Cantaloupe Archives

I can’t believe it is September already! We really enjoyed our August in Montana. Although there were a few 100 degree days the heat only lasted a few days at a time followed by some really lovely days. In fact, the month ended with temps in the 60s! Much better than our normal succession of 100s for months on end…

Here are my blessings for this week:

291. Rain, glorious rain.

292. Boxes of fruit to preserve

293. My first attempt at raspberry jam set up & canned!

294. Yummy Peach Butter

295. Homemade applesauce, apple muffins, apple pie, apple crisp & apple brownies from 1 box of Ginger Gold Apples.

296. A freezer full of frozen peach slices to enjoy for months to come

297. shopping at the local farmer’s market

298. fresh corn on the cob

299. harvesting lots of zucchini from our own garden

300. the hope of more produce from our garden: cantaloupe, pumpkins, & potatoes still growing

301. Nana & Papaw are coming next week!

302. Fitting into my pre-6potato jeans

303. Finding our place in our new community

304. Our church home

305. Our baby is nearly walking…

306. Starting our homeschool co-op tomorrow

307. Baby going to bed on his own at night

308. Finding dryer paperwork after much searching

309. Everyone else started back to school

310. God’s mercies are new every morning

Garden May 2010

One of the best (& cheaper) ways to invest in quality foods for your family is to plant a garden. You can choose the items your family likes to eat, control what goes on your food and even get some exercise in the process.

There are so many different ways to garden. You can plant a salad garden in a container on your patio if your space is limited. We have planted several raised bed gardens and particularly like the Square Foot garden we planted last year.

We also got lots of good ideas from watching Homestead Blessings: The Art of Gardening (In fact I highly recommend this series for learning all types of skills.)

Mother Earth News also has a great article on getting started with a garden including a nice garden plan. We are hoping to implement something like it next year when we have our own place again.

This year we are blessed to be able to garden in a much bigger plot at my grandparents’ house. We planted onions, potatoes, peas, corn, beets, turnips, lettuce, carrots, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, banana peppers, cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and broccoli. onion sets We still have sunflower seeds, pumpkins and beans left to plant.

It is such a wonderful experience for the whole family and provides so much quality food for so little money.

I highly recommend it!

Blessings 9/1/10

One of the Best Ways to Invest in Your Health: Planting A Garden