Busy busy busy

I grew up not too far out From Princeton and when I was young it was all farms there. I loved going to the farm stands to get stuff when I was little. Not too many of them any more now.

I love Terhunes in Princeton. It has gotten much larger now then when I was a child but we would go every year to pet the animals and pick apples and pumpkins. Since my own have been born my folks take them to pick the peaches, blueberries, pumpkins and of coarse apples. Have you ever been?

we live near Princeton as well. . .there are less farms now than when we moved here, but there are still a few good ones. Better than northern Jersey, which has basically lost all of its farmland to developers.

Once the veggies are in the pickling and freezing of them will start as well. I won't have as much as I like of coarse because I only have a few containers of a garden this year. They said the ground is ok to plant in after the flood but I thought it safe to give it a year to let what ever is residual grow out. I mean the stuff in that water took the finishes of the door knobs and brass fireplace cover. I will though get some regular salsa made as I have the tomatoes, jalapenos in hanging planters and the herbs in the pots. Will need to buy the garlic and onion this year but the farmers market will have those cheap enough. I will also be on the look out for seconds of the tomatoes as I usually can and freeze large amounts of those for chili and sauces.

Hope u get alot of good things from your containers. One of my neighbors brought me a bag of cucmbers yesterday so i made pickles today.It sure helps having things canned & in the freezer. Don't work too hard.

Me too! I actually really like canning and making pickles and jams it is relaxing for me I know most see it as work

My dad used to pick blackberries when he was a child and they never used anything on them. They didn't really have a problem with insects. I would love to have fruit just outside my home.

I have bushes but they are not mature enough for fruit yet.

The blueberries where from a local farm and they spray their bushes with a mixture of a little vinegar and water they swear it keeps the bugs away and it seems to. As for the peaches we had to pick through to make sure there where not bugs as they are untreated as well.

OH, they dont have that kind of thing near me.

Here try this site. http://www.pickyourown.org/ I found most of the places we go to on here.

Lol... we pick our own at local farms the fruit and veggies are much cheaper. I mean it's work to go pick that many blueberries but in the end if I only pay a dollar a pound to have enough for the year it's ok by me.

Ah, I see that you get your fruits from those "pick your own" places. That's an awesome idea for anyone who wants to put food away for winter but doesn't have the room to grow their own.

Well I have planted some bushes, blue, black and honey berries as well as chocolate trumpet vines and raspberries. They are not mature enough yet to pick more then a handful off each and this year we won't as I also do not have my usual garden just some hanging tomatoes and peppers and a garbage can of potatoes and some herbs in containers. We where badly flooded last fall and considering the water ate the brass finish off my fire place front we decided to give the land a year to grow out any yuck. I did make my syrup but I had it tested before eating it. I was pretty sure since it was boiled so ling it would be ok and it was but I think raw veggies we will wait on. We did put Jack o'lantern pumpkins in though for fun, I had to grow something Hey next time you make too much jam look for other ways to use it. I did that with strawberry one year and found I could use it in dressings, bar b que sauces and to make awesome pancake syrup. In fact everyone loved my strawberry balsamic mixtures (both dressings and bar b que sauce) I now can strawberry balsamic jelly

Oh that was maple syrup from our trees by the way..

Thank you. It is just my life nothing special though...

Yes I do. I try to not have to buy these items at the stores at all for the whole year when I can. I do pickles of all sorts, freeze veggies, make and can sauce even dry my own herbs or did when I had my herb garden ( it washed away in last years flood though my mint has become a weed taking over the entire back yard at them moment) Our Spring came too early so we have a few crops ready before they should be by a few weeks but it has been good crops so far.

Last year had been our real bad year. So much rain everything was water logged and drowned in the fields. This year has been good so far but early. Spring was early and everything else has followed and it might be a barren autumn at this pace. Canning isn't as dangerous as one might think if your careful..lol Where my cousin is in CO they are having the same problem as you are. The corn isn't growing right or has burnt to nothing. The same with the straw for their horses.

We are trying to become a little more self sufficient from the stores. All the preservatives and chemicals in the food. Not to mention they just taste better. I didn't do so much before when we lived in a more urban area but now that we are rural I find that we know many people who do this and that it isn't as intimidating as it looks, that said I know that more people live in the urban areas and are like how I was before and it is easier to just go buy the foods. Then again many can't afford that either.

Oh I will we have spent a lot of time swimming in the creek between berry picking