September Farmer's Market Challenge

Judy, a.k.a. Squirrel Queen over at The Road to Here is the gracious hostess for the Farmer's Market Challenge.

SQ states, "The purpose of this challenge is to raise awareness for purchasing locally produced foods. Be it fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, or any related items we want to know what's available where you live."


I finally took my camera with me down the road to a neighbor's farm stand. They have an awesome garden! They grow peaches, strawberries, melons, tomatoes, corn, peppers, sweet potatoes, and other veggies. Their stand operates on the honor system. On the main table is a set of scales and a chart to help you calculate the price of your purchase. There is also a box for your money. She says they have great luck with it, people pay for what they take.

Here is a load of melons
just brought up from the field...

This is my oldest grand, Dani, trying to decide
which tomatoes she wants to buy...

Sweet potatoes! Yum! We'll be digging ours this week.
They just brought these up while I was there...

The tomatoes are so colorful. They really stand out
between the neutrals of the melons and potatoes...

Here is some squash given to us by Hubby's boss. It was delicious. A family chef told us how to best cook it. Using a long nail, punch a hole to the center from top and bottom to release steam pressure, then bake it. No hard cutting! Scrape out the seeds after it is cooked.











He also gave us these banana peppers from his garden.























These are Hubby's Tobasco Chili Peppers!!! Tiny... but they pack a big punch!

Recently I posted about our first green egg.

We have fifty hens.
Here is a photo of our farm fresh eggs...

Here is a pear that came from one of our fruit trees. We have several apple trees, too. One of these days I'll add peach trees to the mix, and replace the plum trees we lost.

Here's a peek at our zucchini earlier this year...

Guess how much you'll pay to
send 3 loaves of zucchini bread
from Ohio to Florida, next day?

$42! ...but my dad and brother loved it!

Here is a shot of our sweet potatoes early in the season. Hubby planted two different varieties. I recently posted about the four-and-a-quarter pound potato. You'll have to visit my earlier posts to see pics of them.




















We have a freezer full of green beans and corn on the cob from the garden, along with some shredded zucchini for making bread during the winter. (It does quite well, as long as you use it as soon as it thaws.) We also grew tomatoes, cucumbers, muskmelon, green onions, and chives. The shelves in the basement are now full of enough sweet potatoes to get us through the winter.

Visit Judy's blog and add your link to Mister Linky and participate in this worthwhile challenge!

Hubby's record breaker!

Hubby's still talking about that 4 1/4 lb sweet potato. Tonight he got curious... "I wonder what the biggest sweet potato on record is?" He had a glint in his eye. I could even read his mind: "It's gotta be close. Wouldn't that be great if I got in THE record book! If it's not big enough, maybe net year."

So I asked him, "You want me to look it up?"

"Can you do that?"

I'm sitting here, with my laptop at the ends of my fingers... So, in a few seconds, I found this:

Heaviest sweet potato
The world's heaviest sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) weighed 37 kg (81 lb 9 oz) on 8 March 2004 and was grown by Manuel Pérez Pérez (Spain) in Güime, Lanzarote, Spain.

Yeah, maybe next year...

Who's Insane?

I can't get this story out of my head. I saw it on the news yesterday. A murderer that was declared insane escaped! How? He disappeared at the county fair. Does that sound crazy to you, too?

Yes, it seems there were eleven guards for thirty-one patients. (We don't call them criminals. That would be rude.) The patients were on a field trip to the fair. I guess it's not nice to keep them isolated. They have rights you know! I'm not sure, (they didn't say), but I'm thinking they were not handcuffed.

Have you ever tried to keep track of one person at a fair? I've looked away for a split second, only to spend 15 minutes trying to find the person I was just standing next to. After all, isn't there an old saying 'lost in the crowd'? There's a reason!

Maybe they assumed that, since they had all these fun-filled field trips, no one would ever want to leave.

The news report said it appeared to have been planned. Apparently, he had been ordering packaged foods. They think he probably loaded them up in his backpack that he wore to the fair. (He doesn't sound so crazy to me.) I suppose he would have felt violated if they had searched the backpack before leaving for the fair. It's normal to pack luggage for a trip to the fair... right?

I've resisted the impulse to investigate his case. I don't know whether it was an 'in the heat of passion' crime, or if he stalked someone and hacked them up with an ax. It doesn't matter. Call me narrow minded if you want; but I don't want someone that murdered someone, and then was found insane, to be riding the Scrambler with my grandkids.

So, since he had the mental ability to plan this escape, does that mean insanity can't be an excuse for it? Will he now, finally, go to prison? That is, if he's captured... hopefully before he strikes again.

So tell me... who's insane here?

A bit of this, a bit of that...

Hmm... Is it bigger than a toaster?

Almost...
These potatoes grew so large they burst open!

OK, this is the last you'll hear about the sweet potatoes... (that is, until my Farmer's Market Challenge post.) I wanted to show you the storage rack Hubby built for them, using wood from skids. You know we love to re-purpose. This room in the basement is behind the stairway. It is dark and cool. We will have to expand the rack next year, as Hubby is already talking about 3 rows instead of 1.

Speaking of re-purposing... notice the Christmas candy bag? Makes a nice way to keep garlic.
Being confined to the AC put me way behind on the stairway garden project. Hubby finally took over for me and stained the new steps the other day. Don't they look great? Since the red crushed brick flows down from above to the stone steps below, the wood color adds to the continuity. (Note the chives I planted next to the wall.)

I wasn't out there to harvest the chives when they were small. Better late than never!

This bad boy is huge!
It reaches all the way across the sink!

They still taste great. I'll be chopping and freezing some for use over the winter. They don't keep their flavor when dried. These are onion chives. I will add garlic chives next spring to the other side of the steps. I'm thinking about putting some in a flower pot to see how they do inside over winter.

My dining room table is really wide.

This shows better how huge this thing is...

Of course, I couldn't resist posting a picture of Sadie.

Here is her happy face...

Harvest Smiles

Hubby was born to be a farmer. He loves growing things, and takes such pride in his harvest. This year, I suggested he grow sweet potatoes. They are so expensive at the stores, and my MIL and I eat them often throughout the winter.

It seems that as he digs up the mounds, the potatoes keep getting bigger and bigger! Here are two that he brought in today...

The one on the right weighs about three pounds.
The one on the left weighs over four and a quarter!

I not much of a potato eater in the summer,
but I might have to make an exception...

Swweeet!

I love sweet potatoes! This is the first year we've grown
them in the garden. According to the seed catalog, you can
leave them in the ground much later than this, but my FIL
was anxious to dig a mound and see what they had.They got quite a lot out of each mound!

Some were long and skinny, some short and fat.

Some got so big they broke open!

When you look at this one, keep in mind that Hubby is 6'5" and wears a size 14 ring! Yep, it's a big potato!

Of course, anytime something's going on, Nekoda is nearby watching... and Buddy's never far from her.

The garden looks like a jungle now. The morning glory vines have staked their territory. There are a few tomatoes struggling to turn red. FIL has turnips left to harvest, too.

The rest will have to wait until tomorrow...