In the Kitchen...

Busy day in the kitchen. Getting ready for our church Thanksgiving dinner tonight. 

Our Primary group made cute little Pilgrim hat crayon holders and turkey posters saying what they are thankful for. I've been in charge of activities at my church before. One thing that I like to do for the Thanksgiving dinner is to cover the tables with butcher paper and set crayons out. This gives the kids (and some adults) something to do once they've eaten dinner.

I signed up to bring my mom's recipe for sweet potato casserole, Chunky Cranberry Applesauce, Mexican Fruitcake and a green salad with home-grown tomatoes from the greenhouse.

 Here is a pretty close recipe for sweet potato casserole.

I use three eggs and my recipe does not call for buttermilk, but I found a recipe on Pinterest and decided to post it. My mom made Sweet Potato Casserole every year for special occasions. My husband would not touch a sweet potato until he tried my mom's casserole recipe. 

  Chunky Cranberry Applesauce

This is a favorite recipe that I found in an issue of Southern Living a few years ago. I grew up with cranberry sauce from a can. I was fine with that...until I discovered this recipe. It is just so good. Worth the time to make to add it to the holiday table. 

Mexican Fruitcake,

This is one of my very old and very favorite cakes. I got the recipe years ago when I worked in an office. People were always bringing goodies. A salesman's wife brought this cake. She called it, "Mexican Fruitcake." I'm not sure why since the only fruit in it is crushed pineapple. It was so good. I had to have the recipe. This cake is super easy to make.

Beat two eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, crushed pineapple, vanilla, flour, baking soda (my recipe does not call for baking powder) and chopped pecans. Mix with a fork and pour into an ungreased jelly roll pan. No mixer, just a fork and an ungreased pan. What could be easier?

Bake until done, cool, and ice with cream cheese icing.

If you haven't made any of these recipes, you should give them a try. 

Snow

Here are a few pics from winters past.


The pic of my family is a few years old. Our oldest son was out of the house at the time.  The rest of the family could not resist playing in the snow and I couldn't resist taking pictures. Btw, I had to cut this picture in half to make it fit in one of those collage picture frames. 













This is a picture from last year. The snow on our little pine tree looked so pretty. The leaf looks like a heart. 

This picture is from two years ago. These are some pine trees in the front yard. I found a quote by Lady Bird Johnson that expresses how I feel about snow.

              Here's a picture out our kitchen window of Garden Anywhere Box in snow. 

This is a picture of our pond last winter. The water level is a bit low, but the geese don't seem to mind. 

The last pictures are of our pond a few winters ago. 

The pond was not here when we bought our property. It was a boggy spot where blackberries grew and snakes gathered. Yikes! We decided to see if we could turn it into a pond. There were some willow trees in the middle of the field. I asked if we could turn it into an island...and we could. Yay! So, now we have "Willow Island" ...because I like to name things...lol. 

This is a picture from when the pond used to have a constant flow of water and the creek was always full. 

When we dug the pond, we discovered that there was a spot of quicksand over by the woods. That was pretty cool. Our kids had so much fun playing in the red dirt that was excavated to make the pond. We stocked our pond with fish and got to observe the fish building their nests along the bank. Pretty cool for a homeschooling family to get to watch.

If you look closely at the top pic,  you can see geese on the pond. We have a family of Canada geese that come yearly to have babies on the island. Over the years, the family has grown to include many generations of geese. It's pretty cool.

We have had years of fun on our pond. From the year that it froze SOLID and allowed the kids the opportunity to sled across it, to Scout camp outs, fishing and swimming parties, to group gathering for cookouts, to canoe and paddle boat races. We are truly blessed to live here and we know it. You are welcome to come fishing anytime. The catfish are usually biting.

Taking Pictures

When you see my pics, does it help you to see planting and harvesting in a different way?  Planting, not just to harvest, but to include color, texture and shape in your decision about what to plant. I  hope that when you see my daily pics, it will inspire you to take pictures of your own harvests and share the beauty of nature with others. 

June 16, 2013

I did not always take pictures of my harvests. For one thing, there was not much to harvest...lol. Another reason was that when I went out into the garden, I was there to work, to weed and hoe. I didn't even really think about taking pictures. 

One Day's Harvest

These two pictures are examples of harvests before using a basket. The one to the right was from a few years ago It was one day's harvest.  The picture above was my first harvest picture from 2013. Five zucchinis. The basket would follow three days later. 

A tomato harvest - 2012

The pictures that you see today, evolved over time. I didn't have a basket.  When I actually had something to harvest,  I would grab a bowl or pail and head out to the garden to harvest tomatoes. 

One day I was at Hobby Lobby and saw a basket that I thought would be perfect for my daily harvests. I love baskets and especially this one because it is not deep like my other baskets. 

Now that we garden in GABs, I have lots to harvest.  Below are pictures of harvest pictures from my 2014 garden.

In this first picture, I show the sizes of my baskets. The one on the right is my original basket. It's about 10 inches across. It's holds a good amount of food. I saw the same basket, just a little bigger at Hobby Lobby one day and decided to get it for days that the garden was really producing. It's about 16 inches across. The basket in the middle is one of my regular baskets that I have on top of a bookshelf in my library. This day, I needed the BIG baskets for my harvest. 

The picture on the right is of a three day harvest. Lots of work ahead of me in the kitchen! 

This year I decided to look for another  basket as a spare, but discovered that Hobby Lobby no longer carries "my" basket.

I did find a wire mesh basket that I thought looked interesting. Now you can see all the way inside. 

The next picture is a weeks worth of tomatoes. Between harvesting, farmers markets and other errands, I found myself behind in the kitchen. Yikes! 

I like to combine different colors, shapes and varieties, not only to have diversity in my baskets, but to have diversity in my kitchen. This basket combines the beauty of sunflowers with the harvest of zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and assorted herbs.

If you had told me a few years ago, that I could be a successful gardener without working so hard to till the ground and weed my traditional garden, I'm not sure that I would have believed you. A traditional garden was how we did it. I had tried raised beds, but not with much success. I thought that there was no easy way to garden and no easy way to grow my own produce.  Garden Anywhere Box has changed my perspective.

Garden Anywhere Box makes it easier to be a successful gardener. I can attest to that. I WAS that gardener who worked in the garden with little to show for it. I was convinced that I had "brown thumbs" and would kill anything that I tried to grow. After gardening with GAB, I finally consider myself a successful gardener. I love going out to the garden, I Phone in hand, to see who is in the garden and what is ready to harvest.  I only use natural light from the sun. No filters or special apps to alter my daily harvest pics. I do sometimes play with my pictures after posting my daily harvest pic, but what you see is what you get on the original.

I know that if GAB can help me be successful, this method of gardening can help anyone. I'm excited now about gardening. I can't wait to see what is ready to harvest. 

Once you realize that you can be a successful gardener, the sky is the limit on what you can grow.  

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Most people have a traditional garden. 

I've seen different methods of gardening...(traditional, raised beds, aquaponics, hydroponics, Mittleider, Back to Eden, lasagne, straw bales...the list goes on . 

I've even tried several of them. Most of these methods involve tilling and weeding (yuck). Some involve $$$ and time to implement (yikes!). 

Some methods involve an amount of DIY know-how (um...so not me).

I'm not knocking anyone's preferred method of gardening. I'm just saying that it's not me. I don't like to weed and I don't like the heat . That's why I love Garden Anywhere Box. 

Some people prefer a raised bed garden.

Garden Anywhere Box is simple. No tilling or weeding (yay!). Not very expensive and lasts for years (double yay!) With Garden Anywhere Box, we've done the work for you (triple yay!).

Plus, our boxes use up to 70% less water than a traditional garden and they are portable. No more spending time and money on a garden that you will have to leave behind if you move. With Garden Anywhere Box, you can take your garden with you. 


Garden Anywhere Box is a container garden...on steroids! We modify 18 gallon totes and turn them into gardening machines. Our exclusive (patent pending) watering system allows your garden to be watered for you. No weeding AND Self-watering!

This is how we garden. No weeding. Self-watering. Portable. No tilling. No mucking in the mud.
You can garden in a box You can garden in your socks. You can garden here or there. You can Garden Anywhere.
This garden was planted on June 1, 2014. This picture was taken three weeks later. 

Because GAB is portable, you can also garden year 'round. When it gets cold bring your garden inside or into a greenhouse. Garden through the winter and move your garden back outside in the spring. 

Larry made a greenhouse out of pvc pipe and greenhouse plastic.
The cats like the heater. 

You don't need a lot of tools or space to start gardening in a Garden Anywhere Box.  All you need is a GAB kit, potting mix and plants or seeds. That's it.

Visit our website and order a Garden Anywhere Box today. 

www.gardenanywherebox.com

Garden Anywhere Box makes a great gift. No one will expect this present under the tree. Give the gift that keeps on giving year 'round. Garden Anywhere Box is truly an easier and successful way to garden.