Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie

9 inch pie
1/2 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
2/3 cups milk
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t cloves

50 min bake time.

To Prepare Pie Crust

Evenly brush sides, then bottom of a graham cracker crust with 1 beaten egg yolk. Bake crust for 5 minutes at 375 degrees and remove from oven. (Put the leftover egg white plus any leftover egg yolk in pumpkin pie filling).

To Prepare Pumpkin

Use any firm pumpkin flesh scraped from your pumpkin. Don’t use the skin or seeds. Boil until soft (like you would potatoes). Drain and mash. Firmly pack pumpkin when measuring, being sure to drain off any excess liquid.

To Prepare Pie Filling

Combine pumpkin, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves in blender or mixer. Blend until smooth. Pour into prepared crust and bake at 375 degrees F.

10 inch Pie

1 1/2 c pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
3/8 t salt
3/8 t ginger
3/8 t nutmeg
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves

65 min bake time.

Tomatos, Pumpkins and Carrots

Disaster. Complete and utter disaster. The upsidedown tomato that I did produced like three tomatoes. That's it and it has withered and died with no hope of spawning anymore. The tomatoes were the most delicious ever, but we got only three from our pathetic little plant. My father laughed at me when I told him of the disaster. But its better than nothing!

The carrots were coming right along and were getting *huge*. Last week something ate every single one of them. *sigh*

And the pumpkins. Don't get me started on the pumpkins. The plants were healthy. They were producing beautiful blooms.

Something ate them, too. I have little stubs where my pumpkin vines used to be.

How utterly depressing. All week it has been just depressing.

But I learned something important. I can grow stuff and grow it well enough for critters to take a chance that my dogs will eat them alive if caught sneaking into my fenced area. That thought lifted my spirits.

And there is always indoor gardening. I've been thinking more and more about hydro, aero and aquaponics. I suppose we'll have to see about a aeroponic system. I've been browsing around town and finding very little support for such things in Knoxville. Something that irritates me more than I care to mention. I'm going to figure out something to get on track with an aeroponic system.

More on that later!

Blooms

It's been so nice we've spent a good deal of time outside. I've been fighting the back problems and trying to stay comfortable. In light of this, I have been looking at the blooms around the house.

My pumpkins are blooming like crazy. This is one of the huge blooms on the plants.

This is a blossom from the hummingbird vine that is on the fence. The flowers dot the fence line making it a place for the hummers to battle over. They are fierce little fighters and we've counted five of them. We get dive bombed occasionally when they are buzzing around.

Between this vine, the butterfly tree, crepe myrtles and the feeders, they have plenty of places to hide from each other on one side of the house or the other.

We actually watched two of them hover and inspect each other over the weekend. We're assuming that it was a male and female and they were initiating a kinda of mating ritual. But they hovered and fluttered up and down, back and forth. It was mesmerizing to watch.

That's all for now.

Pumpkins and Carrots

The little container garden we've started is in full swing! We have blooms on every pumpkin plant we have! If this is any indication of how well these guys are going to produce I'm certain our first year with a fresh veggie/fruit stand will do quite nicely.

We do pumpkin decorating contests where I work and my boss offered to purchase my pumpkins instead of going to the store when I went into work babbling about the lush green that is coming out of these guys. Not a single pumpkin on the vine yet and we've already got some business.

The carrots finally have true leaves. I'm thrilled about the success we're having. Its a good feeling to do this. I know exactly what is going into the soil because I'm the one putting it in. My children are excited to be involved in this. Seth, my oldest, is the one who sparked this by asking me what I did when I was his age. I told him I grew up on a farm and that was when the barrage of questioning came. I think its really awesome that my 6 year old wants to have a garden and is the one that makes sure to always remind that we need to water and asks if it is time for the kelp fertilizer. My youngest doesn't get as vocally involved, but he knows automatically that he needs to hunt down the water can so we can get it filled up. I know this will sound strange, but they argue who gets to do the work.. and that is certainly fine by me! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Unopened blooms, true leaves on the carrots, I've got bell peppers ready to start hardening off. We're just moving right along with seeds in the freezer for a spring planting.

I'm trying to start off small and slowly work our way up. With the help of the kids, we make sure to take notes on our garden, to see what reactions we get in container gardening. Next year, pumpkins, carrots, bell pepper and tomatoes will be a breeze and we'll tackle new additions and start all over again.

I really think this is a plan that more newbies to gardening should take. While I grew up on a farm and we grew most of our food on that farm, I know some things about gardening already but I didn't want to overwhelm us with all these plants either. This is a mistake that a lot of new gardeners take and its why some of them fail. They take on too much at once and can't keep up with multiple issues because they just don't know how and it takes so long to solve some problems by the time the problem is solved, the plants have sustained too much damage or are already dead.

Everything in moderation, right?

Garden Outlook

It is amazing to me how a tiny seed can just sprout a plant. My pumpkins have a wild will of their own. We planted them in this one 15 gallon container knowing that we'd get a good yield. They have just excelled in their growth so much. We're going to have a great time when these guys yield some pumpkins. Pumpkin pie for us is an autumn tradition. I start making it as soon as the pumpkins come on the market and put up enough to get us through the holidays making many many many pumpkin pies, most of which never go used for their original intent due to the fact that I have little dervishes tearing silently through the house when everyone thinks I'm not watching. They devour the pie in two seconds flat and hum a tune as they stroll away reeking of my pumpkin pie spice. Kinda makes me feel good that my pie is so loved.

On the other hand, I'm glad I have plenty of kelp. These guys are just moving right along. I'm hoping the other blooms will give some berries soon. Having two at a time would not do very much around here. We're excited none-the-less!

Tiny as they are, they are still going strong. We have true leaves! At last count we had about 38. We're jabbing our fingers at them and counting. It's a family event, you know.

And everyone got a hefty dose of DE.

The bell peppers sprouted. We're looking forward to getting them planted as soon as they have grown a tad bit more. We're just moving right along. No major pest problems, unless you consider the dog trying to chomp down on anything my hand touches a problem. It is. But he hasn't yanked my plants out so we're good there.

4th Aftermath

Whew! We had a pretty busy 4th. We spent most of our 4 day weekend with friends. We grilled about 30 pounds of ribs. We watched spectacular displays of fireworks from the neighbors and then added in our own plus some! D.J. actually went back out and bought mortars and I've never seen the guys get so worked up over explosives. But then again, why wouldn't they?







The kids had a wonderful time.



Seth with his first sparkler.



Connor running around saying "I'm a wizard! I'm a wizard!" I guess he has been watching too much Harry Potter.




We planted the pumpkins over the weekend. I found a rather large container that we figure will do just fine in keeping four pumpkin plants occupied for the season. We got them in and ran out of soil so its about three inches from the top, but husband and kids couldn't wait to get them planted so we went with it. They are doing fine and have been watered and fertilized. I'll get pictures of them up tomorrow.

Yay Pictures!

Alyn was on me the other day for not getting pictures posted. I hadn't had the time and when I did finally get photobucket to load, it was time for new pictures. So I took some today!

The white stuff, before I get comments, is DE. I dusted and then it sprinkled like two hours later making it look like it has an infestation. Trust me, the plant is ok, it just is covered with DE dust. I am a little concerned, however, I pinched two dried dead leaves off the plant and it doesn't seem to be growing all that well. I gave it a good drink today since it hasn't rained in the last two, but I thought with all the storming we've had over the last two weeks that it would have plenty of moisture. My neighbor commented that she thought it could use a drink so we packed down some water and gave it a healthy dose. We'll see what happens.

I guess I've been container gardening for so long that I am ground gardening deficient. Having said that, we're going to watch this guy a lot closer and his siblings that are going to sprout any day now. I'll get pictures of them as soon as they do. We planted the last four pumpkin seeds we had so that we can be sure to have enough to share with our neighbors on both sides and in front. We're looking forward to carving them up with them! Not to mention we'll be giving something back to one of our neighbors that kept placing full grocery bags full of tomatoes and other stuff on our door last year. We just used the last frozen bag of those tomatoes last week and here we are going to probably inhereit a crapton more.

Everyone that I gave the tomato relish to last year has been silent about it but for one lady who said she loved it. This year I'll give her two jars...

Pumpkins and Tomatoes

My pumpkin has a single beautiful bloom. I'd love to show you a picture, but its dark and I can't get out there at the moment. My tomato plant has an additional three blooms. I'm excited that it is doing so well and my experiment with the upside down tomato in a hanging pot is doing well. I do have a couple of yellow leaves but I think that is because I missed watering for an extra two days, it seems to be fading now that regular water is resuming.

Since I don't have pictures of the plants, I'm just going to substitute with pictures of the kids and dogs.

Ok, I was going to substitute with pictues of the kids and dogs, but photobucket is not loading.

You'll just have to suffer.

Tomatos and Pumpkins

Our planted pumpkin is doing well in its new home outside in the ground. We had a cause for concern when one of the true leaves whithered and died, but the rest of the plant is thriving and just moving right along. All the rain has been helpful for this. The tomato plant is slowly growing. My neighbor who swore he wouldn't plant tomatoes this year, planted two little plants and they doubled the size of mine in a week. I know this could be due to the type of the plants he has are different from mine but I can't help feeling that with mine being upsidedown in the pot and getting less sun due to it being hidden under the pot during the noon hour is the reason mine isn't as large as his. It is definately healthy and I expect that it will produce well, but next year, I'm thinking a four way post with long hangers for the hanging basket will do better. More sun, better thriving plant. We shall see next year!

Pumpkins and Tomatos

It's been a few days since I last posted. We've been rather busy spring cleaning and getting various things set up for the summer months. But I did get to take some pictures!





They are both doing nicely.

Sprout Day 9

There is something to be said about a good sprout. Our second true leaf has come out. It's looking very nice and it appears that I didn't kill it after all with the hot water. Phew!



The tomato plant is doing well, too. At least, now that I've decided on a place to put the poor thing. I must have moved it a half dozen times trying to find the place with the best sun. In the end, I had my husband put up a hook in the right spot. Meanwhile, the tomato plant has been growing.



I find that all the worries that I had with starting a garden this year have melted away. After reading horror story after mortifying horror story about destroyed crops, insect infestations, and bad fruit, its enough to make anyone think twice about trying to grow their own. But my gardening instincts have kicked back in and I'm remembering all the little things I used to do with my parents when we planted a much larger garden in Louisiana when I was a kid.

Most of the time, the plants tell you what they need if you just pay attention. It's much more simple to just sit back and let them do the growing.

Though, I am looking for new and interesting ways to garden. My father told me about a particular way he was considering growing his tomatoes. A five gallon bucket with three tomatoes coming about of the bottom and then holes about an inch above the bottom with more planted on the sides.

I that that was a good idea, but I think I'd have four or six coming out of the sides about half way up the 5 gallon bucket or perhaps varying heights from the bottom to help with root growth. We were thinking that the tomato plants would snap at the hole in the bucket after they got so large, but I think a nice two or three inch soft support like gauze or maybe a loose weave cotton would do the trick nicely and it would tie off on the bell of the bucket. We'll have to see, I'm not ready to dive into such a large undertaking just yet, I don't have the counter space to can tomatoes on that scale.

Sprout Day 8

Happy Mothers Day!

Sprout Day 6

This is our sprout today. We have a single true leaf coming out of the middle. The one on the left is Seth and the one on the right is Connor. They are very proud of the pumpkin seed. Lets just hope I didn't kill it. I watered it and my kitchen plants earlier and did not realize my husband used the hot water to wash his hands moments before I walked into the kitchen. I watered all my plants with very hot water. =(

I just hope that we can recover.

Sprout Day 4

We have some true leaves forming on the inside. This little guy can grow! It won't be long before we're hardening off and planting.

Sprout Day 3

Amazingly enough, we haven't killed it yet. Yay! Anyway, the pumpkin sprout is getting up there.



On another note, my father pestered me into doing this.



Yep, that is a hanging flower pot. Yep, there is a tomato hanging out of the bottom of it. Remember that space age technology from a few posts ago? It came back to bite me on the ass. My father wouldn't let up until I agreed to give this a shot.

So here it is.

I took a regular hanging pot like you can get at the dollar store or filled with flowers at Wal-Mart. The pot needs to have an one inch hole in the bottom, this usually has a pre-built in screen that is easily cut out. After that is cut out, get some freezer paper or at the very least wax paper and cut a 3 or 4 inch circle. Cut to the center and take out a circle large enough to fit the 'neck' of your tomato plant, but small enough to keep all the water from going straight through taking all the soil with it. This does not have to be beautiful as it is only a functional piece.

Put the collar on the plant, slip through the hole. Careful not to bruise the leaves or damage the stems. The collar you made should stop it from slipping too much. Add your soil. Water, then top off again with soil, repeat until soil is even but not compacted. I bought a bag of soil specifically for hanging baskets because it is designed to hold moisture (meaning less work for me) and it will fertilize for 9 months. I figure that will get me through until the frost kills the plant and I'll have to make plants for next year. Muwhawhawhaw!

Speaking of plants, the CAC gives them away for free and seeds, too. You'll need to go see if you qualify. Quote: "THE GREEN THUMB PROGRAM promotes home gardening and provides free vegetable seeds and plants to eligible gardeners in Knoxville and Knox County. The COMMUNITY GARDEN PROGRAM encourages individuals and families to garden together in public housing developments and provides gardening assistance..." If you wanna garden, they can hook you up. I think as of this posting that the end is June 30. Check out the website and look for the Green Thumb Program.

Sprout Day 2

Our little sprout did a lot of growing last night. This morning when I got up, it was like this:



Pretty amazing growth, I thought. And not bad for the cut off bottom of a 2 liter bottle.

A Single Sprout

My son's pumpkin has popped up. I didn't think the seed would germinate but it did. What luck! We are rather proud of our little pumpkin sprout.


I'm just so stunned that it sprouted. Both of my children are excited. They want to watch their jack-o-lantern's grow. We'll see how well this little guy produces.