"There's gold in that there poop"

You heard that right.  It's a direct quote from Husband as he discussed the black cow soil we used to plant our garden this weekend.  We finally got around to planting our winter crop of tomatoes and herbs and can already smell and taste the wonderful veggies!  We planted four different varieties of tomatoes (Better Boy, Celebrity, German Queen and Cherokee purple), some of which will be planted in earth boxes rather than in the above-ground gardens, as well as some herbs (cilantro, oregano and basil).  Once Husband prepares the earth boxes, I'll write up a blog post on those.  I still have no clue what the earth boxes actually are or how they work.  All I know is I have a bunch of large and cut up tupperware bins in my living room.

Lallie and I also had a Mommy-Daughter date on Sunday.  We went to Target and the grocery store and ate out at her favorite restaurant, Steak N Shake.  Of course, no weekend is complete without Lallie's version!

The adorable little long sleeve navy and white stripe dress Lallie has on is on sale at Old Navy for just under $4.00 each!  They had several different colors.

 Lallie also taught me how to play Hop Scotch.  She did take some pretty good pictures of me playing hopscotch that I almost shared.  But there was only one picture of my hopping forward (with an overwhelmed expression) and the rest were of my backside from not particularly flattering angles!  Hop Scotch is not easy when you're 5 1/2 feet tall!  The bending over on one foot makes for some clumsy balancing!

We also played dress up.  Lots of dress up, one outfit being a bride.  

Yes, Daddy cried a little (maybe more than a little). 

 Last but not least, here's what I'm wearing today!  It's a dress from Kohl's that I bought for $30 (it was 70% off!)  I rarely shop there but was out picking up some clothes for Lallie and saw this dress in Kentucky blue as well.  It fit so well, I purchased both colors.  Paired with a necklace I picked up on the clearance rack at Target for $7.99, I think it went together pretty well.  I have a black cardi with me as it gets chilly in my office.

Don't forget to enter the Pink Wasabi Ink giveaway!!  It ends tonight at midnight and is open to everyone whether you have a blog or not! 

Happy Monday Y'all!

Farm Food and Lightening Bugs

Do I really need to say anything about this picture?  I guess if you live up north and are privy to tomatoes like this, then I guess you're not too surprised.  But in most of Florida, tomatoes that are so red, so ripe, so juicy, so sweet, so NOT mealy, so absolutely wonderful are a very rare thing.  We can barely grow them and the tomatoes at the stores and food markets are just substandard, not sure why.  The only half way decent ones are the ones Husband grew this past year. 

Love those fresh Kentucky home-grown tomatoes!

Paired with some Ale 8, Aunt Patricia's zucchini bread and canned peppers....can we say "yum"?

Of course, we devoured the homemade apple pies (crust and all) so quick that I didn't get a picture.  Over the course of four days, we consumed three pies.  Never did get to the gooseberry cobbler.  They'll be waiting for me at Thanksgiving.

AND the reason I will never eat canned tomato soup again?  Homemade from home-grown veggies, this tomato soup is the most amazing soup ever. 

Husband and I are going to attempt (hopefully this weekend) to make this soup.  I just need to locate a 1/2 bushel of decent tomatoes.  This could be a challenge.

Paired with a grilled cheese sandwich (LOADED with real butter), nothing says comfort food more than this!

We also had fresh picked corn.  Grandaddy and Lallie went and picked it for us.

Then they shucked the corn for us.

Then the shucks were fed to Misty, Lizzy and Clem.

All this food reminds me of my childhood on my Grandma's farm.  We always had fresh veggies and fresh eggs from the chicken coop. It was always so mcuh fun for us kids to go get the eggs for breakfast though the chickens didn't like us terrorizing them that much.  We also had fresh beans and corn and we loved eating the seeds from the sunflowers Grandma always had growing in her garden.  There are some mornings I wake up here and the lighting and smells remind me of those days. 

It also takes me back to those same days when the adults of the family would work in the fields during the September and October corn harvest while Grandma cooked.  My cousins and I would play "catch the (wild) cats" for hours, rarely ever catching one and playing down by the old railroad tracks (that had been removed), looking for old train relics.  We thought finding a track stake was the neatest thing on earth.  Every once in a while, we also ran across and Indian arrowhead.  But, if we ever ventured into the corn, Grandma would punish us by making us wash her walls.  Those were the days!

Back to the present....

After we'd risen back from our comatose food state, we ventured outside for Lallie's first lightening bug hunt.  Our adult eyes must be getting old.  I don't remember having that much trouble catching them when I was a kid on my Grandma's farm (and neither did Daddy or Granny).  We would stand right in front of them, see them light up and then instantly lose them.  We couldn't see them anywhere!  Lallie of course yelled, "there's one" every single time one lit up!  She was so excited.  This picture is dark, but it was actually still somewhat light out.

Daddy's eyes were sharper than the rest of us.

Getting ready to take her new bugs to bed for the night.

That's a wrap up of our weekend in Kentucky!

Happy Thursday Y'all! 

Garden Update - It's HUGE!

 For those of you up north reading this, don't get discourage with your gardens.  Remember, we live in South Florida and have a few months on you in the growing season.

Our lettuce is quite scrumptious.  Husband loves to go out there and cut some fresh with some fresh tomatoes for a lovely salad.

Those are radishes in between.  I LOVE radishes.  My grandmother always had them on the table for the grandkids to snack on before dinner.



The pickleworm didn't get the best of our zucchini!!!  We still have some and they are growing like crazy!  They practically doubled in size in the few days we were away for the wedding.

We have four different varieties of tomatoes growing.

Here are two of the gardens.  These have sugar snap peas, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce and green peppers.

Here's our other garden.  This one has tomatoes and beans (the vining plant).  We had to remove the zucchini from this one.

Out pots have strawberries.  They aren't dead, but they certainly haven't grown any over the past two or three months.  I don't think I'll be making any fresh strawberry smoothies anytime soon.

And the result of all Husband's hard work.  A fabulous salad!  We had tomatoes too!  Yum, yum!

Happy Friday Y'all!

We have a visitor

This guy.

He's a pickleworm.

Photo credit HERE

And he and his little friends have completely invaded Husband's garden.  (I say Husband's because I merely reap the benefits of the garden while he's been working hard to maintain it).  

And they are impossible to exterminate (note I didn't say "nearly").  I mean, impossible.
  

Husband has been working very hard and we've been very excited this past couple weeks to see baby zucchini and cucumbers start forming.  Maybe Lallie will even eat a veggie or two.

And then it happened.... 

A landscaper came by to look at our ficus hedge (that is still trying to come back after the hard winter cold) said "you've got worms."

It's not all bad though, we still have lots of other veggies that won't be invaded such as:

Lettuce and Radishes

Beans (see them starting to vine?)

Tomatoes
(we have four different varieties, Mr. Stripey, Beefsteak, Purple and cherry)

Onions

Green Peppers

And here's our poor zuchinni.  Don't they look so yummy and edible?  *tear*  I forgot to take a picture of the cucumbers.

So, after a little research, Husband will be making some precautions with the next planting, including covering the soil in plastic for a couple weeks before planting, to ensure the pickleworm pest is suffocated and exterminated.  No mercy here on the pickleworm!

I love reading about everyone's gardens.  Now that spring is somewhat starting to arrive up north, I see that some of you have started your seedlings.  I look forward to watching them grow with you as you've watched ours grow these past couple of months.

Happy Veggie Growing Y'all!