well, hello there.

it's been a few months since the last update, i know.. but it's been a rough few months for us at the little forest house.. i assure you plants are still growing. we have carrots, herbs, and broccoli planted for the winter. i've started taking pictures of the growth process.. so one of these days when i get the patience i shall start uploaded! promise!

we're great with cucumbers.

not too much to report. the pepper garden is not so much.. and i think we finally figured out why. well, us geniuses thought it would be a great idea to plant a thing of catnip in the middle of the pepper garden.. not so much? i caught my cat tinkling on it the other day - i'm sure every other puss in the neighborhood has been getting some action, too.

so apparently, we're good at growing cucumbers! the roma tomato plant produced about 15 tomatoes.. now, as well as the celebrity and better bush plants, bloom over and over and over and i guess they just don't pollinate. i've started rubbing the little flowers together so we'll see if that helps..

this a nice close up of my sage, it has great texture.





tons of cucumbers! i'm going to get two or three different kinds of cucumbers next year.




i wuv their fingers.













this is my first okra! yay!





aaand josh loving his kids.




a nice sunrise for you night folk.

what's that on the fence?

so we're walking through the yard.. checking out the veggies and i go .. "ew? is that a condom on the fence?" josh gave it a little kick and it bounce back..

and it was this moth!@#

i looked it up, it's a luna moth. they only live 7 days in their adult form.. in those seven days they lay 500-700 eggs!

sooo i'm super lucky i got to see it. i took a ton of pictures.. these don't even scratch the surface. i'm going to try to load them in chronological order so you can see it's wings unfurl. =D

is that a pickle in your pocket?

so we ate her!

RECIPE!
brine:
1 3/4 cups water
3/4 vinegar
3 tablespoon kosher salt

1 awesome cucumber .. from my garden.
a ton a dill .. from my garden.
a little bit of basil .. from my garden.
and some garlic i bought. =)







first off I mixed the brine ingredients and set them to boil.

after that we chopped of the dill, basil, and two cloves of garlic for the seasoning.





we put a layer of the herb mixture in the bottom.





next.. we took turn chopping up the cucumber!@








stuffed a few in, added a layer of spices.





stuffed some more cucumbers in. more spices.





by then the brine mixture was boiling. we slowly poured then brine into the jar covering the cucumbers and the pickle seasonings! from my garden!










we heated up the jar lid in some warm water then placed it on the jar. screwed on the ring and ..





tada! now time to seal the jar!





we dropped the jar into a hot boiling tub of water and let it cook for about 15 minutes (next batch will probably cook less time, so they'll be crunchier).





cook cook cook!





after 15 mins we pulled it out and stuck it in the cabinet for about three days.. then into the refrigerator! i had my first yummy home made home grown pickle a day later and it was great!

yaaay babies babies!

first buds from our guatemalan peppers!




the first tomatillo. =D




that's a tomatillo flower.. it's super pretty!




since the first roma tomato ripened.. the plant has exploded! it's grown four huge tomatoes in no time! it took the first one a month or two.. not these babies.. it took weeks!









my cucumber vine is out of control! we harvested our first cucumber (yay!) that i will be pickling. so i'm going to save the final pictures of that for the pickling adventure that i will embark on tonight!




close up of the head of the cucumber vine. so furry.








this is my cilantro.. it seems to be creating seed pods.. so no one has to buy cilantro next year! i'll have a shit ton of seeds!




blooming catnip.



another guatemalan pepper plant going to town.



jalapeno!



dill overload!




my fiiiiirst eggplant flower! IT'S PURPLE! EHEHE.




she's a cute little plant but she's going nuts!