Tomatoes & Mural Festival

I still get stressed over the tomatoes...fear of not having enough is overwhelming. Why is that? Perhaps I should give up even growing enough for canning and simply buy what I need. Grow enough for eating fresh and let Mother Nature do her thing. Grumble grumble...

I looked back at blog posts of previous years and what I noticed is I do not have any pics from mid August of tomatoes. So I decided today to post some for future reference. Watching my favorite utube gardening videos are not helping as the zones are so different. While they have loads of tomatoes on their plants, I still have blossoms and little fruit...sigh..

I have one pot with 2 plants that has blossom end rot. I thought I would experiment and see if I could save them. So I threw down some lime and then a couple days later I dissolved 4 tablets of cal-mag that I had in a couple liters of water. Watered the 3 pots that I have on the deck. Now it’s wait and see.

Also side dressed all tomatoes today with 4-4-4

These are really struggling and I’m almost certain they will not produce much

...lots of green happening...

...threw in sunflowers and cucumbers 

...some tomatoes here...

So then I had some fun with sunflowers and zucchini blossoms

...and Brent cleaned up the garlic...only 20.5 lbs! Woot! Update...counted 122 fists of garlic!

This afternoon was spent downtown as there was a Mural Festival happening. Such beautiful work done in the alleyways. 

Cycling without Age...this is Brent’s new thing...I didn’t get a picture of him piloting but they took several groups out and around the murals

The volunteers for today

This was last weekend at the park!

...and while Brent got his exercise I enjoyed some of the entertainment 

...then we went to the Hume for dinner...great way to end the day

Dinner Tonight

Worked in the garden this morning for a couple of hours. After the hot spell things are looking a tad tired....including moi...you reach a burn out period and there is no way you feel like doing yard work....and then this happens

Tonight’s dinner! Golden beets...carrots, parsnips, onion, lettuce, swisschard. Plus a zucchini that didn’t make it into this shot. I love being able to pick the vegetables on demand thus freeing up space in the fridge for other essentials ...like wine 😉

Also picked a handful of tumbling tomatoes that didn’t make it into the kitchen! I have been making a salad daily with kale, tops of onions and lettuce mixed and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. The dressing is a Caesar salad dressing blended with mayo, olive oil and red wine vinegar. 

Brent also harvested some potatoes a few days ago so we cooked them up and enjoyed them immensely. Especially me as I haven’t had any for a very long time. I have been very very strict with the carbs and I really miss them. Since these were volunteer plants....they don’t count right?!

Now I have to try and eliminate grains in my diet for a month...sigh...but with vegetables like this and a good steak...dinner will be amazing! 

Reusable Produce Shopping Bags

So what does one do when Pat comes for a visit and we want to do something? We sew! We made a trip to Fabricland to find supplies. Didn’t find the mesh suggested in the pattern but we did find bug net which works perfectly...and some lime green netting that was in the discount bin!

Project is reusable produce shopping bags adapted from...you guessed it Pinterest https://pin.it/spzgdnduefcuug ... this post is for Pat when she goes back to Ft St John and she needs to finish hers..and for me too....

You only need 1 fat quarter for each bag. From the width which is 22” cut a 3” strip twice. Leaves you with a piece that measures 16” (the height is 18”)

From the bug net which is 60” wide cut 16” and then 6”...you should get 10 pieces that measure 16”x6” each

First one we cut we got very confused 🤪

With right sides together stitch netting and fabric together on two sides forming a tube. (16” side)

Serge or zigzag to secure seams

With wrong sides together sew bottom of bag 1/4”seam and trim to 1/8”

Turn to inside and sew 1/4” Seam forming a French Seam

Take two 3” strips and sew ends together. Lay across top of bag lining up the seam on the one edge. Draw a line on the other side measuring the width of the drawstring band. 

Make a mark 1/2” from the bottom as in the picture and another 3/4” from the 1/2” mark. (Do not stitch in this section) This will create the hole for the drawstring.

Sew along the vertical line missing the section as mentioned. Trim 5/8” from stitching line

Topstitch 

Pin and stitch 1/4” attaching the band to the bag

Press 1/4” all the way around ....fold over and stitch down

Love the green!

These are Pat's

Soup Bowl Cozy

Sew...it's hot...International guests are coming ...in need of gifts. I suppose I could go out and purchase the usual made in Nelson items, but that is not me....hmmm...

I had received a soup bowl cozy from a quilting conference that I attended this past spring. It was in a gift bag full of goodies. Brent and I really like it and he mentioned that we should have another one. So I thought why not? 

Pinterest to the rescue! I adapted the pattern from here https://pin.it/viifbhxoh6qbaw

These are my notes for future reference. For safety reasons no synthetic materials are to be used. I soon realized that I do not have a lot of cotton threads!  But I did find a couple of spools. Great project too for using up scraps of batting.

Trim batting to 9 1/2” square

Cotton fabric 10” square

Draw stitching lines diagonal both directions (stitch along these lines to quilt)

Then one horizontal and one vertical to find the centers.

Make 2 of these (1 for the inside & 1 for the outside)

Fold in half (horizontal line) and measure 2” towards the center and 1” up from fold 

draw a line and stitch from the widest to towards the point creating a dart

Fold in half (vertical line) and repeat above steps

Trim to 1/4” from stitching line. You should now have 4 darts.

With right sides together pin and sew 1/4” from the batting. 

Leave enough room to turn right side out.

Trim corners.

Topstitch around the edge

hmmmm....wonder if these should be smaller? They use so many bowls in Japan....and so small too...

Summer is Here!

Holy Moly is it hot! Summer is here! But not for long...

I caught a low grade cold last weekend in Kelowna and I’ve been feeling crappy but I figure it’s because of going in and out of air conditioning and hot temps. So I parked myself on the couch today thinking it would be a good day to binge watch Netflix....buuut the internet went down for most of the day! So the blog is it...

We did pick up some peaches and cherries in Kelowna and I managed to process them. I made a DIY cherry pitter out of an old canning lid. Drilled a hole big enough for the pit to fall through and used a chopstick to push through the cherry. Worked not too bad. Took a little practice but it did the job. I did a little research and found some recipes using fruit juices instead of sugar syrup. So last year’s canned apple juice went in the peaches and the grape juice in the cherries. Processed in water bath for 30 min. Should be good right?

Our grapes are shaping up nicely for this year

These are the tumbling tomatoes in the hanging buckets. Another tip I picked up off of utube was to use an electric toothbrush on the tomatoes. It is so hilarious to be buzzing the blossoms (counting to 5) with the back of the brush. 

Garlic has been harvested (pics to come) and strawberries are nearly finished. 

I look back at previous years of the garden and I think this years is by far the best. However I still panic at the thought of not getting any tomatoes! It has been said over and over you need patience...sigh...and of course it’s up to Brent now ever since I spotted 2 slithery things out there! Shiver!!

....and I’m gettin new glasses!