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Have you experienced the joys of spending a teenie weenie, itsy bitsy amount of time here and there on Pinterest?  (Did I just hear a chuckle?)  I’m a newbie Pinterest enthusiast/addict and I had no idea how enjoyable “pinning” can be!  Sure, Pinterest can be a time sucker, but a time sucker in a good way.  What is Pinterest you may ask?

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite.

Instead of being a time waster I view Pinterest as great place to learn and organize.  One of my favorite “pinning” buddies, Theresa Loe, honors her Pinterest addiction with a weekly Pinterest Wednesday post so I’ve decided join in the fun because Pinterest is a GREAT place for gardeners!  Theresa Loe is the co-Executive producer and canning expert on Growing A Greener World TV and she blogs about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden.  You can follow Theresa’s  boards on Pinterest HERE and check her latest Pinterest Wednesday find HERE.

My Pinterest Wednesday find is one that can be made with next to no money and will add an extra special touch to my garden shed. I think it’s so cute…a pine cone rain chain.

Pine Cone Rain Chain

 This image was found on Pinterest here thanks to The Burbs and the Bees.  Original link can be found here.  

HAPPY PINTEREST WEDNESDAY!

Oh yeah, here’s my Pinterest page..

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The red-shafted flicker woodpecker in my garden.

Now that the temperatures are starting to drop and a lot of the work has come to a hault in my garden, I’ve turned my attention to attracting feathered critters into my landscape with the use of bird feeders.  Birdwatching may sound mundane and boring but once you start attracting birds into your cold weather garden it is far from dull and is often called a free ticket to the theater of nature.  Once you add fresh water and some bird seed you are guaranteed to always have a show. 

With the cooling temperatures birds need an extra addition of fat to help them survive so adding suet cakes is an important accompaniment to their fall and winter diet.  I am  so happy to have the ilusive red-shafted flicker woodpecker (shown above) frequently visit my garden since I’ve set out out the fatty suet cakes and bird seed.   If you’re not one to use animal products (most suet is beef kidney fat) you can easily make a big batch of vegetarian suet cakes and store them in the freezer for future use.  I found an easy recipe at www.suetbirdfeeder.net:

Wintertime Vegan “Suet”
The birds won’t miss the meat and your kitties will love to watch the action!

2 cups peanut butter
2 cups vegetable shortening
2 cups flour
6 cups cornmeal

Melt peanut butter and shortening in a large pot.
Stir in flour and cornmeal.
Turn dough onto a waxed paper lined 13×9″ pan.
Cut into rectangles for use in a suet feeder.
Suet can be stored in a freezer.

Here’s another easy project that I’m going to try soon.  All you need is a toilet paper roll, some peanut butter and bird seed!  Easy right? I’m sure the birds will love it.

Have you heard of peanut butter bird seed balls?  I made a bunch last year and they were gone in no time.  Hopefully I kept a lot of birds alive with all the fat I fed them! Click on the image for the Bird Seed Balls recipe…

 I hope these recipes and tips have inspired you to attract birds to your fall and winter garden.  What birds to you attract to your yard in the colder  months? I’d love to hear from you and even see photos.  You can share them with over on my Facebook page or via Twitter.  Tweet tweet!

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As I type it is still dark outside and the thermometer is reading 27°F.  Today my compost heap is going to get an extremely large addition of plants that were frozen overnight.  Before the frost hit I dug up and repotted some herbs and brought them indoors, did one last final harvest of green tomatoes, tiny squash, sugar snap peas and said goodbye to the nasturtiums and borage.  It’s always sad to see the gardening season end but, on the other hand, it’s also a good time of year to start planning next years garden.

tiny harvest before the freeze

Still trying to figure out what kind of squash that is...

goodbye nameless squash...

goodbye yummy dill...

Goodbye borage. I enjoyed you in cocktails. Sorry you're frozen solid right about now.

Well, it’s time to have some coffee and wait for the sun to rise before ripping out frost-bitten plants.  Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!

this will make me feel better

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I used to be discourage with all the green tomatoes I had on my hands as soon as Fall hit and because of that frustration all my green tomatoes ended up in the compost heap.  Yes, I was composting perfectly good tomatoes that would  have been ideal for many dishes that call for green unripened tomatoes.  Live and learn, right?.  Sure, there’s nothing like the taste and smell of a fresh summer tomato, but since the Fall harvest is here I celebrate the green tomato by making batches and batches of luscious, sweet and savory sauce know as green tomato chutney.

My first canning experience was in the Fall of 2010 that resulted in several half pints of green tomato chutney.  Unfortunately, I lost the recipe, but it included green tomatoes, onion, apple, red bell pepper and a little pickled ginger. Once I find it, (and I need too because I’m harvesting green tomatoes today), I will share it with you.  If you have a favorite green tomato chutney recipe please feel free to share it by commenting on this post or over on my Facebook page.

My green tomato chutney and fresh peach sauce recipe is an excellent accompaniment to a cheese and cracker platter or equally delicious spooned over grilled fish and roasted meats.  With the addition of diced peach, a little jalapeno and cilantro this sauce takes on a surprisingly mango-peach salsa flavor. 

Green Tomato Chutney and Fresh Peach Sauce

• 1/2 pint or 8 ounces of green tomato chutney
• 1-peach peeled and diced
• 1/2 a jalapeno, diced (optional)
• 1 TBSP chopped cilantro
• red pepper flakes for garnish if you want more heat (optional)

Directions: Mix green tomato chutney, peach, jalapeno, and cilantro together and put it in a bowl…It’s that easy and takes just a few minutes to prepare.

Mix a half pint of green tomato chutney...

...with one peeled and diced peach, some fresh cilantro and chili...

...and there you have a nice dish of green tomato chutney with fresh peach sauce. Dig in!

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Happy Fall everyone! 

I have something very exciting to share with my readers.  I grew potatoes for the first time this year and am happy to announce I just made my first harvest of beautiful red potatoes!  If you have grown potatoes before you know that there is nothing more captivating then scraping the soil back only to find big beautiful taters that almost look like they came out of nowhere!  I will now forever be a potato farmer. 

Hello beautiful

You can guarantee I’m already making plans on growing many different varieties of potatoes next year which means more planting beds for growing these nutricious tubers.  Also on the list is to make sure I label what I plant!  Unfortunately, I spaced on labeling what kind of red potatoes these are so next time I’m going to make my label first…then plant.  For now, we’ll just call this a Belly Button Potato 

The Dirt & Martinis Belly Button Tater!

Since my harvest was very small I won’t be storing them for winter eating, not to mention I’m not sure if this is a type of potato that would store well.  These babies are going to get eaten right away by myself, friends and family over the next week.  The first meal I made was a small mountain of simply prepared mashed potatoes.  The secret to perfect mashed potatoes are two things: 1) Add a bay leaf to the cooking water.  2) Do not boil but simmer the potatoes.  I learned this from a tweet made by Ron Zimmerman of the famous Herbfarm in Woodinville, WA and it really does make a huge difference in the flavor and texture of the mashed potatoes.  Second up on the potato harvest menu was cooking up a big pot of steaming potato-leek soup.  This recipe is not only simple but it can be made in short period of time.  Hopefully you’ll give this a recipe a try for your next lunch or prepare it for light lazy night supper.

Enjoy!