Canning, Canning and More Canning

Molly picking berries!

So these past two weekends have been full of strawberry picking and canning. Strawberry season came a little early this year in Washington, so we've been taking full advantage of it! There is a u-pick place in Arlington, WA, at Biringer Farms. Super fun place and family friendly. It's only $2.25 a pound, which is a great price considering these strawberries are about $10 for half a flat at the local grocery store. These strawberries are super sweet and ripe, so you have to eat them or can them within 24-48 hours after picking.

My sister and canning-partner-in-crime and I have been cleaning out all of our local Goodwills for canning jars. We love thrift store shopping and buying items that are unique and fun. Its also a smaller footprint on the environment to buy used and cheaper! Only $0.20 a jar and it doesn't matter what size. We plan on doing a lot of pickling, so we're going to need loads of large jars.

 Also, my husband and I have been super busy in the garden and so far we've planted a bing cherry, rainier cherry, puget apricot, fuji apple, and gala apple trees! We're super excited to have a bunch of fun fruit trees and we've also planted a few blueberry bushes. Next year we should have a ton of fresh fruit!

We've canned loads of strawberry jam, strawberry lavender jam and strawberry orange compote. Over 50 jars! We can't wait to can more jams and jellies.

Spring is in the air!

Sorry, I've been missing-in-action. My husband and I went to Southern California to attend a wedding and visit friends and family. My wonderful roommates watered my garden while I was away and I'm pleased to say that I some tiny sprouts coming up! So cool. I do have to report that the starter plants, that I planted in February, didn't survive the transplant. Boo. I think that they didn't get enough sun,while in the house. Thats ok, thats what Fred Meyer Garden Center is for.

I bought some starter tomato, jalapeno, green bell peppers and some herb starter plants and two weeks later, they are doing great. I've read that buying starter tomato plants is the way to go, so we'll how many tomatoes I'll end up with.

I've been planting carrots and lettuce two weeks apart, so I should have a continuous crop through the summer. I'll keep you all posted.

Tomato plants in containers.

Pea sprouts

Some starter marigolds and bell peppers

Garden bed #2

Little beet sprouts

Herb Garden

Jalapeno starter plant

Operation Garden Beds: Almost complete.

The days are growing longer, there aren't as many dark, depressing clouds hanging over; its like emerging from Gollum's cave. I love the Northwest, but I'm finished with it getting dark at 4pm.

We've been busy fixing up the house and now its time to spend some time outside. Our roommate is a carpenter and built us these amazing cedar gardening beds. We have two built right now for vegetables and herbs and he's working on building two smaller ones for berries. My husband has his heart set on raspberries and marionberries.

So we started by digging out all of the grass where the garden beds were going, since grass is a weed and we don't want it to grow up thru the beds. Also the ground here is very clay rich and we want to make sure there is proper drainage. Our roommate made the beds and we just placed them in the holes. We still have two holes in the backyard, for the berry beds, but it looks like we're digging graves right now. Our neighbors already think we're weirdos, so  what the heck. Here are some pics of our progress.

Beds all finished and ready for planting!

Lumber all cut and ready to be assembled. 

Garden bed No. 1

The backyard before we dug it all up.

Spring time! Starting my garden.

Spring has come early in Washington. The flowers are blooming, the days are getting warmer and longer. I love this time of the year. I've had small gardens on my balcony, in my Long Beach apartment, and now I'm so excited to have my own backyard to start a proper garden. This will be my first attempt at this, so no promises if it all works out, but I'm ready to get my hands dirty.

My husband is going to build raised garden beds in the next few weeks. I'm looking to have about three large beds and maybe we'll plant some apple trees as well. I want cherry and peach trees too, but those may have to wait till next year. A good fruit tree can cost about $30, so that adds up pretty quick.

One thing I started right away, was ordering a composter on Amazon. Since I'm part of an HOA, I can't have an open compost pit, which is understandable. The last thing I want, is to attract all kinds of wildlife, to an open pit of rotting food. I decided on a rotating, duel composter, because it had good reviews and wasn't too expensive. Also, it would be delivered to my front door, so if anything keeps me from running an errand, I'll do it.

Even though it feels like spring, there are still frost on the ground some mornings, so starting my seedlings inside is a good idea. I started seedlings for beefsteak tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green bell peppers, jalapenos, rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, and marigold flowers. I've already started seeing sprouts with my tomato plants! So excited. I love summer tomatoes.

Besides my seedlings, I also want to plant cucumbers, brussel sprouts, watermelon and cantaloupe, to name a few. Those will have to wait till the garden beds go in. So hopefully, I'll have lots of yummy fruits and veggies all summer long!

Tomato sprouts!

Area where the garden beds will go in. You can see my composter along the fence.