To Crop Box or Not To Crop Box?

That is the question today!

This seems to be the latest trend in procuring your vegetables.  A local farmer has been promoting their crop boxes on Facebook.  This seventh time around I jumped on the bandwagon and signed up for my box.

If you've never heard of a crop box, here's what you do.  You sign up ahead of time and then go on the appointed day to get your produce.  I signed up online and had two choices for pick-up location; the local farm or a farm stand on the edge of town.  I picked the stand in town.

My little helper carried the money up to the cashier, he paid.  Then we went out to the stack of boxes where we transferred our produce to a paper bag to bring home.  I'm going to assume they reuse the wooden crates to keep prices down.  Next time I'll be prepared with my reusable bags.  The  bags were misprints from a local company, but I'm sure they still had to pay something for them.  If we all do our part to keep production/distribution costs down, we're helping to keep our prices low!

 Here's the contents of my box.

 1large head of cabbage

4 green bell peppers

3 orange bell peppers 

(One made it into our lunch before this picture was taken.)

10 ears of corn

1 red onion

3 poblano peppers

6 other little peppers

1 russet potato

2 red potatoes

First, to determine if this was a good value, I thought about the prices.  For my prices, I'm using sale prices that I've seen in my local grocery stores.  I have seen green cabbage for $0.33 per pound.  I'd say that head is about three or four pounds.  For ease of math, I'm going to value that head at $1.  If I hit a good sale, I can get bell peppers for $1 each.  So those I'm giving a value of $7.  Corn goes on sale 4/$1, so that's another $2.50.  The rest of these values came from my husband, since I don't regularly shop for them.  They are things he eats, but I don't.  He says, $1 for the onion.  The non-bell peppers he says 3/$1, which adds $3.  I buy my potatoes in 5 pound or higher bags, so I'm not sure what value to throw on those.  Bonus potatoes!!!  

If you add up my bolded values, it gives you a total of $14.50 plus bonus potatoes!  Given that I paid $10 this is a decent value.  Also, I low-balled my estimates using the very best sale prices I could remember.  I didn't have to wait for sales and drive to different stores. To me, that makes this an even better value!

Now the other way to evaluate signing up for a crop box is a little harder to judge.  I had no way of knowing what I was going to get and when I first saw what I was getting I was a little disappointed.  The only peppers I like are bell and I refuse to cut up onions.  I was seriously considering selling my box to a friend.

Then my husband saw the contents.  He was excited about the items I wasn't thrilled to have in the box.  He's eagerly looking forward to making some salsa.  No one in our house really loves corn on the cob, but we'll eat it.  

I don't have the answer quite yet, if the crop box was worth it on this level.  That remains to be seen if we actually use the produce before it goes bad.  But this is a gamble most families have any time they buy fresh produce.  But I have to say, ALL the produce was of very high quality!  Absolutely NOTHING looks like I'm in a race with the garbage can to see who will get it!

 

 One of my peppers had a problem.

My little helper was putting produce from the crate into the brown paper bag with me.

My little helper bit one item with no consequence other than me telling him not to bite anything else.

Then he bit this pepper.  My husband says they're not that hot.  But evil mom that I am, I laughed at the child hopping around the veggie stand, mouth gaping open, pointing to his mouth while saying owie!  Karma!  She gets little kids who don't listen to their mother!!!!

DIY Bouncy Balls

So here's what I saw on Facebook.

Homemade Bouncy Balls
2 cups
Measuring spoons
A stir stick
2 tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp borax
1 tbsp glue
1 tbsp corn starch
Food coloring (optional)
Pour the water and borax into the first cup and stir the mixture until it is dissolved.
Pour the glue, cornstarch and food coloring into the second cup and mix. Then add the mixture from the first cup into the second cup.
Let the ingredients sit for 15 seconds then stir.
Once the mixture becomes difficult to stir, scoop it out of the cup, and roll into a ball. Enjoy!!!

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My neighbor came over and we attempted to make three bouncy balls. One of them went home.

If you want to make a "brain colored" ball use the apricot recipe on the neon colors food coloring box.

It was a fun sensory project for my son.  He likes mixing things and he doesn't mind textures.  This would be a good activity for children who don't like slimy.  It ends up being firmer than playdough.

The "balls" do not hold their round shape.  Perhaps its the humidity here, I don't know.

Nor do they bounce.

I used craft glue, perhaps the results would be different with school glue.  If you give it a try, share your results!

I think the recipe makes good fidget toys!  And we had fun, so it wasn't a total waste!

Juice, Sauce and Salsa

Last weekend I took a trip to Detroit to visit family.  While there, I got the chance to meet a Facebook friend and fellow blogger, Becky.  Go check her out, she does giveaways, reviews and if you're gluten free, you'll enjoy the recipes she shares.  Well, you may even enjoy them if you're not gluten free!

She took me to this amazing place!  Detroit's Eastern Market. To call this a farmer's market is an understatement.  This is a farmer's market on steroids.  It almost makes me want to move to Michigan.  I should have been taking pictures, but I was too busy being in awe of the sheer size of this place and the multitude of fresh fruits and vegetables, the baskets of flowers, trees and any other plant you can imagine.  There are sheds (yes, plural) that house this market.  It's amazing!  Every trip to visit family in Michigan from now on will include a trip to this market.

My big purchase of the morning was four flats of tomatoes.  That's 60 pounds of tomatoes!!!  My first flat made 6 quarts of tomato juice.  My second flat made just under 5 quarts of tomato sauce.  My third flat made about 7 quarts of salsa.  My fourth flat is still sitting in my kitchen.  I'm thinking I should run to the store to get some bacon and lettuce.  Hello BLTs!!!!

Watch for some blog entries about how each of these turned out!  Haven't tasted them yet!

Oh and the best part!  Each flat was only $5.  That's 3 pounds for $1!  

Pin Review: Muffin Pan Garden Rows

So I tried another Pinterest idea today.

This pin using a muffin pan to create straight even rows.

I can see two different groups of people who might use this.

1. People who try to make a straight line and come up with a figure-eight.

2. People who are anal-retentive about having everything perfect.

To both groups of people I say the same thing.  

It's a garden!

Who cares if they're perfectly straight and even!

Just because this is going to feed your family,

doesn't mean it has to be serious business!

Enjoy your garden!

Have fun with your garden!

I tried using the muffin tin, but to get those neat little dents you have to have freshly tilled and raked soil.  And you need to press firmly on the tin.  A garden is a lot of work.  It's worth it, but using this just added unnecessary work.  I don't have time for unnecessary work.  I eyeballed my rows; using the border of my garden which is fairly strait.

If it's not perfect...oh well!

The truth of the matter is this; in the fall all these plants will be torn out of the garden or tilled back into the soil.  If I don't like the configuration I had this summer, I'll just keep trying something new until I'm happy with what I have.

So don't make yourself the extra work of another dish to wash.  Skip the muffin pan rows and just relax.

Happy Gardening!

My First Time...

This year anyways!

Get your minds out of the gutter!

It's my first time hanging laundry outside this year!!!

Yes, those are my son's diapers.   You didn't figure me for a disposable diapering mama now did you?  How DIY is that? ;-)

So what are the benefits of hanging your laundry outside?  Glad you asked, there are several.

1. The most obvious, cost savings.  It takes money to run your dryer.  It doesn't cost you money to run the sun!  I wont lie.  There are some start-up costs; line, posts and pins.  There are a range of price points for all of these.  You don't have to go as fancy as I did. I dug four or five foot holes and set those babies in quick-crete.  It was a BIG project.  For which you can find directions here. That reminds me!  If you're going with untreated wood posts, as I did, it's always a good idea to give them a fresh coat of sealant every year.

2.STAINS!  By golly it never fails, when ever my husband throws the laundry in the dryer, I've gotten something on something and he just probably set a stain into my favorite shirt!  So, when you line dry, the dryer won't be setting in your stains.  PLUS! You'll be "sunning" them.  A term that is probably familiar to other CDers.  That would be Cloth Diaper-ers.  :-)  The sun does this magical thing to stains.  They disappear!  The darker the stain, the longer it takes.  But even the set in stains on my son's diapers fade dramatically.

3. Your clothes will last longer.  Dryers are notoriously hard on fabrics.  By keeping them out of the dryer you will extend the life of your clothes.

4. The smell.  Your clothes will smell like sunshine and the outdoors without the use of chemicals.  And if it happens to rain on your clothes, it's not a big deal.  The rain water will soften your clothes and add a pleasant fragrance.

Damn Bunnies!!!

That's been my response to everything about my garden lately.  Damn Bunnies are the reason I didn't get any of my Kohlrabi's last year.  Damn Bunnies are the reason that my body is aching today.

I spent the last two days engaging in manual labor... all because of the Damn Bunnies!  Not really, but yes.

My backyard is L shaped around the garage.  The back section I laughingly refer to as "The Back 40."  So when we bought my house this is what the "Back 40" looked like. 

In the center you can see the garden that was already here.  It was just a turned up area full of weeds.  The only thing I did to that was weed it and had it rota-tilled.  About five feet to the left of this garden we turned up a 10'x10' section of grass.  I was planning on turning that into a sandbox for my son, but then the leaks happened and we didn't have money for that project, so I just used it as garden space.  There is also an old dead stump in the middle the back edge of the original garden space, which we took down to ground level during this project.  This was a large project that was spaced over two days and required large amounts of help from my husband. 

Here is what The Back 40 looks like now.

 This is looking on from the opposite angle of the previous photo.  Both of the plots have now been incorporated into one large garden. The first thing we did was to gather the railroad ties from posts on Freecycle.  This was done last fall.  We laid them out in areas that we could dig up easily  Plus they were piled on an area that we needed to dig up sod.  We waited lay some of them until we had rented the rota-tiller.  The fencing we bought because it was supposed to be super easy to install.  We did learn a couple lessons;

1. Don't step on the blades that help give them stability.  One of them went through the sole of my tennis shoe.

2. The little tabs that were supposed to hold the fence to the stakes were a joke.  Most of them were painted shut.  I sent my husband to the store for green zip ties.

3.  A rubber mallet is the best option to pound these babies into the ground.  Anything else chinks off the protective green coating.

The new measurements are 31.5'x13'! For a total of 409.5 square feet of growing space!!

For the garden prep we took a trip to our city compost.  We got rid of a bunch of garden and yard waste and came home with rich, black compost.  My city has a compost site that is free to all residents.  If you're thinking about gardening I would recommend finding out if your community has something similar.  The main reason I haven't entertained the idea of starting my own compost is because for the effort of driving across town I can get all the free compost I want.  It's also been tested by my local UW-Extension and found to be of very high quality. Check out the website. They have a lot of information about gardening, nutrition, youth development and so much more.

Once the entire area was rota-tilled and most of the chucks of sod were removed, the area was spread with ashes from the fire pit (high carbon content), compost from the city compost site, and some compost made from 100% buffalo manure.  This was then rota-tilled again.  I do have to get back out there to do some more weeding on the newly created garden patches, but I've got some time to get out there and do that.

 This is the gate to get in and out.  It may need some adjustments as we go if the Damn Bunnies can figure out how to get in.

You see some white stuff spread on the ground here.  This is diatomaceous earth.  I had found some little white worm-like things on the roots of some plants that had problems last year.  Diatomaceous earth is a physical pesticide.  The bugs it kills cannot develop a resistance or tolerance.  You do want to buy a product that's labeled as "food grade."  I found it in the organic gardening section.  Before using this you need to check weather sources carefully.  Once this stuff gets wet, it no longer works.  I only checked one weather source and it said no rain.  It rained last night.  So be sure to check a couple sources.

 

 The garden is edged on two sides by this narrow swath of space.  Too small to take a lawn mower.  I placed bricks that I found in various places as I've torn things apart in the garage and yard to create a barrier.  Now I'm working on killing the grass and weeds in this area. I could use a commercial grass and weed killer, but at what costs?  The big one being exposure to the chemicals during application and then through soil leaching into the foods I'll be growing in the garden.  I will be using a spray of full strength vinegar to kill the grass and weeds growing in this area.  Once I have the area cleared I will spread wild flower seeds.  Beautiful and low maintenance!

When I was researching vinegar as an herbicide, I came across this post.  The writer did a comparative experiment of vinegar as an herbicide.  The results make me wonder if they cleared away dead plants or just left them between applications.  Or even if there were multiple applications.  I plan on clearing away plant debris in between applications of vinegar.  I think that will have an impact on regrowth.

If you have comments or questions about anything I used to complete this project, please leave them below!

Gardening Guide

Are you like me?  You don't have all the knowledge you need in order to create the garden you desire?

I checked out two different FREE websites that can help you.


http://www.vegetable-gardening-online.com/
(VGO)
This one is pretty simplistic.  I think this would be good for a person who's the quintessential newb. You have very little know-how when it comes to growing your own food.  You've got some vague idea that the veggies your grow come from a plant.  And maybe that plant needs some watering. 

This site gives you very clear step by step directions, tips and techniques for what to do with the seedlings you have purchased from the store.  If you feel you're ready and confident in your ability to start your own seedlings from seeds, this is NOT the site for you to use as your main online garden guide.  Don't worry.  We'll get to you in a minute!  You can download worksheets that will help you figure out what, where and when to plant.  


www.smartgardener.com
 (SG)
This is the site I use.  It's a more in depth.  I think this site is good for people with some gardening experience.  It doesn't give as detailed for some of the processes as the first site.  This site expects you to have more background knowledge. For someone like me, who is still building this, I have to go look elsewhere.  This is where VGO comes in handy.  You can go there to look things up.

There are two main reasons that SG is my online gardening home.  First is the garden layout tool.   You can input the dimensions of your garden.  Then you add the plants you want plant or start.  You also get a week by week calendar of when to do items.

When you create your account you enter in your location, the number of people in your household and your food likes.  It makes recommendations based on these.  Overall this site is much more detailed for people who are seriously looking into gardening.

Please, check out these sites and leave your comments about them.  Do you agree with me?  Disagree?  I'd love to find out why!

Attack of the Fifty Foot Bunny!

My garden was plagued last year!

By the Fifty Foot Bunny!!!

Okay, so yeah, that is an exaggeration...
But not by much!

My husband saw the bunny the other day.  It's as big as my cat.  Which doesn't mean much until you see my cat.  She's a Maine Coon mix and weighs about 16 pounds.

Last summer the giant bunny ate my kohlrabis and nibbled on just about every other plant in my garden.  This year I'm trying my hand at growing some bunny favorties; kohlrabi, lettuce, cabbage, carrots and spinach.  Now I just have to try to figure out a way to keep this monstrous rabbit from eating the food right off my table.

Last year I tried spreading cat scat around at the whole in my neighbors yard where I knew the rabbit entered my yard.  Didn't scare this thing.  It plays chicken with my neighbors very vocal Min Pin.

We also shaved this fuzzy girl in the backyard.  It really looked like a cat exploded.  Did nothing to deter this brazen bunny!

I found this recipe.  I might give it a try.  I'll just have to make sure I wash things really well before I eat them.  Since I don't like spicy food!  This could cause some funny reactions.  My toddler really enjoys eating yellow pear tomatoes fresh from the garden!

Red cayenne, Jalapeno or habanera fresh peppers can be used in the preparation, but be careful if you use habanera because the capsaicin concentration is high enough to cause serious damage to the preparer! Jalapenos should be hot enough to keep the bunnies away. The quickest way to come up with a concoction is to take three fresh peppers and run them through a food processor with enough water added to create a liquid. Pour the liquid through a cheesecloth mesh into a glass quart jar. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive or other vegetable oil, a squirt of Elmer’s glue and a drop or two of liquid dishwashing detergent. Use one part of the concentration to 10 parts water. Shake well just before application. This should discourage the bunnies without hurting them. If not, then make the concentration stronger, to 30 percent, or just go up to the cayenne pepper for extra heat. Be sure to reapply after new growth appears or after a good rain.

Who needs pots or store bought vanilla!?!

In my ongoing quest to become a DIY homegrowing Diva, I decided to start my own seedlings this year.  My problem was I don't have a lot of money to invest in items to grow said seedlings.  I needed pots to start my seedlings. 

Or so I thought!

Hello my best friend or my arch nemesis (this is yet to be decided), Pinterest!

Here's what I found.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/18/ad/b7/18adb7540fd998c5e5f9177f575350b2.jpg

Newspaper!!  I have lots of newspaper!!!  I get three each week!

I rolled my paper around some glass jars I had.  I won't lie.  It's rather tedious.  I got a little more careless with each one I rolled.  I don't look forward to rolling more as I have lots more plants to start, but I LOVE the price.

Here's what mine look like now, about a week after I planted them.

 I've got lots of baby plants!  Using paper pots hasn't appeared to have impaired my growth at all.  I don't know how they kept their pots so round in the original photo. 

You can also see a slight oranging around the edges of the newspaper on the originals.  Mine have more orange around the edges.  I used an orange sharpie to label the paper pots.  However, none of my writing has run and it's below the spots where the paper is turning orange so I think the two are unrelated. 

More updates to come on newspaper pots. 


My other project...vanilla!

DIY Natural is another site I frequent.  I get their update emails.  Last winter I got a post about making your own vanilla.  I thought this would have been a great Christmas gift, but I didn't get it in time.  You see, it takes a couple months to, I don't know the right word, ferment (maybe that's the right word.)

My vanilla was started on 2/20.  I had the beans and my neighbor had the vodka.  Which is a great

way to reduce costs when you're overhauling yourself into a DIY Homegrowing Diva, find a partner in crime!  Sure I won't get all the vanilla, but what if it turned out to be nasty!  Not that I think it will, because here we are less than a month later.

I sliced the length of the beans.  That took some care and my fingers smelled like vanilla for a day or two after.  Not a bad scent to carry around!  When I initially put the beans into the bottle and smelled the concoction I would say that it was 98% vodka and 2% vanilla.  I just took a sniff after taking the picture today and I would change those numbers to  roughly 40% vodka and 60% vanilla. 

I really don't think this is going to turn out badly!  It's so hard to wait!  Every time I shake the bottle I want to make something with a delicious vanilla flavor!

DIY Natural broke down the cost of making your own vanilla.  It's insanely cheaper and not very difficult to make your own.  I doubt I'll ever be buying vanilla again. 

How does your garden grow?

This entry is ideas for what to do with my garden once it grows!  Hopefully, it grows and I can make delicious things with my produce!

Cilantro
Husband likes this in his salsa.  I've got tomatoes and jalapenos on the list, so hopefully, we'll have some good salsa.

Sweet Basil & Oregano
I want to make my own spaghetti sauce.  So why not use some fresh herbs?

Dill
Can't have dill pickles without dill!

Thyme
Husband has acne.  I want to try this homemade astringent to see how it compares to store bought products.

Black Zucchini
I just adore zucchini bread.  I also have a recipe floating around this house somewhere for a nice light summer salad with zucchini and white whine vinegar.  Boy LOVED it last summer.

White Kohlrabi
Husband swears this is some crazy German vegetable, but whatever!  I'm German and I love some sliced kohlrabi sprinkled with a bit of salt.

Purple Kohlrabi
I've never had a purple one before.  Something fun to try! 

Purple Dragon Carrot
This just looked too cool, not to try!  A friend of mine wants to see how this would look in carrot cake.  I can't wait to find out!  There will be a post about this! I really hope these grow well!!

Rainbow Blend Carrots
Yellow, orange, red and purple.  These will add color to our salads, coleslaw, spaghetti sauce and veggie platters!  Plus, the more color variety you have in your diet, the more nutrients you consume!

Edamame
I was introduced to edamame by my father in law.  I thought eating soybeans was kind of odd, but it's a tasty and healthy snack.

Peas
I really like frozen peas.  I bet I'll like the even more when they come fresh from my garden!

Pickling Cucumbers
I don't like cucumbers, but I do LOVE pickles.  I want to give a try at making my own.

Red Cabbage and Green Cabbage
I make a mean coleslaw if I do say so myself!  Plus, adding cabbage to your salad mix gives it more substance; making it more filling and it lasts longer.

Yellow Pear Tomato
Last summer, Boy discovered the joy of eating these little beauties right off the vine!  They are lower in acid and have a lot of flavor.

Prizehead & Oakleaf Lettuce and Spinach
Hello salads!

Red Zebra, Pink Hybrid, Big Boy Hybrid, Roma
Just a couple tomato options.  I'd like to make a variety of tomato products.  Tomato juice, vegetable juice, stewed tomatoes, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, tomato paste.  And anything else that strikes my tomato fancy!

Pumpkins
Bread, pie, ice cream, juice!  Pumpkin anything is just delicious!!!

Spaghetti Squash
A great healthy alternative to spaghetti noodles.  I have trouble eating noodles.  And this is much easier to digest for me than pasta.

Sunflowers
Boy loves sunflower seeds almost as much as his father does.  Plus I can't wait to see the look on Boy's face as he watches them grow.

I'm so excited about all these possibilities and more.  Now if only the rest of my seeds would arrive!!  My smart gardener says it's still a little early to start my seedlings.  But I've been working on making space under a sunny window in my office for them.  If you've got ideas on how to use some of these foods that I haven't thought of, I'm all ears.

Don't be afraid of the ISO

For those of you who don't know, ISO can be explained in a couple ways.

In Search Of

Or

Is Seeking Out

Either way you look at it, the three letters in caps, catch the attention of a person who potentially has something they want to get rid of.

When you want to make changes that require "stuff" and you're on a budget, it can be difficult.  But an ISO post can be your best friend!  Find rummage groups on Facebook.  Post an ad on Craigslist.  Find your local Freecycle.  All of these options are free to post.  With an ISO on Facebook or Craigslist you'll likely have to pay for the "stuff," but on Freecycle, everything is free!

Don't be afraid to post in unlikely spots!  About half an hour from me is a church that hosts a children's rummage twice a year.  I casually commented that I was ISO canning jars.  I said I knew it was a long shot, but I wondered if anyone would be selling canning supplies.  Well, within a day someone contacted me from that post with a what would be a great deal on jars for me.

Here's what I got:                               Retail Price
2 dozen jelly jars (4oz)                       $24.00
1 dozen regular mouth pint jars          $19.99
4 dozen wide mouth pint jars              $83.96
23 wide mouth quart jars                    $57.39
Total                                                  $185.34


For price comparison I searched for prices online.  I'm not even counting all the rings and lids that I got!  Four of those boxes of lids and rings are unopened!  The box of jelly jars is unopened!  All 23 of the quart jars have never been used!

So by posting my ISO add in an unexpected place I saved over $160!!!  I paid $25 fall that entire pile of canning supplies!!!!

Don't be afraid of posting ISOs!! Even if the spot seems like it won't get you what you're looking for!!!

Can I become a DIY Diva?

I've been doing reading and watching things that make me want to be more self sufficient.  Or at least less reliant on commercial items that are lower in quality and more expensive than I can make on my own.  I'm using several blogs and websites to help in this.  I've been DIYing laundry detergent for over two years now.  I have gone through several different recipes, but I've settled on this one for quite some time.  I'll write a blog about that on another day.

I watched season 1 of Alaska: The Last Frontier.  It's about the Kilcher family, who homesteads outside of Homer, Alaska.  They grow, raise and hunt all their food.  They split wood to heat their homes all winter.  And they have no plumbing.  Now I don't want to be that off the grid, but I want to be more responsible for creating my own food.

Recently I came across an article on Facebook.  It discusses the likelihood of weather impacting and raising our food costs.  My family is committed to eliminating our debt and so we live on a pretty tight budget.  My husband didn't get very good student loans.  He graduated about 3.5 years ago and we just paid off his loans!!!  With that said, we want to knock out my student loans next and then we'd love pay off our home in less than 20 years.

My first big project is my garden.  Which leads to another minor project, rain barrels, and a major endeavor....canning!

I was discussing rain barrels with my favorite blogger, Becky over at Week99er.  We were discussing options and ways to do this on a budget.  People often use large 55 gallon drums to make these.  But I wanted something that I could lift the lid off.  So she was helping brain storm ways to do this.  The cheapest I found the drums for was $15 each. Becky suggested I check Instructables.com where I found this tutorial.

I did a search at my favorite local handyman's store where I found 32 gallon garbage cans on sale for $7.99!  Nearly half the price of the drums and given that they aren't bright blue, they won't stand out so much.  And I don't have to do a lot of work to get the lid to open!  Winner, winner, Chicken dinner!!!  My little one helped me fill them with snow when we got home.   Spigots will come later.  For now, we're keeping it simple.