…if the older kids are using the potty, please wait your turn, DO NOT use the litter box.

Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t bury it.

The first garden catalog of the season has arrived!!  Garden season is just around the corner!!

It seems odd to be thinking of gardens and seed planting before December arrives, but moving to the south as changed the garden planning in ways that I’m still trying to learn.  We have just been rezoned into 6b/7 meaning earlier starts.  For instance tomatoes need to be started about 8 weeks inside before being ready to plant outside.  Most people in this area set their plants out around April 1st–some earlier.  Back up 8 weeks and that means starting  seeds around February 1st.  Back up for ordering & shipping and that is January.  Wow, that’s quiet a difference from my zone 5 days.

I have several seed companies that are favorites, but am willing to browse new catalogs too.  One site that is very helpful for gardening is the Dave’s Garden site. 

The section I reference the most is the Garden Watchdog.  I have been saved much frustration by checking a company’s ranking & the reason for the rank.  I knew from experience to avoid Michigan Bulb Company like the plague.  It is good to know that I was not the only one to have a poor experience.  Reading has let me learn that the problems are not a ‘bad year/poor crop’ one time event, but are on going and chronic.

It is important to read through the comments to understand why a company earned its rank.  A good example is Pinetree Seed Company, one of my favorite companies.  Looking at the Garden Watchdog page for this company it would seem to be a somewhat iffy company.  Read through the negative comments and the same areas are complained about.  One is the live plants.  The second is ordering online. 

The Pinetree catalog clearly states that their plants are very young and small, thus the cheap price.  It also offers a refund if the plant does not grow.  People have been disappointed by the puny size and have complained.  Some have had good results with replacements and others not so good.  I have decided to avoid the hassle and stick to seeds and merchandise.  The second area of complaint is using the on-line catalog for ordering. This is not a problem for me as I use mail, but something to consider if you prefer online shopping.

So why is Pinetree still a favorite?  The seeds.  Their bean seeds packages are some of the biggest I have purchased from garden catalogs.  I love having smaller packages = which means smaller number of seeds and cheaper prices.  Having smaller packages means less seed to try to store over the winter.  It means I can try several varieties of a vegetable in the same year without going broke.  It also means I have to be more careful so that the seedlings don’t die because there may not be any backup seeds for replanting.  Over all not a bad trade off.

Garden Watchdog also provides information on which company is owned by which company.  For instance I have had poor results growing seeds from Totally Tomatoes. The page lets me know that they are owned by Jung’s Seeds. Jumping to that page lets me know that there are several other seed companies in the same corporate family:

This company is affiliated with 8 companies:

• Totally Tomatoes
• Roots and Rhizomes
• Vermont Bean Seed Company
• Edmunds’ Roses
• McClure & Zimmerman Quality Flowerbulb Brokers
• Seymour’s Selected Seeds
• Horticultural Products and Services (HPS)
• R.H. Shumway Seeds

So now I know that these catalogs will be appearing in my mailbox sometime in the future.  I also know to check their rank & comments to see if they are worth buying from.

So my favorite companies are:

• Johnny’s Select Seeds. 
• Territorial Seed Company. 99% satisfaction!
• Tomato Growers Supply Company
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange 100% satisfaction!

Just a note that Tomato Growers sells more that just tomato seeds, though that is their specialty.  Southern Exposure sells seeds that I have not seen offered anywhere else.

Looking forward to what is in the mail in the days to come!

She has begun mobility.  Today at 3 months and 15 days Danielle rolled from back to stomache.  Pictures to follow.

We a fortunate that our arts studio offers a work-study program.  There is always something that needs doing–if you have the muscle they have the credits.

I volunteered to learn mail merge, retype & update their mailing list, and print off labels for the next mailing.  Yes, it would take time but it could be done from home, at midnight if need be.  Yes, it would be finished Nov. 26 and brought to ballet class (saving gas).

Babs gets frustrated by merge but likes how it can sort by alphabetical order or zip codes or both.  The post office wants envelopes sorted into zip code order.  Why machines need that is anyone’s guess, but there it is.  I picture our carefully sorted enveloped thrown into a big bin.  Oh well.

Having learned most of my computer skills the hands-on way I did know enough to type a few, save and see what happens.  First time things where saved to Office(?) data and became password protected.    There isn’t a password on this computer where did that come from?

Next I managed to open a window that asked if I wanted to open the mail merge toolbar.  Yes.  A small icon opened up a recipients list.  The save and open test worked so in I typed 487 names and addresses.  The project took a long time and was finally finished 12:45 Sunday evening or perhaps Monday morning is more accurate.  At this point Little Missey woke up needing a snack, so printing would get done during daylight hours.  Plenty of time.

Now I understand why microsoft is so, so, so…microsoft.

Now I understand why new words are invented in regards to microsoft.  Polite people need something to say to release frustration.  The only other polite option is to eat.

Nothing would merge.  Nothing.

The labels came up blank.  Printed blank.  Yet the message *done* kept displaying.

Doom, doom, doom….hear those Mordor drums?

In a panic I loaded up sick kids and drove to the computer store. 

“Please, when you redid my computer what password did you use?”  None

“Please, could you come and type it in?”  None.  We don’t use passwords & we don’t use that program.

Its 487 names…I promised….487 names due today….

But the word project & microsoft & doomed must be magic in the computer world.  The computer guy (Denise) came to the house and looked things over for 45 minutes.  He does not understand the password issue.  He could not get the merge to work.  He too noted that the system kept messaging that things were done.  Whaaaaa…

Then he mentioned a free program that he uses AND how easy it is AND he would gladly save my addresses, take them to the shop, and burn the discs I needed.  While I took my sick children to the doctor.  So he did.  AND came and installed it into my computer that afternoon.

All for the price of a two liter of diet Mt. Dew.

My son says he must be a true computer geek.

So after proof reading–there was a small amount to do–we tried to print.

First things didn’t line up.  Five tries later one sheet out of 15 misprinted. 

Then the retries would not go.

So at 7:30 pm I called to say I would be there but late.  Then B. explains how to lightly push on the papers so that the wheels can grip the slick label pages.  Just bring them in the morning on our way to Children’s Hospital.  DH,son #1 and son #2 tried while I fed starving baby.

At 11:45 I babysat those pages.  Held each page and gently pushed as directed.  Said calm soothing words.  The printer delivered all 15 at midnight.

Director wants me to explain what happened.  Gladly.  Also will explain that said program can be installed on her computers, including names.

487 names later…

What’s your theological worldview quiz

I’m not quite sure if this is accurate, but here it is.  Perhaps I’ll try again later and see if things still line up.

What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Reformed EvangelicalYou are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God’s Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die. Reformed Evangelical 89% Fundamentalist 82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Neo orthodox 43% Classical Liberal 29% Emergent/Postmodern 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 14% Roman Catholic

The idea to write about our fun with vegetables came because I found myself leaving comments for new gardeners–comments that seemed rather know-it-all and not btdt.  Then the thought grew that if I wrote some of the stories behind the btdt the know-it-all feeling would leave. 

One of the best stories is the turnip story.  At ballet practice I ran the idea past Grits (my oldest child).  She thought it would be fun.  Maybe it should wait.  Then this afternoon a knock came to the door.  Mom it’s Ms. Becky from church’s husband and he doens’t want to come in.  He wasn’t there for a visit, just to drop off some produce if we wanted some.  The produce…turnips…of course. 

Now this story takes place at least 10 years ago when there where only 4 children in the family.  I love my children dearly but I am not a saint.  This story does not show my best points or maybe it shows them all too well–you decide.

As the previous entry explains I had decided that we needed to be eating more vegetables.  Vegetables are something that one can learn to grow.  Vegetables are desirable because they do not require anyone to get out of bed at the break of dawn tend to their needs.  Vegetables do not leave large nasty messes behind that must be shoveled later. Eating vegetables will not cause PETA to picket.  My garden is not made in China.

Now turnips seemed like a good vegetable to learn to eat.  Turnips are in every old story and are eaten in a variety of ways: raw, boiled, roasted, mashed.  Turnips grow very, very quickly.  What isn’t to like about a vegetable that can be ready to eat in 30 days?

Went to the store and bought several.  Since my experience with turnips could be written on the head of a pin and still leave rooms for angels to dance I choose medium to largish ones.

The first trial went well.  We peeled and sliced one a la Little House on the Prairie.  Maybe even got fancy and did shoestrings.  It went well.  Most of the kids liked their raw turnips and some salt improved things.  Even the one that wasn’t thrilled opined that he could eat raw turnips but not too often.  Great.  Off to a good start.

Now perhaps a good mother would have left it at knowing that if a few turnips were ever planted they would get eaten.  However, there is more to turnips than raw and turnips grow fast.

In the basic cooking world there are only a few ways to cook vegetables.  There’s deep fry, boil, bake, pan fry or drench in cheese.  After chasing the angels away and looking at my pin I decided that the next method would be boiled and mashed. This was my first mistake.

First mistake because turnips are in the cabbage family and boiling only enhances their cabbageness.  It was not the perfume counter in that kitchen.  I know this because the children were determined to make sure I understood it was not the perfume counter.  Still dinner would be served.

At dinner the first thing out of their mouths was “I’m not eating that its gross, it smells gross…” and variations on that theme.  Over and over and over and over.

They stomped on my last nerve.

My dander was up.

I got peeved.

I blew my Irish top.   

You will eat at least three bites before you leave the table or you will sit here until you do.

I’m sure more was said but not exactly what.  They fussed, griped, complained.  I was stubborn and determined, more determined than the four children sitting around the table gagging and complaining.  I suspect that punishment was threatend if they choose not to eat as Grits says she got a week’s worth of dishwashing from that experience.  I don’t remember.

My poor Brian sat at that table.  He backed me up, though I suspect he was no more thrilled with those turnips than the kids were.  He had faced cooked turnips in his own childhood and recognized a lost battle when he saw one.  Did he eat any?  Can’t say but he did stay until the kids finished or left.

I wish I had handled it better.

No, my kids do not like cooked mashed turnips–to this very day they will admit to that.  But they also do not come to the table saying anything is gross/yucky and they will not eat it.  Instead they say “No thanks” or “I’ll pass” or “Maybe later”.  Why?  After we had calmed down I explained that the instant “grossI’mnoteatingthat” is what made me right-now mad–especially when they had not ever tasted cooked turnips.  Instead taste and then pass.  Nobody has to like everything but everyone must be polite.  I do ask their opinion about new recipes.

Did that end the comments?  Not exactly.  We did add a “if you comment and a younger sibling refuses to eat YOU will eat their share AND get a grounding WITH extra chores as punishment”.  This works well to this very day.

I did go back to the books and learned a few things.  Not all turnips are created equal.  Some are better for fresh raw eating.  Others are better for storage and cooking.  Among those for cooking some taste better than others.  No amount of butter and salt can fix an old turnip–feed those to animals.  Bigger is not always better.

As for the smell:  Dear family, the smell of cooking broccoli is not far from the smell of broccoli farts yet you still love to eat broccoli and cheese.  If you can eat a food that smells like a fart you can try cooked turnips in small amounts until I find a good recipe. 

That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Again I am studying the garden catalogs and will be trying to grow some next spring or fall.  The freakish spring we had killed most spring plantings while the drought & 116 heatwave stopped the fall planting.  (not to mention a new baby + 116)

Didn’t earn any sainthood badges did I?

No children were harmed in the living of this episode. 

After reading Anna and her pumpkin fun I was reminded about our families fun with vegetables.  *Note this happened about 10 years ago. 

This wanting to grow my own and be prepared has been a part of my for as long as I can remember.  Perhaps it was all the Little House books.  Perhaps it was my dad’s 70’s subscription to Mother Earth News.  For many years we did not live anywhere we could grow a garden.  Then one day we did.

Our first self sufficiency trial was not a roaring success.  Our 4H group paints pumpkins every year in October.  Kids like their routines and the kids in this group love pumpkin painting.  Since I am the leader any extras come home with me.  What could be better to begin with than a surplus of six large free pumpkins–painted with washable paint, of course.

So armed with directions from Tightwad Gazette and a gardening book we began with the unpainted pumpkins.  We cut the top off, pitched it and began our pumpkin lobotomy.  It was messy cool fun.  Most directions suggest either peeling and boiling OR baking the pumpkin to cook and soften for further use.   The baked pumpkin can be sliced or left whole.

Have you ever tried to peel a pumpkin?

Peeling a pumpkin is about as easy as peeling a sidewalk.  Near impossible without serious bodily harm to the knife welder and serious vocabulary growth for small children in the vicinity.  I, being smarter than a pumpkin, chose to bake at 350F until soft.  Slicing optional.  Those small bits with scattering of peels cook faster than whole ones.

After awhile it was soft and smelled not too bad.  We took them out and drained off the small amount of water in the pan. 

The first thing we tried was to scoop some into a bowl, add butter and sugar then taste.  My throat is constricting as I type.

It was stringy.  Terribly stringy.  Eating a mouth full of fat hair stringy.  Awful.

Well…the books said it might need to be put through a blender or food processor.  So the second thing we did was to food process a generous portion.

It didn’t improve things.  We just had short fat hairs in our mouths.  The gag-abilty factor was still quite high.

Well…baking had softened things up quite a bit, so perhaps if we use it in a recipe the additional baking should finish softening and dissolving those strings.  Right?

No.  Now we had custard coated short fat, kinda pumpkin tasting hairs.  The only thing that was fed was the trash can.  Trash cans don’t mind fat stringy pumpkins–baked or unbaked.

Well…that was aggravating.  People have grown and stored pumpkins since…forever.  The gardening books and magazines sing the praises of growing pumpkins.  They are recommended for beginner gardeners.  What went wrong?

Further reading taught me this–Not all pumpkins are created equal.  Reading catalog descriptions is a must.  See most pumpkins sold at Halloween time are sold for decorations.  They are extra large with large open spaces for candles.  Largeness and open spaces means a need for support, just like in a building.  So those pumpkins have more ’strings’ which are pumpkin support beams. 

Support beams are not tasty.  To make them edible they must be pureed very smoothly so a food mill becomes necessary.  Hand-powered ones with a crank are inexpensive at Walmart.  An elderly friend loaned me a cone-shaped one with an extremely large pestle.  Either takes arm muscle even after the pumpkin is softened.  The Squeezo has a separate screen for pumpkin. (This one from Johnnys is similiar to my Squeezo) If it works as well as the tomato processing one it would be worth the effort.

The Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkins are practically inedible.  They are for competition only though animals might find them tasty.

More ready-to-eat pumpkins are know as ‘pie pumpkins’ and are often smaller than decorative pumpkins.  These are often heirloom as good taste is good taste.  Some of the newer releases are aiming for both size and eating.  Johnny’s catalog describes some of those pumpkins types.  Other releases keep the small size but include edible seeds.  I have not had an opportunity to grow these as my crew tries to grow competition size pumpkins through 4H. I did get seeds for small edible and decorative pumpkins but the heat & drought had kicked in by planting time so why waste the seeds?  Next year. (If you are growing for whole pumpkin storage then the planting dates are shifted from spring to a mid-summer date.)

I also learned that squash makes a good substitute for pumpkin and doesn’t have the ’string thing’ going.  Jackie Clay often recommends growing heirloom squash and using in place of pumpkin.  Easier to save seeds that way too. 

So that was the first of our vegetable experiments.  The second involved turnips.  For that I’ve asked Grits to write–read from a parent (me) and child (her) point of view.  Yes it was that memorable.

Some helpful seed sites Johnny’s Seeds, Territorial Seeds, and Southern Exposure. (They may be from the south but they offer a wider variety of heirloom seeds for some vegetables than other catalogs.)

I thought I was aging well with only a few grey hairs scattered about my head.  Not many and definitely no more than ten.  

“Not too bad for 42–you go girl!”  I’m dancing in my smarty-pants!

Read in a popular your-life-isn’t-good-enough woman’s magazine that changing your hair part can perk up hair and give new life to a tired face.  Hmmm…not a bad idea for the mother of a 2ish month old baby girl.   New do here I come…and…

I found that my roots need doing–only I don’t dye my hair.

Migration to avoid the premature aging caused by overexposure to the UV rays of the sun.

Who knew hair was so smart?

Since Little Missey first made her existence known I’ve been on a cheesy goodness quest.  Melted cheese…so good…so friendly…so much easier on the brain than most anything else in life.  The weather has cooled and melted cheese once again calls.  Last night it was soup:  Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup. 

This is for a family of 8 with 2 teenage boys that wants some for tomorrow too.

Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup

Potatoes – peel & dice about as many as your family uses for mashed potatoes.  I use about 4 -5 lbs.

Onion – one diced

1 can evaporated milk

Broccoli – at least one package frozen.  I use about 2 ½ pounds.

Instant mashed potatoes

Canned Cheese* – ½ block of Velveeta shredded.  I use ¼ can or so of commercial canned Nacho Cheese (those huge cans in the Walmart aisle).

Salt – to taste when finished. 

Pepper – Good amount.

Garlic – Amount your family likes plus a bit more.  We use amounts that would make most people blanch.  From a jar of chopped our has 2 or 3 heaping soupspoon full which loosely estimated is at least 5 Tbls.  We don’t fear vampires around here.

Put the potatoes and onions in a large size stock pot and barely cover with water.  Heat until the water boils and the potatoes are nearly done.  Check for dons by poking with a fork.  If the fork goes in easily & the potato feels very soft it is done we want nearly done so not quiet that soft.  Not a problem if these get too done thought.

Stir in garlic & add the frozen broccoli.  Stir and cook until water returns to a boil.  Pick out one clump and check to see if it is hot enough.  If the water is boiling it should be, but checking never hurts.

At this point add the can of evaporated milk.  You could add regular milk until it reaches what you consider ‘soup’ in terms of ‘broth’ amounts. OR you could add some powdered milk until the ‘broth’ looks milky.

Add small amounts of mashed potatoes and stir until it is thicken to your family tastes.  We like a bit thicker so my amount was about ½ c. or so.  OR take about ¼ of the potatoes out, mash well and return to pot.  This will thicken things up nicely. 

Add cheese & pepper.  Heat & stir often until everything is nicely melted.

Finished.

This soup takes very little time to make.  This recipe is very loose because it is a very forgiving soup.  I tend to use the amounts we have on hand—sometimes more, less, or none of some of the ingredients—and it turns out fine each time.

*Yes some call this ‘FrankenCheese’ oh well, right now the real stuff in the amounts we need is a budget buster. Sometimes this particular kind of cheesy goodness just hits the spot.  I  buy the commercial size can of Nacho cheese instead of Velveeta.  This is made to have water or milk added to it which makes it a good buy.  It can be used for anything melted Velveeta is used for however; we have not used it to make grilled cheese.  The boys like to use it to make nachos for snacks.  I have used it on baked potatoes, vegetables, and homemade macaroni & cheese.  A caution:  if you be careful to get a plainer brand unless your family really likes spicy.  Our olders do but not the younger ones.  The spicy does make a nice soup. 

In the future I’d like to try dividing up the cheese into jars and then canning them.  This would save room in the fridge and would give smaller amounts for future use.  There are times when that is a lot of cheese even in a family our size.  It would also give us some stores for emergency times—open and use food.

Anyway—there is one cheesy goodness for a cold day.

I ordered the large family in the harp playing at tea time, Five Little Peppers column.

Not the Super Nanny/ Dr. Phil tag team combo.