Homemaking Monday: Radish Relish

Praise God for his blessings!  We harvested many more radishes this week (most of them White Radish Hailstones).  I used the radish greens in a salad, and shredded the radishes up to make some lacto-fermented radish relish.  Below is my recipe.  You can adjust the amounts based on the size of your jar and harvest or experiment with other veggies added.

RADISH RELISH:

Ingredients:

~35 radishes, shredded

~3-5 carrots, shredded

~2 cloves garlic, shredded

~2 TBSP sea salt

Directions:

1. Mix and pound all ingredients together for about 20 minutes to release the natural juices.

2.  Pack tightly into a mason jar (or your favorite fermenting container), leaving at least 1 inch of space at the top.  Add some water if necessary to make sure the relish is covered with liquid.

3.  Cover and let stand at room temperature for about 3 days.

4.  Move to the fridge and enjoy on salads!



End of March Garden Update

We have been busy busy working in the yard.  My dear hubby was out past dark last night digging holes for our pear trees (there will be pics of those in the next garden update).  Over the past few week he has also finished building the rest of our raised garden beds and I have most of them planted.  I am very excited to see so much green in our garden already!  We have the following plants planted already (most of these are heirloom seeds from Baker Creek):

Radish White Hailstone

Radish Saxa II

Beet Bulls Blood

Detroit Dark Red Beets

Lettuce Black Seeded Simpson

Kale

Amsterdam Prickly Seeded Spinach

Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli

Sweet Basil

Common Thyme

Wild Zaatar Oregano

Clemson Spineless Okra

Old Homestead Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean

Sugar Snap Peas

Mideast Prolific Cucumber

Sagami Hanjiro Cucumber

Red Wonder Wild Strawberry

Onion Flat of Italy

Peppermint

Apple Mint

Yukon Gold Potatoes

I am hoping to get our transplants in soon, including:

Orange Bell Pepper

California Wonder Pepper

Chadwick Cherry Tomato

Pink Icicle Tomato

Ground Cherry

Florida Market Eggplant

With the exception of the Red Wonder Wild Strawberry, everything we planted has at least sprouted!  The kale from last year has started to flower.  The girls love picking and eating the buds - delicious!  They taste a lot like broccoli.

This is our first year planting potatoes.  If you are new to potatoes as well, there is an excellent video over at Deep Roots at Home.  We started with some organic Yukon Gold potatoes that I had in the pantry that had sprouted.  We just got these in the ground, so we'll see what happens!

Praying that the LORD blesses the work of our hands!



Homemaking Monday: Getting the Garden Ready

We saw surprisingly warm temperatures towards the end of February, with some days reaching as warm as 80 degrees!  We were very thankful to be able to run and play outside, hang the clothes on the line again, and get an early start preparing our garden. 

My wonderful hubby has been busy constructing more raised garden beds (last year we only had 3 raised beds, and we are hoping to plant 9 this year).  We had some seeds left over from last year and I ordered lots of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek.  Our kale survived the mild winter and we have already been able to enjoy some this year.  In early February we planted our first box with 3 varieties of peas, 2 varieties of beets, lettuce, broccoi, and spinach.  All of those have come up already!  Towards the end of February we planted another box with radishes, as well as more beets, lettuce, broccoli, and spinach.  We also started some onions, eggplant, peppers, and tomotoes indoors.  "M" and "Boo" have been Mommy's little helpers and are very excited about planting and watching the garden grow. 

Tot School Tuesday: Gg is for Gardens & Green Grass Growing

What fun we had learning about the Letter "Gg" this week!

SONGS:
*  "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow" - lyrics can be found on Kididdles

"M" really enjoyed pretending to be the farmer!

* "The Green Grass Grew all Around"

As we sang each verse I drew (with my wonderful artistic skills) a picture as we sang each verse.

Oh, the flea on the feather,

And the feather on the bird,

And the bird in the nest,

And the nest on the leaf,

And the leaf on the twig,

And the twig on the bough,

And the bough on the branch,

And the branch on the limb,

And the limb on the tree,

and the tree in a hole

And the hole in the ground

And the green grass grew all around, all around

And the green grass grew all around!

CRAFT: Letter "Gg"

In keeping with the "Green Grass Grew all Around", we made a grassy "G"

FOOD: Garden "Bugs"

This idea was inspired by the March 2011 Issue of Family Fun Magazine (page 20).

Make your favorite batch of rice crispy treats.  Roll into worm shapes, wrap in plastic wrap, add googly eyes, and loop a pipe cleaner around the neck.

SCIENCE: How does your garden grow?

We planted 2 pea seeds in a plastic bag (with a damp paper towel) and watched them grow!  Every 2 days or so we would take a photo and compare the seed growth sequencing cards in Homeschool Creation's Garden Preschool Pack.

CRAFT & PRACTICAL LIFE:

I found this adorable elephant watering jug in May 2011's Family Fun Magazine (page 24).  You need 2 gallon-size plastic jugs.  The handle from the one jug becomes the trunk of the elephant.  To attach the trunk:

1.  Cut a 3/4" hole in the middle of a jug cap.

2.  Cut the end of the trunk into tabs.

3.  Hot glue the trunk to the cap.

4.  Screw the cap onto the "elephant" jug.

"M" named her Elephant "W" which I thought was appropriate since he "Waters" the garden!

Tot School Tuesday: Ff is for Flower

We are probably going to be spending a few weeks on Ff is for Flower because of some special company coming in for a couple weeks.  We got off to a good start this week though.  Here are some of the highlights:

ON OUR SHELVES:

Flower Button Board:

I made this by sewing some buttons onto fabric, gluing the fabric to a piece of cardboard, and cutting some flowers out of felt.

 FRUIT BASKET:

We sing this song with these:
"Way up high in the (apple) tree,

Two little (apples) smiled at me.

I shook that tree as hard as I could;

Down came the (apples),

Mmmm, they were good"

FRUIT BLOCK PUZZLE:

 PUZZLE:

This is very easy for "M", but "Boo" is starting to play with it.

SENSORY BIN:

Hours of fun!

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW:

We played this game along with singing the song, "What Do Plants Need" from Homeschool Creations Garden Preschool Packs.

LETTER "F" CRAFT:

I forgot to take a picture of the final product (maybe I'll have one next week), but we made the letter "F" look like a flower.  The craft was inspired by Our Country Road (they made a lowercase a "f").



Tot School Tuesday - Ee is for Earthworms

We are moving out of the bug unit and into our garden unit (although the bugs can be found in the garden!).  I've been working all week on getting our shelves ready (pics next week of tools and toys). 

BOOKS:

Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel

Worms for Lunch by Leonid Gore

Planting Seeds by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Adam and Eve in the Garden a Zonderkids "I Can Read!" book

The Tiny Seed  by Eric Carle

Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge and Karen Patkau

MOON SAND:

Made "E's" using cookie cutters and by connecting "moon sand worms"

"M" signing the letter "E"

COLORING:

Ee is for Earthworms (sorry no pictures of this, but you can find the worksheet here)

"E" CRAFT:

Prep:

Cut the letter "E" out of construction paper.

Cut out a worm.

Grind black beans (or something else you can use as "earth")

Directions:

Glue earthworm to the letter "E".  Cover the "E" with glue and spread ground black beans over it.  It will look like the earthworm is popping up out of the earth.

CRAFT: Peek-A-Boo Earthworm

I'm not sure where I got this craft idea from, but the kids loved it! 

Materials:

Cup

Straw (the bendy kind)

Googly Eyes

Brown Paint

Green Construction Paper

Sissors

Pen/Pencil

Glue

Prep:

Paint straw brown (or use a brown straw if you can find one).

Trace and cut out child's handprints from the green construction paper.

Poke hole in bottom of cup (large enough for the straw to fit through).

Directions:

Glue handprints to the cup (to resemble grass).

Glue googly eyes to the straw.

Place straw through hole in cup.

Enjoy playing peek-a-boo with your earthworm!

HSV Garden Challenge

When the challenge first started in March we only had one raised bed planted:

We now have three raised beds planted and one potter:

We had a good harvest of peas before the tornados/storms destroyed/drowned them.

We had several huge harvests of parsley, but the plants turned mostly to seed and were overtaken by caterpillars.

The kale is doing wonderful!  We have had several harvests and just love Kale Crisps!

We harvested a few beets (and just replanted more):

The squash, zucchini, okra, and cucumbers are just beginning to take off.

I bought some mint a few weeks ago and planted it in a potter.  It has done very well and I thoroughly enjoy sipping some fresh mint sweet tea after working outside!

We just bought wood to make 6 more raised beds that we hope to have ready for the fall planting!

How is your garden growing?

Visit the HSV Garden Challenge for more inspiration and gardening tips!