Dandelion Jelly

Here are the blossoms for the dandelion jelly, all separated out, no greens at all. I needed 4 cups of blossoms to make the "tea". The tea is the blossoms with boiling water poured over the top to steep overnight.

This was the production I had going on this morning. My jelly, getting ready to boil, the lids on the back burner and my make shift boiling water canner..a.k.a my stock pot.

 Also, yes, that is a smart phone sitting there....I am not totally ready to give up modern technology just quite yet....;)

Here is my 3 pint jars in my make shift canner.

The end result. I only made 3 pints, I didn't have 1/2 pint jars...otherwise, the recipe would have looked more impressive. I ended up with enough "tea" though, I can make another batch of jelly! I was able to try a little bit of this today, from leftovers in the pot...and it has a sweet honey flavor. I like it. This is going to be a keeper for me! 

Here is the recipe:
3 cups of dandelion tea
4 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Pectin:
Choose one of these options, whichever form you are looking for....

1 box of powder pectin (for a syrup consistency)
2 boxes of powder pectin (for a jelly consistency)

Mix all in a kettle until boiling, boil for another 2 minutes.
Pour into either pint or 1/2 pint jars.
Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.
If above 5000 feet, process in canner for 15 minutes.

Makes 4 cups of jelly!

Note, I gave you two different amounts of pectin...that is because, I made mine with 1 box...and ended up with syrup...I believe that 2 will give you the jelly consistency. The recipe only calls for 1....but I am just giving you my experience!

If nothing else, here is the link that I got from Simply Canning!
http://www.simplycanning.com/dandelion-jelly.html#axzz1tWfbMrbm

Click on that, it will give you detailed instructions, much better than mine!

Moon Gardening....

Here are the plants we started a few weeks ago. Well, they will look different now, I have thinned them out.

I have a problem when I thin plants out like that....I can't always just thin them...I end up planting the good plants that I took out, and putting them into their own container, and it is no wonder I end up with a million and one plants by the time my garden starts to grow, and I run out of room.
Anyway....I will have to look, but I believe sometime next week, we can start a few other things indoors. I want to try starting cucumbers, squash, and zucchini indoors...at least give it a go. I know in the past I have just planted them in the ground directly, but since I have so many plants...I am will to try and see if I can do it this way.
As for cutting my lawn to decrease growth...I failed miserably at that the other day. i just went out and mowed it...then I came in and double checked my correspondences....oops...I cut in an increase growth period...so I guess I will have to look at that again soon. Anyway...as always, I will continue to answer any questions you have in regards to moon gardening if you send them to my inbox. While I am at it, I want to thank those of you that were patient for my answers to your questions while I was away for a few days. I am sorry, but thanks for your patience!
Have a very blessed day!

I will be missing from here for a bit....

Due to personal family issues...this blog is going to be inactive for an undetermined amount of time. I will be back eventually...but right now...other things are going to take priority.

Thanks for your understanding

Gardening by the Moon....

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do - Jerome K. Jerome

Plenty of work to do...that is me, yet the weather is not cooperating, so nothing is getting done.

I am sure some of you are getting frustrated with me that I am not posting as regular as you thought I would be on the subject of moon gardening. I am sorry. Today, I will promise that this post will make it up to you. Even though I can't do anything in my garden doesn't mean that you can't...right?
So this is what is going on today.....we are in the 4th quarter of the moon....and as I sit here in front of my computer this morning, in the middle of a moon void. What does that mean? Well, the moon is transitioning right now, from Pisces to Aries, now is not a good time to do much of anything really....just sit and wait. Here is what you can do though, plan on what you are going to do when the moon finally makes its way to Aries. KILL WEEDS!!! Today is a great day to kill weeds, that and prune (if you can) to retard growth. That means mow your lawn, dig out them weeds, kill pests, that kind of thing.

Today is NOT a good day for planting anything...other than maybe biennial bulbs...that is it. Today would be a good day to harvest root/tuber plants for food though, (example potatoes, dandelion roots, those kind of things) Since I doubt any of you have potatoes ready for harvest....if you really want to harvest something, go get yourself some dandelion roots...

Note, the following is based in herbal home remedies that have been known to work and researched by pharmacists (I am not one, just have a medical guide to herbs) and is by no means a substitute for professional medical advice, still consult your health care professional before diving into any herbal treatment.

Dandelion is used for things from constipation, fluid retention, liver disorders, rheumatism, weight reduction assistance, gallbladder problems and a few other things. As as dried root, you can either make it into an infusion, a tea, a tincture...any of the sort. Before you do though...please make sure you are not taking any prescription drugs already that can interact with dandelion root...and please....please, please DO NOT USE DANDELION IF YOU ARE:pregnant, nursing, on diuretics, any drug for lowering blood pressure, or drugs that lower blood sugar. This herb (if you are diabetic) may make your blood sugar drop too low, to a very dangerous low level. Basically, do your research before you start using herbals....be smart about it!
Other than that...folks....have a great day! Blessed be!

Gardening put on hold....

For those of you who are gardening by the moon with me....we are now in a state of hold here....the weather has taken a drastic turn where I live, we have had about 4-5 days where the temps have dipped into freezing zone...so much to the point that the National Weather Service has said they are no longer going to issue freeze warnings due to the fact that all tender vegetation is frozen back into hibernation, and all larger plants (flowering trees and such) are back into a hibernating state.

What does this mean for us (me) and our moon gardening...well for me...it means I am not going to be doing much of anything other than cleaning up sticks and branches that fall from the trees, raking debris and regular early spring yard work. Until things change and the temps rise back up to where they should be....I will be like Mother Nature...and putting any reference in my blog to moon gardening on hold until things warm up. What I will keep doing though...for those of you that live in warmer climates and send messages to my inbox...I will still continue to answer and help you out with anything in regards to moon gardening.

A reminder...it is easiest if you tell me the timezone and temp zone you live in....I can give more accurate information for you if you do that....and plants you are working with...otherwise you are going to get a general response that applies to my zone and area....which will more than likely not work for yours.

Today we plant.....some of the plants at least

Hey all of you Moon gardeners with me....
Today is the day....at least if you live in the US that if you want to start some plants indoors....we do it.
Our Moon is in the 2nd quarter today and goes into semi-fruitful Libra at 11:32 EST or CDT today...so anytime after that depending on what your timezone is....you can go ahead and start planting your tomato and pepper plants. Also chives would be great today...now...as you notice, these are the only ones I have mentioned right now...because these are what I am planting...other ones that you could start and plant today...(I am including those that can be directly sown for the purpose of different places people live) I have also included flower that can be sown today....they are all as follows:

bush and pole beans, cantaloupe, cosmos, dahlias, eggplant loves today, gourds, hops for those of you that grow your own...kohlrabi, oakra, peaches, pears, peas, petunias, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, any ornamental tree, and last but not least...watermelon can be started today.

Have fun planting today for those of you that are....=)

Starting plants indoors....by the moon

Okay folks, this is our agenda for this week in regards to gardening by the phase of the moon.
Yesterday or the day before....geez, I'd have to go back and look and quite frankly, I am too lazy to...I mentioned that we are going to start some seeds indoors this week...and if you wanted to jump on that bandwagon with me...get your stuff in order. This is what we are going to do.
For starters, if you plan on putting tomato or peppers (in my case both) into your garden...you should start them indoors roughly 6-8 weeks before you plan on putting them in the ground outside. Now....tomato and peppers are both 2nd quarter favored plants. They all also do best when planted in the moon signs of either Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces.... Here is the deal...I want to plant my tomato and pepper plants into my garden outdoor when the moon is 2nd quarter Scorpio (when the time is good) which happens to end up falling on June 1 and June 2 this year. I need to plant them 8 weeks earlier to be the appropriate size. Eight weeks out is roughly this week...also in keeping with the 2nd quarter deal...right now....here is a problem. This whole week is considered a barren week due to all the correspondences...except for this small about 24 hour window from Thursday the 5th at about noon (my time...CDT) to Friday around 2pm (my time again) when the moon goes full. Here is the catch....the moon will not be housed in Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces...instead it will be in Libra at that point. I am going to go with it...why? Well...Libra is a semi-fruitful aspect...not as good as the three mentioned above...but fruitful more than the days prior which are all barren as barren can get. Besides, that is the only time we have to get these things started...and semi-fruitful is better than barren any day.
I also discovered that I will need to start my chives at this point....(chives are perennial, but there were none here, so I have to start some) Chives, being an herb also fall under the same rule of thumb as the tomato and pepper, so I will be starting them as well on Thursday.
So there you have it...that is the plan for this week...
Also, I thought I would add, for those of you mowing lawns already this time of year....April 1-5 is a great correspondence time for mowing to increase growth and lushness of your lawn....keep that in mind, if you want to mow your lawn to slow growth...the 2 week stretch of the 7th - 20th would be more appropriate if that is your intention.
I know personally my yard is not ready yet for mowing, so I have to not worry about this yet...I do have weeds to deal with in my garden...but I will not be doing any weed killing until the 9th....where I have a two day window until the 11th...but I will get into that more next week.
Have a blessed day...and as always...if you have any questions in regards to your own garden and gardening by the moon....feel free to shoot me a message. I will remind you that I always answer private messages back to you privately...I do not publicize any message that comes to my inbox...so don't feel that I will put your name out there if you are unsure about anything like that....=)
Take care and have a great day!

Some random nature pictures...

 Here is a picture of the first little stream that we came to...It was very picturesque....then again...when isn't a pristine little stream not a sight of beauty?

Another little stream we came across. I think in the course of the day...we ran into 3 if not 4 little streams in all of the ground that we covered. Being that it is spring, and the leaves have not popped yet...we can see everything.

Just some beautiful clouds that were in the sky yesterday...I wanted to share these with you as well.

This was water rushing out of a culvert, I thought it looked really neat from this angle.

A muskrat...swimming by us. We stayed really still, and he / she came right on by...as if we were not there. Nature at it's finest!