A little time away

The kids and I are spending the week with my dad and stepmom in Georgia. It is nice to get away somtimes. I mean I still have the children with me but it is refreshing not to be solely responsible for cleaning, cooking and washing! Maybe I will get sometime to relax before I come home to the garden. Thursday we will be visiting the Georgia Aquarium. This will be our second trip the the aquarium and the kids are so excited.

No doubt our green beans will be thriving by the time we are back. Before I left I had already harvested enough beans to cook two messes. They were yummy! I also made my first blackberry preserves from wild blackberries growing on the farm. They were also yummy. Another new experience for me was my first pickles. We have plenty of cucumbers so I canned some bread and butter pickles since these are the only kind that the boys like to eat. I hope that they are edible. All of this gardening and canning has brought back such fond memories of my childhood. We helped my grandparents in their garden every summer. Grandma and Grandpa basically raised all of their own food from veggies to meat. In fact when I was much younger my Grandma Rachel was still churning her own butter and making her own lard! Today's society has distanced itself from the agricultural foundation of our country. It is sad that so many American children think that vegetables only come from a can! Anyway when I was little I didn't appreciate the hard work that my grandparents endured nor did I appreciate any part I had to partake. As I grow I understand how important that work was and am so grateful that I was blessed to learn the "how to's" of gardening, harvesting and canning. Hopefully I can pass this along to my children. Brice and I feel that it is important to grow our food and buy as locally as possible with the hopes that we can became a healthier family. Presently I am reading a book entitled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. If our nation's agricultural demise is of any interest to you then this may be a good read. The book is a journal of sorts. It is about a family that vowed for one year to eat only what they themselves could grow, raise or that which could be bought from local producers. It is very interesting what an impact this can have on our health, environment and economy.