Quick trick to keep your soft fruit from spoiling so quickly

 

 

Save money by using this quick trip

It’s summer time and the fruits that we dream about all winter long are starting to show up in our local farmer’s markets, and stores. But just how do you stop this luscious, and expensive fruit from spoiling so quickly?

 

 

 

 

So many times we have brought home a bounty of soft fruit, putting it in the fridge only to have it sprout mould, or brown spots seemingly overnight.  Frustrating and expensive to have to throw it all away.  Aside from freezing it when you get home, there is another solution.

 

 

Give it a bath in vinegar, just mix up a sink full of cold water, and add a generous splash of vinegar, approximately 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water.  Gently swirl the fruit in the bath for a moment or so, and then rinse it off if you don’t like the taste of vinegar.

 

 

 

The acidic vinegar kills the mould spores, and bacteria that accumulates on the fruit.  Stopping it from spoiling so quickly.

 

 

I have used this method for some time now, and it really works.

 

 

These strawberries are from the day before, and I didn’t put them in the fridge, normally they would be covered in mildew by the next day.  But the vinegar bath really does work.

 

Swishing my berries…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

 

 

 

I would have taken a pic but I am too tired

 

I wish sometimes that you could read this post and hear it the way I am trying to write it, the wry self depreciating tones that I would speak in….the hint of laughter at myself in the background.  But you can only read it, and use the voice in your head, and each one of us is different, so it will sound different to all.

Honestly, I would have taken a picture of the most amazing strawberries that I picked today at my Sister’s farm…but I was too tired from working there today.  Too tired, that’s the wry part, I am laughing at myself for being tired after working a day at the farm.  Must be all that fresh air. 

So just imagine the strawberries, juicy, ripe, delish, and tasty.  Real true strawberries just picked from the field. There is simply nothing that tastes like farm fresh in the stores.  If you have a chance go and find a farmer’s market, or drive to a farm, and either pick your own, or buy them picked.  You won’t regret it…..

Munching on them now…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

It was a …. potato chip kind of day

 

 

 

It all started when I got up maybe I should have just stayed in bed all day.  Because at the end, it was nothing more then a potato chip kind of day.  The kind of day that when you look back you go….wow, that was…pretty awful.  But as you sit there double dipping a bag of potato chips, and indulging in a bit of poor us, you realize that it could have been so much worse, and that maybe it wasn’t as bad a needing to eat the entire bag after all, so you only eat some of them.

 

 

My computer wouldn’t start this morning, the CPU thingy screen that tells me someone other then me is having hot flashes freaked out.  Usually a good dusting does it but after I unhooked everything, and cleaned house, it still wouldn’t work.  Live sessions, questions, and many techs and hours later…the files that should have been sent that morning winged their way out that evening.

 

 

The overflowing toilet really wrapped it all up.  Two hundred and fifty dollars later we were rid of a plugged line and rather grateful that it was only that.

 

 

With all the rain we have been doused with, there is massive flooding and damage to houses with rivers overflowing, and vehicles washed away in our area.

 

 

All available plumbers were up to their knees and beyond in dirty water, some basements are 3 feet under water. We only had a blocked pipe, no flood, no damage, no backed up septic tank. And that’s why it’s only a small amount of potato chips.

 

Crunching…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Bootsie and the simple law of physics

 

 

 

I found out about Bootsie, and the simple law of  physics last week.  He’s a small cat in a big body, and the law of physics is all about how to bend over when you are tall. [At least that’s what my chiropractor says].

 

 

Apparently when you are tall, and you lean forward without bending your knees to pick up your too fat ahem… weight challenged cat, you will hurt your back.  See, simple law of Physics.  A body that bends and picks up a heavy weight at one end will tend to keep hurting until it sees a Chiropractor.

 

 

A lot of hurt that lasted all week, because that body is too stubborn to go to said Chiropractor, thinking instead the back pain will go away.

It didn’t, and it only got worse.

 

 

If you can’t walk, or get out of a chair, because your back is sore, you are not happy.

Feed the cat less, even though he continuously begs, and he will weigh less.  Of course then you will have scratched ankles from a skinnier displeased and unhappy kitty, but he will weigh less.

 

 

You in turn will save money by not having to see the Chiropractor every week.

 

 

See, simple law of physics, and fat weight challenged cats.

 

Oh my aching back…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

As long as it has color, I like it

 

 

I’m not a fickle gardener, as long as it has color, I like it. 

 

 

One day I adore those soft aqua’s and pinks, and then the next day the purple iris are blooming, and they become my favourite. 

 

 

Or the day is gloomy and the stunning orange marigolds shine through the clouds as my love.

 

 

The one constant color I adore in my garden?

 

 

This little Black and White Tuxedo kitty called Boo, I am smitten.

 

 

Smitten…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Vintage pink, and a waitress named Flo

 

 

 

Oh please tell me that you get these color crushes also, you know vintage pink, retro turquoise, tantalizing teal, it’s so intense right now.  All I want to do is envelop myself in these colors, dip everything with light teal, throw down some turquoise accents, and add dashes of this vintage pink.

 

 

It might be the late spring we are having, and the feeling like we are so behind every other garden around, but I am enamoured of these colors right now.  It’s nothing more then a color crush, but oh it feels so sweet and vintage-y.

 

 

These roses make me think that they should be pinned on the collar of a waitress named Flo, who has bleached blonde hair, and a great big heart, and a soft southern drawl.  Wasn’t there a waitress named Flo in a TV show?

 

 

I am so in love with them, the roses that is, it’s not funny.  I don’t know a waitress named Flo, or anyone else that goes by that name, but I can clearly see her standing there with her turquoise uniform on, and her big hair.

 

 

What colors are you crushing on right now? Do they stay constant, do you flirt with bold, tangle with the pastels, or do you go all out with brights?  And how long does your crush last?

 

I need to know, after all, no one wants to be in love alone.

 

Crushing….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

The stormy side of summer

 

 

 

If last night was any indication of what the fall and winter will be like living here on the mountainside, I think I am going to have to learn to button down the hatches a little better.  Last night was a dark and stormy night, little rain, some lightning, but the wind that buffeted the windows, and sent all of the window blinds scattering back and forth kept me awake most of the night.

 

 

It was a hot and sticky day, and although the clouds visited it wasn’t with a breeze, and it never cooled down.  Usually there is a bit of a break after dark, and we can open the windows and get a breeze going. Not so last night, it was close, congested and airless all day, and night.

 

 

Until around 2 am, and then the wind broke loose from the trees.  Nearly soundless until it gathered enough force to blow it’s ferocious breath through our open windows. Lifting the blinds in all the rooms, and scattering papers.  I couldn’t sleep after the wind set off the security lights, the movement tripping them to stay on almost continuously all night.  Prowling around the house I shut windows against the wind, and peered through curtains into a suddenly daylight bright yard lit by security lights.

 

 

If this is a summer storm, just think of the damage the winter will be able to do.

 

Sleepy…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

 

Pick the peonies, and enjoy them inside

 

 

 

When you container garden, no matter how many pots you have each and every bloom is a precious reward for all of your hard work.  Each flower is a small victory against  bugs, disease, and the weather. You might have picked a few blossoms for inside but most were cherished and likely to stay on the plant.  Limited supplies, not enough flowers not enough space.

Now that I have a large garden filled with perennials I was still in the “please don’t pick the flowers” mentality.  I didn’t want to shorten the length of time that I could see them blooming by bring them inside, and that’s silly.

 

 

While they are outside I can enjoy them for the length of time it takes to go from the door to the vehicle, maybe a glance while I am gardening, but that’s it.  So I’ve changed my ways.

Peonies were meant for picking, they were meant to grace a table, and be plunked in a antique teal colored mason jar. Their sweet fragrance was meant to meander through the kitchen, and up the halls. 

 

 

I have a good friend down on the coast who used to bring me armfuls of flowers from her garden, the generosity of that act just blowing me away.  Now I understand the joy those flowers brought me multiplied her happiness also.

 

 

Flowers are meant to be enjoyed, both in the garden, and in the house.

 

 

Do you pick the  flowers and bring them inside to enjoy, or are you parsimonious with the peonies? Do you have someone who shares their bounty with you?

 

Plucking petals…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

The peas please

 

 

 

Just a few things that are happening [finally] in my garden,  the first showings of the white blossoms that signify fresh green peas are happening.  Excited, me yes! I love peas, and I am out there like a avid gardener saying the peas please!  As if to encourage them along faster.

The Baking Soda experiment kind of worked on the fairy rings…notice that I sound perplexed.  Well it isn’t really working on the weeds, but it is turning the mushroom circles brown, and they are dying.

Who knows, I might have stumbled onto something.  Put out both of your hands in front of you thumbs barely touching, now spread your fingers slightly.  That’s the size of a mushroom that was growing in our lawn, I honestly don’t think I have ever seen anything like it, not even down on the coast.  Disposed of neatly in the compost pile,  so now that I think of it, most likely I have spread the spores…sigh.

 

 

Heat wave, we are getting a two day heat wave, yah!  After all that rain, most of June was wet, it’s good to go outside and not smell wet dog. We don’t have a dog.  It’s the rain.

Zucchini, we have 3 tiny little babies of zukies, one looks like it might make it to full grown, can I break the spell?  No pics…yet.  I will be showing pics when it’s ready, this is a celebration for us remember I can’t grown them, so if it works….

 

 

Bootsie decided to pick the spot where I planted the catnip seeds to roll in the dirt.  So far he’s left all of the basil seedlings alone, but the day is young.  The cosmos have finally got their second set of leaves, after being planted for a month.

 

 

Our cat loves Gangsta Rap.  The neighbour was in his shed playing that nasty, swearing, rap kind of music, and Boo was sitting near the fence enthralled, fascinated with the boom, boom boom.

Great, now I have a cat that want’s to be Gangster.

 

Getting ear plugs for the cat….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Summer garden

 

It’s the first day of summer, and that means warm days, and warm nights…no more rain in my garden? 

The first day of summer should be a celebration, full of the kicking off of shoes, walking on the grass in bare feet, sipping lemonade kind of day, and watching the flowers grow in the garden.

This will be the first summer in years, decades almost that I have my very own lawn to walk on in bare feet, my very own garden.  Can you imagine the feel of delicate grass tickling your toes…the smell of fresh cut grass wafting in through the windows? 

Watching the flowers grow in the garden, happening in front of your eyes, the blooms, the colors, the green. 

The first day of summer is always so full of promises, the grass is always greener this end of summer, and the skies are bluer.  The garden is sweeter, the flowers prettier.

I won’t think about the end of summer, or the winter today, because today I am living in a summer garden.

 

With grass tickling my toes…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

.

The perils of on-line drying

 

 

 

That’s online drying, as in laundry, not dating, and it’s a perilous event with Mother Nature scoring big during our unsettled weather in this June–u–ary. 

Look outside it’s sunny, gather up the wet laundry, and hang it all on the clothesline, tell yourself that you are a Fresh Air Frugalista, and loving it.

 

 

Look outside again, Mother Nature is working her dirty tricks on your clean laundry, it’s sprinkling down from the sky.  Decide it was a lot of work to hang up those loads of laundry, and you will wait out the storm.

 

 

Mother Nature one, laundry 0.

It’s raining harder, decide that no…you will wait it out it’s bound to stop soon.

It rains even harder.

No you don’t feel getting wet, the sun will come out.

Mother Nature 2, laundry 0.

 

 

The sun does come out, you do a happy dance.

Mother Nature 2, laundry 1.

It starts to rain.

It starts to pour.

It starts to down pour, there has never been such a rain recorded here like the one that is now soaking your it was almost dry laundry.

 

 

Bring in the laundry, put it in the dryer.

Mother Nature 3, laundry 0.

 

 

Fresh air Frugalista isn’t all it’s cracked up to be is it now?

Just you wait until a sunny day Mother Nature, just you wait.

 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams