Putting The Canopy Over The Fifth Wheel

 We moved up onto Kelpie Kapers Farm in January. At the time, we just wanted to get out of the RV park and up here, especially after going through that flood. We decided that we wouldn't put the awning up over the trailer at that time and would wait until summer instead. Well, summer came and went and a few weeks ago, I put my foot down and told Bob that I was tired of looking at the stuff lying around and it needed to go up. STAT. He availed to his friend, Frank, to come up and help. They got this up within a day and a half. Not bad for two old guys, if you ask me.

They made excellent progress yesterday. They got the frame up and 8 out of 10 of the cross-pieces in place.

They left the very end pieces for this morning after one slipped yesterday. No harm, no foul.

This awning is 13 feet high in the center.

Poor guys. They were up the ladders. They were down the ladders. Ugh! They had a ladder on the deck.They had a ladder in the back of my truck.

Here's Bob putting in the final screws.

Frank is up the ladder.

We have a small walkway between the trailer and the deck. I asked Bob to shove it up as close to the deck as he could, so he put it right there up on it.

I now have my full deck. There's no more sheets of canopy roofing on it! Next up is Bob getting the hot tub wired in.

As soon as the last roof panel was put up, I could feel an immediate drop in the temperature inside.

And we're able to fully open our outdoor kitchen hatch up.

Mid-September Garden Harvest

 It's that time again. It's been a minute since I posted a garden update. We are actively harvesting now. I've put up several jars of pickled items. I've made a lot of stuff with blackberries. We're picking our tomatoes when they've reached a blush stage. Ideally, I'd leave them on the vine to fully ripen, but we are running a month behind this year, so when they blush, they get pulled unless there is higher temperatures in the forecast and no chance of sprinkles.

The above photo is one of my Reisetomate tomatoes. They are an oddity, for sure. From what I've read, they aren't the greatest tasting things, but they are sure a conversation piece.

Don't mind my volunteer tomato. We still don't know how that happened, but we're going to roll with it and see what it does.

We got a small rain prediction for today, so we thought it best to pull all the tomatoes that were beginning to blush. I'll ripen them up inside instead.

We just need a few more weeks of warm weather and I'll get a harvest. It won't be enough to sustain us through the winter, but, at least, have an idea of how many I'll need for next year.

Growing my own, from seed, was easier than I thought it would be and it's opened a huge door as to the varieties that I can grow. I'm approaching the 200 varieties mark in my personal seed stash for next year.

The Sart Roloise tomatoes are stunning. Absolutely stunning.

This volunteer ....er tomato just cracks me up. It's starting to flower.

Bob's getting some weeds cleaned out by one of our strawberry patches.

We decided to see if we could find any potatoes. We didn't. We'll have to wait for a bit and dig down into the soil at the bottom and see if my method worked or not.

We only tried in one corner, to be honest. Who knows about the rest of this contraption.

These are cannellini beans that I'm growing out for someone else. How it works is that they send me a small number of seeds. I grow them out. I send them back between 60-100 seeds and the rest are mine to grow out from then on. I like doing that.

More cannellini beans. These are one of my favorites. I always have a can in my pantry and after next year, I'll be able to have a supply of them dried.

Here is the Sart Roloise I picked today. This is just a stunning looking tomato.

Tomatillos, tomatoes, and some Dragon Tongue beans so far.

I was able to find some cannellini beans that were dried out. Bob harvested some rhubarb and I picked the okra, cucamelons and the Tanya's Pink Pod beans.

That Jing Orange okra is pretty to look at. It tastes really good, too. I haven't cooked it. I just eat it raw.

A view of today's harvest.

More of the harvest.

Bob went down to the bean bed and harvested any that were dried. This is my collection so far. These are for our own personal use. I grew some stunning looking varieties this year, for sure!

My Black Beauty zucchini plant is starting to really produce. I'm going to be turning zucchini into crushed pineapple in a later blog post.

These are my Jealous Neighbor F1 cucumbers. You can see that we overlooked one and it got a bit big. These are a hybrid variety that I ordered from a company in Ukraine, so I won't be able to save seeds from them unfortunately.

Rose says THANK YOU for reading!

Blackberries

 We are running roughly a month late here in western Washington state, but blackberry season is now upon us. Bob has been picking them for me and I've been experimenting with recipes. It's cool to have so many blackberries around here that I can experiment a bit.

Blackberries are an invasive species here. They are everywhere. Lots of people kill them off. I have seen them engulf entire houses if left unchecked. We don't mind them as long as they don't encroach on our space. We can coexist.

I made 2 different blackberry recipes this afternoon. The first one is Blackberry Spice Cake. This is my new favorite cake recipe, hands down. Not only is it just too easy to whip up, you don't need a boatload of blackberries. You only need around a cup or so. You can just eyeball the amount. You don't have to be exact.

This is a simple and delicious cake recipe. I don't feel it needs frosting at all. If you feel the need to put something on it, sprinkle it with powdered sugar. I don't feel it's necessary, however. It can stand alone.

I creamed soft butter with sugar. Then I added in a couple of eggs.

The spice mixture is cinnamon, allspice, cloves and nutmeg.

I picked out a cup of some of the best looking berries and added those in.
Then, while this was baking, I put together an Apple-Blackberry Pie.
The apples came from our orchard.

So, you'll get a bonus blackberry recipe in this post!

This cake is so delicious! I'm hoping I can make it with frozen berries and not have a purple cake. We shall see later on.

And the pie turned out great. It wasn't cooled down by the time I started writing this post, so we'll wait until tomorrow to cut into it.

Blackberry Spice Cake
*Makes one 9x9-inch cake (9 generous servings)

1 cup fresh blackberries
2 cups flour
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs. Add half of the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk
Fold blackberries into batter very gently so that you don't break them up. Spread evenly into baking dish.
Bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle pulls out clean.
Cool completely before cutting.


Apple Blackberry Pie
*8 servings

Pastry for a double 9-inch crust
5 cups peeled, cored and sliced tart apples
1 pint fresh blackberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line pie pan with bottom crust.
Mix sugar with cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside. Peel, core and slice apples and toss with lemon juice. Add sugar mixture to apples and toss to combine. Gently toss in blackberries. Add to pie shell. Top with other crust and crimp edges.
Mix egg with a bit of water. Brush over the entire top crust. Cut several vents into top crust to release steam. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until filling is bubbly and the top crust is golden brown.
Cool thoroughly before cutting.

Enjoy!

Pickled Garlic Scapes

 We have had a lot go on this past week or so. First, we bought a 1979 Honda Odyssey. I have dubbed it The Beast. This thing is so much fun! It really scoots up and down the driveway! We're still in the market for a good used 4-wheel ATV, but this is just a fun toy. Did we need it? No. But you can't put a price tag on having fun.

Now, onto a different topic. Our tomatillos, that we grew out from seed, are producing. Bob said that he picked up most of these from the ground but he did pull a few off of the plants. I'm working on a quart bag. Once I get enough to make a batch of salsa verde, I'll get it canned up and put up.

There weren't a ton of them, but it's a start, for sure.

I need two pounds for a batch of salsa verde.

This is what I had slated to do today. I bought these last week and I wanted to get them pickled up. I read several recipes online and just came up with my own. This recipe makes one full pint. One very full pint. Okay. I crammed them all in there. Don't judge me.

I washed the scapes and cut them into lengths that would fit into my jar.

At first, I wasn't sure if I would have enough to fill up my jar.

As you can see, that didn't become an issue at all.

I added the mustard seeds and peppercorns into the jar.

Then, I made up the pickling brine.

And, after all was said and done, I have one very full pint of pickled garlic scapes.


Pickled Garlic Scapes

*Yield 1 pint

1/4 pound garlic scapes, washed and trimmed and cut into pieces that fit into your jar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns

Wash scapes and trim them. Cut them into pieces that will fit into your jar. Add peppercorns and mustard seeds to the jar after it is filled with the cut garlic scapes.
Put the rest of the ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over the scapes in the jar. Let set until brine is room temperature. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks before you use them.

Enjoy!