Although we started eating them straight out of the gardens earlier this week I did my first major harvest this evening after work! Time to start snapping and break out the vacuum sealer!

An advantage of growing potatoes in straw/hay is that you can harvest them easily without disrupting the entire plant. Quite a bit of summer left so I can leave the rest of them in the hay until later!

There is a lot you can do with zucchini but one of my favorite ways is to eat it battered!

For this recipe you will need eggs, seasoning salt, olive oil (other cooking oils will work), and flour (I used my Gluten Free Flour Blend but back when gluten was still an option I used regular wheat flour.

I used 1/2 quart jars, made some brine with water, vinegar, salt, and sugar. Through in two cloves of garlic and some dill!

I will know in a week or so how they taste!

8 cups water
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp pickling salt
6 cups distilled white Vinegar (5% acidity)

Put in hot water bath for 15 minutes.

If you don't love play dough you don't know how to love!

Here is my recipe for gluten free play dough. While play dough is not something that should be eaten it can still be be a concern for kids with celiacs as a single "crumb" of gluten can be a concern.

3 cups flour (see for the flour blend I use)
1/3 cup salt
1/4 cup oil
1 1/4 cups hot water
If your blend does not already have xanthan gum then add 1.5 teaspoons

Time for me to figure out how to make pickles, I have never done that before so this will be a new adventure!

I was able to get the bales for next years bale gardens!

This morning my son asked why some plants, like trees, are so tall while other plants are so small. I explained to him nature’s balance and related it to the Three Sisters Gardening that I do. How both the popcorn and pumpkins consume nitrogen from the ground while beans put it back in. How the beans also climb up the corn plant to reach the sun. The pumpkin vines and leaves will shade the ground which both retains moisture and shades out the weeds. It is a technique long used by Native Americas long before my ancestors arrived on this continent.

We were able to have our first servings of cauliflower!

Three and a half years ago I started to experiment with making my own gluten free flour. Obviously you can go down to any large grocery store and buy it but I just prefer to experiment and to be able to do things on my own.

I tried several different blends that I found online and then made my own tweaks. What I have learned/discovered is that no one flour or starch will allow you to bake food that approximates wheat flour but creating a blend can get you close.

I have been using the following.