Is it Spring yet ??

It has been such a busy month. I am so thankful for my seed and plant sales on Etsy, as they have literally kept me afloat during a time when my regular business is low.
A person doesn't make much on a packet of seeds, but it's worth it in the long run for the wonderful customers that come back and purchase more or make a purchase for alot of packs !
I've sown quite a few flats of seeds in my little greenhouse...nothing is sprouting yet, but it was down to 15 degrees last night so I don't expect it. Normally I winter sow like crazy, but this year I decided to try it all in the greenhouse.
I will have a larger vegetable garden this year and have bought more vegetable seeds than I meant to...hopefully I will have a place to put them all. I just could not resist ! With a half sized deep freezer still full of green bell peppers , squash and other vegies...and shelves full of canned Kraut, salsa, pizza sauce , beans and pickles...well...I need more shelves !
I am actually thinking I need to buy another half deep freezer for the coming summer.
My flowers are budding....it's 39 degrees right now and I have daffodils in bloom, crocus in bloom, Hyacinths in full bud, and the little 'chicken feet' of my peonies up about 4".
I purchased a large lot of various HOT hot peppers in the mark down section of the grocery store yesterday...and this morning purchased some gloves lol. I plan on cutting these up and into the dehydrator later today, wish me luck !!

Is it Spring Yet ?

I realized today I havn't blogged in a whole week, but you must realize I'm new to blogging and just don't quite have the 'hang' of it yet.
I've been very busy selling seeds on ETsy. I think the cold and snowy weather has people wanting desperately to garden. I actually bought a bag of potting soil yesterday, knowing I'd be snowed in today, to sow some seeds, and transfer cuttings.
Have you tried winter sowing ? I learned about it a few years ago but havn't done any yet this year. I have taken part in two very large seed swaps, so am eagerly awaiting my packets of seeds.
What to do..what to do..when it snows and is cold.

I so need spring !

A winter bug

Well I finally have a winter bug. Not a nice one either, but I found myself canning something i had wanted to try yesterday , anyway. I had some canned pears from our pear picking this summer, and made caramelized pear butter. The caramel you make to pour into the butter mixture.. they should write a warning on this . It's like a sciene fair experiment ! Man ! It nearly blew out the top of the pot when I poured it in , like that Volcano that everyone at some point has made for their science fair project ?
I then put the entire mass in the crockpot for the day, and ended up with the most delicious butter. By butter I mean like Apple Butter. Very very sweet, and I'll be offering it up for sale soon on my Etsy pages.
Also managed to get my hands in the dirt today and potted up some little red japanese maple seedlings and cuttings.

Blueberry Jam

I always check the section at the supermarket for what they consider 'out of date' fruits and vegetables. Just look what I got for less than $4.00 ! They wanted $4.99 for a little carton of blueberries, but I found 4 larger cartons in the out of date section for $1.00 each. I brought them home, washed them and I found just a few bad blueberries..the rest, as you can see , where nice and juicy and sweet !!!
Of course...I made chunky blueberry jam.

Our Adventures with Persimmons

I had been eyeballing this tall tall persimmon tree all summer long at another neighbor's house. By the end of the summer it was packed , and I mean PACKED with fruits.
The thing is....I had such a bad memory from my childhood , concerning persimmons , that it took alot of research to convince myself to try and make persimmon butter with these...
You see when I was a kid, right behind my parent's house was a wild persimmon tree like this one. I don't know what got into my head to convince me to eat a non ripe persimmon, but let me just say that I would never recommend it to anyone ! My lips stayed puckered all day long and I couldn't get the taste of that out of my mouth.
I have now learned...you wait until the first frost 'bites' the persimmon tree, and the fruits turn an orangy color, and THEN they are ripe.

In my madness of canning everything this summer , I wanted to see what could be done with these persimmons....as my neighbor didn't want them.

Picking persimmons is a messy business. I still have what we affectionally now call 'persimmon goo' on the bottom of my sandles.

We picked enough persimmons to make one batch of persimmon butter, similar in texture to Apple Butter.
We learned the good and the bad ....that the hand cranked machine my mother loaned us to seperate the annoying seeds from this tiny fruit leaked oil....and no that was NOT the actual color of mistakenly ground seeds ..
Our first batch we had to throw out...and use something else to seperate the seeds from the pulp. You get very little actual pulp and it takes alot of work and alot of persimmons to get a small batch of persimmon butter.
We did it though, and it has a lovely taste...although a bit different.
I've been selling it on my etsy account under the name of SmokymistGardens

A good memory for my little family.

In the pickin' of pears

Now back to what I was up to this fall...

I noticed, more than ever the pear trees were loaded with fruits..LOADED. The limbs were bent and touching the ground.
I am not blessed with fruit trees, but I saw these everywhere, and sadly people let them rot and didn't pick them !
I noticed in driving through my little town a sign in somebody's yard that said "pears for free if you pick them'...
I called the number and out I go with my bushel basket. I didn't get many pears...but I filled up that one bushel basket. The pears were at the tops of the trees and we couldn't reach them.
These were the hardest things to peel and get the seed from of anything I canned all summer .
I am going to be making Caramelized apple bear butter soon !

It actually snowed

You know...when I was a kid I remember having good snows that lasted for a week at a time. Being out of school, sledding and building not only snowmen but big snow forts and having massive snowball fights. And of course mom making snow cream...the BEST snowcream ever.
Well as the earth has warmed, our snows have gotten less and less each year. The last snowfall we had that lasted more than a day was almost 8 years ago. There are toddlers that have never seen snow ! My kids , thankfully got to experience a decent snowfall , but when they were much younger.
We had a snow two days ago....a whopping 2" and everyone was so excited !! Schools have been out and are out again tomorrow. I know you Northerners will laugh at that, but it's the way of the South ! We cant' drive in it !
Just wanted to share some pictures.....