Garden Time

Every time of year is beautiful in its own way and is designed by God for a specific purpose.  Late spring and early summer is an especially exciting time with the garden.  It is wonderful to see God rewarding the fruit of our labors and the promise of a fruitful harvest.

Our herb garden with a few flowers thrown in:)

Beautiful before the Japanese Beetles attacked!

Hopefully in just a couple more weeks we’ll be having blueberry smoothies, blueberry pancakes, blueberry cereal, etc.

The fig tree is doing great!

The unconquered zinnia.

If you plant them once, they will come back year after year, more and more.  Our row of tomatoes has been almost taken over by them!

The bee’s soda fountain.  During these hot summer days, it is usually quite busy.

Here comes a cucumber!

We have found lettuce easy to grow, bountiful, and delicious.  It is lasting quite a while as well.

Here comes the squash!

Beans are also very easy to grow.  Here are some regular green beans…

…Burgundy beans…

…snow peas.

Yum-yum!

We got 20 new chickens a month or two ago.  They are waiting for their fence to be built.

Our egg suppliers.

“Only a face a mother could love!” ~Papa

Our bees are doing great as well.  A few months ago, the hive naturally split and we had a swarm on our hands.  Daddy was able to catch it and put the bees in a second hive.

Our first hive.

We praise the Lord for all His blessings!

Vegetable leather

For Christmas, Daddy got us a nice BIG dehydrator which has been so much fun.  I (Emilee) have been doing a lot of experimenting with different leathers.
Here are some ideas and instructions for making vegetable leather.  The finished product tasted like a condensed vegetable soup.  You could probably use these to make a broth or just eat it as it is.  By the way, I did not take exact measurements, so have fun experimenting on your own and modifying if you so desire.

First of all, chop one onion.

Sauté the onion in a little olive oil.

Next, finely chop some squash (I probably used one or two) and add to the sautéed onions.

Puree one or two tomatoes and add to the vegetable mixture.

Finely great a few carrots.

Mix the vegetables and allow them to sauté until tender.

After the vegetables were tender, I added a tablespoon or two of some Italian seasoning consisting of garlic, basil, rosemary, and sea salt.  Feel free to taste your vegetables to determine if you need more seasoning.  Just keep in mind, the flavor will be condensed in the leather.

Fill the blender a third or half way full of spinach…

…then spoon in your vegetables until the blender is about three-fourths full.

Add a little water, just enough to allow the food to blend.

Give it a spin until all the chunks are gone.

If you have a dehydrator, lay your paraflex or thick zip-lock bags cut to lay flat on your trays.  If you don’t have a dehydrator but your oven can go down to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, take a cookie sheet and lay your bag on it.

Next, spread your vegetable mixture on the trays, about an eighth to a quarter inch think in the middle and a quarter inch thick around the edges. 

Place you trays in the dehydrator or oven and turn it on to 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 4-6 hours or until completely dry.

When the leather is done, carefully remove it from the paraflex or bags.

Role the leather up beginning rather tightly.  Mine cracked a little at the beginning but it finished nicely.

Cut the leather as long as desired…

…and seal completely with plastic wrap!

That’s all there is to it!!  These are a healthy quick snack that are easy to take along.  Give it a try and let me know how it works!