Yum Yum! Berries, Goat Cheese & Cream!

I made a simple dessert last night for my company. Tis' the season for Berries, so they should be included in meals, desserts, drinks and simple snacks for as long as possible... for the season is too short :( So what I whipped up was:

I cooked down 2 cups of each berry I had (blueberries, blackberries & strawberries) until all the juice was bubbling in the pot. This took like 10 minutes on medium heat.

I strained out the berries and put those in the fridge to chill, then added 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup red wine. I cooked this down by 1/2 into a syrup.

In the food processor I mixed 6 oz cold goat cheese and 3/4 cup of whipping cream with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Put in the fridge to chill too,

When the syrup was ready I let it sit and thicken to room temp.

I served this after dinner on the deck with glasses of wine for the company. Berries and syrup over a slice of angel food cake and then topped with the whipped goat cheese topping!!! Mmmmm

The Tomato Potato Blight of 2010 - Tracking Map

Here is a fabulous resource as the blight is obviously occurring again this year, people are scared and have no way to know if they are in trouble yet. Well now you can know, its being tracked by the proper conditions and reports from MANY areas across the us. Just click on the map here and navigate around to see if you are in an area where spores are forming, or the blight is occurring now. You may even luckily be in an area where the conditions aren't right and you have little to no worries as of right now. But this map will keep you on  top of the problem!

http://uspest.org/risk/tom_pot_map

Good luck!

Wonderful Estate Sale Find

I went to yard sales on Saturday, trying to find some fun stuff for my garden. I never ended up finding anything after hitting 10 yard sales. On my way home, with money still in my pocket... and all my daughter wanted was 1 small bag to carry her sippy cup for $0.25... I saw a sign for an estate sale that was clearing out! So I swung in and saw it was mostly kitchen stuff, and furniture left. Very old, heavy duty, 1950's wood pieces. Then we saw a lovely twin bed set, solid oak but looked to have potential. It was marked for $50... but they took $35.

So my sweet hubby came and picked it all up and took it home. I suggested we painted it white and set it up this week. The carpenter in him REFUSED to let me put paint on such pretty wood and immediately started sanding and taking care of the wood enough to take a lovely cherry stain to match her current cherry chest of drawers. What a good man with an eye for quality and professionalism!!!

I also have plans for this set. When its done, it will be the perfect set for a modern little girl! Can't wait to share the finished product.

We keep updates of all my husband's project here on his Facebook Fan Page, come join us! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Fuquay-Varina-NC/Rent-My-Hubby/113072668717323

Edited to add: More research has gone in, and we now think it is Maple and from the 1950's. We're going to stop and see if they have the other one still this weekend. Thanks!

104 Degrees... will it ever end?

Yesterday it was too hot to do anything much, so I took my daughter to the library for a movie inside afternoon they had. I needed to hit the grocery store and pick up butter and eggs (too hot and my chickens won't lay eggs in this heat), passing the town digtal clock it announced the current temp was 104! You've got to be kidding... I don't see these temps until late July if we see them at all. Last year I don't think we had but 1 or 2 days where it even hit 100. Now today at 1:30pm, its 97 and rising still!

My garden is sulking, while I'm trying to fight the mildew battle still. I was suggested to water early (it was still steaming hot at 8am while I was out), and someone even mentioned the healing powers of epson salt. So I added some to my watering can and got all my potted plants early. Some are really sulky still, but a few look more green now then yellow. So I'll keep up with the epson salt mix for the next week during this heat wave. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Today, I also threw some Earnest White Cucumber seeds into the ground. I forgot to plant cukes this year, and I've lost so much patience at this point with my squash that I threw a few seeds out to see what happens. Last year I lost most my cukes to downy mildew... so lets see if I can get a healthy late harvest of cukes. If I do, I will definitely hold off on planting again until late next year. Worse case, I get nothing and its no lose to me.

Also, its about that time to get the winter squash in, I will have acorn squash and butternut squash in by Monday next week I do believe. I have seeds coming from California from a nice gentleman willing to share through TheEasyGarden.com. I'm telling you, I love that community of gardeners! You should all look into joining.

My Birthday Blog Post

So, this may be a long one!

First off, I turned 31 today. Which I still find funny my husband is not even 30 yet. ;)

So for my birthday my Etsy shop is offering all Jams/Jellies at $1 off, since I would like to remove that 1 from my age! LOL http://BiscottiQueen.Etsy.com Take advantage if you can, the sale ends at midnight!

Second, I'm a little sad as the disease in my garden is not being controlled well, so I had to take out the main infectious plants.... 2 squash plants that had produced me a TON of summer squash. But I have 1 more plant that seems to be doing fine in the front yard, and I still have that one... for now. I saw a squash borer moth on it yesterday and put a tin foil cone around the stem. Trying to be proactive, but there is no telling how late I am.

And lastly, I wanted to share a cute picture of my daughter. We went Blackberry picking last week, and she was so cute... and its my birthday so I can post things that make me smile for no other reason then that!

The Diseases Rear Their Ugly Heads

Sadly, I had discovered some mildew on my cantelope and squash a couple weeks ago. Long hard storm rains, followed by high heat and humidity cause a lot of mold and mildew problems in the garden. Especially in the south where the conditions always seems right.

After close examination of my tomato plants, I was concerned I had caught the fateful blight again this year... it is running rampant across the country again right now, a repeat of 2009. I did some research, started Thursday, looking for a positive conclusion (took longer then I thought as I threw my nephew a birthday party here on Friday, and my husband surprised me with a birthday party as well on Saturday... so I cleaned a lot inbetween and not so much garden time). As of this morning I've determined my plants have Powdery Mildew from the squash's mildew.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/leaf/mildew.html

I almost ripped the plants out when I saw the rotting tomatoes and leaves! ARGH!! But I composed myself and I sprayed some neem oil mixture I use on my orchard trees. If I don't see any clearing up in the next few days I will switch over to the 1/4 milk and 3/4 water solution I was suggested for mildew as well. I will treat them for the entire season.... then in the fall I will 'solar' sanitize the soil. I wish I new to do that last year.

Here's some solarization advice, I will be doing this at the end of the season, really only good for warm climates I think: http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/solarization.htm

Thinking of Halloween?

Well I sure am! Because here in Zone 7 it is about time to get pumpkins in the ground. They do take a long amount of days to grow and ripen, up to 120, and in some cases more.

I was gifted some pumpkin seeds (Thank you Heide!) and I was told they get rather large, I hope they are good for cooking as well, because these will be double duty pumpkins. They'll get harvested to sit pretty on my porch for Halloween, then they will be baked into pie, bread and pancakes for Thanksgiving next!

So yesterday, I assembled a make shift pumpkin bed out of a bed we started next to the Japanese Bantam Chicken run. That bed had a rosemary bush transplant orginally, but that sadly died after a few days.

So I made 2 hills to plant 3 seeds in each, the bed is 3' x 6' with nothing blocking growth on 3 sides (and just the coop's run on the back side). I will probably pull the vines down to 1 per hill if they all get going. With how tangled the vines will get, I will try to pinch suckers off, and cut back the main vines when I see enough pumpkins on each to make me happy.

I'm not trying to share or sell these, I just need enough for my daughter to be happy with them. Its not like my watermelon vines.... when I'm thinking of where else I could actually stick another one!!! Mmmmm...