At least that is what the Dude said today when I got done harvesting from the garden.  We had a hefty bag of turnips and thus another one filled with turnip greens (there’s a wonderful recipe for fixing them here.), a bunch of peppers, and 2 quarts of beans.  Now for me that isn’t actually a huge amount but to my 4-year old helper that was tons!!  give it a week or so for the cukes and zukes as well as the tomaters to all get ripe too and well be overflowing with delicious garden fresh foods.  Which brings me to the purpose of this post – what to do with the bountiful harvest.

Well my favorite method of dealing with extra garden goods is to freeze it.  I don’t fool with all that blanching stuff either just wash using my favorite produce wash (homemade of course – here’s how to make a couple.), rinse well, drain and dry a bit, then stick em in labeled bags and pop in the freezer.  I still have a couple bags from last year that taste as fresh and awesome as the day I picked em.   I have several reasons I love freezing to preserve food.  It’s simple, fast and easy mostly but it also allows me to be flexible on the amount I put away at one time.  Say I pick beans and have more than enough for a mess for supper but not a ton ya know just maybe another meals worth.  Obviously I don’t ahve enough to can them and the kiddo can only handle eating beans so many nights in a row so freezing is a perfect solution to keep them just picked fresh and ready to go at a moments notice without the work and time involved in canning.

Although I do plan to try my hand at canning this year.  I have to admit I am a little intimidated by it but am going to take the plunge this year and just go for it.  It makes since for numerous reasons not the least of which I won’t  have to worry about my food spoiling if we should loose power.  And all those jars filled with tomatoe sauces, pickled beans, corn, jams and jellies, etc just look so darn pretty on the pantry shelves that I can’t resist the urge this year.  So as soon as I get my first batch of whatever done I will post and let ya know how it went.  I’ll be sure to include some pics too – yes even if it goes horribly awry and I end up painting my kitchen in tomato paste or something.

The battle against the weeds that is. I swear the ones we have this year are hell-bent on world domination.  Thru countless hours of pulling, hoeing and even plowing we have managed to somewhat win the battle in our main garden – I am still battling in vain in the new strawberry patch and the salad bar is quite a challenge as well.  Well the weeds are getting pretty smart or something cuase while we have been busy fighting the ones int he main garden – you know where the food comes from so rather important to me – the weeds decided to attack the main walkway around our house in full force.  In the last 2 or 3 weeks they have turned our lovely creekstone and river rock meandering path into a green patchy mangy carpet that I totally did not want.  Now that the main garden is back under control it’s time to mount an attack on the walk.  So I figured I’d share with you some of my totally organic and cheap weapons of weed and pest destruction.

Visible Weed Killer (post emergent weeds)

1 cup Vinegar

2 TBSP Dish Soap

1 TBSP Salt (table salt works but kosher or rock salt is even better)

1 Cup Water

Mix all this together in a bucket or bowl.  Makes 2 cups weed killer.  Put into a clean spray bottle for broad area application or put some into a ketchup style squirt bottle for more targeted heavy use.  Now that is the general mild version – I have weeds from hell rememebr so I up the vinegar a bit to 2 cups and the salt to 2 TBSP.  You may need to reapply within a day or 2 if you see you missed a few weeds.  Because this is post emergent killer it needs to be reapplied every few weeks.   I like this one because it is milder and can be used in existing beds near other plants as long as you don’t get it on the leaves – hence the ketchup bottle applicator. 

Weed Anhilator

Vinegar

Bleach

2 spray or squirt type bottles

Okay this one is much more effective at permantly killing the offenders but it is smelly and well DO NOT MIX these together in the same bottle ok.  Trust me – it is not good.  Been there done that.   Take your vinegar bottle and go thru and spray or squirt all the weeds heavily.  Wait about 5 minutes then go thru and repeat with the bleach.  Wait over night.  If needed reapply the next day.   Do not apply this version when children or pets are out in the area you will be treating because of th ebleach.  Also be careful not to get htis around or near any plants you want to keep – it can and will burn the roots so don’t you know spray it on the weed that is growing right up beside the beautiful rose you have in your side bed.  (Yes folks I learned the hard way!)

Very Safe Pest Spray – works on aphids, gnats, general bugs, lol.

20 Drops Tea Tree Oil

4 TBSP Dish Soap

2 TBSP Ground Pepper – I like Cayenne and Black mixed.

2 TBSP Lemon Essential Oil or extract or even better lemon zest!

Put all in a clean spray bottle and fill with water (I use the clear spray bottles at the Dollar Trees holds somethign like 32 oz.)  I do not fill completley so I have room ot shake my guess would be I add about 28 oz. water to the mix.  Spray plants that are infested liberally with this mixture.  Is safe to use around and on edibles. 

If the above spray doesn’t take care of you pest problem then you could go really primitive and just start knocking em off and squashing them.  Admittedly this is a time consuming approach to it but is a singularly satisfying on when you have to battle bugs hardcore for a while. 

Okay soldiers go do battle the green way!!!!!!!