Homesteading: All about Family

Ron recently returned from a short visit up north. Here are the Gordon men--a very handsome lot.














Here is Poppa Ron reading to his 2 youngest granddaughters the beautiful Grace (in his lap) and Lily Gordon.















Here are Yvonne's 2 grandprincesses Nova (L) and Terra enjoying the beach in Destin.

Homesteader's Gifts

Today I harvested about 3 lbs of okra. Did you know okra is a hibiscus! L@@k at this beautiful, yellow okra blossom. Nature is amazing, isn't it! In addition to the great food, we get this gift of flowers!

The thing with okra is you can harvest it every day. Every single day you think you've reaped all there is. But the next day you find a big, honking okra. And you ask yourself, "Self, was this here yesterday and I just missed it?"

But you don't answer yourself because you don't know the answer. Maybe it grew overnight. Maybe it was there and you didn't see it. Maybe it was there and you meant to come back to it and forgot. Such is life.

Farming/gardening makes you realize things. Such as...if you see something you want or need, get it right then. It might not be there when you come back. Or you might not get to come back. Or it might be changed when you get back to it. Sometimes we just don't recognize the gifts until after we've passed them up.

This is the first year we planed okra. We love it. Some people hate it because of the slime. If you cook it right it's not slimy. We love gumbo. You can't have gumbo without okra! Hence the okra.

I have a wonderful 30-minute chicken gumbo recipe!! You use the store-bought rotisseried chicken. Email me at: chicksinfla@gmail.com and I'll give you the recipe.

Look at this monster okra pod. The one pictured with it is an average-sized one!

Here is today's haul. I got about 3 lbs of okra, a few bell peppers. I think they are called Marconi. They look like a Cubano but they are just different-shaped sweet peppers. Speaking of different...look at those deformed cucumbers!!! The heat made

them ripen too fast so they are deformed.

Someone asked me if the garden is all I have to talk about. I think they were actually asking if the garden is all I have in life. No. It's not. But who wants to hear about bugs and grass and laundry and such. Who wants to hear how blessed I am in my marriage and my faith. Who wants to hear that I waxed the floor or made made a batch of homemade English muffins?

Who wants to hear hours of how wonderful and beautiful my grandprincesses are? And how successful my son and daughter-in-law are? Or how many rejections slips I've received this year? Who? No one. So I write about the garden. Oh...we did buy a new chair. How boring is that!

We go along each day doing the best we can with what we have. And as always, all of our work takes place under the careful and watchful eye of Miss Trudy who was a gift from a passerby who pitched her out the window of their truck as they drove down our road.

Cornucopia -- A Homesteader's Joy!

As promised, the 25 ears of corn made 8 pints of corn. Why, you ask, do you see only seven? We ate one for dinner. Y-U-M!! It's like anything else that's fresh--it just tastes so much better! No chemicals, no preservatives. Even the salt has additives in it!

It's like the fresh eggs we get each morning. After eating only fresh eggs for more than 4 years now, we can't stomach eggs in the restaurant.

Our favorite breakfast place in Panama City Beach uses dozens of eggs per day. You would think at that rate they would be fresh. But, to us, they taste rotted! By the time eggs get to the grocery store, they are several weeks old. Or, sometimes, even months old.

If you have always eaten store-bought eggs you won't know the difference. But even restaurants buy their eggs from a distributor so they aren't much better than those sold in a store. We just can't enjoy eating breakfast out anymore. Unless of course we get something wonderful like Belgian Waffles.

Now if only I could teach the hens to lay those! Hmmmmm.

Homesteaders' Delight!

What a surprise we got this morning....babies! Well, kids to be exact. Sox gave birth to 3 kids! Unfortunately one died within an hour or so. But the other 2 are doing fine. One of them is already having lunch!! L@@k!!

The other goats couldn't care less. All they think about is food.

JoJo tries to talk me out of a cookie.

Patches gets in on the act.

The hens are oblivious to the goats. But they sure give great eggs! Five Rhode Island reds on the top, Seven Feather-footed Cochins on the bottom.

Today we harvested corn and dug up the remaining potatoes. This is only about 25 ears of corn. We'll get the rest later. We figure we'll get about 100 ears of corn. It takes 3 ears to make a pint of canned corn. Look at the corn!

Here's Mr. Ronnie shucking corn.

Here's the cornfield where the delicious corn continues to grow.

Ahhhhhh.......the watermelons are growing!

And, as always, we take time to smell the roses. Even if we forget to weed them as we should.

Fruits of our Labor: The Homesteader's Garden

We have worked so hard this year on our garden. And L@@K!!! Today's haul is about 15 lbs of potatoes! We are so proud.

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Yesterday I canned 7 quarts and 9 pints of string beans. Look at these beauties!

I had to buy the beans from another farmer. But, hey...we do what we gotta do! At least I canned them myself!

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Oh...L@@K at my pickles!

I bought these beautiful cukes from the same farmer. These are dill pickles. I grew the dill myself! I've never made dill pickles before and was very pleased with how they turned out.

This is a super recipe. Email me at: chicksinfla@gmail.com and I'll send it to you. I'll make sweet pickles later in the season.

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More later....

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