Video of me planting Black Eye Peas

I am planting black eye pea seeds using a 3/4" pvc pipe.  It helps save my back.

The first part of the video is a slide show of the bed preparation.  The second part is a video showing my technique of actually planting the seeds.

Thanks for watching.



Pictures of Vegetable Garden

I wanted to share the progress of my vegetable garden as of today.

Two of my onion buckets.  One of the buckets has been taken over by a tomato.  I left it there.  I could not imagine pulling up a tomato plant.  Not sure what variety yet. 

My tomato plants.  I am tying them up using a modified Florida Weave.

This is my green beans and squash.  The beans to the right are finished and are going to be tilled in this afternoon and black eye peas are going in here.

Right side of Greenhouse.

Left side of Greenhouse.

East side of Garden. 

Potato Bed.



Plum Bbq Sauce Finished

We processed 6 1/2 pint jars in boiling water bath.  Sauce turned out wonderful.  It is kind of sweet but the cayenne pepper definately gave it a kick.


Here is the recipe I used.  I couldn't find a recipe I was happy with so I tweeked a couple of recipes together and it came out delicious.


4 pounds plums
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup chopped onion
1 Tb. dry mustard
1 Tb. salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. cider vinegar

1. Wash, pit and coarsely chop plums.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil; add plums and return to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Process with an immersion blender until desired consistency (optional), and cook until thick and syrupy.
5. Prepare canner, lids, and 1/2-pint jars.
6. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Attach lids and process for 20 minutes in a boiling water canner. Remove lid, turn off heat, and let sit for 5 minutes before removing to a towel-lined counter to cool.
7. Remove rings and wipe clean for storage in a cool, dark place.

Picked a few Green Beans.  The two variety's pictured are Contender Green Beans and Roma II flat podded Green Beans.  We are also starting to pick squash.

This is my pepper bed.  We are growing Bell Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Pimento Peppers and Poblano Peppers.

Snapping green beans and getting them ready to process.  Out the batch we picked today we canned 9 pint jars.  So far this year we have canned 35 pint jars of green beans. 

Plum Bbq Sauce

The Plum Bbq Sauce turned out really nice. It only used up 4lbs of plums so we will have plenty left for some more jam or plum butter.

 

Picking 4lbs of plums for recipe.

Washing Plums.

Reducing Plums with the seasonings.

Bbq sauce is ready to put into jars.

I am making mess as usual.  Gina is not happy with me for staining her towel.

Jars are in boiling water bath.  We processed them for 20 minutes.  Will post recipe tomorrow if it turns out to be a keeper.

Why Crooked Plum?

When we first moved onto this property 15 years ago one of the only trees here was a plum tree.  After years of neglect and improper pruning the tree started to die.  Only one side of it did and the other side of the tree continues to grow and produce plums.

Plums are the first thing we attempted to process and save on our homestead.  For several years now we have made plum jam.

This year we have processed plum jam and plum butter.  This afternoon we are going to attempt plum BBQ sauce.  We will let you know how that comes out.