Tag: sunflowers

Signs of Fall – 8/16/2019
The vivid emerald green of spring is fading to a drab green with highlights of yellow and red leaves mostly on the weedy shrub and weed trees, but the Sycamores are yellowing, several trees are shedding leaves already. Putting by is also a sign of impending Autumn season and that has been a task multiple days a week for the past several weeks. Some days it takes many hours and produces quantities of goodies to be enjoyed over the cold, non productive months. Some days a small batch or two of a sauce or jam are made. This morning, the Tomatillos gathered over a couple of days were made into 5 half pints of simmer sauce with the recipe from Canning by the Pint, one of Mellisa McClellan’s books. Some of those recipes are followed to the letter, others are a jumping off point for me as was today when I added several ground Jalapenos to the recipe to kick up the spice level of the sauce.

After lunch, more grapes were picked, giving me enough for another batch of grape jelly from our grapes. That recipe is from Food in Jars, another of her books. It is a low sugar recipe compared to the one on the pectin box, using 3 cups of sugar to 4 cups of juice and requiring about 20 minutes to cook, rather than the 7 cups of sugar to 5 cups of juice and the couple of minutes of cook time. I would rather spend the time and have jelly that tastes like grape, not sugar. The remaining grapes will be left for the resident critters that roam our farm at night.

It is very satisfying to hear the lids pop to seal after they are set on the towel to cool.

The pollinators are busy today, a very hot, uncomfortable day to be out. Native bees on the sunflowers and bumblebees on the Autumn Joy.
The sunflowers are Hopi Dye Seed and I hope to harvest a flower or two to try dying some wool with them. Behind them and on the edge of the Tomatillo bed are mixed sunflowers, some Mammoth, some Bronze, and one smaller flowered variety that produces masses of 6″ flowers per stalk. They are great for cut flowers for the table. Most are the typical golden yellow but one yellow variety produced lemon yellow blooms.

Most of the sunflower heads will be cut off when mature and some given to the chickens to peck the seed, others hung from the wild bird feeder pole for them to enjoy this winter. This year was a good year for sunflowers.

Unless I purchase a box of tomatoes, canning season is drawing to a close for me. I will make a couple of small batches of Asian Pear Orange Marmalade and will can the remaining Tomatillos whole as they mature. The apples are too small to make applesauce but will be pressed for cider and maybe a batch of cider vinegar made. Maybe when apples start appearing fresh at the Farmers’ Market, I will make one canning of applesauce.
August 16, 2019
Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Sunflowers to brighten another cloudy day. A tiny hummingbird was zipping from flower to flower.

Silly success with math practice.

My space to read and blog, or eat. Wish I could weave like this, or throw pottery mugs.

Best buddies. This will be one sad dog at summer’s end when L returns home.

July 20, 2014
Progress and memories

Today we had summer time with heavy rain and cooler temperatures tomorrow. We will then have a series of cooler, more seasonable days and not much rain. We trekked off to my favorite local nursery and bought 2 blueberry bushes. The first batch I bought several years ago were purchased from a website. They were tiny, bare rooted and have been a very poor purchase. Last year I replaced three of the originals with bushes from this nursery and over the winter another of the originals died. That one was replaced and the second one today went on the end of the row, making a nice collection of early, mid and late season varieties. Before they could be planted, however, the berry beds needed significant attention. The rainy spring has encouraged a plethora of wildflowers where they aren’t wanted (aka weeds); chickweed, dandelion, burdock, thistles, fleabane and several I can’t remember. The berry beds make up about 40% of the garden. The weeds had to be pulled, the volunteer raspberries that had escaped from their bed had to be removed, the two new bushes planted in the warm rich soil and watered in well and finally, a hefty layer of old hay spread over the areas of the bed where it was needed.

After tomorrow’s rain, while the soil is soft, the south end of the bed is going to be terraced with logs and stones to make maintaining the steep two foot slope easier. Then the young peppers, tomatoes, basil and tomatillo plants will be planted along with seed for bush beans, carrots, cucumbers, sunflowers and squash and the rest of the weeds pulled and aisles deeply mulched with more old hay. The hay is too moldy to use in the hen house, so it is perfect to use as mulch.

The cabbages, kale and chard plants that were planted a couple of weeks ago are thriving. The garlic is beginning to form scapes, so some garlic scape pesto is in order. The grapes need a better trellis. I can’t decide whether to try to build one or see if I can find a commercial one that appeals to me. In my weeding today, I carefully left every volunteer sunflower plant I saw. I love their look, the birds and chickens love their seed. I think sunflowers may be my favorite summer flower.

Within the garden are two birdhouses. My efforts today kept disturbing the bluebird that has occupied one of the boxes as she does each spring. Her young have hatched but not yet fledged as she flew in repeatedly with food for them. The other box seems to be housing a tree sparrow which seems odd to me as a nesting box is generally not their preferred spot, but I love watching them dart and fly over the garden catching insects on the wing.

After my efforts and a thorough clean up, there were some errands needed in town and as I was out and about, I saw this

As my first car was a 1958 VW convertible, this really amused me. I asked permission to take the photo and told the owner, a couple near my age that I loved their car.

Life is good on our mountain farm. I continue to love the changing seasons, the beautiful views and of course the mountains.

May 14, 2014