Worm Farming

On the 4th of July we went to a family picnic and came home with worms for a worm farm. I had seen this before but wasn't sure I was ready to take on such a task. When I shared with the family that we normally throw our food waste into the flower beds for composting I was immediately taken outside to see the worm farms.

Inside of current worm farm

After hearing a lot about what I would need to do to have a worm farm I decided I would like to try it. Well, of course if one is interested where would they get the worms? Lucky for me the family had the answer....take some of ours home with you!


I was very hesitant about taking the worms right then since I wasn't prepared for it. With a lot of reassurance that the worms could live in the cup I was given for about a week. The next day I wondered around the house trying to find something to make into a worm farm. E suggested the plastic shoe boxes I had been trying to grow salad in (major failure there...too sandy of dirt).

Current (new) Worm Farm setup

I took the boxes and went to work creating what I had seen at the picnic and putting the worms into their new home. The next day I started reading about worm farming and found out I had setup the new home wrong. I went to work redoing the worm farm and doing it correctly this time. Now we just wait and see if it all goes well...about a month from now I should know how good I'm doing with the worms.

Loving Nature

I was recently reading something about how to enjoy the natural things in life and one of the suggestions was to start taking nature photos. I have done this for many years but hadn't done it recently. So I took out the camera and walked around the yard; I found so many cool things to take pictures of.

Maple Tree in front yard

Above is one of my favorite trees in our yard; the pictures were taken from under the the maple tree. This is the tree that the boys love to climb when they are in the front yard.

Daisy and water drops on the hosta

The Hostas are my hubby's and we love to look at the water drops on the leaves. I was actually looking at this water drop on the hostas when I remembered the artical about taking natural pictures. The Daisies just opened a week or so before hand and I thought they looked really good.

Raspberries and a plant I don't know the name of

We have one raspberry (E taking post text), on the deck out back, and it did make some lovely fruit this year. We didn't actually get to 'gather' it really, as we ate each berry when it came ripe, while hanging out on the deck enjoying the world. Pretty and yummy!

Bleeding Hearts

The Bleeding Heart used to live in the yard, but now resides on the deck as well, and I have to say it seems quite happy there. I absolutely love this plant, and I really can't believe it makes the shape it does. Who came up with that? Kudos!

Since this post was started, there is more in the yard that looks worthy of some good photos. Perhaps there is more to come...

Making Waffles

I was making waffles for the kids the other day and just loved how this looked.

Moved this blog

As you may have noticed this blog moved; this was done so that our family could use the jadeherder.blogspot.com space instead. Sorry for any confussion the move may cause. All the things that were on the jadeherder.blogspot.com are now here and some have been changed a bit (dishwashing soap and freezer biscuits).

Freezer Biscuits Recipe

I found a recipe online for Freezer Biscuits and decided I had to try them. I added wheat flour since we like it better, I used butter instead of shortening since I never have shortening around and I use the egg substitute (never seem to have eggs on hand either). They are very good!

Preparation Time: 15-30 minutes

Ingredients
1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg or 2 tbs water, 1 tbs oil and 1/2 tea baking powder

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cream of tartar; mix well.
2. Cut in butter.
3. Stir in milk and egg until smooth.
4. Turn dough onto lightly floured board or cloth and knead 4 or 5 times.
5. Roll out dough and cut into biscuits.
6. Arrange biscuits on a cookie sheet, cover and freeze.
7. After they are frozen, transfer to and store them in a freezer bag.
8. Do not thaw to bake.
9. Bake in preheated 450 degree F oven for 15 minutes.

Makes 12 to 16 biscuits.

Strawberry/Blueberry Waffles

After making Strawberry and Blueberry Jam, we had 1/2 cup of crushed strawberries, 2 1/2 cups of strawberry/blueberry foam and 1/2 cup of blueberry jam leftover. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all of this when I first looked at it all but then I remember the kids have been asking for waffles and pancakes and I have been too lazy to make them. So, I decided to make waffles with it all.

Strawberry/Blueberry Waffle batter and waffle iron

Here is what I did:

1/2 cup crushed strawberries

2 1/2 cups strawberry/blueberry foam

1/2 cup blueberry jam

3 cups Krusteaz pancake mix (had this on hand and wanted to use it up)

3 tbs oil

1 cup of water (more as needed)

Mix all together and make waffles.

Makes about 19 waffles

First Strawberry/Blueberry Waffles done.

Jam - Strawberry and Blueberry!

On Friday we went to Costco and got a bunch of strawberries and blueberries (along with many other things); I decided since we had 4 lbs of blueberries and 8 lbs of strawberries we should make jam (I wanted to make sure it didn't go to waste). My mother came over and we made jam out of all the blueberries and half the strawberries. It didn't take as long as I thought it would and we managed to make a bunch of other stuff also.

The container the berries were in.

We used the recipe that comes in the box of pectin. We decided to do both jams at the same time so we could have a few mixed jars. Start the water canner by filling 1/2 full of water and bring to simmer. Sterilize the jars and put the lids in boiling water to sit (not on the heat).

Crushed Strawberries

For strawberry jam you need 6 cups crushed berries (about 4 lbs whole); for blueberry jam you need 6 1/2 cups crushed berries (about 4 lbs whole) and 1/2 cup water. Crush the berries leaving as big of chunks as you like in you jams (some like no chunks others like large chunks) and put into a big pan with water (blueberry jam only).

Crushed Strawberries with pectin in front; Crushed Blueberries with pectin in back

Measure the sugar out into a separate bowl; from the sugar in the bowl take 1/4 cup of it and put into another bowl with a box of no sugar pectin. Mix together well and add to the fruit or fruit and water in the pot. Bring mixture to a rolling boil on high heat stirring constantly.

Make sure your fruit & sugar measurements are exact!

Sugar measured out for both jams (strawberry - left; blueberry - right)

Stir in remainder of sugar quickly and return to a rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Ladle quickly into prepared jars leaving 1/8 inch head space. Process in water canner for 10 minutes.

15 - 1/2 pints cooling after canning (3 mixed, 7 blueberry, 5 strawberry)

Made 15 - 1/2 pints with another 3.5 - 1/2 pints left over (foam, crushed strawberry and blueberry jam) that I used for waffles.

Cost run down (not sure I'm doing this right):
15 - 1/2 pint jars (12 - 1/2 pint jar cost $4.53 + 9% sales tax = $4.94 or $0.42/jar) = $6.30
2 containers of Blueberries from Costco cost $7.99 x 2 = $15.98 ($4/lb or $2/cup)
1 container of Strawberries from Costco cost $6.49 = $6.49 ($1.63/lb or $0.82/cup)
8.5 cups of sugar (10 lbs sugar from Costco cost $4.75 = $0.48/lb or $0.24/cup) = $2.04
2 boxes of pectin from Winco cost $1.98 x 2 = $3.96

Total cost $34.77; made a total of 18.5 - 1/2 pints total. Price per jar is $1.88 not including labor, electric and water for canning process.