***Tuesday's Tip*** DRIED green TOMATOES!

Ah yes, remember the days of Tuesday's Tips!?  I know I am a day late by a couple of months.... well better late than never....

It is an amazing tomato year for me.  It is hard to know what to do with them all!  I have been canning and dehydrating like crazy, as well as sharing.  I have canned sauce, soup, red & green salsa.  I haven't made a count yet.  That will come at the end of the season...whenever that may be!  In the meantime I want to share with you and amazing new way to dry tomatoes... Dried Green Tomatoes with Sriracha Sauce.  It is simple and easy...which is a blessing this time of year and ever so delicious!  Almost fried green tomato-ish.  DH really loves them!

Simple Steps---> wash your green or greenish tomatoes.  The semi pink ones work here too, no need to be fussy.  I slice mine about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick.  Then I add a couple drops of diluted Sriracha Hot Sauce.  I dilute it 50% water to 50% sauce.  It goes on a bit nicer and is plenty hot plus, stretches your sauce when you are doing a ton like me.  I only add a few drops to the middle so there is still a green tomato flavor.  If you spread the sauce over the whole tomato slice the sauce will overwhelms any tomato taste.  I use the Excalibur Dehydrator at 140 degrees for about 14 hours.  Bag them up or start eating them!

~Recipe~

Green tomatoes sliced to about 1/4 inch

Diluted Sriracha Sauce 50/50 with water

(of try your own favorite hot sauce)

Dry at 140 for 14 hours

That is it!  I would love to hear what you think about this recipe.

Cucumbers are great this way too...even the boyo liked them!

Tomatoes ~ Grateful?

Last night I had a dream...in the dream I woke up to find tomatoes surrounding me in my bed.  The dream is sort of true, I AM surrounded by tomatoes but so far I have managed to keep them out of my bed.  It is the most abundant tomatoe year that I ever remember in my 20+ years of growing vegetables! (unless it is like childbirth and you forget the "pain")  I am grateful but, it is starting to get tedious.  I guess I could let them rot...that is not in my nature.  I have given quite a few away.  The few times I have left the house I always leave with a big bag of tomatoes.  Once winter comes I know I will be really grateful for all this food.  In the meantime I plug away....Sauce, Soup, Salsa, Dehydrating, Sauce, Soup, Salsa, Dehydrating, Sauce, Soup, Salsa, Dehydrating, Sauce, Soup, Salsa......


These are my days~~~

This is what I picked today...guess what I will be doing tomorrow...

Sauce, Soup, Salsa, Dehydrating, Sauce, Soup, Salsa, Dehydrating, Sauce, Soup, Salsa.....

 ~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

3 Days Gone!

Oh where, oh where, have I been!?  Three days gone from the gardens and this is what I find upon my return!  The wheelbarrow was too small for this haul so had to cart it all.  The last couple of days have been catch-up.  The day before that was running around town taking, the soon to return to college, boy/man to appointments and shopping.  BUT the two days before that I was on a trip!  A wonderful, beautiful, amazing boat voyage around and about Penobscot Bay, Maine!  

It has been a while since I have left my Freedom home for an overnight anything.  The morning of the trip it occurred to me that it had been over two years since I had gone away and slept anywhere else.  Funny thing is, I hadn't really noticed that I haven't been away.  Guess this speaks to the wonderfulness of where I live!

Seven women with beyond perfect weather set out from Belfast Harbor, Maine for Isle au Haut.  What good company!  We all brought amazing food.  But the weather was unimaginably beautiful.  Words escape me so I will let the photos tell the story.  (this will be a photo rich post for all my far flung family that do not have facebook)

Our Vessel ~ that transported us on a dream voyage

Evening arrives and we weigh anchor off of Isle au Haut~~

In the morning me and one other fearless mermaid took a QUICK dip in the harbor!

Towed the kayaks for these ladies, who enjoyed a morning paddle...
While the rest of us took the dinghy into "town" for a walk.

My turn at the helm!

A bit of my garden goes to sea!

Wind blown, a bit too much sun, and weary from a late night of gazing at the stars but, content.  I am so grateful to the Skipper for inviting me to come on this little adventure.  We had so much fun, tons of laughs!  We all worked well together and I am sure we will smile when we recall the evenings anchoring activities!  Leaving you with the lyrics to the Gordon Bok song, Isle au Haut Lullaby~~~~~

ISLE AU HAUT LULLABY (Hay Ledge Song)
(Gordon Bok)

If I could give you three things,
I would give you these:
Song and laughter and a wooden home
In the shining seas

Chorus:
When you see old Isle au Haut
Rising in the dawn,
You will play in yellow fields
In the morning sun.

Sleep where the moon is warm
And the moon is high.
Give sadness to the stars,
Sorrow to the sea.

Do you hear what the sails are saying
In the wind's dark song?
Give sadness to the wind,
Blown alee and gone.

Sleep now, the moon is high,
And the wind blows cold;
For you are sad and young
And the sea is old.

If I could give you three things
I would give you these:
Song and laughter and a wooden home
In the shining sea.

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼

Bedraggled is the word that best describes me these days.  Working hard and a bit weary as well as grateful for an amazing garden year.  It has been a few years since I have experienced such abundance, so naturally, I have forgotten how much work is involved.  Oh! for those years when things failed and I could just go to the beach!  I could just leave it, I guess, but that is not my nature.  Waste Not Want Not is too ingrained in my psyche. I was very much influenced by Grandparents that came of age during the depression.  I sometime "hear" them urging me on into the night as I process my harvest.  Today, I had a bit of break, a dear friend came over with a nice lunch and helping hands.  She helped pick and I sent most of the pickings home with her.  We both felt fortunate!  She had a trunk full of organic produce and I didn't have to process it, plus, it was nice having company in the garden!  All I had left to deal with was a few cukes and beans....today!

Here is a little tour of today~

 Happy Quackers...my defenses seem to be working...no more duck losses!

 Been working on the Garlic top trimming...a little at a time to save my wrists.

 Waiting until I harvest the onions and leeks before tilling and cover cropping here.

Some wasps mating next to a butterfly.

 Elderberries nearly ready,...good thing I am on my last jar of elderberry syrup!

This stuff is my magic elixir...felt a cold (or allergy?) coming on ~ a few sips ~ CURED!

 Oats & Peas cover crop looking pretty!

Big garden in various states of bedraggled-ness and dishevelment 

Bedraggled

What rhymes with orange, purple, and other
words that have no rhyme?
Oranges rhyme with lemons,
purple with lilac.
Poetry amazes us,
brings us out of our expectancy.
We thought it dull in school,
something like a long sermon in church.
Now we know that
poetry can awaken our senses.

by Marsviking

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼

A lot was accomplished over the past several days.  I have a little time to reflect and catch my breath.  I even took a relaxing early morning walk on Sunday.  I am not usually a morning person but sometimes when the need arises to rise early I try to make the best of it.  I went around the back field and noted with pleasure the multitudes of milkweed.  I am hoping to see some Monarch butterflies.  My field used to swarm with them but our mowing practices set the Milkweed back.  We do not plan to have large animals so we are mowing later in order to help these troubled butterflies with a bit of habitat.

I took sometime to just sit and calm my mind that is so busy with lists of things to do...

 Sat Here

Looked There

In Other News...can you see what's wrong with this picture?  11 ducks not 12 :(  I suspect a Great Horned Owl.  I have been hearing one hoot, hoot, hooting during the day.  It happened during the day and there are no signs of struggle.  It was one of the smaller ducks which I think an Owl could carry.  Oh well~~

Added extra bird scare tape over their little pond.  Hoping for the best!

Oats & Peas cover crop coming in nicely!

Grass Clipping Galore after Saturday's mowing...Mulch, Mulch, Mulch!

 Fun to go shopping with a wheelbarrow....Munch, Munch, Munch!

Garden Art!

Cute Curly Cuke