MORE berries

Its amazing how you can pick a HUGE bowl of berries and after they are dehydrated you are left with maybe a 10th of what you started with! I dehydatred another 5 lbs of currants to add to salads, trail mix etc.....

Roasted Red Peppers

I spent an hour or so making roasted red peppers this past weekend. I cut them in 1/2, cored them, smashed the flat with a pototo masher and roasted/blacked them in my toaster oven at about 400. It worked great! Store in sterilized jars covered with olive oil. You can actually freeze the jars until you are ready to use them. I also added a garlic clove to each jar, yum! I used some in our pasta last night and I will be adding some to some GF Focaccia bread I will be making this week.

Pea eating monster!!!

I picked a bunch of peas this morning and set them on the kitchen table, went back outside to feed the animals and this is what I found when I came back in! My house is inhabited by a pea eating monster!!!!

Ummm.........

.....yum!!!!

Red Currants

I literally have close to 10 pounds of red currants to pick off of 3 bushes I planted only 2 years ago. They are seedy and a little tart. I am thinking I will make some jam. Any ideas? Maybe some wine??

The GIGANTIC Turnip

My son has a book called The Gigantic Turnip

http://www.amazon.com/Gigantic-Turnip-Aleksei-Tolstoy/dp/1841481572

Its a story about how it takes a whole farm of animals and people to get a giant turnip out of the ground. Its a really cute story. So this morning I let Noah pull up the turnips for me. He was thrilled and told me he was pulling GIGANTIC turnips out of the ground and going POP when he pulled them up!

Making tinctures

I just started making my own herbal tinctures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture instead of spending a small fortune buying them all the time. You put vodka and herbs in a glass jar for about 6 weeks and its ready to use!. Right now I have a batch of feverfew (for headaches), St Johns Wort (monthly moodies) and an all purpose allergy tincture that has about 7 herbs in it. They should be ready soon! The daisy like flowers are feverfew and the yellow ones are St johns Wort.

I just discovered coconut flour!

Most of you know I am gluten free and frequently play around with gluten free baking. I decided to try out coconut flour and LOVED the results. This morning I made a batch of cinnamon coconut pancakes and Carob brownies and they both turned out great!

Pancakes http://www.starchfreerecipes.com/2008/11/05/coconut-pancakes/

Brownies http://www.tiana-coconut.com/coconut_flour_recipes.htm

In the brownies I subbed cocoa powder with carob and sugar with agave.

Garden Pests

I spent part of the morning gardening and discovered I have a few pest problems going on. My cabbage is being eaten by little green catepillars and I found a few moths hatching out. I am assuming that they were the green catepillars. What are they and what can I do to keep them from feasting on my garden?

The second problem is once again I have wire works in my turnips. How can I naturally keep them away?

One last issue. All of my tomato plant leaves are peppered with little yellowish holes. Last year I had blight but this is something I have never experienced. Any ideas????