Just get out and do it.

Welcome to my blog, Garden for Your Life! This site will be mostly about my garden, but you can build one just like it in your back yard too. It can be bigger or smaller, just get out and do it. You can do it for fun. Your can do it for your health. You can do it for fresh food in these troubled times. The point is to get out and do it for whatever reason that you need.

Over time I will cover topics like canning and preserving your harvest, soil and beds, bugs, what to plant and when, and much more.

I've been working on this garden on mine and improving on it for over five years now. I will continue doing that for many more. You can too, just get out and do it.

Ken

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Fresh Manhattan Clam Chowder!

Howdy,  I found a great recipe for Manhattan Clan Chowder.  Here's the recipe from allrecipe.com.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Manhattan-Style-Clam-Chowder/Detail.aspx?src=recs_recipe_seed

I added tablespoon of chopped garlic and some chopped BACON! to it.  After we tried the recipe we decided to make a big batch and can it.  It came out great!

Our test batch. It was so yummy!
We used home canned stewed tomatoes with onions, celery, and green peppers in it.
Next came the chopped carrots and potatoes. 

Add the spices, salt, and pepper and warm it up to mix well.

DW is adding to the pint jars

The first batch ready to go!

And into the pressure canner! 1 hour and forty minutes at 10 psi.

The finished product!  I love that ping as the jar cools.

Winter Garden

Howdy,  Here's an update on my winter garden. Half is going to be fallow and I now have the winter crops in.  
Onions on the left
Garlic on the right!
Three types of lettuce and napa cabbage.
Root crops, radish, kale, beets, and carrots.
I'll cover them in cold weather.



















A pail of sweet basil.
Parsley for the bunnies. 
Broccoli and califlower



The girls in the yard inspecting.




Canning Sausage!

Howdy,

Been a bit since I posted here, so here's an update.  We bought 20 pounds of breakfast sausages from Zaycon foods.  After I cooked it all up and sampled it to insure quality we canned the rest.  75 min at 10 PSI in wide mouth pints.

Cooked and ready to go!

Into the jar stuffing begins!

12 links per jar.

Don't forget to clean the rims very good with vinegar!  Oil on the rim would not be good.

Into the pressure canner, 75 min @ 10 PSI

The first batch cooling and tasty