Making Use Of My Halloween Pumpkin

I made sure to buy an organic pumpkin this year and carved it with my lovable faux Frost knife....
I don't like being wasteful and could have done better with utilizing my jack-o-lanterns' sacrificed pieces parts...
so here is what I did do, and wish I had done ::::

1. Save the seeds to plant next summer (win)
2. Save seeds to roast & eat (fail)
3. scoop out innards and cook it down to eat (fail)
4. light a candle in it and feel total artistic pumpkin carving bliss (win!)
5. feed the carved pumpkin to my chickens when it's face starts to cave in (future win)

Ya'll have any more ideas??!
xoxox

Clearing A Space For My Organic Garden Part 3

Remember this crazy sh*t? I have been clearing this spot slowly for the last month, because it is the only sunny spot on my land and was already somewhat clear due to it being under the rural power lines. I lucked out majorly when my cousin Matt came over the last 2 weeks with a chainsaw to move all the big trees that had already been felled - then he came and tilled the space yesterday!!!!

Most the clearing was done with just clippers and a handsaw - the chainsaw & tiller are the sprinkles on my happy cake! I have already started to put out some seeds including carrots, collards, lettuce, turnips, broccoli raab, green beans and red onion sets. And I am not going to stop there, in about a week I am going to set out all the hot plants like squash (winter and summer varieties), cucumbers, melons, and those unreal penis shaped peppers I bought ... :)
In the large tree stumps that were hollow, I filled them with dirt and planted lettuce, kale, dill and chamomile in them ... the kale is already sprouting! Dead tree stumps are like big awesome pots to plant in. (Thanks Matt for the cool idea!)
Woo! Can't wait till it all grows and I can eat it all up! It's worth every second of 'hard' work.

XOxoxo

Seed Saving: Organic Soy Beans

This is about more then just seed saving, because when you cook dried beans what you are actually cookin' up is the seeds of the bean plant! Beans and their seeds are one in the same. Today I cut down my soy bean plants to hang for drying - since I am saving these bean seeds for eating I didn't want to risk the chance of any mildew problems getting into the pods.
Once they are finished drying out, I will shuck them from the shells, and put them in a jar for storage. What I am hoping to do with most of these soy beans is make my very own tofu and soy milk from scratch! MmmMmm, anyone who has had fresh tofu knows what I am talking about- it's so good you could eat it straight up and plain!
Check out the beans in waiting...
xoxo

Green Bean Seeds: Pluck and Shuck

My organic green bean plants are pretty much done, as far as eating goes - but what I did this year was let a bunch of them go all the way to their very end...to seed! Green beans only taste good in their teen stages, once they become adult beans they get tough and stringy - and bulge a little. The bulge is the beans going to seed, which is the absolute best way to save money on organic seeds for next year's garden. The ones that are most ready I plucked from the vines and then shucked the hard beans out of them by hand - then I put them on a wooden cutting board to finish drying out. This is to make sure they don't mold & keep them from getting wet or sprouting.
* Does anyone have any other ideas on the best way to collect bean seeds?*
XoXOooo