We got a late start on our garden this year.  I had a hard time convincing my mind and body to actually get out there and plant anything.  But, we still have our strawberries.  (Which haven’t produced hardly ANYTHING, thank you!)  We also got some potatoes in the ground and they are looking promising.

As far as our bucket garden, it seems to be doing well.  I don’t think I have all the information and so it isn’t working just how I intended, but the plants are doing well.

In order for it to grow properly, you are supposed to put up a trellis support system.  We decided we would also make a frame that we could maybe cover with plastic.  John made a little “hoop coop” like we did for our chickens and it works great so far.  We haven’t covered it with plastic yet, but I think there is still time before winter sets in.  We hope to extend our season a little bit and maybe have some greens into the winter.  We’ll see if it actually happens!

My tomato plants are out of control and I wasn’t sure how to plant a bunch of “secondary” plants around them.  Apparently, I was supposed to “prune” the tomatoes to make that work.  Who ever heard of pruning tomatoes?  I guess I need to do some internet research.

We have gotten some pickling cucumbers out of the garden, a few tomatoes, some peppers, etc.  The potato that I planted is starting to die, so I think it may be time to harvest the potatoes.  I’ll keep you posted on that.

Avy uses the garden as a jungle gym.  Her friend is joining her here.

I guess that is about it.  The verdict is not out yet on the success or not.  But we are excited to try something new and maybe get even better next year.  I like not having to think about watering this part of the garden.  It is all automatic.

I taught my last “Healthy Cooking with Your Food Storage” class in November.  This has been a monthly class that I have taught in my church for the women.  We have done lots of fun stuff and our last class was on PIZZA.  Who doesn’t love pizza?  We made some fun gourmet pizzas along with a couple traditional kinds.  We all just brought lots of toppings and then played around with the sauce and toppings.  A sister in my ward even brought some home-made mozzarella and feta cheeses.  We used a %100 whole wheat crust which teaches us how to eat food from our home storage.  It was so yummy!  I think we all left a little over-stuffed.

We harvested the rest of our corn and had a corn party!  Well, at least for our little family.  Don’t be too disappointed that you weren’t invited. 

Calvin was my big helper for the day.  Actually, all of my boys helped PICK the corn.  Then we all SHUCKED the corn.  Then, Calvin helped me cut the corn off of the cob.  (It’s not as easy as it looks, but he did a great job and I was glad to let him use the knife.)

So, this lady taught me a great tool that helps you cut the kernels off.  You take a two by four and nail in a big long NAIL.  (Cal and Ivan did that.)

Here is the nail.  Then, you take your big clean garbage bag and put it over the nail.  That keeps your corn clean.  (As you can see, the 2×4 was NOT clean!)

Slide the corn onto the nail and you are set to start scraping.  Don’t get too close to the woody cob!

Then, you put your corn into a pot and add the rest of the ingredients.  I was able to do almost two full batches.

Voila!  Frozen Corn!  (Well, it isn’t frozen yet here in the picture.  But, it is now!)  I haven’t actually tried the recipe, so I can’t personally vouch for it, but it sounded great!

Reed thought the picture needed a little something more….

Fabulous Frozen Corn

From alpinefoodstorage.com

Shuck Corn.

Cut corn off the cobs. An electric knife works great. Turn a smaller but tall bowl over at the bottom of a large bowl or roasting pan. Rest the corn on the small bowl and cut so that all of the corn falls into the larger bowl. Make sure not to cut too close to the cob.

Put into a pot:
16 cups corn
3 cups water
4 T. sugar (optional)
2 t. salt
½ cup butter (optional)

Mix together, bring to a boil and boil just until the corn becomes translucent (5 minutes.)

Cool and put in freezer bags (juice and all.)

Freeze.

This is me and my friend Blanca D.  We got together a few months ago and made tamales.  The kids watched TV and played on the computer and we had fun laughing and working in the kitchen.

Blanca used a tortilla press to make spreading the masa easier.

Yup.  That is a corn husk.

I made beef tamales and Blanca did pork tamales that were very “authentic”.  They had pork, a thin slice of raw potato, a green olive and a raisin.  They were very tasty!

Ivan helped me take these pictures.

Here I am using part of a corn husk to wrap it all together.  Blanca showed me several ways to wrap them.

These were hers (pork) she used an additional tie around the middle, so as not to get them confused with mine.

These are the ones that I got to take home.  Yummy!

They turned out pretty good.  We ate them up quickly.  Next time I am going to try my mom’s recipe.  She uses a special masa she gets in Arizona.  Thomas brought me some up when he was here a few weeks ago.  It is this huge bag sitting in my freezer.  I can’t wait to make tamales again.  Calvin can’t wait to eat them.  Anyone want to help me?  (It will be like the blind leading the blind!!)

Today I taught another of my Nourishing Wooden Spoon classes. We did homemade whole wheat tortillas. We met at Carrie’s home and had a great time making tortillas. After we made the tortillas, we ate a yummy dinner of burritos with all the fixins’. I think we had about 13 sisters there and a gaggle of children. It was mass chaos and a ton of fun. I just love teaching this kind of stuff. It really makes me happy. Here are a few pictures:

I forgot to get my camera out until the very end. This photo was totally staged. Ha!

And, in case you don’t know what a Baby Burrito looks like, I thought I would add one more photo.

Yesterday we tried grinding corn into flour the way old fashioned way.  Grandma and Grandpa have a grain mortar and pestle and we tested it out.  Let’s just say that I’m really glad for modern conveniences!  That was hard work!  The corn was flying everywhere, we pounded and pounded and it was still coarse as ever, and when we were done, there were little flecks of black from the rock.  I just couldn’t bring myself to actually use it in my corn bread recipe!  I wish I had enough presence of mind to take a picture while we were pounding.  Just imagine Calvin in his Sunday clothes, sitting on the counter pounding his little heart out with corn flying everywhere!  At least we tried!

The other day I watched a cute little one year old. His mom was at the cannery canning wheat! (Go mom!) I just had to take a pic of this adorable little boy! His little blond hair was sticking out of his hat so cute!

One of my “assignments” in my new ward is the “Wooden Spoon Specialist”. What is the wooden spoon? It is a class that used to be held locally, I think on Welfare Square. Well, they discontinued the classes and our stake wants each ward to do their own wooden spoon classes. The classes are designed to help people learn how to use their food storage. Also, it is to encourage people to gather and store food in case of hard times, etc.

As you know, this is RIGHT up my alley. I love this assignment. I love cooking with wheat and it is somewhat of a passion of mine. Teaching others about this has always come naturally to me. In my last ward I taught a monthly “Healthy Cooking with your Food Storage” class. Now I teach a monthly “Nourishing Wooden Spoon” class. I have a weak outline that I am encouraged to use and then to just do what I feel is best for my ward.

So, this month we focused on the basics. I made up a Jeopardy game all around Home Storage. Most of the question/answers were taken from the new home storage guidelines on www.providentliving.org website. We also sampled some crackers and such that I made with my home storage. This was on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, we had a ward Preparedness Fair. So, I brought my “Home Storage Jeopardy” game to the fair and helped out at the Cannery booth. Here is a picture of me and Avalon manning the booth. It was great!