ahhhhh, the sweet smell....

[vfem]

I know the feeling! I made some french vanilla peach sauce... AWESOME on ice cream!!!!!!!

Recipe, Please?!?

Skin and cut up peaches into quarters(I did 6 huge peaches).... heat with 1 cup of water for about 20 minutes until soft. Puree in food processor (or stick processorin the pan) add juice of one lemon, and 1 whole vanilla bean. (I scraped the seeds right into the puree and then through in the whole bean)Heat on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes longer. Remove vanilla bean, add to sterilized jars and water bath for 15 minutes. ENJOY!

 

[theOEGBman]

Sorry your garden was so bad this year. Mine actually did better last year, when everyone else was complaining about how bad theirs was here. We are totally redoing the gardening area. So maybe better next year.

I did a mid summer replant, there's pics on here somewhere. Hubs built me some raised beds so I replanted tomatoes, corn, zuchinni and cukes. My eggplant did really good, of course we don't like it so I've been giving away tons of it.

I love love love plums. You are so lucky. Our plum tree is dead so we'll need to try and get it replaced next year. The rest of our fruit trees did ok considering they are not very old. I can't even remember what type of apple trees we have, but one has lots of little apples on it, but looks like it needs to be treated for rust. I'm hoping to get to that this weekend.

Thanks. It sure is a bummer, especially since I got a pressure canner for Christmas and I was all ready to start canning! My garden last year was AMAZING. I remember picking 85 tomatoes one day. I didnt get 85 this entire year! I plan on transferring next fall to a 4 year college so Im not going to do too much with the garden, just work with it and hope for the best so my dad can grow some stuff after I leave.

I'll go look for the pics! That's how it is here too, my onions did great and I hate onions, LOL. I lucked out though because I found a rat breeder and traded her onions for some rats to raise so I can breed them for my snakes!

We have two plum trees and they usually do really great but this year everything did pretty bad. Fruit ripening at odd times, a lot of rot and blossoms falling off... just bad. We currently have two apples on the property, a Gala and a Golden Delicious. The gala produced its first apples this year, 5 of them. They were really good. The Golden Delicious is LOADED, and my grandma said a week or so and they'll be ready, so Im getting prepared. I have a mess of plums in the kitchen that will be transformed into jam and jelly tomorrow. My 11 year old cousin is staying for the weekend and he's going to help me. It will be his first time canning.

 

[ShowMe31]

Wow a pressure canner for Christmas, how lucky. I kept a garden going while I was in college. I would get it going while I was one a weekend break and my dad was cool enough to take care of it until I made it home for summer break (only a couple of weeks). I took a couple of hort classes and would get my bedding plants from there. It can be done.

Rats, eeeek. One of my least fave critters. But nice that you were able to trade for them.

Nice to have a canning helper. It's lots of work and with help it goes to much easier. Maybe your cuz will be hooked and next year all will be right for the trees and you'll have a helper again.

Congrats on the 4 year college. You'll do great there. I be you'll love it and do great.

 

[theOEGBman]

Yup! It was all I asked for. Probably not the most normal thing for a 19 year old guy to ask for, but hey, why not. Im sure I could keep one going, and Im sure my dad will keep a smaller one, I just dont want to deal with it, haha. I'll be at least 3.5-4 hours away and dont think I'll be coming home too often. My dad always raised a garden before I was old enough to do it on my own, so Im sure he'll take over when I leave.

Yup, rats, lol. They're one of my favorite pets, and they make snake food too so its a win/win!

He wasnt much help! He was more interested in using the magnetic lid lifter to see what he could pick up in the kitchen. He was interested in it, but I dont think he likes the fact that it takes a while to get it all prepped, then it goes really quick.

Thank You! I hope so, I've loved the Community College life, lol.