Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Spraying Toxic Chemicals

So yesterday was a great day for a Monday. Did lots of work and was feeling good when...they did it. They found a way to poison my container garden on my little itty bitty deck here at the townhouse. I was in my tiny kitchen preparing dinner when the Orkin man in his van appeared in the parking lot. He sat in his van for a few minutes and then dressed in a mask, cover clothing and gloves. Nothing says poison like the Orkin man dressed in full cover. My windows and doors are all open. Yep, open to enjoy the fresh air and my seedlings and cutting are on the sill. From behind the truck here he comes with his pump bottle with poison in it. I jump quickly to remove my plants and cuttings from the sill and shut the window. HE KNOWS I'M THERE. I run to the back and shut the doors. Does he spray all the units on this row? NO! Just the unit that houses the office employee that lives next door. He sprays two stories high and down comes the liquid chemical onto my ground plants in front and then goes to the back and down comes his liquid chemicals onto my container garden. With seven units in this row he sprays just one and the wind blows it right onto my unit. No information given as to what or why he is spraying. I've seen no signs of insects or anything that needed treatment. As a matter of fact it's been a wonderful summer without a lot of mischievous insects. I attributed it to the fact that we planted plants that fight bad insects and attract the good ones. So to make a long story short my container gardening is done. The spinach and parsnips will be disposed of and I'll pull the remaining herbs. I saved what was inside from the chemicals coming in the window so all is not lost. I guess it's not against the law to spray chemicals without notifying people of what you're doing or advising them to close the windows. Still alive this morning to tell this story.

The gardening season is coming to a close and later this week I will harvest what I can for tomatoes growing at Karen's and check on the bucket squash which probably will not be ready for harvest for a couple more weeks. None of these gardens were sprayed with anything. 

I canned vegetable stock this past week from the vegetable scraps I saved in the freezer. There was enough to put up eleven pints. My tomatoes yielded five pints of sauce. Every little bit helps and I am grateful for what I get. Thank you for stopping by and visiting. Have a great week and keep on farming. 

Townhouse Homestead TuesdayThis

It always amazes me when I open the freezer to add reclaimed veggie scraps to my collection for vegetable stock. I manage a good eight plus pints every three months and I am saving money and using my vegetables to the fullest. When we are in a home of our own and not renting these scraps will continue in the compost pile. Here's another batch and the bag is filling up again in the freezer. I have to wonder why anyone is going hungry today. I simply open a jar of stock add half a bag of frozen vegetables, my choice of noodles, rice or potatoes and I have soup. Probably a lot of work for soup, but to just take it off the shelf and instantly have a meal is awesome.

The tomatoes hopefully are doing well. I'll check on them in another week. I think if they were doing bad my friend would let me know. It's at the point where we are feeding them and waiting for them to grow and produce fruit. I continue to use the farmers markets for what I need and for $18 this week I got apples, strawberries, pears, peaches, plums, tomatoes, ginger and zucchini. Not small amounts either. Healthy helpings for the two of us to cook with and enjoy. 

This morning I gave my basil a haircut and filled my larger colander. Some of these leaves are four inches by three inches and I now have them washed and hanging to dry. I have a good harvest of parsley coming, but I want to wait until I have a good enough amount so I can make some garlic bread and parsley butter for my winter storage. My covert carrots are growing well too. Getting larger and stronger every day. For now it's just waiting for everything to grow and taking little steps to preserve whatever I can and enjoy as much fresh too. I wish everyone a great week and thank you for stopping by.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Yesterday a two page notice was slipped into our townhouse door to remind us about the clean up rules and the time frame we have to do it along with all the demands that no one enforces or follows. On the list in bold capital letters were the words "NO VEGETABLE GARDENING ALLOWED". I will put my herbs out again and I am going to sneak in carrots in a large pot on my tiny deck. I will tell them it's parsley. I really would love to find a place to grow more, but this too shall come and in the mean time I will use our farm markets. I did start tomato seeds thinking they wouldn't grow. I guess I was wrong and if I can't find somewhere to garden I will grow them in my window. These are container tomatoes. 

On the pantry supplies and canning end of the homestead I finished up my vegetable soup stock and ended up with six quarts. I can now take a jar off the shelf and make a meal in less than an hour start to finish. I have been trying new things and will continue working on my meal plan.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

This week was a shop at home week. Although we did pick up some groceries for my daughters lunches and things to cook with we are shopping at home first. It's becoming a waste not want not kind of life we are living but with the high cost of "everything" these days how can a person not become frugal. In doing so I think we are eating better and eating a better variety of good food. 

This is turkey noodle soup made of turkey and stock from Thanksgiving. I used no yolk noodles to make it a bit healthier and I have control of the salt and yes that is a home made roll. I like knowing what's in my food even though it's not always easy these days.

Over the weekend we had breakfast for dinner. From scratch home made waffles with home made triple berry syrup. Oh such a luxury.

I had a large bag of clean vegetable scraps in the freezer that needed to be boiled down for stock. With my new pressure caner I could now can it and not use my valuable freezer space. I knew I wouldn't have enough jars to fill the caner so I got to work preparing potatoes too. The clean potato skins were added to the stock pot. I had a great abundance of them because I bartered for them over the holidays for a sewing project. I also had a small amount of beef stock taking up space in the freezer that I knew I could cook down a bit and also put it up.

In the end I had seven pints of vegetable stock, two pints of beef stock and eight pints of potatoes. There was one pint of vegetable stock that wouldn't fit in the caner, so it will be vegetable soup one night this week.

This is a jar of ground dried orange peels. I have been working hard at including fresh fruit in our diets, but since I can't compost in the apartment I am always searching for uses for my scraps. These I will add to some soups and smoothies or make a citrus tea. I added some to sugar and made citrus sugar for my friends to add to their tea. In a special bottle it would make a lovely gift. 

I am enjoying my frugal life, having less yet having more.
Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. I hope I'm inspiring you to be frugal and thank you for inspiring me to live better.