Garden Update

I just read my last update and it was quite terrible. I guess that's what I get for writing a post and not finishing in the same day or even week. 


Here's an update on my garden:
-The peppers I started from seed in February/March were planted in the ground and then shriveled up and wilted from the heat.
-My mom so graciously bought me some pepper plants to replace the ones that died. (I've decided to never plant from seed again on peppers)
   -I have a chocolate pepper plant, California wonder peppers, and orange pepper plant, and some yellow pepper plants
   -There are quite a few blossom, one pepper an inch or 2 long, and a few tiny tiny peppers
-I had to replant my green bean row because none of the beans came up, but now they are thriving
-I replanted my carrot row, we'll see if they come up too
-The tomatoes are doing fantastic! They must really like the type of soil we have!!! They are starting to get blossoms and maybe some tiny tiny tomatoes
-The sweet corn I planted is barely coming up, so that may be a flop this year too
-zucchini and summer squash are popping up!
-Some of the onions are thriving, others have died, but that's fine.

 Tomatoes and peppers

Everything else!

Garden Disaster!!

It happen!!!! The first of my garden disasters!! Remember those pepper plants I love so dearly? DEAD, every single one of them!!! I think I've given up on starting pepper plants from seed!!
Last week I purchased quite a few pepper plants to feed our pepper need. So far they are faring very well!

As for the rest of my garden, we finally got it tilled and mostly planted. A few things have come up, and others I've had to replant due to the hot hot hot weather we had a few weeks back.

I am a negligent blogger who left her camera at her parent's house, so no pictures of the garden right now.

Knitted Socks

My sister got me a lovely skein of fisherman's wool for this past Christmas. L asked me to use the yarn to make him a pair of knitted socks since his feet get cold in the winter. Shortly after Christmas I began knitting socks without a pattern. I figure I'd wind it under I got to the heel portion; and so I did. Our local library has a good selection of knitting books, and I was able to pick up a book called Teach Yourself Visually, Sock Knitting. The book was exactly what I need to get working on my socks to get them completed. I am happy to announce that about a month ago I completed my first pair of knitted wool socks!!!

They took forever with size 1 needles, but they are very warm and very comfortable. Since L and I have similarly sized feet, I am able to steal borrow them if I want.

Cast Iron Care

I am a strong believer in cast iron. Food  barely ever sticks, it cooks better and more evenly, and (in my opinion) tastes better. I have at least 6 cast iron pots and skillets, (not including the two fajitas ones). I use my 12 inch skillet for nearly every meal. What I like best is their versatility and ease of care. Did I mention they can go from stove to oven? How many pans do you own that can do that? When I take my cast iron to our events all I have to do is give it a quick scrub with hot water and a stiff brush and it's clean, and the same at home, so easy!


I recently acquired a nice old cast iron set from my grandmother, so I'm going to walk you through the steps of cleaning and seasoning old cast iron

The set I acquired can be two separate skillets, or a skillet with a lid; very versatile.


Here they are before

I'd bet that you've been to an antique store and seen the selection of cast iron, and a lot of it looks like the before pictures. You probably thought to yourself that it was ruined and worthless and it would be better to buy new cast iron. Let me tell you that the old cast iron is much heavier and usually higher quality than the cast iron you can buy in stores today. And, the ugly old ruined cast iron can look brand new again and cook like a dream.

When you pick up older cast iron look for the amount of rust on it. Minimal rust can be easily fixed, but lots of rust takes lots of work (think sand blasting). Mine had a tiny bit of rust and looked unsightly, but was overall in great condition.

1. Put the skillet, pot, etc. in your sink under running water, the hottest you can stand. Using a stiff bristled brush, or plain steel wool, scrub the entire surface of the pan; inside, outside, handle, and the crevices. DO NOT USE SOAP. Salt may also be used as a scrubbing agent if needed. 

Note: NEVER EVER leave cast iron in the sink to soak, it can ruin it!

2. Dry thoroughly with a towel.

3. Place on stove top and turn on burner, add a small about of food safe oil or shortening, heat until melted. 

4. Turn off heat, and carefully with a paper towel rub the oil/melted shortening over the entire surface of the pan.

5. Get to cooking!!!! I always use canola cooking spray before I cook something, and after cleaning and drying to maintain the seasoning. At first stay away from acid foods such as tomatoes, and beans, and stick to cooking fatty foods like hamburger, bacon, sausage, etc. And remember, the more you cook in your cast iron, the better seasoned it will be, and the smoother the surface will be.

NOTE: The pans I got did not need to be seasoned more than this, however, some pans will need to be stripped of their current seasoning and re-seasoned in the oven. For more information check out Cast Iron Cooking for Dummies (one of my favorite resources)


Edit: As my loving husband pointed out, I switched the pans in the after photo. Oh well, you get the point.

Too Small!!

From my sneak preview a couple months ago (here), you may have guessed that I was making L a new waistcoat for reenacting. Because I was starting from the beginning, I wanted to make it as authentic as possible. This means that I needed to completely hand stitch the entire thing, start to finish, button hole and all. That first day I cut out the pattern in a size based on the measurements I had taken of L the night before. After that I cut out the lining and had it completely together by the time he came home from work. He tried it on, and IT WAS TOO SMALL. I was able to remedy this by added a small triangular section across the shoulder. 

From then on I sewed here and there whenever I had the time or got into the mood. Recently I had finished attaching the lining and the pockets and all that was needed were button holes and buttons. I had L try it on, just for good measure, and it was once again too small. 

(Insert picture here of sad looking husband in a too small waistcoat)

So for now this project has reached the back burner as those of you who have ever hand sewn anything know that you don't want to undo your hard work. Plus, I haven't figured out how exactly I'm going to fix said waistcoat.

Oh well

I may have spoken too soon

Here it is, the third week in March, and I've had our furnace off for 2 weeks if not longer. The lowest day time temperature this month was 36 degrees. Today the temperature is in the low 80s. These are record highs here in the midwest for this time of the year. This is not be complaining, just me in awe of the wonderful weather we've been getting. However, if I know Indiana, we could still be in for some surprises in a few weeks.


With the warm weather, the tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and all those other spring flowers have bloomed. It's been an adventure seeing what kind of flowers we have around our house. Our beautiful big magnolia tree in the backyard is in full bloom. It's a nice shady place for our hammock.

 I bet you've been wondering about my garden. Well, we cleared the branches from my garden area, but have no tilled it yet. I started my tomato plants (Beefsteak, roma, and cherry), and a different type of pepper plant as well. ...and about those other pepper plants.... We are down to 5-6 total plants, the cats got sneaky and ate a few of them. However, since the weather had been so nice they are outside.


And with that I will leave you. I promise, I am working on projects, I just haven't finished any yet.

Come on spring

As the weather starts to get a little more mild (and the 65 degree day we had last week), I'm starting to plan out my garden for the summer. Husband and I have started making a list of the things we'd like to grow and how we want the garden to look. I've been pinning lots of ideas from pinterest and reading some books from the library. Ideally I'd like to only use produce from our garden this summer, and I hope that I can make that work


Since we've only been living in our house since August, there was no time for planting a garden. We only had time to trim bushes and trees, and clear out the overgrown flower beds. There is a large pile of branches lying where my garden will be that will have to be cleared before it can be tilled. I'm waiting for warm weather because I dislike wearing coats and being cold.


I can't wait for warmer weather where I can finally work in the yard and tend to my garden. No pictures today, sorry. I didn't think you wanted to see my sad garden patch.