August is the month we start to appreciate what a small garden can produce. In January when we order seeds we aren’t thinking about bugs or blight or wandering hungry deer. We’re thinking about next year’s vegetable soup and homemade pizza. Much of our gardening time is spent keeping things growing through dry and wet weather and away from hungry critters roaming by.
In early June we enjoyed fresh lettuce and radishes that were grown in raised planters right by the patio.
I did not get the sugar snap peas in the ground early enough, so while we had some peas, the weather was getting too hot for them to be happy. They did taste good!
The first green and yellow beans were delicious, but there were not enough at one time to can my 4-Bean Salad. Luckily, the farmer’s market had piles of lovely beans ready all at once!
As our small patch of beans are ready, I can easily pick them and get them into the freezer, a few bags at a time!
We had high hopes for the zucchini, but somehow they produced about a dozen little ones and then the plants just gave up. I had enough to try zucchini fries, zucchini bread and zucchini fritters. I now have some good recipes for the future!
Now, the tomatoes are turning red! Every few days more get added to the pile on the dining room table! I’ve been cooking about 15 at a time and freezing the sauce. This week, I’ll thaw everything out and we’ll can our pizza sauce. We’ll be set until next fall!
We add red peppers, onion and garlic when we cook the tomatoes. They get blended in the food processor to make a smooth sauce at the end.
Since we haven’t canned the pizza sauce yet, here’s a picture from a few years ago.
Finally, the last thing we’ll harvest from the garden this year are the carrots. They always seem to have trouble getting started, but a few days ago, I pulled two to see how they were doing…
…and I think we’ll have a good crop this year. No plans to do anything with them, except clean them up and store them in the refrigerator. We love raw and cooked carrots, and a carrot cake might materialize one day!
My latest project with gemstone bracelets involves using Morse Code to design a bracelet for one specific person or group of people. This involves learning about the code itself and translating the symbols to beads to represent dots and dashes. Round beads work for dots, but the dashes would be a specific tube-shaped bead. I thought I could just substitute a larger bead for the dash…it made a nice bracelet, but the code was impossible to read. Then I tried black round beads for dots and white round beads for dashes.
My first attempts involved making a bracelet that said, “GREYHOUNDS.” Using black and white beads this was the result. Even if you know Morse Code this is unreadable!
Then I tried to make bracelets for my grandkids that said, “BEN ROCKS,” and “ANNA ROCKS” using two colors.
Again, looked pretty but unreadable. The last letter in each bracelet was the S (three beads the same representing dots). I could work backwards from that.
My friend Toni suggested I make bracelets that said, “GREYHOUNDS.” That was a long word and if I used the beads I had they would never fit and would still be unreadable! I went to Amazon and looked for Morse Code beads and found this kit:
Hicarer DIY Morse Code Bracelet Making Kit
It even came with these cards:
I guess I’m not the only one trying to adapt Morse Code to beads! With this batch of very tiny beads, I started to figure out which of my beads would go with them. I ended up using very small glass beads to separate the letters and add color to the bracelet, with these beads filling out the necessary length.
Here is the code for GREYHOUNDS:
Here are some bracelets:
These “greyhound” Morse Code bracelets will be fun for my greyhound-lover friends. The only thing I find disappointing is the plastic and glass beads are very lightweight. Of course, without a gemstone in sight, they become just a novelty to me. I’ll make a bunch for the next greyhound event, but my heart just isn’t in them!
Morse Code Bracelets with a Heart
Getting back to my gemstone bracelets, and with Morse Code on my mind, I thought about a friend who was worried about one of her grandsons who had just moved to Colorado. My friend shared some heart-warming experiences that me wonder if I could make a bracelet that would ease her worries while helping her focus on supporting her grandson. His name was ALEX. Perfect length to represent with Morse Code.
I ordered some beads from https://firemountaingems.com. I had learned from my first trial and error bracelets that the code needed to be represented with a dot and a dash in the same color. Various spacers could separate the letters and add color to the bracelet.
My dots turned out to be 4 mm Black Tourmaline. The dashes were 8/4 mm Black Onyx tube beads. These two stones provide psychic protection and support inner strength, will power and self-mastery. Those qualities would be important to the grandson.
Since the grandmother would be the one wearing or holding the bracelet while she thought about her grandson, I wanted the final stone to be something that would help alleviate her worry and stress. White Opal seemed to fit my needs. I ended up making a bracelet for the grandson’s mother also. Then they requested another bracelet for the other grandson who they were also worried about! His name was NICK. Also perfect for Morse Code!
Here is Alex’s bracelet (before I figured out a better way to make the tag):
Here is the bracelet for Nick’s mom (notice the better tag):
You can see that while I’m inventing these bracelets, I’m trying to figure out how to fill out the tags to explain the stones and what they mean. I suspect I’ll end up having to make a printed paper or card to go with each bracelet… especially if I end up doing more custom work. I just can’t write small enough, neatly enough to do very many at once! Here are the back of the tags:
These particular bracelets are for the mother and grandmother of the grandson. They are meant to be worn or held to focus attention on supporting the grandson from afar and alleviating the worry and stress of the mother and grandmother. The grandson may never know that such good vibes are being sent his way…but you never know!
I wondered if the grandsons would like, or use, a bracelet to support their new lives away from home? I made a bracelet for each grandson, using the same Morse Code and substituting Tigers Eye beads to fill the bracelets.
I will offer these Morse Code bracelets for the grandsons…in case they ever express an interest. I’ll leave them with the mother to share as appropriate. I have no expectations that these bracelets will make it to Alex and Nick, but my thoughts go with them as they move out into the world. Who knows, the bracelets may end up under their pillows at grandma’s house…kind of like a Dream Catcher with gemstone beads!
I’m sure my future one-of-a-kind bracelets will change as I learn more about the gemstones and how to label them properly. My various bracelets sold at the arts festival for $10 each. I was happy with that, since I could make whatever appealed to me. However, I suspect these one-of-a-kind Morse Code bracelets will take me longer to make and label. I may have to reconsider the price and charge more. Any thoughts about what I should charge would be appreciated!
One of my major concerns when we planted zucchini in the garden in the spring was the potential for too many zucchini. Luckily, thanks to dry, hot weather the zucchini plants have produced an underwhelming number of zucchini to deal with! We’ve picked them when they were just 6″ to 8″ long so we’ve been able to keep up.
Here’s another recipe we tried a few days ago: Zucchini and Potato Fritters. It turned out to be delicious! If you can eat eggs, this would make a great “hash brown” addition to breakfast! (Note: if you can’t eat eggs, make “flax eggs” by combining 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed with 6 Tablespoons of water, let the mixture sit for 10 minutes.)
Here is the recipe:
I started by shredding the vegetables and putting them in a large bowl. Sometimes, zucchini recipes suggest squeezing out the water from shredded zucchini. Instead, we decided to try dehydrated minced onion…thinking they would help soak up the extra water.
My hand crank shredder did well with all the vegetables.
We added the minced onion, seasoned bread crumbs and eggs to the pile of shredded vegetables. We decided to not add the cheese…I’m not able to eat cheese at this time. Bert compared it to making meatloaf!
Next, I took handfuls of the mixture and tried to make patties. I squished each handful together and carefully laid them on a foil covered tray.
(While I was making patties, I was thinking this mixture might be good as an egg roll stuffing. Hmmm. May have to try that!)
When I had the first 6 patties made, Bert transferred them to the frying pan with a spatula.
Amazingly, as they cooked, they stuck together just fine. We ended up with 15 “hash brown” patties. They were delicious hot out of the pan. Great addition to our supper! Sweet & Sour Sauce worked great but I imagine creamy salad dressing, maple syrup or honey could work too!
I was able to put the patties in quart bags (2 to a bag) and put them in the freezer…ready for a quick 2 minutes in the microwave (1 minute per side)!
Another zucchini recipe to add to my cookbook! Enjoy!
Hard to believe it’s almost August! The garden has struggled with dry conditions. Bert has watered everything almost daily and yet it’s just not the same as a good soaking rain. Here’s a picture taken from the patio, looking up to the garden on the hill:
Each section of the garden has changed from just a few weeks ago! The raised planters on the patio are finally finished with radishes and lettuce. It’s just too hot and dry to keep them going. We’ve cleaned out all the roots, added more soil and planted spinach in all the sections. My plan is to let it all grow, harvest it all, dehydrate the leaves and turn them into powdered spinach…perfect to add to soup and smoothies. The heat should get them going and the coming fall weather will be the best to finish it off.
With the fenced beds off the patio, the first section had sugar snap peas. Most of them we ate right out of the garden or in salads. When we pulled the plants, we discovered a lone potato plant had come up from last year. We’ll see what we get from that volunteer!
The yellow pear tomato plants are taller than me right now and tomatoes are ripening every day.
Behind the tomatoes are the zucchini plants. We’ve had a few already, with a few more on the way. Luckily, we’re picking them small so we can keep up! Actually, the plants look like they are tired out and ready for fall!
To the right of the zucchini are flowers…zinnias and huge marigolds. They’ve been a nice addition to the garden! The marigolds are in the back and are supposed to be taller than the zinnias. They should flower soon!
Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender is about done. The bees have been loving the patch all summer. By now the flowers are dropping their petals. Not sure if we should just cut them off now or leave them as is for the winter.
To the left of the lavender were the green and yellow beans. We pulled the plants over the weekend. Bert tilled the soil, added fertilizer and planted some more. We’ll see if they have time to make beans before the first frost.
Then, we have the carrots. They are doing well, but need the whole summer to grow. At least the plants look healthy.
The next row has the second planting of beans. I started them about the third week of June. They are now flowering. In a week or two, I’ll have more beans to pick!
The tomatoes are finally starting to turn color. I guess the big green worms that stripped the leaves off the tops finally did their thing and transitioned to moths…or whatever they turn into. The plants seem to have recovered and I can see very soon I’ll have more tomatoes than I can imagine!
And finally, my lovely bed of echinacea is looking kind of bedraggled! The dry weather wasn’t kind to the flowers!
Very soon my kitchen table will look like the produce section of the grocery store! So far…it’s just the beginning! Enjoy!
In the last few weeks, a friend has encouraged me to join her a few mornings a week at Planet Fitness. I know I need to adopt some kind of regular exercise but for some reason, I never seem to make time to do it on my own. Plus, exercising with a friend at a gym sounded like a way to give me some structure to the activity.
Of course, I knew where Planet Fitness was located…in the Nittany Mall outside of State College. The Mall has steadily lost various stores over the last several years so I wasn’t sure what stores were left. The anchor stores of Sears, Macy’s, J. C. Penney and BonTon have closed up.
The space left by Sears is now a huge Rural King. It seems to be competition for Tractor Supply just down the road. The store is always busy and is focused on the needs of the surrounding rural community. It anchors one end of the Mall, but is separate from the Mall. There is no access inside the store to get to the inside of the Mall.
The other end of the Mall where Macy’s was is now all boarded up, waiting for approvals to open a Casino. Who knows when that will materialize.
The entrance to the Mall nearest Rural King is still available and leads you to a few office fronts and a restaurant and on into the Mall.
The whole side of the building inside that used to house various clothing stores, is now occupied by Planet Fitness! It’s quite a facility that extends from where Sears used to be, clear up to the hallway taking you to the Public Restrooms.
So, when my friend said, I’ll meet you at Planet Fitness, I was sure I knew just where to go!
However, with all of the glass advertising that Planet Fitness was inside…nowhere could I find a DOOR! In fact, in the first photo above, the one door says, “Not an Entrance.” Great! I sat down and texted my friend. “Where are you? There is no door!” She said, “You have to get back in the car and drive around the end of the Mall (past Rural King) to the back entrance.” That entrance used to take you into the Mall…now it just goes to Planet Fitness! Oh My!
I would love to show you some pictures of the inside of Planet Fitness, but one of the rules is no photos! (Go online to see the inside of some of the facilities.) So, let me tell you…for a person like me that has never been inside ANY gym, this place was overwhelming. So many machines…and so many different kinds of machines. Treadmills looked familiar! Beyond that, people were riding bikes, rowing, stepping, etc. The best part, nobody cared what I was doing. My friend let me follow her around and showed me how to use a few machines.
My first impulse was to be careful. I didn’t want to fall off anything or stretch the wrong way. Most of the machines were pretty self-explanatory…a diagram with the muscle group highlighted, and an illustration of how to do the exercise. Luckily my friend showed me how to adjust the weights and how to sit down on the machine. Let me tell you, I really needed to see someone do it first.
Next came the challenge of signing up! I could use my Silver Sneakers card…but of course it was very out of date. So, I said I would check it out with my insurance company and would come back. Turns out, I could sign up online and was issued an ID number. The next day, I returned with my number in hand and went through all the rules and signed a dozen places. I was told to download the Planet Fitness app and I’d be set to sign in like everybody else…showing a code on my phone. Sure.
I finally got the app downloaded but I could see I needed one more step…the gym needed to sync my information with the app so it would recognize my information. The next time I went to Planet Fitness, a young man took my phone and synced everything! Yea! I could now check in!
The third day, I actually had time to try the machines on my own. I handled the treadmill fine except I discovered I wasn’t coordinated enough to walk and open a bottle of water at the same time. Oops! I can see I have a way to go! One day at a time!
More about the Nittany Mall
I don’t really know exactly how many stores are left in the Mall. Just wandering a way up the Mall I saw many boarded-up store fronts. Looks like American Eagle Outfitters is still there, along with Spencer’s.
The Centre Region Active Adult Center is just across from the windows of Planet Fitness. They were busy with many seniors playing cards and visiting. I stopped in and picked up their schedule. Who knows, maybe I’ll try out some line-dancing when I get a little more coordinated!
You might think I’ve been sitting around this week after all the preparations for the Arts Festival last week! Haha! The garden produce waits for no one! When beans need to be picked…it needs to be NOW! With daytime temperatures this week of 95 degrees F. or more, I found myself out in the garden at 6 a.m.! It took a few days, an hour or so each day, to get them picked. Once the beans were in the refrigerator I spent time in front of the TV snapping them and getting them ready to freeze.
By the time I was ready to blanch and freeze them I had run out of room to store them in the refrigerator. That meant it was time!
First, they all needed to be snapped and any blemished beans were discarded. Because it hadn’t rained recently the beans were pretty clean. I guess even the slugs and bugs were not attracted to them…yet! Time to get them into the freezer.
This is my set up in front of my recliner in the living room. I can snap them and discard the ends in the smaller bowl right between my feet!
Next, I get my largest pan out and bring water to a boil, add the beans, bring it back to a boil and let them boil for 5 minutes.
Then I have a big bowl of water and ice ready and scoop all the beans into the cold water.
After a few minutes, the ice has melted and the beans are cool. I scoop them out with my hands into another bowl and fill quart zip bags with the beans. When I was finished with this batch, I had six one-quart bags filled with beans, ready for the freezer! They will be so good this winter.
It probably takes longer to pick the beans, snap them and get the pots ready than it does to actually blanch the beans and get them into the freezer. I think I’ll be doing another round soon as these first plants wind down. Luckily, we started two more rows of beans several weeks after the first planting so we should be able to eat fresh beans the rest of the summer! If you don’t grow them yourself, now is the time to look for them at the Farmer’s Markets. Enjoy!
The Art in the Orchard Festival last week was a success! I survived the heat (90+degrees), the wind and the porta-potties. I also sold 60 bracelets at $10 each, so my investment in beads over the last 6 months was repaid to my Visa account! Yea!
There were 75 booths arranged around the perimeter of a grassy field. From the parking area for visitors, booths lined the walkway to lead folks down a little hill right to the field. The visitors were mostly families with small children so it was quite a parade of shaded strollers, assorted wagons and backpacks coming past our booth. Luckily, a few of my local friends stopped by to say Hello, gave me hugs and even bought bracelets…just the confidence boost I needed!
Toni’s crafts of various framed pieces (collages…or “assemblage art”) were lovely unique pieces along with many items made with all sorts of sparkly beads drew people into the booth.
A favorite piece that made everyone smile was this mosaic table:
My table was right by the entrance and did not take up too much space. Folks were either interested or they weren’t. I certainly learned a lot about how to “sell” the bracelets. My best customers were young people who already had several bracelets of some kind on their wrists. Even older adult women were interested…often they were already wearing various bracelets. All of the people who stopped by seemed to be drawn to certain colors and would begin shuffling through the bags of bracelets in the baskets.
This was my opportunity to suggest they find out what size would fit so their search was more focused. My set of “tester” bracelets really helped break the ice and t hey didn’t feel I was pushing them to buy. Then I showed them the tags that each had that described the stones and what they mean. I’m glad I had the printout with the whole list of stones I use and their meanings so they could take it home.
My camera must be tilted…it makes the small look bigger than the large!
Over the three days of the festival, we watched a guy make a huge sand tractor with a basket of apples…appropriate for our location…Way Fruit Farm is surrounded by apple trees!
A huge sand pile was dumped in the middle of the field. We weren’t sure what was going to happen with it. Kids played in the sand pile the first day. On Day 2 most of the sand had been shoveled into a wood framework and was being soaked with water. The leftover sand was enjoyed by kids nearby. By the end of the third day, the finished display was impressive. (You can see our purple tent on the right across the field. We had to walk up the hill to see the side he was working on.)
After three days of the festival, we were exhausted and grateful that we didn’t have to clean up after a rainstorm. Packing up was easy for me…all my stuff fits in a small bag. Toni had a much bigger job because she brought the tables, tent and bins of her art. Thank goodness the young man and his friend in the booth beside us was willing to help us load up everything in Toni’s car. Whew!
Of course, being away for three days just as the beans were ready to pick was frustrating. I managed to get out there early yesterday and today to get them picked. No wonder farmers don’t get a summer vacation!
My lasting memory from this festival will be gratitude that there are others interested in my gemstone bracelets. Besides pretty colors, the descriptions that say the stones help you sleep or lower your stress level were interesting to many. It’s kind of like putting a Native American Dream Catcher in a child’s room to help ease nightmares. I need to get better at explaining how to set an intention to experience what you need.
So that’s my experience with my first Arts Festival! If you frequently go to festivals like this, be kind to the vendors…they have invested time and money to make lovely things for you to enjoy!
Before I spend the next three days sitting at an arts festival across town, I thought I’d better update you on the garden progress. Everything is doing well but I will miss the first picking of the beans. Some are ready right now, so I enticed a neighbor to come and pick some right now…I guess the deer have found her garden and made short work of her bean patch! By Sunday, there will be more to pick!
So, starting on the patio…I pulled the last planting of radishes. Bert will clean out the roots, add more soil and get it ready to replant. I may wait a week or two…I have several bags of radishes in the refrigerator so I’m set for salads for now.
Radish beds ready for a refresh!
The Little Gem lettuce has been excellent. It grows quickly and stays crunchy in the fridge. Here are some just making heads (almost ready to cut) and the next round just beginning.
The sugar snap peas are filling out. I don’t see the plants surviving much longer in this heat. The peas are delicious!
The yellow pear tomato plants are taller than me! Lots of tomatoes but not turning color yet. We’ll have a bunch!
The zucchini plants are growing well. So far, we’ve eaten about 6 zucchini but we’re picking them when they are small. No avalanche yet!
The flowers are starting to bloom and they’ll be a pretty addition to the back yard.
Remember the rose bush in a pot that was getting chomped by roving bunnies? Bert put it up on the picnic table and it is blooming just fine! I’m trying to keep up with the spent blooms. More blossoms to come!
Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender has exploded into color. The bees are very happy!
Some of the green and yellow beans are ready right now, thus my frantic call to my neighbor. Hopefully, the rest can hold on until Sunday when I’m available to pick them.
The carrots finally look like they’ll produce. Beside them on the left of the picture is the next planting of beans. They won’t be ready for a few weeks but that’s fine!
And then there are the tomatoes! Lots of green tomatoes!
However, when I looked closely, I noticed about half of the plant tops had been stripped of leaves! Yikes! Did the deer hop the fence? I was so upset I called Bert to come look. Turns out if it had been deer, the stem would have been chomped off too. The leaves were just stripped off. Turns out the culprit is a giant tomato WORM! They were even taking bites out of some of the tomatoes! Bert will spray tomorrow after the rain tonight and hopefully that will end the snack bar fiasco!
And finally…the glorious Echinacea have re-seeded themselves for several years and are spectacular! The bees and butterflies are busy. Enjoy!
Ok folks…this next week is the Art in the Orchard festival I’ve been preparing for with all my gemstone bracelets! This festival will be held at the Way Fruit Farm property just past Stormstown on Rt. 550. Here is the advertisement:
At the same time, two other much larger arts Festivals will run concurrently: the Central PA Festival of the Arts will be held in State College, from July 10 to July 15, 2024; the People’s Choice Festival will be held in Centre Hall at the Grange Fair Grounds, from July 11 to 15, 2024. (The People’s Choice festival had been held in Boalsburg for many years but just outgrew the space.) Both of these festivals are worth your time to attend, but I’m certainly not ready for a venue like that!
The Art in the Orchard festival (July 11-13) has been around for several years and is perfect for my first attempt to be a vendor. Since my set up is pretty small, I’m joining my friend Toni Duchi who has had a booth at this festival for several years. She does amazing things with mosaics, collages and polymer clay. I profiled some of her work in a post from June 2021:
This festival will be a reality check for me. I’ve been making gemstone bracelets for about 6 months and have enjoyed learning about the qualities of the stones and how to make bracelets. I’ve enjoyed the process and enjoyed sharing them with friends and family. It is finally time to see if I can sell them…at least to help pay for all the materials. This is not a cheap hobby! I now have 130 bracelets to sell, in three sizes, for $10 each. We’ll see what happens!
I have so many questions that hopefully will be answered at this festival, such as:
Should I keep making bracelets? Do the bracelets appeal to others?
Does my display work?
What kinds of questions do folks ask about the gemstones?
How do folks choose a bracelet…by color, by stone, by the message on the tag?
Basically, should I keep making bracelets?
I’ve had to remember that there are other variables that could affect the outcome of sales…especially the weather, the location of our booth, the competition from other vendors at the festival and of course, the competition from the other two regional festivals. I may have to consider other ways to use the bracelets. Maybe offering workshops to teach others how to make them for themselves would be more up my alley!
If you’d like to experience a local arts festival this week, consider heading out to Way’s Fruit Farm for the Art in the Orchard, and stop to say hello to Toni and me! A friendly smiling face will make our day!
I shared bracelets with my family at a reunion in June. They enjoyed choosing the one that “spoke” to them!
Summer is in full swing! Every day I can see changes in the garden. Of course, with the exception of lettuce and radishes we need to be patient with the rest of the produce. I know folks at the Farmer’s Markets use greenhouses and hoop houses to get produce earlier. I’m sure the Amish Markets provide produce from their friends and families that live farther south. If I want a big watermelon for the 4th of July picnic, it has to come from outside our area!
I can see our green beans are a week or two away, and tomatoes will start to ripen in 2-3 weeks. Two things that I want to get canned before our own produce demands attention are my 4-Bean Salad and Pickle Relish. Right now, at the Amish Market the green and yellow beans are piled high on the tables; cucumbers are just the right size and also piled in boxes. So…while I wait for our vegetables to be just right, I made a big batch of my 4-Bean Salad and we canned it last evening.
I’m so grateful I went into such detail of the process in my post. It made it easy to do it again. In face, I’m keeping the notes on the revised recipe sheet so I can remember how to do it again.
I picked up 3 pounds each of green and yellow beans at the Amish Market. I snapped them and put them in the refrigerator.
I bought sweet red peppers, celery and onion at the grocery store and chopped them up yesterday.
The five cans of beans (kidney and garbanzo beans) were ready on the shelf and just needed to be drained.
Bert had picked up another gallon of White Vinegar and extra sugar for the brine. Seems like a lot of work, but I’ve tried just buying a jar/can of this salad at the store. I can’t seem to find any that doesn’t use High Fructose Corn Syrup! I can do better!
At the end of the day yesterday, I had 18 pints of 4-Bean Salad ready to put on the shelf. Feels good! Later this week I’ll take the cucumbers I bought at the Amish Market and make my pickle relish! THEN…I’ll be ready to deal with my own produce!
Take advantage of Farmer’s Markets around your area to fill in with produce that you don’t grow, or is ahead of your own garden produce. Enjoy!
