My last trip to bulk store.
Banana chips, sunflower seeds, sugar, baking soda, cookies, dry mango, few skittles, ground flax seeds and some snacking bites.
The only thing that I got in plastic bags was dry papaya because that is all they had and it was reduced and prepackaged.
This is getting easier every time I go, all I have to do is make sure I have a list and all the jars and bags with me.
It's so green here, herbs are growing like crazy, my sweet potatoes are reaching the wall, yellow potatoes are really tall and the cucumbers created nice green wall.
I started new seeds for the fall, cabbage, beets, red and white swiss chard. I also put beans in small containers and they sit in my window.
Some of the beets are in this metal container.
And this will new home for the swiss chard.
There are strawberries everywhere, I made some pops, smoothies and did few jams. I also freeze few bags of already cut strawberries, we use them in oatmeal.
For the past 6 months I have been making drinks at home. I stopped buying bottled water and instead every night I boil pot of water and when it cools I pour it into glass bottles and store it the fridge. I also make ice tea which is nothing else then cooled hot tea. Sometimes I have few fruits that are not so fresh and crispy anymore and that is when I make them into a juice. This time I had some apples and plums that were soft and not the best for eating. I just cut them up, add some dry fruit ( prunes, apricots), cover it with water, add some sugar or honey and boil for about 5 minutes. I always try it while its boiling to see if it needs more sweetness. When it cools I put it into glass bottles and store it in the fridge.
Last week there was crazy sale on few things in my grocery store like; kiwi, apples and lemons. They all were .40c each so I grabbed few. I got 10 kiwi and that was just enough for jam and I got 20 lemons and I shredded the skin and juiced them all. I froze the skin in a jar for baking and all the juice I froze in ice cube trays. I use the frozen juice for ice tea, lemonade and I also add it to my water.
Plum Sour Cream Kuchen.
- 4 large plums
- 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar ( I use only 3/4 cup)
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp grated orange rind, (if you don't have orange you can use lemon)
- 1 tsp vsnilla
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 11/2 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
1. Grease 10- inch springform pan, dust with flour, set aside.
2. Pit plums and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. In bowl, toss together plums, brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside.
3. In large bowl beat butter with granulated sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at the time, beating well after each. Beat in orange rind and vanilla.
4. In separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In separate bowl stir sour cream with oil. Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture alternately with sour cream, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet. Scrape into prepared pan, smooth top. Arrange plums in two circles on top, leaving about 1/2 inch between circles.
5. Bake in centre 350 F oven about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
This week was really busy, I made few jams plus preserved cherries and froze cherries, strawberries and peas. First was kiwi jam, last time I made it it was too sweet so this time around I used less sugar.
My garden is my happy place and I always try to improve and change things if they don't work. I moved two planters with cucumbers hanging in the corner because I couldn't get to it anymore, right now they are on the table but I will be moving them again because my cats love to munch on the leaves.
There is two empty pots ( not for long), because I pulled out the spinach and lettuce, both had bugs on them.
Potatoes:
Cucumbers:
And the window boxes, I had to pull out the lettuce but I will be putting more herbs in:
And few pictures from my community garden, peas, dill, kohlrabi and what it was suppose to be a broccoli. The broccoli grows only big leaves so I pick them every few days and cook them with other veggies.
