Faith, Folklore, and Friends

One of the joys of having a backyard garden is fresh tomatoes.  This year, we have managed to grow more tomatoes than the squirrels can eat, and we have enough for salsa.  There are thousands of recipes for salsa, and this is my favorite one.  One large green bell pepper chopped fine. You could use a red one as well. One medium purple onion chopped fine.  A white one would work, but I love the way the purple looks in the salsa. Two jalapenos with the seeds removed, chopped very fine.  We love the heat in ours.  You can leave this out if you want to.  But why would you want to? Chop the tomatoes, although they don't have to be as fine as the jalapenos.  I do not peel the tomatoes. Ain't that pretty?  It is ready now, but I like to add a little extra. This is about half a bunch of cilantro.  It is hard to chop when it is wet, so I wash it before I start and use paper towels to dry it.  Hub loves t...

Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, is one of my favorite cooks.  I have found that combining some of her recipes with Paula Deen's recipes can make some tasty food. On Sunday afternoon, I made the Pioneer Woman's  Seven Can Soup  .  It is super easy to make and so good. These are the cans of food I used:  Chili Beans (she used Pinto beans; I didn't have any in the house), black beans, corn, kidney beans, 2 cans tomatoes with peppers, and a can of Chili with no beans. Open the cans and dump them in a pot. How hard is that? Keep dumping. Stir it all together.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer at least fifteen minutes. Just before it is done, add about eight ounces of Velvetta cheese.  If you are a cheese snob and refuse to use Velvetta, you can use whatever you desire.  By the way, we paid $5.99 for two pounds of Velvetta; we bought 2 pounds of good cheddar for $4.99 at Sams. Velvetta is no longer cheap cheese, u...

We always have green tomatoes on the vines when frost threatens in the fall.  I use them for green tomato pickles and always fry up a few.  I have tried various methods of storing them, from wrapping them in newspapers to storing in cardboard boxes.  They always rotted before they got ripe. This year, I took the best ones and lined them up on the kitchen window sill.  They stayed hard and green for several weeks, then they started to ripen.  We have been eating tomatoes all through December. Yesterday, we had the last ones with our bacon/biscuits and scrambled eggs.  They were so good, and I'm sad to see them go.  On this cold rainy day, it seems like an eternity until July when we will start the tomato-fest again.

Thanks to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and all the other sponsors listed on the sign, Florence has its first and very popular community garden. Hub, who needed volunteer hours to complete his Master Gardener certification, did a lot of work helping build these 4' x 8' raised beds. There are approximately fifty raised beds, and all of them are full. The raised beds were constructed using pressure-treated lumber, then filled with compost, some of it consisting of decomposed trash from ginning cotton.  Soil tests were done, then lime and commercial fertilizer were added. Each bed was irrigated. First choice of the beds was given to veterans; then to people who do not have access to land to grow a garden; people who are physically unable to garden traditional, non-raised bed gardens, and   those economically unable to build a garden. Unfortunately, there was not enough for everyone who wanted one. There is a large variety of plants, and alm...

Y'all know it doesn't take much to get me excited, and I was just tickled pink when I saw this. These vines are loaded with teensy weensy little orbs that will grow into plump, juicy muscadines. Last year, we spent quality time with our neighbors eating muscadines right off the vine.  Hopefully, we can do the same this year in October.  Of course, we will have to watch for little foxes and other creatures that like them as well as we do. The tomatoes are still small, but they are looking good! Hub waters them faithfully when it doesn't rain. That little squash is about an inch long, but squash grows quickly and we will be eating them in a few days.  There is about a hundred others about an inch long.  It always happens like that; there is just a few days between the time we are yearning for squash and the time we are tired of squash. I am loving this beautiful spring we have been gifted with! The world's favorite season is the spring....