Choosing a Farm Market and Making Jam

I have been going to the same farm for strawberries for years, but the last couple of years, the farm was unkempt, strawberries were bad, little or non-existent, and the people running the farm store were not very helpful and a little unfriendly.

I decided this was the year to find a new farm! so started to look for a "Pick Your Own" type farm.
   

My son Daniel and my mid 1990's cow motif kitchen

I started canning (or preserving food) when my son Daniel was little,in the early 1990's.  The photo above shows him at about 2 1/2 years old. And yea, I had a "cow" decorated kitchen, yikes!

St. Patrick's Day History

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17 every year. 
St. Patrick was a real person and we celebrate his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death, which was in the fifth century. 

The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years. On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon.

St Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland. 
True, he was not born Irish, but he has become an integral part of the Irish heritage, through his service across Ireland in the 5th century.

Patrick was born in the later half of the 4th century AD. There are differing views about the exact year and place of his birth.

Ash Wednesday: Significance and History

Ash Wednesday History
‘Remember O’ man you are dust and to dust you shall return’ (Genesis 3.19)

This Biblical quotation adequately captures the essence of Ash Wednesday, also known as dies cinerum, the Day of Ashes. Ash Wednesday falls on the first day of Lent, on a Wednesday, after Quinquagesima Sunday. The season of Lent is a forty day period of abstinence and fasting which culminates in the feast of Easter.

The Ritual of Ash Wednesday
On this Ash Wednesday, a Mass or services of worship are held, wherein the faithful approach the altar to receive the application of the ashes. The officiating priest applies the ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead or on the tonsure of the clergy, while reciting the litany ‘for dust you are and dust you shall return’. The applying of the ashes reminds the believers of their inherent mortality and transgressions and that repentance is essential to become one with God.

January, Thinking of Spring

Well it’s January

We had a huge amount of snow dumped on us here in central Ohio, and although I love snow, January and February always make me long for spring.

This time of year, I begin to look longing at gardening magazines.  I sketch my raised vegetable beds on graph paper to make sure I am making the most of my space.

I daydream about the seed packets and start making lists of supplies I will need to germinate the seeds indoors.

I stand for long periods of time looking out my window at my bare cold garden, trying to image it with vines full of tomatoes or onions pushing though the soil and wondering what I did with the longer handled shovel I love best, not the one with the thicker handle that just doesn't seem to fit my hands as well.

Real Greenies Have Manure On Their Boots!

I couldn't have said this better. I am irked daily to see people “confessing” to be green who haven’t a clue of what real love and respect for this earth is. They have rarely walked a quiet woods, planted a tree that produces food, tended a garden to feed their family, composted for the soil sake, recycled to reuse or anything of that nature. I believe most professed “city greenies” don’t even know how or what it means to be self sufficient!

Could I do more, do you ask? Why yes, of course! But I am not preaching “green or die”; I am not condemning everyone to a smog hell who doesn’t ride a bike to work!
Below is pretty much how I feel, just could never in a million years put it into words or a speech as this blogger has done!

Elizabeth