THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER

 Silas checking last years Squash

  

We had beautiful squash plants last year.  They started blooming and were loaded.  We knew we would have a bumper crop of squash in our little garden. Since Silas loves squash so much I was happy.

When the bloom falls off the squash usually start growing.  We waited and waited but no squash.  We have never seen that before. We have no idea what happened.  Beautiful plants and blooms but no squash.  Has anyone one of you gardeners ever comes across this problem?  Someone told us they were all male plants.  That was hard to believe.  We need an authority on this!

Silas is getting his rows ready for the spring garden.  He will

plant more squash. We still have cabbage and green onions in the garden.  I don't think he will plant more cabbage, although the

heads are beautiful.  We eat cabbage but not that much.  I have made coleslaw quite a bit and steamed cabbage a few times. Has

anyone ever frozen cabbage?  I did freeze turnip roots this year.

(We like mustard greens with the turnip roots cooked in them) You have to have cornbread with mustard greens. No getting around that.  Guess you know I was raised country style.

I googled turnip roots and there it was ~ exactly how to put them in freezer.  Not that we raised so many.  A friend from church

brought us two big bags of roots.  Gigantic ones!  I did not want to waste them so that is when I started a search.  I did put up mustard greens.  We had plenty of them.  We ate some, gave some away and put some in the freezer.  I am cutting up shallots and putting them in the freezer.  Also, I have a few chives.  

I use to buy the seasoning mix with onions, green onions, bell pepper etc.  I can not cook without seasoning.  But I found I save money by cutting up the shallots, chives and regular onion

mixed together in the freezer.  I did not put green bell pepper because one cost about a dollar and half.  We are going to give them a try in our garden this year.  

Oh, one more thing!  We have two short rows of strawberries that at blooming beautiful.  We see some fruit already.  My sister gave me about four plants last year.  I picked a few strawberries then.  We left the plants in the ground and they multiplied.  We wound up with a enough plants for a couple rows this year.  We are going to have more rows next year.  I am from strawberry country ~ not that I am a pro on how to grow them.  I just know the farmers use to put straw around the plants.  I picked quite a few when I was a kid.  I was always afraid of a snake.  Later, the farmers put a black plastic down ~ then put the plant through 

plastic.  That is what we are going to do this coming year.  

We are finally getting eggs from the hens we raised.  We are up to four a day.  We have nine hens so when the others start laying we will have plenty eggs.  They are so rich looking when you cook them.  Taste so much better than store bought eggs.  

I made my second batch of laundry detergent yesterday.  This sure does save money.  I guess we are looking for ways to economize like a lot of other people are doing.  

What do you do with roosters?  Silas and grandsons are killing roosters to go in the freezer.  Between us, we had an abundance.

Are they tough ~ are they good for dumplings?  Guess we will see!

Well, this is what is going on in our part of the world right now.  What are you doing?

Have a blessed week end,  be sure to go to church with your cup right side up.  Might ought to bring your saucer too.