Saying Goodbye to Summer 2023

Summer 2023 (and spring) was my first year picking strawberries and making strawberry jam! Total, I picked 16 pounds of strawberries at a local strawberry patch and canned 29 jars of jam. Strawberry and strawberry rhubarb jam! No, not all of of this was just for me lol. My dad wanted to pick and can some for him and my mom. It worked out better, that I picked and then he came over and helped can. I was teaching him because it had been forever since they had canned anything and I am not sure that they ever made and canned jam before! And let me tell ya, this jam is AMAZING! And just getting to go pick strawberries was so fun. Read more about the canning process here. I also couldn’t pick fresh strawberries not make fresh strawberry shortcake. You can check out the reel for that here.

This summer was my first year growing a cut flower garden. I like to call it my mini micro flower farm. I built a roadside stand and everything! There is still a lot I have to learn and am looking and researching for better ways for the next year. But this is something I have wanted to do since the first year growing my own garden. I am hoping I can grow at the farmers market next year. This year I really just used 89 cent boxes of seeds from Menards. I needed to just test the waters out more than anything. Next year, I am hoping to introduce better way with bulbs and high quality seeds for bigger flowers. I felt like this year I had smaller flowers that were filler flowers. But, I am still so happy I started this. I can’t wait for next year!

This year I canned bread and butter and dill pickles from scratch. Last year I just did the Mrs. Wages dill pickle packets. But I wanted to try follow the recipes from my Ball canning guide. And they did not disappoint! My roadside stand actually led me to be able to even have cucumbers. Once again, little critters got into my garden and decided to eat my squash plants. And while I had a few other successful plants cucumbers were not one of them. My neighbor, Michelle, asked if I wanted her cucumbers to sell or use myself. She was going out of town and didn’t want them to go to waste. And now I have a great neighbor relationship I am so happy about.

This garden season was definitely different than the last two years. I was was proud of myself I got a head start. It was so fun having my dad come over and help my till up the garden in the spring. While I did have success with some veggies, I had to try a few times for others. The tomatoes I started from seed didn’t make it, so I had to buy tomato plants. All my squash related plants had to be replanted 3 times. I didn’t grow any peppers. I was really all peppered out from 2022. My zucchini made it through without any squash bugs. But since I had to replant them numerous times, I didn’t harvest any zucchini until August! You can check out the harvest reel here.

About the same time I got my kayak, Dustin started to golf and became obsessed. I would go along on the cart but would never golf. But then, I decided to try it out and I actually think its so fun! Will we ever make it to the PGA tour? HELL NO! But I enjoy golfing, even if I am average or below average at it! It was even fun golfing with my sister and her boyfriend. Usually it’s us going with Dustin’s friends and family. I just bought myself a cheap old set of clubs off of Dustin’s step dad. And if you have seen the picture of the 8 iron that I broke on my first swing using it, well then that sums it all up pretty nicely haha.