the yard, there really isn't much but weeds that grow there already.  What's another "weed"?  Only with this one, I will use the leaves in my compost pile and around my garden beds as mulch.

 



Comfrey has many uses in the garden.  I have clipped a few from WIKIpedia that explain why I wanted the plant in my garden and the uses for it.

Comfrey is a particularly valuable source of fertility to the organic gardener. It is very deep rooted and acts as a dynamic accumulator,^[7] mining a host of nutrients from the soil. These are then made available through its fast-growing leaves (up to 4-5 pounds per plant per cut) which, lacking fibres, quickly break down to a thick black liquid. There is also no risk of nitrogen robbery when comfrey is dug into the soil as the C:N ratio of the leaves is lower than that of well-rotted compost. Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium, an essential plant nutrient needed for flower, seed and fruit production. Its leaves contain 2-3 times more potassium than farmyard manure, mined from deep in the subsoil, tapping into reserves that would not normally be available to plants.^[8]
There are various ways in which comfrey can be used as a fertilizer. These include:^{[9] [10]}

• Comfrey as a compost activator - include comfrey in the compost heap to add nitrogen and help to heat the heap. Comfrey should not be added in quantity as it will quickly break down into a dark sludgy liquid that needs to be balanced with more fibrous, carbon-rich material.
• Comfrey liquid fertilizer - can be produced by either rotting leaves down in rainwater for 4–5 weeks to produce a ready-to-use 'comfrey tea', or by stacking dry leaves under a weight in a container with a hole in the base. When the leaves decompose a thick black comfrey concentrate is collected. This must be diluted at 15:1 before use.
• Comfrey as a mulch or side dressing - a two-inch layer of comfrey leaves placed around a crop will slowly break down and release plant nutrients; it is especially useful for crops that need extra potassium, such as fruit bearers but also reported to do well for potatoes. Comfrey can be slightly wilted before application optionally but either way, avoid using flowering stems as these can root.
• Comfrey as a companion plant for trees and other perennials. Soil tests confirm^[11] that soil nutrients increase in the presence of comfrey even when it is not used as mulch, side dressing, or liquid fertilizer, but just allowed to grow.
• Comfrey potting mixture - originally devised to utilize peat, now environmental awareness has led to a leaf mold-based alternative being adopted instead; two year old, well decayed leaf mold should be used, this will absorb the nutrient-rich liquid released by the decaying comfrey. In a black plastic sack alternate 7–10 cm (3-4 inch) layers of leaf mold and chopped comfrey leaves. Add a little dolomitic limestone to slightly raise pH. Leave for between 2–5 months depending on the season, checking that it does not dry out or become too wet. The mixture is ready when the comfrey leaves have rotted and are no longer visible. Use as a general potting compost, although it is too strong for seedlings

I am not really sure how well this will do where I have planted it as the area is on top of a large boulder and only has a 2 inch layer of dirt on top.  I say dirt because it is an area that I have not gotten to yet, however, I did mange to put some newly made compost from the yard and the free compost I get from the county on to it and around it and it has since flowered and seems to be doing better.

I would love to know what your thoughts are, won't you leave a comment?  Thank you.

Our visitor or pest control

 

While straightening the area where one of the water barrels was, look who I found?

 

I almost missed him or hurt him.  He was so difficult to see and was so camouflaged in the stone.

 

 

 

We have learned since we moved here that we have toads in our yard.  This year, especially, we have noticed a toad in every area of gardening that we have.

 

And I know that it is not the same toad, as I have seen several in one day in far different locations.  As well as a few different sizes of toad.  I do not have an idea what kind they are, I guess I will have to go google that, but I am glad to have this wild life in my garden, it means that I am doing something right to help support wild life.

DH wishes we had more of them to eat all the gnats in our yard!

During and after

Part of my gardening plan has been water collection for this year.  In the spring, we were fortunate enough to purchase two water barrels at a good price and begin work on putting them in our back yard.

 

 

 

 

This is the area DH chose to place the water barrels, given that our yard is such a challenge.  None of our down spouts are in this area, or even on the same level as the main part of the backyard.

 

 

This spot was chosen as it is the most level, and gives me access to where a large part of the gardens are.  Those posts are four by four oak that was cut just for DH by a friend, and he carried them up the yard and cut them to size and places them.

 

 

That was back in May.  Then, life got in the way, and the hot, humid weather of summer and so this is how the yard looked until now.

 

The next four by four was put in place.  Red rock filled in the space to make it level, and the two water barrels have been placed.

 

 

It is not exactly where I would have placed them, nor are they in a spot I particularly like, but one thing I've learned after thirty years is to choose my battles and this isn't one of them,

 

 

 So next year, I have decided I will put flower containers to the "back" side of the water barrels, along the four by four and either put flowers or vegetable plants.  At least it gives me more flat growing space.

 



 

And no, the downspouts are not currently hooked up.  I told DH since it is so late in the season, lets make that our priority project for May 2015, for which, he agreed.





 

I don't have a picture of it, but we've taken both water barrels and put them elsewhere, upside down, so that water or ice and snow cannot collect in them until next spring.

Gardens are always a work in progress.  I hope that you will follow along with mine.

What is it?

I was recently at my dad's, where I have a garden as well. (I'll write more about that adventure in the coming months.)

DH and I decided to make a few raised beds there and we were working at putting in another one, so I had to do some weed removal before we could put the bed in.

So, I'm on my knees pulling away the weeds and all of a sudden a tuft of fur is revealed.  I couldn't really see anything, but all I could think was, "oh no, who have I disturbed?"

 

I didn't want to reveal too much, but I had to know, what was there.

 

 

 

It turned out to be a rabbit's nest with 7 babies in it!  What on earth are baby rabbits doing being born in mid September?!!  DH said, They're rabbits!  They're always having babies!"

 

 

I was afraid to move them, but DH insisted since they were in our way.  So, very carefully, with a shovel, I dug all around the nest and move them down about five feet from where they were.  That was when I was able to see that there were seven of them in this tiny nest and that their eyes were still closed.

 

 

I looked up on the internet and it said that if their eyes were closed that they were under 10 days old.  I stayed for four days and on that fourth day, one had it's eyes open just a tiny bit and they had grown to the size you see.

 

 

 

I was afraid that the mother would not come back, but by the second day after my moving the nest the mother had done a great job of hiding her little babies again and I knew that she was coming back to care for them.

 

My DH said we should have gotten rid of them, which I could never have done, because he felt they would eat the garden and leave nothing for us.  As far as I could tell, momma bunny had only eaten one of the cabbage plants that we had let go, so it really was not a garden loss in my book.

 

I'm glad she felt it was some place safe to have her family.  Please, remind me of that next spring and summer if my garden is eaten continually by rabbits!

Do you watch gardening youtube videos?

During my down time, I try not to watch too much television. Just like I try to read for knowledge, more than for pleasure anymore.  I like to spend my time learning as much as I can.
 
So, I found that there is a whole gardening world out there by way of youtube videos.

Do you watch any?

The first one I  found and tried to find every episode, was "Gardeners World".  The show airs on the BBC, from the UK, which we do get here, just selected shows though.  And the gardening there, climate wise, is somewhat similar to where I am, so thanks to all the gardeners, Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh, Alyce Fowler, Carol Klein and so many more, I have learned more from these people than I think I could have without the shows.  Plus, seeing the gardens just makes you want to try it all.  They explain things to you as if you are in the room with them and they make the learning enjoyable and easy.

If you google the show, "Gardner's World" or any of the above names, you will find wonderful resources to spend hours of time learning about flower gardening, as well as vegetable gardening.

I would love to know if you watch any youtube videos to help you gaining gardening knowledge.