A day in the life of the garden

A day's harvest

Pepper Jam and the end of Vacation

To commerate the end of my vacation, I canned 20 jars of pepper jam.  Also created hang tags to go on the jars.  Now all I have to do is wait for it to set up.

I think it's finished, I have extra chicken wire 2' high around the garden and then used sod staples to secure it to the ground. This should keep the rabbits away from the sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

Sungarten Recipes

Stuffed Hot Pepper

1/3 cup ground Italian sausage

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 tablespoon garlic salt (I use fresh garlic)

3 tablespoons grated Romano cheese

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil (I used fresh)

1/3 cup Italian-style dry bread crumbs

1 tablespoon olive oil

Hot peppers, cored and seeded

1. Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly browned, Drain, drumble and set aside.
2. Preheat oven 350 degrees
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the sausage, cream cheese, garlic, salt, Romano cheese, oregano, basil, bread crumbs and olive oil.
4. Stuff the peppers with the sausage mixture. Place on a baking sheet, and bake in the preheated over 20-25 minutes, until the stuffing is lightly brown and bubbly.

Sungarten Pasta with Salsa

1 1/2 pt tomatoes, use a variety

1/2 Jalapeno pepper or hot pepper, seeded and minced

1 Lime-Juiced

1/2 small red onion minced

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

In a bowl mix all the ingredients except the pasta. Boil the pasta in salted water. Drain and toss with the salsa. Serve at room temp or warm. Enjoy-from Sharon

Sungarten Recipes

Sungarten Stuffed Green Pepper

2 cups water

1 cup uncooked white rice (I used boil in bag rice due to lack of time)

3 large green bell peppers halved and seeded

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 onion diced (I used a red onion)

Garlic powder to taste (I used two cloves fresh garlic minced)

1 15 ounce can t0mato sauce

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

2 cups finely shredded mozzarella cheese (I used what I had on hand which was shredded 3 Mexican cheese

• In medium saucepan, bring water to boil, add rice and stir (or use boil in bag directions). Reduce heat cover and simmer for 20 minutes
• Preheat over to 350 degrees
• Place green bell pepper in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover, bring to boil and cook for 10 minutes. Remove peppers from the water and set aside in a baking dish.
• In a large saucepan over medium heat, brown the beef, drain. Return to heat and mix in onion, cooked rice, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour in tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Spoon the meat mixture onto each half of the green peppers. Bake in preheated oven 30-40 minutes or until mixture begins to turn golden brown.
• Sprinkle cheese over the top of each stuffed pepper, return to oven and bake until the cheese is lightly browned.

Videos to Watch

I watched the Nature series on PBS last night and it was fascinating.  The show was called Botany of Desire and is based on a book by Michael Pollan.  Here is the summary from the webpage: http://www.pbs.org/thebotanyofdesire/video-perspectives.php check out the webpage and look at some of the video.


Flowers. Trees. Plants. We've always thought that we controlled them. But what if, in fact, they have been shaping us? Using this provocative question as a jumping off point, The Botany of Desire, a two-hour PBS documentary based on the best-selling book by Michael Pollan, takes us on an eye-opening exploration of our relationship with the plant world – seen from the plants' point of view.




Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: to make their honey, the bees collect nectar, and in the process spread pollen, which contains the flowers' genes. The Botany of Desire proposes that people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. "We don't give nearly enough credit to plants," says Pollan. "They've been working on us – they've been using us – for their own purposes."



The Botany of Desire examines this unique relationship through the stories of four familiar species, telling how each of them evolved to satisfy one of our most basic yearnings. Linking our fundamental desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control with the plants that gratify them – the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato – The Botany of Desire shows that we humans are intricately woven into the web of nature, not standing outside it.


This show was followed by Silence of the Bees, also very interesting.  Here's the website:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/introduction/38/

Still working on the pepper jelly.  I've supplies a few of the neighbors with tomatoes.  Anyone who gets tomatoes has to take peppersa because I'm running out of things to do with peppers.

7.2.2010 Rain today 1.8 inches

Pepper Day

Today I tried to make my own Tabasco style sauce.  Since I used green peppers, the sauce is green.  I'm not sure I've accomplished the perfect Tabasco but it is definitely hot.  Still working on the spices though.  Then I roasted a pan of banana peppers to "put up".  I've packed them into a jar and covered them with olive oil.  I'll can them later.

April on the Farm

First planting