The BEST Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins (Incl. Vegan Version)

In my last post I listed a bunch of ways we like to use zucchini.  This muffin recipe has been one of our absolute favorites (second only to our very popular Chocolate Zucchini Cake) for years.  It's the perfect amount of sweetness, super duper moist and all-around delicious.  Use a really good chocolate chip or chunks of chocolate - you won't regret it.

I've included both the original (full fat + eggs) version as well as a lightened up vegan version. Whether you're vegan or just out of eggs and want to make a yummy muffin, the lighted up vegan version really is an incredibly delicious version.  If I don't say so myself.  

My husband used to hate when I would ask him to try anything I'd "veganized".  Once he realized my changes did not mean less taste, he's been a willing taste tester.  So I couldn't wait to have him try these muffins because I wanted to make sure, since I haven't eaten a baked good with eggs in over a year, that my taste buds were correct.  Yes indeed!  My I-love-oil-eggs-and-whatever-my-wife-doesn't-eat husband agreed that they are delicious and that he would never have known it was vegan or used less oil if I hadn't told him.  

That, my friends, is what I call a winning recipe!

Anyway, enough about the conversion.  You'll be happy with either version.  They freeze well too, for up to 3 months.

The BEST Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins (Regular Version)

Makes 6 large muffins or 12 regular-size muffins

3/4 cup oil (i.e. grapeseed, or canola - I have not tried coconut)

1 cup sugar (or 1/2 - 3/4 cup maple syrup)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I have successfully used white whole wheat flour as well)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 3/4 cups (heaping) unpeeled, grated zucchini

3/4 cup chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line one 12-cup muffin pan or one 6-cup large muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine oil, sugar/maple syrup, salt, eggs, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.  Add in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk together by hand until lump-free.  Fold in the grated zucchini and chocolate chips/chunks.

Fill the muffin cups almost all the way to the top.  Bake 20-25 minutes for regular-sized muffins or 25-30 minutes for large sized muffins, or until the muffins are browned and spring back slightly to the touch.

Store at room temp, in an air-tight container up to 4 days, or freeze (freeze on a cookie sheet and then put in freezer-safe bag or container) up to 3 months.

The BEST Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins - Vegan Version + Reduced Sugar & Oil

Makes 6 large muffins or 12 regular-size muffins

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed

3 Tablespoons water

1/3 cup oil (i.e. grapeseed, or canola - I have not tried coconut)

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup yogurt (non-dairy for vegan - plain or vanilla)

3/4 cups granulated sugar -or- 1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I have successfully used white whole wheat flour as well)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 3/4 cups (heaping) unpeeled, grated zucchini

3/4 cup chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line one 12-cup muffin pan or one 6-cup large muffin pan with paper liners.

In a small bowl, combine the ground flaxseed and water and let sit for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine oil, applesauce, yogurt, sugar/maple syrup, salt, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.  Add in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk together by hand until lump-free.  Fold in the flaxseed and water combination, grated zucchini and chocolate chips/chunks.

Fill the muffin cups almost all the way to the top.  Bake 20-25 minutes for regular-sized muffins or 25-30 minutes for large sized muffins, or until the muffins are browned and spring back slightly to the touch.

Store at room temp, in an air-tight container up to 4 days, or freeze (freeze on a cookie sheet and then put in freezer-safe bag or container) up to 3 months.

**If you choose to, you can use eggs in the reduced oil/sugar version by omitting the 1 Tablespoons flaxseed, 3 Tablespoons water, and 1/4 cup applesauce and replacing the ingredients with 2 eggs. **

The BEST Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins (Incl. Vegan Version)was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

Growing Hydrangeas: Selecting Hydrangeas for Your Garden

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers. I have always loved them growing up and enjoyed adding them to my decor.  You can imagine my excitement and surprise when I moved here to Cape Cod and quickly learned that practically everyone here has at least one in their landscape. I knew that I had to ... Read more Growing Hydrangeas: Selecting Hydrangeas for Your Garden

Growing Hydrangeas: Selecting Hydrangeas for Your Gardenwas originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

This Month On The Farm: July 2020

July's weather was full-on summer complete with heat, humidity, and lots o' sunshine.  And surprisingly, a lack of mosquitoes.  Hooray for that!  We did receive some rain and when we did, oh boy was it a lot.

Tents - Not Just For Camping

As you can see in the photo above, we decided to make use of a couple of our extra craft show tents and set them up on the upper and lower decks.  On the upper deck it's wide open, used just for rain cover and shade (Ollie is afraid of the netting walls so we left them off).  On the lower deck we used the netting walls and put our outdoor table and chairs inside so we can enjoy eating or sitting outside without bugs attacking.  Ollie, as noted, is afraid of the walls but if he's sitting in his tower with me by his side, he deals with it ok.

gutters and rain barrel installed!

Barrels Of Rain

Woo hoo!  Jay was able to get the gutters installed on the outbuildings and the rain barrels are up and working.  This has been on our "someday" list for years.  Years!  We've been able to successfully use the barrels to water the garden through most of the month, only needing to resort to our well water a couple of times.

Harvesting

As I've mentioned (probably too many times), our garden is mostly shaded.  We receive morning sun over about 70% of it and afternoon sun for a few hours over it all, and it's fully shaded the remainder of the day.  And so, our harvesting starts late.  Then, of course, we had the infamous whistle pig debacle that set us back a bit but we are now enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Green beans are coming in by the bushel.  I know that many people don't enjoy frozen green beans but we do, so I grow enough to enjoy fresh weekly as well as enough to put up in the freezer for winter and springtime eating.  I planted 3 types this year: Blue Lake, Red Noodle, and Calima Bush Beans.  The Red Noodle are still small and green but this is the first year we've planted them so, fingers crossed, they are delicious.

We finally have tomatoes!!!  Well, we finally have ripe tomatoes!  We have a ton, I mean TON, of green tomatoes amidst the 25 plants so we will definitely have plenty for fresh eating as well as for oven-drying to freeze for sauce during the winter.

We are also harvesting onions, cabbage, kale, swiss chard, mixed greens, arugula, microgreens, peppers (jalapeno, ancho, and bell), summer squash, zucchini, the last of the peas, beets, blueberries, blackberries, herbs and radish.

our sweet potato hill

Sadly, our pear and asian pear trees did not do well this year.  I've ordered new "partners" for them (and the paw paw tree) so our hope is we will be swimming in their fruits in a couple of years!  And our whistle pig took out all of our summer broccoli and cauliflower so we won't be harvesting either of those until fall.

At the start of the season I would grab a big bowl from the cupboard and Ollie and I would head to the garden to harvest whatever was ready.  One day, as my bowl was so full the veggies were spilling out of it, Jay looked at me and said "you need a bucket or a basket or something".  I said "I know.  Someone I follow on Instagram just posted a picture of her harvest basket that her husband made.  It was nice - metal mesh and wood sides and handle.  You're too busy though, so maybe next year."  I didn't give it another thought.

Later in the week Jay comes out of his shop holding the PERFECT harvest basket.  He had made it in between other projects he was working on.  Such a sweet gift! 

So now, Ollie and I take our harvest basket with us to the garden on our daily check-in.

looking up one of our mammoth sunflowers

the 2 mammoth sunflowers that survived the whistle pig feast are on the left

Homestead Projects

We have a list of projects that we are hoping to accomplish before fall.  We've managed to check off some of the easier projects, but not so much the larger projects.  Here's what we're chipping away at:

• paint the dining room (done)
• stain the back deck (done)
• paint the living room
• fix columns and lay new flooring on one of the two front porches (second porch will be done next year)
• paint 2 sides of the house (same color, just refreshing it - the other 2 sides will be done next year)
• install fence around the garden (temporarily done - permanent fencing will be done next spring)
• build and install a new outdoor pole light in the front yard
• build a small nesting box area/water station for garden (so when the chickens are tasked with the garden fall clean-up, they have a place to lay eggs)
• chop and stack wood for the woodstove in the shop (done although we may chop a bit more)
• install gutters on the outbuildings and hook-up rain barrels (done)
• create a raised bed hoop house for one of our garden beds so we can grow greens through late fall/early winter (done for now - we purchased/found the items needed to make this in fall)

Animals

We are not going to add any more animals to the homestead for now and that includes chickens.  The current flock will get smaller, gradually, as the inevitable happens.  We had one pass away this week, she was one of the older girls, and we fully anticipate a few more passing this year from old age.  It certainly doesn't get any easier to deal with death, but at least we have developed a bit of a plan now, of keeping them safe and comfortable during the process.  We also know more about signs, because with chickens, they usually mask illness.  This helps us so we can watch closer and try to make sure they are protected.  

Death is one of the parts of having animals that is so difficult.  Unfortunately, as birds become sick and/or begin the dying process, some of the others can become very cannibalistic.  It's not a pretty sight.  So once we see that one of the girls isn't feeling well, we are able to remove them, but not totally, from the flock.  They are social creatures, so full removal seems to make them stressed and upset.  Instead, we make sure they are separated by a fence allowing them to still feel a part of the flock without getting incessantly pecked at and stepped on.  And no, we don't let them suffer.  If there's any sign of that, and we've done all we can do to make them well, we step in.  

Our overall plan is to get out of the egg-selling business and keep a very small flock (6-8 girls).  With a flock of 24 girls, it will take some time for the flock to naturally reduce (we're down from the 32 we had last year), so we won't be bringing in any chicks until we have less then 8 girls.

zucchini chocolate chip muffins

What Do You Do With All Of That Zucchini?

Isn't this the question you ask yourself every single year?  I always think I have a plan to keep up with it but I struggle by August.  I give it a heck of an effort though.  Here's what we've been doing with our zucchini:

• slicing it lengthwise and grilling it (alternatively, you could broil or bake it).  We both love it.  Jay sprinkles a bit of parmesan on his and I like mine plain.  It's sooooo juicy and delicious.
• cutting it into chunks and sautéing it with onions and corn.  I add a bit of butter to Jay's and mine is plain.  We just love the combination.
• stuffing it.  As noted in this weekending post (at the bottom), I always enjoy coming up with new stuffing ideas.  The key is to bake, boil, or grill the scooped out zucchini halves before you fill and bake them so they are nice and soft once finished.
• making our very favorite chocolate zucchini cake. Even my husband who isn't the world's biggest chocolate fan LOVES both versions.  The original version is here.  The healthier/reduced oil and sugar version is here.
• making Kate's recipe for healthier zucchini bread.
• making zucchini and chocolate chip muffins.  They are ah-mazing!  I just realized I've never shared the recipe here.  I'll try to get that on the blog!
• making zucchini noodles with homemade pesto.  Soooo good!
• adding zucchini to grilled kebabs.  (everything gets marinated in italian dressing first)
• adding zucchini to soups such as minestrone.
• making zucchini cobbler.  (tastes just like apple cobbler)
• making veggie stew.  I use zucchini and whatever fresh veg is in the garden to make stew as the temps begin to drop in the fall.

I'm not a big fan of eating it raw (there's a weirdness to it) or as zucchini "fries", so those didn't make the list.  We've made zucchini pickles in the past but we aren't huge pickle eaters so I haven't been making them.  

I'd love to hear your family's favorite ways to eat zucchini!

Oliver, my garden/kitchen/preserving/everything helper

Preserving, Or, What We'll Be Eating This Winter

Since our garden is now in full swing, the preserving process has finally begun!  

Green beans - as noted above, they are being put up in the freezer weekly.

Peppers - so far we've only collected enough jalapeno's to preserve, so those have been made into pickled jalapeno rings.

Relish - our cucumbers are struggling this year.  I've never had an issue with cukes, so I'm not sure what's happening.  So we purchased some cucumbers from the farmer's market and, along with our bell peppers and onions we'll can enough relish for my husband to enjoy with his occasional hot dog lunch.

Zucchini - I did freeze some grated zucchini (portioned into 2 cup servings) that I can add to muffins, quick breads, etc.

Onions - we are drying quite a few and then I'll chop and freeze the remainder.

How do you figure out how much veggies to preserve?  This is a question I receive a lot.  For us, this is how I plan it.  We typically rotate the same dishes all winter long so I can usually predict how often during the week we'll eat veggies such as green beans, broccoli, winter squash, tomato sauce, etc.  I then times that by how many weeks we'll need preserved food and that's how I calculate it.  So, as an example, I plan on serving green beans twice a week for 28 weeks which means I will need to freeze 56 bags of green beans (bagged in single-serving sizes).  

It gets a bit more difficult with carrots, corn, onions, canned chopped tomatoes, and peppers because I use them on their own as well as in many different dishes.  Over time, through trial and error, I've made it so I can get pretty close.  For the frozen veggies, I flash-freeze them and then store them in large, gallon-size bags, so I can just take out what I need when I'm cooking.

That's July around the homestead!

This Month On The Farm: July 2020was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

Weekending

the dining room is painted!

the temporary garden fence (permanent will be wooden framed with wood posts)

How are you?  I'm hoping the answer for each of you is "well" or even "great"!  Considering the changes we've all endured, we are faring very well around here.  Honestly, we are enjoying a bit slower pace.  Not that we want this to be a permanent thing but slowing down is good for our soul.  Rather then working 6-7 days a week we are pretty much sticking to 4 days.  And we know how lucky we are that our small business is even able to survive.

It's been a hot one in this part of the world.  Hot and humid.  We do get a day or two reprieve weekly with a slight dip in temps or humidity so that's always welcomed.  Thank goodness for ceiling fans!  Ours go non-stop from June through September to keep that air circulating.

Jay has enjoyed spending his extra time with his boat (and creating secret projects as a surprise for me like the harvest basket in the first photo).  He has a small 16 foot boat that he enjoys taking out fishing.  He's also been able to spend quite a bit of time fussing over it and making some improvements he's dreamed about.

As you can imagine, the garden is benefiting from my extra attention.  As I wrote last week, we built what looks like a miniature prisoner fence.  Not to hold the inmates in but to keep them out.  With woodchucks being the inmates, just to clear that up.  It's temporary and will be made permanent either this fall or next spring complete with wooden posts and a proper gate.  We have a TON of green tomatoes on the vines that I'm sure will all ripen at once.  That's ok, we are prepared!  We'll be oven roasting (with garlic & fresh basil) those we don't eat fresh to create a delicious simple sauce for freezing.  That has been our favorite sauce we've made to preserve so that's the only one we'll be preparing.

We are planning on starting our food preservation this week.  My sister-in-law makes the BEST relish.  Thanks to the current pandemic we won't be traveling to visit with them this summer so she generously shared the recipe with us.  We'll be making and canning that and we have quite a few jalapeno's ready in the garden so we'll be canning pickled jalapeno rings as well.  We tend use them on everything so I'm looking forward to canning quite a few jars.  And my green beans are exploding - I am growing 3 varieties.  So freezing those weekly will be on the agenda for the next month or so.

The next garden project on my to-do is that I'm planning to work on improving my soil.  I know that our 2 weaknesses in the garden are soil health and shade.  I feel pretty confident that I've figured out how to both work with the shade as well as make the shade work for me, so the soil is next on the list.

A slower pace means I get to accomplish some things that I've put on the backburner.  For fun, I'm just starting an embroidery project that I've been wanting to work on and I took a few hours this past week to tidy up the blog.  The pages on blogger (i.e. recipes, etc.) can be difficult to set-up.  The photos don't always line-up and then sometimes when you add text, like the recipe name, it won't let it stay with the photo.  Ugh....  So, I messed around with it this week and decided to give in.  Instead, I figured out how to attach a drop down to my menu and decided I would work with creating multiple categories instead.

You'll notice that when you're searching for a recipe, for example, you can click on the category and get to what you're looking for a bit easier.  I also broke up the "homesteading" category into our journey, helpful tips, making money on the homestead, chicken keeping, gardening, homemade home, and frugal living.  Again, trying to make it a bit easier for you to find the past posts you are searching for.  I also added a list of blogs that I visit regularly to the bottom right side.  These are blogs that remain traditional blogs and are very enjoyable to me.  I hope you find something new!

I painted the dining room a few weeks ago.  Yes!  That was successfully checked off of my to-do list.  The living room is next.  I've also added a few houseplants throughout the main living spaces.  In years past I haven't been so good with any greenery in the house.  I tend to forget about them....  Well, I almost lost one yesterday but was able to revive it.  Yup, I forgot about it.  With the air conditioning and fans going they dry out a bit quicker and I forgot to check on them this week.  A wilted sad plant caught my eye last night and I rushed it, and the others, to the sink for a much needed drink.  Today I'm happy to report that they are all looking happy and healthy.

I've been making very simple meals these days and it's been wonderful.  Large amounts of raw or steamed veggies, legumes (or grilled meat for Jay), simple grains and a sauce makes a quick and delicious meal.

I've also been coming up with new stuffed zucchini recipes since we are harvesting them daily.  Our favorite stuffing right now is sautéed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and corn mixed with chopped basil or cilantro, a teaspoon (or so) of the Mrs. Dash italian seasoning, 1/2 cup of veggie broth and either rice or millet.  Then I add some parmesan to Jay's and throw them in the scooped out zucchini that I've grilled to soften (you could also boil it or bake it).  I bake them for about 30 minutes, covered, and a few minutes uncovered and they are ready to go.  Jay also really likes one that is a mixture of onion, mushroom, tomato sauce, sausage, rice and mozzarella.  I add a bit of fresh basil from the herb boxes on the deck for a finishing touch.


Lots of goodness happening around these parts.  I'm hoping you had a wonderful weekend as well!  Have you read anything good?  Started any new projects?  Done something for fun?

Recipe Link Love:

• My husband used to eat a TON of hamburger helper (in his bachelor days).  I decided to make this homemade version for him a couple of weeks ago and he LOVES it!  I substituted chicken broth for the beef broth and I've made it with ground beef as well as with ground turkey.  Both versions were a huge thumbs up!
• I think if you have a collection of really good sauces you can make a ton of different great meals.  Lindsay's collection of 19 has some real winners!  We use her Peanut Sauce quite a bit - it's sooooo delicious.  My husband loves her Honey Mustard and I've recently used the Chipotle Tahini Sauce (minus the oil - I used some blended cashews instead) and it's another winner.  I can also recommend her Chipotle Cashew Queso.  I haven't tried it but it's incredibly similar to the one I make and love, so I'm sure it's delicious.
• If you have an air fryer and have Fried Mozzarella Stick fans in your household, this is a recipe that is super simple and my husband adores!  (I had to reduce the cooking time almost in half)

Weekendingwas originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

Saving The Garden

How silly I was to think that planting a garden was just that - planting a garden.  Planting, weeding, watering, fertilizing and harvesting are what I anticipate every year.

We've been growing a large portion of our own groceries for the past 8 years.  The first few years it was exactly as noted above - planting, weeding, watering, fertilizing and harvesting.  For the past 5 years we've also had to deal with critters eating some of our fresh veggies.  Chipmunks taking bites out of tomatoes (they don't like them but they take a bite out of numerous leaving them unusable) or stealing blueberries and strawberries, and woodchucks eating carrot tops, but nothing like what happened last week.

We have 3 woodchucks (whistle pigs/ground hogs) that we know of currently on our property and what feels like hundreds of chipmunks and squirrels.  We are blessed to not have to worry about deer (so far they are staying in the woods across the street) and the fox, raccoons, possums and fisher cats are focused on trying to get to the Coop Girls and don't care about the veggies at all.  The woodchucks and bunnies did eat the tops off of some of our carrots and all 30 sweet potato plants, but otherwise, hadn't touched the remaining veg.

Until last week.

Call it being naïve, call it not properly educating myself, or perhaps bits of each, but we thought that simply wrapping each raised bed with a 3 foot high chicken wire fence would be a great temporary solution until we install the permanent fencing this fall.

Why didn't I google keeping woodchucks out of the garden?  Why didn't we ask other farmer's at our farmer's market for advice?  I don't know why, but we didn't.

So, last week started out with a woodchuck going along each chicken wire wrapped beds and grazing on anything he/she could reach from the outsides of each bed.  I was so upset.  Sunflowers, broccoli, kale, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, more carrots, beans, peas, and cabbage were all mowed down.  Just the edges of the beds, but a lot of plants (and work and money) gone.

Ok, we thought.  Well, we can build a temporary fence with materials we have laying around to keep him/her out of the garden altogether.  So, one afternoon my husband gathered a bunch of woods, extra fencing, etc. and we concocted a make-do fencing around the perimeter of the garden.  "All it's missing is a moat" I joked.  It was quite a site but we felt pretty confident as we headed to the house to make dinner.

After dinner I walked Oliver out back near the garden and as we got close I saw our hungry woodchuck jump from the middle of one of the garden beds over the make-do fencing, and then leap over our stone wall.  I ran to the garden to find sticks.  STICKS!  That's all that was left in the brassica bed.  He, in a matter of an hour, ate all of the cauliflower, kale, broccoli, swiss chard, the leaves off of all the kohlrabi, and all but 2 heads of cabbage.

I was so upset.

There was nothing we could do that night except to cover everything with shade cloth until morning to try and salvage the remainder of the garden.

As we were falling asleep Jay said "I'll run to tractor supply in the morning and get fencing and we'll install the fence tomorrow".  He wouldn't have time to get the wood posts that we wanted so the plan was to install it with temporary metal posts and a make-do gate until fall.  We decided that if we sank the fence about a foot and then had 4 feet above ground, it should do the job.

So, on one of the hottest (and muggiest) days of the year, we spent the morning and afternoon installing a fence.  When we finished we were hot and tired but satisfied.  That evening, after dinner, Jay went into the shed to watch for the woodchuck.  He wanted to make sure we were all set.

And we weren't......

One quick google search would have told us this, but we never googled it.  Woodchucks can climb welded metal fences!!!  They can climb trees!  Who would have known?  And climb it he did.  Jay made some crashing noises with tools to scare him off and hoped to buy us enough time until morning.

And so I FINALLY googled keeping woodchucks out of a garden.  One of the ideas we found was to take additional wire fencing and fold it over the top of the fence, so when the woodchuck got to the top, the extra fencing would bend, causing him to fall off of the fence.  So, the next day, while I was selling at our farmer's market, Jay spent the day installing yet another layer of fencing to the top of the brand new fence.

And so far it's worked perfectly.

I am planning to replant brassicas for (hopefully) a fall harvest and we will purchase our summer supply from our farmers market.  I've got more lettuce and beans already coming up.  The sweet potatoes have leaves growing back and I'm hopeful the kohlrabi will survive as well.  The carrots will likely survive (they did the last time a woodchuck mowed down their tops), it will just be a hunt to find them.  We managed to salvage 5 of the 15 sunflowers (we were growing them for the chickens) and we'll hold out hope that the squirrels let them be.

It's always an adventure, isn't it?



How is your garden growing?

Saving The Gardenwas originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

Gardening with Free Ranging Chickens

One of the most popular question that I am often asked is, can I free range my chickens in my yard and not have it ending up looking like a complete dust bowl? The simple answer is yes. Over the years I have developed some tried and true techniques that should help to help keep both ... Read more Gardening with Free Ranging Chickens

Gardening with Free Ranging Chickenswas originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

Weekending

Happy Monday friends!  I hope you are doing well.  Summer got off to a steamy start here in upstate NY and we are now enjoying a bit cooler temps.  I'm grateful we get a break from the heat.  Wishing we could catch a break from the humidity as well.  The critters are pretty grateful too.

We were blessed with one day of rain during the week which made our lawn and garden quite happy.  We were expecting rain both Saturday and Sunday but we barely had any at all until Sunday night.  Today we're getting a bit more so I expect that the garden will grow by leaps and bounds this week.

 (I trimmed some of the onions - I need to get to the rest!)

(the peas are still doing very well)

In The Garden - our garden has exploded in greenery and fresh veg.  We are blessed with an enormous amount of shade provided by a large number of trees around our property so our garden typically takes a bit longer then most to produce.  But when it does produce we are usually inundated with deliciousness.  Hoping this year will be no different.  I've been watching 5 large green tomatoes, waiting patiently for them to ripen (and praying the chipmunks leave them alone....).

Last year I got a bit carried away with planting tomatoes, and this year I got a bit carried away with planting onions and sweet potatoes.  At least onions and sweet potatoes are both veg that can be stored.  And we eat a ton of each (that's how I've justified it to my husband who questioned the massive amount of sweet potato vines and sea of onion tops....).  And I FINALLY have sunflowers growing again!  The past couple of years I've battled the squirrels and chipmunks who both stole my seeds and, for the seeds they missed, ate my baby sunflower plants.  While I can't get too cocky yet, all of my sunflowers are a few feet tall so I'm hopeful they'll make it.

Backyard Wildlife - We have 4 woodchucks living around our property.  We are living in harmony this year so far.  You know the old saying that fences make good neighbors?  Well, fences also make it possible to live in harmony with wild critters so they don't demolish the garden.  Leaving them fruit and veggie bits make them quite happy as well.

We were actually quite abundant in wildlife this year.  We have birdhouses around the property that were all full of birds raising their babies.  We also had some nest-building.  One Robin built her nest in our lean-to where we store our trash cans.  We would accidentally scare her when we would go to dump trash so we began whistling so she knew we were coming.  She would fly out when we'd whistle and then squawk at us from a tree a few feet away until we left.

One evening, after her young were fully feathered, the chicks decided to try flying when we were both at the trash can and mama bird was in the tree squawking.  Jay had just opened the lid to the trash can when a chick went plummeting into it.  I was able to carefully dig it out and it sat on my hand for a bit before attempting to fly again.  Poor momma began chirping wildly.  She eventually gathered the 3 chicks and all was well.  They have since moved on.  Actually, the last of our bird families just left this past week.

In The Kitchen - many of you have emailed me after trying the Healthier Chocolate Zucchini Cake and have shared that you LOVE it.  I'm so happy to hear that!  Some of you have requested a vegan version and I haven't gotten it completely worked out.  Mostly because I'm trying not to eat much flour these days, but I will give it a go in the next month.

Batch cooking has been a priority so I don't have to heat the house up every night.  I've been enjoying many different themed bowls and Jay sometimes has what I prepare for myself as a side and other times we use the grill's side burner to cook his side.  His meat is cooked on the grill as well so the house stays cool.

Yesterday I cooked up some Cilantro-Lime Brown Rice and Mexican-Style Lentils that I'll pair with a fresh salsa, steamed broccoli or cauliflower, and raw greens.  I will probably make a non-dairy "cheese" sauce and roasted potato bites to use as well.  This way I can either have the rice, lentils, salsa, broccoli and greens or the potatoes, lentils, cauliflower, greens and cheese sauce.

I've also been enjoying a summer squash and (oil-free) pesto soup that I concocted one day.  I'm not usually a soup fan in summer but it is simple and delicious.

In The Coop - the poor Coop Girls.  They love the summer but absolutely detest high heat and humidity.  We put their box fan in one of the coop windows to provide some relief hot days.  They get up on the roost that is across from the fan, spread their wings out a bit, and just enjoy the breeze it provides.

We dusted the coop with diatomaceous earth to prevent mites and other pests that the humidity attracts.  For the most part, egg production is good.  When we have stretches of humidity it does drop a bit.  I can't blame them - I'm not a fan of it either.  We are giving them plenty of fruit and grains soaked in water, yogurt, or milk as treats which they are enjoying.

Oliver - he's doing very well.  We've been eating dinner out on the deck since we realized we could put up an outdoor canopy/tent with screened walls to allow us a bug-free dining space.  Oliver has been bummed because our outdoor table and chairs are tall so he can't feel like he's a part of it.  So, feeling bad for him, Jay made him his very own stool of sorts.  It's kind of like a toddler tower but fits one of his smaller beds.  He LOVES it!  He sits right next to me and adores that he can see us as well as what's going on around the property from a different viewpoint.  Slightly spoiled?  Yes, I know.

Jack - poor Jackson.  People have been shooting off fireworks on random nights between 9:30 and 10 and he goes into a full-on panic.  He detests loud noises and there's just no calming him down.  I've started giving him Bach's Remedy on the nights when they start up.  I think it's helping a bit.  Other then that he's doing well.

Around The House - home projects have slowed a bit but I plan to paint the dining room this week (hooray!) and hopefully get to the living room in a couple of weeks.  I would like to get to the stairwell and painting the radiators on the main floor as well, but not sure if there will be time.  We'll see.  Jay worked on trimming the vines that were killing the trees both on our property and just outside of it.  As you know, we adore our shade so he's been working on them for the last few years.  I think he's finally got it!

He's been working on installing gutters on our outbuildings and I believe he's going to work on painting the exterior of our home next. (same color, just needs to be scraped and painted)  We determined that if he paints 2 sides instead of all 4 then it's much easier to fit into the summer schedule.  So, he'll do 2 this year and 2 next year and then it will be awhile before it's needed again.

We're hoping to be able to find the time to replace one of our front porches this year as well.  It needs a bit of rebuilding because there is some rot, and then we'll be putting trex decking down.  If we get one done then we plan to get the second porch completed next year.


Oh, and remember that I mentioned I was going to let my hair go gray after my mother passed away?  Yup, I am definitely gray!  My hair is absolutely white in the front but blended a bit in the back because I still have some brown to grow out.  It will be a year in August since I've started letting it grow out.  Honestly, I don't mind it.  I'm happy to not be using hair dye every month, so it's worth it.

The Business - Our farmer's market has definitely slowed since we don't have the amount of out-of-towners that we usually have, but we certainly can't complain.  Our locals have been incredibly supportive and our online store continues to do well too.  We are in full production of product right now.  Some of our craft shows have cancelled their shows for this year and we anticipate the remainder will eventually cancel as well.  We have no idea what will happen in fall and winter this year so we're just taking it a day at a time. That seems to be everyone's theme for the year.


Hoping you had a lovely weekend as well!

Do tell - did you do anything fun or productive?  Cook anything delicious?  Read a good book?


Little Bit Of Link Love:
Do you love garlic scapes?  How about dilly beans?  Ever thought of putting them together?  Me neither!  Our VERY favorite museum shares the recipe and I think I'll be trying it this year.  (shelburne museum)

Summer is when local fruit is perfectly ripened and widely available but it's also a time when it's too hot to want to do any canning.  Marisa shares a post/guide for making jam from frozen fruit.  A perfect compromise!  (food in jars)

Speaking of canning, this raspberry-peach-ginger jam that is sweetened with honey is speaking to me.  I'm loving ginger these days!  (rachel wolf)

(affiliate link) My FAVORITE non-stick alternative pans.  I've struggled to find a pan that works for delicate things like eggs and crepes and I have finally found a pan that works great! I love them so much I bought all 3 sizes with lids in Lava Black. (amazon)

Weekendingwas originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)