The Perfect Gift

Mr. Right always knows how to buy the perfect gifts.  Some husbands probably just buy their wife flowers or jewelry but Mr. Right can always hit the nail on the head.  The hard part for him is I’m not a typical wife…I guess.  Jewelry and expensive things do nothing for me. 

Yesterday he gave me the gift of the year; the gift that tops all gifts.  Curious yet?  He gave me the book Vegetable Gardening for Dummies.  Now, my husband doesn’t think I’m a dummy but he knows how badly I’ve been wanting to learn about gardening.  We have planted a garden for two years in a row and we haven’t been as successful as I would like to have been.  I didn’t know what to do.  I have tried to look up tips online, talk with Grandpa and I have even printed out charts but still felt like I knew nothing.  Well, let me tell you, Vegetable Gardening for Dummies  is an excellent book.  I can’t hardly put it down.  It discusses how to plant, care for, and harvest your vegetables, how to plot your garden and prepare the soil, composting, combating pests with environmentally friendly methods, money saving tips, when to plant, variety types, watering…you name it.  I was THRILLED to get this book…to say the least. 

My goal this year is to grow enough tomatoes to can LOTS.  We have scaled down the garden this year so we can focus on just a couple crops.  One thing we did wrong as newbies was plant too much.  We planted the entire produce aisle and didn’t get very far.  My plan is to slowly get better over the years by mastering just a few things each year then adding something to the garden the following year.

We will start tilling next weekend.  Well, Mr. Right will start tilling next weekend.  I don’t think my 31 week pregnant belly should be running a tiller.  But, I can’t wait to get in the dirt!  

I want to do more of this over the summer...

Canning Apple Pie Filling

So, we bought a ton of apples and I needed to do something with them.  I decided to can apple pie filling.
Here's what you do.  Start by rinsing your apples...

Then make them magically turn into this:

Now, make the syrup:
10c water
2 tsp guar gum
3c sucanat
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 Tb vinegar
cook until it looks syrupy.
Like this:

That's before I stirred in the guar gum...

 Then add, 35c apples and 3 Tb vinegar. Cook 10-15 minutes.

 Fill your jars to just below the rings.

 Put the lids and rings on.

Put all the jars in the hot water bath for 10 minutes.

And viola!  You've got canned apple pie filling!  I had some leftover syrup so I went ahead and canned that too.  I didn't want to waste it!  (I didn't start off with exactly 35c apples.)

Now, we can have some yummy apple pies during the winter.  That makes Mr. Right happy. :)