My Week, Last of August

Hi friends,

And the month of August is over just like that! I was out walking in the neighborhood this morning and noticed many homes with autumn decorations up already. Lots of autumn-themed wreaths, a bale of hay or two, and even a small scarecrow adorning a front porch. One neighbor planted a pumpkin patch in her front yard, and she had a nice selection of big pumpkins growing. Her front yard receives a lot of sunshine from morning to evening. Meanwhile, in my rather heavily treed backyard, my own pumpkin patch is looking rather anemic. I have 3 small pumpkins and 3 extra small pumpkins, plus 2 small acorn squashes. It's time to consider taking out a couple more trees.

The blackberry picking is just about done for the year. Our "spot" got cut down in between weekends in late August and our own blackberry patch at the back of the yard is almost fully-picked. I froze somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 quarts of blackberries to use this winter.

Do you ever imagine how you could grow more food on your property if the grocery supply chain became became unreliable? I was thinking it all through as I walked our property the other afternoon. We're on a suburban lot, so it's not like we have unlimited space to garden. My best options would be to convert two spots to garden space, the back lawn and a patch that's in the center of our circular driveway.  My husband and I have been talking about that patch in the center of the driveway for a while. It's overgrown with trees and ferns and might be a nice spot to plant another apple tree plus have a sunnier pumpkin patch. Anyways, with the world feeling so crazy these days, my thoughts went to a place of "what could we do to help ourselves, if needed."

ripe radish seed pods

Back to reality, the radish seed pods are just now beginning to fully mature and dry out. I plucked a couple of pods the other day and split them open. The pods contain between 1 and 6 seeds each. I'm hoping to have enough seeds for planting next spring as well as growing sprouts indoors this winter. We'll have to see if I get enough for both planting needs.

You might remember, last summer my family decided to skip any sort of vacation for 2020. We used that savings to stock an emergency pantry. We relied on those staples all through winter, which meant I didn't need to venture out for groceries during the winter peak of Covid cases. Well, here we are into September of 2021, and we're not taking any sort of vacation for this year, either. In addition, we've now not eaten restaurant food, purchased movie or museum tickets, or bought stuff other than food and household necessities for this past year and a half. So, once again we have enough to restock our emergency/winter pantry. 

Whenever I have had a pity party moment, feeling sorry for myself for no vacations or eating out, I think about the satisfaction I have in knowing that we are putting together a full pantry and will have plenty to eat all winter long. 

Storing away food for winter was once a priority for families. I suppose this had a lot to do with farm life and growing the bulk of one's own food. But I also think there is wisdom in uncertain modern times to switch spending away from more frivolous spending and into pre-paying for basic needs, such as by paying off a mortgage early or stocking a winter pantry. Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Two posts for your weekend reading, if you're so inclined.

My substitution for brown sugar. I haven't bought brown sugar in about 20 years. I never had enough when I needed it or it was hard as a rock. So, I stopped buying it. Here's how I substitute.

I made the second batch of salsa this week. I don't use garden tomatoes for salsa but instead, I use canned tomatoes. I broke down the cost benefit for using canned tomatoes to make a fairly easy and quick salsa to can in place of buying commercial salsa. Read about it here.

Have a wonderful weekend. Stay safe, especially if you'll be traveling over the holiday. Once again, we'll be having a cook-out. Either hot dogs or burgers, some oven-roasted veggies, a fruit jello salad, a garden vegetable salad, and some blackberry cheesecake ice cream.