The Weekly Digs #206

Heat Wave

We had a few of our first very hot days this week and it was rough! 89ºF, along with high humidity, and it didn’t cool off at night. I tried really hard to get stuff done outside but was moving slow as a snail since my very pregnant body didn’t like it. I usually don’t mind the heat (would rather be hot than cold) but during this time it was just about unbearable.

Cranberry applesauce (I talk more about this below)

We did manage to get more done on our big garden project. Luckily I’m acting as the film crew and project manager and not having to do much intense labor on it (leaving that to Cam and the boys).

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Thankfully it won’t stay hot for weeks, just a few days and we should be back at reasonable work outside weather. 

Garden and Harvests

Earlier this week, my strawberries were very, very close to having the first few ripe berries and I left them there to get super red. The next day I came out and they looked red and ready. As I bent down I noticed some birds beat me to them. They had pecked off a little bit of each ripe one. I was super bummed.

One good looking strawberry left!

But I still wanted to eat some so I brought them inside, cut off the eaten spots, then ate the rest. Haha, I guess thats the kind of gardener I’ve become. I share with the local wildlife, although not willingly.

Once it cools off, I will set up some hoops and put netting over all the berries. Or I could paint some small rocks red and place them in there to trick the birds too.

I think the netting will be better at this point since I spotted a very large rabbit in my cover crops (the ones shown below) earlier this week. With netting the berries will be protected from both animals. Mr. Rabbit got in because we are doing some fence work and not all the gates are closed.

Cover crops are very tall and dense! The rabbit has a good hiding spot.

In other news, I planted another tray of tomatoes and peppers, Roma tomatoes and HMS Picnic peppers. I staggered the pepper planting so that I could save seeds. My other sweet peppers were started in soil blocks 4 weeks ago.

I also worked on finishing weeding around my peas, carrots, and lettuce. And we got the wire in my caterpillar tunnel set up for the tomato trellising. 

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Cam’s going to take a couple days off work this week to work on the big garden project, and I’m also hoping he has enough time to help me with some heavy lifting jobs in the garden. Lots to do and so little time.

Harvesting– Strawberries, kale, lettuce (galore), carrots, asparagus and cilantro. Arugula flowered a few weeks ago and I’m letting it stay for a while to feed pollinators and I’ll keep some seed too.

Preserving

I made the rest of the pumpkins into puree this week. Then made the pumpkin puree into pumpkin muffins and breads and froze them. By the way, thank you all for the freezer meal ideas! I’m already implementing them!

I also made some cranberry applesauce. It’s delicious, and I hope to get a recipe written up for it soon and posted here! They are both high acid items so safe to combine and create a combination recipe for water bath canning.

Cam is working on finishing up making lard tonight. We borrowed a meat grinder from a friend and he was able to grind it instead of doing the very time intensive slices we did last time. 

Meals for the Week

This week we made lemon chicken pasta, a family favorite. Basically it’s half preserved lemons, and half roasted garlic then you put it in a food processor and add olive oil. Then add parmesan cheese (optional) and this is the sauce. Then mix cooked pasta, cooked chopped chicken, and lots of chopped kale and stir in the lemon garlic sauce. Reserve some of the pasta water in case it needs to be more sauce-like and salt and pepper to taste. It’s delicious.

Cam cooked a couple of whole chickens earlier this week on the smoker so we were able to freeze one for later and then used the other for the meal.

Kian’s plate of Lemon Chicken Pasta. He added some asparagus to the top of his and parmesan cheese.

We also grilled pork chops and asparagus (pretty much have this on repeat this time of year) and had a salad with it, made black bean soup for a rainy day earlier this week, and had waffles, bacon, and fruit one night.

Then the night I made all the pumpkin baked goods I was tired of cooking and the boys were on a campout anyway so we kept dinner super simple.  I literally picked an entire bowl full of asparagus and grilled it.

Then Noelle and I ate just the grilled asparagus and a pumpkin muffin for dinner. The asparagus was so good, I didn’t mind just eating a huge portion of that! And surprisingly I didn’t even need any type of snack before bed (which I usually have).

P.S. I promised a little picture of our nursery set up in our master bedroom this week but didn’t get finished what I planned in there. Cam’s going to help me hang up the quilt and we prioritized the outside projects instead of doing that. Hopefully by next week!

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2 Comments

  1. As always, I forgot about reading Sundays blog 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ So now it’s Tuesday. You got a lot done this week! Your meals sound soooo delicious 😋🤤
    I think of you so often and cannot wait for the baby 🤗❤️

  2. Love the lemon garlic pasta recipe. I made it one night and the kids ate it so fast, I added a tiny bit of chilli and it was delish.
    I enjoy your content so much, its so nostalgic for me as I’m watching you enter Spring as I enter Autumn in the garden (Aussie). Enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy, what a wild ride it always is! Big love from over the sea X