Yarn Contest

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Click HERE to enter - contest is open only to residents of Canada and the USA. Good luck!

Total Saskatoon Harvest

Saskatoons (also known in the USA as juneberries or serviceberries) are quite popular in our area of Manitoba. There is a large grove of them growing around the lake just 10 minutes from town, so naturally we went foraging this summer. We picked berries during swimming lessons every day for roughly two weeks, with two larger picks on Saturdays. In total we have foraged (free) wild saskatoons to get about 18 Litres of them (that's about 4 1/2 ice cream pails). Needless to say, I've already made several saskatoon pies, and will be making several more to freeze.

Saskatoon Pie Filling:
4-5 cups saskatoons
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c sugar

Toss all together until the berries are coated. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Top with another crust and poke holes. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then lower to 350 for another 50 minutes.

Total Rhubarb Harvest

I think rhubarb-picking is winding down because the raspberries are almost ready. They never overlap (which is good, because that would be a LOT of work). In total from June 22-July 13th I have harvested approximately 22 lbs of rhubarb. I made one 4-cup batch of juice (colossal failure, it tasted horrible - too much cinnamon in the recipe). The rest went into jams and jellies. I will be entering a total of 6 jars in the fair on July 16th.

Begin the Harvest!

Ok the harvest has commenced. The first items are now up. I harvested 8 lbs rhubarb a couple days ago, another 2 lbs today, as well as two large fistfuls of garlic chives. I have SO MANY garlic chives growing beside my house, I literally just grab fistfuls and rip them up and then dehydrate them once I've picked out the grass. Out of all my rhubarb I have already made 18 jars of dessert topping (mixed with strawberry and cherry) and 7 jars of jam (mixed with grape). When rummaging through my grandmother's cookbooks, I found an excellent book of canning recipes. I told her "Grandma, if I don't leave this here, you'll never see it again!" so I copied down my favourite canning recipes and will try them throughout the summer. I saw an excellent Rhubarb Chutney recipe that I'm anxious to test. Will post the recipe if it works out!

Vote For Me!

I have entered a contest put on solely for residents of Manitoba, and would appreciate everyone's vote! You can vote EVERY DAY so please set your homepage to http://manitobagarden.com/2013-entrants/tina-cochrane-de-monroy and bump up my numbers. I could win some fantastic prizes, which are sorely needed to improve my garden, since I just moved in last year.

Thank you again for voting and helping me out!

Even More Seeds...

OK so I suddenly (halfway through June) have more garden space, since the other lady decided she didn't want to plant anything this year. So I ran down to my local hardware store and found they had a special end-of-season sale on seeds. 20 packets for a dollar! So naturally I bought 20 packets of seeds (and I still won't fill the space...) I bought: - 3 packs of rutabaga - 2 packs of lettuce (1 head, 1 leaf) - 6 packs of radishes - 2 packs of kholrabi - 5 packs of carrots (2 different kinds) - 1 pack of green onions - 1 pack of parsley If I don't have enough to feed my family all winter, I will swear off gardening forever... My corn is doing amazing, as are my potatoes. My pumpkins did not come up, and my heirloom tomatoes are quite disappointing. Luckily I only planted half outside (I think it was the cold or wind that did them in because the ones still indoors are fine). In my small garden my beets, kale, peas, and carrots are beautiful but my onions are still non-existent. Something has been nibbling on my tiny kale already though, and I don't think it's a rabbit... I did my first rhubarb harvest and made 2 small rhubarb crisps... not bad for the first harvest!

Planted

We've been doing so much gardening these last 2 weeks. Here is a rundown.
SMALL GARDEN:
- 2 rows of beets
- 1 row of kale
- 2 rows of broccoli
- 3 rows of onions
- 4 short rows of peas
- 1 1/2 rows of carrots
- 1/2 row of lettuce
BIG GARDEN:
- 33 hills of potatoes
- 23 hills of pumpkins/squash
- 10'x10' block of corn
- 3'x3' block of wheat (just an experiment)
NOT PLANTED YET:
- 50+ tomato seedlings still indoors
- blueberry seedlings not germinated yet - 12 pots
- still going to transplant 2 raspberry bushes
If you have any great ideas for canning or cooking these foods, let me know!